Dev Diary - August 2018


Admin

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 52
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I'm excited to hear about the new developments. Keep up the good work out there. I am happy with all the overhauls that already took place, such as the cooking system. I sometimes watch other people play in the older versions and it makes me think: "you're boiling water, but what are you doing in the meantime!"
Good luck with all the hard work, I'll be following any future updates!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 31.7.2018 at 5:59 PM, admin said:

Thanks for reading, and as always, to stay abreast of the ongoing updates at Hinterland, please sign up for our newsletter, follow us on social media, and join our excellent community at the Hinterland Forums.

- Raphael

Hey, that's us!!! Our excellence acknowledged by the Great Beard! Gotta give that a like, +1.

On 31.7.2018 at 5:59 PM, admin said:
  • More open and flexible mission structure, reducing the forced linearity of the story missions; this includes restructuring the side missions and making more of the content optional
  • Whole new playable intro sequence for Episode One
  • All NPC dialogue is now fully voiced and animated using an entirely new animation system
  • All dialogue and narrative scenes are now presented in first-person, using an overhauled dialogue UI
  • New major story elements in both Episodes, including a new NPC
  • Although the high-level episode story arcs remain as before, almost every story beat, dialogue moment, and mission element has been improved, with about 80% of the dialogue rewritten to accommodate
  • Removed the Trust system as it contributed to the “fetch questy” feeling of the first two episodes (we plan to repurpose this system for elsewhere in the game)
  • Completely overhauled Bear Hunt mission and added new gameplay (Episode Two)
  • Improved tutorial presentation
  • Improved story UI elements
  • ...and many other fixes and improvements.

For me, the most exciting part is the re-telling of the story (improved 'story beats', 80% dialogue re-written etc.). Will Hinterland be able to turn a fairly weak storytelling (just my personal point of view) of episodes 1 & 2 into a strong one? I would so wish for success here, I really want to replay episodes 1 & 2 (stopped somewhere into the bear-hunting quest) and go 'yessss, they nailed it!!'.

Removing the trust system is a good decision in my view - it was just too mechanical (let's see - can I steal her stuff and hand it back to her to gain trust points?) and un-immersive.

Shall be looking forward to how the bear hunt mission is overhauled. In the current version there is just so much wrong with it.

Go, Hinterland! And thanks a lot for the devlog!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TBH i dont care about the story mode at all, but i know there are a few people who enjoy playing it. I'm kinda disopointed that there are no changes for survival mode. I know the last update was für survival mode, but still..
Nothing to do about it. Maybe there will be an survival mode update next year. Till then i will wait and play some Super Mario Bros.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was really worried that the story-mode was not salvageable because no matter how many improvements were to be made, the dialogue of the NPCs was nonsensical and overly wordy. Boring characters that hate you for no reason made for very frustrating questing.

With 80% of the dialogue being re-written and complete voice acting, it seems like the sky is the limit for the storymode to improve. I know that you were pressured to release the storymode before it was done, but I'm really happy to hear that you've taken community feedback into account and decided to revamp it.

Really looking forward to seeing essentially playing the whole game again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So we are getting the redux along with episode 3?

Why not release the redux before episode 3 so we have something to keep ourselves busy while we wait?

Don't get me wrong. This is a GREAT game. But I can't get into it when I have to wait soooooo long for new things to do. I haven't played it in 2 months simply because, I'm bored of it. You need more regular content or extra activities to keep us more involved in the game while we wait. December is a long time from now man.

That being said, great announcement. I'm very excited and really can't wait

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/31/2018 at 7:44 PM, ajb1978 said:

Seriously looking forward to this new chapter, as well as seeing how the old ones change.  I'm curious as to this new NPC in the redux as well.  I wonder if it's the mysterious Forest Talker you briefly chat with through the locked cabin door, possibly playing a grander role in the redux.  It would be interesting to see who we're talking to.

Also I'm glad the trust system is being removed.  I didn't mind the "fetch questy" nature of it, since I always had plenty of hides to hand over, but it did feel a little...shallow to me.  Literally buying someone's trust.  It even told you how many Trust Dollars each item was worth.  I'm hoping the revised version has characters reacting to your decisions, such as whether or not to break into the gas station.

Very curious to see how this system is repurposed later in the game.  (My hunch is some sort of barter system.)

I was thinking that was the NPC as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/31/2018 at 11:59 PM, admin said:

Whole new playable intro sequence for Episode One

How much of the intro sequence is playable? Is this going to replace the first part of episode one as a tutorial?

On 7/31/2018 at 11:59 PM, admin said:

That said, we are planning to release a hotfix to Vigilant Flame later this month, to clean up some issues with the updated Cooking system.

Will this hotfix be compatible with current saves?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fantastic news! 

I really enjoyed Wintermute's episodes one and two, so I am really intrigued to see the newer and improved versions. As well as episode 3, of course.

However, that said, I just don't see why a retail release is even a priority right now given the current state of the game on console's with it's constant crashing and frame rate issues. Wouldn't it make a little more sense to hire another team of developers to come in and try to fix some of those remaining issues first? After all, that's what most indie developers do anyway. I'd love to buy the physical copy on PS4, but not while those issues are still present. 

Either way, thank you for your continued work @Hinterland Studios. You have created something truly special here with this game! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/2/2018 at 4:13 PM, LonelyWolf said:

TBH i dont care about the story mode at all, but i know there are a few people who enjoy playing it. I'm kinda disopointed that there are no changes for survival mode. I know the last update was für survival mode, but still..
Nothing to do about it. Maybe there will be an survival mode update next year. Till then i will wait and play some Super Mario Bros.

'You’ll meet new survivors, explore a new region, '

A new region that will open for survival, even if we have to wait a bit as we did for Milton.

I'm so looking forward to all the new work on story mode.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that they should make it so when you harvest rosebuds the bush they are on turns into a harvestable scrub bush for sticks, i think it would be a nice little adition. Also all the animals ive killed in my costal highway save the carcasses don't de-spawn even though i harvest all the meat pelt and guts... its kinda scary going outside to be greeted by a huge moose carcass i killed 100 days ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So finally some news as to when the story will continue...  and I couldn't be more disappointed. 

I bought in to this game back in 2014, when there was only one region to play on and enjoyed the progress of the survival mode, which kept me interested while we all waited for the release of the long awaited, and much anticipated, story mode.  Then story mode came and I was completely blown away with how lacking it was after so much hype.  I played the way through the 2 episode, yet even that took me weeks since all the bugs and glitches stopped any real progress.  Then I waited for the patches that were to fix those issues and I lost interest quickly.  I finally finished the episodes after a few weeks just to get it done and then I said to myself I would give the folks at Hinterlands the benefit of the doubt since it was a first time studio trying their best, yet I was still feeling very let down. 

Then the wait began.  I lost interest in the survival mode and have barely looked at the forum here to stop myself getting more disappointed after months and months of no news of the next episode.  I had avoided any other developments because I didn't want to get my hopes up for anything after last year's fiasco of the teaser for the countdown to the launch went sour in everyone's mouths.  I decided to check today since it has been almost an entire year since the episodes 1-2 were released, and here it is...  news of the episode 3 release...  finally. 

But with it is news of a "Redux" of the first 2 episodes.  Now, I'm confused.  Were you actually finished with episodes 1-2 before you launched it last year?  Because if you are doing all these changes, why did you release the first two last year?  Why did we all get sold a story that you didn't want to release a date for episodes 1-2 for so long so you could make sure you got it right the first time?  Wasn't this your main reasoning behind taking so long for the first two episodes being released?  I remember reading a lot of different posts and update threads about how you folks wanted to make sure it was checked for bugs, polished and pristine before being released, and still we got a game with lack luster story, very poor in the actual game play, with horrible cut scenes of dialog with one dimensional NPCs, and many, many bugs that stopped anyone from being able to progress for weeks while we all waited for hot fixes.

And now, we get a complete redo of the first 2 episodes because it was not complete the first time around.  At this point I am beyond disappointed, I am downright angry.  So another announcement that we need to wait another 5 months to get the final finished product that episodes 1-2 should have been, a year ago, and then we get to see episode 3 of the story.  I have lost all faith in this studio and really hope you folks are going to do something spectacular to make up for this fiasco of the past 4 years so far.  If not, and I'm sure most people won't even care at this point, you have lost this once loyal supporter. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 13.8.2018 at 10:50 AM, Hackfleisch said:

Sounds great, especially excited about the redux of Ep 1 and 2, since I couldn't really get into story mode for the game. I'll definitely give it another try when that comes out. Keep up the good work!

me 2. And i hope we will have these tough decisions the trailer promised us

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have already completed both episodes but I decided to start the story again so I deleted my old backups and started again but I'm still not finished the second episode and since I had less desire to play. will I have to finish the second episode to play the third?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.