A wish or three

[stratvox]

Okay, I have some wishes.

Navigation: One, that the night time skybox include real constellations. I'd like to be able to figure out where north is by looking at the stars. I've tried, and so far I've not seen the big dipper or Orion (and I'd expect to see Orion as it's wintertime). So, a real sky skybox please. I love the art style, it just would be nice if the sky actually looked like the sky with the usual signposts. I miss the Hunter, damn it!

Seasonal precession: While I can appreciate that there is a permanent winter in the game, I also think that having the days shorten and lengthen would add a great deal to the game. If I crashed in say mid-February, by the time I get to fifty days in I've passed the spring equinox and the days are longer than the nights. Actually, what would be totally awesome would be to have this reflected in the sky box as well, so that we can see the winter and summer constellations come and go as the days lengthen and shorten as the earth travels around the sun.

Fire mechanics: When you get to level three, you no longer need tinder. However, it doesn't make sense that tinder doesn't improve your chance of getting a fire going. Have a -5% penalty for lighting a fire without tinder from level three forward... and why is there no kindling in the fire system? I can totally see kindling being optional even at level 1, but including starter, tinder, kindling, and fuel for the best chance of getting a fire going makes a lot of sense to me.

My headcanon on this game is that the entire thing is triggered by a magnetic pole flip, which has lead to serious weakening of the Earth's magnetic field, which is why solar storms are so devastating to electrical equipment. This would actually involve fairly titanic forces on the Earth's interior, which could in turn have triggered the Cascadian subduction zone (leading to the earthquake effects like the trashed rail lines and collapsed tunnels... missed by the character because they were in the air when it happened), and that that earthquake also shook the Yellowstone supervolcano into life, leading to huge amounts of sulphur aerosols shading the earth from the sun and bringing a multi-year winter to the globe. I'd even go so far as to suggest that if a person makes it to day 1825 (five years later) that spring finally returns to the Great Bear Island... or given that estimates of a supervolcano winter range from (as far as I'm aware) five to fifteen years that the length of play could be set to between 1825 days to 5475 days before spring returns, depending on the difficulty setting. Say, five years at pilgrim, seven at voyageur, ten at Stalker, and fifteen at Interloper.

[CalNieDaGtarGuy]

You would have to be so commited to live that long! I like the idea of seasons but they seem difficult to implement. In winter, locations are so easy to find. A newbie could find the lake cabins with ease, if only by stumbling around like a madman. In spring, summer, and fall, it may be more difficult to navigate, or, even more important, more difficult to spot wolves and/or bears. Also, without the option of using boats and such, it would be impossible to get to certain locations (i.e. Jackrabbit Island, Misanthorpe's Homestead, etc.) Don't get me wrong, they would be cool, especially if there was a way to navigate around these problems.

Another thing: would the game be continuous, smoothly transitioning between seasons, or would you choose which season you would like to play in? Would the transition reflect realism, or would seasons change every 30-40 days? If realism is chosen, with seasons lasting approximately 90 days, how would you work in late game tasks to promote longer sandboxes?

[Frosty]

2 hours ago, stratvox said:

Navigation: One, that the night time skybox include real constellations.

Yes celestial navigation would be great. They can at least put "Little Bear" aka "Little Dipper" aka "Ursa Minor" in the game so we can find the North Star.

I have a wish list too but theyre not as practical of a suggestion as that one.

1. A craftable sled or ability to slide down those hills fast would be fun and could help elude predators - maybe u can use the sled to carry more weight and drag it. Would be helpful for quartering to bring back to base

2. Snow shoes that increase movement speed and assist climbing hills preventing sprains maybe

3. A canoe to Traverse a map like Coastal Highway. They would need flowing rivers on maps to be effective but even just for CH to fish on the water would be cool maybe it helps lower Cabin fever faster or something 

And finally one I've heard before: Spears!! But it is a craftable trap/tool that needs to be deployed on the ground to be used against bears only, to kill them Native American style like in  The Edge 

[stratvox]

5 hours ago, CalNieDaGtarGuy said:

You would have to be so commited to live that long! I like the idea of seasons but they seem difficult to implement. In winter, locations are so easy to find. A newbie could find the lake cabins with ease, if only by stumbling around like a madman. In spring, summer, and fall, it may be more difficult to navigate, or, even more important, more difficult to spot wolves and/or bears. Also, without the option of using boats and such, it would be impossible to get to certain locations (i.e. Jackrabbit Island, Misanthorpe's Homestead, etc.) Don't get me wrong, they would be cool, especially if there was a way to navigate around these problems.

Another thing: would the game be continuous, smoothly transitioning between seasons, or would you choose which season you would like to play in? Would the transition reflect realism, or would seasons change every 30-40 days? If realism is chosen, with seasons lasting approximately 90 days, how would you work in late game tasks to promote longer sandboxes?

If you read my headcanon section, the idea is that the Yellowstone supervolcano has put the Earth into a years-long winter because of sulfer aerosols in the stratosphere, so it's always winter... but that wouldn't affect the lengths of the days as the seasons progressed, just the temperature, because day length is all about the earth's axial tilt relative to the sun. Sulfer aerosols would make the days dimmer and the weather significantly worse. Given the setting (northern British Columbia), you're talking about days that range from probably around six to eight hours long to sixteen to eighteen hours long between the winter and summer solstices.

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

Yes celestial navigation would be great. They can at least put "Little Bear" aka "Little Dipper" aka "Ursa Minor" in the game so we can find the North Star.

I have a wish list too but theyre not as practical of a suggestion as that one.

...

2. Snow shoes that increase movement speed and assist climbing hills preventing sprains maybe

...

Yes, absolutely. This one should be reasonably easy to implement too... craftable item using say four sticks and six gut per foot, so you'd need eight sticks and a dozen cured guts to make a pair. My experience with snow shoes is you don't get so much of a speed bonus, but a calorie bonus for travelling over deep snow... definitely. Unskilled use of snow shoes would perhaps increase the possibility of sprains (have you ever wiped out with a pair on?) but decreasing it as your skill progresses from one to five until you get a decent bonus against sprains at the top level of skill.

[StrayCat]

About the spring coming back : instead of making TLS a 4 seasons game (which would require a lot of work from hinterland), maybe surviving until spring comes back (5-15 years as exposed previously) could be the main goal of sandbox, and end the game with a success (and a achievement on steam). The only thing I don't like with the sandbox as it is today, is that there is no goal, nothing to keep you going on. Waiting for spring could be a goal. Another goal can be just like the hopeless rescue challenge, without the time limit, but firing the flare only might get you saved. Well, just having other things to do than eat/drink/sleep.

[stratvox]

7 hours ago, StrayCat said:

About the spring coming back : instead of making TLS a 4 seasons game (which would require a lot of work from hinterland), maybe surviving until spring comes back (5-15 years as exposed previously) could be the main goal of sandbox, and end the game with a success (and a achievement on steam). The only thing I don't like with the sandbox as it is today, is that there is no goal, nothing to keep you going on. Waiting for spring could be a goal. Another goal can be just like the hopeless rescue challenge, without the time limit, but firing the flare only might get you saved. Well, just having other things to do than eat/drink/sleep.

That was pretty much what I was thinking. You're locked in perpetual winter, but if you make it to the five-seven-ten-fifteen year limit, you "win".

[kurja]

I'd love to have a realistic skybox, I'm familiar with the northern sky and finding which way is which by looking up was pretty much the first thing I tried to do in this game At least the sun is roughly where it's supposed to be I guess? I don't know at which month & latitude the game is taking place...