People getting bored by the game need to understand this

[ChillPlayer]

There are a lot of discussions going on where people complain that the game get's boring once you're set up and it isn't a challenge anymore. Because I am repeating myself too much I decided to make this thread in hope that people will realize that they are only playing half of the game.

A typicall TLD run has 3 phases:

1. The gather & explore phase in the beginning, where you first need to get all the stuff you need, craft all clothes, visit all huts. For most people this is the amazing part.

2. The settling phase. Getting meat becomes a weekly routine, not much exploring is done because you've seen it all, you sleep/eat for weeks and begin to think you "own" the game now, it's boring and no more challenge.

For many players the game ends here, completely evading the most thrilling phase of the game:

3. The run-out-of-everything phase. This is the most important part of the game because all your decisions you made in phase 1 and 2 will be tested here. If you quit (intentionally) before you run out of important supplies like ammo, tools and kits you can tell yourself you are a good survivor but you really don't know because you didn't play it out.

I understand the need for more "going on" in the 2nd phase, I have posted some suggestions myself on how to spice up this phase, there are dozens of other ideas out there and I am confident that the devs will find a way to address this issue. Until then you can try to do what I do: burn as quickly as possible through the second phase and welcome the new challenges the last phase holds for you.

A big part of any survival situation is the ability to plan ahead for more dire times which ultimately will come. At it's current state this point in stalker lies anywhere between 100 and 200 days for most people, depending on how good you managed your ressources (and how lucky you were when loot was spawned). If you really want to test your self, try to survive at least as many days as you had ammo and a rifle. I didn't succeed in this yet but it's my goal when ever I begin a new Stalker game and it's what keeps me trying over and over again

[TLDFAN]

We need more things to do in the phase after day 10-20 and 100-200 days. We need more things to craft, more things to effect survival. You can't just warm air earth water fire it. We need more tools, more ways of making tools, more aids to create the sustainable experience. Indefinite survival is possible (of course until old age creeps in but old age is not 100-200 days in the wild.) There is just lots of depth missing. You can't fault players for playing the part of the game that provides the most reward return for time spent. It is a diminishing return in the middle phase and that is why you have players dumping and running. The bad part about that is the whole dump and run pattern leads to people simply leaving the game to go play other stuff.

[Bill Tarling]

You also have to remember that this isn't the whole game, it's only setting in some initial mechanics and activities. I think a lot of players tend to forget that these levels aren't the finished version simply because they're already so playable.

As more maps and areas are created, and new stuff added/changed/tweaked/removed; things will be filled in for longer play targets and activities. When closer to the finished version of the content, then the devs will also be fine tuning the balances and motivations.

Just because players can use hibernation and hoarding techniques now, doesn't mean those approaches will be available in all future versions... when they get to it (higher priority stuff is in place), the devs will make the necessary adjustments to fit their bigger vision and intention for the total sandbox play.

[Bill Tarling]

15 regions planned guys

I've looked around, but haven't seen any kind of official announcement from Hinterland saying there are specifically 15 sandbox regions planned. Would you happen to have the link to the announcement please?

[Jeremy JPOW Powell]

And by Dollars I mean Regions.

Jeremy

[ChillPlayer]

I actually think to remember that I've read also something about 15 regions being planed, but I don't know where or if my mind is only playing tricks of wishful thinking rightnow

[TLDFAN]

And by Dollars I mean Regions.

Jeremy

Very slick! Bring it!

[TLDFAN]

remember this is just the 3rd region out of 15 regions planned guys, also more wildlife, more content, fun fun fun, unlike Dayz which is kill kill kill eff that game :D

I played the Day-Z Alpha. It was gawdawful! Compared to that TLD is a finished game. The only thing DZ had going for it was multiplayer but even that sucked.

[elloco999]

And by Dollars I mean Regions.

Jeremy

I'll take that for an official announcement!

[Jeremy JPOW Powell]

Sarcasm is so hard to get across via memes and text... Maybe in like 40 years we will have 1 Million Regions. Maybe...

Jeremy

[Hylander]

15 regions planned guys

I've looked around, but haven't seen any kind of official announcement from Hinterland saying there are specifically 15 sandbox regions planned. Would you happen to have the link to the announcement please?

The earliest mention I saw was this:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/305620/discussions/0/617319460748343014/#c617319460790059287

[Bill Tarling]

The earliest mention I saw was this:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/305620/discussions/0/617319460748343014/#c617319460790059287

Thanks - I'll check with TattooedMac to find out where that specific number of maps came from, and I'll check with Raph and the studio to see if that's the official count I should pass along to streamers.

Thanks again for the link, tat helps (I don't read through much of the Steam forum)

[ChillPlayer]

You also have to remember that this isn't the whole game, it's only setting in some initial mechanics and activities. I think a lot of players tend to forget that these levels aren't the finished version simply because they're already so playable.

That is very true but I intentionally omited to play the "it's only alpha" card, it's been played to much (which does not make it any less true) and people tend to discard this as a reason. My point of the post was therefore to show that in its current state there are already challenges and more importantly, there is an actual endgame, phase 3 as I call it. I mostly see people getting bored by the game that didn't even manage to get to 100 days, they are in the middle of phase 2 and think this is it now, forever until they harakiri themselfs.

Btw on my current run I am trying to work around the boredom of phase 2, simply by mixing uo the sleep/eat cycle with exploration. I'm back on the island but now I only shoot a maximum of two deer/wolves, go explore one location in CH and come back to sleep/eat for a week. When that week is passed I continue to the next location.

So ultimately I'm trying to mix phase 1 and 2. Which is not the most efficient way to play it but I have a firestriker so matches won't be a trouble (as long as I can repair it that is ). Of course once I've visited all locations I will be back to boring phase 2 only, but I hope that by then I'll be way beyond day 100 with a maximum of 10-15 bullets left.

[elloco999]

Sarcasm is so hard to get across via memes and text... Maybe in like 40 years we will have 1 Million Regions. Maybe...

Jeremy

The sarcasm wasn't lost on me, so I replied in kind.

[John Dow]

So ultimately I'm trying to mix phase 1 and 2. Which is not the most efficient way to play it

Oh I am doing that as well and as I see it, it is the most efficient way to play, because the things you will find one after another, will last much longer as if you would loot everything at the beginning.

[ChillPlayer]

This was ment regarding scarcity of matches. It's more efficient to get 3 deer/wolf combos, make one fire and cook 40kg of meat in one go than making a fire after every hunt. This way you take the maximum out of the few matches, but that's only a concern if you plan to survive for 200+ days.

[JErosion]

And by Dollars I mean Regions.

Jeremy

If there were a million regions we would be able to walk from where it is cold to somewhere tropical 8-)

[John Dow]

This was ment regarding scarcity of matches. It's more efficient to get 3 deer/wolf combos, make one fire and cook 40kg of meat in one go than making a fire after every hunt. This way you take the maximum out of the few matches, but that's only a concern if you plan to survive for 200+ days.

Ah yes, I forgot you don't use the hibernation

[ChillPlayer]

No, although I'm aware of this "technique" I refuse to use it. If I wanted to cheat the game I could always fireup a hexeditor

[John Dow]

Of course it is not a cheat. It only isn't balanced very well, as discussed before. There only should remain some long term effect, which could be healed as well (body constitution).

I guess I would do something like that in real life too, if I knew the chances to survive would raise the longer I would stay alive.

But nice to see we have different approaches and therefore different experiences within the game, which both make sense and minimize the boring times

[ChillPlayer]

Yes I know that it is valid to do so but it just feels to me like this is something that should be fixed. It's not a terrible issue, once you're out of wrapped food and back to venison it doesn't actually matter much because you still need one piece a day. But yeah I didn't have to use it until now, I hope it stays that way

My current run is quite nice, I'm at day 94 and haven't felt very bored yet, longest I've sleep/eaten in a row is about 10 days and I am just now on my way to gaz station for the first time, waterfront and mountain area is next. Still have 21 bullets too and enough material for 5 complete sets, but again I find myself with only one sewing kit left. I hope this won't spoil a successful run for the second time and that I find one in the remaining buildings.