Dev Diary — May 2018

[StrayCat]

When hinterland's team will be satisfied with the update they'll give us, instead of throwing a half-finished work. We just have to wait.

[MueckE]

My guess would be 1st of July or August.

Soon there will be an announcement in form of a Dev Diary Update with a few teasers on the upcoming update and the release date. I think instead of just an update for sandbox or just the rework of ep 1+2 they will push out everything together together with ep. 3. After so much time i personally expect the update to include the rework of ep. 1+2, tons of bugfixes, new mechanics like real time cooking (and more), new region and episode 3.

Anything else would just be too little too late, again, and a real disappointment for a lot of players. With that in mind, i hope Hinterland is trying to deliver - and therefor making sure everything goes well this time with the release. So i would bet on August 1st.

[Blinkin]

I'm aiming for the first of July, although being on GOG I should probably raise my expectations to mid July.
I think this is the most realistic expectation without being disappointed. And in the end it's totally worth it (it's not like I'm paying to get extra content).

[EricTheGreat12]

1 hour ago, MueckE said:

My guess would be 1st of July or August.

Soon there will be an announcement in form of a Dev Diary Update with a few teasers on the upcoming update and the release date. I think instead of just an update for sandbox or just the rework of ep 1+2 they will push out everything together together with ep. 3. After so much time i personally expect the update to include the rework of ep. 1+2, tons of bugfixes, new mechanics like real time cooking (and more), new region and episode 3.

He stated in the May dev diary that he had no info to give on Episode 3, and that the next update would only include the new cooking, River Valley, and buffer memories. 

They haven’t released the update yet because they are slow, simple as that. It’s wishful thinking to assume that they will have everything ready a few weeks from now. 

 

1 hour ago, Blinkin said:

I'm aiming for the first of July, although being on GOG I should probably raise my expectations to mid July.

What makes you think that we’ll be waiting till July? Raph’s teasers show an update  that is most likely ready to be released any day now. 

[Dan_]

I think it will come out this or next week, truth be told real time cooking is a big deal that changes a core mechanic within the game and Hinterland is very aware of game balance issues. I expect them to test and refine thoroughly so it keeps it true to the TLD experience. They are perfectionists, there's a price you pay for a small team aiming for big studio quality, it takes time.

Other than what was already announced, the only extra content I'm expecting are some new items. When rugged sentinel was announced, I only recall the coat and bag being revealed after the update, so I'm keeping my craftable hat dream alive for now.

[jerry486]

Here's a crazy idea - make the entrance to the new region somewhere at the bottom of the ravine Who said we need another transition zone or boring cave to get there, Cave at the bottom, continue down that route maybe? If I was HL I would put this entrance not-easy-to-find.

[MueckE]

My concern is, that there is no test branch update. Normally it took at least a weak and a few patches in test branch to make an update ready for release. I don't trust any outsourced bugtesting anymore but have confidence in the community. So either Hinterland is risking again a buggy release or the release still is far away.
 On the other hand that's maybe a hint for episode 3. Not only was a new region announced, but also Hinterland will not put episode 3 in test branch to not spoil the story.

That's why i think it will be Episode 3 also.

[henroe32]

It’s good to remember that Hinterland always tries to release updates simultaneously across platforms and with Xbox and PS4 this results in a nearly week long process of submitting the update then having it churn through the system and if it gets rejected the whole process has to start again. Because of this, it can take a couple of weeks to release updates for consoles whereas through Steam the update is shipped almost immediately 

[cekivi]

Also note that Hinterlands has an internal testing pipeline too that updates proceed through. They've recently expanded their in-house testing by hiring new QA testers in the past few months. 

[Dan_]

From the man himself:

Along with some juciy tidbits after that in the answers, check Raph's twitter. 

[EricTheGreat12]

1 hour ago, MueckE said:

My concern is, that there is no test branch update. Normally it took at least a weak and a few patches in test branch to make an update ready for release. I don't trust any outsourced bugtesting anymore but have confidence in the community. So either Hinterland is risking again a buggy release or the release still is far away.
 On the other hand that's maybe a hint for episode 3. Not only was a new region announced, but also Hinterland will not put episode 3 in test branch to not spoil the story.

That's why i think it will be Episode 3 also.

Raph has stated that this update will not contain Episode 3. 

Not every update has a test branch. 

Hinterland has its own bug-fix team. 

[vancopower]

Any news yet? I'm crossing my fingers for the spear. I hate  the fact that once you run out of ammo bears are invincible .

 

[EricTheGreat12]

37 minutes ago, vancopower said:

Any news yet? I'm crossing my fingers for the spear. I hate  the fact that once you run out of ammo bears are invincible .

 

If you read the dev diary it states that the spear is an early concept and will not be in the next update. 

 

Also, if you care to look a few posts up, Raph states that the update will come next week

[jerry486]

re: no test branch thingy

Perhaps it's because it's bundled with a new region and they don't want spoilers to leak out.

[Blinkin]

On 5-6-2018 at 3:36 PM, EricTheGreat12 said:

What makes you think that we’ll be waiting till July? Raph’s teasers show an update  that is most likely ready to be released any day now. 

Statistics. Most GOG updates took about 2 to 6 weeks longer to release than other platforms (mainly because they only release the stable hotfixed versions). I think we had 2-3 updates that got released at the same time as Steam.

Of course I hope it will be sooner, but hey a stable release is always better than a buggy one.

[EricTheGreat12]

56 minutes ago, Blinkin said:

Statistics. Most GOG updates took about 2 to 6 weeks longer to release than other platforms (mainly because they only release the stable hotfixed versions). I think we had 2-3 updates that got released at the same time as Steam.

Of course I hope it will be sooner, but hey a stable release is always better than a buggy one.

I understand now: I know that you use GOG, but I thought you were talking about the Steam platform. 

 

Raph has stated that the update should be next week 

[Blinkin]

Ah sorry if that was confusing. That's what I meant with " although being on GOG I should probably raise my expectations to mid July. "

The initial update release and in between hotfixes are not released on GOG but only the last version. Hence the delay.

[Le Petit Prince]

THE LONG WAIT

the game that you do nothing but wait.

I used to check the news daily, now i'm checking it monthly but still nothing. I probably should forget the game for now and remember it 15-20 years later. Neither the updates nor new episode news are not coming. Personally The Long Dark is one of the biggest disappointments in my game history. I was so happy discovering this game and expecting so many things. This game could be a masterpiece but it chose to be stuck in the air. 

Find the connection between Half Life 3, Mount and Blade Bannerlord and The Long Dark Wintermute... The answer is none of them seem to be completed in 21st century.

[GIJoefish]

I'm guessing you haven't played no man sky... TLD is an amazing game created by a small group I'm blown away with what the game has to offer now. This isn't a Ubisoft game where they have to pump out content every week. Ok maybe I haven't had the game long enough but I think we can be patient for future updates and appreciate the hard work they have put into the game so far. Its the first survival game iv played that has everything I want.

[Ruruwawa]

On 6/7/2018 at 12:54 PM, EricTheGreat12 said:

I understand now: I know that you use GOG, but I thought you were talking about the Steam platform. 

Raph has stated that the update should be next week 

He mentioned GoG specifically in a comment to the tweet @Dan_ linked:

 

 

 

[Scribble]

Hm, any chance we'll get achievements in the GoG update. It's odd they're still missing, as far as I can tell.

[Hackfleisch]

Checking back since quite a while, this looks good. The new cooking system and bits of lore especially excite me. Now all we need is actual readable books (there's plenty of public domain stuff out there) for those days locked in by a blizzard, and this will be the most relaxing apocalypse simulation out there.  And let's not get salty that the update isn't here yet, this isn't a studio with the resources of Ubisoft, stuff needs to be tested thoroughly.

[TropicalSurvivor]

Hi guys, this is my first post here.

I believe that River Valley will be connected to Pleasant Valley or Timberwolf Mountain because everything indicates that the map should continue developing to the North, until we reach Perseverance Mills. Furthermore, as the name says, it will be a "river valley", that is, a valley of a river, and I think it's more plausible that it's the PV river or TWM river.

I think RV being released before Episode 3 is not a problem, because PV was also released before Episode 3.

My guess is that Episode 3 will show us that Dr. Astrid crossed the tunnel before it collapsed and reached PV through RV.

[DoctorKajita]

Haven't been here in a while, but last night I fired up the game for the first time in like a year, and it quickly reminded me how much I love it. Looking forward to this next update and for me to get engrossed in the winter wonderland once again.

[Blinkin]

Welcome to the forums @TropicalSurvivor

The theory about the river makes a lot of sense. Seems like a very plausible theory.
Time will tell.