Milton Mailbag-- Dispatch #18

[Raphael van Lierop]

 

Hey all,

I don't have a ton of time this week as we're stomping bugs for the Redux launch but I'll hit as many as I can and will pick up the slack next week.

Enjoy!

- Raph

*****

Question from @Smellyfries:

Quote

 

So i left my game on the title screen one day and i came back to the title screen, now during the night, with heavy winds and snow. 

Is the title screen its own map/game?

 

Yes, the Main Menu is it's own little scene that has all the same time of day, weather, and wildlife of any other scene.

****

Question from @MarrowStone:

Quote

What are some games of this year that you found impressive, or even inspirational, from a mechanical, technical, or even art direction standpoint?

Sadly, I haven't had time to pay THAT many games, but one that really stood out for me is FROSTPUNK. HELLBLADE: SENUA'S SACRIFICE is also quite good.

*****

Question from @NardoLoopa:

Quote

While walking there is sometimes a pause in the game, I believe this is associated with the Sprain Check, as sometimes Sprains manifest exactly after this pause.  Familiar with this association, my heart always skips a beat during that stutter.  Could you talk about what's going on behind the scenes that is so taxing as to pause the game?  (I'm running a fairly good system with an SSD drive.)

This typically happens when the game is saving, and you'll see the save icon appearing on the screen. The slowdown is due to the sudden "hit" to your system storage while we write out a save file, and since system storage is slower than RAM, this causes a bit of a hitch.

*****

@DerpyLemon115:

Quote

Will you be adding anymore feats to earn throughout the game?

I would like to! I think this is a pretty cool system and kind of under-utilized right now.

*****

Question from @ArcherAC3:

Quote

 

"Do you guys plan on adding the old 'search bar' mechanic back?"

"Do you personally think one should start a new survival save after December's update?"

"Any chance we can have the Brands back in the future?"

 

Search bar "mechanic" -- probably not but maybe?

New Survival Mode game after December -- I would, yeah.

Brands coming back -- probably not.

*****

Question from @Stapeldiagram:

Quote

 

I would like to 1) either be able to craft a whetstone or 2) see the decay rate of them either drastically reduced or eliminated.  In real life a whetstone lasts practically forever.   They are already pretty rare to find which is fine but the rate at which they wear out is a bit annoying and unrealistic. 

FWIW the whetstone is my favorite item in the game, just because I think they are cool. 

 

 (Not so much a question as it is an ongoing discussion about Whetstones...)

Keep in mind realism is not the focus or the goal. The value of a whetstone is increased because it is limited. If you can craft a whetstone out of any old rock, and the whetstone helps keep cutting tools in great shape, then it has a negative impact on game balance and reduces the value of both things. In general the harder it is to maintain stuff the more valuable those things are, and the more valuable they are the more careful you are about using and preserving them. And scarcity creates the need for choice, which is what the whole game is about.  

*****

Question from @BareSkin:

Quote

I've hated wolves for a long time. Now I tend to consider them as some kind of brothers, with the same goal - survive- but different interest. I feel like they don't hate me, so I can't hate them anymore. Was it HL intention from the beginning to actually have the player wonder if he/she were right to feel superior to wildlife? If yes, is it the reason behind the wolves being able to fear the player in return?

As a general rule, in The Long Dark, as in real life I suppose, Mother Nature is pretty ambivalent to your existence. This extends to wildlife. The Wolves don't hate you. But you are the invader in *their* territory, and if they can, they will take you down. I don't think anyone engaging with Wolves should ever feel superior to them. If you encounter one and "win" a struggle, you should feel lucky. You survived...that time. Next time, when you can least afford it, they may take you down. 

*****

Question from @Salty Crackers:

Quote

How do you address the fact that adding new regions makes the game easier? Early on in the game's development, it was much harder to survive a prolonged period of time due to a fundamental lack of items available in the game world. These days, you can simply strip all of the regions of their loot and relocate it to a central base, enabling you to survive years (if you don't make a stupid mistake). When you factor in beachcombing supplying an infinite amount of previously non-renewable resources, it seems that you will never have to struggle to make your resources last another 3 days, simply because you have 150 day's worth of supplies back at base. I live for the moments where I don't have enough resources to survive, but still somehow claw my way through another 5 or 10 days before finally fading into the long dark. Could you add an 'ultra low' loot setting to fix this? Or do you have another way to remedy this?

Your chances of making a stupid mistake increase every time you make a large move to a new region. As it is, we provide some variables in the Custom Settings that let you play with this, or if you really feel like you need a challenge go spend time living in Timberwolf Mountain or Hushed River Valley.

*****

Question from @Cr41g:

Quote

just a quick question... will their be new trophies / achievements associated with redux epsiodes 1 and 2...and further to that...future episodes 3,4 and 5

Redux -- no, b/c we are not allowed to change or take away Achievements that we have already given out, and we have maxed out the total amount of Achievements/Trophies we are allowed to include in a game. 

Episodes 3-5 -- yes, we will be able to add more Achievements/Trophies for those episodes.

*****

Question from @ajb1978:

Quote

Will and Jeremiah seem to talk about morphine a lot, and given that morphine never actually plays a role in the game at all, leads me to believe there is some subtext there.  Was that intended to serve as a sort of anti-drug PSA?  I mean for all the things they could be talking about, such as the risk of infection, possibly Jeremiah's injuries needing stitches, broken bones, etc. there seemed to be a disproportionately large amount of dialogue around morphine's addictive properties, and the euphoric side effects.  I'm just wondering if you can provide context or backstory for that.

I wanted to create the opportunity for the player to use Morphine to "help" Jeremiah, but at cost to his health. You'd balance the benefit of giving him Morphine to get him to provide more info to you (while slipping into a feverish state), but this would be at the cost of getting him addicted, which he would...not be grateful for in the end. But, you can't use drugs like this as a gameplay mechanic without triggering issues with ratings so I pulled it out. In Redux, you'll see these references have been toned down a fair bit.

*****

Question from @PlayerPawn:

Quote

With the implementation of Wwise audio system, how has the audio design changed from both a technical and gameplay perspective?  I know this might be more technical but I was always curious since it was implemented some time after the games initial release.

We've always used Wwise, from the very outset. 

*****

Question from @Moll:

Quote

When we will get a revolver?

When you can best make use of it.  

*****

Question from @TropicalSurvivor:

Quote

In the first Buffer Memory in Quonset Gas Station Barbara says: "More and more ships passing, heading south. what will they find on the Mainlan, I wonder." In Desolation Point we can clearly see a mountain range looking south. Is that the Mainland or another islands?

Both!

Quote

We know that Great Bear is a fictional island, but, if it were real, where on the canadian coast would it be located?

Vancouver Island, where I live.

*****

Sorry folks, that's all I have time for today but I hope to have more time next Friday!! Hope this is still useful and interesting to you all.

Enjoy your weekends!

- Raph

 

[Admin]

Please use this thread for discussion of @Raphael van Lierop's answers. However, while we will be monitoring the thread, he won't be following up on questions here. If you have more questions please post them in the main question thread and they may be addressed in a future Milton Mailbag.

If you want to know if a topic has been addressed please check the Milton Mailbag Index.

[Guest jeffpeng]

37 minutes ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

if you really feel like you need a challenge go spend time living in Timberwolf Mountain

 I can only recommend this.

[Pillock]

2 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Quote

Will you be adding anymore feats to earn throughout the game?

I would like to! I think this is a pretty cool system and kind of under-utilized right now.

I agree they are under-utilized. I've never used them ever.

[Blueshy]

18 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Question from @Stapeldiagram:

 (Not so much a question as it is an ongoing discussion about Whetstones...)

Keep in mind realism is not the focus or the goal. The value of a whetstone is increased because it is limited. If you can craft a whetstone out of any old rock, and the whetstone helps keep cutting tools in great shape, then it has a negative impact on game balance and reduces the value of both things. In general the harder it is to maintain stuff the more valuable those things are, and the more valuable they are the more careful you are about using and preserving them. And scarcity creates the need for choice, which is what the whole game is about.  

What you could do to achieve both realism and scarcity is have a max durability value for the tool, eg. a brand new hatchet would be 100/100 durability. When you wear it down to 50/100 durability and want to use a whetstone to sharpen the hatchet it would increase the first durability while decreasing the second slightly. Now you have a hatchet that's 95/95. And so on and so forth. Just a suggestion.

[Vinceofpyrenees]

On 08/12/2018 at 4:52 AM, Pillock said:

I agree they are under-utilized. I've never used them ever.

Me too, I consider that like cheat.

[diosmio123]

" Sorry folks, that's all I have time for today but I hope to have more time next Friday!! Hope this is still useful and interesting to you all."

This is feeding my hopes to see the release of Redux in the next week.

Can't wait to get my hands on what's coming next. Whenever it will get released in this month. I feel i got addicted to this game.

[Salty Crackers]

On 12/7/2018 at 8:31 PM, Raphael van Lierop said:

Search bar "mechanic" -- probably not but maybe?

I just want to throw my support behind bringing back the old mechanic. The fact that the items were found midway through the search process rather than just at the end added a layer of suspense to the search process. As it stands, the search bar is just an timer ticking down until you can see what you find.

[White_SnowTree]

47 minutes ago, Salty Crackers said:

I just want to throw my support behind bringing back the old mechanic. The fact that the items were found midway through the search process rather than just at the end added a layer of suspense to the search process. As it stands, the search bar is just an timer ticking down until you can see what you find.

I recall maybe 1-2 years ago (August 2017), many months after the UI was changed with Faithful Cartographer, that you stood up all tall and mighty on these forums saying that the UI should be reverted back to the way it was before. I remember many people, including myself, giving you s**t because you couldn't accept the fact that the UI change was a FINAL DECISION....

 

You just never give up, don't you ?

[Raphael van Lierop]

Just wait for Redux + the December update to drop. You can all get back up in arms about UI changes again!!! 

[ThePancakeLady]

3 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Just wait for Redux + the December update to drop. You can all get back up in arms about UI changes again!!! 

I like the look that you teased on your Twitter, back off to the left screen corner like before, but with a similar aesthetic to what we have now. I think it will take some getting used, to, just like any significant change to any game does. But, I think it will become second nature soon enough. New "disposable" runs to get used to all of the new stuff coming to us, and back to the older runs once I am comfy with it. Or not, maybe a new run once I am used to it, just because.

Here's hoping there is not too much noise over it.

[hozz1235]

On 12/9/2018 at 2:31 AM, Vinceofpyrenees said:

Me too, I consider that like cheat.

Not me, I've earned them, I'm going to fully utilize them!

[MarrowStone]

4 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

Not me, I've earned them, I'm going to fully utilize them!

Precisely, the best part is they're entirely optional and difficulty modes limit the number of which you can equip so you can never be truly overpowered. 

[smm1541]

I have a quick question, do you ever think there will be a time where Will or Astrid can have a pet friend accompany them/protect them along the way? I am thinking a tame wolf or something of the like.

[Revenant]

Do you guys have any plans to add other hunting weapons in the game? For example muzzleloaders, spears, maybe even like a crossbow you can find, but not make.

[Pillock]

15 hours ago, MarrowStone said:

Precisely, the best part is they're entirely optional and difficulty modes limit the number of which you can equip so you can never be truly overpowered. 

Yeah, I think they're a good addition to the game, and give some people a project to work towards. I personally don't use them because I prefer to start new games with a fresh character unaffected by my previous ones. As long as we can always choose not to use them, I'm happy.

I'm not terribly bothered whether they expand on them or add new ones.

[ThePancakeLady]

2 hours ago, Revenant said:

Do you guys have any plans to add other hunting weapons in the game? For example muzzleloaders, spears, maybe even like a crossbow you can find, but not make.

If you look in the Milton Mailbag Index, you can find the Dispatches where Raph may have already answered your question...

Milton Mailbag Index

And the Bear Spear was featured in 2 Dev Diaries already, should be coming to us soon, it seems.

[Revenant]

54 minutes ago, ThePancakeLady said:

If you look in the Milton Mailbag Index, you can find the Dispatches where Raph may have already answered your question...

Milton Mailbag Index

And the Bear Spear was featured in 2 Dev Diaries already, should be coming to us soon, it seems.

Thank you. Im pretty new to the forums so i dont know everything yet.

[ThePancakeLady]

No worries, The Index is relatively new to the forums. I have to remind myself to check it, and I often get lost wandering around here too.

[Gazbeard]

Are there any plans for variations in wildlife behaviour? 
In particular I'm thinking of wolves "shadowing" a player over a long distance, never attacking or quite being in range for a bow shot, but moving closer then moving away while staying roughly parallel to the player, sometimes slightly behind, sometimes slightly ahead.  A curiosity, or awaiting opportunity, type of stalking.
It would add some great levels of tension on regular routes (e.g. Camp Office to Carter Dam and back) or on longer treks (e.g. Muskeg perimeter or rail tracks, PV, etc.).