ThePhoenics

So while gambling on a 4% chance of getting intestinal parasites for the sake of some more delicious wolf calories, I wound up stuck on my travels in a comfy farmhouse, loaded with food and fuel, with a surplus of 5KG of books! I thought it would be a blessing in disguise, as I would have a reason to read through them all while hibernating out the parasites, only to be dismayed to discover that having parasites blocks the ability to read! I understand it would be uncomfortable and unpleasant, but it just kinda feels unfair that mid-to-long term afflictions block researching as severely as an open bleeding wound would lol so PLEASE! let us read our books while suffering from parasites!

Hey all, firstly major thanks for all your interesting and thoughtful responses, and I am so glad I could kindle such great conversation, I love this community ❤️ So I couldn't stay away any longer and began a new save, still on my preferred difficulty of Stalker (I would go interloper but guns add a huge amount of depth to the game for me)! New goals and ambitions, new plans and a better structure of what I plan to prioritize and where I want to go! The Long Dark really is one of those games that is endlessly replayable, just because of that combination of sheer tension, and the thrill of making the right decisions in the worst situations, even to be just rewarded with continued life, it truly rewards patience and tactical thinking. This really struck me, firstly about losing a save like that being treated as a scar for future runs, and I could not possibly agree more! At the heart of it, TLD is a game that is progressed by requiring the player to learn. Easier difficulties, warmer clothes, better tools, hundreds of bullets and a perfect shelter may let you survive, but none of it will be of any value if the player does not learn how to make the strictest best use of all these things. It may be a bit of a tired comparison, but this reminds me of the true beauty of the Dark Souls franchise: they're very difficult games, but not unfair, and can be easily beaten with patience and player learning. That is what really makes this game special. For example, now whenever I get in a risky situation, I will ALWAYS check my wounds before sleeping! Also I should have been much less stingy with emergency hypos lmao. On your other point, you are exactly right in that I didn't /lose/ anything, really all that happened was my story ended before I was ready. The point you make about saves hanging around after a game is no longer played makes me feel true game-library guilt though lol I think for TLD it is a bit different, because this game really is something I truly believe I will always play, it occupies that special place in my library that some people have with Elite Dangerous or Truck sim games, that one game that I will always return to because it is the only one of its kind to give me that kind of relaxing feeling. This gave me chills, not gonna lie What a lovely idea, maybe even just autoapply a stim as long as a player carries one with them at that condition threshold? that would be awesome! I was so depressed after losing my save, but as UpUpAway said: The first few weeks are always the most exciting of the game, when resources are plentiful and skills are low. Can't wait to get those precious firelighting and cooking skills to level 5, I actually clean forgot about tinder and intestinal parasites lmao I still maintain that the game needs SOME kind of additional mechanic for handling the continuation of saves after death, whether it is a toggle on save creation (Ironman mode or savescum mode lol), or simply allowing saving to be enabled in survival as is possible in story mode, obviously only as an option, for those who wish to still use the standard permadeath model (which is absolutely without question the intended way to play the game, and I will acknowledge that optional difficulty modifications like saving or other similar things like this have enormous and broad reaching consequences for both the game and player experience; however that is a discussion for another day). I do agree that this game is completely unique in the way that it does not handhold the player, and that should definitely be preserved, but having an optional mode or toggle during save creation should not take away from that. For reference, since everyone else shared their stories of how they all faded into the long dark, I had just entered Ash canyon not a few days before I perished. I was out exploring cautiously and mapping the area since it was brand new. I was very daring and went directly North East from the anglers den where I had made my base. While out exploring, I was ambushed my a moose from behind a huge boulder, and without thinking I immediately drew my revolver and shot at it out of desperation, since it was so close and I felt REALLY attached to my unbroken ribs. To my absolute shock, one single revolver shot to the brain downed the mighty majestic beast, giving me more meat than could be carried, and a wealth of gut and hide to hoard at my base. I took a moment to admire my kill, dragged the thirty-odd kilos of moose flesh to the nearby cliffside cave and began the most mighty of barbeques to have ever been seen. after about a week solid of sleeping, cooking, skinning, and gathering fuel for my bonfire, I decided to make a break back home to anglers deep with my moosehide to let it cure while I explored the rest of the map, leaving most of the meat there as a food supply cache in case I was caught short while exploring. Marking my cave with a food symbol, I set off for home overburdened with moose. This would be my ultimate downfall, as on my way back to Anglers den, my many kilos of reeking moose meat attracted a vast number of hungry wolves, who could not wait to be fed. I tangled with a couple, shot a couple more, and finally made my way back to my house gutted and bleeding from many wolf bites. because my condition was dropping alarmingly fast, my first thought was to sleep it off and restore my condition before dealing with anything else. Little did I realise, that as I lay down, blood pouring out of me and onto my bed, I was in fact fading into The Long Dark. So I suppose I didn't really lose anything, but more gained a great story, and a few scars to take with me into my next story. Thank you all ❤️

Just lost my 250+ day save. SO disappointed, one simple mistake of hitting sleep when I didn't realise I was bleeding out, as I was haemorrhaging condition after a wolf struggle. I always respected the whole permadeath aspect, but honestly losing so much progress is absolutely heartbreaking, and I feel makes the game worse for it, the save being simply deleted instantly. Sure, it emulates real life and death is a constant risk and caution should be taken in all regards, sure it makes the whole game tense, but does anyone actually enjoy the feeling of having everything they spent literally hundreds of hours of their lives working on erased instantly? Perhaps if you ARE about to die (Like from trying to sleep while bleeding out), give a warning prompt? like sure, disable achievements, call me a cheater and a savescummer, but please just let me continue telling my story, as all video games have done since the very inception of gaming. There is no glory or enjoyability in losing hundreds of hours of effort.

yeah, dropping my axe to break down a bunch of branches sucks. also can we do away with the click to confirm pickup of sticks? collecting fuel as I travel is such a chore having to click twice per each stick.

I tried interloper and I have so much respect for those that can handle it, but the major off putting part for me was that the firearms don't even spawn among other things, I love the super tough survival but I want access to all the tools and skills available, so I play stalker. going for 250 days right now (160/250 so far), then on to 500 next.

Being totally unable to be affected by the condition of food items or being able to eat raw meat with zero consequences just removes all challenge from food management entirely, This, coupled with ruined meat being able to be left out of containers to last forever is just ridiculously effortless when you reach Master level cooking. Easy fix would be to make it so you can never be poisoned or get parasites *FROM FOOD THAT YOU COOK YOURSELF*, and making it so raw meat (especially month old rotten meat) still has some kind of chance to make you sick. Doesn't make sense to be able to live off literal garbage just because you are a good cook, and it makes fires almost obsolete if not for water generation. The whole issue of rotten meat lasting forever if on the floor but vanishing if in containers is a big broken mess of a system that needs revising, though I understand why it works the way it does. Maybe some kind of prepared air-drying for raw meat so I don't feel like I'm eating rotten garbage just by cooking it, or burying food in the snow to keep it preserved?

I've been falling back in love with TLD all over again recently for the Aussie winter (almost reaching single digit temps at night!) there are so many lovely fine details and one thing I was thinking that would make minor but noticable differences (while also being relatively easy to implement) would be having more ways for the needs to work together or against each other! Only in very minor ways to not disturb the feeling of the game as it is, but it would add a neat little extra bit of immersion and make some needs feel a bit less like just keeping a timer filled up imho The examples I have been thinking of go something like this: If you have a full stomach (say somewhere between 2000-2200 and 2500 calories) and are therefore digesting food, your fatigue should drop a little faster, but also recover a little faster with sleep, while also slightly increasing thirst rate. If you have an empty stomach (with therefore very little energy in your body), temperature and fatigue both drain a little faster. Fully hydrated? Hunger drains a little slower, due to feeling fuller. Inverse should also be true for dehydration and freezing cold. nice and warm? all needs drain very slightly slower. (I would also suggest overheating to cause water to drop faster but being too warm as a problem doesn't exist in the game) utterly exhausted? hunger and water drain a little faster. I feel like these changes would not only make the game more immersive, but also give clear incentives to keep the needs full, and encourage sustainable and normal human behaviors like drinking water with food, eating regular meals especially before sleeping, etc. Thanks for reading!

bahahah that's fair, where else can you get away with doing that but in TLD lol I must confess I stopped doing it after recently getting way back into the game after a break, no punishment so I won't bother being pedantic about safety XD

a few interesting ideas, but you can already sleep in cars even without a bedroll.

It took me way longer than I am willing to admit to realise that you could take water from the cistern on a toilet instead of the bowl, but either way it should absolutely be nonpotable. if balance is needed to make sure houses always have potable water, a couple bottles around will solve that and not make it seem like everyone in Canada flushes their toilets with spring water XD

1. yeah for sure, but then there really is very little difference betwen scarves and the single other warmth accessory 2. really necessary change, sleeping on the floor needs to be implemented even if its inefficient, uncomfortable, cold and unpleasant, but needs to happen. Perhaps giving a 12-24 hour debuff or being extremely inefficient, making bedrolls still valuable. dying of exhaustion while warm, full of food and fully hydrated and in shelter like a cave should NOT ever be allowed to happen. standard response though is you should always have foreplanning and bring a bedroll, and you died from risky behaviour... 3. OMG YES i cant express how accurate that feeling is lmao 4.absolutely for the sake of interactions, and id take it a step further and allow things like burning of clothes or cloth or food in extreme situations, it all falls in line with the whole ideology of the game which is do you rip up your lovely warm coat to make bandages to stop the bleeding? sacrificing one thing in a hard circumstance is always cool. 5. nice idea, but doesnt feel like it would fit thematically and would be a kinda pointless thing when a torch does the same job more realistically and renewably. 6. seen this idea around, i feel like the mapping is fine the way it is and pencils would make it too trivial and not as much of a definite decision. 7. doubt it will ever happen but a nice idea. 8. omg yes again, makes insanely more sense to drag a carcass to shelter to carve it up than carve it exactly where the animal dies. doubt it will happen when there is quartering but the carrying mechanics are partially implemented in story mode at least, shouldnt be too hard to port to animals and survival

+1 reskins are a super easy way to add much more flavour to the world without much more effort, just like the sodas.

even just 1 minute longer of a fire, which is accurate for what youre burning, would make tinder valuable beyond level 3.

4 cups of coffee from one 'serve' of dry coffee would make some DAMN weak coffee. Also can i just rant about how cooked coffee doesnt degrade BUT DRIED COFFEE DOES?

Yeah Ive been using storage as a shelter marker too. I use searched for shelters with minimal supplies, storage for a normal safe shelter with emergency food, water, fire and bed, and materials to denote a major storage cache, like the camp office or Quonset.