Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag

[Astinus]

Is there any chance of seeing native VR in this edition of The Long Dark?
Has any research into VR in The Long Dark been done? If so what problems have you encountered?

Despite the painterly style, and perhaps because of it, I get very immersed when I play. I was worried this style would look a little like miniatures or give the world a tilt-shift effect in VR. I notice this effect in standard 2D when in pain or with energy drinks. Actually I think it looks cool. That extra dimension of depth I believe would suit The Long Dark well but VR is a small market I imagine.

[ajb1978]

Loving Episode 3!  Already did two playthroughs to try and catch any subtle details, and that brings me to my questions.

"Molly" is a name derived from Hebrew, and means "bitter".  She certainly is bitter...was that name chosen for her intentionally, or is this a happy coincidence?

Also, Astrid's name badge in the lab cutscene shows that she works for Seraphim.  Seraphim, or Saraph as singular in Hebrew, were the highest class of angels and regarded as symbols of light and purity.  Astrid does indeed seem to take on a guardian angel role for the crash survivors, so once again was this chosen intentionally, or is this a happy coincidence?

[RegentRelic]

What is the longest you have survived on interloper.

[Jaffa]

Hello Raph!

Looking at the early scene from episode 3 where you wake up as Astrid, have you though about adding these first person animations (when you go to bed/wake up) as a common "non-cutscene" animation when a player goes to sleep and wakes up, instead of the current black-out, to add an additional first-person presence?

 

(Potential Spoiler Warning)

I really loved the part where you go out, search for the survivors and then carry them to safety with the occasional check-ups. Do you think it would be possible to make a challenge mode out of this?

 

Thanks!

[Brigo]

While thankful, it has always puzzled me that raw meat left outside to freeze is never nabbed by the local fauna.  Not complaining, but it does seem a bit unfair to them.  Has there been discussion of adding crafting ability to build a meat locker or similar so that we can safely store food and other items such as pies outside in a more realistic way?  Oh yeah.  There are no pies.  Not yet anyway.

Thanks!

[Samwise117]

Hey Raph,

 I love the long dark...and I haven't had that much fun (carrying downed survivors in episode 3 with timberwolves chasing you) in a long time! The new additions seem really balanced and exciting. It makes saving bullets and flares that much more crucial, which I thought were in abundance in stalker mode. I absolutely love it!

My question/hope is whether or not you could incorporate these NPC's into survival. I've seen a TON of good feedback on the escorting mechanic you added for wintermute and was just wondering if you could PLEASE give us a hint if that's coming to survival mode. I've put 250hrs into the Long Dark and 225 of those are survival :p.

Can you give us anything?

Edited October 28, 2019 by Samwise117

[Sito]

Hi Raph,

I love the update! Adding lost and found boxes was genius.

Was there a change to bow aiming? And does wind affect the aim?

Before the update I never miss bow shooting a deer in the neck. After update I missed 3 times in a row with the arrow visibly going to the left of where I aimed it.  When testing my aim at the PV target in a wind storm, all arrows consistently hit the bullseye. Some players have opinion that wind does affect bow shots, but I don't think so.

Love the new "Pleasant" Valley

 

[hmm]

It's great that you now support 4K and HDR on Xbox, but is there any way to turn off these features? My TV supports neither so I don't get the benefits and I might be wrong but I feel like I've noticed more frame rate dips since the update. Playing on an Xbox One X.

Thanks, love the game.

[Themadlad94]

I’ve seen a lot of people ask in the 4DON forum about the rifle and revolver being gone although they have lots of rounds for the two. Why did this happen? Was this on purpose or is it a bug? Btw can’t wait to play later today

[_mono_no_aware_]

Firstly, and I know too many people in the community think their opinion matters, but I feel the baseline availability setting for customising survival mode is missing an option which has the extremely reduced spawn rate of the "Low" option, but includes the possibility of finding knives, hatchets, revolvers. I think it would be a reasonable addition, it wouldn't upset how the game is currently played and would allow us to fine tune how much our player character is going to suffer. Again, I know you get a lot of entitled requests for additions to the game, but would like to know what you think?

Secondly, I read on your Twitter some time ago about you playing Frostpunk and how brutal it was. I bought it on that recommendation and you weren't kidding!! That first scenario is incredibly cruel, especially towards the end, so yea I still haven't beaten that... Are there any other games you've played recently that you have enjoyed or have inspired you?

Cheers!

[Southerner in Snow]

I wasn't able to play 4don this year as I was traveling to see family, any way we could have the event as a challenge? I loved last years and the idea of it as a whole and I think others would also like to see some variation of it as a challenge aswell.

P.S. Great work on episode 3! cant wait for the next update!

[legolegs]

What happened to the pilots of the plane crashed in EP3? The cockpit door is closed and windows are damaged but still in place, and overall the cabin looks intact and I presume pilots should survive in the crash. Where are they? If they are dead why you did not let Astrid to check them out?

[RegentRelic]

I am guessing you can see deleted messages. But the question is do you look through all the deleted messages. 

[yollarbenibekler]

Do you think about putting a "1000 days survived" achievement as TLD world became more sustainable over time?

[Dan_]

Just finished playing ep3 and what a ride! I'm a survival junkie first and foremost but I liked the flow of ep3, I've enjoyed the side missions a lot this time around and the end left me wanting more, the last section was really interesting and enjoyable and the ending had me in shock. I was left wanting for more, so congrats on that! 

Kudos on the PV's map changes, I always liked it as it was but you guys and girls added a lot more interesting stuff ( hooray for derelict homestead's woodstove! ) without making the zone lose it's wild and harsh appeal. 

Question: Will I be able to keep Astrid's inventory for the next episodes? 

[SpitztheGreat]

Looking down the road, have you considered how you're going to structure Season 2? I imagine you have, but if it isn't too late I would suggest considering making each episode a self-contained story. Considering the development periods for the first three episodes (keeping in mind Redux), 3 episodes over 2+ years hurts the immersion of a serialized story. Would you consider doing episodes in season 2 that were fully self contained with a beginning, middle, and end? Such a change in the formula may help alleviate issues of "fatigue" where players have lost touch of a larger serialized story. It also would ensure that things stay fresh from episode to episode.

Anyways, loving episode 3 so far.

[UTC-10]

This is probably marginal for this thread.

Lost and found did IMO a pretty decent job overall, I got a few more rounds of revolver ammo, a fire striker I missed somewhere and a few other things as well as not losing any gear that I noticed,  but it had its (for players) unexpected consequences.

Question: Was the destruction of masses of 0% food foreseen and intended?

     This was pretty acute when conventional wisdom was store food (meat and fish) outside for maximum preservation. Under current mechanics, one could not store them in a container, which would not have been swept up by lost and found, because when the food reached 0% condition it would disappear.

Question: Given that the result was either expected or unexpected, is there any thought about how it may need (or not) to be modified in this regard?

I did fine myself wishing that lost and found didn't essentially consolidate all the outside stuff from all over  Pleasant Valley into a lost and found box outside the farm house, the vast bulk of stuff, and the (formerly) crossroads store.

[JeremiahJohnson]

What happened to Milton Mailbag...?

Edited November 20, 2019 by JeremiahJohnson

[Annette]

are you going to have callenges with Astrid in them?

[RegentRelic]

What was with the blue text on the first Milton mail bag.

[RegentRelic]

Will the dead man challenge have an achievement.

[Hotzn]

This has probably been asked before, but the Milton Mailbag has become so large that I find myself unable to scan it completely, and due to time restraints (work etc.) I have not been able to follow it for some time. So, that said, here is my question:

Since the very first time I played the game (a loooong time ago), the cars had hoods which could be opened, and the car battery would have a very conspicuous appearance, as if it was MADE to be taken out or tampered with in the game. However, that never materialized (at least until I last played the game). Was there a plan to make the car battery a feature long ago? If so, what was the plan? And why was it abandoned? Or is the battery still going to be a thing at some point?

Thanks in advance for any potential answer and, yes, thanks for everything in general. Great game.

[Admin]

Posts removed for Episode 3 spoiler content. Asking general Episode 3 questions is fine but too many people still have yet to play Episode 3 for spoiler content outside of the WINTERMUTE forum. 
 

Thank you. 

[maverick]

First of all, Milton Mailbag seems to have died, but I’m writing it anyway.

Secondly, I love the game, and I’m personally happy for buying it and it delivered amazing value compared to current scene of games.

Finally, the question: do you guys think of the Early Access as a necessary evil that will be avoided in the future? I see that Hinterland suffered and still suffers criticism from the community for not releasing a completed game (story mode wise), and it gets bombarded with a storm of requests for new items. I don’t think that it is fair, the game is great as it is, and for example I don’t see anyone messaging Electronic Arts complaining about FIFA 20 (these sport franchises get away with 60 dollars every year for half baked games full of bugs). I honestly think that all of these started with Early Access, which made it look like the community could have their wildest dreams come true. On another hand, I think Hinterland handles communication poorly, like the release countdown that should never been put in place; jumping into reddit and later leaving; or calling long standing game mechanics as “exploits”, as if the players were evil hackers that are breaking the game. Anyway, the community is not used to such open channels for communicating with the developers, and the developers are not used to them either. I don’t think that Hinterland’s next game should be released like everyone else is doing it: full release at once, with no community engagement, full of bugs, with DLCs from day one. But I don’t know if either side learned their lessons by now.

Edited December 10, 2019 by maverick
Mistake and rephrasing

[Hyssch]

There's been this one question that comes every now and then when I'm at the campfire:

When You drink e.g. a cup of hot tea, it gives you a warm up bonus

But drinking boiling hot water, directly from the can by the fire when it says it's boiling (so no mistake that it wouldn't be hot enough), doesn't give the warm up bonus?