Tbone555

Do yall remember when the UI actually looked like a survival journal? That was awesome and I have no clue why they ditched it for what we have now. Does anyone else miss it?

I feel like this hasn't been talked about in a while. Usually there wouldn't be much need to have primitive firestarting but I found myself in such a need the other day in hushed river valley when I ran out of matches. Plus it would just be a new thing to mess around with anyway. I think it would tie in nicely to the firestarting skill. Perhaps matches and strikers and such would offer MINIMAL skill gain while starting fires primitively would result in much larger skill gain. The obvious way would be using the bow method, and there might even be a little minigame similar to Stranded Deep's firestarting. Ie, tapping LT and RT to drill the stick with your hands and create friction. Except I would like to see it much harder than it is in that game. Starting a fire by hand is not easy and until you're top level firestarting it should continue to be a pain. But it's there if you have no matches. Or you're bored and want to learn a new skill.

Ah, but you're wrong my friend. In most first person games that include this sort of photo mode, you are correct in that the character model doesn't exist. It's just the hands. However, once this photo mode is activated, the hands are hidden from the scene and replaced with a static 3d model. Probably in a similar way we saw Will during the third person cutscenes in pre-dux. (Which is proof that there is already a pre existing 3d model for will.) This is the same trick id used in doom eternal. Doomguy doesnt have a third person model. He gets replaced with the static model upon toggling photo mode. One of the older development tricks in the book. The model doesn't have to have different clothes, simply using the standard Mackenzie / Astrid models would be enough. Only thing that would really have to be added is creating these models in different poses for the photo mode. It wouldn't be as high effort as you think.

So this is literally the most photogenic game I've ever played and while taking screenshots during gameplay is already amazing, since hinterland has seemed to nail 3d modeling characters I have a suggestion. A true photo mode. Where we can zoom out and catch our character in the shot in 3rd person in a variety of poses and be able to alter the camera. Poses would include our survivor standing holding tools or weapons, and perhaps "combat" poses where he might be flinching or aiming the revolver, holding his hatchet up ready to attack, etc. for photos involving hostile wildlife. What y'all think?

I love that idea! That would be wild to release him and then one day have to kill a wolf with a unique scar that you healed and recognize your friend. That would be such a surreal experience. That's the idea of him not being a "companion" where he would follow you around everywhere. Knowing that you've been alone up until this point. And finally finding a friend in this cold, quiet apocalypse... just to have to release him and watch him run away into the woods, knowing you're alone again. That's really the whole point of that's experience I suppose I only mentioned the idea of having a follower companion because I know a lot of people have been asking for it. I personally wouldn't like that, I think it would take away from the experience. But if hinterland did want to go that way this would be a nice test trial to play with the idea

So let's talk about the wolf in the cannery behind the keypad door. I have questions, such as how and why is he even in there since there seems to be no other way in than the closed door and the dock is collapsed. But that's a discussion for another topic. I see nothing but potential in this wolf. Let's say he's taking shelter from the timber wolves. He was bitten and is bleeding all over the place, whimpering in the corner. Surely death is approaching... until you stumble across him. In this what if scenario you would have two options. You can put him out of his misery. Or, since he's too weak to fight you... you can wrap his wounds and sit with him for a while. Comfort him. Offer him some water or a bit of meat. Then when you return he might be up walking around. He would still growl at you and be skittish and wouldn't approach you. But he wouldn't charge you. You could continue feeding him and it would work like a trust meter of sorts. The more time you spend with him and feed him the more he would be comfortable around you until eventually you have your very own pet wolf. Now let's be realistic. This wouldn't be like dog meat from fallout. It would simply be a moral dilemma. Do you take on an extra mouth to feed to save this poor wolf's life against a mutual enemy, do you shoot him yourself and waste a bullet to ease his pain, or would you simply loot and walk away listening to his whines and leave him to his fate? Maybe he pulls through and next time you come to make some ammo he'd be waiting for you, more aggressive than other wolves due to starvation and isolation. You can nurse him to health, visit him every day and even pet him when he warms up to you. But this wolf is more of a friend than a pet or a companion. He won't go exploring with you. But when he is healthy, and you're ready to move on to the next map and can't take care of him anymore, you would let him out of the building and he will simply scurry off into the woods. This would be killing two birds with one stone as it would offer a new awesome experience and gameplay mechanic to focus on, but also set the ground work for possibly having a companion to follow you one day. Like a little test trial.

I've finally gotten around to playing the most recent update. I tried it a little when it first came out but didn't give it enough play time for a full post about it. It is rather phenomenal. I love the timber wolf behaviour and my first experience with this update was starting a fresh game on the new map at dusk on stalker. I found the new cannery location and it was a massive breath of fresh air until I noticed I was being surrounded by Timber wolves. And not only that, but the lights began flickering to life. An Aurora on my very first night in this brand new map in a new location. I was freezing, tired and hungry. But ecstatic. It was an amazing experience. The wolves chased me into the buildings and I tried sneaking from building to building going between the storage containers and debris until they sniffed me out. At this point I found a naval flare and it did stop them from charging me, then in the spur of the moment I saw the climbing rope going to the top level and you bet I scurried up that thing as fast as possible. Walking along the planks, finding the notes and exploring with the wolf pack snarling up at me was a truly terrifying experience. Shimmying along the narrow wooden beams knowing if I slip there's no coming back. And then finding what I assume was husband and wife clutching to each other frozen in the corner of one of the buildings. Brand new character models aswell. It felt so surreal and told such a tragic story that I even refused to loot the corpses. It sickened me to think of robbing these bodies, which is something I've never had a real issue with before. These two just seemed more... real to me. Anyway. It was an incredible experience. Almost like a horror game. It's a new experience that I've never had with this game before and it breathed fresh life into it for me. Honestly, well done Hinterland. I love it. I do have some issues with it though. Entirely constructive criticism. I already reported this and hinterland replied they're doing their utmost to fix the problem, but on xbox one the autosave locks the game up for a good 10 - 15 seconds. This wouldn't be a problem anywhere else, but during timber wolf encounters the game saves when you get bitten. It really pulls you out of the whole timber wolf experience when fending off the pack and your game freezes every time one takes a nibble. Not a big issue, just a little immersion breaking and again hinterland has told me they're working on the problem. Hope to see that ironed out soon I love the ammunition crafting. it's so handy but there is one little problem... I got to almost level 5 in the skill, in one in game night. The progression is way too fast. I only made about 50 revolver rounds and was an instant expert. Only about 10 of those rounds are poor quality aswell. I think the progression should be a little slowed to up the challenge but that is just my opinion. finally, the flares man. They just don't work. In my experience they stop the wolves from charging as long as they're held. If I throw it the wolf stands right on top of the flare and doesn't scare off so I lose the flare in an attempt to scare off the wolves. This makes actually fighting off the timber wolf pack absolutely impossible without the revolver since that's the only other thing you can use to scare them. If you have timber wolves on you, and no revolver with no shelter to duck into, you're pretty much completely screwed. The flares have not scared off wolves for me in a very very long time. Ever since they were changed from flailed to thrown. They're pretty much absolutely useless to me and I always pass them up when I see them. They also have the same effect on the normal wolves. I throw the flare and the wolf either just stands on top of it or walks right over it and charges me anyway. Very annoying, that is. also regarding the timber wolves I absolutely love that you gave me the option to turn off the pack morale meter. I thought that was really stupid. It's a lot more immersive and tense to not know if you're actually doing anything to them. I imagine it's a nice tool for new or casual players, but again, I just really respect that you give me the option not to use it and that wraps up my little review. I hope it's helpful and doesn't come off as overly critical. Just my own views and experiences. Cheers, hinterland, and thank you for another absolutely amazing update and the brand new experience. Y'all are absolutely awesome!

Haven't heard much about it lately, just checking in on the progress don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining about it or anything haha I'm really glad to see this update and it looks absolutely spectacular. I'm tempted to leave work early to go play it tonight. But alas, I gotta make that money. This 12 hour shift ain't gonna work itself 😛

This update looks amazing and I can't wait to play it, but is the bear spear still coming to survival mode? It's so awkward to me hunting bear with the rifle and this is what I'm waiting on the most

Well raph I just want you to know - and a quick disclaimer here, I am absolutely not showing pity, this is my honest opinion - I believe hinterland is doing great, and will continue on to do great after this project. I've been following you guys since I was 14. I'm 20 now. I scraped up 20 dollars, in pennies, to buy this game because my mother wouldn't let me have a new game that close to Christmas that year. I'm not kidding. We have a penny jar in the kitchen. I emptied it. You've been a huge part of my life and this community has aswell, thus my rant about it going sour as it unfortunately has. I think this game has had a few hiccups along the way, *cough* pre-dux *cough,* but you have no idea how happy it makes me that yall did the right thing and went back and improved on it based on the opinions of your fan base. That itself puts you above most developers out there as far as listening to the community goes. And as I said in my previous post, I understand that your patience is growing as thin as the chance of not getting food poisoning from a 5% condition granola bar with the hostility coming from the community lately, and I wanted you to know that I I've never taken your occasional hot-headedness to heart. You're only human, raph, we all understand that and no one at all holds it against you. Just know that there are still plenty of us that stand by hinterland and support what you're doing. Y'all keep on doing what you do to make this game - nay - this masterpiece a reality for us. It is truly a work of art and remains my favorite game 6 years running. Wishing all y'all the best. ☕

A bit off topic here. But man has this community changed. We used to all be so friendly around here - most of all to raph and the hinterland crew. Even if we didn't agree we could all have a simple discussion without being at eachothers throats. It's one of the reasons I'm not very active on these forums anymore - even though I still play the game daily. The magic that was once here is just lost to us now. Constructive criticism is fine. But please do be civil. And please stop giving the dev team such a hard time. This game is a masterpiece with how they've reworked it from predux - if you do have an issue with how something turned out then do voice your opinion. But don't sit there and tell the dev team that you know what's best for their own game. To be fair raph does come off sometimes as slightly hostile - probably because he's fed up with the crap this community puts him through - and tends to put a lot of emphasis on this being HIS game or THEIR game. That's not a very fair argument since without this community hinterland wouldn't be where it is today and without our support and contributions this game wouldn't have come this far. But also without hinterlands dedication, sleepless nights and hard work over these years it wouldn't have come this far either. So can we all just calm down? Grab a cup of rosehip tea and just, chill. Everyone. I swear every time I log on to check on updates once every few months I'm met with bad vibes and hostility. This isn't the hinterland forums I know and love.

It seems that nomad just hasn't been updating with the rest of the game. Odd.

So I'm about 40 days into my latest nomad run. And have not seen the aurora once. I've been waiting for it every night, sleeping during the day. This is really disappointing to me, because typically I always bunker down and use a bug-in play style on my normal survival sandboxes. I figured nomad would give me the opportunity to explore around a little bit and find some of the new buffer memories. Why isn't the aurora present in nomad?

thats awesome

I appreciate the fast and kind reply as always, Patrick!