Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag

[Moll]

Any use for car batteries in the near future?

[MarrowStone]

How has the new mapmaking technique been treating you guys? 

[Mr. TwoPump]

In the mines, when you see through the gate door you can see a small little background area, so I was wondering if you would do this for all of the windows on buildings and such, allowing to know how dark it is and what weather it is without going outside, and would be pretty nifty

[melcantspell]

I noticed that several regions are naturally rich in certain resources. This pushes me to travel to specific regions, which is one of the mechanisms that keeps the game interesting. 

Is the quantity of resources the foundation or the consequence of region design?

[Cairngormless]

I enjoyed the notes left behind, particularly in 'following' a group of survivors.  But as the long dark is a game meant to be replayed, they lose interest.  Would you consider adding different 'sets' of these to make multiple playthroughs more interesting?  And it could be a good way to involve the community (as there's lots of good stuff already out there).  Thanks

[Faithful Cartographer]

Hi Raph! Happy Birthday, Milton Mailbag!

What are your impressions of E3?

[Themadlad94]

When I was playing in Desolation Point, I was hunting rabbits with the revolver. I reloaded my revolver(I only shot 1, so their was 5 rounds left)and noticed that the round I shot was gone, as if it disappeared. A revolver should hold the spent round until the user manually removes it, as it has no way of ejecting it itself. Is their anyway that this could get fixed?

[ThePancakeLady]

With official support and security updates being stopped by Microsoft for Windows 7 coming in 6 months... I am curious if there is any talk in the industry about whether to continue making new games that support the OS or not. And if Hinterland has plans to support the OS in any new games you may have on the table? I like Windows 7. I don't want to upgrade to Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, until I absolutely MUST (all of my software stops working with Windows 7, for example). That being said, if the next game from Hinterland does not support Windows 7, that may be a MUST upgrade  for me. (Yes, I do really mean that...). I know what the talk is currently in the more mundane SW dev community I am still a part of, but since I am not a game dev, I am honestly curious if there are concerns in the games industry, since so many games are played online through a browser or online client, where security is a greater concern than it is for offline applications.

Yes, yes. I will have to get or buy a new rig, someday. Just trying to decide when that "someday" will be. And what OS I may switch to, to avoid the Bloat Monster that Windows 10 is.

[Admin]

As per @Raphael van Lierop 's note at the end of the latest Milton Mailbag let's try to keep these questions positive.

Assume good faith on our part, that we're doing our best to make The Long Dark as good as we can and avoid using this Q&A as a chance to try to score some kind of rhetorical point or start an argument with us.

For the most part, everyone has been good on this, but if every week there are one or two people it does make this from something enjoyable to do with the community to a burden.

Most studios would avoid having such a regular feature like this and we'd definitely like to keep this going. So please consider how you're wording things and do your best to keep things constructive.

Thanks to everyone who's been providing the great questions so far and we hope that you're getting valuable insights out of these regular Milton Mailbags.

[ajb1978]

2 hours ago, Themadlad94 said:

When I was playing in Desolation Point, I was hunting rabbits with the revolver. I reloaded my revolver(I only shot 1, so their was 5 rounds left)and noticed that the round I shot was gone, as if it disappeared. A revolver should hold the spent round until the user manually removes it, as it has no way of ejecting it itself. Is their anyway that this could get fixed?

I pointed this out in another thread, but your character removes the spent casings off camera.  If you were to have reloaded your revolver immediately without putting it away, you would have seen that the cylinder was full.  The character would lower the revolver off screen, and when it returns, the spent casing is removed.  They then load a fresh round into the cylinder.

If however you fire your revolver, holster it, then bring it out again, the cylinder will show one round missing, as it is implied your character has removed the empty casing already.

[winterstorm]

The question about having to use a dose of painkillers per injury got me to thinking, and I don't think I've seen this asked (though I may have missed it). The topic of addiction is touched upon in story mode, and I was wondering if it might be something you'd consider implementing into the player experience at some point.

To me, currently, the painkillers as a panacea takes away some of the fear of injury in the game; as long as I'm judicious about my fatigue and footing, sprains are rare, painkillers weigh next to nothing to carry, tend to be plentiful enough to stockpile, and instantly heal the injury. Even the threat of wolves is lessened to worrying more about clothing being ruined.

I think it could be interesting to see painkillers used as a temporary fix (you still have to rest and heal the injury, but in the mean time, the pain returns after, say, six hours), or as one that must be weighed against other options (rest or natural remedies) because there's a chance for tolerance or addiction if you rely too heavily on them. I can also see where this might become tedious for management though to some players, so I understand if it's been considered and decided against. 

I appreciate the time and thought you put into community interactions and especially to answering player questions. Thanks so much.

[Faithful Cartographer]

Hi, Raph! You this question no one asked. =)

How do you, as a developer, treat people who blatantly do not buy The Long Dark, and use pirated versions? If that I play on the license in Steam from the beginning =)

[Skelegutplays]

How long are workdays at hinterland?

[SpanishMoss]

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.

[Admin]

1 hour ago, SpanishMoss said:

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.

This is not a question. 

Please put feature requests in the Wish List forum. Future posts like these will likely be removed. 

[thepatsbro]

I was just wondering if there currently is, or if there will be, a way to transfer progress from one platform to another? For example, from xbox to pc?

[PlayerPawn]

You've talked about game streaming in the past and it seems your stance has been one of wait and see.  With the reveal of Stadia and your attendance at E3 this year, I was wondering if your perception has changed on the matter.  Follow up question: What are your thoughts on owning a game digitally vs. owning a physical copy?

Edited June 25, 2019 by PlayerPawn
spelling

[Wilderwalker]

Hey Raph!

I was curious, does the "Geomagnetic Event"  take place on the night of September 5th 2022?

My reasoning: Grey Mother Says that Milton needed help "ten years ago. During the collapse" and a note by the front door of the Milton Credit Union states that it was forced to close due to "economic realities" in September 2012. Also, a note in the Mountaineer's Hut states that the Grizzly Airliner crashed (obviously because of the Aurora) during the night of September 5th.

[hozz1235]

• Do you know how many countries TLD has been bought in?  (Not sure if Steam tracks those kinds of statistics).
• I've seen on the Steam page there are some "language translation" add-ons.  I've never really looked into them but did you guys port TLD for any language besides English?

[Garden Gnome]

Internally — before Wintermute was released in 2017 — has the starting point of Wintermute always intended to be Milton, or did that change over time? Thanks.

 

(edit to clarify)

Edited June 28, 2019 by Garden Gnome

[SpanishMoss]

Why when you eat pre-packaged food,  like beef jerky, chocolate bars ect, why do you not get an empty package?

[LilWolf]

First of all, I just read the new dev diary and really looks promising.  

And I have a question about it: Along with Episode 3, will be released a DLC with music for this Episode as Volume Two, as it happened with Episode 1 & 2 (Music for The Long Dark -- Volume One) ? I enjoy listening to these soundtracks not only when I play the game and don't know if there're some plans about it or maybe in the future. Thank you.

[Azdrawee]

When you thought about the name for The Long Dark, what other ideas did you have? If you could rename the game today, would you choose a different name? What would it be?

[StrayCat]

Hello Raphael,

In the game, wolves' behaviour is either fully passive (pilgrim - except if attacked) or fully aggressive (except some rare case when wolves run out of fear). I know well of the context and lore of TLD, that the aurora has made them somewhat crazy. But in terms of gameplay, is there a specific reason why you didn't prefer a more progressive approach, with a fleeing percentage chance depending on the game's difficulty (20/80, 50/50, 80/20, and so on) ? This would have added some unpredictability and therefore improve replayability. Have a nice day !

Edited July 1, 2019 by StrayCat

[jerry486]

Hi Raph.

With all of the nice items available around various locations, would you consider making it possible to pick up toys / various objects? Some people (including me) would love to collect these trophies (of sort) and put them on display in my base(s)?