Possible ideas for hinterland.

[KyG]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share some ideas that I had about possible additions to the game. I am aware that some of these ideas may have already been suggested but I will write them down anyway.

A zippo style lighter that is refillable with kerosene, lantern fuel, and accelerant could be very useful. I think that making it have a better percent chance to start fires than matches would be adequate, also it could be used like matches for temporary light when you don't have a lantern in your inventory.

Flares are a nice thing to have already in the game but I find that I can't throw them very far, so my suggestion is to add an emergency flare gun (like you might find in a bush plane's emergency kit) that is capable of shooting flares at further distances and "bear banger" rounds that make loud noise for scaring off wolves.

With the current version of the game (.156) there are snares for capturing rabbits. Why not make deadfall traps that could kill a wolf or deer? They would be heavier than your rabbit snares and cost more resources to craft. (3 fir wood, 2 gut, 2 hide for a combined weight of 5 kg?)

Pine needle tea could be an option. Gather pine needles from trees around the map and combine it with water, heat and drink. Maybe this would help your temperature and hydration levels.

Rifle ammunition is sometimes hard to come by. (My current playthrough I have only found a total of 10 rounds, but have found 2 rifles. I'm on day no. 16) Reloading your spent .303 brass would be very valuable for longer survival. Somehow crafting fresh rounds would be nice. I don't know exactly how that would pan out.

So far I love this game. It's so much fun to play. Keep it up Hinterland!

[themole4]

Reloading your spent .303 brass would be very valuable for longer survival. Somehow crafting fresh rounds would be nice. I don't know exactly how that would pan out.

I also thought that. There was something like that in one of the Resident Evil games (4? 5? I don't remeber, it was a friend of mine playing the game). Like you, I don't know how it would work. Maybe the previous inhabitants of the region kept tools and materials for rounds crafting even before the disaster? I know that in real life hunters and sport shooters use to manufacture their own rounds to save money (for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handloading).

[elloco999]

Handloading is indeed used by many people to reduce the cost of shooting. To handload a cartridge (complete bullet such as the ones going into the gun) you need: 1) a case, 2) a primer, 3) powder and 4) a bullet (and 5) the equipment of course). After you fire a shot, the only part you can salvage is the case. You need to put a new primer in the case, add the right type of new powder in the right amount and a new bullet.

Most of the people who handload buy their bullets, primers and the powder and use those to reload their spent casings. Some do make their own bullets, but it's very hard (impossible?) to make jacketed (= copper coated) bullets yourself. Modern bullets are made of a lead core with a copper jacket. This jacket protects the barrel of the gun from lead sticking to the barrel when the bullet is fired. It also protects the lead from being too easily damaged (lead is very soft), deforming the bullet. Homemade bullets don't have this jacket, increasing the wear on the gun. This should then also be reflected in the game.

But there's a bigger problem to handloading: you also need powder and primers. Now it is possible to make your own powder, but you need a bit of knowledge of the chemistry involved, the chemicals themselves and the required equipment. But this is very dangerous and I think illegal for that very reason. I very much doubt you would find everything needed just lying around somewhere. And it's impossible to make your own primers. So you would need to find at least primers and powder to be able to make cartridges.

This would mean quite a bit of work so that instead of finding the cartridges, you would find primers and powder, need the equipment to make bullets from scrap metal, need to gather your spend casings after each shot and need the equipment to press all of these into your own handloaded cartridges. It would be much easier to just increase the amount of cartridges you find. The only thing handloading would add to the game is a way to pass the time, which is not a bad thing. I would love to see handloading just for this.

But the question we need to ask ourselves is: Is it worth the effort needed to implement this?

[EternityTide]

you could just have a location in the game where you can reload the spent shells. Perhaps a location that randomly spawns like the preppers bunker. The gunsmiths workshop, perhaps? It has a gunsmith workbench in it specifically for weapons. It's the only place you csn reload shells, and repairing the rifle using this workbench is 25% more efficient (it's either faster or it repairs more) you would have to gather small canisters of primer and powder from the map (not inconceivable considering this is Northern Canada) to handload them, and the bullets are pre-prepared in the gunsmiths workshop. (copper jacketed)

[Bill Tarling]

One gamer habit is assuming the characters are adept and knowledgeable about building their own supplies for everything.

Personally I think that's an area where hand holding games have ruined a lot of the play [i'm coming from old school gaming where you earned every success, and games weren't watered down with giant green arrows pointing which way to go and red radar blips for hiding enemies where you can't see them]... One of the biggest pet peeves is having a player read 2 paragraphs in a magical book and suddenly they're an expert brain surgeon.

While bullets as crafting might be added if the devs feel it's worthwhile, you also have to remember the programming balance... throwing in random items also means something else in the story line might have to be dropped [time allocation for programming], so the devs do try finding a reasonable balance.

The bullets and crafting are reasonable ideas, and I think it might be brought in for The Long Dark 2 [which would take place during the spring season of gameplay] -- that's also when the characters would have time to learn some additional crafts and trades from the locals.