Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag

[Innie]

I'd love to see a curing mechanism for meat, possibly similar to the way it works for skins, where they have to dry inside for a certain amount of time before become cured and maintaining condition. I think having this be a craftable item (wood + line + hook?) that can hold a finite amount of meat at a time would be really cool. Alternately, something like a smoker (either craftable, or found in certain buildings), that requires a fire for a certain number of days could serve the same purpose.

I feel like the current strategy of storing excess raw meat outside on the ground is kind of lacking and feels almost cheesy to take your 0% stuff and instantly make it 50% just by cooking. Curing excess seems very in-line with what hunters do, and makes sense considering there's already a curing mechanism in the game.

[PistolMadman]

Hi Raph,

I was wondering if there are plans to implement aurora behaviours for wildlife other than wolves and bears? Quick ideas include making deer hypersensitive to noise/smell, or making rabbits move faster so they're harder to catch. Something to remind the player that the aurora truly affects everything around them, and add extra challenge too. It's not a crucial addition to the game, but would certainly be nice to see in the future. Regardless, my brother and I are in love with your game and its fantastic sense of atmosphere, thank you for creating such a masterpiece!

[jesseofthenorth]

What are the chances that your team might widen the field of view? I have been playing TLD since there was only one map but in the last few months it has been almost impossible for me to play because of gaming vertigo. If the field of view slider could be increased to as little as 120 I could play again. I really miss this game so much

[sunkbunk]

I loved what you guys did in the latest update performance wise, especially for consoles. I was able to experience episodes 1+2 of wintermute for the first time and it was absolutely phenomenal. The game runs much more smoothly in general, but some areas like PV and such suffer pretty badly, arguably a little worse than before. I've also noticed that wind effects really bog things down as well in some instances.

Any more plans on further optimizations? It's incredible that the game runs as smoothly as it does for being on a shite console in the first place.

[Skelegutplays]

Why do you forge the bear spear tip in EP2 of story mode at the railway yard instead of the more logical old spence homestead?

[Gecko-[GER]]

Do we ever get correct sun movements in all regions. So that the current world map is coherent.

Currently the sun is wrong in ML, BR, WR (west to east) and PV (northwest to southeast).

[Innie]

A small quality of life improvement: it would be great to be able to use items in a work bench drawer to craft. I often use it to store crafting materials anyhow, would save a step in the "how many rabbit pelts do I have" process.

[Darcilyn]

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on making this fairly easy to set up so that people disabilities can play. I was born without limbs and I operate the computer by Morse code for typing and a mouse I use with my right arm stump. I also have a homemade gaming device that my grandfather built me. Even with all of this most games are very hard for me if not impossible to play. The long dark's capability to change the key bindings is brilliant. Onto my question

I understand the long dark  Survivor mode is supposed to give you a feeling of isolation, but I can't help thinking how cool it would be if we were able to tame a wolf. I was wondering if there were any plans on adding that capability? Thank you

 

[mateosega]

Hello, I wanted to know if they plan to make more animations among the animals because it is strange when you see a wolf attack a hundred and a bite of a collapse. and I loved the idea that another person gave to add a dog (or wolf) as a pet. could make a baby wolf that is part of the inventory and the option to feed every hundred times for x days until it is a common wolf to follow you everywhere and help you in certain situations would be great. In the long run, could something like that be implemented?

[legolegs]

Hello, Raphael! Being a free software user I often use bugtrackers to help developers to improve their software. Unlike most videogames the Long Dark does have public issue tracker [ https://hinterlandgames.atlassian.net/projects/TLDP/issues/?filter=allissues  ]  where many people including myself do report issues (ex. this one). But I never seen any developer's activity there: no comments, no requests for more info, no closing as resolved/duplicate/invalid/wontfix. The question: is this whole atlassian thingy being actually watched by the Hinterland team? Is it good for the game to write down issues here and to collect debug-mode screenshots?

[hozz1235]

What is Hinterland's take on Mods?  I know they are not currently supported and we are discouraged from using them due to the headache from supporting modded games.
Do you have plans to support mods?  Perhaps a Hinterland-sanctioned mod kit?

I've seen some pretty cool ones that address many requested changes the community has asked for.

[StrayCat]

In mailbag #10, there was this question which you answered :

___________________________________________

Question from @Vonwoah:

Quote

Are there any undiscovered easter eggs that no one has found or have mentioned yet?

Yes.

___________________________________________

My question is : may we have a clue ?

[smaointeoireacht]

In the Dec update you changed the route to get to/from the Crashed Plane site, I was just wondering if there was any reason why you decided to do this? Was there a technical issue with the old route perhaps? Or future plans for the cave system by Spruce Falls Bridge to lead to somewhere new or different (not holding you to anything, just curious)?

[Vinceofpyrenees]

 

Happy new year ! All the best for you.

Will you finish the first person presence animation this year ? I mean showing the right clothes on the arms of the character. When he wears gloves while the animations shows nude hands for example, it really seems an unfinished part of the game.

Finishing this is surely the improvement I'd like to see the most. Thank you !

[Michi]

Are you planning to eventually add a proper "beginning" to survival mode? I don't mean a cutscene, just actually starting next to a crashed plane and maybe having to pick up the starting supplies. It would definitely improve the immersion, but I guess even if it is something that you have planned, it has a very low priority, since creating a plane crash site for every single starting location would take a lot of resources that can be spent on more important things.

[Looper]

Ralph prev. stated that Frostpunk was a game that was a positive surprise in 2018. One of the things I like in that game is the temperature and storm cycle behaviour giving "build up" a real sense of urgency and purpose. Would such a gameplay feature be considered in long dark to challenge in the midgame? It could be more than normal cold blizzards which last longer, affect indoor temp (demanding wood stocks) and resets animal spawns. Obviously should be subject to game difficulty settings. Just to get your view on midgame development of survival mode in 2019.    

[BareSkin]

While I found the pre-redux "good enough", I loved the new Wintermute storyline, and I wanted to say it, a bit of love never hurts. I only wish the "hardened survivor" version of next episodes will be a real challenge, switching from Stalker-level to Interloper-level. All those infinite fire, all this food, all these clothes, didn't make it that "hardened".

So, the question is simple: Is it pure luck the shelves at Trapper's are a perfect fit for curing guts?

[Arran]

I really like improvements in Redux Wintermute. I have some questions about map:
1. I am wondering why compass was added to Wintermute map? Arrow showing our direction breaks immersion a bit, as geomagnetic storm breaks compass, doesnt it?
Position indicator is great - on survival we can use charcoal to see where we are. But shoudnt position be revealed only during good visibility conditions? It breaks game a bit when on fog or blizzard we can open map and we know where we are and what direction we are looking at.

2. I would really love to see some icon with current position also in survival mode - to not break current balance only after using charcoal, when map opens. Currently map is centered, but when we are on maps edge it gets bugged a bit.

3. I also noticed there is limit of how many resources (plants, limbs, houses) can be mapped on survival mode. I was going to map everything, but when I'm almost done new things arent mapped any more - I think after reaching 100 objects mapped or so. Are there any plans to have that limit increased ?

[Azdrawee]

Now that REDUX was released, both episodes of Wintermute have the same cinematic intro. Before, this was only at the beggining of episode 2. Will the same intro be used for all 5 episodes, or will every episode have a different intro in the future? As much as I love it, it seems really weird to use the same one for two episodes.

[codfish107]

Way back when in 2016 after some announcements for Wintermute were made and we got to see what Will actually looked like, a bio for him appeared on the gamepedia wiki for the game and is still there now if you haven't seen it. My question to you is if that bio information was from Hinterland or if it was fan made? I know for myself and others, that page helped keep my interest in the game even though i had dropped out of the game for much of 2016.

Don't worry i'm actively playing right and plan on trying the redux soon. 

[ltnshinysides]

There seems to be a general softening of the games difficulty and adding such items as the compass on the map (I have not seen this yet) that really seem aimed at making the game less challenging and more forgiving.  Thinking you know how to navigate and getting lost in the middle of a whiteout is an awesome lesson and a great demonstration of what makes TLD so different from other games. There is little hand holding and no reassurance that the game will prevent you from making epic mistakes. Also the much shorten path to Grey Mothers is another example of how it has been made easier overall. That trail was where I originally cut my teeth and learned real quick to not mess around with mother nature. So my question is: Is the Story mode's aim to be more of an introduction to new players while survival is hardened for the veterans? I don't love this idea but I do have to admit that when I first played TLD before story mode I liked the game but lost track of trying to play. I really didn't know what I was doing and did not have the extra time to learn so I put it down for a great deal of time. Then story mode came along and showed me the ropes and I fell in love with TLD. So I understand if story mode is aimed more at newer players but do you intend to make each episode harder or at least more difficult than episode 1? I know you can select the difficulty but while it seems to only mildly affect the environment and frequency of resources, it makes wolves incredibly more powerful and extremely difficult to deal with taking the focus away from the other aspects of the game and turn it into avoiding wolves at any cost. To me, the true spirit of TLD is the raw reality of mother nature and the dangers and rewards. The moments of being almost helpless and clawing to survive and then the triumph when you are finally able to learn how to survive and even thrive. Having to earn that creates an unique experience and sense of achievement that players share. Where as such items as a compass, easy paths and an abundance of resources circumvents that experience. Now I'm not saying this is what TLD has become by any means. I'm just asking the Hinterland team to consider once again how the difficulty and lack of hand holding really sets the player up to enjoy the game far more and in a different ways than most games. To strike that difficult balance between appealing to many while still being something unique and special. After all what would TLD be if it was easy, simple and had prompts to guide you through everything.  

[Faithful Cartographer]

Hello Raph!

1) I'm with The Long Dark with alpha version 001=) I Would like to ask how relevant is your very first map of the great bear Island? I threw it in this post to make it easier for each other to understand. Painfully intriguing two transition Pleasant Valley and one coastal area. After all, surely there will be more locations by type of Desolation Point?

2) What about Easter eggs in the game? Do they exist?

3) Do you Plan to pamper us with screenshots of new content more often?

Edited January 18, 2019 by Faithful Cartographer

[Doc Gonzo]

@Raphael van Lierop, hopefully this is a fun and open ended question for you ...

Tell us something about TLD that we don't know ... 

[Sipriano]

Did you plan to make the hole island or onli the south coast?

[Its_the_Gman]

Hey Raph,

Thanks for replying to my previous Milton Mailbag question. I'll try to ask fewer, shorter questions from now on. 

1) Are there any plans or talk about adding more weapons or firearms to the game, on top of the bear spear? I understand that you wouldn't want the game to turn into a first person shooter, because that would definitely take away from the survival aspect of the game. It's just that I feel it seems a little empty with only the bow, rifle and extremely rare flare gun. Some of my ideas are:

- A double barrel shotgun/remington pump action shotgun

- A crossbow

- A revolver, possibly even a really old break action one

- A slingshot, which would fire stones found on the ground (the ones used to hunt rabbits, except it would project them harder and further, possibly scaring wolves?)

2) In your November 2018 Developer Update on the forum, where you announced the Redux, you also mentioned that you would be using your newly acquired mo-cap studio and additional members to the team to further develop Episode 3, as it was initially set to release in dec, 2018. I can definitely see why you chose to make this decision and 100% respect it. That said, do you have an update on the release date of ep.3? I look really forward to playing it after the cliff hanger of ep. 2.

3) I recently started a new Survival run on Stalker, and I immediately noticed the big jump in difficulty from Voyageur. Food, clothes and loot are WAY less common and there are wolves basically around every corner. I've also ran into 5 bears from BR, Milton, ML, FM, and PV. As opposed to 2 in Voyageur. Would it be possible to add a difficulty setting in between voyager and stalker? I also don't want to have to deal with parasites when I kill wolves in self defense, because it means i cant eat the meat whatsoever, even if it spend the time and resources to cook it. I feel like it would be really easy for you to implement an additional difficulty mode and I'd appreciate it a lot.

Thanks a lot, I tried to make it as short as possible. Can't wait for your response!