My thoughts on the latest update

[RJ_Dalton]

Overall, I like it.  

1. The visuals look way better and don't seem to be putting any additional stress on my poor compy.  *thumbs up

2. Haven't experienced Cabin Fever yet, but it seems to be easily avoidable, especially with the grace period at the start of the game giving you enough time to get some good, warm clothing.  To be honest, this game gave me cabin fever if I stayed inside too much without the in-game affliction, leading me to just go wandering outside anyway, so this doesn't really affect my play style too much.  I didn't read the actual update changelist, so the "You are at risk of parasites" warning gave me a bit of a shock, but so far that seems manageable. *thumbs up

3.  The change in the wolf combat is something I'm still getting used to (because I avoid it as much as possible).  It seems you just right click now, instead of using right click to build up strength and then left click to attack?  That threw me off a bit at first, but I seem to have the hang of it now.  The animation of stabbing a wolf in the neck is pretty neat, too.  I feel like Liam Neeson, only female, because I always play the girl (dunno why, I just like her voice better).  *thumbs up

4.  Interiors are a little too dark, I think.  Even in the middle of the day in the tiny cabins that have two very large windows, I find myself needing to light up the gas light just to see things clearly.  I can usually get around in the day, although the dam is mostly pitch black day or night and that's a bit annoying.  It's not a dealbreaker, but I think things could be brightened up just a teeny bit.  I mean, even at night, things are rarely pitch black in real life.  I'd like to at least be able to see well enough to find the bed if I'm standing right next to it.  *thumbs down

5.  Maybe this is just because before this update, I'd been playing on Pilgrim (because I wanted to fully explore the new areas without having to really worry about the wolves and bears; I started my new game since the update on Voyager), but since the update it seems like the wolves spawn in groups of three all the time now.  I thought the decision was that the wolves were now loners because the disturbance was messing with their brains (also explaining their more aggressive tendencies).  Is that not the thing now?  I don't think I like dealing with large groups of wolves.  *thumbs down

BUT!!!  On the other hand, it seems like the wolves all migrate together and tend to patrol a single area for a few days before moving somewhere else, which makes it a bit easier to plan my day's travels, so that's a solid a balance.  Before, it seemed like there was always at least one wolf near the train wreck in Mystery Lake, so moving between the dam and the camp office was a huge risk, whereas now, if I see a group of wolves on the lake, I know that's a good time to make a break either for the dam, or for the logging camp (although a second pack seems to patrol the forestry lookout and deadfall area, so maybe there's two packs?).  On the whole, I'm going to give that a *thumbs up because a bit of careful planning has so far made it possible to avoid the danger most of the time, whereas before it was pretty much a guarantee that I was going to run into at least one wolf no matter what I did.  Still not played too much since the update, though, so I'm still figuring out how this all works.

6.  I love that emergency stim.  Walking back from the dam after raiding it for whatever I could find, almost back to the camp office, tired, and overburdened (due to tiredness) and suddenly I run into the three wolves in a spot I've never seen them before.  Before, at least one of them would have caught me before I could escape, and although I could have fought off one, that battle would have let the other two catch up and that'd be the end of it.  With the stim, I was able to escape them all and get back to the cabin.  Sure, I was exhausted after it wore off, but I was in the cabin at that point and it was only an hour away from night, so yeah, glad of the trade off.  The time on the stim is long enough that judicious use means you should be able to get to some safe place before it runs out, so it's a really great last resort item.  *thumbs up

7.  IMPROVED SOUND DESIGN!!!!!OMGWTFBBQ!!!!1  Sorry, I've said before that I freakin' love the sound design of this game.  I wrote a whole post back when I first started playing this game on just how much I loved the sound design.  AND YOU MADE IT EVEN BETTER AGAIN!  Sorry, I'm gushing a bit.  *thumbs up

8.  This is not really related to this update, so it won't get a thumbs rating here, but, as I said, I'd been playing pilgrim mode so I could explore more freely (I love exploring) and the difference between pilgrim and voyager still seems like a massive spike in difficulty.  I mean, in pilgrim, I had so much food and supplies by day six that I could hold up for a month in one place, whereas in voyager I've been barely struggling to keep myself ahead of the game (and only managing that because of the rifle, the very first save, where the rifle didn't spawn in any location I could find, I quit after a few days after the wolves spawned because I could not get enough food).  Fishing is still massively unreliable because lines break constantly (I had three freshly made fishing lines snap on me five seconds after I dumped them in the water - in a row!) and I've taken to save scumming when that happens (I quit and reload my last save if my fishing lines snap on the first use).  I mean, I know the possibility of the line snapping should be there, but it would be less infuriating if they didn't snap first use without catching anything so often.  Rabbit snares are reliable, but rabbit meat is definitely not enough to sustain you unless you're catching several a day.  And I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I find the riffle incredibly difficult to work with.  I don't know if I'm using the sight wrong, or if the aim is just cripplingly short, but I can only seem to hit anything if I'm close enough to see the color of its eyes - deer run long before that point and if you get that close to a wolf . . . well, it's going to be dinner for somebody, and it's about 50/50 one which party will get the meat.  Also, no idea how to aim the bow.  I can at least hit the deer sometimes, but I do not know how to target the bow (the bow I'll chock up to not being familiar with it yet, I should be able to figure it out with practice and at least the arrows are retrievable, so there's a much lower concern for wasting shots).

I will give it this, though, while the difficulty spike has given me several panic attacks already, the survival stories that come out of them are definitely water-cooler chat worthy.  Still, I feel that the difficulty is just a wee bit skewed against the player for what is ostensibly the medium difficulty.  It's not a big skewing.  I mean, push too far the other way and it's essentially just pilgrim mode with mean dogs, which would definitely cause a loss in water-cooler chat value.  I think calorie loss could be lowered further while resting and sleeping.  I was a little bothered by calorie consumption and just how quickly you tire out from running at first, largely because this is a game where you spend a lot of time wandering and the walk speed is so slow (realistically slow, perhaps, but as a game, that translates to a really slow pace of play) and I'd got in the habit of basically running everywhere in pilgrim mode, but I'm getting more used to that.  Thirst, I understand.  You need to drink a lot of water on a daily basis to avoid problems, so that feels right on to me (plus, I don't really have a hard time staying ahead on water).  But I do feel some small tweaks to the calorie usage would be good.  That, or maybe a small increase on the amount of food you find.

I do understand that this has been a hot topic since the beginning and a lot of people feel differently about it, going in both directions, but hey, I'm giving my opinion on it.  The game is still pretty fantastic as is, but if you want my opinion as an everyman gamer (I play a lot of games, but I've never considered myself particularly hardcore; I don't ever really master games - although I do like Dark Souls, so make of that what you will), I think the barrier to entry for new players on what is supposed to be the standard difficulty setting is just a bit high.  Of course, I say the same thing about Dark Souls, and that doesn't stop me from loving the hell out of that.

 

I rambled on a bit more on that last point there than I meant to, but hey, it's a game that provokes discussion.  That's a good thing.  And I have mostly positive things to say about the update.  So, yeah, I continue to like this game.

[Stytch Fingal]

I just want to second your praise of the sound design, RJ_Dalton. The sound in this game is amazing, from the ominous tones of twilight to the difference between shod and unshod feet on stairs. Great stuff.

[Scyzara]

Thanks for your extensive feedback regarding both the update and the pilgrim/voyageur difficullty balancing! Happy to hear you like most of the tireless menace changes. 

2 hours ago, RJ_Dalton said:

 Maybe this is just because before this update, I'd been playing on Pilgrim (because I wanted to fully explore the new areas without having to really worry about the wolves and bears; I started my new game since the update on Voyager), but since the update it seems like the wolves spawn in groups of three all the time now.

They're still not really forming packs, you should definitely be able to find lots of loners (and couples) as well. The overall wolf number was just increased a bit to compensate the fact that wolves don't always attack you automatically any more if they notice you. (If you're at good health, not exhausted and not encumbered, they have a pretty fair chance to occasionally just run away from you now, even in Stalker mode. Well, and there's still the option to use a flare/torch or drop a decoy of course. ^^)

So to sum things up it only looks like packs of wolves were roaming the area, whereas in reality it's rather just a group of loners. The impression of packs is particularly strong on the Coastal Highway ice plains, for example. But you needn't be particularly afraid to get attacked by all wolves of a group at once - they don't "inform" each other (yet!) about your presence if one notices you.

[RJ_Dalton]

13 hours ago, Scyzara said:

They're still not really forming packs, you should definitely be able to find lots of loners (and couples) as well. The overall wolf number was just increased a bit to compensate the fact that wolves don't always attack you automatically any more if they notice you. (If you're at good health, not exhausted and not encumbered, they have a pretty fair chance to occasionally just run away from you now, even in Stalker mode. Well, and there's still the option to use a flare/torch or drop a decoy of course. ^^)

So, by "not exhausted" you mean not in the state of exhausted, right?  Because I was under the impression that they were coming after me just for being a bit fatigued. So far, I've only been actually attacked twice (once at the bottom of the forestry lookout, when I accidentally cornered myself on the fence before going up the mountain while trying to keep as far from them as possible; it still wasn't far enough) and once in the dam, when I missed the shot at fluffy.

Then again, I did have one wolf run away from me (I forget when that was, I just remember thinking, "Hmm.  That's odd").  And I did have one wolf that I stumbled onto coming up over a hill that growled at me but didn't give chase.  Almost had a heart attack that time, I can tell you that.  If there's less chance of them attacking you while your health and fatigue are in the green, that is a fair balance.  I'm still not going to go near them if I can help it, though.

In fact, wolves have driven a few decisions already.  Just before I quite playing last night, I woke up in the morning, made a couple of rabbit snares (because my first two had broken the day before), and went out to my usual place to set them.  And then there were three wolves waiting just around the entrance to the area.  I said, "Okay, going fishing today."

Edit:

Adding an additional note, just finished playing a bit today and I got attacked by another wolf.  I'd shot a deer (at a decent distance, too, no less) and was tracking it.  By the time I found it, a wolf had brought it down for me.  I was trying to decide whether to shoot the wolf or scare it away with a flare, but apparently got to close and it suddenly turned and attacked me.  It was apparently not happy about me trying to take the food.  But I noticed that the wolf didn't do any real damage to me.  Well, it sprained my ankle when it jumped on me and did about 3% damage, but I managed to fight it off pretty quick (I was close to full on all my stats) and it didn't do any damage to any of my cloths, and didn't do any bleed damage, so apparently you can now fight off wolves without taking serious damage if you're fast enough and healthy enough, so that seems to further balance the challenge.  

I'm going to go ahead and say I feel the wolves are pretty well set now.  They're threatening, but provided you're careful and know what you're doing, the threat isn't the end of the world (or end of the game, at least).  I do regret not chasing down the wolf and finishing it off for its pelt, but I thought the attack had made me more vulnerable than it did.  Oh, well.  You live and learn.  Or you die and learn for the next game.  One of the two.

Still feel calorie consumption for sleep and rest periods ought to be lowered a bit, though.

And one more suggestion, maybe.  Is it possible to make the animals you're hunting limp after being shot?  Or at least slow down as they start to bleed out.  It seems like an injury serious enough to cause them to bleed to death ought to start slowing them down a bit.

[Jolan]

I was also wondering about when they attack too - because previously I sometimes had one run away.  with the update they've been pretty relentless.  even the one's that have been driven off by fire/torches/flares keep coming back over and over.  Of the 5 wolves I killed (assuming Fluffy finally died after day 3's attack, a big assumption) 3 of them were because they just wouldn't go away.

[Ruruwawa]

4 hours ago, Jolan said:

I was also wondering about when they attack too - because previously I sometimes had one run away.  with the update they've been pretty relentless.  even the one's that have been driven off by fire/torches/flares keep coming back over and over.  Of the 5 wolves I killed (assuming Fluffy finally died after day 3's attack, a big assumption) 3 of them were because they just wouldn't go away.

Yeah, they are pretty relentless now, but some still run away.  I've had some run from my wolf coat, or "held" fire (a torch or brand), particularly when they first notice me at close range, for example coming around a corner.  Typically they don't come back in these cases.

For brandishing, it seems they'll come back after a little while unless you can open the distance by quite a bit.  There's a bit of luck here since sometimes the wolf flees in the direction you want to go. But if I can keep moving away from the wolf and open the gap they do indeed eventually stop pursuing. (BTW, I don't recommend brands for brandishing, since they blow out so easily.  The wolf comes back fast when your torch, flare or brand goes out.)  

Distractions can help too.  If the wolf flees, and then notices a rabbit or deer that's much closer than you are it'll change targets.  Just keep opening the distance.

And they there's the "blood in the water" clause of the wolf aggression AI.   If you're low condition, tired or overburdened, wolves seem to dial the aggression up to 11.

Finally, crouching / stealth still works great to bypass wolves.  It's certainly slow but pretty reliable if you don't get too close.

 

[Jolan]

15 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

 

And they there's the "blood in the water" clause of the wolf aggression AI.   If you're low condition, tired or overburdened, wolves seem to dial the aggression up to 11.

Finally, crouching / stealth still works great to bypass wolves.  It's certainly slow but pretty reliable if you don't get too close.

 

I don't want to see 11 then.  With the exception of being jumped by the wolf that just got done attacking me I've been at 100%, not burdened and generally rested

 

[Pillock]

On 4/28/2016 at 6:25 PM, RJ_Dalton said:

And one more suggestion, maybe.  Is it possible to make the animals you're hunting limp after being shot?  Or at least slow down as they start to bleed out.  It seems like an injury serious enough to cause them to bleed to death ought to start slowing them down a bit.

If you're able to catch up with an injured wolf and observe it until it dies, you'll notice that it does slow down and start to limp before finally keeling over. It's actually a little heart-wrenching - I sometimes finish it off with an extra shot, just out of pity!

[RJ_Dalton]

2 hours ago, Pillock said:

If you're able to catch up with an injured wolf and observe it until it dies, you'll notice that it does slow down and start to limp before finally keeling over. It's actually a little heart-wrenching - I sometimes finish it off with an extra shot, just out of pity!

Oh.  I hadn't actually noticed.  Every kill I've ever made since I started playing again was a case of me killing them in one shot, or me not actually seeing it die.

[hauteecolerider]

On April 30, 2016 at 4:47 PM, Pillock said:

If you're able to catch up with an injured wolf and observe it until it dies, you'll notice that it does slow down and start to limp before finally keeling over. It's actually a little heart-wrenching - I sometimes finish it off with an extra shot, just out of pity!

Me too.

But don't get too close! I found out the hard way it is possible to be attacked by a wolf while in Pilgrim mode. I came a little too close to a wolf I had wounded earlier, and it jumped into my face, jaws gaping!

Good thing I was wearing brown pants at the time . . .

[polarnomad]

On 28/04/2016 at 9:02 AM, RJ_Dalton said:

 And I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I find the riffle incredibly difficult to work with.  I don't know if I'm using the sight wrong, or if the aim is just cripplingly short, but I can only seem to hit anything if I'm close enough to see the color of its eyes - deer run long before that point and if you get that close to a wolf . . .

I find shooting deer cleanly through the neck tends to drop it in one shot.  So rather than approaching from the front (or rear), perhaps try from the side (while crouching).

[Nasdaq401]

The sound is amazing.  I love when I shoot somethjng in an enclosed area and you can hear the muffled noises and ringing in your ears. It's sweet