Lets hear the communities suggestions for new playable zones!

[Larryfine]

Lets hit em with the ideas! Any and All! I'll start.

Imagine CH in layout. You have the ocean with a tad bit larger riken half sunk in the ice - a lootable tourist vessel. Bears and wolves pat the ice.

There is a couple cabins or a forest service lookout near the bay on the beach to loot but the main attraction of the zone is a large open glacier with crevasses to cross and fall into. Weak ice mechanic and "slippery" ice near edges. Crampons would be a must have.
At the top of the glacier there could be some camps of ice climbers or explorers and their belongings. Making it to the top of the glacier would offer goodies and give the player a reason to go there. Few of the crevasses could have ropes into them with ice caves copy pasted from HRV - wolves/bears/coal inside.

The zone would have few trees but maybe burnables washed up along the shore and around the cabins - Balance wise one would need to bring in fuel to supplement the little that is there and really seek out the ice cave system/crevasses for coal and reclaimed.

It would be more of an endgame/achievement zone not to stay for extended periods. I would be interested to hear the dev's take on zone creation.

Bonus:

Left of the train bridge in the ravine....not the tressel the other one past the bunny cave there is a waterfall. I want to go back there! There looks like a tiny path and I have always wanted to be able to get back there!

 

[Admin]

Looking forward to reading your suggestions, and thank you for your thoughtful input. 

[Kranium]

I live in BC. You're never very far from a ski resort here. Just sayin'.

 

Large Native population, too. Anyone else here ever been to Haida Gwaii? Seeing ancient totem poles IRL is something else, IME.

 

[Typoclerk1]

Playable Zone/Food for Thought

the IDEA: Natural Disasters and Global Warming have decimated Pleasant Valley.

Here is the scenario ...

Pleasant Valley has transformed into an arid Desert due to the super-massive eruption of Volcanoes .. at was once known as "Yellowstone National Park" in the USA. The event has triggered other Volcanoes around the World to also erupt. As a result .. Earth has become an unhospitable environment. It is virtually unsurvivable.

The Sun is twice as large as it once was. Annoying crickets and locusts buzz at the dry and stagnant air. There are NO clouds and very little moisture. There aren't very many areas for shade ..

Tumbleweeds, cactii, sun-burnt silica and harsh dry winds .. fill the environment.

However .. due to a huge release of "Primordial Radiation" ..  engineered by Scientists seeking to save mankind .. Pleasant Valley has recovered quickly and is NOW teeming with dangerous insects, poisonous reptiles, and venomous snakes ..  Scorpions, Tarantulas and  Armadillos too. Psychotic Armadillos. Psychotic Rabid Armadillos from Texas .. that also happen to be tasty and nutritious .. IDK .. maybe? So anyway ...

An oasis fools Will MacKenzie into thinking he can survive ...

And so .. discoverable items allow Will to dig a well for water ...

Ok so maybe this isn't a NEW idea .. but I am NEW to the forum and really just wanted to post something to break the ice .. or maybe just melt it!

Matt Lawton

Typoclerk1/Typoclerk (Steam)

Avid Outdoorsman & Gamer of TLD

 

[Leeanda]

9 minutes ago, Typoclerk1 said:

Playable Zone/Food for Thought

the IDEA: Natural Disasters and Global Warming have decimated Pleasant Valley.

Here is the scenario ...

Pleasant Valley has transformed into an arid Desert due to the super-massive eruption of Volcanoes .. at was once known as "Yellowstone National Park" in the USA. The event has triggered other Volcanoes around the World to also erupt. As a result .. Earth has become an unhospitable environment. It is virtually unsurvivable.

The Sun is twice as large as it once was. Annoying crickets and locusts buzz at the dry and stagnant air. There are NO clouds and very little moisture. There aren't very many areas for shade ..

Tumbleweeds, cactii, sun-burnt silica and harsh dry winds .. fill the environment.

However .. due to a huge release of "Primordial Radiation" ..  engineered by Scientists seeking to save mankind .. Pleasant Valley has recovered quickly and is NOW teeming with dangerous insects, poisonous reptiles, and venomous snakes ..  Scorpions, Tarantulas and  Armadillos too. Psychotic Armadillos. Psychotic Rabid Armadillos from Texas .. that also happen to be tasty and nutritious .. IDK .. maybe? So anyway ...

An oasis fools Will MacKenzie into thinking he can survive ...

And so .. discoverable items allow Will to dig a well for water ...

Ok so maybe this isn't a NEW idea .. but I am NEW to the forum and really just wanted to post something to break the ice .. or maybe just melt it!

Matt Lawton

Typoclerk1/Typoclerk (Steam)

Avid Outdoorsman & Gamer of TLD

 

Lol!  Welcome to the forum.   Mission accomplished 🙂

[Typoclerk1]

Thanks .. (sips Rose Hip tea)

[Leeanda]

3 hours ago, Typoclerk1 said:

Thanks .. (sips Rose Hip tea)

All you've done though is made the worst weather on the map the same only reversed it😁

[Leeanda]

Imagine Forlorn without all the ice.. a large crack running through the centre and large boulders and fallen trees are the only way across. A very barren landscape ,maybe the odd cave made out of fallen rocks .plenty of wood and rosehips but little else. The only animals are bear ,wolves and maybe a mountain lion.

[ajb1978]

The Underdark. A labyrinthine network of caves linking multiple regions of Great Bear to a single massive subterranean central chamber the size of the Astrodome. This enormous cavern counts as outdoors, and is perpetually dimly lit from above with phosphorescent moss on the cavern ceiling high overhead. A kind of eerie, mottled faintly glowing "sky". Traces of modern technology are scattered here and there. A mysterious trailer with a research station. A workbench next to a random port-a-potty. An old laptop on a crate with some snacks nearby. What's it all for? Who knows...  While in the main central chamber, you can see well enough to navigate day or night without a light source. But in order to get into or out of the region, you're going to need to navigate the cave network, and that will require light.

To provide incentive for searching the darkened areas, there's a randomly spawning deserted campsite. This campsite offers a Pup Tent as a unique campcraft item. The Pup Tent functions as a reusable shelter placeable on any even terrain via the campcraft menu. Sleeping in a Pup Tent wouldn't be quite as warm as a snow shelter, but it would prevent wet/clothing damage from weather as well as be repairable with just cloth and a sewing kit.

Besides the Pup Tent, The Underdark can serve as a "warp zone" of sorts, providing a one-region shortcut to any other region on the map, although it requires a light source to navigate. The region would be devoid of wildlife of any sort, so while it's safe in that regard, food is going to be a problem. Especially if you run out of light sources. But if you want to warp from Broken Railroad directly to Ash Canyon, well it might cost you a tank of lamp oil but you can do it.

[conanjaguar]

I had an idea for a region: “Great Moose River” built around a large river (after all, Mystery Lake connects to the ocean eventually). Running water and several waterfalls should make this one of the prettier regions. However, there would be craggy terrain and lots of climbing ropes. As a “region special” there would be a geomagnetic survey station (fits the lore) where one could find a (still unopened) box of any of the following: Any of the sodas, tomato soup, condensed milk, pork&beans, and sardines. There would also be some MREs and possibly a rifle laying around. Maybe a flashlight that has batteries in it or a lantern. Dead guys sitting at their computers...

[florpman]

this thingy that i made a seperate post for: Stalking Phantasm - Google Slides the devs (or at least one admin) have seen this post so i decided to also put it here

[florpman]

Quote

The Underdark. A labyrinthine network of caves linking multiple regions of Great Bear to a single massive subterranean central chamber the size of the Astrodome. This enormous cavern counts as outdoors, and is perpetually dimly lit from above with phosphorescent moss on the cavern ceiling high overhead. A kind of eerie, mottled faintly glowing "sky". Traces of modern technology are scattered here and there. A mysterious trailer with a research station. A workbench next to a random port-a-potty. An old laptop on a crate with some snacks nearby. What's it all for? Who knows...  While in the main central chamber, you can see well enough to navigate day or night without a light source. But in order to get into or out of the region, you're going to need to navigate the cave network, and that will require light.

To provide incentive for searching the darkened areas, there's a randomly spawning deserted campsite. This campsite offers a Pup Tent as a unique campcraft item. The Pup Tent functions as a reusable shelter placeable on any even terrain via the campcraft menu. Sleeping in a Pup Tent wouldn't be quite as warm as a snow shelter, but it would prevent wet/clothing damage from weather as well as be repairable with just cloth and a sewing kit.

Besides the Pup Tent, The Underdark can serve as a "warp zone" of sorts, providing a one-region shortcut to any other region on the map, although it requires a light source to navigate. The region would be devoid of wildlife of any sort, so while it's safe in that regard, food is going to be a problem. Especially if you run out of light sources. But if you want to warp from Broken Railroad directly to Ash Canyon, well it might cost you a tank of lamp oil but you can do it.

that cave system should also have to be opened in some way, like the workshops, and should be permanently filled with instakill Toxic Fog in Escape the Darkwalker

[conanjaguar]

Another idea:

Another coastal region. Somewhat similar to Desolation Point and Coastal Highway combined, this region would be Forgotten Coast. It could perhaps serve as an intermediate area between Broken Railroad and Bleak Inlet. For the region special... a ship. A BIG ship, like a cruise ship that crashed on an iceberg before everything froze. This ship would be barely visible from the coast, but with an Inflatable Raft (new item, takes FOREVER to inflate), you could make it. If a cruise ship, there would be TONS of food and meds, but not many weapons, except for maybe the Captain’s Revolver. Inside would be about as big as Carter Hydro, and there would be lots of corpses laying around. It would be rather creepy, and perhaps there is something aboard ship. Something that caused all this to happen in the first place, and something that can be (temporarily) shut down to get a week or so of good weather.

Edited June 5, 2022 by conanjaguar
Map error

[Skogtun]

In my opinion, the whole "warp zone" idea doesn't feel right for The Long Dark.
Same with the idea of arid/desert areas. I hope The Long Dark will stay as snowy as it is, if not even more so!

Something I like is the idea of some sort of sacred area with old totems etc, like in the photo above. It would be really awesome to find/visit an old viking burial site on a nice hill in the forest, overlooking a new area/shore where they might have reached Great Bear in their longships.

Maybe even the ruins of an old longships that have surfaced through a large crack in the ice.

[Kranium]

5 hours ago, Skogtun said:

...a large crack in the ice.

Which reminds me: ice field / glacier. Haven't seen that in the game yet. Tons of those in BC. I've traversed a few in my time. Crevasses are no joke, either. One wrong step & it's pretty much instadeath.

A pic, from whence I came...

 

[Skogtun]

3 hours ago, Kranium said:

Which reminds me: ice field / glacier. Haven't seen that in the game yet. Tons of those in BC. I've traversed a few in my time. Crevasses are no joke, either. One wrong step & it's pretty much instadeath.

A pic, from whence I came...

 

Something like this would be really cool! Maybe this would fit in north of ML, in the non-used region that could connect to as many as five other regions, possibly by caverns under the ice caps. This could partially fill people's wish for Underdark. But if you were to take advantages of this interconnecting "shortcut" under this ice, crampons were a must in order to not slide off the narrow paths and down into oblivion.

I wonder what a region partially on a large glacier would be named.

- Glacial Hills/Heights? (Too obvious?)

- Fading Glacier? (Yes, at some locations the glacier has started to melt, making it even more dangerous to cross)

I just realized how well all the other regions have been named, even using Canada-spesific terms like muskeg. So, what other local terrain types does Canada have? I failed at Google there..

Om a side note, if I recall correct, making a new zone can be as costly as 300k, so it really needs to sound right!

Edited June 6, 2022 by Skogtun

[conanjaguar]

How about adding a region with a Christmas tree farm? Pine wood is full of sap, and sap combusts easily.
There could also be a fire station, with a Fire Axe. This Fire Axe would be able to melee animals, or could be used to break things faster, or cut down some of the smaller trees that are around the map.

[trains342]

A good region idea would be a large ruin area that could have one point connected to Coastal Highway and Desolation Point by road and rail. The area would have several rail lines running through it with some roads, but all in ruin. A large railyard could be in this region with some buildings like a manager office, round house, work shed (no workshop), and a few cottages/ cabins scatter around. The area main region aspect would be two things, A large location of coal, and during Auroa, the place becomes dangerous as the locomotives produce electricity that could make the rail yard and the region dangerous to travel if not careful. Maybe a new clothing item could be introduced, like a mine helmet which could give protection and lights up, but either during Auroa or use lantern fuel but it a fuel guzzler not during Auroa. 

What do you think?

[StillNomad]

On 6/6/2022 at 1:30 AM, Skogtun said:

In my opinion, the whole "warp zone" idea doesn't feel right for The Long Dark.
Same with the idea of arid/desert areas. I hope The Long Dark will stay as snowy as it is, if not even more so!

Something I like is the idea of some sort of sacred area with old totems etc, like in the photo above.

I agree. ^

What I can suggest is to have a region placed (If i were to refer Kai's Great Bear Island map) between & connecting HRV <-> BRM. Or HRV <-> AC even. If we can have a connector like Keeper's Path to connect PV <-> BRM, then we can connect New Region with AC. Keeper's Path was good, a nice corner of the world.

This would make players visit HRV a lot more than most do. I like the OP's idea to have a glacier like region with crevasses that can be crossed either via fallen trees for narrow ones or the long rope bridges like we have in Ash Canyon. Crampons would be necessary, wild life would be minimal, there could be evidence of humans in the form of explorers, a climbing base camp, trees in the lower region + some wildlife. Mid-tier, there could be an ice cave system, with some mining activity (for salt or crystals?) which could hold some new kind of loot, like hiking poles (would have been one of the first things I'd craft IRL I suppose) or eye protection (from cold+snow blindness+physical protection).

The higher regions could have a couple of inter connected high altitude lakes, but brackish in nature (self contradictory, but Pangong Tso exists) and so wont freeze entirely. A hermit's retreat overlooking the lakes as a man made structure/shelter + some wild life around (opportunity to introduce a new plant / wildlife species?).On the other end, but on the same higher ground, signs of Canadian First People settlement/remnants. The totem poles in one of the photos above is a good example. 

I mucked around in PS and added this region to Kai's map (I hope it is ok, I dont have the permission). I just used parts of the existing map to create this very quickly. Credit for the original map goes to Kai. 

Edited June 23, 2022 by StillNomad
Credits.

[trains342]

I agree with that idea, but I think the BRM to HRV is the better option out of the two as, the gold mine track once led to a region out of BRM. I also see a map that could connect Bleak Inlet as a good place to see as the road keeps on going at the western end of that map. I could see that another map could be place at the end of it and it also connects to BR which is a small dead-end map that is not really worth the trouble to go to. The forge is nice, and FM is a pain to traverse but DP is the best to go to even though it further away. Having a connecting part to a new map would be nice to have and makes it a better connecting region than a dead end. 

[florpman]

On 5/2/2022 at 2:56 AM, Typoclerk1 said:

Playable Zone/Food for Thought

the IDEA: Natural Disasters and Global Warming have decimated Pleasant Valley.

Here is the scenario ...

Pleasant Valley has transformed into an arid Desert due to the super-massive eruption of Volcanoes .. at was once known as "Yellowstone National Park" in the USA. The event has triggered other Volcanoes around the World to also erupt. As a result .. Earth has become an unhospitable environment. It is virtually unsurvivable.

The Sun is twice as large as it once was. Annoying crickets and locusts buzz at the dry and stagnant air. There are NO clouds and very little moisture. There aren't very many areas for shade ..

Tumbleweeds, cactii, sun-burnt silica and harsh dry winds .. fill the environment.

However .. due to a huge release of "Primordial Radiation" ..  engineered by Scientists seeking to save mankind .. Pleasant Valley has recovered quickly and is NOW teeming with dangerous insects, poisonous reptiles, and venomous snakes ..  Scorpions, Tarantulas and  Armadillos too. Psychotic Armadillos. Psychotic Rabid Armadillos from Texas .. that also happen to be tasty and nutritious .. IDK .. maybe? So anyway ...

An oasis fools Will MacKenzie into thinking he can survive ...

And so .. discoverable items allow Will to dig a well for water ...

Ok so maybe this isn't a NEW idea .. but I am NEW to the forum and really just wanted to post something to break the ice .. or maybe just melt it!

Matt Lawton

Typoclerk1/Typoclerk (Steam)

Avid Outdoorsman & Gamer of TLD

 

No, technology is gone. This is a winter survival game. Stars can’t get bigger because volcanoes explode, and it the sun doubled in size, everything on the surface of earth would be vapourized. Radiation can’t be “engineered” because that’s not how it works. Radiation is just unstable atoms releasing electrons, protons and neutrons to become more stable, and since when was Yellowstone National Park in Canada?!

Edited July 5, 2022 by florpman

[MattD]

I've been daydreaming of a new region called Great Bear Basin, located above Mystery Lake and in between Blackrock and Mountain Town. You know, that very large open area on the Great Bear Island map. I think it could be the largest zone in the game (2-3x the size of PV). It would be like a hybrid of Hushed River Valley, Pleasant Valley, Timberwolf Mountain, and Forlorn Muskeg. It has some man-made shelters, including one large facility similar to Hibernia. The majority of the region, however, is more wilderness-based like HRV and TM. As the name suggests, bears are plentiful. If Cougars are eventually introduced to the game, they would spawn in this zone as well. While the weather is a bit more tame than PV, the abundant wildlife would be the main challenge in this zone. That, and navigating this massive region filled with weak ice, climbing areas, bountiful resources, explorable cave systems, and other challenging terrains. I've sketched out a rough map of this region and will try to attach it here later if anyone is interested. Entrances to the zone could be from any or all of the surrounding zones. One entrance could possibly be via a transitional zone. To sweeten the pot so to speak, a new craftable item could be found here. Similar to noisemakers, once the item is found it could be crafted later. A good contender in my opinion would be the bear spear, but it could also be something else. There's many good ideas on this forum so i'll leave that open-ended. Any tweaks or criticism are welcome! 

[MattD]

Here's my very rough "map" for Great Bear Basin. It's hand-drawn and not exactly to scale. It's also missing a lot of things. Map making isn't my forte, but it should give you an idea of how I see it. 

[conanjaguar]

@MattD

I like that idea.

How about a region that has a military base in it? There, we could find tons of MREs, ammunition, and military gear, including a Combat Bayonet (200% more effective than knife in a struggle, can be attached to rifle).

However, we would have to wait for an aurora to activate the door locks, and even then there would be a family of bears who have taken residence in one of the barracks.

[MattD]

@conanjaguar interesting idea. As much as I'd like to see something like the bayonet, I think it could effect the game balance in a way the devs (and many players) wouldn't like. It would be fantastic as a DLC option though! A family of bears would be a neat adversary too. Considering 1 bear can be a challenge, multiple would be boss-level. I'd go toe to toe with them if the reward is worth the risk!