Question: Do devs ever weigh in on these suggestions?

[draebor]

I know I'm fairly new to the forums but just glancing through a lot of the posts here I don't see a lot of comments from anyone at Hinterland. I assume that they're reading these suggestions or at least the ones that community engagement folks promote to them, but do they ever post any thoughts themselves? I think it would be nice to hear what they think in terms of whether some of these suggestions and wanted features go along with their design plans and philosophy.

[Bill Tarling]

They do read the forums, and their community team organizes the notes for them to go through.

With all the game expansions and especially prepping for the upcoming story mode, they don't individually have much time anymore to post frequently themselves [again, the community team can usually provide the official responses they get from the core teams].

Most of the time you won't hear "okay we'll add/change 'x' feature or function". The team has enough game building experience [the core team all have top industry AAA Studio department lead experience] to determine what can/can't/shouldn't be added (priorities are on the main gameplay system, which must also work with the story mode).

They do try adding a lot of the user/player suggestions (as long as it fits within the story mode mechanics, can add necessary gameplay value, and fits within their programming schedule and budget). That doesn't mean they'll automatically add in just any request or feature (again, it must fit within their planned story mode functions, and serve a good gameplay ROI to drive that mode). Some suggestions they do add and test, but remove if it simply doesn't feel right, or doesn't really add good gameplay value for the time/budget costs.

You'll find almost every update contains a lot of the suggestions and requests from the players -- but they don't disclose everything that will be added... Most are kept as a surprise (one of the reasons each major update brings so much excitement).

You'll find the Hinterland Community Team are very receptive and supportive, and yes they do organize and keep track of as many of the notes and requests for the design and programming teams. That way the main team can prioritize their attention on all the new stuff just ahead.

[Scyzara]

Just wanted to add some examples for features and/or items that got added during the last year after being wished for here on the Forums:

- new foraging mechanics

- less changeable weather with smoother transitions

- survival bow

- a whole lot of locations (church, mountain wilderness region, wolf den and many more)

- Journal to write down notes or diary entries (roleplaying aspect)

- Death Stats

- tiny condition UI icons for better immersion

- fishing hut doors

- archery target

- deerskin pants

- roughly-sketched map inside the mountaineer's hut

- rifle cleaning kit and whetstones (instead of the old scrap metal repair mechanics)

- fishing tackles as possible replacement for sewing kits

- stellar constellations (even mobile ones that move like in RL!) at night

As you can see the Devs definitely listen to the player feedback and add requested features if they find them fitting.

[draebor]

Awesome, that's great to know! Thanks for the info, guys. Really loving this game and I can't wait to see what gets added in the next release.

[joki]

They do read the suggestions, and have implemented many of the suggestions, if they figured they would fit the theme. So go ahead and make good suggestions, if they have not been suggested a million times before (multiplayer) or don't fit the theme (heavy weapons: bazookas/tanks)! :lol:

With the game becoming more and more popular, they won't have the time to reply to each suggestion, but i am pretty sure, if you post a suggestion and find a lot of support, the chances are not tooo bad, that they might be added.

[KocLobster]

Thanks for making this thread, and thank you for your replies (Scyzara and Bill Tarling). I have been wondering the same thing myself, but don't like making threads unless absolutely necessary. Being an early access alpha on Steam, I assumed that they most definitely took suggestions and wish lists into account and did add at least some of these desired things, but it was encouraging to see just how much has been added from suggestions, and how significant some of those additions are to the game.

[Patrick Carlson]

I know I'm fairly new to the forums but just glancing through a lot of the posts here I don't see a lot of comments from anyone at Hinterland. I assume that they're reading these suggestions or at least the ones that community engagement folks promote to them, but do they ever post any thoughts themselves? I think it would be nice to hear what they think in terms of whether some of these suggestions and wanted features go along with their design plans and philosophy.

Hello draebor--it's great that you've joined us here.

Yes, you'll see Bethany and I here in the forums taking in feedback for the studio. As Bill points out above, we typically don't announce new features or design changes until they are ready to be released in an update.

Was there a specific suggestion or game idea you were curious about discussing?

--Patrick