April Developer Diary

[trains342]

I like the game and what they do, and I am happy that Survival Mode and Wintermute are being separated, but I do not like the idea of a season pass with new regions lock behind a pay wall, I do not mind challenges, but if a new region is added, do I have to fear that the new region is going to be lock behind a pay wall. 

[Ghurcb]

4 hours ago, trains342 said:

I like the game and what they do, and I am happy that Survival Mode and Wintermute are being separated, but I do not like the idea of a season pass with new regions lock behind a pay wall, I do not mind challenges, but if a new region is added, do I have to fear that the new region is going to be lock behind a pay wall. 

Honestly, I'd prefer it the completely opposite way. The Long Dark already has 12 regions. In my latest run I've been playing for 100 days, but there are still 2 regions I'm yet to visit. The game doesn't need more regions. It won't be incomplete without them.

But if those DLCs will present some new unique regions, I'll be even more willing to buy them. Saying that they are locked behind a pay wall isn't completely fair. It's like saying that The Witcher devs locked the content of Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone behind a pay wall. No, that's what people call a DLC. New content for additional payment. A rather common practice.

On the other hand, there's one challenge that in my opinion should be added for free. Hunted pt.3.
Part 2 ended on a cliffhanger, and if Hinterland are gonna release the finale as a part of a season pass... Many people will be justified in their disappointment.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Ghurcb

[Demetrious]

Reading these devblogs are always interesting. "We realized really fast that Survival Mode was where all the enthusiasm was, but we made a promise to deliver Story Mode, and-" 

It must be very difficult for devs, who have to carefully pick any words they say as it can create tides in their fanbase and cause unnecessary backlash. For you know, there is always "that guy," who doesn't get it, and others who do, but just misunderstand due to the ambiguities of human communication. Because I'd love to hear the unvarnished truth about how you guys feel about your creation, about years of your unstinting hard work; how you feel about The Long Dark as a story (in Story Mode) and as a story generator (in Survival Mode.) What it means to you. What frustrates you. What makes you want to hug fans and what makes you want to kick them. I'm a writer myself, and sometimes I look at others and think - man, I wish I could know what's going on in there. I bet I could learn from them. 

Well, I can't have that. But what I can do is throw more money at people who've proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they will not waste my time. The last game I spent big bucks on was Far Cry 5, and it was a heart-rending tragedy to me. Because the mechanics, the game, had achieved perfection. Through many iterations, the game had reached a zenith of design...

... but a nadir of "story." 

Far Cry 3 was a fun game. I liked it. But I loathed having to do the story missions, because while I didn't mind the story on its own merits - it was serviceable, it was fine - the missions had awful and frustrating gameplay. And Far Cry 5 drove this to a maddened fever pitch. Never before have I seen a game that will literally kidnap you from the core gameplay loop to force-feed you "story" that resembles the crayon scrawlings of a coked-out hobo, and do it repeatedly with the same content. I never finished Far Cry 5, because the game literally wouldn't let me play the game; it insisted on interrupting my fun every chance it got to force-feed me absolute trash. 

That game cost sixty dollars. Sixty dollars, in big bad Yew-Nited-States Benjamins, not those plastic dollars y'all use just over the bridge there in Windsor. And what you get for it, is contempt for your intelligence. 

I don't know what, exactly, goes through the minds of your hard-working team. I don't know how they relate to their work - and it is work, mind you. Anyone who thinks Shakespeare didn't have days where he wanted to stab people with his quill and burn every scrap of paper in his house knows nothing. But I do know this - I know they give a damn about what they are working on. They care about the soul of this thing, that they've poured so much effort into; years of their life into. I know these people will not waste my time. 

I don't care what you do, at this point. More regions? Cool. Uber-neato mechanics? Cool. Wolf-mode, where you play as a wolf that is constantly pursued by angry Mackenzie's with bear spears, but since you don't have opposable thumbs you need to bait them into building fires for you? Sounds good. But I'm willing to go on faith at this point. 

Lead on. 

[turtle777]

You can't make everyone happy. It just is what it is. Canadians might have a harder time with this. 🙂

-t

[Cr41g]

16 minutes ago, turtle777 said:

 

Canadians might have a harder time with this. 🙂

-t

with what ?

[turtle777]

5 hours ago, Cr41g said:

with what ?

Accepting that making everyone happy is impossible  

Accepting that some people will always be grumpy, offended or disappointed, no matter how carefully you try to avoid it  

-t

[UpUpAway95]

1 hour ago, turtle777 said:

Accepting that making everyone happy is impossible  

Accepting that some people will always be grumpy, offended or disappointed, no matter how carefully you try to avoid it  

-t

I'm sorry, but you misunderstand Canadians.  We do accept that some people will always be grumpy, offended or disappointed... and we continually apologize for it. 😀

[Admin]

A reminder to keep conversation respectful. Paid DLCs won't be mandatory -- we will still release content for Survivors who opt to continue playing the game without paying anything additional.

We have always worked to make TLD accessible for our community, and we will continue to do so. 

[Vinceofpyrenees]

On 4/30/2022 at 3:07 AM, Admin said:

Thanks for sharing your concerns. We have no plans to remove content for people who have bought it. While some season passes take this approach, that's not our plan nor our intent.

Additionally, we want to emphasize this bullet: 

• We want to make sure our existing players who choose not to buy any more content (or are unable to afford it) are still going to have a great experience of The Long Dark, and won’t feel left behind. So we’ll also continue to provide some free updates to the base Survival game, so anyone who doesn’t buy the pass will get something. These updates will generally be smaller, more modest improvements compared to what you will see being added to the paid content stream, which seems only fair. 

We look forward to bringing you more great content in the future in a way that is sustainable and meaningful. 

I deduce it'll be a system of updates similar to that made by Paradox Interactive: DLC update (major changes) correlated with a free update (minor changes). And I like it !

Edited May 15, 2022 by Vinceofpyrenees

[UpUpAway95]

On 5/13/2022 at 5:12 PM, Admin said:

A reminder to keep conversation respectful. Paid DLCs won't be mandatory -- we will still release content for Survivors who opt to continue playing the game without paying anything additional.

We have always worked to make TLD accessible for our community, and we will continue to do so. 

Forgive me, but that's still pretty vague... my specific concern rests on the status of Perseverence Mills in Survival Mode.  Will that region be added to Survival Mode free of charge in order to keep the map complementary to Wintermute through to the end of Episode 5? or will it be part of a DLC/Season's Pass (now that HL is indicating the two modes of the game have been effectively separated from each other?

I recognize, of course, that it is not "mandatory" to buy DLC at any time; however, keeping survival mode complementary to Wintermute through to the end of the story is something I would like to do.  So, should I be budgeting to pay for it or not? 

Also, please note - I'm not angry or upset either way.  HL has done, to date, a stellar job in developing I game I absolutely love.  The addition of DLC won't change my opinion on that.

Edited May 15, 2022 by UpUpAway95

[Admin]

On 5/15/2022 at 7:27 AM, UpUpAway95 said:

Forgive me, but that's still pretty vague... my specific concern rests on the status of Perseverence Mills in Survival Mode.  Will that region be added to Survival Mode free of charge in order to keep the map complementary to Wintermute through to the end of Episode 5? or will it be part of a DLC/Season's Pass (now that HL is indicating the two modes of the game have been effectively separated from each other?

I recognize, of course, that it is not "mandatory" to buy DLC at any time; however, keeping survival mode complementary to Wintermute through to the end of the story is something I would like to do.  So, should I be budgeting to pay for it or not? 

Also, please note - I'm not angry or upset either way.  HL has done, to date, a stellar job in developing I game I absolutely love.  The addition of DLC won't change my opinion on that.

That's an excellent question, and we'll have more to share in the coming weeks. We want to make sure that the information we share are as accurate and detailed as possible. 

[Admin]

Thank you for the feedback and response to this Diary. The term "Season Pass" is causing some confusion, and we are working on a more accurate name that properly encompasses the nature and spirit of our new update and DLC system. Some important things to note are:

- You will not lose content you already own.
- DLCs will not be mandatory.
- Katie and the team are still working from a Roadmap that Raph developed with them, and Raph is still actively involved in reviewing and guiding this work.
- We will release more information before changes roll out.

We appreciate your patience and support.

[piddy3825]

59 minutes ago, Admin said:

Thank you for the feedback and response to this Diary. The term "Season Pass" is causing some confusion, and we are working on a more accurate name that properly encompasses the nature and spirit of our new update and DLC system. 

why not just call it what it is?

How about Fee Based Optional Downloadable Content?  

[Glflegolas]

2 hours ago, Admin said:

Thank you for the feedback and response to this Diary. The term "Season Pass" is causing some confusion, and we are working on a more accurate name that properly encompasses the nature and spirit of our new update and DLC system. Some important things to note are:

- You will not lose content you already own.
- DLCs will not be mandatory.
- Katie and the team are still working from a Roadmap that I developed with them, and Raph is still actively involved in reviewing and guiding this work.
- We will release more information before changes roll out.

We appreciate your patience and support.

How about calling the DLC "Purchasable Extras/Bonus Content"?

You could call the "season pass" a "Bonus Content Pre-Order"

[Ghurcb]

5 hours ago, Admin said:

Thank you for the feedback and response to this Diary. The term "Season Pass" is causing some confusion, and we are working on a more accurate name that properly encompasses the nature and spirit of our new update and DLC system. Some important things to note are:

- You will not lose content you already own.
- DLCs will not be mandatory.
- Katie and the team are still working from a Roadmap that I developed with them, and Raph is still actively involved in reviewing and guiding this work.
- We will release more information before changes roll out.

We appreciate your patience and support.

DLC -> Expansion
Season Pass -> Expansion Pack Pre-Purchase

[Leeanda]

Pre-paid winter pack?

 

[Karl Grylls]

A Light In the Long Dark?

[RegentRelic]

How about calling it purchase commitment, pre-order, subscription. I guess people will think of streaming services, but I think of news papers.

Edited May 18, 2022 by RegentRelic

[hozz1235]

I don't care what it's called!  Just anxious to see what comes of it!

[Carbon]

Well, whatever it's called, count me in.

TLD is a classic and I can't express enough gratitude to the devs for the years of support and content. Hands down the best developers out there and TLD one of the best games ever.

Cheers to the past and pending.

[Karl Grylls]

No matter what i will buy the pass unseen

[Admin]

Thank you for the suggestions. 

[Admin]

On 6/3/2022 at 10:12 AM, The Riddler said:

Where can I read additional information? Has it already appear on the forum? 🙂

Not at this time. We will post more information when it is available. 

[Semple Fi]

How about some

”purchasable physical prêt-à-porter pieces”

how’s about them apples?

[Semple Fi]

On 5/13/2022 at 12:38 AM, Demetrious said:

must be very difficult for devs, who have to carefully pick any words they say as it can create tides in their fanbase and cause unnecessary backlash. For you know, there is always "that guy," who doesn't get it, and others who do, but just misunderstand due to the ambiguities of human communication. Because I'd love to hear the unvarnished truth about how you guys feel about your creation, about years of your unstinting hard work; how you feel about The Long Dark as a story (in Story Mode) and as a story generator (in Survival Mode.) What it means to you. What frustrates you. What makes you want to hug fans and what makes you want to kick them. I'm a writer myself, and sometimes I look at others and think - man, I wish I could know what's going on in there. I bet I could learn from them

Please see my topic post under wishlist for “New stuff during the Aurora” (or something like that anyway)

 Perhaps they can add that insight in the form of new buffer memories.  Or as an achievement for completing a mini game on the computers during the Aurora.  
 

Because I agree, getting some “backstory” would be pretty cool.  

Edited June 7, 2022 by Semple Fi
Misspelling