Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag

[velonews]

An article in 2015 said the Hinterland team was split half and half between the Cumberland studio and the distributed model. What does the distribution look like in 2018, now that Hinterland has a downtown Vancouver studio, more employees, and is better established?

[iGlugi]

Water and Fire

Water is a huge part of survival and it's just too easy to harvest.  I know you've partially address this with the recent update, which I love and really adds to the feeling of survival and multitasking.

Can we expect updates to the water system like freezing if left out in the snow, warmth bonus from drinking recently melted snow, and storage limitations like a canteen and containers? (where are all these damn water bottles coming from!!)

I understand these changes would add to the difficulty of the game, fires would need to be made more often.  Perhaps the update to water would be offset by the addition of more fire starting skills/abilities.

Thanks!

[NinJay]

What are your thoughts on working more closely with modders to add official content? For example, adding Relentless Night as an supported vanilla game mode? I get if you don't want a bunch of randos mucking up your game, of course. 

[Stedmister]

I having a real hard time in episode 2, are there any changes to animal behaviour, (especial if I'm almost dead) that you can add to help out, bullets are certain animals are an issue, thanks. I am loving the game, I just finding this one spot way to frustrating.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Stedmister

[RangerDanger]

Do you ever plan to add working cars in the future? Even if they could only be powered by the Aurora, I think it would be a cool feature.

 

[RangerDanger]

Any plans of adding fully abandond cities to the game? I think that would be really cool.

[RangerDanger]

Have you ever considered adding bigfoot? Even if he was just in a challenge mode, I think he would be cool, and definitely fit the wilderness setting of TLD.

[Smellyfries]

Question: Are you going to add more options to custom?

Some ideas i had were: Remove find able Hatchets and Knives. Set a date for when afflictions like Cabin Fever take effect. Increase or decrease the rate at which you increase skill levels, or set skill levels to a certain level when you start.

These are just ideas i had.

[Michael01]

1:Are you guys going to work on a new region in the future?(for hardcoreplayer/newbie)

2:Is there any story——exclusive region in the future?

[MarrowStone]

@FireCraft78, I agree. It's turning into a wishlist forum. 

Here's a fun question: 

Do you have what it takes to survive the Quiet Apocalypse? What kind of survivor would you be? How far would you go to survive?

Im imagining those of us who know the game might have an initial feeling of "Woah! It's just like TLD! Cool!" before we realise we can't play TLD ever again....

[ThePancakeLady]

Okay. Your favorite author/writer of all time. No reason why is needed, just interested in who you have taken the most away from over the years.
And fine, since picking just one is tough, you can list 2. 

[nicko]

Hi, loved the cooking update, do you have plans or always tweaking how the water / thirst  works in game? I think it needs work as its just not real, who wants to create all those 1/.5/  plastic bottles? plastic sucks.

Edited July 21, 2018 by nicko

[Smellyfries]

Do you guys enjoy working on The Long Dark? Are there times where it is frustrating and repetitive at times to work on it?

Edited July 21, 2018 by Smellyfries

[Karl Grylls]

How much has the game changed due to early acces and intervention from the gamers compared to your original vision? Are there examples for things that weren't planned, but made it to the game because the players wanted it?

Edited July 21, 2018 by Karl Grylls

[Pillock]

What's the closest real life experience you've had to that which faces the player-character in The Long Dark?

(or anyone else in the HL team?)

Edited July 22, 2018 by Pillock

[FireCraft78]

Will you ever release a collector version of the game ? (when all Wintermute episodes will be released)

Edited July 22, 2018 by FireCraft78

[Guenter]

The Coop/Multiplayer idea has been often discussed, and I know your current opinion for MP/Coop.
Adding MP/Coop is also a big intervention to the game mechanics... but I have a really interesting idea, how to add, I call it "Challenge Coop", to the game.

The Host can create the Custom Sandbox Lobby and can choose the maps where the other (1-2 player) can move. But then every player joins in his single world. And ec. the player who survive longer has won. May you can see over the Survival book, how long the other players has survived or some other basic informations.

@Raphael van Lierop have you ever thougt like a idea about that, I think it is a Coop System which seems to can fit with TLD, because it can not destroy the classic TLD feeling : )

[Gussan]

First of all, congratulations for the game. It's the most real survival I've seen.

Question 1: Do you have in mind to deploy a new patch in 2018/2019? New items, animals, maybe?

Question 2: Will there be a the long dark 2?

Thank you!

 

Edited July 22, 2018 by Gussan

[Jolan]

Small Fires - with the system introduced in Vigilant Flame, I can't seem to make fires in the smaller places any more.  Have you considered an option where we can make a smaller fire.  Perhaps with only 1 or 0 cooking spots?  Perhaps it could be accessed off of the radial, or you could cyle thru the options like you do with weapons.  We can't make fires in a lot of the sheltered spots we used to be able to.  Sometimes, you're just making a fire to survive.

 

[MrWolf]

Have you considered a more random distribution of items at the start of a new game?  In Interloper, at least, we know certain places to check for guaranteed match spawns, several locations to find a mag glass, etc.  It would be more of a challenge to not have these known spawn points and really have to search for things.

[ThePancakeLady]

Everyone who plays this game has their idea of what is necessary, and what is not. For some that may change depending on Survival Experience Mode or Wintermute Survivor level. I know you play, and the team plays. I am interested in what 5 items you, and possibly a poll of your team, consider to be impossible to live without, regardless of game mode or experience mode. What 5 things *must* you have to be able to stay alive, in your game? Your opinion, of course. Other peoples' mileage may vary. Widely.

 

(Just to clarify... "things" like "food, water, shelter..." are not what i am interested in., "Items" like matches, hatchet, knife, bow, etc. are what I am thinking of. Just trying to pick into your head a bit Raph. Because how a developer sees their game and the vision that created it, are often different than how a player may see it. And to me, knowing how you play your game may help me understand your game better.)

Edited July 23, 2018 by ThePancakeLady
clarification

[Baukster77]

In the last Milton Mailbag you said you thought about adding a bigfoot/sasquatch to the game, and making the spawn rate so low only 1-2 players would ever see it. Are there 'hidden' things like that already in the game most players aren't aware of?

[ditoseadio]

In previous devblogs there has been talk of adding rudimentary ways of lighting fires, what happened to that?

[greatwhitegamer]

Have you ever thought of a new type of a foot accessory such as snowshoes? They could be crafted with cured guts and cloth or something like that. They would make you walk faster on snow but they would make sprinting slower and clumsier. Also, they would add new sounds when you walk on certain things. Also I am new here and you have a very good community, Hinterland.

[Michael01]

Hi! I don't know if anybody else had asked about this:Since there are hidden messages in the computer during an aurora.Are there hidden messages as well in the Radio?(car radio) or maybe someone is crying for help,or some hopeless dying wish?