Some feedback relating to Faithful Cartographer


fallenfox

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Hi everyone,

I am resurfacing from lurking to post my feedback on the latest update. Although, I see quite a few other people have had similar experiences to me.

The Positive

* The using stones to catch rabbits is simply brilliant. Best recent addition of all in my opinion.
* The scent meter dynamics are interesting and I welcome them. I think they're a bit buggy though as I sometimes just need to drop items and then pick them up again and the scent is gone. However, even though the meter is gone bears will stalk me into paranoia.
* The new draw distance is brilliant.
* New wolf struggle is great, but I've been experiencing crashes sometimes when firing the bow just before the wolf leaps.

The Negative / bugs

* The new maps are useless without the ability to pan and zoom them at will. Very frustrating and unrealistic.Yes, I can zoom in and out, but I can't pan across them. That's ridiculous and a wasted feature for all the effort it must have taken to create it. I have simply stayed with community made maps instead as they are more useful.
* The radius added to the maps is too small. I walk 50m and have to sketch more and even then I still have these annoying black patches around the edges and then I still can't find a good spot to sketch from. It looks ugly have black splotches everywhere.
* I think this is a bug, but wrist sprains have been out of control since the update. I got 6 wrist sprains in the first 15 days of a new game. That's more than I used to get with 100 day old games. The issue is that I am getting wrist sprains just from walking along flat even ground! I am sure this isn't meant to happen.
* I miss the old first aid screen where one could select the injury and then the treatment. It's frustrating using the radial menu as I still need to look at the injuries to decide my priority for treatments and having to scroll through a list of afflictions is anxiety inducing when I'm panicked my character is about to die after an attack.
* When the thirst indicator is red, and one goes to take a drink, it disappears while eating something that affects thirst (say crackers or peaches)
* It isn't obvious which tool you're using to open a can. I was smashing open cans for awhile before I realised what was happening. Maybe display the opening tool in the box somewhere?

Suggestions

* My favourite maps are Timberwolf Mountain and Pleasant Valley. TM is certainly my favourite map and one I can spend the longest amount of time before I get bored, I was excited by Forlorn Muskeg because it looked superficially like TM, however, I found FM far less enjoyable than TM. I have concluded this is because there is no safe way to traverse weak ice. If it were possible to safely traverse thin ice when one is only carrying 15kg or less I think it would be far more enjoyable. Because what causes me the greatest frustration is losing arrows to kills and losing the kills themselves; because they died on thin ice. Bears, wolves, deers, rabbits, etc... all wasted on thin ice. A grappling hook might be a solution but that's probably not compatible with the game style.
* Timberwolf Mountain does need more spare parts. It's the only criticism I have for an otherwise perfect map.
* Books on mending because the base mending skill is so poor that I can often fail 4-5 times in a row. Archery doesn't bother me that much. I use the bow so often I quickly progress up the skill tree.
* A rope climbing skill is sorely needed. TM gets frustrating now one can't climb up or down while over burdened. When getting equipment down from the summit I have to make several trips up and down which means spending several days doing something that should be easy if I could just throw some items over the edge or lower them in a pouch (another suggestion). My suggestions for the rope climbing skill:

Level 1: Current climbing limitations
Level 2: 10% less fatigue from climbing. Can carry 2kg over weight down the rope. Move 5% faster.
Level 3: 15% less fatigue from climbing. 5% less stamina drain. Can carry 5kg overweight down the rope. Move 10% faster.
Level 4: 20% less fatigue from climbing. 10% less stamina drain. Can carry 5kg overweight down and 2kg more up the rope. Mover 15% faster.
Level 5: 25% less fatigue from climbing. 15% less stamina drain. Can carry 5kg overweight up or down the rope, move 25% faster. Can lower items in a pouch.

 

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If we could somehow mark the path with posts and flags for the safe path across the ice it would help. 

Love the grappling hook idea. FM is a tough map to stay a while since the bench and forge are not protected. Sure makes it tough. My guess is it becomes a transition area some day. A long hike across it to another map, maybe a way out! 

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While using stone to catch rabbits is an interesting addition, it also made hunting then completely effortless. Especially combined with ability to carry them. I dont even hunt for them anymore, as i get at least couple of them every day by doing other stuff(going from point A to point B, saw a rabbit, whacked him with a stone, released him from his earthly sufferings, picked up and carry on). At day 40 i have enough to make dozens of mittens and probably circus tend from spares. Wabbit genocide is real. Die, Bugs Bunny, die.

New wolf AI is *censored*. Their disengagement just to reengage again is so bizarre that i dont even know how to describe it without some heavy searing. In my previous game i died due to this stupidity, as wolf continuously attacked, run away for 5-7 meters after just one hit, and then charged again. 5 times in a row, till it finally just died. Unfortunately for me, and due to completely random nature of bleeding and infection mechanic and it calculation after each attack, no matter how small, i ended up with 6 bleeds and 4 infections. And with new *censored* mechanic for medical treatment, that went from completely ok to total crap, while i was trying frantically to apply bandages(and even did apply it on infection condition once, "brilliant" design decision) i simply bled to death.

It is especially bad when there is fire and multiple wolves. Its a complete freakshow, as they just keep on charging, get in range of fire, whimper, run away, turn, charge, get in range of fire.... And it goes on and on and on and on... *facepalm*

Map drawing distance should depend on location of player, eg higher ground allows mapping greater area. Or, even better, player just maps/updates out area he traveled thru in last 24 hours. Cartography skill would also more than welcome.

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15 hours ago, AZHockeyNut said:

If we could somehow mark the path with posts and flags for the safe path across the ice it would help. 

Love the grappling hook idea. FM is a tough map to stay a while since the bench and forge are not protected. Sure makes it tough. My guess is it becomes a transition area some day. A long hike across it to another map, maybe a way out! 

I once had a bear, a wolf, and two deer all lying out on the weak ice of FM in a single game. I actually rage quit at that point. I was  thanking that realistically I would have stripped off nude, ran out to those animals, jumped on top of them as they fell through the ice and lassoed them.  Then ran back to the bank, put my clothes back on, and hauled the carcass back!

Anyway, it is bad optics when you fall through the ice, but the bear doesn't!

If we were playing Tomb Raider we could fire a rope arrow into the corpse and hauled them off like that. However, that's hardly realistic. I mean, are rope arrows such a thing?  If they are, then maybe a specially crafted grappling arrow for just this purpose?

I agree though that FM is such a punishing map right now that without a lure there's not much interest in playing it at all.

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12 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

New wolf AI is *censored*. Their disengagement just to reengage again is so bizarre that i dont even know how to describe it without some heavy searing. In my previous game i died due to this stupidity, as wolf continuously attacked, run away for 5-7 meters after just one hit, and then charged again. 5 times in a row, till it finally just died. Unfortunately for me, and due to completely random nature of bleeding and infection mechanic and it calculation after each attack, no matter how small, i ended up with 6 bleeds and 4 infections. And with new *censored* mechanic for medical treatment, that went from completely ok to total crap, while i was trying frantically to apply bandages(and even did apply it on infection condition once, "brilliant" design decision) i simply bled to death.

 

You have reminded me of this. What is with the new wolf AI? I actually find them far easier to kill than before. Previously they would zig-zag and be more unpredictable.  I have had the healing problems you've had, but I am not sure what's happening with the AI. I shall play some more and think about how I feel about it.

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10 hours ago, fallenfox said:

Anyway, it is bad optics when you fall through the ice, but the bear doesn't!

Stop complaining.

As bears need hollow bones for flying, that makes them exceptionally light(they also dont have meat, its all styrofoam), its near impossible for them to fall thru ice of any thickness. True story ! B|

Never seen a flying bear ? Thats because they are extremely shy. Here is proof of their capabilities(there are even unconfirmed reports of military trying to weaponize flying bears). Its a legit photo of flying bear(direction and duration of flight are irrelevant).

Flying-Bear-Falling.jpg

All that grace, speed and agility. Its a magnificent, albeit rare, sight...

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15 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

All that grace, speed and agility. Its a magnificent, albeit rare, sight...

I had heard all about "care bears" but today I learned about "air bears". Thank you.

Ummm... is that bear actually alive? It looks kind of funny...

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3 hours ago, fallenfox said:

I had heard all about "care bears" but today I learned about "air bears". Thank you.

Come to Australia, where we have "drop bears" (a killer subspecies of koala). They leap out of trees onto their prey. The only known repellent is pretty disgusting.

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Small thing to add but still annoying:

The weight numbers when in red are VERY hard to see for me.

Dark red font on black background just doesn' t seems to work.

This is on ultra high graphics settings.

Maybe change it to more bright colors like flashy light red or even orange?

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12 hours ago, JAFO said:

Come to Australia, where we have "drop bears" (a killer subspecies of koala). They leap out of trees onto their prey. The only known repellent is pretty disgusting.

I live in Australia. Drop bears are rough, but I have more trouble with the Velociroo (That's a three metre tall flesh eating kangaroo).

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RE: weak ice. I've been using the color of the ice as an indicator. However, you have to remember that it is the opposite of the rhyme. "Thick and blue, tried and true; white and crispy, it's too risky." However, in Long Dark, blue ice in FM indicates weak areas while shallow areas and safe areas are often whitish in appearance.
 

I spent so much time walking ice in FM that when I went to ML I was scared to walk on the lake becasue all the ice is blue (like it is supposed to be).

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 6/12/2017 at 3:37 PM, fallenfox said:

The Negative / bugs

* The new maps are useless without the ability to pan and zoom them at will. Very frustrating and unrealistic.Yes, I can zoom in and out, but I can't pan across them. That's ridiculous and a wasted feature for all the effort it must have taken to create it. I have simply stayed with community made maps instead as they are more useful.

hrm yes I just realised this whilst on pleasant valley map, PV is pretty large area, and when I zoom I also can't pan/move the map to view areas of the map. Hope they can fix this, otherwise zoom is useless on larger maps.

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18 minutes ago, JAFO said:

Yup.. I hate to think how much charcoal it would take to fully map PV.

ha a few fires! also charcoal is not the point in my discussion. it is after that the zoom map, sure it zooms? then what you cant scroll / pan it. the map is useless?

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13 hours ago, nicko said:

also charcoal is not the point in my discussion. it is after that the zoom map, sure it zooms? then what you cant scroll / pan it. the map is useless?

Understood.. but, IIRC, it IS possible to click'n'drag when zoomed in. Almost as good.

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