My wishlist after 143 Hours

[LloydNoise]

Hello

As you can tell by the title. I've played The Long Dark for 143 hours now, and I've got a list of suggestions and ideas. I've sorted them into categories.

The little things:

-Graffiti-

As a means of giving understanding or backstory to the world. I was thinking just having random graffiti written on/in buildings or on cave walls etc. It doesn't have to be elaborate, spray painted, street art. More like written messages or painted on signs. It could be something positive like "Watch out for the bear" or "Chin up buddy!". At the same time it could be something negative, like "We're all doomed" or "I killed that man outside".

-Heartwarming moments-

I'm not Canadian. After an update however a few months ago though. I was walking up to the Camp Office when I saw that they'd added that maple leaf flag and I genuinely felt better. I didn't feel so alone in the sandbox world like I usually feel. I would like more moments like that. I guess it's dependent on the individual, but as well as feeling good when you find that tool you've trekked from Mystery Lake and up Coastal Highway for. I'd also like to see more feel good stuff in the environment.

-Moments of Dread-

I don't think I need to bring this up. Between finding the baby's room in Pleasant Valley's farmhouse and the truck sunken in the ice off the bridge in Desolation Point. You chaps at Hinterland know how to make a zone depressing and melancholic. That's great. However I'd like to see more moments of fear and dread over certain places, enough to make a player think "hmmm that place looks creepy, I'm not sure I wanna go there".

Caves are great for this, with the noises and the claustrophobia, it's great, but maybe more stuff in the outside of the world. Like waking up in a cabin and leaving to find human footprints circling your cabin and outside the windows. Stuff that's at the least creepy.

Fauna:

-Seals-

I know nobody enjoys clubbing a baby seal to death. But you'd think in waters apparently quite rich with fish, you'd probably find more aquatic based predators. Obviously you wouldn't find any at Mystery Lake or in the pond in Pleasant Valley, but in Coastal Highway and Desolation point definitely.

I'm not a ecologist or anything nature related, but I've heard seals in winter make breathing holes through ice and sit on the ice between fishing. That could be like a 'get to the seal before it can get to it's escape hole' kinda hunt. Maybe not a problem for an armed player, but for an unarmed player or as wolf definitely.

-Crustaceans-

If Deadliest Catch has taught me anything. Crustaceans like to live in the Bering Sea and I'd assume the Pacific Northwest. I'd think for this animal you'd need a trap of sorts to drop into a hole in the ice (abandoned seal hole perhaps?) I think in the Fishing Village in Coastal Highway, they have commercial lobster pods lying around. So maybe a few smaller traps around by there or in the Townsite down the road. It'd be like the snare on land but underwater, leave it for awhile and check on it every now and then, but you'd have to bait it.

-Feral Hogs-

I've heard that even though it took thousands of years to turn wild hogs into domestic pigs. Apparently it only takes a couple of weeks for pigs, without humans, to revert to their wild, feral nature prior to domestication. So you know, maybe after a week or so in game, feral hogs start re-emerging in the wild. Especially in Pleasent Valley and perhaps Mystery Lake they'd be more prevalent being so close to farms and rural pasture.

-Beavers-

I might be pushing my luck here, but maybe you could use a hatchet or something to break into a beaver lodge and murder the occupying beavers. You could have it so that most times the beavers get out before you get in and you'd be lucky to get one.

Regardless, I'd eat one if I thought the calories were worth using the energy to break in. I've never seen beavers in the wild though,let alone tried to get into a lodge. So for all I know, maybe it's too much effort. At least a beaver lodge might make the world look more wild and lived in.

Items and Actions:

-Kitchen Cutlery-

You could make them into scrap metal, or if you're really keen, you could find a kitchen knife and use it as a crap replacement for the hunting knife. I've seen suggestions for spears on this forum so maybe for a component instead of a stone, you could just sharpen both edges of a kitchen knife and duct tape that onto a staff.

-Candles and lanterns-

Maybe not for walking around in a blizzard. But providing light in a building at night without having to use your oil lantern or a match.Candles I'd say would be quite useful for that, staying lit for maybe a day or two. I saw on this forum, someone suggesting honey, you could use beeswax for making candles if you also had a bit of string. On that note, do you know those lanterns you can get at an IKEA or some other shop for putting candles in, that'd be useful. Especially if you're camping under a bridge or something.

-Rowboat shelter-

Sometimes, I see a rowboat and I think, why don't I just flip it upside down and put my bedroll underneath. If at the very least, it gets you out of the wind and stops you waking up covered in snow. Might protect you from a wolf, but then again, there's not a lot to stop a wolf digging the snow and trying to drag you out from underneath.

-Car engines-

Being able to open up the hoods of cars, take a look at the battery and go "Yep, that's a battery" and then shut it.I suspect that there's probably going to be a future use for it in mind. Until then though, maybe we could get some scrap parts from the metal or plastic of the engine and other components.

-Liquer-

Maybe not for drinking, but more for the sterilising of bandages or disinfecting wounds.

I've tried to not repeat any ideas other people have mentioned. So if I have, I'm sorry. This could also be complete BS as well, so I'm sorry for that too.