Favourite TALES addition so far?

[Raphael van Lierop]

Curious to hear from you all. What is your favourite addition to the game brought through TALES so far? Could be one of the things added for free to the base game, or one of the TALES-only features or bits of content.

I'll go first:

First-Person Hand Coverings

Took so bloody long to get this working and we needed Unity to progress to a certain point that we could use some of the tech there to handle this properly given how our game data is handled, but when I first saw this working as a prototype I almost cried.

No judgement for people's choices, and don't attack other people for their choices, please. And no complaining, ok? This is meant to be a fun share.

[Leeanda]

For me it  just has to be the new maps themselves..  i love just exploring all the nooks and crannies ..   all the new loot is good too, i can never have too much 😁

[conanjaguar]

The new cooking system, even though I never get around to making any of the recipes 😁. It just feels right to know that I can use it if I want to...

[rush247]

The transponder caches and bunkers, who doesn't love searching for buried treasures, right?  Also the fact that it has to be done during an aurora adds just the right amount of excitement and danger.

 

Edit:  Also the new textures that show environmental changes for animal carcasses.  It's crazy how much more immersive it is to see frost on them after a while.

 

Edited April 23 by rush247

[ThePancakeLady]

I have to say- I like the travois (and associated increased Maple Saplings spawns)- mainly to give me a way to haul a big kill home or carry a lot of sticks and firewood back to base in one trip, provided the wolves aren't watching.

The new maps are amazing. Brutal, but amazing.

And of course- the new cooking and foods. (Pancakes!!!!)🥞🥞🥞🥞🥞

The Oak trees are a nice addition too, and I really like the new clothing items and the enhanced beachcombing- I never  was a fan of beachcombing before, but now I am all over it.

Not a *huge* fan of Scurvy, but don't hate it either. Still getting used to dealing with it after years of having the same basic playstyle and strategies. 

 

[purplebluegreen]

Ptarmigan, Oak trees and burdock, enhanced fishing, travois, hand coverings are my favorite. Thank you!

[Smellyfries]

Everything! Honestly the whole DLC has been amazing to play, and every feature added has really improved the game in my eyes!

Probably my favorite specific feature are the item variants. I love collecting things, and now that there are unique items placed out there in the world, it gives me a whole new reason to search every nook and Cranny in search of them! My favorite item variant is the:

Spoiler

Curator's Rifle

It's the first one I found, and really brought me excitement for the DLC and its future.

(Item Hidden in case other survivors don't want spoilers on the item variants)

 

Edited April 22 by Smellyfries

[ManicManiac]

I can't in good conscience narrow it down to just one thing.  
(Indeed, I have no doubt getting the hand coverings to show and play correctly must have been an absolute Herculean task... especially considering the condition variations over every particular one)

Frankly I really appreciate all the time and hard work that has gone into all the new features, items, and content.

While I have yet to mount a full expedition into the Far Territory... All the new items and features that have come along with each update have been wonderful to get to experiment with and see how they will continue to evolve my playstyle.

So far as I've been able to experiment and work with them, I'd say they have done a lot in terms of enriching an already very emergently complex gameplay experience... and quite frankly, I love it all the more.  After all the years I've been playing... it never feels stale or "old hat."  For the last 9 1/2 years or so now... this has been the game I play the most by a rather wide margin.   
 

Edited April 22 by ManicManiac

[stratvox]

I am very much liking the direction the new maps are going in, esp. wrt their complexity. The serious minimisation of loading screens is really great; it's nice to be able to look out the window to see what's going on. It would be fantastic to see that done to some of the older maps, so that we can look out the window from say the Farmhouse and see if the bear's coming down that path or not. I have finally gotten around to exploring ZoC this past week or two (my gaming time is being severely limited by personal and professional circs of late) and I have very much enjoyed goating around including finding myself extending myself too far along the cliff face near where the cave that goes to FA is located, which was a serious white-knuckler, worse even then some of the cliffs in AC.

The travois is a really sweet piece of kit, and from a gaming perspective is very well balanced I think. Really useful when hunting large game, somewhat useful when moving house from within a region (depending on local geography), and of limited usefulness when changing regions, depending on the intervening terrain, and that there is such a great variety of such is really great; for example, I tried using the travois to haul some forty kilos of gear from PV to BRM via Keeper's Pass, which, as it turned out, is not so great; I anticipated the multi-trip portage through the cave, but hadn't really considered that the travois would be useless for the vast majority of Keeper's Pass North, plus on the other side and as it turns out trying to do a multi-run through that river near the old substation is fraught with peril... and timberwolves. Really great gameplay (and yes, I died; not quite in harness but I think my body's less than a hundred meters from where I ditched the travois and tried to run).

I like the transponder stuff too. I think if you create another Tale though it might be all right to consider having it be almost more a case of disparate messages/mementos found that start to reveal their connectedness as more of them are found; once a critical mass is put together it can then push the player to the start position on following the breadcrumbs that lead to whatever they lead to, rather than using the transponder to guide the player. Make it a little vague and able to get muddled up in (ooh, I bet if I go *here* I can find this thing ... well hell, that was a big nope, where is it?) etc etc, though tbf my level of progress in buried echos is absolutely minimal; right now I'm just getting a handle on the place and want to figure out my ideal happy hunting grounds in ZoC before I take it on in earnest. I also think a combination of transponder plus also needing (and I mean really needing) to reason things out at different steps along the way can make for some great gameplay, and I sincerely hope we'll get to see this with more stuff in the future, maybe in TLD 2: The TLDening....

Not so fond of the glimmer fog; that's not so much about the affliction (which I think could actually be beefed up a bit; it's pretty inoffensive as those things go) as it is about the filthy filthy visibility.

Visually, I love the new regions, though I kind of miss what I call the Mystery Lake terrene, i.e. the old art style rocks found in Lower Great Bear. The gas mask's filter is awesome, and it just occurred to me that I've gotta try the Vintage effect with the Gas Mask on, just to check it out.

I do kind of think that with these very mountainous regions that are getting created, the game should be more willing to allow players to fall to their death, esp in regards to say for example crawling around on the promontory in BI... but of course that's not a TFTFT thing. If I'm crawling around a mountain precipice in a blizzard I think it should be pretty likely that I can blissfully walk off that hundred metre cliff because I just didn't realise that that edge was The Edge, whereas right now most of the time that's impossible because of barriers.

The mine infrastructure is top notch (ie concentrator, conveyer, head building, etc etc). I like that it looks like there are places that can become basically inaccessible once the air canisters are used up, and I also wonder if it might not be a crafting process to go from charcoal to using a can or pot and heavy hammer to make activated charcoal to being able to "recharge" air canisters for the mask, maybe using a special workbench for it in the mine that has the required tooling to work on the canisters or something to make it harder to make new canisters.

The hand coverings, carcass harvest animations, and so on are all a MASSIVE MASSIVE win for immersion; I was actually surprised by how much it mattered. 

I'm kind of hoping that you can end up wrapping up the game by maybe Christmas this year; I feel like you could quite possibly create an incredible experience with this game using Unreal 5 for TLD 2; no need to mess with the art style, textures, etc, but from what I can see about how unreal manages distant vistas and light that that alone could be a massive massive upgrade, though of course I have no idea what would be involved in trying to recreate the maps in a new engine. TLD 2 with the current world and an ongoing process of new region creation over time is definitely something I would pay money for.

While it would've been nice if the original schedule could've been closer (we're four months past its completion time and I kind of think we're supposed to get two more updates?) but overall I'm quite happy with it.

[Laika Ivanova]

My favourite addition has to be Frontier Cooking so far. I wish there would be ways to aquire flour and such from somewhere else (Trader perhaps?) but even without it's already great as is. I hope there will be more recipes in the other parts that are yet to come, I keep looking at that recycled can icon

[BugReportEnthusiast]

Hi again Raph

Well you've added a ton of cool stuff over time so I'll just make a tier list instead

S tier:

•  Hand coverings. Self explanatory, this is amazing. Also helps that rabbit gloves (my favourite pair) looks so damn good. 

A tier:

• Travois. It's extremely well made, with different sound effects and appearances depending on how heavy it is, plus it is extremely useful.
• Zone of Contamination's Mines. Exploring them for the first time was an amazing experience. 
• Beachcombing improvements. It's way more interesting now, every time a blizzard rolls by feels like looting a new region.
• Weapon and tool variants. Useful, interesting and brings more character to the world of great bear. Very welcome addition, I'd love to see more.
• Shortwave Radio. I love how it looks, and the fact that it can be used in all regions during auroras to unearth caches of loot or crashed planes makes it a lovely companion in longer games. Also, you can always use it to see if an aurora is starting up if you're in a cave or building, which is convenient. Love it.

B tier:

• Thermos. Very fitting, very useful. 
• Improvised Crampons. Solid and useful.
• First person harvesting animations. Very immersive, but they can get annoying when harvesting animals multiple times and not all at once
• Clothing variants. Some are great, some are meh, but it's a cool addition.
• Mementos. Solid, and encourages exploration. B tier.
• Acorns. Fitting and useful. They also make good decorations for a shelf.
• Ptarmigans. Fitting addition, and improvised insulation is extremely powerful.
• Glimmer Fog. Creative, and neat. But i don't like that it can roll in when the weather is perfectly clear without warning.

C tier:

• Burdock. Decently useful, but didn't have much of an impact
• Improved Fishing. Very interesting new system, but parts of it need to be fleshed out before it can really be great. 
• Enhanced cooking. It never really stuck with me, and i don't use it much apart from a few really good recipes like rose hip pies or prepper's pie.
• Rifle Holster. An OK reward, although not really all that useful.
• Gas Mask. While this item is incredibly well made, it is extremely sad that it's only applicable to a few areas in the game. 
  I really wish it was more like the radio, and had uses all over great bear island.
  It's truly a shame that it's not utilized more, because it's just so well made.
• Fire hardened arrows. A fine item, but limited in use

D tier

• Miner's clothing. While the kit looks great and is a cool memento to take home from the region, their stats make them identical to average clothes you'd find laying around, so there's not much point to wearing them.
• Miner's Toolbelt. Overall an uncreative reward for the Tale, which really doesn't do much for the survivor.

Edited April 22 by BugReportEnthusiast
typos, phrasing

[Beachcomber]

Beachcombing!

[BugReportEnthusiast]

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

For me it  just has to be the new maps themselves..  i love just exploring all the nooks and crannies ..   all the new loot is good too, i can never have too much 😁

Also yes, both of the new maps are very good. 

[Fuarian]

1 hour ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Curious to hear from you all. What is your favourite addition to the game brought through TALES so far? Could be one of the things added for free to the base game, or one of the TALES-only features or bits of content.

I'll go first:

First-Person Hand Coverings

Took so bloody long to get this working and we needed Unity to progress to a certain point that we could use some of the tech there to handle this properly given how our game data is handled, but when I first saw this working as a prototype I almost cried.

No judgement for people's choices, and don't attack other people for their choices, please. And no complaining, ok? This is meant to be a fun share.

The Travois and new regions. 

The Travois acts as a resource sink and has a relatively low durability so you sink even more resources to use it. By the time you need a travois you usually have a lot of the resources to make it and it's a great balancing tool. I wish we had more such things. I like my difficulty what can I say

And the new regions are great overall. In design and atmosphere and everything, they're much more developed and advanced in region design than earlier regions. I really hope the older regions get a terrain and overall design facelift to be more up to par with newer regions; for the sake of visual consistency. Oh and their unique music tracks add to it too. 

[Laika Ivanova]

2 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

Beachcombing!

Oh, how did I forget! Yeah ngl the Beachcombing is also right on top with Frontier Cooking. I got so used to the new beachcombing that I forgot that it was just refreshed in the Expansion Pass.

[Raphael van Lierop]

Me: What's your favourite thing we've added in TALES?

You: [writes several paragraphs outlining pros/cons, design suggestions, etc. etc. Also ensures to get at least one comment in about things being slow/delayed.]

 

Ah this community. I wouldn't have it any other way. 😅

[BugReportEnthusiast]

11 minutes ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Me: What's your favourite thing we've added in TALES?

You: [writes several paragraphs outlining pros/cons, design suggestions, etc. etc. Also ensures to get at least one comment in about things being slow/delayed.]

 

Ah this community. I wouldn't have it any other way. 😅

You said you were curious about our replies so i wasn't gonna waste this opportunity 😆

If I had to pick 1 thing it would be hand coverings.
When i saw the previews in the dev diary i was completely shocked and full of excitement, because all i could think was:

"There is no way hinterland actually spent so much time and effort on hand coverings, when they already have so much other stuff to deal with!"

But you did.
And It was clear that this was created out of love for your game. It wasn't on the roadmap, you made no mention of it anywhere, you didn't have to make it, and you already had tons of other things that required your attention. But, you did it anyway. 

And that's why it's my favorite feature so far ❤️ 

Edited April 22 by BugReportEnthusiast

[Soldat-Cookie76]

There are 3 things that I really like: The cooking, the travois and the new regions. PS : I'am french

[PilgrimReaper]

If I have to pick one it'll be the cooking.

Close seconds: the variants, ptarmigans, and beachcombing.

[Sebastian1992]

I really love the story to the tales, the gameplay with the transmitter when you finally reach this preppercache, is so much motivation! The story himself, the darkness sound, the voice actors (,,The water, bittercold''), the atmosphere in the mine and of course rüdigers machine, so much love to details! You and Hinterland have so great work accomplished indeed and I never seen this in other games!

The travois is also cool, we can now so much meat transport, maybe a full bear or moose with decent walking speed and the grinding marks in the snow (hello again love to detail😅) is my highlight in part 4!

And yeah, finally cloves to the hands I love it, cheers with acorncoffee  and rose hip pie 💓

[Pyroxene]

 

Spoiler

That would be the airfield. And the cabins in the Zone of Contamination

Spoiler

 

 

[ThePancakeLady]

Did I mention- Pancakes???

I know I mentioned them before, but the *one* *specific* *favorite* *thing*:

🥞🥞🥞🥞🥞

That is all. 

[hozz1235]

Since you asked for one:  New maps.

[chrislacruz]

We really enjoyed the feel of the Tale, the journey to the bunkers and the strange notes you find.

Cooking is great! 

[ArchimedesLP]

Tip-ups! Setting up a few and then cooking/crafting/sewing/harvesting/sleeping while periodically pulling in fish is so cozy. Feels much more "active" and engaging than the original/default fishing system