The Long Development: Dev Log 8

[KaiGamez]

IT’S BEEN A WHILE
Hey everyone, Kai here. It has been something like twenty months since our last public DevLog, so I believe we are long overdue for a progress report. Lots has happened over that time so buckle up, we have some exciting news. For those of you that are members of our TLDev server; much of this information is a rehash of what you have already read, so feel free to skim.

As always, our teams statement:
“The Long Development is a small team project and a collaborative community effort to expand 'THE LONG DARK's' Great Bear Island in both a beautiful and balanced way. Our team is focused on creating as 'Hinterland-like' regions as possible to ensure that they fit within the world of the vanilla game. We are not out to make perfect idealised locations, but rather ones that are balanced. Consisting of a handful of core members, our 'TLDev' team brings a variety of work that allows this mod to be as expansive as it is. Our mod contains hand-crafted regions that seamlessly connect to the larger world of Great Bear, featuring custom 3D-modelled structures that make these regions' identities feel unique. Last but not least we have an additional 20 minutes of brand-new music that fit in our various regions' atmospheres. Currently, we have two major regions and two transition regions in development, with more planned for the future. We take our time creating these regions, and as every member contributes to this project with our own free time; we apply ‘no crunch’ rules. Our work releases whenever we feel it is ready, and it will be completely free for anyone who owns THE LONG DARK and TFTFT.”

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THE FIRST FEW
The last couple months have been monumental in terms of our team's progress and this has led to the big next step in bringing custom regions to this game; I am very excited to announce that we have begun closed beta testing for a couple of our regions. We currently have people scouring the shore for all kinds of issues as well as testing the general balance and integration of the regions. The feedback we have already received has been number one; positive, and number two; extremely valuable. It has been so fun to engage with testers and be able to work through tangible criticism and praise – so thank you to all our beta testers that have and will continue to help us push this mod to the highest standard we can.

Looking forward, we plan to expand our current testing team. So if you have some spare time and love this game as much as we do then you can fill out our quick survey provided below for a chance at a spot. No worries those who are not selected as these regions will go public, eventually. Let it be noted that you may need some understanding of mod installation and general feedback loops to be selected as a tester.

TLDev Beta Tester Application:
 https://forms.gle/TooPURJFc8epNqVX7

For those that are accepted into the tester pool; you will now have access to separate channels on our server that are used to provide feedback and share thoughts. We have decided to keep our testing closed for now in order to preserve the surprises and discovery for public release – as these are the best parts of this game. This means testers are asked to not share media or heavily discuss outside of those dedicated channels. 

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“ARE YOU” SHORE?
Yes, we have decided to stick with its original name despite some overlap with a certain airfield. FORSAKEN SHORE is set to be our flagship ‘hub’ region for whenever public launch time comes around. Design wise, this region is basically finished and while we have some larger implementation issues to wrestle with still, I am very excited to see what everyone thinks. This region was my ‘original’ idea when we started TLDev, and seeing it come to fruition is mindblowing. Make sure you bring your respirator, I heard the oil rig wreck is not very environmentally friendly.

A few weeks ago we released a short teaser that shows off a unique fishing lodge location. At this point the video is fairly behind in terms of its env. design development – but take a look if you haven't already. 

Forsaken Shore Teaser Trailer:
https://youtu.be/dIbTR1ya6Ec?si=3GhIJlF2MonRixSs

 

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TRANSITION TIMES TWO
When FORSAKEN SHORE releases, it won’t arrive by itself as two transition regions; ROCKY THOROUGHFARE and DESPONDENT CRAG will also be joining the roster.

As of the current beta build; the coastal region ROCKY THOROUGHFARE serves as our connection between TLDev’s portion of the island and the rest of Great Bear. This is subject to change but for now; the broken bridge in Desolation Point has been repaired and venturing across it allows access to our content. ROCKY THOROUGHFARE has a few unique features such as the radio tower and lake cave, but at a baseline it is really an introduction for FORSAKEN SHORE. Keep your eyes ‘peeled’ for who the testers call ‘Potato Pete’.

The second transition region is titled DESPONDENT CRAG. It is situated high up in the mountains of FORSAKEN SHORE and later down the line will connect to a future region. It has no man made shelters and is split up between Descent and The Spine, both of which are visually distinct and should provide a fun challenge when travelling between regions. My advice; bring coffee and warm clothes.

Testers; DESPONDENT CRAG should be in your hands fairly soon as well as FORSAKEN SHORE Update 2 which brings a new birch area to the ‘High Shelf’ and a balancing patch. Stay tuned.


 

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ABOUT THAT MOUNTAIN
MOUNTAIN PASS. TLDev’s first region that has not seen the light of day yet is still currently on hiatus. It has not yet been fully restructured since the TFTFT update. Once that is all sorted out I will need to go back and revamp much of the design work as it is painfully outdated compared to what we are putting out now – but we still plan on releasing it down the line.

THE REAL MUSIC DEAL
If you haven't heard yet; we have our own soundtrack that comes alongside our project. Me and our composer Joeler worked together to package up his work creating a cohesive first volume. The entire album can now be streamed through Joeler’s Soundcloud page, if Soundcloud doesn't float your boat the original YouTube videos are still up just now with the fresh coat of paint.

TLDev OST Volume One -- Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/joeler-884171206/sets/tldevost
TLDev OST Volume One -- Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL25hw_Ncqb2YFOo0_kT9fvNyBiSZYUvju
 

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ROUND OF APPLAUSE
In complete transparency, TLDev’s 2022 (and a bit of 23) year had some large hurdles we had to overcome; between the release of TFTFT and TLDev’s previous programming stepping down. That being said, I would like to give special thanks to Dom (STBlade for anyone in the modding scene) who has taken on the programmer role and managed to tackle all the new problems that have sprung up over the last year. It has been such a pleasure to work alongside him and without his work this mod would not have been able to continue. On the technical side; the foundations of our project have been overhauled allowing for future regions to be built much quicker than we have done in the past (looking at you MOUNTAIN PASS) granted no new game updates uproot anything. This process will also be further accelerated by the onboarding of a second environmental artist sometime this year. More on that when it happens.

A reminder that due to the complex nature of this project; the TLDev team is not building tools for public release. This means; no, people will not be able to create their own regions. If you have any questions or just want more information you can come join the community over on our Discord Server.

The Long Development Discord Link:
https://discord.gg/EVspXHdQP9

We are heading towards year 4 of this project's development and that is insane to think about. Our team is still dedicated to getting these region's out to everyone, and I personally am excited to continue building away for years to come. Thanks for reading and sticking around for this long development. As always, stay tuned. - Kai

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Edited February 24 by KaiGamez
Spacing issue fixes.

[bascolais]

all that are very good news. congratulation for tenacity and involvment of all the team.

[yoli]

Fantastic project, great work! Looking forward to public release!

[hozz1235]

Excellent!  Thanks for the update!

[odizzido]

Looks pretty

[Dubstepbunnyglitch]

Woohoo! Looking forward to this!

 

[Tricky]

Are you guys considering some Patreon, or similar support? I would like to support you. Would this help in any way? Speed up the process.. And also, i am ready to pay for the new maps/regions. Otherwise i sould feel ashamed to get it for free :)

[Raphael van Lierop]

Super cool to see this development ongoing! Kudos to the mod team. ❤️

Quote

Are you guys considering some Patreon, or similar support? I would like to support you. Would this help in any way? Speed up the process.. And also, i am ready to pay for the new maps/regions. Otherwise i sould feel ashamed to get it for free 

No monetizing mods, please. Mods should be free.

If you want to get paid to make content for TLD, join the dev team.

[Lemonhartsour]

2 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Super cool to see this development ongoing! Kudos to the mod team. ❤️

No monetizing mods, please. Mods should be free.

If you want to get paid to make content for TLD, join the dev team.

Just wondering, and not to bother anybody here, but would a Patreon be allowed at all? Of course the mod would be free to install and use to its full ability, but if people want to support the devs or what have you, would that be allowed/legal? I don't really know anything about that kind of stuff so I am kind of curious.

[KaiGamez]

10 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Super cool to see this development ongoing! Kudos to the mod team. ❤️

No monetizing mods, please. Mods should be free.

If you want to get paid to make content for TLD, join the dev team.

Hey Raph, thanks for checking in. Super appreciate the kind words.

From this project's inception, we promised never to monetize our mod. It will remain free, now and forever.
However, we have made it a requirement to have purchased the TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY expansion before accessing our mod regions -- you are unable to start a save with our regions installed if you are missing the DLC content.

I would much rather encourage financial support to the Hinterland Devs that made all of this possible so that TLD content keeps on coming in the future.
Side note, if the TLD Dev Team ever needs an extra environmental artist -- count me in. 😄

[Raphael van Lierop]

5 hours ago, KaiGamez said:

Hey Raph, thanks for checking in. Super appreciate the kind words.

From this project's inception, we promised never to monetize our mod. It will remain free, now and forever.
However, we have made it a requirement to have purchased the TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY expansion before accessing our mod regions -- you are unable to start a save with our regions installed if you are missing the DLC content.

I would much rather encourage financial support to the Hinterland Devs that made all of this possible so that TLD content keeps on coming in the future.
Side note, if the TLD Dev Team ever needs an extra environmental artist -- count me in. 😄

We appreciate all that!

Re: needing more enviro artists -- you should send me a DM with your resume and info, and I will pass it on to the team. We have lots of work and are always on the lookout for good people.

 

[KaiGamez]

12 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

We appreciate all that!

Re: needing more enviro artists -- you should send me a DM with your resume and info, and I will pass it on to the team. We have lots of work and are always on the lookout for good people.

 

Sent. Thanks again.

[rush247]

On 4/27/2024 at 10:38 PM, BugReportEnthusiast said:

Now this is getting interesting 

Agreed, I hope them getting a job in Hinterland (if that actually happens) doesn't mean they have to stop working on it.  This is one mod I'd like to see be made "official" at some point.

Edited May 1 by rush247