Making 500 days achievement more enticing

[HyperLordBender]

Currently this achievement is owned by 1% of the player base. Its not a hard thing to do, its just not fun to play the game that long. I can get to 150-200 days before I get entirely bored and stop playing that save. Everything becomes mundane after 50 odd days and after 100 your likely to have everything and have likely done everything. Tales has made this less of an issue, which is nice. But its still not enough and I don't think having alot of new story bits is feasible for HL to do right now. So what are some other things HL could?

They could make some maps inaccessible at the start of the game. In Interloper the game gets colder for 50 days. So why not use that as a base and make all rivers be unfrozen for the first couple of weeks while the game gets colder. A flowing river may not ever freeze over entirely either. Combing this with removing a rope and some other map changes, this would block off Blackrock and most of Ash Canyon. Some other changes would block off Bleak Inlet. This could also block off Forlorn Muskeg as an option to travel to other maps since you also need to cross water and I think all routes require this. So this change would prolong the game simply by making travel more difficult. Not saying this change would be easy though since the game doesn't have fluid mechanics yet (all flowing water is a set animation).

Another possibility is to use predators to block off area's. Specifically bears. Wolves wouldn't be an issue for most players so 3 or more bears working as a pack would pretty much create a no go zone for most people. Then as the game proceeds these bears split off and go to other locations for food or whatever. Since HL already has a wildlife rework planned, this would go nicely with that.

Another way would be simply using long duration actions to block them. Like making it possible to clear the avalanche in Milton but taking 30 days of work to do it.

Yet another way is just locking doors and gates. Requiring the player to go find keys somewhere to get through the doors. And maybe even make it so if you pick up a key before you have a hint, the key gets added as an "unknown key". While you could still use it, you would just have to try them all and see if any fit. This would be something HL could easily do as all the mechanics already exist and are already in use. There is even a mod that adds randomly locked doors. 

So there are plenty of ways to prolong how long it takes until the game becomes boring. All of it is time consuming so it would take away from something else. 

[Third Try]

I haven't personally made it past 70 days and if I live for more than 30 days on a character I up the difficulty next time (either with the actual difficulty or with personal challenges, or starting in harder regions).  So not a real problem for me, but it's reasonable.

[Nikikeya]

I'm a total noob, but I still like the idea, its cool to have areas you need keys for and stuff. 

[stratvox]

Weird. I have multiple runs that I've had where I've run more than eight hundred days, and one that went over a thousand. I don't find that problematic at all. 

However, there is a point where you sort of have to transition out of surviving GBI and into living on GBI. It's not the same, and while it's true that there are repetitive aspects of that (e.g. daily gathering of wood) that's actually in keeping with what it would be like to live in that situation. ISTR Raph saying at one point that managing the boredom that goes with this kind of subsistence living is in fact a big part of the challenge of TLD, and I totally grok; after a couple of hundred days I've killed a number of runs doing dumb shit that was needlessly risky because I was bored. So... true to life?

[UpUpAway95]

I don't think HL needs to do anything.  The choice of how to spend the 500 days and where should remain in the hands of the player.  I don't like the idea of locked off regions, particularly when the spawn can be random.

[Enigmaecho]

6 hours ago, stratvox said:

Weird. I have multiple runs that I've had where I've run more than eight hundred days, and one that went over a thousand. I don't find that problematic at all. 

However, there is a point where you sort of have to transition out of surviving GBI and into living on GBI. It's not the same, and while it's true that there are repetitive aspects of that (e.g. daily gathering of wood) that's actually in keeping with what it would be like to live in that situation. ISTR Raph saying at one point that managing the boredom that goes with this kind of subsistence living is in fact a big part of the challenge of TLD, and I totally grok; after a couple of hundred days I've killed a number of runs doing dumb shit that was needlessly risky because I was bored. So... true to life?

Lol same, the game is just starting for me around day 200 after I’ve gotten all the region bases set up, equipped all the variants, mapped all of great bear and completed tales, this run was my first ever to finally nab every single collectible, every cairn, buffer, memento and recipe and I’m on day 366 now it’s maintaining the run until takes completes and episode 5s regions make it to survival 

[stratvox]

I find a better long term strategy is to not harvest everything you see unless you need it right now. Get a couple of prepared rosehips, a few chopped shrooms, maybe five prepped birchbark, all in the dry form. Light, last forever, meds. Then pick them when you actually need them from wherever you are when you need them.

My daily driver run is on day 163, my first run from when the save purge happened is at like day 350. That was a voyageur and I decided to do a voyageur and take it up for FA to learn the map with relatively low risk, and now I'm back on my usual custom, sort of voyaloper  with some special tuning: 8u/Y-l9Ur-Px/v-Sgl/-OOMI 

I'm basically planning on running the 163 custom guy until the new map drops, and then he's gonna light out for the Far Range Branch Line and see what trouble he can get into.

[ManicManiac]

On 11/21/2023 at 8:06 PM, UpUpAway95 said:

I don't think HL needs to do anything.  The choice of how to spend the 500 days and where should remain in the hands of the player.  I don't like the idea of locked off regions

Agreed.  My sentiments exactly.

Edited November 26, 2023 by ManicManiac