Some Humble Thoughts/Suggestions

[IIllytch321]

First, thanks for making such an interesting game. Good job thus far, definitely. Perhaps the developers will never see this post, but it's ok, either way.

This is kind of a rant/opinion/suggestion/bug review that I pieced together on a piece of paper over the course of me playing a couple times (made it a couple weeks before getting bear'd). A bunch of weird ideas. Also, if I am off base and wrote something that simply doesn't exist in the game, excuse me as I am easily mixed up with details; I do not know everything there is to know about this game. If you can teach me something please feel free as I will not be insulted (I was reminded today of the existence of decoys and the key binding for it, heh). This is your game, not mine, and this is only one guy's humble thoughts.

• Auto-Save:
  - Maybe I'm on my own on this, but would having a manual save feature be that bad? I found myself running amok because I knew I could reload after a sleep because I was lost and wanted to chart a map, then found myself greatly perturbed when I fell a great distance and decimated my health and found that the game chose to automatically save immediately after the plunge. I don't know, maybe make it optional in different difficulties or even making difficulties that allow for custom modification of variables (I know, I'm asking for too much)?
  
• Inventory:
  - When sorting by weight and moving items from your inventory to a storage container, perhaps giving us the ability to move multiples right from the get go (2 items and up) instead of only I think 5+ (I could be wrong, but I know it's not 2+). I say this because it is highly impracticable to have to find the item again after one unit has been moved, as now the weight decreased and moved its position in the menu. This is tedious. Of course, it wouldn't need to be changed when sorted by alphabetical or condition, as these aren't affected by this issue.
  - The ability to use the "movement" keys (i.e. "arrow keys" if bound) to move the cursor to select different items. This may make repeated actions (such that involve clicking an item, then action "A", then another item, then action "A" again, and so on) a bit smoother and less robotic and awkward (i.e. like taking off multiple clothes in a row).
  - Having either a basic map (that maybe is even blank everywhere you haven't been) and/or a compass (or stars/constellations to gauge direction, I don't know, heh) of some sort would be an interesting addition. Some people are far more geographically aware than others, and I may not be one of those people.
  - Having a way to easily choose exactly what will be dropped as a decoy. Also, assuming the amount of food in the decoy affects the strength of its effect on the animals, allowing us to separate a designated amount of food away for this purpose (maybe only with meat if you have a means to cut it?).
  
• Sleep:
  - Making an option to cancel sleep in mid-sleep. This may be useful when trying to sleep through the blizzards ("??? hours left of day/night").
  - Having a quantified sleep gauge (like with food and calories; "7 hours needed to be fully rested") in order to know how much sleep we actually need to have before we actually lay down. This may help avoid oversleeping unnecessarily.
  
• Fires/Lanterns/Flares:
  - Unless I'm missing something, before we put a piece of wood in a fire, it would be nice to know exactly how much time each unique piece would add to the burn time.
  - When using the fire menu (clicking on a fire) to manipulate items (melting snow, boiling water, cooking, even using water purification tablets) it would be great to let us know how long each action will take. This may help us make the most use of our fire without it burning out halfway through doing something.
  - In the fire menu, giving us the opportunity to manipulate multiple items at once (i.e. boiling two cups of coffee simultaneously) would be an interesting idea, although it may be a practical stretch.
  - One can see the available fuel in the lantern when not in use, but when using it one cannot see it in real-time. This would be a nice detail to have available right in view. Also, perhaps making the torches and flares dwindle down in stages so we have a bit more idea of when we'll be left in the dark.
  
• Repairing/Crafting/Harvesting (in the menu):
  - The ability to queue up multiple items to harvest at once.
  - Show us the amount of material we have along with the material we need when repairing, similar to when we craft something [see below for crafting consideration].
  - The menu for crafting shows in the form X/Y, with X denoting what material you have and Y denoting what material the crafting requires. Unless this is a thing based on ones country of origin (which, if it is, perhaps making an option to manage this difference would be great, as to not offend anyone), I find putting it in Y/X form would be more natural (like a half being the fraction 1/2 not 2/1).
  
• Movement:
  - I want to be able to jump, damn it, even if it affects stamina somewhat. Maybe doing it on ice wouldn't be a good idea?
  - Perhaps making more use of the crouch would be nice, too, like crawling under fallen trees or some cave-like thing to get to the other side. Or even stabilizing the rifle when crouching.
  
• Bugs:
  - While I was cutting apart a large branch a wolf interrupted me by attacking me. I survived, but noticed that the sound of me cutting wood followed me until I slept/saved and loaded the game. May not be that bad, but it may involve something bigger and worse if not rectified, who knows.

Thanks for your time, I know it was kind of lengthy. I just like this game so much and wanted to get all my thoughts off my chest at once. Peace.

[octavian]

Bugs:

- While I was cutting apart a large branch a wolf interrupted me by attacking me. I survived, but noticed that the sound of me cutting wood followed me until I slept/saved and loaded the game. May not be that bad, but it may involve something bigger and worse if not rectified, who knows.

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[bethany]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback! Welcome!

[ThorsHand11]

While I think the idea of more time values for crating cooking and stuff would help with optimizing time management I think it would be best to have them toggle-able. I am comfortable with the current system and I feel that not know the specific time for certain task leads to a more cautious approach. Also I fear that the game would just devolve into keeping tack of numbers instead of a more organic experience. But I think that it would be a good option for those who want it.

[IIllytch321]

I admit, I am a bit of a control freak, heh. I know it may take away from the visceral, gritty feel to the game, but I noticed some of it (timing, quantification) being implemented elsewhere, so I thought it could be generalized. Either way, it's all good. I find it hard to make the game into a bad one at this point; it's addictive already.

I don't know if toggleable options of the sort would be easy to make work, but it would be interesting.