Rope Bag

[The Feng Hunter]

The Rope Bag is a critical piece of climbing technology used during multiday expeditions. In The Long Dark, it would be equipped in an Accessory Slot and grant the following:

”Rope Bag. 0.5kg. Made of durable heavy waxed canvas, the Rope Bag, while equipped, lightens the load of Mountaineering Ropes. The Rope Bag can hold 3 Mountaineering Ropes total.”

Thus, if you wanted to make a multiday pitch through somewhere, you could take up to 3 Ropes — normally 15kg, but now 7.5kg. Additional Ropes would revert to the original 5kg weight.

As this would be an exceptionally niche item, it should have an exceptionally potent effect. In that vein, the tradeoff will likely come at the expense of warmth and overall carry weight, upping the risk factor from Cold & Wind even more.

Repairable with 2 Cloth.

[Cyclone35]

It would be kinda weird realistically for someone to hold all those ropes. I never really found a need to carry around a heavy rope in my playthrough unless I was required to open a path forward. Plus the travois sorta counteracts the need to carry heavy cargo on your character without suffering a weight limit penalty.

What if instead of a bag for carrying ropes, how about a harness the player can wear as a accessory. The benefit is the player would hook themselves up to the rope, allowing them to hang on the rope without loosing stamina (only when your climbing/descending does the stamina meter depletes). In addition, the amount of fatigue you lose from climbing a rope is reduce by 30% (2 bars instead of 3). That way it doesn't feel like such a waste of fatigue to climb a rope.

[The Feng Hunter]

At some point, Hinterland will stop developing maps … which means riskier maps may be developed by modders. I’d like to have advantages to get ahead of the curve. 

Plus, the Travois cannot be taken into Caves. So, if you’re doing a multi day pitch and the entire climb is underground, then a Travois cannot be used at all and going back and forth for multiple Ropes is not pragmatic. 

If The Long Dark wishes to continue further down the spelunking route — and I HOPE it does! — then it follows that specialized equipment should be added to the core game to accommodate spelunking.

As the Trader will be someone whose core function is to offer unique gameplay items, I am posting my wish list item HERE, in the wish list forum.

Belays are fine, but their purpose is FAR different in the long run than hauling around rope. I know this because I work with rope for a living. 😂

[ThePancakeLady]

12 minutes ago, The Feng Hunter said:

At some point, Hinterland will stop developing maps … which means riskier maps may be developed by modders. I’d like to have advantages to get ahead of the curve. 

Plus, the Travois cannot be taken into Caves. So, if you’re doing a multi day pitch and the entire climb is underground, then a Travois cannot be used at all and going back and forth for multiple Ropes is not pragmatic. 

If The Long Dark wishes to continue further down the spelunking route — and I HOPE it does! — then it follows that specialized equipment should be added to the core game to accommodate spelunking.

As the Trader will be someone whose core function is to offer unique gameplay items, I am posting my wish list item HERE, in the wish list forum.

Belays are fine, but their purpose is FAR different in the long run than hauling around rope. I know this because I work with rope for a living. 😂

Climbing and "spelunking" (caving) are two different things, and use very different equipment. If modders start creating maps that require you to carry so much rope that you need rope bags to rig the climbs, they can also introduce the rope bag into the mod. Why should HL spend their time and effort adding new equipment that isn't needed in their vanilla game? If it's needed for a modded game- modders can add it. If they develop maps with extensive cave systems that require specialized caving equipment like Joe Brown helmets and carbide lamps- they can mod those in too.

And on a personal note- I hate that the words "spelunking" and "caving" are used interchangeably by so many people. I was a caver for decades, a member of the NSS and NCRC (National Cave Rescue Commission) for decades. Many members of the NSS and NCRC have a favorite saying- "Cavers rescue spelunkers". We also tended to cringe at people who think the ropes climbers use are the same kind of ropes that cavers use, and that climbers and cavers use the same types of equipment- some can be used between the two, other equipment cannot be used interchangeably- unless you want the rescue teams to have to come out and save you/recover your body after it fails.

"Getting ahead of the curve" for anticipated mods is something that you need to take up with the modders who might be making them, not Hinterland. And when you say "Belays are fine"- are you talking about top belays, bottom belays, (both of which need a second person to do the belaying) or self belays (body belays)?

[Lexilogo]

...Not to bang on my own drum too much, but you'd need to carry 2 mountaineering ropes just for this carry weight benefit to equal what the Moose Hide Satchel does 24/7...

Anyway, I do get the idea, Mountaineering Ropes being so heavy can be annoying if you're exploring a map you're not super familiar with. However, I still have a few issues:

• Crampons are already a dedicated accessory slot to making climbing rope easier (and a few other things too)
• IMO it's frustrating & immersion breaking to find a giant canvas bag that can only help you carry rope specifically? The tool belt & holster make sense for why they only affect certain items, but this doesn't
• This accessory has an expiration date, once you're done placing rope it's useless. This isn't as serious a problem as the other things, lots of TLD clothing also has an expiration date of usefulness, but I think it narrows the use case even more, placing rope is a fairly niche use and doesn't take that long in individual regions, especially if the places that need rope have it close by already and most regions only have a single place that needs rope IIRC.

[The Feng Hunter]

16 hours ago, ThePancakeLady said:

Climbing and "spelunking" (caving) are two different things, and use very different equipment. If modders start creating maps that require you to carry so much rope that you need rope bags to rig the climbs, they can also introduce the rope bag into the mod. Why should HL spend their time and effort adding new equipment that isn't needed in their vanilla game? If it's needed for a modded game- modders can add it. If they develop maps with extensive cave systems that require specialized caving equipment like Joe Brown helmets and carbide lamps- they can mod those in too.

And on a personal note- I hate that the words "spelunking" and "caving" are used interchangeably by so many people. I was a caver for decades, a member of the NSS and NCRC (National Cave Rescue Commission) for decades. Many members of the NSS and NCRC have a favorite saying- "Cavers rescue spelunkers". We also tended to cringe at people who think the ropes climbers use are the same kind of ropes that cavers use, and that climbers and cavers use the same types of equipment- some can be used between the two, other equipment cannot be used interchangeably- unless you want the rescue teams to have to come out and save you/recover your body after it fails.

"Getting ahead of the curve" for anticipated mods is something that you need to take up with the modders who might be making them, not Hinterland. And when you say "Belays are fine"- are you talking about top belays, bottom belays, (both of which need a second person to do the belaying) or self belays (body belays)?

The belays about which the respondent had been posting: hanging belays (like a resting point, midclimb).

Normally I avoid using terms interchangeably on casual forums, so you caught me here. That’s correct, and I apologize.

Cave climbing — as we have seen in three instances such as Ash Canyon, Langston Mine, and Far Territory Hub Cave — could be a potential game changer in terms of map building. It’d be lovely to have massive cave systems built, and be able to explore them. 

7 hours ago, Lexilogo said:

This accessory has an expiration date, once you're done placing rope it's useless.

To some point, this poster is correct … unless the map maker doesn’t supply new Rope, thus necessitating you to choose which ones to take from around Great Bear Island. Therefore, you would need to choose: pick them up when leaving the Cave System, or leave them behind for the sake of convenience.

If more mapmakers go the direction of making Rope a scarce item, then I am fairly certain you can already see the benefit of having such an Accessory.