Tbone555

So what you're basically saying is that the game needs to be made easier for newer, or "average" players. When has this ever been the essence of the long dark? Up until now the long dark has been VERY punishing and unforgiving to newer players. Before wintermute it just threw us into the sandbox in a "swim or drown, good luck!" Fashion. And that's what made it such a great survival game. And now we really have people saying it should be easier on new players? Oh how the times have changed. This.

I disagree whole heartedly with this statement. I refuse to just "not pick up" the rounds. Because this is a survival game and I'm going to use every resource provided to survive. That's my role as a survivor. It's hinterlands role to make sure survival isn't all that easy for me and I don't get TOO many resources

I agree, the only way to make the forge make sense is to play on interloper, which basically makes it an interloper only tool. But not everyone prefers interloper. More power to you if you do, I personally can't last 20 days. Stalker, which I prefer to play on, is hard to me. Interloper is just sadistic haha! The only issue with this is that the forge was introduced before interloper was. But it has absolutely no balancing for any other difficulty except interloper. Maybe once they add the bear spear I'll have some reason to use the forge but until then, I've played this game for almost 7 years now and I have only used the forge twice, and those two times were just because I wanted to mess around with it, being a new addition at the time. The idea of superior tools isn't as bad as it sounds. It's definitely something that would come with a new skill. As your skill goes up you would learn how to make more professional grade stuff and your steel would hold tighter. Which is very very typical to smithing your own blades - forged blades are typically much higher quality than what you'd buy at John Deere. And by superior I do not mean supertools. I mean SLIGHT buffs. Like downing wood chopping time for cedar to 35 minutes instead of 45. Downing carcass quartering to 45 minutes instead of an hour. Things like that. This would give you incentive to take up that metalworking skill and use the forge more. And using stag, your tools would also be heavier and degrade a little faster, so there's also still incentive to use the basic tools, if you're worried about the weight of your pack.

That's what I'm saying. Even if the timberwolves do balance the revolver rounds out, that means we're gonna pretty much have a survival shooter on our hands. And like I said before the long dark is NOT A shooter and never should be

I'm curious, what's your clothing stats at with this setup? I crafted my bear skin coat yesterday, and I do love it simply because it's badass and it has a high chance to scare wolves away. But besides that I'm not sure if it's practical, as far as the stats to weight ratio goes. I'm sitting at 34f with 14f windproof bonus. Which really doesn't seem worth it since I had to lose a bunch of extra layers to make up for the weight of the coat itself.

Well that's really not true, realistically. Knife handles are made from deer antler all the time. Just bought one for my dad for his birthday, that's what gave me the idea. But I do like the idea of making it another moose hunted item, to balance it out

Well I wasn't saying any of those things about custom sandbox, and I have no quarrel at all for people who do enjoy it. I DID say that it feels like cheating to me. That's just how it feels to me specifically, obviously the custom sandbox has a huge following and there's nothing wrong with that. The custom sandbox is a great idea and I'm still totally for it being improved on, and may try it again some day. It's just not my cup of rosehip tea. I prefer playing the specific difficulty experiences hinterland themselves tailored for the game, and that's just the way I enjoy playing. I didn't mean to bash the custom option in any way. Anyway this discussion doesn't seem to be going much of anywhere. Only time will tell if this was a mistake or intentional for the addition of new predators. And a new topic in the future may be opened up to debate on if the timberwolves make the game feel too shooter-esque. Lets hope that hinterland is smart about the new addition and tunes the timberwolves as to not just be zombie wolves.

100 rounds was an overstatement, of course. I should really refrain from using sarcasm in such a way when I know hinterland is gonna be reading this lol, I apologize. The more accurate number is 60 - 80. But do you know how many rounds I've found for my rifle? 12. That's a huuuuuge difference, for a survival game. Those two numbers for this game are the difference between day and night, and they've just made wolves a complete non threat. To be fair, in my experience flares don't work AT ALL on wolves anymore even when stepped on, so it is nice to have another reliable wolf repellent added. Maybe timberwolves will balance it out. But let's look at what that means - if you have to use THAT many rounds of ammo to keep threats away, you're bordering on a shooter game. And the long dark is NOT a shooter game and should never feel like one.

Well the other day I shot a bear like 8 times. 5 with the revolver, 3 with the rifle. It tried to steal my moose meat. Last mistake he ever made. And he did not go down with those 8 shots, but instead fled back to the unnamed pond where I found his still warm body the very next morning. Either it got confused and spawned in his body still warm, or it literally took him ALL night to bleed out. So I don't believe it does stack initial damage

I've done this just to scare some wolves off before and there isn't anything particularly interesting about it. It just places a very inaccurate blind shot vaguely where you were pointing. It does scare the wolfies though. Some of them at least In my latest game, the wolves seem to be getting more aggressive. As I stated I've been pretty much killing them for fun and now they don't seem to scare off with a warning shot. I pretty much HAVE to hit them to make them flee.

I didn't experiment with it at range at all, unfortunately, these are great questions! I did however discover that it makes a decent tool for hunting deer, despite the description specifically pointing out that it's NOT a hunting tool. I think they changed the description though. Either way you won't be dropping a deer with one shot or anything but it's good enough to make it bleed out with one well placed bullet at 100 percent condition, if you're hurting for a rifle and don't mind tracking. If I find another dozen or so rounds I definitely will experiment with range and get back to you!

Custom difficulty isn't excluded from my statement, I meant that aswell. Some people prefer to play the experience hinterland has hand crafted while others prefer their own rules, and that's fine too. But this is a game in progress where problems do arise with new updates and an uneven drop rate for a new item isn't as easily fixed as "just play custom sandbox." This may or may not be intentional by hinterland. If it was intentional they need to hear the opinions of their player base until they give us an actual need to be finding 100 rounds per map, or if it's unintentional then it needs to be fixed.

The only problem with it is that sometimes, at least on stalker mode, if you touch the wires you can die before you even knew what happened. It's happened to me on multiple occasions and frankly I'm scared of the dam at this point, during the aurora at least

Well hinterland has crafted each difficulty mode to peoples specific preferences for that reason. And that is basically all I did when I played voyageur, I hunted and decorated my shelter with extra gear because that's about all I could find to do. I am having trouble now with my revolver rounds, I'm down to three bullets because I went a little crazy on the wolves on mystery lake xD in no way complaining however, because as I said this is the way I prefer it. I suppose it does balance itself out eventually

Is there any way at all to traverse to the lower dam during the aurora in survival mode? I know you can get through the lower dam easy enough, but the wires in the upper dam make the lower dam inaccessible during the aurora. The only way to explore the lower dam is if you camp out in the lower dam and just wait for the aurora to show up. Which can take a full week or more and it's really not worth hording food and camping out just to see the dam lit up

I agree entirely, but there is a certain line. Green zombie wolves and dying light style blue flares are a little too out there for a survival game based on semi-realism. We all know a lot of the mechanics we have make no sense, but also they at least kind of do. If you know what I mean. Still, hinterland has always been AMAZING with proper balancing with their items and whatnot, so I'm sure this new system will probably be a much needed mechanic to keep us alive out there. I just wish they could have come up with something better than "these flares will scare timberwolves off because they're blue" I mean that's just like... wut?

Oh my apologies, I had no idea a topic like this already existed. I'll make sure to check yours out! I just really want to see some practicality added to the forge because it has never ever been a useful mechanic to me. I'm not against the forge - it can be a great idea. It just needs a huuuuuge overhaul.

Okay, good. Here's evidence that they do exist. However these are football flares and not authentic road / emergency flares. What are the chances that these are gonna be floating around in the great northern nowhere of great bear? Slim to none? Not to mention even if someone does like blue flares, these blue football flares only last 60 seconds which is in no way ideal. They don't make standard 30 min emergency flares in blue. And as was mentioned before, the color of the flare should have absolutely no effect on wildlife. They're gonna all emit the exact same kind of light and work relatively the same. I absolutely love this game and love most of the decisions the team has made. But blue flares and green wolves just seem so "just because." to me. And if these flares are special, they'll feel just as videogamey as the UV flares from dying light, as mentioned above. Yes it is a videogame, and I'm completely fine with their portrayal of this apocalyptic event and the effects of the aurora. Some liberties are gonna be taken for the story of the game. However it has always been a game centered around realism also. And I feel like we're forgetting that more and more. But again, I'll give it to them. They're pretty.

Oh okay, I actually didn't know that. I learn something new on here every day I'm not ENTIRELY against them. I mean they are very very pleasing to the eye. And blue is my favorite color. Maybe they will have a reasonable explanation for us at some point other than "timberwolf repellent just because"

I'm not against the addition of a new tool to defend against timberwolves. But the thing is, every tool we currently have in the game actually, uhm. Exists.

Soo.. what's the deal with the blue flares? Last time I saw something like that was UV flares in dying light. And I'm pretty sure those don't actually exist. Neither do blue flares. The only thing I've come up with, is blue LED "flares" which are essentially just flashing lights. Which would make sense with the event being that the animals are scared of unnatural light. But these flares would not be present in such a rural area as they're usually used by inner city police forces for traffic stops. And besides, these are not those. Because it appears to be just a blue reskin of the standard red road flare. This just doesn't make sense and is a little too videogamey for a survival game that strives for realism, in my opinion. What do y'all think? Any logical way we can explain this one?

Does everyone remember the early days? When the insulated boots were the best clothing item in the game. When the woodpeckers would peck on metal and everyone wondered why they heard a cell phone ringing? When the entire ocean was frozen. When the original forestry lookout was still standing... Btw that was my favorite location in the game and I'll never forgive you hinterland ... or how about when we saw a snow shovel on the main menu? Before custom difficulty. Before the forge. Anyone remember the original survivor interface? Having to do without a radial menu? When cooking was as simple as selecting the item and time automatically passing. Before we needed cooking utensils, before skill trees, before layered clothing. Those were the days.

Look at my new kitten, isn't he the most adorable little thing!? he got his name because of his pure ferocity. He always wins fights with his brothers and sisters in his litter. And when he became old enough to pick up and hold, he would almost constantly hiss and try to bite you. He's become a little more friendly now but as soon as I picked him up off his sister whom he was pinning down and biting, and he started hissing at me, I immediately knew his name. plus bears are my favorite animal let's show off our pets! I'm curious to see who keeps my fellow survivors company in the quiet apocalypse

I have a suggestion for the forge ladies and gentlemen. One that may actually make us want to use it. As you know, I've never been for the forge. Until they add the bear spear to survival mode, I have literally no reason to use it. I can find a knife and hatchet easily and can find arrowheads with not much more difficulty. That makes it useless to me. However. If they offered alternate, more powerful tools, it would actually make sense. Here's how it would happen. You would get a new skill tree, a new harvesting option, and possibly a new skill book added to the game. And obviously new crafting recipes. The stag handle knife and hatchet. You would learn these recipes at level 3 of the forging skill. At level 1 you can still make improvised tools, but as you level the skill your tools work better and better, last longer, and crafting times decrease. You'll be able to harvest deer and moose antler, and use a work bench and high quality tools to make a "stag handle." Then you would take it to a forge with some steel, and forge your knife or hatchet. The stag handle tools will be much better, but slightly heavier and stronger than the standard hatchet and knife. Still not as heavy as the improvised tools. And since forged tools tend to have much much tighter steel than manufactured, they would cut much better aswell drastically decreasing wood cutting and carcass harvesting times. There would have to be a new texture made for the hatchet, but the model for Jeremiah's knife in pre-dux (which I'm not sure is actually obtainable at the moment. Look it up on the wiki if you never got this item) is already a stag handle blade. What do y'all think?

Just as the title states - What do y'all tend to wear in the long dark to keep the chill off your bones? I remember back before they added defense, waterproof and encumbrance value to clothing and we would all rush to get the heaviest warmest stuff. But with more recent updates, you have to be tactical about what you wear. Me, I like to be light, reasonably warm, and defended. My current outfit is as follows - I like light but warm jackets. Ski jacket is an ideal jacket for me, and layering two light sweaters or one heavy sweater underneath it provides pretty decent warmth and defense. Rabbit skin hat and balaclava are both pretty light and very very warm. Wool socks and trail socks are very ideal, preferably two pairs of either. I like trail boots or deer boots. They may not be the warmest, but they're not the worst by far and offer great mobility. Leather work gloves solely for the defensive value, they're my favorite gloves in the game. And as you can see I have snow pants on with cargo pants layered over them for the extra wind blockage and damage protection. Work pants offer much better protection, but they're not very warm and they're very heavy so they're not ideal. Heavy boots are a huuuge no no. Ski boots especially. I hate being slowed down as I travel a lot. Heavier coats are good if I can't find anything else, but as long as I can find a ski jacket I usually stay away from them. This setup has kept me completely warm on most days, but I know it won't last. I've had some hides curing to make some clothes for when the weather turns. I plan to replace the trail boots with deerskin boots, keep most of my clothing as is, and craft me a bearskin coat. Which is heavy, yes. But offers the best cold protection in the entire game and it shouldn't weigh me down too bad as long as I keep the rest of my clothing light. So what do my fellow survivors think of my setup? How do y'all prefer dressing yourselves in the morning to face the quiet apocalypse?