Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag

[Ape88]

Hello again, Raph!

The images of the new wolves give me the chills just thinking about dealing with them. Just knowing they are coming eventually makes me wonder about a couple of other things. Will any other animals and/or food sources be added? I feel like the threats are beginning to pile up a lot to the point of being unbalanced! Also, when they (the new wolves) are added to the game will they be present in all regions? Will they be a bit more like the moose where they spawn more rarely like the bears and other groups of wolves where their presence is pretty much an everyday thing when they do spawn?

 

[Guest]

Hi! I have two questions.

1. Why did you remove the original skill book cover designs? Didn't match up with the overall art style of the game?
2. Do you ever feel creative blocks? If so, how do you get over them? 

[Admin]

Be sure that your questions are actual questions and not Wish List items. We have a separate sub-forum where those can be placed.

Posts that are essentially “Can you add X” may be moved to the Wish List sub-forum.

[frickoffanddie]

Did you ever consider delivering the WINTERMUTE story through other mediums such as cinema or literature? Have you ever felt like you're "confined" by using a video game to convey it?

Edited July 5, 2019 by frickoffanddie

[mateosega]

The character of Jeremiah is based on the movie Jeremiah Johnson, both share a name, they were soldiers and hunters, besides that in the film he was deserted from the war (and it is speculated that Jeremiah was military), so the roles we had What to burn before I know evidence of your desertion. Could you confirm this theory please? ☺️

[Sceh]

Hey Raph,

you kindly answered one of my questions in a previous Mailbag: will we have to move all our stuff out of PV when Episode 3 launches to keep it safe, like we had to do with MT, ML etc for Redux. Your answer basically was "we hope to find a way around this but if we can't you'll get a heads-up".

After the last dev diary I thought "let's actually prep for worst case" and trecked over to the PV farmhouse where I keep all my goodies from that region, to sort through everything and plan for a couple of lenghty hauling sessions.

Then standing in the middle of my buttload of loot it hit me: wouldn't it be enough if I just picked everything up and had it on my person? I'd be severely over-encumbered, but with a little planning I could make it so that I wouldn't have to move from the spot until after the update. Is that a feasible alternative to schlepping everything out into the mine tunnels?

Now, I do realise that it would look hilarious, this hulking bearded man just standong there with about a tonne of equipment strapped to him every which way, but I think I would prefer that to spending countless hours puffing and wheezing my way back and forth through that insane expanse that is PV risking sprains and whatnot.

[GothSkunk]

In Mailbag 37 a question was brought up around the possibility of adding chem addiction as a potential risk. It's reminded me of something I've wanted to ask.

 

Steadfast Ranger has now introduced a pain mechanic. I feel as though Hinterland has done an amazing job incorporating it into the game, with the visual distortion effects as well as the audio effects. Very much like how the game distorts when a player's condition falls 'in the red.' But given both of these mechanics and the way they're utilized, why hasn't a similar effect been made for when the player's fatigue meter drains?

 

Presently, as the fatigue meter drains below 50%, the only immediately noticeable thing that changes is that our max carrying capacity gradually drops over time to 50% of normal once fully drained. That doesn't seem punishing enough. Sure, an empty fatigue meter has other consequences that aren't immediately apparent, like the inability to sprint, climb, or struggle against wolves effectively, but I was hoping that a fatigue meter in the red would have similar effects to that of condition being in the red, with the player stumbling around and nodding off. If the fatigue meter fully drained, the player should collapse on the spot and sleep. After all, the Emergency Stim's tooltip suggests that's what's supposed to happen. "Provides a short burst of energy, then you'll collapse from exhaustion."

 

Come to think of it, if you're feeling generous, maybe you could answer a second question: Why did you go the route of giving the player the option of choosing to sleep X hours, instead of telling them that, when they go to sleep, they will stay asleep for X hours relative to their current level of fatigue, with the option of waking up when the sun rises? No one I know is capable of sleeping a set amount of time and waking themselves up. At least, not without some sort of loud timer.

[Themadlad94]

Kinda similar to the question about why the arrows are called simple arrows and not just arrows, but will we ever expect more bears? The reason I say this is because the current bear pelt is called the black bear pelt, and not just bear pelt. So could we expect other bears with different pelts?

[UTC-10]

Question: Are there any plans to upgrade TLD to 64-bit? 

Windows 10 indicates TLD is a 32-bit program. My windows 10 is the 64-bit version. I realize that would likely be a substantial effort but to paraphrase the bounty hunter in The Outlaw Josey Wales, "I had to ask".   

 

 

[Rainvax]

Hey Raph and Hinterland! I want to ask a couple of questions.

1) Are you going to modify the fuel management system in the game, for example, fuel from unnecessary lanterns can be drained into canisters, but you cannot get fuel until the player finds a tank for it?

2) In the future, will moose-like animals be added that seem harmless, but are actually very dangerous?

By the way, in the last issue of Milton Mailbag, you touched on the topic of piracy, and I want to confess that I originally also played an unofficial copy of your game, but after I realized that it was extremely interesting, I decided to buy it on Steam to thank you, Hinterland, for such a great game. Thank you so much and good luck in the future!

[stratvox]

10 hours ago, UTC-10 said:

Question: Are there any plans to upgrade TLD to 64-bit? 

Windows 10 indicates TLD is a 32-bit program. My windows 10 is the 64-bit version. I realize that would likely be a substantial effort but to paraphrase the bounty hunter in The Outlaw Josey Wales, "I had to ask".   

That's interesting. I'm running it under linux and it's definitely an x86_64 executable. There are two executables that ship with the linux version of the game. Here's their readelf output showing the file header info:

jack@mimas:~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/TheLongDark$ readelf -h tld.x86
ELF Header:
  Magic:   7f 45 4c 46 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
  Class:                             ELF32
  Data:                              2's complement, little endian
  Version:                           1 (current)
  OS/ABI:                            UNIX - System V
  ABI Version:                       0
  Type:                              EXEC (Executable file)
  Machine:                           Intel 80386
  Version:                           0x1
  Entry point address:               0x808bce0
  Start of program headers:          52 (bytes into file)
  Start of section headers:          26739372 (bytes into file)
  Flags:                             0x0
  Size of this header:               52 (bytes)
  Size of program headers:           32 (bytes)
  Number of program headers:         9
  Size of section headers:           40 (bytes)
  Number of section headers:         30
  Section header string table index: 29
jack@mimas:~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/TheLongDark$ readelf -h tld.x86_64 
ELF Header:
  Magic:   7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
  Class:                             ELF64
  Data:                              2's complement, little endian
  Version:                           1 (current)
  OS/ABI:                            UNIX - System V
  ABI Version:                       0
  Type:                              EXEC (Executable file)
  Machine:                           Advanced Micro Devices X86-64
  Version:                           0x1
  Entry point address:               0x45a578
  Start of program headers:          64 (bytes into file)
  Start of section headers:          27125040 (bytes into file)
  Flags:                             0x0
  Size of this header:               64 (bytes)
  Size of program headers:           56 (bytes)
  Number of program headers:         9
  Size of section headers:           64 (bytes)
  Number of section headers:         30
  Section header string table index: 29
jack@mimas:~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/TheLongDark$

 That second program (which is the one that is running when I'm playing the game: tld.x86_64) is definitely a 64 bit program. Take a look in particular at the "Class:" and "Machine:" lines.

Maybe you're just launching the wrong executable when you start the game? AFAIK Steam should pick the arch-appropriate program when you run it; it definitely does for me when I do fire this game up (and other Unity games like KSP) under Windows. Are you launching from a desktop icon? If so, check which executable you have it pointed at.

Either way, there's no question that TLD has a 64 bit executable that ships with it, so the problem is almost certainly within your system.

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by stratvox

[Admin]

While we appreciate the instinct to help answer the questions asked here let's try to minimize non-question posting.  We want to keep the forum easy to quickly read through and pick out the best questions.

Thanks.

[Skelegutplays]

Was gray mother blind from birth? If not than what made her blind?

[Faithful Cartographer]

Hey, Raph!

What kind of survival game do you think is the main competitor of The Long Dark? It seems to me that this simply does not exist...

[ajb1978]

Each time I play through Wintermute I catch one new detail I missed previously.  This time around it's that Methuselah is wearing a hoodie with what appears to be a gold Omega symbol on it.  So, assuming that is an Omega, is there anything you can reveal about that?

Thanks as always for taking the time to do these Q&A sessions!

[SpanishMoss]

I understand that you are hesitant to give dates for the upcoming ep3 update, but I think I speak for everyone here, can we at least get an estimate? Not like a estimate that is close, but an overestimate, so it gives you time to finish all that needs to be finished, but isn’t a demanding timeline. Think of it as a maximum finish date. The date doesn’t need to be just one day, it could be a week or even a general part of a month! We are all excited to see ep3 come out, so I hope you can do this little service to us. (By the way) thanks for the hints in the dev diary!

-SpanishMoss 

[lizmac21]

could you make it an option to read a skilled books in the bed/sleeping bag? so i can get the warmth bounce. its kinda like passing time.

 

thanks Elizabeth

[ShortDark]

Any thoughts on buffing some of the current items? For instance, the bunny hat isn’t that much on an upgrade over the toque, considering you have to craft it and it takes guts and pelts to maintain. Same with the moose cloak. It’s a tough craft, plus not really that much, if any, of an upgrade over the bear coat, considering it requires moose hides and isn’t nearly as warm. Most people I’ve seen go with two bear jackets rather than bothering with the cloak. 

 

Keep up up the good work on my favorite game! ❤️

[thepatsbro]

i was wondering how big the long dark world is, in terms of km? and maybe how much it will be after the new region you mentioned coming hopefully soon. 

[selachias]

I'm pretty new to steam and gaming in general, so this might be a silly question, but... In getting the achievements for The Long Dark on steam, do they all need to happen in a single survival mode playthrough? For example, I wanted to get the Pacifist achievement but I did some fishing on Mystery Lake. Can I still get the Pacifist achievement on a different survival mode save? Also, thank you for making such an incredibly challenging and enjoyable game. I love every minute of playing it.

[Pixel]

1. What computer games have you really loved the most and why (from the 70s up to now)?

2. What kind of computer game (other than "The Long Dark") would you like to create?

3. What is your computer game of your dreams that has not been created yet?

Edited July 17, 2019 by Pixel

[CalNieDaGtarGuy]

Hey Raphael, what’s your alma mater? 

[slvrsrfr]

I'm curious about the process of steam cards and achievements. I generally have very little luck getting information about it. Was it tedious? Was it labor intensive? Did someone spend a great deal of time preparing it? Was it a straight-forward process with steam? Was the profile background as simple as drag and drop, and assign rarity? Did you get to choose how many cards? What was the max? Could you have different or unusual types of cards? What other items could be made available? Do you assign the gem values to objects? Does this process cost the company money? Is there opportunity to utilize it different ways than intended? Can you grant unique badges to people? How many hidden achievements can there be? Or normal ones for that matter...Did you know that you get cards drops for not actually entering the game? Are you planning to change the items that are in use now? Expand it? Do you have any links to information? Can we have a :twig:?

Edited July 18, 2019 by slvrsrfr

[Skelegutplays]

On 7/16/2019 at 10:26 PM, selachias said:

I'm pretty new to steam and gaming in general, so this might be a silly question, but... In getting the achievements for The Long Dark on steam, do they all need to happen in a single survival mode playthrough? For example, I wanted to get the Pacifist achievement but I did some fishing on Mystery Lake. Can I still get the Pacifist achievement on a different survival mode save? Also, thank you for making such an incredibly challenging and enjoyable game. I love every minute of playing it.

I know i probably should not answer this in this thread. But yes you can as long as you do it in a seperate save.

Edited July 18, 2019 by Skelegutplays

[Bernesedog]

Will there ever be a mechanic that stops you from getting shocked/burnt when stepping on live wires when you’re wearing boots or shoes that have rubber soles or otherwise non conducive materials? Also I’ve noticed that you get shocked when stepping on the insulation aswell which I find odd. I know it’s meant to be a hazard of the aurora but any reasoning on your part is fine by me. Also perhaps the addition of a new sleeping bag that’s in between a bearskin bedroll and a standard bedroll? Or maybe even slightly better than a bearskin bedroll and lighter but very rare like Mukluks.