Searching In The Dark

[Bill Tarling]

May not be worth the programming effort, but...

I find myself automatically heading to various storage areas -- to the point where I turn off my lantern to save fuel [since I can search in the dark]. I was thinking it might be worth adding in a "missed something" type percentage... where there's a chance of some content not being found. It can be rechecked another time -- either in darkness again, or with light)...

In darkness maybe have a 60-75% chance of finding all items

For lockers, suggest removing the "(empty)" after checking -- unlocked already tells us we used the crowbar, and there's always a chance something was missed [e.g. in darkness] again

Also -- Theoretically there are at least a few people still alive in the world, so it would make sense to recheck "just in case" another virtual wanderer left something in a storage spot while we were exploring elsewhere. Just thinking that way we're not looking at an empty world when each place has been visited -- not a full restock, but perhaps an item or two at previous locations. They might sometimes also steal our stuff if we leave them behind as well - ie: we leave it at our own risk

Knowing there might even be a chance of something new [restock] means we need to keep traveling back and forth, and have to plan our survival around search time as well. We can't just stay in one spot saying "everything is now empty elsewhere, so all I can do is let the timer run out and die].

*Note: I keep watching for birds now (for new sources of meat), and even wolf packs [hoping they'll take down a dear, and leave me some venison scraps to eat].

[TattooedMac]

I dont agree with your % dark/light deal . . Thats just throwing in complexity when its not really needed. I find it difficult to search in the dark (with the way the mouse controls are on the Mac Build) and I'm more often than not looking at the ground than up when I find I'm not getting anywhere and use a flare for light. I think leave it as it is, but would love to be able to use Paper rolls as a {modified_torch} when you are carrying light and only have 1 flare and no lantern yet ??

I do like the idea of "items" respawning but it has to be done in such a a way, that you have been away from the area for 24-36hrs, and yes leaving items can produce them missing when we return after the same "respawning items" time. This will let us know that we have another in the vicinity of ourselves, and will make us re-think a strategy and what we can and can't do, and make us move on. ILike I used the Lake Cabin as a living area for 2 whole days, as I had the food and water and wood I needed, and I dropped nearly all of it, when I went out exploring (making lighter load = less cal) but would of been gutted to find my venison gone when I returned . . Hmmm venison with lemon and pepper . . . .

This would be nice to have in Story Mode, but not to take away from what they have in place now and the time it could take to implement it.

[logang]

Yeah I agree with Mac in that changing the chance of finding something based on amount of light would add unneeded complexity.

on a side note my wife, continuous narrator of my playthroughs, has several times commented on how silly it must look for Will to spend so much time searching an empty container/locker/drawer, she then mimics this behavior by opening a drawer and looking in it, swiping at nothing for a few seconds before declaring that it is indeed empty.

[terence_thyr]

I think it's a great idea. I mean it's hard to even figure out what is in your hands fumbling through an unknown container at night. Plus I've always hated storage areas in games that don't take into account that were not the only ones in said world.

[Guest Alan Lawrance]

Yeah I agree with Mac in that changing the chance of finding something based on amount of light would add unneeded complexity.

on a side note my wife, continuous narrator of my playthroughs, has several times commented on how silly it must look for Will to spend so much time searching an empty container/locker/drawer, she then mimics this behavior by opening a drawer and looking in it, swiping at nothing for a few seconds before declaring that it is indeed empty.

We are planning to add "clutter/junk" to searchable containers -- it's a bit of an immersion breaker right now to clearly see a container is empty, but you still find things in them.

[logang]

Now this would be interesting.

[Raphael van Lierop]

Note that by "clutter/junk" Alan is referring to visual only. It'll be decals or something to show that something is in the container. Not actual clutter or junk.

It's important to keep in mind that a lot of things in the game are intentionally abstract. Adding more detail to them exposes other weaknesses. Personally, I have no issues making the leap from a seemingly empty container to finding stuff, because this is a pretty common game convention and only the really big triple-A games -- or games with very limited interaction models and a small number of manipulable objects -- can actually get away with it.

You also don't ever see the container opening fully -- is this an "immersion breaker" too? I consider it a stylistic choice.