Milton Mailbag -- Dispatch #31

[Raphael van Lierop]

Hey community,

I'll assume you all saw the exciting news that we're releasing the next update to Survival Mode -- STEADFAST RANGER -- this Monday, May 6th? Exact timing TBD but we'll get it out in the AM Pacific if we can.

We're in the last stages of finalizing everything for the update so I don't have a lot of time for Mailbag this week -- here are some quick responses before next week's launch, as I suspect we'll be too busy to answer Mailbag next Friday. 😅

[UPDATE -- I lied; I still ended up spending more than an hour b/c there were so man great questions]

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Question from @Sito:

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Do you have plans to adjust the interior lighting to make it consistent among regions and buildings? for example, the farmhouse in PV is darker then the inside of a cow but the cave from ML to MT is like a walk in the sun.  I know you keep tweaking things to get the lighting right. Your fan base is patient. Ignore the trolls 

Yes, I'd like to do some clean-up. We're actually investigating a system for automatic testing of our interior lighting, because it's super time-consuming to verify it through manual testing. This system would automatically check each interior at different times of day to ensure it hits the right level of lighting for that scene. In the mean time, I agree the Farmhouse is too dark (I was in there yesterday and it was ridiculous) so while we didn't fix that in this update I think we'll probably hotfix that one next week.

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Question from @legolegs:

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Please tell us about development of the visual style of the game. So one day you came to graphic team and told them you want a game looking like moving water-colour painting. And they answered smth like "okay we can make computer to do X and Y, but for Z you need an actual artist to draw, not the algorithm, Z is impossible". What were challenges in implementing the graphic engine? Which pieces of art were used as prototypes if any?  Which compromises your team took diverting from original vision due to implementation difficulties?

I wanted the game to be beautiful as a counterpoint to how deadly the world would be. I don't find photorealism that interesting so I wanted something stylized that would become iconic (if we did it well), meaning people would see screenshots and immediately know that they were from The Long Dark. In the first couple of years of the game's development I didn't have an art director so I had to figure it out myself -- I studied a lot of landscape paintings and looked at a lot of different art styles. Then I worked with great concept artists (Trudi Castle and Roberto Robert were the primary ones; Roberto ended up joining us at Hinterland and has been our full-time in-house concept artist for the game for the past three years!) to try to find the right style.

I remember the first interior we got to a point where I was happy with it was Trapper's Cabin, and I looked at the concept and said, ok let's make the game look *exactly* like this. Often you just use concept as a guide for the artists, but I felt like we should make the game look exactly like the art. So we did. And that's what we've done ever since. Pretty much everything in the game starts as a piece of concept art and then the artists recreate it in 3D. I wanted the world to feel like a moving watercolour painting, full of colour and beauty, and the art team has done a fantastic job of delivering on that. A few years ago I *finally* found an art director, Realm Lovejoy, who was the original art director on Portal at Valve and worked on a bunch of other games there, and she's done amazing work guiding our artists to continue to improve the look of the game and world without destroying the original style. So you can see that the game today looks like a more refined version of the game in 2014, but it still looks like the same game.

The full answer to your question would take an art book to answer, so I'll let you know when ours is done.  

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Question from @DerpyLemon115:

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Possible DLC for The Long Dark has been talked about in the past a few times, and I wanted to ask if you had to make DLC right now on the spot what would you like it to be?

If I had to make a decision on paid DLC right now -- Jeremiah side story OR partially-procedural road-journey  (ex. you have to travel 100 kms on a procedurally-generated section of highway to get to [???], mostly survival-focused but with occasional story bits along the way).

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Questions from @Garden Gnome:

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Hi, a couple questions about being a game developer in general. 

1.) How has being so deeply involved in game development and design impacted your enjoyment of other people’s games? When you have the time to play, has being in the industry ruined any of the fun/magic of games? 

2.) When/how did you know game development was right for you? And what steps did you initially take to break into the industry?

 

Thanks for the questions. 

A quick answer for #1 would be that you can see the "seams" in the experiences you play, as it were, and you often stop to analyze how something was one, but I'm still able to get swept up in great experiences, although I suppose my tolerance for kind of half-baked or poorly implemented stuff is pretty low. Things that wouldn't bother you, bother me.

For #2, I'd always been a game--player but didn't get serious about it as a career until I was in my late-20s. I was working as a tech writer, writing manuals and things for 3D hardware and software packages that were used by game developers, and as I learned more about how games were made I realized I really wanted to be part of creating something like that, something that was a blend of technology, art, and this kind of intangible quality that a great game has. I used my professional writing experience to get small contracts and design gigs, did some modding, and realized that if I was going to really learn how to make games I needed to go work in a studio that did it well, so I got a job at Relic Entertainment as an assistant producer, basically bottom rung of the ladder, and just soaked up as much knowledge as I could, shipped some games, and then kind of kept doing that at different studios until I was directing projects and then decided -- it's time to do put myself out there and try to make something that was a stronger expression of my own creative values, and that's why I started Hinterland and The Long Dark.

The industry's really different now than it was when I "broke in" -- there are a lot more opportunities now and you can do so much on your own. Back then there wasn't really an "indie" industry at all, game engines cost $1M to license, and you really couldn't do much without a publisher backing you, so the barrier to entry was way higher.

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Question from @Seajay:

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I really do enjoy the game, I suppose after 300+ hours I may have just naturally reached the 'end' of the games playability but the Long Dark keeps drawing me back and I hope that's not true. I just wish I had some additional in game goals for my Long Dark character to strive for.

...actually, it wasn't a question, but thanks for sharing your ideas about additional ways to use animal skins, and your thoughts on goal-setting in Survival. It's something I've been thinking about a lot, lately. 

And welcome to the forums!

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Question from @ThePancakeLady:

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Okay Raph. I searched the Index, and did not see this covered, though I may not have searched every keyword I could have. Bear with me, the question may come out a bit wordy...

Everyone defines "Indie" differently it seems, on social media, and in the world of programming/coding and SW/game development. Gamedevs on Twitter seem to have their own individual definitions as well. Yes, I follow you on Twitter, and I know you have talked about it at times. But many here may not have seen the Tweets. So, I am asking you to define what "Indie" means to you, as an Indie dev, running an Indie studio, making an Indie game. Is it all about publisher vs. self-published, or is there more to it than that, from your individual POV? Understanding that opinions are your own, not necessarily shared by your entire team at Hinterland.

And yes, I understand if the question is hard to answer without possibly causing some trouble for you on social media or elsewhere, so feel free to ignore it, if it might be too controversial right now with all of the excitement over crunch and union vs non-union, and a number of well-known AAA studios being dragged right now for their parts in it. But, I am curious, and had to ask, since my internal definition is probably very different from yours, or anyone else's.

You can always revert to the tried-and-true, and tell me when we will get Pancakes in the game. 

 

Thanks for the question. It's a good one because there's a lot of confusion, in my opinion, about what the term "indie" means these days. It used to refer to a style of games, ex. "indie games", which were typically pixel-art and many were kind of retro-focused recreations of old games. Then it kind of morphed into meaning games made by small teams, and now we seem to use it for any game that isn't a big-budget publisher-backed triple-A game. 

For me personally (and I know it's a personal thing so I don't expect everyone to agree), I make the distinction between "indie" and "independent". To me, "indie" is a sensibility, not exclusively what I outlined above but very much along those lines. An "indie" studio would be small and focused on more quirky games. An "independent" studio is one that is self-funded or 100% self-directed in their work, i.e. they make the creative calls for their project, they decide what goes into the game, they decide when to ship it, etc. There are a lot of studios and projects that are referred to as "indie" games and "indie" studios that do not pass the "independent" test -- i.e. they are publisher-backed, someone else is paying the bills and someone else is ultimately making the calls in terms of what goes into the game, when it should be shipped, etc. 

In my opinion, Hinterland is not an "indie" studio -- I don't think our work or our sensibilities about how we approach our work are really "indie" at all. The vast majority of the team at Hinterland are 10+ year veterans (we have several that have made games for more than 20 years) and most of them (myself included) come from the Triple-A side of the industry. Hinterland is, however, an *independent* studio. We have our own money, we own our own IP, we call our own shots about what we're going to make and when we're going to ship it. Nobody tells us what to make or when. Certainly we have our customers (all of you) and we are beholden to you and the promises that I have made to you, but there's nobody else above us that can tell us to change the game or ultimately do something we don't want to do in a way we don't want to do it.

To me, "indie" is kind of meaningless. Being independent, however -- that's very important to me.

Hopefully that makes sense. I don't think there's a rule about this and again, this is just my way of seeing things. I'm sure you can find a bunch of really smart people out there who have different perspectives on it and who are probably also right.  

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Question from @hoasd1:

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How about the mysterious geomagnetic storm that happened in Milton?

i think how crazy was the peoples in Milton are and how did Astrid survived from the storm?

 

For the first part -- you have to think that the geomagnetic storm has affected a lot more than just Milton.

For the second part -- you'll have some answers in Episode Three.  

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Question from @hozz1235:

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Greetings!  There has been a recent forum post on shooting bears with a bow, getting blood splatter, bear flees and leaves blood trail.  Some time passes and the bear does not die but resumes it's normal pathing.  According to the wiki (and we do understand this could be outdated, in which case we/I would like to update it) all (excluding moose) animals shot with a successful bow shot should bleed out and die.  Could you clear up how this game mechanic works for us?  Thanks.

If you see blood drops, this means the animal is bleeding, and it will eventually die. Maybe it's a bug or maybe you're looking at two different bears? How are you sure it's the same bear? I'd need more info to verify but the bleedout behaviour is pretty consistent. Keep in mind the bleedout timings vary depending on the hunting tool, the wildlife type, and the hit location.

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Question from @Samwise:

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Are you guys planning to change the stats on the Mackinaw Jacket? I LOVE the jacket in both real life and the game but I find it doesn't offer any unique trait considering how rare it is in the game.  I often compare items in the game based off of their weight and the expedition jacket (which is less rare) beats it in weight and every other stat apart from +/- 2 Mobility. I'd love to see the jacket have at LEAST two stats that beat the expedition jacket. Is there any hope for this? They are really tough jackets in real life so maybe durability? (Food for thought: Because the jacket is made out of wool, it would be great for preventing sweating, if you guys ever had an intention of adding "sweat monitoring" to the game...because sweating in the winter can be deadly...and Mackinaw/Merino wool wicks sweat well)

I'm not 100% what we might do with the Mackinaw or other clothing tuning at the moment, but I'm excited that you like the Mackinaw so much and want to see us do justice to it.  In general we account for the qualities of Wool with a "Warmth When Wet" value -- in other words anything wool still provides substantial warmth when wet, while things like Cotton lose most of their warmth when wet. We don't expose these values in the UI because it feels super noodly, but that calculation is happening under the hood. Also, Mackinaw ruggedness would be reflected by the Protection value (i.e. how much it protects you from physical damage -- it looks like a little Shield in the clothing UI widget), and also how much Condition it has, which will impact how long it lasts and how quickly it decays over time.

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Question from @thekillergreece:

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1. I was wondering if NPCs will ever happen in survival mode?

2. I remember that you expressed your interest to make all-seasons The Long Dark at some point but that would be a totally new game and won't be free which is totally fine. I was wondering if you are still considering that idea to happen or is it now on shelves? I understand it will be very very time consuming but just a concern. 

3. Since you are adding the revolver, I assume you will not implemented more firearms anymore? Shotgun does seem to fit well, especially for Hunting but like what you said, it would turn the game into action-shooter.

4. Finally, I was wondering if gunpowder making is still planned?

Thanks in advance! Sorry for the number of questions.

 

I think I've answered #1 a bunch of times so you might check the Mailbag Index for that. In general the vast majority of our players tell us they don't want to have NPCs in survival because they like the solitude. But, you never know.  

2 -- yeah this won't be something we tackle in WINTERMUTE/Survival Mode 1.0. We'll see what happens in the future, though.

3 -- we don't have plans to add more firearms at the moment but again, you never know. For a long time I thought we'd stop at the Rifle.

4 -- I'm not sure gunpowder "making" was ever planned. You might be referring to the old aspirational roadmap we published years ago, and then removed because people got mad at us for not delivering everything on that list. It might make sense to give players the means to make their own ammunition in the future. It really depends on how long-term we want players to survive for. Also, we want to ensure other tools like the Bow and Spear (when it's added to Survival) still have a purpose.

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Question from @Grignard_TN:

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1. What about expanding on hunting. I know people have mentioned more animals. What about things like rattling antlers calls? Perhaps more primitive technology like being able to throw or cast a spear, perhaps like an atlatl.

2. Would other fire starting techniques, such as a fire bow, be something to look into?

Thanks, this is a great team behind a great game.

 

I'm not sure exactly how we'll expand Hunting activities in The Long Dark. We've talked a lot about adding more primitive techniques for things like firestarting and I would still like to do that. Thanks for the questions!

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Question from @PlayerPawn:

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What are your thoughts on putting up some behind the scenes videos on Hinterland's YouTube channel?  Games are a big undertaking and I'm always in wonderment on how a team, small or large, is able to create something from ostensibly nothing.  Like how did Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan come to a decision on the musical style to use?  How do the sound designers, programmers, and engineers bring the world to life with sound?  How do level designers and artist collaborate, or how do programmers deal with systems that overlap each other?  I've always enjoyed a behind the scenes look at how games are made because it puts a face on the people who make the game you enjoy playing so much.

We may do some of this in the future, but I also like my team to have privacy and focus on their work. Not everyone is comfortable having theirselves or their work in the public. I also think some of what we do should be left to the imagination.  If you have specific questions about any of that stuff, feel free to ask it here and we'll answer what we can.

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Question from @Azdrawee:

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Woah, that's an awesome annoucement, I'm very excited for Steadfast Ranger! My question is - the update comes sooner than I expected, about 4-5 months after the WINTERMUTE Redux one, which is about two months shorter than the typical 6 month delay you usually have between updates. Why? Is it because Hinterland got bigger, or is this just a smaller update, so it didn't take as much time to develop? Thank you for your answer. ☺️

I have no idea what you expected or why you expected it so it's hard for me to answer this question. In general the best thing is to not make assumptions about our release dates, and just be happy that the update is coming out on Monday.  

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Question from @dan:

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I know this gets asked a lot but how is the switch version coming along?  I understand there is a need to keep the visuals close to what a good PC can achieve but I'd trade some of the visual flair for the opportunity to play one of my favourite games in any impromptu free time. I've seen how taxing SSAO can be to the PC version, I could without it for example. 

I'm leaning towards getting a switch and TLD would be the ultimate deal sweetener for me. 

 

There are still a lot of performance issues on Switch and we have to do a fair bit of UI work to get the game running well on a smaller screen. We haven't been able to give it much time between work on Episode Three and STEADFAST RANGER. We'll be working with Unity to see what can be done about some of the issues we're having, because they are more on the engine-side of things. When we have a more substantial update to offer, we'll share it with the community. For now, I would not want you to make a Switch-purchasing decision based on The Long Dark as there are still a lot of unknowns. But we haven't given up.

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Question from @MonadoBlade2016:

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Is there a possibility for a lighter to be implemented into the game? One that takes around .15 kg of oil to have a chance to ignite fires? Yes, having max fishing would make this very beneficial but have it be the least likely to ignite a fire, making it be more useful as a light source with around a quarter of what the storm lantern full usage time is and about half as bright aswell. Had a weird dream about lighters being put it about a week ago, maybe it was a premonition of Steadfast Ranger update next week? ;^)

Anything's possible.  I can't say adding a Lighter is a high priority at the moment, though. There are other things we'd like to add that offer more gameplay value, in my opinion.

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Question from @Its_the_Gman:

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Do you have any interest in making some adjustments and or improvements to the fishing system currently in the game? I just get so frustrated when I catch a rainbow trout worth less than a nuts n stuff bar. I don't think fishing is very viable and I think could be improved. Tackles/makeshift rods would be cool. 

Yeah I think we could improve Fishing a fair bit. Not sure when we'll get around to that, though. I think you'll see with STEADFAST RANGER that we try to balance adding new stuff with also going back and overhauling things that are old and need improvement, and Fishing would definitely fall into the latter category. 

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That's all for this week! Thanks for all the great questions, and I look forward to hearing what you think about STEADFAST RANGER next week!!

- Raph

[Admin]

As usual, please use this thread to discuss @Raphael van Lierop's answers in this week's Milton Mailbag. If you want to ask a question, even one that follows on from one of his answers, please use the Milton Mailbag Question thread.

[ThePancakeLady]

Thanks for answering my question Raph, and answering it so well. The difference between *indie* and *Independent* makes great sense, and is a distinction I will not forget. It makes it more clear to my own mind, and explain why I would often have my brow furrowed when seeing a game called *Indie* when it had a third party publisher- AAA or otherwise (small  publishers are still publishers who have some control over the project and its direction...). And called *Indie* by not just the devs or the studio, but by gamers, social media, and mainstream media publications as well. 

Appreciate the honest and, to me, clear answer. I'll be passing this on to my daughter, with her aspirations of being a great gamedev someday. With her Asperger's, she is often too shy or uncomfortable asking things like this publicly, so I do my *Mom job*, and ask for her (and myself), and pass the info on to her, for her to absorb, and form her own opinions of. Don't be shocked if someday you get a resume, portfolio, and application from her.

[ajb1978]

36 minutes ago, ThePancakeLady said:

I'll be passing this on to my daughter, with her aspirations of being a great gamedev someday. 

I wanted to be a game dev too when I was younger.  But the frustration of code that just would not compile..spending hours..HOURS...to discover it was one single stupid semicolon... I started to view video games as a chore, began to hate the thing I used to love, and ultimately abandoned the idea of becoming a game dev.  I know that's just my experience, but if you're passing things on to your daughter due to her aspirations of being a game dev...I submit to you that this too is worth passing on.  Making something you love into your career can have one of two outcomes.  Either you end up doing what you love and everything is great, or something you used to love becomes a frustrating chore, and you cease to love it.   Be mindful of these outcomes, and make your decisions accordingly.

Edit: And just so that the story isn't left on a cliffhanger, I switched majors to information security, graduated, ended up working as a SharePoint site collection administrator, part-time web developer, and occasionally doing some light programming in Visual Basic, JavaScript, AutoHotKey, etc.  Happy ending--my programming training didn't go completely to waste, and I don't hate video games.

Edited May 4, 2019 by ajb1978

[Redwulf]

1 hour ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

Question from @DerpyLemon115:

If I had to make a decision on paid DLC right now -- Jeremiah side story OR partially-procedural road-journey  (ex. you have to travel 100 kms on a procedurally-generated section of highway to get to [???], mostly survival-focused but with occasional story bits along the way).

*****

Yeah, if the price was right I would absolutely throw down on the latter. I don't usually go in for DLC, but when you start talking about a whole new game mode, that becomes worthwhile to me... and that sounds like it would be pretty cool... especially if you had to keep crossing zones, but couldn't cross back.... see how long you can survive, taking away the whole hoarding aspect as free movement across maps...

[MarrowStone]

2 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

we try to balance adding new stuff with also going back and overhauling things that are old and need improvement, and Fishing would definitely fall into the latter category

I love the tradition of these little themed names for the updates. I could see a fishing update called, "BUOYANT MARINER/ANGLER"

Buoyant is a play on words, it can describe a lucrative business or the property fishing boats (hopefully) have.

If a fishing update was paired with a hunting overhaul, you could call it "STALWART LIARS" 

"It was THIS big!" 🐟

Edited May 4, 2019 by MarrowStone

[PlayerPawn]

3 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

We may do some of this in the future, but I also like my team to have privacy and focus on their work. Not everyone is comfortable having theirselves or their work in the public. I also think some of what we do should be left to the imagination.  If you have specific questions about any of that stuff, feel free to ask it here and we'll answer what we can. 

I never really thought about the privacy aspect of it, but I understand your position on the matter.  Thanks for taking time to answer my question.

[Ruruwawa]

Whoa!  Congrats to the whole team on the new update!

I'm THRILLED with the development cadence you've achieved since Redux.  Of course, I'm looking forward to playing Steadfast Ranger, but if I'm honest I care even more about your 5 episode commitment being finished so that Hinterland can branch out to new things. 

12 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

If I had to make a decision on paid DLC right now -- Jeremiah side story OR partially-procedural road-journey  (ex. you have to travel 100 kms on a procedurally-generated section of highway to get to [???], mostly survival-focused but with occasional story bits along the way).

I'll take one of each, thanks!    I think I'd play the second more, however, because the partial-procedural element helps replayability.

Edited May 4, 2019 by Ruruwawa

[ThePancakeLady]

7 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said:

12 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

If I had to make a decision on paid DLC right now -- Jeremiah side story OR partially-procedural road-journey  (ex. you have to travel 100 kms on a procedurally-generated section of highway to get to [???], mostly survival-focused but with occasional story bits along the way).

 

7 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said:

I'll take one of each, thanks!    I think I'd play the second more, however, because the partial-procedural element helps replay-ability.

I have to agree, I would buy both. But I think I would also play the second one more often, if it were similar to current Survival Mode, with randomly placed loot, and a choice of experience modes, no custom settings though. 

[Dan_]

Excellent stuff! Gave us plenty of insight into creative process that goes into the game, without spoiling or giving away anything juicy about the forthcoming update. 

You've answered to the wrong Dan though ( I'm Dan_ , because I'm very creative when it comes to forum aliases, and Dan was taken... ), but thanks for the info. I guess as long as Unity doesn't make progress towards enabling better performance on that particular console my fourth TLD copy will have to wait for a bit. 

Great stuff, thanks for taking the time to answer so many questions. Here's some big moose kicks, on me.  

[Adeveth]

JEREMIAH SIDE-STORY. N O W

[morgellons]

15 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

"Do you have any interest in making some adjustments and or improvements to the fishing system currently in the game? I just get so frustrated when I catch a rainbow trout worth less than a nuts n stuff bar. I don't think fishing is very viable and I think could be improved. Tackles/makeshift rods would be cool."

Yeah I think we could improve Fishing a fair bit. Not sure when we'll get around to that, though. I think you'll see with STEADFAST RANGER that we try to balance adding new stuff with also going back and overhauling things that are old and need improvement, and Fishing would definitely fall into the latter category. 

I don't understand this idea that fishing is not useful. I use it constantly as my primary source of food in Interloper. Packaged food is virtually non-existent in Interloper, so I need to find my own food. Tools/weapons are hard to come by and extremely heavy. I don't even bother crafting any weapons until deep end game after I finish looting all the zones. This way I stay very light for moving my loot from zone to zone, and I always keep my well-fed buff.

There is no need to go through the trouble of crafting a knife, hatchet, and bow/arrows when you can just fish instead, which also allows you to counter cabin fever and cook/boil water at the same time. You can craft deer & rabbit skin clothes from carcasses and use rocks to kill rabbits. Plenty of guts for fishing lines and plenty of wood/coal available to have fires for days at a time in fishing huts any time you start to run out of food and cabin fever threatens.

When I first started playing the game, I also thought fishing was relatively worthless, but now that I have thousands of hours of playtime, it's my primary activity. If anything I spend too much time fishing and it delays my looting speed.

Edit: forgot to mention lamp oil - I go through a ton of it and the only way to get it is fishing

Edited May 4, 2019 by morgellons

[LilWolf]

1 hour ago, Adeveth said:

JEREMIAH SIDE-STORY. N O W

I’d like to see that too. He seems a man that hides something. Also I’m curious how the fight with the old bear started, why the military insignia and know what he knows about the geomagnetic disaster and the message "Wintermute".

[ManicManiac]

4 hours ago, LilWolf said:

He seems a man that hides something

I like to think of Jeremiah as an old special ops type who changed his name and disappeared into the seclusion of Great Bear Island... who was once involved in an "incident" on Shadow Moses Island in the Fox Archipelago.   

[Looper]

On 5/4/2019 at 3:27 AM, Raphael van Lierop said:

OR partially-procedural road-journey  (ex. you have to travel 100 kms on a procedurally-generated section of highway to get to [???], mostly survival-focused but with occasional story bits along the way).

I would by that instantly..

[romerabr]

 

On 5/5/2019 at 6:18 AM, Looper said:

I would by that instantly..

 

[melcantspell]

On 5/4/2019 at 4:31 AM, ajb1978 said:

 But the frustration of code that just would not compile..spending hours..HOURS...to discover it was one single stupid semicolon...

Different strokes for different folks ; ) (< here's a semicolon for you)

So-called "frustration" and passion sometimes go together pretty well. Think of interloper runs ...

Edited May 6, 2019 by melcantspell

[tacdiver235]

Just joining the forum. Outstanding game folks. Love how you are looking out for the folks with controller issues. Just have nothing bad to point out. Great job! I wish other developers would look to your studios. 

[ThePancakeLady]

49 minutes ago, tacdiver235 said:

Just joining the forum. Outstanding game folks. Love how you are looking out for the folks with controller issues. Just have nothing bad to point out. Great job! I wish other developers would look to your studios. 

Welcome to the forums!

[Tohono O'odham Man]

Awesome thanks you and everyone at hinterland. I wish co-op was added to the update. And thank you all again.

[Kdglaz4]

Whenever I show The Long Dark to any of my friends who aren't familiar with the game, they are usually surprised when I tell them that the world in the game is in a perpetual state of Winter. Throughout the course of your vision for the game, have you ever considered the idea of a seasonal cycle, even though it doesn't necessarily fit in with the narrative of the story? I know I would love to see something like a summer and winter season with extreme temperatures in winter and slightly warmer temps. in the summer. Anyway, its just a though. Thanks!

[ThePhoenics]

Loving the new Steadfast Ranger update, but I have to say with firearms being as thoroughly significant as they are in the game, (enough to even have two distinct skill stats for them), the fact that ammunition is fundamentally finite is a bit of a sticking point. Those hours you spent perfecting your rifle or revolver skill would be effectively worthless in the long run, as the guns would be turned into little more than elaborate paperweights. I do know that the bow is the more sustainable option for hunting, but craftable ammunition, even if it were extremely inefficient or laborious to produce, would at least make the guns have a much more longterm and relevant stake in any game. Currently (with how I play the game a least) guns seem to be more of an inconvenience than anything else, why waste ammo when you could be improving your skill with a renewable weapon? cheers!