Hello community,

We've just hotfixed The Long Dark to version 1.19, which includes the following fixes:


* [Survival] Fixed the Faithful Cartographer achievement. Fixes are retroactive but may require performing one mapping action per region to update the Achievement "checklist".
* [Survival] Fixed issue with stored loot being reset in the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse, as well as other (unreported) instances of loot being lost. Previous loot should now be restored.
* [Wintermute] Fixed issue where player could end up with second, untreatable "Plane Crash Injuries" due to conflict between manual save and checkpoint.
* [Both] Fixed crash on 32-bit Windows XP systems.
* [Both] Fixed crash when changing resolution on DirectX 9 systems.

### END OF RELEASE NOTES ###

Have a great weekend!

- The Hinterland Team

Hello community,

We've just hotfixed The Long Dark to version 1.19, which includes the following fixes:


* [Survival] Fixed the Faithful Cartographer achievement. Fixes are retroactive but may require performing one mapping action per region to update the Achievement "checklist".
* [Survival] Fixed issue with stored loot being reset in the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse, as well as other (unreported) instances of loot being lost. Previous loot should now be restored.
* [Wintermute] Fixed issue where player could end up with second, untreatable "Plane Crash Injuries" due to conflict between manual save and checkpoint.
* [Both] Fixed crash on 32-bit Windows XP systems.
* [Both] Fixed crash when changing resolution on DirectX 9 systems.

### END OF RELEASE NOTES ###

Have a great weekend!

- The Hinterland Team

We're thrilled to learn that PC Gamer Magazine has nominated The Long Dark as the open world Game of the Year, alongside Assassin's Creed: Origins, Middle Earth: Shadow of War, and West of Loathing.

http://www.pcgamer.com/nominees-pc-gamer-goty-2017/

Thanks to the editorial team at PC Gamer, and to all our supporters, for this fantastic honour!

- The Hinterland Team

We're thrilled to learn that PC Gamer Magazine has nominated The Long Dark as the open world Game of the Year, alongside Assassin's Creed: Origins, Middle Earth: Shadow of War, and West of Loathing.

http://www.pcgamer.com/nominees-pc-gamer-goty-2017/

Thanks to the editorial team at PC Gamer, and to all our supporters, for this fantastic honour!

- The Hinterland Team

Hello community,

We've just released some fixes in follow-up to yesterday's release of RUGGED SENTINEL.

Windows and Mac fixes are available immediately. Linux fixes will be released shortly.


* Fixed issue where some localized strings were not properly integrated into the game.
* Fixed issue where some interiors would be duplicated and have duplicated gear items, when playing using a Custom Experience Mode.
* Fixed issue with code-entry for the Custom Experience Mode appearing "all caps".
* Fixed issue where Antibiotics were not curing Infections.
* Fixed issue where all caught Fish had the same weight.
* Fixed issue where some customization options would not persist when modifying a "baseline" Experience Mode using the Custom Experience Toolbox.
* Fixed issue where Feats Badges could not be enabled when using a Custom Experience Mode. Progress playing when using a Custom mode will not count towards Feats progression, however, and this is by design.

### END OF RELEASE NOTES ###

Hello community,

We've just released some fixes in follow-up to yesterday's release of RUGGED SENTINEL.

Windows and Mac fixes are available immediately. Linux fixes will be released shortly.


* Fixed issue where some localized strings were not properly integrated into the game.
* Fixed issue where some interiors would be duplicated and have duplicated gear items, when playing using a Custom Experience Mode.
* Fixed issue with code-entry for the Custom Experience Mode appearing "all caps".
* Fixed issue where Antibiotics were not curing Infections.
* Fixed issue where all caught Fish had the same weight.
* Fixed issue where some customization options would not persist when modifying a "baseline" Experience Mode using the Custom Experience Toolbox.
* Fixed issue where Feats Badges could not be enabled when using a Custom Experience Mode. Progress playing when using a Custom mode will not count towards Feats progression, however, and this is by design.

### END OF RELEASE NOTES ###

Hello community,

We've just updated The Long Dark to version 1.16, introducing our first major update to Survival Mode since we launched WINTERMUTE on August 1st.

Please check out this update video. Full Release Notes available below:

https://youtu.be/urFhNnMI2ys

Version 1.16 [33814]

NOTE: We are still investigating some issues with the Faithful Cartographer achievement; we hope to have it fixed soon and will update shortly.


* Added the Moose to all Survival Mode regions.
* Added the Broken Ribs Affliction.
* Added the Moose-Hide Cloak gear item.
* Added the Moose-Hide Satchel gear item.
* Milton is now playable in Survival Mode, as "Mountain Town", including a full Loot and Wildlife pass.
* New Save System for WINTERMUTE.
* New Experience Modes for WINTERMUTE: Green Survivor, Capable Survivor, Hardened Survivor
* New Custom Experience Toolbox for Survival Mode.
* New Worn Clothing Weight Modifier.
* Added Aurorified Lighting to all regions; these appear when the Aurora is active at night.


* General texture clean-up.
* General art optimizations to improve performance.
* Reduced opacity of nighttime breath effect.
* Additional beautification around Coastal Highway Quonset
* Additional beautification around Pleasant Valley townsite.
* [Wintermute] Added missing texture to chair in cinematic.
* Fixed floating bones in Forlorn Muskeg Bear Den.
* Fixed floating Wood object in Mountain Town.
* Fixed the sun position in all regions to ensure it rises in the East and sets in the West.
* General clean up on "out of bounds" areas.


* [Survival] Fixed inaccessible loot in Turbine Room of Carter Hydro Dam.
* [Survival] Fixed inaccessible loot under bed in the Coastal Highway Quonset.
* [Survival] Fixed inaccessible loot in Cave in Mountain Town.
* [Survival] General loot tuning for Broken Railroad region.
* [Survival] Fixed inactive container item in Hunting Lodge basement.
* [Survival] Fixed missing corpses and containers in Broken Railroad region.
* [Wintermute] Fixed progression blocker related to Wood Bin and Flashlight in the Hunting Lodge.
* [Survival] Milton is now accessible from both Forlorn Muskeg and Mystery Lake regions.
* [Wintermute] Fixed missing translated strings for "Lake Gunshots" side mission.
* [Wintermute] Current episode progress (% Completed) is now displayed as part of Save Game information.
* [Survival] Fixed issue where player could get into a half-buried car on Coastal Highway.
* [Survival] UI updates to clarify Encumbered and "buffed" carrying capacity states.
* [Survival] Loot updates to Pleasant Valley to reflect additional beautifications.
* [Both] Added numbering to Afflictions in the First Aid UI to make it easier to treat when there are multiple instances.
* [Both] Fixed some inconsistencies in UIs that presented "cancel" options where that functionality did not exist.
* [Wintermute] Added some failsafe logic to ensure the Old Bear doesn't get stuck and prevent completion of the Bear Hunt mission.
* [Both] Reduced Deer carcass quartering time to 60 minutes, to improve balance against Bear and Moose quartering times.
* [Wintermute] Modified aurora appearance timings after the player completes the Bear Hunt mission in Episode Two. Aurorae should appear more frequently now.
* [Both] Controller bumpers can now be used to toggle between Harvesting and Quartering interfaces.
* [Both] Fixed issue where lit Lantern would be dropped during a Struggle, and end up back in the player's Backpack without being extinguished, thereby using up all the fuel. Lit Lanterns will now be dropped in a Struggle.
* [Wintermute] Fixed issues where items returned from a Trust interaction might not appear correctly in the player's Backpack.
* [Both] Fixed issue where player camera would be inside the Bear mesh during carcass harvesting.
* [Wintermute] Fixed issue where player would take no damage when standing inside Grey Mother's fire.
* [Survival] Fixed an issue where a few tunables in Interloper were defaulting to Stalker settings. Interloper should be more challenging now, as a result.
* [Both] Fixed some bugs with the Struggle system which could sometimes result in the player losing control.


* Several UI audio elements fixed.
* [Wintermute] Fixed bug where lit Flare audio could carry into cinematics.
* Moved triggers for "night is coming" gameplay VO to ensure they happen before it gets dark at dusk.
* Modified frequency of exploration music in Timberwolf Mountain region.
* General audio fixes for Grey Mother's House (Milton). Post Office (Milton), and the Hunting Lodge (Broken Railroad Region)


* [Both] General navmesh updates.
* [Both] The game will now automatically detect Polish and Italian text based on system language settings.
* [Survival] Added more backer info to Cairns.

NOTE FOR LINUX USERS: Some Linux users may need to manually install SDL2. This can be done by running 'sudo apt-get install libsdl2-2.0-0' in your terminal

### End of Release Notes ###

Hello community,

We've just updated The Long Dark to version 1.16, introducing our first major update to Survival Mode since we launched WINTERMUTE on August 1st.

Please check out this update video. Full Release Notes available below:

https://youtu.be/urFhNnMI2ys

Version 1.16 [33814]

NOTE: We are still investigating some issues with the Faithful Cartographer achievement; we hope to have it fixed soon and will update shortly.


* Added the Moose to all Survival Mode regions.
* Added the Broken Ribs Affliction.
* Added the Moose-Hide Cloak gear item.
* Added the Moose-Hide Satchel gear item.
* Milton is now playable in Survival Mode, as "Mountain Town", including a full Loot and Wildlife pass.
* New Save System for WINTERMUTE.
* New Experience Modes for WINTERMUTE: Green Survivor, Capable Survivor, Hardened Survivor
* New Custom Experience Toolbox for Survival Mode.
* New Worn Clothing Weight Modifier.
* Added Aurorified Lighting to all regions; these appear when the Aurora is active at night.


* General texture clean-up.
* General art optimizations to improve performance.
* Reduced opacity of nighttime breath effect.
* Additional beautification around Coastal Highway Quonset
* Additional beautification around Pleasant Valley townsite.
* [Wintermute] Added missing texture to chair in cinematic.
* Fixed floating bones in Forlorn Muskeg Bear Den.
* Fixed floating Wood object in Mountain Town.
* Fixed the sun position in all regions to ensure it rises in the East and sets in the West.
* General clean up on "out of bounds" areas.


* [Survival] Fixed inaccessible loot in Turbine Room of Carter Hydro Dam.
* [Survival] Fixed inaccessible loot under bed in the Coastal Highway Quonset.
* [Survival] Fixed inaccessible loot in Cave in Mountain Town.
* [Survival] General loot tuning for Broken Railroad region.
* [Survival] Fixed inactive container item in Hunting Lodge basement.
* [Survival] Fixed missing corpses and containers in Broken Railroad region.
* [Wintermute] Fixed progression blocker related to Wood Bin and Flashlight in the Hunting Lodge.
* [Survival] Milton is now accessible from both Forlorn Muskeg and Mystery Lake regions.
* [Wintermute] Fixed missing translated strings for "Lake Gunshots" side mission.
* [Wintermute] Current episode progress (% Completed) is now displayed as part of Save Game information.
* [Survival] Fixed issue where player could get into a half-buried car on Coastal Highway.
* [Survival] UI updates to clarify Encumbered and "buffed" carrying capacity states.
* [Survival] Loot updates to Pleasant Valley to reflect additional beautifications.
* [Both] Added numbering to Afflictions in the First Aid UI to make it easier to treat when there are multiple instances.
* [Both] Fixed some inconsistencies in UIs that presented "cancel" options where that functionality did not exist.
* [Wintermute] Added some failsafe logic to ensure the Old Bear doesn't get stuck and prevent completion of the Bear Hunt mission.
* [Both] Reduced Deer carcass quartering time to 60 minutes, to improve balance against Bear and Moose quartering times.
* [Wintermute] Modified aurora appearance timings after the player completes the Bear Hunt mission in Episode Two. Aurorae should appear more frequently now.
* [Both] Controller bumpers can now be used to toggle between Harvesting and Quartering interfaces.
* [Both] Fixed issue where lit Lantern would be dropped during a Struggle, and end up back in the player's Backpack without being extinguished, thereby using up all the fuel. Lit Lanterns will now be dropped in a Struggle.
* [Wintermute] Fixed issues where items returned from a Trust interaction might not appear correctly in the player's Backpack.
* [Both] Fixed issue where player camera would be inside the Bear mesh during carcass harvesting.
* [Wintermute] Fixed issue where player would take no damage when standing inside Grey Mother's fire.
* [Survival] Fixed an issue where a few tunables in Interloper were defaulting to Stalker settings. Interloper should be more challenging now, as a result.
* [Both] Fixed some bugs with the Struggle system which could sometimes result in the player losing control.


* Several UI audio elements fixed.
* [Wintermute] Fixed bug where lit Flare audio could carry into cinematics.
* Moved triggers for "night is coming" gameplay VO to ensure they happen before it gets dark at dusk.
* Modified frequency of exploration music in Timberwolf Mountain region.
* General audio fixes for Grey Mother's House (Milton). Post Office (Milton), and the Hunting Lodge (Broken Railroad Region)


* [Both] General navmesh updates.
* [Both] The game will now automatically detect Polish and Italian text based on system language settings.
* [Survival] Added more backer info to Cairns.

NOTE FOR LINUX USERS: Some Linux users may need to manually install SDL2. This can be done by running 'sudo apt-get install libsdl2-2.0-0' in your terminal

### End of Release Notes ###

The following is a note from our creative director, Raphael van Lierop.

*****

Hello everyone,

The team’s hard at work on finalizing the (still un-named) December update and with a bunch of new players joining us thanks to the Steam Autumn Sale, it seems like a good time to preview a few of the treats we have in store.


First off, you’re all waiting to hear more information about the Moose. The model, animation, audio, and core behaviour is all finished. We’ve populated the world with Moose -- it’s a pretty rare animal so don’t expect it to be easy to find -- and we’re now just tuning the AI behaviour and some of the Moose’s unique capabilities to make sure it feels balanced.



This guy does not look happy to see you.



Keep your eyes for these scratches on the tree bark; this might indicate Moose are in the area!

We’re excited to hear your stories about Moose encounters once we roll it out into Survival Mode. This is the first new animal we’ve been able to add to the game in quite a while, and it shares characteristics of both the Deer and the Bear, so...it makes for a pretty interesting creature. We have a new Affliction and a couple of new craftable Gear Items associated with the Moose, so on the whole this should add some interesting depth to your Survival Mode experience.

We have some other fun updates to Survival Mode coming in December, but I’d like to talk about a couple of things we’re doing for Story Mode in the December update.


A common piece of feedback we received after launching WINTERMUTE was that the first two episodes were far too easy for our experienced Survival Mode players. This made the introductory segments feel slow-paced and too “tutorial-y”, and yet these sames parts could be quite punishing for players who didn’t know anything about the game. It was challenging to balance Episode One for brand new players, and also players who had put 1000s of hours into the Sandbox, and we were reluctant to add the notion of “difficulty modes” for the Story experience, because we wanted everyone to share that experience the same way. Also, having multiple “difficulties” would create a ton of additional tuning and bug-fixing overhead for us while we were trying to finalize our first two Episodes, and we were nervous about taking that on in addition to all the other finaling tasks on our plates.

However, we really want everyone who plays WINTERMUTE -- new or veteran -- to have a great experience with this narrative mode, and we were sad to hear so many veteran survivors just didn’t enjoy Episode One as much due to the level of challenge, so in December we’ll be rolling out three new Experience Modes, specifically for WINTERMUTE. These loosely map to “difficulty”, and are similar to how we tune our Survival Mode Experiences, but to be clear, these are specifically tuned for WINTERMUTE (i.e. they are different from the Survival Mode experiences of Pilgrim, Voyageur, etc.).



Three new Experiences should provide a good range of choice for WINTERMUTE players, from the Greenest to the most Hardened survivors.

This should give both the newest, and most veteran player of The Long Dark, a little more control over the type of experience they have when playing WINTERMUTE. (Please note the new Experience Modes for WINTERMUTE will only work on games started *after* the December update.)


Another issue we encountered, post-launch, were challenges around our implementation of the Save system for WINTERMUTE. Unlike Survival Mode, which is Permadeath (i.e. once you die, we delete your game), WINTERMUTE has a two-slot save system. Saves were triggered using the Bedroll or resting in a Bed (as in Survival Mode), and also by Autosave (as in Survival Mode), but we found that this introduced too many restrictions for players, discouraged experimentation, and also often resulted in players getting “stuck” between two bad saves, sometimes in an irrecoverable situation. This was terrible for some people, and we feel really bad about it.

So with the December update, we’re rolling out a completely overhauled Save System for WINTERMUTE. You can now save pretty much anywhere, with between 20-25 save slots (depending on platform) shared between WINTERMUTE, Survival Mode, and Challenges. We also let you reload from an Autosave, or a Checkpoint (these are triggered by mission progress), so between those systems, we feel that players will have LOTS of choices in terms of how often or how rarely they want to save, and will have a much better chance to recover from a bad situation, or create their own “branches” when they want to experiment with different things in a given Episode.

For anyone that already has Saves for WINTERMUTE, this revision doesn’t change anything. You’ll find your existing saves in the list, and you should be able to create new saves using the revised system.

And to be 100% clear -- WE HAVE NOT CHANGED THE WAY SAVES WORK IN SURVIVAL MODE (or the Challenges). Both are still permadeath experiences.

In addition to Milton being playable in Survival Mode in December (mentioned in our October Dev Blog), we have some other cool stuff we haven’t shared yet - we still want you to be surprised! -- but hopefully this outline gives you a bit of a better idea of some of what you can look forward to in the December update.



Thanks for reading! We’re really excited to see how you like the December update, and to all the players who are joining us for the first time -- Welcome to the Quiet Apocalypse!

- Raphael

The following is a note from our creative director, Raphael van Lierop.

*****

Hello everyone,

The team’s hard at work on finalizing the (still un-named) December update and with a bunch of new players joining us thanks to the Steam Autumn Sale, it seems like a good time to preview a few of the treats we have in store.


First off, you’re all waiting to hear more information about the Moose. The model, animation, audio, and core behaviour is all finished. We’ve populated the world with Moose -- it’s a pretty rare animal so don’t expect it to be easy to find -- and we’re now just tuning the AI behaviour and some of the Moose’s unique capabilities to make sure it feels balanced.



This guy does not look happy to see you.



Keep your eyes for these scratches on the tree bark; this might indicate Moose are in the area!

We’re excited to hear your stories about Moose encounters once we roll it out into Survival Mode. This is the first new animal we’ve been able to add to the game in quite a while, and it shares characteristics of both the Deer and the Bear, so...it makes for a pretty interesting creature. We have a new Affliction and a couple of new craftable Gear Items associated with the Moose, so on the whole this should add some interesting depth to your Survival Mode experience.

We have some other fun updates to Survival Mode coming in December, but I’d like to talk about a couple of things we’re doing for Story Mode in the December update.


A common piece of feedback we received after launching WINTERMUTE was that the first two episodes were far too easy for our experienced Survival Mode players. This made the introductory segments feel slow-paced and too “tutorial-y”, and yet these sames parts could be quite punishing for players who didn’t know anything about the game. It was challenging to balance Episode One for brand new players, and also players who had put 1000s of hours into the Sandbox, and we were reluctant to add the notion of “difficulty modes” for the Story experience, because we wanted everyone to share that experience the same way. Also, having multiple “difficulties” would create a ton of additional tuning and bug-fixing overhead for us while we were trying to finalize our first two Episodes, and we were nervous about taking that on in addition to all the other finaling tasks on our plates.

However, we really want everyone who plays WINTERMUTE -- new or veteran -- to have a great experience with this narrative mode, and we were sad to hear so many veteran survivors just didn’t enjoy Episode One as much due to the level of challenge, so in December we’ll be rolling out three new Experience Modes, specifically for WINTERMUTE. These loosely map to “difficulty”, and are similar to how we tune our Survival Mode Experiences, but to be clear, these are specifically tuned for WINTERMUTE (i.e. they are different from the Survival Mode experiences of Pilgrim, Voyageur, etc.).



Three new Experiences should provide a good range of choice for WINTERMUTE players, from the Greenest to the most Hardened survivors.

This should give both the newest, and most veteran player of The Long Dark, a little more control over the type of experience they have when playing WINTERMUTE. (Please note the new Experience Modes for WINTERMUTE will only work on games started *after* the December update.)


Another issue we encountered, post-launch, were challenges around our implementation of the Save system for WINTERMUTE. Unlike Survival Mode, which is Permadeath (i.e. once you die, we delete your game), WINTERMUTE has a two-slot save system. Saves were triggered using the Bedroll or resting in a Bed (as in Survival Mode), and also by Autosave (as in Survival Mode), but we found that this introduced too many restrictions for players, discouraged experimentation, and also often resulted in players getting “stuck” between two bad saves, sometimes in an irrecoverable situation. This was terrible for some people, and we feel really bad about it.

So with the December update, we’re rolling out a completely overhauled Save System for WINTERMUTE. You can now save pretty much anywhere, with between 20-25 save slots (depending on platform) shared between WINTERMUTE, Survival Mode, and Challenges. We also let you reload from an Autosave, or a Checkpoint (these are triggered by mission progress), so between those systems, we feel that players will have LOTS of choices in terms of how often or how rarely they want to save, and will have a much better chance to recover from a bad situation, or create their own “branches” when they want to experiment with different things in a given Episode.

For anyone that already has Saves for WINTERMUTE, this revision doesn’t change anything. You’ll find your existing saves in the list, and you should be able to create new saves using the revised system.

And to be 100% clear -- WE HAVE NOT CHANGED THE WAY SAVES WORK IN SURVIVAL MODE (or the Challenges). Both are still permadeath experiences.

In addition to Milton being playable in Survival Mode in December (mentioned in our October Dev Blog), we have some other cool stuff we haven’t shared yet - we still want you to be surprised! -- but hopefully this outline gives you a bit of a better idea of some of what you can look forward to in the December update.



Thanks for reading! We’re really excited to see how you like the December update, and to all the players who are joining us for the first time -- Welcome to the Quiet Apocalypse!

- Raphael