upnorth

Something that would be really cool in terms of pacing. If you didn't constantly over-pack your backpack, you should get a walking/sprinting speed bonus similar to well fed that makes you move around faster. That would make more sense, almost every TLD video I've seen people are constantly over-packed. If packing normally was rewarded like this it would be a way to make the pacing a little more realistic, at least for me. But it's a pretty interesting idea either way. Perhaps lower the risk of injuries as well from not over-exerting yourself?

I might just sleep 12h straight every day if it was as simple to fall asleep and stay asleep as it is in the game 😅 Joking aside, I guess I just don't like to actively light up my surroundings with a fire or something. Modern day life (with electricity) does seem to extend "daylight" hours for me in that sense, so I strongly associate the game getting darker with the productive day being over.

Now you are just making me feel bad for how much I procrastinate after daylight hours IRL 🙈

Good point. I never bother to light a fire simply to get light, only too cook or boil water. But mostly because I find it frustrating to navigate the game in general without daylight. Dusk is usually fairly bright but the game getting dark usually feels like times up to get stuff done.

I'm sometimes a bit surprised that you have to sleep for 11-12 hours for it to be sunlight again. Then I remember that it's "Canada the simulation" and in the winter the days are indeed shorter in the northern hemisphere. But also, I do find that I don't have too much time to do things in a given day. If I spend it all on repairing clothing, it sort of feels more realistic as that's kind of time consuming IRL as well. But if I simply try to cover distance, it does seem like the hours pass pretty fast. What are the ideas behind these things in the game design, is it supposed to feel like 12h day / 12h night, and that every day should be relatively limited in terms of time for activities?

(Tales From The Far Territories) Attempted to find the cabin overlooking the area but ended up circling the lake and couldn't find a place to sleep to keep warm enough, so I ended up trekking through the night and making emergency fires. Finally found a road up the mountains, figured it would be a very long road and that I would have to suffer hypothermia either way, but about half way to getting it after a VERY slow walk up the road I finally noticed a spiky silhouette against the morning sky. This greeted a weary explorer before he went inside for some much needed shut-eye.

They cooperated to unload the important supplies for the night and morning after from the truck. They didn't have bedrolls to go around so they had to improvise with the extra clothing they had packed to create makeshift beds. But considering the circumstances no one complained. Erik took a few minutes to check the state of the truck after a rather eventful day, but beside a bullet-hole in the windshield that he should be able to patch, it seemed to be in good shape. The bullet had hit the roof and disappeared somewhere in the back. - So Frank has a pretty bad leg wound and our medical doctor is half dead too. Amy noted sarcastically but with an undertone of seriousness to Christine while they picked things from the back of the truck. - Yeah, it's not a great situation, but we'll have to assess the situation tomorrow when they have had some rest. Christine commented. Christine noticed that Amy seemed nervous and distracted from the task at hand. - Everything ok? Christine tried. - Eh.. yeah, I just... Amy was a little startled by the question. Christine waited patiently for Amy to collect her thoughts. - So I know Frank because he is a colleague of my boyfriend, the one I tried to call from your house. And I'm afraid to ask Frank about him after everything that has happened the last few days. Amy continued. - Oh, I see. I can understand how... Christine went silent as one of the others was joining them for a new load. She waited until were alone again. - I can understand how that could be intimidating. She finished. Amy didn't reply. Her anxiety was winning over her sense of humor at the moment. She decided to focus on work to get her mind off of it and started to walk towards the cabin with all the conserved food she could carry. With everything else on her mind she never noticed the sting in her skin from the bullet gracing her shoulder which was now subsiding as her body was trying to heal it. It would probably leave a scar though.

( continued from page 8 ) Christine smiled as she watched the most precious thing in her life still being alive and well despite everything, playing with her new fluffy friend and enjoying the warmth of a roaring fire. - Yeah, she is. Her name is Emma. Christine replied. Her life since their childhood suddenly rushed through her mind. Talking about her late husband and their child with an old and unfortunately until now forgotten friend was a lot to process. - Looks just like her mommy. Alex replied with a smirk. - Thank you. Listen, there's something I need to tell you... We lost Peter in an accident a few years ago. Christine looked down while catching her breath. She hadn't really talked to anyone about it until now. Alex closed his eyes for a moment. Although it had been painful to lose Christine to him they used to be good friends. - I'm very sorry to hear that... what happened? He finally asked. - Work related accident. Well, we got the usual "He died while serving his country" stuff, but it's not like there has ever been an open war on Great Bear or anything, he was a radio operator so most likely a fall accident. Christine replied. - The town is run over by wild animals and looters so we are actually heading for the base, that's why we showed up here now. She continued. They were quiet for a few moments, listening to the rest having somber conversations and the sound of the fire. - I actually did notice that, I did a supply run to town recently to find medicine for Frank. Alex replied. - Really!? Then it must have been you I saw running around the corner of the pharmacist. Christine noted. - Yeah, I'll be damned, I saw something moving further into town but I didn't want to take any risks running into unsavory folk. Alex laughed a little, soon regretting it due to the pain it caused. - Do you have a family of your own? Christine suddenly inquired. - Oh, no, never got around to that. Too busy studying and then working I suppose. Work at Black Rock is pretty intense too, unpredictable. I love the job, but it's perhaps not most suited to raising a family around. Alex noted. - Come to think of it, I'm only here because something really odd happened which broke the security systems. I managed to escape through the mountains but I think a couple of inmates followed me. I know my way around the island a lot better of course, so I think I managed to shake them eventually, but we should keep an eye out. Alex continued. - Oh yeah, something happened in town too a few days ago. During an aurora electronics started to act odd and suddenly wild animals started to act much more aggressively. Well, I suppose you are painfully aware of that already. Christine replied with a smirk. They were suddenly interrupted by Erik. - Sorry to interrupt the reunion here, but I've patched you up as well as can. You seem to have lost a lot of blood but I think I've managed to stop the bleeding for now. I'm hoping you will be able to give us a more professional assessment after you get some rest, but I think you will be alright for the night at least. Erik noted. - Thank you so much! I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name? Alex replied. - It's Erik, nice to meet you, despite the circumstances. Good to have a medic around I guess. Erik answered with a smile. - Thanks again Erik, I'm Alexander, you can call me Alex. I think I'm gonna get some sleep now, it's been a long day. Alex replied. Meanwhile, Emma had finished her bar and walked up to one of the windows in the cabin. - Look at the sky Amy! She shouted excitedly. Everyone suddenly froze. Amy quickly moved to see if there was a new Aurora. She couldn't see anything. - The stars are so pretty! Emma noted again. Everyone smiled and relaxed again, it had been quite a stressful few days, the perspective of a child was a nice change of pace. - They are very pretty. If you see a star falling through the sky you get to make a wish. Amy told Emma. That made Emma look in awe at Amy and stay at the window looking intensely at the sky for the following 30 minutes while the rest started to prepare the cabin for 6 people and a dog.

That's just how top-rope climbing works. You secure yourself in one end and your buddy holds you with the other in case you fall. I suspect they just wanted it too look more realistic and less silly? The alternative is only before you had the chance to anchor the rope at the top, where you simply secure yourself as you go but risk falling a few meters if you slip before setting the next one. Although I will admit it might look like a bug if you aren't familiar with climbing

December 20th means another year of fan fiction writing and reading completed! 🎉🎉☺️ Notable this year are 2 new writers and the first spin-off story. Check out "Collaborative fan fiction - a parallel story " What started as an experiment in improvised collaborative writing has turned into a fun journey to explore the world of The Long Dark beyond gameplay, while respecting the game lore for maximum immersion. Behind the scenes we are now a little bit more organized and plan ahead for some things while still improvising the rest as we come up with interesting ideas. As previously mentioned we do have an ending of sorts in mind as well, but we are in no hurry to get there. If you are interested in participating but not sure about how, the parallel story might be easier to get started with as it's less established, but otherwise feel free to contact me with a DM. Finally, thank you to everyone who are following the story and contributing to it! Going forward both the release of Tales From The Far Territories as well as the upcoming final episode of Wintermute should give us even more inspiration for cool art and stories 🎆❄️🔥

Christine froze for a moment, before putting down the glass of water on the bedside table and turning back to her patient. - My name is Christine, yes. Do I know you? she replied. - I think we grew up together on Great Bear a lifetime ago actually. I guess my face is a little messed up at the moment, but I'm Alexander. I think we dated briefly when we were very young? Alexander tried. Alexander gave a sheepish smile as he felt his face turn to a different shade, but he didn't realize that the light from the fire was flickering too much for Christine to notice his embarrassment. In about half a second it clicked for Christine. Alex, her and her late husband used to hang around all the time as kids. They had dated for a couple of years. She then fell in love with her late husband instead and they started hanging out less as it became hard for him and Alex to be around each other. She felt a little ashamed for not having thought of their old friend for so long. - Oh my God! Alex!? It's been ages! What have you been up to all these years? Christine replied. - Oh... yeah. So I left Great Bear to go to medical school and stayed away to work for some years, but I came back to work at Black Rock when an old professor referred me. I'm specialized in trauma care. I suppose I simply missed Great Bear as well. What have you been up to, is that your kid by the fire? Alex glanced at Emma. Her and Mocha were preoccupied with a snack bar and some dog food that Erik had fetched and didn't notice the grown ups looking at them.

Aside from the technical issues with the Steam download (which simply should not happen) I think you sort of bit off more than you could chew at one time and made it hard to communicate well partly for that reason. One thing I noted myself is that people simply doesn't seem to get the updates posted in the forums or on social media, I think you need in-game communication. Like notices and stuff. That should reach anyone starting the game no matter their platform. Otherwise the lack of a more detailed roadmap for when to expect different parts of the DLC made even me a little confused, and the lack of more than 1 deadline for the first release probably caused a lot of players to think that everything would be released now (and for all platforms). Even if it would have been temporary deadlines, it would have been something clear to refer to for people asking etc. But yeah, impossible to get these things 100% right, especially when it's so complex in nature. I feel like most of the players are just happy to finally have something new to play with

Can you elaborate on this, have a bunch of stuff been discussed by players without comments from Hinterland?

Yup, already used it a couple of times. But it's not easy to find that site from the game directly unless I completely missed it. Also dont like to fill out information every time they should be able to get from Steam like my name and e-mail.

Not sure how many ways you can find the tech support pages, but I think it should be integrated in the game somehow too, at least on PC/Mac platforms (in case you only do a link to open in a browser). Both for when something goes wrong so that we can add a comment to the technical report, but also for when account based stuff like access to Wintermute breaks or seem to not work. A lot of people seem to report bugs in social media instead which has got to slow down issue tracking A LOT for customer support and the devs? If it was more integrated it would feel more organized and properly managed as well. Not sure if it's a common thing in games, but it should be.

Submit a support ticket, they have been really fast at replying after the launch

Fixed for me know. Wintermute loads as a separate game from the home "menu"

Yeah, it honestly feels like they had to rush it and didn't have time to properly test the Steam update in-house. Unfortunately not an uncommon clash between marketing and development if that's the case, unless they did and someone threw in a last-minute fix after without testing that properly as well? 😕

- Relax Frank, lets get inside, we just fought off a pack of wolves. Amy said as she walked up to her old acquaintance. Frank winced as he tried to use his bad leg. - Oh, you're wounded? Here, I'll help you. Amy offered her hand and supported him as the party slowly got inside. - So you met the doc? Frank asked. - Yeah, we actually managed to rescue him from the wolves, he was in pretty bad shape when we arrived but he seems to be alive at least. We followed his footprints to this cabin, luckily it isn't snowing. Amy replied. - In bad shape huh? Ironic, he rescued me when the helicopter crashed. He's been caring for me even if it sounds like I'm a hopeless case... How bad is he? Frank continued. - We don't know, we just tried to stop the worst of the bleeding. But if he is a medical doctor as you say he might be able to tell us himself. We brought everything we could scrape together on our truck so hopefully we have enough to treat both of you. Amy answered as she glanced over to the bed that Erik and Christine had put down the doc on and started to look him over more closely. At the bed, Erik and Christine were cooperating to quickly diagnose and mend what they could immediately see. - Hey, you are in pretty bad shape but I think you will live. You put on quite a fight out there. I've got some painkillers and water for you so that you can get some rest. Christine told the wounded doc as she leaned over to get closer. - Man, I thought I was lost, those were some eager wolves and I left the gun here with my patient. The doc replied. He took the pills with a sip of water. Gazing around the room he noticed his patient now in a chair with the girl apparently called Amy. A little girl and a dog were sitting by the fire watching everything. A strong looking man was cleaning and dressing his wounds. Finally he looked up to take a closer look at the women beside him, she looked familiar! - Christine... is that you?

Part of the charm of TLD is the simple graphics, your imagination does the heavy lifting. But having the option to play the game in more detail would be pretty cool I think. Either on a console that could support it or on a PC/MAC with sufficient hardware. Not sure if a dedicated texture pack would be the way to go, or adding support for modding and let the community add things at will, like for Skyrim.

Spike didn't take any chances, having nothing to defend himself with. He turned around and started to sprint back towards safety. "Hey, back already, why are you so winded?" Dave asked as Spike quickly got in and shut the door behind him. "There's!... there's!... there's a wolf out there! I thought it was Rusty so I didn't get away immediately. Damn thing almost managed to attack me!" Spike finally managed to get out while starting to recover from his winded condition. "Ok, are you sure? I mean there probably are wolves around here but I've never heard of one running around near people" Dave replied with some skepticism. "Yes I'm sure! The size difference alone makes them stand out!" Spike replied annoyed. "Ok. Well, I think we might have an handgun around here somewhere. We'll wait for a bit and see if it leaves, but we're gonna have to get that generator going eventually..." Dave replied now slightly more concerned.

- The footprints seem to end at that cabin. Christine told the rest as the headlights descended on the area. - Are the wolves following us? Erik asked. - No, I think they left when we got him in the truck. Emma replied. - Ok! Good job keeping track of them! Erik replied. - .... thank ...you". The unknown man suddenly whispered in a couple of labored breaths. - He really fought for his life huh... without knowing we would magically appear to help out. Amy commented, feeling unexpected admiration.

Inside one of the nearby cabins, the gunfire and yells had woken up a very tired and sick man, but without him realizing why. It just seemed like the aftermath of more bad dreams since the crash. His hunger wasn't too bad, but he was starting to get perched. He looked around and couldn't find any water in the cabin, but the fire was still roaring, so he figured he would have to melt some snow. He couldn't find any cups in his drowsy state either, but brought the jar of food he managed to open earlier. It was painful but possible to limp to the door and open it. The cold air sweeping inside was actually refreshing, at least initially. Things seemed quiet as he tried to bend down to scoop up some snow. - Fuck, that hurts. He muttered as he bent down supporting himself with a hand on one of the steps in to the cabin. It was more quiet again after the attack and they started following the footprints, but the truck started to get into sight of the cabin, and the headlights became visible. - What the hell, is that a truck!? The man looked up after seeing the lights in the corner of his eye. He stood up holding his half-filled jar of snow, and with his heart rate quickly increasing tried to decide whether or not to hide from possible looters or to get their attention and possible help. The doctor was nowhere to be seen...

Seems like most of the world has re-opened now, any plans in Hinterland to follow suit?

Emma was more used to drama and danger after the last week or so, but what had happened in just a couple of minutes was still hard to process. Especially the near dead man laying between Erik and Christine in front of her. She noted that the wolves finally seemed to back off, hopefully they would find another pray and not stalk them further any time soon. Her thoughts were interrupted by Erik assessing the situation. - We need to stop the bleeding, do we have any bandages close by? Erik said in a loud voice to the rest if the truck. - We have plenty of medical supplies but it's all in the back. Here, take my scarf. Amy replied. Erik was impressed with the young lady's ability to improvise in a tense situation, and wrapped the scarf tight around the worst torn up areas. - Where are we going!? Christine asked. - It's not snowing. We should be able to follow his footprints. He must have a camp nearby where we can get him warm. Erik answered quickly, almost out of muscle memory. - Ok. Let me see. Yeah, he seems to have come down this road from the other direction. Come to think of it I think there are cabins up here. Christine replied. - Good. A cabin would be great. His pulse is faint but he is still breathing. Erik answered now a little more relaxed. Emma sat quietly and listened to everything, while still watching out into the dark making sure that they weren't followed.