Can I win the game please?

[vancopower]

 By reading a few posts  I've come to a conclusion that long term players expect more of TLD than just surviving. Yes we need a purpose, hope if you will. So what I suggest is this: make the game winnable somehow. For example you got rescued, and join a group of people or you find some evidence of refugee camps and went on to find them by using a map from the military, and so on. Anyway these goals should be difficult to achieve, or if you missed the timing you should try the next year. To sum up my point here is, the survivor is an intelligent person he should make plans from the beginning of the game on how to save himself. For example: my first priority is to find food and water, then warmer clothes, then make a weapon... and finally I should try to find other survivors.

[knightjoke]

yes good idea

[Aelaera]

You do win... challenges. Sandbox mode isn't a winnable mode and I don't think it ever will be, simply because that isn't what a sandbox mode is. You will obviously win (or at the very least finish) the story mode when it's completed.

[Wastelander]

I suppose Story Mode will have a victory, but the Sandbox clearly states 'How long can you survive?', so basically you will die at some point.

[Tbone555]

story mode is coming. be patient, friends.

[vancopower]

Challenges are nice but I think we need something in the sandbox too. Since there is nothing much to do after you craft your warm clothes, and make your weapons the drive is gone. Story mode will the awesome I'm sure but still my point is to have something in sandbox that you are trying to achieve. Basic survival is not fun anymore if you gather ton of supplies and just hibernate to pass time. Sandbox is the mode in which this game shines like no other so I would appreciate it a lot if there was a goal in there too. Also if I win sandbox it doesn't mean that I would stop playing it, I will immediately start another game.    

[Majales]

In every game where sandbox is it's only a playground. Like in a real life, there isn't victory condition. You are just playing how long you want. You can have your own challenges or you can start over, if you think, that that drive is over.

[vancopower]

23 hours ago, Majales said:

In every game where sandbox is it's only a playground. Like in a real life, there isn't victory condition. You are just playing how long you want. You can have your own challenges or you can start over, if you think, that that drive is over.

Yes I understand that but my point is to have some guideline, goals, something you are trying to achieve like  Ender dragon in minecraft for example your main goal is kill ender dragon but when are you gonna do it or if ever it is up to you. Same thing can be implemented here, for example find refuge camp or join brave group of people trying to escape the island in boat. Nothing will change much in the gameplay sandbox will still be sandbox but now it will have a purpose, and if multiple endings are added creatively each time you create a world and achieve ending phase it will feel like Christmas. Also together with the journal, this would make people create unique stories about how they survived in the long dark and share them on-line the possibilities are endless.

[Aelaera]

9 hours ago, vancopower said:

Yes I understand that but my point is to have some guideline, goals, something you are trying to achieve like  Ender dragon in minecraft for example your main goal is kill ender dragon but when are you gonna do it or if ever it is up to you. Same thing can be implemented here, for example find refuge camp or join brave group of people trying to escape the island in boat. Nothing will change much in the gameplay sandbox will still be sandbox but now it will have a purpose, and if multiple endings are added creatively each time you create a world and achieve ending phase it will feel like Christmas. Also together with the journal, this would make people create unique stories about how they survived in the long dark and share them on-line the possibilities are endless.

But Minecraft, which until they added story mode, didn't exactly have goals either. Like you say, yes you can go kill the Ender Dragon, or go to the Nether, or whatever. But in the end, everything is up to you and it's never explicitly stated "go here, do this." Similarly in TLD you can either just find a little cabin to hunker in and spend your time in a single map for the whole game, stock piling your resources, or you can go into other maps, live a nomadic life indoors/outdoors, make a home base and always return to it with new loot, etc. The end game goal currently of sandbox is essentially to have all of the pieces of the wilderness outfit (wolf skin jacket/bear bedroll/rabbit earmuffs). But the thing is, if you ever make an ending to a sandbox, it no longer is a sandbox. It becomes a game mode, and not an experience that goes on indefinitely, or until death. I understand what you're saying, but you're still talking about game modes, not sandboxes. 

[SteelFire]

1 hour ago, Aelaera said:

But Minecraft, which until they added story mode, didn't exactly have goals either. Like you say, yes you can go kill the Ender Dragon, or go to the Nether, or whatever. But in the end, everything is up to you and it's never explicitly stated "go here, do this." Similarly in TLD you can either just find a little cabin to hunker in and spend your time in a single map for the whole game, stock piling your resources, or you can go into other maps, live a nomadic life indoors/outdoors, make a home base and always return to it with new loot, etc. The end game goal currently of sandbox is essentially to have all of the pieces of the wilderness outfit (wolf skin jacket/bear bedroll/rabbit earmuffs). But the thing is, if you ever make an ending to a sandbox, it no longer is a sandbox. It becomes a game mode, and not an experience that goes on indefinitely, or until death. I understand what you're saying, but you're still talking about game modes, not sandboxes. 

This, exactly. The Ender Dragon isn't a goal or win-scenario in Minecraft, neither is the Wither. They're just optional mobs you can choose to go mess around with. Nothing in the gameplay changes if you decide to go after either of those mobs and kill them. Nothing changes in the gameplay if you never decide to go after those mobs.

In TLD, you can look at hunting down bears or getting to the summit of Timberwolf Mountain as similar self-determined objectives. Not necessary, but fun to do and they don't affect your gameplay either way.

[Ohbal]

This was included in my wish-list a few months back when I joined this forums. Story mode will adress this, or it may not, we cannot know what the story mode will be about.  

I agree a purpose would be something I'd enjoy in Sandbox. My approach would be something like what you can find in "this war of mine", where you preset the game lenght at the start. In TLD this could be set by a number of challenges or high end goals to achieve in order to win. The sandbox could for sure be more customizable; instead of three locked modes, we could have a "custom" one, where you could set all these different things we talk about: loot%, wildlife density / behaviour, weather, game lenght (and you should still be able to select "infinite"), etc. 

[cekivi]

My personal sandbox goals at the moment are to explore whatever location I haven't been to yet. Once seasons are (hopefully) implemented my goal would be to survive for 18 months. I figure 18 months would be the same as surviving indefinitely so it would make a good personal goal for survival length.

[vancopower]

8 hours ago, cekivi said:

My personal sandbox goals at the moment are to explore whatever location I haven't been to yet. Once seasons are (hopefully) implemented my goal would be to survive for 18 months. I figure 18 months would be the same as surviving indefinitely so it would make a good personal goal for survival length.

Unfortunately we are long way from seasons, but yes I agree that adding seasons will be the ultimate drive for this game. With seasons off course will come tons of mechanics for example instead of hunting for food the survivor could farm when the weather is hot, and maybe try to stockpile some of the plants that do not go bad quickly in order to have easier time at winter, on the other hand you can stockpile meat from the winter in order to survive until your plants grow. Yes seasons solves it all, thanks for suggesting this.

[iSUGGESTthings]

http://kotaku.com/the-long-dark-is-boring-and-thats-why-its-great-1775860048

I really enjoy sandbox and its open-endedness. I'm kind of hoping it will eventually shape itself into a 'live in the wilderness forever as a homesteader'-simulator. Because ultimately once you learn how to play the game, surviving is fairly simple.