As the game is created It strikes me as being a finite play.

[Annajam]

I know others may have thought about this as I did not start playing till April/2019 and this game has been around for a long time it seems based on comments and time stamps. But, I'll say it anyway. Once all the non- re-spawnable materials are used up in a region you are forced to move on to another. Things like cloth, scrap metal, tool kits and sewing kits, etc. get used up and when they are gone your clothes and some tool will be worn out... if you could stand to play that long. Just working on the 500 day cheivo... and I will have to move on to another base before I run out of such items.  I can just see how much faster the cloth would run out if I were being attached every time I turn around?  Oh well... such is my comment.

Edited June 19, 2019 by Annajam
spelling

[hozz1235]

Depending upon your difficulty level (I assume you're playing Voy) you won't run out of cloth by day 500 (assuming normal usage).

Edited June 19, 2019 by hozz1235

[stratvox]

It's a finite play, but that finite number can be very long; there's a guy who's had a run that lasted over ten years in game.

[Guest jeffpeng]

It's finite by design, but it's a very distant finity (if that's a word) if you manage well. Here is the catch: If you are so good at the game that you have to think about resources being finite, you are probably so good at the game that you don't have to think about it. Let that sink in a moment and think about what it means.

Adding to that: you can get most stuff, albeit in small quantity, from beach combing. So there is only a very small subset of resources that are truly non-renewable. The one thing that I know of that has a true potential to (eventually ....) kill you by running out is disinfectant and susbsequently antibiotics. Everything else is renewable in some shape or form. That's not saying that it is easy to manage at "the end". It is not.

But I guess what I am trying to convey is that most people that are bothered by said finity of the game never reach that wall anywhere else than in their own psyche. I've been going 1500+ days on stalker, and didn't come close.

[Annajam]

Right. Thanks for the view points.  Sorry 'bout that... only playing on Pilgrim. Don't enjoy being attacked every few minutes. Wow, ten years in game ( over  3650 days in game)!? I can't see playing that many hours.
It's all good though. It is getting hard for me to find single player, games I like that I can play off-line. So, the Long Dark has filled a void so to speak. Next thing I'll be looking for is a Wolf powered dog sled.... ? Oh wait.... he'd just eat my face off.
Funny that bears don't attack wolves?

Turn that collar up and lean into the wind... it's going to be a long cold night. Wolf jerky anyone!!

   

[Kissodeath]

Right on man... I'll agree with you.... sounds like a great point to me.... I cant succeed because I don't have the tools to do so (before anyone drops fanboi comments on me) I know its possible to eek out a living …. I don't think that's his point …. I don't see how the lack of resources makes a game more challenging... there should be a way to be self sustaining or did we revert back to stone age hunters gathers … you can make a diehard no supplies setting for people who think no opportunity = a challenge … some people would consider becoming self sustaining a challenge in itself survival mode should be about surviving with a glimmer of hope to live why not just say.... your going to die game over.

Personally I rather focus on things like that than micromanage a sprain. I cant learn how to grow stuff and nobody ever heard of a green house on bear island or solar panels or steam even … just a idea its ok to talk constructively about things and not always defending something that no ones even attacking. How can things ever improve if people just settle for a workaround or … what was it... "And even if you do die from the lack of non-respawnable resources well as they say "nature always win", it just took it's time doing so." want to get technical a island that size should have np problem supporting one lone human and a handful of wildlife I could repurpose modern tech to frontier tech no problem I could catch a few rabbits and start breeding them ect… So please no more with nature as a one use item and only course of action is move on till nothings left … its not realistic its not fun (for me and like minded) … Whats their plan anyway survive till someone comes even thou you don't know if they will.

Id wager any sane person would conclude to survive you'd need to plan ahead at least a few weeks (very least).  I bet no one would try to survive in this fashion at all … unless they had a reason to believe help was coming. Anyway I think game would benefit greatly with this as the core goal, not easy mind you … wolves may eat your rabbits, a storm may damage your greenhouse, poorly constructed things may fail, and adding seasons would offer new challenges  ect … use your imaginations. why bother answering ….. if death is only guarantee, why bother.

[stratvox]

It's not realistic for winter to never end. It's not realistic that bears can't climb trees. It's not realistic that predators glow green and become super dangerous when there's an aurora. It's not realistic that you can fix a sprain in moments with a bandage and some acetaminophen. It's not realistic that you only get ~10kg of meat from a deer, or only ~30kg from a bear or moose; those animals both weigh well over a quarter ton when fully grown. It's not realistic that there are only bucks, not does.

If death is the only guarantee, why bother? I mean, it's not like real life has a hundred percent mortality rate, now does it?

[frickoffanddie]

To put things into perspective, by the time you've used up every possible manmade and natural resource, they'll have released the next region. Then you'll be able to survive for a couple hundred days more.

There is a LOT of stuff in the game. You're not going to run out. The game is basically infinite play, assuming you don't get assassinated by a wolf or something.

Edited June 21, 2019 by frickoffanddie

[Martin Prchal]

I think the game was never really designed to be infinite. Everything is just about avoiding a certain end: death. Death will happen at some point, some of us are just better at lasting longer.

[hozz1235]

On 6/20/2019 at 4:45 PM, Annajam said:

I can't see playing that many hours.

Most guys that log those game days, sit in a cave and pass time.  I'm positive I have enough resources to last that long on my longest save, just too boring sitting and passing time, sleep, eat, drink, repeat...

[Annajam]

On ‎6‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 4:25 PM, hozz1235 said:

Most guys that log those game days, sit in a cave and pass time.  I'm positive I have enough resources to last that long on my longest save, just too boring sitting and passing time, sleep, eat, drink, repeat...

Right. I couldn't do that either. As it is the clock ( moon/sun meter) does not seem to be that accurate and trying to sleep through the night and the passing of time is kind of boring in and of itself. (just my Op)

 

[UpUpAway95]

5 hours ago, Annajam said:

Right. I couldn't do that either. As it is the clock ( moon/sun meter) does not seem to be that accurate and trying to sleep through the night and the passing of time is kind of boring in and of itself. (just my Op)

 

Not sure what you mean by the moon/sun meter not being accurate.  In winter in the far north, the sun just doesn't rise on the shortest days of the year and in the summer, the sun never sets during the longest days of the year.  The length of days vary far more over the course of a year at the poles than near the equator.  Of course the game isn't going to emulate that.

What changes in the game is how many hours it actually lets you sleep out of the amount of hours you say you want to sleep.  In pilgrim mode, it will wake you if you get too cold, too thirsty, or too hungry.  It will also perpetually wake you when your tiredness bar gets more than about 3/4s full and you'll have to ask to sleep again to get to a point where you're fully rested.  This changes on higher difficulties where the game makes it easier for the player to mess up and die of cold, thirst, or hunger in their sleep.

On my 500-day run, I took most of those days taking my time working on the Faithful Cartographer achievement (mapping each zone) and getting myself familiar with the maps so that I my attempts at higher difficulty runs were easier because I generally knew where I was and where I needed to go to find shelter and supplies.  I spent the end of my run on Timberwolf mountain, making runs up and down the mountain bringing the loot down from the peak without goating my way down overencumbered.  It worked out pretty well... and my avatar jumped from the peak on day 500 without doing the pass time for days trick.

Edited June 30, 2019 by UpUpAway95

[ManicManiac]

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 5:31 PM, Annajam said:

I'll say it anyway. Once all the non- re-spawnable materials are used up in a region you are forced to move on to another. Things like cloth, scrap metal, tool kits and sewing kits, etc. get used up and when they are gone your clothes and some tool will be worn out... if you could stand to play that long....
...I can just see how much faster the cloth would run out if I were being attached every time I turn around?

@Annajam,
I see a lot of people have already been conversing with you, but I will also add my two cents:

1.  You can beachcomb, this is how you have a chance to find non-renewable resources after you've looted the world.
2.  Death is just the nature of the game, and the inevitability.  All runs eventually end in death (if you give up early and delete your save - that is effectively the same as just ending your life, from a game point of view).

The whole point of the survival sandbox is to live as long as we can, because we will eventually die.  Now there have been some creative players that have managed to survive for 10 in game years, so that would suggest that the game has plenty of resources to survive a good long time.  What will most likely kill us is our own bad decisions.

Also, you won't get attacked every few minutes once you learn how to spot & avoid that hostile wildlife.  

It's possible, I recently managed to live on Timberwolf Mountain for more than 90 days (before leaving for Desolation Point), and the only attack I suffered was one bear attack... and that was only because I was actively seeking it out and hunting it.  As for not having the tools you need, honestly for me that's half the fun... the struggle.  Knowing you don't necessarily have what you feel you need, but you have to find a way to make it as long as you can anyway.  The longer you play and the harder the difficulty... the better we get at the finer points.

My point is the survival sandbox is finite, but not as finite as it might have seemed to you. 

Edited June 30, 2019 by ManicManiac

[Ape88]

On 6/30/2019 at 12:35 PM, ManicManiac said:

@Annajam,
I see a lot of people have already been conversing with you, but I will also add my two cents:

1.  You can beachcomb, this is how you have a chance to find non-renewable resources after you've looted the world.
2.  Death is just the nature of the game, and the inevitability.  All runs eventually end in death (if you give up early and delete your save - that is effectively the same as just ending your life, from a game point of view).

The whole point of the survival sandbox is to live as long as we can, because we will eventually die.  Now there have been some creative players that have managed to survive for 10 in game years, so that would suggest that the game has plenty of resources to survive a good long time.  What will most likely kill us is our own bad decisions.

Also, you won't get attacked every few minutes once you learn how to spot & avoid that hostile wildlife.  

It's possible, I recently managed to live on Timberwolf Mountain for more than 90 days (before leaving for Desolation Point), and the only attack I suffered was one bear attack... and that was only because I was actively seeking it out and hunting it.  As for not having the tools you need, honestly for me that's half the fun... the struggle.  Knowing you don't necessarily have what you feel you need, but you have to find a way to make it as long as you can anyway.  The longer you play and the harder the difficulty... the better we get at the finer points.

My point is the survival sandbox is finite, but not as finite as it might have seemed to you. 

I definitely try to play with my headset, audio and video settings set up for maximum potential to hear and spot aggressive animals before they detect me. However even with every step I take, there are still plenty of instances where I get caught unaware until the aggressive animal is stalking or attacking.

[Guest jeffpeng]

 

On 7/4/2019 at 11:24 PM, Ape88 said:

I definitely try to play with my headset, audio and video settings set up for maximum potential to hear and spot aggressive animals before they detect me. However even with every step I take, there are still plenty of instances where I get caught unaware until the aggressive animal is stalking or attacking.

Idk. I've been logging 2k+h in the game total, and I've gone from "I need a rifle, or I'm not going to make it through Mystery Lake" to "I can navigate hundreds of days on Interloper without having a single struggle." The amount of experience and (can you use that word here?) skill you build up over time shows very much in this game. A lot of it is just knowing where to expect what, which means that regions I don't know as well (funnily enough that's mostly PV as I usually just pass through it afaic) still tend to get me once in a while. But I can probably navigate TWM or HRV blind and still not run into a wolf or bear (slightly exaggerating :D). And since I am far from superhuman it is definitely possible.
 

On 6/21/2019 at 9:25 AM, Kissodeath said:

I bet no one would try to survive in this fashion at all … unless they had a reason to believe help was coming.

You will try to survive in any fashion if the need arises. Trust me. Once your brain goes full on Lizard Brain Survival Mode you will do things you can't even think right now just to take one more breath.
 

[NardoLoopa]

5 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

. . . just to take one more breath.

Gospel.

[TheEldritchGod]

No, it is infinite. Sorry, but you have not taken into consideration beachcombing where you can get renewable resources. And the beach combing spawns are actually damn regular and predictable. For example, I have determined a spot where rotting leather shoes show up like every 20 days or so. Exact same spot. That's 2 leather. There are cloth spawn as well. 

You don't need weapons, just a magnifying glass. Chase a deer into a wolf and start a fire to chase him off. The only thing you NEED cloth for is your 2 shirts, 2 socks, 2 underwear, and the ear muff. Maybe a hat. Several of those items can go a long time without being repaired. I usually, in a pinch, ditch the socks and underwear. Bit of a hit, but the rest of the gear can be with wolves bunnies, and deer. All things you don't need cloth or leather for to repair.

Fishing has given me literally Multiple TONS of food. My next project is to see how long I can sit in a car without getting out. I think water will be the limiter on that one. I'm shooting for 60 days.

Once they introduced the craftable hat, the only thing that will get you is boredom. Properly outfitted, you could stock a cave to sit in and do nothing for months in game. without the craftable hat, eventually frost bite would get you. Sooner or later it would get you. Now, you can play the game forever.

Hell, with Birch Bark Tea, you can make a damn good attempt at eternal life on DEADMAN.

No, I'm afraid the only limit on the game is sheer boredom. Eventually, you do empty every building. Eventually, you have multiple bases in a line with hundreds of pounds of food and water. Eventually, you have over 500 cups of various tea. Eventually, you run out of room to put tea on the shelves. You stand in the middle of the Quonset Garage... surrounded by tea. Cup... after cup.... after cup...

 

Of TEA.

[ajb1978]

11 minutes ago, rancid0 said:

tld is a challenging game so i understand why alot of ppl have trouble with it but i typically survive between 500 to 1000 days on interloper and in my experience there is enough resources to live for far far longer and even if you do use say all the cloth in the game which i've never come close to doing even far past 500 days in you dont need it to survive you can make enough clothing from animal hides, even when you collect every birch and maple and can no longer make bows and arrows you can survive off rabbits and by getting wolves to kill dear for you and fishing now once you use all the metal up which would take forever to do your game could come to an end because you wont be able to craft clothing anymore but even then ive heard of ppl doing naked interloper runs so from what i can tell its is possible to live forever in this game. 

Beachcombing ensures you will always have enough of everything to survive.  You end up with bits of scrap metal, cloth, leather, the occasional sapling, etc. washing up, which will effectively replenish resources you've used up from the world faster than you're using them up, unless you're excessively wasteful.  And I mean my current run, I've broken down nearly everything.  I have 1833 scrap metal and 1157 cloth, and that's not including all the clothes I haven't ripped up yet.  I can't even imagine how long it would take me to use all that up.

[ajb1978]

50 minutes ago, rancid0 said:

exactly my point im pretty sure the only thing that would prevent a player from living forever is getting bored. i have to be honest if your telling me youve harvested most of the metal in the game then im kinda impressed simply because i know that there is a ridiculous amount of it in the game.

Carter Dam and Hibernia were a NIGHTMARE to hack up (Edit: And some of those mines were no picnic either.  Gotta load up on lamp oil in order to have enough light to hack up all the shelves), but yes...every crate, every shelf, every stack of pallets, every table, chair, bench, plank...all of it.  With a few sentimental exceptions...I can't bust up Jeremiah's cabin.  And my chosen safehouse for the region.  I like it to look homey. I had to pass time while waiting for buffer memories to appear, so rather than literally pass time, I figured let's bust stuff up.  Bring a hammer, hatchet, hacksaw, and knife.  Use bare hands when you can, prefer the hammer over the hatchet, only use the knife on pillows and old bedrolls.  The big easy chairs in the cabins require a hatchet, otherwise I barely used it.

Great way to pass a day by though.  Saw up 3 or shelves, it's dusk already.

Edited July 18, 2019 by ajb1978

[romerabr]

On 6/19/2019 at 1:34 PM, hozz1235 said:

Depending upon your difficulty level (I assume you're playing Voy) you won't run out of cloth by day 500 (assuming normal usage).

I have a stalker save, and with more than 500 days, I still have more than 300 cloths on my porch, with more than 1000 hours worth of fire, and 1000 pounds of meat. More than 200 matches, 3 or 4 firestrikers, and a magnifying glass too. Lots of pelts (more than 50 bears & deers, 10 mooses,  and more than 100 from wolves and rabbits and 400 guts).

200 scrap metals, 10  wetstones, lots of rosehips & mushrooms, and still have more than 10 MRE.

Knives & hatchets, 3 hammers to break the ice on my fishing hut (I live on TWM, in the hut).

When i make my round, i can gather 40 or 50 sticks/day, going from place to place.

I have bases on 3 more caves, with food, water, and wood, where I can live for many days.

The only thing I need is birch saplings, but I still have lots of arrows, and a few rounds for my rifle.

I found 70 revolver bullets, but never found a revolver, since this is an old save.

I can aesily live 10 years here.

 

[hozz1235]

I remember when I first started working towards my 500 day ach, I posted a question about my concern about running out of supplies.  I remember someone replying that, "You will die from boredom before running out of supplies".  This is SO true.  I have a 1200+ day and could live MUCH longer.

[melcantspell]

When I hit the 500 day mark (on Voyager), I could have opened a shop with all the supplies I had gathered by then. I was far from running out of anything. 

The game gives you resources in abundance, if you keep exploring

[Serenity]

Since it hasn't been mentioned: sewing kits don't matter. You can sew with fishing tackle

The only thing that you have to ration somewhat is cloth and even then there is lots of it

[JujuBear]

On 6/25/2019 at 5:25 AM, hozz1235 said:

Most guys that log those game days, sit in a cave and pass time.  I'm positive I have enough resources to last that long on my longest save, just too boring sitting and passing time, sleep, eat, drink, repeat...

Right! Where’s the fun in that? Given that if I had that much resources, I’d go daredevil a bit and get into a tussle with a couple of wolves to live a little. Not the smartest thing to do but better than sitting in a cave right?

[JujuBear]

The way I see it, if you are very good at circulating you’re resources from Mother Nature, you wouldn’t even have to worry about other sources of food like sodas, jerky, etc. I don’t even bother consuming those things with all the deer and wolf meat I have.

As for materials like cloth, scrap metal, etc. I think the amount present in-game is more than fair and like the others have said, wouldn’t need gathering them all in a single play-through - even on Loper modes.

Wood is ever-present and a renewable source.

I have enough cloth in stock to have the whole PV farmhouse carpeted lol and would have a lot to spare in a locker.

It’s finite yes, because ultimately, death is the end-game. But depending on how good you are at keeping yourself alive and how smart you use up resources, if you are good at it, it’s basically indefinite play for you.

Edited July 27, 2019 by JujuBear