Trapper's Cabin Lights

[hozz1235]

Interested to know your thoughts!

Edited July 19, 2019 by hozz1235

[stratvox]

It's wrong, but it's really nice when you crest that hill leading from the Deadfall and see those lights gleaming out.

Just wish that Trapper's had more wildlife around it in the deep game.

[stratvox]

I have and they don't... the light's steady.

That said, ISTR Raph saying that that's not intentional so it may well go away sometime. OTOH, it may well not...

 

Only the Shadow knows!

[ThePancakeLady]

Leave it. Much of the game is borderline "realistic", much of it is not. The lights shining at Trappers has become iconic. A possible mistake turned Easter Egg in the game, that many long time players have grown to love. For me, it makes Trappers a magical place, a sign of hope. The proverbial "light in the darkness" that gives me a feeling of hope, when much f the game can be dramatically hopeless in feeling. Finding my way there, by the light coming from those window, in the middle of a blinding blizzard, or almost impenetrable fog, gives me an upswing in mood, a reason to keep trying.

Yeah, it is not IRL "realistic". But neither are wolves that actively stalk and hunt you, or glowing green bears during an Aurora. 

Leave it be as it is. 

I roleplay it... the Trapper, who we now know as Jeremiah, has a past, wants to remain hidden. So he put a sheet of mirror window film on the windows, so he could see out, but no one could see in, to see what he was doing. Just like many people do IRL with car windows. That coating reflects any ambient light, giving the appearance of light shining from inside, even though the inside is completely dark. Yeah, not true-to-life "realism", but it works for me, for my own roleplaying in the game. YMMV.

[ajb1978]

Since I'm halfway between the two, I'm not going to vote.  My stance is, if you're going to "fix" it, then FIX it.  Update all buildings with fireplaces to have glowing windows when there is a fire lit.  And pay attention to detail as well.  For instance, if you only have the upstairs stove lit in the Mystery Lake Camp Office, only show lights out the upstairs windows.  For the farmhouse, only show lights out the kitchen windows for the stove, or living room windows for the fireplace.  Carter Dam might get a pass because of how far the fire barrel is from the windows, but every other building should have at least some light leaking out when a fire is lit.

Basically if you're going for immersion, go all-in.  If not, then just leave it as it is.  Light spilling from the windows is not a critical aspect of the game, but it is definitely a nice aesthetic touch.  So if you're gonna take the time to mess with it, make it good.

[Guest jeffpeng]

10 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

My stance is, if you're going to "fix" it, then FIX it. 

I like that. Both the stance and the idea (since I kinda wanted to say the same about it). I reckon it wouldn't be too hard since the game can already figure out if a fire is burning in a house. We see that with the chimneys (which is a really interesting detail btw). Switching on a light source and applying some shaders shouldn't be the hardest thing to do.

However at this point I sometimes regret that TLD wasn't written after Unity introduced chunked world loading. My favorite "house" in the game still is the Moutaneer's Hut for the very fact that it isn't an indoor location and hence can be looked out of in looked into. (Plus I just find the fact that it is subject to temperature changes very interesting).

Edited July 20, 2019 by jeffpeng

[Dan_]

10 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

However at this point I sometimes regret that TLD wasn't written after Unity introduced chunked world loading. My favorite "house" in the game still is the Moutaneer's Hut for the very fact that it isn't an indoor location and hence can be looked out of in looked into. (Plus I just find the fact that it is subject to temperature changes very interesting).

I second this passionately, I know Trapper's inside cell is bigger than the outside frame of the house, but if Hinterland redesigned the map to make the cabin transition-less it would be awesome. Even if it meant the inside or outside had to be changed, it's THE  building that epythomizes early alpha TLD ( best bed, FTW ), it could get some more love from the devs. 

The Mountaineer's Hut is also my favourite place to be in TLD, nothing quite like watching a blizzard while sitting beside the warm fire. 

[Guest jeffpeng]

16 minutes ago, Dan_ said:

I second this passionately, I know Trapper's inside cell is bigger than the outside frame of the house, but if Hinterland redesigned the map to make the cabin transition-less it would be awesome. Even if it meant the inside or outside had to be changed, it's THE  building that epythomizes early alpha TLD ( best bed, FTW ), it could get some more love from the devs. 

The Mountaineer's Hut is also my favourite place to be in TLD, nothing quite like watching a blizzard while sitting beside the warm fire. 

I guess the original concern was performance. They could have made all the houses transition-less with pretty much no effort, but as unity, which isn't the fastest engine to begine with, has to track more and more objects in the world things might have become a bit stressful for CPU hardware of the Jaguar Console era. The game is from 2015 iirc, and at that time running a dual core CPU was still pretty common. I think they still could rework the maps to achieve this relatively easily, but with the game being on the Jaguar Consoles there is a very hard limit to where you can push this.

This in conjunction with @ajb1978's seasons thread really brings back @Raphael van Lierop's words about how at some point TLD has reached its limits and there will have to be a new game. I know a teeny tiny bit about software design, and you come to a point where going back to the drawing board and redesigning the entire thing from scratch with all that you learned and know better now becomes the better, easier option.

TLD as an IP has still so much left to explore and do. The stories you can tell in this very unique setting are virtually infinite, and the very specific niche it fills basically all on its own makes it relevant just for that singular fact, and I believe very few titles have such a comitted, albeit small, fan base. But as a software TLD is very deep into its lifecycle, and changes you make to a product this late are iterative (Steadfast Ranger), evolutionary at best (Vigilant Flame) - not revolutionary.

Where do I sign up for the new crowfunding campaign? ^^

[Carbon]

Some oddities in a game are annoying, some are game-breaking and some are simply endearing. I think Trapper's falls into the latter category.

As @stratvox said, it's very welcoming right now when you arrive at the location and my vote is to leave it be.

[hozz1235]

The reason I began this thread is because I was heading to TC from Unnamed Pond and as I crested the hill above TC, it was really dark and I saw the lights below.  As others have noted, it was comforting and reassuring to see those lights.  I knew it was dark inside, but I didn't really care.

With regards to transition-less houses, another reason to have a transition could be to force a save.  TC is heavily used in WM and Challenge(s).

[Charlie Brown]

Honestly it feels like a mistake. The feeling there's something odd with that part led me to look if there was some bug or if I was not finding out the reason why such odd behavior.  In fact the first times I entered the cabin and found the stance pitch black I though I went straight to some basement. I had to go out and in several times to realize that it was the same room I was getting in.

So, yes, it feels odd. At least we are talking about there's some twisted or elaborated reason on why the cabin is lit (or appear to be lit) from the outside and when you get in is dark (think some strange reason hiding some mechanism that is an important part of the story plot, like the things you find in "Myst" (the classic game)). But know I understand that this is not the case. Otherwise, I would prefer the cabin to be either lit or not in a coherent way. I understand the appealing and comforting view of the lit cabin from the distance during a blizzard but the devs can probably find other ways to add  aesthetics and to catch the survivors' eye.

[Pınar51-06]

For me- leave it just the way it is

But ı don’t know if it is a  bug, there was no light for my last save. I went in and out for several nights with and without aurora but there was no light and ı am a little disappointed cause ı like its spesific appearance. I hope it is a bug and it fixs in time.