Known Issues and Updates - TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY [Updated Dec 9]
KNOWN ISSUES - TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY
Hi, Survivors! Following the recent Expansion Pass Update, which included both paid and free content, we are now able to provide faster Hotfixes for THE LONG DARK. This is very exciting, and we want to make sure you can still find relevant info quickly and easily as we continue to work to improve your experience in the Far Territory.
Please refer back to this post for the latest information on recent Hotfixes and Known Issues. As a reminder, TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY has not yet launched on consoles. For more information on when TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY will be available on your chosen platform, please visit the Expansion Pass FAQ.
RECENT HOTFIXES
Please see the new posts for the latest Hotfixes. A list of recent Hotfixes from the past week is included below.
Hotfix v2.04 (105814) (Dec 9) The fixes listed below are for Steam PC/Linux and Epic Games Store PC.
Fixed issue where items appeared in the incorrect location in the Radial Menu.
Hotfix v 2.04 (10574) (Dec 7) Today's fixes listed below are for Steam PC/Linux and Epic Games Store PC.
Fixed objects and textures appearing at lower resolution than intended when the game detail is set to "Low." Low-resolution textures can also be manually addressed by re-applying High or Ultra visual settings, which might have been reverted in the Expansion Pass Update.
Fixed an issue where TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY did not initialize correctly for some players when launching on Steam.
Fixed a number of locations in the Airfield Region and Long Rail Transition where players could become stuck.
Fixed an issue where items spawned unintentionally in Memento Caches on Interloper games. Items will consistently spawn correctly on new games.
Hotfix v2.03 (105666) (Dec 6, 2022)
Epic Games Store (PC) - Fixed an issue where new rifle variants appeared lined up inside a trailer by Carter Hydro Dam in the new Updated Survival Mode.
Hotfix v2.03 (105581) (Dec 5, 2022)
Steam (PC) - Fixed an issue where new rifle variants appeared lined up inside a trailer by Carter Hydro Dam in the new Updated Survival Mode.
KNOWN ISSUES AND TECHNICAL FAQ - TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY Please note that this list is not exhaustive. However, if you encounter issues and do not see your concern listed, please reach out to us via the Support Portal.
TELEPORTING WHEN TRANSITIONING TO OR FROM A CAVE ON SURVIVAL Some players are reporting that, upon entering or exiting a cave, they may be teleported to a new location. Occasionally, upon teleportation to a random new location, their backpack is also reset.
We are working on this issue and we will provide an update as soon as one is available. Thank you for your patience.
SAVES IN SNOW SHELTERS OCCASIONALLY RESULT IN TELEPORTING Occasionally, saves made in pre-placed snow shelters in regions that already have pre-placed shelters will teleport the Survivor on reload.
We are working on this issue and we will provide an update as soon as one is available. Thank you for your patience.
BOOKS DROPPED FROM INVENTORY GO MISSING If a Player drops a stack of books (or a book from a stack of books), all but the last book in the stack will disappear.
We are working on this issue and we will provide an update as soon as one is available. Thank you for your patience.
AUTOWALK NO LONGER WORKS Some players may have found their settings changed after updating, which deactivates the Autowalk setting.
To re-enable this setting, please visit Options > Accessibility > Autowalk > Enable, and verify that the Autowalk key binding is set correctly under Options > Key Bindings.
PREVIOUS SURVIVAL AND CHALLENGE SAVES HAVE BECOME INACCESSIBLE As a reminder, previous Survival saves WILL NOT work with the game once it has been updated. This is true even if a player does not purchase the Expansion Pass. Players can, however, continue to use current Save Games on an older version of THE LONG DARK on Steam, using the Time Capsule feature.
Please note that since the Time Capsule uses an older version of THE LONG DARK, you won't have access to any of the new content or enhancements that are going into both the Base Game, and the Expansion Pass.
MAC BUILD ERROR MESSAGE Unfortunately, we have encountered an issue with the Unity engine that impacts only the Mac build of THE LONG DARK, however, we will do everything we can to ensure that the update is available on Mac as soon as possible.
THE LONG DARK DOES NOT DISPLAY ON MULTIPLE MONITOR SETUPS Following the Update, when a player with multiple displays attempts to launch The Long Dark, the application will only display on a single monitor, regardless of the Display Number setting in THE LONG DARK, or the primary monitor setting in Windows/Nvidia Control Panel.
As a temporary solution:
1. Open the game .exe directly from your Install folder 2. From your Display settings, update the display to "Window Mode" 3. Close the game and re-open the game .exe again 4. ALT+TAB and drag the window to your desired display 5. Close and re-open THE LONG DARK 6. Change "Display Settings" back to "Full Screen" 7. Close and re-start the game from your Steam Library
We will continue to work on this issue and we will provide more information as soon as it is available.
THANK YOU
Thank you for your patience, and thank you for playing! We will continue to update this post as more information becomes available. For additional assistance with technical issues, please reach out to us via the Support Portal: hinterlandgames.com/support
The Long Dark Updated to v2.03 [105581]
Survivors, thank you for your patience as we navigate the release of our first Expansion Pass, TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY.
We can confirm that a more comprehensive change list is coming, however, we have released the v2.03 (105581) Hotfix to address a couple of key issues in the new Expansion.
GENERAL FIXES
Fixed an issue where new rifle variants appeared lined up inside a trailer by Carter Hydro Dam in the new Updated Survival Mode.
MORE INFORMATION
Please note that if you previously purchased THE LONG DARK, you will not need to re-purchase WINTERMUTE. If WINTERMUTE is not showing up in your library on Steam, please right-click on Properties for THE LONG DARK, ensure WINTERMUTE is selected, and restart Steam.
Please note that the Mac build isn't currently live for TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, and Mac players should not attempt to download the update.
As a reminder, your previous Survival saves WILL NOT work with the game once it has been updated. This is true even if you don't buy the Expansion Pass. You will, however, be able to continue to use your current Save Games on an older version of the game on Steam, using our Time Capsule feature. Since this is an older version, you won't have access to any of the new content or enhancements that are going into both the Base Game, and the Expansion Pass.
For more information, please visit the Expansion Pass FAQ: https://www.thelongdark.com/expansion/faq/
Thank you for your ongoing patience and support. Please remember to visit our Support Portal if you encounter any issues while playing the game.
For additional news and information about The Long Dark and Hinterland, please sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter (Game | Studio).
TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY is Here!
Survivors, it’s time to start your adventures in the Far Territory. TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY is available now on Steam. Purchase and download the Expansion today and start exploring Part One: Forsaken Airfield!
Part One introduces the brand-new Airfield Region, featuring plenty of open space, a Control Tower, and new mysteries waiting to be explored. For more great details, watch the Part One Update Video below:
Releasing in multiple Parts over the course of a 12-month campaign, TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY includes both paid updates for those who own the Expansion Pass, and free updates for anyone who owns THE LONG DARK (or SURVIVAL EDITION). Updates are currently planned for release every 8-10 weeks.
Thank you for your ongoing support, Survivors. We are very excited to share this new adventure with you. For more information, including details on availability, pricing, and the full planned content Roadmap, please visit the official Expansion Pass website: https://www.thelongdark.com/expansion/
Mac Build Delay: TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY
Survivors, we are looking forward to launching the upcoming Expansion Pass, TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY. Thank you for your support, your excitement, and for adding it to your Wishlists.
Unfortunately, we have encountered an issue with the Unity engine that impacts only the Mac build of THE LONG DARK. We are working with Unity to resolve the issue, but this means that TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, and the free updates to THE LONG DARK, will not be available for Mac on December 5th.
Although we cannot provide a firm date at this time, we do not currently expect that this Unity issue will be resolved before the Holidays. Our current ETA for the Mac version is early January. We will provide an update as the situation unfolds.
We understand this is disappointing, and we will do everything we can to ensure that the update is available on Mac as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and understanding, and thank you for your support!
Watch Now: TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY TRAILER, Roadmap, and Launch Date
Survivors, mark your calendars and get ready to expand your adventures in the Quiet Apocalypse.
TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY launches on Steam on December 5th, 2022. Look ahead at fantastic upcoming content in the campaign Roadmap, and don't miss the full trailer below, featuring a glimpse at new Regions, new Gameplay, and new objective-based Tales.
TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY is the first paid expansion pass for Survival Mode in THE LONG DARK. Releasing in multiple drops over the course of a 12-month campaign, the expansion will significantly add to the world of Great Bear Island and the game’s core Survival foundation.
Want to be notified at launch? Add TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY to your Steam Wishlist, and don't forget to visit the official Expansion Pass website for answers to Frequently Asked Questions, updated info, and more.
Wishlist Now: TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY
It's almost here, Survivors. Don't miss your opportunity to add TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY to your Wishlist, and be the first to experience the first paid expansion pass for Survival Mode in THE LONG DARK!
Handheld Shortwave
Releasing in multiple drops over the course of a 12-month campaign, TFTFT significantly adds to the world of Great Bear Island and the game’s core Survival foundation, with new Regions, new Gameplay, and new objective-based Tales.
Specific additions coming in the Paid stream include:
Three new Regions: Airfield, Mine, Mountain Pass
Three new Tales: Narrative Challenges that reveal mysteries of the Far Territory’s strange history.
New Gameplay Systems: Electrostatic Fog, Insomnia, Handheld Shortwave, Travois, Trader, Safehouse Customization, and more!
New Clothing and Food items, and Rare Tool variants.
20+ minutes of new Survival music.
...and much more.
Forsaken Airfield
"Deep along the spine of Great Bear tracks a steep mountain range that bisects the island.
This is the Far Range, an imposing wall of rock that stands vigilant over Great Bear’s priceless resource riches.
Over the decades, many have tried, few have succeeded to crack open the wealth within these rocks. And mysteries abound. Dark stories told around campfires, about abandoned mines and remote airfields that hold many secrets.
Now, with the aurora blazing across the sky, is the Far Territory ready to surrender its stories? Will you survive long enough to wrest any truths from the rocky grasp of this old, dark territory?"
Oak Trees
The full Roadmap for the Expansion Pass will be available at www.thelongdark.com/expansion in the lead-up to the December launch. Please keep in mind that teaser images include content that will be released throughout the 12-month campaign.
Features and content added to the Expansion are subject to development realities, and may change over time.
Vaughn's Rifle
For more great information, including what is included, pricing, and more, please refer to the FAQ on our website.
Thanks for your patience as I put this dev diary together. It took a while. As you’ll see below, there is a lot of information to share, and we wanted to make sure we crossed all our Ts and dotted all our Is before we put it in front of you.
First thing, though—I’m excited to reveal the title and key art for the first Expansion Pass content for THE LONG DARK. We call it, TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY.
Plus, check out the teaser trailer below:
TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY is the first paid content for THE LONG DARK since we launched on Steam Early Access back in 2014. Those of you who read my dev diaries or follow me or Hinterland on Twitter know we’ve been considering ways to create a more long-term sustainable model for ongoing Survival Mode improvements, and in my last dev diary I hinted at the form this might take. Since sharing that info, we’ve had more time to refine our thinking and planning, and so today I’m proud to be able to share the results.
But first -- the obligatory marketing blurb:
Deep along the spine of Great Bear tracks a steep mountain range that bisects the island.
This is the Far Range, an imposing wall of rock that stands vigilant over Great Bear’s priceless resource riches.
Over the decades, many have tried, few have succeeded to crack open the wealth within these rocks. And mysteries abound. Dark stories told around campfires, about abandoned mines and remote airfields that hold many secrets.
Now, with the aurora blazing across the sky, is the Far Territory ready to surrender its stories? Will you survive long enough to wrest any truths from the rocky grasp of this old, dark territory?
Makes you feel cold just reading about it.
WHAT IS THE EXPANSION PASS?
The Far Territory is our first attempt to expand the world of Great Bear Island with something entirely new. To get there, you must take a long and treacherous journey along abandoned railway lines, tunnel systems, and caverns, to get to the hub region that then connects to three other large regions. We’ll be revealing this new part of Great Bear Island to you over the course of the 12-month Expansion Pass campaign. Some of the things you can expect to see added in TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY include:
Three new Regions, connected by the long travel zones and hub region. The first of these Regions, “Forsaken Airfield”, and the travel zones all launch with the Expansion Pass. The other two Regions will be released over the course of the 12-month campaign.
Three Tales, narrative-themed Challenges that take place within your Survival game, each revealing insights into the Far Territory’s mysterious history.
New gameplay systems including: Transponder, Travois, Safehouse Customization, Trader, Complex Recipes for Cooking, and new Item Variants. We’ll share more info about each of these features on the larger Expansion Pass site we’ll be launching closer to release.
20+ minutes of new Survival music (10+ minutes included in the first Drop).
And much more...
WHAT ABOUT FREE UPDATES?
In addition to the huge amount of new content and features going into the paid Expansion Pass, we will also continue making meaningful free updates with new systems, content, and improvements to the “base” Survival Mode, including:
Full global loot and wildlife refresh. We’ve redone all the loot tables, all the pre-placed loot, and rebalanced the loot economy across the entire game. The Resource refresh will go live for all players when the Expansion launches, and the full Wildlife refresh will come some time next year.
Visor Notes. You’ll be able to find notes under visors (and other locations) that point to supply caches and other useful things, hidden all over the world.
New First-Person animations. We’ve added a whole bunch of new animations for harvesting actions, and more.
Thermos. You know — to keep your drinks warm.
Visual enhancements (focused on high-end systems).
Burdock, a new edible plant.
Improvised Crampons, so you can make them yourself. Watch those ankles!
...and a range of enhancements to existing systems.
Please keep in mind these are just partial lists. We’ll share a more complete list as we approach launch, but this should give you a sense of the scope of the Expansion Pass, and some of the other things we’ll be doing to keep the game fresh for all our players.
All of these updates will be released in content “drops”, with our goal being to release a new Drop every 8-10 weeks. This cadence is pretty aggressive in comparison to how we’ve been updating the game since we started releasing Episodes, but with the major changes we made to the game’s structure, splitting Story and Survival into two separate games, and other pipeline and workflow improvements the team has implemented during the last year or so, we are in a much better place to deliver frequent, meaningful updates to Survival like we did in the earlier years of the project. And we’re very excited to be getting back to that!
We’ll be releasing a full roadmap for TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY on our Expansion Pass site closer to launch, and we’ll share the link here, on our social channels, in the forums, and to our mailing list.
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY will be priced at $19.99 USD at launch. (Your pricing might be different depending on where you are buying in the world, as we do our best to price sensitively accounting for the power of your local currency.) There will be a bundle option that lets you save a bit of money if you already own THE LONG DARK. At the midway point the price will go up by $5, to reflect that more of the content is available. At the end of the 12-month campaign, we’ll increase the price by $5 again, to $29.99. So, the best time to buy TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY is at launch, but if you prefer to wait until the end of the campaign to see how all the content and features turned out, you can certainly do that! We won’t be “sunsetting” or “vaulting” the content afterwards, so your purchase will be protected over the long term.
NEW SKUS
This won’t affect most people reading this as you already own THE LONG DARK, and nothing about your ownership will change. You will keep everything you have, and you will still get all five WINTERMUTE episodes including Episode Five when it unlocks sometime in late 2023 (current target; subject to change).
Since we have split the game between Survival and Story Modes, we were able to create a standalone Survival-only version of the game, and so along with the release of TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, we will also launch a new Survival Edition, which comes in at a lower price point and only includes Survival Mode. We look at it as an “entry point” into THE LONG DARK. From Survival Edition, you can get the WINTERMUTE Episodes as DLC, and/or you can buy TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY. And if you want it all, you’ll be able to purchase the QUIET APOCALYPSE BUNDLE.
Basically, we are trying to create as many good options for our customers as possible, both creating opportunities for new players to come in at different price points, and also protecting our existing players’ investments and experience of THE LONG DARK. We think this is part of nurturing the ongoing growth of THE LONG DARK as a game, and as an important part of Hinterland’s business moving forward. We also hope to use these changes as an opportunity to test and learn new things about how we might launch and support future games at Hinterland.
SAVE COMPATIBILITY
Unfortunately, your current Survival saves WILL NOT work with the game once it has been updated. This is true even if you don’t buy the Expansion Pass.
The reason for this is that we’ve made many changes to the Save system, and the underlying architecture of the game itself, to improve, future-proof, and optimize it, and these changes mean that all “old” saves (meaning from a version of THE LONG DARK from before the Expansion Pass launch) will be incompatible with the new Save format.
A few more clarifying points:
All unlocked Feats, Feats progress, and Achievements will be carried over to the Expansion Pass and updated Survival Mode. You will not lose these!
All previous WINTERMUTE save files and general episode unlocks will continue to work in the updated Story Mode.
For anyone who has the game on Steam, you will be able to continue to use your current Save Games on an older version of the game, using our Time Capsule feature. You’ll be able to keep your “old” save games going using the older Time Capsule build (any build before the Expansion Pass release, actually). But since this is an older version, you won’t have access to any of the new content or enhancements that are going into both the Base Game, and the Expansion Pass.
Our recommendation is that if you have a Survival run you’d like to finish up, try to do so before the Expansion Pass launches. If you want to continue playing it, you can do so using Time Capsule. But you’ll only get to experience the new content, any of the improvements and optimizations, by creating a new game using the updated foundation that comes with the Expansion Pass release.
Unfortunately, Steam is the only platform we can offer the Time Capsule feature on. Players on other platforms will want to complete their in-progress Survival runs, then start new games when the game gets updated at the Expansion Pass launch.
We understand that this isn’t ideal. Unfortunately, we haven’t made many changes to the Save system in many years, and we’ve found players having a growing number of issues with old saves due to this. The clean-up was necessary for the future growth of THE LONG DARK and for the quality of game experience for all our players, and although we know some of you will be upset at having to abandon your saves, we’re hopeful that you will find excitement in the idea of starting fresh and experiencing the early phases of a Survival adventure all over again.
WHEN IS IT LAUNCHING?
We’ll share the launch date in the coming weeks, but you can expect TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY to launch on Steam and Epic Game Store in December.
WHAT ABOUT OTHER PLATFORMS?
We’re focused on the Steam and Epic Game Store launches for this year, with Xbox and PlayStation coming in late-January/early-February, and Switch coming sometime in March. Other smaller stores and platforms will be added as we’re able.
Why the delay? Since it’s so much easier and quicker for us to update the game on Steam and Epic, we’re focusing on them so that when we come back after the holidays, we’ll be ready to submit the game to the console platforms for release. So much has changed about the fundamental structure of the game, we just felt safer launching on a more limited number of platforms at first, in case any issues arise. We’ll do our best to keep the timing gap between platforms as short as possible.
WISHLIST NOW!
If you like what you’ve seen here, we encourage you to Wishlist the Expansion Pass so that you get a notification when it goes live later this year. We’ll also be running a pre-order campaign closer to launch.
EPISODE FIVE
We haven’t forgotten about Episode Five! We’re focusing our communications bandwidth on educating and promoting TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY for now, but after it launches and the Expansion Pass campaign is underway, we’ll provide an update on our plans for wrapping up WINTERMUTE. It’s been a big story so far with a lot of threads to tie up, so Episode Five is going to be substantial. Already feeling sad to leave the story of Mackenzie, Astrid, the hardcase, Perseverance Mills, and the rest of it, but all good things must come to an end.
WHAT ABOUT HALLOWEEN?
We’ve been so busy rebuilding the game to accommodate the split, and adding all the content and features going into the first Expansion Pass Drop, that unfortunately we just couldn’t also make time to prepare anything cool for Halloween this year. Sorry about that.
THE LONG DARK PLAYER COUNT UPDATE
It’s been a little while since we shared player counts for THE LONG DARK. Here are the latest cumulative numbers, platform by platform. (We’ve rounded the numbers a bit.)
Steam (paid): 4,000,000
Xbox (paid): 750,000
Xbox Game Pass (subscription): 2,000,000
PlayStation (paid): 500,000
PlayStation+ (subscription): 1,300,000
Switch (paid): 68,000
WeGame (paid): 125,000
Epic Game Store (combo paid + give-away): 1,500,000+
That brings the total player count for THE LONG DARK to over 10 Million Players. We also have over 1 Million players actively playing the game every month, and we’re excited to see this monthly active player number go up even more as a result of the Expansion Pass rejuvenating player excitement for Survival Mode.
It’s pretty exciting for us to see these numbers for our quiet little (very) solo Survival experience. Thanks for all your support and being part of making this happen.
NEW PROJECTS
As mentioned in the last Dev Dairy, I’ve stepped back from daily leadership of THE LONG DARK to focus on Hinterland’s next games. We’re working on some exciting new things and I can’t wait to share some early news some time next year.
THANKS!
Thanks for reading all this, and for your ongoing support of Hinterland and your interest in what we’re making for you. Hopefully you found some stuff in this dev diary that gets you excited about the future of THE LONG DARK, and Hinterland in general. We can’t wait to share more details of all the various things we’re working on in the studio. Until then, keep your eyes on our various communications channels including our Official Community and our Mailing List, and if you think the Expansion Pass sounds interesting, we encourage you to Wishlist Here.
[Updated 09/07/22] - THE LONG DARK - QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATE v2.02 (99904)
Hello Community,
UPDATE (09/07/22):We have released a hotfix to resolve a bug that prevents players from receiving a phone call from Molly at the end of "Aftermath" in Episode Three, which impacts mission progress. Please note that it may take time to update across all platforms. Thank you for your patience as we worked on this issue.
NOTE:We are still receiving reports that the Brightness Slider is not working on PS4/PS5. We are investigating this complex issue and will provide more information as soon as it is available.
Thank you for your patience.
We just released our v2.02 (99904) Quality of Life Update for The Long Dark. This update includes some significant bug fixes, along with game and performance improvements.
Thank you for your patience and support. We look forward to sharing more information about future updates and other exciting news about The Long Dark in a Dev Diary toward the end of September.
Please remember to visit our Support Portal if you encounter any issues while playing the game. For additional news and information, please sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter (Game | Studio).
USER INTERFACE
[UI] Fixed an issue that prevented the Surveyed Locations from displaying the correct number of locations when viewed in the Journal.
[UI] Fixed an issue that prevented the Voice Audio slider from responding correctly when adjusted in Audio Options.
[UI] Fixed an issue that caused the subtitles to appear underneath the Radial Menu, preventing players from being able to read the subtitles.
[UI] Fixed an issue that caused the Manage Data button (found under Privacy -> Options) to link incorrectly to Unity’s Cloud Analytics.
[UI] Added a check to the Fire Starting Menu to prevent players from being able to open the menu if they do not have all of the items required.
SURVIVAL
[Gameplay] Fixed an issue that caused Carcasses to decay at an accelerated rate.
[Gameplay] Fixed an issue that prevented players from lighting torches from a lit Stove or Rim Grill.
[Gameplay] Fixed an issue that allowed players to duplicate Matches by adding a stack to a container, while a Match is lit.
WINTERMUTE
** Please note that this section contains spoilers for WINTERMUTE. **
[EP 3] Trauma: Fixed an issue that caused a corrupted save game if the game was saved immediately after the first conversation with Father Thomas.
[EP 4] Donner: Fixed an issue that prevented players from progressing past the planks after the rooftop escape sequence after receiving the call from Jace and retrieving the Hard Case. This should also retroactively fix the issue for players who are currently stuck.
[EP 4] Donner: Fixed the interaction tag on the Prison Gate to prevent it from sometimes appearing below the gate.
[EP 4] The Detonators: Fixed an issue that would cause an item being held by the Player to be duplicated after triggering the Mine Collapse cinematic.
PLAYSTATION 4
[HDR] Fixed an issue that prevented the game from enabling HDR mode on HDR-enabled devices.
### END OF RELEASE NOTES ###
THE LONG DARK - QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATE v2.01 (98644)
Hello Community,
We just released our v2.01 (98644) Quality of Life Update for The Long Dark. This update includes some significant bug fixes, along with game and performance improvements. Please note that it may take time to update across all platforms.
Thank you for your patience and support. We look forward to sharing more information about future updates and other exciting news about The Long Dark in a Dev Diary toward the end of September.
Please remember to visit our Support Portal if you encounter any issues while playing the game. For additional news and information, please sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter (Game | Studio).
USER INTERFACE
[UI] Fixed an issue that prevented the Surveyed Locations from displaying the correct number of locations when viewed in the Journal.
[UI] Fixed an issue that prevented the Voice Audio slider from responding correctly when adjusted in Audio Options.
[UI] Fixed an issue that caused the subtitles to appear underneath the Radial Menu, preventing players from being able to read the subtitles.
[UI] Fixed an issue that caused the Manage Data button (found under Privacy -> Options) to link incorrectly to Unity’s Cloud Analytics.
[UI] Added a check to the Fire Starting Menu to prevent players from being able to open the menu if they do not have all of the items required.
SURVIVAL
[Gameplay] Fixed an issue that caused Carcasses to decay at an accelerated rate.
[Gameplay] Fixed an issue that prevented players from lighting torches from a lit Stove or Rim Grill.
[Gameplay] Fixed an issue that allowed players to duplicate Matches by adding a stack to a container, while a Match is lit.
WINTERMUTE
** Please note that this section contains spoilers for WINTERMUTE. **
[EP 3] Trauma: Fixed an issue that caused a corrupted save game if the game was saved immediately after the first conversation with Father Thomas.
[EP 4] Donner: Fixed an issue that prevented players from progressing past the planks after the rooftop escape sequence after receiving the call from Jace and retrieving the Hard Case. This should also retroactively fix the issue for players who are currently stuck.
[EP 4] Donner: Fixed the interaction tag on the Prison Gate to prevent it from sometimes appearing below the gate.
[EP 4] The Detonators: Fixed an issue that would cause an item being held by the Player to be duplicated after triggering the Mine Collapse cinematic.
PLAYSTATION 4
[HDR] Fixed an issue that prevented the game from enabling HDR mode on HDR-enabled devices.
### END OF RELEASE NOTES ###
April Dev Diary
April Developer Diary -- The Future of The Long Dark
In a couple of months, it’ll have been ten years since I submitted the incorporation documents for Hinterland Studio Inc. and the company became a real business. I guess that milestone has me in a pretty pensive mood as I write this.
Ten years is a good amount of time for a game company to exist. I look back at photos of my basement home-office, to the various studio spaces we’ve grown into and then outgrown, to now looking around at my non-basement home office and big screens with 60+ people Zoom calls, and I reflect back on the journey that has gotten us to this point.
I look at the mix of faces I see looking back at me on that screen during our team Town Hall meetings. All kinds of different people with all kinds of different backgrounds. Every one of them a wonderful human being who is putting their heart and soul into Hinterland, to help create experiences for you, our players, and, in our own way, trying to shift the medium a little more towards thoughtfulness.
A ten-year anniversary seems like the right moment to talk about the future.
What’s Next for The Long Dark
For those of you who know your TLD (and Hinterland) history, you may recall we announced The Long Dark with a Kickstarter (one of the first to use CAD!) in the fall of 2013, and followed up with a Steam Early Access launch of our “sandbox mode” in September 2014. For the next few years, we continued to expand and evolve the “sandbox” portion of the game (adding Xbox via Game Preview in 2015) while we also slowly built out the first parts of WINTERMUTE, our story mode. We launched our TLD 1.0 with Episodes One and Two of WINTERMUTE in August 2017 (adding PlayStation), then re-released the “Redux” versions at the end of 2018, followed by Episode Three in 2019, Switch in 2020, and Episode Four in October of last year. In between, we continued to update the “sandbox” portion of the game, which we renamed to Survival Mode. Somehow, along the way, we managed to build a community of nearly 10-million players. Without you, The Long Dark, and Hinterland, would very likely not be here today.
When we launched our Kickstarter back in 2013, I promised that all backers would receive the five planned episodes of our story mode for the backing price, a promise we carried over to our Early Access and Game Preview backers. Meanwhile, our plan was to incrementally update the game’s foundational Survival Mode and align those updates (generally) with features and content we knew we wanted to include in later episodes (sometimes we did the opposite and introduced new features or content into Episodes which later found their way into Survival), and to keep players engaged in between the episodes. But this early 2013 backer promise meant that we have updated the game “for free” ever since we launched it, despite the fact that the game’s scope grew with its success and each episode represented a lot more effort and time than we had originally intended. (Keep in mind that our plan for TLD with the Kickstarter was a ~10-hour narrative-driven survival game and no freeform sandbox. Now, each of our episodes can be longer than 10 hours and the sandbox is now one of the biggest available within the entire genre of open-world games.)
Aside from the fact that it’s important to live up to your promises, I think this “free updates” paradigm has resulted in a lot of good will with you, our players, and has hopefully strengthened our relationship and your loyalty to us as a team and studio. So, we’re really happy about this initial promise and we’re happy to have been able to go above and beyond to deliver on this over the past several years.
But it hasn’t been easy. One of the challenges of supporting both Survival and Story modes in The Long Dark has always been managing our resources to sustain both. Delivering WINTERMUTE was a promise, an obligation, but continuing to support Survival Mode was a choice. We did it to ensure our Survival players didn’t feel neglected while we worked on the story episodes, but as a result, some of the “magic” that drove the early years of The Long Dark’s success, and the growth of the game and the community, was lost. We weren’t able to update Survival as frequently, as our studio focus was necessarily split between both modes, and these frequent updates were a big part of what helped the game take off.
Last year we ran a community poll, asking how you would like us to dedicate our focus for the future of The Long Dark. Amongst other bits of useful feedback, we discovered that nearly 80% of you wanted us to begin producing paid expansion content for Survival Mode. We’ve always felt fortunate that there’s been a core group of you that have been asking us to start charging for content for a while now, but this was the strongest indication of what our players wanted us to prioritize for The Long Dark.
Unfortunately, updating Survival mode with paid DLC is not that simple. Due to the decisions we made early in the project’s inception, the game’s survival foundation has been inextricably linked to the story mode, and the story mode has been completely dependent on the core survival game. This has meant that over time, as the game has increased in scope and complexity, with new mechanics, new regions, new challenges, and new episodes, the game has become...unwieldy. Every update requires the entire game to be re-tested. Systems, content, and code have their roots deep into both parts of the game. Our testing times have gone from maybe a week per update (in the project’s early years), to more than a month per update. The deep interrelationship between mechanics and content between the two “modes” has also meant some updates we would have liked to make in one area, couldn’t really be done because of how they might impact the other. In short, the game has just become too big for us to maintain well.
To address this, the team has been hard at work since we launched Episode Four, to decouple Survival and Story from each other. It’s been a huge amount of work, involving careful separation of content but in some cases also the wholesale refactoring of code and entire systems. The good news is that we are now at the point where Survival Mode runs as a standalone experience, with no linkage back to Story mode. What this means is that we can now update Survival independently of Story. Updating will be easier, and faster. Testing will be simpler and more streamlined. And it means we can make changes and improvements specifically for Survival, without any concern about how they might impact WINTERMUTE.
The opposite will also soon be true. The WINTERMUTE episodes will be completely separated from Survival, and when we update to Episode Five, we’ll be able to do that without concern for how it might impact (or be impacted) by Survival. This also means that the WINTERMUTE episodes can potentially receive targeted updates without concern for how those changes might impact Survival Mode.
This process has been a ton of work for the team, and unfortunately it’s all behind-the-scenes work to the extent that you are probably asking yourself “but how does this impact me?”
Well, how it impacts you is that the split opens the door to a whole new era of Survival Mode content updates that will bring new life and new energy back into The Long Dark. It doesn’t change anything about content you already own, and everyone who owns The Long Dark (on all our supported platforms) will still get Episode Five when it releases.
And this split means we can finally deliver on your request that we start producing paid content for Survival Mode. So that’s what we’re doing.
Later this year, we’ll be launching a paid update path for Survival Mode. This will be the first paid content we’ve added to The Long Dark (apart from our soundtracks) since we launched it nearly 8 years ago. We’re still working through the details of the roadmap and our release plans, but I can tell you this much with a high degree of confidence:
It’ll be some kind of “season pass”-type approach (actual name TBD), where we have a ~15-18 month campaign of updates that unlock for anyone who has purchased the pass. The updates will come on a regular cadence over the course of that period.
The pass will include a combination of content and gameplay system updates, including new regions, new challenges, new mechanics, etc., as well as general improvements and updates to core systems in the game.
Additionally, for anyone who doesn’t like the season pass style approach and prefers to only pay for content when it’s complete, we will re-package the season’s content into 3-4 individual paid DLC packages.
We’re still working on pricing, but the season pass will provide a discount on the combined price of the DLC, and each piece of paid DLC will be very fairly priced.
We want to make sure our existing players who choose not to buy any more content (or are unable to afford it) are still going to have a great experience of The Long Dark, and won’t feel left behind. So we’ll also continue to provide some free updates to the base Survival game, so anyone who doesn’t buy the pass will get something. These updates will generally be smaller, more modest improvements compared to what you will see being added to the paid content stream, which seems only fair.
I know that this is a big departure from our history of releasing major updates for free as part of the base price of the game, but we feel that after nearly 8 years of content updates it’s time for us to put a little more attention around ensuring the game continues to be financially self-sustaining, and the kinds of major improvements and content we want to add to Survival Mode are significant enough and require enough team effort that we just can’t justify giving them away for free anymore. We want to ensure The Long Dark can continue to be a vibrant game with a vibrant community, and we think this is a necessary and logical step to supporting that goal well into the future.
We also hope that our three-tiered approach will ensure that everyone can get something regardless of their financial circumstances or their comfort level with “season pass” type solutions. In a way, we see the paid stream almost behaving like a second Early Access, not in the sense that the content isn’t polished, but that it brings us back to a cadence of more frequent updates and faster evolution of the base game, without some of the constraints we’ve been fighting with for the past few years.
We’ll release more information about our plans, and provide some visuals to help communicate our planned roadmap and a simple product matrix well before we launch. There will also likely be a short pre-order period for the pass, on the platforms where such a thing is possible. Currently, we are targeting a launch of the paid stream for the second half of this year.
Leadership Changes
The Long Dark has sustained Hinterland for nearly a decade. I’ve worked on it for nearly a decade. Just like it’s time for the game to turn to new things, it’s time for me to do the same.
I’m handing leadership of The Long Dark to Katie Sorrell, who takes over as Project Lead. Katie is no stranger to TLD or Great Bear Island, having personally designed every region from Pleasant Valley onwards, and having led the development of all our WINTERMUTE episodes as Lead Designer. Not only is Katie a 30-year game design veteran, but she’s been my close design collaborator for the past seven years, and I can’t think of anyone more qualified, or more suited, to take The Long Dark into the future. I feel so fortunate to have such a strong partner in this game, and so grateful that under Katie’s leadership, The Long Dark will continue to thrive well into the future. Katie is supported by a fantastic team of leaders and creators on the team across all disciplines, many of whom have also worked on The Long Dark for years, and I know that under her leadership and their steadfast support, The Long Dark is stepping into a new era of exciting growth and innovation.
As for me -- it’s time to move on to new things. I’ve put more years into TLD than I initially expected, and while I love the game, its world, and its fans (and it will always occupy a special place in my heart), I need to flex my directing, design, and writing muscles by solving some new creative challenges for Hinterland. It’s time to create something new.
My final hands-on contribution to The Long Dark is the script for Episode Five, where the WINTERMUTE story is brought to its conclusion. Beyond that, I’m heading into a quiet, and hopefully fruitful, creative period so that I can attempt to come up with something that has even greater longevity and impact that The Long Dark has had on you and all of us during these past years. It will be difficult. I hope you will be there to see the results when I’m able to share more.
I promise this is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.
Despite this shift in leadership for TLD, I remain the creative director at the studio and I will always have a hand in reviewing and guiding the experiences we make, so this doesn’t mean I won’t still look at every bit of The Long Dark that goes out the door to you. It just means I won’t be driving it in the hands-on way I have been over the past several years. And I think this will be good for the game, good for the team, and allow Hinterland to evolve into a multi-project studio that can thrive and impact the medium positively well into the future.
I now turn my thoughts to new horizons, and the next Hinterland decade. Thank you for all the incredible years you have given me, and us, so far. And I hope that I, and the entire team at Hinterland, can continue to count on your support and your fandom, in all the current and future worlds and experiences we create for you.
In the next dev diary, we’ll share more details about our plans for the Survival Mode paid stream. Episode Five is also still firmly on our radar; I currently anticipate a 2023 release, but we won’t have much to say about that for the rest of this year. There’s a lot of story to tell, and a lot of threads to tidy up, before we close the chapter on the epic survival journey of Mackenzie, Astrid, and the other survivors of the Quiet Apocalypse.
Thanks for reading, and until next time, stay safe and see you out there in the snowy wilds of Great Bear Island, where I will be wandering, thinking, and looking to the future.
