Custom difficulty setting

It got me thinking when I noticed how long wolf discussion threads are getting. Various people want them to be less aggressive or easier to scare away or rarer or slower to repopulate the forest or..... and then it hit me. Why don't we have a custom difficulty setting that would accomodate those needs?

I'm not talking about anything fancy and difficult to implement (like developing a new AI system). I'm talking about number manipulation (although the player shouldn't see the exact numbers, I think), like:

- number of wolves

- respawn rate

- agressiveness (probability of attack on sight and/or when you get closer)

- how persistent they are (i.e. how easily you can scare them away)

And things like that. Notice how (almost) all of them are just numbers to be changed somewhere in the code. Of course, the difficulty could also incorporate some things connected with abundance of stuff, temperatures, daily calorie requirement etc. Maybe even length of the day? (both in real time and game time)

That way we could have a tailored sandbox experience that would stop a lot of complaints. It seems to work just fine in Project Zomboid (fast/slow zombies, abundant/rare food, what it takes to become infected etc.) so is there a reason it wouldn't work in the Long Dark?

To sum up both from what devs have said and what people hav argued on other forums, the thinking is that the devs are going to and should just tune it within their own vision.

That's well and good, and I would even agree that for story mode that is reasonable. For "Sandbox Mode", it's not very realistic though. I play this game because I really like survival games. This game does that very well for the most part. I find certain aspects of the game too easy, even at Stalker difficulty. It gets boring for me once I get a rifle and create my crafted clothing and have 100+lbs of meat stored. It's like I've setup in the burbs at that point. I'm not surviving, I'm comfortable.

So in Sandbox mode, why should we not be able to setup our sandbox to our own degree of enjoyment? How does it take away from the game as a whole? How does adding a single config screen that alters global settings cause a drain on development resources, or more than 1-2 days?

Plus, just adding more wolves and decreasing loot spawns a little isn't making the game harder. It just adds an annoyance that's pretty easy to game away. The only time I even get attacked by a wolf anymore is if I flub up shooting one. If I'm just trying to avoid them, flares and decoy meat make it trivial to escape them. Adding more adversity, such as harsher weather, scarcer resources, etc. is what really ups the challenge. I think that also, since there are more zones now it's far too easy to get all the top gear. That is an alpha balancing issue I know, but hell... collect information about how people setup their difficulty settings and use that to help tweak the game!

I would love to see developer feedback on this point. I know that they've said that they would not do this but I really don't understand any truly logical reasons why this would be bad to do. I don't even want to make things easier, I want them harder!

collect information about how people setup their difficulty settings and use that to help tweak the game!

An interesting idea! Although I'm not sure if I'd enjoy the experience inspired by your super hardcore playthroughs But still, it could honestly be a good source of information for the devs, letting them know how people actually play their game.

Also, I think it could lengthen the game's lifespan (when it comes to sandbox) because people would try new things after they've already thoroughly enjoyed the default settings, and remember that every tweak to the setting puts emphasis on a different aspect of survival. And that in turn would give every playthrough a different feel (one time wolves are your main problem, another time it's the weather and illnesses, one time you're a hunter because wildlife is plentiful, on other times you feel like you're in a dead, frozen world etc.)

If you don't mind, I'd like to copy and paste your excellent ideas from the Steam forums.

* Blizzard frequency

* Blizzard Length

* Amount of friendly wildlife (I'd love to cut down the # of deer and rabbits in my own games)

* Number of wolves

* Wolf Aggression radius (no complaints about wolves, I just want to be able to tweak them to my own taste)

* Amount of loot spawn (I'd love to turn this down, as I find there's too much loot)

* Rate multiplier of hunger/thirst

* Rate of tool decay with use

* Rate of food decay

Of course, if the devs really want people to play with their settings first, there can be a warning saying that the default settings are the intended ones and the player is strongly encouraged to use them. Heck, custom settings could even be unlockable by finishing the story mode (once it's complete).That way, everyone would get the original TDL experience first.

Read this.

I see... but at the end of the thread and excellent point was made:

Modding is pretty big these days and some truly wonderful mods have come along because of it as well as having spawning a game or two.. (...) I feel that modding for this game should be considered and not taken lightly by the devs.

Well, then I'd be fine with the devs not touching customization in any way, but making it possible (and perhaps even easy) to mod the game (including the sandbox settings) once it's a finished product. I think we can wait for it as a community (I sure can).

Now to make it absolutely clear, I don't know the first thing about modding and have no idea what it takes to make a game modders-friendly, so I can't tell if it would be feasible. Ideas?

I was recently playing The Long Dark on Voyager, and realized something. I was freaking out as I went through the Hydro dam, thinking when I am going to turn a corner and see a wolf ; this of course would kill me. But, while playing this, I loved the difficulty of finding a place to rest, having enough food and water, and keeping warm. And with that I came up with an idea: A custom difficulty. On the main menu then, it would be: Pilgrim, Voyager, Stalker and Custom.

When you click on custom it would come up with options you can turn on such as: Attacking Animal (it would allow animals to attack you,) Harsh Weather (would allow blizzards or wind storms in your game,) and Survival Aspects (This could have a drop down menu with difficulties; the higher the difficulty, the more realistic the hunger, cold, thirst, and fatigue parts of the game works.) More could be: Injuries (this would allow you to get injured,) and Poisoning (allowing you to get food poisoning.)

I thought of this because in my own playing opinion, Pilgrim is way to easy because the survival aspects are not strong enough, while Voyager is a bit difficult for me due to the animals. Hopefully, this would be added to allow players to have more of a say in their playing style. Of course, the present difficulties would be able to continue for people that enjoy those presets.

I think it would be good if we had a custom difficulty level where we can set weather severity, food and item scarcity, fatigue level, wild animals attack yes/no etc.

For example, I'd enjoy a challenge with severe weather and little food but without worrying about being attacked by wolves.

I just think it would enable people to really tweak the game to suit their play style and even roleplay a little.

For example, I'd enjoy a challenge with severe weather and little food but without worrying about being attacked by wolves.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I'd love an experience where I don't need to eat and drink every 5 minutes but still have dangerous wildlife stalking around.

Custom settings would really be a blessing for the sandbox mode.

All the responses, even from other threads here and on Reddit, continue to indicate that the devs don't care that a large portion of their very devoted playerbase WANTS this feature. I have still as of yet seen a logical argument from the devs or anyone else as to WHY they are so against giving us this capability. I am a software developer, I know the level of effort it would take in exposing this and unless the code under the hood is absolute bunk this should be a minor level of effort. I don't even care if I have to edit a config file or something. Until we can shape our own experience, they might as well not call it "sandbox". This has gone beyond just "preserving an artistic vision", which is in my opinion a total copout, to obstinate refusal to give the people who have supported this game what they want to experience. What's worse is since we've already purchased the game we have no other way to express our displeasure at this policy. Hell, I'd PAY for a DLC that let us do this. I'd pay the full price of the game again to be allowed to tailor my own experience in sandbox mode. I've spent hundreds of hours on this game, it would be money well spent!

All the responses, even from other threads here and on Reddit, continue to indicate that the devs don't care that a large portion of their very devoted playerbase WANTS this feature. I have still as of yet seen a logical argument from the devs or anyone else as to WHY they are so against giving us this capability. I am a software developer, I know the level of effort it would take in exposing this and unless the code under the hood is absolute bunk this should be a minor level of effort. I don't even care if I have to edit a config file or something. Until we can shape our own experience, they might as well not call it "sandbox". This has gone beyond just "preserving an artistic vision", which is in my opinion a total copout, to obstinate refusal to give the people who have supported this game what they want to experience. What's worse is since we've already purchased the game we have no other way to express our displeasure at this policy. Hell, I'd PAY for a DLC that let us do this. I'd pay the full price of the game again to be allowed to tailor my own experience in sandbox mode. I've spent hundreds of hours on this game, it would be money well spent!

Hello there.

We absolutely care what our players think, and listen to their suggestions and feedback daily. This does not mean that we will include every feature players ask for, and it does not mean the developers will drastically change their vision and alter the course of the game's development to add a feature that goes against what they believe defines the game's core mechanics and experiences. Here's a short quote I pulled out of our Steam forums from Raphael, our Creative Director, about customizable experience modes:

Our goal is not to create a toolbox for you to create your own survival experience, but rather, to create an experience for you. Experience Modes was our approach to customizing the game to suit different play styles, but we don't have any intention of releasing a survival simulation-making simulator where you just tweak the values yourselves.

We have a vision for how the game should play, and we hope you can buy into that vision.

You said you'd browsed Reddit, but perhaps you missed this answer from Raph's AMA a couple of months ago.

No one can say for certain what the future will hold. We understand some people would really like to see this feature, but it is not in the cards for now. It's true this approach might not be to everyone's liking, but I trust the vision of the developers and the path the game has taken so far, and wouldn't want them to feel pressured to make the game something that doesn't match that vision. There are plenty of other games out there that allow for the experience you're describing, and I would hate to see this game become just like everything else.

"There are plenty of other games out there that allow for the experience you're describing"

I would very much like to know what they are so I can go buy them immediately! Oh, there are plenty of zombie games or dinosaur games, etc. but I've yet to find a Human vs Nature survival game that is remotely realistic besides this one.

I did read the AMA article, I just wasn't satisfied with the answer. Also, don't mistake my discussions as me making some demand that you accede to my desires. I'm trying to make my desires known and voice the shared desires of a substantial portion of the community. I'm trying to understand why this feature is being discounted as I've not seen a rational explanation of why it is being denied. I'm far from the only one asking about this, and the biggest reason the people in favor of this are so strongly in favor of it is that we DON'T have any other options for games like this. Our only hope is that we can influence THIS game to be as close to what we're going to enjoy as possible. We're not likely to get another option in the near future.

As frustrating as it has to be, think of all this feedback as a strong compliment to the game. People are passionately voicing their desires BECAUSE this is a good game. If we didn't like it we wouldn't care. I just really want to understand why, logically, there are no plans to allow this.

" Experience Modes was our approach to customizing the game to suit different play styles, but we don't have any intention of releasing a survival simulation-making simulator where you just tweak the values yourselves."

That's only a statement of intention, not a clarification of why. Please understand my frustration and those who want the same thing. We LOVE this game, but want to make it suit the way we play it. How can Hinterland so simply dismiss that?