Ghurcb

On 4/6/2022 at 11:46 PM, Pablo_Loko said:

The idea is cool. I don't see how it can affect the overall balance of the game. If this does not work, as an option, I can suggest introducing a crafting scheme from cattail heads and sleeping bag fabric into the game.

Sorry, but... What do those two have to do with firestarting? I don't get it.

Who cares though? The Long Dark is a single-player game. Cheat all you want, it won't hurt anyone.

Sure, there are some exploits that I'd like to see removed, like finding directions by dropping a stick (or any item, really) or lighting fires by proxy.

But feats are a part of meta-progression. You can start a run with them. That means, having them at your disposal is a part of intended experience, and it doesn't matter wether you spent hundreds of hours grinding for them.

Also, what you described still takes quite a bit of determination and patience on the side of the "cheater". So if someone got their feats that way, i think they deserved it.

4 hours ago, Pablo_Loko said:

In my opinion, it's better to leave everything as it is. An additional incentive to go somewhere and do something, rather than sitting in one place and dismantling stools. Is it really so difficult to run to the nearest cave to read books, and in extreme cases to put a shelter made of sticks and cloth next to the building? You will get the Snow Wanderer feat faster.

No one asks for the affliction to be removed, though. Just changed, in a way that will make it more interesting. 

Right now, cabin fever simply prevents you from sleeping indoors. Not only does it make little sence from the perspective of realism, it's also bad game design.

People here don't whine about how hard it is to "run to the nearest cave" and tell Hinterland to remove cabin fever. They have proposed quite a few ways to make this feature less annoying, but still incentivizing to "go somewhere and do something".

BTW, there's a difference between incentivizing something and forcing people to do this. Currently, cabin fever forces players out of their shelters by preventing them from sleeping. In TLD, if you don't sleep, you die, so there's not much choice.

This idea, on the other hand, gives a player the agency, the ability to choose whether they stay inside a little longer but still face the consequences, or go outside and remove the affliction.

On 11/8/2017 at 8:23 PM, Hadrian said:

2. Cabin Fever should, however, prevent players from recovering any condition (0-100%)  indoors. So, you can rest inside all you want. You can recover from exhaustion and afflictions such as sprains, food poisoning, etc., but if your actual condition is below 100, you won't be able to actually recover if you're resting inside, because you have those Cabin Fever jitters. While Cabin Fever should never have a persistent condition drop effect (it does not now; I'm just saying keep it that way), restricting condition gain while indoors would preserve the spirit of Cabin Fever and prevent players from exploiting the ability to perpetually rest indoors without a major restriction on gameplay mechanics (just not as major as not being allowed to close your eyes at all!)

BTW, here's my addition.

When you have cabin fever a haunting melody should play indoors (even more haunting than the rest of survival OST). It could even randomly incorporate footsteps, knocking on glass, or faint voices. Basically, I want it to make everyone feel like they are playing a horror game. 

This would really put players into the shoes of their character. 

(bringing this suggestion back, since cabin fever still hasn't been updated) 

16 hours ago, Pablo_Loko said:

The following feats require small changes in the game

Well... Those are big changes.

And I don't want to say that they are necessarily bad or gamebreaking, but...

It would be a shame if they were gated by hours upon hours of senseless grind (as all feats are).

Here's an example.

16 hours ago, Pablo_Loko said:

cure 1000 times food poisoning

1000 food poisonings?! I've played for 400+ hours and I can't say I've had even 50 of them.

Or this one

16 hours ago, Pablo_Loko said:

open 5000 of any canned food with a can opener

Even if instead of 5000 there was a different reasonable number, how would one approach achieving this feat? There's no strategy for finding more canned food. And it's not like players usually ignore the cans they find. So (and this is the case with most of the feats), you will get it eventually, but there's barely anything you can do to get it sooner.

On 4/1/2022 at 10:47 PM, Semple Fi said:

So the clothing items require cutting and sewing, reasonably taking a long time to craft.  
A bow is a more reasonable comparison with the sapling cure time.  Fashioning a spear shaft in real life really doesn’t take long, and  forging the spear head would be comparable to the crafted axe.

No, it wouldn't. The model of improvised axe is basically a flattened sharpened pipe. A spear head would have to be able to withstand the weight of a whole bear (and as we have already figured out, it can reach 250kg). Forging it would take a lot of knowledge, skill, and time. And The Survivor lacks severely in the first two. Thankfully, time is abundant, so you should be able to forge a somewhat decent spear head trough enough trial and error. At least, that's how I see it.

On 4/1/2022 at 10:47 PM, Semple Fi said:

And why not be able to repair it with a whetstone? Or scrap metal and the mill during an Aurora?

Honestly? Because it would be too easy. If you can fix the spear with so little effort, once you make one, that's it. You'll have it until the end of your run. No need for more than a single oak sapling, no need to reforge the head.

I think, if the spear has limited number of uses, that allows for making it a little OP. You wouldn't use it all the time. You would consider some other options of dealing with bears (like a flare gun, for example). Because, if the spear breaks, you'll have to make a new one.

On 4/1/2022 at 10:50 PM, Semple Fi said:

Perhaps that’s why it hasn’t been implemented yet.  
The animation for the spear bear struggle already exists, it would require an incredible amount of additional coding to implement it for moose, as well as adding it to the Wolf struggle.  

Honestly, I don't get why people want the spear to be effective against all the wildlife. It was originally pitched as The Bear Spear. Not as The Everything Spear.

Here's a point of perspective I haven't mentioned before. If The Bear Spear becomes universally useful, it would be too similar to spears from all the other survival games. A new player would look at the crafting menu and go "Oh, a spear! That's the first thing you have to craft in any survival game! I should get to it right now!". But if it's called "The Bear Spear", a new player will immediately realise "This thing can kill bears. That sounds awesome, but also extremely late-game. I'll have to do a lot of work to get one of these."

In short, "Bear Spear" sounds more unique (and TLD-like) than just "A Spear". That's why it should only be effective against bears.

On 1/1/2022 at 12:37 AM, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

This is a good idea.  There have been a few times where I had no fuel for a fire and I was slowly dying, all the while looking around at stacks of tinder, birch saplings, cardboard boxes, and newspapers.

Ehh... I don't think that blurring the line between fuel and tinder is a good idea. They are two different things serving two different purposes. I think this idea, that tinder should be used as a fuel, comes from the fact that right now it's quite useless. So being able to get rid of it while also receiving some bonus seems like the best idea.

I mean, realistically chugging a kilo of paper into a fire would prolong its life by a couple of minutes at best. A single newsprint would burn in a matter of seconds.

Saplings, on the other hand, should be burnable (but only once they are dried).

On 3/25/2022 at 5:30 AM, Pencil said:

The forging times you present of over 20 hours seems like too much in my opinion. While it may be realistic to take incredibly long, it would simply be too frustrating in-game and resource consuming -- more than what it's worth. 

Well, it takes 30 hours to make a bearskin coat, and it's not even the best clothing item due to its weight. Of course, the spear would also require you to burn coal while forging it, but that's a pretty fair way of making it a late-game tool. And you don't have to do it all in one go. AND once you make the first spear, making the second will take less time, as you already have the spear head.

On 3/25/2022 at 5:30 AM, Pencil said:

Have they said anything about it in any other dev diaries or updates, other than what they said in the December update several years ago? 

Nope. Complete silence ever since.

15 hours ago, Bimbobjoejr. said:

Personally, the only nitpick I have regarding item weight is why an animal quarter weighs twice as much as the meat that is inside. That is the only thing that doesn't make sense to me. If there is bone in there, it would make sense if there was a little more weight, but not doubling it.

Well, it seems like when quartering an animal in TLD you take everything but head and legs. So it would make sence for a quarter to weigh a lot.

It is strange, though, how little meat those animals have on them. It would make a lot more sence if this amount of meat would increase with your carcass harvesting skill (implying that initially the survivor isn't skilled enough to harvest all of it).

BTW, I think quartering should destroy the animal's hide (unless you harvested it before). In real life, if you just chop a moose into pieces, its hide wouldn't be exactly... Intact.

On 3/15/2022 at 2:05 AM, Kranium said:

Regarding cattails, because it's a big deal for me since I've used them IRL for many things: they are a much bigger source of food & crafting material than this game allows.

That's interesting, how do you think they should be used as a crafting material?

23 hours ago, Smellyfries said:

I personally believe that the bear spear wasn't added to survival because it would ruin the overall presence, and strength that the bear possesses. During survival, the bear is never to be taken lightly, and with low skills with the bow and rifle, attempting to kill a bear will require proper positioning, aiming, and some decent tactics to harvest a bear unharmed, (or some good running if you fail, and ruined clothes it it catches you). Adding the bear spear would make the next 10 bears trivial, as killing a bear via QTE would completely remove all the previous actions I stated earlier. This is likely why the bear spear remains in story mode, during a game where it serves more as a plot device.

This is just my opinion though. If the spear was added to survival, I wouldn't use it.

Actually... This is a great point that I can't argue against.

I'll still try my best, though.

The way I see it, the spear would be a late-game tool (because of the time, instruments and resources required). I mean, now you can guarantee safety when hunting a bear by simply using a flare gun. And those can be found pretty early on if you're lucky. But with a spear, while having a bit of safety, you engage in a more thrilling experience. There's much more raw brute power in fighting such a menacing beast in melee, than in just headshotting it from 30 meters away. Or just wounding it to find the body in a few hours.

You say it would become trivial, but with good execution fighting a bear like this would be extremely interesting.

Though in hindsite, 10 bears with one spear sounds like a little to much from the gameplay point of view. 5 would be better.

This is one of those ideas, where realism clashes with good gameplay.

Clothes that provide more heat are heavier and harder to find. If you aren't clothed well enough you lose temperature. When it reaches zero your condition starts depleting rapidly. This system brings incentive to move more quickly between shelters and start fires when on longer trips. It also makes players more invested in crafting better clothes. It also makes blizzards more dangerous. 

What would "overheating" bring to the table?

You enter a warm building - you take your jacket off. There's no problem to overcome. It's not challenging, But it IS annoying, as having to take their clothes off and on, and on and off will get on players' nerves rather fast.

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

 Candles

Sounds cool, but I don't think think they'd be particularly useful. How would it work? Would it just light up the place for an hour or two before melting? Torches already do that.

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

Tidy homes/Build mode

I don't know... I think, houses are supposed to be littered and ugly. This is kind of a big part of "vulnerability fantasy" aspect of TLD. 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

Growing and watering plants in plant potts inside the houses

1) Even indoors temperatures are usually below zero. Few plants can grow in these conditions. 

2) If cold doesn't kill your veggies, the lack of direct sunlight will. 

3) Plants have to be watered regularly. It would be hard to keep them alive while traveling different regions of Great Bear. And if you stay in the same place for too long, you get bored and uninstall the game. 

4) EVEN IF there's a way to overcome all of these problems (idk, greenhouse-backpack or whatever) it would take MONTHS to grow anything edible. I'm all for delayed gratification, but this is simply not worth the effort.

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

Realisticly basic stuff in every home

The way I see it, locals took all their belongings with them, leaving towns. What's left is things they forgot to or couldn't take. Then, the (now failed) survivors looted most of what remained. 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

Tansportation

In TLD you usually travel some difficult terrain. Even in a few regions that have roads a bicycle would be barely useful.

If we ever get a vehicle (which is highly unlikely), it's gonna be a horse, not something with wheels. 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

Survive/thrive skills

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

Why can't I cook a soup of hunted meat for example, by myself? And why does it take 4-5 kilos of meat to satisfy my for a day? 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

why can't he just eat eadible things in his bag like rose-hips?)

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

And: I would like to hunt some birds. And why does it take two big dead bears to make a coat for one little human? And: Why can't I make a hole in the ice with my axe for fishing?

Short answer: because it's a game.

Devs can't add EVERYTHING into it. Only the things that make for a better gameplay make it in. Keep in mind, their resources are limited, and so are the resources of your PC/console.

Why does meat provide so little calories? Because a single moose would keep you fed for months otherwise. 

Why can't you make your own fishing holes? Because implementing this system would take too much work hours. Hours they could've spent on something better. 

Why don't you need to shower? Because it adds nothing of value to the gameplay. It's a chore. Players don't like doing chores. 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

Other players

Multi-player will never be added. Never. 

But if by "players" you mean NPCs... I still don't think it's ever getting added.

Up to this point, NPCs of The Long Dark were either voices from a phone, or stationary quest-givers, or objects you have bring from point A to point B. I don't think Hinterland can do much better. And it's not bad! "Better" might not even be possible!

Just think about it... This "other player" would have to

1) Follow you around everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Thin ice, climbing ropes, "goat passes", tight spaces, caves and mines, rope bridges, fallen trees.

2) Have their own needs. They are a human like you. They can get cold, hungry, tired, sick. It wouldn't feel real otherwise. And so the next point arises... 

3) Pull their own weight. Nobody likes a burden. They'd have to find their own food, clothes, water, meds AND do it all without making the impression like they steal YOUR loot before you find it. They would also have to protect themselves from wildlife and never... Never ever... Never ever forever... Stand in your way. Like, litteraly... The "Get out from the doorway! Let me through, you stupid machine!" should be avoided at all costs. 

4) They should be useful. "Not a burden" is not enough.

5) But not TOO useful. The NPC shouldn't pull YOUR weight for you. It's still a survival game, and it's up to you to survive. You must not fully rely on your companion. 

6) Communicate effectively. How else would you work together?

All that... It's just too much to ask for. Seriously, I can't think of a single game with AI so advanced. 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

SEASONS

NO! HELL NO! NO WAY! 

First off, it is easier to make a new survival game than it is to add seasons to TLD. 

Second, The Long Dark is ABOUT surviving in the cold environment. You can't change the thing the game is ABOUT.

And last, according to steam achievements, only 3.5% of all players survived for 100 days in TLD. Admittedly, only 50% survived for a day (which means, tried survival), so you can double that. Still, there's no need to add a change that so few players will get to see. 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

And please: Do not make the storymode any harder.

PLEASE DO. Namely, first and second episodes. I played through them on the hard difficulty, and they were easy. Yes, it get harder later on, but those first two are a bit of a turn off for anyone who played enough survival. 

On 1/27/2022 at 12:33 AM, KaryDF said:

QUESTION: Is it possible to domesticate a wolf

No, it's not. Not in the game, not in the real life. Any relatively effective way to tame/train (but definitely not domesticate) a wolf is animal cruelty. 

And so this wall of text is over. Sorry for being overly critical, but this is a normal amount of critical, in my opinion. Like seriously, this suggestion is basically "I want everything and anything, all at once". 

56 minutes ago, KaryDF said:

I was wondering anyways: is there any chance to sleep without having a sleeping back? 

Yes, I too think that sleeping bags should be optional. Here's how I see it:

On 2/21/2022 at 9:38 PM, Ghurcb said:

Another way to rebalance the game to account for FAINT mechanic would be to allow sleeping on the floor. It could have a "cold floor penalty" instead of "warm bed bonus", not to make bedrolls obsolete.

Sure, it's more comfortable to sleep in a bed, but in a survival scenario... You don't always have the privilege to make this choice.

We already have 3 different animal skin coats in the game. Do we really need another one?

I think, a better use for timberwolf hides would be a new hat. Like a timberwolf cowl. Warmer than rabbitskin hat, but weighs more and slows you down. 

15 hours ago, odizzido said:

I would also like freezing to be more of a threat too. Currently you find a couple items and all indoor areas are perfectly livable so it's almost impossible to get too cold. If you had to heat homes this would be another thing you would have to survive against.

YES PLEASE! Seriously, for a game about surviving in the cold, it's too easy to escape it by simply entering a building (one that hasn't been heated in months)

15 hours ago, odizzido said:

Long term injuries might be interesting, but this I am less sure about. If you sprain your hand it could take weeks to actually heal. I would like to try it but I don't know if I would like it.

A week is a bit too much, in my opinion. But I also think that sprains are way too easy to treat. If they required both bandage and 3 hours of rest to be treated, players wouldn't be so eager to mountain-goat all the time.

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

The thought that crossed  my mind with that is that some might not be willing to give up flares to make shells. Especially on the harder levels. 

Otherwise it sounds like a good idea to me. Maybe use the marine flares too? I never use them as they're not really necessary on pilgrim and they don't last very long compared to red ones.

Marine flare shells? NOW we're talking!

Addition:

Bandage 0.1kg -> 0.05kg (you can make two of them out of 0.1kg cloth)

Also those lines of text like "that treatment did nothing", "can smashed open, 94% was lost" etc. should appear above the inventory UI, if whatever caused them happened in the inventory.

3 hours ago, Bearimpaler101 said:

I think that when you it says afliction : faint you stumble around for the time before you faint similarly to compromised condition but without the sounds

This is EXACTLY how I imagined this to work. And at the end the survivor closes their eyes, barely opens them again and falls sideways. Fade to black...

Possibly... Fade into the long dark...

17 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

Honestly, I find all of this discussion about "realistic" weights rather nitpicky... and changing it would not really do anything positive regarding how the game flows.  As someone else mentioned above... I'd rather HL spend their time finishing story mode.  As unrealistic as it may be... it works in game.

Well, it's not about them being "realistic", I just want them to make sence. Like, you can't get five when adding two and two together.

Yeah... It is a bit nitpicky. But most of this stuff can be fixed by changing a single line of game's code. Barely a distraction from making episode 5.

22 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

Easy solution to the medicinal tea issue... reskin the containers to be vials of "concentrated" dosages of tea, each still weighing only 0.10 kg... but the process of making them involves most of the water being boiled away to make the concentrated dosage.  Drinking them no longer provides calories or hydration... just the medicine for which they are intended.  Rebalance by increasing drops of herbal tea bags and coffee tins, but each of those "cups" weighs 0.25 kg once made.  Reskin those to show a mini (1-cup) thermos for each instead of a ceramic cup.

THIS, on the other hand, is a lot of work. And a change big enough for people to hate it. "Less is more", y'know?

1 hour ago, Bearimpaler101 said:

But toilet water is potable in real life

The water in the pipes might be potable, but there's no guarantee that the tank itself is clean. Not to mention the amount of bacteria that would grow during the years of this water staying still (temperature indoors is usually barely below 0).

6 hours ago, peteloud said:

I agree with most of of the points tht you are making.  Well done for checking them out and listing them.

But I'd rather have HTL spend their time and resources finishing of Episode 5 and getting on with their next project.

Making a whole episode is A LOT of work. Adding most of these changes would probably only take a week.

They are more like bug-fixes, really.

A couple corrections here

1) Turns out, reclaimed wood already counts as "material". My bad.

2) Now that I think about it, newsprint roll is just a newsprint, but... Rolled. It would be weird for it to weigh twice as much. Instead, I think, it should switch places with "Stack of papers". That way, stack of papers would weigh 0.2kg and could be turned into 4 pieces of tinder. "Newsprint roll" would be completely analogous to "newsprint" (because they are the same thing)

2 hours ago, Leeanda said:

Not sure that that's what he was implying!  Lots of people want to clean up in the houses ,and with mods some already do! 

Doesn't mean they are camping at all!  And I'd kind of hoped that we'd heard the last of that comment,but sadly not.

Okay, I'll admit it, "survival, not camping" did become a bit of a matra in TLD community. But it's still correct. The long dark is a survival game. Check its steam page. That's what it says.

It's not a camping game. You can't roast marshmallow over the fire with a guitar tune playing in the background. 

Sure, a lot of people mod TLD so that they can clean up houses. This is great! I love TLD modding community. They're the best! It doesn't mean, this feature should be added to the game.

The long dark is built around survival, every mechanic serves it.  A chair, for example, is made out of wood. You can burn it.

Can you sit on it? No, why would you need it?

Can you move it? Is this action gonna make it more burnable? No? Then it's useless.

Can you at least clean up all the garbage? Not unless it tries to bite your face off.

Nature in the long dark is beautiful but dangerous. Indoor locations are safe but ugly. That's the trade.

The world is hostile wherever you go.

This is what vulnerability fantasy is.

This is the intended experience.

At least, that is how I see it. Maybe I'm wrong and Hinterland are getting ready to announce Resolute Interior Designer update. Who knows?