calranthe

2 hours ago, starlin said:

 

Theres huge blind spot I've noticed throughout the whole conversation......  Why do people even want the Feats in the first place?  This sits at the crux at all the other decisions that surround it.

 

Theres a pretty argument to be made that they exist more or less for the "progression" that wanna feel like things they HAVE contribute to their improvement.  But I've long been of the opposing position that Progression and Perks have effectively muddled the concept of Player skill, to the point that it completely dominates any related conversation about game design. 

And as a quick sidebar, there is clear evidence that the vast majority of players, across nearly all games, have this deeply rooted assumption that rewards should be meaningful and earned. But when put into practice, those players will optimize out the "earning" part of process, and maximize rewards.  Whats kind of mind blowing is that this reward could literally be anything, but its perceived value is derived not from any realistic advantage, but the player being convinced it does.  Which is why cosmetics drive this behavior so much more fervently, because theres little to no quantifiable objective advantage to ground it in the power scale.  I played a lot of Guildwars 2 (aka Fashion wars), and this phenomenon was absolutely fascinating to watch between the chat and forums.  The history of the gear tiers alone is a bountiful case study into the Achievement based mindset.

 

Which brings us back to Feats in LD.  Part of the problem is that they are straight up advantages designed to make aspects of the game easier.  Normally stuff like this in modern RPGs would come at a trade off of some kind, or paired with a flaws table to point balance it out.  This is known as difficulty shifting; and, with enough foresight, can collectively increase or decrease the overall difficulty on a playstyle level.  Thus players see it as vertical progression.  When I first started out, the feats looked very interesting..... but after spending time in the game, and specifically working toward some, I can already understand why players don't understand why its setup this way. 

The mere fact that its cumulative across all play throughs means its serving triple duty to be a thing for the Achievement people who more or less need constant direction for their activities.  Surviving the most optimal way lands up being very risk adverse.  And what the Feats are laying out is a mechanical incentive to take risks, and hopefully die in the process.  And the feats themselves applying specifically at Sandbox start up is how you convince the player that dying in the last playthrough wasn't a write off. 

 

See, the more I thought about it, the more I started to realize Feats actually hurt the game on a small, but fundamental level.  To some extent, the skill leveling does this as well, because of how seasoned players begin to cheese it in order to minimize the "hardship" phase, and get back into their previous survival groove.  If you pay close attention to how the difficulties are tuned, a lot of comes from the sheer performance gap between many skills below lvl 5.  Once level 5 is achieved, the survival as scavenger aspect is largely side lined, and much of that focus shifted to this game's version of industrialization.  Farming Food, Farming resources, Processing and Restoring tools, building infrastructure and optimizing movement around the map.  Once at that level, you're effectively riding on not making a stupid decision.  And Feats essentially get you there faster.  So people feel a compulsion to grind them out, as this has the same conceptual profile of what gamers are convinced "end game" looks like.  IE: Things being easier when they started out hard means "I'm getting stronger" (progression), and those obstacles were just a contrivance created to measure my strength. 

 

The ultimate irony that games get easier further up the progression line, despite being functionally impossible not long ago, is conflated as growth and improvement.  Where as if the game didn't have these artificial barriers, but had difficulty based entirely on player knowledge, mechanical understanding, and practice of execution.... that game is deemed "too easy" or "too hard" based almost entirely player's performance ceiling. THIS is why people talk about the Soul's series they way they do.  Because in those games, Player knowledge and control proficiency directly translates into performance. 

Instead HL went with the skill levels in order to make the game more accessible to more players.  But the down shot of that is it trivializes the purpose of the early game phase to Seasoned player, because each advantage gained as skill levels cross thresholds changes how they play.  Thus early game is considered something of an inconvenience to getting back to your previous state, as the static maps don't create a need to rethink how you go about playing.  And I understand pretty good how that division was supposed to switch the player between scavenger (early game) to hunter (late game).  Which is why I think interloper got added later, and is so drastically different from the other difficulties, because a bunch of players got way too efficient at the standard modes. 

You judge everyone by the way you play, for 400 hours of my playthroughs I haven't touched any setting myself, my friend sets the settings, the challenges and then sends me a code, I never look to see what settings she chose I even avert my eyes when I press confirm so I can't know the top settings and that is how I love to play, is it really that wrong that I it is annoying that my achievements in game only show 2 feats ? when I have fought through challenges most haven't from midnight starts with blizzard and no equipment,  to endless dark all set by someone else so I only discovered what I was facing by playing for over 400 hours. Even though I would love to get the feats and see them as a badge of honor, I can't play the normal versions I find them way too predictable and easy.

I have 5 hours in standard survival but 500+ in custom much harder versions and thus only one feat apart from the darkwalker.

No progress in feats is kind of lame.

I now play only custom survival games which my friend sets up for me, she changes all the settings to challenge me then sends me a code, I put the code in press confirm + random and experience a whole new adventure without knowing what I am facing this time.

I stream all my TLD playthroughs (disabled and multiple mental health issues meaning I can only game if my mind is focused on a stream) so people get to see I never check the settings.

She may have removed pistol, lowered regen, increased cold.

It isn't evil because it is always balanced. in some way or other.

Yes most playthroughs start at midnight with a blizzard and not even a lighter or bedroll but she will usually set the loot to maximum so I get rewards if I make it to a house or cave.

Sometimes she sets it to endless night, first time was hilarious, I battled through a blizzard in coastal highway,  ended up in a house and thought, no light I will just stand here in the doorway and rest till morning but no morning came and I had no light!

Other times she made animals be passive but never told me and I never figured it out because who gets close enough to wolves or bears for them to run away from you!

This last time is the best currently on day 86 I think, I started the playthrough and found some rifle and pistol bullets, I was sooo frikken happy after all she usually removes one or the other I never get both rifles and pistols in my games, so I am thinking to balance this how fcuked am I what did she decide for me to balance this, then I noticed, I hadn't seen a rabbit, come to think of it I hadn't seen or heard a wolf or deer, and she starts laughing in stream on chat knowing I just figured out she removed all animals from fish to moose no animals at all, now that might sound easy mode until you realise most of my playthroughs revolve around sustainable food fishing or hunting. Limited supply of guts and deer hide from carcases found so sustainable clothing of highest tier is problematic, then I say hmm okay looks like its cattails and she shows me the wiki excerpt showing that cattails don't respawn, oh and she added I found out later, world getting colder over time, 0 regen ability  (28 days in I still had damage from that first night) birch bark works but pixels of health at a time and.... cabin fever..

I am bloody well loving it

After 500+ hours in game having her help me like this keeps the game so fresh.

Did my normal afternoon TLD stream I do every afternoon (my go to game for relaxing fun that can turn intense)

I made it to the Bleak Inlet/outlet Tower area, fought off the Timber Wolf group there just about,  set up camp in the tower spent 3-4 days then I wake up and hear Timber Wolves squealing like they are being threatened and I see this glowing green wolf/wolverine chasing the Timber Wolves around and they were scared.

Here is the clip.

Hello all my suggestion

Expand the custom options to allow for something like the Darkwalker as in if the aurora appears at night something could be out there  and begin hunting you, the big difference being it only lasts for that night  you could make it more difficult for yourself by increasing frequency of the aurora and chance of this thing hunting you.