"Throwing" Items off cliffs | concept

[SpanishMoss]

You've probably been in this scenario. You're at the top off a rope, and you are encumbered, but nothing you have you are willing to drop, so you have to make a choice: leave something a value behind, or make 3 trips down the rope, drop something, go back up the rope, pick up something, and go back down the rope. I propose a solution to this problem. When you drop and item then right click on it you can move it to a new location, but the distance that you can place it away from your character is very short. Because The Long Dark has no item physics, the only way to "throw" something off of a cliff would be to drop it at you feet, then right click, and move it down to the bottom of the cliff. This would mean that the distance you can place objects has been increased, but in only the vertical direction. This would allow you to right click and place an item at the bottom of a cliff. 

To prevent objects from accidentally being placed in the wrong locations, when dropping from your inventory, the item will be dropped as normal. It is only when moving the item that it can be placed at increased vertical distance, allowing you to put stuff at the bottom of a cliff. There will be no measures to prevent players from placing an item in an inaccessible area, as this would be the player's own fault. The only preventative measures would be "killboxes" invisible boxes that instantly kill the player if they try to go past them, people who do a lot of goating down things will understand what these are. These boxes will prevent items being placed inside or behind them.

Not only is the feature realistic, it is also very useful, allowing players to move more items down ropes, or place materials at the bottom of areas that will soon be traveled to.

To balance things out, a new max weight limit will be imposed when climbing ropes. Weight over 35kg/77lbs will have a small risk of falling off a rope, even when above 50% fatigue, and weight over 40kg/88lbs will prevent the player from climbing ropes, even if unencumbered. This means players will have to drop items over cliffs more often to get below the max carry weight.

What are your thoughts on this idea?

-SpanishMoss

[Stinky socks]

I think it should be quite feasible to throw stuff around. We can already throw flares, rocks, torches and maybe something else...

One thing that would hurt is if you threw a lantern off a cliff, only to find that it has been ruined from a fall once you lower yourself down and try picking it up.

It would be awesome if you would throw a gun or rifle down and it would fire😁

[SpanishMoss]

To be clear, this is not actually throwing things off a cliff, there are no item physics for most objects, this is simply being able to place the item from really high up as a way to simulate throwing it off the cliff. It would be a lot of work to create a physics model for every item in the game.

[Stinky socks]

Well why not? Imagine you shot your last bullet and missed the wolf? You chuck that revolver at him and haul arse!!!

[SpanishMoss]

Fair point, but I wanted an idea the devs could implement with little hassle. 

[Stinky socks]

Sounds like a Band-Aid

[GreschBandicoot]

Not sure that this is something i would realisticly do in real life. I would probably just pull up the rope, attach my backpack to it and than slowly let the rope rappel down the cliff before climbing down myself. The method also works the other way around. Before climbing up a rope, I would just attach my backback to it, climb up and once I am at the top, I just pull up the rope with my gear. It just makes much more sense than throwing your stuff down a cliff and your granola bars wont turn into cereals again either.

It would require the player to be able to take off their backpack though, which is something I would love to see anyway. I kinda like the idea of having several backpacks. But that idea might need its own tread. 

[Syraith]

I have thought about mentioning this. It wouldn’t be quick to add condition loss variables (does it land on rock, snow, etc… from how high, yadda yadda…) but the most annoying time for me when it comes to carrying and wanting to throw stuff off would be coming down from the summit in TWM. Either when carrying the rope down so you can use it on that third climb spot, or throwing a few items from the broken end of the plain so you can have a few extra supplies when you get down.

There haven’t been many times I wish I could throw things, but it would be nice. Not upset that it isn’t possible though as it’s just another challenging mechanic to work with, but still would be fun.

[UpUpAway95]

3 hours ago, Syraith said:

I have thought about mentioning this. It wouldn’t be quick to add condition loss variables (does it land on rock, snow, etc… from how high, yadda yadda…) but the most annoying time for me when it comes to carrying and wanting to throw stuff off would be coming down from the summit in TWM. Either when carrying the rope down so you can use it on that third climb spot, or throwing a few items from the broken end of the plain so you can have a few extra supplies when you get down.

There haven’t been many times I wish I could throw things, but it would be nice. Not upset that it isn’t possible though as it’s just another challenging mechanic to work with, but still would be fun.

It's easier to just mountain goat down from the Summit overburdened... most it might cost is a sprain or two, but I can often get down now without even getting one.  Leave the rope up there for a later climb when you're well supplied and not overburdened (chances are you'll never need it anyways and will probably not ever come back to the summit to get it).  For most ropes, there is a goat path that will get you down without using the rope... again, maybe with a sprain or two and a bit of clothing damage, but usually quite doable.  When I first started, I thought that dropping/throwing things down would be really helpful, but now that I know the maps and goat trails better, I doubt I'd use it much anyways.

[Stinky socks]

1 hour ago, UpUpAway95 said:

and a bit of clothing damage

I usually get naked when goating.

[Old Hermit]

I'm not a fan of goating for avoid rope climbing, and goating in general. i see it as a design bypass, so i only use it when i'm really stuck.
But i respect all  you that uses and studies goating as a game style.

Back on topic, if the problem is carry some gear down during climbing, i'd prefer the idea what @GreschBandicoot suggests, and use the rope to do it.
I think it could be part of a climbing update, maybe (i suggested it elsewhere on forums).

[Syraith]

4 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

It's easier to just mountain goat down from the Summit overburdened... most it might cost is a sprain or two, but I can often get down now without even getting one.  Leave the rope up there for a later climb when you're well supplied and not overburdened (chances are you'll never need it anyways and will probably not ever come back to the summit to get it).  For most ropes, there is a goat path that will get you down without using the rope... again, maybe with a sprain or two and a bit of clothing damage, but usually quite doable.  When I first started, I thought that dropping/throwing things down would be really helpful, but now that I know the maps and goat trails better, I doubt I'd use it much anyways.

I tried once goating once when I had broken ribs on a 300 day stalker run once, haven’t since lol

i should look more into it though, just haven’t tried finding passable areas on my own.

[UpUpAway95]

21 hours ago, Syraith said:

I tried once goating once when I had broken ribs on a 300 day stalker run once, haven’t since lol

i should look more into it though, just haven’t tried finding passable areas on my own.

One way to go about learning them is to start new characters in each zone on an easy difficulty and just start goating around.  That way, if you mess up and fall, you're not losing much and it doesn't take much to just start another character in that zone to continue learning the paths you want to use.

[UpUpAway95]

23 hours ago, Old Hermit said:

I'm not a fan of goating for avoid rope climbing, and goating in general. i see it as a design bypass, so i only use it when i'm really stuck.
But i respect all  you that uses and studies goating as a game style.

Back on topic, if the problem is carry some gear down during climbing, i'd prefer the idea what @GreschBandicoot suggests, and use the rope to do it.
I think it could be part of a climbing update, maybe (i suggested it elsewhere on forums).

I think allowing for varying degrees of ropeless descents is a designed feature of the game.  For example, take a walk from Miner's Folly in Ash Canyon to the big depression that starts in the terrain near the burnt house near the bear's cave and just walk downhill (crouching when it gets a bit steep), then tell me that using it to take gear from Miner's Folly down to Angler's Den is an exploit.  If they wanted to force players to cross the bridge(s) and then use the ropes only to get down, they could have easily not made that terrain so inviting.  The ropeless descent from the TWM summit is almost as easy as that one.

Conversely, chucking gear down the length of the ropes should render it completely broken and unusable when it hits bottom (if it doesn't get hung up on some rock outcrop part way down and become inaccessible.

Edited May 17, 2021 by UpUpAway95