Alpha Experiences and Feedback (PC Version)

[Kuga]

Hi All,

First off - great game so far! I'm really enjoying the experience on voyager. My playtime is around 30 hours and my current run is about 40 ingame days.

Technical Stuff:

Game runs perfectly on my ivy bridge i5 and GTX 680. No complaints here.

Glitches:

I fell through some rocks and (thankfully) only sprained an ankle and lost ~60% condition after landing on the snow terrain some feet below. I was able to walk back outside of the wall interior without clipping.

Occasionally my character's view is lower to the ground than it should be. It seems to occur more often after ascending a steep slope or wandering on rocks. Entering an interior or restarting the game fixed it for me.

Not sure if related to the above, but once my bow did not appear on the screen after cycling to it from the rifle (you could still aim with right click but still nothing was visible). Cycling again to the rifle and back to bow fixed it.

There is an area in Pleasant Valley where you can crawl under the rock face and make your way out of bounds to the edge of the map. Unfortunately I didn't take screenshots or coordinates, but iirc it was between the end of the road and the entrance to the slope where you ascend to the abandoned mine.

Gameplay:

Mystery Lake

I started on the default Mystery Lake and migrated to Pleasant Valley after around 25 days (much of that ML time was dedicated to crafting deer / wolf / rabbit clothing items - they really help with the cold! Learning to hunt with the bow and arrows was great too... I had run low on rifle ammo by that point)

There are multiple wolf patrol routes in the space between Trappers and the Camp Office - I felt like I was running into wolves rather frequently compared to other sections of ML.

The ML map in general is well-designed and friendly to beginner players. Trappers seems artificially secluded from the rest of the map but that might be intentional. Oddly enough, I only found one spawn of each type of sapling so the bow/arrow acquisition process was a bit longer than expected.

Fluffy didn't pose a problem - he was at the end of a long hallway and my rifle was ready! The dam interior has a great atmosphere and is probably one of the first extended dark spaces the player will experience. The door trick had me going for a little while but thankfully I discovered the way back in while scavenging around the dam's exterior. It might be easy to miss though!

The transition cave to pleasant valley was great and suspenseful for a map with no threats (that rockfall ambient sound kept me on edge). Including the sleeping roll at large cave locations is a great idea - I had forgot my roll when I packed for the trip!

Pleasant Valley

The farmstead is a great location! There are so many beautiful locales in the area and dusk /dawn is wonderful to watch from the porches. It is bitter-sweet to discover the stories told by things strewn about in the numerous houses.

Bears seem common in this map! This is cool because it is around the time I felt confident enough that hunting them is a feasible endeavor. Love the frequent bridges and other terrain contrasts with ML like waterfalls and vehicles - it gives an impression of a more open (but even more isolated) area.

I'm currently holed up in a cave near the Misty Falls. Thank you for the extra bed roll spawn and firewood!

Coastal Highway

I haven't seen this map yet but I will certainly be working my way there via the Abandoned Mine after finishing the exploration of Pleasant Valley.

General Feedback

Melting and boiling water takes an awfully long time. Likewise, 12 minutes a log for firewood seems excessive. However, I understand that shortening those times could impact game balance.

Fishing seems dangerously inefficient for the resource / time investment required in an outside area.

Degradation of arrows after firing seems random.

Certain mechanics were not immediately obvious:

- Curing was a mystery for the first few days until I actually bothered to read the item descriptions.

- Degradation, even at high percentages, has a significant impact on item performance.

- Wolves have a much higher chance of attacking with raw meat in the inventory. Makes sense in hindsight.

- I did not know a decoy button existed or what it did until checking the key bindings.

- Before obtaining crafted clothing, my character would frequently begin to freeze after spending time harvesting outside. It is kind of odd because the process is not interrupted when the weather changes drastically or condition becomes <100%. You might think a character would take pause when freezing to death and rapidly deteriorating. Nope! Harvesting those guts is more important!

- Benefits of hot drink / food vs. cold. Was not really aware of the + sign or what it signified.

Feature Wishlist

- House cleanup! Let us spend 20-40 hours (time contribution method similar to crafting) and clean up an instance. If I'm going to be living in the Farmstead or another location for a significant period of time I'd like it to be tidy!

- Item placement in the world. You can already place things like fires or lanterns in the world. Let me put this newspaper on the kitchen table or some beef jerky on the counter top. Storage capacity is already meaningless for most objects with the exception of perishable items. Dropping everything on the floor looks kind of silly.

- Some other poster mentioned a sled for hauling meat and other heavy stuff. 'Portable' storage would be great for hunting and moving caches between locations. There could be disadvantages to discourage use as a permanent extended inventory (much slower speeds when filled as if encumbered, additional noise, sled degradation requires maintenance, inability to traverse steep slopes, etc.)

- More wildlife variety. New crafted items to go with would be icing.

- In-game map feature. Not a discovered map, but the ability to use paper and pencil to draw a map! Maybe a notebook/sketchbook which would also allow for written notes about an area (where did I leave that stuff, etc.)

Thanks for reading! The Long Dark is one of the best games I have played this year and it is still in Early Access. Please keep up the amazing job!

[octavian]

Welcome to the forums

I fell through some rocks and (thankfully) only sprained an ankle and lost ~60% condition after landing on the snow terrain some feet below. I was able to walk back outside of the wall interior without clipping.

In the future, take a screenshot with coordinates by pressing F8 and put it on the forums so it won't happen to anybody else.

There is an area in Pleasant Valley where you can crawl under the rock face and make your way out of bounds to the edge of the map. Unfortunately I didn't take screenshots or coordinates, but iirc it was between the end of the road and the entrance to the slope where you ascend to the abandoned mine.

This is known

In-game map feature. Not a discovered map, but the ability to use paper and pencil to draw a map! Maybe a notebook/sketchbook which would also allow for written notes about an area (where did I leave that stuff, etc.)

You can have paper and pencil next to the keyboard, having it in the game would subvert much of what the game is trying to do. Maps being a miniature of the world, in your hands and at your fingertips, blab blab blab, not good.

[bethany]

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback -- Good notes.

Welcome to the community!