The Long Dark -- Sandbox Update #21 (v.192) -- New "Pleasant Valley" Region! New Wildlife! Harvestable Plants!

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***NOTE: Save games from previous versions have been confirmed to work with the v.192 update.***
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Hello,

We're excited to share some details about our 21st update to The Long Dark's Sandbox. Our newest region, Pleasant Valley, is nearly 10 square kilometres of rural mountain valley featuring abandoned fields, farms, caves, surrounded by a vast wilderness.

Between Mystery Lake, Coastal Highway, and Pleasant Valley, the Sandbox is now nearly 20 square kilometres of playable space.

In addition to the new region and Mystery Wildlife (details to be updated once the first sightings are reported), this update adds Harvestable Plants (so players can produce their own first aid items), Torch Brandishing gameplay (used to scare off Wolves), improved Wildlife AI, and an entirely new Inventory interface!

Details in the Changelist Below!

Accessing Pleasant Valley & Region Unlocking

Pleasant Valley is accessed through the Coastal Highway region. Please note that for existing players, Pleasant Valley will only be unlocked in the Sandbox Menu after it has been discovered in the game. New players will first need to discover Coastal Highway before they can find Pleasant Valley.

General Note on Game Performance & Optimization

We've seen quite a few notes about people with high-end systems experiencing lower than expected performance in the game. We're continuing to work on optimizing the game world, but unfortunately some of the issues are related to how our core engine -- Unity -- was built, and how it utilizes multiple CPU cores for physics objects.

You'll notice that game performance is more dependent on CPU speed than GPU speed, which is why changing graphics settings has little effect on frame-rate (assuming you are CPU-limited).

We will continue our optimization efforts and work with Unity to find good solutions. We are hopeful that the upcoming Unity 5 will address these limitations, as the existing outdated physics engine is being replaced. We're also exploring our own ideas, the goal being to improve performance without sacrificing the size or detail of the world.

We appreciate your patience as we continue to work on this thorny technical challenge!

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The Long Dark -- Sandbox Alpha -- v.192 Changelist

MAJOR ADDITIONS

* New Region! Pleasant Valley. Nearly 10 square kilometres of rural mountain valley.
* New Mystery Wildlife! Keep your eyes open.
* Harvestable Plants. Collect Old Man's Beard Lichen, Rose Hips, and Reishi Mushrooms and craft natural remedies.
* Torch Brandishing. Craft Torches and Brandish them against Wolves. You might scare them off!
* Visual Inventory. Completely redone Inventory screen with improved navigation and embedded Repair and Harvesting actions.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

* General improvements to wildlife AI, to support better player decision-making about Fight or Flight response and clarify wildlife presence and intent.
* Predators are now attracted to the smell of Blood (bleeding wounds, raw meat, etc.) and will come investigate if within range.
* Scent is now affected by Wind speed and direction.
* All Beds now have a Warmth value displayed in the Rest interface.
* Bedrolls now lose Condition and must be maintained. It's possible to find multiple Bedrolls in the world.
* All fires now visualize their state (ignition, full burn, cooling off, coals) through flame, sparks, and smoke. Smoke also respects wind direction.
* Various new sounds, and many previous sounds have been replaced based on a new foley recording session.
* Many UI improvements throughout.
* Updated Silent Hunter and Pacifist achievements to clarify they need to happen in the first days of a game (not after many days have already passed).
* German and Russian translations have been fully updated.

BUGS FIXED

* Fixed Exploration achievement
* Achievements are not sent to Steam if player is dead.
* Fixed key binding issue with AltFire.
* Fixed discrepancy between time survived and time of day.
* Fixed scroll wheel issue on right side of container screen.
* Fixed issue when dying during a load scene fade
* Fixed issue with failing to Transfer All showing incorrect info on screen afterwards.
* Fixed issue with fishing huts sometimes not blocking wind
* Fixed issue with phone wires dropping at game start (physics)
* Fixed inaccessible Prepper Hatch bug
* Fixed issue where First Aid items were disabled if used, then use was cancelled, then the item was dropped
* Fixed issue where Log could show incorrect days in a new session after dying.
* Fixed errors in Calorie Burn amounts being displayed for Resting, Foraging, Ice Fishing and Harvesting
* Increased navmesh accuracy to address a variety of pathfinding issues
* Fixed issue with dropped items sometimes being inaccessible
* Fixed issue with campfire disappearing if cancelling out of creating a fire in a stove.
* Display correct Calorie Burn on the UI for activities when in Pilgrim and Stalker modes

### END OF CHANGELIST ###