In game things that drive you mad

[UTC-10]

Hehe, I thought I'd add a pet peeve.  When Will gets encumbered, he will make a comment that tells me when I have passed a certain limit. But that is not the peeve.

What really gets to me is that he will or seems to clear his throat just before saying better drop some gear.  That just drives me up the wall whenever it happens. It can totally change my mood at that moment. 

[LeeHarveyOslik]

16 hours ago, Moll said:

1. Beach comming. How the hell can be heavy prypar washed on beach?

- What also floats in water?
- Bread
- Apples
- Very small rocks
- Cider
- Cherries
- Gravy
- Mud
- Churches
- Lead

(c) Monty Python

So if rocks, churches and lead can float in water i see no reason why a prybar can't.

[Vince 49]

I do have complaints.  However, I should say that overall I really like the game and have played it well over 500 hours.  Also, although I don't understand the business sense of endless free updates--I'm certainly not complaining.  The walking at a crawl with the wind in your face seems a bit unrealistic, but I accept that as part of the game.  Yet there are two things that have been added in more recent updates, that for me, are unacceptable.

First, it's the sprain system.  I played the most recent update (1.76) and got more strains in the first 8 hours than I got in 100 hours in the 1.37 version I was playing previously.  First, it's in your face all the time, with warnings every few minutes, plus the red feather of tripping anytime you are on any kind of slope.  As a couple of examples, I traveled from PV to ML via the Winding River route.  The red feather was on about two dozen times, in most cases where there was no option for more level terrain.  I even got a sprain while collecting sticks in the yard in front of the Carter Hydro dam.  Even without the actual sprains, the constant warnings significantly add to the stress.  Is that what you want in a game that is supposed to be fun?  I have to run the game in custom mode, so I can turn off strains.  Of course, that means I can never have feats.  1.76 has an option to enable or disable auto walk; add an option to opt out of strains, or even simpler, restore the ability to gain feats in Custom mode.  I would ask the creators "What is the point of punishing the player who has paid for the game and wants to play it the way he or she wishes"?

The second issue is rather recently, the decoy system has been essentially eliminated.  I have spent several hours analyzing how wolves react to decoys in 1.64 and 1.76.  I used both rabbits and cooked deer, with weights of 0.3 Kg, 0.5 Kg, and 1.0 Kg.  I ran approximately three dozen tests all together.   Only twice did a wolf react to the decoy.  I was so far away when they did, I could only tell by traveling back to where I dropped the decoy and finding it gone.  My tests are consistent with @Jeffpeng's video.  Most of the time, they just ignore it.  Only when the player is 50 to 60 feet away is there a chance they will take it.  As an aid to fighting wolves with a ranged weapon, the decoy just doesn't work anymore.  If the decoy system was seen as too easy, make it a little harder, don't essentially delete it.  Unfortunately, although I've seen some of the enhancements in the recent updates, including the awesome rework of Skeeter's Ridge in PV, I won't be playing them.  Probably the most telling, with the old version, I would recommend TLD to anyone that asked.  Not any more.  Although I bought TLD a couple of years ago from GOG, I just bought it again recently from STEAM, so I could access versions before the unwanted changes.

I would very much like to hear from any player that was routinely using decoys when fighting wolves with a bow or rifle, as too how they are coping with the changes.

-----  End of rant. 

Edited June 4, 2020 by Vince 49

[Valuable Hunting Knife]

3 hours ago, Vince 49 said:

I do have complaints.  However, I should say that overall I really like the game and have played it well over 500 hours.  Also, although I don't understand the business sense of endless free updates--I'm certainly not complaining.  The walking at a crawl with the wind in your face seems a bit unrealistic, but I accept that as part of the game.  Yet there are two things that have been added in more recent updates, that for me, are unacceptable.

First, it's the sprain system.  I played the most recent update (1.76) and got more strains in the first 8 hours than I got in 100 hours in the 1.37 version I was playing previously.  First, it's in your face all the time, with warnings every few minutes, plus the red feather of tripping anytime you are on any kind of slope.  As a couple of examples, I traveled from PV to ML via the Winding River route.  The red feather was on about two dozen times, in most cases where there was no option for more level terrain.  I even got a sprain while collecting sticks in the yard in front of the Carter Hydro dam.  Even without the actual sprains, the constant warnings significantly add to the stress.  Is that what you want in a game that is supposed to be fun?  I have to run the game in custom mode, so I can turn off strains.  Of course, that means I can never have feats.  1.76 has an option to enable or disable auto walk; add an option to opt out of strains, or even simpler, restore the ability to gain feats in Custom mode.  I would ask the creators "What is the point of punishing the player who has paid for the game and wants to play it the way he or she wishes"?

The second issue is rather recently, the decoy system has been essentially eliminated.  I have spent several hours analyzing how wolves react to decoys in 1.64 and 1.76.  I used both rabbits and cooked deer, with weights of 0.3 Kg, 0.5 Kg, and 1.0 Kg.  I ran approximately three dozen tests all together.   Only twice did a wolf react to the decoy.  I was so far away when they did, I could only tell by traveling back to where I dropped the decoy and finding it gone.  My tests are consistent with @Jeffpeng's video.  Most of the time, they just ignore it.  Only when the player is 50 to 60 feet away is there a chance they will take it.  As an aid to fighting wolves with a ranged weapon, the decoy just doesn't work anymore.  If the decoy system was seen as too easy, make it a little harder, don't essentially delete it.  Unfortunately, although I've seen some of the enhancements in the recent updates, including the awesome rework of Skeeter's Ridge in PV, I won't be playing them.  Probably the most telling, with the old version, I would recommend TLD to anyone that asked.  Not any more.  Although I bought TLD a couple of years ago from GOG, I just bought it again recently from STEAM, so I could access versions before the unwanted changes.

I would very much like to hear from any player that was routinely using decoys when fighting wolves with a bow or rifle, as too how they are coping with the changes.

-----  End of rant. 

Hi Vince

regarding decoys, I used to use them for most wolf encounters, either as a form of escape or to line up an easy kill (I found by the time I was up to level 4-5 on a weapon it was almost guaranteed every time).  So I can see why the system was altered.

I don't find the current decoy system reliable enough to use on a regular basis now, and for me it doesn't now justify the additional scent risk of carrying gut/ small piece of meat to use as a decoy, it's safer to just avoid an encounter.  Previously I would always carry a piece of fresh gut for use as a decoy.

If I am purposefully wolf hunting, and either playing on loper or not yet feeling confident with weapon level/ clothing protection, I tend to find an area where I can use a rabbit, or better still a deer as bait, then take the wolf down when it's feeding (the old 2 for 1 offer!).  I'll only use decoys on the rare occasions I am intercepted travelling back to base carrying a recently harvested carcass.

I'm not sure either system is better than the other, but I have definitely had to adapt my style since the decoy change, and I need to do a lot of work to become confident at hunting wolves on loper.  I do wonder if at least to some extent the decoy change was due to the introduction of timberwolves, and to encourage use of the revolver as a deterent rather than as an additional hunting weapon.

As to strains, you definitely seem to be getting more strains and warnings than I do, and in different areas.  There was an situation when the new strain system was introduced that for a short period everyone was getting sprains indoors/ on level surfaces, and I think this was then hotfixed (and the 'alarm' system toned down due to anxiety concerns).  Silly question, but are you routinely overburdened when getting these strains?  If not I'd suggest it may be some sort of bug/ fault with update, that frequency and location doesn't sound right to me.

Hope that helps.

[Mistral]

On 11/2/2019 at 3:11 AM, Kean Valk said:

The thing that gets me the most is that it's impossible to survive forever. At some point you will run out of ways to start a fire, and while you theoretically could find a system to keep a fire going for a long time (see deep forest achievement) once it goes out you have no way to get water. That might not kill you faster than the wildlife will given half a chance, but it definitely will in time.

What do you mean? The magnifying glass does not degrade, so you can use it theoretically forever, right? And there's always going to be sticks around to burn, even if all of the rest of the island has been thrown to the fire.

[Sherri]

On 9/5/2019 at 11:51 PM, ajb1978 said:

The wind in your face.  All the time. 
You're heading south, with a strong headwind.  You get to your waypoint, drop the junk you're transporting, take an hour to warm up.
You exit, heading back north for your next load.  The wind has mysteriously shifted 180 degrees, and you are again struggling upwind.

I am convinced there is some intentional code in there that predicts which direction you'll go next, and increases the odds that it will blow against you. Could even be as simple as - is the player on the east side  of the map? They will probably go west next.

Too many coincedences to be random.

And if you build a fire on the sheltered side of a building, of course the wind eventually shifts around to get you.

Heck, if I was making a punishing survival game I'd program it like that!

🤣

[darkscaryforest]

On 6/4/2020 at 3:23 AM, Vince 49 said:

Also, although I don't understand the business sense of endless free updates--I'm certainly not complaining. 

So your post brought up something I don't like about games with the endless update models..which is constant balancing.  I enjoy new content as much as the next person, but don't like it when the meta changes again and again like the decoy behavior you mentioned.  For early access titles, its just something that you have to deal with, but I still see it in "released" games.  Luckily I'm a new player, but I have a feeling one day I'll log into my game and all stored 0% food on the ground will disappear for example.  I wouldn't really care so much if it was always like that as long as it doesn't keep changing.  Learning new ways to play or adapting to these changes can be interesting, but it is be just as likely to be a time consuming distraction or tedium that delays experiencing true new content.

 

[Mistral]

Mine:

- Have to boil up water and can't eat snow. Especially annoying when the character voice says there is snow everywhere and can't eat it + that other lame line about drinking pee. It's just ludicrous. Les Stroud would laugh at this. You should be able to do it, and if you need a counter balance mechanic to it, eating snow could cool your body temperature down by x bit. Also boiling water would give you the same warming up bonus as the other hot drinks (as you should) so there would still be a benefit in making water
- You can run literally everywhere in the snow and deep woods. How? In real life the snow cover would likely be up to 1 meter and you would literally have to crawl to move around. It would add for interesting gameplay mechanic if the snow levels were different in other regions. As further measure, snow shoes and/or skiing could be added as alternative method of moving around in deeper snow
- Fires can last hours and hours and hours without restocking them in between. At least on the harder difficulty levels it should be that you can only burn like 1 hour of wood at the time, and then you have to put more in it before it goes out. Yes it would make quality of life a bit more tedious but you know, that's what would happen. Would prevent those 10-12 hour outdoor beauty sleeps too.
- The indoor locations are too warm, most of them should be heated up first
- Most of the indoor locations should be locked up and you should have to "break in" to get access
- Strain system, as already discussed
- Cabin fever is okay in terms of balancing the game, but doesn't make sense real survival wise
- The horrendous voice acting lines, I've always had them turned down

Edited July 1, 2020 by Mistral