Constructive criticism of Milton Mailbag

[EricTheGreat12]

 

Since it is not possible to answer on the thread and I seem unable to start a new thread in the News & Updates forums, I thought that it would be interesting to talk about the answers to the questions, as well as give  feedback on how the process went along:

 

#1-  The backpack question- I'm disappointed to hear that the overhaul of the current inventory seems too large for the team to handle, which I understand; it still means that backpacks, once they're emptied, serve no purpose other to be a set-piece in the world of the Long Dark.

 

#2- Question that has been asked million of times already- been there done that

 

#3- The art-style of this game is beautiful, and I think that it's unique in a way that it stands on its own. Not surprised to hear that it wasn't inspired off a single game directly, and it stands on its own two-feet in terms of quality.

 

#4- Glad to see that there's an idea around the spear, that it becomes a tool for the bear that has the downside of being close enough to the bear to warrant an attack after the spear throw. Will be looking forward to this later on in development, and I hope that we could use it on moose as well 

 

Feedback: While I do appreciate the initiative, I find it insulting that when the thread open to questions was opened up on these forums, it was shut down only a few minutes after it was opened. Raph took all of his questions from Twitter, and the official Hinterland forums seem once again to be an afterthought from Community management. Next week, on the next Q&A, let's hear what the people here on the Hinterland Forums have to say so that these forums don't feel like a ghost town.

[Hotzn]

Yup, these forums lead a life in the shadows of Twitter and Reddit. But well, there is little to no toxic waste here, and a high percentage of illuminated interlopists come here to share their wisdom. So it's my preferred place.

[Blinkin]

I check the forums on a almost daily base.
I was quite surprised to see the Milton Mailbag appear and at the same time to see the thread for asking question being closed again.

Just had a random thought about the backpack/container subject.
We have some simple containers in the game, which isn't the same game logic of course but I wonder if it could be expanded upon in the future.
I'm talking about water bottles and jerry cans.

[nicko]

I think what they need is a "Mail Bag - Questions" thread. Where everyone can submit a question.  The devs can then read and respond to a few questions each week in their mail bag thread! problem solved. Let Ralph or Hinterland team create this thread I say, they may monitor it more if they create it.

[EricTheGreat12]

1 hour ago, Blinkin said:

Just had a random thought about the backpack/container subject.
We have some simple containers in the game, which isn't the same game logic of course but I wonder if it could be expanded upon in the future.
I'm talking about water bottles and jerry cans.

The jerrycan debate has been brought up a lot, and unlike the backpack idea for inventory I feel as if an overhaul of waterbottles and jerrycans would be an easier thing to accomplish. 

[nicko]

yeh i agree first it was the food cook update, so maybe next  we need an water overhaul? do they get rid of those plastic bottles? if so then we need water containers sizes of all sorts. Current botles or army type ones (l litre) ,  office 20 litre plastic ones, to larger vessels such as drum, 200 litres or even water tanks 1000 +. Another alternative is craftable water bags made from Gut/leather that would be cool!

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, nicko said:

yeh i agree first it was the food cook update, so maybe next  we need an water overhaul? do they get rid of those plastic bottles? if so then we need water containers sizes of all sorts. Current botles or army type ones (l litre) ,  office 20 litre plastic ones, to larger vessels such as drum, 200 litres or even water tanks 1000 +. Another alternative is craftable water bags made for Gut/leather that would be cool!

LOL. I'm sorry.

[nicko]

lol at what? water bag would be great addition. You younger folk probably never seen a water bag?

 

[Niajall]

10 minutes ago, nicko said:

Current botles or army type ones (l litre) ,  office 20 litre plastic ones, to larger vessels such as drum, 200 litres or even water tanks 1000 +

How are you going to move something weighing pretty much a ton? (as 1 L is 1 KG) I feel like those would be stationary and unless "conveniently" placed would serve no more of a purpose than a toilet. However the craftable carry bag sounds good, but upto 2 L otherwise its ovverkill.

 

[nicko]

6 minutes ago, Niajall said:

How are you going to move something weighing pretty much a ton? (as 1 L is 1 KG) I feel like those would be stationary and unless "conveniently" placed would serve no more of a purpose than a toilet.

well yes I thought it common sense anything heavy would be like a permit storage vessel however an empty plastic 20 litre container you could easily carry elsewhere. as that would weigh stuff all.

[nicko]

im just trying to think how water overhaul could be more life like / real.

[EricTheGreat12]

4 minutes ago, Niajall said:

How are you going to move something weighing pretty much a ton? (as 1 L is 1 KG) I feel like those would be stationary and unless "conveniently" placed would serve no more of a purpose than a toilet.

Good point. Maybe it would be best to actually keep waterbottles with certain carrying limits, and there to be large jugs placed in a few locations across various maps. 

[Niajall]

But then they become too conveniently placed, making turtling the done thing, i like the idea of expanding the crafting table, it need fleshing out and seeing how the cooking is now, making those recycled cans and pots worth taking, i think a water bag would fit in nicely, maybe a rabbit one at 1 L, deer and/or moose one at 2-3 L, but static water storage is going make you have to turtle or start a fire at least once a day just to get water.

[EricTheGreat12]

1 minute ago, Niajall said:

 but static water storage is going make you have to turtle or start a fire at least once a day just to get water.

But this is exactly how the game is played now, except that you get 6-7 litres one day so that you could enough water to last you a couple of days

[nicko]

not sure why your saying static water? im talking about water storage? but yeah to me craftable water bags would be cool and maybe a few larger containers found in offices, 20 litre plastic ones. that way you could store some water as an optional method.

Either way it might make the game harder but more interesting seeing water is main thing for survival.

I just find it a bit unreal how we can magically boil some water and it arrives in brand new plastic bottles!

Is there a non plastic alternative??

[EricTheGreat12]

10 minutes ago, nicko said:

 

Is there a non plastic alternative??

Jerry cans 

[nicko]

yeh they would work as long as they are not contaminated with fuel.

they also weigh a lot more so that was why I suggested the 20 litre plastic bottle. When empty heaps less weight to carry.

[Niajall]

20 minutes ago, nicko said:

not sure why your saying static water? im talking about water storage?

Im not saying you weren't, but water storage of that size would be static, you would not be able to move it, if they were like the toilets i.e, you come and go as you please and take some from it, i am all for that, but storing water yourself, i would prefer to have the odd craftable container that has a max capacity of 3 L that you can carry around or leave out in the snow like with meat, because like you said, why do plastic bottles spawn from the void to help you contain that most precious of liquads.

[Cr41g]

3 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Yup, these forums lead a life in the shadows of Twitter and Reddit. But well, there is little to no toxic waste here, and a high percentage of illuminated interlopists come here to share their wisdom. So it's my preferred place.

What a shame that it's this way... I don't have or go to either of the above being the misanthrope that I am...

THIS forum and the great people I have read and learned from here are my only source of info... I am here almost daily

[EricTheGreat12]

32 minutes ago, Cr41g said:

What a shame that it's this way... I don't have or go to either of the above being the misanthrope that I am...

THIS forum and the great people I have read and learned from here are my only source of info... I am here almost daily

Because all the information is coming from Raph’s personal Twitter, people don’t feel the need to come here to the official forums. It’s really unfortunate that they don’t care about their own official forums, and there isn’t any community activity that encourages people to come here. 

 

Nonetheless, I prefer these forums to Reddit and Steam as the people here tend to be more reasonable and friendly. 

[Guest Jeffery Simpson]

That's good feedback. We were wanting to get something out before the end of Friday and the immediacy of Twitter clearly made that possible. However going forward when we do these we'll do our best to ensure that the forums have their say. In our view the forums are our primary home for interactions with players.

In terms of the answers, well we're glad you're debating them here. Thanks for starting this off @EricTheGreat12!

[Ruruwawa]

#1 was a slightly different question than I'd hoped to hear answered.    I don't want my moose satchel to do double duty as ad hoc storage and I don't care about somehow wearing multiple packs at once.   But I do want the option to create a new storage container.  I don't think we need something as complex as moving an existing container.   I'd be fine with crafting a new, primitive container, in situ, like we do for a snow shelter.   Say it's a basket, and the materials required are green saplings plus a deer hide.  And like a snow shelter I can tear it down later to clear the spot and get back some of the mats.

I like to live in caves (more than ever now that we have HRV) so I'd gladly earmark some crafting resources to add some storage to my favorite shelter.

[Blinkin]

Being able to craft a water bag would indeed be interesting.
I wonder how hard the game logic is to implement such a thing.

Also the possibility to refill static water containers would be interesting.
Great idea's!

[Carbon]

 Well, the thread seems to have veered in a different direction, but my thoughts on the Milton Mailbag.

 The questions asked were low-balls, none of which I felt was a pressing issue nor a question that really mattered, from an 'intensity' point of view. Yes, they are legit questions, but hardly the most important (or contentious) nor required any significant detail in the answer. I felt that it was a way of filtering discussion and gives the impression that the devs are actively paying attention while managing to avoid any meaty discussion.

 I understand that wading through the forums might be a full-time job and there needs to be a method of separating wheat from chaff, but this method smacks of an echo-chamber where interactive discussions will be limited to what the devs want to talk about and even then, only closed responses. We're free to talk among ourselves about anything we wish, but only particular types of questions will get a direct response and none will be truly interactive. Which is fine, but let's not feign anything different. That we expect HL to be hands-on with the community is odd at this point - they are no longer a little start up - but then why even try to be that way? Let everyone know that things have scaled up significantly since 2015 and the team no longer has the time to engage directly. Show you are listening with updates and patches...that's enough for me anyhow. But this heavily moderated and filtered Q&A is a bit silly and is something I don't need to see. I'm an adult who has empathy, insight and patience enough to allow you to work without the need to hold my hand.

 

[EricTheGreat12]

6 minutes ago, Carbon said:

 The questions asked were low-balls, none of which I felt was a pressing issue nor a question that really mattered, from an 'intensity' point of view. Yes, they are legit questions, but hardly the most important (or contentious) nor required any significant detail in the answer. I felt that it was a way of filtering discussion and gives the impression that the devs are actively paying attention while managing to avoid any meaty discussion.

 I understand that wading through the forums might be a full-time job and there needs to be a method of separating wheat from chaff, but this method smacks of an echo-chamber where interactive discussions will be limited to what the devs want to talk about and even then, only closed responses. We're free to talk among ourselves about anything we wish, but only particular types of questions will get a direct response and none will be truly interactive. Which is fine, but let's not feign anything different. That we expect HL to be hands-on with the community is odd at this point - they are no longer a little start up - but then why even try to be that way? Let everyone know that things have scaled up significantly since 2015 and the team no longer has the time to engage directly. Show you are listening with updates and patches...that's enough for me anyhow. But this heavily moderated and filtered Q&A is a bit silly and is something I don't need to see. I'm an adult who has empathy, insight and patience enough to allow you to work without the need to hold my hand.

 

I kind of agree with you (to a certain degree): I think that getting more information on the Bear Spear, when we only got an image of it in the dev diary, helps us better understand what will be in the game in the future. However, questions like "When will Episode 3 release" are pointless and annoying, and its not the devs fault that some people are so ignorant of what is going on in the game's development.

 

The problem is that Hinterland, as a studio, does not release new information as often as they should and interaction with the members of their main forum is weak. If you want any juicy information on what's going on in the game's development you have to look at Raph's personal twitter feed, when instead you should be following what the official Long Dark page is saying. There is no incentive for players to participate here because there are no community activities brought forward by the team at Hinterland, and simply having a Halloween event once every year doesn't change anything. However, looking at some of the questions that the community has (for example, in regards to Episode 3 or multiplayer), then you realize that the members of the team are being asked the same ridiculous and obvious questions nearly every time.

 

I do feel that Hinterland has done a very poor job with its community and Raph shouldn't be the source of all information, when instead it is HINTERLAND that should be giving their players the information on future content. The problem with this Q&A is that Raph decided to take all his questions from Twitter and ignored his main community, so again this forum is being thrown in the dirt. Nonetheless, while some questions are important and can help us better understand what's going on, the community should stop asking Hinterland ridiculous pointless questions that have been answered before, and Hinterland shouldn't waste their time answering those kinds of questions.