Things to do in your Downtime in game

[EatenByWolves]

With the addition of curing guts and hides, I find myself being house bound more often than I would like, so that being said...

I kinda wish there was some way to kill time during daylight hours that benefited me in game... heck, i'd take a deck of cards to play solitaire, I would also love if i could have a "clean interior" option. Often in game buildings are in shambles, i just wish I could make proper use of the things in the buildings like the farm house.... poor old bush pilot has never sat down in his life it seems. Interacting more with objects would be a great way to spend my downtime. Seeing as going outside tends to ruin your clothes durability so quickly, you do tend to reach a point where it is smarter to stay inside until your cured items can be used to repair and craft so you can go outside again and start the cycle over.

Direct suggestions:

Implement interior renovating options to add features in specialty buildings. examples "fix plumbing (though it might be a bit too valuable, so i could understand leaving it out)" farm house now has replenishable water in toilets cost 10 scrap metal + 20 hours. Repair Furniture- objects in the house can now be sat in to slightly decrease fatigue while repairing or harvesting items cost 10 cloth and 10 fir wood + 15 hours. maybe the kitchen table has a deck of cards you can sit down and play with. this could be applied to buildings all across The Long Dark.

I would like something to allow me to be productive without having to leave the house, because sometimes, you just need to stay put and wait for things to cure so you can keep your gear in usable condition. nothing is worse than losing 25-40% durability because you got caught out in a storm.

any other suggestions would be good to hear as well.

I simply feel building interiors could use some "love"

[octavian]

any other suggestions would be good to hear as well.

I'll just copy-paste what I've said before :roll: An instant camera, a vintage handheld Tetris game, a Rubik's cube or a typewriter, a HUD-less toy to break routine with by choice and pass time.

[EatenByWolves]

any other suggestions would be good to hear as well.

I'll just copy-paste what I've said before :roll: An instant camera, a vintage handheld Tetris game, a Rubik's cube or a typewriter, a HUD-less toy to break routine with by choice and pass time.

those are some good ideas. I also like the idea of taking parts from car radios to do something with... not sure yet, but i like the idea of tinkering. I feel like to expand the "end game" it would be wise to invest more features into where most people end up... in a house killing time, only to venture out to restock on supplies when needed.

[octavian]

I feel like to expand the "end game" it would be wise to invest more features into where most people end up... in a house killing time, only to venture out to restock on supplies when needed.

They're working on "pretty big [sic]" changes to deal with hibernation and we don't know what they'll be neither how big so before we see them any discussion on gameplay mechanics may be pointless. Perhaps they'll change survival mechanics as a whole, who knows.

This was me quoting myself :lol:

[AmericanSteel]

In a true survival situation there is very little down time. Sure, you may be holed up somewhere waiting out a blizzard but even that time could be used. There are a lot of things in the game we simply can't do yet. We can't improve our base. We can stock our base, but actual improvements have not been implemented. Something as simple putting cardboard over the windows in your sleeping chamber and hanging "drapes" over the windows adds insulation at the cost of outside light. Putting something on the floor (like animal skin rugs) to act as another layer of insulation. Sealing off a portion of the home you are not using or adding in drapes over open doors ways to further insulate your living area.

We can't make things without a bench. If the players could knap or carve, players would be able to make items from points to hooks out. Player have to use a bench to make hide clothing and we can repair what we have, be we can't make simple items that are about as involved as darning socks (just far more time consuming). Players could make scarves, cloaks, blankets and even drapes out of patching mismatched cloth together.

Players could also take more time to repair items, using less materials, at the expense of time. It would be akin to foraging for wood without an axe. I could take longer sharpening my knife with a rock, instead of breaking into the tool kit and using up a file. I could darn a sock using threads from the top of the sock to patch the hole. Maybe somethings could not be taken to 100% this way, but we could do some of the work just at another cost. I would love the ability to make a map that lines up with our journal entries, but that would take time. It might not say "you are here" while out and about, but having an area marked with notations would be extremely useful, especially game to game. I can't tell you how many times I skipped an area because I thought I had already explored it on to bolt inside during a blizzard to find it unlooted.

Once we are all "set" then I can see cabin fever setting in. Until we get "all set" there are far to many things to do to improve your lot than just spinning the tumblers on a safe trying to crack the code.

[BetaPredator]

I would totally agree with all this.

Too often I find myself holed up in a house in a snowstorm, sleeping because it is the fastest way to pass the time. I really like the idea of tinkering with radios, or something along those lines. Also the idea of "customizing" a home a little bit sounds really great. Something to break the cycle of Eat, Drink, Sleep. Make fire. Eat. Drink. Sleep. Check trap. Repeat.

[Incariuz]

Solitaire and readable books are two things I've suggested, so naturally +1 here. The Rubik's Cube idea would be awesome too.

[SteveP]

Adding additional activities would be a good suggestion to improve game play and provide a more realistic balance of hunting and trapping to other activities which are just as important such as cleanliness and repair of equipment such as cleaning the rifle should improve its accuracy. Cleaning the lamp should increase its brightness lasting a day or so perhaps. Keeping logs or records is a very useful survival habit.

[octavian]

Keeping logs or records is a very useful survival habit.

Typewriter, I'll say it as much as I have to

[EarlOfMadsen]

+1 for ways to keep logs and/or records

Maybe this is simply my anal-retentiveness getting the best of me here, but I think it would be a nice addition--and perhaps a fairly easy one from a development standpoint--to implement craftable and/or salvageable items like a diary, loose-leaf paper, and pencils that would be used to manually record hunting/trapping progresses and other daily occurrences. This is wholly unnecessary, of course, but it would be a nice way to kill time and track the abundance/scarcity of resources in a given area.

Diaries could be placed throughout the environment and on the bodies of corpses with previous, scratched entries of failed survival attempts; it would certainly add to the immersive sense of dread that has already pervaded TLD. Players would have the option to add entries into these diaries or simply rip out the pages for crafting or fire-starting. A craftable diary would most likely consist of cured leather for the cover, gut for the binding, and the aforementioned loose-leaf paper (which could also be harvested from the scattered books already in place throughout the game's interior environments). Pencils could deteriorate with each use, depending on the amount of writing done in the diary, and would have to occasionally be sharpened with the hunting knife--but maybe that's a little overkill.

[octavian]

(...) craftable and/or salvageable items like a diary, loose-leaf paper, and pencils that would be used to manually record hunting/trapping progresses and other daily occurrences.

Typewriters have a keyboard, you play the game using a keyboard, and the part of your keyboard that matters for writing is identical with the typewriter's keyboard. Why make me write with a pencil on paper using a keyboard? :?

-1 for diaries other than your own, the last symptom TLD wants to have is padding.

[EarlOfMadsen]

Typewriters have a keyboard, you play the game using a keyboard, and the part of your keyboard that matters for writing is identical with the typewriter's keyboard. Why make me write with a pencil on paper using a keyboard? :?

-1 for diaries other than your own, the last symptom TLD wants to have is padding.

All fair points. Just throwing out suggestions.

[FluffyStabber]

+1 for readable books. Include some public domain classics, such as Locke, Socrates, Uncle Remus, Aesop, etc.

[AmericanSteel]

+1 for readable books. Include some public domain classics, such as Locke, Socrates, Uncle Remus, Aesop, etc.

We need some Jack London in there!

[Boston123]

More "in-depth" tool maintenance, perhaps?

sharpening, stropping, oiling, cleaning, field-stripping, and replacing handles all takes time

[AmericanSteel]

More "in-depth" tool maintenance, perhaps?

sharpening, stropping, oiling, cleaning, field-stripping, and replacing handles all takes time

I really don't want to get into the nuts and bolts of simulating everything. Next thing we will be scouring the area for TP and not to use as tinder :shock:

While I do think there is something to be said for routine maintenance, I think the task is assumed. If we said the first few percentage points of wear could be just "cleaned up" then people would only use the first few percent. Kinda like me micro managing tools. I knew I could repair up to 100% if I never fell below X (I think it was 75%). So I used a tool until I hit that point and then switched out. When all my tools got to that point, I then I used one until it was almost junk and used it for parts. Repaired one of my other tools to 100%. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

[EatenByWolves]

I think that smoking meats would also be a great addition. Maybe increase preservation of food at the expense of a lot of wood? Smoking meats in real life is a pretty lengthy process, but hey, it would definitely add another useful element to the game.

[SteveP]

+1 for ways to keep logs and/or records

Yes! or have the game record more useful data like what you harvest Where you put things into containers and the names of buildings and places as you enter them. It would make much more interesting reading and help serve as a reminder of the places you've visited and your caches. It's fairly trivial for the developers to record this information or make it possible to type in your own notes.

[devil_saint]

I love this idea!

Since I am a big fan of the lighting effects in this game (I have wasted way too much kerosene leaving my lit lamp on furniture), I would love to do candle making! Candles would get blown out in even the softest winds, but would be great for providing a nice light in your base.

What about growing small plants? Maybe they could provide some benefits, but it would be delightful to take care of something alive in this harsh landscape.

Obviously, redecorating (putting items on shelves and furniture) would be incredible.

[Boston123]

I, for one, like to keep a "journal" of sorts, where I write down what I did for each day in the outdoors, with usually some rough sketches or a rough map of my hiking for the day. For example, I've got a hand-drawn map of all the trails of my local Boy Scout camp all drawn out, labelled with resources available in all 4 seasons.

[jonimcfly]

+1 . a kind of ingame notepad for different duties. Todo list, diary ...

[Random Fires]

I like the idea of throwing actual books in the game. Solitaire having found cards makes a lot of sense.

Whittling wood also makes sense to me. Objects created could be traded with future AI's, or just to make/complete a collection such as chess pieces, statues or animals. Objects could become more intricate with skill. Obviously whittling a spear, utensils (speed up eating), back-up knife, whistle (animal distraction), or stakes (faster curing) comes to mind. Burn shavings like a tinder plug.

[Random Fires]

Quick thought. I'd surely make my own make map if I had access to pencil and paper. Drawing.

[nicko]

Quick thought. I'd surely make my own make map if I had access to pencil and paper. Drawing.

Yeah in game maps would be cool, though they would have to be easy to read and or edit if possible.

Our of game As a new player to a map. I currently just scribble notes/drawings on a piece of paper to try and get my bearings.

[n00bas]

Quick thought. I'd surely make my own make map if I had access to pencil and paper. Drawing.

+1 for ingame drawing/making notes

I also like the idea of candles indoors. I try to limit my use of the lantern by going through the dark when I can but a candle is just enough to be able and move around.