Love this game but some suggestions

[wisarut_rungsun]

I pledged this game on Kick Starter and was waiting for it to come out. Finally, it is here!

I enjoyed the game so far and wow this is just in an alpha phase! Well done sirs!

The only thing I would like to change was pledging more on this project . (Back then I wasn't so wealthy haha...still).

I know this game is meant to be hard, but it would be nice if difficulty options are available.

Mostly just change the speed of cal. decreasing, freezing, items and wildlife spawning. Like in Don't starve does for example.

I know some people might not like this idea but it is (0,+) right?

If it is possible more weapons would be great (such as bow, piston and melee ones).

Some craving elements also a good idea if it is possible. And more animals maybe...birds, seal, bear and otters!

Don't take it so badly because I really like the Long Dark. These are just my suggestions. You guys have done a superb job!

I know I am no better than developers and don't understand much about video games coding and limitation or balancing at all.

Just a man who enjoys gaming on my free-time.

[wisarut_rungsun]

Oh one more thing if I could see my character and equipments it would be awesome!

For example an equipment UI that you can drag and drop cloths.

Because now It is a bit difficult to understand what my character is wearing.

New UI is good but some changes on inventory page would be a plus because click a drop down menu to look for things is not so much an ideal. Cheers!

[Dark]

I'm also a KS Backer and share same love of the OP for this game.

Like the OP i suggest also that the UI for the cloths and equipment would be a good idea.

But i like to add one additional thing:

In the menu for the breaking up of clothes and other stuff, appeared also gear and clothes that i had equipped or wearing on my body. This has lead to the case, where i have harvested up my good equipment. In one case i was running without any jeans or cap because of this. To prevent this i would suggest to disable the on the body worn equipment and clothes, from the harvesting menu.

[TarjaS]

I disagree (or "handholding" as Raph would say). I always harvest the item in lowest condition, if I have multiples, and it could be the one I'm wearing. Disabling those from the list would mean I would open the Harvest panel, realize I'm wearing the one I want, close the panel, open Inventory, change clothes, get back to Harvest and then continue. Too many steps. I want to see all I have available (because the condition of the item I'm wearing is also a factor in making the decision) and then decide, which ones to harvest.

[Dark]

And i disagree on your disagreement TarjaS, because i do the same as you do, in most cases. And still the problem arises where i have chosen some other goods to harvest, but it still has harvest my trousers, whatever the reason. And this will probably happen often to other gamers too.

So after this problem i had to run around with my naked arse, through the canadian winter landscape, and if this would been my Premium Winter Coat the game would be over.

But i will be more polite, by stating that this harvesting problem could have multiple solutions, where such problems that i had could be prevented. And this is not 'handholding' as anyone would say, but 'F..k preventing'.

'Handholding' is guiding the player towards specific actions, that leads to a better result.

'F..k preventing' is holding somebody off from an action, that arises through a bad menu, false information display or bad clicking. And this both thing are very very different, in nearly evey aspect.

And in real life you will not harvest your jeans directly from your arse, or would you?

[TarjaS]

Harvesting something you're wearing directly from the Harvest menu is actually just combined taking off and harvesting, so nothing odd with that. And it is handholding, if you prevent players from making wrong choices. However, I'm starting to think there might be a bug in the Harvest menu. I was watching a Twitch stream where the player wanted to harvest one item, but ended up harvesting something else. It seemed to me that he thought he had selected the item he wanted, but didn't notice that the field showed another item, which he then ended up harvesting.

If you really selected one item and another got harvested, I'd suggest reporting it as a bug. I'll keep an eye on the Harvest menu and see if I can catch any abnormal behavior there.

[Dark]

And it is handholding, if you prevent players from making wrong choices.

No it is not 'handholding', it is 'F..k preventing'. A 'choice' is specific move made by the player, towards a specific means or end. This move has to have a informed correspondent result. Prevention of 'misclicks' is not handholding in such a game, it would be in an ego shooter or if you could only shoot at the deer if you not certainly hit it.

'Handholding' is when the system does not allow you to make specific informed correspondent choices / moves, or modulates your choices towards a specific means.

Example of a handholding would be if you could only harvest items in bad state, or only bad items. And if you could not for example harvest the Premium Winter Coat (The best ingame Coat.). Or if you could do this the system would inform you that your choice is bad, before you do it.

'F..k preventing' on the other hand, is there to stop an action that you would not desire, but it happens because you are tired and misclick on the item or there is a bug in a system or etc. And right after this happend and you notice it, you say to yourself: F..k! Because you did not desired this action. And here in this game the equipment is crucial.

I have suggested an idea based on the UI suggestion of the OP, where you see the person with its equipment and what the hero / heroin wears in the specific moment and where you choose what you wear in this UI. There are many other solutions like the grouping of items in the harvest menu, where you clearly see that this is the last item in this specific group and the system asks you if you really want to harvest the last object from this group.

Or by giving the items free for harvesting or etc.

Any form of prevention for this 'F..k' events, could result in additional moves, but they are not redundant, because of the importance of the equipment.

[TarjaS]

By wrong choices I meant that if you choose the wrong item and what you selected gets harvested, there is nothing wrong with the system, you just made a wrong choice. There is no reason for the system to stop you from doing that as it is not supposed to think for you.

The "F**k preventing" comes in the form of checking the field after selecting an item and ensuring the field shows the item you want to harvest before clicking the Harvest button. After all, a misclick in the Harvest menu doesn't ruin anything, clicking the Harvest button without checking what you have selected does. However, if the field shows your selection and still something else gets harvested, it's a bug that needs to be fixed.

[Dark]

By wrong choices I meant that if you choose the wrong item and what you selected gets harvested, there is nothing wrong with the system, you just made a wrong choice. There is no reason for the system to stop you from doing that as it is not supposed to think for you.

If the player excludes certain objects from certain actions by his choice, that is not the game thinking for him, it is the player's agency. That can be made through different methods that i have indicated, and the player is still thinking for himself, but the player is more infomed of the actions he is perfoming.

To take a agency away from the player is handholding or by informing him of better results. And not by giving him additional agency, which he can use to sort his objects. Other words for the previous sentence:

To take the player's choices of actions away, is handholding. Or by giving him additional information that is beyond the scope of the game agent controlled by the player. And not by giving him even different possible actions, by which he can sort his set of objects, and decide what is in the harvest scope and what not, making his game more fluent (at least for some) and transparent (informative).

The "F**k preventing" comes in the form of checking the field after selecting an item and ensuring the field shows the item you want to harvest before clicking the Harvest button. After all, a misclick in the Harvest menu doesn't ruin anything, clicking the Harvest button without checking what you have selected does.

Yes and this is not always enough, and additional perhaps optional methods would be indicated. (wearing) tag is not enough, because this can be easily overlooked. There are many many solutions for this, but in current state it is raw and leads to some mistakes, in some cases, for whatever reason. And i had to fight with this, or better said: i had to walk with a naked arse in a cold snow storm. And i doubt that this would happen in real life, for this reason. And certainly a blocking of harvesting for worn on you body clothes and objects would prevent this.

[oversoul]

lol "hand-holding" -- cause a dude in the frozen Canadian hell tundra is going to cut up the jeans right off of his legs, right? :lol: