Shrike Arghast

Yes, I understand that for the brief period when our characters aren't wearing gloves, it would show them with some. However, how long does this period normally last in a game? An hour? Tops? Exposed hands are one of the fastest routes to our guy/girl getting frostbite, so it's an issue we have to tackle early. And, once it's solved, it's generally... solved. We don't, like, lose the gloves over time. I can't be the only one who finds it immensely disconcerting to look down at my pistol/rifle/lantern/flare/etc. and see naked, pink flesh... especially when I'm like 100 days into a game and dressed in enough fur skin to make a mountain man drop his gun and flee in shame. Could this possibly be fixed?

It's an incredibly stupid mechanic. Yes, it's easily avoidable, but it is counter to the entire notion of survival trumping psychological well-being. Moreover, it's just outright dumb that I will get cabin fever in a little shack, but not by living for days at a time inside a fishing hut. I mean, c'mon.

Can I just take the opportunity to say that the aurora mechanic is the silliest thing ever? I love the pretty skies, but the idea that the air would be so ionized by solar wind that it could power electrical circuits spontaneously is just... dumb.

I realize that several of these requests are likely impossible within the current framework of the game. However, I think they'd all be an enormous improvement to either TLD, or a future sequel: 1) Cougars. I want to be stalked by an ultra-rare animal, and one that is a far cry more dangerous than the current fauna. I think cougars should be an extremely uncommon encounter, but also represent a predator that has the capability to not only track a player over great distances, but to "wait them out" when they are located within structures. The game needs some "boss music" situations, and mountain lions could be one, in addition to.. 2) Grizzlies. The black bear is scary, but I want something bigger and more savage. Again, like the cougar, the grizzly should be extremely rare, but easily the most dangerous foe in the game (IE, I don't think getting "jumped" by the grizzly should be survivable unless you're wearing the absolute best gear). The game takes place in brown bear country, so the implementation of grizzlies doesn't require any suspension of belief. 3) Spears. Why the bear spear isn't in the regular survival mode yet; why it isn't THE default choice melee (or even overall) weapon is just beyond me. The first implement I would craft in any survival scenario would be a spear - if you have access to a knife (or even some types of stone) you can build a spear (although, granted, a blade with some kind of a tang is going to result in a far more deadly and reliable weapon). All the animals in this game attack via a charge - a well-crafted braced spear can literally kill a full-momentum apex predator (such as a lion or tiger) in a single shot IRL; it should be able to do the same in TLD (this is in direct contrast to a home-made bow - a weapon I personally view as an enormous stretch to craft in a manner effective enough to take down big game. Yes, anyone can string a bow - but a novice creating a weapon powerful enough to take down bears or moose? I doubt it... a lot). 4) A shotgun. Frankly, it should replace the rifle. It would be an infinitely more useful weapon. 5) A sled. Again, this is one of those "first priorities" that pretty much anyone within snow-based long-duration survival scenario (who needed to move a lot) would build the moment they had assured immediate survival needs. A basic sled is a far less complicated than a high-functioning bow, and it dramatically alleviates long-haul load burdens. Basically, it's a no-brainer. 6) More food prep options and believable, persistent storage options. We should be able to cure meat and craft jerky - we're searching houses, and salt should be pretty much everywhere, even in Interloper; it's not something that people would have consumed in desperation, so pretty much every home in the game should have a decent supply of it. Additionally, enough with the outdoor meat dumping - it's absolutely ludicrous that we're just dropping fresh food on the ground in piles to sit there undisturbed when our abodes are often circled by bloodthirsty predators. You can't even bring most chips or candy into Yellowstone National Park IRL because the bears are so voracious that they'll break into cars for a Snickers Bar - do you really think that leaving this enormous pile of food on the ground is a strong or even reasonable representation of food/scavenger interactions? In the least, we should be able to craft bear bags - though I'd argue that building storage bins at our long-term shelters is probably a more easy in-game solution. Either way, the whole "weeks' worth of food on the ground outside my door" thing needs to end. 7) A scaling back of the sprain mechanics. I spend a fair amount of time outdoors, and the only time in my life I have ever suffered a sprained ankle was when I tripped and fell down our garage stairs when I was like 16. The fact of the matter is a) people don't suffer (and recover from) sprains with all that much frequency, and b) getting a sprain should be a fair more dangerous situation when it happens, requiring our character (like with the broken ribs) to be laid up for long periods of time. Currently, the sprain system not only discourages exploration and punishes players for efforts to relocate, but it's a very poor depiction of the real world; it's a lose/lose proposition that doesn't encourage immersion or mobility. 😎 Running that warms us. I just don't get this at all. I've lived in Maine for the majority of my adult life. If you go out in the snow and start exerting yourself, you don't just warm up, you get DRENCHED in sweat. How jogging in the snow doesn't temporarily increase our warmth bar is just inexplicable. 9) A reevaluation of the entire clothing system (re: dressing in layers). Two pairs of pants, two coats, two long johns, two shirt/sweaters, two hats... our characters wouldn't even be able to MOVE: In the temperatures portrayed in TLD, under most circumstances, a coat + sweater + gloves and face protection should suffice... and if it doesn't, we really shouldn't be out in it. 10) Tameable wolf puppies. Now, before you roll your eyes, consider that - after a month or so - our characters are all so well-established that they're killing a lot of free time just sitting around. Moreover, on all modes other than Interloper (which a lot of us don't play because it's so ridiculously harsh that it's no longer a believable [even by a stretch] representation of conditions that might ever be present on this planet), food is very plentiful - we often have so much of it that it rots in storage. Additionally, many wolves IRL - even adult wolves - display behavior that indicates that taming might be possible under the right circumstances: There's no great mystery to that - the only reason we have dogs at all is because wolves were able to prove their worth as pets to ancient man; often approaching campsites to be fed, then offering eventual protection and companionship. With the excess of food and absence of long-term projects once you are "settled" in TLD, a wolf pet seems like a pretty interesting goal for our characters to have. 11) Co-op play. This is obviously a big request, but I feel like it would add so much. I'm not necessarily talking about turning TLD into some kind of a persistent-world MMORPG, or anything (though that would be awesome)... but the idea of playing with a friend (either competitively in a rush for resources and eventual death hunt, or as allies who work together and tackle tasks as a team) would be amazing. The story-mode makes it clear that, while the world is in dire straits, our characters are hardly the last human beings alive or anything - in fact, it's completely possible that elsewhere on Earth, life may be progressing in a relatively normal fashion (albeit essentially brought back to the 1880s). Introducing a basic cooperative experience would grant long-time players a new reason to boot up the client, and invite their friends to give it a try.