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The Long Dark update doubles world size with new Coastal Highway

the long dark update coastal highway

The Long Dark just added a long road which made the game twice as large (and twice as long). The new Coastal Highway area’s not the only thing to come in the v.152 update, there’s also been changes to starvation, wolves will hunt you more the closer you are to death, and there are now rabbits.

Cute little rabbits you can devour.

While the new section is now playable Hinterland say it’s far from complete, “the availability of Supplies, the distribution and density of wildlife, distances between shelters, etc. are constantly being refined.” This will largely be decided based on feedback from the Early Access players.

It’s not just the new section that will be adjusted because this large new landmass affects the entire game. “The game is now being tuned around a larger Sandbox experience — this means that some Regions might be more suitable for certain activities, and Supply distribution is more regionalized.”

One of the most chilling changes in this update is all the changes to fatigue and the effect this has on The Long Dark’s residents. You can now suffer from long term starvation, meaning the longer you go hungry the faster you become exhausted. Eating a fistful of food won’t immediately undo these effects, instead you must keep yourself well fed for a long period of time for your fatigue levels to return to normal.

It’s also going to be harder to rest up. Wherever you lay your head, whether it’s a bed in a house or out in the forest, sleep can be interrupted. The frequency of this will be affected by the location of the bed.

Fatigue now ties into how much you can carry, too. So if you’re starving and tired you’ll have to drop equipment to keep moving.

And, because wolves can now sense when you’re weak and will become more aggressive to match, you’ll want to be moving a lot more.

Wildlife’s getting a good doing over in this update, too. So where animals spawn will change dynamically, meaning if you stay in one area for too long hunting the rabbit population you’ll need to move on as their numbers deplete.

The full change list can be found on the next page.

MAJOR CHANGES:

* New Sandbox region added: “Coastal Highway”. To travel to it, follow the railway in Mystery Lake (Dam side).

* Long-term Starvation now affects Fatigue. If you starve for too long, it becomes very difficult to avoid Exhaustion. The Fatigue increase due to Starvation is gradually reduced by not Starving. (Addresses the “Starvation Exploit”)

* Removed concept of Calorie Deficit.

* Added “Rate of Change” indicators on all Sub-Conditions. This should help highlight the impact of more serious situations on Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, and Cold.

* Fatigue now directly affects your Carrying capacity. Rather than a sudden capacity drop based on hitting the Exhausted threshold, we interpolate based on Fatigue level.

* There are now Rabbits in the game.

* You can now craft Snares at the Workbench. If placed in the world wherever you see Rabbits, there is a chance you will capture a Rabbit every 12 hours.

* All wildlife spawns are now more dynamic, and will change over the course of a game. Wolves, Deer, and Rabbits all refresh on different intervals, reflecting their relative mobility and travel/migration patterns.

* Wolves are now sensitive to player Condition. They will hunt you more aggressively if you are weak (ex. Exhausted, low Condition, etc.). This is something we are testing.

* The damage from player strikes in Wolf Struggles is now modified by the best Tool you have in your inventory, in this order: Knife, Hatchet, Prybar. The weapon is automatically selected, and the Struggle costs Tool condition.

* You can now select what type of Fuel Source you are looking for when Foraging Wood (i.e. it is no longer random).

* Added a 100% guaranteed Rifle spawn to Mystery Lake. Its location is randomized.

* Reduced daily Condition decay on all Tools and Clothing items. Reduced per-use Condition decay for all Tools. Tools should now last much longer, and will not decay when you don’t use them. Clothing should not decay nearly as quickly as before. (We’re still tuning the availability of Clothing items in the world, and this is something we’ll continue balancing based on feedback.)

* Reduced the frequency/availability of Tools in the world. Since they now last much longer, they have to be more rare.

* In general, reduced the Condition decay for all Food items. Increased the Calorie value of most Food items. Reduced the Calorie value for most types of Meat.

* Rest can now be interrupted regardless of Bed or location type. Every bed offers and location type offers a different degree of Rest benefit and chance of interruption. Uninterrupted Rest hours offer a bonus over interrupted Rest hours.

* Fatigue is now properly affected by inventory weight. The more you carry around, the more quickly you will become tired. (Note that Calorie Burn already takes inventory weight into account.)

* Reduced the general availability of First Aid items. They are now mainly found in appropriate First Aid containers.

* In general, reduced the availability of Supplies in the world. There was far too much Food and Clothing in random containers.

* Made very cold temperatures much more of a serious consideration.

* New audio for all new locations, container types, etc. Added a lot more variety for container searching audio, to avoid repetition.

MINOR CHANGES

* Every interior location now has a maximum inventory of Reclaimed Wood that can be Foraged.

* Wildlife will no longer spawn in a Blizzard.

* The Stag is more sensitive to the player’s presence.

* Tinder can now be harvested from Newsprint and Newsprint Rolls.

* Bandages can now be harvested from Cloth.

* Freshened up Supplies in all Mystery Lake locations.

* Footprints (player and wildlife) now last longer, but are affected by wind and weather conditions.

* It is now possible to find single Rifle Rounds in the world.

* Kerosene can now be used as an Accelerant.

* Added a few test Non-Potable water sources to the world.

* Footprints and blood drops are now persistent across Saves.

* General bug fixes and optimization.

BUG HIGHLIGHTS

* Fixed various issues related to carcasses freezing.

* Various fixes related to player movement.

* Fixed issue with harvesting Lanterns producing unlimited light.

* Fixed issue where cooking a partial stack of raw meat produced an unequal stack of cooked meat.

* Fixed weight capacity of Containers so they can be filled to full capacity now.

* Fixed issue where last Water Purification tablet in the stack would not purify water.

* Fixed issue with locked Safe not using the correct loot table.

* Fixed exploit where players could cause a feeding Wolf to despawn.

* Fixed issue with gear not decaying in Containers.

* Fixed issue where Inventory screen occasionally didn’t display all items in player inventory.

* Fixed issue where increase/decrease buttons were still active during Harvesting actions.

* Fixed issue where Toggle to Run would default back to Walk mode when opening the Options screen.

* Fixed issue where Burns would not heal themselves over time.

* Fixed issue where ear ringing wouldn’t stop after firing the Rifle in the Forestry Lookout.

* Fixed issue where menu dropdowns might be greyed out when they shouldn’t be.

* Fixed issue where sun position and weather would not update correctly during outdoor Harvesting/Rest intervals.

* Fixed bug where Encumbered warning would not always appear in the HUD.

* Fixed crash when player clicked Bedroll icon in survival panel when they did not have a Bedroll in inventory.