New Animals/Craftables/Weapons

[xXSilent_BobXx]

I know this has been on topics before, but to NEEDS to be stressed more. More animals first of all. A simple Google search brings fourth the delima that The Long Dark does not have enough wildlife. I mean... Four variations is not much and doesn't add too much for depth or visual stimulation (depth as in, "what you can do with 'more'. And visual stimulation as in, 'OHHH...that's pretty'." Again, a simple Google search brings fourth that there are probably 50 times more wildlife than what's integrated. Furthermore, the more wildlife(vegitation as well as animals), would bring a plethora of other craftables. Which vegitation may be a little more scarce than animals, but still. In a life or death situation I would be eating grass and pinecones and treenuts and whatnot. Which brings me to my last point...weapons. I would make a weapon out of anything I could, which was sort of portrayed sort of well with the beginning of the Wintermute, 'pulling out the metal shrapnel from your hand and being able to use it for carcass scavenging and the breaking down of wood'(which brings up another survival thing, sleeping IN a carcass to keep from freezing to death through the night or a blizzard). But I digress, what if you tear off a scrap of wood sharp enough to stab a wolf? What of those sticks that you pick up for fires? They look to be good enough a tool to stab a viscious animal attacking you. What about rabbies? I could keep going and going and going, but I'm gonna keep it at what I've said. I love this game, and I don't expect anything more from the amazing people that have made it. I love the idea of bringing back heart to what monetization has killed and I really do hope to see this studio thrive and create one of a kind experiences for the world to experience together.

 

[UpUpAway95]

The issue I have is how the game is going to be balanced.  Increeases in variety will result in lessening of the spawn frequences of the animals/plants we already have in the game in order to prevent an associated decrease in difficulty resulting from an increase in overall availability,  If, say, pine cones become edible and provide calories, then it's likely that fewer  birch bark, cat tails, rose hips and reshi mushrooms will spawn in order to assure that the player has to work as hard as they ever have to feed themselves from plant sources.   The same holds true for any new animals that might be introduced as sources of meat.  Fewer numbers of the animals we already have... deer, rabbits, moose, bear, and wolves will spawn.  If the new plants don't duplicate the medicinal effects of some of those planets, there will be a reduction in the availability of pain killing and antibiotic agents in the game.  If the new animals required different specialized tools to hunt, then the availability of the animals we can, say, hunt with stones will be fewer.

While I like variety, I hope that Hinterlands carefully considers the effects on game balance each introduction of a new plant or animal will have on the game at all stages and at all difficulty levels.

[xXSilent_BobXx]

Too true. I can see how having more of things could impact the playability and overall sense of survival and kinda dumb down the game like certain *cough* *Fallout* *cough* games.... I haven't even been to Timber Wolf Valley yet, but the name certainly makes me think more Timber Wolves will be there. Definitely more than other parts of the map. Which makes me think, maybe do this with other resources. Obviously a Timber Wolf isn't only going to be in that valley, but the occasions when you run into them are more prevalent(again I could be wrong here, it's more the idea to the point). Or maybe, more pines would be around the Mystery Lake area. This could already be a thing with the plants and animals, I still haven't played enough to be able to make out patterns and habbits of certain things(I think my longest survival was 28 days, which was my second survival. And playing any of the challenges has been shelved until I get to the end of the third chapter). I guess I can't say much though, I'm not the one with years of experience in programming, nor the experience of trial and error for these kinds of thoughts. And honestly, this game could stay exactly the same and I'd still be happy with it. The amount of replayability, and the story is pretty good too. It's just the replay value for me. How long will it take for me to get bored with it?

[Guest jeffpeng]

18 hours ago, xXSilent_BobXx said:

I haven't even been to Timber Wolf Valley yet, but the name certainly makes me think more Timber Wolves will be there.

While there isn't such a thing as Timber Wolf Valley the location you probably mean - Timberwolf Mountain - has no timberwolves.

18 hours ago, xXSilent_BobXx said:

How long will it take for me to get bored with it?

I'm three years in and counting.

In general I have to agree with @UpUpAway95. While more stuff in the game would be nice, more stuff doesn't make the game automatically better. Balancing is crucial, and having more types of predators or more recipies for one and the same thing - like clothing or nature medicine - wouldn't actually add anything to the game really besides variety. Just because there are now 4 types of prey animal instead of 1 that share the previous population of deer doesn't mean the game is really better or all that different - except a lot of animation and AI work went into those new animals. Sure you can look at that and say "well fine with me, I just wanted more different things to kill".... but would it actually benefit the game?