Gun Tech.

3 minutes ago, Dr. S. said:

I don't understand this argument. As you point out, the bow is too slow to draw against surprise wolves. So this change is irrelevant to the deadliness of wolf ambushes. This change only affects non-ambush wolf encounters, and there are still plenty of ways to deal with those.

 

The argument is in my comment: flare shells eventually run out. This leaves only the bow. The cautious and experienced player will keep a distance to snow drifts, while having the bow out. Now, he has to be warm to not miss such a wolf, from the pure RNG change. You can't be warm all the time, especially late game when the best clothing still gives -82C Feels Like temps. And hence, you can't always be >80% health -- at least not if you want any kind of freedom of movement late game. Hence, death is no longer evitable and hence, this is no longer a Survival game.

Now, this is not the only reason to dislike the change entirely, or think it would be cooler if it was made opt-IN. But it's the best reason, and about the worst change to increase difficulty. I've just posted a better alternative in the Wishlist forum.

It's very simple to implement:

1. Increase the number of wolf/wildlife spots per region, while heeding the same RNG settings for them.
2. Increase the number of Loot Tables, while heeding the same RNG settings for loot chance.

And it will make the survival experience much richer:

#1 will make the player play cautiously and observe wildlife, instead of as now, memorizing the spots and learning the routes to check for them safely or bypass them completely.

#2 iff increased from 4 to at least 16 or 32, will make players less sure of their fate (awesome and the reason why I don't play by them) and will prevent taking the minimum risk route from 2 items found to get all the loot (Hammer, Hacksaw, Bedroll...) super early.

In addition, it would make each run feel like a unique adventure, and that would be a great ❤️ attraction for players who have put hundreds or even thousands of hours into the game. 

On 12/14/2020 at 12:28 AM, Admin said:

Moved to Wishlist subforum. 

I want to object to this and clarify that my post is not a wish: This was recently forced on all players, including ardent fans and long-time players by you for an event that was 100% unrelated to survival. Survival is what this game is famous for and has going for it, and you rely on the core game mechanics for Story, Sandbox, and Challenges.

Now, if death is not evitable, a game is not a Survival game. This is a wisdom I've arrived at, mastering many games in the genre, most of them inferior to TLD. It seems your game designer(s) did not foresee what the recent change would do to survival. I suggest he or they read my post as eloquent critique.

It's especially egregious to skilled players who manage long runs on the hardest difficulty to have a recent change leave the only run-ender - a wolf behind a snow drift - up to pure RNG: 

• You made it so the only weapons available to us are the bow and the flare gun.
• You made it so drawing the bow aggroes nearby wolves.
• You made it so that the bow is too slow to draw to use against surprise wolves.
• This leaves the flare gun. You made it so that there's only 12 flare shells available in the world, and during the course of hundreds of days these will finally all be spent.

From this, the only recourse to evade death is stopping to warm up a tea every 500m when traveling, limiting the already limited gameplay. This is what your design change will cause. I have the vision to foresee that, and the data to support it.

With the core game mechanic change forced on all current players long after 1.0, I can only hope you take it to heart, remove it, and instead put the silly aim shivering on the wish-list for the community to feedback on before adding. As mentioned, it could be a Custom Mode option and then be opt-IN for those who wish it without affecting current playthroughs.

THIS is my wish for The Long Dark.

Challenge: "On Interloper difficulty, spawn in Ash Canyon and live there for 50 days, then exit and sleep warm for 1h without taking health damage."

I'm glad I completed it, but it got repetitive after I had harvested all the resources in the region. This is the end where I'm prepping to exit.

Previous episodes and the other two Interloper challenges I completed in Ash Canyon are available for a few days more on my Twitch.

What the game designers didn't take into consideration is that when hunting, late game with best crafted clothing will still only take you 200m without a tea, 400m with a tea. It will force a boring or repetitive or non-hunting playstyle. Limited gameplay.

Much more importantly, anytime during travel, wind can start and blow out your torch or fire and end your run to a wolf - from forcing this exact RNG aim on players. This means you could have played as skillfully as possible, done everything right, and still suddenly die to this newly added instakill RNG. That's not making it harder, that's making it random.

Thanks guys. I just want this game to be the best it can be, and I worry that this strange addition for the Halloween event will turn players off. I was expecting it to be gone in the otherwise awesome ❤️ Survival update. That's why I predict the cons the game designers didn't.

I just don't think this late addition to the game will attract a single new player if they knew it was in the game now.

Again, I'm looking for support to make this opt-IN. Make your voice heard.

Pros: None.

Cons: 

1. Looks misguided.
2. We already have sway.
3. It was fine for 6 years, and now we get this. It must therefore be a big design mistake that it's added now.
4. Nullifies the current weapons skill system. Be the most accurate shootist and read as many books as you want, if you're cold you will miss.
5. Makes it impossible for skilled bow players to hit anywhere near the animal for long shots, forcing them to spam arrows instead. Sad to watch.
6. Forces a more limited play style, instead of what I love in Survival games: progressing to different play styles depending on which needs for the character are overcome.
7. Craft all the warm clothing you want, it's worth nothing because you have to stop every 500 yards to warm up your teas.
8. Leaves a long run, when weather is cold and teas run out, up to pure RNG whether a wolf ends the run or not. Some of us never ever scumsave and take pride in long runs. This is no longer possible. We have to crouch and throw stones like we did on day 1 when we had no weapons.

I'm not going to bring up the argument that it's unrealistic (since there's a thing called tension and Inuits have hunted for thousands of years without a single warm day). This one in particular might tell everyone more than ever that this is just a game, instead of immersing them, but there are many unrealistic elements to this game.

And I'm not forcing anyone to play without it, like the game designer(s) are forcing everyone to play with it.

I ask instead that this is made a Custom Option for those players who want to turn it on after 6 years of playing.

Great work! Please make silly-looking shiver-aim opt-in for those who want RNG-based aim (or a not silly-looking game).

The green campfires that have the Pages and a Spray Can by them also have high grade loot. You also get a random cooked coffee or not, and a few extra "normal" items which might vary. But the high-grade items are guaranteed. I've marked a few items in green that may make your run safer or better.

ML: Rifle+ammo, blue flare, MRE, Combat Pants.
CH: Mukluks, Mitts, Energy Bar, Tin of Coffee, Lantern Fuel, 2 blue flares.
DP: Knife, Balaclava, Cowl, Go Juice, Lantern Fuel, red flare.
PV: Accelerant, 2 rifle cartridges, Revolver+ammo, Mackinaw, Syrup, Rabbit hat, Flare Shell.
TWM: Stim, Antiseptic, Antibiotics, Sewing Kit, MRE, Painkillers, Flare Gun+7 shells.
FM: Pot, Bearskin Bedroll, Climbing Socks, Accelerant, Crackers, red flare.
BR: Food, Go Juice, Revolver, 2 rifle cartridges, 4 Flare shells.
MT: Lantern, Firestriker, Accelerant, Syrup, Fisherman's Sweater.
HRV: Syrup, Revolver+ammo, Stim, Water, Earwrap.
BI: Satchel, Wool Longjohns, Go Juice, 2 Condensed Milk, Can opener.

I also think ~10h possible Kranium!

During my first EtDW game, my position (the arrow) would not show on the map. I completed the event without it, but I'm mentioning it because it was not on the list of fixes. For me, the fog counter showed 0 minutes briefly entering interiors. Also, when a Lure was about to expire and you went indoors, upon exiting it would be reset to 100% if the monster didn't reach it in time.

DarkWalker playing tips by Gun Tech.

(Twitter: @realGunTech)

1. Where do I start?

Because the information before release was different to the release and you can go back (if the fog timer hasn't run out), this changes everything so that you can take any route that includes all the green campfire Pages, and the same is true if you want to maximize hours survived at the end. If the green campfire loot is fixed per region in any run, the best start region is BI, see below.

[MAP!] Use the map to find your position and the position of the green campfire, the Fog % left, and to not get lost in Fog. (See also 7)

2. Regions

Big regions are easy, small regions and transition regions are harder, and transition mines are extremely dangerous. It's not always possible, but if you have Fog time left over and you're not returning, consider going away from the exit (straight out from the exit) at least 200m and place an extra Lure before going into small regions and transition mines. Do not sleep immediately before a transition mine, unless you don't hear the foot stomps at all.

Do not climb a rope or go into a transition mine, if the DarkWalker is at your heels. This will end your run unless you are very skillful, fast, and calm.

The 3 worst places are Ravine (if you have to attach the rope and climb down), DP exit mine, and HRV exit mine. You can create a good distance to the DarkWalker in ML, before going through the Dam(!)

[MINES!] some transition mines are part of the region you're leaving, meaning the Fog Timer is still counting down. Two nasty ones are BI -> FM and MT -> ML.

3. Gear

The Satchel and Bearskin Bedroll will give you many advantages: No need to keep Well-Fed, so no need to find and carry lots of food; a great speed boost; no need for great clothing to sleep anywhere on the ground without a fire.

This leaves you free to pick up a wolf struggle tool and a Revolver or Flare Gun, and cook up all the coffee you can carry as soon as you can, and not much more. Stims and Go Juice are obviously helpful.

6-8 bandages, 1 Disinfectant, and 1 Antibiotics should always be carried for sprains, the more aggressive wolves, and a (rare) chance of food poisoning.

You will not need much firewood and tinder, since you want to avoid stopping and making fires at all cost. Do pick up all the Accelerant and Flares you find - a Jerry Can should be used for this, there's no need to carry the Storm Lantern, although you can pick up the first one you find and use it up and toss it.

4. Route

It's good to deal with the 3 worst places (above) as early as you can, while you're still able to keep the DarkWalker away. An HRV or DP start is therefore quite OK. But because you can now go back (see 1), you can get all the end regions without much trouble. DP and HRV can be tricky late game, but TWM and BR are fine. You can finish in an end region or not; it's up to you.

[ROPES!] Avoiding as many rope climbs as possible in your route will help you greatly. Almost all down-ropes can be billy-goated past, and this will help you greatly. The DarkWalker will quickly catch up with you when you climb a rope, and if you get Fear you will die before you are down in most cases. If this happens, you can place a Ward Glyph on a ledge, pass a short amount of time to recharge your handgrip, and climb down, then immediately run to increase your distance.

I got the 10 pages in 4h6m from an HRV start, but if I would do it again I would start in BI because of gear (see 2).

5. Route suggestion

BI -> FM -> BR -> FM -> MT -> HRV -> MT -> ML -> WR -> PV -> TWM -> PV -> CH -> DP 

This gets you great starting gear, few if any Timberwolf packs while not being chased by the DarkWalker, all regions, transition regions, and transition mines available, avoids attaching the rope in the Ravine, lets you deal with HRV early, and avoids going twice through the DP transition mine.

6. The DarkWalker ("it")

After its arrival, when you enter a region it can spawn semi-randomly and quite close to you, even if you created some space between it and you before exiting the previous. If not, you can place a Lure immediately upon entering and sleep. Sleeping and passing time more than 1h will spend the Lure, but you will be woken up if it is near, allowing you to place a Ward, a Lure, and leave.

You can place Lures when you are completely ready to leave a spot. After a few regions, you may find yourself placing Lures like breadcrumbs where you go. This will still slow it down, but only very few seconds. If you can, try to sidetrack the creature upon entering the region, leading it away from the route you want to take and then go around it to there. You might get close, but he will continue going to the Lure, buying you a lot more time and distance. You can hear it destroy the Lure, making it give away its position. You can then immediately cook all coffees you have, or make water and sleep.

7. Glitches

• Lures can expire and then be 100% again, making the DarkWalker seemingly teleport. It can teleport to close to the exit. You can then sleep 2h to expire the glitched Lure, place a Lure a bit away from the exit, and bypass it.
• Fog timer can temporarily turn to 0 when you click a door, but it will be restored when outdoors again. This is not detrimental.
• Sometimes, the Fog % is not displayed on the map. This can be detrimental if you have to go back through the current region.
• If it's your first run, your position might not be marked on the map. Consider starting a short test run and make your second run the proper one, so you can see your position.
• The Ward time meter will end prematurely, when there's more than 1/10 left on it. Avoid time-passing actions during Ward altogether. Cooking 2 cups of coffee is OK.
• The DarkWalker sometimes spawns in at the exit of the region in front of you, even though you left it behind in the previous. Especially WR is problematic, since it's a small, narrow corridor. This is detrimental. If the behavior is bound to regions, you can work around this glitch by doing the opposite of what is recommended - hanging out right outside the entrance to the region and Lure it there, giving you a greater chance of bypassing it.

I hope this helps someone. Cheers! //Gun Tech.

So now I can play with the DarkWalker, GTFOmonstah, NerfHerder as much as I want

Playthrough if you want to see 
https://youtu.be/GfT0VDgTEC0

4 hours ago, Admin said:

We've had a couple of people flag this post, and to be clear this is not "leaked" information. We provided some streamers early access to the event and they were streaming yesterday (and today), and @Gun Tech. created a video based on their streams with details about the event. If you're wanting to come to the event without knowing anything then please avoid these streams. 

If you want to find out about the event before it's launch later today (6 PM PDT) then feel free to watch them. Many of them have been linked to from our Twitter account: https://twitter.com/HinterlandGames

I will be streaming the DarkWalker event as soon as it comes out for everyone on my Twitch channel (guntech1).

8 hours ago, Mistral said:

I don't think I'm gonna open that link, just in case!

I'm hyped for the release and can understand why no spoilers before the release. The preview (not early access) to a privileged few violated that, and so I out-scooped'em.

It has spoilers in caps in the title, so hopefully those who don't want the spoilers would not click my video, or watch the preview streamers.

At the time, info was limited, I've been adding to it and corrected it over the day in my pinned video comment.

I streamed my DarkWalker spoilers info video 12.5h ago - if you want the scoop, you can get it here. (Also check the pinned video comment for a few pieces of info added since.)

4 hours ago, UTC-10 said:

There have been some youtubers who got courtesy early access to Dark Walker. 

They didn't publish their scoop before I did, though!

Never mind my complaints, I've posted the leaked information on the major platforms. Don't watch it if you want to avoid spoilers.

Never mind my complaints, I've posted the leaked information on the major platforms. Don't watch it if you want to avoid spoilers.

...And the event went live 1h ago. For a few of us.

14 minutes ago, Karl Grylls said:

it lasts two weeks, i don't think this is necessary

I'm sure you meant to say, it's not necessary for YOU. 

I'm a long-time streamer of The Long Dark with ~ 1000 hours streamed, and I claim that this entitles me to a level playing field.

Tomorrow - depending on timezone. 

I have two questions to Hinterland:

1. When tomorrow? I've heard 6PM US, which would be 2AM European time and even later in Asia... can it start at a time of day when most people are awake?
2. I have a Tweet saying a very few selected streamers get early access and can play the event today, in about 2 hours from the timestamp of this post. Is this true, and if so how do you defend this decision in view of smaller streamers putting more time into your game than big streamers?

Is the event really going to drop at 2AM European time...? Seems like it could be pushed forward quite a bit and still accommodate players in US, EU, and AU...

The event will be completely opposite to how I play - instead of looting and crafting as much as you can each day, you have to skip loot and stop to craft as little as possible.

So I've trained myself to skip loot and 'play sloppy' to save IRL time the last few days and tried 14 routes on a timer and as if played at night. Of these, 4 succeeded and I can share that MT, CH, FM, and BI are regions where you will have it all to do to cross them in time. If you save these regions for last (or find a shorter route through them), you will get more IRL time.

I recommend these 4 optimal routes then, in order of regions (and transition zones/mines) hit:

1. DP, CH, BI, FM, MT, ML, PV, TWM summit. (Tough-ish start but most regions.)
2. HRV, MT, ML, PV, CH, BI, FM, BR. (Only route that makes MT easier.)
3. BR, FM, MT, ML, PV, CH, DP/BI. (Easy start with Revolver, ammo, and spray paint.)
4. TWM, PV, CH, BI, FM, MT, ML, Ravine/WR. (Summit is quite tough but possible and clothes set you up for the rest.)

That said, I don't think the event will be more challenging than a typical 16-day Voyager/Stalker run, just more repetitive if you play the game as intended (thoughtfully, not rushed).

The 1' jump I'm talking about will not cause any map editing, while the ice floes I mentioned have already caused map editing because of refusing a small jump.

Lifting your leg (which, same as jumping) is possible when wearing a backpack IRL to get over small obstacles is an alternative solution, but a jump bind is normal. A 'lift your leg 5" off the ground' bind is weird. Automatic would be fine, especially for ice floes, planks, and the like.

I also think it's good that it's being discussed. It's being discussed because TLD is the only game without a jump bind.

The trick is not to convince players that it would solve problems though, the trick is to convince the devs. Hence the title. They have to like it enough to put it in. Maybe someone will come up with an alternative idea to mine that will make it into the game and then more 'umm... that's just stupid. sigh.' moments will be removed from the walking part of this awesome survival sim.