Part Six -- Cultivating Expectations around the Trader

[SafeAgain]

How do you expect, hope, or wish the Trader would or could work in Part Six?

It doesn't seem like Raph will bless us by telling us how it will work before the update, so might as well start a discussion thread about it

So, what do you think?

[Just some guy being a dude]

I kind of hope its a thing where you odd jobs for the trader like clear all the wolves from an area so i can go there and ill drop off a moose hide while im there.

[PilgrimReaper]

I wish we had to exchange nudes taken with the new camera system for rare items, but understand why that wouldn't be the case. 😅

I hope we'll be able to obtain much needed items for a steep price, particularly for the late game (dusting sulfur is something I really need on my main run).

I expect that we'll all be surprised and excited!

[thekillergreece]

I was hoping Raph would post this thread with such title.

[Leeanda]

Maybe there's not too much to tell 😊. Spoilers lol..

[The Feng Hunter]

Honestly, I have two big hopes for the Trader:

1. be able to barter for Dry Ingredients;

2. the Trader could provide information for how to unlock specific areas of DLC content until your Survivor managed to build a second transition region, little by little, back to Lower Great Bear.

The first of these two has a high probability of coming true; the second — while technically possible with all of the progress they’ve made during the DLC — may be a bit much … but it’s a wish.  

Edited November 25 by The Feng Hunter
Tense issue

[nautofon]

The trader can have all my tinder and water purification tablets. Very excited to see what kind of fair deal the trader will offer me for that stuff.

[Just some guy being a dude]

Just had a thought but what if the trader was somehow connected to the tales? Maybe then we could get more details about what was going on.

[SafeAgain]

3 hours ago, Just some guy being a dude said:

Just had a thought but what if the trader was somehow connected to the tales? Maybe then we could get more details about what was going on.

Personally i think they're just a guy that happened to survive the wilderness, same as we.

I wonder where they live though. If they were doing stuff in the regions we frequent, we would see his activity - looted containers, burnt out fires, bases, etc.

But of course, this cannot exist, so i wonder what the justification will be for it / where the trader is actually living. Maybe past DPs bridge, or past BIs road, or past SP's mountain road, or past MTs road.... you get the point

[nautofon]

The trader isn't a free update, so it'd be most logical for them to appear only in the Far Territories.

If it's bound to specific locations, that is. It might not be.

[snowmeow]

I'm looking forward to the Trader. I also predict his 'shop' will turn up in the FT too, perhaps in Transfer Pass?

I expect he will trade for food ingredients, but hope he will also trade for ammo or stuff to make ammo. For example, 1 bear hide to trade for a couple of dusting sulphur.

[Leeanda]

I need whetstones ... Even after 1000+ days it's the only thing I'm really low on..  

Maybe he lives in the parts of the  mines that are blocked off to us  ,or on those islands just out of our reach.

[AdamvR]

my guesses:
If I do not want the solitude of GB be impacted, I'd expect the trader to be someone who is visiting the shoreline, from time to time.
Thereby not in FT, but rather in CH, maybe BI or DP. 
Also, if we'd avoid it to be an NPC, it could instead be a stand/case on the shoreline, with a pricelist, and a notebook or similar to write your requests.
You would need to add your payment to the case, and after a while would be able to collect what you asked for.

Raph repeatedly mentioned that you'd get what you ask for "for a price" - which makes me believe it won't be the place to offload our spray cans, but rather rarer or costlier items. I can imagine the non-renewable wires/fuses/batteries or rarer skins (bear, moose, cougar...) to be accepted as payment (wolf skins are waay too common I think).
Information in the form of background story of the island would definitely be something I'd find worthwhile. (hints on where is what is less valuable for me I think, as rarely do I find areas that are new to me...) Also, the non-renewable cooking ingredients or ammo/gunpowder/emergency stim could be interesting to trade for.
Curious about how it would manifest in the game... hopefully just a few more weeks to find out...

Edited November 27 by AdamvR

[SafeAgain]

20 minutes ago, AdamvR said:

my guesses:
If I do not want the solitude of GB be impacted, I'd expect the trader to be someone who is visiting the shoreline, from time to time.
Thereby not in FT, but rather in CH, maybe BI or DP.

My expectation was that he'd be coming and going from Sundered Pass. It might be impractical in gameplay, but i feel like it would have been cool.

Remote from the rest of the island, probably leads into some place where resources are scarcer and thus he wants our help with that.

I agree about the whole note and box method of trading with him, i also wish we don't actually see him as an NPC sitting somewhere.

[The Feng Hunter]

2 hours ago, AdamvR said:

non-renewable wires

Wires are renewable via Beachcombing.

[AdamvR]

1 hour ago, The Feng Hunter said:

Wires are renewable via Beachcombing.

thanks for the clarification!
I have not personally met wires during beach combing, but trust you on this.

[SafeAgain]

3 hours ago, AdamvR said:

thanks for the clarification!
I have not personally met wires during beach combing, but trust you on this.

There are a few renewability / eternal survival obsessed people who have done multiple hundreds of beachcmbing runs and documented their findings on the wiki

You can find pretty insanely detailed lists of potential item spawns along with percentages there.

[The Feng Hunter]

4 hours ago, AdamvR said:

thanks for the clarification!

You’re welcome!

I’ve found I receive Wires more often in Bleak Inlet, for instance, than any other region — a direct inverse to the type of boat you may find: canoes, only in the Inlet.

Granted, this is my personal anecdotal experience, but it’s there nonetheless!

Still, those coveted Fishing Boats make it WORTHWHILE to go scampering about the ice in Crumbling Highway and Desolation Point… I once pulled a Fresh Coho Salmon off of a Fishing Boat; it weighed in at a whopping 9.5kg!

Edited November 27 by The Feng Hunter
Clarity

[AdamvR]

so it will be a physical presence... - but in a good way 😉 
and it is coming next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-----------------------

Shacknews: The Trader is a fascinating addition to The Long Dark. Will this person be a physical presence in the game world or strictly a voice on the radio? Any hints on some of the new items exclusively available through the Trader?

Raphael: The Trader is the first other human presence that players will encounter in Survival Mode so we've approached this very cautiously, knowing it will feel a bit shocking for some of our long-time fans. We went through a lot of different versions of the Trader, the mechanics around it, their backstory and how they would interact with the player, and settled on something I'm really happy with and I think our players will appreciate. It was a tough balance to make the Trader feel like they inhabit the world, without making them too in your face, or like they are somehow encroaching on your solitude. The approach we settled on has the Trader feeling very much a part of the world, a natural part of the IP, and we're excited to see how players feel about developing a relationship with the Trader over time. 

In terms of the Trade items, it's a mix of existing rare items but also several new items that can only be obtained through the Trader, including different foods, ingredients, and even some new tools. As you build Trust with the Trader, you'll gain access to a deeper story with them that will help you learn a bit more about Great Bear Island and some of their own story from before the First Flare. They may eventually ask you to help them out with specific tasks that have greater rewards attached. We think the system offers a good blend of mechanics and narrative, building on lessons we learned creating the three Tales.

-----------------------

source: https://www.shacknews.com/article/142391/the-long-dark-raphael-van-lierop-interview-2024

[Nervous Pete]

Oooh, thanks for sharing that AdamvR! That's quite exciting stuff. There's some stuff in there about photo mode I didn't know about too, which is pretty exciting!

It's fun trying to guess what the trader will be. The way I'd approach the difficulty of having another living human on the island and yet preserving the sense of a solitary experience shared only with nature would be to lean into making the trader feel outside of society and part of the embodiment of the island him or herself. A trapper figure is part way to that, but my mind keeps going back to that wonderfully strange bit in the Coen Brothers 'True Grit' where the 'Bear Man' steps out of the dark woods and trades information with Rooster Cogburn. Somewhat approrpiately he is wearing a bearskin and gives the impression of having been too long alone in the woods, so long that he has become part of them. So perhaps the neatest way to address the fears of another character breaking on the solitary experience is to make that other character almost like a future vision of the player themselves, a vision of what it is to truly have survived for too long on the island, a vision that can be respected, admired and perhaps pitied. A character akin to the 'Bear Man' would fit in with that.

I'm really pleased to hear from the extract above that a lot of thought has gone into the character and the impact the new mechanic has. Having the trader be a further vehicle for story telling and the uncovering of mysteries is also a great idea, a sort of mini-tale in him or herself  to go alongside the main Buried Echoes. 

Consider my hype mildly ratcheted up in a pleasing manner. Whatever guise the trader shows up in it sounds like Hinterland have put a lot of thought and effort into it, and I'm very excited to see how exactly it manifests, even if my guesses prove hilariously wide of the mark.

[The Feng Hunter]

9 hours ago, Nervous Pete said:

The way I'd approach the difficulty of having another living human on the island

There will be 90km/sq of exploitable territory at the end of Tales; 100km/sq upon release of Wintermute. The latter is the land area of Paris. 

and that’s just the EXPLORABLE area of Great Bear. We know, via Raph, Great Bear is much bigger than the playable area.

Imagine attempting to find a single human being in the space the cumulative size of Paris despite Blizzards, crushing cold, and incessant animal attacks. That same person would be facing the exact same pressures as you. 

It’s definitely quite EASY to imagine this scenario, tbh, because of alllllll the tiny spaces a person can hide on Great Bear — and all of the hints of life we’ve gotten over time: the Signal Fire, the 100% fresh fish and meat in the fridges, fishing boats with fresh fish in the coolers.

Meeting someone else almost feels inevitable … IF you live long enough.

[AdamvR]

On 11/27/2024 at 1:03 PM, AdamvR said:

my guesses:
If I do not want the solitude of GB be impacted, I'd expect the trader to be someone who is visiting the shoreline, from time to time.
Thereby not in FT, but rather in CH, maybe BI or DP. 
Also, if we'd avoid it to be an NPC, it could instead be a stand/case on the shoreline, with a pricelist, and a notebook or similar to write your requests.
You would need to add your payment to the case, and after a while would be able to collect what you asked for.

Raph repeatedly mentioned that you'd get what you ask for "for a price" - which makes me believe it won't be the place to offload our spray cans, but rather rarer or costlier items. I can imagine the non-renewable wires/fuses/batteries or rarer skins (bear, moose, cougar...) to be accepted as payment (wolf skins are waay too common I think).
Information in the form of background story of the island would definitely be something I'd find worthwhile. (hints on where is what is less valuable for me I think, as rarely do I find areas that are new to me...) Also, the non-renewable cooking ingredients or ammo/gunpowder/emergency stim could be interesting to trade for.
Curious about how it would manifest in the game... hopefully just a few more weeks to find out...

pretty close guess, ain't it...;-)

[xanna]

14 hours ago, AdamvR said:

pretty close guess, ain't it...;-)

Impressively psychic! 🏆