Feats system impressions, what should change.

[WinterWhite]

I think that feats rewards should be togglable . if we don't want our survivors to start at level 3 firestarting skill, i think we should be able to turn the effect on or off;

[nicko]

2 hours ago, WinterWhite said:

I think that feats rewards should be togglable . if we don't want our survivors to start at level 3 firestarting skill, i think we should be able to turn the effect on or off;

why? either way you get the reward or do not. if you don't want it don't go for it? or are you sharing game play on same pc or something to suggest this? i start at level 1.

[cekivi]

@nicko Feats can be earned across multiple games. Therefore, just starting fires will eventually earn you the feat that gives the fire starting bonus. The feats were all designed so that all players will inevitably get them provided they play the game for a long enough time.

I still think feats are good. They just need some further balancing.

[dieffenbachj]

I wholeheartedly agree that feats need to be something that is toggled on.

I have no interest, none at all, in having my previous playthroughs effect my later ones. Eventually, if I played this game religiously, I would receive huge buffs that would make it incredibly easy for me or anyone else who plays my copy of this game.

Now, the idea of unlocking features over time is a pretty solid idea. Many games do it--but they do it as optional features, or with a button that lets you wipe your achievements. For instance, in the XCOM from a few years back, you unlock New Game+ features after game completion at various difficulties... but these features are OPTIONAL. You actually have to tick a special box to open up the customized options, and specifically say that you want to play with the new rules when starting a new game.

The way Feats are handled in The Long Dark is... just, terrible. Terrible. Some players might enjoy having the game go into Easy Mode the longer they play. But not every player. And for all the players who want to play the game with vanilla settings every time, forcing them to have these Easy Mode bonuses is ridiculous.

It'd be like if in Minecraft, killing the Ender Dragon made you start every game from then on with a Diamond Pickaxe. Or if in XCOM, killing an alien overlord made your soldiers all start with 1 extra HP in future playthroughs. Or if in DotA, every time you won a match you got a permanent +1% damage boost in future matches. Or in Kerbal Space Program, if you managed to set up a base on the moon, you permanently started each subsequent playthrough with a space station in orbit.

I mean, I could go on and on. Take literally any game on the planet, and you ALWAYS have the opportunity to start over with vanilla difficulty. Power is always in the hands of the players. Even if the above cheats / easy modes are available in those games, it's always an option.

Why is The Long Dark different? Why is it a game that self-destructs over time, eliminating its appeal for a portion of an audience the longer its played?

--

Now, if the Feats system is currently the direction the company wants to go in, they have a pretty obvious solution. Match the New Game+ model I mentioned and make it so when you're on the screen to select your difficulty level, it has a "Bonus Options" button where you can check the box on any feats you want to use for that playthrough. And have them all opt-in, not opt-out.

That satisfies people who need the game to become even easier than it already is with Feats, and it lets people who hate that stuff play the game the way THEY want.

As for me, I specifically registered an account on the forums just to voice my displeasure with the new system. The Long Dark used to be a game that I would load up on the big TV in the living room via SteamLink, and show guests when they would come over and hang out. It was a game that I was literally about to buy a copy of for a friend for his new Xbox One.

It's not now. It'll go on my 'shelf', and I'll check on its progress in a few months / years (since it takes AGES for patches to come out with The Long Dark, judging by its past release schedule) to see if this new direction the game has taken has been fixed. Hopefully so... if not, well, I got my amusement out of my purchase, so I guess it wasn't money wasted, but it's unfortunate anyway.

[Scyzara]

I personally would very much prefer my own feats to be nothing but a shiny badge without any effect. Much like a steam-achievement, so to say. Something fun to collect, but it doesn't have any real effect on your ingame experience.

I wouldn't mind it at all if other people had the choice to accept the current feat bonuses for their games, of course. I just don't want the feats to affect my own games. So the best solution in my opinion would be an option to toggle the feat bonuses on or off.

The only way how I could atm prevent getting the feat bonuses (in order not to make all my games easier by default) would be to stop playing which isn't a particularly reasonable solution imo.

 

 

[cekivi]

Welcome to the forums @dieffenbachj!

You bring up some good points. I personally don't mind feats that don't affect game difficulty but some of the feats, as you identify, just make the game easier. Come to think of it, the other problem they represent is most are targeted for winter. If/when seasons are implemented staying warm should be much easier and fires less critical. Feats can be a good system. They just need some fine tuning.

[nicko]

hrm yeah I see your point, maybe a toggle to turn it off or on for each new sandbox game would be a nice idea, if it's possible.