Combination wish list and explanation

[loriaw]

I've got a lot of hours invested in TLD; been playing since there was only ML. I've had things I suggested in the past implemented (most importantly the wolf skin not being solid black). I've seen many others mention the same things I have over and over, with no results.

I play other games as well as TLD, and generally I end up heading off with one of them when some of the issues I have with TLD get the best of me. I opted for something different the last time rather than just a break to cool off. I headed for Skyrim, and I modded it into a fairly close replica of TLD. I changed the weather to all winter. I removed all NPCs. I added Frostfall, Campfire, Realistic Needs and Diseases, Bathing, hunting mods, food mods, etc. It took some work. While I have a stable mod list of 198 mods, removing NPCs forced a lot of troubleshooting and some concessions to get everything stable again. But WHEN I got it all functioning, it was glorious!

Playing on the hardest setting, it was rather brutal from the start. Unlike TLD, there was no 'running to the nearest shelter' because when I got there I still had to pick the lock to get in. Food wasn't a real issue although I kept a list of farms I plucked clean and skipped them after that. The weather and the animals were the foe ~ which is what TLD is supposed to be. Unlike TLD though ... and this is where many of the things on my wish list became crystal clear, survival WAS an option. When I increase my skill at smithing I have better armor and better weapons (I did not use the perk tree at all ~ just leveled up. I also used no enchanting or mage attributes/skills, and only healing/cure potions.). Hunting became more reliable. My 'base' camps and houses are CLEAN and NEAT and ORGANIZED. I have the ability to mine necessary raw materials from the environment. If I want to move the bed or a chest I can. If I want to clean the place up I can. If I need more containers I make them. I can craft both hide and fur tents, bedrolls, and make a campfire that doesn't blow out because a breeze puffs by. I can preserve food, cook actual meals from meat and vegetables I hunt or harvest rather than relying on a few cans and lumps of meat. I can watch the aurora, sleep under the stars or snuggled up in my tent, etc. I have a variety of weapons, and my carry weight is dependent on my stamina level (which does grow over time). Other mods; disable fast travel, realistic weight, etc. also recreate conditions that TLD imposes. And yes, I DO have dragons (I am not giving up those bones and scales!!!)

So ~ the wish list. It's now a simple one. Stop forcing us to play a tunnel vision into death ideal. It doesn't have to turn into a SIM game, but for the love of peanut butter and jelly give us some freedom to play the game ~ at least in Survivor mode ~ our own way. Give us choices. Give us the ability to increase our skill through trial and error but without 'balancing' that (read taking away the actual skill by making other things even harder ... such as stamina/rope climbing). If we can't craft crossbows or good bows, at least let us have spears and/or reloading (and if you have to balance it add an rng to blow ourselves or our gun up). Add more food variety and make preserving some of it an option. Allow us to make windbreaks out of piled up snow if nothing else for our campfires. Give us some raw resources to find/harvest/haul back such as flint, coal, iron, etc. (a pickaxe isn't that much of a stretch!). Let us move furniture and containers and/or craft them. Let us make mini forges from wheels or those buckets (lined with a clay slurry that is allowed to dry ~ yes, a mini forge that can be crafted. I'm a 56 year old grandma and I have done this IRL).

I know for a fact that the game engine can do these things. I 'get' that there is a vision. I 'get' that there was an intent all along for Story Mode and that Survival was really just a test bed. I also 'get' that Hinterland spent years building up Survival Mode and is still expanding it. It's a fact that the game is awesome. It's also a fact that there is no possibility of survival in this 'survival' game. Isn't it time to make it an actual 'survival' experience instead of a '50 ways to die in a month' sort of game? What I do know is that after a week of playing Skyrim turned into TLD, I now notice the things that have always bugged me 100% more (started a new run last night and was beating my head on the desk in less than two hours). Running around dodging cranky wolves and scooping up cans that someone left behind isn't really survival anymore ... mostly because I already know the ending. I don't mind difficult. I just made a game that I've got even more hours in than TLD into a very difficult game. The difference is that I 'can' survive in that one without hoping Fluffy or old Pooh snacks on me just to end the tedium ... or taking a long walk off the short side of the Trestle because I'm sick of nothing but lumps of venison without any salt, garlic, or mushrooms.

[TerribleSurvivor]

Your modding sounds really awesome. It would be tempting to get and try it.

Anyways, by modding skyrim you have a way more extended toolbox where you can pick the ingredients you need and exclude those you don´t wish to have in your mod.

This is not the case for TLD. Mainly because Hinterland Studios unfortunately isnt Bethesda Game Studios. You mentioned a crapton of changes and improvements that undoubtedly are necessary for the game for sure to make it an outstanding survival experience. However, all of this needs to be planned, coded, debugged, tested and so on and so forth.

I really wished though that devs adressed these issues mentioned instead of implementing a story mode with weak plot and discouraging, repetitive gameplay...

May your words be heard!

[loriaw]

Thank you. I know they 'can', but whether or not they 'will' is truly up for grabs. 

Modding Skyrim is always a challenge. An idea or creating a role playing idea sometimes works, sometimes flops. Right now I've got a game that is actually more challenging than TLD going, but still has npc's since I can't get the mod to remove them to play nicely with anything else. The weather, the wildlife (minus dragons for now lol), the hunting, etc. is actually more difficult than TLD even on 'loper ~ and I'm just avoiding the npc's and towns. The one thing that gives me a break is Campfire - planters which allows me to create planting soil and plant food instead of just scavenging and hunting. I 'balanced' that by adding mods to make it impossible to just grow food outside. I have to have an interior space and growing time is slowed due to lighting (lack of).  I'm enjoying it though. Even avoiding npc's is fun most of the time.  Since I had never before played with any of the 'winter' mods, it sort of makes all of Skyrim a brand new land. Took me almost 47 'real' hours to set up the mods, but it seems to be worth it. I've got questions out at a few sites trying to resolve the 'alone' mod as well as the 'lonely' one. We'll see :-) I'm not an 'experienced' modder, but I generally know how to keep it stable. Right now I'm stable except for getting rid of npc's so we'll see, plus I've managed to keep things on the difficult side.