Sandbox Updated to v.256 "Deep Forest"!

[ThorsHand11]

When I saw that this update changed the wood harvesting system I got really excited. The old system worked but did not feel as dangerous. Now when I have to head out into the woods for firewood I have to lookout for wolves and other dangers. It makes it much more interesting than just interacting with a menu. I also love being able to break down furniture for materials it is another bit of realism that separates The Long Dark from other survival game's I've played.

[obrientavern]

After updating to v.256 on my Xbox One, I quickly discovered a game-changing bug. When I loaded in, I spawned in my normal stomping grounds in the Pleasant Valley Farmstead. When I went outside I was prompted with discovering the Farmstead once more. To my despair, when I went back inside I found that all of my stored supplies (wood, tools, clothes, etc.) had been removed from their storage locations. It is as if it had reset the area once I stepped outside. I hope I'm not the only user experiencing this bug and I hope to bring it ' into the light ' so to speak.

Thanks,

obrientavern

[SteveP]

* Replaced abstract Foraging with Direct Harvesting mechanics. You can now harvest fuel and cloth directly from objects in the world. This is a new system that will likely require ongoing tuning into the future, so we appreciate all your feedback and patience!

Actually this hasn't been as much of a problem as I thought. Certain locations don't have much wood around however, with time and exploration and many many horrid deaths from starvation and hypothermia, it's working. The tuning problems seem to be more with weather, calories and clothing. Movement is also an issue since it can now take much time to move from one safe shelter to another. I like that we need to stop now and then to warm up with a fire however the changing wind direction makes this very tricky.

I really think tuning is important on this game to maximize its appeal. You don't want to make it too easy or too statistically difficult. I've raised a technical issue on the subject of tuning; I think everyone can benefit from having a chance to comment and to understand how you guys make tuning changes.

[chicks]

I found that the fatigue caused by sprinting seemed a little intense. The time needed to regen fatigue should be enough of a deterrent without having to deal with 1 full sprint resulting in 1/3 of fatigue gain. Lowering it to 1/5 or something would make more sense IMHO.

Alternatively, is there a plan to put this into some form of leveling system? I feel like this could allow us to "train" our sprinting capability in order to reduce some downtime AND/OR reduce fatigue gain.

As for wood, I saw small branches (sticks) spawning, but no fir or cedar "drop". I also find the bigger branches that you need to break to be a little redundant and useless as they yield very little wood yet take a "considerable" amount of time to harvest when compared to just letting it there and wait for sticks to respawn. It's only useful if there is no other wood sources. I would say adding 1-2 sticks, or a more random numbers of drops to them would make it more interesting/valuable to harvest. This is all considering we keep sticks at 10 mins or so of fuel. IIRC, it takes like 5-10 mins to harvest a branch? So 1 branch is entirely lost if you have an ongoing fire...

[chicks]

I should be able to forage some cedar and fir firewood, not to mention tinder, which, in any case, even when all the newspapers have gone, shouldn't be a problem at all.

Indoor foraging is a great addition, specially because of the cloth, but I don't think it's good to switch main fire fuel source from outdoors to indoors. At least, make foraging outdoors available when close to trees, because, I believe that only sticks and branches won't do.

There are more than just the sticks and branches... there are also various size limbs [which is where you can now get your fir and cedar]. For tinder, simply harvest down the sticks.

We can harvest sticks? I was starting to worry tinder would be a finite resource and started harvesting boxes for it! Thanks for that info!

[chicks]

I should be able to forage some cedar and fir firewood, not to mention tinder, which, in any case, even when all the newspapers have gone, shouldn't be a problem at all.

Indoor foraging is a great addition, specially because of the cloth, but I don't think it's good to switch main fire fuel source from outdoors to indoors. At least, make foraging outdoors available when close to trees, because, I believe that only sticks and branches won't do.

There are more than just the sticks and branches... there are also various size limbs [which is where you can now get your fir and cedar]. For tinder, simply harvest down the sticks.

We can harvest sticks? I was starting to worry tinder would be a finite resource and started harvesting boxes for it! Thanks for that info!