Opposite of The Long Dark?

[The Finnish Count]

This is an idea for the Hinterlanders:

As The Long Dark is focused on surviving in the cold, against wolves, hunger and fatigue - you could "easily" turn this idea into a DLC or standalone side-project.

-You crash your plane into open deserts, canyons and brushlands instead of cold nordic forests.

-Instead of losing body heat, you gain it.

-You already have deer, rabbits and wolves, so you add snakes and cougars.

-Cacti that you can forage water from.

-Trees are the dead ones from Max's last stand

-Trailer parks and graveyards, maybe an classical wild west town

-

(not that one)

-Rare rain.

I would like to hear opinions and discussion about this idea, altough this most likely will be smashed by Hinterland :lol:

[Burning Bridges]

The idea deserves further consideration if the calculations can indeed be simply reversed - I have not given it thought before.

water/food /ok

cold -> inverse -> heat /ok

animals /ok

So far so good. But my next thought is that many things would be missing, like: insects, snakes, dust, sunburn etc

fire / fuel -> not necessary except at night

Also where do you take the snow for "melting" water? In the desert it's much more about finding water.

P.S. You do know that HLC said that they are going to make other seasons, if the first game is a success? Everything you suggest might actually be considered for a TLD Season III, Summer Megadrought!!

[Nomad]

I really like this idea. Most of the same mechanics could be reused or tweaked for a wide range of environments, each of which have their own unique survival challenges.

[EternityTide]

Isn't a game for me. I despise the heat. It's the reason why I love the long dark so much. I've never wanted to live in a tropical or subtropical region. Temperate or Sub-arctic is my preferred climate.

[TattooedMac]

I was a survival Instructor in the Aust Army many years ago, and lived in the Northern Territory, and in many ways, I believe surviving in the heat, would be just as hard, if not harder than the cold.

First and foremost, is water. Water is so very scarce in the desert regions, and you would be spending a crap load of time, trying to find/create water, than you would anything else Because of water being scarce, so is food, because food need water to live as well, be it, wildlife or plants.

As much as I would like to see something like The Long Dark in reverse, IMHO, I think it would be a lot more work, than doing a game in the cold. For instance, where I was based, when we went out in the boonies, it could get up to 50ºC (122ºF) in the shade through the day, and in the MinusºC through the night. To be totally honest, I have never been so cold in my life, than I had been in the Desert at night, because of the massive change in Temps.

On a 2 week course, we had 2 students fail, because they came in before their time was up, all because they couldn't handle the flies. Because of the dryness, the fly is attracted to moisture, and the only moisture around is your sweat on your face, and if you stay still for more than a minute, you have your head covered in flies, to the extent that you couldn't see any skin.

Swatting and brushing them away for 12-14hrs of sunlight, can get irritating very quickly, and can drive you mad.

There would be so much to consider in a Desert version.

Interesting thoughts though.

[Burning Bridges]

Of course, surviving in the heat is much harder than in the cold. We even have a saying that you "can protect yourself against cold but not against heat". If I had to survive a day in -50C or in the Death Valley at 50C, I'd chose cold. I have never experienced either but every day in 50C is like being locked in a sauna for 24h. And it won't take long until the brain turns into scrambled eggs.

Afaik other games and other seasons are already considered, and I think summer would be a logical choice. In many ways it's just the opposite of the same thing. The fight with cold and hunger would be replaced with constant search for water and shade, decaying food and hunger and perhaps even cold - desert temperatures go below well zero at night, under even more extreme conditions one might even freeze to death.