UTC-10

The closest I have seen to meat supplies disappearing were instances, not encountered in a long time, where the meat (neatly arrayed at that) seemed to sink into the snow and would become inaccessible (some not all). The last distinct memory of that was at the Poacher's Camp in Forlorn Muskeg where an array of cooked venison sank into the snow and some (I believe) was lost. I attributed that to changes in the -Z- axis of the region and maybe some subtle landscape changes too. Since the bear meat seems to have disappeared after the OP had quartered then harvested the resulting bags then departed, then signed out, and then returned to continue, I suspect that there was a glitch in the spawning of the area which left the bear meat unspawned. There is probably an area that has the bear meat but the wrong area got spawned and presented to you. Might put in a bug report so that Hinterland can be alert to glitches in the game. In this case, you may not get the bear meat back, unfortunately.

Lots of things that would make sense for a game solely based around survival mode play would not make it into implementation because it would not contribute (or contribute enough) to story mode which was the basis for The Long Dark. A discretionary decision on the part of the devs who would have to do all the back-room work before it could be introduced. Once freed from the scope of story mode play, who knows what might show up over time, if development of survival mode play continued?

The only place on the parkour course where there could be a sign would be where what I take for process piping goes up, right where the actual truck entrance/gate should have been, then the character drops down, still following the process piping, on the other side. Shortly thereafter, the character comes to the end of the piping path and then has to jump down on to a trailer parked in front of the cannery with a plank bridge to the pretty destroyed building which is where the ground level access to the cannery grounds is. The timberwolves use that opening to access the cannery grounds. If that was the spot, I do not recall ever getting stuck there ever. At least not as I went along the route to get to the Cannery Pier. Next time I am at Last Resort Cannery I will have to take a look.

I do not recall the referenced Cannery sign nor do I recall every getting stuck on or blocked by snow on such a sign. I assume the place is the Last Resort Cannery in Bleak Inlet? A selfie (screenshot) would help just stay away from the bear and timber wolves. They don't like their pictures being taken. 😁

Several things, probably more QoL, maybe not all consistent with the title. 1. Extend the "place" function to items (single items/unstacked/whatevers) in inventory. E.g. so I can "take" a hacksaw from inventory and "place" it on a work bench instead of having to drop it on the ground/floor/snow then "place" it. I would assume that stackable items might eventually come under the "place from inventory" in some fashion, but single, unstackable items might be a first step. Might be a similar issue to the food part of the radial menu regarding inadvertent consumption of unsuitable food items but that could be worked out. 2. Inside a location, like the Cannery Worker's Residence or the Homesteader's Respite cabin, for instance, places like the open wardrobe should either be made functional (by default or by player action - admittedly a more complex thing to implement) or capable of being broken down into materials. There is an wardrobe with open doors, coat hanger laying in the bottom, with a drawer below that that is ajar, and it is entirely inert. Can put something in the bottom but the coat hanger can block its placement. Can't harvest it for reclaimed wood or anything. Similarly, metal bed frames (not suitable for resting) should be detectable and therefore should be available for being broken down, like the bunk bed frames, etc., at Hibernia or at the Hunting Lodge. 3. Contact with the bed in the Angler's Den cabin should not be blocked by the metal bunk bed frame. If I touch the bed or metal bed frame, unless there was some other necessity, I should be touching the "bed". After all, I am looking for the bed. It can be difficult to locate the bed in the dark as it momentarily flashes on screen as one flails about in the dark. It would be nice, but the devs do have a lot of other things to do. 🙂

A perfectly reasonable idea that has been suggested by many along with flint and steel. Although what the devs do is their own business, I would not expect to see such a device until the end of Wintermute aka Story mode.

The animal model used in the game amounts to critical hits, which kills instantly, and bleeding wound, which kills eventually. There was a third class of hit which basically would be trivial hits drawing no blood (even if, as sometimes seems to happen the shooter sees blood spatter). Excepting the moose (which do not bleed) and rabbits (these latter tend to die if the character looks hard at them 😉), every other creature that can be hunted will follow the described animal model. Certain locations on the animal would have a higher chance of a critical hit (instant kill) and more serious bleeding (if no critical hit) so placement of the hit does matter, but one could shoot a bear in the b**t and have it die on the spot while a precise shot to the head has it running off, maybe trailing blood drops. One tries for the best possible hit as there were no guaranteed kill shots in the game. The critical hit/bleeding wound model means that repeated shots have a chance of a critical hit but only the worst/shortest bleed out timer applies (no cumulative effects to bleeds). Hence, the advice was shoot the bear and if it left a trail of blood drops, stay safe and do something else while it bleeds to death. That said, there were certain things that a character can do that could result in the bear being "healed". The moose was the exception to bleeding out likely because bleed out was a standard fall-back tactic for any character to use against dangerous game and that the moose does not wander all over the region but sticks to a general location. It may have been seen as "too easy" for such big game. Note: I have noticed that with a good hit on a moose (I aim for the head especially while it is facing me) that as it wanders back to its haunts, it would emit repeated noises where before it would be silent, except when specifically threatening the character, and another good hit seems to drop the moose with some regularity. After taking several moose across several sandboxes, I suspect that the sounds represents the devs' substitute for bleeding as in the moose is hurting and another good hit can take it down. Otherwise there would be no indication of the state of the moose. YMMV. Good luck.

How the devs choose to implement such would be the key question. Given the scope of The Long Dark which is about story-driven survival which by necessity covers a limited, a few weeks, time in winter, the capacity to build a base of any kind would be likely unnecessary in the view of the devs. They do have to pick and choose what they do. I would love to be able to craft wind breaks that I could put around a campfire site. Save me a lot of anxiety about wind direction changes. I think quite a few players might welcome such though some may not because it would make the game easier.

As far as I can recall, it never happened to me. When it happens you might try a few screen shots with a view towards showing what was happening.

The game's objective was story mode aka Wintermute which was set to occur in a very limited timespan, probably only a few weeks at most, during winter. We also do not know what the ultimate outcome of Wintermute will be. Survival mode was an extension of the survival sandbox used to work out the survival mechanics and proved to be so popular that the devs made it an alternate play mode. However, the objective was still doing Wintermute. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of your and many other suggestions except they do not fit into the scope of Wintermute and anything added to survival mode would impact what happens in Wintermute, aside from the possibility that new/expanded mechanics might break something. So the devs would have no reason to try to implement any of the worthwhile suggestions until Wintermute concludes. That said, they do surprise us from time to time.

Speculation: A possible problem in early access was that if one stayed inside (like a dwelling) that after a game hour the outside (world) game state was no longer considered valid so things would spawn new when one came out. Sleeping was a big problem possibly because in game terms it was in fast time so by default the game state was no longer considered valid (minimum sleep time was 1 hour) and everything spawned new. Hence a wounded bear would despawn then be respawned, under these circumstances, brand new and unwounded. Likely as a fix, the devs probably added to the code "if the animal is wounded and bleeding, then if the player reenters the world after the animal would have bled out, then it spawns and dies, else it spawns unwounded". This kind of points to if you're going to be going in and out while the animal would be bleeding out, spend less than a game hour inside at any given time (so the game state remains valid) else your actions might then cause it to spawn unwounded. So if you go inside for longer than a game hour stay inside until the animal would have bled out. I shot the bear in Miner's Folly and it ran away. I actually found the wounded bear sleeping but didn't want to expend another bullet. It was late so I got some food went into the Miner's Folly cabin and went to sleep for the night (I am in Pilgrim). In the morning the journal's bears killed entry was not incremented (what I expected). When I emerged from the cabin, the journal's bears killed entry then incremented (expected). It was dead. I had seen this happen in Desolation Point at Hibernia so was not surprised. YMMV. Good luck and good hunting.

With the 1.94 update, putting things, like a drink - coffee, teas - next to a fire can now result in the drink being ruined if left too long. Canned food probably also can be ruined that way now. This does not apply to raw meat and fish - no cooking except on a cooking surface. I hope the following is an artifact of my games: Might also be aware that while cooked fish (at Level 5 cooking) gets the 25% more calories, I have found instances, sometimes consistent, sometimes inconsistent, where those 25% bonus calories seems to disappear when the cooked fish was consumed. Like you have a fish of 1,250 calories, eat it when you need 1,000 calories, and end up with nothing left instead of a piece of fish with 250 calories. Alternately, you have a 2,000 calories fish and end up with 600 instead of the 1,000 calories. Not so much of a problem with whitefish or trout since they tend to have under 1,000 calories but with small-mouth bass and Coho salmon that tend to have over 1,000 calories, sometimes well over, it might be more of a problem if you were counting on those extra calories. I suppose that, at base, one could "nibble" on the cooked fish(es) to make it lose the calories now, if it was going to happen, before one ventures out into the trackless wilderness with lots of weighty calories that might evaporate unexpectedly.

Looked up curing salt (i.e. pink salt) and it would be composed of a very large % of sodium chloride and a much smaller % of sodium nitrite (which can be poisonous in high enough concentrations). Chloride dries the meat, which stops most bacteria and fungus, and Nitrite inhibits growth of some bacteria like the botulinus bacilli. In any case, what will matter would be HOW the devs decide to IMPLEMENT any food preservation mechanic. Dried or smoked meat/fish would be possible. Salting likewise. Even production of something like pemmican. About the only thing ruled out, so far, would be freezing given that already exists in the game in a way, albeit not the way most people would have expected give real life considerations.

Near the elevator, when in the cave, there will be a fire barrel. Deeper inside there is another. Since you will be "inside" you would have to light a fire in the fire barrel. Other than making water or teas, etc. if you need to, there is not that much need for a fire unless you're going to use torches or want to keep a fire going. I recall that by the fire barrel by the elevator there should be some wood and there should be some crates and some coal that you can break down or pick up in accessible parts of the mine. In one sandbox, I spent about 19 days in the mine and nearly ran out of food (I planned for 18 days) before the aurora showed up and let me out. I was in Pilgrim so not subject to cabin fever so be careful. In my forays into the mine, I tended to find an Advanced Guns Guns Guns book and often read most of it or all of it before getting out. Note that during the daytime you can read in the mine without a light source (at least the times I was in there) so you don't or may not have to have a fire or use your lantern to read. You'd think not because it is dark but I found I could. The usual advice is get in and quickly get out. The occurrence of the aurora can be pretty erratic at times. Good luck.

Magnifying lens if circumstances allow and matches if not. Since my main sandboxes tend to be long running, and I made Fire Starting Level 5 a long time ago, that's what I do. If I am in a new sandbox, like when I started one in Winter's Embrace, I would do the same thing except when using a match I would light a torch for the usual reasons. I have used a fire striker a few times but have never done it more than a few times and never used one up. Since my sandboxes tend to be always in Pilgrim, obviously I have more flexibility in why and how I start a fire.

The rifle is quite adequate given the circumstances (it is a game) that it was intended for. The actual characteristics of the ammunition do not matter as consideration of bullet weights, types, powder charges, and loadings would be likely far beyond the scope of what the devs wanted in the game. For simplicity, a bullet is a bullet, fmj/sp/hp is all the same, and so a round of 303 ammunition is just a round of ammunition. Given the animal model used for hunting in the game, one might postulate that a 22LR could be as effective as the 303, or even the 50 BMG if the devs chose to implement it. Maybe once Story mode concludes and the devs can expand on what happens in Survival mode, assuming development continues.

Does the game do the same thing when using the rifle? Given the description, it should have the same problem thing you described. It does sound like something is cycling (on/off) with respect to the RMB input. If you have access to another mouse you might install it and try again. That will confirm whether it is something inherent in the mouse itself (which then should probably be replaced) or somewhere else in your computer (like something in the mouse port or usb port is messing up, a probably more difficult repair). Suspect it may be more the mouse than the computer.

I do not know if the "shortcut" to the Deer clearing level had been fixed (it comes down in the other arm out of that "cave" shown but some time ago people would occasionally get cut off from the summit because they would take the rope to climb up to Deer clearing and deploy it at the shortcut (which when it was broken meant you could climb down but could not come back and get to the rope to climb up). Then they goated their way down from the Summit. So this demonstrates that yes you can if you're mumble enough to cut yourself off from the upper levels.

The proposition for a "disaster" event was predicated on it occurring where the player was and not at some random location. Part of the discussion would be what path would be preferable to those who might want a significant event to occur that could materially affect their survival process. Random disasters wherever and whenever they happen or one focused on where the player is when it occurs or something in-between?

Not that I want the devs to actually implement such an event, I would expect that there would be other parameters associated with the possibility of "disaster" to soften or harden the disaster. Why I made this a discussion rather than a suggestion. As part of a customized game, the player would choose to subject his character to the problem. The possibility of a disaster could even form the basis for a new challenge or maybe even a new event.

Once a player becomes familiar with the game mechanics and has their routine in what they do, the act of surviving becomes much easier. One has tools, weapons, clothing, and other supplies. For some this leads to wanting more of the desperate early days of scrambling for survival so that leads to suggesting more dangers to enliven the day-to-day survival process. How about disasters? Nothing like that (the aurora) which presumably put the character into the current survival situation but "darn the jerry can of lamp oil spilled and the spill caught fire and the base is burning down, GET OUT RIGHT NOW with only what can be hastily grabbed or was in character inventory (with a matter of seconds to get out or suffer serious injury)". After the fire then looking at a location that is now no longer accessible (Class 1 disaster) or, if accessible (Class 2 disaster), maybe all internal contents of use to the character are now gone - all the gear the player had stored, the beds, cabinets, lockers, etc. - functionally an empty shell of a place, nothing useful remains at all, good for shelter from the weather but not much else. A Class 3 disaster condition would allow for this to occur repeatedly over time as opposed to a one-of-a-kind event. Under Class 1 or Class 2 disaster conditions, the character has a short grace period to grab stuff then flee out the door. If the grace period of "indeterminate" length is exceeded the character will start to get burn injuries with increasingly severe condition loss as well as damage to equipped clothing items and, perhaps, eventually start to lose random items out of their carried inventory. Once they exit the location, they cannot re-enter. Also under Class 1 and 2, the player's worst lowest condition would be limited to no lower than 10% though the ability to die due to the fire should be incorporated as an option. If already under 10% when the event occurs the character dies. This could have severe impact to game play. For instance, a disaster in a base set up at one end of the Cinder Hills mine would mean that the mine is no longer accessible from that end or alternately that the mine is completely inaccessible. Similarly, a disaster in the Riken or the Old Spence forge site would render the forge unavailable for forgings. Given the current game structure, the disaster would tend to be more all or nothing though that could eventually change. As to what constitutes a base, well, I don't know. That would be a problem to be worked out in the implementation. This would be a custom setting as I know that *I* would not want to be subject to this occurrence in any vanilla game mode. It should be a positive act on the part of the player to enable such an occurrence. Alternately, the devs might incorporate this as "at the start of the run" kind of setting, though I think they would put it under Custom Mode. That would be easier.

I would suspect that the devs decided, probably quite a while ago, that having an active affliction was sufficient to block certain activities because that made having an active affliction something to avoid. They also included in that certain actions like freezing, starving, thirst, and exhaustion. The devs have not chosen to revisit the matter and make any "distinction" among the previously settled category of "afflictions" and their effects on things like research. They have no incentive to do so at this time. One can agree or disagree with what they have done or not done.

Probably the devs decided that Molly in Crossroads Elergy had to plausibly be able to get beyond the teeth and claws of the wolf she would kill in that little barn. In my Pilgrim games, I have never found anything useful up in that space nor does it seem to have any utility value like having a better bed (i.e. not sleeping on a cold straw covered floor) or even a container for storage.

Keep in mind that the game has evolved over the years in development and issues like memory requirements and processing power (CPU and GPU) would seriously influence just how much could be done. Certainly top of the line computers could do more, but what about those who did not have such computers to use? I remember back in 2019 when I was having problems with the save game function not working and not being obvious about it and occasional crashes because the game ran out of memory to put stuff (I had 12 GB of RAM and 2 GB of VRAM). 32-bit address space was kind of limiting back then. 64-bit address space was a lot better and a lot of memory-related problems seemed to disappear. Since a character was not going to immediately interact with trees, critters, and terrain that was hundred of feet away, certainly short-cuts to reduce memory demands were likely used. Someone had to decide what to do about the situation and we have what we have. If TLD was being developed NOW it would seem likely that we might see a very different game world structure even if the game overall was of very similar design. That's the way I see it.

To be honest, I do not see any reasonably compelling reason why such a device would be needed in the game as currently structured. It remains a discretionary decision for the devs and I do not see any issue in how bears operate that would require or suggest the need for such a device. Admittedly I would be a poor judge of need since I don't play in Voyager and higher difficulty modes.