Pillock

1 hour ago, vargata said:

yes, you can survive if you use the health trick and only eating when critical. imagine eating 3 kg venison in real life. good luck with it. the point is not possibility, the point is its "logicality", eating 3 kg pure meat at a time would just about make you unable to move for hours

Start a new game with Custom settings and turn the hunger rate to its lowest setting. That should mean you have to eat a lot less. 

But if advise you to also turn the loot availability and animal populations right down as well, or else you might well find that you have so much food that you don't have anything to do. 

Finding food is what drives players to get out into the world and expose themselves to danger. That's why the calorie consumption is unrealistically high (and animal meat yields are unadjusted low) in the standard modes. Without that, you're just sitting around waiting to get cabin fever. 

I found a whetstone in the Camp Office and also another one in the lookout tower.

Not used either of them yet, because I haven't used the hatchet or the knife either! 

On 21/12/2018 at 12:31 PM, hozz1235 said:

Hmm...getting labelled a psychpath or obtaining a tool that may save my life...hmm...tough choice. 

The real moral dilemma was whether or not you wanted people to find out that you're a psychopath.

I didn't think about the knife until later, when I went back to town and found the deer carcass. I just assumed that the knife would be in my inventory - I just found it weird when it wasn't. If it's deliberate, then I think it's a poor design decision (because it breaks immersion by reminding you that you're playing gamerules); if it was an oversight, I think the devs should fix it. 

What's the thing you're most excited about in the Redux? The biggest improvement as you see it?

On 14/10/2018 at 8:31 AM, DaveMcD said:

oh... and I had 2 deer carcasses disappear on me. I passed them and sought shelter thinking I'd leave them for later and when I came back they had gone. One was 2.5kg one in Desolation Point and the other was near cave on Timberwolf where I was blizzarded in starving. I was pretty devateated on both occasions. Do deer carcasses just disappear sometimes?

If you 'interact' with a carcass (even if it's just to check how much meat there is, without harvesting anything) the carcass starts to decay. If you don't touch them, they should stay where they are.

I'm not sure if custom settings affect the rate of decay of spawned carcasses like the can do for general loot items, but you can be pretty sure that if they do, the decay is set to the fastest possible rate in Deadman!

There are millions and millions of cattails everywhere, so finding food isn't much of a problem. If you're armed there is a lot of hunting potential, and even if you're not there are plenty of rabbits. There's also loads of mushrooms and rosehips, so if you're running short it's a good place to get them. There are ready-made snares and improvised hatchets and knives lying about.

The problem is staying warm. The weather is terrible.

During 4DON people were speculating about what Day 4's "Fire" challenge might mean, with many players on the forum apparently moving their gear stashes outdoors or into caves in case the buildings were all burned down!

Do you think it would ever be possible (technologically) to have buildings or other structures catch fire or be destroyed or damaged during the course of a single game (by fire, or perhaps severe weather)? Do you think this would be a desirable gameplay feature?

3 hours ago, Looper said:

I like the trapping too - and it's not the snare mechanics fault. I think the main reason many players avoid snares is the low calorie yield pr. harvested rabbit (time+tool use) compared to simply shooting a dear.  Deadman challenge aside - it's primarily early game you are in any calorie need in interloper and in the early game cattails and carcass' does the trick easily (plus found food).  It's simply inefficient.

You can make it quite efficient now, with the new cooking system.

Collect your dead rabbits and reset the traps (I've been getting 4 or 5 at a time from the same area in my recent game), take them to place where you can build a sheltered fire (I'm using the cave at ML Overlook) and get it burning. You then harvest a bit of meat from the first rabbit and put it on to cook, then harvest the rest  as you're cooking the meat in sequence. You can harvest the pelts and guts after that if you need them, and make water at the same time, or just leave them. You can get a day's worth of calories and hydration like that, and it only takes you a couple of hours.

It's a damn sight easier than hunting, in my opinion.

1 hour ago, RossBondReturns said:

What I'm wondering about Deadman is...is this no wildlife thing normal? Is it very rare but exceptionally deadly?

When I played it it wasn't like that. There were wolves everywhere that there could possibly be, and several at a time. There were also deer, rabbits and bears aplenty. But I only lasted a few days - the animal population depletion rate is set to its maximum, I believe (and the respawn rate to its minimum?), so a depopulated world is likely if you last long enough to see it. But it shouldn't be like that at the start - maybe check you got the code correct?

2 hours ago, RossBondReturns said:

An update...yeah my first Deadman Box for whatever reason apparently has absolutely ZERO living animals...so I will update and get caught up to Day 15 or 17 or whatever I've made it to...but I will be calling subsequent updates to Box One Omega Man rather then Deadman.

I will be starting a brand new Deadman Box and hoping it doesn't wig out and gives me the true Deadman experience with wildlife.

Or of interest, what's the game like to play with no animals? I imagine it's pretty difficult? Where do you get food from? Did fishing and trapping work?

15 hours ago, TheEldritchGod said:

I could just murder those wolves behind the dam, eat them, and say, "Screw the intestinal parasites. I only have to make it a day and 7 hours.

Just a thought on this.

Getting parasites doesn't actually cost you any condition, if I remember rightly (it's been a while since I got them in-game!). All they do is gradually decrease your maximum condition level, down to 70% or something, over the course of the infection. Is that right? So, if your condition is already lower than that, you can't regain any through sleep/staying healthy and you don't have enough stims to restore it above that level anyway, are they not effectively harmless in this scenario?

Edit: The same is true of Frostbite, I think. You can get the affliction even if your 'feels like' temp never dips below 0, if part of your body is uncovered. Frostbite doesn't actually cost you any condition either - it only reduces the maximum to which you can restore it. And in this scenario, you can't restore it anyway!

How do you feel, as a developer and creator, about "exploits" that players find in the survival mechanics?

Do you regard them as undermining the experience you're trying to create and feel the urge to code them out of the game? Or do you regard the world of TLD as having it's own "science" separate from reality, and are happy for players to explore its limits? Do you enjoy hearing about players pushing these limits, or does it annoy you that aspects of the survival system are pushed to the point where they run contrary to real-world intuition or possibilities? Or a bit of both? Is there a line somewhere?  Or are you indifferent to it?

4 hours ago, TheEldritchGod said:

12 hours ago, JAFO said:

Please do give us a more detailed write-up on how you've managed it.. tactics, techniques, tips.. others would love to know..

Tips:

This is completely brilliant. Insanely brilliant. Brilliantly insane.

Being honest, reading this has completely ended any interest I had in playing Deadman (I did try it out, and if I persisted with it I reckon I could get to a week or so). In a way it's a relief - I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to play The Long Dark in this way, and your strategy advice utterly confirms that my continuing would therefore be pointless. But I'm in awe of the lengths you've gone to to find and exploit (and share) the limits of TLD Science. I salute you!

Well, I'm officially crap this! 

My best is 3 days so far,from a start in Desolation Point. Was about to head out towards Coastal Highway, when I made The Wrong Decision. And death followed. 

My advice : don't make the wrong decision. Ever. 

I shall try (and fail at) this!

Why allow even 2 feats, though?

10 hours ago, Majales said:

But this game isn't only about you. There are a lot of other players who likes TLD mechanics you don't. Don't forget, that this game must be playable for all kinds of players. Newbies, casuals, old survivor dogs and MacGyvers

1 hour ago, Looper said:

While I start to realize that many players have concerns about making the game harder, I really don't think any of the abovementioned makes the game significantly harder - just different. 

For me it isn't about making the game harder for the sake of it, or about changing features just because a few individuals don't like them.

These are things that damage the balance of the game because they exploit flaws in the mechanics to gain advantages that aren't intended.
Can anyone really argue that the Devs deliberately designed the game so that you could use up three times the amount of calories you're actually eating, and suffer no ill effects, for example?

These are aspects of the game that don't work properly, or that cause balancing problems with the value of certain items, or the difficulty of certain tasks. From an objective point of view, fixing them would make the game better.

3 hours ago, FunkyFuggerson said:

Day 697, I returned to ML, I haven't been to this region since day 124, I remember I left many snares out behind the trappers. I am at the dam currently writing this, tomorrow I will go to the trappers. 

Day 698, I made it to the trappers, but instead of the cabin and surrounding areas there was a gigantic pile of rotting rabbit corpses. When I got closer it began to groan and swell. Soon the corpses began to melt together into a formless blob of meat and gut and staring eyes. It twitched and began to expand at an accelerated rate. The mass of bunny bodies soon began to consume everything in its path. I saw a deer get completely absorbed into that mass of flesh and bone. I ran for my life and dropped my pack of goods. I saw that get absorbed into its mass as well, the blob making horrible screeching and squelching noises. I ran through the rail tunnel into the muskeg screaming for my life. I dared to look over my shoulder, I saw something that would bring even the most steeled of minds to insanity. A horrible profusion of errant flesh came bounding over the cliffside like a tidal wave of squealing doom. I ran up into hat creek, I lit my last road flare and stepped into the cave at the basin of the waterfall. I laughed and cried and screamed for death as I ran through the dark halls. I heard the flesh give a mighty roar, I felt the ground quake underneath me. The cave began to collapse, I just barely made it out alive. When I entered outside it was a sight to behold, across the entirety of the muskeg the bunny corpse pile had covered every inch of land. When I looked down upon the ground I could see I was standing upon live rabbits, but they were all fused together. Twitching ears and flailing legs surrounded me. I stooped down and stabbed my flare into the flesh, it screamed and began to move. I felt my feet being pulled down into the mass. I tried to fight it but like quick sand the more I fought the more I was sucked into it. The bunnies began squeaking in unison as I was pulled farther and farther down. I unsheathed my improvised hatchet and began hacking wildly. I cut away at the flesh hack by hack, the ground rang out an ear splitting screech. Hundreds of mouths began to cut into my legs and sides. They were digging into my flesh like razors, but so much adrenaline was pumping though my veins I did not feel any pain. I stabbed and hacked and managed to climb up onto a fleshy tree. Covered in viscera and entrails I finally collapsed from exhaustion. 

Day 698, I awoke on the flesh like tree, it appeared to also be made of bunnies. I felt soft whiskers against my cheek, hot breath on my neck. The rabbits were affectionately nuzzling me. I got down from the tree, I pulled out my hip flask and took a long swig. But no water met my lips, damnit I forgot to fill it with water. I trudged around the overlook, but I found nothing of interest besides endless fused rabbits. I climbed down the overlook, stabbing my hatchet into the fleshy sides of the cliff in order to gain a foot hold. I stepped down onto the marsh, now covered in endless rabbit flesh. I saw a hunters blind in the distance, but when approaching it, it to was covered in fur and eyes. I wont last much longer without water, But there has to be something under all this flesh right? Right? Possibilities begin rushing through my head like a wildfire, all of them ending in my painful demise. I take out my hatchet and begin hacking at the flesh once more, More and more I begin to tunnel down, I feel my hatchet sink and absorb into the flesh but it doesn't matter. I take off my gloves and I begin scooping out entrails and meat and tossing them out of the hole. I feel my fingers being chewed down to the bone by thousands of gnawing and raving mouths. I feel them tearing at my clothing, but I strike something. I feel it, its a large vein, stabbing into it with my mouth I drink my fill of warm blood. I wipe my mouth, cackling with bliss I climb back out of the hole. The ground beneath me moves and ripples with every step I take. I see a wolf in the distance, It barks at me but it doesn't seem to be able to get a stable footing on the ground. I here its yelps as it is absorbed into the mass. 

Day 799, I wear a thick covering of rabbit fur now, and I live in a tent of rabbit fur. Rabbit, rabbits... Why why did i have to leave all those snares outside of the trappers cabin? Why didn't I just kill those rabbits before they did this! I made my way to the ocean, but there was no ocean, I walked and walked for hundreds of miles but there was nothing but endless rabbits. Sometimes I would see fleas, endless waves of fleas, they were like blankets of thick insects. I remember the first flea storm I had to bear through, it was an endless barrage of insects, I couldn't breathe without swallowing them. Once the storm was over the fleas were like locusts, they ate through the skin and fur and soon tore into the body's of the endless rabbits. I trudged onward for another hundred miles, but it was exceedingly difficult. Where the ground was once firm and soft it was now a goopy mess of eaten and rotting flesh. So much fleas had gotten on me that I tore all my hair off, and I scratched so hard I tore my skin from my arms. My only source of sustenance is the occasional artery I find, I stab it open, drinking my fill of blood.

Day 823, I made it to the mainland today, I could tell it was. The large city's had been covered in rabbit fur and eyes and ears. I saw mouths the size of houses with jagged teeth as large as cars jutting out of the ground. I found a pair of corpses as well, half human half rabbit. It was two adults and a child, I realized they were still alive, I quickly took advantage and I ripped them open and drank there blood. I kept moving, the ground below me is becoming restless, the flesh beneath my feet occasionally moves and jitters. I feel it trying to absorb me, but I resist, Ive fashioned a new hatchet, one of bone and sinew. Soon I will have a knife! A knife! And a spear! Yes yess! I will tear everything apart! HACK THIS WORLD TO PEICES, YES YES YES YES YES!!!!! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

Day 2348, Today I emerged from my bone palace and made sure my bunny slaves were ripe for the bleeding. I made bunny slave 89 cut them open, I let her take there lungs for her meal but no, only I get the heart and blood! All the other bunny slaves are talking about rebelling, once I hear this I pin there skin apart and eat them from the inside out while they are still living. There squealing is enough to scare the others into submission. WHY WOULD THEY REBEL YOU SAY???? I created my bunny slaves from the flesh, I sculpted them! I am there father! Fathers get to do whatever they want with there children! I created this world, I left those snares, this is my world, MINE. My bunny slaves want to rebel they can, but I will sic the flesh on them, I will absorb them into the mass and I will start again. I am the god of my realm, I am the creator! Mine mine mine mine mine mine! 

Day 24455, Everything is dying, my bunny slaves have died, my bone palace has crumbled. The mass underneath me has stopped moving, the tick storms have stopped raging. The air is thick with decay, I fear my end is upon me. I wandered for thousands of miles during the last of my days. All I found was dead bodies piled high, there is no noise besides my ragged breath. The stench is something unfathomable, it smells like everything foul that this earth has ever produced. I have many bone cups of blood, but it has gone stale. I no longer have my blood to keep me alive, I will die soon. 

Day 24456, The only proof I was still on earth was the stars and the sun. A heavy fog so thick you could cut it with a knife has descended upon the land. I cannot see anything but fog. The stars, the sun, the only warmth and solace I ever felt is gone. The ground below me has rotted away, leaving only an endless and intricate weaving skeleton. It looks as if a million skeletons have been fused together, creating a spiderweb of bone. I cannot move much anymore, each step breaks the ground and I fall ever deeper into an endless abyss. I will reshape this bone one last time, I will create one last kingdom. 

Captains log #234, Ship ID Q1P92OP1

Hello, I am Knef'twue, I am the commander of this ship, this is my personal log. My and my team have recently found a planet that appears to have once harbored life. Data samples brought back from the planet appear inclusive, the whole planet appears to be covered in a thick shell of calcium. Scouting expeditions have yielded meager results but we have found a sign of a civilization. A city spanning about 12 Gleptocrams has been found, it appears to be made of the same material covering the planet. The city seems to be mostly large towers of the calcium substance, with many large houses dotted around in an erratic pattern. A large castle stands a top a hill, inside all the scouting team found was a heavily decomposed pile and a large book full of scrawling's. Even are best scribes cannot decipher the writing in this book. I have had the symbols stored in the archives for further study. The decomposed pile appears to be organic, with what appears to be extremely small creatures covering its surface. Very odd... The pile has been sent back to laboratory #23Q3FGH for further study. I have seen many ruined worlds, but this one is most perplexing. 

I think you're exaggerating a bit

On 8/19/2018 at 7:19 AM, FunkyFuggerson said:

Look, I agree with pretty much all of these, but what good will listing them down do? Instead perhaps we should try and come up for solutions for these exploits. Like the ability to pull infinite torches out of the fire, instead you have to have 3 sticks order to pull out a torch.

OK! Here's my suggestions:

• Infinite torches: campfire-pulled torches capped at 25% condition, and only torches that are 26% or above can be re-lit once they go out.
• Lighting a campfire or walking on to 'inaccessible places' always scares away wolves: the AI could have an intermediate behaviour-mode between 'aggression' and 'running way'. In this mode, they could stay locked on to you, but would run around you in an erratic way, making it difficult to shoot them. Staying near the fire or on a rock/tree/whatever where it can't reach you would keep you safe, but you wouldn't be able to escape the situation unless you took another measure, like firing the gun or throwing a torch/flare at it.
• Starvation: I think we need a 'malnutrition' affliction, similar to how Cabin Fever works - that is, if your calorie intake over, say, five days does not exceed your calorie expenditure, you get the affliction (there could be a warning phase first). If you get the affliction, your tiredness and freezing rate is doubled, and your general condition-loss rate and condition-regain time is also increased. You can cure it by bringing your five-day calorie in/out rate back into the positive.
• Night-time illumination making it easier to navigate indoors at night than in the day: Just get rid of the weird bluey illumination at night so that it's dark!
• Consistent condition-loss for freezing: scale condition-loss rate according to temperature - every few degrees of "feels like" temp below freezing could increase your condition-loss rate by a bit. That would make it advantageous to stay out of the wind and wear your warmest clothes, even if you're still freezing (which it isn't now).

I'm not sure how you'd fix the ability to spider-man down very steep cliffs, rocks or dam faces without a big overhaul of the physics. But maybe some kind of 'tumbling' phase for movement might work? A bit like when you fall short distances and pick up bruises, minor injuries and clothing damage, except you can't arrest the falling until you reach a 'safe' bit of ground? I don't how that work really, in terms programming it, but it would be nice if the Devs could have a look at the situation, at least.

What's the stupidest / funniest / most embarrassing way you've died while playing or testing TLD?

On 8/11/2018 at 8:42 AM, Looper said:

Here are my suggestions or picks from other posts:

• Light fires inside fishing cabins with Mag.Lense (doesn't make sense)
• The infamous starvation trick (only eat 900 cals before bed)
• Drop bait to never miss a wolf with bow or rifle (maybe the radius of shifting to attack the player should be increased)
• Rabbit hunt with stones are too easy; should be nerfed to incentive the very fine traps in the game already  (I mean, my god, have you tried in real life to hit anything with a small stone)  
• Light campfire to break wolf tracking poised to attack (actually is this already removed?)
• Keep meat fresh not cooked outside to always be able to cook it to 50 pct. instead of cooking it 
• Carcass are cold (freezing) outside - water and meat aren't.

Good list.

The most niggly ones for me are these:

• ability to pull infinite re-usable torches from fires negates usefulness and value of other light-sources
• walking on to narrow rock-ledges / other inaccessible places causes wolf/bear to activate flee-mode - it's a bit too easy to exploit
• campfire-lighting is too easy/reliable/resource-cheap for scaring off wolves
• STARVATION EXPLOIT!!!
• the weird blue-ish illumination you get indoors during night-time means you can navigate mines/cave systems without light - but only at night!
• Consistent condition-loss rate for freezing, regardless of how close your temperature is to 0°C, makes it advantageous to go about naked in some circumstances

Not sure if you are able / willing to answer this at this stage, but when Wintermute was first released a year ago, it was announced that Episode 3 was planned for late 2017, with Episodes 4 and 5 planned for release in 2018. Obviously with the redux, this has now been put back.

Is the schedule the same as before, except for being 12 months later? So is it fair for us to assume that Episodes 4 and 5 are now both planned for release over the course of 2019, or are you anticipating further adaptations due to player feedback on the new version that's coming out in December, and therefore a longer timeframe for the last two Episodes?

I've got a question about the health and afflictions mechanics.

Currently our characters seem to be able to get 'minor' injuries like "bruising", but those don't seem to actually do anything. Are these remnants of past-planned mechanics that have been partially disabled in some way, or do they actually have an effect that's not immediately obvious to the player?

Are there any plans to expand on the health and afflictions mechanics that are in the game already, or even to add new ones? I know there has been criticism of the way parasites and cabin fever are implemented, but personally I think they are really good additions to the gameplay - when your character gets one of those conditions it forces you to change your approach to the game and do something a bit different from the norm while your character recovers, and I think this drives interesting gameplay choices and strategy elements that wouldn't be there without those afflictions.

Pain management, malnutrition, sickness, longer-lasting injuries are all things that, off the top of my head, might afflict a person stranded in a world like TLD's - might we see more of this sort of stuff somewhere down the line?

(Sorry if this looks like more of a request than a question!)

Another related issue I have is that the ignition source defaults to the mag lens if you're carrying one. This doesn't matter in the general run of things, but if it's a cloudy day and you're surprised by a sudden wolf encounter, you don't want to be spending any extra time than necessary changing options in the firestarting menu - you just want to get the thing smoking as soon as possible.

(And yes, I have died because of this a few times before. I've even now resorted to leaving the mag lens behind at base when I go out, for this exact reason.)

What's the closest real life experience you've had to that which faces the player-character in The Long Dark?

(or anyone else in the HL team?)

Croatia or France on Sunday?