Sandbox Roadmap Updated to v1.1 + News on June Update


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On June 3, 2016 at 6:50 PM, cekivi said:

Neat! Pity there's no new maps but the challenges certainly look interesting. I wonder what the difference between skills and feats will be though...?

I'm hoping feats carry over between games like persistently even after death into a new save, and skills are save specific? That's my guess anyhow.  

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It might be handy to have a skills tree, some of which can be decided before play as a character development system similar to an rpg? For instance you could decide that shelter building or starting fires is something your pretty good at initially but really bad at sewing or repairing items. Or you can be pretty mediocre at everything. I believe the character should have some useful experience in his or her life prior to the event rather than starting out from scratch.

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Raphael van Lierop, community.

While I see many ecstatic posts regarding the roadmap I'd approach with caution.

The things I observe in the roadmap begin to worry me. Do we really need a skill system? Do we really need research books? Do we need in-game rewards? And NPC's?! I certainly don't want  *go-overthere-kill-30-rabbits-and-I-give-you-a-cookie* stuff. Though, if there would be a wandering NPC controlled by AI that tries to survive just like we do, and we somehow managed to meet him/her, that perhaps could do the trick with introducing NPC to the game. But it makes me wonder if such AI possible.

As for the skill system and books. What skills gonna be there? What system? What for?

Main char that crashed in wilderness was a pilot, that already tells us he/she had some skills. What else skills does she/he need? Something like *Steelhand* - *Suppresses the hands tremor during hangover to shoot firmly*?...

Anyway, there are two things I want to point out.

1. Do not let the game turn softcore to be attractive to everyone. I could be wrong, but I take all those skills, rewards, NPC's, even UI tweaks as a step in that direction.

2. I still do remember how disappointing were Diablo 3 and Mass Effect 3 which had long threads on forums pre-game release, where fans were blindly assuring that nothing could be better, ever, and were aggressive to everyone who could ask them to hold their horses.

Perhaps this post is kinda harsh and you can dislike it all you want, but I for sure don't want the fate of D3 and ME3 for TLD, as I now believe it gonna be one kick-ass game after it's complete.

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6 minutes ago, Aldi14ua said:

Raphael van Lierop, community.

While I see many ecstatic posts regarding the roadmap I'd approach with caution.

The things I observe in the roadmap begin to worry me. Do we really need a skill system? Do we really need research books? Do we need in-game rewards? And NPC's?! I certainly don't want  *go-overthere-kill-30-rabbits-and-I-give-you-a-cookie* stuff. Though, if there would be a wandering NPC controlled by AI that tries to survive just like we do, and we somehow managed to meet him/her, that perhaps could do the trick with introducing NPC to the game. But it makes me wonder if such AI possible.

As for the skill system and books. What skills gonna be there? What system? What for?

Main char that crashed in wilderness was a pilot, that already tells us he/she had some skills. What else skills does she/he need? Something like *Steelhand* - *Suppresses the hands tremor during hangover to shoot firmly*?...

Anyway, there are two things I want to point out.

1. Do not let the game turn softcore to be attractive to everyone. I could be wrong, but I take all those skills, rewards, NPC's, even UI tweaks as a step in that direction.

2. I still do remember how disappointing were Diablo 3 and Mass Effect 3 which had long threads on forums pre-game release, where fans were blindly assuring that nothing could be better, ever, and were aggressive to everyone who could ask them to hold their horses.

Perhaps this post is kinda harsh and you can dislike it all you want, but I for sure don't want the fate of D3 and ME3 for TLD, as I now believe it gonna be one kick-ass game after it's complete.

Wow! This is an extremely valid point. I've never looked at the roadmap this way. I always saw the ideas as benefits to enhance the realism and depth of the game. But now, I'm also starting to get a bit worried that some of these updates and ideas may make the game softcore. 

Thanks for pointing this out!

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The way I understand it, the introduction of the skill system is simply an expansion of what we already have in-game for fire-making and repairs. Bow-drill fire-making is already on the roadmap and points in the direction of simply elaborating a system that already has some foundation, along with gun-smithing. With the amount of free time our characters have, what with the weathering of storms and having nothing to occupy them besides daily chores, it would be nice to have books in-game and it's far from fetched that our characters would be inclined to pick up books they find around the abandoned homes. Especially if they contain some kind of knowledge that is relevant to survival.

Hinterlands is striving to build an immersive and semi-realistic environment for us to play around in. Nothing points to them going in the "collect 20 bear asses" course. The UI tweaks were also a matter of convenience and I find them very, very nice because the new UI isn't as obtrusive as the old one, and less immersion breaking.

Moreover, there's something that Hinterland has over Blizzard and BioWare: they're very community involved, make frequent tweaks and communicate well with the player-base. Comparing TLD to such huge titles produced by multi-millionaire video game developers with huge teams is...awkward. Your worries seem unfounded, though it's easy to see where they stem from.

I'm just hoping that we have some customization options for perks and skills, at least in sandbox mode, so that we have a degree of freedom to roleplay whatever we feel like. I love making in-game journals as I play, and I personally don't write that my characters are a part of the main plot, just a part of the setting.

 

Story spoiler:

For the record, the male PC is the pilot. The female PC is a doctor. The two characters would have fiercely different skillsets and, presumably, the perks to go along with it. At least for the story-mode.

 

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14 minutes ago, Llenne said:

 Your worries seem unfounded, though it's easy to see where they stem from.

Well, I really hope that you're right and that I worry for nothing.

Though I do disagree on the menu style: I liked a lot that old menu  - a suitcase or whatever that was with cups in it, pills, bandages etc.

Books with relevant knowledge to survival. I don't believe in coincidences, so a fact that during a sudden apocalyptic winter I found a book, that describes how to actually survive that sudden apocalyptic winter ...and the book comes just from a random house in the wilderness.. well, that makes no sense to me. :)

As of comparison. TLD's quality is quite high I think, and I like TLD for it's fresh and something original as I grew bored with meaningless shooters/actions/rpgs/etc. And I for sure don't want another game with standard menus and standard gameplay which are always more convenient.

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The books wouldn't be about surviving an apocalyptic winter, a book for instance could teach you basic knowledge of a trap bears so you could trap one, then safely shoot it in the left eye. Certain time limit to do so though otherwise the bear would get free and savagely murder you. But a better skill in building traps makes for more effective traps and gives you more time to line up your shot.

There could also be rare books that after finding, reading, and crafting all the parts; you could build a rudimentary crossbow (I will cover this in my Forge Implementation thread later) with half a binocular for a scope (that can also go on the rifle). You would have take the time to sight the scope yourself, no books to make that easy.

And basic books that could for instance improve some small aspect of a skill. Let's say you come across a Rifle Maintenance book that provides a tip or two and increases your cleaning effectiveness from 3% to 4%.

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4 hours ago, Aldi14ua said:

Books with relevant knowledge to survival. I don't believe in coincidences, so a fact that during a sudden apocalyptic winter I found a book, that describes how to actually survive that sudden apocalyptic winter ...and the book comes just from a random house in the wilderness.. well, that makes no sense to me. :)

It's more of a matter of "I live in this area and having this knowledge is pretty much mandatory, so I have the appropriate books" type of deal. I'm from a sector of Canada where a lot of people hunt and a lot of those people have books on biology and proper weapons care. It goes with the territory: we have wolves, cougars and bears in the area and a lot of people have horses or some form of cattle, which makes having a weapon and knowing how to use it pretty mandatory. The Canada House and the Trapper's House would be the perfect places to put books like those. Maybe in some cars too. Getting stranded or cut off during a storm is also far from an impossibility, which makes general survival know how really handy.

Hell, I'd love to have an option to read books in-game in general: to actually sit down and sift through text instead of just going to a bed and waiting out a storm that way. Adding a bunch of books that are in the public domain (and thus, free) would be a really nice way to pass the time.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey there, I was dreaming awake looking at the roadmap again, and I just can't avoid raising a question. 

How is it going with the NPC's? I was surprised to see they are on the mid-term range (1-6 months). Hope you are not getting dragged by them! I've witnessed NPCs becoming the Achille's Heel in some other indie games. AI can get really tricky... 

I would ask about how is it going generally, but that would be too much, right? :D 

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On 17/06/2016 at 6:56 PM, JustWall said:

Cool - New Animals, building shelters and a bunch more ! !  Spring SandBox? Not in winter?

What's cool about cougars?

IMO the wolves are already annoying enough …

I can live with the bears. They leave me alone as long as I leave them alone. But yet another aggressive animal would really put me off. I'd rather prefer if they'd make surviving more tricky in some other way.

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On 7/13/2016 at 7:09 PM, iSUGGESTthings said:

Do we get roadmap updates at regular intervals?

There isn't a rigid schedule set for updating the Sandbox Roadmap or for releasing the updates themselves. But since Sandbox updates resumed in late April, we've had two major updates--Tireless Menace and Penitent Scholar, and the various hotfixes that went with them. And the team continues to work on! 

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On 6/3/2016 at 11:26 AM, Raphael van Lierop said:

Hello community,

We've just updated the Sandbox Roadmap document with some information about what we're working on for the June Sandbox Update.

Check it out: http://hinterlandgames.com/the-long-dark/roadmap/

DATE: We'll provide more information about update timing as we get closer to finishing work on it. For now all we know is we're targeting a June release.

REMINDER: The Roadmap is an aspirational document, so it's possible that not everything on the June Update list will make it in. But, as always, we'll do our best!

- The Hinterland Team

Your name is beast.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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