UTC-10

I did not know that was possible to use campfires to bridge a gap. It was unusual for the polaroid to be placed there. I would not be surprised if that was because of RNG. Probably not the first oversight by Hinterland. The bug needs to be reported. The devs may find out now because it was posted, but that is not certain and maybe not quick.

With only two episodes left, I'd want to see a region that includes a port facility and airport. The port might be primarily for barge traffic and maybe small to medium-sized ferries and the airport limited to a one runway facility. It is probably asking too much because it would be an involved region. It would be the source of fuel and containerized cargo. It would be the natural focal point for residents fleeing the quiet apocalypse. I do think that episode 4 (and 5) is going to need some kind of new region.

I have not yet gone to Ash Canyon. My preparations for the foray (and I have several sandboxes) has kept me busy. I am not that much of an intrepid explorer, actually a rather cowardly one so I gather as much information about the place as possible. I would admit that from what I have been seeing in others' explorations, Ash Canyon does not have all that much to offer mostly because of the difficulty of movement. I find that climbing, even with crampons when I get them, is not my favorite way of getting around. That is not to say that there isn't a lot to see, but once past that and settling into an existence there, there really isn't that much. Though that's just my subjective impression before getting there. There will be a lot to explore and map. It would have been nice if some of the hints of things and structures in the graphics turned up in the region. It might even have been interesting to be able to see but not reach them. The broken bridge syndrome blocking access. Tantalizingly close but not close enough. 😅 Oh, I can hear the complaints.

I was thinking about a bathtub or shower stall since there was a restroom with a toilet. I do not immediately recall the interior but I don't think I recall seeing any floor lamps or overhead lights. Was there a desk lamp in the office? Wall sockets? Certainly no old-fashioned radio. I don't think there was a mailbox. In survival mode, it would have been nice to be able to access the basement which would have contained the furnace and more storage. A work bench would have been a bit too good and valuable.

I guess my problem is I do not see the litter as a problem. I have made alternate uses for cattail heads (and tinder plugs) to mark trails across the trackless ice sheets, paths of safe passage in areas of weak ice, marking cairns I have found so I know I had found them if I come across them later, and even that I visited a dwelling (pre-spray paint). I have even taken to using tinder plugs anyway mostly for the role-playing when convenient. So this does not seem like a situation that justifies a specific mechanic to deal with it.

With the fix to accessories (the "outside" slot was actually inside), one might consider that whatever affects the inside slot has to get through the outside slot/layer. There is nothing wrong, for instance, with equipping the moose hide satchel in the "outer" slot of accessories, but then as things get wet or when incoming damage occurs the satchel will take the hits. However, depending on one's druthers, putting the satchel on the inside slot and the wood ear wraps on the outside (yes they are rather fragile) means that the ear wraps get wet first and any incoming damage would strike them first (I think). Similarly. If one had an expedition parka and a windbreaker, a choice can be made as to which should be on the outside slot. Granted, the expedition parka has better warmth and wind chill protection, greater water resistance, etc. compared to the windbreaker, but putting the windbreaker on the outside means that the windbreaker would have to get completely wet first before the parka would start to get wet (unless you went for a swim in the ocean or lake). The windbreaker dries faster (it seems) and the windbreaker should tend to take damage first compared to the parka. Something to think about when considering how to arrange one's clothing and gear on their person. Of course, some things only go into or have a beneficial effect when put in a particular slot (i.e. crampon, I hear is one that requires that).

It might just be just a couple of entries on the physical status page which related what the six-day moving average for outdoor and indoor time was at the time it was viewed. The game must track that anyway in some fashion so letting the player know might help with working out what to do with less of a mystery about it. If the idea was to just give qualitative rather than quantitative feedback, then a single meter that has red, yellow, and green indications (red = risk, yellow = getting close to risk, green = no risk) might be reasonable.

I don't know. The game currently has no meter about where a player stands with respect to cabin fever or its risk until it actually says you have the risk. Ewma would seem as mysterious and indefinite as six-day moving average.

If the devs implemented a form of "interiors should be colder" I would expect them to go for a simpler formulation. No complex or complicated considerations. No hanging furs on the wall. No attempting to increase insulation and consequentially interior warmth. Of course, I am projecting on the devs so they might go for a more complex calculation but I really don't see it.

I would think that movement speed should be pretty stable. Of course, YMMV. 😁 Just being awake (and standing or crouching) means one down-pointing arrow, moving (walking) means two arrows, and really moving (running or as the case may be climbing) means three arrows. I would assume the reference to one arrow was a downward pointing arrow.

Save on Demand versus Save on Event are sufficiently different that what would be involved would be a custom setting. So enabling SoD would mean playing a custom game at the cost of no feat progress. That cost may be insignificant because all possible feats were earned and only become a "problem" if a new feat was added later. If the vanilla game was SoE and a customized version was SoD, I do not think I would care. If SoD floats a given player's boat, I am not going to put a hole into it and sink it. If the devs decide to make the vanilla game SoD, and apply its effects to all games, I will live with it. If they restrict SoD to new games, I will live with it when I start a new game and might even enjoy it. SoD would certainly make certain forms of scum saving easier. I don't think the devs would make that kind of change anytime soon. Survival mode play with SoE is a fairly stable and known environment to them. Once story mode is no longer a factor, they may go to SoD.

I have thought that the devs have tried to refrain from taking control of the character, in any significant manner, away from the player. Nobody likes their character doing something contrary to the player inputs. I am of the opinion that the swaying at low condition was intended as a sort of warning. One can get so engrossed in one problem that another problem which might be more important does not get attention. During Escape the Darkwalker, I had to run past the Darkwalker who was heading for a lure I had set and I was perplexed why I was suddenly starting to move sidewards instead of down the slope. Something was not right and then I noticed how low my Condition had gotten in that brief run by the Darkwalker. I knew I was not going to get anywhere fast so I popped an E Stim, got back enough Condition to completely regain control then headed down the slope. I think without that swaying I would have tried to run down the slope, cursing about why my computer or the game was messing me up, probably dying given how low my Condition was to a sprain or something.

Looking at the tag in starting a topic, the tag (question in this case) shows as blue with white text. In the forum, I have been seeing red tags and red text. It does make it difficult to read the tag, not that it matters all that much. It is just a bit annoying. Let's see if the forum makes a fool out of me now. 😅

The devs have made a decision about ammunition crafting and implemented it. They are hardly going to significantly change that mechanic in a way that makes the use of the mechanic much more widespread and much easier to do. I did think, when it was discussed in the forums, that they would go for two kits needed for the action - one of the needed tools and one of the needed components. The component kit would restrict the amount of ammunition the character could craft at any one time and those kits would be hard to come by. That was my base idea. With ammunition crafting the way it is, there are strategic considerations involved in the use of firearms. On one hand, I am pleased that firing a shot is less consequential (when you have a limited amount of ammo, even in Pilgrim where there tends to be a lot of it, every shot counts), and on the other hand, the distance to travel to reload ammunition (and even initially setting up the ammunition work bench as the focal for it by assembling the components there) means that I have to think, a bit, about every round I expend. There is not much of "I have an expended casing, so I'll drop by the ammo work bench and reload it". The trip and results had better be worth the effort involved. The bow becomes a more functional weapon because the arrows and the bow itself can be crafted anywhere there is a work bench. I would not be too surprised if the rather plentiful amount of birch and maple in Ash Canyon was in part the devs' thinking about making the bow more usable as well. It is a long walk to Bleak Inlet.

Might keep in mind that skis and snowshoes, in the current form of The Long Dark, will not allow the character to do anything that he cannot do by just walking. He won't be able to go up a slope beyond what he can walk, he won't go faster, and he won't be able to carry more (so the weight of the ski gear might impact things). There might not be any net positives, as far as the devs might be concerned, because of the weight of the additional gear and the fact that it is 100 feet to ski down a hill and 100 miles to walk up it. 🙂 Although I did go to Lucern and took an intro to skiing, I can say that other than snow plowing down a hill, I could not bring myself to even try to ski like the other more practiced skiers. I do not know if the devs would cotton to the idea that Will and Astrid were reasonable down-hill or cross-country skiers right out off the bat. That is not to say that the devs couldn't include a quest where Will or Astrid actually have to learn how to and get skill in something like [cross-country] skiing, but then the quest-related aspect would cover why it might be done.

The Long Dark is centered around the events of Story mode. That was the concept (What would you do to Survive?), I believe, that led to many backing the development of the game. So the time frame of TLD is a short one connected to Story mode. A period of perhaps two to four weeks in game-reality. I remember that the item decay time line used to be 100 days which give some indication of how long the devs thought a viable game would be. The unexpected popularity of the survival sandbox showed them that they were maybe a bit too short-sighted. In any case, that would define the kind of things that might be important in that time frame. There is nothing wrong with possible nutritional deficiencies showing up, but those either will take a long time to develop (and story mode would have long finished) or it would non-trivially detract from the game-play of story mode so is not (in their considered judgement) worth spending time and resources to implement. Either that or avoiding or treating the deficiency would become a relatively trivial action. Once story mode is concluded, the devs can take what they have and go in whatever direction they want to take things.

Bear in mind that there is a consequence to Save on Exit. As Survival mode current save function works, when a character gets stuck, there always is the option to quit and reload. The price is game progress. With Save on Exit, when a character gets stuck, there is no other option but to struggle because otherwise the entire save game is effectively a write-off. Once the game saves the situation is now permanent. And there is no GM to come save the character.

The thread is from four years ago. The problem of implementation will always be a serious roadblock simply because the devs and programming team would have to work out the details and put it into code and all the rest. I think that the actual sled and how to construct it would be the easy part. How it will be used and what effects and consequences it will have would have to be worked out and that is the difficult part.

As I understand it, Bleak Inlet was to be the test bed for determining whether Timberwolves should become a predator that could spawn basically anywhere on the map. Like the Bear Spear, the Timberwolves might not be ready for general introduction or may never be ready for general introduction. One thing that is sure, if they are generally introduced to all applicable regions, there will almost certainly be no going back to a pre-Timberwolf world.

The Survival mode game is perma-death. I believe that the purpose of limiting saves to specific circumstances and not have it on-demand was because the devs wanted the survival experience (which would be carried over into Story mode) to be reasonably realistic and discourage the practice of incremental saves until the RNG or sheer stubbornness gets the character through whatever situation he was working through. Obviously in Story mode, few people would appreciate losing all Story progress due to death so the save procedure for that mode was made more gamey.

Crafting ammunition, to a great extent (at least for me), changes the surival dynamic from a time when ammunition was hard to come by to one where, if one puts out the effort, one can largely have access to a substantial supply. The comparatively remote location of the (currently) only ammunition work bench on the map makes for some interesting considerations about what weapon to use. For Ash Canyon, the journey for reloads make me think of the bow and arrow as a more viable weapon since arrows can be crafted there and I do not have to go to Bleak Inlet to reload shells. I presume you are suggesting the capacity to craft ammunition be tied strictly to the firearm? If that is so, then Hinterland would have made crafting ammunition and advancing gunsmithing skill much, much more difficult. My sympathy for "ingesting a weapon from the Hinterland team..." 😲

There is no button to save on demand in survival mode. There are a number of circumstances that causes the game to save. Entering a building, interior cave, and most any place with a transition and loading screen. Being injured or getting an actual affliction (not the risk of one). Sleeping (which is basically uninterruptible) and passing time to completion (no cancel/interruption) for 1 hour (or more). It is routine when deciding to quit a session to take an action that would cause a save.

Quartering was a new game mechanic at the time. Chopping up a limb was an old existing mechanic. The devs probably decided that it was not worth their time to go revisit a lot of existing mechanics. Probably if they were building the game from the ground-up they would do it differently. Fires basically consist of fire duration and temperature. That is probably how the game was structured. The fuel added only counts as fire duration and temperature change. Fuel therefore loses its identity. When the wind snuffs out a fire, duration is reduced and that is that. To make the fire mechanic account for the fuel put into it, so it might be recovered, would be a rather serious change to the mechanic. Doubtful that the devs would see sufficient value in that kind of effort. OTOH, I suppose one could infer that when fuel is put into a fire it all catches on fire as reflected in the change of fire duration and temperature output. Since the game does not allow for partially consumed wood, only whole pieces, there is nothing to recover. A game limitation, the solution for which would be a good amount of extra work for the devs for little gain.

If inclined to experiment. The advice from Hinterland was to delete all the usercfg.xxxxx in TheLongDarkNoSync folder but if you haven't maybe try renaming usercfg files to back before the keybind reset problem started. That might be perhaps as far back as 64569 or further. Rename the current latest usercfg (usercfg.70699) if you haven't already. Restart The Long Dark. The game should create a new usercfg.70699 using the last valid usercfg (I am guessing). Now check the keybinds. If they held then congrats, if they didn't I do not know what else to say than 'darn'. If it worked, it is not a permanent solution. The small update to 1.92 caused my keybinds to reset (the new usercfg.70699 was a different file size) so I renamed the file, restarted TLD and let it create a new usercfg file which corresponded to the next more recent one 70139. I have mentioned that my PC did something to the files so the usercfg files from 64569 onward all have a Modified Date of October 17, 2020 and a uniform file size of 7,306 bytes. When the updates came that file size and modified date changed but when I had the game recreate the usecfg it got the aforementioned Modified Date and file size. I do not know what is happening except my keybinds hold, at least until the next update. I have been sending my usercfg files to Support, both the ones that cause keybind reset and those that don't. Hopefully a comparison might help them diagnose the trouble. Fixing it might take awhile. Good luck. Happy New Years.

It is not a bad idea in the right game. Trying to speed up the drying of clothes by trying to wring/squeeze water out of it would be a new mechanic for TLD and probably imply things and consequences that I cannot imagine/think of at this time. The degree of improvement in the wetness of particular clothes would be problematic. About the only time I was noticeably dissatisfied with clothes drying was when I had a pair of deerskin pants (and most any other pants) that was just really difficult to get dry but I don't get that wet anymore and am aware of the possible problem so I take precautions as needed. Given how the devs think, I think, if they implemented a "wring extra water out of clothing to reduce their degree of wet" they would probably include some degree of condition damage to the clothing item and other things. On balance, they would probably conclude that it was not worth the effort to implement.