Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag

[Skelegutplays]

What animal is this trophy in the camp office from?

[MueckE]

In the Dev Diary - of November 2018 you said, that episode 3 will not be released in December because you wanted to add more contend and need more time to polish this episode. Considering that again more than 8 months have past since then, since episode 3 basically was finished (just missed some polishing), i wonder what happened in the meantime?

 

In that diary you also talked about the growth of the studio and that now there are enough people so that a few of them can work exclusively on the sandbox. How come, with that in mind, in these months “only” Steadfast Ranger has been released?

 

I just wonder why there were so many, good and regular updates in 2015 and 2016, with a small staff, but with the ever growing studio less updates are being released and little actual game development is done (from my consumer perspective).

 

Could you give us some information about what’s going on behind the scenes regarding the points above?

[Rexdawn]

After the Steadfast Ranger update, it was stated that interior lighting would be fixed soon.  I was going to wait until that fix to start playing again but it's been months.

Any update on when the lighting hotfix will go out?

[Serenity]

It seems in a recent update you increased the bunny hitbox a great deal. Now it's larger than the animal and you sometimes don't have to directly hit it. Bunnies now also sit still now and then. What was the idea behind making hunting bunnies that easy? Throwing stones at them wasn't the easiest task and you could fail a lot, but getting bunny skins was already considerably easier then when we had to use snares.

[shane22646]

is there any way we could play one of the older versions? i have been thinking lately i have been taking a break from the long dark well because it doesn't seem to be the long dark i miss the old graphics i guess its just nostalgia but could it be done like the 4Don event or just not possible to do?

[romerabr]

Can we expect a Dev Diary soon? 

[StrayCat]

Hello Raphael,

I was wondering : is there some kind of hidden mecanism, that dynamically adjust difficulty depending on the player's condition ? It may be luck, but I noticed that difficulties hardly pile up. For example, if I get badly mauled by a wolf/bear, usually weather becomes clement during the recovery, even in pleasant valley (no blizzard there, really ?). I could see the interest of doing so : player's death becomes the consequence of his own mistakes, instead of bad luck piling up, lowering rage quits and frustration. But after all, it may only be my imagination, for I have no data to support this theory...

So, does the game secures us in one way or another, or do we really face the wrath of the nature that we ignored, unleashed ? Have a nice day !

[Jendo]

The research books have authors' names on them: who are they? :)

[Themadlad94]

It’s says on your Twitter account that you worked on Farcry 3. That was one of my favorite games of all time. What was it like working with Ubisoft? What did you work on?

[musrass]

Are you planning to improve the hitbox(?) on items when placing them with right-click? Sometimes it can be really annoying to get the "invalid location to place the object" when it seems like a perfectly valid location to place the object.

But as always: thanks for a truly great and engaging game!

[JeremiahJohnson]

Im sitting here sharpening my hatchet and knife in the dark, waiting for the sun to rise when I think to myself "How do my arrowheads stay in perfect condition" haha

What are you thoughts on having to keep arrowheads sharp with the whetstone?

Hope everyone at Hinterland Studios is enjoying these last few weeks of summer!

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Means more than you think to alot of us survivors!

Edited September 5, 2019 by JeremiahJohnson

[Skelegutplays]

Is it possible to shoot animals out of the snow shelter?

[Vinceofpyrenees]

Bonjour Raphaël,

Hello Raphaël,

Do you know the game "Unreal World", developped by two Finnish independent developpers ? What are your thoughts on this game ? Do you think you could enrich your game The Long Dark during 27 years as them, in the form of DLCs for example ?

Aurevoir

Bye

 

Edited September 6, 2019 by Vinceofpyrenees

[GothSkunk]

Good day!

 

I have a couple questions. One about ambient lighting, and one about the utility of a hatchet.

 

   Ambient lighting: I've been playing Long Dark since between Rugged Sentinel and Vigilant Flame. In that time, I've noticed several changes to ambient lighting in indoor locations. Does the game's engine present a challenge when trying to appropriately light certain indoor locations? 

   By my observation both here and on the Steam discussion forums, one particular location that keeps popping up is the Pleasant Valley Barn, which for a long time was too dark to traverse even in daylight, resulting in complaints (though thankfully, no outrage). On the other hand, there ARE indoor locations in game, which I feel SHOULD be dark by design and impassable without a torch/lantern, even in daylight. For example, Carter Dam's lower areas (Carter Hydro Dam and Environs: Lower Levels). There are absolutely no windows except in the staff break room at the far end of the map. Once you go through that bulkhead, even in broad daylight it should be pitch black all throughout until you reach the staff break room at the other side.

   Appropriate lighting of indoor locations would give torches and the storm lantern increased utility. As they are now, their current utility is rather limited because many locations are so well lit ambiently, even in darkness.

   Which brings me to my next question: Are there plans to increase the utility of hatchet tools?

   I know a hatchet is required to properly traverse the Hushed River Valley (a region I admit I have not yet visited), but otherwise their utility seems questionable right now. The only other purpose they seem to serve at the moment is to cut tree limbs into firewood (and even then, minor limbs can be cut into firewood with a hacksaw) and break down certain environment objects into reclaimed wood. They can be used to quarter animal carcasses, but so can knife tools, with the exact same efficiency (at least, time-wise. Not sure about the decay of the tools when quartering). In my current survival sandbox, though I've crafted an improvised hatchet for the first time ever, I've left it behind because I just don't see a purpose for it until I decide to finally go to HRV (AFTER I've collected all the game's buffer memories).

Edited September 6, 2019 by GothSkunk

[Admin]

In the interests of keeping this thread clean and allowing @Raphael van Lierop to easily pick out questions to answer please keep it to questions. 

Also:

- try not to ask questions that Google or other players can answer 

- don’t answer other people’s questions but point them to where the question was answered previously if we’ve already dealt with it 

Thanks. 

[SpanishMoss]

A few questions

A lot of the carin’s have the tag “it’s story has yet to be written” will their stories ever be written, or will they remain untouched? 

Why can’t you re-cap/put-out flares?

i haven’t actually tried this, but what happens if you throw a torch/flare into the water In costal highways/desolation point? 

 

You can places cold cooked teas near a fire to warm them back up, but why can’t you do this with raw meat?

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer all our questions 

-SpanishMoss 

Edited September 9, 2019 by SpanishMoss

[Southerner in Snow]

One good thing to sell in the merch store would be the deck of cards from the beginning of wintermute don't you think? any plans to add these as I love the look of the deck in wintermute and would like to use it for solitaire if I could... 

Anyway that's my question, will there be a deck of THE LONG DARK themed cards in the future?

P.S. Best regards to the team and I hope the work on episode 3 is going well.

Edited September 9, 2019 by Southerner in Snow

[MarrowStone]

Hello, I noticed new sounds of various fauna keep making their way into the game, does your audio team record these themselves? 

If so, are there any species/sounds they captured that they are particularly proud of?

[Tylerguns12]

While playing the long dark I feel like there are many things that could be added or adjusted. Like picking up branches, siphoning gas out of cars, more ways to stay out of the cold, like digging out hay bales, using wood to make a improvised permanent shelter, adding goals in sandbox, npcs that offer rewards in sandbox, mabye being able to escape to the mainland; sorry for all the ideas

[GothSkunk]

 

(Bottom of the stairway to Carter Dam Administration)

(Top of the stairway to Carter Dam administration)

(Inside Carter Dam administration area)

The Gamer in me has known for decades that 'just because a door exists in an environment does not mean (the player) can open it,' and so for ages the fact that I cannot interact with these doors has been nothing more than a passing acceptance. Walk up to the door, no option to interact with the door appears. Okay. Accept it and move on. But recently, the narrative-explorer side of me has been wondering, 'what is it about these doors, story-wise, that they cannot be opened?'

 

So my question to you is: What's behind these doors? Stuff? Things? Zombies? Will we ever know?

Edited September 11, 2019 by GothSkunk
Screenshot placement, and a playful joke.

[Dude Revenant]

Raph, my dude! First off: Great f@ckin' game you and your team have made here!

1. My question's about the voice acting powerhouses you've acquired. How'd you get Solid Snake, Adam Jensen and both Commander Shepards to all be in the same game?!

2. I remember a previous mailbag mentioned you acquired mocap equipment. Will it be used for capturing their performances, or perhaps for more realistic wildlife animations? 

3. How'd you end up choosing First Aid Kit's "Lion's Roar" as the intro song for the cinematic, and were there any other artists you considered for it? 

4. Suggestion: Can the energy bars, y'know, give us energy?

Edited September 11, 2019 by Dude Revenant
Grammatical error

[Skelegutplays]

Why is pork not in the ingredients list of the in-game can of pork and beans?

[yoli]

I notice TLD is around for many years which is uncomon for a non-online game. Is this a deliberate strategy to capitalize on a single game for many years with consequent updates instead of making multiple "single-shot" games like most companies do? Or it is something specific to TLD regarding the commitements made during the Kickstarter? Personnaly I think this strategy is very clever, capitalizing on the work done for a long time is a much better investment than starting from scratch every 2 or 3 years. Also, it makes the game more valuable, we feel the company comitted to it and this sorts of engages a loyalty from users too. Is a long-lived game in a market a short-lived games sustainable? Apparently it is for you, do you know other games going along the same path?

[Sceh]

I'm glad that Raphael and Muecke sorted out the little misunderstanding/situation that happened with the last Milton mailbag. Alas, I'm left feeling that because of it the questions were answered in a slightly different way than how they could have been. Especially the first question got me excited because it is something I have been thinking about a lot myself. So let me try my hand at rephrasing it and submitting it here for a second consideration by Raphael:

How has Episode 3 changed with the addition of the new staff and equipment? Has it altered the story and content itself or is it just a different approach now, like how things are staged and presented?

Now, purely as an aside: The whole exchange really broke my heart. Even when reading the comment in the Question Thread I thought "Uh-oh, the question is exciting but this could have been worded better. Someone is going to get chewed up." From the user name I assume that Muecke is a fellow German, and we have a tendency to phrase things in a curt, not to say brusque way, when really we mean no harm. I can only imagine what it must be like for Raphael and the team to be under a constant barrage of demands and toxic commentary. Sometimes it feels like every third entry in the forums here and especially(!) elsewhere is a negative comment on how long releases have taken lately. Keeping that in mind the defensive tone of the answer was expected, but heartbreaking nonetheless. I'm glad you guys made up.

[InvaderNoodle]

As a LD addict, I was wondering if you have any way for people to be more involved in the progress of the game. I know I'd volunteer my time to test the Switch version, check bugs, try and recreate reported bugs, etc. Just a thought that maybe there would be more people like me who would just love to be a part of helping the game grow and helping your team's dream become reality. ❤️