Rope climbing weight restrictions

[piddy3825]

With the new update, climbing and descending the rope is now severely restricted since you can't use the rope if your load out exceeds 30 kilo making it impractical in most cases when exploring and looting those areas.  I can see why limiting the amount that can be carried going up the rope, but coming down shouldn't be so restricted in my opinion.  Climbing over encumbered should have be viable to a limited extent provided you have lots of stamina although the pace would be slower and the rest breaks would be necessary.  But coming down is more a matter of sliding down the rope letting gravity do the work for you.  I would only need enough stamina to be able to hold on and slow myself down.  I'd like to see the old mechanic of rope climbing as compared to this latest update.  just my opinion...

[L²]

I completely concur with @piddy3825 on this topic. I agree that climbing might logically be impeded based upon the amount you are encumbered, however descending prohibitions makes no sense.

[VociferousRex]

I thoroughly agree with both of you.
The only restriction I could imagine for the descent would be either exceeding your ability to grip and stop yourself or exceeding the weight limit of whatever the rope is anchored to/the rope itself.  I could see how being over-encumbered may cause fall damage/leg and ankle damage (falling too fast for too far) and/or durability damage to your mittens/condition damage to your hands (rope burns) during a descent.  Also, it would drain your stamina faster when slowing yourself while over-encumbered.  That makes sense to me. Preventing you altogether seems a bit heavy handed.
That said, there are only so many hours in a day and there are undoubtedly limits to the resources given to the dev team.  So there's only so much the dev team would be able to add/tweak.  They would probably have to alter how the ropes/anchors themselves function (by adding a weight limit) and add triggers to the game to pick up when you're descending too fast/your gloves take damage/you lose condition due to falling/rope burns.  I know a very precious little about coding, but I know even seemingly small things are often complicated and take both time and effort to effect properly.  So hats off to the devs for the work they've already put into the game!

[togg]

I like the change. Makes sense to me. I would not dare to slide down a rope if my weight was too much. I'm not a mission impossible character! I would either destroy my hands or fall to death.

It is also a nice gameplay mechanic. It is heavy handed but it works. It happened to me on first day of interloper from TWM to PV and it was nice.

[Carbon]

There was a good discussion on this topic not long ago. Might be worth a read.

 

[piddy3825]

57 minutes ago, Carbon said:

There was a good discussion on this topic not long ago. Might be worth a read.

 

Thanks for pointing that out.  I would have commented there had I seen it.  That being said, although I was gripping about it the other day, the problem solver in me has been wrestling with the idea on how to assault the summit for the express purpose of looting everything most expeditiously and it's doable although extremely time consuming.  So I am looking forward to working this strategy out without dying while trying...

From the developer's perspective, this does greatly increase the play time with this mechanic.  I do remember reading something about the actual straight play time of the story based on the segmented story release dates, so this mechanic really does stretch out the play time significantly. 

1 hour ago, togg said:

I like the change. Makes sense to me. I would not dare to slide down a rope if my weight was too much. I'm not a mission impossible character! I would either destroy my hands or fall to death.

It is also a nice gameplay mechanic. It is heavy handed but it works. It happened to me on first day of interloper from TWM to PV and it was nice.

I agree I wouldn't want to slide down a rope either if I was carrying way to much and wasnt sure i could arrest my descent, but the sheer rigid inflexibility is still annoying.  I think they should have left it alone, but now that it's here, game on!

[togg]

9 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

I agree I wouldn't want to slide down a rope either if I was carrying way to much and wasnt sure i could arrest my descent, but the sheer rigid inflexibility is still annoying.  I think they should have left it alone, but now that it's here, game on!

I had to drop anything over 15kg since I was fully tired!

[piddy3825]

Hey @togg,

just wanted to give you a quick heads up that I just pulled off the first over-encumbered full cliff side descent from the summit to the trail base with the engine and the two shipping containers.  I loaded up to 55 kilos and walking very slowly went to the cliffs to the right of the tail section as you face it and crouch walking I traversed the cliff face from ledge to ledge, always going in a downward angle and switching back as necessary.  There were a few times where I had to drop down a steep incline to a ledge below, so I did take some damage in the process.  Thankfully, I was packing all the medication so I had ample painkillers to dose the multiple sprained ankles and wrists before I successfully made it to the bottom.  I subsequently walked all the way back to the mountaineers hut crouch walking two more cliff sides, each near a rope climb, in record time.

Now if I can only do that again two more times....

[JoE Smash]

So I think this is like the third or fourth thread on this topic, and I have yet to hear any kind of response from Hinterland devs about changing this stealth nerf. Very disappointing....

[L²]

Personally, I am not sure it is an exploit.  The concept is one of crouch walking/crawling which implies a raised degree of carefulness and an associated degree of slowing.  With that in mind, if a "cliff face" is such that there actually are ledges and 'foot holds' in the form of traversable pathways, then I do not consider it an exploit.  If I were able to do this on a sheer face, then I would agree.

Just my 2 ¢

[Timber Wolf]

1 minute ago, L² said:

Personally, I am not sure it is an exploit.  The concept is one of crouch walking/crawling which implies a raised degree of carefulness and an associated degree of slowing.

I agree.  Furthermore, one does not need to crouch at all to make it down the side of the mountain.  There is a path that can be followed, which almost looks like an intentionally created path.  Very easy to follow, no crouching and no sprains.

[Pillock]

2 minutes ago, L² said:

Personally, I am not sure it is an exploit.  The concept is one of crouch walking/crawling which implies a raised degree of carefulness and an associated degree of slowing.  With that in mind, if a "cliff face" is such that there actually are ledges and 'foot holds' in the form of traversable pathways, then I do not consider it an exploit.  If I were able to do this on a sheer face, then I would agree.

Just my 2 ¢

I think the new weight restriction turns it into an exploit, to be honest.

You are too heavy to descend the rope? Ok, just walk down the cliff next to the rope, and you're fine!

 

[Timber Wolf]

1 minute ago, Pillock said:

I think the new weight restriction turns it into an exploit, to be honest.

But I have never taken the ropes down the mountain.  So, I wasn't using an exploit before, but now I am?

[Pillock]

Just now, Timber Wolf said:

But I have never taken the ropes down the mountain.  So, I wasn't using an exploit before, but now I am?

Yeah, that's the gist!

It's a knock-on effect of the messy implementation of the weight limit.

[Timber Wolf]

1 minute ago, Pillock said:

Yeah, that's the gist!

It's a knock-on effect of the messy implementation of the weight limit.

Seems kind of silly to me.  I will still be taking my regular path down the mountain until the game prevents me from doing so.

[Pillock]

13 minutes ago, Timber Wolf said:

Seems kind of silly to me.  I will still be taking my regular path down the mountain until the game prevents me from doing so.

Quite right.

If an 'exploit' is known by the developers and they don't change it, it must be intended gameplay, right? Maybe they designed it specifically so that insect-walking down a vertical cliff while carrying a 50kg pack would more advantageous than using a rope which is literally right next to you.

[Timber Wolf]

1 minute ago, Pillock said:

Maybe they designed it specifically so that insect-walking down a vertical cliff

This is not necessary.  You can walk down it the same way you can walk down any other steep hill found in the game.  In fact, the path I take down is so easy it should be marked with signs!

[Pillock]

Just now, Timber Wolf said:

This is not necessary.  You can walk down it the same way you can walk down any other steep hill found in the game.  In fact, the path I take down is so easy it should be marked with signs!

Yeah, I was talking in general about rope climbs rather than specific routes. For example, I once came to the top the waterfall rope-climb to discover that there was no rope there. So I just walked over the edge of the cliff and made my way safely down the rocks.

The new weight restrictions on climbing just serve to further highlight the silliness of this possibility.

[Timber Wolf]

3 hours ago, Pillock said:

Yeah, I was talking in general about rope climbs rather than specific routes. For example, I once came to the top the waterfall rope-climb to discover that there was no rope there. So I just walked over the edge of the cliff and made my way safely down the rocks.

The new weight restrictions on climbing just serve to further highlight the silliness of this possibility.

Good point.  Actually, I have a route down to bypass almost all of the ropes on all of the maps.

[piddy3825]

6 hours ago, Timber Wolf said:

Good point.  Actually, I have a route down to bypass almost all of the ropes on all of the maps.

I have a lot of hours in the sandbox, and spend the majority of my time on TWM, but it wasn't until this most recent play through that I discovered those various routes that you mention coming down from the summit.  Yes, fairly easy to just walk down, but steep enough not to be able to walk back up in most spots.  I still think that the main reason was to merely add play time when story mode releases, otherwise the first chapter in the story we have all been waiting for plays itself out in less than 6 hours.  

 

17 hours ago, JoE Smash said:

So I think this is like the third or fourth thread on this topic, and I have yet to hear any kind of response from Hinterland devs about changing this stealth nerf. Very disappointing....

I remember watching that video that they released about the latest update and the up coming story mode, and I do believe Raphael said that this was the last time they were responding to community as they were concentrating their efforts strictly on story mode in order to meet the August deadline.

[JoE Smash]

10 minutes ago, piddy3825 said:

I remember watching that video that they released about the latest update and the up coming story mode, and I do believe Raphael said that this was the last time they were responding to community as they were concentrating their efforts strictly on story mode in order to meet the August deadline.

Awesome....

[Patrick Carlson]

Folks, keep it friendly. Thank you.

All we've said about updates is that Faithful Cartographer was the final Sandbox update prior to our August launch - which is still the case. That's the focus of the team right now. If you want to see the most accurate context regarding our thinking on the game and continued development, I recommend you check out our official FAQ. http://www.thelongdark.com/news/frequently-asked-questions/

 

[JoE Smash]

9 minutes ago, Patrick Carlson said:

Folks, keep it friendly. Thank you.

All we've said about updates is that Faithful Cartographer was the final Sandbox update prior to our August launch - which is still the case. That's the focus of the team right now. If you want to see the most accurate context regarding our thinking on the game and continued development, I recommend you check out our official FAQ. http://www.thelongdark.com/news/frequently-asked-questions/

 

Sorry @Patrick Carlson, Nicko has consistently been arguing with me since I joined the forums. After several days of it we agreed (I thought) to just not comment about each other in threads. That lasted about two days, and now since I made the sad face emoji, he is somehow interpreting it as I'm being a cry baby?

I don’t know what his problem is, but I would appreciate it if he just left me alone, period. That was the agreement as of two days ago. He clearly isn't going to stop I guess...

[Patrick Carlson]

6 minutes ago, JoE Smash said:

Sorry @Patrick Carlson, Nicko has consistently been arguing with me since I joined the forums. After several days of it we agreed (I thought) to just not comment about each other in threads. That lasted about two days, and now since I made the sad face emoji, he is somehow interpreting it as I'm being a cry baby?

I don’t know what his problem is, but I would appreciate it if he just left me alone, period. That was the agreement as of two days ago. He clearly isn't going to stop I guess...

Please stay on-topic for this thread. This doesn't need to be discussed here. Thank you. 

[JoE Smash]

Just now, Patrick Carlson said:

Please stay on-topic for this thread. This doesn't need to be discussed here. Thank you. 

Alrightie, thank you for your understanding.....