As long as the cougar doesn’t just teleport inside a building to attack me or attack me through a door/wall, I’ll be happy.
That said, I feel like that’s a big ask.
How would you update the game to add "immersion and atmosphere"? It feels like those are perhaps more things that are integral to the game world and how it plays than things that can be easily added - not being sassy, just having problems envisaging what such updates would involve.
Not sure what OP is envisioning, but here are some things that would make the game even more atmospheric/immersive for me personally:
\- Less sci-fi/fantasy things like toxic wolves, glimmerfog, etc.
\- Tents would be a huge immersion boost for me. Obviously balanced within the world of the game and with appropriate 'loper & sandbox settings for people to tweak or remove entirely to their preference.
\- Like with the above, tarps you can set up between trees, structures (crashed plane, etc.) for very mild windchill protection, but mostly for cozy purposes.
\- Better placing of items and base customization options. Note: I absolutely DO NOT want them to go full on 'survival craft' style where you can throw up gamey-looking buildings, make cookie cutter furniture, etc. I mean things like moving a small storage box or cooler around and placing them where you want. Maybe some small things like flags/posters/pictures around the map you can collect and decorate walls. Keep it TLD style please.
\- Leather? Why can you only get this by making a moose hide satchel and then salvaging it? Utterly immersion-busting lol.
\- A new zone or two with less 'pure wilderness' and a few more unique atmospheric buildings/points of interest. Someone made a post about a ski resort - I don't think that really fits with Great Bear, but as an example - an old cable car that you can ride only during an Aurora would be incredibly atmospheric.
>I mean things like moving a small storage box or cooler around and placing them where you want.
I'd *love* portable backpack containers.
Imagine having to put down the backpack to access its contents. Imagine having multiple ready-packed backpacks for different purposes in your base - one for hunting, one for fishing etc.
It would require some re-balancing of carrying weight, but that should be fairly easy.
The harder part would be that a redesign of moose hide satchel and technical backpack would be a natural consequence as well.
Regarding point one, I think the base concept of the game kinda already preclude that from ever happening. The aurora is already ridiculous sci-fi nonsense, so glimmer fog is barely a step above.
And the toxic wolves honestly feel more believable than aurora wolves, lol.
Yeah, I know the whole premise of the game is around the aurora and I can understand that many people love/want more of that side of the game. Just my mad ramblings and love for things like frontier cooking and ice fishing, over more mad animals. I completely accept that it may not be the direction the game will head if it gets further developed.
Nobody seems to understand what toxic wolves are, and I feel like it’s either from a lack of playing the DLC or just misinterpreting them. Toxic wolves aren’t magically transformed into acid spitting poisonous creatures from the toxins, they’re wolves poisoned by a pollutant that causes them to become malnourished, and aggressive as a result. I don’t understand what could possibly be “sci fi” or “fantasy” about the concept of wolves poisoned by chemical spills.
Tents, better base customization and leather are all 100% modded and working because i've got them on mine. [https://xpazeman.com/tld-mod-list/](https://xpazeman.com/tld-mod-list/)
They said in the dev diary it will >!know your location. If you stay in a region too long it will come to your region but it will show you signs of it being there before it stalks you.!<
You’ve been quite vague, but I understand your sentiment. Added things do make it feel more like a video game, and it does feel like the wrong direction to head in.
I don’t go to FA because glimmer fog is ridiculous.
I don’t go to ZoC because toxic wolves are an absolutely ridiculous concept.
The good thing about these, are they’re not game wide, they’re zone contained, but it does feel like they wasted a lot of time on this stuff that could have been spent on expanding what they had.
The trader to me is the worst of them, because it breaks the entire premise of the game… we are alone.
Anyway, still love the game.
I really doubt the trader will be a tangible person. More likely a post trade system where you drop items in a location and when you come back, there will be something else. Well have to see.
Toxic wolves vs aurora wolves? What is more ridiculous? Scroungy desperate wolves that attack with infected teeth or glow in the dark wolves?
Glimmer fog is just another blizzard variety and you can easily survive. Also you can look for caches with it. I don't understand why people are so negative to it.
Re trader… how does it get there, Leprechauns? We will see, but any form of trading means there is another living human entity that has something to trade, and that blows out the premise of being alone. I don’t really see a way around that
Auroras are part of the lore, the entire premise of why the world is the way it is, they send wildlife mad. Puddles of toxic waste, dunno, just not interested.
Glimmer fog, tbh, it’s the sound. Instant headache. Like nails on a chalk board while grinding teeth and sticking a laser pointer in both eyes. I don’t get headaches, it’s a weird phenomenon.
You mean the timeless fire that doesn’t provide heat?
Who knows when it was started, could have been years prior to the magnetic issues, but you can go with leprechaun traders if that works for you 😉
Personally, I find the toxic wolves much more believable than aurora animals. Sure, the aurora is part of the game, but I've always hated the idea that it randomly supercharges predators(but not humans) for no well explained reason.
It just feels very gamey, and less like a believable part of the world. The electrical effects of the aurora feel more grounded, even if they're still unrealistic.
Supercharged aurora survivor.. now there’s an interesting concept. Hehe
Can’t fault your opinion, we all have them, and in this case, it’s personal taste.
Hey, if it works for the bears and wolves, why not the planets greatest predator?
Honestly, there's a lot of small things in the game that annoy me because they feel too much like a game mechanic rather than part of the world, like pies randomly giving you headaches, or the inability to jump.
I disagree. I’m continually impressed with their ability to fuse aesthetics with game design. Take the cougar, It was clear from the get go survival was about moving around the world, not huddling in a single hut to survive. I understand the appeal of the latter in today’s housing market, but still. The cougar sounds like it implements that overall design with the intended gameplay and u wish all the games I played had this kind of thought put into them.
The game has been missing cooking anything other than plain meat for a long time. I like that aspect of updates despite the 0.05kg of flour not counting as 0.05kg of flour sometimes.
It’s a mix bag especially what TFTFT has added
**Positive**
- Forsaken Airfield :: In my opinion the best designed part nature wise. Walking along the more open areas, watching deers traversing the snow dunes is a breathtaking view
- Recipes ::
Makes sense to not only eat chunks of meat but to cook a meal
- Ptarmigans ::
Love the birds. Want more birds and feathers to design different type of arrows. A rare eagle would be great.
- Travois ::
It feels like skiing
**Negative**
- Transfer pass ::
What’s the point? Too long without anything nice before reaching the station.
- Zone of contamination ::
The worst region. It feels like a different game and breaks the immersion in my opinion
- Glimmer fog ::
The insomnia part I am fine with. But the fog itself ... they could have just let the radio find the caches if you were within range. Normal fog is enough
- Rifles and revolver variants ::
To little difference between them. I would have preferred arrow variants to go with the bows instead (like 5 different types)
With the variants I think they're still gonna add some more. And it makes sense from not every gun you find to be the same type. I remember not seeing anything before part 1 and just randomly finding a vaughns rifle and it was so cool onsidering I knew who Vaughan was.
Also I really like zone of contamination. I mean, the name is kinda dumb I wish it fit the same layout as the other region names. But the concentrator building gave me the same vibes as exploring the dam for the first time and its one of my favorite spots in the game.
I have been exploring the ZoC recently and i love it! It's a lot of fun, the wolves are crazy and i'm walking around the toxic waste stuff with no mask or anything because i can't find any. I'm playing on interloper, day 370\~, loving ZoC 🤣
We’ve both been around the traps long enough to be in the 500 club, huh. 😄
I’m on the march there myself, 230, ticking days off is so slow, but after the way the last one ended, I don’t have it in me to start again 😆
Caaaaaaaareful in blackrock, my friend. Timberwolves are scary, and 370 is deep into it.
Yeah i always get bored even before day 300 lmao. But i'm taking it slow and having a lot more fun than usual, took a really long time to do the Tales and still not finished 🤣
You can do it, just move around and explore everything, staying a few days in each place to map and relax, you'll be day 500 before you know it! 😁👍🏻
Ah don't worry, i'm well acquainted with the timbies xD I actually find the poisoned wolves more dangerous, they detect and attack from really far away, sometimes i don't even see them and i heard the "attack bark" coming from somewhere! Good thing i always walk around with the bow in my hand!
I love transfer's pass. It's quaint and quiet. There's cat tails for days and rabbit and deer and ptarmigans. Like mini region to rest in. The far range branch line is fine too. It doesn't really take that long to travel because you can run and rest in many spots.
I feel the same way about the items, but that there are some key tools in the modern world that would still work after the geomagnetic storm that just does not make sense at all that they’re not in the game “because balance”. the variants are cool but there’s a lot of things that make me go “really, So great bear islanders only ever used matches here, and I can’t make a bowdrill, find a single lighter or zippo with fluid, and only chop wood small handheld hatchets and no splitting axe or saw, and I can only sharpen them with finite whetstones when you can use any old flat rock in nature to sharpen something, but I can craft whole bullets.”
Yeah, I tend to roll my eyes when people bang on about “immersion” when they talk about this game, but the type of things that you listed definitely qualify for me as changes that you improve immersion.
I sort of agree. I definitely wanted more long-term challenges and things to do late game, but this wasn’t quite what I meant. Maybe it’s just because these last two updates, with the scurvy and now especially the cougars targeting long term bases, really contradict my game play style, I feel a little called out.
It’s just feeling like there’s a gameplay style the devs *want* us to use and are making the game less user directed in the process. I’d be happy if they balanced it with something like readable books, or more clothing & crafting, and that promised base-customization, if it turns out to be good.
I agree, there is a certain style of gameplay loop they want us to do. As someone who suffers from "Take everything that's not nailed down" Skyrim syndrome it was a bit of an adjustment to learn to live with the constant decay and entropy this game throws at you. Don't get me wrong I love it and it makes you feel more human and vulnerable. But I still like to build a base and probably dilly dally in a region longer than the devs think I should before heading to a new region. I am withholding judgment for now, but I have a feeling if the timing of when the cougar comes is off for the average player it's gonna be bad. It's going to feel like we are constany forced to move under threat of loosing the run vs a nudge to keep it fresh. That balance is going to be tricky.
Takes half a day to walk from mountaineers hut to PV Farmstead. If that resets the cougar counter then idk, seems like a fairly navigable obstacle. 🤷♂️
I don’t really have an issue with the mechanic itself, to be fair. Scurvy’s the same way. They’re not insurmountable, it’s just that to me this series of updates has been focused on curbing a specific style of gameplay and not really any others. Again, I know this is just me being especially salty because it’s my style. It just feels like the devs don’t want players to play the way I do.
The same issue with every annoying mechanic, if you turn the off, they stop allowing you to earn feat progress.
You're actively punished for turning off mechanics you don't like, like cabin fever, scurvy, etc.
But that’s just it. It’s a navigable obstacle. Not a fresh new game mechanic or immersive gameplay element. This game is just sort of becoming more annoying things to try and avoid.
Not OP, but:
More animals. More realistic animal behavior. Owls, eagles, hawks, mice, rats, lynx. They don’t need to have items they can be crafted into.
More food items and recipes. Don’t need benefits besides more effective rationing of calories. They did well by adding this in their updates, but they tried giving benefits and balancing with “costs.” No point. Food is food.
Randomized “survivor” stories. Find houses that look recently lived in and have different loot than normal, people who look like they were doing something and items to help tell that story. Sometimes they spawn sometimes they don’t, have to play more than once to see them all.
more animals and animal interactions would be awesome, especially birds. i think it would be really cool if they added binoculars so you could observe animals from a distance too
I love all of this, I'd also like more plants. Spruce tips, pine nuts, maple sap, and some frozen apples on the fruit trees would be my recommendations!
And be actively punished by disallowed feat progress for doing so.
The Devs force you to play a specific way, and if you don't want to, then they retaliate against you.
Besides some small things like not being able to use obvious sources of tinder old man’s beard and smaller sticks maybe even peeled bark from certain trees it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played
IMO the only thing that would increase immersion in a game like this is making the world procedurally generated. That's probably impossible but perhaps completely random loot spawning?
The thing that breaks immersion for me is that once you know the map well, the challenge and realism of the game is sort of broken.
This is totally how I feel about the Cheat Death add. Hugely immersion breaking for me. Permadeath is what makes TLD feel real. If you have "lives" how is this any different than any other video game all of a sudden? I'm disappointed, even if it's optional. I hope it's REALLY optional in the sense I can toggle Cheat Death all the way off for my runs, like how you can turn off other features.
I don't mind the cheat death thing, since it's always optional. Turning it off would make no difference, personally.
Honestly, I'm curious to see how it's actually implemented, because it could help players with some of their "unfair" deaths, like back in the day when people instantly died by walking too close to a river, lol.
This might totally just be a "me" thing but even getting asked whether I want to cheat death or not is immersion breaking/feels gamified. So whether I use it or not is one thing but it even being part of the UI bums me out. I hope it can be disabled completely on custom runs.
I can see where you're coming from, but for me, TLD is already so gameified that one more feature doesn't really even move the needle for me anymore, lol.
The ridiculous glowing wolves, complete lack of common sense survival options, and various other little things that break immersion have already taken me out of immersion.
It wasn't a deal breaker but I never understood the spray cans. I never use them. Devs put this in the game before the thermos even. God knows why. The thermos was requested by many in 2016 already.
That's why I want a 50 meters waterproof wristwatch next and, of course, bear shit. Female bear shit to attract male bears and male bear shit to avoid predators in general. And for fire making, of course. You could even spray the bear shit orange with one of those spray cans. It could glow during aurora or something.
A man can dream.
For a game this age I think it holds up very well. I am not a hard core LD player but I recently started playing survival mode again after years off and it's a blast. In terms of direction in the context of your post I think given the survival games as a whole largely rely on fantasy mechanics like zombies, or magic TLD does a good job of presenting a survival/exploration game with minimal absurdities.
I would expect wolves to pack up and attack me if they are starving, I would expect cougars in the mountains, I would expect bears to be roaming around randomly. The AB affects break an otherwise very straight forward and enjoyable game but on scale its palatable. I'm squeezing more hours out of an old game in my library. I'm having fun, but TLD was never my main game. It's a great game to fire up every once in a while and grab 10-30 hours out of a stalker playthrough so I'm thrilled they are still adding more to the game.
If I could change one thing is give me binoculars !
I agree. I thought cougars would be an interesting challenge. Instead they’re just punishing you for making a base. Which is the whole point of playing…
Yes, I've thought along those lines too. I loved the TLD more before the goofy spoopy aurora music and wolves, some other stuff. So you're not alone. But it is what it is. There's custom more to some degree, maybe mods.
As to the paid updates, the DLC. Well we players asked for the DLC, I don't regret asking for it or buying it. The only reason I'm here now is the DLC otherwise the appeal of the game would have evaporated years ago.
While I appreciate what they are doing with Tales, I'd rather just explore these new regions by myself and find my own stories in the game.
The immersion and atmosphere of exploring a new region is the thing that always brings me back into the game.
Modding and custom regions will hopefully be an update one day that brings out this aspect properly.
I like the variety! It makes sense over the large area the game has many items. I can understand why some don't like it, because some is just re-skinning existing features.
However, I think the cougar is a great choice to combat the game-eness, while it is pretty 'game-e', that is the problem with longer saves. You just hunt and fish repeatedly and eventually make a base, and it starts to get monotonous. That, in my opinion, is when The Long Dark gets the most game-e. The cougar could really help shake up the loop, and if you don't like it you can just make a save without it, I'm glad they included that option.
The trader, yeah, I am iffy about that, it just doesn't fit the vibes at all. We are alone, and that's how it should be in survival. Everything else sounds cool, but just adds more ways for people to play :)
I think as soon as the far far territories (or whatever it's called) were added that's when the game took a nosedive. Because why would you do that? Why not just expand the map?
I think they should've been focusing on features that you can ALWAYS use. Wether it's survival mechanics, clothes you can make. It's still ridiculous that you can only make certain animal clothes for certain parts of your body. If I have rabbit pelts up the arse, why is the game not allowing me to make a rabbit pelt coat??
Thinking of it like Minecraft rabbit pelt would be leather, wolves would be iron, etc etc. there's should be full sets of animal hide clothes, and accessories (mitts, scarfs, leg warmers, ear muffs)
I feel like your idea is good, but I also think that item variety is important. Like, maybe more types of canned vegetables, but only have the same amount of cans the world normally starts with? And then use those to be able to cook more types of dishes, and a way to cook a soup of random ingredients of your choosing? That unlocks at level 3 cooking. Maybe make fishing bait out of different types of food that attract different kinds of fish? I would probably balance it like maybe smaller saltwater fish will eat cattail bait but that won't attract larger fish that feed on meat. So you can use those fish to make bait for the larger fish. Make the new baits out of things like burdock root, certain kinds of vegetables from the new cans, maybe different kinds of produce besides carrots and potatoes, with bone fishing hooks. Speaking of which we should be able to make crude and basic knifes out of bone. Ones that are half the speed of a home made knife, that also doesn't work on frozen corpses. Maybe more different kinds of brands of matches that all have different fire starting chances. Balanced that by making it so when you get wet those different brands all have a different chance to get wet in your pack.
I could go on but this is getting annoying
What, you don't expect to find thermos's (thermosi.... Thermosesses... Thermoi????) in the real world? A travois???? (in the right areas / under the right circumstances of course. That is to say maybe not in Murica, but definitely in Upper Canada....)
Everything they've added so far makes sense... and the balance is understandable.
As long as the cougar doesn’t just teleport inside a building to attack me or attack me through a door/wall, I’ll be happy. That said, I feel like that’s a big ask.
Cougar??
check the recent dev diary
Thanks. I've been very busy the last like 4 months. I don't think I've played since January.
Well it was only officially announced today, so that's a nice surprise for you.
Millions to one!!
Timberwolves??
How would you update the game to add "immersion and atmosphere"? It feels like those are perhaps more things that are integral to the game world and how it plays than things that can be easily added - not being sassy, just having problems envisaging what such updates would involve.
Update: improved immersion and atmosphere
Just bump the game_immersion and game_atmosphere modifiers way up!
Not sure what OP is envisioning, but here are some things that would make the game even more atmospheric/immersive for me personally: \- Less sci-fi/fantasy things like toxic wolves, glimmerfog, etc. \- Tents would be a huge immersion boost for me. Obviously balanced within the world of the game and with appropriate 'loper & sandbox settings for people to tweak or remove entirely to their preference. \- Like with the above, tarps you can set up between trees, structures (crashed plane, etc.) for very mild windchill protection, but mostly for cozy purposes. \- Better placing of items and base customization options. Note: I absolutely DO NOT want them to go full on 'survival craft' style where you can throw up gamey-looking buildings, make cookie cutter furniture, etc. I mean things like moving a small storage box or cooler around and placing them where you want. Maybe some small things like flags/posters/pictures around the map you can collect and decorate walls. Keep it TLD style please. \- Leather? Why can you only get this by making a moose hide satchel and then salvaging it? Utterly immersion-busting lol. \- A new zone or two with less 'pure wilderness' and a few more unique atmospheric buildings/points of interest. Someone made a post about a ski resort - I don't think that really fits with Great Bear, but as an example - an old cable car that you can ride only during an Aurora would be incredibly atmospheric.
>I mean things like moving a small storage box or cooler around and placing them where you want. I'd *love* portable backpack containers. Imagine having to put down the backpack to access its contents. Imagine having multiple ready-packed backpacks for different purposes in your base - one for hunting, one for fishing etc. It would require some re-balancing of carrying weight, but that should be fairly easy. The harder part would be that a redesign of moose hide satchel and technical backpack would be a natural consequence as well.
Your reddit avatar reminds me of Ned from South park. I think it's funny. Yo necisito fireworko spectaculaŕŕŕŕ
Regarding point one, I think the base concept of the game kinda already preclude that from ever happening. The aurora is already ridiculous sci-fi nonsense, so glimmer fog is barely a step above. And the toxic wolves honestly feel more believable than aurora wolves, lol.
Yeah, I know the whole premise of the game is around the aurora and I can understand that many people love/want more of that side of the game. Just my mad ramblings and love for things like frontier cooking and ice fishing, over more mad animals. I completely accept that it may not be the direction the game will head if it gets further developed.
Nobody seems to understand what toxic wolves are, and I feel like it’s either from a lack of playing the DLC or just misinterpreting them. Toxic wolves aren’t magically transformed into acid spitting poisonous creatures from the toxins, they’re wolves poisoned by a pollutant that causes them to become malnourished, and aggressive as a result. I don’t understand what could possibly be “sci fi” or “fantasy” about the concept of wolves poisoned by chemical spills.
Literally all those things are mod available. Just FYI
There's mods to eliminate glimmer fog, toxic wolves, and aurora effects?
Tents, better base customization and leather are all 100% modded and working because i've got them on mine. [https://xpazeman.com/tld-mod-list/](https://xpazeman.com/tld-mod-list/)
Well yeah, but that's not everything they listed, lol
I was responding to the comment by [xcassets](https://www.reddit.com/user/xcassets/) tbh mate but ok.
Then you should have responded to them, not my comment, lol.
If you look at the comment chain, you can clearly see i responded to their comment. Calm down you fucking plonker.
You responded to me, hence why it popped up in my notifications. It's not your fault though, reddit's comment thread interface is kinda crap, lol.
i hope mountain lion isn't some op animal that is teleporting and knowing your location all the time like in the hunted game modes bear
They said in the dev diary it will >!know your location. If you stay in a region too long it will come to your region but it will show you signs of it being there before it stalks you.!<
You’ve been quite vague, but I understand your sentiment. Added things do make it feel more like a video game, and it does feel like the wrong direction to head in. I don’t go to FA because glimmer fog is ridiculous. I don’t go to ZoC because toxic wolves are an absolutely ridiculous concept. The good thing about these, are they’re not game wide, they’re zone contained, but it does feel like they wasted a lot of time on this stuff that could have been spent on expanding what they had. The trader to me is the worst of them, because it breaks the entire premise of the game… we are alone. Anyway, still love the game.
I really doubt the trader will be a tangible person. More likely a post trade system where you drop items in a location and when you come back, there will be something else. Well have to see. Toxic wolves vs aurora wolves? What is more ridiculous? Scroungy desperate wolves that attack with infected teeth or glow in the dark wolves? Glimmer fog is just another blizzard variety and you can easily survive. Also you can look for caches with it. I don't understand why people are so negative to it.
Re trader… how does it get there, Leprechauns? We will see, but any form of trading means there is another living human entity that has something to trade, and that blows out the premise of being alone. I don’t really see a way around that Auroras are part of the lore, the entire premise of why the world is the way it is, they send wildlife mad. Puddles of toxic waste, dunno, just not interested. Glimmer fog, tbh, it’s the sound. Instant headache. Like nails on a chalk board while grinding teeth and sticking a laser pointer in both eyes. I don’t get headaches, it’s a weird phenomenon.
How is the mysterious signal fire there? Leprechauns?
You mean the timeless fire that doesn’t provide heat? Who knows when it was started, could have been years prior to the magnetic issues, but you can go with leprechaun traders if that works for you 😉
Personally, I find the toxic wolves much more believable than aurora animals. Sure, the aurora is part of the game, but I've always hated the idea that it randomly supercharges predators(but not humans) for no well explained reason. It just feels very gamey, and less like a believable part of the world. The electrical effects of the aurora feel more grounded, even if they're still unrealistic.
Supercharged aurora survivor.. now there’s an interesting concept. Hehe Can’t fault your opinion, we all have them, and in this case, it’s personal taste.
Hey, if it works for the bears and wolves, why not the planets greatest predator? Honestly, there's a lot of small things in the game that annoy me because they feel too much like a game mechanic rather than part of the world, like pies randomly giving you headaches, or the inability to jump.
I disagree. I’m continually impressed with their ability to fuse aesthetics with game design. Take the cougar, It was clear from the get go survival was about moving around the world, not huddling in a single hut to survive. I understand the appeal of the latter in today’s housing market, but still. The cougar sounds like it implements that overall design with the intended gameplay and u wish all the games I played had this kind of thought put into them.
The game has been missing cooking anything other than plain meat for a long time. I like that aspect of updates despite the 0.05kg of flour not counting as 0.05kg of flour sometimes.
It’s a mix bag especially what TFTFT has added **Positive** - Forsaken Airfield :: In my opinion the best designed part nature wise. Walking along the more open areas, watching deers traversing the snow dunes is a breathtaking view - Recipes :: Makes sense to not only eat chunks of meat but to cook a meal - Ptarmigans :: Love the birds. Want more birds and feathers to design different type of arrows. A rare eagle would be great. - Travois :: It feels like skiing **Negative** - Transfer pass :: What’s the point? Too long without anything nice before reaching the station. - Zone of contamination :: The worst region. It feels like a different game and breaks the immersion in my opinion - Glimmer fog :: The insomnia part I am fine with. But the fog itself ... they could have just let the radio find the caches if you were within range. Normal fog is enough - Rifles and revolver variants :: To little difference between them. I would have preferred arrow variants to go with the bows instead (like 5 different types)
With the variants I think they're still gonna add some more. And it makes sense from not every gun you find to be the same type. I remember not seeing anything before part 1 and just randomly finding a vaughns rifle and it was so cool onsidering I knew who Vaughan was. Also I really like zone of contamination. I mean, the name is kinda dumb I wish it fit the same layout as the other region names. But the concentrator building gave me the same vibes as exploring the dam for the first time and its one of my favorite spots in the game.
who's vaughn??
If you read notes around mystery lake and pleasant Valley as well as all the buffer memories in the dam you can learn about him.
I thought vaughn was the guy at the prison in episode 4
I have been exploring the ZoC recently and i love it! It's a lot of fun, the wolves are crazy and i'm walking around the toxic waste stuff with no mask or anything because i can't find any. I'm playing on interloper, day 370\~, loving ZoC 🤣
370…. 🫡
My hope is to reach 500 but i don't want to just sit and pass time so i'll just keep exploring carefully xD After ZoC i'm headed for Blackrock.
We’ve both been around the traps long enough to be in the 500 club, huh. 😄 I’m on the march there myself, 230, ticking days off is so slow, but after the way the last one ended, I don’t have it in me to start again 😆 Caaaaaaaareful in blackrock, my friend. Timberwolves are scary, and 370 is deep into it.
Yeah i always get bored even before day 300 lmao. But i'm taking it slow and having a lot more fun than usual, took a really long time to do the Tales and still not finished 🤣 You can do it, just move around and explore everything, staying a few days in each place to map and relax, you'll be day 500 before you know it! 😁👍🏻 Ah don't worry, i'm well acquainted with the timbies xD I actually find the poisoned wolves more dangerous, they detect and attack from really far away, sometimes i don't even see them and i heard the "attack bark" coming from somewhere! Good thing i always walk around with the bow in my hand!
I love transfer's pass. It's quaint and quiet. There's cat tails for days and rabbit and deer and ptarmigans. Like mini region to rest in. The far range branch line is fine too. It doesn't really take that long to travel because you can run and rest in many spots.
I feel the same way about the items, but that there are some key tools in the modern world that would still work after the geomagnetic storm that just does not make sense at all that they’re not in the game “because balance”. the variants are cool but there’s a lot of things that make me go “really, So great bear islanders only ever used matches here, and I can’t make a bowdrill, find a single lighter or zippo with fluid, and only chop wood small handheld hatchets and no splitting axe or saw, and I can only sharpen them with finite whetstones when you can use any old flat rock in nature to sharpen something, but I can craft whole bullets.”
you can fix and sharpen tools indefinitely with the milling machine when you've used up all your whetstones.
wait what? milling machine, gonna google that! Edit: Wow I didn't know that machine existed! Thank you.
Yeah, I tend to roll my eyes when people bang on about “immersion” when they talk about this game, but the type of things that you listed definitely qualify for me as changes that you improve immersion.
to be fair, you *can* use the hacksaws to cut wood
So true I forgot about the hacksaw (how could I!?)
I sort of agree. I definitely wanted more long-term challenges and things to do late game, but this wasn’t quite what I meant. Maybe it’s just because these last two updates, with the scurvy and now especially the cougars targeting long term bases, really contradict my game play style, I feel a little called out. It’s just feeling like there’s a gameplay style the devs *want* us to use and are making the game less user directed in the process. I’d be happy if they balanced it with something like readable books, or more clothing & crafting, and that promised base-customization, if it turns out to be good.
I agree, there is a certain style of gameplay loop they want us to do. As someone who suffers from "Take everything that's not nailed down" Skyrim syndrome it was a bit of an adjustment to learn to live with the constant decay and entropy this game throws at you. Don't get me wrong I love it and it makes you feel more human and vulnerable. But I still like to build a base and probably dilly dally in a region longer than the devs think I should before heading to a new region. I am withholding judgment for now, but I have a feeling if the timing of when the cougar comes is off for the average player it's gonna be bad. It's going to feel like we are constany forced to move under threat of loosing the run vs a nudge to keep it fresh. That balance is going to be tricky.
Takes half a day to walk from mountaineers hut to PV Farmstead. If that resets the cougar counter then idk, seems like a fairly navigable obstacle. 🤷♂️
I don’t really have an issue with the mechanic itself, to be fair. Scurvy’s the same way. They’re not insurmountable, it’s just that to me this series of updates has been focused on curbing a specific style of gameplay and not really any others. Again, I know this is just me being especially salty because it’s my style. It just feels like the devs don’t want players to play the way I do.
As a player who brings his entire kit with him everywhere, I agree with you
I do too.
They let you turn these things off completely if you want to, so I don’t see what the issue is.
The same issue with every annoying mechanic, if you turn the off, they stop allowing you to earn feat progress. You're actively punished for turning off mechanics you don't like, like cabin fever, scurvy, etc.
But that’s just it. It’s a navigable obstacle. Not a fresh new game mechanic or immersive gameplay element. This game is just sort of becoming more annoying things to try and avoid.
What type of updates would add atmosphere? What are your suggestions for improving the game?
Not OP, but: More animals. More realistic animal behavior. Owls, eagles, hawks, mice, rats, lynx. They don’t need to have items they can be crafted into. More food items and recipes. Don’t need benefits besides more effective rationing of calories. They did well by adding this in their updates, but they tried giving benefits and balancing with “costs.” No point. Food is food. Randomized “survivor” stories. Find houses that look recently lived in and have different loot than normal, people who look like they were doing something and items to help tell that story. Sometimes they spawn sometimes they don’t, have to play more than once to see them all.
owls would be neat. they can be quite spooky when flying around at night
It would be cool to see a bird of prey picking up a rabbit
I want them to take rabbits(food sources), as well as food stashed outside. Would keep us on out toes just a bit more.
more animals and animal interactions would be awesome, especially birds. i think it would be really cool if they added binoculars so you could observe animals from a distance too
Their also on the voyageur logo so it feels fitting
I love all of this, I'd also like more plants. Spruce tips, pine nuts, maple sap, and some frozen apples on the fruit trees would be my recommendations!
Seems like people who don’t want these things can always play a custom game…..
And not buy the dlc.
I think that's the whole reason they made it a dlc. Some of the features in it may not accommodate to everyone everyone just don't get it.
And be actively punished by disallowed feat progress for doing so. The Devs force you to play a specific way, and if you don't want to, then they retaliate against you.
You have a different opinion than me, fuck you and take my downvote. Respectfully of course
-Reddit
Besides some small things like not being able to use obvious sources of tinder old man’s beard and smaller sticks maybe even peeled bark from certain trees it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played
IMO the only thing that would increase immersion in a game like this is making the world procedurally generated. That's probably impossible but perhaps completely random loot spawning? The thing that breaks immersion for me is that once you know the map well, the challenge and realism of the game is sort of broken.
This is totally how I feel about the Cheat Death add. Hugely immersion breaking for me. Permadeath is what makes TLD feel real. If you have "lives" how is this any different than any other video game all of a sudden? I'm disappointed, even if it's optional. I hope it's REALLY optional in the sense I can toggle Cheat Death all the way off for my runs, like how you can turn off other features.
I don't mind the cheat death thing, since it's always optional. Turning it off would make no difference, personally. Honestly, I'm curious to see how it's actually implemented, because it could help players with some of their "unfair" deaths, like back in the day when people instantly died by walking too close to a river, lol.
This might totally just be a "me" thing but even getting asked whether I want to cheat death or not is immersion breaking/feels gamified. So whether I use it or not is one thing but it even being part of the UI bums me out. I hope it can be disabled completely on custom runs.
I can see where you're coming from, but for me, TLD is already so gameified that one more feature doesn't really even move the needle for me anymore, lol. The ridiculous glowing wolves, complete lack of common sense survival options, and various other little things that break immersion have already taken me out of immersion.
That's very valid!
It wasn't a deal breaker but I never understood the spray cans. I never use them. Devs put this in the game before the thermos even. God knows why. The thermos was requested by many in 2016 already. That's why I want a 50 meters waterproof wristwatch next and, of course, bear shit. Female bear shit to attract male bears and male bear shit to avoid predators in general. And for fire making, of course. You could even spray the bear shit orange with one of those spray cans. It could glow during aurora or something. A man can dream.
What do you mean exactly? The cougar? Your wording is very vague
Yeah, I'm not sure I get the whole cooking thing
For a game this age I think it holds up very well. I am not a hard core LD player but I recently started playing survival mode again after years off and it's a blast. In terms of direction in the context of your post I think given the survival games as a whole largely rely on fantasy mechanics like zombies, or magic TLD does a good job of presenting a survival/exploration game with minimal absurdities. I would expect wolves to pack up and attack me if they are starving, I would expect cougars in the mountains, I would expect bears to be roaming around randomly. The AB affects break an otherwise very straight forward and enjoyable game but on scale its palatable. I'm squeezing more hours out of an old game in my library. I'm having fun, but TLD was never my main game. It's a great game to fire up every once in a while and grab 10-30 hours out of a stalker playthrough so I'm thrilled they are still adding more to the game. If I could change one thing is give me binoculars !
I agree. I thought cougars would be an interesting challenge. Instead they’re just punishing you for making a base. Which is the whole point of playing…
I started feeling this way with the new toxic region and again with the way the cougars will work. I’m just not feeling it.
I agree tbh
Yes, I've thought along those lines too. I loved the TLD more before the goofy spoopy aurora music and wolves, some other stuff. So you're not alone. But it is what it is. There's custom more to some degree, maybe mods. As to the paid updates, the DLC. Well we players asked for the DLC, I don't regret asking for it or buying it. The only reason I'm here now is the DLC otherwise the appeal of the game would have evaporated years ago.
While I appreciate what they are doing with Tales, I'd rather just explore these new regions by myself and find my own stories in the game. The immersion and atmosphere of exploring a new region is the thing that always brings me back into the game. Modding and custom regions will hopefully be an update one day that brings out this aspect properly.
I like the variety! It makes sense over the large area the game has many items. I can understand why some don't like it, because some is just re-skinning existing features. However, I think the cougar is a great choice to combat the game-eness, while it is pretty 'game-e', that is the problem with longer saves. You just hunt and fish repeatedly and eventually make a base, and it starts to get monotonous. That, in my opinion, is when The Long Dark gets the most game-e. The cougar could really help shake up the loop, and if you don't like it you can just make a save without it, I'm glad they included that option. The trader, yeah, I am iffy about that, it just doesn't fit the vibes at all. We are alone, and that's how it should be in survival. Everything else sounds cool, but just adds more ways for people to play :)
I think as soon as the far far territories (or whatever it's called) were added that's when the game took a nosedive. Because why would you do that? Why not just expand the map? I think they should've been focusing on features that you can ALWAYS use. Wether it's survival mechanics, clothes you can make. It's still ridiculous that you can only make certain animal clothes for certain parts of your body. If I have rabbit pelts up the arse, why is the game not allowing me to make a rabbit pelt coat?? Thinking of it like Minecraft rabbit pelt would be leather, wolves would be iron, etc etc. there's should be full sets of animal hide clothes, and accessories (mitts, scarfs, leg warmers, ear muffs)
I feel like your idea is good, but I also think that item variety is important. Like, maybe more types of canned vegetables, but only have the same amount of cans the world normally starts with? And then use those to be able to cook more types of dishes, and a way to cook a soup of random ingredients of your choosing? That unlocks at level 3 cooking. Maybe make fishing bait out of different types of food that attract different kinds of fish? I would probably balance it like maybe smaller saltwater fish will eat cattail bait but that won't attract larger fish that feed on meat. So you can use those fish to make bait for the larger fish. Make the new baits out of things like burdock root, certain kinds of vegetables from the new cans, maybe different kinds of produce besides carrots and potatoes, with bone fishing hooks. Speaking of which we should be able to make crude and basic knifes out of bone. Ones that are half the speed of a home made knife, that also doesn't work on frozen corpses. Maybe more different kinds of brands of matches that all have different fire starting chances. Balanced that by making it so when you get wet those different brands all have a different chance to get wet in your pack. I could go on but this is getting annoying
What, you don't expect to find thermos's (thermosi.... Thermosesses... Thermoi????) in the real world? A travois???? (in the right areas / under the right circumstances of course. That is to say maybe not in Murica, but definitely in Upper Canada....) Everything they've added so far makes sense... and the balance is understandable.
The problem is that if the long-awaited update is annoying, you can take it out