Feedback/First Impressions

[Aqua77]

Hello Long Dark Friends,

first of all, this is my first post here, so i want to say thanks to the hinterland team for making this game and hopefully there will be a great work together with the community to make the long dark a more and more fascinating game with long time motivation to play it. The game has a lot of potential and i love it so far. Beside this food poisoning problem which really annoyed me from the beginning, when i realized that also 100% food can lead to it. So that is fixed as i have seen in the updates. Great work and thanks for that, cause that was really a motivation killer for me.

I just survived 7 days and a little bit, but i still want to share my first impressions, without having read all feedbacks, suggestions and ideas here yet. So be kind if i double post ideas. English is not my first language, so hopefully i can clarify my feedback so that you guys understand what i mean.

Lets start with the start and one big plus of TLD is the immersion, i really like that. So i dont understand why the start is so unspectacular yet. I am there. Thats it. What i would prefer is that i wake up, the area around me gets clear and sharp slowly. There is a plane wreck behind me, its burning, i am there, and now it is clear why i am there in the wilderness. So there is a new spot, the plane wreck at the spawning point. With my backpack inside, maybe a dead pilot or whatever the true story is behind TLD.

In real life, my first thing would be to get a weapon, something to defend myself. And i think in the canadian wilderness, there should be at least a lot of branches, pieces of wood from the forest floor to have at least something in my hands to stroke. And with a knife or my hands and some fire, it should be possible to make a solid spear out of it which is not impressive, but a first start to fight the wilderness. I miss this kind of reality, even if there is no influence on how difficult wolve fights are. Keep it like it is, but i have my stick in my hands. Just for the immersion and the plausibility.

The following first hours in TLD are very good, on the run to find a save place and things which are useful to survive. Thats fun. The wolves feel a little bit wrong. They are lonesome hunters and it feels like they are scripted, placed on spots just to bring another danger into TLD beside food poisoning and the other reasons to die. I think its hard to implement a natural behavior of an animal which lives in a pack. But of course if it would work, it would be perfect. My idea of interesting animals to be a danger for the long dark would be a puma, a sneaky murder who waits maybe on trees to jump on his victims. Another one is the bear. I think the only living animal who actively would hunt a human even over miles.

And it would be interesting to treat the different bears with the right behavior to survive (Black Bear, Brown Bear).

The Lantern. I like it. But there is no real need to use it, beside this little warmth bonus, as i see it in the moment. What i would like to see is, that there is a big time malus when i harvest clothes in the dark. So the lantern would become a benefit. Its funny that there is a scissor sound when harvesting without such a tool. Also cloth should have a bigger effect on TLD, if there is one, i have not recognized it yet. Like different boots, different walk speed. But maybe heavy boots have a malus on long walks. And boots in bad shape should have a negative influence on long walks. Making a fire in one of these small fishing huts should have an effect on the fishing hole, so it is not 100% frozen anymore.

I was shocked when i read that there is a chance to survive 20 days without cheating. Thats not my goal when i play a sandbox game like TLD. I want to have the chance to die at old age when i am playing it good, have a little bit luck (no fluffy in the dam, like the first time i visited it :-) ) and when my strategy is good.

So i hate the game mechanism that i will die at blood poisioning one day in the future cause there are not enough antibiotics. Permanent respawning of such things is no option, that would be not a good decision. My favorite thought on this would be that there are alternative ways to heal blood poisioning. My idea are several plants on the map which can respawn of course. So unlimited resources at a certain amount. The clou would be that there is a new combination of these plants will create the cure for food poisioning or a antiseptic creme for every new game. Maybe there are also plants which are toxic. Of course u can use the try and error method, but maybe there are books to find with recipes. One page here, a drawing there and so on. So its again the need of exploration to find the alternatives to antibiotics. And u will have to find the tools to make the recipe. And again, the right combination of the plants will be random for each game.

I would love that.

What i really like is the way the game leads the player with help of open eyes and the nature. Like the ravens who lead to a corpse or frozen deer. Would love to see more things like that. Footprints of animal to follow for hunting. Or to run away if its the footprint of a big grizzly or if there are baby bears around.

Getting wet wood out directly in the forest which is hard to use for a campfire. Burning times depending on type of wood and moisture and of course about amount in kg. The need of small pieces of wood to make a fire without tinder. Or to collect fir cones to use as tinder.

No clock. Maybe u can read the sun to know the time. But please no digital clock at the inventory. Let the darkness be a surprising part.

The possibility to watch out of houses, see the weather, see a fox hunting a rabbit so that the player can take the chance to get a quick food. I want to get one of these smaller backpacks with me to pack it for a small day exploration walk.

Let me put different outfits in the wardrobe to choose from when i have a nice base camp. Its warm today, so i take the thin sweater, cause its warm outside and this will increase my walking speed instead of the heavy cloths.

Maybe its possible to predict the weather if the player watches carefully the clouds and the wind direction. Maybe all rabbits disappear in their holes if a blizzard will come soon.

What about hygiene? 20 days without body washing should have a negative effect. :-) So lets cook warm water for that. And please give us some soap.

I would love to see a multiplayer. But just a small one with friends. Maybe 4 as a maximum. A multiplayer would be great when there is no possibility to shoot each other and get robbed. Thats why i would like it in LAN or just small private servers.

Thats it for the first time. I will definately enjoy a few more hours of the long dark.

Have fun.