Been gone for a year

[RJ_Dalton]

In fact, I was gone exactly one year to the day before I started playing again earlier this month. Won't bore people with the details on that, because they are indeed quite boring.

I'm amazed by the amount of improvement that's happened since I stopped playing last time. The sound design, which was perhaps my favorite aspect of the game initially, is massively improved. The animations are all better. Two and a half new maps (I say half, because I didn't get to fully explore all of Pleasant Valley before my hiatus). New gameplay mechanics, which are neat.

And damn if I don't still love the mood of the game. There's a sort of slow, bleak atmosphere to everything, heightened by all the signs of recent human habitation, but it is so devoid of actual living humans. And there are so many little details just in how things in the buildings are arrange, where you find corpses (I found one in a church, next to a gun and a surprisingly large amount of food, and it actually made me feel sad, because the situation really does seem like the guy could have survived, but he gave up instead :cry: I wonder who he was and why he just couldn't go on). Of course, that was all there before, but it's been long enough since I played it that the feeling is fresh, and it's a mood that so few games I've played ever successfully establish, so of course I'm going to mention it here.

At the moment, I'm just getting ready to head up to Timberwolf Mountain for the first time, currently holding up in the farmhouse, making some tough decisions about what I'm going to take, because I clearly can't take it all with me since there's that rope climb before I can enter the area and it's distance from any place where I can stash goods means that going back and forth to retrieve supplies is not going to be an easy option like it was between the other maps. Game is actually making me think about tough choices. Another thing games don't often make me do.

If I could offer some suggestions, though (at least one of which I think has probably been suggested at least once), I could use a compass. Particularly in Pleasant Valley, where the map is really huge, I'd like to be able to orient myself when I come to a recognizable landmark, because the relationship between landmarks is kinda the only way to navigate, and a compass would help a lot for those times when I get caught out in the fog (or a snowstorm, though so far, I've been lucky enough that I haven't been caught out in a snowstorm at any point where I was too far away from shelter).

And sitting in the farmhouse next to the fireplace, I'd still like to be able to read the books I keep finding instead of just burning them. I mean, you don't actually have to write any text in them, just make reading as a simple, low-calorie passtime, like an alternative to sleeping through blizzards that sometimes brew up early in the morning and last all day. This is just a personal thing, really, but I see the fireplace roaring, I hear the wind howling outside, rattling the windows and . . . well, all I want to do is read a book. Plus, I managed to shoot a bear (from the farmstead porch, after which I laid its hide out in the entryway as a throw-rug and played a banjo while sitting in the rocking chair (not really, but it felt like I should)) and that's like thirty kilos of meat, which lasts for days. Not to mention all the time it now takes to cure hides. I just want an alternative to sleeping, because . . . well, it'll add something to the feel of the world. A certain sense of satisfaction that you've managed to get yourself into a position where you're surviving well enough that you can kill time reading.

I just like reading, okay. I like it so much I even want to do it while I'm playing a game. I'm weird like that. Also, I'm still hoping to find a copy of "The Man Who Was Thursday," somewhere. I know there's not a model for it now but I can dream, right?

Also, I'm curious why shooting a bow at a bear seems to scare it away, but it's actually attracted to the sound of a gunshot. You'd think it'd be more scared of the gunshot.

Um . . . that seems to be all I can think to say at the moment.

Edit: Oh, yes, one more thing . . . what's the purpose of simple and advanced tools now? The rifle is repaired with a cleaning kit, the knife and hatchet with a whetstone, you can't repair the prybar anymore, and the only thing that I've found that can be repaired with the tools that I can think of off the top of my head is the storm lantern, which, near as I can tell, does not degrade. The tools seem kinda useless.

[AverageGatsby]

THIS!!

And sitting in the farmhouse next to the fireplace, I'd still like to be able to read the books I keep finding instead of just burning them. I mean, you don't actually have to write any text in them, just make reading as a simple, low-calorie passtime, like an alternative to sleeping through blizzards that sometimes brew up early in the morning and last all day. This is just a personal thing, really, but I see the fireplace roaring, I hear the wind howling outside, rattling the windows and . . . well, all I want to do is read a book. Plus, I managed to shoot a bear (from the farmstead porch, after which I laid its hide out in the entryway as a throw-rug and played a banjo while sitting in the rocking chair (not really, but it felt like I should)) and that's like thirty kilos of meat, which lasts for days. Not to mention all the time it now takes to cure hides. I just want an alternative to sleeping, because . . . well, it'll add something to the feel of the world. A certain sense of satisfaction that you've managed to get yourself into a position where you're surviving well enough that you can kill time reading.

I can imagine that it could be quite some work to implement this smoothly, but a non-sleeping passtime like this could realy add alot to both atmosphere and gameplay. If time is accelerated half as fast as while sleeping, you could for example cancel the reading when the snowstorm stops or for whatever reason that comes to your mind realy. I can also only agree that it would add some satisfaction to be able to just sit there and read books. The nostalgia

Well and appart of that, yea, the bears' bowophobia is kinda strange

Also, I'm curious why shooting a bow at a bear seems to scare it away, but it's actually attracted to the sound of a gunshot. You'd think it'd be more scared of the gunshot.

On tools there is already a topic. apart from that tools are useable for arrow-heads and fishing hooks if one runs out of sewing kits but it is true, there are clearly too many tools and/or sewing kits.

Edit: Oh, yes, one more thing . . . what's the purpose of simple and advanced tools now? The rifle is repaired with a cleaning kit, the knife and hatchet with a whetstone, you can't repair the prybar anymore, and the only thing that I've found that can be repaired with the tools that I can think of off the top of my head is the storm lantern, which, near as I can tell, does not degrade. The tools seem kinda useless.