Fitness- And some other ideas

[Wulf]

I've had two, what I'd consider major play-through's of the long dark, and finally I'd like to give my feedback from that experience.

After recently discovering in my current play-through that starving yourself for days, to only then eat enough calories to prevent your condition going to zero is a valid way of surviving. I figured out that I have enough food to last me around 20 days, and that's only because the food will go off by then ha. So at this point in my play through survival has become way too easy, and more importantly the need for a risk/ reward play-style, that was common in the early-mid game, and that makes this game the great game it is, has now gone.

Main Point- Fitness

So this brings me to my main point, starving yourself should have a long term effect, and as in my title I feel that long term effect should be on fitness. Anyone who has experience in sport, general fitness etc knows that if you don't provide you're body with the calories you need, you're not going to be able to maintain or improve your current level of strength.

Now obviously this is a survival game so you're not trying to become an Olympic athlete! But to me this idea raises an interesting game mechanic, whereby you choose between your characters physical abilities, and the potential to unhealthily extend you're survival.

So how can this make the game more interesting?

You're fitness would essentially be a long term condition that can't lead to death by itself. It will effect thing's like Carry weight, Sprinting speed, Ability to fend off wolf attacks, proficiency in physical tasks, such as dismantling furniture for reclaimed wood etc, and possibly a lot more.

So as you can see gambling these abilities away for longer survival may come back to bite you in the ass. For example when eventually you have to make a hunting trip, and end up getting caught out in a blizzard, as you're stumbling around trying to get your bearing, at any point you could find yourself face to face with a wolf you can't physically repel, so you better hope you don't miss with you're hunting rifle/ bow.

Essentially lower fitness will make the dangerous and intense situations in this game even more intense, as it will be harder for you to react as proficiently. But it will also effect more everyday tasks, such as collecting wood, making them more time consuming, and we all know how important time management in this game is.

A natural difficulty curve

Now this idea also means that you will start off at your strongest, and naturally overtime you will not be able to maintain that level of fitness, especially towards the very end of your game. So when you start off with nothing your compensated with your fitness, but by the time you've setup a base and become a veteran of the wilderness, you don't have the level of fitness you started with.

Anyway that's my main idea, I hope this feedback has helped in someway, keep up the excellent work with this game, and now I shall leave you with some more minor ideas to consider!

Other list of ideas I'd like to see implemented:

- Ability to sleep anywhere (on floors etc), obviously this wouldn't provide the warmth bonuses you get with beds and bedrolls, But should in no way provide any negative bonuses, because quite honestly sleeping on the floor isn't that bad ha.

-Wolves in packs, It would make wolves more intimidating and less of an annoyance.

-Sharpening stones for knives and axes along with a greater overall durability to them, I personally feel this would be a better alternative to somehow repairing them with scrap metal.

-Ability to shoot bow while crouching/ sneaking. I think this would be great for hunting.

-Easier to be detected while sneaking, because currently I can walk behind a rabbit and pet it.

-Placing objects. Currently you can only drop objects on the ground, but it would be great if you could place them, much in the same way you place lanterns and snares. This is partly for aesthetics, but also for ease of access, as it means I can leave my gear for hunting all nicely on a table etc.

-Flint knapping. Not sure how long you expect people to survive for could be something in this game, but this could be an awesome avenue to go down way late game etc for crafting.

-Spears. The way I see them working is not as an active melee weapon but more of a Get Back! style form of defense against wolves, much like the flare. This weapon could also works well with the idea of wolf packs, as you would have to continually face each wolf, making sure they don't get to close as they attempt to encircle you.

[Patrick Carlson]

I've had two, what I'd consider major play-through's of the long dark, and finally I'd like to give my feedback from that experience.

After recently discovering in my current play-through that starving yourself for days, to only then eat enough calories to prevent your condition going to zero is a valid way of surviving. I figured out that I have enough food to last me around 20 days, and that's only because the food will go off by then ha. So at this point in my play through survival has become way too easy, and more importantly the need for a risk/ reward play-style, that was common in the early-mid game, and that makes this game the great game it is, has now gone.

First, welcome to the forums! And thanks for the feedback. It's always interesting to see the different strategies that surface for different players. The one you describe above is an approach I haven't experimented with before.

What experience mode do you find yourself spending the most time in?

[Wulf]

Thank you for the kind welcome!

I play in the middle difficulty setting, which I believe is voyager.

As for the strategy, basically you allow your calories to stay at 0 for as long as possible and then eat 800 calories worth and sleep for 10 hours (which consumes 750 calories) and then you repeat etc. The sleep means your condition will return to 100%, providing you drink etc.

From what I've seen when you're starving your condition goes down by 1% every hour, so I assume you have 100 hours where you don't have to eat. I have only ever gone down to 60% ish through this though, as the food was starting to spoil.

But my main point is that in doing this it should have a long term effect on your character, specifically on their fitness. But yeah before this I assumed you had to consume 2500 calories everyday else you would die ha, as you can imagine survival has become a lot more easier, if not less exciting.