Wheres Da Plane?

If we now have a randomly spawning indoor location... why not have the wreckage of the plane near by Will's spawning point? Might have some random supplies and might even have a little fire going from the wreck so if you spawn at night in a blizzard you might have a little shelter and heat to get you through.

Just thinking :]

I wondered the same thing...

depends if the plane crashed somewhere else?

if that is the case, where is the parachute?

ah well, so many questions, riddles and answers. good thing it's alpha

I could make an awesome pair of pants out of the parachute, probably not that good in the cold:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_pants

why not have the wreckage of the plane near by Will's spawning point? Might have some random supplies...

I've actually been thinking about this for a long time.

You know the scene in Empire Strikes Back where Luke crashes his speeder in the snow? The AT-AT is about to step on it, but he takes a few supplies and escapes before getting flattened.

In a Long Dark context: Will spawns near the plane. It's on fire. Instead of starting with some gear, Will has to grab it from the plane.

I like it.

Maybe the plane is stuck in the trees above you.

Yeah, there should be a crashed plane somewhere; that would be so awesome. A crashed plane would fit in perfectly, you've just got to implement it, please :-)

It wouldn't have to interfere with the random starting locations (unless you could spawn the crashsite together with the player) because the story would be that you: parachuted out/where trown out/walked from the crash in shock and that's how you got where you are when you started.

I too am a fan of having a plane wreck somewhere nearby the starting location. As a random spawn somewhere on the map would be cool too. I am sort of reminded of the novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. Maybe they could add a young adult protagonist who starts with a hatchet and can find some MREs and a rifle in the plane. I mean, the items are already in the game, so...

I think that the plane is in another location and the sandbox we have seen so far is only a small part of the entire area.

OP has a point. I would like to see the plane as well. It should have at least some supplies that can be useful.

This is a really solid idea. To approach it I would say either way start with injuries you need to tend to. Plane crashes in a Cub or Cessna aren't generally super soft without ditching, but then:

easy way: Default kit located in the plane containing whatever loadout the dev's deem reasonable.

complex way: Allow a max volume cap (probably small) and have players choose what kit they brought as a pilot. Pretty standard for pilots to have their own survival kits tucked away on the plane in case something goes wrong and would challenge players to think about their needs (do I want a rifle and emergency blanket, or a sleeping bag and knife?)- but the kits are generally only geared towards a couple hours/days of aid. Logic for this is if you're in radio range you don't need to worry for too long and just need to keep yourself alive long enough for a SAR team to make it out which is generally just weather dependent.

Now that I'm thinking of more complexity you could even add in a pre-game decision to ditch (arrive safely on the ground with minimal gear- what you're wearing and some nylon) or ride the plane in which would keep you in proximity to your equipment but leave you a little banged up.

I'm not sure if this game is going to have levels of difficulty that the player can choose at the start (easy - spawns a lot of resources, nightmare - spawns very little) but having a plane with or without resources could be a way of having either a difficult start or easier start if they couldn't/weren't able to have various difficulty levels as a game option.

How about there is a risk of burning yourself by searching the plane's wreckage for supplies?

The plane itself would act like a container, and by searching it you have a chance of "failing" and getting a burn (kind of like failing to light a fire)

That way it's not just a free supply dump at the beginning, but rather a decision that can lead to dangerous results.

I imagine episode 1 will feature the crash site as the starting point. The sandbox is more of a random spawn survival simulator (which I love, by the way) so I would either like to see the plane crash site as a random spawn somewhere on the map or not at all in the sandbox mode.

These are all great ideas! I think the plane crash at a random location would be awesome, maybe wreckage spread out to give you a clue in which direction it went down. I think it would be great if you started in a parachute about 10 meters, just a little above the tree line, not enough to see the whole map, just enough to add to the immersion.

[...]I think it would be great if you started in a parachute about 10 meters, just a little above the tree line, not enough to see the whole map, just enough to add to the immersion.

And while you're descending you'll just get a glimpse of your plane, crashing somewhere in the distance. A large explosion, a ball of fire and then...all is quiet.

I was under the impression that the story and the sandbox were separate. In the story, you are William Mackenzie, the crashed pilot, however, the sandbox is simply a survival simulator, meant to see how long you can survive, with no ties to the story. So essentially, it's unknown whether you came in on a plane crash in the sandbox.

I like the idea of the plane on fire and Wil only having time to grab a couple of things from it. It would explain why a bush pilot finds himself alone in the wilderness with limited survival gear. I don't know much about bush pilots, to be honest, but I know if I was one, I'd have a grab bag for emergencies on board, much like sailors (of which I am much more familiar!) have in case they need to abandon ship.

The burning plane, though, makes all that more sensible. Maybe Wil has a choice of several items he can choose from, but can only grab two before the plane becomes an inferno, allowing the player to prioritise what he thinks is important for survival.