Morrick

So, today I resumed one of my regular Survival sandboxes. This was one I hadn't played in a while. I'd left my character at the Carter Hydro Dam but I didn't remember much else. After four days of night, I was looking forward to some daylight. I exit the facility, and this is what was waiting for me... Deja-frickin-vu.

What the…!? Wow. Hats off to you, runner! Such great screenshots. My favourites are the moonlit Lookout and this one of the Quonset gas station.

The badge came. I was waiting by the fire, reading a book about houses and another about landscapes. I also checked the news but the paper was old. Made some tea to go with the pumpkin pie. I played these four days rather safe. I wasn't thrilled to get in a fight with wolves, so I mostly stayed put on Day 2 and Day 3. But not completely passive, mind you. I was rather unlucky, loot-wise, so I had to venture outside to look for some firewood at least. My favourite moments have been Day 1 as a whole: the cold and the urgency to find good clothes and shelter spiced things up. And the first half of Day 4: the blizzard was scary, and there were a couple of moments when I really thought I was screwed. Also, I honestly believed I would have needed more firewood to survive. Especially after seeing the insane amount of wood some of you collected. Once inside the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse, combining what I was carrying and what I found there, was more than enough to keep going. At the end of the day, I used like 12 pieces of reclaimed wood, 5 pieces of cedar wood, 2 lumps of coal, and 3 books. I still have enough to last another 2 hours real time, at the very least. My character managed to survive staying rather dapper, I'd add. I'm going to hang around in the forums, I love to read all your stories, fellow survivors!

I commend all of you who dare the weather and keep exploring in this situation. I just thought "Let's make a quick trip to the car outside the Farmhouse, just to check the trunk". Hypothermia risk! All systems critical! Shields at 20%! — No wait, that's another game...

Great couple of screenshots, @reginaphalange!

Ahh, the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse is also rich in useful items, such as two magnifying lenses, a can opener, scrap metal, a new dress shirt (for my funeral, perhaps?), and a copy of the seminal tome The Frozen Angler, which I assume is required reading under these circumstances.

I've just played my first real-time hour of Day 4. The start of the Day was brutal. I was staying at the Radio Control Hut on Signal Hill, and had to move because I needed food and more fuel for the fire. Also, I needed an indoor fire. So the plan was to reach the nearest building from my position, and that's the Pleasant Valley Farmstead. The moment I exited the fence of the radio tower, my status was already 'Numb' and my character was already complaining about the cold. I rushed down the slope but got disoriented quickly and couldn't find the main road that would have led me to the Farmstead. My overall condition was already terrible, barely five minutes into the game. Desperate times, desperate measures: I quit the game in the hope that my previous save hadn't already been overwritten, and luckily when I resumed I was back in the Control Hut. Tried again and this time I managed to go down the hill and take the right turn towards the main road. I marched on, looking for the fence of the Farmstead's property as reference, and you can't imagine my relief when I saw the Yield road sign that marks the main entrance to the property. When I entered the house, I was at 67% health condition, 74% risk of hypothermia, and my clothes were completely wet. Hell of a short stroll in the countryside! I'm still exploring the house, but so far I found 3 flares, 2 candy bars, a pumpkin pie, 3 litres of lamp fuel, plus some firewood. Thankfully, the Farmhouse is full of breakable furniture and has plenty of books. Oh, funny moment: I wanted to make some coffee and… the horror! I left the recycled can on Signal Hill! I rushed to the kitchen and WHEW — a cooking pot! I've found very little pieces of clothing in the Farmhouse, which was a bit disappointing. I'll go have a look in the basement… Meanwhile, I'm glad I made it so far. I was rather ill-equipped, and dying of hypothermia 500 metres from a building was certainly an annoying and anticlimactic way to end my 4 Days of Night… –Rick

Heh. Sometimes I think about Hinterland creating a "Thawing Challenge"... Imagine the temperatures rising, and the snow melting, and think about all the frozen places you usually use to move around, like rivers and lakes, now becoming harder to cross... Now imagine being stranded in a thawing Forlorn Muskeg...

At the end of Day 3, I ate my last candy bar. I'm at full 2000+ calories now and I have about 600 left in what remains of said candy bar. I have some firewood, but I don't think it's enough to last 2 hours real time. So I'm one of those who will certainly have to leave base to look for food and firewood. I have decent clothes but not the warmest (I think my outfit gives me +21ºC bonus), so yeah, it's going to be interesting later today when I'll be back home to play. From where I am, I could check a couple of caves, but the closest building is the Pleasant Valley Farmstead. If it's too cold and there's crappy visibility, I'll probably relocate there, as it doesn't really make sense to remain on Signal Hill at this point. Since I haven't looted the Farmstead yet, perhaps I'll find more resources to get me through the final day. Meanwhile, I've enjoyed this experience immensely, especially thanks to this forum and you folks. For those who wish The Long Dark had a multiplayer mode, I'd say that this has felt a lot like multiplayer to me, in a sense! –Rick

Two very short stories: 1. Stupid death by ignorance I was hungry, had little food, so one morning I ate a tin of sardines. Their condition was 34%. I got food poisoning. I take antibiotics but my condition keeps worsening. I scramble to get enough reishi mushrooms and rose hips to make teas, having heard of their healing properties. I waste a lot of time in the process, and my health keeps getting worse. I take antibiotics again. I drink the teas but my character keeps complaining. "What a shitty way to die", he remarks. I eventually die at dusk, in fact. If only I'd known I also had to sleep after taking all those medicines... 2. Stupid death by bad luck Everything was going well in Pleasant Valley. I was excited to discover a new location — Rural Crossroads — with a few more buildings to explore. I'm inside the last house, the one that has a fire barrel outside nearby. I realise I'm thirsty and low on liquids, so I exit the house and walk towards the fire barrel to make some water. A bear comes out of nowhere and kills me. It was probably behind me or somewhere outside my field of vision, but I'm still scratching my head as to why I also didn't hear it. –Rick

The changes in weather and light. In other games with day/night cycles, the change feels a bit contrived and automatic. In The Long Dark, it's much more nuanced and subtle. No two days feel the same. You can stop and watch the sunrise and sunset develop before your eyes, and (realistically) they'll look different according to weather conditions, etc. Same with the weather, of course. The first time I entered Hushed River Valley, there was fog — and silence. I stumbled around a bit, then found a quiet spot and decided to wait for a while. The fog started to recede. And by the time I resumed my exploration, the sky was clearer. Sometimes one is too busy surviving and these details may pass unnoticed. But when you can afford some quiet moments and enjoy the environment, you can really appreciate this specific aspect of Hinterland's work. –Rick

My apologies. The direct question was: Are horses going to appear in the game in the future? If I was verbose, it was just to provide a bit of context. Sorry if that ended up burying the question! –Rick

Ah, thank you. No, I don't like the idea of horses as 'tools' or companions or another thing you have to manage, either. My question/suggestion was more along the lines of having them as a sort of 'passive' addition to the fauna, an animal that makes sense to see in the world, but as far as interaction goes, it would be something similar to the moose, so to speak.

Hello everyone, hello Raphael. I've been playing The Long Dark for about three months now, and I'm really enjoying it in its current form. I really love the game world, but there's something I've always wondered with regard to the animal population: the lack of horses. Given the rural setting and the amount of farmhouses and farmsteads the player encounters, the absence of horses feels strange to me. Is it a planned addition? I certainly hope so. While I'm sure some would immediately want the ability to tame them and ride them for a faster travel across regions (and I'm sure this would be a nightmare to implement), I simply feel that their addition would add a nice touch to the game world, not to mention an additional source of meat when things get dire. (Horses wouldn't have to be everywhere, of course, maybe just a few hanging around farmsteads.) I apologise if this was already discussed. I checked the Mailbag Index before posting, and didn't find any mention of the subject. I also apologise if the reason for the absence of horses is mentioned in Story Mode — so far I have only played Survivor sandboxes and the occasional challenge... Thank you in advance for your time, and keep up the stellar work. –Rick