UpUpAway95

Thank you for saying it better than I could. Not terrible... just different. If he's going to be accessible in the main the game (as long as he's activated within the DLC), I'd prefer him to be an actual person to whom we can talk as well. I'd also like him to also wander... albeit, not showing up as frequently as, say, the Wandering Trader in Minecraft does. I'd like him to be like Methuselah... where we can occasionally spot his campfire, sit down and maybe enjoy a hot coffee and some conversation and trade an item or two. Since Methuselah is a character already in Wintermute, I think that would be in keeping with the spirit of the game. If they have also decided to add in a feature where the player can call him on the radio and place an order, then I'd like the option to turn that off separately (ie - without turning off the trader entirely). The idea of "mail order" in TLD is just something that doesn't appeal to me. I'd rather chance meetings. 😀... and if I walk into a cave in HRV and see an Amazon logo painted on the wall, I'd think I'll puke! 😀

No idea. First thing to do is to sort out whether or not I'm going to buy the expansion, so I'll probably sit down with some reviews and watch some gameplay. (I'm really bad at avoid spoilers anyways.) Since it's coming out a month or so later on Xbox, I'll have plenty of time to decide on things. Then, depending on how sweeping the changes are, I'll probably dive into some runs with different custom settings to be decided in that moment... maybe easing on any new things one at a time rather than all at once (if there are toggles to enable/disable them available).

Yes... a source of RARE goods. So, I can't see how they would be able to avoid making these rare goods available throughout the duration the player may play... meaning if they can buy one rifle (shown in the image), then likely days, week, months later, they'll be able to buy another. Restocking of his inventory might not be frequent; but that still means that, given the open-ended nature of this game, it is technically unlimited. The alternative, of course, is that he never restocks his inventory at all... which means he eventually becomes a trader with nothing to trade. Given that he's DLC, I don't see that happening. Even if that is the case, the player will know of one definite source of "rare goods" - kind of defeating randomizing the loot tables, don't you think? Again, I'm not saying this is a terrible thing. I enjoy lots of games that have traders in them. it just makes this game feel different than it was early on. That's all. I've stopped looking for ways in this game to recapture that sort of tension about running out of things... and I'm throwing my hopes for that into a TLD2 at some point.

I'm not saying I'm against it... only pointing out that it does further change one of the old core concepts of the game... scarcity... a general feeling that has been slowly disappearing from the game for ages and ages now. Regardless of how it is implemented, it can certainly be ignored and never used by the player. It may take many trips or reloads to get what you want and likely things will be expensive. The trader may also be tough to reach. Ultimately though the semantics of it aren't really that important. It likely means that virtually anything is available in an unlimited supply. As I indicated to another post, I kind of believe TLD is beyond getting that initial feeling of scarcity back, regardless. I'm more hopeful for a TLD2 to do that.

I think that's true - still blind luck that the bear wasn't right on top of him just after he finished. I once mistakenly chose to sleep out a blizzard in a cave near to where I had just shot a bear... didn't know it was his cave... fortunately, I woke up next to a dead bear rather than a sleeping one.

With a sarcasm sub-subforum. 😀

Seriously? 😂

The elusive cougar, maybe?

Why not just pop a fishing hut in on the pond in Mountain Town nearest the HRV transition cave? Leaving HRV for crafting is still necessary, so fishing could be done at the same time.

An obviously auger-drilled hole in the ice would still be a sign of human habitation and would still likely break with the theme of the area. Fishing is not really needed right in the zone anyways. The could, instead, pop a fishing hut onto the pond in Mountain Town on the pond closest to the entrance to the transition cave and people can then quickly pop out of the zone to craft and fish at the same time (since exiting the zone to craft would still be necessary).

Thank you. Yes, I am aware of that route (a poster here even made me a video a few years ago as I was having trouble finding the path up to the fallen tree and was winding up in the drink trying to get by the small island near that tree - which is surrounded by thin ice). If I do opt to go to the FM forge instead of BR, I do usually take this longer route rather than venture across the ice. Fog and thin ice are often my nemeses in this game. My IRL vision frankly sucks and I get turned around easily. Yes, the route through BR has choke points, but as long as the winds are calm, one can dissuade them with torches and stones... just the same as they can be dissuaded anywhere else until one finishes their bow (hopefully, one has carried in a maple and a couple of birch to cure there). Then it's open season in the maintenance yard and perhaps even a quick moose by the bridge or up by the hunting lodge (which is, IMO, the nicest location on the map so far). If there is a blizzard, you can usually get in without encountering wolves... and one still has the tracks to guide them most of the way.

There is currently an option in custom to activate guns while maintaining the other Loper settings. As long as there are custom options, whether or not HL includes it in the standard Loper is not really a concern and I suspect they would opt to keep their standard Loper "gunless" and add custom options for those players who like to play Loper with guns (and avoid the objections from Loper players to prefer to continue to play without the guns). I see no need for the addition of something like a pen gun. People have been asking for the addition of a shotgun for a long time, and it is something I also see no real need for. Personally, I probably would never bother with the added weight. If others find such a thing useful and they want to craft it themselves rather than just find it, I have no objection to it being added (as long as there is a custom option similar or the current ones for the revolver and the rifle to enable or disable it).

Yes... I also hope he's OK. He was a wonderful contributor here for a long time. I do miss him.

Wolves have to be cleared out of the area around Spence's as well to be safe. Yes, you can sleep in the office in BR, but you cannot forge in the outdoors (or craft for that matter). You must be inside for that. As I said, it is my perceived reason for there being a preference. My reason for preferring BR is simply to avoid walking around onto "thin ice" in a fog... nothing more. Note: You also have to pass through a narrow area with several wolves to get to DP and the Riken (Crumbling Highway). Getting into BR is really not much different.

Not true... go back to when ML was the only zone. Animal spawns were always infinite, but ways to kill them and ways to light fires were not. As I indicated, it was a "feeling" that death was inevitable and that you would hit a point where there was nothing left to do to survive. It lingered for a long time, but now new players no longer really feel that way. There's always a way to acquire more of practically everything in the game... and yes, that feeling began to shift years ago. What you cite is one extreme example, but not the general feeling prevalent in new players... what I was addressing was the general feeling of the game. Do you honestly feel that in today's TLD you'll ever be reduced to living in one cabin, naked, keeping a fire going 24/7 and killing rabbits in order to survive forever in game? I never said that playing the game in any way was invalid. This game has become, over the years, what it is... and that's just reality. It's become more and more about basic living forever in the environment (which becomes static after about 50 days), period. Yes, all ways to play the game are valid and should be considered valid by everyone. I've always been an advocate for even more custom options and for the validation of custom games by allowing the progression of feats within those games in addition to the standard difficulties. It would be nice to see the end of "interloper" egotism... it still doesn't change the fact that the "feeling" that death from simply running out of things and options is no longer present in the game. Death now primarily comes from being beaten in combat with various animals. It feels like a different game than when I started playing it. That the DLC adds base building and a trader is simply an indication that the trend moving away from that feeling of scarcity is continuing. Nothing more.

Perhaps you're right. I'm actually more hopeful about a TLD 2 coming out that restores that core concept by, as I suggested in a post, having all difficulties start the game equipped identically but all your equipment will eventually break (rate dependent on difficulty) and your have to make do with what you find (and everything is finite). The only infinite thing would be that the game's environment increasingly gets worse over time - animals get thinner, respawns deplete to 0, weather gets ever colder. In short, the game truly gets more challenging as time goes on... ending only and inevitably in the player character's demise (e.g. the old Tetris concept before people learned how to hypertap and finally reached the max level of the game).

I agree (and hope) that there will be an option to disable the trader in custom mode. I don't see why having him not be available in "interloper" would change anything, but I suppose it's possible... since the "standard" interloper setting is merely a HL-chosen selection of custom options for the most part and they could choose to the "disable trader" option for that "standard" difficulty. The thing is, DLC changes the game regardless - interloper (standard) is no longer standard since some people will be playing it without the benefits the DLC provides and some will (depending on whether or not they've purchased the DLC). If anything good comes of this... I hope it's finally the end of this "interloper" egotism on this website. ETA: The idea that an item is in finite/extremely limited supply was something that was acutely felt at all difficulties when the game first released. Using the last rifle cartridge back then actually meant using the last one... irreplaceable, no more to be had. Death was truly inevitable. That hasn't been the case in this game for a long time.

The existence of a trader, who essentially provides an infinitely restock of potentially every item in the game does, IMO, unavoidably change the core concept of the game as it was originally presented... that one would eventually, unavoidably die due to running out of resources. No longer can the player think that once they use up that "last" something there is simply no more of it to be found. They will now simply go to the trader for another of it. In truth though, TLD has been moving away from that concept for ages now as more areas and more "luxury" items were being added with every update. For example, with the addition of mills, the limited availability of whetstones was no longer an issue. Perhaps it even began with the addition of beachcombing, when many finite items (e.g. cloth, matches, saplings) became restockable (albeit very slowly). It became truly possible to survive forever in the game world.

I also like the Broken Railroad forge, but I think most interloper players prefer FM in order to manage the cabin fever risk and they don't like the narrowness of the entrance to the zone. Personally, I don't like getting to the FM forge over the ice in the heavy fogs that tend to prevail in that area. I have often ended up breaking through, so I prefer to stay with the tracks (which go into Broken Railroad). I like desolation point, but I just never seem to be at that corner of the map these days.

Definitely not the only one... IIRC, there have been posts to the wish list to be able to come across his campfires in Survival mode in the past. The trader may simply be HL responding to that request. Personally, I'm not apprehensive about there being a trader in the game (if one buys and activates the DLC) and would prefer to run across him as a wandering trader (Methuselah-like) rather than being located in a set "store" (although both scenarios are possible) I wouldn't like the mail order catalogue situation (where one would place an order over the phone and then have it dropped onto the airfield by a passing plane or find it stashed at some agreed upon location). I don't get the idea some people are expressing that the game suggests everyone else is dead. That people left for the coast is the story Grey Mother tells and there are numerous characters to be encountered in story mode. So, to me, encountering at least one other wandering individual (who happens to be willing to trade items) would fit right in. That way, the player would not be able to count on him even having anything that the player needs or desires in his inventory. Anyway, as I said before, I'm anticipating that there will be an option to disable him since he is DLC... that is, the mechanic for the main game to run without a trader in it will already be there and be the default. If he is located in a set store, then that store is likely within the DLC area only, so then it becomes just a matter of not ever going to that location. No big deal either way.

I chose other (although one could perhaps include this in taking one's time to check out the new features)... Since I have to wait for another month or so for it to come out on console, I should just bury myself in something else so as to avoid spoilers, but I probably will break down and watch some streams and read some of the posts that are, no doubt, going to flood the website here. So, by the time I can play it, I'll probably have a pretty good idea what the new features and the new area are all about.

Judging from the trailer, I'd say they've put a tremendous amount of work into some of this already.

That's what kind of irritates me about your previous comments on people using the loot tables as "cheating." IMO, using save backups to get around the permadeath feature of this game that deletes your save upon death is a far bigger "cheat" than looking up a few probable loot locations on a loot table. I do wish you all the best, but I hope you realize you actually lost this run the moment you died on it the first time and whatever days survived your journal now reads is a lie. ETA: I would love it if HL put in an option into the Custom settings to allow respawn at death... along with an adjustment to the journal that changes "Days Survived" to "Consecutive Days Survived" and inserts a death counter and a notation on the day when the character died. This would correct the "journal lie" I mentioned. Not everyone wants to play permadeath... and they should have that option legitimately, IMO.

The zone I actually loathe is Mystery Lake - I seem to get more sprains in that zone (usually chasing down wounded animals) than I ever get in HRV or TWM even though the terrain there seems to be considerably less challenging. So, what I'm saying is that I definitely respect anyone's right to seriously loathe any zone in the game. It's great that TLD offers the variety, regardless. 🙂

I would like to see an open-ended, ever increasing degree of difficulty in the game - weather getting progressively more severe, animals yielding less and less meat as time goes on (i.e. they start to starve and get thinner and thinner) and their spawning diminishing to 0 eventually, items becoming totally irreparable over time, plants respawning at the beginning of the game but, again, diminishing towards 0 respawns as time goes on... creating a shifting focus for players to simply survive longer each run than they personally did the previous run (sort of like a Tetris mentality where the game continually speeds up until the player simply can't keep up with it) - i.e. striving for a personal best. This rate of world decay towards the totally state where it is utterly impossible to survive being what the set game difficulty level controls. That is, everyone on every difficulty starts out well equipped (identically) and all difficulties can reach the "0" respawns state and no cap on how severe the weather gets). The things you start out with break and decay and the character gets progressively and unavoidably weaker. However, the rate at which that happens is significantly faster at higher difficulties (making higher difficulty runs last perhaps only a matter of, say, 30 in-game days, rather than years). Right now, the game hits a doldrum state where the player can become set up to survive years inside the game... it doesn't get more difficult. It just gets boring. That's what I'd like to see really change with a new version of the game.