Improvements that Actually really need to be implemented


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Here are things that REALLY do need to be implemented to improve gameplay via better interface mechanism.  Just a matter of making tasks more efficient to complete without changing anything as far as game time or survival challenge- strictly interfacing. 
 1. Make more actions if not all actions able to be “stacked”.  For example you can prepare multiple tea ingredients or arrows at once but you can only sharpen once at a time or prepare one tinder at a time.  All actions should be stackable.
2. Make the inventory wheel fully customizable so any item can be added at any location on the wheel. Same for action buttons on game pad- make them customizable. 
3. When carrying multiple bows, the action button to draw a bow should default to the LOWEST condition bow, not the highest. Similar to how it works for arrows and sewing kits for example. if there is just one improvement to make I’d prefer this one the most. 
4. Be able to eat multiple cattails at once (accounting for additional time of course).

  just some things to improve the interface without changing the gameplay survival mechanics 

 

Edited by Lord of the Long Dark
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I want better controls. Not having open door, throw rock, pick up, etc all being the same button. Or, they can be if people want, or not if people don't want. Like in Quake1 from 1996 or everquest from 1999. Have as many actions bound to one key as you wish, or a single action for each, or anything in between. That's what I want. The 25 year old freedom of controls that we enjoyed so much.

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9 hours ago, Lord of the Long Dark said:


3. When carrying multiple bows, the action button to draw a bow should default to the LOWEST condition bow, not the highest. Similar to how it works for arrows and sewing kits for example. if there is just one improvement to make I’d prefer this one the most. 

4. Be able to eat multiple cattails at once (accounting for additional time of course).

 

I was hunting last night with 2 bows and eating cat tails one at a time thinking these exact same things. 

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It would be good to see the hunger/thirst meters before starting to eat and in the inventory.

While starting a fire, the exact numbers of matches and tinder left would also be great.

Reading in 0.5 hour increments would also help in the beginning of our journey. Another improvement would be to count the actual reading time spent before a break - be it manual or because of night or bad state.

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20 hours ago, odizzido said:

I want better controls. Not having open door, throw rock, pick up, etc all being the same button. Or, they can be if people want, or not if people don't want. Like in Quake1 from 1996 or everquest from 1999. Have as many actions bound to one key as you wish, or a single action for each, or anything in between. That's what I want. The 25 year old freedom of controls that we enjoyed so much.

I'm always confused about this.  Is there absolutely no way on the PC to remap the controls?  That seems really at odds with the vast majority of games out there.  I know there isn't on the Xbox One (which also seems rather more limited than even most newer games I've played).

So, yes... there should at least be a couple of alternative control schemes offered.

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20 hours ago, Lord of the Long Dark said:

Here are things that REALLY do need to be implemented to improve gameplay via better interface mechanism.  Just a matter of making tasks more efficient to complete without changing anything as far as game time or survival challenge- strictly interfacing. 
 1. Make more actions if not all actions able to be “stacked”.  For example you can prepare multiple tea ingredients or arrows at once but you can only sharpen once at a time or prepare one tinder at a time.  All actions should be stackable.
2. Make the inventory wheel fully customizable so any item can be added at any location on the wheel. Same for action buttons on game pad- make them customizable. 
3. When carrying multiple bows, the action button to draw a bow should default to the LOWEST condition bow, not the highest. Similar to how it works for arrows and sewing kits for example. if there is just one improvement to make I’d prefer this one the most. 
4. Be able to eat multiple cattails at once (accounting for additional time of course).

  just some things to improve the interface without changing the gameplay survival mechanics 

 

I'd also like the cooking list to put the lowest condition raw meat in the inventory at the top (or left if cooking without a pot although it's more common to use the "place" method when cooking without a pot).  I would also like it asort the pieces by weight in this list so that pieces of meat that are the same size and the same condition  are more easily found together to cook at the same time.  If I wind up cooking a "fraction" piece from a bear harvest, I'd like to be able to more quickly find a matching fraction piece without having to scroll through a bunch of full-sized pieces in order to keep my cooking times for both "burners" on the fire equal.

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49 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I'd also like the cooking list to put the lowest condition raw meat in the inventory at the top (or left if cooking without a pot although it's more common to use the "place" method when cooking without a pot).  I would also like it asort the pieces by weight in this list so that pieces of meat that are the same size and the same condition  are more easily found together to cook at the same time.  If I wind up cooking a "fraction" piece from a bear harvest, I'd like to be able to more quickly find a matching fraction piece without having to scroll through a bunch of full-sized pieces in order to keep my cooking times for both "burners" on the fire equal.

you can already do all that. 

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16 minutes ago, Lord of the Long Dark said:

you can already do all that. 

I can sort in my inventory.  AFAIK, I can't sort in the cooking lists (i.e. the list that comes up after you select "Cook" and then your "Cooking Pot" (on Xbox One).  The interface is different on PC.  On Xbox One, the list shows the best condition raw meat first with the weight just apparently random throughout as long as the meat is at the same condition.  Of course, there could be "unseen decimals" in the condition that control this.

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2 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I'm always confused about this.  Is there absolutely no way on the PC to remap the controls?  That seems really at odds with the vast majority of games out there.  I know there isn't on the Xbox One (which also seems rather more limited than even most newer games I've played).

So, yes... there should at least be a couple of alternative control schemes offered.

On PC you have one button that is both an action button for things like shooting, throwing rocks, confirming an action.....as well as interacting with objects for cooking, picking things up, opening doors, etc.

 

You can change that key, but the problem is I don't want to have throw rock/shoot be the same button as open door/cook/etc

I can't think of another game that has shoot and interact using the same key. And the fact that I have thrown rocks while trying to pick up a rabbit says why other games don't do this. I really hope this changes by the time story mode is done because it's going to negatively impact my play experience if not. By quite a bit. I have low tolerance for bad controls.

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35 minutes ago, odizzido said:

don't want to have throw rock/shoot be the same button as open door/cook/etc

I actually like it that way. Since my mouse only has two buttons, I don't want to be reaching for key board when I decide to shoot.

Have you been shooting up doors with your revolver?🤔

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3 hours ago, odizzido said:

On PC you have one button that is both an action button for things like shooting, throwing rocks, confirming an action.....as well as interacting with objects for cooking, picking things up, opening doors, etc.

 

You can change that key, but the problem is I don't want to have throw rock/shoot be the same button as open door/cook/etc

I can't think of another game that has shoot and interact using the same key. And the fact that I have thrown rocks while trying to pick up a rabbit says why other games don't do this. I really hope this changes by the time story mode is done because it's going to negatively impact my play experience if not. By quite a bit. I have low tolerance for bad controls.

On the Xbox, the controls for aiming and firing are on the LT and RT, respectively... which is pretty much normal for most games I've played.  The "Interact" button is the "A," which includes opening and picking up.  I wonder why they set it up as the same key on the PC?  It seems odd to me.  Thanks for explaining.

I do think they should set up a couple of alternative schemes at least.  Some people play with varying motor disabilities and having some options might make the difference between them being able to play or not.

Edited by UpUpAway95
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3 hours ago, Stinky socks said:

I actually like it that way. Since my mouse only has two buttons, I don't want to be reaching for key board when I decide to shoot.

Have you been shooting up doors with your revolver?🤔

Ha ha, I did shoot some doors. Not much to harvest, though. And I do like the way it is with one action button. We have to be careful, it is a harsh world we live in.

Maybe an option to set up the keys if You want separate keys/buttons would satisfy all.

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6 hours ago, Stinky socks said:

I actually like it that way. Since my mouse only has two buttons, I don't want to be reaching for key board when I decide to shoot.

Have you been shooting up doors with your revolver?🤔

I have once. It made me sad. Mostly it's the rocks and rabbits though.

And yes @mfuegemann, 25 year old games would allow you to bind, for example, A to be shoot AND interact....or bind A to just shoot and B to interact. Ahh the good old days. Just download the original everquest from steam and you can see an example of a game made with good custom controls. If you wanted you could literally bind the A key to everything(I think). It would be horrible, but you can. I actually play an EQ emu and I have one key bound to three actions of my choosing.

The regression we see in control customisation is almost as disappointing as intel's 11th gen processors. Almost.

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Oh, interesting topic. 

Ive thought about the 2nd and 3rd option before. 2nd one could be great if done properly, 3rd one I understand why its not an issue. But, it could be combined with an idea I have for the 2nd option.

1. I dont think this is neccesary, or even wanted. Having to click that button a few extra times for some actions just brings player involvement. Take that away, many actions in the game woudl become about stacking the action and making it automatic. In a bit, you would barely even play the game. Sometimes, inconvinient and annoying = good for the game.

2. This one I agree with but its difficult. For starters, wheel has actions that everyone can do - such as building a snow shelther. However, it also inputs items into the wheel based on what is in your inventory. Therefore, you cant really "preset" it in a meanigful way. I guess it could work if there were player customization options where you would tell the game to preferably put a specific item into a specific slot. That would be awesome quality of life change.

3. Yea, I get this point. Problem comes when your bow is really low on condition and SHTF. If you have to pull a bow out quickly and then land two, three arrow shots, it would be really unfortunate if your bow broke after the first arrow was shot. And it can happen. But, if that would be an okay thing for you, I believe the game would greatly benefit from player individual customizations, aka you decide if you want the quick button to pull out highest quality bow, lowest quality bow, or for example lastly equipped bow. But Im not sure thats a viable thing for the game code. Not a developer, I dont understand it at all. 

4. Again, not a fan. Cattails eaten by each piece on its own is annoying, but I find that to be purposedful. Cattails are seen by the community as the greatest foodsource outside animals - despite the game indicating that they are meant to be "last case scenario before starving". They are light, but their calorie value to weight is actually pretty incredible. Thus their main disadvantage is that eating them is annoying. I love that about the game. Personally, I treat Cattails the way they were designed to be treated. I dont even collect them, I walk round the place, and if I do run into a situation where Im going through that area again, and would lose my well fed bonus by starving before I reach the next outpost, I would grab a cattail or two to chomp down on to keep the starvation at bay. Course, I get it, Interloper = cattails important. I play customs that are more between Voyageur and Pilgrim, but with a realistic settings. Aka recovery of health lasts several days.

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On 5/7/2021 at 10:53 AM, Mroz4k said:

Oh, interesting topic. 

Ive thought about the 2nd and 3rd option before. 2nd one could be great if done properly, 3rd one I understand why its not an issue. But, it could be combined with an idea I have for the 2nd option.

1. I dont think this is neccesary, or even wanted. Having to click that button a few extra times for some actions just brings player involvement. Take that away, many actions in the game woudl become about stacking the action and making it automatic. In a bit, you would barely even play the game. Sometimes, inconvinient and annoying = good for the game.

2. This one I agree with but its difficult. For starters, wheel has actions that everyone can do - such as building a snow shelther. However, it also inputs items into the wheel based on what is in your inventory. Therefore, you cant really "preset" it in a meanigful way. I guess it could work if there were player customization options where you would tell the game to preferably put a specific item into a specific slot. That would be awesome quality of life change.

3. Yea, I get this point. Problem comes when your bow is really low on condition and SHTF. If you have to pull a bow out quickly and then land two, three arrow shots, it would be really unfortunate if your bow broke after the first arrow was shot. And it can happen. But, if that would be an okay thing for you, I believe the game would greatly benefit from player individual customizations, aka you decide if you want the quick button to pull out highest quality bow, lowest quality bow, or for example lastly equipped bow. But Im not sure thats a viable thing for the game code. Not a developer, I dont understand it at all. 

4. Again, not a fan. Cattails eaten by each piece on its own is annoying, but I find that to be purposedful. Cattails are seen by the community as the greatest foodsource outside animals - despite the game indicating that they are meant to be "last case scenario before starving". They are light, but their calorie value to weight is actually pretty incredible. Thus their main disadvantage is that eating them is annoying. I love that about the game. Personally, I treat Cattails the way they were designed to be treated. I dont even collect them, I walk round the place, and if I do run into a situation where Im going through that area again, and would lose my well fed bonus by starving before I reach the next outpost, I would grab a cattail or two to chomp down on to keep the starvation at bay. Course, I get it, Interloper = cattails important. I play customs that are more between Voyageur and Pilgrim, but with a realistic settings. Aka recovery of health lasts several days.

Why would you even bother with cattails on voyager or even stalker? If you are losing your well fed bonus in those levels to the point you need cattails you are doing something woefully wrong. You should be throwing food away because you can’t even carry it all in those levels.  I honestly don’t see why you would even bother with cattails or teas. 

Edited by Lord of the Long Dark
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5 hours ago, Lord of the Long Dark said:

Why would you even bother with cattails on voyager or even stalker? If you are losing your well fed bonus in those levels to the point you need cattails you are doing something woefully wrong. You should be throwing food away because you can’t even carry it all in those levels.  I honestly don’t see why you would even bother with cattails or teas. 

Maybe they're doing a vegetarian run.  There's no "woefully wrong" way to play this game.

ETA:  I wouldn't mind an option to eat multiple cattails at once (similar to the UI that allows us to craft multiple teas at once, etc.).  It would have to be optional in that the counter would default to 1 (again, similar to how the teas default to 1).  It's not a priority though because I'm seldom eating enough of them at a time that I find eating them individually annoying.  It's the same with the teas.  I don't often have enough supplies on me to craft more than 2 or 3 anyways.  The more annoying feature is having to pick up sticks I've dropped by my fire one at a time and put them on the fire one at a time.

Also, consider that, on the consoles, using this sort of option doesn't save clicks.  That is, the console user still has to click to increase the amount of teas to be crafted by 1 with each click (with the RB on the Xbox) and then initiate the action by pressing the action button anyways to begin crafting the group (X button on the Xbox)... as opposed to just pressing X once for each tea to craft it directly one at a time.

Edited by UpUpAway95
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On 5/10/2021 at 9:35 AM, Lord of the Long Dark said:

Why would you even bother with cattails on voyager or even stalker? If you are losing your well fed bonus in those levels to the point you need cattails you are doing something woefully wrong. You should be throwing food away because you can’t even carry it all in those levels.  I honestly don’t see why you would even bother with cattails or teas. 


:D 

I struggled with responding to that without picking a fight.

It really comes down to how you play. I dont do vegetarian runs, that said I do a lot of very early exploration, I meta the crap out of a game, usually. By the day 50, I would have over 90% of the world visited. Simply so that I can run by, collect things like skill books, and make the most use of them. I dont hunt or scavenge animals that much in the first 50 - 75 days of the game because I often live on the bits and pieces I find while exploring. I do occasionally harvest the meat of the pre-determined carcasses to boost my intake on the go.

Really not a good idea to presume everyone plays the game exactly the same, especially here on the forums. Many people here have been perfecting their unique art of survival in this game for years, and forums are a perfect place to perfect one´s craft, so many talented and creative people round here. 

What I think most people dont realize is that it is often not a good idea to harvest everything in a carcass. Sure, the idea in survival would be "waste nothing" but especially once you settle in, you have sooo much food for consumption.

At your base.

The point was that by leaving the cattails around the world and not collecting them makes them a perfect resource-to-grab when you are out of options. Inventory space is limited. If you are out of your base on a travel to a distant region, you might have a plan on how much calories it will take - but I reccon most people dont take all the food they will need for their whole trip. Even still, there are variables that change. You can be delayed by a long blizzard, and suddenly your calorie reserves start dwindling. Choosing an alternate path that has cattails in a way to get that little bit of boost just might be what you need. I believe the way cattails consumption works is on purpose to make them annoying to eat. The calorie intake is low, if you could eat more of them with a single click, it would make them more convinient food to eat. The fact that the calorie intake was on the low side would then be kind of irrelevant. 

I very rarely "throw food away" in the game. I quite often just go hunting whenever my reserves become dwindling. Common mistake people do that contributes to the early onset of "game becoming repetitive" is because they hunt when they dont have to. It leads to having an overabundance of pelts, guts and meat from hunting when in fact you could have been doing other things - setting up outposts, supply caches, or just going for a hike for the sake of it. When you hunt only if neccesary, you are likely going to enjoy the game longer because there becomes time when you absolutely have to go hunting again. 

Edited by Mroz4k
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1 hour ago, Mroz4k said:


:D 

I struggled with responding to that without picking a fight.

It really comes down to how you play. I dont do vegetarian runs, that said I do a lot of very early exploration, I meta the crap out of a game, usually. By the day 50, I would have over 90% of the world visited. Simply so that I can run by, collect things like skill books, and make the most use of them. I dont hunt or scavenge animals that much in the first 50 - 75 days of the game because I often live on the bits and pieces I find while exploring. I do occasionally harvest the meat of the pre-determined carcasses to boost my intake on the go.

Really not a good idea to presume everyone plays the game exactly the same, especially here on the forums. Many people here have been perfecting their unique art of survival in this game for years, and forums are a perfect place to perfect one´s craft, so many talented and creative people round here. 

What I think most people dont realize is that it is often not a good idea to harvest everything in a carcass. Sure, the idea in survival would be "waste nothing" but especially once you settle in, you have sooo much food for consumption.

At your base.

The point was that by leaving the cattails around the world and not collecting them makes them a perfect resource-to-grab when you are out of options. Inventory space is limited. If you are out of your base on a travel to a distant region, you might have a plan on how much calories it will take - but I reccon most people dont take all the food they will need for their whole trip. Even still, there are variables that change. You can be delayed by a long blizzard, and suddenly your calorie reserves start dwindling. Choosing an alternate path that has cattails in a way to get that little bit of boost just might be what you need. I believe the way cattails consumption works is on purpose to make them annoying to eat. The calorie intake is low, if you could eat more of them with a single click, it would make them more convinient food to eat. The fact that the calorie intake was on the low side would then be kind of irrelevant. 

I very rarely "throw food away" in the game. I quite often just go hunting whenever my reserves become dwindling. Common mistake people do that contributes to the early onset of "game becoming repetitive" is because they hunt when they dont have to. It leads to having an overabundance of pelts, guts and meat from hunting when in fact you could have been doing other things - setting up outposts, supply caches, or just going for a hike for the sake of it. When you hunt only if neccesary, you are likely going to enjoy the game longer because there becomes time when you absolutely have to go hunting again. 

Well when you play basic levels sit makes sense I guess.  Advanced levels have to adapt much better though. 

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6 hours ago, Stinky socks said:

I like the taste! Really pleasant crunch when you bite! Yum!

I didnt say that, plx fix the quote so there is no confusion :P just to clarify, that bit with the reaction was posted by Lord of the Long dark. Quote selection didnt take in consideration quoted messages, sadly. :/ 

5 hours ago, Lord of the Long Dark said:

Well when you play basic levels sit makes sense I guess.  Advanced levels have to adapt much better though. 

I am not going to continue this discussion past this point cause I dont really want to devolve this into a fight. Its not a good attitude to consider people who play "easier" difficulties just being worse. Advanced levels arent in any way harder, its all just a matter of rinse and repeat, and with enough attempts even an average player will learn to survive in Interloper. Some people simply prefer easier difficulties because it fits their playstyle better. Also when someone says "voyageur-like" difficulty then its not really a Voyageur. Just close to it. I reccon my type of games would be pretty challenging for average Stalker/Interloper player if they take any risks which is where my type of game can be very punishing. Its easy to take damage, but if you can at most recover 5% of condition per day without having a single stat drop, all mistakes just multiply and add up to a pretty challenging game. Just a different kind of challenge one might expect. Single, relatively small mistake may result in may days of recovering, with no prospect of recovering faster.

Think I pointed out my stance on the suggestions, those stand. Someone else might disagree, thats fine. For cat-tails specifically, I believe they were designed to be "annoying" on purpose to simulate that it is in fact a low calorie food that in realistic conditions should be the last option. Game could add a lot of quality-of-life improvements but Im glad they dont add everything, because some things should just be tedious for the immersion of it.

Edited by Mroz4k
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54 minutes ago, Stinky socks said:

I am sorry, @Mroz4k, I highlighted and hit "quote selection" on your post. It was originally @Lord of the Long Dark post that you quoted. I was replying to his post that was quoted in your post.

I cannot edit a post, the option is missing. I am sorry.

That actually is probably my fault :D I believe it is fixed in because I quoted the reply, its all good tho! 

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5 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

I didnt say that, plx fix the quote so there is no confusion :P just to clarify, that bit with the reaction was posted by Lord of the Long dark. Quote selection didnt take in consideration quoted messages, sadly. :/ 

I am not going to continue this discussion past this point cause I dont really want to devolve this into a fight. Its not a good attitude to consider people who play "easier" difficulties just being worse. Advanced levels arent in any way harder, its all just a matter of rinse and repeat, and with enough attempts even an average player will learn to survive in Interloper. Some people simply prefer easier difficulties because it fits their playstyle better. Also when someone says "voyageur-like" difficulty then its not really a Voyageur. Just close to it. I reccon my type of games would be pretty challenging for average Stalker/Interloper player if they take any risks which is where my type of game can be very punishing. Its easy to take damage, but if you can at most recover 5% of condition per day without having a single stat drop, all mistakes just multiply and add up to a pretty challenging game. Just a different kind of challenge one might expect. Single, relatively small mistake may result in may days of recovering, with no prospect of recovering faster.

Think I pointed out my stance on the suggestions, those stand. Someone else might disagree, thats fine. For cat-tails specifically, I believe they were designed to be "annoying" on purpose to simulate that it is in fact a low calorie food that in realistic conditions should be the last option. Game could add a lot of quality-of-life improvements but Im glad they dont add everything, because some things should just be tedious for the immersion of it.

 

5 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

I didnt say that, plx fix the quote so there is no confusion :P just to clarify, that bit with the reaction was posted by Lord of the Long dark. Quote selection didnt take in consideration quoted messages, sadly. :/ 

I am not going to continue this discussion past this point cause I dont really want to devolve this into a fight. Its not a good attitude to consider people who play "easier" difficulties just being worse. Advanced levels arent in any way harder, its all just a matter of rinse and repeat, and with enough attempts even an average player will learn to survive in Interloper. Some people simply prefer easier difficulties because it fits their playstyle better. Also when someone says "voyageur-like" difficulty then its not really a Voyageur. Just close to it. I reccon my type of games would be pretty challenging for average Stalker/Interloper player if they take any risks which is where my type of game can be very punishing. Its easy to take damage, but if you can at most recover 5% of condition per day without having a single stat drop, all mistakes just multiply and add up to a pretty challenging game. Just a different kind of challenge one might expect. Single, relatively small mistake may result in may days of recovering, with no prospect of recovering faster.

Think I pointed out my stance on the suggestions, those stand. Someone else might disagree, thats fine. For cat-tails specifically, I believe they were designed to be "annoying" on purpose to simulate that it is in fact a low calorie food that in realistic conditions should be the last option. Game could add a lot of quality-of-life improvements but Im glad they dont add everything, because some things should just be tedious for the immersion of it.

Ummm nah. Your mode of play is beginner. That’s why your strategies work. The idea you think your voyager custom would Challenge an interloper player is hysterical. 
  Enjoy the game brah. But trust me if you want to play at an elite level you have to seriously change your gameplay.  Like, dramatically different. 

Edited by Lord of the Long Dark
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