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MarrowStone

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i enjoyed the event, overall, but I only figured out now (twenty minutes before the event ends) that i ended up ~5 min short on my time on day 3 (because i died, and didn't have the time or, quite frankly, the inclination, to reload and try again that night), so i won't get the four day badge, which is.....frustrating, to say the least. other than that i really enjoyed the structure of the event--i'd love to do it over again next year, just with a different (or absent) time constraint. others' suggestions for "goals" or "missions" would be very welcome! i'd rather have to achieve certain things than have to block out two specific hours of my busy day to sit and knit while i wait for my day four timer to finish

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Removing a first person feature like visual depth and detail does not enhance the walking around game at all.  Day 1 was long and uninteresting.  I went and got the flare gun from the Ravine because I randomly found a rope and that gave me something to do.  

Day 2 was ruined for me because random numbers decided it should be cloudy that day.  Have you ever tried lining up a black sight post inside a black circle on top of a black wolf silhouetting a black rock next to a black tree over black ground?  I have.  Even his glowing eyes were barely visible because "clouds".   So that day became two hours of my character staring at the inside of a building while I surfed the forum.  Hey Hinterland - Random numbers are an inefficient way to "craft" meaningful experiences.  I suppose I could have time accelerated to a point when the night was less dark, but knowing the clouds could come back made all notion of interacting with this day undesirable. I was not going to fight just to find engagement.

But it was interesting to have a predictable aurora to play with on Day 3.  And since it never went away I happened to be fully rested and healed for the first time while exploring in it.  Watched the wolves and played with my flashlight.  But I still didn't hunt anything because it was still really dark out (gray post in the gray circle over the grey wolf in front of the gray rock).  Having a projected light source (flashlight) in dark areas (mines) and in the night offers a very different game experience.  It is disappointing it cannot be used in an addition to the rifle.

Day 4 was a repeat of Day 2.  Character stood watching his fire burn out then ultimately died of dehydration (I think, I wasn't actually watching,,,)  There was a moment I thought about where to go look for a pie but I don't like the wind (both sound and slowness of movement) and the notion of walking through a blizzard on purpose ended that musing.

 

ADDENDUM:  4DoN serves to highlight portions of the game most players will otherwise actively avoid (with good reason).  The night is not welcoming, it is not empowering, it is not rewarding.  It is ominous and dangerous and can only be conquered by the return of the Sun.  But it is a part of survival and until there is a standard plot or mission or story element that brings players occasionally out into the night, playing in it once a year is a good exercise.  

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I absolutely loved it! Days 2 and 3 were a bit boring, didn't have a reason to go out much and risk it since I was fully stocked to survive many days so I just left the game running while doing something else to let the 2 hours pass. I tried to fish a bit during the aurora but didn't work so I just hunkered down. I guess I would've liked it more if it was an in-game time requirement. Day 1 was super fun and day 4 got fun as well after I got my badge, because I started exploring around and testing my familiarity with the maps. I'm proud to say I was able to move from Quonset to Trapper's without dying and without losing my way once!

I admit I had to move my pc clock back to experience the event from day one, because I didn't know it was happening until a friend told me and at that point it was the 31st already. I'm not on social media and I'm not always on the forums but I always check my mail, if the 4DON announcement was sent via newsletter I wouldn't have risked to miss it! But I've set a reminder for next year just in case. :P

Anyway, great work as usual Hinterland! Can't wait for the next year's event!

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I didn't get to play either other final two days, which I was really disappointed about. I was able to follow this section of the forum quite closely, though, and it looked like a lot of fun. I enjoyed playing during the first 2 of the days, and got myself a Twilight badge.

I'm glad Hinterland can count the event as a success, and it'd be great if they're able to do more perhaps differently themed ones in future, thought the year. Regular events like this would be great.

For me, by far most enjoyable part of it was the sense of shared experience it generated in the community: that everyone was playing at the same time under the same conditions with the same objectives was a real positive, making the experience of playing feel more purposeful in a way.

I also really liked the sense of anticipation that the format created by adding new challenges each day, without giving players too much detail about what to expect. However, it does seem that people tended to over-anticipate the danger factor of forthcoming days' challenges and those same players would probably dial back their expectations next time, which will probably lessen this anticipation somewhat unless the level of difficulty is also increased. I'm also not completely convinced that having Day 1 as an effectively empty, danger-free world to run around and loot as much as you can in the time you have available is terribly repeatable as a feature. It was fun this time, but it might not have the same appeal again for future events, especially if -as I hope they will- these events become more frequent.

Overall, I think the main focus of 4DON's gameplay experience should have been (and was intended to be?) getting players to experience a spooky environment with scare or terror elements, alongside Halloween-themed decoration. I think it did this to an extent, especially with permanent midnight and hightened wolf numbers; but perhaps where it fell short of where I feel it could have been was in the way the format and the player's progression through each day seemed to encourage sedentary, risk-adverse strategies in order to achieve the objectives. The objective was given as simply staying alive for a certain time: the most obvious way to achieve this was to stay put in a safe place after Day 1, and thereby actually avoid most of the special Halloween-themed content altogether. I think this was a bit of a shame, personally, and I think maybe a change to the victory (badge) conditions would be preferable next time, so that players are compelled to be out in the world more, getting more of the themed event experience, without willfully compromising their chances of 'winning'. Maybe have more variety of badge objectives - eg. a couple for time survived, others linked to number of pumpkins found, number of pies eaten, number of close wolf encounters survived, etc? Other ways to encourage more travel (and therefore more exposure to the event's special characteristics) might be to, say, impose permanent incurable Cabin Fever for a limited time, or perhaps give the candybars an insanely fast decay rate once collected so that you have to eat them right away instead of hoarding?

The other aspect I thought was most worthy of comment was the blizzard bit at the end. I think it'd be fantastic if these environmental conditions could be made available in the main game. Things like the extra-cold indoor temperatures would add a cool new dimension to Survival Mode for people looking for different challenges, as would the prospect of days-long storms (or other weather types that last much longer, for that matter). The longer burning times of fuel and torches was also something that I liked the feel of as a general feature, regardless of whether I was playing a special event.

All in all, a memorable few days as a TLD player, despite my missing half of it! Really hoping to see more like this, and well before next Halloween if development time allows. It's the closest I've felt to a multiplayer experience in a single player-only game.

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These ultra limited extremely time sensitive Badges should be for participation with a reasonable challenge.  If you can find 2 FULL hours 4 days in a row to play no problem the bade should be yours!  Yes, they need to create new challenges for hardcore players making a community event hardcore is not the best plan.  You want lots of players playing the events and returning to the game..

However they really need to add leaderboards,  Being #1 in the world for 4DoN  killing wolves, finding pies, days spent outside, etc. Is real accomplishment that should be immortalized on a leaderboard forever.  That should be the Hardcore players goal.

I'm glad they didn't burn all the buildings down, set everyone's clothes on fire, and drop the temperature to -80C, and add a blizzard.  In general I found 4DoN a fun event.  It can use some more refinement without adding extreme difficulty to obtain the badges.

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I enjoyed this immensely.  I particularly like that some old tweaks were brought back (demon wolves pathing on old wolf paths).  I also liked the different challenge aspect of the 4 days.  I really second @NardoLoopa's suggestion about about the days.  I had to start a new day in order to get the aurora wolves to be visible.  Mind you I could have simply gone back to the cabin when I realized the wolves weren't visible in that run and my only warning of their presence would be the flashlight options changing - but that seemed to be counter to the spirit.  I even enjoyed the final day - which for some reason is when I headed to Pleasant Valley. :D I have to say - my play style changes completely during 4DON.

 

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