April Dev Diary

[Leeanda]

Just now, Semple Fi said:

agreed

Love that dance😁

[Semple Fi]

On 4/15/2023 at 7:09 PM, Leeanda said:.  

I'll shut up now...

thou shalt not be silenced ✌️

[Semple Fi]

So besides being so off the rails as to attract the attention of the developer, did I miss an update? 
Is Tales going to be added to interloper? 

[Leeanda]

1 minute ago, Semple Fi said:

So besides being so off the rails as to attract the attention of the developer, did I miss an update? 
Is Tales going to be added to interloper? 

Yes it is. ..  😊.  

7 minutes ago, Semple Fi said:

thou shalt not be silenced ✌️

Golden girls?    I'm getting to that age way to quickly😁

[Semple Fi]

4 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Yes it is. ..  😊.  

Golden girls?    I'm getting to that age way to quickly😁

Ahhhh

 that will be an awesome update, I don’t primarily play on interloper but that’s a welcome addition. 
 

I thought you might get a laugh out of the gif, you’re always calling yourself old lol 😂

all in good fun of course 👍🏼

[Leeanda]

3 minutes ago, Semple Fi said:

Ahhhh

 that will be an awesome update, I don’t primarily play on interloper but that’s a welcome addition. 
 

I thought you might get a laugh out of the gif, you’re always calling yourself old lol 😂

all in good fun of course 👍🏼

It's not the age it's the mileage😁.   

Of course👍😊

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

4 hours ago, past caring said:

It's the internet/social media - very many people feel they have a licence to speak to others in ways they'd never dare to in real life.

Did this actually happen on this forum?  I don't read every thread on here (not even close!) What I did see were some somewhat testy exchanges, and probably some elitism on the part of interlopers, but never anything I would characterize as "berating" or abuse.

[UpUpAway95]

22 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

It's not the age it's the mileage😁.   

Of course👍😊

I'm so old, I don't understand "meme" language 90% of the time.  I barely have a handle on emotes.😀

[Leeanda]

1 minute ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I'm so old, I don't understand "meme" language 90% of the time.  I barely have a handle on emotes.😀

You and me both... 😊. Getting the hang of emoji slowly.  But I still have to look half of them up. 

Nice they have their own dictionary😁

[UpUpAway95]

Question for Raph or Katie or anyone else at HL:  After going through what feels like the Spiral Tunnels... Is the Far Territory Alberta?  Sure feels like home to me.

https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/bc/yoho/culture/kickinghorse/visit/~/media/16AB5C5C8BA14AD39803E451BAE95BDC.ashx?w=300&h=200&as=1

Edited April 17, 2023 by UpUpAway95

[ManicManiac]

35 minutes ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

Did this actually happen on this forum?

Yes, it did.

36 minutes ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

What I did see were some somewhat testy exchanges, and probably some elitism on the part of interlopers, but never anything I would characterize as "berating" or abuse.

I'd say that's because the Admins have done a good job of addressing those individuals and removing those kinds of posts.

 

 

[hozz1235]

It's really too bad our gaming communities have these self-proclaimed "elitists".  I believe part of it comes from the entitlement in the world today (but I won't say anymore about that ;)).  I don't really read any other social media or community channels/sites just because of the toxicity of people.  It's really sad.  When I do see it from someone here, I ignore them.  Luckily, my ignore list is pretty small.

[Glacia]

1 hour ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

Did this actually happen on this forum?  I don't read every thread on here (not even close!) What I did see were some somewhat testy exchanges, and probably some elitism on the part of interlopers, but never anything I would characterize as "berating" or abuse.

Short answer: Very very rarely.

Thats my point about giving importance to something that doesn't matter or even creating a problem using an inexistent basis.

Using a very few specific cases to talk about an entire community isn't necessary. This game have achieved a healthy, diverse and friendly community, something impossible or unimaginable for most of the game industry.

There is no reason to give attention to steam comments, toxic people on social media or the very rare interloper players blaming others. 

[UpUpAway95]

37 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

Yes, it did.

I'd say that's because the Admins have done a good job of addressing those individuals and removing those kinds of posts.

 

 

If posts were removed, they were done quickly because I didn't even see them at all.  I assumed Raph was just reinforcing what HL was already doing to address the issue and their commitment to all players.

I think all that's left is to just give HL some breathing room and see what they come up with going forward.

I think gamers (including myself in this), in general, tend to over-anticipate things (i.e. over analyze the small teasers devs give out and build up their own theories to the point where what happens upon actual release becomes a disappointment because it doesn't match their built up expectations).  It seems to me that games are having a harder and harder time releasing content to "positive reviews" despite the fact that most of these games are richer in content and more complex and more widely available on multiple platforms than ever before.

TLD is a gift - let's go forward now and just enjoy it.

[hozz1235]

This post is based upon the assumption that Interloper players are a small percentage of the total player base!

While I applaud Hinterland's willingness to make this change for a vocal few, I can't help but think about the amount of resources this took away from other work to be done on the game.  Placating a few, and taking from the many, just doesn't sound "fair" to me.

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

59 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

It's really too bad our gaming communities have these self-proclaimed "elitists".

Look at the communities for almost any pursuit, profession, or hobby.  It's just human nature.

[Moosemaster]

On 4/15/2023 at 7:50 PM, Raphael van Lierop said:

Hey all,

I don't usually post in here, but I'm not fond of some of the tone of the discussion and comments (including ones that are being reported). Let's keep it friendly.

In all this situation around "Signal Void" and Interloper (which we've already explained and I won't spend more time on that b/c I don't think it's our job to justify our dev decisions to folks), it's been quite disappointing to see how heated, and how "coded" the language has been at times.

From our perspective, people who choose to play the game using Interloper experience mode settings are just one of our many sub-groups of players. It might surprise you that there are many more that prefer to pay primarily Pilgrim (you just don't often hear from them, because they don't define themselves as "Pilgrims" or whatever). Or the other modes. I don't think it matters. Each of these modes is valid. The reason we included the Experience Modes was to give players some choices, from save to save, in how they might like to bias their experience along a spectrum (from exploration on one end, to survival on the other). There's no one right way to play, no Experience that is somehow superior to another. There's only how YOU choose to play, what is valuable to YOU, and what brings YOU enjoyment. They are all part of THE LONG DARK. You aren't somehow "better" or "more important" or "more valuable to Hinterland" because you play Interloper. 

The disappointing part -- for me -- isn't so much the anger and jibes that were pointed at us when we first launched Part Two of TALES -- sadly, we've become used to that. It was to hear stories from people who *don't* primarily play using Interloper settings, saying how they are being berated by "Interloper players" in the community, or while streaming, being told that if they don't play using Interloper they aren't really playing the game, they aren't good at it, they should try this or that strategy or they aren't doing it right, etc. etc. This is super disappointing to me personally, as it's 100% not what I wanted or foresaw for this Experience Mode. If I'd known it would create this occasionally toxic set of behaviours in our mostly generous and accepting community, I would never have added it to the game. That's never been what THE LONG DARK is about.

I also think it's easy to forget that we've always made THE LONG DARK with a player community, and we've always kept our ears open to player feedback, because this game is a living, breathing thing, and so is the community -- it's not the same as it was when we first launched, and it won't be the same when we eventually close the door on the game. That's part of our job as developers -- to help guide the game along its life-cycle. It's easy to look at a change like bringing Signal Void to Interloper and behave like it's some victory of the players *over* the developers, or whatever. To me, that's super counter-productive. We don't "cave" to pressure and we've never made the game that way. Personally, I don't care how many of you yell at me at Twitter, if I don't agree with a thing, I'm not going to change it. But as stubborn as I may be, I also know that we can't see everything, no matter how careful, not matter how thoughtful we are in our approach. And sometimes with new info, we realize we want to change a decision we had made. So we change it. That's a healthy thing for a game, pretty sure? Setting up a dynamic of "we triumphed against the developer!" (those exact words weren't written here, I'm just talking about a general sentiment that often exists in our industry, and in player communities across all games) is really damaging, in my opinion. 

I hope we can be a little more self-aware in our interactions with each other, make space for players of all kinds with all kinds of tastes and looking for various different kinds of experiences in THE LONG DARK. That's what makes the game special. That's what makes this community special. Let's not lose sight of that, ok?

- Raph

 

Here here!

[Moosemaster]

On 4/15/2023 at 10:58 PM, Kranium said:

The cause isn't what you think it is.

 

Fun community & great game, though. And you should add the ability to make snowmen to the game. Just throwing that one out there.

Good to see we got our priorities straight ⛄️

[Moosemaster]

2 hours ago, Semple Fi said:

So besides being so off the rails as to attract the attention of the developer, did I miss an update? 
Is Tales going to be added to interloper? 

10 bucks at least one person will complain the loper loot sucks xd

Edited April 17, 2023 by Moosemaster

[Leeanda]

24 minutes ago, Moosemaster said:

Good to see we got our priorities straight ⛄️

Making snowmen is top priority😁.  And snowballs.. who wouldn't be tempted to throw one at yogis rear end.

[UpUpAway95]

54 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

This post is based upon the assumption that Interloper players are a small percentage of the total player base!

While I applaud Hinterland's willingness to make this change for a vocal few, I can't help but think about the amount of resources this took away from other work to be done on the game.  Placating a few, and taking from the many, just doesn't sound "fair" to me.

I really don't think they are doing this to just "placate a few"; and Raph's post causes me to have faith that they are doing it in a manner that takes nothing away from the rest (or any of us).  Whether or not it will seem totally "fair" to everyone in the end, I believe it is HL's intention to make it as fair to everyone as they can muster (which I also think has been their intention all along with the various elements of this DLC).

[UpUpAway95]

2 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Making snowmen is top priority😁.  And snowballs.. who wouldn't be tempted to throw one at yogis rear end.

I admit, being able to make snowballs would be hella fun!

[SuperStriker16]

 

5 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

And snowballs.. who wouldn't be tempted to throw one at yogis rear end.

Craft anywhere, no resources, 5 minutes, good distraction device.

[hozz1235]

6 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I believe it is HL's intention to make it as fair to everyone as they can muster

Impossible to make it fair to everyone.  IMHO, the next best option is make it fair to the majority.

[Leeanda]

1 minute ago, SuperStriker16 said:

 

Craft anywhere, no resources, 5 minutes, good distraction device.

Exactly...  To be used when there's no stones in the vicinity.  

4 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I admit, being able to make snowballs would be hella fun!

It would wouldn't it😊.   

I'm also still hoping for a Xmas tree outside trappers in December 😁