May 2024 Developer Diary

[mintietcatm]

26 minutes ago, TWMountain said:

 

I think we should watch this data. This screenshot is from steamdb. We can see that it has some macOS DLC and Windows DLC upadte 50 minutes ago. I think we almost there. That means they are uploading some data to DLC or survival mode. I am prety sure we can get the 5th update in this week. What do you think about that? 

I'm so excited i hope we get it soon 😬😬😬

[Pyroxene]

I'm going to take a cup of tea if I can...

[mintietcatm]

4 minutes ago, Pyroxene said:

I'm going to take a cup of tea if I can...

i keep refreshing the page hoping to see the update lol  

[dominik89]

2 hours ago, mintietcatm said:

I'm so excited i hope we get it soon 😬😬😬

We would love to see the new update tonight, but I hope we will get a good update tomorrow.

[Leeanda]

Now we can book a babysitter and day off work😁

[rush247]

On 5/13/2024 at 2:49 PM, Raphael van Lierop said:

Re: Cheat Death -- you always have the choice to not use it. That's part of what makes it work. It's a faustian bargain and you are fighting with yourself.

I don't know if anyone else has brought this up, but I fear you may cause a repeat of the incident that made you put Tales in Interloper here. 😬

Edited June 19 by rush247

[Raphael van Lierop]

6 hours ago, rush247 said:

I don't know if anyone else has brought this up, but I fear you may cause a repeat of the incident that made you put Tales in Interloper here. 😬

Someone's always yelling at us about something. If my main concern was avoiding being yelled at, I wouldn't be making video games, certainly not in front of a large audience. 😅

[ManicManiac]

In terms of negativity on the internet (Steam, Reddit, or wherever):

Yeah... I think there will always be folks who will feel the need to "impotently scream into the void."
Ultimately though, I feel it's mostly just "sound and fury... signifying nothing."

I think that some folks are never satisfied... will never be satisfied... and will always look for any reason (real or imagined) to try and spread the vitriol that seems to have consumed their heart and mind.  

I'd posit that even if those particular folks got precisely what they want, they wouldn't suddenly be thankful or supportive... they would likely just make up their next reason to continue being upset.  I think some folks are pathological that way.  There seems to be folks just absolutely addicted to conflict, strife, and drama.

I feel like It's very much a "If you give a mouse a cookie," type of situation.

Anyway, that's all the energy I'm willing to put into that subject.
Back to feeling the great about the upcoming release.  

Edited June 19 by ManicManiac

[rush247]

@Raphael van Lierop, all I'm saying is prepare your team to make a way to shut it off, basically make it like the cougar, an off switch at the beginning of any game and when you start up your current one.  It'll be the only way to appease them.  At least for a little while.

 

EDIT:

Just to be clear this is a suggestion.  If you want to keep it the way it is that's fine, it doesn't affect me.  I'm just warning you about how others might behave.

Edited June 19 by rush247

[Eli]

Weiß man schon das genaue veröffentlichungs Datum?🤔

Edited June 19 by Eli

[ManicManiac]

@Eli

Yes...

[Looper]

2 hours ago, rush247 said:

@Raphael van Lierop, all I'm saying is prepare your team to make a way to shut it off, basically make it like the cougar, an off switch at the beginning of any game and when you start up your current one.  It'll be the only way to appease them.  At least for a little while.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the issue but is the choice not to use "cheat death" basicly and off switch? 🙂 From my perspective it will not kill me my mood to choose not to use it (only my character :)) 

[ManicManiac]

@rush247
Seems a bit presumptuous to be telling Hinterland what to do.
 

[this part is not directed at anyone, and meant for all readers]
Honestly, cheat death is purely optional to start with.  
If there are any folks who find they don't like it... all they have to do is choose not to do it.  

Edited June 19 by ManicManiac

[rush247]

3 hours ago, Looper said:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the issue but is the choice not to use "cheat death" basicly and off switch? 🙂 From my perspective it will not kill me my mood to choose not to use it (only my character :)) 

Thing is some people don't want to have the temptation to use it and/or would rather not have it active in the game at all cause it takes away from experience somehow.  And I'm just saying they might be very vocal about it, some are already, I've seen them on reddit and other places.

 

@ManicManiac Duely noted, added in an edit explaining that it's just a suggestion.

Edited June 19 by rush247

[Raphael van Lierop]

14 hours ago, rush247 said:

 

Just to be clear this is a suggestion.  If you want to keep it the way it is that's fine, it doesn't affect me.  I'm just warning you about how others might behave.

We've been doing this for a long time. We're well aware.

[Leeanda]

People should at least try something before criticising it..  they might actually like it..

Besides if you try enough you might even forget it's there...  

[Raphael van Lierop]

I appreciate what @rush247 is trying to do, warning us about a perceived issue or possible topic that will blow up against us (Hinterland). It's not like these things don't happen, and as noted we've experienced them before.

In a perfect world people would recognize our reasons for doing things a certain way, and also know that we generally a pretty open (over time...) to modifying the experience in ways that give as many of our players as much of the full experience of TLD as we can, all things considered (ex. personal tastes around challenge or the lack thereof). So the initial reaction to something they didn't like would be "hmmm...not the decision I would have made but I see why they chose that. But I really hope they consider changing that in the future for X reason", and then we can kind of have a reasonable dialogue around it.

What tends to happen instead is, even reasonable people get caught up in the mob mentality and the heat of the moment and kind of come after us and try to use pressure tactics to get us to change something they feel mad about. It "all comes from a place of passion and love for the game" then kind of gets used to excuse a lot of bad behaviour. And then if I call it out, often to protect or defend my team, that tends to make them angrier, makes things worse, I get called out personally in often very hostile/harmful ways, and the whole thing just lays like such a heavy bummer on what otherwise should be something we are all (us, as the developers, and you, as the players) are focused on enjoying and celebrating (hey, we just added new stuff to the game we both love!).

There's also a thing where new stuff can automatically feel jarring in a way that is uncomfortable, and so the reaction is to dislike it and want to revert it. There's a fear of losing something you loved in the past. All the requests to make things optional ("hey, just make ___ optional and everyone will be happy!"), come from this place. But at the end of the day we're making an experience for you and we have a specific idea of how we'd like it to work, and sometimes we want to try things out and we want you to come along with us for the ride and just experience new things in new ways, and if we realize they were bad ideas -- which we can only really know by trying them out (you and us, no matter how much armchair analysis there is about what a feature will be like before you can actually play with it), we tend to fix them or change them.

Anyways, if I seemed flippant about the "warning", I guess that's why. We can't make a game in fear of what people who don't like our decisions will do in response to that. I've seen it happen to other teams/studios where they just get paralyzed and every update becomes this horribly anxious thing where you are always just waiting for people to come at you about something. This is one of the main reasons I try to keep my team insulated from community sentiment. We read notes and feedback about features and stuff, but really try to filter out a lot of the hostility, because it really doesn't make our work any better, and we try to just focus on the players who are here to enjoy TLD in a way that doesn't take other people's enjoyment away.

Let's see what Monday brings! I'm sure it will be interesting, either way. 😅

[Leeanda]

I meant no disrespect in my last part in my comment..    I just meant it in the same way as you would by just not picking up a certain item .like 1% sardines.... I know I forget where I put things something's and I never see it again😁.     

I believe that after all the changes I have seen in the last five years that not one single thing has changed how I feel about the game or the feel of the game itself.. Everything fits in perfectly ...

And yes there is one thing I don't like but regardless I wouldn't demand it be changed.. it's kind of like family , it belongs but occasionally it makes you want to tear your hair out... 

I trust you and the team  will always do what is right for the game ..

 

 

Edited June 21 by Leeanda

[stratvox]

47 minutes ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Let's see what Monday brings! I'm sure it will be interesting, either way. 😅

I'm very much looking forward to it, both blowing off part of the afternoon watching the intro video and blathering here rather than on the company slack, and in the evening when I'll put aside the new baby (Pacific Drive; just got it a week or so back and damn it's good) and fire up my run. I've been desultorily poking along down on the coast getting my latest run up to bow five etc before heading on out to the far territories; it'll be tremendous fun to take this new guy up there and immediately jump into the mountains.

[Max21]

There are many things or mechanics in the game that few people take advantage of not because they are bad. They don't use some things because they are (not properly designed) or don't work properly. Like the Rock Cache. It takes 50 stones to create it. Some players want a storage box, but collecting 50 stones is too hard. So they give up on this mechanic. Or for example a flashlight. It weighs more than 1 kg. It only works during aurora. A lot of people don't use it because it's too much weight in their backpack. Or they don't travel in the northern lights. There's a lot of stuff like that. Moose-Hide Cloak. Spray paint. Ballistic Vest, Ski Boots, etc. 

Again, the items are used by a small number of players because of the misconfigured functionality.

 

Edited June 20 by Max21

[K3V038]

2 minutes ago, Max21 said:

There are many things or mechanics in the game that few people take advantage of not because they are bad. They don't use some things because they are (not properly designed) or don't work properly. Like the stone stash. It takes 50 stones to create it. Some players want a storage box, but collecting 50 stones is too hard. So they give up on this mechanic. Or for example a flashlight. It weighs more than 1 kg. It only works during aurora. A lot of people don't use it because it's too much weight in their backpack. Or they don't travel in the northern lights. There's a lot of stuff like that. Moose-Hide Cloak. Spray paint. Ballistic Vest, etc. 

Again, the items are used by a small number of players because of the misconfigured functionality.

 

Great point. I never really find myself using these mechanics too often. I can count the ammount of times I used a spray paint can or put up a rock cache on the fingers of my left hand... And I only have four of those. I Wear the moose cloak though, its tough and weather resiliant, maybe not as warm as other end game coats, but the prior benefits are a big plus for my playstyle. Same as the ballistic vest, other then on interloper its pretty much useless, players only really use it on bear hunts or moose hunts, and not even all the time... its a good concept, but its way too heavy to be useful. Great points you made there

[chrislacruz]

I’m not sure they are badly designed, they are just a choice. The ballistic vest is heavy, so you make a choice, the flashlight works during aurora, you make a choice.

 

The alternative would seem to me a bunch of items which only have upsides, so the choices we all make in TLD about what we take where, would be largely removed and, at least for me, the game would be poorer for it.

 

Real life is a constant balance between what we can afford, what is practical, what is offered etc

 

So I really wouldn’t change a thing tbh! 

[Leeanda]

19 minutes ago, stratvox said:

I'm very much looking forward to it, both blowing off part of the afternoon watching the intro video and blathering here rather than on the company slack, and in the evening when I'll put aside the new baby (Pacific Drive; just got it a week or so back and damn it's good) and fire up my run. I've been desultorily poking along down on the coast getting my latest run up to bow five etc before heading on out to the far territories; it'll be tremendous fun to take this new guy up there and immediately jump into the mountains.

After having a good look round the new map I'll be jumping off the mountains lol... Twice😁

[Max21]

7 minutes ago, chrislacruz said:

I’m not sure they are badly designed, they are just a choice. The ballistic vest is heavy, so you make a choice, the flashlight works during aurora, you make a choice.

 

The alternative would seem to me a bunch of items which only have upsides, so the choices we all make in TLD about what we take where, would be largely removed and, at least for me, the game would be poorer for it.

 

Real life is a constant balance between what we can afford, what is practical, what is offered etc

 

So I really wouldn’t change a thing tbh! 

Meaning a large number of players make the choice not to use a lot of things in the game. What's the point of adding things that most players won't use? For contrast? That's a weird idea. You could add common items and items that require complex blueprints to create (but they give more benefits). It would be an interesting contrast. Add items that many players will ignore.... I think it's a weird idea.

[Max21]

There's also the problem of lack of motivation and lack of reward for achieving a goal. For example, I climb to the top of the Timberwolf Mountain and get a lot of useful items as a reward. It's a difficult location. I went the hard way and got the reward. But for example in the Blackrock location I can go to the very end of the location, fight with wolves, get caught in a blizzard, eat a lot of food and at the end I will find nothing. And next time I won't go there. Difficult locations should reward the player for the difficulty.

You may not agree with my opinion. About motivation and items in the game. But I made such conclusions based on communication with my subscribers during live broadcasts and based on surveys.

I was just sharing an opinion. My posts are not negative. They are just observations and opinions of people collected over 7 years ✌️✌️✌️

Edited June 20 by Max21