Nordique

Um, thanks for sharing I guess. However, as the topic here is non-acute, long-term afflictions like ribs and parasites -- the latter of which can e.g. in the case of tapeworm last for years gradually weakening you -- they could perceivably allow reading. For balance, perhaps slower or with a chance to waste the reading effort.

The topic on reading while down with Parasites got me thinking how much the books and reading add to TLD. However, could the skill books play even a bigger role? As always, my suggestions aim for increased difficulty at maximal ease of implementation. Beddy-bye reading has been covered. And improved book schemes have surfaced in the wishes, too. Perhaps the following slight tweaks to Skill (and other) Book usage could get more mileage out of the existing fantastic mechanic? The downtime during blizzards, longer cooking sessions etc, perhaps even while ice-fishing (if we had signalling ice fishing systems) would be nice to spend with a book instead of endless Solitaire. Books in blizzards are a cozy-feeling thing, not to use the im word. 🙂 This could work if the skill upgrade from books came initially fast, possibly unpredictably, but slowed down over time to require lengthy revision. A) Obfuscate the reading progress. You read each book until the character goes e.g. "That does it, I got this." You read all books in 30-min installments with no progress meter -- the first book of each type gives a fast benefit, but you can keep on reading for quite some time with diminishing returns. If we stepped back from the current game-ish 1-X hours of reading-and-done mechanic to a gradual style of learning, potentially the books would be more valuable. And more fussy, you'd have to baby them instead of turning to fuel. And you perhaps could still squeeze some benefit from reading again the Archery 1 you did 160 days ago? Non-linear progress would also work beautifully with B) below. B) Read in bed (or the chairs...), maybe while under certain afflictions, too It would not ease much since you'd likely need light to read. Gain only 2/3 of the warmth bonus due to holding the book? And probably more common than anyone cares to admit is that folks read until they fall asleep -- and then in the morning see the dead candle and wonder how far did I get? So if some afflictions (Parasites, ribs?) allowed reading but forced you to bed, while that could carry a risk of falling asleep: needlessly burning the light source down and not gaining that much knowledge in the end, I think it would balance out. C) Introduce serialised books. 100 issues of bound guns&guns should be plenty. Giving unique IDs to the skill books and then serialising e.g. Mending 1 Mending 2 (or use years for more flavour "World of Mending 1989-91"?) would, as previously suggested, mandate the player to get 'em all for leveling. Realistic, too, come to think, it would not be out of place for an island community to barter book series or bound magazine annual subscriptions of yore between households. D) Give a reason to carry and stack basic books. E.g. each book in an indoor location prevents/shortens cabin fever? The suggestion that even the random books could somehow be more than just fuel is interesting. Albeit it eats away at the dog eat dog world feeling what with the grotesque dead bodies, burning cash for fuel, I admit, this could further force the player to optimise carrying and storing the books instead of using them as more reliable firestarters. E) Autogenerate titles for the random standard books I know that unique burning-book titles would add to the database complexity, but IMO it would be a fitting touch. Hinterland for sure has shown such storyline chops.

Though I don't see great need for allowing reading only during parasitic infiltration, I like where this got my mind racing to. The TLD books are fantastic, lore art and mechanics wise! I would like to wring more use out of them. Not to hijack this one, I'll drop a new topic thanks to your initiative, @ThePhoenics!

For me Loper could use a more consistent difficulty curve. I've played Interloper-only for years, and my suggestions are to tweak Interloper into a more relentlessly engaging experience. I would like to prolong what IMO is the absolute best part of TLD: the first 50 or so days. I think it is suboptimal to deny the player already-created content. Currently most of the difficulty in Interloper comes from content restrictions: best-tier clothes, firearms... On one hand I appreciate the poetic scarcity, but on the other I think it would be interesting to have to make more choices, with harsh tradeoffs. For example: Of course keep the current amount of footwear. Allow the player to use whichever, but assign (probably algorithmically across maps to encourage travel) sizes Small/Fit/Large to all items. Small ones would introduce a penalty of some sort, Large ones of some other sort. Besides keeping the player on their toes (harhar) for longer, this would introduce more gameplay choice and also make the starting gear more valuable, since all of that would be Fitting to begin with. And ... if you'd want some carrot and not all stick, perhaps with enough Mending skill Large shoes could be retrofitted into slightly warmer than regular shoes?

That's a great way to see it! In my head canon I subscribe to the other prevalent view, which is grittier. Probably this goes a long way explaining the tweaks I've had in mind! The rugged islanders have had little use for non-essential items of the high-heel type to begin with. The luckier ones have sashayed out of there with their everything already years ago when the economy tanked -- Every time I see a home flying the Canadian flag I dub it belonging to the island's nobility, akin the Milton Bank Manager 🙂. Then with the Event, the remaining few holdouts had finally enough of the weather and have been retreating through the habitable areas hoovering up the remaining usable kit -- a good proportion of them obviously did not make it. This leaves our unlucky survivor landing in a doubly forsaken part of the world, at what seems the worst possible time -- except that the winter is only getting started. With a very few exceptions all the places to loot have been gone through multiple times, and as has been pointed out, it is only by grave error there is still any good stuff left.

Footwear size should matter. It is understandably very rare for games to consider clothing item sizing. Even thinking about the processing overhead from a table of sizes tracking various items in a sandbox makes one shudder. But especially in TLD where clothing is an integral part of the experience (and freezing even more so), I think a Cinderella problem with footwear would be an interesting mechanic. I'll restrict my proposal to shoes, which I think could be just within reach, coding effort and processing wise. Perhaps a grade of Small - Fitting - Large on all footwear items would do? I'll let you all propose suitable afflictions for ill-fitting footwear, bring out the blisters and twisted ankles! 🙂 My rationale: 1) The starting gear must be of the right size, so this could force an interesting choice e.g. to either hang on to the otherwise damned leather city slippers of the right size or to go with warmer lumberjack size work boots and face the consequences. 2) The hunt for the perfectly fitting pair of manufactured footwear would give a further worthy goal for mid-late game. 3) Ill-fitting footwear is a serious risk, this could bump the chances of a frostbite which is otherwise of little concern from mid-game. 4) Since crafting produces bespoke gear, this would prod towards making your own. Maybe depending on Mending skill?

Actually nets would work, very possibly even too well for balance in the coastal waters and especially in a lake with an inflow (TWM). Now it just so happens there is a veritably Canadian method of setting gill nets under the ice: Prairie Ice Jig. Could be interesting if e.g. Fishing 5 would grant the ability to fairly laboriously set up an ice net. This could e.g. involve crafting the net for hours on end from guts and cloth, multiple ice holes, usable maybe only in a special zone with just the right type of water body etc.

Now this is an interesting topic, trapping and baiting for fish and game! If not for base TLD, perhaps for a mod afterwards? I would love it if in-game a skill book for such were available. Trapping books have been popular for close to 200 years so it is plausible a rustic tome could be found in TLD's setting. As a side note, it would make sense while being simplistic to be able to craft yarn out of cloth -- would eat nicely into the relatively meager cloth supplies in exchange for passive hunting. Of course, in what I expect to be the TLD style, the more elaborate fishing contraptions would probably be out of the question. Not an avid fisher anymore, but I've dabbled in a number of winter fishing methods over the years. Here's my 10¢ Various signaling methods are the way to go when it is too cold to just sit outside waiting. In the dead of the winter sound carries far, so e.g. a small bell on a string can signal a catch from relatively far away by sound alone. I'm now already anticipating what kind of a faint jingle the talented Hinterland sound team could make ring at the Mountaineer's pond ... perhaps the flag method could be used overnight just like the current rabbit traps? Gigging (spear fishing) with a small spear in winter is an ancient and still a viable traditional method. I've built my own gig back in the day, it could be an option for the game. Traditionally made out of wood, but of course a metal one is sturdier and plausibly within the forging skills of the character ... but imo an easily broken wooden gig requiring repairs might make sense balance-wise. Some fish you lure in with a largish torch (akin to a bonfire on a stick), should fit the TLD optics well? But when the spring sun is warming your bones and you're toasting in a phat-ass cover-all with a huge hood on, ice fishing sure is a pleasure. Just imagine what a treasure such a full-body Expedition Jacket of a clothing item would be from 100 days onwards in TLD! There must be e.g. Great Lakes or maybe even authentic Russian ice fishers here to share their knowledge? Well, I do know the real ice-fishing secret is what is affectionately called the Sweater Internal, comes bottled...

Yes, an upgraded cooking system would be a very welcome addition, something I really hope will come up -- if not to the base game, to a mod later. A more intricate cooking could very poignantly highlight the (admittedly few) cozier moments in TLD, you know, for both when huddling away a blizzard in a farmhouse with a six-plate stove steaming away, or the very rare cosy evening with a fire going at a viewpoint, to provide a super stark contrast to the daily grind of survival. Now this is a good balancing step, @Mroz4k, perhaps the traditional long stick would need to be fashioned to reach the horsehair lichen -- maybe after reading up a book on past native life and customs? Here's hopin' the future would hold a deep forest area, possibly ancient growth and thus hard to navigate, which in turn would mean hundreds of years' worth of lichen growth to be harvested! This is so true! The boreal regions hold a reserve of edibles that would perceivably be available in the game's scenario -- if not really realistically growing throughout the winter. Then again, with just a little bit of the suspension of disbelief the Aurora mechanic already calls for, perhaps it could be in line with the lore that there could be regions which have e.g. wind-sheltered rock faces (possibly requiring climbing?) where the lichen could regrow to edible proportions over hundreds of days?

Rope-hauling a bag up less-than-vertical terrain is tricky. More often than not the load gets stuck, especially if the bag is not a purpose-built technical haul bag with e.g. a torpedo shape. Perhaps this could be an incentive in a possible free climbing zone for the player to do a risky free climb: to retrieve an old technical bag and the contents? Most such kit stores well, for example the US/CAN Nanga Parbat 1988 expedition was saved by ropes (and snacks) they found stashed in a bag left on the wall for years, at over 7 km!

Hiya, thanks for your well-considered reply! I'll quote soundbites from you above and try to defend my points. 😀 1.2 TLD Science! This is fantastic stuff, the lengths players have gone to over the years trying to fathom the mechanics via Excel-lent deduction! Shows some serious love! 🙂 Realism aside, I'd like more activity in mid-late Loper. I would like to see the quantity of meat on bear carcasses double to triple, depending on how much the character's calorie consumption could be upped, but for balance the bear meat should go bad on unskinned carcass very fast and the marine bears should be last-ditch food. I'd like it if Cooking 5 yielded e.g. 98% instead of 100%, so when reviving essentially bad meat from 0% I'd be okay with 46% quality. In my head canon at C5 Will is preparing mighty fine Bear Pastrami that keeps near forever, but still ... it is OP. 3. Thanks, I'd like to see in your suggestions that you see what I'm aiming at. 🙂I'd prefer the current Interloper's difficulty curve more constant over time instead of plateauing. For this, I'd rather see the emergency wolf scare use of fire fall more on flares or even the oft-omitted flashlight (in Aurora), they tend to accumulate, mainly to be used only in bad weather. For cooking, the Matches, Firestarter, Mag Lens would be the same as now. For example, a model of Single, 1/3, All matches would yield interesting changes, somewhat influenced by realism but moreso with the idea of adding difficulty that mainly impacts Interloper. In other game modes there is so many matches and/or ways to fight the predators that I don't see a great change. In this way, the character would always use All matches in a pack to light a torch or a fire when A) s/he is outdoors B) freezing C) except when using an existing fireplace, barrel or stove D) or except when crouching in a wind-sheltered place. No need to change the UI, the match icon just burns a whole pack instead of one. If there's less than full package, then adjust the success percentage accordingly. Perhaps later add a vocalisation to the tune of "It's all or nothing now". For cooking with matches, and additional sub-menu under the current menu where the player would choose one of the 3 ways: if freezing, the chance to succeed with less than All would be very low. 5. Regarding archery my intent is to make the bow skill progression take longer, so it would be more rewarding. Archery 1-3 would need to be developed with the stickbow (preferably so that reliable deer hunting needs level 3), then unlock the next bow from Archery 4 to start practicing big game. You would need to train with the current stickbow and the current or new easily made blunt arrows for example using the targets (should yield the occasional skill point, come to think of it, is there one in the wood shed behind BR lodge?) or shooting at bunnies, destroy arrows - raises skill. Or should we put the cairns to good use and allow a skill point at random when hitting from a distance? 😆 I don't see a quiver on the player, and with a little bit of sprinkled realism, that could be turned into "two in hand one on string" before Archery 3. Meaning the stickbow would only shoot the 2 lesser arrow types. There are currently no equip slots for weapons, and IMO no pressing need for them. Just change the inventory so that arrows are carried in player-selectable bunches of 3? Shoot the first 3, takes some time, then the next bunch is available. I think this alone would introduce a further step in the Interloper streamline to stop the first forging yielding a near-instant self-sufficiency.

This is interesting, something I was alluding to above. In a situation where one just should not risk losing both the immediate ability to function due to acute illness, or the longer term condition due to prolonged gastro distress, drinking from a toilet cistern even though it looks clean is not a choice to make lightly. Then again, after being sunbaked and freeze-dried for a couple of days with no water and still without the means to make a fire to boil your finds, thems the breaks. (cue Tuco drinking out of the first horse-trough coming from the desert in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly 🙂) I like it that in TLD it seems the character judges any found water either safe to drink as-is or as suspicious, and thus requiring further treatment (against pathogens, not other contaminants). In other games the player makes the appraisal e.g. based on the quality of the water given in per cents. I think there would be more depth to be had here at little dev cost. I would enjoy gaming the odds if I had to drink suspect water in a pinch, but then I would like the penalty to be variably severe. Sometimes akin to food poisoning, sometimes an instant condition hit and that's it, but that there would always loom the threat of dysentry. Or crypto or giardia or coli. But let's not aim for a hygiene simulator.

In boreal forests in winter, lichen is a superstar. Not so much perhaps in an acute survival scenario, but especially for winter stores many peoples in the US, CA, and Scandinavia have collected bagfuls of the edible varieties. As posted previously, one can find many uses for the various lichens in the Northern hemisphere. I think a couple relatively minor changes to the lichens in TLD would be an easy way to add depth to the game. I don't suggest plain-out adding this to the game without balancing. Do you have any ideas? Canada's Horsehair lichen as a darker variant of the current Old Man's Beard. It is edible, actually fairly nutritious, either after a long cooking time, or in a Scandinavian style, after an alkaline bath. A popular traditional source for alkaline is ... charred birch bark. Could put the humble charcoal to further use, no? Or the birch bark? I like the idea of having to for example weigh using birch bark for condition recovery or in making lichen edible! notes: I) Horsehair lichen (Bryoria) Edible and with respectable calories, once cooked for a long time. II) Reishi Ground Reishi tinder for bow drill, and/or for fire-carrying a coal inside a hollowed out one. III) Old Man's Beard A good firestarter straight off the tree, no need to dry.

I'm afraid you're spot on regarding the graphics assets. I too would sorely like to see the great boreal forests done right in a game, meaning you can get lost for a real-time hour if you don't know what you're doing, and sometimes even then. Then again trees are ... very much in the core of TLD. Hinterland has the skill to skip boilerplate speedtrees. Given a foggy forest bowl handily limiting the draw distance, the game's graphic style should allow for a suitably great number of procedural complex trees even on consoles.

I fervently hope something like this would still make it to classic TLD -- along with an equally passionate wish for a sequel. I've done a fair bit of climbing and am super surprised how intricately and in how positive light the activity is represented, both Storymode and Survival. For example the Climber's notes betray a deeper understanding of the activity on the part of Hinterland. This has me hoping there would be more of it, and this suggestion that a free climbing spot would be a rare Easter Eggish (hopefully randomly placed just like e.g. the bunkers and signal fires!) offering a Wow! experience is top!