Third Try

The fact that it's so brutally difficult and that it takes actual skill, experience and knowledge to be able to play the game at higher difficulties. I love that it has permanent death, such extreme inventory limits, realistic crafting times, good story... few survival games come close. It can be really pretty too, and the music is awesome. Like the game Firewatch, it feels like you're in a painting half the time. That it is so relaxing and peaceful, yet can keep you on edge and make you panic.

If it's an actual NPC dude that you talk to than I'm against it, although, I don't think they'd do that. It would ruin the feeling of being the last man (or woman) alive. I need some sort of an explanation though, and like, I don't really care for it. I don't think I'll use it unless I find myself on day five-hundred-something with no way to start a fire. Last resort, you know?

@ajb1978 and @conanjaguar Me too. For years I have had a leatherman multi tool on the left side of my belt, a sheath knife on the right, a note book, pencil, elastic and a lighter in my pockets. My winter coat has an actual survival kit in the massive pockets. That airplane picture is cool. Even though I don't reload bullets I still collect brass 😅.

Thanks for the comments y'all! Using cold water first makes sense (I've even heard of people rubbing it with snow before they heat up). Definetely don't use hotter water than is normally comfortable though (our water heater is set to low, so it was fine -- no burns). I came back to write an update on a new friend. My sisters co-workers husband, who I am now friends with. He worked (and still does) outdoors construction-type stuff and one winter day it was actually -40 out (doesn't matter if it's celsius or fahrenhiet). One of the coldest days that has happened in a long time. His gloves had holes in them and after his shift he had found that his entire hands were black from frostbite. He hadn't noticed because at that point the skin feels warm, so he thought it was fine. He was lucky to not get his fingers or entire hands amputated, but he has permanent nerve damage. This has happened twice now and so he can't feel anything on his hands. It took years before he could tell if he was touching something or not, but he still can't feel pain. He used to work in firefighting and was one of the crews best because he could get second and third degree burns and not even notice until he actually looked at them. I had watched him stick his hands in a fire, burn them and then continue to carry a heavy load back inside. He's gotten third stage frostbite twice and once you get frostbitten once you get it easier the next time, so it only has to be too cold to go out without a sweater and he'll get frostbite on his hands. It was way before my time, but my great grandfather had nearly lost his feet in a war. There was a blizzard and he had no boots for one reason or another and they planned on amputating his feet once the morning came, but the whole night a nurse had massaged his feet and when the surgeon came in he found that his feet were fine. #FootMassageSavesLives (lol) P.S: I suggested this game to him, and he said he's already played it but didn't care for it (Gasp!). Refering to @conanjaguar's post 'How TLD Are Ya' I met an actual heritic. Burn him at the stake! 😁

Hahaha, this is amazing, lol 😂

@YKMini you live in Yukon! If I ever make it to canada that's my top priority. I imagine you're in whitehorse, two-thirds of the population are, but if you're not are you above the arctic circle? How close is the timberline? Are the trees dwarfed? Are there mountains? Does it snow very much? Haha, sorry for all my questions, but Yukon's really cool.

Snow blindness too.

Adding primers to reloading. Adding different calibers. Deep snow. Overheating. Alchahol.

I died several times without ever making it past a few days my first few times, so I can't remember. But my first base that I remember is the mountaineers hut on timber wolf mountain. My favorite region is Desolation Point (don't ask me why, not sure), but often end up in quonset garage for a while.

@hozz1235 that video was hilarious! @FaT McMarlin Before you're allowed to request timberwolves in PV, please tell us, are you a Pilgrim? 🤨 YES -- That one. I've stopped carrying the revolver around unless I hear/see wildlife because of all the accedental shots. I don't think it needs to be 'fixed' though.

lol, 'Heritic.' Although, I do admit that this game has a cult-like following (the only ones that beat it are old classics like Doom, Undertale, and maybe Half-Life). Knight. Even if I play other games I just can't stop playing the Long Dark. I like to preach the religion though to others 😁 Although, ya'll gotta admit that most people who have this game in there library are complete heritics and because of that, don't have a forum account, lol.

The circling method is neat (never tried it though). I usually just chill in a spot, watching the bear and waiting for it to come towards me. I try to distract/scare it in my favor my chucking stones. Once it's close enough I'll use my bow preferably, or rifle secondary to try and hit the neck or head. If it gets the jump on me though I shoot twice and get mauled. Try to run, but, you know, bears are fast.

I've never actually died from a blizzard, I don't think. I have a really good sense of direction. But my two records I died from really stupid reasons. Voyager, day 70 something I was feeling on top of the world, carrying my bow and exploring the island after killing my first bear. Then I fell off the railroad bridge while showing a friend the game, lol. On stalker, day 30 something I was making my way from quonset garage to desolation point for the forge, and slept in a cabin along the way. I wake up in the middle of the night (I only do 6 hour chunks at most of sleeping) with cabin fever risk. So I go outside and sleep. Next thing ya know I'm getting ravaged by a wolf. I stagger up, taking my bedroll, walking to the door with a sprained ankle when another one attacks. I won both struggles, so my condition isn't really that bad, but I decide the instant I get in the house to just sleep an hour to restore condition lose. I wake up with basically no health left and open my status menu. I have two bleeding injuries, niether of which I bandaged. The instant I started to put on a bandage I died. Couldn't play for a while after that. 😅

I recently switched to stalker after learning the southern half of the map real good with voyager. Stalker is definetely a lot harder in the biginning and I find myself always carrying at least three torches, usually more. Once you get past the hump of finding a weapon, some decent clothes, a good kill... Yeah, it's fairly easy-ish, but a mistake will kill you a lot faster (bleed-out time is seriously dangerous on stalker -- pack those bandages!)

It might have been because I'd stayed in the same place for many blizzards, just hibernating, living off a bear, but when I went out to get sticks they all had two in one stick image on the ground, lol. Double sticks.

lol 😂

@J.W.P, what where you doing with 66 stones? 😂 I usually only carry two or three (maybe ten early game). I admit that I do not have the force, but I have witnessed your peoples powers influencing even other worlds. Your powers grow strong -- many timberwolves have been affected by them in my realm.

Omg YES. I go insane sometimes just watching the silent keys... wow, that sounds like a cool band name 😂 "The Silent Keys coming to LA this November!" haha. Going outside EVER with ravenous wolves and bears and moose that attack on sight. I would literally starve to death before going outside in real life.

Every time I hear a crow caw I am instantly transported to the long dark in my mind

Watching that video of the shortcut gave me anxiety 😅 I would have to be pretty hard pressed to do that. I'm usually dancing over the heads of a pack of timber wolves and if I fell down into them (gaining a sprain on the bottom)... I wonder if it's intentional or not though 🤔

@conanjaguar, thanks for replying, and with the first thing, yea, that's a good point. The skill (maybe included with rifle firearm skill?) would definitely increase reload rate. Ancient british military was 3 shots per minute, if you couldn't do that then you couldn't join. No idea what the fastest reloading time is though. I hope we can make some tater' 'shine! And yeah, I had been afraid of the same thing for the different feats for Will and Mackenzie.

Faults Alright, one more post for a while, then I'll start writing a comic and a horror story and be out of you're guy's hair for a while. This idea was made inspired by @Ghurcb's post a while back. Similar but inverse to the current Feats. It would not replace them. They work in the same way where you have to unlock it by completing something, and after that you can use them in survival worlds. It would make sense to not add a limit to them (if there is keep it at five). Faults are used to make a game more challenging (either for the master interlopers or for those of us who like a certain difficulty but find ourselves getting bored). Also, similar to the Darkwalker challenge, where upon completion you get a feat that has both positive and negative affects (less tired at night, more in day), each challenge could unlock a feat with positive and negative, a mix of Feats and Faults. Maybe ones that aren't tied to challenges at all, but still have both negative and positive effects. Called Faulted Feats? Strong Weaknesses? Have feats specifically for the Astrid character and different ones for Will's. These could just be called Astrids feats or Wills feats. This was brought up by @FreeSTONE in his topic INTROVERT saying "After all, they are two different people - so they do not need to have the exact same stats, right?" If you guys have any suggestions or ideas on better ways to earn them, please comment. Fault ideas: Clumsy: increased chance of sprains, chance of getting burns from starting fire and ammo crafting, chance of getting bleeding affect when using sharp tools, chance of failing to reload a bullet or arrow and dropping it, always shivering when aiming, chance of misfiring with any weapon. (@Ghurcb replied earlier to me that this would probably just be annoying, not more interesting. Fair enough. My comeback is that regular feats only do minor changes) 'Earned' by getting 100 sprains. Weak: Stamina decreased and struggles are harder. Take longer to harvest things. Carry capacity decreases over time (maybe have a setting for how much this does?) Insomnia: Permanent Insomnia. unlocked by dying of exaustion only. Claustrophobic: you get cabin fever risk the instant you walk indoors (maybe you just have permanent cabin fever?). Unlocked by getting cabin fever 20 times. Unhealthy: Condition capped at 50%. Disease kills you faster, infection spreads faster, more sensitive to food poisoning, recovery rate is slower. Unlocked by staying under 50% condition for five consecutive days. Vegan: unable to eat any meat, or any dairy, or eggs. No fish. You cannot kill anything if it is not attacking or being aggressive towards you. Even with dead creatures, you cannot use the hide or guts for any crafting. Unlocked by not eating meat for 10 consecutive days. Cold Blooded: get frostbite risk on your hands, feet and head the instant you go outside. Warm clothing on those will only slow it down, not prevent it. Get frostbite five times in one game (it is possible). Drafty: Buildings give wind protection still, but during blizzards there is a windchill of 3 C. The buildings are only 10 degrees warmer than outside and never above freezing. Alchaholic: have a semi-permanent headache and will drink antiseptic if used, causing temporary pain and condition loss. Learn skills slower. (this one would be really annoying) Feral Prey: (don't know how hard this would be to add, but it would be fun!) Rabbits are feral, having red eyes and will attack you, similar in fashion to the timber wolves attacking. Deer, especially the bucks, will attack if persued. Ptarmagan? Crows? Unlocked by dying from a moose attack. Faulted Feats: Savage: Can only eat meat. Fur clothing is better (50% more warmth and durability), non-fur is worse (1/3 less warmth and durability). Start at level three archery, but never able to level up gunsmithing, rifle or revolver skills. More sensitive to cabin fever, less sensitive to pain, hunger and disease. Can eat raw meat safer. Better in struggles bare-handed. (what unlocks this one? Wearing only fur clothing?) Stormy Weather: Have daily blizzards, (but can carry 5 kg more/start with travois?). unlocked by completing Whiteout challenge. Hunted: There is an immortal bear that follows you into every region (maybe a moose instead 😁), and start with a rifle (bow and arrow on interloper? only a few bullets on stalker). New Feat Idea: Ice Fisher: Start with fishing tackle (on voyager -- pilgrim you have lures too, interloper you start with just the line) and start with level three Ice Fishing skill. Unlocked by catching 100 fish (with tip-ups or not). New Challenge Idea: Teddy: (inspired by @conanjaguar replying in "idea for a small easter egg" by @JackTrysGames) Maybe that could work for a challenge… something like As The Dead Sleep? “It’s a cold and lonely world out there. Mommy is gone. Daddy is gone. They’re all gone. They’re asleep and won’t wake up. The only thing keeping you going is Teddy, and he’s starting to fall apart. Find a sewing kit and fix Teddy before the real bears find you.” This is funny, but seriously, a challenge where you are playing as a child. You can carry less, less effective in struggles, Maybe can't use the rifle. Get cold faster and more sensitive to frostbite and pain, but heal faster. Can't wear heavy clothing. Faster stamina regen. The only goal (other than staying alive) is to collect all the teddy bears across the map, and always have one on you at all times. If it breaks apart, then you lose all reason to live and you start losing condition with the affliction 'Loneliness'. Sewing kits and teddy bears (either make them a collectable or lightweight so that it doesn't take too much inventory), are neccesary for survival. Probably have the base settings be for voyager. Difficult with all the extra challenge, but in the story maybe it's really not long after the first flare, so there's still lots of usable stuff. Start in grey mothers house perhaps. Will Mackenzies Feats Athletic: can run longer and move slightly faster while encumbered. Introvert: (from @FreeSTONE) Resistance to Cabin Fever. Used to being alone as a bush pilot. Gunsmith: As a youngster would help his father reload. Start with level four gunsmithing skill. Archer: start at archery level three/two. Astrid Greenwoods Feats Skilled: start with level three cooking and level two rifle skill. (this is from story mode where it actually works like this) Unlocked by completing chapter three in wintermute? Doctor: more effective use of medical supplies and can craft Stim Shots at a workbench (needs rare supplies, not sure what though, any ideas?) Fast Learner: from all of the studying she's done, she can read books twice as fast. Haha, alright. There's my Fault ideas. Any opinions? More charactor specific Feats? Ideas for teddy bear places?

Here's some smaller ideas, for those who are interested. Some of these I found out are already wanted by others, so I'll mention the names if I can find/remember them. shotgun instead of flintlock: we already have a rifle, bow and pistol, so maybe another rifle is unneeded, but it would be interesting. Bolt cutters: add these to survival to make late game locked places (idea from @HyperLordBender). Maybe one of these could be the basement under thomsons crossing community hall (idea from @Abenico). Ice cream: a rare food item best stored outside and found inside freezers. Chest freezers: A large freezer in a few buildings and basements (the workshop in Broken railroad? Mollies Basement? The Whale place in Desolation Point?) Leather Jacket: an exterior item of torso clothing. High durability and protection, but not much warmth. Repaired and harvested with/for leather. Dried/salted meat: mentioned by numerous people, but basically lighter, less scented but more dehydrating meat. Maybe a little calorie loss. Decreased rifle clip: I don't know if anyone else will feel this way, but the largest clip I ever see on a bolt-action is 6. It feels like I never have to worry about reloading, especially because I use the ammo so rarely anyway. Why is the clip so big? Maybe even decrease it to four? I've never had to reload the rifle like I do with the revolver - mid fight sometimes. Also, the ammo boxes come in five. Low quality ammo damages guns more: this might be completely useless and it's not a big deal, but in reality a low quality powder does cause more fouling in the barrel. Flintknapping: I don't know if this would be overpowered, if it would ruin the balance of the game, but I think it's a good idea none-the-less. Flintknapping would be it's own skill which determines how fast you can make the items and at what condition the item starts at (kinda like ammo crafting). The items would be none repairable and less effective then their metal counter-parts. An idea also brought up by @SuperStriker16 (who might have wanted the flintlock too?). Crafting could also be disabled, kinda like birch tea. Flint Arrow heads: requires an arrow shaft and three feathers, and won't kill as many things. Definitely more fragile. Flint hatchet: Made with a log (ceder or fir), gut and the flint. Flint blade: very simple knife, just a piece of flint with a sharp edge. Fragile and slow, but can harvest meat quicker than bare handed. Flint for the flintlock rifle (for repairing it, or maybe just needs replaicing every ~25 shots or whatever. Won't work until you repair the flint?) Fire: requires a piece of flint and any metal tool or a scrap piece (not fishhooks though, and not things like bullet casing, but probably arrowheads). Maybe to make it not OP it could require level 2 fire starting and would need accelerant to attempt. At level 3 you can do it without accelerant, but at a super low chance, still requiring tinder. At level 5 maybe allow starting without tinder (ya'll ever start fire with sparks?). nerf level 5 cooking: having food poisoning obsolete is kinda op. Anyone else? Sulphur from batteries: they're made of lead and sulphiric acid, so maybe...? Also, maybe allow sulphur as tinder? Tinder still useful: make it so that the chance to start a fire with tinder is at least increased a little, 10%? fire from auroura: make it so that exposed electrical wires can start a torch (wait, is this already in the game?) Empty lantern oil: just... why not? Even if it requires breaking the lantern, I still want the oil. Reloading requires primers: I admit this is pretty much a bad idea, but in reality, you need primers to ignite the powder. It literally would not work otherwise. But this would make reloading harder than it already is, so, I'm not really in favor of it. Bow silencer: a fur strip wrapped around the strings of a bow to reduce the twang of the bow string. Would make it so that animals are less likely to spook if you miss. Quiver: This has been brought up by someone else, but I can't remember who, derp. It would make it so that drawing arrows would be faster and arrow weight would be greatly reduced. (maybe an equivalent for the muzzleloader could be a powder horn?) Flare shell crafting: This would be extremely useful. Maybe the recipe could be a flare and gunpowder at an ammunition crafting station. Don't feel like I'm judging you hinterland! This game is great, these are just some additions I think would be fun and improve the game, except maybe the primers 😁

"No offence, that's just my opinion. I don't feel like TLD would benefit from longer crafting times or cutting your fingers while using a hatchet." Fair enough. I guess the main point would be to make a unique challenge, not just generally more annoying or harder. An immortal bear? That sounds so cruel 😂 But what about an immortal moose hunting you down? Haha, you'd just always have broken ribs and a hundred bandages on you.

I feel like "Please don't ever end it!" But I also feel the thing of like, what if it's ruined? I know there's time capsule, but what if it just kept going and buying the whole game was like, a 100$ and it was even more overwhelming for new players. What if it became like spongebob where the creator is dead, but they keep going. At that point it's just beating a dead horse. Stop at season four spongebob! I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but microsoft ruined the feel of minecraft. I still play 1.8.9 because that's the last version that Notch actually made. Idk, this game is awesome though, just don't keep juicing it even once you're out of ambition and ideas. (but not yet!)