New item: Compass


smartrip

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I'm very new to the game, just bought it on Steam a few days back after watching it for quite a while on the sidelines.  I love the concept and the gameplay is pretty fun.  As a new person, I get lost.  Constantly.  Is it possible to add a new item to the game, which would function like a compass.  Basically this item when found and equipped could be present on the HUD and show you the direction of North and generally which direction you're going based on that. 

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12 hours ago, smartrip said:

I'm very new to the game, just bought it on Steam a few days back after watching it for quite a while on the sidelines.  I love the concept and the gameplay is pretty fun.  As a new person, I get lost.  Constantly.  Is it possible to add a new item to the game, which would function like a compass.  Basically this item when found and equipped could be present on the HUD and show you the direction of North and generally which direction you're going based on that. 

Considering that we have no idea where North or South is game-wise, a compass owuld be pointless. The upcoming mapping system fixes this problem entirely 

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25 minutes ago, Crimson Foxx said:

When its not a whiteout blizzard ;)

 

Once on the PV map I was lost in a blizzard for what seemed an eternity. I finally found a place I could start a fire warming just enough to be able to find a few more sticks then warming again. After being hunkered down for about 18 hours, the blizzard cleared and I was about 100 yards from the farm house where I had a stash of food, water and firewood.

 

If there were a working compass in the game I would have quickly found the road and then the house. And the time I spent wondering if the storm would stop before I froze to death never would have occurred. Those are the moments that I remember because there was a sense of thrill to it I would not want to lose even one of those from the game. No one remembers meandering down the tracks in an uneventful trip from the damn to the Camp Office.

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i do agree. I am always getting lost and just to make it to the Camp Office or trappers lodge or dam feels like a milestone and huge won challenge. Often i get so disorientated in the hills around there and just end up guessing my way along. That to me is also the excitement and real feeling of survival and fear in a harsh yet beautiful world. 

I personally would not want a compass, not saying it wouldnt be ideal for many. But for me i like to rely on memory and luck. :)

But a good idea and healthy suggestion so keep them coming smartrip :)

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I think the item would be useful and add to the game, especially if it's an "item" that you can find and choose to use or not use.  In whiteout conditions it could save your life.  I was caught in a storm and nearly froze because I couldn't orient myself back to where I needed to go and ended up spending the night outdoors with 1 hours of fire and a bedroll.  I too was like 100-200 meters from where I wanted to get to!

I do agree that it's fun to try and memorize some of the landscape features, but this is a videogame and the graphics are far from real, so a lot of places look very similar, so it's still easy to get lost even if you sort of know the way.  My opinion is just that the compass as an item you could choose to use or not use would add to the game, especially for us not as savvy players!

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If they added compass's to the game, what then would you envision the challenges to be? I want everyone to enjoy the game and you using a compass would not affect me. However I have played and do play several games and the gamer in me forces me to use the best available items.

 

When I play Skyrim, I always end up making myself too powerful. I have to have the Dragon Sword and Armour, even though it makes combat in most of the game a joke. Of course I have no one to blame for this but myself

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Compass.  That is something I have some recent experience with in the game Long Dark.  A compass in real life can be constructed by dropping an object that floats into a non ferrous container and add some water (lamp fuel) and then place a small magnet on top of the float.  The weak magnet orients to the strong magnetic force because the float in the water has a low co-efficient of friction.  Making a weak magnet can be done using simply kinetic force on a ferrous item to create static electricity. 

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Compass

250px-Sewing_Kit.png?version=5b4a5786bac

A worn out sewing kit has a needle or scissor, a float and the container seems to be plastic with a clear lid.  Perfect item for a make shift compass.

Using a compass in a TLD environment makes all the fog, blinding snow and darkness weak.  Whether you can see or not would have little impact because getting somewhere that is located on the edge of the map would be point and go.  The Trapper's Cabin is a good example of this.  Using a compass would be too easy to relocate in the fog.  Just finding the wall that exist around all maps already makes the game easy.  Add to that the compass and now it becomes overkill.  A new map environment can be easily navigated.  If you can continue on the same heading it is easy to return to the origin.

The compass is way overpowered item for this game.  There needs to be balance.  If compass is going to part of the game then there should also be a chance at times the compass is unusable.  The geomagnetic event or some other problem should cause the compass to just spin.

 

16 hours ago, Lovehandel said:

the gamer in me forces me to use the best available items

That makes perfect sense to me.  Why would we not?

I have already figured out a couple of ways to exploit the game.  The obvious F8 co-ordinates I never use because it is part of debugging and feels super cheaty.

 

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3 hours ago, Rada_ said:

Would they work? I mean the geomagnetic storm and all that.

That's been debated before, and yes, they should work fine. (Personally, I'd like to see a compass in the game, but it just slowly spins around and around [that geomagnetic storm thing] so that it would be useless.. but that's just my warped sense of humour!)

As for direction finding.. just using the sun and moon are fine, so far as I'm concerned. And Hinterland have stated that by the time Wintermute is released, the sunrise/set points will be consistent for all areas.. (a couple of them are out of whack compared to the others, at the moment.)

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1 hour ago, Lovehandel said:

I just don't get why the compass idea is so popular. Where is the fun in being lost in the wilderness if you're not lost.? 

I guess it's an innate instinct to solve our problems/make life easier.

When I found myself (in the game) in the middle of a snowstorm for the first time and couldn't find any familiar place I thought: "That's it. I'm going to die here without food or water, knowing that I amassed a lot of them in my base, which is nowhere to be found now... If I only had a compass I would have more chance to find my way."
But during the whole process of starving/freezing to death/cursing/thinking about life (and death) I realised the value of that kind of experience, and the power of Mother Nature.

So, I think I understand the desire for a compass, but personally I think that don't having one fits better the idea of the game. You are supposed to feel vulnerable.

P.S.: miraculously, I survived that snowstorm :)

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On 6/6/2017 at 8:02 PM, slackhideo said:

I guess it's an innate instinct to solve our problems/make life easier.

Compass would not make anything easier. It would show direction, not your position or position of your target. Plus, as mentioned, it may have some spinning mechanics at times, so it would become less reliable during those periods.

And at the same time we have humongous exploits like walking in perfect straight line in blizzard(by just holding forward key, or even in fog, where you have no sense of direction) or making paths out of burned out campfires or sticks that are immovable and eternal. Nobody seem to complain about those.

Considering that there is several of such tremendous exploits, that just trash game difficulty, and that they have been around for ages, with no fixes of any kind, compared to those compass would fit nicely in game.

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I always find the argument that they will not make things easier quite funny. If you ask the proponent why one is wanted, you are told to avoid getting lost in a blizzard. That doesn't make the game easier?

 

Putting one in the game that doesn't function properly is right out of the department of redundancy department.

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19 hours ago, Lovehandel said:

I always find the argument that they will not make things easier quite funny. If you ask the proponent why one is wanted, you are told to avoid getting lost in a blizzard. That doesn't make the game easier?

 

Putting one in the game that doesn't function properly is right out of the department of redundancy department.

Everything makes game easier if we view it in this way. What is your point ? Hatchet, matches, rocks, clothing, bow, stove... should all of them be removed, as they make game easier ? Compass will not save player from a wolf, not it will fill his stomach or warm his ass.

You dont know what "redundancy" means, do you ? Saying that compass may not function properly do not imply that it do not function at all, nor that it is useless in general. Even with reduced functionality it would serve it purpose, but with diminished efficiency.

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1 hour ago, Dirmagnos said:

 

You dont know what "redundancy" means, do you ? Saying that compass may not function properly do not imply that it do not function at all, nor that it is useless in general. Even with reduced functionality it would serve it purpose, but with diminished efficiency.

 

Adding something that adds nothing is redundant. If a compass is not reliable it is not useful. If you are not certain it is always pointing north what good is it. The only function for a compass is to always point in the same direction if it doesn't, you might as well just trust your instincts

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51 minutes ago, Lovehandel said:

Adding something that adds nothing is redundant. If a compass is not reliable it is not useful. If you are not certain it is always pointing north what good is it. The only function for a compass is to always point in the same direction if it doesn't, you might as well just trust your instincts

Compass adds ease of navigation. Even hampered by em activity it will point north-ish. I woulds swing left and right, but it would point towards same general direction, not spin in circles. For it to simply spin around it would mean that there is no magnetic field to speak of, as it points along Earth magnetic lines.

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30 minutes ago, Dirmagnos said:

Compass adds ease of navigation. Even hampered by em activity it will point north-ish. I woulds swing left and right, but it would point towards same general direction, not spin in circles. For it to simply spin around it would mean that there is no magnetic field to speak of, as it points along Earth magnetic lines.

 

If you are adding a compass that can reliably help navigate, it makes the game too easy with the current type of maps. It would be next to impossible to get lost. You do not need to have an exact location, you only need to find the road/river/train tracks and you are five minutes from safety. These run the entire length of the maps, if you know what direction to walk you cannot miss them 

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1 hour ago, Lovehandel said:

If you are adding a compass that can reliably help navigate, it makes the game too easy with the current type of maps. It would be next to impossible to get lost. You do not need to have an exact location, you only need to find the road/river/train tracks and you are five minutes from safety. These run the entire length of the maps, if you know what direction to walk you cannot miss them 

Walking in right direction would make game is too easy ? Have you ever used compass yourself ?

Considering that sticks(tinder plugs, flares, etc) still fall the same way, pointing in same direction, all the time, those already are being abused as makeshift navigational tools. Even worse, tinder plugs fall straight north to south and flares fall straight west to east, with top pointing always east.

And again, we come back to immovable tinder plugs and campfire trails. That stay put no matter how strong blizzard they are in.

Taking all those humongous exploits into account, compass would be a downgrade, a big one at that. And it would actually make sense in terms of gameplay.

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3 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

Considering that sticks(tinder plugs, flares, etc) still fall the same way, pointing in same direction, all the time, those already are being abused as makeshift navigational tools.

That's not "abusing" them.. It's the only way of doing in-game just what I'd do in real life out in the bush.. mark my trail in whatever way best came to hand. It's called bushcraft, not abuse.

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39 minutes ago, JAFO said:

That's not "abusing" them.. It's the only way of doing in-game just what I'd do in real life out in the bush.. mark my trail in whatever way best came to hand. It's called bushcraft, not abuse.

Those items fall pointing in exactly same direction always. I can drop a flare and it will always drop pointing from east to west. Precisely. Regardless of angle i drop it at.

Plus, no matter strength of the wind, they are immovable, while it would be logical that they would be swept away instantly.

Its not bushcraft, its shortcomings of development that have severe negative impact on gameplay. Its from same category of critical exploits as living on 500 calories by simply eating before going to bed, as sleeping restores all health lost during day wandering on empty stomach and then some.

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