The Long Dark Sandbox Alpha Updated to v.346 -- "PENITENT SCHOLAR"

Raphael van Lierop

By Raphael van Lierop
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Raphael van Lierop Pathfinder

Raphael van Lierop

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The Long Dark -- Sandbox Alpha Updated to v.346 -- "Penitent Scholar"


Hello community,

We've just updated The Long Dark Sandbox Alpha to v.346, which we're calling "Penitent Scholar".

A video that discusses the update's major features and additions can be found here: 
 

Full Changelist below:

THE LONG DARK -- SANDBOX ALPHA UPDATED TO v.346 -- "PENITENT SCHOLAR"
 
NEW LANGUAGES

* New Languages selectable from Display Options: French, Swedish, Korean, Chinese (Trad + Simplified), Japanese, Turkish, Norwegian
 
GAMEPLAY

* A Snow Shelter can now be crafted and deployed from the Radial Menu. This Shelter protects from wind and cold, but leaves you vulnerable to wildlife. 
* First-pass Survival Skills system has been added to the game, with the first test skills implemented. See the Skills section of the Journal for more information. The first Skills are: Firestarting, Cooking, Carcass Harvesting, Ice Fishing, Rifle Firearm
* First-pass Feats system has been added to the game, with the first test Feats implemented. See the Feats section of the Badges menu interface for more information. The first Feats are: Book Smarts, Cold Fusion, Efficient Machine, Fire Master, Free Runner, Snow Walker
* You can now find Research Books in the world. Spending time Researching these books will improve specific Skills.
* Nomad Challenge added. Survive for 3 days each in 15 different locations around the world. 
* Whiteout Challenge added. Stockpile supplies and survive for 30 days as a monster blizzard bears down on you.
* First-pass Almanac feature added (to support Whiteout gameplay).
* It is not longer possible to Craft complex items (requiring a Workbench) in the dark. You can still Craft simple things from the Radial Menu in the dark. You also cannot Repair items in the dark.
* Brandishing now costs Stamina and not Fatigue.
* When breaking down items, the raw materials produced now go directly into your Backpack (vs. being placed on the ground to then be picked up). This will result in fewer bugs relating to harvesting items being stuck behind geo.
* Fixed issues with Wolves sometimes walking in place.
* Warmth from Bedrolls is now taken into account when Resting in Vehicles. (Note: You also get a Warmth bonus from Bedrolls when Resting in the Snow Shelter.)
* You can now see descriptions for active buffs in the First Aid screen.
 
UI

* New Fonts added to the game.
* Brightness correction now occurs before the Main Menu. Subsequent Brightness changes can be made from the Display settings, accessible from the Main Menu.
* Reduced the number of stacking Damage event icons during Wolf struggles. (Note that the number of Damage events is still the same.)
* Added new Skill section to Journal
* Added new Almanac section to Journal
* Added new Objectives section to the Journal
* Added new Snow Shelter Build/Use/Dismantle UI
* Added Badge art for all Challenges
* Added Badge art for new Feats
* The Badge interface can now be accessed from both the Main Menu and the Pause Menu
* Added notifications for Skill Improvement, Skill level unlock, and Feat unlocks
 
AUDIO

* Added audio kickers for Skill improvement, Skill level unlock, and Feat unlocks
 
GENERAL

* Player is warped to a safe location if we detect player has fallen through world
* Screenshot keys no longer force UI to chance from Gamepad to Mouse/Keyboard
* Significantly reduced color banding in low light conditions
* [For Streamers] We've added support for being able to access a second monitor without Alt-Tabbing. (Note that this will become a toggle in a future hotfix.)

### END OF CHANGELIST ###
 
A Note on Leaderboards

As we've deepened the options for player experience in the game, and provided more ways to share your progress with other players, we feel that Leaderboards don't represent a meaningful measurement of game progress, and therefore we are removing them effective immediately. We look forward to continuing to improve our in-game tools for sharing progress and player accomplishments.
 
A Note on the Test Branch Process

As many of you know, we experimented with a new Test Branch process for this update, where we provided an opt-in, pre-release test build of the game for the purposes of helping us find bugs, crashes, and balance issues. As a first test, the Test Branch was an overwhelming success! Our plan with the Test Branch is to shut it down it between Updates. Stay tuned for more information about when the Test Branch will be re-opened, and some refinements we'll be making to the overall process. We thank all of you who participated and helped make the Test Branch a big success!

###
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Patrick Carlson Pathfinder

Patrick Carlson

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1 hour ago, Salty Crackers said:

I haven't played it yet, but I'm not so sure about this. For some reason, the game feels like it's advancing towards the basic "survival game formula" like in all those zombie survival games. All I know is I'm going to be saving a version of each update from now on.

We'd really encourage you to spend some quality time with it and let us know how it goes for you. You can only glean so much knowledge from a Changelist after all. 

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ZlatanHazard Prepper

ZlatanHazard

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This update sounds amazing , i still haven't touched it but it sure looks really promising . Just one quick question , do i have to make a new save to find the new books or will i still find them in my current save , same thing for the feats and badges , will i start from scratch or will my progress from the older updates be saved ?

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Patrick Carlson Pathfinder

Patrick Carlson

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2 minutes ago, ZlatanHazard said:

This update sounds amazing , i still haven't touched it but it sure looks really promising . Just one quick question , do i have to make a new save to find the new books or will i still find them in my current save , same thing for the feats and badges , will i start from scratch or will my progress from the older updates be saved ?

In terms of the books, they should be discoverable in an older game save. You just have to find them!

As for the feats/badges/skills, if you took part in the Test Branch process you should see your progress carry over from whatever you accomplished during testing.  

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Sinthoras Wolfbait

Sinthoras

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Thank you guys for all the hard work you continually put into the game!  I recommend this game to friends frequently.

As a side note, I think it's hilarious you have a test branch for a game technically still in Alpha.  Isn't the whole game a test branch? XD

Haha thanks again, and take your time :)

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nicko Pathfinder

nicko

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56 minutes ago, Patrick Carlson said:

In terms of the books, they should be discoverable in an older game save. You just have to find them!

As for the feats/badges/skills, if you took part in the Test Branch process you should see your progress carry over from whatever you accomplished during testing.  

ok to clarify your saying feats/badges/skills only take effect and start working from this latest update/ and test-updates. reason I ask is I am sure I seen a badge I got without doing anything, then again maybe I did do a run in an earlier test version. Edit since v.346 have have zero. so it seems we start from scratch.

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ZlatanHazard Prepper

ZlatanHazard

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Just now, Patrick Carlson said:

In terms of the books, they should be discoverable in an older game save. You just have to find them!

As for the feats/badges/skills, if you took part in the Test Branch process you should see your progress carry over from whatever you accomplished during testing.  

Thanks a lot for the response , though i didn't  take part in the Test Branch because i wanted to discover the update when it launched for good , i kinda regret it now :(  Anyway you guys are doing a truly fantastic job, i cannot thank you enough for all the hard work you're putting into this wonderful game , keep it up ! :D Also another question , will the next update also be available on the Test Branch , if so do you have an idea of the time it will take to be released , i know you probably started working on it not too long ago but you never know ^_^

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cekivi Pathfinder

cekivi

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1 hour ago, ZlatanHazard said:

Thanks a lot for the response , though i didn't  take part in the Test Branch because i wanted to discover the update when it launched for good , i kinda regret it now :(  Anyway you guys are doing a truly fantastic job, i cannot thank you enough for all the hard work you're putting into this wonderful game , keep it up ! :D Also another question , will the next update also be available on the Test Branch , if so do you have an idea of the time it will take to be released , i know you probably started working on it not too long ago but you never know ^_^

Welcome to the forums @ZlatanHazard! ^_^

The upside of not partaking in the test branch is not experiencing immersion or game breaking bugs. The upside is getting to kick the tires of the newest update before it launches. The choice is yours :)

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cekivi Pathfinder

cekivi

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1 hour ago, nicko said:

ok to clarify your saying feats/badges/skills only take effect and start working from this latest update/ and test-updates. reason I ask is I am sure I seen a badge I got without doing anything, then again maybe I did do a run in an earlier test version. Edit since v.346 have have zero. so it seems we start from scratch.

If you completed any challenges before the update you should already have badges for them.

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Blinkin Pathfinder

Blinkin

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Wow, the shelter is implemented. I've been waiting for this since the alpha where the build button only was a placeholder. :D

I think I'm going to love the new skills system! Not sure about the feats system though. One of the main charms of this game is that it has perma death. Each game starts from the beginning, I'm not sure if I like the possibility to keep 'skills' (read feats) after dying. I guess the only way to find out it play it.

I'm sorry for asking the next question, feels a bit like whining but that's not my intention. Could players help testing builds for different platforms besides Steam to help distribute them faster? Because I'm playing on pc and I get the game from GOG... the previous update hasn't been released yet on GOG. I know Hinterland is a talented but also small team and you've opened a different test program for the game itself on Steam. I thought if it's possible for technical players to help the testing before pushing an update (check whether all installers do what they have to do and such) it might prevent update delays of a month or more. :)

Edit: also a small thing I noticed. In the list of changes there's this sentence: "Nomad Challenge added. Survive for 3 days each in 15 different locations around the world.". While in the video Raphael says you need to survive for 10 days each in 5 specific locations in the world. ;)

"Player is warped to a safe location if we detect player has fallen through world" another 'small' change with an incredible impact. I've not seen this happen much the past few months but this will fix a lot of disappointments. You really do everything to update an game without breaking current saves. You're doing an incredible job! :D

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