GothSkunk

Because this suggestion is mostly in jest. I am not sincere with the desire to add Canada Geese into The Long Dark. But if they were to be added, it should be done in a way that plays into the meme status they have earned on the Internet: That of a fearless, violent apex predator.

The survivor cannot kill a Canada Goose.

With the addition of Ptarmigans to the game, I think it's high time we added another one of Canada's popular infamous birds. The Canada Goose: Also known as a "Cobra Chicken," the Canada Goose spawns wherever it wants, and just waddles around in a given area, occasionally digging into the snow for delicious seeds or dried grass. It announces its presence with its iconic HONK call, which can be heard as far away as a wolf howl. Behaviour: The Canada Goose is largely apathetic to your presence. It will become aware of you if you wander close enough. Wander too close however, and the Canada Goose will HISS in warning. Get close enough to touch it, and the Canada Goose will BITE the survivor, dealing 5% current condition damage per incident. If shot by firearm, arrow, or stone, the Canada Goose will take no damage and instead will immediately CHARGE the survivor (If able. If unable to charge the survivor, will simply carry on its regular business). After the charging goose reaches the survivor, an inescapable struggle ensues, much like the struggle with a bear. The result of the struggle is 20% current condition damage, and a new affliction. Anatidaephobia: Permanent affliction. Whenever the survivor takes aim at a Canada Goose with any weapon, their hands shake uncontrollably (like they do when suffering from hypothermia risk). "From the greek words for 'water fowl' and 'fear.' Never classified as an official diagnosis before the collapse. You now know better." Interaction with other wildlife: Wolves and bears will both run in terror of a Canada Goose if they step within detection range.

If that's the case, then each survival run ought to have an objective to complete that ends the run without requiring the player to die. It is counter-intuitive to design a game based on surviving the elements, where the ONLY objective is "survive," only to say that "long-term survival runs are not the intent of the game." In fact, dare I say it, it's downright idiotic.

The objective is "Survive," so... yes.

Had one such glass vacuum flask growing up. It was not pretty when it broke. Like little broken shards of mirror inside.

#JusticeForBroth

Well damn. So much for those free Venison stews I was enjoying.

In my game, human corpses that I swear were not there before, are suddenly appearing. Two in the Idle Camp. I'm brand new to the region, and set up a base in the Idle Camp after thoroughly -- and I mean thoroughly -- going through it. The next day, I started looking around the immediate area, did some cartography, then went back to the camp to sleep. The next day, I after breakfast, I go out and do some more exploring. Glimmer Fog sets in, and my shortwave goes off. I tracked down a supply cache and on the way back to the idle camp I notice there are crows feathers on the ground near one of the two bunkhouses. I look inside, and there's a corpse in the shower room that I swear on my life was not there before.

In my custom survival, 1% condition damage per hour is nothing to sniff at, considering I have it set to zero condition recovery during the day, and very low recovery during rest. I can see how a player in any of the other game modes could simply hand-wave it away. Perhaps it was an error on Hinterland's part; perhaps it is supposed to reduce your maximum condition by 1% per hour until cured, or you die? Such an effect would mean death in a little over 4 days if left untreated.

Update: Brought the Travois with me all the way to Transfer Pass, from Mystery Lake. Getting through the tunnel to Forlorn Muskeg, had to unload and collapse the Travois to squeeze between the train cars and get through. On the other end, I redeployed the Travois and started trekking to Broken Railroad. Got caught halfway there between a pack of patrolling wolves behind me, and a bear in front of me. Had to veer wide right to avoid the bear. Was surprised at how well I could traverse through Broken Railroad with the Travois. I thought for sure I would have to break it down before crossing the tree bridge, but nope, it was good. Though I had to collapse it by the derailed train cars again in order to squeeze through. Spent the night at the Maintenance Yard. I'm 99% certain the travois took 1% condition damage overnight in the yard. The trek over the Far Range Branch Line was long and tedious, with me needing to drop the travois in order to traverse through the tunnel with a lantern, (My trip was delayed an additional day by a blizzard that blew through the zone and ate up an entire afternoon) and again through the Platelayer's Shortcut. Each time I was forced to backtrack once to pick up "the rest of my gear" and the empty travois, in order to get it safely through to the other side. . This is a process that must be repeated every time one travels through a path involving a tight squeeze or a required crouch. Although it's tedious, it is nonetheless necessary. I'm presently at the Vacant Depot and taking shelter there. The travois' condition has reduced to 25% by this point. The cost to repair it is still one cured deer hide and one cured cut, which I have now learned, provides a maximum 70% condition repair. I have with me one such hide and gut, but will likely stay a while and cure another hide and gut, before moving on to the new region. Lantern fuel is suddenly quite valuable.

Human fingernails are inefficient at long lengths. They are far more likely to snap and break off than they are to eviscerate an animal hide.

I've thus far used a Travois to go from Pleasant Valley to Mystery Lake, via the Winding River route. So through the cave and the Dam. Upon arriving at the Mystery Lake Cabin Camp Office, the Travois has decayed to 76% condition. In order to repair it, it requires cured deer hide and cured gut. It is yet unclear if a more damaged travois would also require cured maple saplings as part of the repair. I had to leave the travois fully loaded at the Pleasant Valley side of the cave to Wandering River, because I forgot to refuel my lantern. I went back to the Pleasant Valley homestead, refueled my lantern, but it was late in the evening and I had to spend the night. I returned the next morning to where I had left the travois. It took no additional damage from being left overnight. I play a custom mode that combines elements of Stalker and Interloper difficulties. I commend Hinterland on integrating the travois into the game. It is a complex tool, and the ways in which it interacts with the environment make sense, both in what it can do, and what it can't do. Yet just imagining dragging that thing behind me, I'm shocked that there wasn't a "sore arms" affliction added to the game along with scurvy.

I'm in PV, and my run is about 200 days now, but I suspect that it may be difficult to find a flask in places that we've already cleaned out. I don't remember this being the case when the cooking pots came out, or when the skillets came out, but that may be the reason.

Bare-handed harvesting can still be done, but the carcass must first be dressed by way of a cutting tool. Or... wolf teeth.

If you encounter issues with the game, please report them to the Support Portal at hinterlandgames.com/support.

at 06:22 of the video, during Raphael's introduction of the Insulated Flask, I noticed a lit candle on the fireplace hearth. Can you elaborate more on that, @Admin? Are candles now a thing in this update?

In areas where there is an intricate cave system contained within the zone (especially true of the Hushed River Valley) use spraypainted symbols on the outside of the caves to identify which cave entrances lead to where. So for example, mark one cave entrance with a symbol like Firestarting supplies, and then traverse the cave system. When you come out the other end, spraypaint THAT end of the cave with the same symbol as before.

Are you sure you didn't just forget it? My trek today went from Pleasant Valley to the Airfield, with a stop along the way at the Maintenance Yard in Broken Railroad. I brought along with me a cooking pot and a skillet, which I used to cook some wolf meat at the maintenance yard. The next day I resumed my journey to the Airfield, and this time I stopped in Transfer Pass at the train station. I looked in my pack, and found the cooking pot... but no skillet. For the moment, I assume I just forgot it in Broken Railroad. Time will tell.

I think I found a bug... but I could also just have a bad memory. Context: I left the Pleasant Valley Farmstead early in the morning with a full belly, and among my other travelling staples, carrying a Stalker's Pie and a Ranger Stew in my backpack. Food for the road. I managed to make it to the Mystery Lake Cabin before my calorie store reached 500, giving me a reason to then eat either the Stalker's Pie or the Ranger Stew all in one go. I decided to eat the Stalker's Pie, because I didn't want to take the fatigue hit by eating the Ranger Stew when it was still midday. However, after eating the Stalker's Pie, I noticed not much longer afterward that my backpack contained no more food. The Ranger Stew had completely disappeared. Or... I could just be wildly mistaken and maybe I forgot the Ranger Stew back in the homestead. Time will tell once I get back there. But if anyone else feels like attempting to replicate it, feel free.

Indeed, I have noticed that in the custom settings. But what is not clear to me is whether or not wildlife will eventually start respawning again. By the in-game descriptions of those particular flags, it sounds like wildlife WILL NOT respawn, period. Once they're gone, they're gone. The problem with this is that as you move from one side of the Island to the other, eventually you just run out of food, and death becomes assured, rather than just inevitable. To each their own. Me personally, I like playing my survivor scenarios where there is always something on my "To-do" list that needs to be done. I'm not a fan of waking up day after day doing nothing but passing time, slowly going through my storage of meat or occasionally taking a day to re-stock my potable water supply. I would very much welcome circumstances in-game that force me to re-locate.

Alternatively, could add a mode where, upon entering a new region, you get ONE spawn of wildlife for the entire region. Once the wildlife in the area die, they do not come back, unless you leave and are gone for a minimum period of time? Would be a bit tricky to handle in areas with fish, but I think a system could be worked out.

So tonight I was just playing a regular old survival mode session, and I got to thinking... as lovely as the TFTFT stuff is to do, especially challenging, once it's finished, along with the collection of the Technical Backpack from Ash Canyon and the cargo plane from Timberwolf Mountain, there's really nothing more to do but to settle down in your region of choice and just... exist. If you're smart about how you use your tools and resources, you can stay for months in a single region without ever having to leave. And to me, that gets... well... stagnant. So I was thinking about ways that could force a player to leave a region. Then it hit me... the Darkwalker could. So imagine, you're in a section of Great Bear and you've been there for about 30 days. Then you wake up one day and you notice that the sun hasn't risen as it was expected to. It's dark outside, like it is when you play on the 4DON event. You get a notification on your HUD: "You can't explain why, but you've just got a bad feeling..." The Darkwalker is now actively hunting you. To escape it, you have to leave the region. If the Darkwalker catches you, you die. But, if you manage to make it to a transition zone, the area starts out dark, but the further through the zone you go, the sun starts to become visible again as you escape the Darkwalker's influence. Once you make it to the next region, it's back to daylight as usual. The area you left remains a domain of the Darkwalker for a period of 60 days, but the Darkwalker can come after you again in your new zone -- and conversely, expand its own domain -- if you linger there for too long, too. As an added bonus, when the corrupting influence of the Darkwalker leaves an area after 60 days, it could reveal some notes relative to the Darkwalker's lore, or leave behind some other corruption. Maybe any items you leave behind decay faster. Potable water left behind could become tainted and completely unsafe to drink. Stuff like that.

Broken ribs as revenge for all those times I hit them with rocks...