April Developer Diary

[Semple Fi]

@Admin

And while we’re on the subject of DLC’s….. with the decoupling and season pass implementation moving forward; will there be another chance to get in on a “Kickstarter” type opportunity?
 

Namely, it would be AWESOME to have a cairn pop up in a forthcoming region update that happens to be from me! “Backer #8338 (insert random quote here)”

Edited June 7, 2022 by Semple Fi
Namedropped admin

[trains342]

On 5/12/2022 at 11:31 PM, Ghurcb said:

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.

Okay, I do not like challenges, and I could have worded my post better. The problem is I am a customer/ player who does not want things like a full region lock out of me where either a feature that should be in vanilla is locked out by a paid wall or "Season Pass" gets more updates than Vanilia as they stated there going to give Vanilia little updates that may force people to buy DLC like other games. 

[TroyMcClure]

This game has given me so much value, I feel like I basically got it for free when you compare hours-played to dollars-spent.  There is not another game I feel such a close connection with and there are definitely some amazing games out there.  I should add that the TLD helped get me through some tough times when my girlfriend of many years was hospitalized...  I don't know exactly how long it has been but after several years TLD is something I return to time and again to relax, to explore and to improve upon my strategizing.  I hope this message gets read by all of you that have worked hard to develop something so amazing.  Games are fun, but they often can be flash in the pan-type enjoyment that is interesting one day then can be forgotten rather quickly...but not with TLD.  Even when I take a long break I still think of the game fondly...because it's so beautiful - much like the nature it recreates.  Thank you all!!! I am looking forward to all the changes and while I am far from being a rich man, I know Hinterland will make reasonable decisions when it comes to pricing/structure because everything you have done thus far has been overly fair.  Good luck Raph, I know whatever your next project is you will do whatever possible to make it another smashing success!  Thanks again!   Good luck!

[alunasmoon]

I'm a lil concerned and confused maybe someone can clarify. while i have no issue after all the amazing content paying to support the studio to make more, the issue i have is the fact that while story mode was always going to be in the game that there was and has been more content for that rather then survival. i guess im concerned because how will this impacts paid survival content. because if im going to pay for additives to the game i dont want to see story updates constantly with little attention to survival. As someone who has not played the story at all and prefers survival im just curious

[piddy3825]

11 minutes ago, alunasmoon said:

I'm a lil concerned and confused maybe someone can clarify. while i have no issue after all the amazing content paying to support the studio to make more, the issue i have is the fact that while story mode was always going to be in the game that there was and has been more content for that rather then survival. i guess im concerned because how will this impacts paid survival content. because if im going to pay for additives to the game i dont want to see story updates constantly with little attention to survival. As someone who has not played the story at all and prefers survival im just curious

if I am not mistaken, story mode updates will continue to be free per the commitment Hinterland has made to complete story mode in its entirety.  With the separation of survival mode from story mode, you will end up purchasing "updates" to survival mode if you choose to participate in their DLC programming. 

The decision to separate the survival portion of the game from story mode portion means that greater emphasis can be made to complete story mode in a timely manner and to fix any irregularities without having to double down and duplicate those "fixes" in survival mode without any further compensation.  

[Admin]

We will have more information to share about DLC in the future, and appreciate all your feedback and suggestions in the meantime. 

In the edit to our original post, we added the following information: 

• You will not lose content you already own. Updates to Story mode will continue as usual. 
• DLCs will not be mandatory.
• We will release more information before changes roll out.

We look forward to sharing more as soon as we can. Thanks for your support! 

[Mistral]

Literally nothing happening. We've had couple of background hotfixes early this year and Dev Diary in April but nothing else and it is August.

I mean, I don't mind the lack of game updates, especially since there is a major shift coming up in how the game is handled, for all I care if there's just the regular December big update that is enough. But to again how absolutely no news for months and months on how things are progressing is so misjudged. The PR department really is not up to it's game (some shared fan screenshots on instagram don't count), I mean I must not be alone in thinking general audience interest in the game drops to the bottom when there are long mysterious breaks. Even like a 3 sentence update line somewhere could go a long way. Even if there's nothing to report other than "things are progressing well for the next X, we just started building Y and then..."

Edited August 9, 2022 by Mistral

[piddy3825]

9 hours ago, Mistral said:

Literally nothing happening...

I must not be alone in thinking general audience interest in the game drops to the bottom when there are long mysterious breaks...

Word!
I was on the forums a little while back and during a peak time on the weekend when you would expect lots of activity and there were only 24 people on the forums and I was the only actual member who was logged in.  The other 23 were just nameless guests who could only read post but not comment or contribute.  

Pretty sad if you ask me...

[Leeanda]

41 minutes ago, piddy3825 said:

Word!
I was on the forums a little while back and during a peak time on the weekend when you would expect lots of activity and there were only 24 people on the forums and I was the only actual member who was logged in.  The other 23 were just nameless guests who could only read post but not comment or contribute.  

Pretty sad if you ask me...

I have to agree . Last weekend it went as low as 14 guests and me. It's not the first time lately either.   

It's a real shame.

[Bearimpaler101]

57 minutes ago, piddy3825 said:

Word!
I was on the forums a little while back and during a peak time on the weekend when you would expect lots of activity and there were only 24 people on the forums and I was the only actual member who was logged in.  The other 23 were just nameless guests who could only read post but not comment or contribute.  

Pretty sad if you ask me...

 

13 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

I have to agree . Last weekend it went as low as 14 guests and me. It's not the first time lately either.   

It's a real shame.

Oof btw hey piddy haven't seen you post since I got back on the forums

[conanjaguar]

7 hours ago, Leeanda said:

I have to agree . Last weekend it went as low as 14 guests and me. It's not the first time lately either.   

It's a real shame.

 

8 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

Word!
I was on the forums a little while back and during a peak time on the weekend when you would expect lots of activity and there were only 24 people on the forums and I was the only actual member who was logged in.  The other 23 were just nameless guests who could only read post but not comment or contribute.  

Pretty sad if you ask me...

Hey! There’s always me! I may not be 100% timely in replying to comments, but I’m here every day.

[Leeanda]

4 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

 

Hey! There’s always me! I may not be 100% timely in replying to comments, but I’m here every day.

Don't worry ,you didn't go unnoticed 🙂.  I just meant for a large part of the day  

Err... Who are you again? You new here?😁

[Bearimpaler101]

Btw leeanda is youre name supposed to be lee and a or lee 'anne'da?

[Leeanda]

Just now, Bearimpaler101 said:

Btw leeanda is youre name supposed to be lee and a or lee 'anne'da?

If you mean pronunciation it's the latter of the two.  Quite frankly i prefer just  lee  but that was already being used.  

[James Hickok]

On 8/10/2022 at 1:35 AM, conanjaguar said:

 

Hey! There’s always me! I may not be 100% timely in replying to comments, but I’m here every day.

Hey hey ! Im here everyday as well

Every time i come i hope for new news about the update.

[piddy3825]

4 hours ago, James Hickok said:

Hey hey ! Im here everyday as well

Every time i come i hope for new news about the update.

 

On 8/9/2022 at 4:35 PM, conanjaguar said:

 

Hey! There’s always me! I may not be 100% timely in replying to comments, but I’m here every day.

I think you both missed the entire point...
I'm here everyday too, but it ain't a party when I'm here by myself...

not too much fun when it feels like your in a ghost town

[conanjaguar]

1 minute ago, piddy3825 said:

 

I think you both missed the entire point...
I'm here everyday too, but it ain't a party when I'm here by myself...

not too much fun when it feels like your in a ghost town

Ah yes. I see what you mean now. The average activity throughout the day seems to be three-four members and a bunch of guests.

[Admin]

On 8/11/2022 at 10:44 AM, The Riddler said:

Interesting! What's Hinterland (Admin) think about that? 

While we do try to be proactive instead of reactive, we have responded to a few posts (here, on social media, and on Steam) indicating that we are currently working on an update to address some in-game issues/bugs. This is scheduled for release in the next week or two if all goes well. We are also still working on the DLC release.

We understand the value of Dev Diaries, though we tend to err on the side of being overly cautious as projects move forward to ensure that we are releasing accurate information. The last thing we want to do is disappoint anyone. 

That being said, we are working on a list of Known Issues, which will be updated on an ongoing basis to help our community stay informed about in-game concerns. We will also likely have more regular Dev Diary submissions as the DLC content moves forward, and we will continue to address concerns as they arise. 

We appreciate everyone's patience, and we hope to have more news very soon. 

 

[Leeanda]

Thanks @Admin🙂

[Stinky socks]

Thank you! I wonder how dlc is going to work when story mode isn't finished yet. That might be a hint at survival mode content?

[piddy3825]

all we ask is that you throw us a little bone every once in a while...

[Leeanda]

Just now, piddy3825 said:

all we ask is that you throw us a little bone every once in a while...

I agree. It would be nice ,even if there's nothing really new to add. 

Where did you get that clip @piddy3825 . It's hilarious 😁

[piddy3825]

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

I agree. It would be nice ,even if there's nothing really new to add. 

Where did you get that clip @piddy3825 . It's hilarious 😁

isn't the internet a wonderful thing?  a quick google search and you've got thousands of possible gif's and memes

 

[Bearimpaler101]

2 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

all we ask is that you throw us a little bone every once in a while...

 

39 minutes ago, piddy3825 said:

isn't the internet a wonderful thing?  a quick google search and you've got thousands of possible gif's and memes

 

It's from coco so awesome i  have always liked danté!

[Leeanda]

3 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

isn't the internet a wonderful thing?  a quick google search and you've got thousands of possible gif's and memes

 

Oh I see. I thought it was from a film.