Out with the old and in with the confusing

[RighteousFury]

I mean no offense (if any taken) with the title. I haven't played The Long Dark in a while, I just launched it the other day and roamed around doing the usual when it said I was getting a little too cold. I pressed TAB, nothing. That's weird. I pressed it once more, still nothing. Strange. I furiously start mashing TAB with no effect, then by accident I hit space bar. A radial menu came up and I got scared and didn't know what to do, so I pressed alt F4 and sat in the corner, contemplating the meaning of life. 

Please tell me the basics of navigating the new menu in The Long Dark.

Thanks

[TWM]

Type Esc[ape], (or start from the Main Menu). Go to Options > Key Bindings. Familiarize yourself with the essentials (which button does what, it's pretty much the same). Or change some things according to your preferences.

As far as the in-game Radial Menu is concerned, it's pretty intuitive. Just mind that accessing the Medical Tabs now goes through the radial menu. There's a Red Cross in there, so if you sprain a wrist or need to stop a bleed, don't freak out but press SPACE (and keep on pressing that until you're done with the radial menu).

The cooking menu at the stove/campfire didn't change much.

Most changes are pretty cosmetic, as far as I've seen.

[RighteousFury]

9 minutes ago, TWM said:

Type Esc[ape], (or start from the Main Menu). Go to Options > Key Bindings. Familiarize yourself with the essentials (which button does what, it's pretty much the same). Or change some things according to your preferences.

As far as the in-game Radial Menu is concerned, it's pretty intuitive. Just mind that accessing the Medical Tabs now goes through the radial menu. There's a Red Cross in there, so if you sprain a wrist or need to stop a bleed, don't freak out but press SPACE (and keep on pressing that until you're done with the radial menu).

The cooking menu at the stove/campfire didn't change much.

Most changes are pretty cosmetic, as far as I've seen.

Alright thank you

[TWM]

Oh, and just so you know: chucking a flare won't make a wolf whimper off anymore, you need to 'brandish' it like a torch now.

I don't know how long you haven't played; if you were still accustomed to repairing axes, knives and guns using the toolbox and some scrap metal, you'll find you now have to use whetstones and rifle cleaning kits. So toolboxes have been made pretty much redundant. Not much point in hauling them across the map.

Arrowheads can't be created at the work bench anymore, but are now forged at the forge in Desolation Point.

But I'm going wayyyy back now, so all this is probably moot.

[cekivi]

The radial menu is also a toggle (which is very annoying). If you want to see your stats/time press Tab but if you're in your inventory than you can only see temperature and clothing bonuses. So, in the world pressing tab you can't see how much warmth your clothes give but you can tell how hungry you are. When eating you can tell how warm your clothes are but not your current thirst/hunger levels

I'm hoping that further improvements will be forthcoming in future updates.

[TWM]

Quote

So, in the world pressing tab you can't see how much warmth your clothes give but you can tell how hungry you are.

True, but I feel this is part of Hinterland's overal design philosophy for this game:

They want to offer an immersive experience, so a minimal HUD which gives you the bare basics of what a person in this environment would know and what a player needs to know, without giving all kinds of technical data which distract from immersing yourself in the world they created and discouraging power gaming.

I feel that even the temperature indication is somewhat distracting, as it is data you wouldn't have (not unless you would be carrying a quicksilver thermometer in your backpocket), and in most cases, you don't need (not unless you're calibrating a fire, in which case it becomes pretty useful, maybe a bit too useful).

On principle I'd be in favour of a system of intuitive symbols that letst you know whether the temperature feels blazing, hot, toasty, warm, comfortable, doable, pretty cold, outright cold, nasty, outright freezing, not funny anymore or friggin' horrible.

This would also remove a certain element of unrealism, where any temperature above 32º Fahrenheit / 0º Celcius would warm you up enough to stave off hypothermia. Because in real life, you wouldn't of course. Anything below 50º Fahrenheit / 10º Celcius would still put you at risk. To be comfortable in real life, you'd need at least 62 to 63º Fahrenheit (about 17-18º Celcius).

In-game that would unpracticle, since indoors starts at a couple degrees below freezing point and not all lodges and trailers carry the possibility to make a fire, so any beginner without a lot of bonus clothing warmed would freeze in no-time unless he stayed in bed half the day, thus cutting all the fun out of the game.

But with a system that would merely indicate the temperature feel with symbols, at least you would get away from the technical aspects of temperature, which break immersion somewhat (because they're a constant reminder you're playing a game, a game that gives you information you can't actually know, which invites you to abuse the mechanics to your advantage - like the minimum amount of wood on the fire I can get away with and still get warm...)

 

[cekivi]

I'd be OK with that. I still would like to know how hungry I am though in the menu that directly controls hunger though

[Mentalpatient]

On 5/9/2016 at 7:55 PM, cekivi said:

I'd be OK with that. I still would like to know how hungry I am though in the menu that directly controls hunger though

 

This annoys me. I'm in my pack pack/food tab...wait, am I hungry? No idea, the calories only show when I start eating something. I have to go press tab, checks the stats, then come back. Bah. I'm too absent minded for that.