Pillock

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Everything posted by Pillock

  1. because I miss more often than not against charging wolves!
  2. Well, that's the thing: it has been reported before here on the forums as a problem. I think it stems from the fact that lighting a campfire is the only sure-fire way of avoiding a wolf or moose struggle, and it's also virtually free in terms of spending resources. This can lead to players (like me, at least!) just defaulting to starting a campfire every time a wolf or a moose starts to take an interest in them. And this in turn tends to lead to spent campfires littering all parts of the map where wolves or meese can appear. Over a long period (3-figure game-days), this could sometimes cause a slowing down of performance. As I said, I don't know if this issue still affects the game or if it was addressed in some previous update, but I do know that was a 'thing' in the past.
  3. I'm sure you've thought about this before, but I definitely think you could have done this with Wintermute - ie. included, say, Episodes 1 & 2 (or even just episode 1) in the base price of the game, and then charged extra for each additional episode. I'd have been perfectly happy with that, anyway. An episodic release like your story mode would seem to fit that model quite well. Perhaps for Wintermute 2?
  4. I think this would be a really good way of handling it. One blizzard should probably be enough to 'delete' a campfire (and perhaps a disused snow shelter?). The only exceptions would have to be campfires built inside caves, because those parts don't get snowed on. It's only really a major issue if and when multiple campfires in a map start to cause deterioration of game performance. I know that has been an issue in the past with very long running games; not sure if it was fixed at some point? Otherwise, it's just aesthetic, and not terribly important in my opinion.
  5. Just to pitch in on this, especially the second paragraph, about providing short(ish)-term objectives for the player: Playing as I do with the slowest possible Condition Regain settings, I often find that just getting back up to 100% (or 105% with Well Fed bonus) is an objective that comes up a fair bit! It takes a few days of careful and much more focused activity, and makes a change from the normal run of things. Similarly, I recently gave myself parasites by mistake (in the game...), and found that the hunt for mushrooms also became like a little self-generating side-mission in my game, which was fun. The same goes for when you get stomped by a moose. The main point is: afflictions, injuries and other mishaps would seem to me to be a great way to give players these little short-term objectives. They're good because they fit in well with the Survivor Mode idea that the main overall objective is to keep your character alive (rather than rebuild civilization), and they provide variation and different focus to different stages of your run. Compared to, say, adding new crafting options or items, which you tend only to do once per game each, they're also much more repeatable. I feel they could be expanded upon (ie. more of them), perhaps made a little more difficult to avoid (I've never EVER, in 1400 hours of playing TLD, ever contracted Cabin Fever or got dystentery, as examples), and also given more protracted and active healing processes. They give you fixed tasks to do over a set period of time and compel you to focus on gathering particular resources or crafting particular items. I know you've only just changed the way sprains work, but I still feel they could be made more of in terms of healing.
  6. I didn't find one in Coastal Highway on my game either, but I did find a rifle - perhaps that's why?
  7. Thanks. That's as I expected. But of a pity from my point of view: would've been nice to get a small regain while awake from drinking the tea. I guess now I have to decide whether to enable low level regain while awake, or just use the birch bark for heat and calories. My Custom settings revolve around the principle of having them tricky as possible while not excluding any items or features altogether - so I have Medium base loot so as to enable hatchets, knives, prepper caches and high-tier clothing, but all the spawn chances on minimum; animal detection and scent settings on the furthest distances and struggle damages on maximum, but minimal populations and respawns so it's harder to farm meat and pelts; etc. Part of this was having the minimum possible condition regain while not eliminating it entirely: I chose sleeping regain only, partly because that's what the whole game used to be like, and partly because I wanted to maintain the useful function of Herbal Tea. Now I have dilemma, I suppose. The healing rate at is lowest setting is +1 per hour, is that right? And +1.5/hr if you have birch bark effect?
  8. I'm normally a terrible shot with the rifle, so I was feeling quite pleased with myself that the first two shots I took after Steadfast Ranger came out both resulted in kills - a bear and a wolf. Admittedly, the former was at point blank range about 1 second before I got mauled, so I couldn't really miss; but the latter was on the charge and some distance away, so I was pretty smug about that. The third shot I took was at another bear, again at fairly close range - probably about 15 yards. He was side-on and the sights we're centered around the shoulder (I was going for the neck, but messed it up a little). That one apparently missed. I don't know what's going on.
  9. Did you confirm that there is no added condition regeneration effect if the Custom Mode "Condition Regain" (awake) setting is at "None"? That being the case, I'll still find them useful as extra heat boosts. I like heat boosts.
  10. Yup, will do. Thanks. To be honest I've been playing for a long time over several updates with the Animal Respawn setting at 'Low', expecting it to mean that the respawn time would be slower/longer, and I've never really noticed whether it was working in that way or not! I just assumed the respawn times I was getting were the slowest the game offered, and got on with it. All I can say is that I shot the Misanthrope bear the other day in my first post-Steadfast Ranger start, and he respawned at almost exactly the same time as I finished clearing the carcass site - about 4 days (or so) later.
  11. Is this one still in the game? Just so I know to put it the other way around next time!
  12. Don't do a time-accelerated task outdoors of you're carrying anything smelly. Sometimes you don't know you're being followed...
  13. I got a sprained wrist while walking along inside the Quonset shop! I think I was over encumbered by about 3 grams. I'm not complaining, but I've never seen anything like that before. (I guess I slipped over on the perfectly flat, tiled surface due to wet shoes?) What I do think is a little weird about the new system is that the pain lasts longer than the injury. I slept for 2 hours to cure the sprain, but was in pain for an additional 2 hours afterwards when there was supposedly nothing wrong with my wrist anymore. Again, this isn't a complaint - just an observation. Overall, I think the addition of "pain" as a separate affliction from an injury is a big improvement, and I hope the Devs choose to build on this functionality in future.
  14. To my mind, the new improvised wraps should be particular to a small part of the game: emergency cover for when you don't have anything else - when you first start out, or perhaps just after a mauling and your clothes have been ruined. But the head wrap is actually a good deal better than many of the ready-made headgear items you can find. Put it this way: you have a baseball cap or a cotton scarf, plus one piece of scrap cloth; are you going to repair the item you have, or are you going to harvest it and make an improvised wrap? No-brainer - you make the improvised head wrap every time, because it's warmer, and there's no risk of failing the repair and wasting the cloth. This makes many existing headgear items utterly obsolete in terms of their actual survival value, which I think is bit of a shame. The improvised wraps ought to be the worst -or at least joint worst- option in their category for warmth and wind protection - but better than nothing, like the description says.
  15. I agree with the general sentiment of the OP: I think the new hats are a bit too warm for the overall balance of other clothing. Maybe if they got wet super fast, itd negate some of that? But yeah, cutting the warmth value in half would seem fair to me.
  16. Alright, thanks! First thing I'm going to try is that! Thanks for the responses.
  17. I haven't tried it yet, so forgive me if this question is obvious once you start playing, but do I understand correctly that I can still play with Condition Recovery set to None, and only regain condition while I'm sleeping, but that if I drink Birchbark tea I'll get a small amount of condition recovery while I'm awake?
  18. I usually play with condition regain (while awake) switched off. Does this mean the birch bark will have no effect?
  19. If I spot wolves or a bear ahead, I turn around and go the other way. I always have the struggle damage at maximum and the condition regain at minimum, so a mauling can take several days to recover from, and it's never worth the risk. They might not be there later (or the next day), so it's better to try again when the way is clear. The only exception is when I'm actively hunting them.
  20. Well. I just came to the forum to read this week's mailbag. And what do I find? New update... tomorrow! Awesome!
  21. Use of present tense suggests it's nearly ready to launch?
  22. I know you don't like talking about release dates anymore, but I was wondering whether you can say if the next update - whenever it comes - will be for Survival Mode or for Wintermute? Or with the splitting of the team into the two sides of the project, will it just be whichever of them finishes first? (I can't seem to get rid of this quote box on my phone, but it doesn't matter much, I guess)
  23. The problem for me with this choice was that I am not Will. I'd like to think that if I found a badly wounded criminal (even a murderer), that I would do what I could to ease their pain. Except, I don't know how I would react if I knew that that criminal had harmed, possibly quite badly, someone close to me who I care deeply about. Will is clearly angry with Hobbs for that reason. But I'm wasn't. I know that Astrid is probably alright, because I know that Astrid plays an integral part in the story later on. But Will doesn't know this. As a game/story choice, I think it would have had much more impact on the player if we ourselves had been given the chance to make some sort of emotional connection with Astrid before coming across such a dilemma: if this type of decision had been presented to me in Episode 5, after I'd spent hours in-game playing as and getting to know Astrid and her story, then it's likely that I would have felt something more genuine about a character who hurt her, and it would have affected what I did next much more. For me, it wasn't a very convincing moral choice, for that reason. I pulled the knife out because I reasoned that it probably wouldn't make any difference to the story or my progress in the game either way, and I didn't feel like killing someone just for the sake of it when there didn't seem to be any reason to.
  24. This could be an interesting new mechanic if they introduced it. They could have the same relative ease of walking across the top of shallow snow on hard ground as we have now, but restrict it to the common paths or main routes across maps. There could then be deeper snow, which would be slower and more hazardous to traverse in more 'off piste' areas. Places like TWM would be primarily made up of the latter, making the trek to the summit (and back) more challenging - and therefore more of an accomplishment. Desolation Point and CH would be primarily easy walking along roads and trails. Mystery Lake and Pleasant Valley would be more of a mixture. It would make certain short cuts or wolf avoidance routes more treacherous, but perhaps giving a risk /reward balance.
  25. Dragging tree limbs would be cool...