A couple of simple things...

[TreeBeard]

My current wish list:

1. Binoculars. They would be so useful on clear days to track the movement of animals, work out whether its worth walking all the way over that tree stump to see if they are mushrooms growing on it or just my failing eyesight playing tricks on me.
    
2. I love being able to move stuff about, but I would like to able to stack - like things do when you drop them, but tidier!
    
3. Wolf skill - after being attacked 10+ times by wolves, you'd think our intrepid survivor would pick up some skills on how to defend him/herself better, right? That's just plain instinct, humans have been learning how to defend themselves for millennia. How about a slow percentage increase in defence ability, less damage, more chance of critcial hit with hatchet/knife, etc just like the other skills?
    
4. To jump. I would love to be able to reasonably jump onto or off of things - obviously with the risk of damaging myself dependent on how much weight I'm carrying.

That's all for now thanks, I'm off to have a nice 

[KinoUnko]

Binoculars have been discussed before I think. i don't know what the community concensus was or what Hinterland plans to do.

But now that I think about it, a make shift monocular could be a craftable. takes 2 mag glass, 3 scrap metal, quality tools and work bench, 18~24hrs time. Results in 0.5~.75kg item with 2~4x zoom, and same fire start capability as normal mag glass. Degrades with telescope use, repair with scrap metal and quality tools. Has drift in zoomed view, linked to bow skill level. higher the bow skill level, less drift.

[Salty Crackers]

Binoculars are in the game as the rifle scope. It's pretty handy, but you have to lug around 4 kilos. The survival bow also zooms in, but I always accidentally release the arrow.

[TreeBeard]

18 hours ago, KinoUnko said:

Binoculars have been discussed before I think. i don't know what the community concensus was or what Hinterland plans to do.

But now that I think about it, a make shift monocular could be a craftable. takes 2 mag glass, 3 scrap metal, quality tools and work bench, 18~24hrs time. Results in 0.5~.75kg item with 2~4x zoom, and same fire start capability as normal mag glass. Degrades with telescope use, repair with scrap metal and quality tools. Has drift in zoomed view, linked to bow skill level. higher the bow skill level, less drift.

@KinoUnko, I like this better than just binoculars!

11 hours ago, Salty Crackers said:

Binoculars are in the game as the rifle scope. It's pretty handy, but you have to lug around 4 kilos. The survival bow also zooms in, but I always accidentally release the arrow.

@Salty Crackers, yeah, but the zoom on both weapons suck for proper distance observation, plus the issues you've noted.

[stratvox]

On 10/10/2017 at 0:18 PM, KinoUnko said:

Binoculars have been discussed before I think. i don't know what the community concensus was or what Hinterland plans to do.

But now that I think about it, a make shift monocular could be a craftable. takes 2 mag glass, 3 scrap metal, quality tools and work bench, 18~24hrs time. Results in 0.5~.75kg item with 2~4x zoom, and same fire start capability as normal mag glass. Degrades with telescope use, repair with scrap metal and quality tools. Has drift in zoomed view, linked to bow skill level. higher the bow skill level, less drift.

I really like this idea.

[Mroz4k]

Please, the idea of crafting telescope is riddiculous. It is obvious none of you have the faintest idea how telescopes work. It is not just "two pieces of glass" put however you want them - you need two lenses, one bigger, and one smaller one - the size of your eye. You cant put together two lenses of the same size and expect it to work. And no, there is no mag glass that would be usable for the eye-piece - you would need small, thick lens for that. And such a primitive telescope would have no adjustable zooming capacities. You would be stuck with one specific zoom. The bigger lens goes for the end of telescope, the smaller to the beggining - but here is where the actual issues arise. You need to know the focus points of both of your lenses, and secure them perfectly into place so they dont move, in order to have a clear picture.

And lets not go back to the days when we could repair tools and guns with fir firewood and scrap metal... cause this is what it is. To think you would be able to build something out of scrap metal, which is esentially nails and bits, and turn it into some sort of metal sheets using just tools and workbench is riddiculous. You would need forge to reforge it into sheets.

Besides, you would probably get away with mounting those two lenses on a wooden plank, and it would work like that, no need for that metal sheet crap. As long as you would have the focus points done properly, you could use a stick with two lenses as a viable makeshift telescope. But putting something around it (anything, could easily be rolled newspapers) to limit the sun rays on the lenses would be enough.

Not everything in the game needs to be craftable - there is a challenge in getting rare items that can only be found through spawning, such as hammers or hacksaws. I would like to be able to find binoculars, and if they degraded, they should be fixable with scrap metal the same as other findable tools, and using quality tools to fix it.

As for the other suggestions:

I like the idea of stacking things, but I dont think that is possible due to the way condition of items work. Maybe for some things at least? Like stick bundles, etc. Only for things that you normally have lots of, and has always 100% condition.

Wolf skill is riddiculous. Sorry, but no. Because if you did get attacked 10 times by a wolf, you might learn something about how to defend yourself better, but your body would also be permanently maimed at that point so that puts a dent in that idea. Besides, it is not a good idea to give rewards for struggling with wolves - that is something you should ideally avoid doing altogether.

Jumping suggestions is alright. Heard it is a function in the TLD mod, if that interests you at all.

[Reahs]

Instead of jumping add vaulting and climbing because no one really jumps 3m straight up in the air to get over a stick

[Mroz4k]

1 hour ago, Reahs said:

Instead of jumping add vaulting and climbing because no one really jumps 3m straight up in the air to get over a stick

I am pretty sure that would be 10 times as difficult to add then jumping, because of the way the game works right now.

[KinoUnko]

I guess only old farts like me have seen bifocals. Also, 2~4x as in 2, 3, or 4x zoom. not variable.

[TreeBeard]

22 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

Not everything in the game needs to be craftable - there is a challenge in getting rare items that can only be found through spawning, such as hammers or hacksaws. I would like to be able to find binoculars, and if they degraded, they should be fixable with scrap metal the same as other findable tools, and using quality tools to fix it.

As for the other suggestions:

I like the idea of stacking things, but I dont think that is possible due to the way condition of items work. Maybe for some things at least? Like stick bundles, etc. Only for things that you normally have lots of, and has always 100% condition.

Wolf skill is riddiculous. Sorry, but no. Because if you did get attacked 10 times by a wolf, you might learn something about how to defend yourself better, but your body would also be permanently maimed at that point so that puts a dent in that idea. Besides, it is not a good idea to give rewards for struggling with wolves - that is something you should ideally avoid doing altogether.

Jumping suggestions is alright. Heard it is a function in the TLD mod, if that interests you at all.

Binoculars - having them as a rare find, or being able to 'magically' craft them - I don't mind which, I would just like them in the game.

Stacking - did not mean in menu; I meant when you are placing objects (like on the floor or table, etc). At the moment when you 'drop' an item it just all piles on top of each other, but when you place them, you have to leave a variable space around things before they go green. Obviously this is because of some graphic mechanic, and I doubt it can be adjusted, but it is a bit annoying and hence it goes on my wishlist. That said, yes, stacking in menu would also be good; if things are at the same rate of decay then maybe? 

Wolf skill is not 'riddiculous'. I do avoid wolves as much as possible, combat fighting them is very annoying (esp. when they trash your clothes). But by your reasoning, the fact that over the course of many days exploring I've been attacked at least 10 times, I should be a maimed walking corpse; yet here I am still able to fend them off after the application of a bandage & some antiseptic.
I have been attacked by a dog in RL, I have the scars to prove it thanks. Do you know what I did after that experience... I considered the weaknesses of the animal and how I could use it my advantage if I was ever in that situation again. I am glad it has never happened again, but I like to think I am better prepared if it does; may be not. But my point is that humans naturally and instinctively learn from survival situations, ergo, an in-game mechanism to reward a players tenacity and endurance in this would be useful.

[KinoUnko]

stacking placed objects should be fairly easy to implement. Placing objects on shelves and ground works the same way internally. It's probably just a 1/0 tag in the game asset's setting that needs to flip. Probably more due to man-hour constraint than anything else. There're fair amount of items to check through and determine whether stacking is appropriate, and then testing in game. 

[StrayCat]

Just a novice question here : could stacked objects be (ab)used by putting them in order to get a stair, and be able to access almost anywhere (even normally non-reachable places) ? Replacing easily the ability to jump, and thus breaking the game ? This could explain why it wasn't implemented.

[KinoUnko]

possibly, but the largest item you can move directly is bear pelt... and none of the inventory items collides with player. There's no ability to move crates or chairs or anything that collides with the player. so I doubt it'll be game breaking.

[StrayCat]

So if inventory items don't collide with the player, we could make a huge pile of stuff and just go through ? Now it's immersion that's broken...

[KinoUnko]

well, if you have the time to make a huge pile of anything in this game... I'd say you earn it. Plus the game doesn't allow moving up steep inclines, even if it's only a few inches, ~10cm, high, so even if the inventory items were made to collide with player collider, the chance of moving into spaces by stacking things is slim to none. It may even help with getting out of small nooks in the terrain that would end a good run for no reason other than having no way to get out of it... like some places in Carter damn and crevices where terrain clips into wood piles and walls in PV, BR, CH, etc. 

[Mroz4k]

You cant place item on an item regardless so I don't see a point of this discussion - you can only place items next to each other. You can only put items on items using the Mod tool atm, as far as I know.

On 10/14/2017 at 3:17 PM, KinoUnko said:

It may even help with getting out of small nooks in the terrain that would end a good run for no reason other than having no way to get out of it... like some places in Carter damn and crevices where terrain clips into wood piles and walls in PV, BR, CH, etc. 

first of all, your own fault for being nosey for getting into that situation already - and punishment for that is roll-back, really. As long as you are not hasty and do something to save your game, you can get out of these by closing the game off and then starting it again. A bit of an exploit but it works - I don't think the items need "mass", honestly. Certainly not so they would be used to climb and get to places otherwise inaccessible.
 

On 10/13/2017 at 11:56 AM, TreeBeard said:

Wolf skill is not 'riddiculous'.

Actually, it is. Yes, people learn by encountering the same scenarios over and over. And that would be true, that in time you would likely learn how to wrestle them off more effectively, but you completely disregarded the point about health that I made.  Many people were bitten by a dog at one point or another - whether you learn something from it or not is individual. And unless you were down on your back, fighting for your life, it is hardly relevant - because being bitten, even by a big dog, once, out of likely a defence instinct, is something entirely different than fighting off a wolf with intent to kill you for food. And when it comes to such survival situations, it is hard to learn something from those because the instincts kick in, and in the end you might not even recall what just happened. Many records of people, getting into survival situations, and then having complete amnesia afterwards, saying that their instincts just took over.

And yes, chances are that if you were in past 200 days 10 times ravaged by a wolf, you would be permanently maimed. Because in those situations, you would most likely get a fracture somewhere, and without proper medical help, once it grew together again improperly, you would have decreased functionality. That is just the way it is. Not saying you would be a human wreck that can barely move about, but you would most likely not have full functionality on at least one limb - and just like you mentioned the "researching the weaknesses of the animal to exploit it in that situation should it happen again" - what do you think the wolf would do? Wolves work on instinct far better than what we have because we grew accustomed to civilization - the wolf would instinctively go after your injured limb because it would be the easiest way to bring you down.

I am not arguing you that you would not learn how to deal with wolves after it happened several times. I am simply saying that after several times, your ability to fight them off would be limited, which would likely counter the knowledge you might acquire.

[TreeBeard]

13 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

Actually, it is. Yes, people learn by encountering the same scenarios over and over. And that would be true, that in time you would likely learn how to wrestle them off more effectively, but you completely disregarded the point about health that I made.  Many people were bitten by a dog at one point or another - whether you learn something from it or not is individual. And unless you were down on your back, fighting for your life, it is hardly relevant - because being bitten, even by a big dog, once, out of likely a defence instinct, is something entirely different than fighting off a wolf with intent to kill you for food. And when it comes to such survival situations, it is hard to learn something from those because the instincts kick in, and in the end you might not even recall what just happened. Many records of people, getting into survival situations, and then having complete amnesia afterwards, saying that their instincts just took over.

And yes, chances are that if you were in past 200 days 10 times ravaged by a wolf, you would be permanently maimed. Because in those situations, you would most likely get a fracture somewhere, and without proper medical help, once it grew together again improperly, you would have decreased functionality. That is just the way it is. Not saying you would be a human wreck that can barely move about, but you would most likely not have full functionality on at least one limb - and just like you mentioned the "researching the weaknesses of the animal to exploit it in that situation should it happen again" - what do you think the wolf would do? Wolves work on instinct far better than what we have because we grew accustomed to civilization - the wolf would instinctively go after your injured limb because it would be the easiest way to bring you down.

I am not arguing you that you would not learn how to deal with wolves after it happened several times. I am simply saying that after several times, your ability to fight them off would be limited, which would likely counter the knowledge you might acquire.

Dude, you need to get out more - it's just a game.

Adding a defensive skill would be inline with the other skill mechanics; whether that is backed up by real life scenarios or not. Currently this game rewards its player for all the hunting skills (shooting, archery, fishing), but not for defence. How is that balance? I suggested it because I thought it would be useful, seeing as how a number of people complain about and dislike the current wolf attack element, and thought I'd rationalise it with a bit of personal knowledge. If you don't like the idea, that's all you gotta say. 

[KinoUnko]

It's a fair point that wolf struggles is extremely stressful so are not similar to other skills like archery, fishing, etc, where you are calm and have the mental state for cognitive learning. 

It would be better as a feat, similar to snow walker, fire starter, cold infusion, etc. After some number of wolf struggles survived, say 100, or 200, you can opt to activate the feat in a new game for a permanent 10% damage reduction in wolf encounters.

[Fuarian]

On 10/12/2017 at 10:10 AM, Mroz4k said:

I am pretty sure that would be 10 times as difficult to add then jumping, because of the way the game works right now.

Jumping though, it's a problem. Because you can easily get into inaccessible areas and evade wolves really easily by jumping up 80 degree cliffs. Skyrim horse logic basically.

[Mroz4k]

On 10/16/2017 at 11:08 AM, TreeBeard said:

Dude, you need to get out more - it's just a game.

Ah, the "its just a game" argument. That the best reply you have? Okay then.

I probably go out a lot more then you do  Well, not at the moment, currently third week at home due to pneumonia.

Its an argument of conflicting opinions should stay that way, let's stick to facts, not start with petty insults, please.

On 10/16/2017 at 11:08 AM, TreeBeard said:

Currently this game rewards its player for all the hunting skills (shooting, archery, fishing), but not for defence. How is that balance?

Because you are supposed to hunt, that is why. Even if you can choose not to, eventually your only option will be to hunt or attempt to live off carcasses you find. Hunting is an integral part of the game.

However, as I said before, you are not technically supposed to fight the wolves. The aim is, clearly, that you should attempt to avoid wolf encounters as best as you can. Otherwise, there would not be so many options in how to non lethally handle the wolves, by scaring them off or leading them off with stones. In fact, a defence skill makes NO sense because if it did, then people would go out, putting themselves into wolf situations ON purpose just to raise that skill. Because suddenly, it makes sense to go out and get yourself bitten in a controlled situation, just so you can handle it better in the future when you are bitten in a critical situation. 

I don't need to say anything more to point out how stupid would that kind of mechanic would be. People should be discouraged to get into wolf struggles, not encouraged.

On 10/16/2017 at 4:25 PM, KinoUnko said:

It would be better as a feat, similar to snow walker, fire starter, cold infusion, etc. After some number of wolf struggles survived, say 100, or 200, you can opt to activate the feat in a new game for a permanent 10% damage reduction in wolf encounters.

Now THAT is an excellent idea I could get behind. It makes sense, it is not necessary for the game, but it would most likely help a lot of people who seem to be struggling with the wolves, to make it less of an impact. 

But 200 wolf struggles is probably a bit too little. 300 seems to me as a better idea. Even if you don't go out looking for wolf fights, they are not completely unavoidable. And grinding up 200 wolf struggles would not take that long if you kept making fresh Stalker games. To make it more of a feat rather than grinding practice, I would give it a higher number. Kind of like the Firestarter feat. Grinding it is just so damn boring.

On 10/17/2017 at 3:48 AM, Fuarian said:

Jumping though, it's a problem. Because you can easily get into inaccessible areas and evade wolves really easily by jumping up 80 degree cliffs. Skyrim horse logic basically.

Yes, probably. Animals would need better tracking or another way of reaching you in those situations, like jumping as well. Besides, I would argue that jumping when you are dressed in full winter clothing, on icy or snowy terrain would not be easy at all. I don't need it, but I have nothing against it either.

[TreeBeard]

17 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

Ah, the "its just a game" argument. That the best reply you have? Okay then.

I probably go out a lot more then you do  Well, not at the moment, currently third week at home due to pneumonia.

Its an argument of conflicting opinions should stay that way, let's stick to facts, not start with petty insults, please.

Because you are supposed to hunt, that is why. Even if you can choose not to, eventually your only option will be to hunt or attempt to live off carcasses you find. Hunting is an integral part of the game.

However, as I said before, you are not technically supposed to fight the wolves. The aim is, clearly, that you should attempt to avoid wolf encounters as best as you can. Otherwise, there would not be so many options in how to non lethally handle the wolves, by scaring them off or leading them off with stones. In fact, a defence skill makes NO sense because if it did, then people would go out, putting themselves into wolf situations ON purpose just to raise that skill. Because suddenly, it makes sense to go out and get yourself bitten in a controlled situation, just so you can handle it better in the future when you are bitten in a critical situation. 

I don't need to say anything more to point out how stupid would that kind of mechanic would be. People should be discouraged to get into wolf struggles, not encouraged.

Now THAT is an excellent idea I could get behind. It makes sense, it is not necessary for the game, but it would most likely help a lot of people who seem to be struggling with the wolves, to make it less of an impact. 

But 200 wolf struggles is probably a bit too little. 300 seems to me as a better idea. Even if you don't go out looking for wolf fights, they are not completely unavoidable. And grinding up 200 wolf struggles would not take that long if you kept making fresh Stalker games. To make it more of a feat rather than grinding practice, I would give it a higher number. Kind of like the Firestarter feat. Grinding it is just so damn boring.

Yes, probably. Animals would need better tracking or another way of reaching you in those situations, like jumping as well. Besides, I would argue that jumping when you are dressed in full winter clothing, on icy or snowy terrain would not be easy at all. I don't need it, but I have nothing against it either.

It wasn't the 'best reply'; I was being polite after you called my idea 'riddiculous' (twice). Are you one of those people who always has to have the last word.?  Ok, you win - you know loads more than I do, I'll just go back to enjoying my game, and you can come up with all the suggestions for the wish list. 

[Mroz4k]

57 minutes ago, TreeBeard said:

It wasn't the 'best reply'; I was being polite after you called my idea 'riddiculous' (twice). Are you one of those people who always has to have the last word.?  Ok, you win - you know loads more than I do, I'll just go back to enjoying my game, and you can come up with all the suggestions for the wish list. 

The point of forums is to discuss, I thought that was fairly obvious.

And I probably called (one of) your ideas ridiculous, because it was, and still is. Plus, I provided an explanation as to why. You did that too, at first. Then I continued on, again, using facts. That is a point of constructive criticism, you know... or were you hoping for moronic "I like this idea" kind of comment which adds nothing of value to the argument? Because it is not my style to be a kiss ass on ideas I think are bad just to be overly friendly. I prefer to give my opinion on the subject, and if it is bad, I will say so.

This has nothing to do with who has the last word, but I suppose I am partially faulty that way - but perhaps you should look in the mirror in that aspect too - if you did not care for that particular thing too, you would not have bothered to reply in the first place.

At this point, this argument is dumb. If you come up with something reasonable about your own suggestion that you wish to argument with, go ahead, and I will be happy to reply. If you reply just to have the last word, that is fine by me too, I am finished. 

I simply felt a need to address my previous conversation on this topic as I haven't been on forums for many days, due to my sickness.

[stratvox]

I know people who make telescopes, grinding their own lenses and mirrors. It's not that insane an idea... and we're talking about a video game. It would be great to be able to blow twenty five hours and make a spyglass that you could use to check whether the area you're looking to get to is being patrolled by wolves and to watch their pattern so you can figure out an ideal approach.

[nicko]

12 minutes ago, stratvox said:

I know people who make telescopes, grinding their own lenses and mirrors. It's not that insane an idea... and we're talking about a video game. It would be great to be able to blow twenty five hours and make a spyglass that you could use to check whether the area you're looking to get to is being patrolled by wolves and to watch their pattern so you can figure out an ideal approach.

well getting to the place to find the resources and tools to make this wonderful spyglass, don't you think it makes it pointless?

I would rather just attach a scope to my rifle or find some binoculars?

[stratvox]

Making an effective scope for the rifle is a far harder problem than just making a telescope that lets you see further.