Announcing TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY

[Karl Grylls]

20 minutes ago, Valuable Hunting Knife said:

just found a new bit of artwork for TFTFT...

 

Wow, thanks for the posting, i would have missed it. Looks like a research facility for Wolfes/Timberwolfes to me. Or it's a research facility for something else and the guys in the tower got bored and started drawing wolves

[Glacia]

59 minutes ago, Dum_Gen said:

it seems to us that  for HL it is much more important to earn more money on the DLC rather than fulfilling their word in reasonable timeline.

First of all, a company goal is earn money, one way or another. If you can't understand or don't support this is okay, but it becomes your opinion, not what is right.

If a game gives you more than 5+ years of content, updates and support (Both story and survival mode) for free, sorry but your point doesn't make the slightest bit of sense.  They clearly not greedy and even if this was the case, again it's how the world and companys works.

1 hour ago, Dum_Gen said:

And then when we IMO rightfully complain, we are called trolls and our opinion is dismissed as irrelevant and pitiful

It is. Having the right to complain or criticize does not mean that you are right about what are you saying.

And whether you like it or not, no one cares about complaining posts; nothing it's gonna change, the developer notes are very clear about the release timing of story mode/survival contents, take it or leave it 😎

[Karl Grylls]

I'll just repeat what jeffpeng said a few weeks before as this reflects my opinion as well and is well worded. We don't have to get aggressive since this is understandable

On 10/21/2022 at 3:52 AM, jeffpeng said:

Among all of this praise, however, I must acknowledge that @Dum_Gen, and certainly others that feel like them, have a point - a big, hurtful point. Yes, Wintermute has grown to epic proportions; yes, half of it was done twice; yes, people will eventually get what they paid for; yes, Hinterland has stuck to their promises and not abandoned the game when every major studio would have long ago; and finally yes, Survival was constantly updated free of charge - but no, taking over half a decade to deliver on a product is not okay, and a large portion of people purchased The Long Dark years ago, thinking they'd buy a story driven open-world survival game which they still haven't fully received. And now there is a DLC coming for that portion of the game they didn't (and maybe still don't) want anyways, which will probably serve most of the player base better (me included), but not them. So at least criticism is warranted and justified.

Nonetheless: freezing hyped, boi

[Ghurcb]

7 hours ago, Dum_Gen said:

The vast majority of people who have responded here are Survival Mode fans because the vast majority of Story Mode fans already left asit takes more then half a decade to get was was promised when they purchased the game.

No.

It didn't take more then half a decade to get what was promised. It took more then half a decade to get far FAR more.

Let's take a look at TLD Kickstarter campaign.

The episodic nature of the game's narrative refers to story structure, and not necessarily to the amount of content you're getting in the game, which we estimate to be 5-6 hours for single-player "story mode" and dozens of hours for sandbox "survival mode".

5-6 hours. 

It takes 4 hours to complete episode one alone. If you ignore the side quests.

Clearly, the scope of Wintermute has grown greatly over the years. You could've gotten exactly what was promised a long time ago, but would it be worth it? Seriously, if Hinterland wanted to stick to their Kickstarter promises, then at the end of Do Not Go Gentle it would say "THE END. See you in The Long Dark 2", because that's it. 5-6 hours of gameplay. You got it!

But no, they spent 3 years, developing the first 2 episodes of Wintermute, creating Milton, Forlorn Muskeg, Broken Railroad, redesigning Mystery Lake, improving the game in every way, while also adding content to Survival, such as levelling system, improved clothing system, cartography, Coastal Highway, Pleasant Valley, Desolation point, Timberwolf Mountain, challenges.

Those 3 years weren't wasted, in fact they might be the most productive period of time in the history of TLD's development.

But what happened next? Why did it take 2 years to get the third episode? The groundwork was layed, did something go wrong? Yes, something did go wrong. The launch of wintermute wasn't well-received, people were (rightfully) complaining about fetch quests and the trust system, which is why Hinterland decided to remake the first two episodes.

And those remakes were AWESOME. Better main questline (bye-bye mandatory survival school), more side quests, likeable characters (Grey Mother and Jeremiah were SO MEAN in predux), first-person cutscenes (the predux cutscenes were REALLY immersion-breaking), full voice acting. I don't want to imagine what the third and the fourth episodes would be like, if it wasn't for redux.

So, a year for a redux and a year for the episode 3, sounds fair. But episode 3 came out in the end of 2019, it's the end of 2022 already. What took them so long?!

Oh, I don't know, what else happened in the end of 2019, oh right, the COVID happened. And the whole team had to learn to work from their homes. They still do, if I'm not mistaken. Still, in 2020 Hinterland gave us the survival updates such as Fearless Navigator, and Hesitant prospect. The period of time between 2017 and 2019 was centered around Wintermute, the only Survival-exclusive region added between the Wintermute launch and the episode 3 was Hushed River Valley, a region that a lot of players dislike (I think it's fine, though). So the addition of Bleak Inlet and Ash Canyon was long awaited.

Episode 4 was being developed alongside those survival updates, featuring a new region that had a lot of verticality. From the gameplay standpoint Fury, then Silence stands WAY ABOVE all the other episodes. The story quests were less about go there, then come back, and more about solving puzzles, trying to find your way through toxic gas leaks, there even was a stealth mission in the end! And FINALLY the map was designed in such a way that you didn't have to go back to your base the same way you left it just to be told to go back to where you came from (Hi there, Luminance Fugue, we were just talking about you).

Two amazing survival regions and a story episode were made in two years DURING A WORLD-WIDE PANDEMIC.

By the way, what time is it? Oh, it's SEVEN YEARS INTO DEVELOPMENT by the time ep. 4 was released. "Seven years, and the Wintermute is still incomplete. Such disappointment. Why are the devs so lazy?"

Except, as you can see, they were working their asses off (no crunches, though), trying to give us the best playing experience possible. But still, some people see Hinterland as lazy for taking almost a decade to finish Wintermute, as if it makes sense for a studio not to develop their game. Like, do you think it takes so long because the devs play Minesweeper instead of working?

7 hours ago, Dum_Gen said:

People tend to forget that you guys received your base game years ago + a bunch of huge free DLCs on the regular basis. And now HL decided to push Story Mode fans to the side for even more time to earn money instead of  paying some attention to what they promised 5+ years ago.

And no, there's no "instead" here. The release of the episode 5 is planned for the end of 2023, which means, it's being developed alongside TFTFT. Hinterland are not doing the DLCs first and the story mode second, they are working on them at the same time. And not working on TFTFT wouldn't make Wintermute come out earlier. I think in one of the previous diaries, Raph said that they have two teams, one working on survival, and other working on story (there's also a third team working on the new game, but it's irrelevant now).

This means, people who are currently working on the episode 5 are not distracted by TFTFT, they are still working on the episode 5. And making the survival team work on Wintermute wouldn't accomplish anything either, as in the video game industry, if you assign twice as many people to a project, it won't be done in half the time. It'd be complete in the same amount of time (if you're lucky), but you'd have to pay twice the people for the same work. What you should do, is to assign as many people to a project as needed, and let them do their programming magic.

Releasing the DLCs while the last episode is being made accomplishes an important task. Keeping people interested. Between the release of Hesitant Prospect and Fury, then Silence, there was a year of NOTHING. Just us waiting for the episode 4, getting nothing but a few dev diaries. If it wasn't for TFTFT, 2023 would be the same. But instead, there will be a year of rapid-fire updates, both paid and free, while the wintermute team is working on the episode 5.

Hinterland are doing their best, and I see no reason to complain.

Edited November 4, 2022 by Ghurcb

[Valuable Hunting Knife]

7 hours ago, Karl Grylls said:

Wow, thanks for the posting, i would have missed it. Looks like a research facility for Wolfes/Timberwolfes to me. Or it's a research facility for something else and the guys in the tower got bored and started drawing wolves

My initial thought was that it's the abandoned control tower for the airfield, but you do have a point- no reason it can't have been repurposed, we know there was wildlife research being carried out on Great Bear, so if a scientist had trekked out to the abandoned interior, what better place to set up?  And yeah, they look like Timbos to me- at least there's ammo in the pic!

[Leeanda]

@Ghurcb. Well said.

[Luca Loquax]

Yay!  Its the airfield!

 

I will make it my safehouse and call it my "out-of-control tower" and make a fort out of fluffy-throw-rugs.   So many throw rugs..

Edited November 4, 2022 by Luca Loquax

[JMK]

TLD owns its uniqueness to Hinterland's vision. I'm all to keep it up this way, that's why I don't even read at the content proposed lol

[Leeanda]

🎶This is ground control to Major Will......   🎶

[Luca Loquax]

The circuit is dead!  There is something wrong!

[Luca Loquax]

Thus far Hinterland has demonstrated that they would rather have it right than on time. I agree 100%.

[RossBondReturns]

@Dum_Gen

I'm a fan of both Survival and Story and have been playing since 2015

Yes,  they have taken a very long time to deliver all 5 Episodes of the story. And they even had to work on it remotely during a Pandemic. Yet they have consistently over delivered.

Yes they redid Episode 1 and 2...that took a year but they were vastly improved.

Episode 3 was a vast improvement upon what they had learned in Redux.

And Episode 4 was made during a Pandemic...and yet it was even better still with much improved animations (thanks to their acquired Mo-Cap Equipment) and the best voice acting yet.

As has already been stated by others in this thread....the whole of Story Mode was going to be 5-6 hours.

Now all my LP Series of Story Mode last 5 times that.

A great deal of care was taken to split Survival and Story which would make it much easier and quicker to update both as needed and to deal with Bugs specific to each mode.

The DLC coming now is incredibly smart. As Raphael has stated recently, there is a lot that has to happen in Episode 5 of story to wrap it up well. That is another reason why Story and Survival has been split. Half the team is dedicated to Episode 5 and half is Dedicated to Survival/DLC- the future to come.

While Episode 5 is being worked on for release and perfected over the next year we are going to have plenty of new Survival stuff, including multiple overhauls or various skills like Firestarting and Cooking to keep us fully engaged. And that's even if you don't purchase the DLC as well!

When Episode 5 finally releases I will know that it will be the most refined episode yet because a very dedicated team will have been able to focus on Episode 5 and that alone for that entire time. And that's one thing I've never had a single second thought about...the wait for every Episode has been unequivocally worth it. The same will be true when Episode 5 releases.

The reason I know this is because Hinterland has shown loved and complete dedication to The Long Dark and their fans, and will absolutely only give them their absolute best. (Which is why they did Redux).

So the very moment they revealed that the DLC would come first all I could think of was...hell yes...we're getting High Quality updates all year for Survival and DLC folks- just like when the game was in early access. Except better stuff because of how much they have refined the game over the years.

And then at the end they are going to fully deliver on the conclusion to story mode with Episode 5.

Has the wait been worth it, has the $19.99 and the 5,000 plus hours been worth it?

Absolutely.
 

[UpUpAway95]

Hopefully, all this re-balancing stuff doesn't mean that the custom menu options will go the way of the dodo.  One of the best features of this game for me has been the ability to tweak individual features differently for different runs.  Without it, it becomes just another survival game with a few set difficulty settings.

The only other thing I have to say is that I'm still disappointed that release of Episode 5 keeps getting pushed back to accommodate these changes.

[RossBondReturns]

1 hour ago, UpUpAway95 said:

Hopefully, all this re-balancing stuff doesn't mean that the custom menu options will go the way of the dodo.  One of the best features of this game for me has been the ability to tweak individual features differently for different runs.  Without it, it becomes just another survival game with a few set difficulty settings.

The only other thing I have to say is that I'm still disappointed that release of Episode 5 keeps getting pushed back to accommodate these changes.

What you're saying about Episode 5's release getting pushed back again and again just isn't true.

They've been very open about the fact that it would not be coming until next December at the earliest...even before the latest Dev Diary we certainly knew it wasn't coming this year...which would be putting it at Dec. 2023 at the earliest.

Also being that it is the Final Episode and there's a whole heck of a long way for Will to travel to catch up with Astrid and many plot points to bring to closure to have expected it any earlier than Dec. 2023 would seem foolish indeed. Even with a dedicated team working on Story it's still an awful lot to do.

Also, there's no way at all they're going to get rid of Custom...I am actually hoping to see it being even more granular allowing even finer tweaking of game play elements in the future.

What actually surprised me is that the DLC is hitting in December...but it makes a whole lot of sense. Return even base game survival to the sort of update schedule of early Access...and have a massive expansion of the playable territory of Great Bear. Overhauling the Cooking and Firestarting...and probably other things too.

To keep everyone fully engaged and then some up until Episode 5 is released. Seems very, very smart.

[Leeanda]

3 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

Hopefully, all this re-balancing stuff doesn't mean that the custom menu options will go the way of the dodo.  One of the best features of this game for me has been the ability to tweak individual features differently for different runs.  Without it, it becomes just another survival game with a few set difficulty settings.

The only other thing I have to say is that I'm still disappointed that release of Episode 5 keeps getting pushed back to accommodate these changes.

Nice to see you again.🙂   

Have to admit I'd be kinda lost without the custom settings.

[Sgt Socks]

3 hours ago, GeneralJConnor said:

.I am actually hoping to see it being even more granular allowing even finer tweaking of game play elements in the future.
 

Me too GJC

For me, particularly in the cold over time settings.

There is a massive jump between medium and high difficulties (and I should think low to medium too, but its been years since I tried that out).

I don't want to play Loper levels where every five steps I have to light a fire.  I also don't want to play where a full set of even reasonable (rather than great) clothing means the cold is no problem even in a blizzard. This is what medium difficulty is like.

I'd like to see a bit more scope for fine tuning climate challenges like you can with wildlife.

But regardless I agree GJC; more granular opportunities for customising would launch TLD's already brilliant replayability into the stratosphere.

Edited November 5, 2022 by Sgt Socks

[UpUpAway95]

On 11/4/2022 at 2:49 PM, GeneralJConnor said:

@Dum_Gen

I'm a fan of both Survival and Story and have been playing since 2015

Yes,  they have taken a very long time to deliver all 5 Episodes of the story. And they even had to work on it remotely during a Pandemic. Yet they have consistently over delivered.

Yes they redid Episode 1 and 2...that took a year but they were vastly improved.

Episode 3 was a vast improvement upon what they had learned in Redux.

And Episode 4 was made during a Pandemic...and yet it was even better still with much improved animations (thanks to their acquired Mo-Cap Equipment) and the best voice acting yet.

As has already been stated by others in this thread....the whole of Story Mode was going to be 5-6 hours.

Now all my LP Series of Story Mode last 5 times that.

A great deal of care was taken to split Survival and Story which would make it much easier and quicker to update both as needed and to deal with Bugs specific to each mode.

The DLC coming now is incredibly smart. As Raphael has stated recently, there is a lot that has to happen in Episode 5 of story to wrap it up well. That is another reason why Story and Survival has been split. Half the team is dedicated to Episode 5 and half is Dedicated to Survival/DLC- the future to come.

While Episode 5 is being worked on for release and perfected over the next year we are going to have plenty of new Survival stuff, including multiple overhauls or various skills like Firestarting and Cooking to keep us fully engaged. And that's even if you don't purchase the DLC as well!

When Episode 5 finally releases I will know that it will be the most refined episode yet because a very dedicated team will have been able to focus on Episode 5 and that alone for that entire time. And that's one thing I've never had a single second thought about...the wait for every Episode has been unequivocally worth it. The same will be true when Episode 5 releases.

The reason I know this is because Hinterland has shown loved and complete dedication to The Long Dark and their fans, and will absolutely only give them their absolute best. (Which is why they did Redux).

So the very moment they revealed that the DLC would come first all I could think of was...hell yes...we're getting High Quality updates all year for Survival and DLC folks- just like when the game was in early access. Except better stuff because of how much they have refined the game over the years.

And then at the end they are going to fully deliver on the conclusion to story mode with Episode 5.

Has the wait been worth it, has the $19.99 and the 5,000 plus hours been worth it?

Absolutely.
 

My statement is true... when I purchased the game at the release of Redux, my expectation was that I would not be waiting this many years to see the completion of the story mode.  It has been continually pushed back since then to accommodate survival mode.  I'm not arguing whether or not the move was "smart" from Hinterland's POV or whether or not they've been honest about it.  I'm just stating my ongoing disappointment at the delay.  I'm an elderly gamer and could very well be dead before the story gets finished.  The statement, therefore, is completely true from my POV,  If I am alive, I will, no doubt, be elated when they do finally complete the story that first drew me into this game.

Edited November 5, 2022 by UpUpAway95

[Glacia]

11 hours ago, Sgt Socks said:

There is a massive jump between medium and high difficulties (and I should think low to medium too, but its been years since I tried that out).

I don't want to play Loper levels where every five steps I have to light a fire.  I also don't want to play where a full set of even reasonable (rather than great) clothing means the cold is no problem even in a blizzard. This is what medium difficulty is like.

While not optimal, there is a mod called Extreme temperature drop. You can customize the temperature drop cap and the days until the world reaches the lowest temperature, for every difficulty mode.

Of course a game base feature should be better, but at the moment the mod works incredible well for editing the temperature setting.

[RossBondReturns]

1 hour ago, UpUpAway95 said:

My statement is true... when I purchased the game at the release of Redux, my expectation was that I would not be waiting this many years to see the completion of the story mode.  It has been continually pushed back since then to accommodate survival mode.  I'm not arguing whether or not the move was "smart" from Hinterland's POV or whether or not they've been honest about it.  I'm just stating my ongoing disappointment at the delay.  I'm an elderly gamer and could very well be dead before the story gets finished.  The statement, therefore, is completely true from my POV,  If I am alive, I will, no doubt, be elated when they do finally complete the story that first drew me into this game.

I understand your disappointment in the delay of story mode.

TLD was the fist survival game I ever bought, and I got if for the promise of story mode since I wasn't sure if I would get into survival or not. Of course I did...my nearly 5,100 hours spent playing makes that clear.

It was clear to me, from early on that with the great care they were taking as they updated survival and then incrementally released story that in the end the wait for Episode 5 would be more than worth it.

I stand by that.

In the meantime while I wait for Story Mode...I'll have a DLC to play through that looks to revolutionize many aspects of the best survival game all over again.

This points to the logical conclusion that once Episode 5 is released, because of the overhauling of all the aspects of the game, I'll want to play all of Story Mode from the start.

Once again this will be time well spent.

I love both survival and story...I think both are excellent...and I'm more than happy to wait as long as needed for the entire story to be completed with excellence. And the amazingness of survival certainly helps to make that wait much easier.

[Sgt Socks]

1 hour ago, Glacia said:

Of course a game base feature should be better, but at the moment the mod works incredible well for editing the temperature setting.

Thank you Glacia, that is much appreciated. I'll keep my fingers crossed for better options in the new base game, but if not hopefully this mod will be updated.

[UpUpAway95]

2 hours ago, GeneralJConnor said:

I love both survival and story...I think both are excellent...and I'm more than happy to wait as long as needed for the entire story to be completed with excellence. And the amazingness of survival certainly helps to make that wait much easier.

Agreed...and anyone who knows me knows how much I also love Survival Mode.  However, I am still disappointed that this wasn't the dev diary that announces the release of Episode 5 BECAUSE I'm so much looking forward to it.  Conversely, I'm not really looking for another zone in survival mode since I find the map sufficiently large as it is and the game already full of enough stuff to do to keep me occupied... and I don't really find the current version lacking in any significant way.  In short... I'm happy with it as it is, so I don't have a big desire really to buy the DLC.

What is lacking, in my mind, is an ending to the story and the addition of Perseverance Mills to the map.  That is what I AM still looking forward to. 

PS:  I don't think we'll be compelled to redo the first 4 episodes of the story in the new format in order to unlock the 5th, so that's not an issue for me.  As for survival, I don't have any long-term saves and am starting new runs all the time, so that is not an issue for me either.  They've assured me that I'll still get Episode 5 included in my original purchase, so that's fine too.  I'm just still disappointed that Episode 5 isn't being released just yet.  That's all.

Edited November 6, 2022 by UpUpAway95

[Glacia]

Another leak 

[conanjaguar]

39 minutes ago, Glacia said:

Another leak 

Ooooh… soup!!

That model (I think) on the left, is that the prepared root? Looks kinda like hardtack to me.

[k0s0ff]

5 hours ago, Glacia said:

Another leak 

 

I'm curious, but how are we going to dig it out? Will the shovel be used?

[Arbor]

SOUP CONFIRMED