The Dev Diary Speculation Thread

[Karl Grylls]

Hello Survivors,

with the Dev Diary in April Hinterland gave us some general informations about what to expect in future updates (free for everyone) and for the upcoming season pass (optional). They also posted a little picture for teasing. And this picture kept my mind busy from the moment i saw it.

I’m very surprised that no one talks about it and that’s why i wanted to post a little thread for speculation here. This is just for fun and pastime the thirsting period until the next news or update arrives 😊

Quick note before:

a    a)       This is just speculation what might come in the future, not what will come in the future, because i don’t know. Also i’m not a programmer or developer, so i can’t really say how realistic my speculations are.

b    b)      The picture doesn’t have to mean anything. It’s possible that it reflects a real part of future gameplay or nothing at all.

c    c)       I remember a bit of the survey Hinterland took many months ago about the future of the game. My ideas in this thread are influenced by this survey even when i don’t remember it fully. Is there a possibility to see the questions again, even after the survey? That would help.

d    d)      I want to keep the speculation on the things shown on the picture. Maybe additionally things that directly deduce from that, but not more. Things that might come with the season pass in general or even in a Long Dark 2 i want to discuss in a new thread.

 

Okay, let’s start!

The first time i saw the picture i thought of the person shown is us, the players. And with the tool box behind him, the lantern and the items outside came the idea that we might get some options for secondary bases. Furthermore we might be able to claim some structures we find and use them as temporary bases for let’s say like 1-3 days. Like the cairns, but indoor and the ability to sleep in them. To recover health, harvest your rabbits, find shelter from a blizzard, get some of your supplies.

The way the items are displayed made me curious: clothing is hanging outside, but next to a fire. So are we able to use the outside wall of the waggon as a clothesline and the fire to dry them?

Are the ribbons in the waggon common? Because i believe i have seen them in postal service waggons but i’m not sure. Despite real or not, they could function as hammocks.

The toolbox at the wall is not common. Someone must have mounted it there. My thought on that was, that we might be able to customize our secondary bases for our very own needs.

The person inside the waggon is smoking. So we might get some cigarettes. Or, more general speaking, consumables. Tobacco, which can be used to make cigarretes, cigars or to fill a pipe. With that i thought of a mental health system coming, which was on Hinterlands roadmap.

 

When i thought about the picture a second time a new thought hit me and i think this is what the picture is meaning. The person in the waggon is not the player, but a vendor.

And when you look at the items, what kind of items are shown, the variety and the way they are displayed, it makes absolutely sense. The clothes are not there for drying, but as an offer. The fire is there so the customer don’t freeze. All items shown are known to us, all but maybe one or two: the map and the note next to it. Regarding the map: for new players it would make sense to invest some of their stuff to buy a piece of a map (or even the whole map) of a region to get a bit of a head start or a useful hint where a structure can be found. For veteran players it would make also sense as long as we get new maps. And these new maps don’t have to be generated just by Hinterland, but can also be made by AI. Especially with the mod-support this would be a feature very useful for maps created by other players.

The note next to the map doesn’t say much to me besides that it looks like a schematic or even a drawing of a sasquatch. Which gave me the idea that we could be able to purchase the local legends stories from the Story Mode and solve the mystery in Survival Mode. Schematic or legend, both would be great!

The third note (on the right side of the waggon, left to the rifle) i don’t know. It looks like a drawing of a skiiing person. And first i thought that there are hanging skiiers under the note but on second view this is just a (not sure about the correct translation): rail/rack/bar for the door to slide. So i don’t know what this note shall tell us. Do you?

[Leeanda]

While I'd love it to be a hint as to what's to come, the only thoughts I had is about the use of mods.  Otherwise it's just a great picture.🙂

[Karl Grylls]

9 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

While I'd love it to be a hint as to what's to come, the only thoughts I had is about the use of mods.  Otherwise it's just a great picture.🙂

I doubt it because Hinterland never mentioned the use of mods in the Dev Diary. But they are known for giving us always hidden hints. When you are at mountaineer's hut you can see the plane on top of timberwolf mountain. And when they posted a screenshot of the Hesitant Prospect update you could see a rope hanging between the tops of the mountains. But you had to search for it So for me it's clear that this teaser pic is intended to raise speculations and discussions

[Leeanda]

It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma🙂.   Until episodes 5 possibly.?

[Valuable Hunting Knife]

wow, missed this post til now- great anticipation and intuition, I think I lot of these theories seem likely following the latest announcements!

When this image first showed up it was with the announcement that Raph was stepping back from TLD to work on other projects- I'd naively assumed the character was in some way a representation of him having a (perhaps metaphorical) well earned ciggie break! haha!

A couple of points I've just seen from looking at this again with fresh eyes- looks like an ammo belt on the table.  What benefits would this have if implemented?  Ammo is pretty like so can't see it being a weight bonus.

If what you are referring to as a tool box is what I think it is (directly below the ribbons in the carriage), I'm seeing that as a slatted window.  I can see how it does also look like the red toolboxes we find in garages etc., but the grey bits seem to match the mountainside background behind the carriage.

Could this image be a hint that the trader has found a way to move along the tracks, explaining their limited availability and replenishment of trading goods?  Electric train that runs during an aurora?  Or he managed to get an old steam loco up and running (perhaps wanting LOTS of coal as currency)?

 

[Karl Grylls]

Watching it after all this time, i think you are right about the window, if you look closely it's not three-dimensional but flat. If we are able to obtain that waggon and can have a fire barrel in it, we need a window to not die from suffocation.

For me the belt on the table was a weapon cleaning kit, which was the reason why i didn't mention it. I thought it would make sense for a trader to have that, because we can't craft it. Once it's gone, it' gone, which will happen sooner or later in the run. That was the reason why i was not upset about a trader. When it is like in the picture shown above, then it will most likely destroy the atmosphere of TLD. But on the other hand, if we can get needed items that we will run out of in very long runs, that might be nice.

I expect the trader to be in only one single location, namely the hub. First reason is that it would fit, since the hub represent the transition between Great Bear and the mainland. Another reason is, that the tracks are blocked on nearly every map for him to travel (pre-DLC status). And for not destroying the atmosphere of the game we just can't have him everywhere. It would be ridiculous if we were able to run to him every 10 minutes to get what we need. If we have to take a horrortrip to get to him, well that would fit. I wasn't disturbed by Methuselah in the Story Mode, actually that little chat every now and then was quite refreshing.