ridankrad

Agreed on all points. Like you said, it's low priority, but also like you said, it would be nice if its appearance better matched its stats as a high tier clothing item.

18 minutes ago, Lexilogo said:

My personal ideal solution is a rework to food decay, (ruined food is no longer edible, you can make jerky to have meat last longer but the process takes effort, resources, and it's calorie-inefficient, and food decay values should also be generally rebalanced) which is usually how a lot of other survival games aim to kick you out of bed. If you have long-term food sources, you could still hibernate, but you'd be burning through high-quality food whilst accomplishing nothing productive.

I also really like this idea. As diggity mentioned, cooking level 5 is way too powerful and allows vast stockpiles to be amassed. I'll add on to this idea with a detail of how I imagine it could work. Currently you can find coal by searching mines and caves. My suggestion would be to add salt as another item that would gradually accumulate in caves and mines. Better yet, make it selective to only certain mines/caves and make it rare enough that the player is incentivized to explore to gather more of it.

One other thing I'll mention is that CF does not prevent hibernation per se. Instead it just changes the venue of hibernation to caves. There is some wear on a bedroll, but there is a lot of cloth so it's still very doable to pass lots of time hibernating in a cave and using the starvation strategy. Plus, there are a handful of caves that have "beds" in them (e.g. cave at the bottom of the Ravine), so even the wear on the bedroll could be avoided if caves like that are used.

The music and art style, and the way they interact. For example, the sunrises and sunsets are beautifully presented in the watercolor aesthetic. But the game also has themes that play to announce both: an uplifting theme for the sunrise and an ominous theme for sunset. Another example are the blizzards being absolutely blinding and terrifying, and often prompting music to fit the tone. Basically, in a word: atmosphere.

20 minutes ago, Lexilogo said:

Wait, sorry, did I do that? Apologies if so, years of Internet living has jaded me and probably made my tone of speaking in argument a bit nasty.

Rest assured, I really don't mean ill will, I just like dunking on silly things, and I think Cabin Fever is silly haha

For what it's worth, I don't think your tone was hostile or passive aggressive. It was a lengthy post and used emphasis in a lot of places (plus a meme, but I assumed that was meant tongue in cheek), but overall it seems like a well-reasoned explanation of the various issues with CF. Then again, I'm also critical of CF so I may be biased.

13 hours ago, Kayosiv said:

It could be any number of special or even mundane items.

I've heard people mention a bow quiver, also a great idea.

It could be a regular knife. The only one in interloper, how cool would that be?

Or it could just be a jar of peanut butter. Interloper players after day 100 or so are just looking for SOMETHING To do that matters or is entertaining. Getting the Technical backpack in Ash canyon felt super meaningful. Going into the aurora elevator in the hidden mine was also super meaningful, even though I didn't get any significant loot or upgrades from it. It was still days of prep and planning to achieve and felt triumphant when I completed it.

Interesting idea about the regular knife (or maybe also the regular hatchet) as a reward. That would certainly add a lot of value to the milling machine in BI. I can predict some resistance to this idea from some interlopers who might be concerned about it eroding interloper's difficulty, but I think it might be okay if the challenge to get the regular knife/hatchet was extreme (e.g. braving lots of aurora wildlife in frigid temperatures).

10 hours ago, Mistral said:

There's no real use for lanterns when you can torch-chain + there are 100,000 matches available in the game world. They're only useful early game when you have no other light sources yet or if you're doing one region challenge or whatever

I like the lantern for several reasons even late game:

1. Saving matches to explore mines/caves for coal on cloudy days when unable to start fire with the mag lens.

2. Checking for loot more easily in buildings.

3. The temperature bonus it offers even when winds are too strong for torches.

4. Reading at night indoors when waking up before sun is up.

4 hours ago, sierra 117 said:

I don't really care if it a bunch of tinder plugs we get.

I would just like to play the tales in Interloper for the challenge /reason to explore.

Although personally I don't like not being able to level all skills on Interloper , so I usually set up a  custom gunterloper.

But there's too many guns.

What i would really love is either a new game mode  with interloper settings and guns available but very rare ,like 2x rifles and 2x revolvers in the entire map  with no cleaning kits at all (gives more reason to visit the milling machine)and with 1x knife and 1x hatchet, would also like to be have access to all the types of clothing(again very rare to find)

Or have the tales as a toggleable option for custom

Like with the other suggestion above about the single instance of a regular knife/hatchet, I think the idea of finding a single gun is interesting if it's done right. For the gun, the idea I've had is that parts for the gun are scattered all across Great Bear and have to be located, retrieved and assembled, after which the resulting assembled gun would be extremely low condition and in need of repair at the milling machine (even in this scenario, I don't think any gun cleaning kits should spawn).

I like this idea because it would give a kind of scavenger hunt for later game interlopers that would reward them with a high value weapon, but without allowing guns to be acquired any sooner than late game. It would also allow interlopers to (eventually) level up their firearm-related skills.

Again, I predict opposition to this idea from some interlopers, which I understand, but I personally think this would be a good way to add some late game objectives to interloper without compromising the difficulty or spirit of that mode.

Thanks everyone so far for all the thoughtful replies.

I make use of coal a lot so I spend a lot of time in mines gathering it. Torches work too of course, but unless it's a sunny day allowing for the mag lens, then the lantern is a good option to save on matches. Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Obviously right now it's not clear whether HL will update Tales so that it can be played in interloper. But assuming it does, what do people think of the concept of the Spelunker's Lantern as a replacement reward for the rifle holster?

According to the TLD Wiki, currently the Spelunker's Lantern is unavailable in interloper. I think it would be a great substitute reward in interloper. It's arguably an upgrade over the normal lantern (40% more fuel efficient), but has drawbacks (40% less luminous). This seems right in line with the interloper mode. For example, the bearskin coat is very warm and protective but is heavy and cumbersome. Additionally, getting the Spelunker's Lantern in these circumstances would obviously require braving an extreme challenge.

What do people think about this?

1 minute ago, Moosemaster said:

With how toxic this community has been since the announcement of TFTFT half of the people who post things like you are being passive aggressive and I’d rather not start a fight

I have no control over what other people do or say. But I don't think I said anything passive aggressive or hostile. As far as I'm concerned, we're discussing cabin fever and ways to (potentially) improve it and TLD overall.

Just now, Moosemaster said:

I mean I never said these were not bad ideas I never even commented on them, nor did I defend or attack cabin fever as a condition. Dunno why ur upset brother I just said the symptoms are realistic and have real world fixes. 

I'm not sure why you think I'm upset. I was curious what you thought of my ideas.

5 minutes ago, Moosemaster said:

No I cured it by spending time at my friends house and doing a lot of outside work. In a TLD situation the only way to get rid of cabin fever would be to spend time outside. We are lucky he has the symptoms he does, things could be a LOT worse that he gets.  Life for one he could develop a need for more food or depression. Both of which are not as easily fixed.

What you did IRL to cure cabin fever is quite different than in TLD. What you describe sounds like the effects of isolation which you cured by spending time with people. That makes perfect sense. But in TLD survivor mode, there's no one left. Hence my earlier suggestion to make non-skill books a resource since they are a window back to a time when other people existed and might offer a reprieve to the survivor's state of mind. I also suggested that staying active (e.g. crafting, cooking, etc.) should be treated differently than just passing time aimlessly. What do you think of these ideas?

17 minutes ago, Moosemaster said:

Much more realistic that you would think. I was stuck in a room for a week with a game console and I still developed cabin fever within 4 days

Did you cure your cabin fever by living out of a cave or fishing hut? That's how it works in TLD.

12 hours ago, Ghurcb said:

I get what you mean, but it's rather uncommon for games to remove features. And I don't think The Long Dark is an exception. Can't recall a single change Hinterland would backtrack on, so frankly, cabin fever being removed is very unlikely.

What COULD happen, though (and what should happen, in my opinion) is a rework of cabin fever, where once you get it, instead of being unable to sleep, read, or pass time, you just start losing your max fatigue (let's say, at the rate of 25%/day). This would give you more agency as to when you go outside, while still discouraging the "hibernation" playstyle.

Also, being unable to pass time?! Whose stupid idea was that?! Let's say, you got cabin fever during a blizzard. You'd have to wait for it to end to go out. But you can't fast forward? WHY?! I could just leave the game on and go do some other stuff, reaching the same result. This is so ridiculous...

HL did actually remove/revert a feature. Currently you can pull torches from fires, which was how it was originally introduced. However, after introducing the ability to pull used torches from fires, HL later changed it so that you couldn't pull torches and instead pulled brands from fires. The brands couldn't be extinguished and relit (they just burned down the one time and were afterwards useless) or broken down and had worse duration than the torches. Apparently HL didn't like the concept because they removed brands from the game in a later update and reverted it back to the pulling-used-torches-from fires mechanic that we have today. It's interesting because the brands had their own unique art assets and their mechanics were a little bit different from torches, so I think at least some effort went into creating them, and yet they are now just a footnote in TLD's development history.

As for cabin fever, I'm of the opinion that it should be removed or, as you suggest, reworked. It has a significant effect on gameplay, but not a good one. My strategy is to spend time fishing or base out of a cave until the risk is cured. This works, but I don't enjoy having my gameplay pigeonholed like that. Another strategy is that I use outdoor fire barrels and stoves to do long cooking sessions. The fire barrel/stove means that wind cannot extinguish the fire. And fun fact, if the fire's temperature is high enough, you do not need to wear clothes even in a blizzard to avoid frostbite. So I do those cooking sessions not wearing any clothes out in the middle of a blizzard to avoid cabin fever. Besides being absurd, it's not really fun.

As for a rework, your idea sounds pretty good. A thought I've had is that the player should be able to read the non-skill books to help cure cabin fever, since doing so would stimulate the brain and improve mental health. If you wanted to really improve this, then make many different titles of non-skill books and make it so that re-reading a non-skill book would have less of a curative effect on cabin fever risk (with maybe a recharge after some significant period of time). This would encourage the player to amass a varied library as an end game goal and also make using even non-skill books for fuel a real dilemma. I also think that the player should not accumulate cabin fever risk (or accumulate at a slower rate) when the player is doing something productive -- e.g. crafting, mending, etc.

6 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

I believe they were specifically referring to them "growing back".

Yeah, I assumed they were too, but someone else mentioned beachcombing and it is at least one (unreliable) way to restock on cattails.

Cattails can be obtained through beachcombing, so in that sense they are renewable.

The thing I love most about the Long Dark is the feeling of discovery I get when traveling somewhere new. I don't know if it's possible, but my dream for this game would be some kind of random map generator so that every game is different. However, even as is, with the items being (more or less) randomized, I still get a feeling of discovery even when returning to old familiar places like Trapper's or the Camp Office and it's so much fun every time to see what goodies await.