New Game Start Times

[lauren]

I didn't find any other threads on this...so I just want to bring it up: I've been giving this game a few goes, just starting over - dying in some horrible way to make sure there are no obvious bugs...but one thing I occasionally run across is:

Having my new game start in the dead of night. Talking 10pm-3am time frame.

I've had at least 10 of my starts begin in pitch black.

If I were a new player who is just picking up TLD for the first time and my start was a pitch black screen with a white dot I'd feel it was a pretty terrible first touch game experience.

[ChillPlayer]

Well, unfortunately people don't have the ability yet to decide when a plane will crash, other than trying to kill themselfs but that would make them not a very good protagonist for a survival setting

It can get even worse, I've been spawned several times in a blizzard but I welcome it, for it means that almost certainly no wolves will be at Derailement and the way to Camp Office is clear - if you can find the way that is.

Besides, this is alpha sandbox, I'm sure the final story version will be more welcoming to new players.

[lauren]

People are so negative to end user enjoyment feedback.

Of course the user cannot select what time they crash; but I am simply pointing out that the LP/TD should possibly take a closer look at when they decided to start players.

I've personally started at midnight in a blizzard, but this thread isn't about what I welcome or what you welcome. It's a simple statement that first time users will be turned off if started in unplayable conditions such as, essentially, being blind.

Besides, this is alpha sandbox, I'm sure the final story version will be more welcoming to new players.

Well, not to point out the obvious but...feedback is what makes those changes happen. It's lines of thought such as this "Oh they'll just fix it" that leaves user annoyance in games...it's in the game right now because 1. they haven't reached the decision in their development cycle yet, or 2. they simply decided they didn't care, or 3. it's an oversight.

It's not in there because it's an alpha sandbox.

[FoneBoneJay]

New player 1 plays the game, chose stalker, spawned at night caught in a bliZard, died. tried stalker again, died.

New player 2 plays the game, chose stalker, spawned at night caught in a bliZard, died. tried voyageur, survived 50 days.

Its just logic. new player 1 is an idiot for still choosing the most difficult setting, and new player 2 is smart for not choosing the most difficult setting on his second try. Now, can we close the thread. :D

Why is this forum loaded with Pricks? Answer than then close the thread.

[spindrift]

I agree. There's really no reason to have to start a game in the middle of the night. It doesn't bother me now but I remember when I first started playing it was super annoying. And to opeth, it happens even on voyager mode, and has been happening since before the introduction of stalker/voyager modes.

[The_Hawk35]

Interestingly I've never started at night in Voyager mode. at dawn or at sunset, in a blizzard yes, but never in the dark.

[chanrobi]

I really don't think you should be allowed to pick and choose either weather, or time of day in stalker mode. This is what makes it exciting.

[elloco999]

It's not about picking when you start, it's about the random start time being limited to times you can actually see something. Lauren is right, a new player starting in the dark will most likely not survive until daylight. Not a great starting experience.

On the other hand, experienced players don't mind starting in the dark, and may even like it. This could be linked to the difficulty setting. Maybe only let people start in the dark on stalker?

Btw even if we can't decide when a plane will crash, it's very plausible that you wouldn't be flying during the night. For starters it requires special training before you're allowed to fly at night. And Will would be flying in the middle of nowhere, without many lit places on the ground to help with navigation. He would be flying on his instruments alone, needing to keep to a high altitude to prevent crashing into a mountain. This is not the kind of terrain you would want to fly over in the dark. Accidents do happen even without natural (or not so natural) disasters bringing you down.

[ChillPlayer]

that's my point I made in my first reply: you don't have the comfort to chose when you crash, either you can deal with it or not. Btw, IIRC the plane in "Grey" crashed at night too, but Liam Neeson didn't quit the movie then, he continued on

Being spawned at night is not the worst thing the game can throw at you, I was yesterday spawned 20 feet away from a wolf, the loading screen was still black when I heard the alarming "wuff wuff wuff". So what? Grab your feets and run When I was new to the game I used to hit escape and quit the game in these situations. Now after 500 days or more in Stalker I simply take what I get.

Yes some new player might get alianated by this, as they will be the first time they get jumped by a wolf, get caught by a blizzard in a forrest, didn't find a sewing kit and so on... I highly doubt that a player who is only willing to play the game when he starts in bright condition 10am on a sunny day will continue on much longer.

Or just see it this way: once you've overcome being spawend during the night in a blizzard hunted by a wolf you have a real good story to tell, maybe it's even good enough for a movie (Greeeey )

[Rongeur]

It's not about picking when you start, it's about the random start time being limited to times you can actually see something. Lauren is right, a new player starting in the dark will most likely not survive until daylight. Not a great starting experience.

On the other hand, experienced players don't mind starting in the dark, and may even like it. This could be linked to the difficulty setting. Maybe only let people start in the dark on stalker?

Btw even if we can't decide when a plane will crash, it's very plausible that you wouldn't be flying during the night. For starters it requires special training before you're allowed to fly at night. And Will would be flying in the middle of nowhere, without many lit places on the ground to help with navigation. He would be flying on his instruments alone, needing to keep to a high altitude to prevent crashing into a mountain. This is not the kind of terrain you would want to fly over in the dark. Accidents do happen even without natural (or not so natural) disasters bringing you down.

Agreed, on all counts. I actually personally kinda enjoy starting in ridiculous conditions (blizzard, midnight, blizzard at midnight), but I can definitely see how it'd be a turnoff to new players. It's definitely survivable, but only if you have a decent idea of where you're going, or at least how to tell when you've reached a road - something that takes a couple of runs to develop.

Plus, it is a bit unlikely that our protag would be flying his/her small aircraft all alone, in the dead of the night, above the mountainous wilderness, without at least having some actual survival gear. (Or at least something warmer than a $&%!*@ pair of jeans )

[lauren]

New player 1 plays the game, chose stalker, spawned at night caught in a bliZard, died. tried stalker again, died.

New player 2 plays the game, chose stalker, spawned at night caught in a bliZard, died. tried voyageur, survived 50 days.

Its just logic. new player 1 is an idiot for still choosing the most difficult setting, and new player 2 is smart for not choosing the most difficult setting on his second try. Now, can we close the thread. :D

This happens on all difficulties...so, it's really nothing to do with the intellect of players.

Plus, it is a bit unlikely that our protag would be flying his/her small aircraft all alone, in the dead of the night, above the mountainous wilderness, without at least having some actual survival gear. (Or at least something warmer than a $&%!*@ pair of jeans )

I agree here, and I wanted to comment on it in my original post, but I'm no pilot, and am not overtly familiar with pilot etiquette so I didn't really feel like I had the place to say.

[elloco999]

Plus, it is a bit unlikely that our protag would be flying his/her small aircraft all alone, in the dead of the night, above the mountainous wilderness, without at least having some actual survival gear. (Or at least something warmer than a $&%!*@ pair of jeans )

The all alone part would make sense as bush pilots often fly all alone. But I don't think there are many pilots who would go flying over such terrain in the night if they didn't absolutely have to.

Pilots are required to carry a survival kit on board when flying in Canada (scroll down for Canadian regulations, Alaskan regulations are listed first), but the current regulations are left open to interpretation. Of course, any sensible pilot would carry a good kit if they regularly fly over remote area's, like bush pilots do.

But that survival kit could have been lost in the crash, and I suppose so could have been Will's jacket if he'd taken that off.

Personally, I'd wear weather appropriate clothing and carry a basic survival kit on my body if I was a bush pilot and have a more elaborate kit somewhere in the plane where I could easily get to it in an emergency. Even then it's possible you'd loose it, if for instance if the plane is on fire after the crash. But at least I'd have the stuff I'd keep on me.

[Rongeur]

Plus, it is a bit unlikely that our protag would be flying his/her small aircraft all alone, in the dead of the night, above the mountainous wilderness, without at least having some actual survival gear. (Or at least something warmer than a $&%!*@ pair of jeans )

The all alone part would make sense as bush pilots often fly all alone. But I don't think there are many pilots who would go flying over such terrain in the night if they didn't absolutely have to.

Pilots are required to carry a survival kit on board when flying in Canada (scroll down for Canadian regulations, Alaskan regulations are listed first), but the current regulations are left open to interpretation. Of course, any sensible pilot would carry a good kit if they regularly fly over remote area's, like bush pilots do.

But that survival kit could have been lost in the crash, and I suppose so could have been Will's jacket if he'd taken that off.

Personally, I'd wear weather appropriate clothing and carry a basic survival kit on my body if I was a bush pilot and have a more elaborate kit somewhere in the plane where I could easily get to it in an emergency. Even then it's possible you'd loose it, if for instance if the plane is on fire after the crash. But at least I'd have the stuff I'd keep on me.

I agree that none of the individual elements are that unlikely; even the combination of one or two of them (flying alone without warm clothing, or flying at night without a survival kit, for instance) would be a bit careless, but understandable. But when you take the whole thing in combination, it leads one to conclude that our protagonist, bless his/her heart, is either suicidally reckless or dumb as dirt.

[The_Hawk35]

Ya know this is the sandbox. I expect the story will likely fill in some of the other factors. Maybe where the sandbox is is a couple of days post crash? Maybe the plane crashed into the train bridge in the ravine and that's why you don't have everything?

Who knows it could be any number of reasons.

[lauren]

Ya know this is the sandbox. I expect the story will likely fill in some of the other factors. Maybe where the sandbox is is a couple of days post crash? Maybe the plane crashed into the train bridge in the ravine and that's why you don't have everything?

What?! This is a Sandbox?! No, no way! So, is that what selecting 'Sandbox' from the start menu does, huh?

Puts me in a limited version of the game?

Where I can play around with the mechanics?

And give feedback on what I feel about the game in its current state?

In hopes of helping the development team make decisions on certain aspects and elements in the game?

Yes, I do know this is a sandbox...I'm just not certain you know it's a sandbox.

[ChillPlayer]

It really does not make much sense to try to understand what happend to our protagonist in this early stage, there is not even a plane wreck so for all we know it could be his plane crashed on a sunny island and was sucked into a wormwhole that spit him out in Canada. There's already a "mysterious geomagnetic" event, if you were lucky enough to have seen the one season of Siberia you might guess where I'm coming from.

I see though that at least pilgrim could always start in good and nice conditions so new players can get familiar with the game, if you want to see it as sort of a tutorial.

But... sandbox is not the target mode for this game, it's the story mode (I think?) and I'm pretty sure the start of the story will be more welcoming to new players. Once story is implemented chances are rather small that a completely new player will first try the sandbox. Most likely they will play the story and only when they've played it through will they begin a new game in sandbox. By then, starting during night shouldn't be an issue anymore.

So why should the devs do something for the half dozen new players that might get alienated by something trivial like being spawned during night if they know that soon this will have no relevance at all?

[elloco999]

It really does not make much sense to try to understand what happend to our protagonist in this early stage, there is not even a plane wreck so for all we know it could be his plane crashed on a sunny island and was sucked into a wormwhole that spit him out in Canada. There's already a "mysterious geomagnetic" event, if you were lucky enough to have seen the one season of Siberia you might guess where I'm coming from.

Just because we will play Will McKenzie, bush pilot, in the story mode doesn't mean we play Will in the sandbox as well. We can be anyone we want to in the sandbox.

And no matter who we are, the game doesn't give you any explanation as to why you are suddenly standing in the middle of these snow covered Canadian mountains, or how we got there.

At least in the story mode, there will be a reason as to why you start where and when you start and how you got there. In the sandbox, you are just there. No reason whatsoever.

So why should the devs do something for the half dozen new players that might get alienated by something trivial like being spawned during night if they know that soon this will have no relevance at all?

Why would the devs not do something for the much more than half a dozen players that would like to not start in the middle of the night if it's a very simple thing to do?

Right now there should be a little piece of code that determines at what time of day you start. It's already limited to 0 - 23 hours and 0 - 59 minutes. So change 0 - 23 hours to 6 - 20 hours and voila. A bunch of players happy by making a change that takes 5 minutes.

[ChillPlayer]

Why would the devs not do something for the much more than half a dozen players that would like to not start in the middle of the night if it's a very simple thing to do?

Because reading this thread only a handfull of people really have an issue with this, most people don't care and some (as I) actually welcome that they don't know in which conditions they are thrown in. It's not something all players want.

Having said that, my initial point got completely ignored but it's relevant: if a new player throws the game in the corner just because he got spawned at night, he will do the same the first time he dies in a blizzard. "Oh stupid game, sunny weather and in 2 seconds there's a blizzard....".

And I'm with Bill on this one: as he has stated several times, how do you know what a simple change is? For you it looks simple, I think it's rather not that easy. Now you have a world that has a clock that goes 24hours. The engine just drops you into this world no matter which time it is. If the engine should drop you into the world only on certain times it has to actually first know which time it is in the world (i.e. code has to be written, most likely first an interface has to be created).

Fastforward, your whish has been granted and new players are only spawned between 9am and 6pm. Now the next new player complains: Uh uh I was spawned in the middle of a blizzard, can't the devs adjust the engine so we get only spawned in good conditions? After that is made, the next player was spawned right by a wolf.... you see what I mean?

It's simple: the game throws you into a harsh environment that has only the goal to kill you. Either you can deal with that or not. I'd go so far to say that it's even better if a new player get's spawned at night, maybe even during a blizzard and a wolf nearby, so he won't get the idea that this will be easy. I know I bring it up alot but in Dark Souls you encountered your first boss 5 mins in the game and you didn't survive the fight for more than 5 sec. Now that's not welcoming to new players lol . But it also tells a very strong message: This is no pony ride.

Mind you, those players that kick the game into trash because they don't like being spawned at night bring little to no value to the game. They'll play it for some hours and gone they are. People who love the game for what it is, tell all their friends about it's awesomenes, give constant feedback in the forum, make videos, blog posts and spread the word by any means are the ones that carry the success of the game. So ask yourself if you'd be in hinterlands position: which crowd do you want to entertaine?

[EDIT]long text and still forgot to say something: I really don't know what the devs have in mind, given how the game was made a lot easier with every update, you might well be heard maybe even during the next update. I personally though think the game is already on the verge to become too easy, it's actually time to make (at least Stalker) a bit more of an effort

[Greavette]

I've only started in the dark once and it was surprisingly awsome! It was freezing and I had no idea where I was...no Idea! That was an exciting challenge to stay alive...one of my favorite starts actually.

P.S. Don't get bent out of shape about what people say or think about you...Unless someone's got a knife to your throat, words don't mean too much.

[chicks]

ok guys im sorry. but seriously, this is a survival game, so the odds are your plane may or may have not crashlanded in the middle of the night. the devs programmed it that way. this game was won by the masses because of its unique style of gameplay on a different genre. if you always spawn in the brightest of day this will not be a true survival game but rather just the normal mundayne common game that has been around for ages. and thats how this game was known and critically acclaimed for, its straight survival. straight answer. il go straight to bed now. ZZZZZZzzz

If we start in such a context, I would expect the plane to have some fuel remaining, to burn or at least provide some form of shelter, have wind blocking mechanism implemented, etc etc. In short, this is still alpha. Starting at night don't bring anything interesting outside a harder start and a need for knowing the map beforehand.

[chicks]

Why would the devs not do something for the much more than half a dozen players that would like to not start in the middle of the night if it's a very simple thing to do?

Because reading this thread only a handfull of people really have an issue with this, most people don't care and some (as I) actually welcome that they don't know in which conditions they are thrown in. It's not something all players want.

Having said that, my initial point got completely ignored but it's relevant: if a new player throws the game in the corner just because he got spawned at night, he will do the same the first time he dies in a blizzard. "Oh stupid game, sunny weather and in 2 seconds there's a blizzard....".

And I'm with Bill on this one: as he has stated several times, how do you know what a simple change is? For you it looks simple, I think it's rather not that easy. Now you have a world that has a clock that goes 24hours. The engine just drops you into this world no matter which time it is. If the engine should drop you into the world only on certain times it has to actually first know which time it is in the world (i.e. code has to be written, most likely first an interface has to be created).

Fastforward, your whish has been granted and new players are only spawned between 9am and 6pm. Now the next new player complains: Uh uh I was spawned in the middle of a blizzard, can't the devs adjust the engine so we get only spawned in good conditions? After that is made, the next player was spawned right by a wolf.... you see what I mean?

It's simple: the game throws you into a harsh environment that has only the goal to kill you. Either you can deal with that or not. I'd go so far to say that it's even better if a new player get's spawned at night, maybe even during a blizzard and a wolf nearby, so he won't get the idea that this will be easy. I know I bring it up alot but in Dark Souls you encountered your first boss 5 mins in the game and you didn't survive the fight for more than 5 sec. Now that's not welcoming to new players lol . But it also tells a very strong message: This is no pony ride.

Mind you, those players that kick the game into trash because they don't like being spawned at night bring little to no value to the game. They'll play it for some hours and gone they are. People who love the game for what it is, tell all their friends about it's awesomenes, give constant feedback in the forum, make videos, blog posts and spread the word by any means are the ones that carry the success of the game. So ask yourself if you'd be in hinterlands position: which crowd do you want to entertaine?

[EDIT]long text and still forgot to say something: I really don't know what the devs have in mind, given how the game was made a lot easier with every update, you might well be heard maybe even during the next update. I personally though think the game is already on the verge to become too easy, it's actually time to make (at least Stalker) a bit more of an effort

Whoa whoa there coding this IS simple if they already have an internal clock in the game (and I'm fairly convinced that there is one and that the start time is defined at some point.....By fairly certain I mean 100000% certain)... Just set it to reroll the random if it falls outside the appreciated range. I may be just a junior, but I can still say it : trust me, I'm a software engineer.

[Lux]

And no matter who we are, the game doesn't give you any explanation as to why you are suddenly standing in the middle of these snow covered Canadian mountains, or how we got there.

Um... did you read the text on the screen before the game starts? Your plane went down in a geomagnetic event?

Are you sURe the "game doesn't give you any explanation"?

At least in the story mode, there will be a reason as to why you start where and when you start and how you got there. In the sandbox, you are just there. No reason whatsoever.

Err um?

Why would the devs not do something for the much more than half a dozen players that would like to not start in the middle of the night if it's a very simple thing to do?

Right now there should be a little piece of code that determines at what time of day you start. It's already limited to 0 - 23 hours and 0 - 59 minutes. So change 0 - 23 hours to 6 - 20 hours and voila. A bunch of players happy by making a change that takes 5 minutes.

A bad change at that. Can you control when a geomagnetic event happens? Do you decide? I don't believe you do or can. You are given what you're given and you have to make the best of it.

The BEST moments in the game are when you are not in control. When you can't see in front of you. When you don't know where you are. When don't have what you need. If you don't believe that, we're not playing the same game.

Knowing where everything is on the map ruins the game and the spirit of the game completely. It should be something you learn on your own over time, tribulation, and trial. Not by reading a post on the internet where someone posted a map with item spawns. Wow, wouldn't it be nice if people didn't post such things. One can dream.

[Lux]

Having my new game start in the dead of night. Talking 10pm-3am time frame.

I've had at least 10 of my starts begin in pitch black.

If I were a new player who is just picking up TLD for the first time and my start was a pitch black screen with a white dot I'd feel it was a pretty terrible first touch game experience.

I'd say if a new player installs a game named, "The Long Dark", and their first time loading in to the world was pitch black, they should have expected it. If they didn't expect it, they're playing the wrong game.

"Holy crap! What do I do!"... you figure out what to do or you die. That is part of the charm of the game and also part of the reward when you dO actually figure out what to do. Its an achievement in-and-of-itself without getting an in-game pop-up achievement patting you on the back like a child. YOU survived the night! YOU figured out what you needed to do! It is its own reward.

I don't think there is anything at_all that needs altered with the start of the game.

[Bill Tarling]

Except perhaps for Pilgrim mode, restricting the random start time or weather conditions would defeat some of the interesting replay aspects of the game. Just as you're excited when you start off in a gorgeous beautiful day right near your favorite spawn point vs. dark nasty weather and realizing you've got to jump in full speed and have your work cut out for you right from the opening spawn.

Yes, new player may not like the dark because they don't know the area yet - but again, it's luck of the draw (and no hand holding). Some players would say make it great conditions for 'x' number of rounds so they get to know the game - but that 'x' figure would be different for each player - and again, it defeats the randomness aspect for replays. You either jump in enjoying this type of game challenge, or you possibly turn to something else more along the lines of what you want... but just because a new player starts in the dark, doesn't mean they're doomed from the start...

ESC >> QUIT >> Start a new Sandbox [i.e. consider it a reroll when first learning the game].

If the devs decided to add additional options into the game later for separate selections of game options, then fine - but remember that a lot will depend on cost [time and programming budget] vs. overall value returned.

It sometimes takes a dozen or so games [and deaths] to get a good feel for how the game works - and that's part of the learning curve. Those who have played for more than an hour or two, and have experienced the thrill of quickly recognizing where you've spawned even in the middle of the night know that it can be a very unusual and rewarding feeling in gaming.

[elloco999]

Why would the devs not do something for the much more than half a dozen players that would like to not start in the middle of the night if it's a very simple thing to do?

Because reading this thread only a handfull of people really have an issue with this, most people don't care and some (as I) actually welcome that they don't know in which conditions they are thrown in. It's not something all players want.

Having said that, my initial point got completely ignored but it's relevant: if a new player throws the game in the corner just because he got spawned at night, he will do the same the first time he dies in a blizzard. "Oh stupid game, sunny weather and in 2 seconds there's a blizzard....".

And I'm with Bill on this one: as he has stated several times, how do you know what a simple change is? For you it looks simple, I think it's rather not that easy. Now you have a world that has a clock that goes 24hours. The engine just drops you into this world no matter which time it is. If the engine should drop you into the world only on certain times it has to actually first know which time it is in the world (i.e. code has to be written, most likely first an interface has to be created).

Fastforward, your whish has been granted and new players are only spawned between 9am and 6pm. Now the next new player complains: Uh uh I was spawned in the middle of a blizzard, can't the devs adjust the engine so we get only spawned in good conditions? After that is made, the next player was spawned right by a wolf.... you see what I mean?

It's simple: the game throws you into a harsh environment that has only the goal to kill you. Either you can deal with that or not. I'd go so far to say that it's even better if a new player get's spawned at night, maybe even during a blizzard and a wolf nearby, so he won't get the idea that this will be easy. I know I bring it up alot but in Dark Souls you encountered your first boss 5 mins in the game and you didn't survive the fight for more than 5 sec. Now that's not welcoming to new players lol . But it also tells a very strong message: This is no pony ride.

Mind you, those players that kick the game into trash because they don't like being spawned at night bring little to no value to the game. They'll play it for some hours and gone they are. People who love the game for what it is, tell all their friends about it's awesomenes, give constant feedback in the forum, make videos, blog posts and spread the word by any means are the ones that carry the success of the game. So ask yourself if you'd be in hinterlands position: which crowd do you want to entertaine?

[EDIT]long text and still forgot to say something: I really don't know what the devs have in mind, given how the game was made a lot easier with every update, you might well be heard maybe even during the next update. I personally though think the game is already on the verge to become too easy, it's actually time to make (at least Stalker) a bit more of an effort

Just because there are only a few people active in this thread doesn't mean there are only a few people who would care about it. The majority of players isn't even on this forum after all and then there are the many many people who haven't played the game yet but are going to in the future...

You're absolutely right that players shouldn't give up just because you have a bad start. If they do, this game simply isn't for them. But that doesn't mean the game should give you an impossible start. For a new player especially, if you start in the dark you can't even see what you can do, you don't know any of the controls yet etc. The game's learning curve is steep enough without doing that to a new player.

And you're also right that I don't know how the game is written. I was going to add that in my previous post, because I knew that would be slapped back in my face, but I decided it was more important to try and catch my train (I did btw). But if limiting the starting time to a certain time span is very difficult to do, that just might be an indication to the devs that they may have over complicated their engine. Now I know that it's going to take more than 5 min to do this correctly and do it based on either difficulty or a setting. But I doubt very much this is is difficult task for an experienced team of developers such as Hinterland.

Now you have a world that has a clock that goes 24hours. But that world didn't just appear out of thin air, it got generated by the engine. And the time in that world isn't magically set to some time, it's the engine that generates a random time within a 24 hour period. And only after that it drops you in it. So the engine can also limit that time to whatever the devs want it to and then drop you into the world.

I see exactly where this will be going if it gets implemented. And personally I don't think that's a bad thing. I think spawning in the middle of a blizzard is okay. Spawning next to a couple of wolfs isn't. But I don't think the devs purposely designed the game to start you in such conditions. They just let the engine create the world including time, weather and wildlife and then you get spawned somewhere. That was enough for the initial game, right. They just haven't gotten around to fine tuning this. Taking into account things like time of day, the location of all wolfs and possibly even weather will likely be part of that fine tuning. Starting next to a wolf and getting killed before the loading screen disappears might give you (as an experienced player) a laugh the first time (omg, this must be the shortest run ever! lol), but it wouldn't be very funny anymore if this were to happen 3 times in a row or every 3rd game you start. Like I said, this game is hard enough without making you're start even more difficult.

And that's the feedback myself and others are giving here, in the feedback forum. I'm not saying this should be implemented for everyone, or even that it should be implemented at all. I'm just saying that the way it is working now is not for everyone and that it might be something the devs want to take a look at at some point.

If the game's only purpose would be to kill you, they could simply spawn you above the ravine, or way out on the thin ice. You're dead right away, mission accomplished every time. But oh, wait. It's a game, not a dying sim. It needs to be fun... And for it to be fun, you need to give the player a chance. Spawning a new player in the middle of the night, in a blizzard in the middle of a pack of wolves with no clothes, medical supplies or tools might not be the best way to make it fun. Off course there may be some people who would relish that challenge but those are few and far between so it might not be in Hinterlands best interest to only try to entertain those people. Even in Dark Souls you get at least 5 minutes before you encounter the first boss. He's not there waiting for you the second you start.

To get to love the game for what it is, you first need to get to play it. If I were hinterland, I'd want to entertain as many people as I possibly could. I'm not saying they should change the things an experienced player may like just so the newcomers have it easier. I actually made that point in my first post in this thread. And that's not necessary either. Introducing the different difficulty modes was the first step to make the game accessible to a more varied public. This could be a continuation of the road taken.