Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag

[hozz1235]

I've recently returned to the game after a several-month hiatus.  I was playing custom-mode heavily and recall some "issues" with it:

1. Some settings seemed to work in the opposite manner as intended/understood
2. Some settings were unclear on how they would affect the game (I recommended at one point adding some clarification/detail to them)

To your understanding, are custom settings working as intended?  Also, could we get #2 addressed?  Thanks!

[Pillock]

Croatia or France on Sunday?

[Guest hoasd1]

when you say in dev diary - may 2018

(we can’t use linear cinematics to present our story anymore. We’ve moved everything into first-person dialogues)

did this include the cinematics and cutscene?

[BESt]

Would you consider the option "add to the radial" a permanent one? It is exhausting when you have 5-6 MRE in the radial menu and a lot of raw meat in inventory and you have to select add to the radial every time when you want to cook the meat. My idea is to make the selection permanent, just like a short key for weapons or light sources. If you would click add to the radial, the products added would remain in the radial until you have no more. Each product would have a single slot (similar to the pots and cans in the radial), this way the menu not being full of a single product. Hope I made myself clear

Edited July 13, 2018 by BESt

[Anomen]

19 minutes ago, BESt said:

Would you consider the option "add to the radial" a permanent one? It is exhausting when you have 5-6 MRE in the radial menu and a lot of raw meat in inventory and you have to select add to the radial every time when you want to cook the meat. My idea is to make the selection permanent, just like a short key for weapons or light sources. If you would click add to the radial, the products added would remain in the radial until you have no more. Each product would have a single slot (similar to the pots and cans in the radial), this way the menu not being full of a single product. Hope I made myself clear

instead of first adding the raw meat to the radial menu and then put it from there to the cooking place, you can also lay down all raw meat in your inventory and grab it from the ground and put it to the grill. I do that one as it is faster in my eyes. 

But still your idea is valid.

[Le Petit Prince]

What are we waiting for,

Episode 3 or Episode 3 to 5?

[coolspot]

I'm enjoing this game a lot! I love exploring and staying outside, hunting and scavenging for items ( "This will come in handy!").

My question is: do you plan to enhance the "realism" of the game? Like, do you plan to add more afflictions for our poor Will/Astrid? It would be great, for example, to catch a cold or a flu due to wet/iced clothes. I'd see it as a sort of affliction that would make you fatigued, thirsty, and less resistant to cold weather (and you would use medicines and herbal teas while staying in a warm place), and if not threated this cold would also give you a chance to get worse and deadly afflictions/infections (e.g. pneumonia). What do you think about it?

Keep up with the awesome work!

[Scribble]

Does the team have a particular region or location they’re most proud of? Conversely is there anywhere in the game you would like to revisit and revamp?

Also, the new cooking system is great, but I just had a situation where I needed a can to boil water but only had a 3% quality can of pork and beans. Sure enough eating it gave me food poisoning. Would it be possible to have an option to empty ruined or dubious food away so you can use the container?

[HinterDarren]

Hi there,

A huge TLD fan here! I am a Canadian Soldier deployed for 6 months in the Middle East. Every time a blizzard pops up on screen it makes me mutter "Wow I would give a great deal to stand in that right about now." I have a question, have you ever considered a sort of game-mode where the player could be rescued (or something similar) in x-number of days or weeks or months? Perhaps this could even be random, with conditions deteriorating as time passed. Its just, in my mind with the open ended-ness of the sandbox I am finding it difficult to continue in the game, with no defined finish as it were (even if said finish was completely random in the future).

Thanks for making such an enjoyable game.

All the very best

Darren B.

Edited July 14, 2018 by HinterDarren

[hemaphore]

i love the survival mode and play it exclusively. i especially like the idea of picking up from when i last played and building from there. i was wondering if there were any plans to make this (or a future iteration) of TLD “cross platform” so when i am on mass-transit, i can pick up my phone and play the game (or a scaled down version of it, because mobile) and then come home and continue to play on my computer? 

you can call me obsessed with this game, it’s ok

[huntergathers]

Seeing as fires have the stone circles now, any chance of us being able to save up stones in the future to build protected fires? I'd love to be able to build up my favorite exposed fire spots a little more near the shelters that lack a wind free space outdoors for that outdoor fire bonus. Also, any spoilers on ways we might be able to make shelters feel a little more like home in the future beside just arranging loot? I'm a big fan of arranging all my loot on shelves, and I've been hoping for more ways to customize my favorite places a little more to make them feel "lived in."

[ThePancakeLady]

Sorry if this has been asked, the Question Thread is getting long, and more difficult to search. But...

I know some of the movies, books and games you have mentioned on your Twitter feed, that have had influence on the game in concept, and development. But I was wondering if there were any specific real world locations, besides Vancouver Island, that you thought of, looked at, visited and possibly modeled some of the game world around? The details in some of the larger structures, like Hibernia, Carter Hydro, the Lighthouse, the Hunting Lodge... are any of them modeled after real world locations in Canada, or are they a mash-up of many locations from photos and online research?

[Messyjesse81]

First off, I absolutely love The Long Dark. It has quickly become one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve managed to get my husband addicted too *thumbs up* I have a few questions, I’ll try to condense them.

 

Is there any way to donate to the company? I’m very much looking forward to future updates and more content, and would love to contribute to the game. We’ve already purchased the game for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, also a couple of merchandise items. I agree with an earlier comment about adding patches and other merchandise, I collect patches, I would be ecstatic to add a few Long Dark patches to my backpack and at the same time help the company. Or t-shirts with the Mystery Lake poster, or any of the other posters you find within the game. Anyway, I’m started to get side tracked, if more merchandise items are added we will definitely be checking them out to support the game. 

 

Would you consider adding a prompt before consuming raw meat? Since the new cooking method has been added (which I wasn’t really looking forward to when I read about it, but now that I’ve been using it I really like it, good job!) I have accidentally eaten raw meat a few times while trying to cook it because it’s taken me a while to get used to the new method. Raw meat and cooked meat are not easily mistaken, you wouldn’t eat raw meat thinking it’s cooked, but someone might want to go ahead and eat the raw meat in a dire situation. Maybe a prompt similar to the one asking “do you really want to burn that research book before you finish it?” could be added?

 

Speaking of research books, it would be nice if you could read while you’re healing a sprain. I’m not always tired enough to sleep for four hours in the game to heal it. I know when I’m laid up with an illness or injury in real life I enjoy reading to pass the time. 

 

Also, I think its already been mentioned, but a craftable hat and a drying rack for the hides would really be useful. 

 

I don’t know anything about video game development so I don’t know how hard any of that would be to change. But again I’d like to thank you for your time and this wonderful game!

 

*im new to the forum and am not sure why my font is so faded. Probably has to with with the fact that I typed this in notes then copy pasted, sorry for the inconvenience, thanks for reading my post anyway! 

Edited July 15, 2018 by Messyjesse81
I don’t know what I’m doing and can’t get the font right, lol

[ThePancakeLady]

@Messyjesse81 - if you are copy pasting into the text area, you need to "paste as plain text" instead of just clicking "paste". That will show the font in default size and color for the forum here. 

Wouldn't worry about it for the last post, since we all can highlight the text and see it just fine.  

[Messyjesse81]

That’s good to know, thanks!

[xXTacocubesXx]

Not sure if this has been asked and haven't seen this come up, but I was wondering if it might be a good idea to implement custom landmarks in the future. Like maybe setting down a flag made of a stick and cloth or something? It could be an additional helpful tool for new players trying to learn the maps. You could set down a flag to indicate a path, shelter or a cave with a stash of food or something. You could even maybe have the ability to name the flag so when you walk up to it, a text of the title pops up. "Moose meat stash" for example. Although, I could see these flags getting ruined by blizzards or wildlife. I dunno, what do you think?

[FireCraft78]

Do you plan on adding other diseases such as cold or fever ? It would add some realism to the game, linearity to the life gauge, and uses to pharmaceuticals.

[johsemann3]

Will you add unique items to survival mode like mountenering boots, Wills coat, jeremiahs knife, Mackenzies rifle etc.? 

Edited July 17, 2018 by johsemann3

[bois vert]

A few of questions and comment:

Are you going to make some changes to cooking system outdoor camp fires? 

Because there's already game meta where you can create 3 or 4 campfires in the vicinity which would open up 6-8 cooking slots.   Not sure if you intend to allow this to happen.  What if you use a stone as a part of requirement to build a campfire with the cooking system outdoor?  It would help slow down the cooking skill system from going up too quickly.  A stone might be too heavy to carry around and players must find a stone and may be in a limited supply of using the stone so that players don't use many campfire to speed up their cooking skills.   If you opt not to use stone, you may still build a fireplace outdoor but with no cooking system.

Would you be willing to implement an internal temperatures changes as an option in the survival mode in custom or even some interloper survival?

Some players have been asking for this feature to make the game more challenging and only thing they get is the windproof protection while indoor.  Have this feature as an option before starting the game.   It sure feel strange on not using the fire when coming indoor from an extremely cold spell outdoor and you are warmed up.    A -40 C outdoor should not be a constant temperature with -5 C indoor and it should be a lot colder indoor.    If you feel that indoor temperatures should be constant no matter the weather, at least make the clothing system taking more damaging indoor than outdoor when you are still wearing the coat indoor, to force the players to take off clothes and store in the drawer or a coat cabinet to preserve the condition of their clothes than storing in their backpack, and cold enough to be forced to create fires indoor to keep themselves warm just as in real life.

Would you make this game more accessibility to deaf gamers when it comes to wild life sounds?  

Sometimes a wolf,  or a bear attacked me from behind or from a blind spot or spawned just too close to me hidden by the corner of the hill just when I think that the coast is clear.  Maybe a sound signal subtitle on my screen would be more helpful if it makes growling sound or footsteps sounds for me to pause my progress and retreat or giving me enough time to defend and fend off any attacks by the wolf, bear, etc.   Or at least have every wildlife spawns the moment I enter in any region, not necessarily wildlife spawning when I am at the midpoint of the map, giving me a general outlook from afar off spots.   

Thank you.

Edited July 17, 2018 by bois vert

[TheIncredibleHibby]

First off, I'm excited to say I've finally almost hit 1000 hours of playtime in this magnificent game

Will there be any implemented ways to be able to access car trunks or lockers that have been broken as a result of breaking a low-condition pry bar in trying to open them? I had no idea this was a mechanic until I perma-locked a car trunk in Mountain Town....wanted to know if I could eventually find out what's hidden away in that trunk, or if I'm forever doomed to speculate as punishment

[odizzido]

Would you consider adding in % spawn rates for animals instead of low/med/high? I would love to try putting them at maybe 10-20% of what low is currently.

[Baukster77]

When I started playing the Long Dark a few years ago there worked about 9 people at Hinterland Studio, if I remember well... How many people work there now? Has the studio grown a lot?

[Jparks785]

Have you considered more storage options for the prepper style survivalist? Such as possibly adding shelves you can craft or move? Kind of like the ones you find all over the world. It would be epic to shelter down and have a mass amount of supplies stocked on shelving units. 

[Jparks785]

Have you considered more storage options for the prepper style survivalist? Such as possibly adding shelves you can craft or move? Kind of like the ones you find all over the world. It would be epic to shelter down and have a mass amount of supplies stocked on shelving units. 

[Spakerman]

Can you give us a short bit of teaser info on another game your working on?