dahemac

Corpses are where I store spoiled food.

Like this?

I want to use this kettle on a stove or grill, etc. I also would like to use it on that hotplate during an aurora.

Thoughtless of the previous cannery workers. But seriously I think some of these map design choices are made from a kind of hide and seek mentality that is only interesting the first time you explore an area. The utility of the map design to the player, surviving in the quiet apocalypse, is what contributes to replayability or sustained play. Discovering the tool chest once is interesting once. Having it positioned usefully so you interact with it over and over instead of just looting it initially would be a way for that asset to return greater value. In this respect the garage on Coastal Highway is much better designed than the Cannery which has several eccentricities that are irritating when you interact with them over and over. If I were the developer I would just move that toolchest to the workbench. I do think there is a mechanic for moving storage, as a plastic storage container on shelves will change y coordinates if you salvage the shelves.

Good lord. I would like to watch you doing that.

You can still find places where they cannot get you. But hunting them is dangerous, the timberwolves particularly. I thought I had a good spot to the west of the cannery, but it turned out that they could take swipes at me from above. I should have moved onto the next ledge. But I was panicked and they came very close to killing me, despite my having shot at least two of them repeatedly. At least with the new patch, the wounded wolves will stop dropping out of the map so you can harvest their pelts when you track them down.

They could just reset with a cool-down. Then take another go at you if you provoked them again.

I quite like the timberwolf mechanic. I can see that it would be frustrating on difficult modes, but the way I play it adds variety and makes me have to be more careful. However there are elements of the mechanic that are broken. This was most evident for me when I first arrived at the Cannery in Bleak Inlet. I had already been harassed by two groups of timberwolves on the way there and the cannery group gave me a very bloody welcome. But I drove them off. Then I started the platforming to get to the workshop and the wolves agroed again. Except that they could not get me. I made it out to the workshop front door and started my wait for the aurora. I was there for more than a day, possibly two plus days, through at least two blizzards. And all the while, the timberwolves were going nuts, running around in circles barking and growling. Hour after hour in killing weather, without food or rest. I was just barely clinging to life from exposure and they were going strong endlessly. This is pretty immersion breaking. Basically irritating. I finally attacked two of them just to make them shut up. Timberwolf attacks should time out. There is no way they could keep that up for long periods of time. If you get where they cannot get you, they should give up after 45 minutes or an hour. Even that would be a long time. The wolves should also not run around like supercharged lunatics. I think this must be intended to waste player’s resources. But again, it is immersion breaking. It is the quiet realism, the absence of improbable mad tireless zombies that makes TLD great. So the timberwolves should not be mad tireless zombies.

These are both great examples of storage that is somewhat uselessly located. As I say, I would happily volunteer to carry the lockers to the rooms outside the workshop. But I will only carry lockers over the silly platforming once.

I am not sure who put this toolbox over here in the corner of the cannery workshop, but I have been trying to move it over to the work area. Seems to be stuck to the floor. Tried the crowbar but no joy. Sigh.

Please add lockers outside Bleak Inlet cannery workshop, in the room outside the key-code door. They can be empty, fine, but that area really needs more outside storage. If need be I will happily carry lockers from elsewhere at the Cannery.

The platforming needed to get to the entrance of the Cannery Workshop may, or may not, be interesting once. However it is tedious and absurd subsequently. This is especially true since there are two ladders in the workshop, a folding tall step ladder and a tall straight ladder. The previous, presumably dead, dude who put up the platforms must have been pretty far gone. The system he put up is nuts. More so since he could easily have tied the beginning climbing rope at the last bit where the gap in the dock prevents crossing, eliminating most of the round-about nonsense. It would be sensible, once a player has entered the workshop to allow them to rig the step ladder and or the straight ladder so that they can bypass the platforming. This is what a person would certainly do.

The carry problem, which is absurd, could easily be solved if the game allowed you to do the first thing you would do in Gwen or Will’s situation, which is build a sledge. There is no way Astrid, or Will, could do that fireman’s carry. When I realized I would have to carry Gwen I started to think about what gear I would be willing to leave so I could manage it. But no, she weighs nothing. I have gone winter camping. I have dragged my supplies on a toboggan in mountainous terrain. How is this not implemented in The Long Dark?

I made it off the mountain to a small cottage with Gwen, who I cannot put warmer clothes on for some reason. I put her down on the bed nearly frozen to death. “I had better go outside and collect firewood so I can build a fire and warm her up,” thought I. “Oh no!” said the game. During that mission you cannot use a door without carrying Gwen. So, I had to take this poor girl from the relatively warm bed, outside and put her, somewhat ridiculously, down on a porch railing in the cold while I went to get wood to start a fire. This looked nuts, and made no sense. It was immersion breaking. And I cannot figure out why I should not be able to leave her to warm up somewhere safe while I go risk my life to collect supplies. The restriction is arbitrary and weird. When I was nursing Gwen in the cave near the crash site I did not have this problem, because there was no door. I came and went maintaining the fire and collecting supplies while she recovered to 100%. That made sense. Someone took the time to write the code that makes this happen. Someone in game design presented, “doors won’t work unless you are carrying the person you are supposed to be helping, out into danger and cold.” And no one in the meeting asked how that was a reasonable restriction? I fail to see how being able to leave her somewhere safe would undermine the mission to take her back to the church. It would be nice if you would fix this.

Excellent. I did say, “Glad that is over.” Gladness is a fine reward.

What was the reward?

The Long Dark is a beautiful game for players who want the decisions they make to be the cause of their survival or death. Stabbing this magic bear to death over and over and over, and over and over and over, and (boss battle) over and over and over again and again is really tedious. Sitting still for minutes at a time waiting for the bear to move off is really tedious. Getting to the spear and getting mauled because of game mechanics, click on the spear, click again to inventory the spear (literally the only thing you would be doing with it), then press 2 to actually have the thing in your hands, then lmb and hope that the game does not just do nothing. I have already fought this bear off at two towers. It is not like I don’t know how. I guess I will spend an hour here or there to try to grind through this game-fail montage so I can get back to Wintermute. But damn! Edit: Yay! I manged it after two more tries. Glad that is over. Narratively it doesn't even make any sense. My gear disappeared and reappeared. The bear could just have died the second time it attacked. The boss battle was more like a nightmare that passed like Groundhog Day.