Split-Screen Mode

[atmeglino]

I think it’d be really awesome to have a split-screen mode for The Long Dark. Not a lot of games nowadays have this, but I always found it super fun to play games with family members or friends in person using split-screen. I think more games should have this and it would be perfect for a game like The Long Dark. The strategies that would be involved with being trapped in the wilderness with another person—like food and supply rationing, exploring, and houses/bases—is something that I’ve always wanted to experience in this game. The players could either work together to survive in the wilderness or they could fight each other or steal from each other to survive (“every man for himself” type of deal). Either way, I really think that a split-screen mode would be a great addition to The Long Dark.

Also, I understand that sleeping could be an issue with a split-screen game. But that can be avoided by removing fatigue from running/climbing, and if the player does become fatigued from something else, they could do something like drink coffee to bring their energy back up. Energy could be a thing that doesn’t gradually decrease over time but rather drops to a lower level if something happens to the player.

Edited May 2, 2020 by atmeglino
Adding content

[ManicManiac]

  

On 2/16/2020 at 10:03 AM, ManicManiac said:

The idea has certainly been proposed and discussed very often and in a variety of ways... however few of them ever really consider what I think is the main problem.  The mechanics of this game in particular make Coop/Multiplayer kind of a "no go."  Simply put... the thing that would be the biggest challenge is the fact that there are many mechanics (that help form the foundation of the game play) that utilize "time compression."  When you have situations that mess with "time" it becomes a problem with multiple players interacting in the same space.

For example... if you have two players and one is out chopping wood (that compresses 45 min - 1 hour of time) then the other player either has to also accelerate or they get "out of sync" so to speak.  If one is spending 5 hours fishing (that is normally compressed), what happens then?  Does the fishing then go in real time?  In other words because this game is filled with mechanics that compress time (sleeping, "passing time"/"wait 'till ready", harvesting, fishing, breaking things down, using the forge, crafting, milling, and so on) then you can't really have two or more players interacting and still keep them synchronized in terms of the time of day... you'd have to force everything to happen in "normal game time" - which for some long tasks, I think, would really suck.

I hope my examples help to illustrate why I don't think coop/multiplayer would work in this game just from the standpoint of fundamental mechanics.

Edited May 3, 2020 by ManicManiac