ToAsT

I have to agree. Even with tons and tons of unnecessary repairs, I went through an absurd amount of cloth, sewing kits, fishing tackle across multiple regions just to get to Level 5 Mending. I believe it took me about 180 days (with the last 30 days or so being me specifically focusing on repairs every day rather than actually "playing" the game). At the very least, they should include skill increases when you craft clothing, since you're essentially using the same skill. Perhaps for every hour spent crafting, you get 1 point in Mending.

Apologies to revive an older topic, but it's one that I came across via search, and the posts in here describe what I find frustrating with the most recent updates to the game in terms of wolf behavior. Rather than starting a new post and rehashing what others have already said, I thought I'd piggyback on this one. Is anyone able to summarize what used to work and now doesn't, and what works now, to scare wolves away? Or point me to a definitive (exhaustive) guide of those two things? It's annoying that every video / post / guide has to specify which release version it was created after since the wolf behavior is ever-changing and Hinterland has decided it'd rather opt for surprising players with hidden gameplay changes rather than communicating the modifications or gathering proper feedback. It's difficult to know what's current and what represents older behavior that's no longer viable for players on the latest update of TLD. From what I've experienced: - Aiming a weapon or throwing a flare will immediately cause an aggro'd wolf to charge. - A lit fire or dropping a lit torch in between you and the wolf will cause it to pause at a distance from you and growl for a few moments before charging. Aiming a weapon at this point will cause it to flee in almost all circumstances, although only for a few seconds before coming after you again (if you're still in its detection range). This is different behavior than before, when a lit fire would nearly always scare a wolf away if it came close enough. - Harvesting any large animal is a huge risk now, even with a lit fire next to you, unless you immediately drop any harvested guts or meat since any wolves in the area will only hesitate for a short moment before attacking. I'm not sure about: - Does a lit torch or fire + aiming a weapon also scare wolves if they haven't come close enough to the fire? - Does a lit flare or marine flare on the ground + aiming a weapon scare the wolves? - Does any of this behavior change when an aurora is active? If so, does the flashlight work as a "weapon" with the lit torch / fire to scare away wolves? - Do thrown stones, without any fire or lit torch on the ground, cause aggro'd wolves to flee? I've tried tossing stones at them but without any indication that it causes them to run away. I haven't played Interloper often enough to know what the differences between that and Stalker are for each of these points, if any.

It still happens in my experience. Yea, that might be good as well. I know some people were clamoring for more randomness for the animal spawns, especially in higher difficulties.

Perhaps they did that, and you're right - I don't know if they added an extra roll. I haven't heard of them doing that for any other items in the game, so I'm going to assume they didn't. I haven't played enough iterations through Carter Hydro since the update to know. Maybe others (who have) can chime in.

Many have said (paraphrasing) "if you don't use the spray cans, then what's the harm?". Well, it adds more of these "useless" items mixed in with the regular loot tables. I found a total of 8 spray cans alone while searching the Carter Hydro Dam during Winter's Embrace, many of which were in containers. Sure, there are plenty of other supplies on Voyageur, but that's not the point. IMO, they should only be found on shelves and never in containers so that you leave the chance of finding other gear in those containers the same as it was before they introduced spray cans.

I like all but the last one. As a Canadian, it wouldn't feel right to rip up a flag for something so... superficial. Just my opinion, though.

It's a good idea, but I think I'd rather the developers tone down the crazy antics of larger animals running half way across the map, up and down steep inclines, etc for an hour after getting shot. At the very least, they could have the injured animal progressively slow down until they finally give out.

We're at the very least getting one more region containing Perseverance Mills, an old logging town.

I like the idea. At the very least, they could set minimum requirements for the options selected in your custom game to still make progress towards earning the badges.

There are many topics and misinformation surrounding the "mechanics" of the world posted online because TLD has gone through so many different iterations over the years, and what was once true before may not be now. Things like: changes to how wolves behave, how cooking works (both for items on the slots and nearby), outer vs inner clothing, and so on. Wintermute somewhat tells the player about these mechanics now, such as with crafting the rabbitskin hat/mittens, or for making teas from the prepared ingredients, but I find the lack of information (especially about how to deal with wolves), even at a basic level, a missed opportunity and incredibly frustrating - it would help to teach players a little about how things work on Great Bear Island (a.k.a., in the game world). One of my gripes with the way TLD was developed is that major game behavior was changed after the 1.0 release and it's not obvious to the players even after playing the game for many hours. People coming back to the game after a hiatus or those who don't play very often (like myself) would probably have no idea that the behavior of wolves has changed so drastically, and in a game without manual saves it could mean the difference between life or death (in-game). In my particular example, I remember that I used to be able scare wolves with an open fire, or luring them with some bait to get a decent shot off, but that doesn't appear to be enough anymore and they charge anyway. While on just on the topic of wolves, there are many questions that I've once had and that I'm sure others do as well: - when do wolves charge and when do they run away? how does bating work now? how do wolves react to fires, and what are strategies to get them off your tail / to back-off? will a fire keep them at bay? how do they react to stones, fires, flares, marine flares - both in-hand and thrown? how do the scent markers work? These things are left up to the player to guess at through play, which I can understand at a certain level because you - being an untrained person trying to survive in a harsh landscape - aren't used to that type of scenario in your daily life. But the NPCs, especially in Wintermute, don't communicate any of this information or even suggest strategies for dealing with the harsh realities of Great Bear Island, even after they depend on McKenzie/Astrid to help them! Wouldn't you want to have your only hope of survival have as much information as possible? The old woman in Milton, Jeremiah in Trapper's Homestead, the priest in Thomson's Crossing, the woman in the Pleasant Valley farm - these people all, at one point, need the player's help but they don't offer much of anything to aid or assist. Veteran players who know the mechanics based on online references or a lot of experience might not care about this sort of thing. I get that. However, I feel that Hinterland could throw in some side-quests where an "expert" NPC in the world shows the player some of these things, or players could find some old notes/books on the topic throughout the game world, which might help teach the player about the game mechanics. These would get the player better prepared for sandbox mode or dealing with the intricacies of animal behavior, since there are many mechanics that are not at all related to the real world or "common sense". It would also flesh out the characters and help with the suspension of disbelief required for the scenarios presented in story-mode. Some pieces of dialog here and there, hinting at some aspect of the game, would be helpful. Jeremiah might say something like: "The wolves are especially hungry for meat these days. Avoid them if you can, but if they're on your tail, a lit flare will keep them at bay, while an open fire followed by a show of strength may scare them off." It's in-character, it's helpful, and it's easy to squeeze into the context of the situation, or have as a dialog option that players can inquire about. It also tells players a little bit about how to survive in this unfamiliar realm, which to anyone coming across McKenzie or Astrid, is something they would recognize that these survivors desperately need.

I'm curious: How did you add that button overlay to the screen? Is that part of some video streaming/recording software?

I agree that we're not likely to see a change anytime soon. Some people misinterpreted what Raphael said in an earlier quote that there *currently* existed a way to get to the workshop through other means, but that doesn't appear to be the case. I find the most frustrating part getting to the workshop is that because the only access is via rope, you can't take very much with you to the cannery workshop in one go unless you ferry it back and forth up the rope multiple times. Heavy things, like the lead for the bullets or firewood/coal to keep the furnace going, have to be brought up and all the way around. On top of it all, there are all these crates inside the workshop which you can't even break down - they're just there for decoration.

This seems like a hyperbole. I've had plenty of Long Dark runs where I have hundreds of unmoving items dropped on the ground and FPS doesn't drop to unplayable levels when they're all on the screen. Sure, it might be noticeable on some systems, but give us the option to do it if we want. My PC's performance affected far more by "active" objects like outdoor fires or raging blizzards, and (even after all this time) the multi-second pause when spraining your ankle/wrist. I also addressed this in the post by asking that they provide us with a performance slider, much like with the other options.

I was doing the same in this run. I just got it on the 200th day on pilgrim after depleting ML, MT, and raiding parts of the other regions of their cloth items - this after finding old clothing scattered around to repair, wandering for hours in blizzards, intentionally getting mauled by several bears, and dropping down from cliffs. It's completely insane.

I agree. It's a game - give us an option to cap the volume of those super loud sounds. There needs to be better adjustment of other sounds as well. Why is an owl hooting super loud when I'm in the middle of the field in PV? Why is a loon sounding like it's inside my backpack when I'm out on the ice in CH?

I've especially noticed this in the past several releases for whatever reason, but items that are more than ~10m away are invisible to me. For a game where you can see a wolf from a 1/2 km away, and where spotting where you dropped items from a fair distance away can be the difference between finding food and starving to death, this seems borderline ridiculous. I'd almost go as far as claiming it's a bug even though I've seen similar behavior in various game streams. I've maxed out all the sliders and the settings are set to the maximum allowable for visual quality (Ultra or High), so I doubt that this only applies to me. If there are performance implications of showing that many items close to the player, then (much like trees and other vegetation) Hinterland can provide a slider in the performance/quality menu or they can show a lower quality object from further away. Having items pop in and out from such a close distance is super annoying, and it's very frustrating to think that there's nothing in that little corner of the valley you're exploring only to later find out that you could've picked up an important item there. Not only that, but the items appear on my map when I draw them with charcoal even when they're not visible directly ahead of me on a clear, sunny day! I know this isn't as critical to older players who know where everything spawns on the map, but for people who don't know the maps off by heart it really detracts from the game experience. It's visually jarring to see a ton of items appear out of nowhere, as well. If you're unsure of what I'm talking about then take a look at the attached images below as an example. One shows 0 rosehip bushes just ahead of the player, and the second shows the player slightly further ahead and can see 3 that just popped into view (with one just out of visual draw range). I can see sticks, branches, limbs, and other things from a fair distance, but not these bushes and other items. Can Hinterland please look at extending the distance we can see items at or at least look at providing us with a slider to extend the range beyond the pitiful draw distance it's set to now? 0 bushes but close enough to see sticks and branches: A little closer and... suddenly 3 bushes appear (1 not yet visible): P.S. If there's a method to alter the draw distance somewhere in the game files then please let me know.

Instead of this, I think they should simply make the higher levels of Mending easier to obtain or add additional ways of obtaining skill points (like crafting animal items or head/hand wraps). It takes a ridiculous number of repair jobs just to get from level 4 to 5 as it is.

I've checked all the locations listed there for Forlorn Muskeg but only found the one at the High Blind. I've probably checked 2/3 the map locations by now with the hope that it might've been placed elsewhere but no luck. Has anyone found any locations for the polaroid in addition to the ones in the wiki?

Agreed on pretty much everything. The ammo crafting books aren't really worth it unless you have very little supplies when you eventually get into the cannery, since like you said it's pretty easy to craft them. I suspect in the future they'll allow you to craft an improvised weapon from the milling machine, so that might take care of the no revolver issue. I also think that there should be a rope climb point from the ice near the cannery so that we don't have to do the platform puzzle every single time we want to go out there. IMO they really ruined the value of the flares when they essentially made throwing them instantly aggro the wolves nearby.

Replying to an old thread since I was searching around for this very topic. I agree with the suggestions that current foot and hand wear should affect the likelihood of a sprain in all but the most extreme circumstances (eg falling from a significant height). I personally think that sprains happen far too often in the game, even with the tweaks that were added, and something to mitigate that risk is sorely needed. Part of the wonder of the Long Dark (for me anyway) is the exploration of a zone and looking for the hidden prepper caches. In a zone like Mystery Lake, nearly all the prepper cache locations are in places where you're likely to get multiple sprains even if you know exactly where to look and the best route to get there. It feels like in earlier editions of the game, the terrain in those zones are much more forgiving, and sprains were a rare occurrence. In the current system it actively discourages me from checking the edges of the zones and for taking the road less traveled., and that makes me sad.

I think snowshoes would be a valuable addition to the game if they allowed the player to walk across weak ice without falling through. The downside would be extreme mobility penalties (unable to run). Some hardwood, hide, and cured leather to craft one, perhaps. It would be nice to carry a lot more stuff, but with the effort already placed into the moose-hide satchel, and all the difficulties around pathfinding, visuals, etc, I doubt they'll give us a sled. It also goes against some of the game's apparent philosophy of making difficult decisions around what to carry and what not to.

Have to agree with a lot of the sentiment here that the way the timberwolves were implemented was poorly thought out, and I really disliked Ep 3 and the new zone because of it. You can't even really avoid them since they seem to have xray vision and supernatural spotting capabilities. They don't seem to be afraid of fire and you can't run away from them. I can only imagine lugging around 2kg of marine flares when they add them to the other zones in a completely arbitrary mechanic JUST for these critters to MAYBE run away only for them to immediately return and attack again. WTF Hinterland? The way Raphael spoke about having a game where combat wasn't a primary mechanic and that the environment was the struggle (in that video he did a little ways back) seems to be at odds with what happened this update. I really warmed up to The Long Dark after it was released from Early Access after having it and not really getting into it. Since then, I've logged over 100 hours which is more than most of my other games in that time. The thought of having these supernatural wolves in the other zones makes me afraid that I won't be able to enjoy the game anymore. I hope I'm wrong and they make some changes. Perhaps if you could craft an item from the body of a killed timberwolf that would weaken the morale of the timberwolves you meet from that point on or limit the distance you could be spotted at (timberwolf hat or hood) it might be more tolerable.