Bury the Dead

[DarkWanderer]

On 12/9/2020 at 8:01 PM, Thebigfootman said:

I would love a way to bury the many lost souls we find out there. Maybe it would take six hours and a shovel. Maybe you would be rewarded with some sense of inner peace. I mean, not only is it really weird to share a room with a dead guy for several weeks, but I feel like it adds some humanity to this bleak situation. Also f#!k those crows! Its such a pretty sounding game but its like constant crows sometimes!

 

Love the game!

Signed up just to upvote this!  I would like the peace of mind in giving them a final resting place rather than constantly ignoring them, would definitely make a side mission of it.  Since it's permafrost, maybe just use rock mounds in a special place in the forest, as a part of camp craft, I don't think we need a new resource for it or anything, but bonus if there's like a wooden slab or something you can make (or stone craft?).  I would think carrying them around would be similar to hauling survivors around.  Maybe write a short epitaph for them or something, not much else to do after the first couple hundred days or so.  Would make a nice addition to the game play I think.  Not mandatory but nice to have names for them too, like the crash victims, might help keep relatives near each other.

Also would help with hunting since I wouldn't have to remember which crows flying overhead are for known corpses when trying to track down that deer that ran away.

[Mroz4k]

While I am a dark individual who is more on the practical side, and I use dead corpses as a means of storing gear indoors and sometimes supplies outdoors, I can see why this would be a good addition into the game. It would provide a thing to do when all your neccesities are taken care of, and it would give people something to do to "regain that humanity" feeling back. I imagine it would be very rewarding to a soul and immersion if the survivor took care of the "less fortunate". And, for the idea sake - the "loss of a container" situation could easily be replaced, with the corpse being replaced by a backpack instead. That way, the container is left in. I can honestly say that I would put it on my list of things "to do", even if it meant losing a container. 

10 hours ago, one_shurbbery said:

Cannibalism could be an option, however I feel like that would be way too dark for even the TLD.

No worries, that will never happen. For starters, Hinterland said so, and it was a part of the goals as an item they will never add. Also, it would tank the game´s rating to adult for sure. For that reason alone, it would be bad idea. The Hinterland would prefer to have the game accessible to younger audience if possible, at least in the past that seemed to be their strategy. Cannibalism is quite certainly not gonna be a thing in TLD.

[ElleJoy]

There could be an option to pyre-burn them, as well. It would still take time, but you wouldn't need a shovel and to work through the frozen ground. You'd probably need a decent amount of wood, so it would be something you'd have to decide on. But I absolutely would love to implement some way of dealing with the dead, because nothing is worse than finding a decent home to stay in only to find its already occupied :-/ 

[ElleJoy]

And at the very absolute -least- there should be an option to remove the dead folk from homes. If they don't wanna implement a way to bury/burn the bodies, you should have some way to drag a corpse outside and away from where you'd like to live. Majorly annoying to find a really great place to make a home base just to find Dead Larry hanging out in your bathroom or upstairs loft. 

[Mroz4k]

On 2/19/2021 at 3:20 PM, ElleJoy said:

And at the very absolute -least- there should be an option to remove the dead folk from homes. If they don't wanna implement a way to bury/burn the bodies, you should have some way to drag a corpse outside and away from where you'd like to live. Majorly annoying to find a really great place to make a home base just to find Dead Larry hanging out in your bathroom or upstairs loft. 

That is a point of perspective.

If dead Larry can hold onto 66 sticks for me, then I am fine with him, hanging out on my bathtub. I am not using it anyway - easier to just roll around in snow to get clean  

All jokes aside - like I pointed out earlier, the idea to bury the dead or at least remove them from indoor areas has been suggested a lot over the years, although it was not that common. And, like I pointed out, the matter of inventory space could easily be handled by simply replacing the spot of a body with a backpack afterwards.

It is too bad that corpses are randomized - if they were stationary, burying them could become a long-term goal such as visiting of cairns and such.

[ElleJoy]

On 2/20/2021 at 5:23 PM, Mroz4k said:

That is a point of perspective.

If dead Larry can hold onto 66 sticks for me, then I am fine with him, hanging out on my bathtub. I am not using it anyway - easier to just roll around in snow to get clean  

All jokes aside - like I pointed out earlier, the idea to bury the dead or at least remove them from indoor areas has been suggested a lot over the years, although it was not that common. And, like I pointed out, the matter of inventory space could easily be handled by simply replacing the spot of a body with a backpack afterwards.

It is too bad that corpses are randomized - if they were stationary, burying them could become a long-term goal such as visiting of cairns and such.

Tho that, I imagine, could be as simple as removing the randomization. Make corpses a static placement and allow for burying/memorial placement, then slap an achievement on it. Suddenly it becomes a challenge, as opposed to tedious housekeeping.

[Syraith]

^^ not to mention, just a reduction in harvestable meat if they’re frozen. It’s kind of like dog food, still haven’t eaten any but I know it’s there as a last resort.

[Mroz4k]

20 hours ago, ElleJoy said:

Tho that, I imagine, could be as simple as removing the randomization. Make corpses a static placement and allow for burying/memorial placement, then slap an achievement on it. Suddenly it becomes a challenge, as opposed to tedious housekeeping.

While I believe that randomness is a nice aspect to the game, because you never know going from game to game if you will find a particular person here or there, but yea, I can see that happening. One way to solve this is to put a "finite" number of corpses into the game and just spread them around randomly, then create a "grave" resource for each body, add the "bury the dead" option into the game, and then turn it into a challenge this way.

I think this would be significant effort, but I also believe it would be incredibly worth it for the Hinterland. This adds a new level of long-term challenge into the game besides the pre-placed cairns, which are always in the exact same spot. 

17 hours ago, Syraith said:

^^ not to mention, just a reduction in harvestable meat if they’re frozen. It’s kind of like dog food, still haven’t eaten any but I know it’s there as a last resort.

We are talking about burying dead people here. No to cannibalism. I do not want to see it in the game, ever. And I am pretty sure Hinterland pointed several times cannibalism is something they will never add. For one, it would tank the game ratings. Besides, food is easily available in the game, and I would really not like to see this turn into a "The forest".

[Syraith]

1 hour ago, Mroz4k said:

We are talking about burying dead people here. No to cannibalism. I do not want to see it in the game, ever. And I am pretty sure Hinterland pointed several times cannibalism is something they will never add. For one, it would tank the game ratings. Besides, food is easily available in the game, and I would really not like to see this turn into a "The forest".

Completely agree. Sorry, not sure why my quote from an earlier post wasn’t attached but was commenting on the fact that even being frozen, there’s a chance like with animals to still harvest them. But no no no, I’m all against cannibalism being a thing. As said, I still won’t eat the cans of dog food let alone stoop to eating the fallen ones.

[Mroz4k]

9 minutes ago, Syraith said:

Completely agree. Sorry, not sure why my quote from an earlier post wasn’t attached but was commenting on the fact that even being frozen, there’s a chance like with animals to still harvest them. But no no no, I’m all against cannibalism being a thing. As said, I still won’t eat the cans of dog food let alone stoop to eating the fallen ones.

Ah okay! I see. Frankly, the comment striken me a bit out of place. I thought you might be referring to something else, thank you for clarifying. I apologize for presuming.

Maybe it was meant for a different topic, then? On that subject, I think the game is kinda fine as it is. Harvesting meat off frozen stiff carcasses takes a lot of time that exposes one to a risk of attack by other animals, or to elements. Something interesting of note - using different tools when meat is frozen makes a lot of difference - hacking the meat off with a hatchet when its frozen or sawing it off with a hacksaw is much faster then the use of a knife, or hands. Its a small detail but makes a lot of difference in the game altogether. And since one cannot harvest with hands the frozen carcasses till they have a degree of animal harvesting skill, I would say the mechanic is pretty well thought through.

But, if you meant that only a certain amount of meat can be taken off with hands from a frozen carcass, without the use of a tools, I think that would be a neat little detail. As long as the meat stays on it and can be harvested once the carcass is thawed or with the use of tools. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Mroz4k

[Syraith]

Yeah, it was a comment way earlier which is why mine was way out of context without it.

I do enjoy the harvesting frozen carcasses though lol

Back on the topic though...

A bury the dead option would be a good like achievement add on however, in that frozen environment, anything short of a back hoe I think would be pointless trying to dig, however, something like the stone storage where you gather like 100 stones? and can make a respectable mound, more medieval like, would be a better time consuming activity I think. 
 

Other than an achievement maybe some kind of status effect with a moral boost. Stamina regen x2 for a period, cabin fever meter reset. Something.

Just a nice aesthetic kind of addition for the game.