discussion Features that should be added before the game is abandoned

[Azdrawee]

I've recently thought a lot about a list of things that should be added/improved in the game before it's finished (abandoned) that would make the game "complete" for me. There's a lot of stuff I would like to be added, but this is not a list about them, it's just things I feel like really should be added. Here's the list (in no particular order):

- Release of all 5 episodes of WINTERMUTE (obviously)

- First person clothing (ability to see what you're currently wearing in first person rather than seeing the default jacket all the time, it really breaks the immersion imo)

- Decreased animal bleed out times (I've seen it multiple times in @Hadrian's videos and I have a problem with it myself, chasing a deer 5 minutes around the whole map is a bit ridiculous)

- Bear spear in survival mode (currently only available in WINTERMUTE)

- Defueling storm lanterns (exactly the same way you put out ammunition from firearms)

- Craftable animal-hide socks and underwear (the only two slots that don't have any clothing that can be crafted from animals)

- Warning before eating raw meat (similar to throwing an unread book into a fire, it's really easy to accidentally select raw meat from the radial menu and get food poisoning)

- More items changing appearance based on their condition (currently only clothing items have this feature, I feel like it would be pretty cool and useful, especially with food)

- Better item placing (ability to rotate items and put them directly next to each other or on top of each other, it would be great placing books to bookshelves the correct way for example)

- Ability to read books for 30 minutes only (useful while cooking meat or boiling water for example)

I might've forgotten about some things, but I feel like I've mentioned everything important. Feel free to share your own ideas in the comments and we can have a nice discussion about it. 🙂

[UpUpAway95]

My list (includes some variations on iems from the OP's list).

1) Release all 5 episodes of Wintermute (I'd give top priority to this).

2) Ability to read books and craft in 15-minute intervals.  Crafting can currently be done on this short timeframe, however, there is some sort of accounting bug in the interface.  I can request to craft for, say, 4 hours on a project that takes a total of 10 hours with sufficient daylight, food and supplies to go for that length of time.  While it appears that I am crafting for the full time, the time remaining on the project is often not equal to the total time minus the time I just spent crafting.  For example, I just crafted a moosehide satchel for 4 hours out of the 10 and had 6.25 hours remaining.  This should be corrected and the two interfaces (reading and crafting) made consistent with each other.

3) Insert a warning when about to eat raw meat AND correct the issue that causes the interface to sometimes remain selected on an individual item even when closed.  That is, sometime when you first open the interface, you need to click once to get into the individual food items and sometimes that first click will cause you to eat an item since the cursor fails somehow to return to the left column icon set when the interface was last closed.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, assuming I need to click to get over into the foods section when I don't is the reason I wind up accidentally eating raw meat.

4) Derease animal bleed out times.  This would certainly be helpful.

[Azdrawee]

13 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

My list (includes some variations on iems from the OP's list).

1) Release all 5 episodes of Wintermute (I'd give top priority to this).

2) Ability to read books and craft in 15-minute intervals.  Crafting can currently be done on this short timeframe, however, there is some sort of accounting bug in the interface.  I can request to craft for, say, 4 hours on a project that takes a total of 10 hours with sufficient daylight, food and supplies to go for that length of time.  While it appears that I am crafting for the full time, the time remaining on the project is often not equal to the total time minus the time I just spent crafting.  For example, I just crafted a moosehide satchel for 4 hours out of the 10 and had 6.25 hours remaining.  This should be corrected and the two interfaces (reading and crafting) made consistent with each other.

3) Insert a warning when about to eat raw meat AND correct the issue that causes the interface to sometimes remain selected on an individual item even when closed.  That is, sometime when you first open the interface, you need to click once to get into the individual food items and sometimes that first click will cause you to eat an item since the cursor fails somehow to return to the left column icon set when the interface was last closed.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, assuming I need to click to get over into the foods section when I don't is the reason I wind up accidentally eating raw meat.

4) Derease animal bleed out times.  This would certainly be helpful.

Thanks for your contribution, I certainly agree with everything. Good ideas. 🙂

[Skelegutplays]

Decreasing animal bleed out times would be bad as it makes shot placement less important. Shooting a bear with a 303 to the intestine area for example would most likely not cause a large bleeding wound and the blood would clot. The wound would be lethal probably as the bears digestive system would not be able to process food well and the bear would likely starve to death.

[Azdrawee]

15 minutes ago, Skelegutplays said:

Decreasing animal bleed out times would be bad as it makes shot placement less important. Shooting a bear with a 303 to the intestine area for example would most likely not cause a large bleeding wound and the blood would clot. The wound would be lethal probably as the bears digestive system would not be able to process food well and the bear would likely starve to death.

Well it would have to be done in a clever way, obviously. But shooting a deer in the side and then it proceeds to run around for 6 in-game hours is just ridiculous, unrealistic, and annoying.

[Admin]

Thank you for the list.

We will point out however that the game is not being "abandoned" and that we are continuing to work on the development of The Long Dark ongoing. A better word would be "completed", but that it still a ways off as well.

[ManicManiac]

On ‎7‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 1:41 AM, Azdrawee said:

I have a problem with it myself, chasing a deer 5 minutes around the whole map is a bit ridiculous

Well, this seems to come down to at least two factors:

1. Critical Hit chances... which more or less boils down to luck, but those odds can be bolstered with higher levels in your rifle/revolver skill levels (but that should be well known by now).
2. Careful and well aimed shots... this aspect the player has more control over, this can be improved with practice and ensuring your needs are tended to so that "shivers and breath control" are less of a factor when you sight in.

As far as bleed out times and the extent to which a wounded animal will run are not really all that bad... I think that those who have issues with frequently having to chase down runners is generally a combination of a little bad luck and a need to get better accustomed to the aiming system.  Honestly I don't see where there is a need to change the game, from my experience it seems fine as it is.

 

As I mentioned in some of the my comments on the videos you reference (as well as my own thread posted previously), consider the changes concerning rabbits and throwing stones:

On ‎6‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 5:45 AM, ManicManiac said:

... I personally liked the old way, before they reworked it.  I mean, I think it should be tricky to hit a rabbit with a rock.  I think perhaps they made it a little too forgiving when they reworked it.  Lately I've been noticing that bad throws, that really should have been misses, still stunned the rabbit... and it felt kind of cheap.

I do wish they would shrink that hitbox back down a little bit... maybe not as small as it was... but definitely smaller than it is now.

Basically, it seemed that after so many clamored about pitching stones at rabbits being too difficult... the system was eventually reworked, but I think the adjustments went too far the opposite direction.  (whether this change was driven by player feedback, or if it was just an adjustment that the Team already wanted to make; I don't know and I'm in no way attempting to speak for them.  It's just an observation that those two events might be correlated to some degree)

Edited July 22, 2019 by ManicManiac

[Azdrawee]

1 hour ago, Admin said:

Thank you for the list.

We will point out however that the game is not being "abandoned" and that we are continuing to work on the development of The Long Dark ongoing. A better word would be "completed", but that it still a ways off as well.

Yes, I understand, and I also can't find a good word for it. But one day the game will get abandoned and this is just a list of things I would like to see before that happens. 🙂

[hozz1235]

17 hours ago, Azdrawee said:

Yes, I understand, and I also can't find a good word for it. But one day the game will get abandoned and this is just a list of things I would like to see before that happens. 🙂

"Abandoned" has other implications = studio no longer maintains, supports and/or even sells.  There is a difference.

[Jacksy]

Not sure if it been requested before..I would like to see generators in some buildings, we can get petrol/gas from abandoned cars to keep them going.

[ManicManiac]

The aurora would have likely fried the more sensitive components... just like all the cars we see, sure the lights flicker but it's likely the current generated by the aurora could have burned out starters, wires, hoses (from arcing).  I would posit that generators would be much the same... and even if they where functional, I would argue that like anything else reliant on electricity (yes an engine still needs a charge to get going... that's why you need a jump start when you let your car's battery go dead) - a generator would only work during an aurora... making it kind of moot.   

[Tilt]

On 7/20/2019 at 6:11 PM, Azdrawee said:

I've recently thought a lot about a list of things that should be added/improved in the game before it's finished (abandoned) that would make the game "complete" for me. There's a lot of stuff I would like to be added, but this is not a list about them, it's just things I feel like really should be added. Here's the list (in no particular order):

- Release of all 5 episodes of WINTERMUTE (obviously)

- First person clothing (ability to see what you're currently wearing in first person rather than seeing the default jacket all the time, it really breaks the immersion imo)

- Decreased animal bleed out times (I've seen it multiple times in @Hadrian's videos and I have a problem with it myself, chasing a deer 5 minutes around the whole map is a bit ridiculous)

- Bear spear in survival mode (currently only available in WINTERMUTE)

- Defueling storm lanterns (exactly the same way you put out ammunition from firearms)

- Craftable animal-hide socks and underwear (the only two slots that don't have any clothing that can be crafted from animals)

- Warning before eating raw meat (similar to throwing an unread book into a fire, it's really easy to accidentally select raw meat from the radial menu and get food poisoning)

- More items changing appearance based on their condition (currently only clothing items have this feature, I feel like it would be pretty cool and useful, especially with food)

- Better item placing (ability to rotate items and put them directly next to each other or on top of each other, it would be great placing books to bookshelves the correct way for example)

- Ability to read books for 30 minutes only (useful while cooking meat or boiling water for example)

I might've forgotten about some things, but I feel like I've mentioned everything important. Feel free to share your own ideas in the comments and we can have a nice discussion about it. 🙂

- Defueling storm lanterns (exactly the same way you put out ammunition from firearms)

+1 so we don't spend 1 hour harvesting it if we only need the oil.

 

- Warning before eating raw meat (similar to throwing an unread book into a fire, it's really easy to accidentally select raw meat from the radial menu and get food poisoning)

+1. And I would add: warning before going to sleep w/out enough thirst and hunger bar filled for the sleep duration selected. I almost died one time simply because I forgot to drink before going to bed. If I'm thirty in the middle of the night I wake up to drink a glass of water. I don't die.

[ManicManiac]

3 hours ago, Tilt said:

- Warning before eating raw meat

But we already have this bit of hand holding in the game...  We don't need any more hand holding in this game, players need to pay attention to what they are doing!

Also, they are not going to abandon this game, can we let this thread die already?

[Tilt]

The main improvements would be the ones involving sleeping.

Instead of dying in the middle of one's sleep, the game should stop sleep when the player's condition is 10% or so and tell them they can't sleep when they are this hungry or thirsty instead of letting them die silently of thirst, simply because that's not realistic. A human being would wake up of thirst before simply dying.

 

And of course procedurally generated maps.

 

[ThePancakeLady]

17 minutes ago, Tilt said:

And of course procedurally generated maps.

And of course they already answered you on this request...

 

[ManicManiac]

20 minutes ago, Tilt said:

Instead of dying in the middle of one's sleep, the game should stop sleep when the player's condition is 10% or so and tell them they can't sleep when they are this hungry or thirsty instead of letting them die silently of thirst, simply because that's not realistic. A human being would wake up of thirst before simply dying.

Many people die in their sleep...
When the cold is involved people definitely die in their sleep.

Instead of wanting the game to hold our hands and save us from ourselves... the player should instead pay attention to what they are doing.

 

[Tilt]

1 minute ago, ManicManiac said:

Many people die in their sleep...
When the cold is involved people definitely die in their sleep.

Instead of wanting the game to hold our hands and save us from ourselves... the player should instead pay attention to what they are doing.

 

Cold can kill silently yes, thirst and hunger no.

If you are warm in your bed and you are thirsty or hungry you will not die silently as if asfixiated by a mysterious gas. You will wake up of thirst or hunger 1st. Having the game warn that the player is too hungry or thirsty to fall asleep is not holding the player's hand, it's being more realistic than simply letting the player die silently from it.

[ManicManiac]

@Tilt
I still feel it's more important for players to learn to pay attention to what they are doing, rather than the game saving us from ourselves.  I understand what you are getting at... but this game is all about taking careful and deliberate action.  Making a poor decision should have consequences, even ones that result in death.

[Tilt]

4 minutes ago, rancid0 said:

food/thirst management is a HUGE part of this game and would not really make sense to change this. Im pretty sure hinterland wants you to die if you forget to eat or drink, what would be the point of having a food/thirst mechanic in the game if there's no penalty for not eating or drinking? 

The point would be the threat of death from exhaustion, thirst or hunger if the player doesn't satisfy those needs. The mechanic is still there, and the player would still have to satisfy all those needs, he just wouldn't die silently from thirst or hunger in their sleep, which is very unrealistic.

[ThePancakeLady]

1 hour ago, Tilt said:

The point would be the threat of death from exhaustion, thirst or hunger if the player doesn't satisfy those needs. The mechanic is still there, and the player would still have to satisfy all those needs, he just wouldn't die silently from thirst or hunger in their sleep, which is very unrealistic.

And the devs have said over and over, that the game is not meant to be an IRL survival training simulator. It is a survival game, with some "realistic" elements, mixed with mechanics and interesting gameplay choices. It is not meant to simulate Real Life. It is meant to be "realistic" (and yes, the quotation marks are there for a reason) to allow players to become immersed, , while offering unusual and interesting options in gameplay. If it simulated Real Life 100%, most of us would die the first day, once the plane crashed into the tree and we dumped out into the snow, bleeding, with broken bones, in sub-optimal clothing, likely soaked in our own urine or worse. 

1 hour ago, rancid0 said:

Pps. This is not real life just have fun and remember your playing a game 

This ^^^. 110% this ^^^.