Cyclone35

Just I minor idea, but do you think it would be a cool detail for the light coming from windows to flicker a bit when there's a blizzard outside. Usually you can tell the weather is bad outside when you hear the pipes in the walls shaking. But maybe a visual clarity would also enhance the atmosphere a bit.

In the past, when the condition percentage on clothes and meat decreases, you can see visual details in your inventory. Meat becomes green and spoiled, and clothes become torn and weary. What if this attention to detail was also present on other items. Knives & hatchets look blunt or rusty, guns look damage and worn out. These kinds of details would enhance the immersion towards survival, and seeing your tools worn out would encourage you to keep them in good condition.

I do, I was just suggesting an easy recipe since cooking meals with potato's and carrots require special recipes and a cooking lvl higher than 3.

I was wondering if there should be a lvl 1 cooking recipe for the skillet? Something very basic that anyone could pull off on their own. Then I realized that potato's and carrots are only used for more complex recipes. What if there was a recipe for something like fried veggies. Using a skillet, some cooking oil, and salt (for seasoning), you can make a basic dish platter of fried veggies. That way players don't have to wait till there cooking skill is lvl 2-3 to actually start using the skillet. Even if its a survival game, I would prefer cooking my vegetables instead of eating them raw. 1 other detail I was considering is washing your veggies before eating them. Germs on the peel or skin can get inside fruits and vegetables when you cut them, it can cause illness to eat them as they are. All you would need to do is use some potable water to clean your veggies before you can use them for cooking. If you don't clean them, you spring the risk of getting sick. Considering its an apocalypse, it usually best to check if your food is safe to eat.

What about chocolate filled pie? You could melt down chocolate bars and use them for a basic pie recipe.

What if the lunch box was more of a decoration in buildings and factories. You can search them like every other container. You can also find food in them. However, there's a rare chance of finding something like peach pie or rabbit stew in them. For realistic purposes: in order to store a bowl of soup in a lunch box, it would be in a sealed container.

I'm sure at this point, everyone knows what a watch tower is and what there used for. Ideally, park rangers would use them as lookouts to keep watch for fire's and suspicious activity in their sector. Hikers and campers can radio call them if their lost or seek assistance. Though looking at the watch towers in TLD, I don't really see much personality with the interior of these watch towers. You can argue that not every tower should match the description, or how they've all been abandoned due to the quiet apocalypse. But I think these watch towers could use a makeover in terms of design and making them into proper shelters. For 1, they should have the essentials for someone living there for a few months. Things like cabinets for storing supplies, like an overhead supply cache that hangs on the ceiling, or a kitchen counter with a sink and drawers. There should also be an osborne fire finder in the middle, no watch tower is complete without one. I would also suspect there to be a radio coms device on a table, rangers use them to communicate with their coworkers. That's mostly everything, you can think of some other essentials that would fit in a small space. In terms of an exterior, this can differ with each tower. 1 thing I would suspect is an outhouse. Though you are in the woods I don't expect every tower to have one, but we live in a society where you need one. Secondly is a place to store supplies. Some would have crates sitting underneath your tower. While others may have a small shed for storing firewood and useful equipment. That's all I can think of. This isn't really a complicated change, I just figured to current appearance of watch towers in TLD could use a makeover. P.S: I'm well aware of the game Firewatch. You could say I took some inspiration from that game.

I actually posted an idea about a tanning rack a while ago. I do believe there should be a more effective way to acquire cured leather compared to just walking across a frozen lake, waiting for something to drift ashore.

I was thinking about how beach combing works and had an interesting idea about a rare encounter you may discover on the shores. Spoiler warning for Wintermute chapter 3: Within the 3 regions (Bleak Inlet, Costal Highway, & Desolation point) where you can go beach combing, it would be cool to find a dead whale hanging near the shores. It would be frozen and covered in snow, perhaps some aquatic predators bit off a few pieces. Though this would be a rare event, you won't always stumble upon a whale corpse when you enter the regions. Perhaps there could be other types of large aquatic species that end up on the shore (comment down below what sort of aquatic species you'd like to see). If we wanted to add some gameplay elements, I have a few ideas. I'm no expert, but I've heard whale oil can be a good source of fuel. It may be a bit far fetch for a survival game like this, but it is a possibility. Secondly is the source of food this large aquatic creature can provide. I doubt you can harvest the entire animal, but you could harvest a large piece for yourself to eat. However, when there is a whale on the shores, the smell would attract predators like wolves and bears. So anytime you see a whale, there's usually a group of predators surrounding it. Making it more difficult to approach it. That's my take, what do you think?

There has been talk about an additional light source that could exist indoors. Like a candle or something. Though it's generally cheaper just to make a torch compared to an improvise lantern. Maybe there could be a functionality to place the torches onto a wall to act as a wall mount light source. You can also find other lanterns on the map and place them down in your shelter. They can act as a indoor light source instead of using your standard light sources. Only problem is the limited lantern oil available. Sure you can go fishing and get some fish oil, but that's a pretty grindy process. Also I don't think staying in 1 place for weeks is considered a fun experience in a survival game. I suspect the next update will contain the customizable bunker that was promised so we'll see what happens.

There have been moments in the game where you most likely got jumpscared by a bear encounter. Whether the bear started charging at you, or he appeared when you least expected it, I want to hear some of your stories during your playthrough. I'll Start: I was going to make my way to Timberwolf mountain, but I needed to climb a rope to get there. So I rested in the nearby bunker and readied myself. Unfortunately, it was the middle of the night, and there was a blizzard. But I didn't want to wait around any longer, I figured I could make it to shelter by the lake in that region. So I climbed the rope, and got moving through the blizzard. The cold was catching up to me, so I found some cover and got a fire going, enough to keep me warm for 2-3 hours. I used my bedroll to rest near the fire to recover some lost fatigue and warm up a bit. However, the wind decided to change directions, so my fire blew out and I had to keep moving before I freeze. I picked up any sticks I found and looked for another place to get a fire going. I was lucky and was able to get a 2nd fire going. Once again I rested for only 1 hour. But when I wake up, my fire was once again being blown out by the wind. I kept moving, ended up walking past the lake where I was suppose to take shelter and ended up on a hill with 2 trees. The blizzard hasn't stopped, by guy was tired and freezing, I had no choice but to use the hill as cover and try to rest for 1 more hour. But when I woke up, there was the bear right in front of me. I literally jumped out of my seat when I heard/saw it. Luckily, the bear didn't attack me, it got scared and ran away. It took me a few moments to calm myself and view my surroundings. The blizzard stopped, but it was still dark out and was snowing. But it was just visible enough for me to see the hut in the distance. That's my story. Feel free to share your stories below.

Something interesting happened during a normal playthrough of mine, I took the mountain climbing path in Ash Canyon to acquire the backpack expansion. However, the rope climb down towards the mine was missing a rope. Sometimes its close by, other times I'd have to travel farther to find one. But I had no luck finding that rope. I felt upset, dissatisfied that I came all this way and can't continue further. If I was a hardcore player, I would journey far to obtain a spare rope from another region (spoiler: I'm not). But then it hit me, in a realistic scenario, wouldn't it be possible to detach a rope that you tied to a rock and reuse it somewhere else. Some survivalists would bring there own rope with them and reuse it when necessary. So wouldn't make sense if you can detach the rope and put it on a different rock? That way players don't have to walk a long distance just to find 1 rope hidden somewhere on the map. Let me tell you about the 40 second rule used in every (good) open world game. Study has shown that a player can stay immerse in a videogame, as long as they don't spend over 40 seconds traveling between points of interest. If the player discovers something of interest along the way, that timer gets reset. If they can see their destination But if all their doing is walking to their destination, it will suck the life out of them. It makes you lose your immersion as it feels more like a chore to get from point A to point B. This is what I felt looking for that stupid red rope on a mountain side.

Thought of an interesting idea regarding how sleeping works in TLD. When it comes to getting a good night sleep, its pretty straight forward in a survival game. Just sit in a bed and pass time until your character is rested. But what if there was more to it, what if there was some sort of challenge you have to go through to get a restful night sleep. So I thought on rare occasions, the survivor would have dreams and nightmares. This would only trigger if you rest for long hours (8h-12h), it wouldn't occur if you do short naps. When a nightmare occurs, the player would be put in a dreamlike scenario. This is a procedural level that doesn't take place in great bear because its the survivors illusionary dream. The player is given an objective to complete. If they fail the objective, they either wake up earlier than expected, and/or recover less fatigue. An example of a dream, say the player has a bad experience with wolves, so they have a nightmare about getting attacked by a gang of nightmare wolves. The player has no equipment in their inventory, they have to search the area for a weapon to fend off the nightmare wolves. If they succeed, the level ends and you wake up well rested. Another example: Your stuck in a wild blizzard in the middle of a frozen lake, you have to find warmth before you freeze to death. The ice is fragile, so if you fall though the ice or take to long to escape the blizzard, you wake up from your nightmare exhausted. If the player drinks herbal tea before resting, it reduces the chance of the player encountering a nightmare.

I think the design is meant to establish a more intimidating appearance in terms of size and behavior's. There are some black bears that aren't as big in real life. But it is a video game, anything smaller would make it look less threatening. It would be cool to see a variant similar to the female deer, like a grizzly brown bear that offers more meat compared to a black bear.

There has been talk among the community regarding a sled in the game. But I'm not talking about a large sled for carrying items, that's already in the works. I'm talking more about a small sled for getting downhill more quickly. To simply put it, the player could get their hands on a small metal round sled and use it to get across the map more quickly compared to just walking everywhere. When your at the top of a hill, you can equip it and ride down a snowy hill. It will have great speed and save you a lot of time. If you wonder where the player would store the sled in their inventory, they would just hang it like a shield on their backpack. Some things to consider when using a sled. If you slide down rocky terrain, it will damage the sled and result in you loosing speed. If the player crashes into something, the player will fall of the sled and injure themselves. High falls are also very dangerous to encounter. You'll also loose the sled when you fall off, it won't magically return to your inventory, you'll have to search the area to retrieve it. As a bonus, the sled can act as a shield against predators. You can bash the wolf or bear to try and scare it off. But I don't expect the predator to come back and try again. There could be a way to craft a sled yourself, but I think it would require too much scrap metal to pull off. Maybe there would be a wood/animal hide variant that's lighter, but could break more easily and have reduce speed. Just some ideas I brainstormed.