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To use the exact text: In my opinion this doesn't mean the feature will be exclusive to interiors. It reads more like a suggestion as to what you will be doing with this feature. More importantly, I don't see any reason to limit the mechanic to interiors, especially when many player home options (including most Far Territory homes so far) don't use interior loading zones. However I will definitely say I don't think Safehouse Customisation will intentionally serve the purpose of bridging gaps or etc, because that would cause incredibly obvious problems with balance and world navigation. But anyway, yes PLEASE just let us skip the cannery obstacle course with a shortcut you open once you get to the end. It is fun the first time, but just irritating when you're making return trips. I'd also prefer there to be no Mountaineering Rope involved here, but maybe that's just me.

I think maybe a better way to do this would be being able to consume Spray Paint/Charcoal to designate any existing container as a "Cache" and let you keep notes on them like you can Rock Caches. I also enjoy the idea of being able to write custom notes and place them in the environment, that's a harmless feature that I'd be fine with. But IMO a fully automatic checklist of everything you've missed would maybe be too convenient/videogamey. If there's loot left behind I already have numerous tools to track that, like using X spray paint to designate empty spots, or fire spraypaint to indicate all that's left is fuel harvesting. But the ability to use the tracking tools that already exist for Rock Caches on existing containers, and the ability to write custom Notes, would be totally fine and make region-wide inventory cataloguing easier.

IIRC you can actually drop items down cliffs, the drop function from inventory doesn't check if you're dropping your item down a large height. You just have to be extremely precise and make sure you're on a segment of the cliff that has a direct path downward to the floor so it doesn't get caught on a ledge. Anyway, I think I agree with the idea that the problem isn't really goating down, so much as it is using the rope to go down is an artificially punishing process to the point where goating feels like too good of an alternative. The ability to haul inventory items down for a calorie + time cost, and just speeding up + lowering resource consumption for descending climbs, would both help a lot

We're already getting the Travois which is already going to be a "whip this out when you need to carry serious loads" tool, that should already fills the tool role you're feeling in need of.

It's a big thread, so I'm just going to narrow in on chatting about Cabin Fever. I like the idea of replacing it with a positive buff for the inverse conditions, it's a classic game design trick, and I definitely don't like how heavy handed Cabin Fever is at shoving you outside, nor how it encourages strategies to counter it that require meta knowledge on what is and isn't "indoors". But what should the positive buff be? The issue with air temp bonuses, while they are great, they are essentially based on breakpoints. If you're above 0, you're golden, and a higher bonus makes little meaningful difference. It's only if it's below 0 that incremental differences begin to matter, and depending on the situation those increments may also be essentially irrelevant. What I'm trying to say is that, compared to Well Fed, this requires jumping through much more complex hoops for a bonus, that I would say isn't as useful in comparison. Still very good, but situational, and not tempting at all for getting a hibernator to emerge from their hole. Max stamina is also in the same boat. Neat for a sprint or a rope climb, but the bar goes unused much of the time. This idea is a bit radical, but maybe the bonus should be lower calorie consumption from sources that aren't base hunger? By staying outside you're "living healthy" or something, your body is using calories more effectively, you're getting your vitamin D or something. That would compensate for the increased calorie consumption travelling has compared to hibernation, and obviously be a universally desirable bonus. This way, hibernation styles don't feel forced to cheese gaining the buff, if they sleep in all day there's no difference. But if they want to do literally anything else with their time, then they should touch grass. Also, re. the idea of redeeming Cabin Fever, the max fatigue suggestion alongside fun paranoid noises as flavor sounds like it'd work to me. I think maybe also having it having a chance to cause bursts of Insomnia could help make it threatening, as well.

I went back and forth on a swiping joke many, many times, but I wasn't 100% sure about "It's Time To Swipe Right On Tinder" as a title. Maybe one day in the far future, when I march up this hill to die on it again, I'll put more effort into working the joke into my unhinged ranting

Tinder's mechanic is that you need a Tinder item to start a fire, until Fire Starting Level 3. After that point, Tinder is useless. The most useful thing the TLD community uses it for is tactically disposing of it, for navigation. If that wasn't enough, there's also a Feat that lets you start the game with Fire Starting Level 3, so you can immediately begin writing a novel in the snow with Cat Tail Heads, the moment you boot up the game! I think this is a problem, so I'm gonna do a cost-benefit analysis or whatever on some of the options I see here for fixing it. Not all of these are mutually exclusive ideas, but I'll write each idea under the assumption it's the only thing done to make Tinder more useful. 1. Don't do anything I don't subscribe to this idea, but I see it a lot in response to Tinder related complaints, and don't really get it. I guess I just struggle to relate to the thought process. But, to play devil's advocate for this, the game has been fine like this for years. If it ain't broke, maybe just don't fix it? And it's not like there are zero silver linings in Tinder being useless. It means players can 100% ditch Tinder in weight management once they hit Firestarting 3. That's a little less relevant now that Well Fed/Moose Hide Satchel/Technical Backpack exist, but it's still a relief, to an extent. And, it's not like Hinterland are about to increase carry weight EVEN MORE, right? And having a plentiful resource to drop to use for navigation is also nice, even if it's less relevant now that Charcoal/Spray Paint/Rocks all exist. I'm sure Hinterland won't be adding even more options for placing decorative features that might be repurposable as navigation aids anytime soon. And really, useless items that you just throw away doesn't actively do any harm to the game's balance, it's just a little annoying. Unless Hinterland did something crazy, like add a merchant to the game or something, that may mean every item in the game might get a value assigned to it allowing you to trade them for other items, suddenly making the existence of useless items only good for selling quite important to consider for the game's design, but that's an absurd hypothetical that will never happen. You know what? The devil's convinced me. You can just ignore the rest of this post, it's pretty clear that the ongoing development of The Long Dark has absolutely no relation to Tinder's place in this game. Don't know what I was thinking writing all that nonsense below, honestly. 2. Tinderless fire starting has a success penalty If you start a fire without tinder you get, say, a -10% chance to successfully start the fire. Boom, easy as that, right? Well... Failing fire starting might be the most frustrating thing in TLD, so anything that makes that happen more often is a hard sell. Even if 100% fire start chances are already quite easy to hit with a decent Fire Starting skill, many people might argue anything that makes fires harder to start is just And if you do the math, this might also just keep Tinder mostly useless, just with extra steps. At Lvl5 FS skill, you have a base 90% chance to start fires. Using a STICK as your starter fuel pushes that to 105% base fire start chance, so with this change that's 95% without Tinder. That +5% can be made up by using any ignition method that's not a cardboard match, including the infinitely renewable magnifying glass, and even if it couldn't, a 5% failure rate is so small, it doesn't really matter in the first place. Of course, that still gives Tinder kind of, sort of a use, but effectively it will still be a useless item. And increasing the penalty for tinderless fires even further would just increase frustration. This could still be tweaked around a little, the 90% base for FSlvl3 is not immovable, but it kind of all circles back to the idea that failing fire starting sucks, engaging with it as the solution for this problem is, well, playing with fire. 3. Burn Tinder for fuel All Tinder items can now be burnt for something like 1-3 mins of extra burn time. This would definitely make Tinder really useful, as micro-adjusting burn times like this will always be handy for saving little bits of fuel. BUT I think it's fair to ask if Hinterland even want us to be able to adjust burn times like this? And, at least in my experience, fuel in the current state of the game isn't that important. It's basically just a resource you refine into Water, and/or a survival tool if you need to refill the temperature gauge while outdoors. Honestly, you could still throw away Tinder with this solution, it'd just have a hole you could shove it into if you're annoyed by its uselessness. But hey, maybe that's enough? 4. Make Tinder required for friction firestarting Friction firestarting has been a long-suggested idea, as currently renewable fires are limited to the very narrow range of the Magnifiying Glass. So, if this was ever implemented (eg. you need lvl3 fire starting to do it, it lets you start a fires with x2 Sticks as the ignition source, but it takes longer and has like a -35% success rate), you could easily just have Tinder remain useless for conventional fires, but always mandatory for renewable friction fires. This does keep Tinder worthless until you start to run out of matches, but you'll at least keep it around, I suppose? And, obviously, this would be the most intensive solution in terms of dev manhours, as friction firestarting has a lot of implications for playtesting and etc. 5. Give Tinder a role in a crafting recipe This could be similar to the Cache mechanic. Use something like 25 or 50 Tinder Plugs for some recipe, and boom. Of course, what would this be, exactly? Maybe make our own Signal Fires? 50 Tinder Plugs plus some Fir Firewood or etc equals a long term smoke signal that can be infinitely re-lit for something like 10 tinder and an ignition source. It could also be used in a crafting recipe that isn't as resource intensive. Maybe something like a "campfire bundle", where you combine sticks, reclaimed wood, and tinder to make a weight efficient fuel item that has a solid firestarting success bonus, speeds up the starting process, and lasts longer than its components would on their own. If Hinterland had any other ideas, those would work too for this suggestion. It might be a bit odd that Tinder would become a crafting resource instead of for firestarting, but it'll be good for something. Though, integrating it with Cat Tail Heads might prove a challenge. Any other suggestions, or expansions/explorations into the ideas presented here, are very much welcome!

I don't really want throwing spears at all, but I would be ok with a repurposed version of the Bear Spear, which in Survival Mode would probably be only effective against Wolves and Cougars when they get implemented. If you try to use it on a Moose you'll just get wrecked and against a Bear it will get them to bleed, but only after they have mauled you.

I am personally under the impression that Hinterland's meaning is being able to prepare specific stews and etc out of a combination of different ingredients, that make for something greater than the sum of their parts. However, I would adore a proper food curing/preservation system that replaces the current system of littering 0% Bear steak everywhere to eat off the floor once you've unlocked Lvl5 cooking.

I can't remember when I saw it, and don't know if it's been announced as scrapped since then, but I remember a complete liquid & liquid containers management system being mentioned by Hinterland as a planned feature. Maybe it'd fit as part of a roadmap for a 2nd Survival Mode DLC, should it happen. I believe clothes already dry faster based on high temperatures, don't they? I think book timing intervals changing to 15 mins is a perfectly decent change for micro scale time management, sure. Let's wait until the Trader comes around to sell us rocket launcher ammo before we tackle Canadian Geese Renewable whetstones is a complicated discussion because it completely changes the dynamics of Knives/Hatchets and how they work. IMO they could work, but would need a lot of hoops to jump through so they don't upset the current system too much. For example: You need to find shiny stones that are rarely in large caves, then take them to a Workbench and use a Heavy Hammer to break them, then there's an RNG chance to determine the sharpening stone durability (with a chance for it to just be Ruined from the outset, maybe based on a skill), AND you need to consume 10g of Oil per use to use these sharpening stones as opposed to a real whetstone.

Re. The idea of adding another way to manually save, what if you could build custom cairns, out of cloth and rocks? Takes time investment so you can't do it while in a dangerous situation, but it lets you create custom save points in any location you want to revisit, or to quickly save and quit in the wilderness, as long as you are not in an actively dangerous situation.

I've laid my stuff out at the Airfield Hangar. It is miles away from being homely, but I'm not really considering it as a "primary base camp" yet, my current playthrough is migrating through the vanilla maps and will return to The Far Territory when it's bigger to try my hand at a permanent base deeper in. My thought process is: It has a Forge, which will be useful for converting time, scrap metal, fuel and food into productive time working on tools! Basement for fighting Insomnia, for what it's worth Serves as an "exit stop" for the entire Far Territory as a whole, with the one-way cliff shortcut leading out of The Far Territory being so close nearby. With the safehouse customisation features coming in future, I expect that at least some of the Airfield Hangar's issues as a home could be mitigated. At bare minimum, you could definitely make it feel more like a proper home

IMO the expansion page should simply have a "complete" marker or a checkmark on what features are actually in TFTFT as of now, because I agree it is extremely confusing. Improvised Crampons and Doe are both in, but none of the other features in this screenshot are, and there is no distinguishment whatsoever. It's a really serious communication oversight and I hope it's resolved around the time of the next content patch for TFTFT.

There are very few inside loading zones in Forsaken Airfield so far, but I can confirm you're still not safe from the Glimmer Fog in them. It's only the main airport hangar basement specificially where you're safe. Anyway, as for OP, I believe Burdock is on TFTFT's roadmap and is probably going to be an Insomnia-mitigating option to add an extra gameplay element to it. But yes, I agree with you that it doesn't encourage reactivity. Something something Sid Meier quote about games being a series of interesting decisions. If you're caught out in the open in the Glimmer Fog, what are your decisions? Burdock will help with this a bit, but it's nowhere near as interesting as the decisions you have to make when confronted by a blizzard, where there's the dynamic windchill protection system and wind resistance movespeed that influences what direction you should ideally travel in for example. With Glimmer Fog, especially right now, it's just "leave the far territory or go into the airport basement if you want to avoid it, if you can't you're SOL, just take the insomnia" Your idea of a fire letting you focus better and slowing insomnia risk would definitely serve that purpose and be a good choice IMO. I think maybe a system of insomnia risk influences could work, like it ticks up higher if you are near activated electronics like car radios, but slower if you are in a cabin without any electrics for example. Then, it becomes something of a system of risk, how many safety measures do you think are necessary to give you a chance of riding out the fog without insomnia?

Maybe instead of making a forgeable prybar (because, admittedly, the prybar's uses are mostly finite) maybe the Heavy Hammer should be able to break locks, at something like ~30 minutes per lock and with high calorie inefficiency. Would fit with the Heavy Hammer's theme of being multipurpose, but much worse than specialised tools.

Yeah, I agree. Being able to swap feats has issues, but simply adding them in when you started your run with empty slots is perfectly reasonable. It'd help provide an immediate satisfaction to players when they unlock new Feats.

Personally I would prefer a sequel to The Long Dark be themed around non-Winter seasons, and in a more urban environment. Get in on that "reclaimed by nature" aethstetic lots of people like. I personally also don't envision Will/Astrid being in a hypothetical sequel as protagonists. Maybe other people feel differently, but IMO neither of them really feel like they'd be recurring characters in a sequel. [joke about Jennifer Hale's paycheck goes here] I think the Quiet Apocalypse itself is the main plot feature that should be expanded upon in a sequel, and that's probably best served via viewing it from a completely different perspective, such as someone else living in a different country altogether and several months afterwards instead of the immediate aftermath.

While we're at it, a similar option for opening Cans would be great. I MIGHT be wrong about this and it could've been patched out, but if I remember right the game currently opens cans with the priorities of can opener > knife > hatchet > by hand. That's a perfectly logical progression until you reach Cooking Level 3, at which point it should just be can opener > by hand. (using the can opener is pointless but if a player's carrying one and wants to use it for immersion's sake, that's fine and it doesn't negatively impact players as can openers aren't good for anything else except harvesting) This results in a super jank situation where the optimal way to open canned food is to make sure you aren't holding any knives/hatchets, then opening the can. I can appreciate why Hinterland don't want a popup menu for these relatively mundane actions, but it'd be nice to have something in an advanced options menu to change the priorities. Let us reorder things like fuel/food orders in the firestarting/cooking UI while we're at it. By the way, even though I agree with the thread in general, personally I think using wood matches first makes more sense on the whole. Cardboard matches have the advantage of being 50% lighter with their disadvantage vs wood matches being 5% less fire lighting chance, which should be largely irrelevant once you hit Firestarting Level 5. Therefore, it's generally ideal to burn *budumtiss* all those "high quality" firestarting items early, with the arguable exception of Firestriker due to it being super weight-efficient, then relying on cardboard matches later once your firestarting % is good enough that you don't mind it.

Not really in favor of making Sharpening a major skill. I think that distinguishing between Minor and Major skills is important and I just don't see why Sharpening would justify being upgraded to a Major skill. Making Whetstones more efficient cannot be the ONLY thing a skill is good for to justify it being a Major skill. IMO Major skills need to be genuinely interesting and stuffing the game with too many of them with minor effects would be a bad idea. One could try and merge the current minor skills into a Major skill, like "Maintanence" (combining cleaning, sharpening, and repair under one umbrella) but the community/Hinterland seem to like the idea of skill development being more realistic/specialised instead of being homogenised, hence why Rifle/Revolver Firearm use are also completely different skills. Having Sharpening levels make Whetstones more efficient isn't disagreeable, I just don't see why it wouldn't just be implemented into the minor Sharpening skill, though.

Yeah, there's directional arrows you can click to see the maps of other regions IIRC. I think it'd be neat if we also had an ability to click on a specific region in the World Map to see our current charcoal map of it, though, as that'd be more convenient UI-wise.

Meat preservation is definitely a feature I want to see implemented, but it needs to come as a thoughtfully-instituted substitute for the current Cooking Level 5 "leave the food on the floor" method of meat preservation. It's not about just making things "realistic" but about making Cooking Level 5 less mandatory to grind out (though parasites are still gonna be a thing) and more importantly making food decay an actual relevant mechanic. Don't Starve is a very different survival game from TLD, but I remember when proper food decay was first implemented into its beta, and how dramatically that changes a survival game for the better. It really helps when your food supplies, instead of being something that will consistently grow as long as you put the work in, has extra pressures put on it. Of course, food preservation systems should exist to allow players to have long-term food storage and even the aforementioned Don't Starve has systems like that. It's IMO pretty crucial to have some kind of steady pressure on your food stockpile, though.

I don't think it needs to be a "need" so much as an opportunity. IMO auroras should be exciting, but right now I honestly just sleep through them nine times out of ten. A few other suggestions besides what I already said with rabbits and flashlights: -More electronically locked stuff like what's at Bleak Inlet, so some supply caches might encourage you to hang around in an area for an aurora -Giving players a Fatigue buff while an aurora is active, so they're not only encouraged to get out and do stuff but will also likely be woken up if they didn't realize an aurora was tonight

I can generally get behind the sentiment of this post, though I would like to note that I don't think a Well Fed positive bonus would work for the other Need types. The reason why Well Fed exists is because hunger is more of a long-term resource drain than the other needs, and because abusing Condition to get by on minimal calories was such a popular strategy. I do think that penalties for not taking care of Needs, aside from hypothermia, could easily be added to others. Fatigue already has max carry weight reduction which I think works, but I can get behind penalties for the other Needs to make need failure less of a "okay, I'm on a death timer now" and more "okay, now if I don't take care of this soon, I'm gonna start having cascading failures that's gonna put me in serious danger".

Feats serve the purpose of giving players extrinsic goals to work towards, which is a legitimate motivator for helping them get into the game. Not all feats do this well (junk like "light 1000 fires" is a perfect example of how its badly done, but the new Darkwalker feat is essentially how I think feats should work. not stuff you just get by playing the game a crapton) but it's a genuinely good thing to have. Feats also provide a neat bit of customisation once you unlock enough of them. We could stand to have more, with more interesting differences to better accomplish this, but giving players an extra meta choice to assist them in areas they want, or to give them interesting playstyle differences, is a good thing IMO. For example, the firestarter feat giving you Lvl3 right off the bat helps players who find having to deal Lvl1/2 Firestarting too frustrating. It also helps give the game extra replay value and variance on different playthroughs. Saying "eh, just bugger off to Custom mode" would remove these incentives that I do feel have a place in the game With that said, I would actually like it if Custom mode had features similar to this (eg. being able to start out with specific levels in Skills), nor do I see a reason why Custom doesn't just give every Feat an on/off toggle instead of using the same Feats slots system, but I'm against doing that and essentially deleting Feats on top of that. I think Feats add genuine value to the game. I would also like it if Feats weren't grindfests. Screw it, imma suggest an overhaul for each offending Feat: Book Smarts: Research every book in the game at least once. Can be achieved between different playthroughs. Cold Fusion: Survive outside for two weeks straight. Note that getting inside cars or sheltering in caves (without instanced interiors) counts as "outside", but remaining in porches or other enclosed spaces in the outdoors counts as "inside". Efficient Machine: Survive 100 days in a single playthrough. Fire Master: Keep any single fire going for three days straight. (very similar to the Deep Forest achievement, but works with indoor fires and the like too. This is designed to be fairly easy as Fire Master is a convenience Feat ideal for new players) Free Runner: After leaving Broken Railroad into Forlorn Muskeg, make it to Desolation Point within 24 hours of game time. (I assume this challenge is reasonably possible if you just keep moving unencumbered especially if you mix in sprinting and fatigue-saving items, but if I'm mistaken one might have to tone it down to only visiting Coastal Highway) Snow Walker: Visit almost every Region at least once. Does not count the Region you spawn into. Can be completed over multiple playthroughs, but visiting every Region in a single playthrough will instantly unlock this Feat. Blizzard Walker: In a single playthrough, spend 24 total hours outside in blizzard conditions. Expert Trapper: Hunt and kill every Animal (a Rabbit, Wolf, Bear, and Moose) at least once in a single playthrough. Straight To The Heart: Stay awake for a week straight.

I really disagree with this line of thinking because any item could be used for this purpose, it doesn't need to be inherently useless for other purposes to make this use possible. Most notably Stones, Charcoal, Sticks, or spray paint. If Tinder was made burnable, Cat Tail Heads and Tinder Plugs would probably still be used for marking, by whomever uses them for that purpose, it'd just be that their default use would be burning them as a way to make micro-adjustments to fire times.