v.193 Hotfix is now live!

[Raphael van Lierop]

We've just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.193. Changes below.

HOTFIX v.193 -- CHANGELIST

* Performance improvements in Pleasant Valley.

* Fixed some bear AI detection and reaction issues.

* Fixed problem with wolves congregating around vehicles when player is inside.

* Tuned AI smell detection distance for blood and raw meat.

* Fixed AI movement speed when Investigating (reduced from Stalking speed to Walking speed).

* Fixed issue with AI attacking players Resting inside cars.

* Reduced raw materials required to craft Torches.

* Re-balanced harvestable meat and gut yield for Bear, as well as Caloric value of Bear meat.

* Re-balanced weight of Rosehips, Reishi, and Old Man's Beard lichen.

* Fixed problem with lantern placement sometimes not working.

* Fixed some localization formatting issues for German and Russian.

* Fixed inaccessible Prybar in Coastal Highway.

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

[pikkue]

YE, thanks guys!

- Wait, nothing about the population issue?

[tuix]

* Fixed AI movement speed when Investigating (reduced from Stalking speed to Walking speed).

does that mean they are slower now? like before? because i really can't play enjoyably in their current form. the voyageur difficulty is screwed right now. stalker is the same as voyageur. and pilgrim is a joke. i loved my voyageur didn't want to go up to stalker but right now i feel like i am in it. wolves everywhere. and too damn fast. please fix their population in coastal highway. they seem to be normal in mystery lake and pleasant valley. love the game and love you guys.

[ChillPlayer]

Wow that was fast, I think you addressed already the most pressing issues. Thanks alot

[Hyssch]

Footsteps sound is still bugged and unaffected by options/audio/sound %

Footsteps sounds always as set at max 100% regardless of % at options-panel

I hope this gets into next hotfix...

...but still, that's impressive amount of bugs fixed in such a short time on this V193 changelist!

Great job, dev team

-Hyssch-

[brenton_nichol]

Raph, you guys are awesome, thanks for the fast work. I haven't made it into Pleasant Valley yet but I'm loving the other additions that I'm still able to experience in the earlier maps. I love the updated wolves - they make me nervous again, which is good. They'd gotten too predictable and avoidable prior to v.192. Looking forward to all that is yet to come!

[benadryl]

Boo! This game's hard mode is too easy. Stop nerfing wolves.

[Denyo]

* Fixed AI movement speed when Investigating (reduced from Stalking speed to Walking speed).

does that mean they are slower now? like before? because i really can't play enjoyably in their current form. the voyageur difficulty is screwed right now. stalker is the same as voyageur. and pilgrim is a joke. i loved my voyageur didn't want to go up to stalker but right now i feel like i am in it. wolves everywhere. and too damn fast. please fix their population in coastal highway. they seem to be normal in mystery lake and pleasant valley. love the game and love you guys.

I will say only this: I play Voyageur and I almost died today.Coz of STARVATION !! I was in ML map,settled in Camp Office,running my 37th day of survival,when Hotfix v.193 happened.3 days there was not a single wolf arround and deer run now from longer distance than earlyer.Even if I was hidding in tall grass,deer sensed me,even there was no wind.For me,deer is now almost imposible to kill.At third day one wolf appeared luckly on lake and I ran towards him,all starving.But,that damn wolf ran away from me.I had to go to Derailment and wait there for half hour(game time),that one wolf appeared.And I had to stand beside deer carcass,which was his prey and I also dropped down a piece of deer meet,then yet that wolf was attracted and came to me.

Now I had to move to CH map,to have at least something to eat.Dang,I don"t like this AI fix and depopulation rate now. :evil:

[Cosmoline]

Well the new bears ARE livelier! One mauled my character right off. Before it just stood there and took the lead, but not this time.

Re. the wildlife populations--I think that's the whole point of the sandbox. It's supposed to be tough to find food.

[pacificwing]

I haven't bought this game yet, but I've watched a few lets plays and I'm very impressed with the style and atmosphere. They seemed to get the sound effects and visuals dead-bang on.

I considered getting it after the last major release, but one thing annoyed me. The wolves.

Wolves are not generally predators to humans unless they are incredibly desperate, which doesn't appear to be the case here. The presence of deer and rabbits indicate there is an abundance of other prey. In these situations, they generally avoid humans. This game reminds me of that movie "They Grey" with Liam Neeson in regards to the way wolves are represented. A good action/suspense movie, but the wolves were just not accurate. Its pretty ridiculous and hard to suspend disbelief if you know anything about how wolves really behave.

I was originally willing to overlook this, as I remember reading wolves were just alpha version placeholders for more plausible predators, but this most recent update is reported to have ramped up wolf attacks. Does this hotfix bring it back down to a reasonable (and more believable) level? I also have read that the wolves are so difficult now, it has drastically affected game-play from enjoyably tense to frustratingly impossible.

I'm right on the verge of buying this. It looks so awesome. I just want to know if this hotfix has toned down the wolves a bit.

P.S. If you want a good suggestion for dangerous wildlife, you should add moose. For those who haven't seen a moose and wonder why they might be more dangerous than wolves, just imagine a commercial refrigerator with legs and a really bad temper. If a full grown moose wants to mess up your day, you're not even safe getting in your car.

[brenton_nichol]

I often find myself unable to suspend my disbelief in games where others seem able to do so, but you know, you could strip the fun out of just about any game out there if you demand that it adhere to 100% reality. At some point, a developer has to take some liberties so that the game is actually playable and enjoyable, and we the players have to allow for those liberties or we'd be playing an awful lot of boring, stifling games.

With that in mind, Hinterland directly addresses your criticism in the game loading splash screen; they recognize that the predatory wildlife does not act as it necessarily does in the real world, and they chalk it up to the bizarre atmospheric conditions that have also destroyed the world's electronics. Does that pass muster from an empirical, hard sci-fi/speculative viewpoint? No. *shrug* The game's still a hell of a lot of fun.

[elloco999]

Like BrentonRyan says, the game does indeed give a reason for the unnatural wildlife behavior by stating that this is the result of the electromagnetic phenomenon that took place/ is taking place. The actual explanation of how this is is something that will (probably) be in the story mode and they don't want to spoil it so this will have to do for now.

Also, there will probably be more wildlife added to the game in the future, including wildlife that is dangerous to the player. Wolves will probably be dialed down after that (or at least their number will decrease) to balance that out. So they may become more realistic in the future.

But if you want more realistic wolf behavior, you could always play on Pilgrim difficulty. Wolfs will avoid the player on Pilgrim.