The end of a nearly 5 year custom run

[Kayosiv]

I started playing The Long Dark in 2014. At the time I worked for Xbox and was able to play it as a compliance tester before it was released to the public, and I instantly was fascinated. I bought it on release and had a lot of fun with it, but after a good amount of hours, 100 or so, I felt like I was done with the game. After the release of Story Mode being not to my liking, I decided that it was a well worth it purchase, but it had run its course.

And then, some time later, custom game settings dropped.

Everything I didn't like about the original game could be changed, and I tinkered around until I found my own custom difficulty that was the most fun for me.

In short:

• Wild life is set to the lowest setting but also extremely deadly, more dangerous than interloper
• Healing is set to minimum (not 0, just low)
• Items are set to their lowest settings of quality and abundance but the rifle is enabled
• Length of Day multiplier is set to 4x, so the real time aspect of the game moves at the slowest speed possible
• Item decay rate set to low
• Weather and temperature settings set to average/medium

The overabundance of wolves from stalker/interloper were gone with these settings. I didn't have to constantly stop to make fires because of the 4x time dialation. The items were few and of low quality so exploring everywhere was mandatory, and while I would never see the best loot, it gave me a reason to craft and scour the world.

And scour the world I did. I played this single save file off and on for almost 5 years, until today.

Today, after having read the announcement a few days ago that save files would no longer be compatible with the newest updating coming in, I "finished" The Long Dark. I looted and survived every region and made it back to Mystery Lake. 232 in-game days but over 1,500 real time days in the making, I reached 100% explored rate for Great Bear Island.

It was a heck of a ride and the experiences and memories playing this game will keep it on my all time favorites list for the rest of my life.

I know there are people who have achieved more with 1,000+ day runs or the harshest of difficulties in every category, but for me, I made the game I wanted to play and played the heck out of it. It is a personal achievement in gaming the likes of which no other video game has even come close to being able to offer. I hope everyone can have as much fun playing as I did these last several years.

I'm looking forward to the update and new adventures, but I'll always be a little sad that this one had to end, and very proud that this custom survivor run gets to fade away peacefully.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Kayosiv

[yollarbenibekler]

I just killed my 1456 day run yesterday so I feel you. Respect.