MASTER CHANGELIST


bethany

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2017 Updates


 

September 27, 2017

V1.15 of The Long Dark has been released. This patch includes the all changes from both v1.15 and  v1.14. Combined change list below:

WARNING: There may be story spoilers in these notes.

  • Fixed collision issue in Dam that could cause player to fall out of the world.
  • Improved screen flow leading to Episode Two once Episode One credits are complete or skipped.
  • Episode Two: Fixed issue preventing Jeremiah's Flare Trust mission from triggering correctly.
  • Episode Two: Fixed issue that could prevent Old Bear from progressing to next waypoint in Bear Hunt mission.
  • Episode Two: Fix for Lake Cabin key using the incorrect key asset.
  • Episode Two & Survival Mode: Added Rope Climb to River area in Broken Railroad region.
  • Survival Mode: Tuned Aurora frequency values to make it more rare.
  • Fixed issue where Flashlight pick-up "hot spot" was awkwardly large.
  • Fixed issue where Backer text appeared as "N/A" instead of the correct English text in translated versions; this text is meant to be left untranslated in all languages.
  • Fixed issue with duplicate Bears spawning in the Challenge: Hunted, Part Two
  • Fixed issue with duplicate Jeremiah Knives spawning in Episode Two.
  • Fixed issue with being able to get past the collapsed bridge in the Broken Railroad region.


### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

 



August 23, 2017

Patch 8 Updates The Long Dark to v1.12 (32503)

WARNING: There may be story spoilers in these notes.

PS4 Specific:

* Fixed flickering on intro movie.

General:

  • Fixed issue preventing "Lake Gunshots" mission from completing correctly.
  • General cinematics polish.
  • Clarified Survival School "Harvestable Plants" mission requires adding plants to crate outside Jeremiah's cabin.
  • Fixed issues with Distress Pistol animation.
  • General memory optimizations.
  • Fixed issue where storage container in Lodge appeared to be interactive when it was not.
  • Fixed issue where duplicate Trust option appeared for Grey Mother.
  • Fixed issue where Torch Blueprint would not unlock correctly when starting a fresh Episode Two game.
  • Fixed issue where players could return to Milton after completing Episode One.

### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

 


 

August 16, 2017

Patch 7 Updates The Long Dark to v1.10 (32415)

WARNING: There may be story spoilers in these notes.

Linux Specific

* Fixed issue with post-FX not rendering correctly on Linux when using Medium or higher display settings.
* Fixed issue with movie files not playing correctly on Linux.

General

* Fixed issue with Jeremiah's Flare Cache not spawning correctly. This fixes a blocker in getting the Supply Caches achievement.
* Fixed several small typos in various Trust dialogues.
* Memory optimizations.
* Fixed issue where Survival music could occasionally be heard in a story episode.
* Fixed issue where Jeremiah would be inanimate after completing the Bear Hunt mission.
* Fixed issue where the Snow Shelter would not unlock properly after completing the relevant Trust unlock.
* Fixed issue where Methuselah cinematic might not play in Renewed Hope mission.
* Fixed issue where Rifle could end up in a broken state when reloading during a door transition.
* Fixed issue in Survival Mode where the female survivor voice sometimes plays when playing as the male survivor.
* Fixed issue with a series of multiple exertion sounds being played after a Bear struggle.

### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

We're continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.

- The Hinterland Team

 


 

August 11, 2017

PATCH 6 For The Long Dark -- Updates the game to Version 1.08 (32384)
Warning: There may be story spoilers in these notes.

* Memory and performance optimizations.
* Fixed issue where Methuselah may not trigger correctly in certain circumstances in Episode Two.
* Fixed issue with "Hank's Hatch" side mission in Episode Two.
* General fixes to various cinematics.
* Fixed issue with players teleporting when exiting the Lone Lake Cabin in Episode Two.
* Fixed issue where players could get stuck in Grey Mother's Fuel mission in Episode One.
* Fixed issue with text jittering on some screens.
* Retuned Food and Fuel requirements of respective Grey Mother missions in Episode One.
* Fixed camera crashing during Climb and Harvesting animations when FOV is over 90 degrees.
* Fixed a variety of annoying collision bugs throughout.
* Fixed issue where the Flashlight's "high intensity" setting was ineffective against Aurora Wolves.
* Fixed endlessly feeding Wolf in Milton.
* Fixed issue where players could sometimes get stuck in a dialogue sequence.
* Fixed issue with overlapping text in the Give Items portion of the Trust interface.

### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

We're continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.

- The Hinterland Team

 


 

August 9, 2017

PATCH 5 For The Long Dark -- Updates the game to Version 1.07 (32337)

Patch 5 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Full changelist below.

WARNING: There may be Story spoilers in these notes.

* Fixed issue with Rope Fall section of Episode One, where players could get stuck due to a scripting bug.
* Improved cover flow UI for Episode Selection to make it more obvious that there are two available episodes.
* Fixed issue with Aurora probability in Survival Mode. Auroras should now appear more reliably.
* Difficulty tuning of Wolves in Episode One. Struggle should be more survivable for new players.
* Fixed some camera popping in Episode One cinematics.
* Fixed scripting error in "Fix My Rifle?" that could create mission logic issues.
* Fixed issue in Bear Hunt mission where the Ear would not spawn under certain circumstances.
* Fixed issue with Mackenzie clipping through the chair in some Episode One cinematics.
* Fixed issue with missing Milton Knowledge strings.
* Fixed issue with not being able to pick up the Bear Hide in Survival School.
* Fixed issue where the note with the Code would not appear in "Hank's Hatch" side mission.

### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

We're continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.

- The Hinterland Team

 


 

August 4, 2017

Patch 4 for The Long Dark -- This patch updates the game version to version 1.05 (32319)

WARNING: There may be Story spoilers in these notes.

* Fixed blocking issue where the Aurora would not appear in Episode Two, between completing the Bear Hunt mission and awaiting the aurora's return to get through the Dam. This fix is compatible with current in-progress games so you should not have to restart to benefit from it.

### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

We're continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.

- The Hinterland Team

 


 

August 4, 2017

Patch 3 for The Long Dark -- This patch updates the game version to v.103 (32306)

WARNING: There may be Story spoilers in these notes.

Changelist below:

* Tuned Antiseptic so that one dose is sufficient to treat Infection Risk.
* Added missing audio for picking up Astrid's Hardcase on Day 4.
* Added additional checkpointing in Ep1 and Ep2.
* Cinematics polish.
* Additional optimizations for performance and memory use.

We're continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.

- The Hinterland Team

### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

 


 

August 3, 2017

PATCH 2 For The Long Dark -- Updates the game to Version 1.02 (32286)

This patch is live now on Steam for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

WARNING: There may be Story spoilers in these notes.

* Fixed save/restore issue that could result in missing loot in scenes when reloading from a checkpoint. This bug was preventing some quests from being completable after reload. 
* Fixed the Bear struggle.
* Fixed issue that could cause player to spawn on top of a campfire in "Survival of the Fittest". It should now be impossible to place a fire and then spawn on it the following day.
* Memory optimizations to reduce chance lower memory systems will exhaust memory and crash
* Added some more tools in Milton.
* Fixed issue with Wolf AI not fleeing correctly when the player throws a lit Flare, Torch, or Stone at it.
* Fixed issues that preventing the WINTERMUTE soundtrack from playing correctly; you should now hear more music as you explore the world.
* Modified Fire objective on Day 3 of "Survival of the Fittest" to track how long fire has been burning, vs how long it will burn.
* Fixed issue where unlocked Crafting Blueprints could carry over to a New game.
* Fixed issue with Condition tutorial triggering after every death. It will now only trigger once.
* Add some missing subtitles.
* Fixed issue with Map Marker not clearing after retrieving Distress Pistol in "Light Up the Night"
* Fixed issue with “Echoes of Astrid” objective marker appearing during Grey Mother mission set
* Fixed floating campfire in Milton
* Fixed issue where looping Wolf "feeding" sounds remained even when the Wolf AI was absent.
* Fixed issue where feeding Wolves could face the player while still playing feeding animation.
* Fixed issue where Wolves would sometimes not go into their Hold Ground AI state when approached with a Flare or Torch.
* Fixed issue with map icon showing up for some Stone spawn regions.
* Fixed issue where player could get stuck on geometry in Milton.

### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

 


 

August 2, 2017

STEAM PATCH 1 FOR THE LONG DARK -- Updates to Version 1.01 (32223)

THERE MAY BE STORY SPOILERS IN THE CHANGELIST BELOW.

Changeslist:

* Added missing translations for Trust dialogue
* Fixed startup issues for some systems using DirectX 9
* Fixed issue with some books disappearing when dropped
* Improvements to checkpointing to help avoid getting into a low-Condition death spiral
* Buffed the Condition-restoration boost when player reloads after Death
* Added a Bedroll to the Cave in Chapter One. This can be used to Save your Game
* Removed requirement to drink Rosehip Tea in Survival Bowl; it is now an optional objective
* Fixed issue with Rifle Cleaning Kit disappearing after reloading a save
* Fixed issue with environment geo near the Climbing Park section in Milton
* Fixed various cases where audio could cut out
* Fixed flickering in cutscenes that could occur when using OpenGL (Mac and Linux)
* Fixed locked controls when throwing a stone and picking up a rabbit at the same time
* Fixed floating necklace when speaking with Grey Mother
* General cinematics polish
* Fixed scrollbar issue when transferring items to NPCs
* Fixed place object shader so objects tint correctly over decals
* Fixed issue with radios playing music when aurora isn’t present

We're continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.

- The Hinterland Team

### END OF PATCH NOTES ###

 


 

AUGUST 1, 2017 -- LAUNCH DAY

Too many changes to name! Some of the main highlights:

  • The Long Dark officially leaves the Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview Programs
  • Wintermute, ( Story Mode) officially launched with Episodes 1 and 2 
  • New BROKEN RAILROAD region available in Survival Mode
  • Aurora added to Survival Mode
  • Changes to some crafting requirements 
  • New items available in Survival Mode

 


 

June 14, 2017

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.426, addressing a variety of issues outlined below.

CRASH MITIGATION

* Fixed rare crash when bullet raycast hit an object
* Fixed rare crash when clicking rapidly when throwing a Torch or Flare
* Fixed rare crash when examining inventory items


CHANGES

* Add Bandage to starting player items in Hunted
* Updated icons for Old Man's Beard items (harvestable item and crafted Treatment)
* Added translations for all remaining non-localized strings from 424 launch
 

BUGS

* Fixed issue with not being able to dismiss save failure popup using gamepad
* Fixed issue with saved Journals not showing written notes, skills or collectibles.
* Fixed issue with resolutions passed from command line not being used. This fixes issue with game not running multiscreen for some players.
* Fixed issue with not being able to rebind key when mouse hovered over input field
* Fixed issue with some UI actions not being possible when using a Steam Controller
* Fixed issue with all Experience Mode icons being highlighted on death screen stats
* Fixed issue with First Aid UI not updating if affliction list changes while screen is active
* Fixed issue with Hypothermia and Frostbite Risk percentages not showing up on icons
* Fixed issue where female survivor slot could be used when male survivor slot was highlighted
* Fixed issue with Hunger/Thirst arrows sometimes pointing wrong direction
* Fixed issue with mouse pointer flickering on screen when opening a can in Fire UI
* Fixed issue with TOD indicator not showing up in Status UI
* Fixed issue with TOD indicator shifting turing Harvesting
* Fixed issue with background blur disappearing in Harvest UI when aborting a harvest
* Fixed issue with camera switching when pushing LS on gamepad when in Quartering UI
* Fixed issue with non-functional Harvest option showing up when on Quartering UI
* Fixed issue with hand sometimes not syncing correctly with lantern in first person
* Fixed issue with some trees having incorrect lighting (most noticeable at night)
* Fixed issue with gamepad navigation on Clothing UI
* Fixed issue with Quit button on death screen having dark text
* Fixed issue with encumbered icon overlapping full screen UI
* Fixed issue with scroll audio playing unnecessarily on Clothing and Crafting UI
* Fixed issue with Lantern sometimes not equipping after leaving a UI screen
* Use LT/RT instead of LB/RB for top level navigation in Fire UI

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 


 

June 7, 2017

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX UPDATED TO v.423 -- "FAITHFUL CARTOGRAPHER"

CHANGES

* User Interface Overhaul. All screens, buttons, HUD elements, etc. have been updated to better match the game's aesthetic, along with some usability changes in anticipation of our August 1st launch of WINTERMUTE.

* Accessible Interactions. We've added a new option in the Control settings, for players who suffer from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and similar conditions. This makes all click/press+hold interactions a single click/press. 

* Save System Overhaul. We've recreated our save system from scratch to future-proof the game. As a result, all previous Sandbox saves are now invalid. Saves from FAITHFUL CARTOGRAPHER will not be wiped at our 1.0 launch.

* Charcoal Mapping. Collect Charcoal from burned out fires. Use it to Survey your local area, updating your local region map with information about what you can see from your current position. The new Navigation section of the Radial and Main Nav provides access to the Map.

* Carcass Quartering System. In addition to the previous harvesting mechanic, you can now "Quarter" a carcass into bags of harvestable meat, allowing you to transport them to a better location for further harvesting. 

* Scent System & HUD Element. Blood (your own, or from carcasses) makes you more attractive to predators. The Strength of the attraction is indicated by the new HUD element.

* Visual Updates. We've updated the lighting, fog colour, and fog distance, providing much longer vista views in the game which makes it easier to navigate by visible landmarks. We've also been updating interior lighting. We'll be continuing this work right up to our August 1st launch.

* First-Person Presence. The following tools have been updated with first-person hands: Rifle, Bow, Distress Pistol, Stim, and all Light Sources.

* Thrown Flares & Torches. We've removed Brandishing and brought back the old Throwing mechanic. You can throw lit Torches and Flares at Wolves to scare them off.

* Stone Throwing. You can now pick up and throw Stones in the world. Hitting a Rabbit with a Stone will stun it, providing an early-game option for hunting. Then you have to decide whether to kill or release it. Thrown Stones might even scare off a wolf, if you're very lucky.

* Struggle Weapon Choice. When you get into a Wolf struggle, you now have the option to select between available tools based on the outcome you're looking for: Scare off the wolf, Defend yourself from damage, or go for the Kill.

* First Aid Treatment. You can now treat Afflictions by using First Aid items directly from the Radial. The game no longer pre-selects the correct Treatment for you. Also, Old Man's Beard Dressings no longer require Bandages to Craft but only treat Infection Risk (and not Blood Loss).

* Optimizations. We've updated Unity a few times and worked on several optimizations to improve performance.

* Enhanced Graphics Options (Win/Mac/Linux Only): We've added a variety of Display and Quality settings so that you can customize your preferences to balance between beauty and performance.

* PS4 Controller Support: As we're bringing The Long Dark to PS4 on August 1st, you can now play the game with a PS4 controller. 

* Crafting from Journal: You can now preview Crafting Blueprints in the Journal. All craftables that can be made without the use of a Workbench or Forge can now be crafted directly from the Journal. [NOTE: The current Journal is WIP and will be updated for our full August 1st launch.]
CRASH MITIGATION AND BUG FIXES

* Too numerous to list.

###END OF CHANGELIST###

 


 

Jan 12, 2017

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.393 on Steam to address the following bug:

* Fixed issue where Arrows would disappear upon save or scene transition.

###END OF CHANGELIST###

 


 

Jan 11, 2017

Hello,

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.392 on Steam — changelist below.

* Fixed crash that could occur when getting Frostbite
* Fixed uncommon crash related to leaving footprints
* Reduced glare cast from first person Flare and Torch
* Fixed issue with predators interrupting player sleep in invalid locations
* Fixed issue with too many Wolves spawning in Pleasant Valley
* Fixed issue with harvested Saplings sometimes providing Cured Branches
* Fixed issue with items falling through ice after a Struggle
* Fixed issue with wildlife sometimes not being able to pathfind to valid locations
* Fixed issue with screen sometimes not smoothly fading in when starting a new game
* Fixed issue with extra cancel button prompt sometimes showing up on Inventory UI (gamepad only)
* Fixed issues with getting stuck in Forlorn Muskeg and Jackrabbit Island
* Fixed issue with getting stuck when exiting the bed in the Quonset
* Fixed issue with Forlorn Muskeg Safe not working properly in Interloper
* Fixed issue with a container being destroyed in Forlorn Muskeg when breaking down a metal shelf
* Fixed issue with being able to use Forge before it’s hot enough
* Fixed issue with First Aid Kits floating after breaking down furniture
* Fixed issue with Research button not being localized
* Fixed background blur when cancelling the delete of a save slot
* Fixed missing damage state art for some clothing items
* Assign non-zero weight bonus for fish at Ice Fishing Skill Level 4
* Assign non-zero reduction in fishing time at Ice Fishing Skill Level 2
* Fixed collision issues in some caves that could prevent picking up items
* Fixed issue with drawn Survival Bow movement speed retained after Wolf or Bear struggle
* Fixed issue with Arrows not animating properly in certain cases
* Fixed corpse loot issue on Timberwolf Mountain
* Fixed issue with Snares not being visible at moderate distance
* Updated copyright notice on main menu

 

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 
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2016 Updates

December 20, 2016 
The Long Dark -- Hotfixed to v.388

Hello community,

We’ve hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.388 on Steam and v.389 on Xbox One, to fix a few bugs introduced (or discovered) after the release of our “Resolute Outfitter” update.

Changelist:
* Fixed delay after eating/drinking in inventory
* Fixed collision on shed in Forlorn Muskeg region
* Fixed minor clipping issues with objects in Forlorn Muskeg region
* Fixed area where player could exit the map in Forlorn Muskeg region
* Fixed bear getting stuck inside rail car in Forlorn Muskeg region
* Fixed broken stats for old save games

* Fixed issue for some Xbox players getting stuck at the boot screen.
* Fixed issue for some Xbox players where the Distress Pistol would not fire.

###END OF CHANGELIST### 

 

The Long Dark Sandbox Updated to v.386 — “Resolute Outfitter” — Release Notes

 

We’ve just updated The Long Dark’s Sandbox mode to v.386, “Resolute Outfitter”. This is the last Sandbox update of 2016, and the biggest of the year. Details below.

***

 NEW REGION: FORLORN MUSKEG

We’ve added a new region to the game — Forlorn Muskeg. It’s a vast frozen landscape of dead trees and ice. There’s very little shelter, so this region is definitely not for the faint of heart. Hardy explorers will be rewarded with access to a second Forge.

 

NEW CLOTHING ART

All the Clothing items have been re-built from scratch to better reflect the game’s art style. You may see some familiar items updated, as well as many new items.

 

NEW CLOTHING ITEMS

There are over 65 items now, which nearly doubles the amount of Clothing items in the game. We’ve also included a new Craftable Clothing item: Bearskin Coat.

 

CLOTHING TUNING

Every Clothing item in the game has had a tuning pass, though we expect to change some things based on further playtesting feedback. This tuning pass includes re-balancing the Weights and Warmth values of pre-existing Clothing items, to reflect the fact that you can now find and use a lot more Clothing than before.

 

CLOTHING LAYERING SYSTEM

You can now layer Clothing items using a slot-based system. Some areas of the body — example, the Torso — have multiple slots, which allows you to layer more than one thing. For example, you can wear two items on your head, whether that means two Toques, or Two Scarves, a Scarf + Toque, etc.

 

CLOTHING UI & “PAPER DOLL”

There is a whole new Clothing UI, which communicates what your Survivor is currently wearing in the various slots. You can now easily see when a slot is empty, and remedy that. You can also see when a slot has multiple options available, for example when you pick up a new Clothing item.

Cycling through the valid items in a slot will allow you to see a comparison between the currently equipped item in that slot, and the other valid items in your Backpack that would work in that slot.

Paper Doll layering should display the correct items on the outside layers, giving you a quick visual frame of reference as to what your Survivor is wearing.

Damage states are visualized on the Clothing Items and on the Paper Doll items, providing a quick visual frame of reference for whether items need to be repaired or not.

You can access the new Clothing UI from the Radial menu, from the Backpack interface, or using the C hotkey.

 

WETNESS, FREEZING, & DRYING

In certain weather types, your exterior Clothing layer now accumulates Wetness. As items become Wet, they lose some of their Warmth value, and become heavier. Once an item is 100% Wet, it begins to slowly Freeze. Frozen items lose more of their Warmth value, and become heavier. An item’s Warmth value when Wet depends on the Material type. Ex. Wool retains more Warmth when wet, than Cotton.

Wet and Frozen items can be dried when worn or placed near a Fire, or when worn in interior locations with above freezing temperatures. Each Clothing item has a different rate at which it dries, depending on the Material type.

Dry Clothing protects your body from accelerated Hypothermia risk, and Frostbite.

 

CLOTHING ITEM STATS

Every Clothing Item now has a series of Stats which are displayed when you select that item in the Clothing interface. Gear selection and maintenance will require a balance between these various factors.

 

Stats include:

* Warmth: How much Warmth this item affords. The Warmth of all *worn* Clothing items is totalled and used to modify the Air Temperature. The Feels Like temperature (accessible from the Tab key) is the result of [Air Temp] – [Clothing Warmth]. Ex. If the Air Temp is -20C, and you are wearing Clothing that offers a combined total +10C Warmth, the “Feels Like” temperature is -10C. We then use this -10C “Feels Like” to calculate how quickly your Cold Bar depletes. Keep in mind that some types of materials (ex. Wool) still offer Warmth when they are wet; others do not (ex. Cotton).

* Windproofness: How much Windchill protection the Clothing item provides. This value reduces the effect of Windchill in reducing your “Feels Like” temperature.

* Waterproofness: How water repellent this item is, which modifies how quickly it becomes Wet.

* Weight: How much an individual Clothing item weighs. Remember, any Clothing items worn or carried in your inventory all count against your total Inventory Capacity. Wet and Frozen items will weigh more than those same items when they are dry.

* Condition: A % range that reflects the current physical Condition of an item, between 100% (New) and 0% (Ruined). Item Warmth, Warmth When Wet, and Waterproofness scales with Condition, ex. an item’s capacity to provide Warmth is compromised as it becomes more worn out.

* Mobility: Bulkier or more restrictive clothing items may impact how quickly you can move through the world. This is expressed as a % decrease of your Sprint stamina. For example, if you wear a combination of bulky clothing items that reduce your Sprint by 10%, you’ll notice that reflected in the size of available Sprint resource in the HUD meter. Note that this only affects Sprinting and not Climbing.

* Protection: How much this item protects from Physical damage to your Survivor, including Wildlife attacks, Falls, Burns, etc. The higher your total Protection %, the less damage you will take from these events.

Deeper Stats and differentiation through tuning means that you can now create Clothing combinations that support different playing styles or daily goals. For example, if you intend to make a fast supply run to a nearby location, it makes sense to wear light waterproof clothing to optimize your Inventory capacity for supplies you may find. If you’re heading into unknown territory and scouting an area you think might have hostile wildlife, you may opt for heavier items that offer more physical protection, at the expense of some mobility and carrying capacity.

 

REVISED LOOT TABLES

We’ve revised all the Loot Tables, to better distribute Clothing around the world. We’ve also hand-placed more items and balanced the availability of the rarer Clothing items. You should find the search more rewarding. You should not find too many repeat items per container, although it may occasionally happen. You should generally find Clothing items where you would expect to find them. Keep in mind that Loot availability is modified by your Experience Mode.

 

FROSTBITE AFFLICTION

Now that players can visualize what their Survivor is wearing in each location, we have the means to properly communicate Frostbite Risk.

Through exposure (i.e. when an area of the body is not protected by Clothing), or due to clothing items becoming Frozen, an area of the body will begin to accumulate Frostbite Risk (expressed as a %). One this risk becomes 100%, your Survivor will receive a Frostbite Affliction in that area. Frostbite does permanent, irreparable 10% damage to your Survivor’s Condition (note: this tuning may change over time). You can track Frostbite afflictions in the First Aid screen (accessible from the Radial menu). It is possible to accumulate multiple Frostbite Afflictions — one per major area of the body. Once you have a Frostbite affliction, your maximum Condition will never recover beyond that point.

The speed at which your Frostbite Risk increases depends on the Air Temp, and the area on your body. For example, Frostbite Risk increases more quickly in the extremities — hands and feet — than on the Torso.

Keep in mind that in addition to Frostbite, you still have to monitor Hypothermia risk, which works as it did previously.

We intend to build on this system in the future, by adding modifiers to Skills requiring dexterity (ex. Crafting, or Archery, etc.) when you have Frostbite damage to the Hands, for example.

 

IMPACT TO PRE-EXISTING CLOTHING

One outcome of this update is that some Clothing items that exist in your current Inventory may change, post-update. This includes, to varying degrees, item names, descriptions, but also statistics. We apologize in advance if this results in you losing the benefit of a favourite Clothing item. We hope that on the whole, you’ll appreciate all the new benefits offered by the enhanced system.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES: STAMINA

We’ve modified the Stamina tuning to reflect changes in the clothing system, notably the inclusion of Mobility. You’ll find that you can now sprint for shorter bursts but the Stamina recovery is much quicker. Also, the Fatigue cost of Sprinting has been reduced, so over the course of a day you’ll be able to Sprint more before you get Exhausted. This is modified by the Mobility penalties of wearing bulky clothing items, which reduce your Stamina — as indicated by the right side of the Stamina bar being blocked out with a section of red. This indicates how much Stamina you are “losing” due to Clothing choices.

 

##

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX v.386 CHANGELIST

* [NEW!] Addition of new region: Forlorn Muskeg

* [NEW!] Addition of new enhanced Clothing system and assets; refer to the detailed design notes on this new system as it changes core gameplay significantly!

* [NEW!] Affliction: Frostbite

* [Crash] Fixed intro video crash on Windows XP

* [Crash] Fix for rare crash when placing footprints

* [Gameplay] Retuned Sprint Stamina recovery and Fatigue cost

* [Gameplay] Retuned cool downs on Heated drinks; they will now stay warm much longer

* [Gameplay] Retuned Hypothermia recovery times

* [Gameplay] Retuned Hypothermia Risk times; it now takes longer to develop Hypothermia

* [Gameplay] Hypothermia recovery times now modified by Experience Mode

* [Gameplay] Added ability to relight a burned out Campfire

* [Gameplay] Made Scrub Brush harvestable for fuel

* [UI] Added new Clothing “Paper Doll” interface

* [UI] Decoy moved to the Camp Craft submenu on the radial

* [UI] Fix for buttons overlapping when progress bar is active on inventory UI

* [UI] Accelerant now stacks (no longer degrades)

* [Bug] Fixed bug that caused Fluffy to fall through the floor of the Dam

* [Bug] Fixed bug that prevented Challenge retries from working properly

* [Bug] Fixed bug that caused audio to be muffled after started a game after a drowning death

* [Bug] Fixed bug that caused wind audio to cut out in interiors

* [Bug] Fixed issue where it was possible to equip partially crafted clothing items

* [Bug] Fixed bug with showing “Repair” instead of “Read” for books when using gamepad

* [Bug] Fix issues with Distress Pistol not animating and playing audio

* [Bug] Fixed snow shelter rendering glitches

###END OF CHANGELIST###

 

Nov. 2 2016

Hello,

We’ve hotfixed The Long Dark to v.375 to wrap up the 4 Days of Night Event and fix a pair of related issues that had surfaced.

We’d also like to hear your feedback on 4 Days of Night. Please take our community survey and let us know what you think: http://svy.mk/2eW7P8S

– The Hinterland Team

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX HOTFIXED to v.375 CHANGELIST

*Fixed issue with Cabin Fever and Intestinal Parasite Afflictions needing to be cured multiple times if contracted during the 4 Days of Night Event
*Fixed issue where Glowing Red Eyes persisted in wolves past the end of the 4 Days of Night Event.
*4 Days of Night Event disabled

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 

Oct. 29 2016

Hello,

We’ve hotfixed The Long Dark to v.373, to remove Parasites and Cabin Fever afflictions for the duration of the “4 Days of Night” event.

Apologies for any inconvenience these afflictions may have caused, due to eternal darkness and not being able to recover properly.

Please note that this fix will also apply to Parasites and Cabin Fever afflictions in current in-progress games.

– The Hinterland Team

 

Sept. 27 2016

Hello community,

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.365 to fix some bugs in the recent update, Vigilant Trespass.

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX HOTFIXED to v.365 CHANGELIST

* Fixed issue with Flare Brandish not playing audio or warding off wildlife when player stamina low
* Fixed issue with unlit light sources being unequipped when picking up items with double click
* Fixed camera issues when entering tilted vehicles
* Fixed crashes due to quitting game during fade outs of scene transitions or exiting vehicles
* Fixed crash that could occur when renaming a Journal
* Fixed issue with being able type text in a Journal if you died while editing
* Fixed issue with toilets disappearing when loading old saves
* Fixed glitch with lit Matches animation when inspecting an item or container
* Fixed issue with Storm Lantern playing ignite audio when running out of fuel
* Fixed issue with movement speed if Struggle is triggered when player is crouching
* Optimized audio in Desolation Point to prevent potential sound hitches
* General fixes to Environment art and collision

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 

Sept. 22 2016

Hello Community,

We’ve just updated The Long Dark to v.364,“Vigilant Trespass”. This update introduces several new features and changes to content, outlined below. A full changelist can be found at the end of this message.

Here’s a video that discusses some of the changes introduced in “Vigilant Trespass”. https://youtu.be/OTx2Fv1dJoU

New Experience Mode: Interloper

We’ve added a new Experience Mode: Interloper. Interloper is a highly challenging mode that focuses on self-sufficiency in survival. It is the most “extreme” of the Experience Modes for the following reasons:

* The world becomes more hostile to you as you play. Global temperature drops, wildlife and fuel resources become more scarce, and Blizzards become more frequent.
* There are no Rifles in the world.
* Apart from the Hacksaw and Hammer, which spawn rarely in the world, you need to create all your own improvised tools (ex. Hatchets, Knives, etc.).
* The best Clothing and Food items do not spawn.
* Wolves are more rare, but also more deadly.
* Wildlife becomes more rare over time.

New Challenge Mode: Hunted, Part Two

We’ve added the follow-up challenge to Hunted. In Hunted, Part Two, you must track the Old Bear from the Trapper’s Cabin, to its Den. Keep an eye out for tracks and blood drops. The weather may not cooperate!

Improved World “Decay” Systems

We’ve made some changes to how various systems work to ensure that, over time, the Sandbox becomes gradually more challenging over time. This is to combat the sense that the game becomes too easy once players have made it past a certain threshold in their survival skill and with improvised gear and tools. The new Experience Mode, Interloper, shows the most extreme version of this updated “Decay”, but we’ve applied it to all pre-existing Experience Modes as well. In general, we tune about a dozen variables differently as the game progresses over time, including (amongst other things): wildlife spawn behaviour, weather patterns, global temperature, and the availability of fuel resource spawns. The rate at which this “decay” occurs depends on the Experience Mode, with Pilgrim and Interloper being on opposite ends of the spectrum. Our intent is that these changes ensure the level of challenge in the game remains engaging over long-term Sandbox games, but consistent with the level that players would expect for that particular Experience Mode.

First-Person Presence & Updated Locomotion

We’ve updated all our in-game Light Sources with first-person animations. This includes: Flare, Lantern, Torch, Brand, Matches. Lantern placement has also been modified to work better with first-person hands.

Both Male and Female hands are represented. For now, we are not visualizing custom player clothing or gloves/mittens on the hands.

Please note that there may still be glitches with this system, as well as unanticipated effects to some of the in-game interactions.

We’ve updated our Locomotion animations to work better with the First-Person hands. You will see equipped light sources in hand when walking, though hidden while sprinting.

We’ve also modified the way Sprinting works — you can no longer sprint backwards, nor sprint-strafe in perfectly lateral directions (though it is still possible to sprint forward and on an angle).

Updated Rest & Passing Time Interface

Our last pass on the Rest and Passing Time interface was confusing for players, so we’ve updated both these interfaces.

Now, to Pass Time, you use the Radial > Campcraft menu to select the “Pass Time” option (the icon is a Deck of Cards). You will now get real-time feedback on how Passing Time is affecting your Status, and you can interrupt Passing Time at any time.

Please keep in mind that the previous Warmth bonus during Pass Time was an artifact from the use of the Rest menu, and was not an intended bonus. You can now Pass Time anywhere (i.e. you do not need a Bed or Bedroll).

Rest works as it always has — you can Rest from the Bedroll or any Bed. Both interfaces have been updated to clarify your current Status, to help you make a better decision about how long you want to Rest or Pass Time.

Wolf Decoy Exploit Fix

We’ve fixed the Wolf Decoy exploit. Decoys will now cause Wolves to “retreat” for a period of time, but they will no longer stand there making an easy target. Only Meat (includes Fish and Guts) may now be used for Decoys, and the “Drop Decoy” action will automatically select the “smelliest” (i.e. lowest Condition) meat in your Backpack.

Beachcombing

We’ve updated the Coastlines to have open water. You’ll find that useful things occasionally wash up, but keep an ear out for signs of weak ice. If you fall in the water, it’s instant Hypothermia and your clothes will all be Wet!

New Skills: Archery & Mending

We’ve added two new skills: Archery, and Mending. Keep in mind that we’re still iterating on the Skills system, so our plan is to continue tuning and expanding this system over time.

Feat Slots

Based on feedback from the community, we’ve modified how we handle Feats. Now each Experience Mode supports a number of active Feats — 5 for Pilgrim, 4 for Voyageur, etc. During the Sandbox setup, you’ll need to activate any Feats you’ve unlocked so far, and those Feats will be active for that particular Sandbox game.

If you prefer not to use Feats, simply do not activate any of them. Also, please keep in mind that you can’t enable Feats you’ve unlocked in your current game.

A Few More Tweaks

We’ve rebalanced Snow Shelters to be a little less effective. Linux users can now Alt-Tab without audio becoming corrupted. We’ve added a warning to help avoid burning partly-researched Books. Cleaning your Rifle no longer improves the Rifle Firearm skill. Cooking Fish now produces a small amount of usable Lamp Oil.

We’ve also fixed several bugs; the full changelist will be published once we migrate the Test Branch to the Main Release.

New Languages

Apart from any new text added in this Test Branch (which hasn’t been translated yet), you should find the Sandbox has now been translated into: Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Finnish, and Dutch.

 

Middleware Updates

In this Test Build, we’ve updated Unity and also Wwise (our audio engine). We don’t think this will impact anyone, but it’s possible that these updates may have affected stability. You may notice this particularly around graphics, and audio. Please make sure you report any bugs around unusual graphics glitches, audio issues.

NOTE ON TEST BUILD SAVES

As noted during the Test Build process, we are not carrying progress from the Test Build back into the Main Branch. This is to prevent any bugs or issues captured in your Saves, from being introduced back into your Main Branch games.

***Please note that current in-progress games from the Main Branch should continue working as expected with Vigilant Trespass.***

Also, please make sure your drivers are updated!

*****

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX UPDATE v.364, “VIGILANT TRESPASS” — FULL CHANGELIST

NEW FEATURES

* Added new Experience Mode: Interloper
* Added new Challenge: Hunted, Part 2
* Added full First-Person Presence for Light Sources: Flare, Torch, Brand, Lantern, Matches
* Added Beachcombing Gameplay
* Added Archery Skill
* Added Mending Skill
* Iteration on “World Decay” systems across all Experience Modes, focused particularly on: global temperature, weather patterns, wildlife presence, blizzard frequency, and fuel resources
* Iteration on Feats system; players now activate a limited number of unlocked Feats per Sandbox game

CRASHES FIXED

* Fixed rare crash when firing Arrows
* Fixed rare crash issue in Fire UI
* Fixed rare crash in Badges UI
* Fixed rare audio crashes
* Fixed crash issues that could occur in the Snow Shelter UI
* Fixed rare crash related to Cabin Fever
* Fixed rare crash when accessing the Log screen
* Fixed rare crash when cancelling Firestarting
* Fixed rare crash when being stalked by a Wolf
* Fixed “Many Campfires” Out of Memory crash
* Fixed crash that could occur when trying to force burn an unread research book
* Fixed rare crash that could occur when firing the Survival Bow
* Fixed crash that could occur when entering a Struggle and holding a lit Flare/Torch/Brand

GAMEPLAY TUNING

* Cooking Fish now produces a small amount of Lamp Oil (varies based on Fish type and weight)
* Tuned Snow Shelter dismantling resources
* Hacksaws can now be used to harvest Saplings and Tree Limbs
* Updated the Bed and Bedroll interfaces to support Passing Time as well as Rest
* Enabled Users to view status overlay when Rope Climbing – but not the radial menu
* Tuned Hacksaw per-use decay rate
* Fixed Decoy exploit; Wolves will no longer make an easy target!

FIXES

* Fixed issue where brandishing the Flare did not increase Fatigue
* Fixed issue where player could drop Decoys when in a Snow Shelter or vehicle
* Fixed issues with drag-and-drop behaviour in Containers
* Fixed issue with Inventory sort icon colliders overlapping
* Fixed issue with audio when dragging scrollbar
* Fixed alpha issue on car windows that caused trees/foliage to not sort correctly
* Fixed floating objects after breaking down furniture in Farmhouse
* Fixed issue with player crashing through top of Snow Shelter after picking up items
* Fixed issue with debug screenshot behaviour
* Fixed issue with Brands providing a Heat Bonus when placed near a fire
* Fixed issue where players could become stuck on a black screen when retrying a Challenge
* Fixed being unable to light Torches from a fire
* Fixed issue where players could add Coal to a fire at an invalid (too low) temperature
* Fixed audio dropping out after a player Alt+Tabs away from the game
* Fixed issue with falling snow passing through walls in Forestry Lookouts
* Fixed issue that caused wildlife to sometimes become stuck on chunks of ice
* Fixed issue with Wildlife trying to pathfind into deep water
* Fixed Flare effects showing through doors
* Fixed issue that caused corpses to disappear when only partially in view
* Fixed issue where players could place Camp Fires deep in mines
* Fixed issue with looping Flare ignition audio
* Fixed floating plates appearing after breaking down certain tables in Coastal Highway
* Fixed inaccurate Calorie cost preview for Passing Time
* Fixed Harvesting UI displaying incorrect requirements when harvesting with bare hands with the Master Harvesting Skill
* Fixed issue with stackable items merging with invalid stacks, when dropped from inventory
* Fixed issue with inaccessible backpack in Timber Wolf Mountain
* Fixed issue with Torches not being lit by other lit (dropped) Torches and Flares
* Fixed issue that prevented the Journal stats from populating when viewed from the Main Menu
* Fixed issue that caused the camera to rotate and pan unexpectedly
* Fixed issue that could cause incorrect camera FOV at the start of game
* Fixed missing cabins in Coastal Highway
* Fixed duplicate rope near Mystery Lake Western Access
* Fixed issue with the Extinguish/Brandish prompts disappearing too quickly
* Fixed issue that caused the Torch effects to become offset after a scene load
* Fixed issue that allowed players to fire the Survival Bow after dropping their last Arrow
* Fixed issue caused by picking up an Arrow and nocking it, while holding the Survival Bow
* Fixed issue that allowed all Bunkers to spawn in Mystery Lake in certain scenarios
* Fixed issue that allowed low detail trees to appear on the Main Menu when running Low or Medium quality

MISC.

* Memory optimizations
* Fixed various environment art and world collision issues

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

Thank you for playing, and we hope you enjoy Vigilant Trespass!

The Hinterland Team

 

June 30, 2016

Hello community,

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.349 to fix some bugs in the recent update, Penitent Scholar.

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX HOTFIXED to v349 CHANGELIST

* Fixed crash when cancelling actions like Sharpening and Cleaning, followed by completing a different action.
* Fixed issue with Fluffy spawning in the Dam 100% of the time
* Fixed issue with Wolf audio sometimes playing in 2D
* Fixed issue with incorrect buttons sometimes showing up on the Research UI screen
* Fixed overlapping messages when trying to refuel a full Lantern
* Fixed entering Dam at incorrect position/orientation
* Fixed spot in Whaling Warehouse where player could get stuck
* Fixed issue with vehicle colours changing after scene transitions
* Fixed floating backpack after harvesting chair in Trapper’s Cabin

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 

June 24, 2016

Hello community,

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.348 to address a few issues.

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX ALPHA HOTFIXED TO v.348 CHANGELIST

* Fixed problem with Efficient Machine progress not updating
* Ensure F8 Screenshot debug info cannot stay on screen permanently
* Prevent unintentional scrolling in Journal when accessed from Radial Menu
* Fixed badly-scaled Salty Cracker boxes.

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 

June 23, 2016

Hello community,

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.347, to address a few bugs since last night’s release of PENITENT SCHOLAR.

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX ALPHA HOTFIXED TO v.347 CHANGELIST

* Fixed crash that could occur on the Journal or Melt Snow UI when using a gamepad.
* Fixed bug that prevented the player from leaving a ruined Snow Shelter.
* Fixed issue with Wolves sometimes not attacking when player is crouched.
* Updated Fire Starting UI to make it more clear that Tinder is optional when Firestarting Skill is Level 3 or higher.
* Fixed bug that caused radios to float if supporting structure below them was broken down.
* Clarified objective text for Whiteout Challenge.
* Linux stability improvements (Required intro movies to be disabled).

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 

June 22, 2016

Hello community,

We’ve just updated The Long Dark Sandbox Alpha to v.346, which we’re calling “Penitent Scholar”.

A video that discusses the update’s major features and additions can be found here.

Full Changelist below:

THE LONG DARK — SANDBOX ALPHA UPDATED TO v.346 — “PENITENT SCHOLAR”

 

NEW LANGUAGES

* New Languages selectable from Display Options: French, Swedish, Korean, Chinese (Trad + Simplified), Japanese, Turkish, Norwegian

GAMEPLAY

* A Snow Shelter can now be crafted and deployed from the Radial Menu. This Shelter protects from wind and cold, but leaves you vulnerable to wildlife.
* First-pass Survival Skills system has been added to the game, with the first test skills implemented. See the Skills section of the Journal for more information. The first Skills are: Firestarting, Cooking, Carcass Harvesting, Ice Fishing, Rifle Firearm
* First-pass Feats system has been added to the game, with the first test Feats implemented. See the Feats section of the Badges menu interface for more information. The first Feats are: Book Smarts, Cold Fusion, Efficient Machine, Fire Master, Free Runner, Snow Walker
* You can now find Research Books in the world. Spending time Researching these books will improve specific Skills.
* Nomad Challenge added. Survive for 3 days each in 15 different locations around the world.
* Whiteout Challenge added. Stockpile supplies and survive for 30 days as a monster blizzard bears down on you.
* First-pass Almanac feature added (to support Whiteout gameplay).
* It is not longer possible to Craft complex items (requiring a Workbench) in the dark. You can still Craft simple things from the Radial Menu in the dark. You also cannot Repair items in the dark.
* Brandishing now costs Stamina and not Fatigue.
* When breaking down items, the raw materials produced now go directly into your Backpack (vs. being placed on the ground to then be picked up). This will result in fewer bugs relating to harvesting items being stuck behind geo.
* Fixed issues with Wolves sometimes walking in place.
* Warmth from Bedrolls is now taken into account when Resting in Vehicles. (Note: You also get a Warmth bonus from Bedrolls when Resting in the Snow Shelter.)
* You can now see descriptions for active buffs in the First Aid screen.

UI

* New Fonts added to the game.
* Brightness correction now occurs before the Main Menu. Subsequent Brightness changes can be made from the Display settings, accessible from the Main Menu.
* Reduced the number of stacking Damage event icons during Wolf struggles. (Note that the number of Damage events is still the same.)
* Added new Skill section to Journal
* Added new Almanac section to Journal
* Added new Objectives section to the Journal
* Added new Snow Shelter Build/Use/Dismantle UI
* Added Badge art for all Challenges
* Added Badge art for new Feats
* The Badge interface can now be accessed from both the Main Menu and the Pause Menu
* Added notifications for Skill Improvement, Skill level unlock, and Feat unlocks

AUDIO

* Added audio kickers for Skill improvement, Skill level unlock, and Feat unlocks

GENERAL

* Player is warped to a safe location if we detect player has fallen through world
* Screenshot keys no longer force UI to chance from Gamepad to Mouse/Keyboard
* Significantly reduced color banding in low light conditions
* [For Streamers] We’ve added support for being able to access a second monitor without Alt-Tabbing. (Note that this will become a toggle in a future hotfix.)

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

May 25, 2016

Hello Community,

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.338. In addition to several general bug and crash fixes, we’ve also made some changes to the in-game lighting.

Lighting Updates

In Tireless Menace, we added colour grading to improve the treatment of colours and light in the game for various times of day. Unfortunately, this had the unexpected side effect of making the game darker for some players, depending on their hardware.

In this Hotfix, we’ve updated all the building interiors to be more navigable during the day. We’ve also added an additional layer of Time of Day lighting, to better reflect the way you’d expect light to change over the course of the day. Prior to this, our interiors had two light settings — dark (from night), and light (from dawn to dusk). Now, we gradually ramp up the daylight from dawn, to peak brightness around Noon, and then start to fade down to full darkness by dusk again.

You can get a better idea of how these lighting changes look in-game in this short video.

Gameplay Tweaks

Fatigue Tuning: We also re-tuned Fatigue so it is consistent across all Experience Modes. Previously, since you would be less tired at the end of a Pilgrim day, this would mean you weren’t usually fully Exhausted at the end of your “active” day and therefore couldn’t Rest all the way through the night. Now, if you play with a good reasonably average activity level, you should be Exhausted by the end of a full day of exploration and activity, and be able to Rest all the way through the night. This should be true for Pilgrim, Voyageur, and Stalker.

Parasites: We’ve decided to limit the Intestinal Parasites Affliction to Stalker mode only. Parasites definitely make the game more challenging by introducing food scarcity built around risks to the use of available Wolf and Bear meat, which is more in line with the play style preferred by our Stalker players.

Cabin Fever: We’ve added a Cabin Fever Risk warning, to provide plenty of warning before you get Cabin Fever. This provides you with the opportunity to change your behaviour to avoid getting it. Depending on what we observe from our playtesters, if this is effective, we may re-introduce Cabin Fever as a potential risk earlier in the game (whereas currently the risk doesn’t become a real concern until you have survived for 50 days in Voyageur (25 days in Stalker; Cabin Fever doesn’t exist in Pilgrim).

More detail on the changes below:

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX HOTFIXED to v.338 CHANGELIST

* [CRASH] Fixed Mac-specific crash when exiting interiors in Coastal Highway.
* [CRASH] Fixed rare crash on Windows at startup.
* [SAVING] Fixed issue with game not saving on some Unicode Windows systems.
* [SAVING] Fixed problem with starting the game in an interior in Pleasant Valley and not saving the state of that interior.
* [GAMEPLAY] Improved the Warmth benefit gained by Sprinting.
* [GAMEPLAY] Added Cabin Fever Risk.
* [GAMEPLAY] Intestinal Parasites now only occur in Stalker.
* [GAMEPLAY] Reduced chance of fishing line breaking upon successfully catching a Fish.
* [GAMEPLAY] Tuned Fatigue so players are likely to be able to Rest through an entire night after a full day of activity.
* [ART] Improved lighting for all interiors, including a new system for Time of Day lighting.
* [MISC.] Added a Brightness slider to Display Options.
* [BUG] Fixed issue with AI sometimes teleporting while pathfinding.
* [BUG] Fixed issue with bears not respawning.
* [BUG] Fixed issue where antibiotics button could reappear when already taken dose for parasites that day.
* [BUG] Fixed issue with screen inverting when inspecting the Magnifying Glass.
* [BUG] Fixed issue with JackRabbit Island not being discoverable.

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 

April 29, 2016

Hello community,

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.332 to address some bugs discovered recently.

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX HOTFIX to v.332 CHANGELIST

* Fix for autosaves not working on some systems.
* Fixed issue with gear not decaying while in a specific container.
* Fixed issue with some gear sometimes getting smaller when removed from a container.
* Fixed issue that could cause large numbers of crows and crow feathers to spawn in specific locations.
* Fixed issue where Intestinal Parasites were affecting fatigue incorrectly.
* Fixed issue with Bears running too slowly.
* Fixed crash when unloading the Distress Pistol.
* Fixed Steam Controller issue that could accidentally trigger actions.
* Fixed issue with first person items remaining offscreen when Inventory exited with Tab.
* Fixed UI localized text overlap issues on HUD and journal.
* Added missing localization for “no afflictions” on radial.
* Fixed issue with AI sometimes spawning or despawning in view.
* Burned Brands can no longer be added to inventory by pressing Equip during inspection.
* Fixed problem with Save Journal option not appearing again after initial use
* Fixed problem with saving icon not showing up when saving a journal
* Fixed issue with equipped items not showing up in Examine UI

###END OF CHANGELIST###

 

April 23, 2016

Hello community,
Just another quick hotfix to address a few issues we discovered, including one bad Cabin Fever bug that would have affected players who started in v.325.

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX HOTFIXED to v.327

* Fixed issue where Cabin Fever couldn’t be treated if it was triggered during a v.325 savegame.
* Fixed crash when trying to light the Torch from a fire.
* Fixed issue when healing Afflictions that require two pills when holding a bottle with only one pill remaining.

###END OF CHANGELIST### 

 

April 22, 2016

HOTFIX! The Long Dark Sandbox Hotfixed to v.326

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.326, to address a few bugs and to make some tuning changes to mechanics we added in “Tireless Menace”.

Intestinal Parasites

We’ve rebalanced Intestinal Parasites.

Parasite Risk: Raw Wolf and Raw Bear meat behaves the same as before. For Cooked Wolf and Cooked Bear, you will gain Parasites Risk per piece you eat, per day. The risk will stack, and is expressed as a % in your First Aid screen. Every 24 hours, we will check against this Risk. If you don’t contract Parasites within that 24-hour period, we reset this Risk to 0%.

Parasites: Full-blown Parasites can now be treated with 5 Doses of Antibiotics or Reishi (Voyageur) or 10 Doses (Stalker). There is still no chance of contracting Parasites in Pilgrim.

Reishi Tea: You can now brew a cup of Reishi Tea using 2 Reishi Mushrooms (reduced from 3).

Cabin Fever

We’ve also re-balanced Cabin Fever:

* To get Cabin Fever, you now have to spend the majority of 6 days indoors.
* If you develop Cabin Fever, you will now be prevented from Resting *indoors* for 24 hours.
* We’ve added a “grace period” of 50 Days in Voyageur (25 Days in Stalker), during which you will not develop Cabin Fever. This is to “simulate” the idea that Cabin Fever only becomes an issue if you have been isolated for a long time.
* There is no risk of Cabin Fever in Pilgrim.

*****

We may make further changes to these systems as we continue experimenting with them and reviewing community playtest feedback.

The full changelist for v.326 is below:

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX HOTFIX to v.326

* Intestinal Parasites tuning (see above for details)
* Cabin Fever tuning (see above for details)
* Removed affliction indicator when player only has at-risk afflictions; this indicator still appears for “full” afflictions.
* Reishi Tea requirement reduced from 3 Reishi Mushrooms to 2
* Fixed issue with multiple wolves spawning in Desolation Point cave
* Fixed issue that could allow rifles to spawn outside Trapper’s Cabin in the Hunted Challenge
* Fixed issue with shutters disappearing on some Lake Cabins
* Reduced Bedroll per-use Condition decay
* Changed R3 to Click RS in Controls options

###END OF CHANGELIST###

 

Hello Community!
We just released a hotfix to The Long Dark Sandbox, to address a few issues we encountered from the big update, “Tireless Menace”, released earlier today.

THE LONG DARK SANDBOX HOTFIXED TO v.325 CHANGELIST

* Fixed issue where some containers could be inactive when containing hides.
* Fixed issue with not being able to rebind the Forward key.
* Fixed issue with not being able to Rest while having the Sprain affliction.
* Removed the “Sleep Until Rested” button as it was causing some bugs. This functionality can be accomplished with the current “Rest” and “Pass Time” buttons.
* Fixed issue with “Risk”-type afflictions preventing gradual Condition recovery.
* Sort items in inventory using the basic gear name (not the Condition descriptor).
* Fixed issue with player not being able to walk up steps to the deck of the Abandoned Harris Home.
* Fixed issue with blood effects not playing when wildlife shot with rifle or arrows.
* Fixed issue with controller disconnect screen appearing behind Challenge Mode game over UI.
* Fixed issue with reticule dot visible when holding the Distress Pistol.

###END OF CHANGELIST###

 

April 20, 2016

Hello community,

We’ve just updated The Long Dark Sandbox to v.321, which we’re calling “Tireless Menace”.

(Please note the Xbox release version of “Tireless Menace” is v.320; the difference between v.320 and v.321 are Steam-centric fixes.)

You can check out the update video here: http://bit.ly/1Vk62tV

Some highlights from the new update:

New! Radial Menu & Streamlined Status

To support our goals of deep immersion and informed decision-making, we have completely overhauled our user interface. The new Radial Menu replaces the previous Actions Panel and puts all the player’s major gameplay actions within one or two clicks or button-presses. The Radial has also made it possible to add a subset of basic craftables made directly from the menu, rather than requiring the use of a Workbench to make simple items like Torches, Bandages, Tinder Plugs, etc. The new Streamlined Status screen lets you quickly check on your Condition, Calories, and other important survival information without needing to refer to a separate screen that pulls you out of the game world. Overall we think this improves the player experience by keeping the gameplay flow uninterrupted.

New! Challenge Modes

We’ve added Challenge Modes to the Sandbox. These challenges add objective-based gameplay to the core Sandbox experience. To start with, we’re launching “Hunted, Part One”, where you have to escape a murderous bear stalking you from Pleasant Valley to Mystery Lake, with only the Distress Pistol for protection. And “Hopeless Rescue”, where you have to get from the Trapper’s Cabin, to the top of Timberwolf Mountain, and then over to fire a signal flare from the Lighthouse in Desolation Point, within seven days! We’re excited to see how you find these experiences.

Rest System Overhaul

We’ve turned Rest into a true resource. You can now only Rest when you are tired, or have an affliction that requires it. We’ve added a “Pass Time” mechanic to the Rest interface, which allows you to advance the clock, without gaining the calorie-reducing and healing benefits of Rest. And finally, we’ve added a Cabin Fever affliction, to keep things interesting for our Hibernators. We feel that these changes will go a long way towards keeping the game more interesting for long-term players, add another layer of strategic decision-making and resource management around where and when you Rest, and increase the challenge for those who’ve embraced long-term hibernation techniques.

Decay System Overhaul

Previously, items in the world would only start to decay once the player entered the region they existed in. This made tuning unnecessarily complicated and led to some undesirable player behaviours. As of this update, all items in the world now begin to decay as soon as a Sandbox is started. To balance this, all item decay rates have been re-balanced on a much longer time-scale — 1000+ days, as compared to the previous tuning which was on more of a 100+ day timescale. We’ve also added some decay modifiers to account for interior/exterior storage, and more realistic decay for fish and meat items (both raw and cooked). We feel that this overhaul keeps item decay at reasonable levels while supporting both nomadic (explorers) and sedentary (hunkering down) play styles.

First-Person Presence for Wolf Struggle

We’ve added first-person hands and held weapons to Wolf struggle, to hopefully clarify for players that they are actually using the best tool in their inventory during the struggle (which has always been the case, but never been well visualized before). We hope that this will help players understand what is happening during the Wolf struggle, and also serves as a proof of concept for further work we’d like to do to improve the sense of first-person presence in the game.

Those are just some highlights from Tireless Menace. See the full changelist below!
THE LONG DARK™ — SANDBOX UPDATED TO v.321, “TIRELESS MENACE” — FULL CHANGELIST
Gameplay, Tuning & User Interface

* New! Radial Menu and streamlined Status Screens.
* New! Sandbox Challenge Modes: “Hunted, Part One”, and “Hopeless Rescue”.
* New! Emergency Stim gear item. Emergency stims added into various locations (also made available in older saves) and also available in some containers.
* New! Brands can now be taken from a burning fire (replacing Torches taken from fires; Torches are still craftable).
* New! There is now a chance of getting Cabin Fever from spending too many continuous hours inside.
* New! There is now a chance of contracting Intestinal Parasites from eating too much meat from carnivores (i.e. Wolves and Bears).
* New! Added a Curiosity state to Wolf AI. There is now a chance that Wolves will hang back and follow the player from a distance, before deciding to either leave, or stalk the player.
* Refreshed wildlife spawning in all major regions (except bears).
* Overhauled item degradation behaviour and retuned all decay rates for 1000+ day timescale. Gear decay now begins at game start for all items in the world. All Clothing items decay based on a daily rate modified for interior/exterior storage, and player use. All food decay is based on storage (interior vs. exterior) and, for fish and meat, whether an item is raw or cooked. All tools continue to decay based on use only.
* Removed decay from Matches.
* Added various rope climbs and climbing anchor points across all regions (including access to a couple of previously inaccessible areas).
* Added rope gear spawns into a few locations (also made available in older saves).
* Journals can now be saved on the death screen. Saved journals can be viewed from the main menu. A maximum of 10 journals can be saved at any given time.
* Updated the gear naming system to reflect item condition (applies to Food and Clothing items, currently).
* Complete overhaul to Rest system. Player cannot Rest if there is no fatigue. Added a Passing Time mechanic to allow advancement of time.
* Added slow Condition gain while awake and healthy (i.e. no Afflictions, and not Starving, Exhausted, Dehydrated, or Freezing).
* Added Hypothermia Risk affliction, as an early warning system to help avoid “surprise” Hypothermia.
* Added more stats tracking including: Intestinal Parasites, Cabin Fever.
* Differentiated all light sources more clearly, by tuning burn times, Brandishing effectiveness, and item “cost”. This applies to Torches, Flares, Brands, and Lanterns.
* Flares are now Brandished and not thrown.
* AI will now ignore dropped Torches and Flares.
* Harvesting Branches now produces 3 Sticks (increased from 2).
* Harvesting Sticks now produces 2 Tinder Plugs (increased from 1).
* Hatchets now modify Branch harvesting time correctly.
* Brandishing now only works if an item is lit.
* Items that decay to 0% Condition will now be marked Ruined, but persist in the world.
* Increased the Wind speed required to blow out existing fires, as well as which prevents fires from being started. This should reduce instances of strong fires being blown out suddenly due to wind changes.
* Delay condition-loss from Bear struggle until the struggle animation is complete. (This does not apply to Wolf struggles.)
* Combined Stats with Journal. Made accessible from Main Menu and Deathscreen as well as in game.
* Simple Crafting now accessible directly from Radial Menu (see above for more details).
* Updated art for Feed Fire screen.
* In the Options screen, Key Bindings will now display a mouseover effect.
* Show sheltered icon when in caves and other large enclosed spaces outdoors.

Art, Animation, FX

* New! Added experimental First-Person presence for Wolf Struggles with Knife, Hatchet, and Prybar.
* New! First pass on colour grading.
* New! Added rim lighting effect for night-time lighting. It should be more possible to see the “edges” of snow banks and things on clear, moonlit nights, enhancing night-time navigation.
* Improved the Bear model and texture.
* Improved the Bear animations.
* Improved the Wolf animations.
* Updated the visual effects for Torches, Flares, Lanterns, and Brands, so that flames begin to “sputter” when you are running low on burn time.
* Added new Footprints system, which improves the footprint visuals as well as respects weather conditions; footprints will persist for a longer period of time, unless filled in by snow or high winds. (Future improvements to this system will be focused on enhanced Tracking gameplay.)
* Improved draw distance for falling snow.
* Updated the “light shafts” window effect to improve performance.
* Increased the visibility of blood drops, to aid with tracking wounded animals.
* Added blood splatter effect when player is injured by blood loss event (ex. during wolf struggle), when wildlife is hit, and when a carcass is harvested. Also, when hit, the first blood drops from a bleeding animal will be larger, to help the player determine the direction of the animal’s movement.

Misc.

* New! The game now supports Steam Cloud Saves for Windows, Mac and Linux. This means that you can continue to play your saved games across multiple systems (provided you are using the same Steam account).
* New! More graceful handling of corrupt or incompatible save games. Saves will be shown as corrupt or incompatible in the UI, allowing players to remove them and avoiding system crashes due to corrupted save files.
* New! All game sessions are now saved upon start, not at first Rest or interior/exterior transition. This should result in fewer “mysterious” save losses when players abandon games before they have been auto-saved.
* Improved Steam Controller support. All in-game actions can now be rebound using the steam controller configuration screen.
* Particle optimization now active for Windows. This should result in better performance of heavy snow and blizzard conditions for some players.
* Mac and Linux rendering now uses OpenGL 4.1, which should result in some performance improvements for players on those platforms.
* Added error handling for updating to default key-bindings due to the addition of new controls (ex. the new radial menu is bound to the Space Bar by default). Note that this error will only be seen if a newly added binding was already in use.
* The save icon now appears when saving the player profile.
* Added save file compression which results in smaller save files and faster cloud-save uploads.

Audio

* New! Added master volume slider.
* Added more general ambient and exploration music, and fixed some issues that were preventing ambient music from playing in certain circumstances.
* Fixed issues that were preventing desired gameplay speech from playing. As a result, you should hear more gameplay-relevant voice feedback from the survivor personae.
* Overhauled struggle audio for both Wolves (to account for new first-person presence) and for the Bear struggle (to make it more impressive).
* Footstep audio now differentiates between shoes, boots, and bare feet.

Bug Fixes

* We now display an error message if user tries to use a stove to start a fire but are missing all of the required items.
* Fixed issue where you could get stuck in an infinite cooking loop when using gamepad/controller.
* Fixed issue where you could get stuck in an infinite crafting loop.
* Fixed issue where you could quit the game in the middle of a save, which would result in corrupted save files.
* Fixed issue where worn-out tools could be used one extra time.
* Fixed Distress Pistol using wrong ammo icon on inventory screen.
* Fixed issue where the First Aid screen would not update if an affliction healed itself while the screen was open.
* Fixed a bug causing the player to holster the held item while cancelling item placement.
* Fixed issue where blood trails were only being left when wildlife was fleeing.
* Bears are now spawned facing outwards from Dens. This helps fix some pathing issues when the bear attempts to leave the Den.
* Fix issue with items being left behind when transitioning scenes with item placement in progress
* Fixed issue with corpses getting re-oriented after loading a save.
* Fixed issue where players could add fuel to fires that had already blown out (the fire FX didn’t reflect this state).
* Fixed issue with camera sometimes crashing into geometry when placing a campfire.
* Fixed issue with being able to place snares too close to geometry, causing the snared rabbit to be inaccessible
* Fixed issue with Bear playing sleep animations after leaving the sleep AI state.

### END OF CHANGELIST ###

 

The Long Dark Sandbox — Hotfix to v.304 (Xbox One)

February 19, 2016

Hello,

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark on Xbox One to v.304 to address some issues regarding the stability of game saves.

Changelist

  • * Various fixes to address remaining known savegame corruption issues.

### End of Changelist ###

 

The Long Dark Sandbox — Hotfix to v.303 to fix XBox One Savegame Issues
February 3, 2016

Hello Xbox community,

For a couple of months now, we’ve been working hard to fix an issue that’s been affecting some of our Xbox players: loss of saves. This is an issue we take extremely seriously, due to the game’s permadeath nature. We know how frustrating it is to lose progress in this way, and we’ve been working hard to figure out what has been causing these issues.

Twice before, we thought we solved the issue, and we rolled out fixes. Both times, we realized that the save issues were multi-faceted, and went deeper than we realized.

Today, we’re rolling out a third fix for the Save system on Xbox One, which we believe addresses the last remaining known issue. We’ve done a lot of testing on it and have worked with Microsoft to ensure this addresses the issue.

We appreciate all the patience you have shown us while we’ve been working to fix these issues, and we are very hopeful that this latest fix puts the save loss bugs to rest.

If you encounter any more save game loss after this update, please send a note to: info@hinterlandgames.com, with as much detail as you can recall.

Thank you,

Raphael

—–

Raphael van Lierop

Founder & Creative Director

Hinterland Studio Inc.

 

THE LONG DARK HOTFIXED TO v.303 CHANGELIST (XBOX ONE ONLY)

Changelist

  • * Fixed issue where game would not suspend when in constrained mode, which could mean the player died while the game was left running in the background while the player did something else on their Xbox.
  • * Fixed issue where the game would crash if the player tried to cook too many items, too rapidly (button mashing).

### End of Changelist ###

 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.302
January 7th, 2016

We’ve just updated The Long Dark to v.302, to correct some issues. Changelist below.

Changelist:

  • * Fixed issue with some gear items respawning.
  • * Fixed disappearing doors on some cargo containers in Timberwolf Mountain.
  • * Fixed issue with Longest Burning Fire stat being recorded in seconds.
  • * Fixed expended Distress Pistol rounds sometimes being collectible after reloading a save.
  • * Fixed issue with Sharpening/Cleaning skill starting at 1 for old saves.
  • * Fixed menu navigation when LMB/RMB are bound to movement directions.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

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2015 Updates

This information can also be viewed it its entirety on the Hinterland Website's Update Archive.

 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.301

December 17th, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox Mode to v.301, to address the following issues:

 

Changelist:

 

*Fixed issue with parts of a Cave in Timberwolf Mountain disappearing when running Low or Medium Quality visual settings.

*Fixed issue with GPU over-usage when game not in focus.

*Fixed issue with player being stuck if attacked while climbing.

*Fixed problem with wildlife spawning at incorrect locations during player Rest (ex. mountain ledge).

*Fixed issue with the game saving when player at 0% Condition (death).

*Fixed issue with maximum fire duration stat being tracked when fires left burning in unloaded scenes, resulting in very long burn time stats.

*Fixed issue with world explored stat sometimes being incorrect when starting a new game.

*Fixed issue with initial fade from black on main menu being stuck, if the player mashes buttons before main menu load. [Controller]

*Fixed issue with being able to switch food items while cooking.

*Fixed issue where damage events were displayed when menu screens were open.

*Fixed issue with pain effects potentially turning blue when stacked together.

*Fixed animation glitches with the Distress Pistol, if trying to fire before aimed.

*Fixed issues with stacked items not transferring from a container correctly.

*Added check to give a non-duplicate default name for new saves (ex. multiple “SANDBOX 1” names).

*Gamepad B button now always cancels text input in Log. [Controller]

*We now display item Condition in the harvest section of the Examine screen.

*Fixed colour of text on the Crafting screen.

*You can now use WASD and arrow keys to scroll through the Log.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.298: “TIMBERWOLF MOUNTAIN”

December 15th, 2015

 

We’re excited to be able to share with you information about our December update, which we’re calling “Timberwolf Mountain”.

Please go here for a more detailed breakdown of features and content in our “Timberwolf Mountain” update:

The Long Dark Sandbox Update — Timberwolf Mountain

 

 

Changelist:

 

FEATURES & ADDITIONS

 

* Added new region: Timberwolf Mountain.

* Added Rope Climbing gameplay.

* Added Distress Pistol tool/weapon.

* Added Stats Screen that tracks current and historical Sandbox game data.

* Added Player Log that tracks locations explored, general status, and allows for players to write/edit Journal entries.

* Added Rifle Cleaning Kit tool, and Rifle maintenance gameplay.

* Added Sharpening Stone tool, and bladed tool maintenance gameplay.

* Added Sharpening Stones and Rifle Cleaning Kits to all Sandbox regions. Added spawning logic to ensure they spawn in old save games.

* Added Rifle Jamming.

* Added Fatigue-driven Rifle sway.

* Added pre-Aim reticle back to Bow.

* Added on-screen indicators for all types of damage.

* Added variant of Ice Fishing Hut that has flimsy door to provide shelter from wind.

* Updated Caves directly connected to the world so their interior temperature is modified by the exterior temperature, vs. a static temperature trigger.

* Added new Death, Near Neath, and Region music.

* Added some new landmarks in Pleasant Valley to help with the navigation to Timberwolf Mountain.

* Updated Wind system to affect trees, branches, grass, and reeds.

* Updated Stag model and animations, including carcasses.

* Updated Condition HUD indicators, to only appear when sub-conditions are critical.

* Updated the Stamina Bar to more clearly indicate when the player cannot sprint due to injuries, exhaustion, etc.

* Updated Location text labels.

* Updated the names of some of the “transition” regions, to give them a unique identity.

* Updated the Sandbox menu for improved usability.

* Updated Low Health screen effects to better communicate critical health status.

* Unlocked all playable Regions from the Sandbox menu. The player may now select any of the available regions without needing to find those locations through gameplay.

 

BUG FIXES

 

Rendering / Effects

 

* Fixed issue with mountains being rendered in front of chain-link fence in Pleasant Valley.

* Fixed issue where barrel smoke would be visible after re-equipping a holstered Rifle.

* [PC/Xbox] Fixed potential clipping of sun/moon above the line of the horizon.

 

Input

 

* Fixed issue where mouse could occasionally exit the active game window.

* Fixed issue where gamepad input was being received when game not in focus.

* Fixed issue with excessive GPU usage when game not in focus.

 

Gameplay

 

* Fixed issue where players would be able to accidentally set fires under themselves (leading to injury or death).

* Fixed issue where player could respawn inside rocks after falling through ice.

* Fixed issue where one of each relevant raw material item would remain after crafting an item.

* Fixed issue where 0-calorie food items could be returned to inventory.

* Fixed issue with Coal sometimes spawning in air.

* Fixed issue where the Rifle could be reloaded while in Aim mode.

* Fixed issue where Rifle could be fired after reloaded Aim was never released.

* Fixed issue where Rifle aiming was out of alignment with the iron sights.

* Fixed issue with not being able to break down respawned Hardwood and Softwood Limbs

* Fixed issue with breakable objects respawning after being broken down outdoors.

* Fixed rare black screen crash when harvesting a carcass with near zero meat

* Fixed issue with getting kicked out of vehicle when trying to place objects.

* Fixed issue with snare being put into trap mode when unset snare moved around.

* Fixed issue where branches/sticks/limbs would sometimes not spawn in areas they should.

* Fixed issue where animal corpses outdoors would thaw if the player was inside a sheltered location.

* Fixed issue where the Improvised Knife, Improvised Hatchet, Hammer, and Prybar, could not be used to clear Ice Fishing holes.

* Fixed issue where Arrows would become very large when hitting certain surfaces.

 

Save/Load

 

* Fixed rare crash in old games when saved during certain Moon phases.

* Fixed issue where if the survivor had a sprained wrist, a weapon would be re-equipped after loading the game.

* [Xbox Only] Fixed issue where players could play without being signed in to an Xbox profile, which would result in losing game progress when the console was turned off.

 

Achievements

 

* Fixed issue where players required an extra night to get the Night Walker achievement.

* Fixed issue where creating Reishi and Rosehip tea invalidated the Living Off The Land achievement.

 

User Interface (UI)

 

* Fixed issue where the game could crash when opening cans in the Cooking UI.

* Fixed issue where it was not possible to Cancel Cooking or Opening Cans actions.

* Fixed issue where Crafting buttons were visible while Crafting action was underway.

* Fixed issue where a burned out Torch could still be used to start a fire.

* Fixed issue with LMB+RMB causing placed objects to blur and be placed in the air.

* Fixed issue where the Inventory action label for Matches displayed “Equip” instead of “Strike”, as they must be used from first-person view.

* Fixed issue where the Main Menu would occasionally fade out when on a secondary menu layer.

 

Audio

 

* Fixed issues where audio could become distorted or muted when using Alt-Tab.

* Fixed issue where wind audio could sometimes disappear in Desolation Point.

* Removed error noises when triggering boil water/melt snow.

* Fixed issue with torch audio continuing to loop after harvesting a lit torch.

* Fixed issue where Mouse adjustment sliders in the Options Menu would not trigger a sound.

* [Xbox Only] Fixed issue where audio could occasionally stutter for streaming sounds.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.284 (Mac Only)

October 30th, 2015

 

Recently, we discovered that a small number of Mac players who had updated their Mac OSX to “El Capitan” had subsequently lost their save. After investigating, we discovered that El Capitan reset the default location for save files. We believe we have a fix for this issue — we are forcing El Capitan to save the game in a specific directory — which we’re rolling out in a Hotfix to v.284. This fix is only for the Mac version of the game. Details below.

 

With this fix, it should now be safe to update to Mac OSX “El Capitan”, without risk of losing game saves.

 

THE LONG DARK HOTFIX to v.284 FOR MAC PLAYERS

v.284 updates the Mac version of The Long Dark, to restore save files not found after upgrading to El Capitan.

 

Saves will now be located here for Mac players:

/users/username/.local/share/Hinterland/TheLongDark

 

v.284 will automatically restore old saves from:

/users/username/Library/Application Support/Hinterland/The Long Dark

/users/username/Library/Application Support/unity.Hinterland.The Long Dark

 

Note that v.284 will not overwrite or delete any data. If El Capitan users have created new saves, manually check the above two paths and copy the contents to the new save location: (/users/username/.local/share/Hinterland/TheLongDark).

 

NOTE FOR PLAYERS TRYING TO RECLAIM LOST SAVES:

Please note there is a chance that this v.284 update will restore saves that were previously lost due to the El Capitan update, but unfortunately we cannot guarantee this will work for everyone, as all these changes are being made on the OS-level and have nothing to do with The Long Dark itself.


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.282

October 30th, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.282 to address the following issues:

 

*Fixed issue introduced with the temporary Halloween theme that kept time from progressing in-game

*Fixed issue causing black screen to appear after disclaimer screen (XBox One only)

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.280 & SteamOS/Linux News

October 15th, 2015

 

In this update, we’ve focused on a general bug-fixing/optimization pass on The Long Dark, in anticipation of new features and content to be added by the end of the year. The game has become so big and we’ve added so much content this year that we just needed to take a step back and tidy up some of the performance issues and bugs that had piled up, particularly with the UI.

 

Changelist:

 

GENERAL FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS

 

* Outdoor load times have been reduced by about 30%.

* The moon now glows.

* The starfield is now projected on a sphere, and moves as night progresses.

* Fixed an issue with terrain grass disappearing if the user looked directly down.

* Reduced size of Rabbit Pelt gear item.

* General clean-up of Gear item positions in Inspect mode.

* Lighthouse – fixed floating clipboard after shelf breakdown

* Fixed placed arrows sometimes falling through the world.

* Fixed intermittent audio pauses/gaps [Xbox One]

 

GAMEPLAY FIXES

 

* Fixed issue where Rifle would occasionally be lost during a Struggle.

* Fixed issue with being able to instantly catch Rabbits in a Snare.

* Fixed intermittent issue with not being able to pick up used Snares.

* Fixed issue where broken arrows sometimes had higher Condition than when they were whole.

* Tuned wildlife respawn times in Mystery Lake, to bring them more inline with other regions.

* Chain-link fences no longer provide shelter from wind.

* Fixed issue where very small amounts of water could disappear from inventory when dropping water bottles.

* Added slight illumination to items in Inspection mode, to make them visible even when in low-light conditions.

* Made deer corpses in Desolation Point cave start unfrozen, and made corpses thaw when inside caves.

* Slightly increased spawn chance for Feathers.

* Added a small chance that Arrowheads may spawn in Cash Registers or Tool Chests.

* When Breaking Down an item, the spawned Raw Materials are now placed based on the interaction point and not the original object’s centre point.

 

SAVE SYSTEM FIXES

 

* Fixed issue where vehicle colours would reset between loads.

* Fixed issues with game failing to save, or failing to load old saves [Xbox One]

 

UI FIXES

 

* Updated Can Opening UI to use the cover-flow style, to make it more consistent with other selection UIs.

* Fixed missing icon on popup when harvesting Old Man’s Beard and Cattails.

* Fixed “Feed Fire” button placement so players are less likely to accidentally take a Torch from an active fire.

* Exiting the Repair or Tool Selection menus will now return you to the Harvest/Repair screens, rather than exiting.

* The UI now displays how much Kerosene gets used up when selected as an Accelerant during Firestarting.

* Non-stackable Firestarting tools (ex. Firestriker) now show their Condition value, vs. simply saying “None”, in the Firestarting UI.

* You can no longer modify the amount to be harvested while the harvesting action is in progress.

* Made some improvements to how we handle auto-repeat actions (ex. holding down a key or controller stick), which should help avoid accidental repetitions.

* Added the Time of Day information to the Rest and Ice-Fishing UI, to make it easier to plan out how long you want to Rest or Fish for.

* Added fire duration widget while time is accelerated when using fire.

* Fixed sort/filter icons not appearing on container screen [Xbox One].

* Added lantern and torch icons to equip popup.

* Fixed issue where “Rest Remaining” on first aid could round down to zero.

* Fixed issue where HUD condition icons were partially covered during time accelerated actions.

* Fixed issue with Inventory selection when dropping items from a stack while sorting by weight.

* Fixed issue where mouse cursor would reset to centre after using a first aid item.

* Fixed issue with Rifle not rotating around its centre-point in Inspection mode.

* Fixed issue where scrolling audio wouldn’t always play correctly, when scrolling through menu items.

* Torch Condition now visible from the Firestarting screen.

* Fixed issue with very short Repair actions not showing a progress bar.

* Fixed issue where smashing open a can from Feed Fire screen would return to Fuel tab, also added (Opened) tag to cans on Feed Fire screen.

* Fixed fuel display on Inventory screen and Refuel screen.

* Added gear pop-up for cooked or heated food items.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 

UPCOMING: STEAM OS, STEAM CONTROLLER & LINUX SUPPORT

We’re happy to share an update on our progress with Linux support. We have a Linux build of The Long Dark up and running in the studio, running on SteamOS, which is based on a Debian 7 Linux distro. The game looks great and runs well, but it needs more testing for us to be 100% confident in it.

 

We’re hoping that the Linux community will support this testing effort. Within the next few weeks, we’ll be launching an Experimental Linux Branch that current players can “opt in” to, to help with testing. We’ll also set up a Linux sub-forum — both in Steam and in our official community — so there’ll be a place to track bugs and provide feedback on performance, etc. Once the Experimental Linux Branch has had sufficient testing, we’ll fold Linux into our main release.

 

With this Linux work underway, we’re tracking towards full Steam OS and Steam Controller support for The Long Dark. Release date on that is still TBD. We’ll provide more info about the Steam OS release once we firm up our plans.


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.271

September 29th, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.271 to address the following issues:

 

* Fix for crash that could occur in Coastal Highway when approaching mine entrance. (This is not a known issue for XBox One)

* Fix for intermittent crash in Camp Office and Rural Store.

 

The following issues/fixes exist only for XBox One players:

* Improved framerate in outdoor levels

* Fixed heavy slowdown caused by too many footprints being left by wildlife

 

The following issues were fixed for Steam players in our 270 hotfix:

* Fixed issue with rifle not aiming straight ahead when turning camera

* Fixed bug with Reishi Tea sometimes not providing medicinal benefits

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.270

September 25th, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.270, to address the following issues.

 

Changelist:

 

* Fixed crash at startup that was affecting some Windows systems.

* Fixed issue with “Savegame Inconsistencies” message being shown incorrectly. All games that erroneously received this message will still have scores uploaded to Leaderboards.

* Re-calibrated Mouse Sensitivity to address issues introduced in a previous update.

* Added option to disable Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) for High and Ultra Display settings.

* We now dynamically update FOV based on multi-monitor setups. Previously, we only checked at game launch.

* Fixed issue that could sometimes cause gear to be duplicated when restoring an old save.

* Fixed issue with vehicles losing loot in trunks/gloveboxes when restoring an old save.

* Fixed bug that could rarely cause containers to disappear when doing a save/load.

* Added a *small number* of random spawn arrows and arrowheads, spread across the game world.

* Fixed issue where Improvised Hatchet was unable to harvest Birch and Maple Saplings.

* Fixed issue with getting stuck around The Riken in Desolation Point.

* Fixed issue with getting stuck in ice near Matt’s Truck in Desolation Point.

* Fixed Matt’s Truck so that players can no longer enter and get stuck inside it.

* Fixed issue with getting stuck along Skeeter’s Ridge in Pleasant Valley.

* Fixed issue with getting stuck in Broken Highway transition zone.

* Fixed issue with weather sometimes appearing to change immediately after leaving a building.

* Re-tuned low Condition blur effect to be less punishing.

* Fixed localization issues with status bar text.

* Fixed issue with location reveal text sometimes staying on screen permanently.

* Fixed issue with Required Material text always being red in the Repair UI. Now it’s only red if the player does not have the material.

* Fixed issue where Scarf Repair did not require the same tools as other clothing Repair actions.

* Fixed issue where arrow keys were not valid when turning Safe dials.

* Fixed issue where rifle would lag when turning camera while aiming.

* Fixed issue that could sometimes cause Reishi Tea to not provide medicinal benefits.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.265

September 18th, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed yesterday’s big update, “Desolation Point”, to fix a few issues.

 

Changelist:

 

* Fixed crash issue that could occur when re-loading certain interiors.

* Fixed problem with UI text shrinking at certain resolutions.

* Fixed issue with UI elements not being clickable at certain resolutions

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.264: “DESOLATION POINT”

September 17th, 2015

 

We’ve just updated The Long Dark’s Sandbox to v.264: “Desolation Point.”

 

Please take a minute to check out our latest update video, outlining the new features and content in the Desolation Point update:
https://youtu.be/xzAJG3WOL2c

 

We’re very excited to introduce a new region in this update, Desolation Point, a stretch of coastal highway pockmarked with the abandoned remnants of a formerly thriving whaling industry. You can find Desolation Point by going to the end of the Coastal Highway, passing through the Commuter’s Lament, and continuing onward. Good luck finding the way!

 

ITEM PLACEMENT

You can now place any gear item in a valid location in the world (vs. dropping it on the floor). Please review the Controls/Keybindings in Options for more details on how to accomplish this.

 

METAL FORGING GAMEPLAY

In addition to the new region, we’ve added Metal Forging gameplay. There is currently only one Forge in the game. It behaves as a hybrid of a Stove, and a Crafting Table. You first light the Stove part to build up heat, and then add Coal (a new fuel type which can be found in the mines scattered around the Sandbox world) to raise the forge’s temperature to sufficient levels. Using a Hammer and raw materials like scrap metal, you can now forge a small number of improvised tools.

 

WEATHER SYSTEM

We’ve also updated the Weather system, to allow for longer and smoother transitions in and out of weather states. We also telegraph bad weather (like blizzards) more, so you can begin to prepare yourself. Weather transitions now occur in patterns, so that you can gradually learn to “read” the weather. Keep in mind that there are multiple weather patterns for each weather type, and that weather patterns change from region to region.

 

HUD/UI UPDATE

We’ve removed all on-screen text from the HUD, and replaced it with icons. We’ve also replaced the old Survival Panel with a new Status screen, which is where you also access your Backpack, First Aid, Bedroll, and Fire-starting.

 

MULTIPLE SANDBOX GAME SLOTS

You can now run up to 5 simultaneous Sandbox games. Please note that there is still only one save slot per game, and this change does not affect permadeath in any way. Multiple Sandbox game slots just means that you can have multiple concurrent Sandbox games — for example, a separate Stalker and Voyageur run, one starting in Pleasant Valley and the other starting in Mystery Lake. You can now also stop fighting with your sibling/partner/spouse about whose turn it is to play the game!

 

OTHER CHANGES

There are many other changes! Please take a few minutes to check out our update video:
https://youtu.be/xzAJG3WOL2c

 

Changelist:

 

*Added new region, Desolation Point.

*Added new item placement system.

*Added Forging gameplay.

*Added new Tools: Hammer, Improvised Knife, Improvised Hatchet.

*Added new Fuel type: Coal

*Added new location discovered on-screen text.

*Replaced all HUD text with icons.

*Updated Survival Panel with new Status screen.

*Updated Weather system, both visuals and to introduce weather patterns.

*Updated Wind system and wind sounds. Wind now changes based on altitude, location, temperature, and time of day.

*Added new Gear Sound system. You can hear certain gear sounds when moving through the world, if you have certain items in inventory.

*Added wider support for gamepads on PC/Mac.

 

GAME TUNING & BUG FIXES

 

*Fixed issue with only rolling for food poisoning when partially eating an item

*Fixed brightness issues on Mac; lighting conditions now match PC

*Sort and Filter buttons shift to the active inventory or container section of the UI

*Players can now drink water directly from Inspection mode

*Light torch UI only shows fire option after clicking on a burning fire

*Fixed issue where players could not fill a container to 100% full

*Fixed issue with books changing weight after being dropped

*Struggle and Fire actions now use the Interact binding.

*When rebinding movement actions to arrow keys, arrows can navigate menus

*Fixed small delay after crafting an item where you can’t use the craft button

*Fixed confusing wording in “condition too low” when trying to harvest a carcass

*The game now saves when the player is woken up from sleep

*Fixed torches so they emit heat

*Fixed break down audio loop playing forever if break down is interrupted

*Dropped and scattered items will only be randomly oriented/embedded if in snow

*Only wake player up after fire dies out if player is freezing

*Player will not receive torn clothing events if not wearing any clothes

*Fixed AI issues with wolves after attacking player holding a flare

*Fix crafting exploit (switching items while crafting in progress)

*Fixed crafting issue that could sometimes require longer crafting time than necessary.

*Fix for graphical glitch related to light shafts [Xbox One]

*Modified struggle damage modifiers for various tools, and added modifiers for the new Improvised Knife, Improvised Hatchet, and Hammer

*Reduced the Condition-cost to tools when using them to clear ice-fishing holes

*You can now clear ice-fishing holes with Hammers and Prybars

*Increased Prybar durability

*Modified animal carcass harvesting times

*Tool chests and Toolboxes are now more likely to have tools in them

*Hammers can be used to break down crates, furniture, etc.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.258

August 13th, 2015

 

We’ve hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox Alpha to v.258 to introduce the following fixes on Steam and XBox One:

 

Changelist:

 

*Fixed bug with long survival times not increasing in very rare cases.

*Fixed issue with button collision being offset at certain resolutions.

*Fixed bug with Invert-Y not changing when modified in Options.

*Reduced brightness of snow at night.

*Fixed issue with falling out of world when loading save after falling through ice.

*Fixed problem with containers not restoring to correct location if previously stuck to ground.

*Fixed issue with confirmation dialog input being processed by UI underneath the dialog.

*Fixed bug with wolves sometimes making unprovoked attacks on players in Pilgrim Mode.

*Fixed issue with blood hit effects not playing on wolves.

*Increased wolf detection range for footstep audio when feeding.

*Fixed interior reset issue when spawning inside an interior (Xbox One only)

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.257

August 7th, 2015

 

We’ve hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox Alpha to v.257 to introduce the following fixes for Steam and XBox One:

 

Changelist:

 

*Fixed bug where wolves would sometimes continue to attack after being killed.

*Allow hypothermia to reverse itself as long as player isn’t freezing.

*Fixed bug that could cause multiple infections from a single infection risk.

*Fixed issue that caused multiple infection risks in the same location to not heal properly.

*Fixed crash when an item finishes curing while being viewed in inspection mode.

*Fixed crash that could occur when loading very old profiles.

*Fixed ammo loss issue when transferring a stack of single rounds from a container to inventory.

*Fixed exploit for making fires last forever with a single torch.

*Fixed issue with option sliders not resetting after backing out of menus.

*Fixed typo in Pilgrim description.

*Fixed compatibility issues with OBS and Xsplit. [Issue only reported for PC users]

 

The following changes apply to PC/Mac players only, and will be included in the next hotfix for XBox One:

 

*Fixed repair button not appearing first time repair screen is shown.

*Fixed issue with being able to equip partially crafted Bow from inspection mode or with hotkeys.

*Fixed problem with wolves being able to attack player inside the derailed train in Mystery Lake.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.256: “DEEP FOREST”

July 31st, 2015

 

We’re excited to share that we’ve just updated The Long Dark to v.256 — our biggest gameplay update yet. Since we’ve changed some core systems in this update, we’ve produced a short video that outlines how the update modifies current gameplay:
http://hinterlandgames.com/deep-forest-v-256/

 

Please take a few minutes to review the video. Full changelist below:

 

Changelist:

 

GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS

 

* 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!

 

* Updated outdoor Campfire system. You now need to add fuel to increase the burn time and heat output of a fire. In Pilgrim and Voyageur experience modes, any fire will immediately halt all Condition loss due to Freezing (note that you won’t warm up unless the fire temperature exceeds the outside temperature). In Stalker, the fire temperature needs to exceed the outdoor temperature before you begin to warm up.

 

* Updated the Wolf Struggle mechanic. Simplified the controls and interface. Wolf Struggle now inflicts damage events over time. Fighting back reduces the duration of the Struggle, and is modified by weapon and experience mode.

 

* Updated the First Aid system. Replaced the previous First Aid interface and also extended the First Aid system to support multiple afflictions per type (ex. multiple simultaneous blood loss events), as well as added new afflictions/injuries including Wrist Sprains, Lacerations/Bruising, and Hypothermia.

 

* Updated the player movement model to remove Running. We now have Walk (base speed has been increased), and a discrete Sprint action that has a stamina component. Stamina regenerates slowly, and Sprinting increases Fatigue.

 

* Physical objects now properly occlude snow and wind FX. If you see something blocking snow, it means it will provide shelter from the wind.

 

* Replaced the Warmer/Colder HUD text with a sheltered icon (wind with shield). When this icon is present, you are protected from windchill and fires will not be affected by wind. (Keep in mind that wind direction changes more frequently now).

 

* [Controllers only] Rebound Crouch to Left Shoulder to avoid accidental use.

* [Controllers only] Remapped Inventory navigation to D-pad, LS-click for sorting.

 

VISUAL/AUDIO IMPROVEMENTS

 

* Added ambient bird-song which communicates things like wildlife presence, temperature, location, and time of day. Sudden ducking of song from small birds may indicate the presence of predators.

* Added 1,500 additional ambient sound effects for high-winds and blizzards. Players should now be able to identify man-made shelters from afar, by listening to how the wind behaves (ex. metal rattling in the wind).

* Updated the campfire, torch, flare, and lantern fire FX.

* Updated the snow visual FX and increased weather and wind variability to create a more dynamic weather environment in the game. Performance of snow and blizzards has also been improved.

* The reticle now fades out unless there is something interactive within range.

 

BUG FIXES

 

* Screenshots now work when HUD is disabled

* Fixed issue with fish weight not saving/restoring properly

* Fixed some bugs related to wildlife audio sometimes distorting

* Fixed issue with campfires sometimes not being allowed to be lit in caves.

* Adjusted the two most basic beds to give some warmth bonus

* Removed equip button in inventory for broken rifles/bows

* Tuned deadzone for controller sticks to make fine adjustments easier

* Fixed white outlines on trees at night

* Exploration achievement fixed

* Fixed issue that could sometimes cause arrows to become compressed

* Peaches now lose heat over time once cooked

* Gear weight shown to two decimal places in inventory UI

* Allow extra fuel from harvested lamps to fill other lamps in inventory

* Cancelling lantern refuel will now give you fuel based on the percentage of refuelling

* [XBOX Only] Auto select of profile if only one exists

* [XBOX Only] Fix issue with unresponsive controls when using a second wired controller

* [XBOX Only] Detect and handle controller disconnects

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.244

June 18th, 2015

 

Just a quick note to let you all know that we’ve released the v.244 hotfix for the PC/Mac version to address the following two issues:

 

*Issue where players with extra control devices plugged in (ex. steering wheel) will interfere with mouse & keyboard controls. There will now be a “Gamepad Off” option that disables all non mouse & keyboard devices.

*Issue with loot spawns and respawns in the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse. This is a pretty obscure issue where loot will appear and disappear depending on which doorway you enter.

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.243: Now With Controller Support

June 15th, 2015

 

We’re happy to announce that we’ve added Controller support to The Long Dark in today’s Sandbox Update to v.243.

 

Controller Support

Simply plug a controller in and the game will automatically detect and update the user interface accordingly.

 

Keep in mind that we’ve tested a limited number of controllers so there may be bugs. If you encounter any issues, please post in the forums so we can help you.

 

Changelist:

 

* The game now supports full Controller play.

* Widespread environment art fixes to address popping and performance.

* Fixed issue with some cabins disappearing.

* Fixed terrain shadows popping in.

* Fixed issue with curing sometimes getting reset when in-progress curing items were picked up.

* Fixed voice sometimes being incorrect gender after loading a savegame.

* Fixed issue with bedrolls not being repairable.

* Fixed bug that could audio to be attached to wildlife corpses and would persist.

* Fixed problem with pill bottles only having 1 pill in starting inventory.

* Fixed issue with not being able to harvest a carcass after cancelling upon the harvesting action.

* Fixed issue that caused Bow to not degrade when used. The bow now degrades on use as designed.

* Improved object pickup radius to make small items easier to interact with.

* Removed daily decay rates from harvested saplings.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.236: Audio, Repair, Saplings, Crash Fixes

May 26th, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.236, to address a few bugs. 

 

Changelist:

 

* Rebalanced and improved the audio mix; this should address issues where some people found the audio too quiet.

* Fixed a rare crash that can occur when loading old saved zones.

* Fixed a bug with tripped rabbit snares refreshing to empty each day.

* Fix a bug where loot would reset in the PV Rural Store and ML Camp Office.

* Fix for birch sapling and maple sapling spawns not activating in old saves.

* Fixed various issues with repair prerequisites; this should address issues preventing clothing and bedrolls from being repairable.

* Crafted Bow and Arrow are now always 100% condition when first crafted.

* Reduced the per-shot Condition decay on the Bow. Note that Bow Condition does not degrade over time; only when fired.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.235: Fix for Repair Bug, Missing Containers, Audio Crash

May 22nd, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox Alpha to v.235, to address a few bugs.

 

Changelist:

 

* Fixed missing containers for players who saved game when containers were missing.

* Fix for tools sometimes not repairing gear.

* Hide 3D object while harvesting, selecting repair tool, or repairing.

* Fixed an audio crash triggered in the Pleasant Valley to Mystery Lake transition zone.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.234

May 21st, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark to v.234 to address some bugs we accidentally introduced with our v.233 update two hours ago. We’re sorry for introducing a crash bug, and we apologize to anyone who lost their game progress!

 

Changelist:

 

* Fixed issue with save points sometimes being outside interiors. Players are now restored to default start point for old saves inside interiors.

* Fixed problem with some containers not being created after loading old saves.

* Fixed flare and lantern effects being sometimes offset

* Rebalanced wood footstep audio

* Fixed bug with being able to repair items with any tool

* Fixed issue with calorie burn being set too high when player is freezing

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.233: We’ve Added Bows!

May 21st, 2015

 

We’ve just updated The Long Dark’s Sandbox Alpha to v. 233. This is our 44th update since bringing The Long Dark to Early Access.

 

This is a *huge* update for us, as we’ve added Bow Crafting & Improved Hunting gameplay, a whole new soundscape, new transition zone, and a variety of other big improvements. See below!

 

IMPORTANT NOTES

 

* The game now defaults to DirectX11 (from DirectX 9). If needed, players can still run in Directx9 mode by running tld_dx9.bat or passing -force-d3d9 as a command line parameter when launching the game.

* In order to mitigate the risk of gear loss from previous saves, you may find stored gear items have appeared on the ground when you spawn.

 

Changelist:

 

MAJOR

 

* Players can now Craft Bows and Arrows. This is the first iteration of this system so there may be bugs!

* New Convolution Reverb audio system supports correct positional audio and allows for true environmental awareness. In general, audio has received a major overhaul: footsteps, rifle firing, gear pickup and use, etc.

* Added a new Transition Zone between Pleasant Valley and Mystery Lake. Players can now travel an entire loop between the three major regions.

* Wildlife AI has been improved to facilitate true hunting gameplay. Players may now use Walking, Crouchwalking, and Crouching to reduce their profile and the noise they make, allowing them to get closer to Wildlife.

* Animal skins and certain types of Wood now need to be Cured (Dried) before they can be used as raw materials for Crafting.

* Players can now craft Pants from Deerskin.

* Two new harvestable plants have been added to the game: Maple Sapling, Birch Sapling. These are needed for Bow and Arrow crafting. These only grow in specific groves in the world.

 

MINOR

 

* All wildlife have been tuned for per-location damage, bleed-out rates, and critical hits. This allows for more effective use of the Rifle and Bow for hunting.

* Various UI elements have been overhauled in anticipation of future controller support (coming soon!). Some of these changes are WIP.

* Starting gear is now randomized, and reduced based on Experience Mode (Stalker has the least).

* A new Random starting spawn option has been added to the Region Select interface. This will select a random valid spawn location from any currently available region. On Pilgrim and Voyageur modes, you may also spawn in interiors (never on Stalker).

* Balancing pass on the availability of various gear items.

* The “grace period” from hostile wildlife in Voyageur has been reduced to 12-24 hours (from 12-36 hours).

* Fishing Tackle can now be used in place of the Sewing Kit for Crafting and Repair.

* It is now possible to Unload ammunition from the Rifle (using the Inventory).

* Rifle ironsights now line up correctly when aiming.

* Rifle audio has been improved.

* Crows can now drop Crow Feathers.

* Added a new introductory logo movie.

* Bow accuracy is affected by Fatigue. (Same fix will be applied to the Rifle in a future update.)

* Many objects in the game have been rescaled to ensure they are the correct size and the player feels they are the correct size and height.

* Tuned the per-use Condition loss of Sewing Kits and added more guaranteed kits to the world.

* Tuned the weights of Craftable clothing and animal skins, to be better balanced.

 

BUG FIXES

 

* Fixed issue where aim sensitivity slider didn’t have enough precision at low end

* Fixed issues with wildlife sometimes waiting indefinitely to attack the player

* Fixed bug that could sometimes cause audio to continue playing for despawned wildlife

* Fixed infinite bedroll/lantern exploit

* Fixed bug with hot drink/food buffs getting cleared on indoor/outdoor transitions

 

KNOWN ISSUES

 

* Arrows may occasionally intersect with invisible collision, giving them the appearance they are “floating”. This is especially noticeable on trees.

* You cannot currently select between Simple and Quality tools when crafting Arrowheads. The game automatically selects the better tools in your inventory.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.228

April 28th, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.228, to address a few bugs.

 

Changelist:

 

* Fixed issue with some Mac players falling through Abanadoned Mine (Mac only)

* Fixed issue with possible out of memory crash when saving

* Rebalanced materials required for Wolf Coat repair

* Fixed issue that could cause two torches to appear at once

* Fixed scale issues in Dam and Radio Hut due to rescaled world assets

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.227: General Bug Fixes

April 24th, 2015

 

We’ve just hotfixed The Long Dark Sandbox to v.227 to address some bugs introduced in the recent update.

 

Changelist:

 

* Fixed issue with player occasionally falling through the ground at specific locations

* Fixed issues with controls picking up faulty inputs

* Improvements to mouse sensitivity settings

* Fixed issue with rifle reloading occasionally being unresponsive

* Added anti-aliasing to all items when seen in Inspection mode, or any used in First-Person (ex. Rifle, Lantern, etc.)

* Fixed issue where torch light source and audio sometimes persisted after the torch was extinguished

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.226: Unity 5!

April 23rd, 2015

 

We have just updated The Long Dark Sandbox to v.226. This update introduces major performance improvements due to project migration to Unity 5, as well as some other improvements and bug fixes.

 

Changelist:

 

UPDATE TO UNITY 5

 

* The Long Dark has now been updated to use Unity 5. Everyone should experience performance improvements between +50-300%. Depending in your hardware, you may now be able to play at higher resolutions or quality settings than you could before. In general the game should feel smoother and look better for everyone.

 

ADDITIONS & TUNING

 

* All skies and Time of Day settings have been revised to utilize Unity 5’s improved skybox technology.

* Bears have now migrated to all regions of the game world.

* Adding fuel to a fire at the embers state now restarts the fire.

* Increased rate at which warmth reduces player’s Freezing rating.

* Improved loot spawn variation in car trunks and fishing huts.

* Improvement to Item Transfer UI: Items in a stack will transfer one by one unless the stack is greater than five items.

* Cat Tails can be harvested once to produce both the Stalks and the Heads.

* Harvestable plants can be inspected before committing to the harvesting action.

* Rifle Aim sensitivity can be tuned separately from mouse zoom settings. This should improve rifle aiming.

 

BUGS FIXED

 

* Fixed UI issue that could cause some HUD elements to not be visible at certain aspect ratios.

* Fixed issue that could cause Cattails to have zero weight and zero calories.

* Fixed problem with movement not resuming if movement key was held down when exiting an interface.

* Fixed bug where flare audio would not end if the player was attacked while holding a lit flare.

* Fixed problem where certain containers (e.g., file cabinets) would never have loot in Stalker

* Fixed problem with not being able to bind the Apple Command key (Mac only).

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.217, v.218

April 6th, 2015

 

Changelists:

 

v.218:

* Inventory UI will remember the previous filter (i.e. it will not reset to ALL).

* Fixed issue where frozen carcasses would sometimes not thaw when within range of active fires.

* Fixed issue where crafting times were longer than necessary for some tools.

 

v.217:

* Fixed problem with snares not catching rabbits as expected.

* Fixed rare black screen issue when zooming rifle.

* Container won’t reset filter after quantity selection.

* Inventory screen now defaults to ALL for filter.

* Fixed problem with some small gear items sinking into the ground when dropped.

* Fixed issue with objects sometimes not being interactable when dropped in Trapper’s Homestead

 

##END OF CHANGELISTS##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.213, v.214, v.215

March 31st, 2015

 

We fixed a few bugs introduced in today’s v.212 update. Thanks for helping us find them!

 

Changelists:

 

v.215:

* Fixed wildlife carcasses sometimes disappearing after scene loads

* Fixed bear animation issues when stalking

* Default to the ALL filter when a container is opened

* Fixed issue with TOOLS filter not working properly for containers

 

v.214:

* Fixed container UI crash

* Fixed issue that caused profile settings to be reset when using non-English languages

 

v.213:

* Increased streaming audio buffer to fix issue with audio sometimes cutting out

* Fixed crash issue that could occur when using containers

* Fixed issue where certain interiors could reset loot when being loaded from previous save games

* Fixed issue with some containers having their doors or lids shifted from previous save games

 

##END OF CHANGELISTS##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.212

March 31st, 2015

 

We’re happy to share the 35th update to The Long Dark’s Sandbox, bringing the game version to v.212. Changelist below.

 

*We have confirmed that save games from the previous version should work fine with this update.

 

Changelist:

 

MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS

 

* Expanded “transition zones” between Mystery Lake and Coastal Highway, and Coastal Highway and Pleasant Valley.

* Updated Wolf stalking behaviours, animation, and vocalizations to improve player’s ability to gauge intentions and specific location. This should make Wolves easier to avoid.

* Modified audible “cone” to help highlight wildlife vocalizations and increase the player’s ability to extract usable gameplay information from the audio environment.

* (VOYAGEUR ONLY) Hostile Wildlife now only spawns between 18-36 hours after game start.

* Expanded Cave and Radio Tower Hut interiors.

* Added 9 new Achievements.

* Updated Crafting, Firestarting, Feed Fire, Foraging, and Container UIs to match the revised style and improved functionality.

* General content optimizations in Pleasant Valley to improve performance.

* (EXPERIMENTAL) Removed precise clock; all game times now expressed in terms of hours of daylight or remaining night.

* Modified wildlife spawn times. It is now possible to temporarily depopulate an area of wildlife if they are hunted/harvested too aggressively. This also applies to Wolves.

 

MINOR IMPROVEMENTS

 

* Added short progress bar to plant Harvesting.

* Rebalanced Food Poisoning to re-introduce it as a credible risk.

* Rebalanced fire heat radius and fuel type efficiency to make outdoor fires more useful.

* Rebalanced Cooked Fish to retain more of Raw Fish’s Caloric value.

* Improved performance of Save system.

* Feeding wildlife will no longer attack non-aggressive targets.

* Updated sound effects for various inventory items.

* New ambient music for Pleasant Valley.

* Added new Bear “smelling” and “standing” animations.

* Improved Wolf “turning” animations, to remove sidestepping.

* Wildlife will only attack you when sleeping if wildlife is spawned and in the area.

* Properly simulate corpse decimation due to feeding when in unloaded scene.

* Rabbit Pelt is now used to repair Rabbitskin Mitts (instead of Leather).

* Wolfskin Pelt is now used to repair the Wolfskin Coat (instead of Leather).

* Wolves and Bears will stop attacking when the player falls through the ice.

* Added Truck and Tractor assets.

* Resized several items that were too large relative to game camera.

 

BUGS FIXED

 

* Fixed wildlife respawning issues that could cause permanent depopulation in an area.

* Fixed issues with corpses disappearing on steep slopes after loading a save game.

* Fixed issues with corpses sometimes standing or floating.

* Fixed issue with player health being reset to 100% if loading a save after a Bear attack.

* Fixed exploit of getting full fatigue benefit from a partial cup of coffee.

* Fixed bug that caused the rifle to sometimes unequip after loading a game.

* Fixed issue with Wolves investigating the location of dropped food after the player picked it back up.

* Fixed UI getting cut off at low aspect ratios.

* Fixed collision issue on bridge in Pleasant Valley that could cause fatal falls.

* Fixed issue where mouse cursor would centre itself after using food/drink/first aid from Inventory.

* Fixed buried stove near Trailers in Mystery Lake.

* Fixed some localization/text errors.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.197

February 12th, 2015

 

*A fix to the experimental wolf respawning changes in Coastal Highway.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

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2014 Updates

This information can also be viewed it its entirety on the Hinterland Website's Update Archive.

 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.170: Fixes to Struggle UI, Food Poisoning, Weak Ice, and General Bug Fixes

December 2nd, 2014

 

Trivia: This is the 15th Update to The Long Dark since launching on Early Access!

 

Changelist:

 

* Improved Wolf Struggle UI to clarify controls and gameplay effects.

* Improved Weak Ice feedback to avoid players falling through ice without warning.

* Improved various presentation elements on the First Aid interface.

* Food with Condition over 75% will never cause Food Poisoning (excludes Raw Meat and Fish).

* Added new Crow model and animations.

* Fixed issue where Wolves could still attack when players were getting into a vehicle.

* Fixed issue where Antibiotics or Painkillers were added to the wrong item stack in inventory.

* Fixed issues preventing the Outdoor Living achievements from working as intended.

* Fixed issue where cooked Coho Salmon would not be accessible from a container.

* Fixed issue where players could too easily be burned by their own campfire.

* Fixed issue where encumbered voice-over would play after every indoor/outdoor transition.

* Fixed issue with cancelling when harvesting items from a stack.

* Fixed issue where players could walk through the Camp Office exterior when backing into the rear doorway.

* Fixed issue of wallpaper covering the door to one of the Coastal Houses.

* Fixed some collision issues in Coastal Highway.

* Containers will no longer spawn duplicate items.

* Fixed issue where players could not exit the car door they selected.

* Fixed issue where Burn afflictions were not updated immediately when healed in the First Aid screen.

* Quick Slot 1 will never equip a Burned Out Flare.

* Fixed issue where the game would crash when exiting a vehicle.

* Fixed bug where the most serious sub-condition would be shown (ex. Starving vs. Hungry).

* Fixed issue where fallen trees were not affecting pathfinding.

* Fixed issue with player getting stuck at end of railings beside the Dam entrance.

* Removed deprecated Compression bandage from loot tables.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.166: Gameplay Tuning & Bug Fixes

November 28th, 2014

 

We’ve just updated The Long Dark Sandbox Alpha to v.166, with the following fixes.

 

Changelist:

 

WOLF FIXES

 

* Tuned bare-handed Wolf struggle to be more survivable (but still very challenging, as intended).

* Tuned Wolf reaction to Campfires and Flares. The Campfire is now the most effective deterrent to Wolf attacks.

* Addressed “ambushing” behaviour by ensuring Wolves cannot spawn near building entrances/exits. (Note that Wolves will still track you to a building exit and remain there for some time before returning to their “Wander” state, so entering/exiting a building in quick succession will not result in the Wolf despawning.)

* Blood Loss now only begins after the Wolf Struggle ends.

 

OTHER FIXES

 

* Fixed issue with achievements being unlocked from Main Menu

* Fixed issue with clipping into Fishing Cabin after exit

* Fixes for wolves sometimes ignoring the player

* Fix for rare crash when using last match

* Fish and Fishing-related gear items now spawn in certain containers

* Introduced chance of “Kill Shot” when hitting wildlife in chest and neck

* Container search times more randomized (generally shorter)

* More vehicles added in Coastal Townsite, to provide shelter from roving Wolves

* Fixed issue where sprained ankle status wasn’t updating right away after taking Painkillers

* Fixed issue with black polygons appearing in some interiors (only affected Mac); light shafts have now been re-enabled on Macs.

* Fixed vertical line artifact on First Aid interface

* Fixed several floating objects.

* Fixed issue with Antibiotics and Painkillers not always stacking

 

As always, please post feedback and bugs in the community forums.

 

##END OF RELEASE NOTES##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.163: Major Gameplay Update!

November 26th, 2014

 

***IMPORTANT*** This update invalidates save files from previous versions. If you do not wish to lose your in-progress game, please do not update.***IMPORTANT***

 

A NOTE ON TUNING & BALANCE

 

Gameplay tuning and game balance is always a Work in Progress. That’s part of why the game is in Early Access. If you experience tuning or balance that you feel is incorrect, please share your feedback in the community forums. Keep in mind that there are vastly differing opinions on what the “correct” game balance is. We take all feedback into account, and consider it against our vision for how we want the game to play. Bugs can create unexpected and intentional issues that affect balance. We appreciate your patience as we address these, whenever they come up. On average we update 3-4 times between major updates to address any bugs or issues that arise. Whatever bugs or issues arise tend to not exist in the game for very long.

 

Changelist:

 

MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS

 

* Major overhaul on the Wolf Struggle system. The intention is to create more meaningful and discrete choice for the player. In the revised implementation, an attack without much strength build up (AKA “Light Attack”) does very little damage but has a small chance of causing the Wolf to flee. Building up Strength, then releasing it will result in a “Strong Attack” that does much more damage. Damage scales on a curve, so that the more Strength you build up, the more damage it does, with a full strength attack doing significant damage. Button mashing will now have little effect.

 

* Major overhaul to Hunting. All wildlife now have location-specific damage. Only headshots are now one-shot kills. Injured animals will bleed, making it possible to track them. Depending on the injury, animals may eventually bleed out.

 

* New First Aid interface. This interface addresses general usability and player information issues, and is a model for future interface improvements. This is the first pass on the First Aid interface.

 

* Added Ice Fishing to the game. Players can now craft Fishing Hooks and Lines, and use tools to open up Ice Holes in the Fishing Huts. There are both Freshwater and Saltwater fish, all with different potential weight ranges.

 

* Major performance improvements. Most players should find a 25-30% improvement to frame-rate for all interior locations.

 

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

 

* Added 6 new Achievements.

* Widespread art improvements throughout the game.

* Added new ambient exploration music cues.

* The game now Saves after every Affliction.

* All Clothing items now have a Toughness rating that provides protection against Wolf Struggles.

* Clothing can now be damaged by: Wolf Struggle, Falling, Fire, and Very High Winds (Blizzards). Fire and Falling only damage clothing on Legs and Feet. Only the current exposed (Top) clothing layer is damaged.

* Players can now press ESC to interrupt all in-progress Harvesting, Repair, and Crafting actions.

* New icons have been added to the game.

* Running now generates a small Warmth bonus.

* Wolf flee times and distances have been reduced. Wolves fleeing from flares or struggles will now likely circle back and find you if you do not put some distance between you and them.

* Bandages are now stackable.

* Updated the Rifle model, texture, and reloading animations.

* Updated the coniferous Tree models to improve their look and shadow-casting properties.

* Tuned ankle sprains so they are more directly related to Falling and other navigation choices (i.e. less random).

* Increased the falling distance required to do damage trigger the chance of Sprains.

* All Container capacities have been retuned.

* Snares that catch Rabbits can now be re-used.

* Gut can now be Harvested from Wolf carcasses.

* Knife, Hatchet, and Prybar Struggle damage modifiers have been rebalanced due to updates to the Struggle system.

* Reduced min/max values for harvestable meat on a Wolf carcass.

* Added a Subtitles option to the Display settings. Subtitles default to “off”.

* Fixed some two-door containers to be considered a single container for the purposes of searching and Supply capacity.

* Reduced the number of searchable containers in most of the Coastal houses.

* Replaced desk in Camp Office with Workbench.

 

BUG FIXING

 

* Fixed issue where players could fall out of the world from one of the Coastal houses.

* Fixed bug with Wood foraging where the time calculation would be based on the last type of fuel foraged, not the currently selected one.

* Fixed the Moon not sorting correctly with tree billboards.

* Fixed issue where some telephone poles in Coastal Highway did not have collision.

* Fixed issue where the wrong label was applied to melted snow/boiled water.

* Fixed issue where distance travelled was mislabeled in the Log

* Fixed issue where Inventory would sometimes incorrectly show [Wearing] for non-worn items.

* Fixed issue where Wolf audio would sometimes play on an endless loop.

* Fixed issue where some Food items could have a Condition of over 100%

* Fixed issue where individual Rifle rounds had the incorrect weight.

* Fixed issue where wildlife would occasionally get stuck in one place, disappear, or become locked in feeding animations.

* Fixed issue where the Bedroll would occasionally disappear when dropped.

* Fixed issue where Rabbit Meat Condition would not update when Cooked.

* Fixed issue where the game would soft-crash when players started a fire in the “transition” zone.

* Fixed issue where Cans that were opened but not fully eaten would lose their opened state.

* Fixed issue where ice-cracking audio would play after leaving the breakable area.

* Fixed issue where first person items might come back into view when putting back an item from inspect mode during a container search.

* Fixed issue where a first person item could come back into view during fade-out before sleeping.

* Fixed issue where the aim dot could be displayed while zoomed if you were crouching.

 

KNOWN ISSUES

 

* We are experiencing some issues with some new lighting effects rendering incorrectly on the Mac. As a result, we have temporarily removed the “god rays” lighting effect from all interiors (on Mac only). We are working on a fix for this and will update ASAP.

 

##END OF RELEASE NOTES##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.154: Tuning/Balance Update

October 30th, 2014

 

We’ve just updated The Long Dark to v.154, and made some general fixes and tuning/balance updates now that we’ve been able to pull some more data from playtesters.

 

Changelist:

 

NOTE: We’ve confirmed that v.153 saves work with v.154.

 

* Reduced the Wolf population along Coastal Highway. In general, areas with a high concentration of Supplies are balanced to present more of a risk to players.

* Rebalanced Calorie costs per activity level to find a better “sweet spot” and average daily Calorie requirements. This should address the need to eat frequently.

* Reduced rate of Freezing increase for cold “Feels Like” temperatures.

* Reduced Fatigue modifiers for Running, to avoid penalizing players for exploring.

* Reduced Calorie cost per Kg of inventory. Min/Max-ers can still benefit from careful inventory management.

* It now takes longer for Fatigue to affect Inventory capacity.

* Wolves will no longer “camp” at entry ways for as long as before.

* Wolves are now more noticeable when stalking.

* Backpack weight no longer affects calorie burn rates when standing.

* Sleep interruption no longer occurs indoors.

* Antiseptic Bottles now provide multiple doses.

* Reduced chance of Food Poisoning from all cooked meats.

* Removed the Calorie Burn display from the Survival Panel as it was presenting incorrect information and just confusing people.

* Set up some double-door container objects to only count as a single container for the purposes of searching.

* Fixed issue where Rabbits would follow the player. (Bug or feature?)

* General art fixes and optimizations.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.152: “COASTAL HIGHWAY”

October 29th, 2014

 

Today we are releasing v.152 of The Long Dark’s Sandbox Alpha. We’re excited to announce the addition of a whole new playable area, “COASTAL HIGHWAY”, which more than doubles the Sandbox’s playable area!

 

Changelist:

 

GENERAL NOTES

 

* We have confirmed that saves from v.138 are compatible with v.152.

 

Game tuning around the new region is WIP and will be constantly modified based on further internal testing and feedback from external playtesters (i.e. all of you). Please note that the availability of Supplies, the distribution and density of wildlife, distances between shelters, etc. are constantly being refined. Also, keep in mind that the game is now being tuned around a larger Sandbox experience — this means that some Regions might be more suitable for certain activities, and Supply distribution is more regionalized.

 

MAJOR CHANGES

 

* New Sandbox region added: “Coastal Highway”. To travel to it, follow the railway in Mystery Lake (Dam side).

* Long-term Starvation now affects Fatigue. If you starve for too long, it becomes very difficult to avoid Exhaustion. The Fatigue increase due to Starvation is gradually reduced by not Starving. (Addresses the “Starvation Exploit”)

* Removed concept of Calorie Deficit.

* Added “Rate of Change” indicators on all Sub-Conditions. This should help highlight the impact of more serious situations on Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, and Cold.

* Fatigue now directly affects your Carrying capacity. Rather than a sudden capacity drop based on hitting the Exhausted threshold, we interpolate based on Fatigue level.

* There are now Rabbits in the game.

* You can now craft Snares at the Workbench. If placed in the world wherever you see Rabbits, there is a chance you will capture a Rabbit every 12 hours.

* All wildlife spawns are now more dynamic, and will change over the course of a game. Wolves, Deer, and Rabbits all refresh on different intervals, reflecting their relative mobility and travel/migration patterns.

* Wolves are now sensitive to player Condition. They will hunt you more aggressively if you are weak (ex. Exhausted, low Condition, etc.). This is something we are testing.

* The damage from player strikes in Wolf Struggles is now modified by the best Tool you have in your inventory, in this order: Knife, Hatchet, Prybar. The weapon is automatically selected, and the Struggle costs Tool condition.

* You can now select what type of Fuel Source you are looking for when Foraging Wood (i.e. it is no longer random).

* Added a 100% guaranteed Rifle spawn to Mystery Lake. Its location is randomized.

* Reduced daily Condition decay on all Tools and Clothing items. Reduced per-use Condition decay for all Tools. Tools should now last much longer, and will not decay when you don’t use them. Clothing should not decay nearly as quickly as before. (We’re still tuning the availability of Clothing items in the world, and this is something we’ll continue balancing based on feedback.)

* Reduced the frequency/availability of Tools in the world. Since they now last much longer, they have to be more rare.

* In general, reduced the Condition decay for all Food items. Increased the Calorie value of most Food items. Reduced the Calorie value for most types of Meat.

* Rest can now be interrupted regardless of Bed or location type. Every bed offers and location type offers a different degree of Rest benefit and chance of interruption. Uninterrupted Rest hours offer a bonus over interrupted Rest hours.

* Fatigue is now properly affected by inventory weight. The more you carry around, the more quickly you will become tired. (Note that Calorie Burn already takes inventory weight into account.)

* Reduced the general availability of First Aid items. They are now mainly found in appropriate First Aid containers.

* In general, reduced the availability of Supplies in the world. There was far too much Food and Clothing in random containers.

* Made very cold temperatures much more of a serious consideration.

* New audio for all new locations, container types, etc. Added a lot more variety for container searching audio, to avoid repetition.

 

MINOR CHANGES

 

* Every interior location now has a maximum inventory of Reclaimed Wood that can be Foraged.

* Wildlife will no longer spawn in a Blizzard.

* The Stag is more sensitive to the player’s presence.

* Tinder can now be harvested from Newsprint and Newsprint Rolls.

* Bandages can now be harvested from Cloth.

* Freshened up Supplies in all Mystery Lake locations.

* Footprints (player and wildlife) now last longer, but are affected by wind and weather conditions.

* It is now possible to find single Rifle Rounds in the world.

* Kerosene can now be used as an Accelerant.

* Added a few test Non-Potable water sources to the world.

* Footprints and blood drops are now persistent across Saves.

* General bug fixes and optimization.

 

BUG HIGHLIGHTS

 

* Fixed various issues related to carcasses freezing.

* Various fixes related to player movement.

* Fixed issue with harvesting Lanterns producing unlimited light.

* Fixed issue where cooking a partial stack of raw meat produced an unequal stack of cooked meat.

* Fixed weight capacity of Containers so they can be filled to full capacity now.

* Fixed issue where last Water Purification tablet in the stack would not purify water.

* Fixed issue with locked Safe not using the correct loot table.

* Fixed exploit where players could cause a feeding Wolf to despawn.

* Fixed issue with gear not decaying in Containers.

* Fixed issue where Inventory screen occasionally didn’t display all items in player inventory.

* Fixed issue where increase/decrease buttons were still active during Harvesting actions.

* Fixed issue where Toggle to Run would default back to Walk mode when opening the Options screen.

* Fixed issue where Burns would not heal themselves over time.

* Fixed issue where ear ringing wouldn’t stop after firing the Rifle in the Forestry Lookout.

* Fixed issue where menu dropdowns might be greyed out when they shouldn’t be.

* Fixed issue where sun position and weather would not update correctly during outdoor Harvesting/Rest intervals.

* Fixed bug where Encumbered warning would not always appear in the HUD.

* Fixed crash when player clicked Bedroll icon in survival panel when they did not have a Bedroll in inventory.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.145, v.146

October 30th, 2014

 

Changelists:

 

v.146:

* Fix crash in Mystery Lake when looting a Fishing Hut

 

v.145:

* Fix for Forestry Lookout doors not opening/closing

* Fix for some containers losing contents or not functioning after a save/load

 

##END OF CHANGELISTS##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.138

October 3rd, 2014

 

We’ve just done a quick update to the Sandbox Alpha, bringing it to version 138.

 

Changelist:

 

* Don’t allow ruined gear to be repaired

* Throwing an unlit flare at a wolf will no longer scare it off

* Bottle of painkillers now contain 6 pills (3 full doses) instead of 5.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — Hotfix to v.137

October 2nd, 2014

 

Changelist:

 

* Fix for false positives on savegame file tampering

* Fix for crash that could occur when putting ruined items in containers

* Fix issue with deer sometimes “following” the player

* Fix issue where meat would regenerate on placed carcasses

* Fix framerate drop during Harvest and Repair

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.136: Performance Improvements, Exploits Fixed, Gameplay Tuning

October 1st, 2014

 

We’ve just updated the Sandbox Alpha to v.136! Several performance improvements, exploits fixed, and gameplay tuning.

 

Changelist:

 

* General art optimization should result in shorter initial load and noticeable performance improvements across the board

* Tampering of save data will result in survival time not being uploaded to Leaderboards.

* Game saves automatically when entering an interior. This will prevent abuse of the savegame system to re-roll interior loot.

* Fixed issue with some long dropdown menus getting cut off.

* Fixed bug where time would accelerate forever when opening the Survival Panel during a Harvest or Repair action.

* Slightly increased the Calorie/hour costs of Walking and Running.

* Slightly increased the Calorie/Kg cost of carrying inventory.

* The Hatchet and Hunting Knife can now be harvested.

* Harvesting values for all Tools have been tuned for duration and what they produce.

* Increased the Repair improvement value for the Hunting Knife.

* Reduced the “per use” Condition decay of the Hatchet, Hunting Knife, and Prybar

* Slightly reduced the per/Litre cost of Boiling water.

* Added some new loot to the Dam.

* Tuned the Rifle Ammo spawn in Trapper’s Homestead.

* Tuned the availability of Rifle Ammo in the Safe loot table.

* Tuned Locker and Metal Desk loot tables.

* Improved Persona selection UI.

* Fixed bug with Dysentery where it would be removed when transitioning to a new scene.

* Wolves no longer run from deer.

* Tuned wolf population density.

* Slightly reduced chance of wolf fleeing when player sighted.

* Arrow keys will now rotate safe dial.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha — v.127

September 26th, 2014

 

Changelist:

 

* Reduced % chance of Fluffy spawning in the Dam.

* Fluffy will no longer respawn in the Dam after X days.

* Wolf population has been modified to reduce overall density.

* Wolves will show more interest in the player and be “drawn” to them based on behaviour.

* There is now a chance that a Wolf will Flee when it detects the player at a distance (vs. going straight into Stalking behaviour).

* Fixed bug where Wolves would sometimes ignore lit Flares. Lit Flares should now provide significant deterrent to Wolf attacks.

* Fixed bug where Wolves would ignore Campfires. Campfires should now provide almost certain deterrent to Wolf attacks.

* It is now easier to “break” the Wolf Stalking behaviour by gaining distance from them.

* Dropped decoys are now more effective at slowing down Stalking wolves.

* Reduced initial damage inflicted during Wolf struggle.

* Reduced range of player damage inflicted during “light” Struggle attack.

* Increased effectiveness of full-strength Struggle attack.

* Reduced chance of contracting Food Poisoning for all Food Items.

* Reduced chance of contracting Dysentery from Non-Potable water sources.

* Reduced Calorie costs for all activities.

* Reduced Clothing Condition decay rates when indoors.

* Reduced per/day Starvation damage.

* First-pass fixes to Hunger.

* Improved HUD and Survival Panel prompts around First Aid events (i.e. Afflictions).

* General art fixes.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha — v.125

September 25th, 2014

 

Changelist:

 

* Return to using DX9 for rendering

* Added tld_dx11.bat and tld_borderless_dx11.bat for launching game using DX11

* Fixed issue with sandbox loading more than once (if rapidly clicking start)

##END OF CHANGELIST##

We have decided to return to using DX9. Although DX11 did improve framerate for some players, it seems a larger number were negatively affected (either by lower framerate or stability issues). Users can still run DX11 by launching the game with the newly added tld_dx11.bat file, or by manually using the command line argument -force-d3d11

 

We are going to continue to investigate using DX11 by default, but right now it is safer to use DX9 and allow players to experiment with DX11 to see if it improves framerate. If you have played v.124 and it improved your framerate, then you should use DX11.

 

Apologies for any inconvenience, and thanks for your support.


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.124

September 25th, 2014

 

Changelist:

 

* Fix key bindings crash when user did not have a profile

* Framerate improvements, especially for high end PCs

* Display correct bindings during wolf struggle

* Fix problem with binding Inventory to [Enter]

* Removed Help from pause menu

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

 

IMPORTANT: Please make sure you update your graphics drivers, or you may experience crashing.

 

If you experience a crash and have updated drivers, temporary solution is to run in DirectX9 Mode, by running the following from command prompt: tld.exe -force-d3d9

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.122

September 24th, 2014

 

Changelist:

 

* Added control configuration to Options > Key Bindings

* Added vertical sync option to Options > Display

* Fixed framerate drop issues when inspecting items

* Fixed issue with tools wearing out 2x normal speed when Foraging or Harvesting

* Fixed rare crash that could occur in Repair and Harvest carcass screens

* Fixed “bigfoot” bug — items sometimes scaling up when dropped

* Some voice over fixes and new heavy wind audio

* Fixed issue with being able to turn past last tumbler and open safe

* Fixed issue with audio for fires not playing when reloading a save

* Fixed issue with Encumbered label sometimes turning off

* Holster current weapon/tool while eating/drinking/firstaid

* Fixed audio issue with scrolling in the Log

* Disabled the F1 Help (instead view bindings in Options > Key Bindings)

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

Note
* In adding the new key bindings options we have broken the Safecracking interface. The arrow keys will not rotate the dial. It is still possible to use the A/D keys to rotate the dial, however. We will fix this in the next update.

 


 

The Long Dark — Sandbox Alpha Update — v.103

September 5th, 2014

 

NOTE: Please remember that The Long Dark Sandbox Alpha is in a constant state of flux as we continue to fix bugs and tune the game. Gameplay features or tuning values are often experimental, and may be modified or even removed between updates.

 

Found some bugs? Please report them in the Hinterland Community forums at:
http://www.hinterlandforums.com

 

Changelist:

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

Our programming wizards have optimized load times. Most loading transitions, after the initial load, should now only take a few seconds (system dependent).

Player outdoor walking and running speeds have been increased.

 

Art & Animation

 

Fixed geometry clipping issues when kneeling with the Rifle.

Wolf feeding animation alignment improved.

 

Audio

 

Updated to the latest version of Wwise (audio engine). This removes the requirement to install the DirectX Runtime. Many audio bugs introduced by the update have been fixed, but we might have missed some.

 

Gameplay & Tuning

 

*Lighting a Flare or Lantern now requires you *hold* LMB (vs. clicking). This should hopefully address issues with people accidently starting flares or turning lanterns off.

*The Rifle can now only be fired when in Aim mode (RMB).

*Dehydration, Freezing, Starvation, and Fatigue have all been tuned to be *slightly* more forgiving.

*Calories can now go into the negative, up to a threshold.

*A Wolf Attack now results in Blood Loss and Infection Risk (vs. immediate Infection, as before). Infection Risk is reduced by applying Antiseptic. Wounds can become Infected up to 24 hours after they have been inflicted.

*Increased frequency of Antiseptic spawning in containers.

*Some wildlife spawns are now more random.

*Fixed some harvesting exploits.

*Fixed bug where gear left on the ground would decay at an accelerated pace.

*Fixed issue with lantern fuel being burned by unlit lanterns across a save/load.

*Added a motion blur effect to accentuate very low Condition.

*When harvesting the Rifle or Lantern, the ammunition or Fuel will be returned to your Inventory. In the case of the Lantern, you need a Jerry Can in Inventory and you can only salvage fuel until it is full.

*Increased Fuel produced from Foraging to 2 units/hr (from 1 unit/hr)

*Radius of protection from wildlife provided by Campfires is now 10m (was 5m).

*Can Opener can now be harvested.

 

Menus, HUD, UI

 

*HUD messages will now be queued.

*Added HUD options to the Display settings. You can now select between Normal, Debug, and Disabled. Debug includes coordinates and is useful for bug hunting. Disabled is useful for screenshots and trailer footage.

 

NOTE: Important gameplay information is communicated through the HUD and we recommend you play using the Normal HUD setting.

 

Misc.

 

Wildlife feeding behaviour is more persistent between saves and loads now.

Default FOV has now been set to 80 degrees. This can be modified in the Display options.

 

##END OF CHANGELIST##

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