The Long Dark Roadmap First Impressions


cekivi

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23 hours ago, cekivi said:

"Americanization" was meant to refer to making the game more like an FPS since that is the genre most identified with and popular in the US. It was not intended to be in and of itself derogatory. I got the idea for the term from an Extra Credits episode I watched. Since seeing it I just started associating FPS style gameplay - and handguns in particular - with US style development philosophy. 

 

Very well, I watched the video so I guess I understand your point of view. I'm probably just cranky about the anti-americanism that has been going on for a while.( Notice: this has nothing to do with the forum, I am cranky because of world news reports, I should probably stop watching David Muir for a while.)

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21 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Not saying that at all, no.

Fair enough. I can deal with not having the amazing features the PC players will have. I will warn you though, if you do implement ced features many Xbox players might not be too happy with the "unfairness" there. Personally I am okay with it.

 

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3 hours ago, DoctorKajita said:

Aren't moose super territorial and quite dangerous? I think far from a "giant black deer."

Only in the Fall (mating season) and Spring (mothers have calves). For most of the year they'll run off at the first sign of people. You'll be pushing through brush that you can barely move though, reach a clearing, see a moose in it and the moose will just put it's head up and run through 6' high alders that a person could barely stumble through! It's really neat to see :)

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12 hours ago, cekivi said:

Only in the Fall (mating season) and Spring (mothers have calves). For most of the year they'll run off at the first sign of people. You'll be pushing through brush that you can barely move though, reach a clearing, see a moose in it and the moose will just put it's head up and run through 6' high alders that a person could barely stumble through! It's really neat to see :)

Well, wolves practically always run away from people, but not in LD. So crazy charging(and chasing) moose would fit into current pattern quite well. And considering that they would try to trample(or impale) player instead of going for the throat, it could be one batshit crazy dangerous animal with a weight of small car.

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LOL (sorry).  Just had a thought that someone at Hinterland is pushing for new animals because they are really proud of their animating those animals-in-your-face clips and are upset that they are also creating a game where that kind of interaction is something most players will be keen to avoid.  So new animals will give a reason to get attacked by animals again.  An in-your-face safari. LOL.

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42 minutes ago, Dirmagnos said:

Well, wolves practically always run away from people, but not in LD. So crazy charging(and chasing) moose would fit into current pattern quite well. And considering that they would try to trample(or impale) player instead of going for the throat, it could be one batshit crazy dangerous animal with a weight of small car.

True. I guess we'll have to wait and see if the developers add collision detection on the animals like @Scyzara requested.

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  • Hinterland
18 hours ago, Fuarian said:

Fair enough. I can deal with not having the amazing features the PC players will have. I will warn you though, if you do implement ced features many Xbox players might not be too happy with the "unfairness" there. Personally I am okay with it.

 

I can understand the perception. Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about the way the Xbox infrastructure is built up. But we'll work with Microsoft to see what can be done. As a game in alpha, the most important thing is that we get the feedback we need, and everyone benefits from it in the sense that the final experience will be stronger.

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  • Hinterland
2 hours ago, selfless said:

LOL (sorry).  Just had a thought that someone at Hinterland is pushing for new animals because they are really proud of their animating those animals-in-your-face clips and are upset that they are also creating a game where that kind of interaction is something most players will be keen to avoid.  So new animals will give a reason to get attacked by animals again.  An in-your-face safari. LOL.

No, we just like finding the right ways to make our world feel alive!

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2 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

I can understand the perception. Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about the way the Xbox infrastructure is built up. But we'll work with Microsoft to see what can be done. As a game in alpha, the most important thing is that we get the feedback we need, and everyone benefits from it in the sense that the final experience will be stronger.

Something I've been wondering for a while is can you make the loading screen times shorter? I know it's an Xbox issue but maybe it's possible.

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18 hours ago, cekivi said:
18 hours ago, cekivi said:

Only in the Fall (mating season) and Spring (mothers have calves). For most of the year they'll run off at the first sign of people. You'll be pushing through brush that you can barely move though, reach a clearing, see a moose in it and the moose will just put it's head up and run through 6' high alders that a person could barely stumble through! It's really neat to see :)

 

5 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

Well, wolves practically always run away from people, but not in LD. So crazy charging(and chasing) moose would fit into current pattern quite well. And considering that they would try to trample(or impale) player instead of going for the throat, it could be one batshit crazy dangerous animal with a weight of small car.

Only in the Fall (mating season) and Spring (mothers have calves). For most of the year they'll run off at the first sign of people. You'll be pushing through brush that you can barely move though, reach a clearing, see a moose in it and the moose will just put it's head up and run through 6' high alders that a person could barely stumble through! It's really neat to see :)

The developers should just make killer rabbits and deer, and cuddly wuddly bears and wolves.

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Hi folks,

I am very impressed with the Roadmap. Namely with:

  • Improved Cooking
  • Aurora gameplay effects & hazards
  • Primitive firemaking skill
  • Improved first-person presence
  • Improved firemaking
  • Research Items
  • Simple shelter-building
  • Non-map based Navigation system
  • Knowledge system
  • Mod support
  • Full-season survival Sandbox

I really like the mod support: it may be then decently possible to fulfill the "Realistic passage of time" dream for me and some other folks interested :).

Keep up the good work everyone!

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  • Hinterland
18 hours ago, Fuarian said:

Something I've been wondering for a while is can you make the loading screen times shorter? I know it's an Xbox issue but maybe it's possible.

We've put a lot of time into Xbox performance, and unfortunately it'll never load as fast as a fast PC due to hardware limitations, but we'll keep an eye on it.

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17 minutes ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Curious to know more about why people want this...

For me, the main reason for wanting the realistic passage of time is that I just want to enjoy the whole game environment as I enjoy wandering in the real nature. With the accelerated time the game seems too rushed/fast to me. The second reason is that I like simulation games. In this game I like to be able to do as much (for 24 hours) as I can in real life.

What are the reasons for other people, I do not know, respectively cannot remember right now. Please, see the topic I have started some time ago:

By the way, the design of this forum and Hinterland's home page are really nice - elegant and practical. My compliments to the designers :).

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3 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Curious to know more about why people want this...

I imagine that's a lengthy topic that would no doubt become a popular and lengthy thread on it's own, I'm ambivalent when it comes to modding, granted it's something I'm new to having only recently dipped my toes in the water with Skyrim,  I guess it's mainly because people want to bring their own toys to the sandbox or tweak difficulties for more and more challenges.

I'd rather it stayed true to the studio's vision in all honestly but having said that if there was a way to tweak the game for real time play I'd probably use it as sometimes I just like to load up the game, start a fire and enjoy the ambience whilst reading a book, something I tried to capture in a video but wasn't the same experience

Think I'd cry if some clown should come along and start adding Unicorns or Thomas the Tank Engines to the game and uploading them on youtube!

 

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  • Hinterland
2 hours ago, Viktor Kvasnica said:

For me, the main reason for wanting the realistic passage of time is that I just want to enjoy the whole game environment as I enjoy wandering in the real nature. With the accelerated time the game seems too rushed/fast to me. The second reason is that I like simulation games. In this game I like to be able to do as much (for 24 hours) as I can in real life.

What are the reasons for other people, I do not know, respectively cannot remember right now. Please, see the topic I have started some time ago:

 

I've responded in that discussion. There are already some pretty good explanations for why switching to realistic passage of time may not be what you really want (although some of the analysis is incorrect as are most of the assumptions about our "reasons" for tuning time the way we do). In any case, when we get around to providing mod support, we'll see if we can provide access to these variables so you can play around with them. Then we'll see if you can get the experience you're looking for. :)

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  • Hinterland
37 minutes ago, illanthropist said:

I imagine that's a lengthy topic that would no doubt become a popular and lengthy thread on it's own, I'm ambivalent when it comes to modding, granted it's something I'm new to having only recently dipped my toes in the water with Skyrim,  I guess it's mainly because people want to bring their own toys to the sandbox or tweak difficulties for more and more challenges.

I'd rather it stayed true to the studio's vision in all honestly but having said that if there was a way to tweak the game for real time play I'd probably use it as sometimes I just like to load up the game, start a fire and enjoy the ambience whilst reading a book, something I tried to capture in a video but wasn't the same experience

Think I'd cry if some clown should come along and start adding Unicorns or Thomas the Tank Engines to the game and uploading them on youtube!

 

Sounds like we need to add a "meditation" mode which is basically just the camera fixed on an endless campfire and a snowy night.

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50 minutes ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Sounds like we need to add a "meditation" mode which is basically just the camera fixed on an endless campfire and a snowy night.

Ooooooh this I like.  It was beyond my ken to make a screensaver as I ran into continuity problems and noticeable transitions.

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1 hour ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Sounds like we need to add a "meditation" mode which is basically just the camera fixed on an endless campfire and a snowy night.

I would love that. Especially as a screen saver :D

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People have modded Skyrim to try to get to a 1:1 time compression, from memory as you approach that the scripting triggers begin to break down and it becomes unplayable. But the passage of time is definitely something that some people find really important from an immersion perspective. Personally I am more keen on using the day/night cycle for gameplay/balancing purposes - a bit of time compression doesn't bother me and the cycles are already pretty long. 

But a meditation mode isn't a crazy idea - the sound design in this game is top notch. I've taken to using 2 hour long sound loops of howling winds, open fires, and rainstorms playing as a sleep aid. 

TLD's sounds, particularly some of the "indoor during a blizzard" mixes give that sensation of being cosy and safe against a raging outside world. I'd love to be able to queue up a few scenes like that (take a location from the game, place objects etc., set your camera angle, select the weather and atmosphere) and have them rotate through the title screen at preset intervals the way the current shot of trappers cabin works. 

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