Clothing/Tools Degradation game mechanic

[zaggy]

I apologize for this being so long, but please give it a read. I really like this game and I am passionate about making it better and sharing my feedback with the developers and the community.

Disclaimer: I have based most of my info on this reddit thread, so if any of it is out of date, please feel free to correct me: http://www.reddit.com/r/thelongdark/com ... _longterm/

With that out of the way I wish to share that I find the clothing/tools degradation currently ingame a bit contrived and immersion breaking. Have a nice coat sitting in a closet somewhere? The moment you discover it and put it back – it starts degrading slowly over time. Find a can opener in a drawer somewhere? Put it back and it will still turn in to rust (even if not used at all) by day 100.

While I understand that the devs placed the degradation mechanic to balance the game I see the following problems:

-Immersion breaking, as I said, my clothes can stay in the closet for 10 years and be just fine. I can wear them for 5 years and still be fine. Same goes for my can opener, knife etc.

-It punishes different playstyles. For example some players, including me, do enjoy looting a certain area completely and storing stuff in a base location for later use. This is a completely viable strategy and should be influenced by other factors such as carry capacity, calorie usage, time management etc. However, currently it punishes players who do this and encourages just one strategy: piecemeal exploration. More options = more fun.

-It makes the game less fun. Some players discovered that taking off clothes inside and storing them makes them degrade more slowly. However, this introduces a mindless click-fest micromanagement hell every evening/morning if you want to maximize everything. This is not fun, but rather tedious. Allow the players to maximize value by making smart choices, not having them do repetitive boring actions all the time.

I suggest considering the following changes as I believe they will make the game more interesting:

-Turn off completely degradation for tools and clothes that are being stored or equipped in normal conditions (indoors, nice weather outdoors). Wearing a sweater at home and keeping a can opener or an antiseptic bottle on yourself shouldn’t really make it degrade in condition.

-To counter balance this, you can decrease the number of clothes/tools available in the game. This has the added benefit of decreasing the mindless loot, mule, harvest cycles that currently take place. Repetitive click-fests are not a fun or exciting game mechanic IMO. It will make it exciting when you find a good piece of clothing or a certain tool.

-There are still valid and cool reasons to degrade clothing condition: Wolf attacks, collecting lumber during the storm, falling through a cliff, getting burnt by a fire etc. Tools should degrade only when used. Same goes for first aid items.

There are still items which are not renewable and will eventually lead to your inevitable death, but these changes will give you more options and a more realistic and satisfying game experience.

Thanks for reading this far and I will be happy to hear some feedback on these ideas.

[Bill Tarling]

Which version are you playing?

As well, clothing decay is needed for gameplay... if clothes last 10+ years as in real life, then there would be no challenge or gameplay value if you never had to worry about your supplies.

[zaggy]

Which version are you playing?

As well, clothing decay is needed for gameplay... if clothes last 10+ years as in real life, then there would be no challenge or gameplay value if you never had to worry about your supplies.

My feedback is for version 170. I completely understand that this is in place for gameplay balance reasons.

Just to make sure if my point was not clear enough: I do NOT suggest making clothing permanent. It SHOULD still decay/get damaged from wolf attacks, snowstorms, gathering wood, falling, fire damage and even normal wear and tear.

However, I believe it should NOT degrade when being stored in a closet. It was not degrading before I discovered it and it should not degrade if I put it back or just keep it in another drawer or in my inventory (without wearing it).

We can still address gameplay/balance by decreasing the number of clothes available and have this more realistic behavior implemented. Also, as I mentioned earlier, it encourages different strategies to manage your loot.

[Bill Tarling]

My feedback is for version 170. I completely understand that this is in place for gameplay balance reasons.

Okay, that was the first introduction, so the mechanics and settings hadn't been tuned at all yet at that point...

Try it in the updated version (currently v.181 at the time of this post)

[zaggy]

My feedback is for version 170. I completely understand that this is in place for gameplay balance reasons.

Okay, that was the first introduction, so the mechanics and settings hadn't been tuned at all yet at that point...

Try it in the updated version (currently v.181 at the time of this post)

I will try it of course ..... as soon as I have some free time. I just wanted to get this pet-peeve off my chest, for what is otherwise an incredibly awesome game already.

[elloco999]

Personally I think the degradation while wearing clothes (aside from the effect bad weather had on clothes in v.170, hopefully this is better now) is okay. But I agree that clothes shouldn't degrade while they are stored in a container. The way I work around this now is to not go looting when I don't need anything, instead of bringing everything to my base to store it there.

[zaggy]

Personally I think the degradation while wearing clothes (aside from the effect bad weather had on clothes in v.170, hopefully this is better now) is okay. But I agree that clothes shouldn't degrade while they are stored in a container. The way I work around this now is to not go looting when I don't need anything, instead of bringing everything to my base to store it there.

Yeah, exactly! This strategy works of course, but apart from not being realistic, the current implementation forces you to go this way (at least if you want to maximize/optimize). Looting once and storing the loot for later is a perfectly viable alternative and you shouldn't be punished for it (apart from carrying capacity, calorie burn etc. and other valid gameplay reasons). More freedom to do stuff will make it more enjoyable for me.