Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag

[Skelegutplays]

Why are the challenges rated 1 to 5 hatchets in difficulty but there are no challenges with a difficulty of 1 or 2 hatchets? 

Also why are there no steam achievements for the challenges?

[neboblizko]

On 6/7/2019 at 9:40 PM, FrozenCorpse said:

While you're waiting for a response to your specific questions, you can find several previous responses on these two topics  (food / cooking and backpacks) here in the index:

Thanks for advice!  I show all topic Mailbag related with c crafting clothing, but not find answer on question about that in survival mode, not have on start knowledge about as crafting clothings  and medical tea, but finding their manufacturing recipes during survial. Think this will complicate game and will force gamers more explore, and collide with dangers. Same when gamers for example find recipe on crafting bear sleeping bag. hi say WOW! Now i may make sleeping bag, COOL! Atmospheric!

[Torqen]

Whats up with having to use 2 x to heal each sprained limb? Instead of just using 2x to heal all? And why is it that only my arms get sprained while walking in elevated terrain? Would it not be more sensible if the sprain would occur in the legs/ankles? 

[PlayerPawn]

Over the last few years, a spotlight is ever growing on the practices by big triple A companies around, among other things, crunch time.  As a studio that is more independent, what are your views on crunch and mandatory overtime to meet a deadline?

[Vagabond]

Hi,

I've been reading William Gibson's Neuromancer recently, and couldn't help wondering if there was any connection between the title of your game's storymode- 'WINTERMUTE' - and his character with the same name. On the surface, it's hard to correlate the wilderness setting of The Long Dark with the neon lights of Chiba City or the themes that define the wider cyberpunk genre, but the more I thought about the two settings, the more I realised that the two share more in common than I initially thought.
For instance, both worlds explore our relationship with technology, albeit in different ways. For me, The Long Dark is a tale of how our over-reliance on modern devices and infrastructure, even at the most basic level, cripples us in the wake of catastrophe. Gibson's novel seems to explore themes of identity, humanity and the extent to which technology can both bring people together and tear them apart.
I was surprised and amused to learn that Gibson is an American-Canadian, and washed up in Toronto in an effort to avoid the drafting in the 1960's. As I recall, 'Draft Dodger's Cabin' is a location in Pleasant Valley, so I was wondering if there was possibly a link there?
Regardless, I had a lot of fun reading up about his life, and drawing connections with one of my favourite games. I'm looking forward to the next installment of the story.
 

[ajb1978]

Seeing as how it's irrelevant now that Redux is released...what were the contents of Jeremiah's Letters, back when that was still a side quest?

Will joked that it was old romantic correspondence letters, but seriously...what was it?  Surely it can't have been anything deeply confidential, or Jeremiah wouldn't have trusted them with some rando that gave him a handful of deer hides he'd ripped off ravaged carcasses.  The curiosity is killing me.

[MikeV]

Hi RAF! I realized survival for survival-it's cool) But maybe You will add to the game another test in the form of limited survival? Say includes something from other tests, for example, to reach a certain point, to take out rescuers or there is electronics and the hero leaves himself? Or, hold out many days, before the arrival of rescuers, which Mackenzie called on the radio? That would be cool.) One more question. Surely everyone is interested in at least the approximate time of the release of the next episode, could you lift the veil of secrecy?:)

Edited June 11, 2019 by MikeV

[Snowtippedwolf]

Hey, guess it's my first time asking here. Hope all is well with the team.

I guess I'll start with the schmoozing first. Thanks for all the hard work creating, in my opinion, the greatest survival game out there right now. I'm stoked you guys keep working on refining the game. I look forward to each and every update. 

Now on to my question. As with everything in Survival mode, it's about a mixture of game balance and realism, and your goal of surviving for survival's sake. One thing that currently strikes me as 'missing' from this mode is, in mine and many other's opinions is the lack of a 'late game.' (Sorry if this has been addressed before, I searched and did not find anything addressing my specific concern.)

For a brief example, we have the early game where you have nothing and are struggling to make it by day by day, and you have the mid-game where you've collected all the tools and clothing necessary and are fully self-sustainable, or have the means to craft or hunt or fish or gather whatever it may be that you need to continue surviving. But there's no late game. Yes, the temperature decays globally to a certain point, and decay rates are a continual march to death, but the path to that end is in the thousands of days. For as long as I've been playing and as long as I've been interacting with the community on Steam and elsewhere, I've yet to see a meaningful challenge later on in the game. The challenge early on is collecting gear just to make it a few more hours. The challenge in the mid game is getting used to managing your time and resources carefully to survive off of what is available in the world now that the processed goods are running out. But there's no further challenge from that, nothing else that changes or tips the balance in any way that would create an immersive or meaningful challenge to continue to engage players in risk/reward and survival aspects. 

Obviously, we all have our own ideas of what would begin to create a meaningful, balanced, and immersive late game challenge or set of changes to the world to create more variability and risk, but I wanted to hear from you on your thoughts on the subject. Do you currently feel across all stock survival modes that the later portions of a run (100-200 days and beyond) are well balanced and MEANINGFULLY challenging? This may be anecdotal, but I know a lot of people who finish or end a run after getting self-sustainable because that's the 'engaging' or 'immersive' part of the run, and there's no more fun to be had after that as it's too easy (regardless of experience mode.) Do you have any thoughts on changing up how the world handles having the player in it, things that could be adjusted and tuned to start to turn those longer runs more dangerous, more progressively difficult, to a point it's still possible to survive but not skating on thick ice with ease? Do you currently feel that there is no point to a later game challenge or think that it is challenging enough from self-sustainability forward?

If you do think that more work needs to be done there, (it may be too early to ask,) do you or the team have any ideas and mechanic introductions or re-tuning in mind to pursue towards achieving a more equally balanced gameplay that's engaging and immersive and 'surviving for the sake of surviving' at all points in a run?

Thanks for all consideration, and sorry for the wall of text. Cheers Raph!

-Lonelywolf

[ShatteredCiv]

Are you guys going to fix the lunar cycles? For a game that touts itself on being mostly realistic, at least environmentally, it's always driven me mad to see the waxing half moon rising at sunset! The moon doesn't work like that. That particular phase of the moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. Each phase rises and sets at very specific times. Full moon? Rises at 6pm and sets at 6am. A waning half moon? Rises at 12am and sets 12pm; waxing, see above (12pm to 12am). It's the reason you can see the moon in the daylit sky, like, all the time (if you know where to look)! Just wondering...

[Skelegutplays]

Is it intentional to be so that you can take your arrow back from a live animal? I managed to do that on a fleeing wolf today!

 

[hozz1235]

4DON:  Can we expect one this year?

[CalNieDaGtarGuy]

Regarding the Hinterland Store... Are you guys planning on bringing back the Wetterling's hatchet? Or what about the Region posters? I always wanted one of those...

[ibloud]

Have you thought about approaching #Netflix for an interactive episode based off of some of the best player tales?

Would you consider building this on #SpatialOS so it can become multiplayer?

 

[SpanishMoss]

First question, Would you consider sending the game to YouTubers (like gtlive) so you can increase revenue and get the word out?

 

Second, why don’t you need a container to collect water(via melting snow/toilets)? Should you plan to add a feature like this?

 

Third, I think you should add a walking stick. It can be crafted from 2 cured maple saplings and a cured gut. Its passive ability is to decrease the risk of sprains. But it could be upgraded to have a spike on the end for defense against wolfs OR it could have a torch on the top that can be lit with a match ect. to create light. An improvised version can be crafted from 6 sticks an 6 cloth using a sewing kit or fishing tackle. Of course it would weigh more and have less durability. 

 

You guys are doing a great job! 

 

-SpanishMoss

[Themadlad94]

A few mailbags back, you said we would be getting a new region after the update after steadfast ranger. I don’t like to be the one to ask, but can you give us any hints on the new region?

[Annette]

Do you plan to add more feats to survival mode ?

Edited June 16, 2019 by Admin
Deleted extra spacing.

[frickoffanddie]

Some of the themes of this game are the reawakening of humanity's primal nature, the realization of how dependent we have become on fallible, modern technology such as cell phones and cars, and how we'll adapt to their absence or failure (the transition from manmade to natural).

My question is: Will we ever see these themes reflected in the personalities of our survival mode character?

It's unfitting to see my 800 day character dressed in bear furs looking like death warmed over, yet still complaining nonchalantly about his mouth being dry or wondering if he can eat trees. Even after surviving hundreds of blizzards, living in a cave, covering himself in rotting animal skins and culling legions of hostile wildlife, he's still the same old gleefully cautious everyman that he was on the first day.

Maybe he's afraid of turning into Jeremiah. In that case, keep being you, Mackenzie.

Edited June 15, 2019 by frickoffanddie

[TheUnknown]

Hey Guys.

2 questions for ya 1 ties into the other.

1. Was there anything you added/made that you wanted in the game but after added it into the testing phase you realized it doesnt fit right or just doesnt seem right for what you are aiming for?

2. The things that dont fit right or seem right for what you are aiming for has their been any thought after removing them like making them into a mini project or possiblely become games themselves in the future?

[Jendo]

Have you ever thought about adding, er... "toilet" mechanics?

[Pan Pastwa]

Hello!

What is your vision of Hinterland in 5 years from now?

[Azdrawee]

Clothing items (and maybe some other items as well, I'm not sure) change their appearance based on their condition. Have you ever considered adding this feature to more items? I think that it would be nice to see the condition of food items for example, because as it currently is, you have to wait a few seconds before seeing if the food item is safe to eat.

[Admin]

Please don’t try to use formatting tricks to draw attention to your question. 

 

[punklor]

Hello everyone. I have the following question: will you still do some kind of game / DLC in this universe? Will we see any other project in the universe of The Long Dark?

[EfoDom]

I'm not sure if this has been asked before but have you ever thought about adding real winter constellations to the game? Right now in the game the night sky is just speckled with stars and there are some 4 bright ones making a square (the little dipper I guess?) and something that looks like a galaxy. Adding actual constellations would greatly improve navigation at night. I'm sure there are a lot more important things to add to the game but I think many players would like this addition.

[jkripper]

I notice that I often scare wolves, but then they stop running away, turn around and come back to eat my face.  What is the reason for their behavior?