Glacia

Hello, i want to share my experience with the Interloper difficulty and my ideas for this game mode.
I know this have been discused a lot of times already on both this forum and reddit forums, almost since the launch of interloper.

I started played the game in a serious way on Stalker difficulty, lasting around 600 days before getting bored and moving to other game modes.
My experience with Stalker was amazing, i absolutely love the entire game exploration, the grind and reaching dangerous places like bleak inklet/TWM summit!
After looting everything, leveled up to max every skill, exploring almost all the maps and experience all the game mechanics, i understand one of the core aspects of the game: 
Progression is not just good, it's VERY good.

The game itself have some ¿Dungeonish? regions, with incredible high risk but high rewards.
Reaching the summit, exploring BI/BLR with timberwolfs, exploring HRV, even travel around transition zones was a wonderfull experience, because you get a reward for doing it.
Around day 400, with only HRV left to explore, i was already missing some BIS (Best in slot) gear, some tools and other stuff.  (Also i never finded a Mukluks 😥)
My point is, the game let you do what you want with it, but it ENCOURAGES you to do certain things, with ofc, rewards.

Now, im on Interloper on day 150.
Im not gonna lie, i enjoy every aspect of this game difficulty, and i think im never gonna play stalker again because i like the game to test my skills to the limit, being always very hard.
But my concern is about the game progression losed with this difficulty:
I get 95% of my BIS only in HRV (My spawn), Milton and Broken Railroad (This last region is where i craft all my gear and grinded to max, around 50 days).
Then i move to Mystery Lake and looted my second thermal underwear, getting my 100% BIS gear, also most skills on level 5 and various full of resources bases in BR and ML.
Finally, i explore Ash Canyon for the crampons and backpack, and now ¿Im done?.

The temperature no longer decays, i no longer have anything to improve on my gear or skills, i have resources to last hundreds of days on my bases, and a lot of regions in case i need more of them.
¿Summit?  No better gear or needed resources.
¿Bleak Inklet?  No use of the last resort cannery, i can craft several tools before needing to repair anything.
¿Blackrock?  Noisemakers and ballistic vest does not provide anything very usefull, also have the same problem of bleak Inklet,
¿Exploring 100% HRV/AC for the hidden caches?  Same as summit.
¿Coastal highway or other regions?  Completely optional, no resources needed.
Basically, i can just choose where to establish a permanent base to survive, there is absolutely no reason to explore several regions and take risks.

This last is where i think the game can improve this difficulty, adding just a bit (For balance reasons, ofc) of 'High risk/reward' progression items on specific places:

- TWM Summit:  Two climbing socks can be looted from the containers. (+1*C using both)
- Ash canyon:  Once you loot every hidden cache on the map, the last one you open (And only this one), contains a Wool Longjohns. You need to lot every cache in order to get this item. (+1*C)
- HRV:  Exactly the same as Ash canyon. (+1*C)
- Bleak Inklet:  Once you unlocked the last resort cannery, you can loot a single Thick Wool sweater inside the building. (+0.5*C)
- Blackrock:  Exactly the same as Bleak Inklet, you need to unlock the room in order to loot another thick wool sweater. (+0.5*C)

This items (If you get all) gives exactly a 4*C bonus for your survivor.
An insanely high risk journey around the most dangerous regions of the game, but with an interesting reward.
There is not spawn of this items on Loper, if you want the bonus *C, you will NEED to grind and fight for it.

Of course this is just an idea and items/locations can be very different, but i think i explained well my point.
Interloper is fantastic, but i think the game (Even on harder difficulties) is intended to be explored and enjoyed!  Removing core game progression feels bad at least for me.

Also:
- Because interloper have a cautious balance between temperature, if you can get warmer, also the world could get a bit colder over time (For a example, -22 instead of -20 at day 50).
- If you like to play something like this idea, there is a mod who drastically improves the utility of Bleak Inklet for Interloper (I havent tested by myself, but it looks very good).
- Sorry for bad english, still learning :), and thanks for reading.
 

I managed to kill a bear inside a cave at BR!  

Insanely risky, but harvesting an entire bear carcass in a warm and safe place is a blessing on Interloper 

Im not sure if a campfire can stop a charging bear, maybe im gonna give a try im my next bear hunt. If it works, killing bears inside caves can be extremetly efficient and safe, al least for interloper.

Looks like i survived another night 

Personally, i think being able to use the Microwave (Basically a fireless and faster stove) during an Aurora, it would be an interesting implementation for the game. Like a ¿Reverse magnifying glass?, an option to renewable fire during night. Not a game changing element, but a very situational usefull mechanic.

Also, i think you should be able to lit torchs with the sparks of the wires during an Aurora (They cause burn, so they should can ignite something..).

Hello everyone! , im Franco and I've been playing TLD for almost a year.
After achieving a 600 days stalker run, im now enjoying the game on my Interloper run! (Around 45 days)
I am a fanatic of the survival/sandbox genre, but the long dark has several unique and special traits that make it almost a masterpiece.
The fact that you write your own story and do what you want with the game is truly amazing, plus an incredible game aesthetic/atmosphere (Yes, arctic is the best!).

After more than 500 hours played on the game, i decided to get involved in this great and friendly community
Thanks Hinterland for such an incredible game, im glad to be here and i will always support the game!

Miscelaneous info:
Something that caught my attention after playing the game, are the similarities between canadian arctic and argentinian patagonia.
Despiting more than ¿20.000 km? distance, both places of the world share a lot of flora and geography elements!
Also, rose hips grow on patagonia region, where do we call them 'Rosa Mosqueta', and it's used for several Jams and cosmetic products.

I always wondered what would happen if the first flare would have affected Patagonia instead!
With not a single predator native to the region, we should chill at a thousands of miles long 'Coastal Highway', with Penguins