Rebalancing game for old hand and newbies.

[peteloud]

As I read the posts it is clear that some players have been at it for ages and know the countryside, maps, very well, yet newbies have no idea what is where.  It means that TLD has two levels of play within each formal level, i.e. Pilgrim, Stalker etc.

 

I would like to see the game made easier at the start to benefit newbies, and more challenging later in the game, not easier as you proceed.

[DarkTreader]

In any game, you're going to have a personal skill curve and a game difficulty skill curve that are going to diverge at some point, which is why there are challenges (both built into the game, as well as community-created). A green player wouldn't last a night in a Deadman challenge, and rightly so - that challenge isn't designed for them.

The 'easy' start to the game is the story mode, where you're slowly introduced to new tools, features, and survival skills necessary. Even something like Voyageur survival mode takes a lot of skill to survive in. So... I'm not certain what the ask here is. Make the game easier than it is to start, then substantially harder over time? That's what a long-term survival play does. Resources become more and more limited, even once food and water are covered, so it becomes a time and risk management issue.

[ManicManiac]

 

1 hour ago, peteloud said:

I would like to see the game made easier at the start to benefit newbies

No thank you...

I don't ever want to see the game get easier for any reason... I much rather the idea of folks learning and improving their survival skills.  I think it's a much more satisfying game this way.

To me, it makes sense that the game feels easier after we get better at navigating, getting better with the mechanics (including leveled skills from "practice"), and surviving long enough to find/make better gear.  I think that's the rewarding part... enduring and surviving.    It's a big part of what has kept me engaged with this game since the later part of 2014.

"[Mother nature] doesn't care whether you live or die..."  and I think, neither should this game.

Full Quote:

Quote

R: In terms of survival being its own genre it’s been really interesting to work on The Long Dark in that our starting point was we wanted to create [an exploration game]. To me the most interesting part of Fallout 3 was exploration, so after playing it a lot I wondered if you could make a game that was only that, where combat was incidental and the environment is the challenge itself. So that’s where all the mechanics of the game emerged from, how to turn Mother Nature into a…not necessarily an adversary but sort of a neutral threat. She doesn’t care whether you live or die."

H: One literary theme that I love is the indifference of nature to human suffering.

R: Yes! That’s exactly what this game is about.

Edited May 21, 2020 by ManicManiac

[UTC-10]

The Long Dark survival mode lacks a tutorial, in-game help and maps, guardian angels, and is pretty unforgiving to the ignorant (and even the experienced).   So knowledge is important just to survive.

If there is intent to "ease" the way for new players, let that be a specific beginner's challenge set in Voyager mode and limited to Mystery Lake that would be overbearing much like the way the pre-dux Story mode episodes 1 and 2 were with a guide that directs the player hither and yon.  It lasts for a specific period of game days, has a series of specific tasks and goals for teaching very basic survival mechanics,  then ends.  The player has no or not much flexibility to do "other things".  As a "challenge" there is no carryover into the survival mode other than the knowledge gained from it. 

As for having a tutorial for Stalker and Interloper mode, well that is diving into the deep end of the pool, they better know how to swim already.   Stalker and Interloper were intended to satisfy experienced players who know the game, game mechanics, the environment, and wanted a tougher challenge not to represent a carefully balanced, "fair" and even-handed game experience. So no tutorial.

What would make a tutorial problematic is that the benefit to the game would be limited.  Maybe there are a host of potential players who were turned off by the utter lack of in-game help, maps, and zomb... etc.  but that probably would not balance out the cost to implement.  So a tutorial would be a heavy burden which might have been better before Story Mode came out since that might have freed Story Mode from having episodes 1 and 2 structured the way they were, but that is hindsight.