Praise and a wish


Philoric

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My main thing I want to say is I think this is a great game. It is one of few games that has managed to captivate me in recent years. I like it. I don't know what it was like for you developers when you decided to start working on it. Perhaps embarking on that journey was a very bold move at the time. If so I'm glad you took the leap of faith.

I approach this game as a piece of art or poetry. I can tell alot of passion went into creating it and I salute that. 

Being an artist myself I want to encourage you guys in the design team to first and foremost pursue your own creative vision. Alot of the suggestions here on the forum are good, but sometimes even good ideas don't fit a bigger picture. In the end you have to stay true to your own idea or else your piece of art will end up all over the place.

It is in that context you should understand my bit of criticism, my reflection, my wish: The one thing I want more of in the Wintermute story is endearing characters. Mackenzie is great!! Astrid by comparison is alot more difficult to connect with, at least for me. Grey mother is weird. The priest is weird. The locked up forest talker is weird. The stabbed convict is wierd. The trapper is not outright wierd but he's not nice either. Molly is weird. I really like Methusela, but whatever his role is in the story, it must be very niche and ... weird. So a couple of weirdos are ok, but when do we get to the normal, sensible characters who don't talk in riddles? 

That being said, I am fully aware that you guys must follow your own vision. Whatever you do I will look forward to playing through the next chapter when it is released.

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I think a lot of the "weird" comes from the fact that they cut a lot of dialog from the story for no reason and made the whole story more mystical in a reality based game.

Jeremiah was the most sane person you could meet in the whole series, now he is a weirdo talking about magic spears and fighting a man killing bear in close combat.

The priest seemed ok, but I really wish he would not be they only healthy person in the community hall.

Molly is just creepy, but not weird. Seems like she is on her way to become a serial killer or already there according to the ingame hints.

The Grey Mother had some weird dialog, but now she that most of her dialog was cut she seems even more weird.

I despise Methuselahs character because he is SUPER weird and ruins immersion like a locomotive on nitro. His dialog is vague prophetic bullshit line- to- line.

Astrid is making more and more sense with every cutscene.

Mackenzie was perfect, but he start to sound more and more like an RPGs main character. He takes lifethreatening situations more and more like a trip to the zoo and I blame the new dialogs.

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Guest kristaok

Nuuuu~, but seriously I love Will and Astrid! <333

As for Grey Mother; before the redux I didn't like her so much, after the redux she wasn't so bad... kind of felt sorry for her.

As for the Priest; Nuuu he's not weird XD! He's very helpful to those who were hurt in the crash, he's a beacon of HOPE.

As for the Forest Talkers; I don't know enough to comment...

As for the Stabbed Convict; Yea I totally dug the knife in him...  he deserved it.

As for the Trapper aka Jeremiah;  I liked him, he reminded me of Jeremiah Johnson XD. 

As for Methusaleh; I love him! XD I want to see WAY more of him! 

I LOVE the mystical aspect of TLD! I love the direction it's headed!

PS. Now as for "Molly", yea she did weird me out... but I have no qualms with any of the characters! they each bring something to the table so to speak.

Edited by kristaok
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Hmm should really replay those 1st two episodes after redux, i dont remember them characters being particularly weird ( considering the setting :) ).
I mean if anyone played Flame in the flood, those sparse characters in there are certainly weirder, few of them even similar maybe? - so maybe thats just me being used to that.

Other than that i totally agree with Molly being totally creepy and at times feels outright deus ex machina too.

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5 hours ago, kristaok said:

As for Methusaleh; I love him! XD I want to see WAY more of him! 

I officaly consider you the enemy of reason. That guy wrecks immersion with his prophetic BS all the damn time.

 

5 hours ago, kristaok said:

As for Grey Mother; before the redux I didn't like her so much, after the redux she wasn't so bad... kind of felt sorry for her.

Atleast, she applauded you for not being an asshole and not robbing the gas station. Now she demands it.

 

5 hours ago, kristaok said:

I LOVE the mystical aspect of TLD! I love the direction it's headed!

Isn't there enough mystical, 3rd rate, crappy survival games out there that explain the collapse of the world with "Herp derp MAJIIIK".

Edited by Hipercsiga
typo
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8 hours ago, Hipercsiga said:

cut a lot of dialog from the story for no reason and made the whole story more mystical in a reality based game.

:D I don't think either of your suppositions are true. :D

I'd be willing to bet that if dialogue was removed that there was a reason.  Just because you don't know what it is, doesn't mean it there wasn't one (I think it's a rather arrogant assumption).

I also think it's possible you've misunderstood the game Hinterland has made.  It's not a simulator... it's never been hyper-realistic and even in the early iteration of episodes 1&2 there were still the same kind of touches of whimsy/fantasy elements to it.  Just because you don't like the choices they made as they've continued to flesh out the story they want to tell, doesn't mean it was ever their intention to make a nature simulator (I think you're making assumptions again). 

***

Look, I can certainly respect your personal opinions, and it seems you don't like the story mode... that's fine.  You are perfectly right to feel however you'd like to about anything.

However... they are just your personal opinions.

It's generally not a good tactic to try and pass off one's personal opinion as fact (when in truth it's a subjective point of view).  I doubt very much that you have the insider access necessary to be able to accurately make declarative statements concerning Hinterland's intentions, actions, or motivations.

:coffee::fire:

Edited by ManicManiac
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On 3/10/2020 at 7:31 PM, Philoric said:

Being an artist myself I want to encourage you guys in the design team to first and foremost pursue your own creative vision. Alot of the suggestions here on the forum are good, but sometimes even good ideas don't fit a bigger picture. In the end you have to stay true to your own idea or else your piece of art will end up all over the place.

Not to worry, from what I've seen over the years... Hinterland seems very dedicated to their vision.
You're right, there is a lot of noise on forums, but considering most of the nonsense, I know I can trust Hinterland to do what they think is best for their game.

:coffee::fire::coffee:

Edited by ManicManiac
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They largely kept the story, but made the first episode shorter. With her giving less quest to you and you finding the quests instead. They may had a reason for it, but probably the reason is half arsed.

It wasn't a super realistic, but the point was to keep up some realism while keeping the gameplay enjoyable. With the new changes, they are taking both on the wrong path.

Even the "whimsy/fantasy element" (by which I suspect you mean the aurora and the acting up wildlife) has more science than the reast of the survival genre combined. Auroras IRL do interact with electrical and magnetic devices, but not on this scale and it can freak out animals. Animals can act predatory if bears are woken from hibernation or active predators barely find prey.

In fact scientist have been looking into the effects of aurora borealis on electrical devices and wildlife. They also found out that solar flares that get stronger and stronger as our sun grows empower them and make them stronger in charge.

You assume the creators of the put some half arsed explanation together for the main story even tough they went so far as adding tiny details and entire stories into the game you never explore in quests just for the sake of easter eggs.

Edited by Hipercsiga
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49 minutes ago, Hipercsiga said:

It wasn't a super realistic, but the point was to keep up some realism while keeping the gameplay enjoyable. With the new changes, they are taking both on the wrong path.

Once again you are trying to state an option on as fact (which it's not)...  I can respect that you think it's the wrong path, but that doesn't mean it's the wrong path.  It just means that you don't like it. :D

49 minutes ago, Hipercsiga said:

(by which I suspect you mean the aurora and the acting up wildlife) has more science than the reast of the survival genre combined. Auroras IRL do interact with electrical and magnetic devices, but not on this scale and it can freak out animals.

You suspect incorrectly, that's not what I was talking about.
However, since you bring up the Aurora... (or more accurately the Geomagnetic Event, that serves as the catalyst of the story).  It would have been a much stronger point, had you referenced the Carrington Event.  A solar coronal mass ejection (CME) that hit Earth's magnetosphere and induced the largest geomagnetic storm on record, September 1–2, 1859.  If you read about the event and it's effects... I think they will sound familiar.  :D
Heck... you could have even referenced:
The March 1989 geomagnetic storm knocked out power across large sections of Quebec.  Even the July 23, 2012 a "Carrington-class" solar superstorm (solar flare, coronal mass ejection, solar EMP) was observed; its trajectory narrowly missed Earth.
 

49 minutes ago, Hipercsiga said:

put some half arsed explanation together for the main story even tough they went so far as adding tiny details and entire stories into the game you never explore in quests just for the sake of easter eggs.

You seems to be making some strange assumptions again.  I'm not even entirely sure what the heck your even talking about at this point.  My main point is that it seems your accusing Hinterland of being half-arsed, I think it's a rather arrogant assumption for you to make.


:coffee::fire:
I spoken on this kind of thing before so I will echo it here as well 

On 11/8/2019 at 5:19 AM, ManicManiac said:

That is quite an assumption to make... and likely not the case.  I can understand that being something you personally didn't like, but I think it's pretty presumptuous to insinuate they did a rush job and don't care about the quality of their product.  I think we all know that's untrue.

:coffee::fire:
I respect your opinions and personal feelings about the game... but I don't think it's cool to frame that opinion as a judgment of the Hinterland teams' intentions or ethics on quality of work because you don't like a particular mechanic.  To me that just seemed a little over the line.

 

Edited by ManicManiac
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16 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

My main point is that your accusing Hinterland of being half-arsed, I think it's a rather arrogant assumption for you to make.

I'm not accusing Hinterlands half arsed as a whole. Their story was perfect until they added stuff like the bear spear, mystical quotes and stuff. These all came from overeager fans whom they should never have listened to. Game mechanics can never be 100% realistic because you would either die from one lucky hit or survive a dozen of small injuries without a complaint. Cures work over time, but nobody wants to play bedridden patient simulator. That stuff is impossible to adjust accurately, but not mystical at all. Local legends are not mystical either, just fancy stories woven around real observations. Aside from the aurora or the acting up wildlife or a few weird quotes there was 0 magical, mystical stuff before redux. Nada.

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10 minutes ago, Hipercsiga said:

Their story was perfect until they added stuff like the bear spear, mystical quotes and stuff. These all came from overeager fans whom they should never have listened to.

Again, this is just an opinion... and I don't think your assertions are true.

Edited by ManicManiac
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8 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

Again, this is just an opinion... and not necessarily true.

Yea, If you preffer they could add zombies, chinese lizard monster hordes, super viruses, wizards, magic nukes, dragons, witch cults. As long as it fits the future vision why the hell not.

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25 minutes ago, Hipercsiga said:

Yea, If you preffer they could add zombies, chinese lizard monster hordes, super viruses, wizards, magic nukes, dragons, witch cults. As long as it fits the future vision why the hell not.

:D Why would you even try to make assumptions about me?  Especially when it seems you fundamentally misunderstand what I've conveyed to you.
I don't think your apparent sarcasm is very clever, and I certainly don't think it does your position any good.  If anything it suggests that you're just trying to be antagonistic at this point.

So, let's be done now.

Edited by ManicManiac
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