DEV DIARY – NOVEMBER 2019

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Admin

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Hello community,

The last six weeks have been pretty busy, with launching Episode Three on October 22nd, supporting our annual Four Days of Night Halloween event, and finalizing our next big Survival Mode update. We said we’d do our best to deliver you one more big update before the end of the year, and I’m here to tease out a bit more information about what to expect in December.

The next update is called ERRANT PILGRIM, and it features some new stuff we’re pretty excited about:

  • A new region. This will be our first region to feature a two-part environmental puzzle of sorts — in order to unlock the region’s full potential, you’ll need to access it from two different locations. There’s a new area with several industrial buildings, and this region will be the first to feature Timberwolves in Survival Mode. Watch out!
  • A new challenge. We’ve taking inspiration from the community’s “Deadman” take on custom mode settings, and have created our own version as a standalone Challenge mode which, frankly, we think is the toughest experience we’ve ever made. Nobody in the office has been able to complete it yet. (Don’t worry, we’re exempting this new challenge from the Challenge Mastery achievement. We’re not monsters.)
  • New gameplay systems. Without getting into too much detail at the moment, we’re introducing a few new gear items, tools, and systems that should help make late-game survival a little more viable for most players. You might get a hint from the piece of concept art included in this dev diary.
  • New Feats. We haven’t shown the Feat system much love since we introduced it, so we’re adding three new Feats, to give you some gameplay objectives to work towards as handy new buffs for your Survival Mode games.
  • New Survival Mode music. 10+ more minutes of brand new music, from Survival mode soundtrack composer, Sascha Dikiciyan.
  • The Return of Fluffy. Hmm?
  • Did I mention Timberwolves in Survival Mode? Relax. They’re only in the new region. (For now.)

There are some other tidbits here and there, some quality of life updates, and of course, lots of bug fixes. We hope this next update comes just in time for you to fire up The Long Dark over the cold winter holiday, when it’s best appreciated!

You can expect the next Survival Mode update to land around the middle of December, depending on how long it takes us to get things optimized and the bugs cleaned up. We’ll launch it with our customary update video, fully narrated by yours truly. Should be fun.

Keep an eye open on our social channels as we’ll likely share more tidbits about the update leading up to its launch. As usual, this will be a free update for all current owners of The Long Dark, on Steam (where the game happens to currently be on Sale), Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and the other platforms we’re currently available on. This might also be a good moment to remind you to nominate The Long Dark in the Labour of Love category in the 2019 Steam Awards.

Thanks for reading, and look for more bits of info over the next couple of weeks!

– Raph

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Admin
Admin

Hello community, The last six weeks have been pretty busy, with launching Episode Three on October 22nd, supporting our annual Four Days of Night Halloween event, and finalizing our next big Surv

McThulu
McThulu

Fluffy returns? 😱  Sounds great!

romerabr
romerabr

Get ready! Update this week!    

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ManicManiac Pathfinder

ManicManiac

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I love everything about this already. :) 
My mind reels at the possibilities, and I can hardly wait to see where all the new content fits in, and how it will affect the balance over all. 

A new region... hmm, the question now becomes do I scrap my current run and start fresh?  - I imagine that won't be nessisarry but considering all the updated stuff and things that are suggested at... perhaps it might be a good idea to start my personal challenge from scratch again? (after all I'm only 29 days in to this one... I don't know, I'll have to think about it)   I do love the idea of having more than one point of access in order to explore it entirely... I like that idea a lot (though for my personal challenge, I may have to make an exception to one of my rules but only for that particular region).

A new challenge... that no one on the team has beaten yet?  Yes please, challenge accepted! (all the badges must be mine :D)

Hmm, I thought fluffy has been denning in a remote location (not specifying as a courtesy)... a dedicated model this time maybe?  ...or just returning to the Dam?  Hmm...

New Feats... interesting, I don't tend to use them really.  However, I do like getting my merit badges!  I'm still very interested in seeing what they are. :) 

New music... Thank you!  The score of this game is above reproach.  Each addition so far has only grown it's beauty.

The Timber Wolf Scourge... I love it, I welcome it, and I can't wait to see how it's going to impact my strategies and tactics.

New Gameplay Systems... I'm intrigued, I'm having a hard time imagining what those could be.  Hmm, clue in the concept art... well I do see that drill press, hmm.
 

:coffee::fire::coffee:
Nominate for Labor of Love... absolutely!  Already done. :) 

 

Edited by ManicManiac
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LucidFugue Pathfinder

LucidFugue

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1 hour ago, Admin said:

Without getting into too much detail at the moment, we’re introducing a few new gear items, tools, and systems that should help make late-game survival a little more viable for most players. You might get a hint from the piece of concept art included in this dev diary.

I'm eyeing off that drill press next to the workbench and wondering.. Aurora-only crafting options? ⛄

Interested to see the new challenge. I haven't been around to see Deadman grow as a community thing, but I'll be interested to try it. 

Love live Fluffy (until I need to loot the dam) 🐺

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sierra 117 Pathfinder

sierra 117

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16 minutes ago, LucidFugue said:

I'm eyeing off that drill press next to the workbench and wondering.. Aurora-only crafting options? 

It looks to me as if the machine is operational ,looks like the light is on. Looking  closer at the wire on the ground seems to be sparking/arcing. 

Also it's daylight in the pic, so I'm thinking methods to power electrical items anytime . Maybe a generator/finally a use for the batteries.

I know someone will be happy, we have a resident scientist here on great bear who has a strange fascination with these elusively unuseable items.

(Cant remember your forum username. Sorry im too lazy to go back and check lol.Your threads are great though)

Edited by sierra 117
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Guest jeffpeng

Guest jeffpeng

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Great to see this game embrace more of the "Decay of Industry" theme. I remember @Raphael van Lieroptalking about it quite some time ago, and it's been one of my favorite things in TLD as well.

Also amazing to see some sort of Deadman make it into TLD officially. I think the audience that will appreciate that is probably far from forming a majority vote, which makes this even more amazing. I know what I'll be playing this winter ....

2 hours ago, Admin said:

in order to unlock the region’s full potential, you’ll need to access it from two different locations.

Since we get "only" one new region the region must connect to two others. That limits the available possibilities a bit I think. My personal bet it the patch of land between PV and DP, accessible from The End Of The Road in Pleasant Valley and the Broken Bridge in Desolation Point. But there are other places that would invite this: The Ravine still has a third connection left unused (and it was stated earlier that it would probably be used at some point as the Ravine was setup as a three-region-hub), and it would kinda match up with Coastal Highway's Rockfall, and HRV still has a very obvious exit in the actual Valley, and that could connect to a region that would circle back to Milton via the road east of Spruce Falls. But ... speculations you know :D Hyped. 

2 hours ago, Admin said:

The Return of Fluffy.

I know how that movie ends.

2 hours ago, Admin said:

that should help make late-game survival a little more viable for most players

If you mean more viable as "more interesting" I'm all for it. If you mean easier .... hum.... let's see. But I get a vibe from this update that it's here to present new challenges and new things to discover, not make existing content easier.

1 hour ago, ManicManiac said:

New Feats... interesting, I don't tend to use them really.  However, I do like getting my merit badges!  I'm still very interested in seeing what they are. :) 

Yeah. Kinda that. Maybe there's a badge like "You don't accidentally light a match when you try to open a container while holding a torch anymore" :D In that case I'll go for it.

1 hour ago, ManicManiac said:

A new region... hmm, the question now becomes do I scrap my current run and start fresh?

That's the reason I'm on vacation in the Amazonas at the moment eating snails and Poison Dart Frogs, stockpiling coconuts. Wanna start fresh with a new Loper as my current one is only 60 days in anyways.

Also ... Yes I will keep bugging you people with this: Any chance you'll fix the terrain wobble with OpenGL (Linux only afaik) or the Z-Buffer Shadow Bug with Vulkan (Both Win64 and Linux)? Penguins are humans, too, you know. Mostly. Like Marshmallows. Sorta.

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Dan_ Pathfinder

Dan_

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This one sounds absolutely jam-packed with content. Excited for the new region and the new systems to make late-game more enjoyable. 

I loved episode 3, but survival mode is my drug. Can't wait to get more of it!

PS: You guys better do the deadman harsh, not to take it away from the TLD prowess of Hinterland's team but we are a community of professional TLDers here, we'll just beast the challenge no problem. 💪 

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ThePancakeLady Pathfinder

ThePancakeLady

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2 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

New Gameplay Systems... I'm intrigued, I'm having a hard time imagining what those could be.  Hmm, clue in the concept art... well I do see that drill press, hmm.
 

I also see 2 upper level areas. With no stairs... ladders instead. and there are other ladders in the game world. Mostly step ladders but a not all of them are step ladders. I wonder if we will be able to climb ladders, like we can climb up some rocks and ropes. I'm always interested in being able to climb things. Everything, lol.

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sierra 117 Pathfinder

sierra 117

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36 minutes ago, ThePancakeLady said:

I also see 2 upper level areas. With no stairs... ladders instead.

Good eye, 

I also just noticed the crafting table is connected to the power cable, and judging by the box/housing unit hanging underneath.look like a table saw of some sort. 

Don't really want to speculate too much on that one, however upon closer inpspection it looks like ot could be a pile of logs/timber lying behind the bench also , maybe, could open up a load of new crafting abilities.

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ajb1978 Pathfinder

ajb1978

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1 minute ago, sierra 117 said:

Don't really want to speculate too much on that one, could open up a load of new crafting abilities.

I'm wondering if this might be the ammo crafting that was on the old road map, back when such a thing existed.  Being able to craft rifle or revolver ammunition would indeed fit the bill of making the game more viable in the long run for most players.  Those of us who've been around since the beginning can survive quite well without weapons of any sort with fishing and "chase deer into wolf, scare away wolf" shenanigans, but that is definitely not "most people".

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MarrowStone Pathfinder

MarrowStone

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FLUFFY! Who here's gong to give her a well-deserved Moose steak? My goal will be to hunt down a moose before entering for a proper reunion! Is anyone with me?

Everything stated in this dev diary excites me. Most interesting is the concept of environmental puzzles requiring long distances of travel to solve. Music is always a plus, but I've noticed the original score of survival has been absent, and the scary music doesn't play when you find the dead body in Camp Office anymore. 

Timber-wolves in survival mode excite me, but I'm unsure I want them to be present on every map. It might compromise their novelty.

I'm so ready for some new feats!

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