Raphael van Lierop

What writing is entirely original? I won't claim to be a great writer. Never have. All I will say is that Elegy came from the heart. Just as with the game, I'm less concerned about whether people think I'm a good writer, and more concerned with if I feel the writing reflects my own creative values and inner voice. Just like the game's art style, gameplay, sound, music, etc. are all expressions of my creative values and inner voice. That's what it means to direct something. Anyone is free to take their own shot and writing a short film, designing and writing a game, running a studio, etc. if they think they can do better. There's no shortage of experts on the internet! But it takes very little to write a comment online, and a lot more to actually create something...

XBOX ONE PATCH 4 - Updates The Long Dark to version 1.12 (32503) WARNING: There may be Story spoilers in these notes. * 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 ### We're continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.

Literally trapped in the car?

The vast majority of the fixes should apply to existing games, although you won't benefit from fixes that happen earlier on in the episodes than your current save, for example. Unfortunately, there are some fixes that will only apply to new games, but we try to call those out when we can.

STEAM 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

Good news! After all that explanation, our Xbox One Patch 2, and all the PS4 versions were both updated today. Just in time for the weekend. PS4 Version 1.08/1.09 Patch Notes: Xbox Patch 2 Notes: Hope that helps all of you out.

PS4 Patch for The Long Dark -- Updates the game to Version 1.08/1.09 (32384) We're happy to announce that both the SCEA (North/South/Central America) and SIEE (Europe, Asia, Middle East) versions of The Long Dark have been patched to 1.08 and 1.09 versions respectively. NOTE that the versions are actually the same, but currently have different version numbers due to how they were patched. Warning: There may be story spoilers in these notes. ***Changelist includes fixes from 1.08 (which was already released in the "Americas", and 1.09 which is new for all PS4 versions.*** * 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. * Added missing translations for Trust dialogue * 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 after the Crash Site in "Survival of the Fittest". 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 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 * 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. * Added missing audio for picking up Astrid's Hardcase on Day 4. * Added additional checkpointing in Ep1 and Ep2. * Difficulty tuning of Wolves in Episode One. Struggle should be more survivable for new players. * 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. * 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 Jeremiah's "Survival School". * Fixes for Save system to help prevent loss of save files. * 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

Thanks for sharing those thoughts!

XBOX ONE PATCH 2 - Updates The Long Dark to version 1.05 (32319) WARNING: There may be Story spoilers in these notes. * Added fixes to prevent frequent crashing on Xbox One. * Added missing translations for Trust dialogue * 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 after the Crash Site in "Survival of the Fittest". 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 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 * 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 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 of crashing * 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. * Added missing audio for picking up Astrid's Hardcase on Day 4. * Added additional checkpointing in Ep1 and Ep2. * Tuned Antiseptic so that one dose is sufficient to treat Infection Risk. * 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. * 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

You're being far too generous, but thank you.

Thank you -- yes we have a bunch of Linux fixes on the list, and will get to them ASAP. We know you are a small community, but what you lack in numbers you more than make up for in passion.

Thanks. I've posted some things occasionally thank rankled people. In general I don't understand where the hate towards comes from but I get internet culture and I've come to terms with it. Often a small comment can be taken out of context and becomes a "thing". I'm also a vociferous defender of the game and team and so I don't shy away from telling people off when I think they are being unfair. I'm not perfect. But, apart from my family, this game means everything to me, and I've been working 15 yrs to get here. Not making excuses, just showing that this is a personal work of deep passion and not some corporate thing.

You misunderstood. PS4 Pro isn't more stable because of anything we have done. It's just that the hardware is different, which seems to help.

Thank you! Are you playing the PS4 Europe version or the Americas version? Reason I ask is that the PS4 Americas version should not be crashing much, and in particular we've seen the PS4 Pro being more stable. That said, we should have a new PS4 Americas patch out tomorrow that has some additional memory optimizations that will help with performance and some of the crashing people are experiencing.

Thanks! We do constantly monitor the Public Bug Database and pull issues over, although if we already have an issue logged in our internal database we don't, so as to avoid having a bunch of duplicates. We'll try to find some time to clean up the Public DB so people see movement there, but I assure you we are looking at issues and triaging constantly.

The Xbox crashing is fixed or significantly diminished by the CU2 patch which we hope will be out very soon. We'll update on progress ASAP, once we hear back from the MS Cert team.

Yes this is something we've been working on non-stop since launch. We are getting closer to a fix.

Thanks for the offer. It was important to us that everyone be able to experience the episodes in their finished state, rather than part way through development, although it seems we may have missed the mark on that goal as well. We'll take a different approach to playtesting story content in the future.

Hello community, First of all -- I want to say how sorry I am for the state of the Xbox and PS4 versions at launch, and the struggles we've had since then, to fix issues and get you patches in a timely manner. It is totally unacceptable that there are issues with crashing, and progress blockers in the game at launch. I thought it might be useful to provide a bit more insight into how the patching process works across the different platforms, to help explain why patches may come out more quickly on some platforms than others. General Fix & Build Process: We make fixes in Unity and submit content and code changes through a version control system called Perforce. These changes can be checked in Unity (using the editor), but occasionally what you see in the editor is not the same as what is seen in the released game, so we have to "make a build", which is a process where we (using a "build machine") assemble all the relevant assets and code into a complete, playable, and standalone version of the game. We have various types of builds, but the one we base our releases on is a "Release Candidate" build, which means it has things like the debug menu turned off, etc. Building the game for all the platforms we launch on takes about 4-5 hours (about 1 hour for Windows, an hour for Mac, etc.). We check each platform and then test internally, as well as with the support of an external testing lab in Montreal. If things look good, we release to the platforms, where (apart from on Steam) each will go through some kind of review process before it is released to the public. We go through this process for every patch we make. STEAM: There is no certification process on Steam. Once we are confident about the builds, we upload them to Steam and then release them when we are ready. The whole process takes about an hour. Since there is no certification delay and the upload/release process is 100% controlled by us, we can update the game on our own schedule and release as many patches -- big or small -- as we like. This is how we updated The Long Dark throughout Early Access as well. This convenience and speed is why the Steam version of the game tends to be the most up to date version. PLAYSTATION 4: We have two separate PlayStation builds -- one for SCEA (Sony America), and one for SIEE (Sony Europe). Each is essentially a unique company so all the submissions, certifications, ratings, pricing, and patching are all managed through different channels depending on which PlayStation we're talking about. The initial certification process for the game takes 5 days. There is also about a 5-day waiting period for the Sony Store to set up your game. Once that's all done, you can release your game to the PS Store. You have go through this process for both Sonys (and a third one if/when you launch in Japan). After you are certified, your next update is a Day 1 patch. This also takes about 5 days to approve. If it passes, you can then use the Rapid Patching system which allows us to update the game within a few hours, provided we don't do anything that would require a new certification pass. For The Long Dark, the PS4 SCEA version is far enough along that we are able to use the Rapid Patching system to get updates to you, which is why our PS4 SCEA version is able to be as up to date as Steam. Unfortunately, our PS4 Europe version is still getting through the Day 1 patch part of the process. Last night we received word that our Day 1 for PS4 Europe has been rejected due to a well-known crash that will be fixed as soon as we can Rapid Patch. Unfortunately, the way the process is set up, we may have to re-submit a new Day 1 patch that does not have the crash in it, before we can unlock Rapid Patching. We are waiting to hear back from Sony Europe on this, and should know by tomorrow. This has delayed our updating of the PS4 Europe version. We're working with Sony Europe to get the Day 1 patch out ASAP so that we can rapid patch it to the most recent version of the game. I should be clear that we are not blaming Sony for this -- they have a strict process that we have to work through, and it's designed to protect consumers from issues that could brick their PS4s. But the process takes a while and until Rapid Patching is unlocked, we have to go through these steps. So, we beg for your patience as we navigate this with Sony and work through it as best we can. Our focus right now is to get through the PS4 Europe Day 1 patch so that we can unlock Rapid Patching, at which point we will be able to ensure both PS4 versions are as up to date as the Steam build. XBOX ONE: For The Long Dark on Xbox One, every patch goes through a 5-day review by the certification team. If the patch fails the review for some reason, we have to restart the process over again. We try to uncover issues as the process unfolds so that we can cancel and restart early if needed, but sometimes we only find out about issues after the 5-day process is complete. We have released one CU (Content Update, i.e. Patch) for Xbox so far, and we have a second one in with the Cert team right now. We submitted that one on Tuesday so it's making its way through internal review, and hopefully we'll hear something about it tomorrow (at the earliest). Since Xbox patches take so much longer than Steam or PS4, we're bundling up fixes in them so that while you get less frequent patches, they should have more fixes in them. That said, this version of the game will be a week behind the others in terms of patches. Microsoft has been a great partner in this and they are doing everything they can to help us get these updates out to you, without compromising their internal verification process. New Territories Making the game available for purchase in new territories means different things on Xbox and PS4. In both cases, there is a certification process involved. Unfortunately, you cannot be simultaneously patching the game AND in certification -- the internal processes don't allow for it. So, until the worst stability and save loss issues are resolved on PS4 and Xbox, we won't be releasing in new territories such a Australia or New Zealand (which we now have a rating for). We'll release an updated schedule for AUS/NZ and any other territories that are currently in the pipeline (we are working on ratings approval for Japan, Brazil, etc.) as soon as we hear more from those ratings boards. State of the Game I'm not at all happy with how our launch has gone. We didn't anticipate some of the issues that would arise at launch and we've been, frankly, scrambling to fix things as quickly as we can for you. Although it may not seem like it, we did extensive testing in-house, and also had 8 testers from a professional testing lab working on the game for the last 8 weeks of development, to help us identify issues. We caught and fixed a lot of issues before launch. Some things that have come up, were impossible to anticipate up front. Other things slipped through due to carelessness on our part. In hindsight, the amount of content we released in Episode one and Episode Two was too much for our team to test properly, even with external help. We took for granted that 3 yrs of Early Access testing and stability would translate to a very stable Story Mode launch, and we did not fully understand until too late, the scope of some of the technical issues that would be uncovered by our launch. Our goal over the coming days and weeks will be to continue fixing all the issues we find and you report (thank you!), and get the game to the place it should have been when we launched it. After that, we will be spending some time in deeper investigation of what went wrong, to see how we can improve our processes, pipelines, testing tools, and the technology we're using, to ensure we never put you through this again. I know reading this message doesn't give you much comfort if you are waiting for an Xbox patch because you can't get through Episode Two, or you are playing the European PS4 version that is missing fixes from the last 4-5 days, but I hope at least that you will understand that we are working very hard -- along with our partners at Microsoft, Sony America, and Sony Europe -- to remedy the issues, which we take very seriously. We'll continue to be available to support you and answer questions, and in the mean time we're working to fix issues and get those fixes out to you as quickly as we're able, more quickly on some platforms than others. Thanks for reading, and I'm very sorry for the instability, bugs, and patch delays. - Raphael

Please note that for the time being, the PS4 patches for Europe and the Americas will be out of sync. We'll get them aligned as soon as we can, so that both versions have the same fixes. PS4 Patch for The Long Dark -- Updates the Game to Version 1.07 (32337) WARNING: There may be Story spoilers in these notes. * Difficulty tuning of Wolves in Episode One. Struggle should be more survivable for new players. * 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. * 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 Jeremiah's "Survival School". ### END OF PATCH NOTES ### We're continuing to fix additional issues as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience. - The Hinterland Team

The Xbox updating process is, unfortunately, very slow. We're still waiting for the very first update to be out of Cert. We're rolling all these patches into the next one but cannot submit until the first one is through. We're very sorry for the delay. It's frustrating, but there isn't anything we can do about it as it's just how the Xbox update process works.

Just wanted to get another small round of fixes for you before we call it a night. Patch 3 for The Long Dark -- This patch updates the game version to v.103 (32306) This patch is currently for Windows only. Mac and Linux are on the way.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 ###

We'll probably take questions from the community in the future, and answer ones we think will be interesting to discuss. Some of that could overlap with nuts and bolts game mechanics stuff, sure. Depends on what kind of questions we get.

Get used to it. I'm a rambler! I think if you're not interested in hearing 10-15 mins of our thoughts about Mad Max, you likely won't be interested in future episodes. I would have gone on way longer, and intend to go back to it whenever possible.

We don't want to limit topics to only those relevant to the game. It's meant to be more of a "fireside chat" format where we riff on stuff we're interested in. In future segments we'll likely pull some questions from the community and discuss them, but this is more about building a community around shared interests, not just The Long Dark.