Question Thread :: Milton Mailbag


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I bought The Long Dark in 2014 (almost five years ago!) for $15 on a Steam sale. Since then I've played ~1,000 hrs which easily makes this my favorite game ever. I'm always a fan of good value, but it's also in my best interest that Hinterland stays healthy and solvent :) Do you have any plans to release paid DLC, like new locations, episodes, tools, stories, etc? I think there would be a lot of interest in this.

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And I wonder how you integrate the Bear Spear in survival mode. It will be a unique item ? You can craft it (I think it would be unbalanced) ? You find different pieces and you assemble them ? You can find the Bear Spear but you must repair it, like Wintermute ?

I say all this because I think you’re going to add the Spear but maybe not:D

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Hello and first off thank you for a wonderfully, enjoyable game!

Couple of quick questions to get the developers thoughts on a few things.

1. Eating ruined (0% condition) cooked meat gives the full calories and with Cooking at lvl5 the player has no chance of getting food poisoning also cooking ruined (0% condition) meat restores it to 50% condition. Ruined is ruined, we are unable to repair clothes or other items that are ruined so what makes meat so special?

2. Drinking a tea to get a few calories and reduce the weight of said tea does not give the benefit of the tea. Drinking this left over tea, at a later time, gives the player the full benefit as if they had drank the entire tea.

These all seem to be "exploits" or clever use of game mechanics to me and each player can do as they will and I am not to judge them. I am just wondering is this was the intended way the developers envisioned these game mechanics?

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First, I have to say that I love the new narrative in the WINTERMUTE redux. I like how the town of Milton has been fleshed out. I thought it was odd that the town was freshly abandoned in the Predux, but there was no mention of the residents. With that said, I'm a little upset that the connection between Grey Mother and Farmer Barker was stunted in the Redux. I really liked the scene where Grey Mother explained who Lilly was in the Predux. The music was timed with the emotion of the scene perfectly. The same scene was so bland in the Redux. I didn't feel as emotionally compelled. Is there a chance we could bring the old scene back? I like all the improved interactions with Grey Mother. The new interactions are great, because she doesn't seem manipulative anymore, just alone and confused. 

I do miss the old path down to Milton from the Predux. I loved how isolated and punishing it was to make it from the plane crash site, to the road, bridge, trailer, and church. I felt like I really accomplished surviving something making it all the way there. Maybe it could be reintroduced for the hardened difficulty only? I don't think it would be unprecedented to change the path depending on the difficulty. I understand the focus on narrative and need to cut to the point for new or casual players. Maybe the new path could be used for the lower difficulties?

As for survival mode, is there any chance a way of preserving food will be introduced, like a smoker? I like the idea of smoking food for hours and using specific resources (i.e. fir, green wood, sticks and hides) to accomplish it. 

Edited by mean_jim
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Ok, so I have 3 questions here. I'll be thankful if you answer!

1) People seem to really want this, theoretically small, but much needed change and I'm one of them. What change? Making scarfs and accessory, not a piece of head-clothing! It makes no sense for them to take up the same space as hats, while ear wraps are considers accesory (and I think they are the only accessory currently in game). Will you make scarfs take up accessory slot rather than head slot, because ear wrap being an only accessory seems a bit empty and definitely not very sensible (like: Who would wear two ear wraps??)? Do you plan to add more accessories?

2) I also wanted to ask what are your current plans for regions? Are you right now focused purely on adding regions for the sake of Wintermute or are you also planning some regions only for sandbox mode (like the added Hushed River Valley)? Do you plan to somehow expand the Broken Railroad or is this regions finished? I ask this because I'm already in love with this specific map and from reading forums I see that I'm not the only one who feels that this region is a bit "unfinished" and will probably be expanded in the future. Do you plan to do that?

3) Question that's purely out of curiosity. Do you plan or have you ever considered making windows inside the building reflect the actual outside? If you scrapped that idea, than can you tell us why? What I mean by it is that instead of only light passing through them and nothing but blurr being visible, we would have windows actually showing what is outside. An example: you've just hidden inside a cabin from a wolf and you can see that wolf romaing outside in real time. Exactly like we can see the outside from vehicles? Just a question, not something that I wanna see or that I think should be in game, cause I imagine how much work and problems that could create plus in some ways current choice of "window mechanic" (if I can call it that) is more atmospheric.

Thanks for answers and thanks for being so active with the community. I can really see that you're listening to us and really put your heart into this project, thinking how to make a good game and not just how to sell it more effectively.

Cheers for that!

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Hi Raph, one of the things I really like about HRV is to find random stuff when exploring out of the way areas. For example, I wandered up some out of the way hill and found a rifle leaned up against a tree. Golden!

Would you consider adding more random items in the other maps to make exploration more exiting? In ML for example, I know every square metre and know that there is nothing to be found up that ridge or behind that cliff, so I don't bother going there anymore. I think some random treasure like an old campfire with a pot in some out of the way place would make each new start a new experience. 

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On 2/18/2019 at 7:14 AM, muoz said:

Have you considered programming randomized loot tables?

I think this has been addressed in MMB#22 already:

Quote

 

We use loot tables in the game so I think they are great. :) I don't think people sharing them is great, but that's up to the community. All items that appear in containers are determined using loot tables, and all items that spawn in the world (ex. placed on shelves, laying on the floor, etc.) use individually tuned spawn values. There are very few 100% spawns, so if there are guaranteed matches they are either there for a specific reason or their spawn % is bugged. 

I think refreshing the loot tables could be a fun idea, although I suspect some players would find it irritating. 

 

What we call loot tables are 100% guaranteed spawns of key-items in Survival. I would also like a new answer to that especially about randomization. Refreshing the loot tables wouldn't fix the problem, since it would take what, 24h to the community to find out the new ones?

I love the items spawn in relation with context (bedroll in Camp/caves/blinds, tools in industrial places, clothes on beds etc). But the certainty is actually killing the game a bit for the long time players who know them: spawn somewhere, go to the nearest big loot place, find any of the key items (hacksaw/bedroll/hammer/maglens), you know on which loot table you are, then go find what you need where you know it will be. It's like playing with a Crystal Ball, it removes from the players the "surprise" thing you have to adapt to.

It's just the same with the Emergency Stims when playing a Deadman: you just know where to find them for sure.

I would actually love it to be truly randomiz-able at least in Custom Settings, not only 4 tables.

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Just a note for those like me who bought the game on a Steam sale and who believe they're getting incredible value for the hundreds of hours they've played the game - if you still want to support Hinterland, you can always buy additional copies and gift them, or go to their store and buy some of the artwork or other items! That's what I've done because this is one of my favorite games and I want to make sure I support every bit of extra content that's been released free-of-charge. I know things were "promised" with your purchase and you certainly don't owe them any more money based upon that agreement, but this has been several years of hard work by this team. I'm still loving this game and want to see more, so if I can contribute a little more, I view these other purchases kind of as an "Indiegogo" for Hinterland.

Please don't be offended. Again, I know Hinterland promised some things when we purchased the game, it's just a suggestion for those who want to continue to support the devs financially above and beyond the initial purchase.

Edited by MindFog2287
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SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 2 OF WINTERMUTE:

After fighting the Old Bear, Jeremiah kicks you out of his homestead and you can't go back. The game puts everything you had in his cabin in your inventory. I can't help but wonder... why? To me, it was quite a hude problem, because I was REALLY encumbered. I've also read some posts from different players that couldn't even move and they thought it was a bug, since they couldn't reach the door and see that it's locked.

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Are you considering to adress the problem with rotten meat being possible to be cooked? Food at 0% can be cooked and you have new fresh food at 50% condition. That's a bit weird. Thinking of the late game, you can spread around meat everywhere and come back 1 year later and you can still cook and eat that food because at the end meat never spoils.

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