I don't like the game anymore.

[KD7BCH]

I didn't know what to write but I'm not passionate about, I don't play at length, and my hope for the game is at it's lowest point. Ever since they scrapped the road map and implemented all the extra clicking and done nothing about the wolves I've just felt like this isn't the game for me anymore. I have a few hundred hours into it but I don't enjoy playing anymore. This is me coming back after not playing for the last 2 months and coming back to play for an hour and seeing it ripped away from me by another ridiculous wolf encounter. I'm just done with the click here click there, clicky click click menus. I'm just done with putting in an hour or two or five or ten and having it just completely fucked by wolves again and again before I get any actual meat of the game in the first few weeks because I just don't get there. Even when I get a great start and make it to day 10, I know the wolf fucking is coming on day 12 or day 13, I'm just done. I'm done with that and I'm done with rotary dial. This is just lame. I was never about the "story mode" and the real appeal of the game is creating your own story and i"m just done with the fact that isn't even taking a back seat to story development but is in the trunk because of all these other excursions the developers are thinking/working up, movie deals, the long dark lunch box. I mean this isn't Space Balls, it's the The Long Dark, a PC game, but oh yeah it's multi platform and multi media now. Except the PC game was the gem and now its just not fun to play. I've been around since 2014 and following since 2012 but I feel like that entire time hoping we'd get things like real-er water storage, or primitive fire making which would be fucking huge for a game like this, had instead been traded away for "STEAM TRADING CARDS" or for extra fumes on the exhaling player. All I'm going to say on knowing all this and having learned the game dev really doesn't like his community is another factor I'm not even going to explore in depth except to say this. The reality is we all supported him and it would be nice if he felt the desire to support us. 

So I think I'm done. I know these I quit posts can be catchy but I also felt it important to explain why I'm leaving and dissatisfied. 

[ChillPlayer]

Don't understand what your problem is with Wolves, it was never so easy to deal with them as since the Wintermute launch, they are reduced to an annoyance without much risk, Flares, Stones, Flaregun, Arrows, Rifle and Torches work quite reliable and even if you get into a hand struggle and lose you most likely get away with a scratch and some torn pieces maybe, I just had to fight 3 wolves in a row in Broken Railroad and still went back into the garage with 25% condition left - on Stalker though.

But of course, you must have some condition to lose if you want to survive, if you go in a struggle with 30% left, it's not the wolves mistake that it gets free dinner

 

[EDIT]: the nice thing though is, you can always come back - needed a hiatus myself a while a go and I found back too

[KD7BCH]

My problem is, I don't want to deal with them at all anymore. I don't want the end of the game because of them. I don't want to hear them. I don't want to see them milling around. I don't want to play the game with wolves in it. But it's not just that, the rest of the game is just buggy and boring. It had a lot more promise during EA and now all of that is gone too. 

[Fuarian]

I get your frustration. I've been there and I've overcome it. I find it easier to deal with wolves on Interloper than any other difficulty. And it's fun even. 

[Mroz4k]

3 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

Ever since they scrapped the road map

Roadmaps were a horrible idea in the first place. All it does is give people a reason to bitch about every single thing that is not done on time. Development takes a lot of time, mistakes happen that cannot be presumed in the first place, and not all things that end up getting on there will be added because not all the ideas that sound "smart" at first actually end up being smart for the game. I am glad there are no road maps anymore because it seems to me that people just complain more and more about the roadmap goals taking too long to be implemented.

3 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

implemented all the extra clicking

Joke on you, if you are playing on a PC, there is an option in the settings to click only once, and it will fill up on its own. I assume you do since you seem to be playing this for a long while. So, next time before you complain, perhaps check the settings first 

3 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

one nothing about the wolves

 

wolves changed incredibly over the past several updates. Thanks to the smell meters, they have been literally changing (albeit mildly) in every new update and hotfix... Not saying they are fixed (not at all) but they are clearly being worked on.

This right here is not an issue of the game. This is an issue of your playstyle. I won't be the first to tell you that wolves are actually really easy to deal with. Since the cartographer, they will zone in on you if you have smelly items on you - but baits work better than ever. Just put a bait down, back away, and let the wolf cross into your weapon crosshairs. Easy kill on a wolf, more meat and materials to gather. 

Or, instead of dragging around baits and smelly cooked/raw meat, pick up some stones instead. One of the chief changes in Cartographer was that wolves investigate noises now (opening of car doors, doors, etc) - including thrown stones. You can throw stones somewhere, the wolves will go there to investigate. This way, you can force them to go elsewhere for a while, when they are blocking your path, or are sitting at a spot you want to loot. They won't be distracted for long, but it works.

Or, play the game on Pilgrim. No shame in picking that game mode. In it, the wolves are no longer hostile, they will run away when they see you, so no issue here at all. Many people play Pilgrim exclusively because they don't like dealing with the wildlife.

3 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

This is just lame. I was never about the "story mode" and the real appeal of the game is creating your own story and i"m just done with the fact that isn't even taking a back seat to story development but is in the trunk because of all these other excursions the developers are thinking/working up, movie deals, the long dark lunch box.

Now this is nothing but bitching for the point of bitching. First of all, its their game, and as much as I hate to say it (I love sandbox more then the story mode) the sandbox had its course for several years as the main thing, I dont mind if the story mode takes the priority for now. It makes sense. Some people wanted the story mode more, this is not just about what I or you want. Be considerate of others too. 

Movie deals? You one of those people? The way I found out about it is that a director of movies liked the idea of the game, and decided to make a movie in that genre. Hinterlands had nothing to do with it besides providing the initial inspiration and then contributing with the script to make sure it ends up being great. I see people bitching on YouTube about how it will be horrible because it's a director of Resident Evil and want the Hinterland people to run the movie directly... and all I can think of is "really???". Hinterland has next to nothing to do with the movie, as far as I can tell. They will be on the side of it. It's free publicity for them, but its run by Hollywood. They could never have hoped to finance the movie on that scale of their own.

You bitch about the lunchbox, really? Of course, they need to sell themed gear... Do you have any idea how much developing a game cost, to run that business? It's not cheap, and the game is relatively cheap for an indie studio with no global company backing - it is really their only source of income. For people like me, who had the game since early alpha and paid a fraction of what it costs now, buying Hinterland gear is just about the only way to support them further in their efforts.

3 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

Except the PC game was the gem and now its just not fun to play. I've been around since 2014 and following since 2012 but I feel like that entire time hoping we'd get things like real-er water storage, or primitive fire making which would be fucking huge for a game like this

I have been around for that amount of time as well and the game has only ever gotten better since the day I started playing. I can say that for sure because my PC broke down a while ago, and the only TLD I get to play now is the version of the game from 2015. You bitch about the wolves now? Try back then! I am perfectly capable to deal with wolves in the current game, but I am struggling horribly with them in the old version - even on Voyageur they are EVERYWHERE, the sneaking doesn't work well, and there are no ways to properly bait them yet, not to mention rifle is the only weapon in game and bullets are precious to waste on every wolf - if I at least had a bow, I could deal with them with ease... 

Primitive fire making would not be huge, it will effectively kill the game. Making it really easy. But again, those are our individual opinions.

3 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

had instead been traded away for "STEAM TRADING CARDS" or for extra fumes on the exhaling player.

Because they totally stopped working on improving the game just to add Steam Trading cards. Every time I see people claim stuff like this I cant but to knock my head on a wall... This is dumb opinion. How can anyone even think that?

Steam trading cards are ultimately not a part of the game, it's for the most part just about art. And some people collect that stuff, so if my developers are working hard at changing a mechanic of the game, and my creative designers are sitting on their asses, twiddling thumbs because they don't have anything to design at the moment, why wouldn't I let them create a couple of steam trading cards in the meantime, so they have something to do, and I have something tiny to add into the game to make a couple of people happier ?

Steam trading cards were not created by people instead of, for example, working on a better water storing. It was done by the artsy people who paint the game and create textures - who quite often know very little about the actual programming, and are simply artistically talented. And don't always have something to do, if the game is currently not creating a new region or new textures. So, it gives them stuff to do.

But that is a simple logic which should be obvious to anyone who stops for 10 minutes to think about it.

 

 

3 hours ago, KD7BCH said:

All I'm going to say on knowing all this and having learned the game dev really doesn't like his community is another factor I'm not even going to explore in depth except to say this. The reality is we all supported him and it would be nice if he felt the desire to support us. 

Now that is funny. First of all, nothing I have seen from any of the Hinterland staff I came in contact with indicates they wouldn't care about their fans. Quite the opposite, actually. And I can tell because I have a first-hand experience with another game that started off in roughly the same time as TLD at similar scale, and which ACTUALLY turned into all the things you complain here about, unjustly.

Takes a little bit to see that the people in behind this game take great pride in their work, and should, but actually care quite a lot about their fanbase and have actively worked with them from the start to this very moment. Just because not everything you ever wanted was added does not mean they don't care, but you need to take a look at things from their perspective, too.

If we are talking about Creative Director Raphael, judging from his somewhat recent tweet on the successes of a "game developer" known as Player Unknown, the person who started off with modding Arma games for Battle Royale modes some few years ago and now co-owns the bestseller world game known as PUBG, I can tell this man has a craving for more glory then he gets, and I have great respect for the man, but I think all the people in Hinterland should already feel a great sense of pride for what they accomplished already, because many never made it this far. 

Well, didn't want to go on a rant but did it anyway, so there you go. If you want to leave, fine, sorry to see you go especially because 95% of the things you talked about are not an issue, and 100% of what you complained about are not the fault of the game. We all do get salty at times, and I can tell that recently I was dealing with so much bullshit in my old TLD version of the game that I wanted to quit it quite a few times. 

But I have a lot of experience with games, and I can tell with certainty that I am proud to be part of the community of this great game. It could have gone down the drain like so many other games in this genre, but it did not, and even though there were some setbacks along the way, the game just keeps getting better.

Consider playing the game differently first before leaving. You might just find that once you get more experience, the things you dealt with before are actually not that hard to deal with at all. And that it was all in you. And cut the developers some slack - you can't even imagine how hard they work on that game, and saying stupid crap like this rant only discourages them, rather than help. If you want to help, provide constructive criticism. This game is for some of them their life´s work - so its a thing of pride. 

[Patrick Carlson]

@KD7BCH Sorry to hear you feel like your time with the game is finished. I can say our work with the game continues on. 

I will also say that everyone on the team cares deeply about the community of players that have gathered around The Long Dark, new and old. The realities of the game itself mean, however, that not every suggested mechanic or system or change can be implemented. We know, of course, that this can be frustrating to some players, but we do the best we can to understand that feedback as we carry on. And, as I am sure you know, there are plenty of changes and features that have made their way into Survival Mode (and the game more generally) thanks to community feedback. Steam Cards were a highly-requested item actually. 

All that being said, I hear where you are coming from - our time with games can wax and wane as we experience them. Thanks for taking the time to let us know how you feel. 

- Patrick

[EricTheGreat12]

On 2017-10-01 at 3:26 PM, KD7BCH said:

My problem is, I don't want to deal with them at all anymore. I don't want the end of the game because of them. I don't want to hear them. I don't want to see them milling around. I don't want to play the game with wolves in it. But it's not just that, the rest of the game is just buggy and boring. It had a lot more promise during EA and now all of that is gone too. 

Really..? Should zombies be chasing you around? 

 

Wolves are a crucial part of the game, whever or not they’re deemed as “annoying”. Take them away and you might as well play something else

[Blinkin]

I don't really get the problem about the wolves (yes I also dislike the amount of wolves).
Wolves have been much harder in the early versions of the game. In fact a wolf encounter 7 out of 10 times meant dead. Things have been changed a lot now, wolves aren't as deadly as they used to be, but they are way less rare which bugs me too sometimes.

[Simone Else]

play on pilgrim if you cant handle the wolves, or yeah just quit.  some folks just cant do it and thats ok.  

i know i wouldnt enjoy the game without there being some kind of danger. 

theres plenty of ways to deal with them though, and so easy to just outright avoid them if you dont have a weapon.  

i realize at the early game, this can be a problem because of not finding anything or being unfamiliar with the area you are in.   pilgrim mode can help u learn those things.  

good luck

 

 

[MarrowStone]

As an experienced survivor, I dont really agree with the "Just play on pilgrim" solution, I enjoy the challenge of the weather, scarecity of resources, and a good wolf fight now and then. Interloper almost became my favourite mode, providing all of that, and wilves more akin to the older versions, rare but deadly. However, it went a bit too far in the scarecity. The lack of a rifle and any other manufactured tools made it feel as though the geomagnetic event was years ago.

I still think this game is great, however. 

Difficulty sliders for a custom survival experience would work well for me and many others. I know its easier said than done but something as simple as a badge that adds a base chance of a wolf fleeing on sight by 25 percent chance called "Imtimidating" could be implemented.

[Riotintheair]

It seems the wolf coat leads to some chance of scaring them off based on what I've seen and I'd peg it at about a 25% chance. It also seems taking out a weapon but not aiming it (since that leads to instant attack) sometimes causes them to flee, so I suspect it has some small additive chance. I really like how wolves work with the wolf coat as it means I sometimes get a reprieve and don't have to build a fire or use a precious flare/flare gun round.

[Mroz4k]

First of all, just read my own rant on this thread again, I would like to apologize to @KD7BCH for the aggressive tone I had there, though I do admit I meant every word of it. Just want to say I did not want to be personally offensive, and it sounded like that a lot.

 

6 hours ago, Riotintheair said:

It seems the wolf coat leads to some chance of scaring them off based on what I've seen and I'd peg it at about a 25% chance. It also seems taking out a weapon but not aiming it (since that leads to instant attack) sometimes causes them to flee, so I suspect it has some small additive chance. I really like how wolves work with the wolf coat as it means I sometimes get a reprieve and don't have to build a fire or use a precious flare/flare gun round.

Don't think its that much, from my experience it was more of a 15%, with the bear coat it was probably 25% (not sure about the bear scaring off, don't think it applies to them at all). Also, I believe it does not stack on multiple coats. But these are the things that might have changed with Wintermute, don't have experience with that one yet sadly.

Now the weapon argument is interesting. But I am not sure it is the case - because a number of players believe that holding weapons actually promotes the wildlife to attack you if you point it at them. Again, unsure, have not tested this myself.

[Riotintheair]

1 hour ago, Mroz4k said:

First of all, just read my own rant on this thread again, I would like to apologize to @KD7BCH for the aggressive tone I had there, though I do admit I meant every word of it. Just want to say I did not want to be personally offensive, and it sounded like that a lot.

 

Don't think its that much, from my experience it was more of a 15%, with the bear coat it was probably 25% (not sure about the bear scaring off, don't think it applies to them at all). Also, I believe it does not stack on multiple coats. But these are the things that might have changed with Wintermute, don't have experience with that one yet sadly.

Now the weapon argument is interesting. But I am not sure it is the case - because a number of players believe that holding weapons actually promotes the wildlife to attack you if you point it at them. Again, unsure, have not tested this myself.

Pointing it at them is bad (seems like 100% chance of attack). Equipping a bow while being threatened has on more than one occasion led to a wolf breaking immediately.

[KD7BCH]

On 10/1/2017 at 3:19 PM, Mroz4k said:

lves changed incredibly over the past several updates. Thanks to the smell meters, they have been literally changing (albeit mildly) in every new update and hotfix... Not saying they are fixed (not at all) but they are clearly being worked on.

This right here is not an issue of the game. This is an issue of your playstyle. I won't be the first to tell you that wolves are actually really easy to deal with. Since the cartographer, they will zone in on you if you have smelly items on you - but baits work better than ever. Just put a bait down, back away, and let the wolf cross into your weapon crosshairs. Easy kill on a wolf, more meat and materials to gather. 

Or, instead of dragging around baits and smelly cooked/raw meat, pick up some stones instead. One of the chief changes in Cartographer was that wolves investigate noises now (opening of car doors, doors, etc) - including thrown stones. You can throw stones somewhere, the wolves will go there to investigate. This way, you can force them to go elsewhere for a while, when they are blocking your path, or are sitting at a spot you want to loot. They won't be distracted for long, but it works.

You are entitled to your opinion. Fact is there was a great roadmap laid out in 2016 and then a great bulk of it wasn't followed. The core of the game has always been the survival sandbox, adding features and elements to make it a deep and interesting game. However, the story mode grew in importance, the console port grew in importance, the multimedia aims of the development grew in importance, the re-design of already refined polished UI design grew in importance, and fact is the sandbox development was left behind. Substantial portions of the development of the roadmap was not implemented. We now have a game where it is perpetually winter, there are 4 animals and no other characters in the sandbox. It isn't a Zombie game but the wolves essentially act the Zombie part.

I believe at one time we were led to believe the depth was going to continue to evolve. Sandbox development has stopped. There haven't been new features in almost a year. Survival is of course about enduring and dealing with conditions, but the way the game plays the primary condition is wolf avoidance first and foremost, dealing with wolves simulator, and not about the true post-electricity survival. The game is heavily based on crafting and accumulation of set resources but there isn't really multiple avenues to effect survival. You search or die, you craft or die, you avoid wolves of you die. etc. I just don't see where the thinking mans part of it comes in. Certainly was expecting there to be more advanced mechanics when it came to fires, fishing, cooking, etc. None of that seems to be important anymore. Or maybe it's coming in 2018. I don't know. For a supporter to have supported the endeavors as long as I have I was hopeful for more. I know the next time I fire the game up, it is highly likely to end the exact same way as last time. Interloper Play through 279, Day 5-15 death by wolf. I can get more value out of a 4 hour play time in Factorio or playing Doom 2 than doing another run in TLD. 

[JAFO]

47 minutes ago, KD7BCH said:

Play through 279, Day 5-15 death by wolf.

No offense intended, but why on earth haven't you gotten any better at dealing with wolves by now? You seem to have more difficulty with them than anyone I've ever known.

[JAFO]

On 03/10/2017 at 4:41 AM, Patrick Carlson said:

Steam Cards were a highly-requested item actually.

For some reason, that doesn't surprise me.

What does surprise me is that the damn things are so popular at all. I mean, they give absolutely NO benefit from a gaming perspective. You can't collect a bunch of 'em and use them for a discount, or to purchase DLC, or do anything actually useful with them. All they provide is an ego-wank. Talk about a colossal waste of time and effort.

[WanderingPalm]

I keep seeing people giving advice or criticizing KD7 for not dealing with wolves well, and it feels like they’re getting stuck on this point, but that’s really neither here nor there. Some of us were never thrilled with the idea of wolves in this game to begin with, and played on Pilgrim to get the Survival experience we wanted. Unfortunately, as appears to have happened to OP, they realized that Pilgrim not only disabled wolves, but scaled the difficulty of the core survival mechanics down, too, making it boring. So to experience the survival part that they desired, they had to play with wolves.

Now, personally, I’ve struggled a long time trying to adjust my play style to accommodate the wildlife I’m still not really happy being in my game (after a loooong time where I just refused to ever leave Pilgrim), but it also makes sense to me that someone would keep trying to play the game as they want it to be—which means basically ignoring the wolves. So maybe OP never got better at handling wolves because they never wanted to handle wolves. So all the advice in the world won’t help the problem: that there are wolves in the game. Which sadly does mean that this game is truly not the right game for them.

As much as I commiserate and hope for a customizable experience (interloper difficulty, but no wolves, please!), it seems a long way away, if it ever arrives. The devs have always seemed deadest on having wolves be a primary part of the gameplay, and it’s unfortunate that KD7 fell in love with everything in the game BUT the wolves. This was a doomed relationship from the start, I’m sorry to say, and perhaps it is time for the gamer and the game to part ways.

I’ll just hope that this gets filed as yet another vote for customizable game modes...

[stratvox]

2 hours ago, JAFO said:

For some reason, that doesn't surprise me.

What does surprise me is that the damn things are so popular at all. I mean, they give absolutely NO benefit from a gaming perspective. You can't collect a bunch of 'em and use them for a discount, or to purchase DLC, or do anything actually useful with them. All they provide is an ego-wank. Talk about a colossal waste of time and effort.

Yeah, you're definitely fifty seven (says the fifty year old sitting here).

[JAFO]

1 hour ago, stratvox said:

Yeah, you're definitely fifty seven (says the fifty year old sitting here).

<chuckles> Yeah, I got over the whole "trying to impress friends and strangers" thing a long time ago. And having looked at the whole Steam Cards thing quite closely, that "look at me, aren't I awesome for having all this shit" thing seems to be their only function.

[Ape88]

10 hours ago, JAFO said:

For some reason, that doesn't surprise me.

What does surprise me is that the damn things are so popular at all. I mean, they give absolutely NO benefit from a gaming perspective. You can't collect a bunch of 'em and use them for a discount, or to purchase DLC, or do anything actually useful with them. All they provide is an ego-wank. Talk about a colossal waste of time and effort.

Anytime colectable anything comes up that doesn't count toward my progress in a game, it makes me think of certain card games in my childhood that everyone and their uncle seemed to have and I thought it was just the dumbest thing ever, possibly because I couldnt fathom spending 5-10 bucks on a measly pack of cards that might might not have something useful in it... Plus, Steam cards are only for steam. I play mostly on Xbox because my laptop is a little low spec wise for the game... All we get is achievements but I don't know how that compares.

[WanderingPalm]

But... but collectibles! O_O

No, but seriously, you can make money off them once you get past the trade hold. And I guess some people actually trade the cards to complete a set or something. I think you get a profile picture, forum image, and a profile background for completing it (at least that’s what I got for completing a set of cards for Don’t Starve), so that’s kind of cool. And it’s also kind of a status symbol of games on steam. If a game doesn’t have steam cards, it’s a good bet it’s not done.

[KD7BCH]

18 hours ago, WanderingPalm said:

I keep seeing people giving advice or criticizing KD7 for not dealing with wolves well, and it feels like they’re getting stuck on this point, but that’s really neither here nor there. Some of us were never thrilled with the idea of wolves in this game to begin with, and played on Pilgrim to get the Survival experience we wanted. Unfortunately, as appears to have happened to OP, they realized that Pilgrim not only disabled wolves, but scaled the difficulty of the core survival mechanics down, too, making it boring. So to experience the survival part that they desired, they had to play with wolves.

Now, personally, I’ve struggled a long time trying to adjust my play style to accommodate the wildlife I’m still not really happy being in my game (after a loooong time where I just refused to ever leave Pilgrim), but it also makes sense to me that someone would keep trying to play the game as they want it to be—which means basically ignoring the wolves. So maybe OP never got better at handling wolves because they never wanted to handle wolves. So all the advice in the world won’t help the problem: that there are wolves in the game. Which sadly does mean that this game is truly not the right game for them.

As much as I commiserate and hope for a customizable experience (interloper difficulty, but no wolves, please!), it seems a long way away, if it ever arrives. The devs have always seemed deadest on having wolves be a primary part of the gameplay, and it’s unfortunate that KD7 fell in love with everything in the game BUT the wolves. This was a doomed relationship from the start, I’m sorry to say, and perhaps it is time for the gamer and the game to part ways.

I’ll just hope that this gets filed as yet another vote for customizable game modes...

I spent 90% of my time in the game in Stalker when there was only Stalker Voyageur and Pilgrim. When they introduced Interloper. I then played Interloper exclusively because this is the challenge level I loved and needed to stick with the game. 

The reason I have issues with the wolves is the following. Top 10 ways to die in the long dark in Interloper mode. 

September 2017

• 1 Wolves
• 2 Wolves
• 3 Wolves
• 4 Wolves
• 5 Wolves
• 6 Wolves
• 7 Wolves
• 8 Wolves
• 9 Wolves
• 10 Wolves

August 2017

• 1 Wolves
• 2 Wolves
• 3 Wolves
• 4 Wolves
• 5 Wolves
• 6 Wolves
• 7 Wolves
• 8 Wolves
• 9 Wolves
• 10 Wolves

July 2017

• 1 Wolves
• 2 Wolves
• 3 Wolves
• 4 Wolves
• 5 Wolves
• 6 Wolves
• 7 Wolves
• 8 Wolves
• 9 Wolves
• 10 No sleeping bag, Died from Exhaustion

June 2017 

• 1 Wolves
• 2 Wolves
• 3 Wolves
• 4 Rock Climbing at low health, Fell to death
• 5 Wolves
• 6 Wolves
• 7 Wolves
• 8 Wolves
• 9 Wolves
• 10 Wolves

The reason the wolves are a thing isn't how the interactions occur though they oftentimes are exceedingly lethal, pointlessly so, and it isn't that they occur so often, which they do, it is that you reach a point where few if any other of the dangers actually contend with the lethality of the wolves based on their lethality, their frequency, and their never ending presence. I suppose if I played the lower difficulty levels the story would be different but there again is the two-pathed conflict of the game. You either do this or you don't. In a survival game, the idea is to survive against all odds, reasonable or not. Playing Pilgrim, Voyageur or Stalker, is like going camping, Pilgrim is checking into a Holiday Inn Express FFS, it just isn't difficult. Interloper is where the challenge is, however within the game the wolves are also ridiculously and ludicrously fun-killing because that is how you are going to die.

Once you have enough data to know how you are going to die, based on how you've died the last number of times, you know it's going to be the wolves. When it should be a variety of means. There is no variety in the wolf concentrations or activity either, every game you'll see the same behaviors and same patterns. 

 

[KD7BCH]

Would have rather had primitive fire-making or the lynx or rabbit hat craftable or collectable unsafe water from the water hole than STEAM trading cards. The fact you can't make fires from raw materials in a forest setting, or water from a frozen pond but fish from the water in that frozen pond degrades the thinking man's game for me. It shouldn't be easy. It should require time and containers to get the water. Primitive firemaking at level 1 skill should be something you have a 10% base chance of getting to work, but it should be do-able. But its not meant to be I guess. 

[MarrowStone]

Stalker with very rare wolves is my dream difficulty. I was playing on stalker in TWM the other day and found not the usual 2-3 wolves by the lake, but 5 wolves! They werent just at the lake but behind my hut too! One would constantly hang out by the dock, and another directly behind the hut on the slope. The other 3 were in their normal places. I was trapped and walking outside instantly made me the hunted. Also, having any smell on me is attracting wolves even from upwind.

In 3 days I had 11 wolf close encounters, versus on earlier versions where id have a quarter that.

[Boston123]

I actually agree with KD7BCH

My problem with the game is that there is no choices involved in gameplay. None. You do what is allowed by the developers, or you die. Simple as that.

Why can't I, for example, pull the blankets off that bed im not using, and wrap myself up in them as some low quality, low condition clothing? Why can't I rip them up and use them to repair what clothing I do have? Why can't I take water, boil it, and use the soap found in the world to clean my wounds? Why can't I break a window and take a piece of glass to use as an impromptu knife? Why can't I take spoons, hammer them flat, and use them as broadheads? Why can't I break down cardboard boxes, cover them with a blanket, and use them as an impromptu bedroll? Why can't I take a cooking pot, fill it with boiling water, and throw in meat, fat, blood, bone marrow or other gathered food, to make a soup, instead of wasting the caloric content of the meat by roasting/frying it? Why can't I pop the hood or trunk cover off a car, and use it to drag stuff over the snow? So on and so forth.

The tagline of the game is/was "What will you do to survive?"..... and the game has none of that depth. It is as wide as a mattress, and as deep as a sheet.

All this on top of the utterly asinine mechanics, and the (my opinion!) utter, soul-destroying disappointment that was Story mode.....

If  more seasons are released, I won't be buying them.