THE LONG DARK -- ALPHA SANDBOX UPDATE v.163 -- RELEASE NOTES

***IMPORTANT*** This update invalidates save files from previous versions. If you do not wish to lose your in-progress game, please do not update.***IMPORTANT***

A NOTE ON TUNING & BALANCE

Gameplay tuning and game balance is always a Work in Progress. That's part of why the game is in Early Access. If you experience tuning or balance that you feel is incorrect, please share your feedback in the community forums. Keep in mind that there are vastly differing opinions on what the "correct" game balance is. We take all feedback into account, and consider it against our vision for how we want the game to play. Bugs can create unexpected and intentional issues that affect balance. We appreciate your patience as we address these, whenever they come up. On average we update 3-4 times between major updates to address any bugs or issues that arise. Whatever bugs or issues arise tend to not exist in the game for very long.

MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS

* Major overhaul on the Wolf Struggle system. The intention is to create more meaningful and discrete choice for the player. In the revised implementation, an attack without much strength build up (AKA "Light Attack") does very little damage but has a small chance of causing the Wolf to flee. Building up Strength, then releasing it will result in a "Strong Attack" that does much more damage. Damage scales on a curve, so that the more Strength you build up, the more damage it does, with a full strength attack doing significant damage. Button mashing will now have little effect.

* Major overhaul to Hunting. All wildlife now have location-specific damage. Only headshots are now one-shot kills. Injured animals will bleed, making it possible to track them. Depending on the injury, animals may eventually bleed out.

* New First Aid interface. This interface addresses general usability and player information issues, and is a model for future interface improvements. This is the first pass on the First Aid interface.

* Added Ice Fishing to the game. Players can now craft Fishing Hooks and Lines, and use tools to open up Ice Holes in the Fishing Huts. There are both Freshwater and Saltwater fish, all with different potential weight ranges.

* Major performance improvements. Most players should find a 25-30% improvement to frame-rate for all interior locations.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

* If left untreated, Food Poisoning will now degrade Condition to just before the point of death.
* Added 6 new Achievements.
* Widespread art improvements throughout the game.
* Added new ambient exploration music cues.
* The game now Saves after every Affliction.
* All Clothing items now have a Toughness rating that provides protection against Wolf Struggles.
* Clothing can now be damaged by: Wolf Struggle, Falling, Fire, and Very High Winds (Blizzards). Fire and Falling only damage clothing on Legs and Feet. Only the current exposed (Top) clothing layer is damaged.
* Players can now press ESC to interrupt all in-progress Harvesting, Repair, and Crafting actions.
* New icons have been added to the game.
* Running now generates a small Warmth bonus.
* Wolf flee times and distances have been reduced. Wolves fleeing from flares or struggles will now likely circle back and find you if you do not put some distance between you and them.
* Bandages are now stackable.
* Updated the Rifle model, texture, and reloading animations.
* Updated the coniferous Tree models to improve their look and shadow-casting properties.
* Tuned ankle sprains so they are more directly related to Falling and other navigation choices (i.e. less random).
* Increased the falling distance required to do damage trigger the chance of Sprains.
* All Container capacities have been retuned.
* Snares that catch Rabbits can now be re-used.
* Gut can now be Harvested from Wolf carcasses.
* Knife, Hatchet, and Prybar Struggle damage modifiers have been rebalanced due to updates to the Struggle system.
* Reduced min/max values for harvestable meat on a Wolf carcass.
* Added a Subtitles option to the Display settings. Subtitles default to "off".
* Fixed some two-door containers to be considered a single container for the purposes of searching and Supply capacity.
* Reduced the number of searchable containers in most of the Coastal houses.
* Replaced desk in Camp Office with Workbench.

BUG FIXING

* Fixed issue where players could fall out of the world from one of the Coastal houses.
* Fixed bug with Wood foraging where the time calculation would be based on the last type of fuel foraged, not the currently selected one.
* Fixed the Moon not sorting correctly with tree billboards.
* Fixed issue where some telephone poles in Coastal Highway did not have collision.
* Fixed issue where the wrong label was applied to melted snow/boiled water.
* Fixed issue where distance travelled was mislabeled in the Log
* Fixed issue where Inventory would sometimes incorrectly show [Wearing] for non-worn items.
* Fixed issue where Wolf audio would sometimes play on an endless loop.
* Fixed issue where some Food items could have a Condition of over 100%
* Fixed issue where individual Rifle rounds had the incorrect weight.
* Fixed issue where wildlife would occasionally get stuck in one place, disappear, or become locked in feeding animations.
* Fixed issue where the Bedroll would occasionally disappear when dropped.
* Fixed issue where Rabbit Meat Condition would not update when Cooked.
* Fixed issue where the game would soft-crash when players started a fire in the "transition" zone.
* Fixed issue where Cans that were opened but not fully eaten would lose their opened state.
* Fixed issue where ice-cracking audio would play after leaving the breakable area.
* Fixed issue where first person items might come back into view when putting back an item from inspect mode during a container search.
* Fixed issue where a first person item could come back into view during fade-out before sleeping.
* Fixed issue where the aim dot could be displayed while zoomed if you were crouching.

KNOWN ISSUES

* We are experiencing some issues with some new lighting effects rendering incorrectly on the Mac. As a result, we have temporarily removed the "god rays" lighting effect from all interiors (only on the Mac build). We are working on a fix for this and will update ASAP.

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