Scyzara

Thanks for sharing these informations and your thoughts about the launch with us, Raphael. As a great Sandbox fan I'm especially happy to hear Survivor mode is going to get more attention again in the future. And I for one think the team did a great job with Wintermute. The launch may not have been perfect, but it went pretty well overall in my opinion. The first steps are always the most difficult ones - and you guys really did an amazing job releasing the game on that many platforms at once. Enjoy your well-deserved holidays and recharge your batteries!

Yes, there are specific respawn rates for all animals, but they depend on various factors. Most importantly the duration of your game (e.g. on day 100 Interloper, deer will have a longer respawn timer than on day 10), but also the experience mode and presumably even how often you've killed animals in this region before. (The latter may just be my personal impression, though - it's hard to say because as you kill an animal in a spawn location over and over again, your game time also progresses as well of course.) It's hard to name some specific numbers because they're not static, but typically bears have the longest respawn timers while wolves, rabbits & deer respawn rather fast. It does, but you can't exterminate animal populations forever. If you exhaust e.g. a rabbit population, their respawn timer just becomes way longer than usually - but at some point the rabbits will still respawn, albeit probably in lower numbers at first. They can (and do) change, but it's not totally random. There are multiple potential spawn locations for each animal species and not all of them are inhabited at once. So if you kill a wolf in let's say region A, it's well possible the wolf won't respawn in A again, but rather in B, C or D. The same is true for deer, rabbits and bears. Just as a sidenote: You can easily check if a bear location is inhabited by checking if there are bones in front of the potential bear cave. If bones are lying around, the cave is inhabited - if not, you know the bear has spawned elsewhere.

I'm totally in love with the aurora. ^-^

Thanks for explaining the different certification requirements and processes, Raphael. I bet most people haven't been aware of these things, especially not about how long it takes you to have a new patch certificated on consoles. That being said I'd like to say my personal experience (Steam/Win8.1) with Wintermute wasn't bug-loaded or in any other way negative at all. I've hardly ever noticed a bug and none of those few I encountered was even remotely game-breaking. So please don't be too harsh on yourself - there are presumably also a lot of people out there like me which had a very smooth and enjoyable launch. When you'll release the next episodes you'll have more experience with all those different platforms and their required processes. And I for one am certain you'll then be able to provide a very enjoyable experience for everyone right from the start. Just analyze what can be improved and keep up the good work!

Launch at exactly 17h CEST for me!

Yay, made it! 15 Minutes left!

I'll do my best to be home from work at 17h CEST then.

During the last months the Devs have been extremely busy to prepare the Wintermute Release. And as Story mode was their absolute main focus, the vast majority of the team has been completely removed from Sandbox development. I think HL will certainly reallocate a fair share of the team back to Sandbox/Survivor mode development and gameplay improvements once Wintermute has been released. So we should really try to be patient, as hard as this may be sometimes.

@Timber Wolf: Very interesting data again, thanks a lot for sharing! The hammer and improvised hatchet's numbers somehow look much more similar on Interloper than on Stalker. Given that a hatchet-struggle kills the wolf eventually (while a hammer-struggle doesn't), the improvised hatchet is probably the better choice on Interloper in most situations. I assume your characters died during those struggles where they suffered 100% condition loss, correct? In this regard the hatchet also seems to be superior to the hammer, although this might just be a coincidence, of course. Anyway, the improvised knife is definitely off the table for me. 6 out of 50 lethal struggles is really a poor outcome, seems I was pretty lucky so far. I've only been killed by Interloper wolves a few times so far, but I certainly DO remember that those lethal struggles felt disproportionally more difficult than "average" struggles. At least I had that impression. Just as a sidenote: I personally find it rather questionable if the current huge variety in struggle outcomes (between <10% to >90% damage taken are possible under equal conditions with a pretty fast clicking speed) benefits the fun while playing, but I've been saying that since two years or so now. I remember the times when your clicking speed actually had a much higher impact on the damage you would take (and pure randomness had a smaller effect), but that system wasn't perfect either, as it put slow-clicking players at a huge disadvantage. Guess it's very hard to find a perfect balance between both aspects, and currently the emphasis is more on the side of randomness.

Behold Astrid Odinson and her faithful warhammer Fluffnir! Thanks a lot for your data once again. I would probably never have tried to use the hammer on Interloper - always used the improvised knife, which appears to be a really poor choice in retrospect. Something should definitely be done about the ingame weapon descriptions, they're seriously misleading (or at least lacking relevant information). Pretty sure most people are far more interested in damage minimization than in bleed-out times... or one could simply offer both informations at once. Knife: "Stabbing weapon which may inflict deep wounds, causing wildlife to bleed out faster. Doesn't do a good job protectiong yourself in the struggle, though." Hammer: "A blunt, heavy weapon. May fend off wildlife quickly, but does not cause any bleeding damage." Hatchet: "Being both sharp and heavy, the hatchet is the best weapon to end wildlife struggles quickly. Also causes minor bleeding damage." Something along these lines...

Carefully monitor the outdoor temperatures and perform time-consuling outdoor tasks like exploration trips, cross-map journeys or chopping wood during the warmest hours of the day (typically late afternoon/early evening) if possible. If you need to be outside for extended periods of time at low temperatures, don't hesitate to use fires (best placed inside caves so they need less fuel to get you above a felt +12°C) to warm up again. If there are no caves to be found nearby, at least try to light your fire in the most wind-protected place you can find (hollow tree/rocks formations usually work very well) and keep in mind that wind directions can change very fast. Don't stop adding fuel once the fire temperature reaches a felt +1°C. While this is enough to stop further freezing damage, it'll take ages to fully regenerate your character's warmth bar this way. +10/15°C is a more reasonable value to aim for. (The hotter your fire, the faster your warmth bar fills up again.) Hot beverages can also be very helpful to deal with the cold. They offer both an immediate warmth bonus (maybe 10% of the warmth bar or so) and give you a positive affliction that decreases the speed your character loses warmth for the next 2 hours. Unless you're planning to go for a 500day+ run, don't be afraid to "waste" reishi tea or rosehip tea for non-medical purposes just to stay warm. It can make your life a whole lot easier sometimes by preventing freezing damage before it happens. (Sidenote: Cans of food like e.g. canned peaches or pork&beans can also be heated and have the same effect. Don't eat them without a second thought if the cold troubles you.) As for tea & coffee: Herbal tea increases your condition regeneration during the first six hours of sleep which is a pretty precious benefit. It should thus rather not be wasted "only to warm up", but rather if your character is at low condition and can benefit from the health regeneration gain. Coffee decreases your fatigue (both immediate bonus and long-term positive affliction) which can be extremely useful for long journeys or trips that include rope-climbing. You should, however, be aware that drinking too much coffee can prevent your character from sleeping. So be careful not to consume coffee if your character is at very low condition. (Herbal tea is your friend here).

A big +1 for these two suggestions. The second aspect has been suggested numerous times in the past and I still support it wholeheartedly because it would imo counteract a lot of the current arbitrary gameplay choices one needs to make to avoid cabin fever. (It's e.g. not very intuitive to craft your fur clothes or melt water outside on purpose at temperatures around -35°C like I usually do on Interloper). I also like the first idea a lot. Might encourage players to keep a bit on the move in a way that feels rather natural. At least more natural than spending your nights inside caves to compensate indoor clothing crafting times. @Patrick Carlson : I think this poll shows quite impressively that the majority of players isn't really happy with the implementation of cabin fever in its current state. Could you please forward the suggestions mentioned above (or other ideas from cabin fever-related threads made in the past) to the Dev team? Even if it's already to late to ask for big changes regarding current mechanics before the release of Wintermute, it's definitely something the team might want to focus on in the long run.

'Fully equipped' is a very relative term in TLD. In max. warmth Interloper gear (including 2 bear coats), the feels like temperature during the warmest hours of the day under late-game Interloper conditions is indeed sth between 0 and -15 ºC depending on the map. Which I personally find appropriate. It's the core feature of Interloper that your greatest enemy there is the cold and not wildlife.