PC V2.0 Storms Brewing Dev Diary

[HammerDano]

just a question....could someone tell us all what changes 2.1 and 2.2 are going to make to the storms? As a fan of the long dark...I like them, as they are...sorry...I don't think the end of the world gives a rat's ■■■ it inconvenienced me. but...I am medically retired...i love long games that take massive time. This conversation seems to be stuck, revolving around the 2.0 storms and they are already being adjusted.

 

[LittleNightma]

Why be afraid of complaints now?

And what's the loss if some people would still wait it out while doing nothing? At least those that might enjoy the challenge of being in a storm that restricts you but doesn't kill you would have an option.

Debuff stamina. Debuff health regen. Hell, turn on feral sense.
And it's not about stifling progression rate. I'm on day 20 something and I'm still using a stone axe. I don't care that much about progression.

100% support this. Give us a choice between finding shelter/looting or fighting the storm (and whatever may be in it). Make our vision blurry. Give us slowness. Make health and stamina slow as hell to regen. I don't expect to skip around in the rain and sing Taylor Swift, I expect to get somewhat punished for going out in an apocalyptic storm and that's okay. The point is that we are given a choice. Staying inside would remain more beneficial, but if someone gets caught out in the middle of nowhere they will at least have a fighting chance.

 

[Space4Ace]

just a question....could someone tell us all what changes 2.1 and 2.2 are going to make to the storms? As a fan of the long dark...I like them, as they are...sorry...I don't think the end of the world gives a rat's it inconvenienced me. but...I am medically retired...i love long games that take massive time. This conversation seems to be stuck, revolving around the 2.0 storms and they are already being adjusted.

Some changes were made in 2.1 Experimental. Check them out here:

Thread 'V2.1 EXP' https://community.thefunpimps.com/threads/v2-1-exp.43732/

 

[Dark Sun]

100% support this. Give us a choice between finding shelter/looting or fighting the storm (and whatever may be in it). Make our vision blurry. Give us slowness. Make health and stamina slow as hell to regen. I don't expect to skip around in the rain and sing Taylor Swift, I expect to get somewhat punished for going out in an apocalyptic storm and that's okay. The point is that we are given a choice. Staying inside would remain more beneficial, but if someone gets caught out in the middle of nowhere they will at least have a fighting chance.

This. Honestly, I would find challenges related to zombies to be more engaging and risk versus reward versus any form of debuff, though. Increase game stage during storms, turn on feral sense, make maybe ferals spawn even during the daytime, maybe reduce gun accuracy, make the handling on vehicles terrible (already implemented).

Post automatically merged: Jul 9, 2025

Edit: Although I suppose this is all more risk, heh.

 

[Outlaw_187]

I entered US Army Post 7 when the storm whipped up.

Seemed safe enough. Aye?

This freaking poi took me a day & a half to clear!! Now I am a lot rat so I take everything.
But wow, I know I must have killed at least 150 zombies. It was just a clear quest too....can't imagine the infested version

 

[Old Crow]

Please don't suggest an annoying lockpick minigame. That might be somewhat okay in a game where you're not picking locks very often, but in a game like this, where you pick locks in almost every POI, and sometimes many locks in a single POI, it just wouldn't be any fun at all. If it's optional, that would be fine, but I doubt they'd do that if they did add it. So we'd be stuck with either never doing lockpicking and just breaking everything open or else modding it.

Doesn't have to be a minigame. Just make it better than watching a timer MAYBE go down, or watching 10 lockpicks break instantly in a row with maxxed out lockpicking. Putting points into that perk should count for y'know.. picking locks.

 

[beerfly]

Doesn't have to be a minigame. Just make it better than watching a timer MAYBE go down, or watching 10 lockpicks break instantly in a row with maxxed out lockpicking. Putting points into that perk should count for y'know.. picking locks.

This one is honestly a one that is less talked about, but sure need some love. We have timed bombs, augers, iron and steel pick axes.

What I think about that is, there are many other games that offer such a thing and really there is not one of them that offer a real solution, because it is a a lock picking, can`t be too easy, can`t be too hard also.

Though, I think The Pimps gave us enough ways to get into that container and get the stuff, no matter how annoying it is sometimes and I quite like it.

You know, have a time to sip a beer, nom that stake that you cooked 2 ingame days and 16 screamer hordes ago, have a time for yourself at that time as in many other games in such situation

 

[Laz Man]

And a question: Is wilderness POI density the same in all biomes?

We can increase / decrease wilderness POI density per biome now via xml. Currently, i believe density is higher in every biome when compared to 1.x. even more so in the wasteland.

Regarding storms, we have reviewed alot of feedback and have some plans on how to improve the experience with them. Some of which sound similar to some of the suggestions I have read / seen from the community. Stay tuned.

 

[LittleNightma]

We can increase / decrease wilderness POI density per biome now via xml. Currently, i believe density is higher in every biome when compared to 1.x. even more so in the wasteland.

Regarding storms, we have reviewed alot of feedback and have some plans on how to improve the experience with them. Some of which sound similar to some of the suggestions I have read / seen from the community. Stay tuned.

Thank you guys so much

 

[Dark Sun]

We can increase / decrease wilderness POI density per biome now via xml. Currently, i believe density is higher in every biome when compared to 1.x. even more so in the wasteland.

Regarding storms, we have reviewed alot of feedback and have some plans on how to improve the experience with them. Some of which sound similar to some of the suggestions I have read / seen from the community. Stay tuned.

Thank you all so much for this. <3 I hope I'm not asking for too much, but I hope the biome progression challenges also get looked at in the future based on player feedback (in terms of making the whole "conquering a biome" aspect much more in-depth), but we shall see! I look forward to the upcoming development on storms, though!

 

[Outlaw_187]

I trust you all to keep making this the best survival game ever created or that is currently out there.
Sure, there are things I miss that were removed, things added I'm not crazy about, but in the end, this game is the

Keep up the great work Pimps!

 

[Roland]

Doesn't have to be a minigame. Just make it better than watching a timer MAYBE go down, or watching 10 lockpicks break instantly in a row with maxxed out lockpicking. Putting points into that perk should count for y'know.. picking locks.

People say, please no minigame but that really is the only way to improve it. Right now it is basically a die roll test and if you fail your pick breaks and all of that is hidden behind the timer. The only way to improve lock picking is to make it somewhat player skill with the perk making it easier to do which means...minigame. I haven't seen one suggestion for a better method that is not a minigame but I'd like to hear some.

In my opinion, a minigame can work if it is simple and fast and in part skill-based. So like a bar with a line that whizzes back and forth and a small green region that you have to click when the line is in it. Succeed lock picked, fail lockpick broken. Perks can slow the line and/or increase the region. Different locks can start out more difficult or less difficult. The most difficult could have multiple regions and lines that you must click perfectly for each one. Something like that is a minigame but is fast and even arguably faster than the current timer. If your pick breaks you know why. Perking up makes it easier to hit those regions each time. For those with physical limitations keep the timer as an option.

I know some will hate even this but then what is it exactly that you want that is better than essentially a D&D skill check on a timer? And I'm not sure why you don't see improvement with the perk. I see vast improvement at rank one. I usually stay at rank one for quite awhile especially once I can craft my own lockpicks.

 

[Dreyseth]

People say, please no minigame but that really is the only way to improve it. Right now it is basically a die roll test and if you fail your pick breaks and all of that is hidden behind the timer. The only way to improve lock picking is to make it somewhat player skill with the perk making it easier to do which means...minigame. I haven't seen one suggestion for a better method that is not a minigame but I'd like to hear some.

In my opinion, a minigame can work if it is simple and fast and in part skill-based. So like a bar with a line that whizzes back and forth and a small green region that you have to click when the line is in it. Succeed lock picked, fail lockpick broken. Perks can slow the line and/or increase the region. Different locks can start out more difficult or less difficult. The most difficult could have multiple regions and lines that you must click perfectly for each one. Something like that is a minigame but is fast and even arguably faster than the current timer. If your pick breaks you know why. Perking up makes it easier to hit those regions each time. For those with physical limitations keep the timer as an option.

I know some will hate even this but then what is it exactly that you want that is better than essentially a D&D skill check on a timer? And I'm not sure why you don't see improvement with the perk. I see vast improvement at rank one. I usually stay at rank one for quite awhile especially once I can craft my own lockpicks.

I think the main issue that people have with the current lock picking system is in its presentation; watching a timer counting down, showing apparent progress and then when almost successfully complete the lock pick breaks. With just a little bit further to go the player tries again and the pick instantly snaps. Again and again, the next 10 picks instantly break. It feels odd. The feedback doesn't help to convey how the outcome is determined; why it appears successful for the longest time, then consistent failure follows.

A more informative approach might be to have continuous odds for a pick breaking throughout the length of the timer. Maybe 10 "stops" or checks with equal chance for failure each time. Players would have a better chance to understand their picking skill level as they see picks breaking sooner or later in the countdown. This would help to gauge how many pics might be needed to complete the task.

If the current system was intended to represent the challenge of each tumbler of the lock, a new system could still mark or save progress at each tumbler stage regardless of how many checks are made to get there so that only the failed segment has to be replayed, retaining the progress from the previous "tumbler".

Harder locks could have longer timers and/or more checks. Higher picking skill levels would have better odds at each check.

 

[Roland]

I think the main issue that people have with the current lock picking system is in its presentation; watching a timer counting down, showing apparent progress and then when almost successfully complete the lock pick breaks. With just a little bit further to go the player tries again and the pick instantly snaps. Again and again, the next 10 picks instantly break. It feels odd. The feedback doesn't help to convey how the outcome is determined; why it appears successful for the longest time, then consistent failure follows.

A more informative approach might be to have continuous odds for a pick breaking throughout the length of the timer. Maybe 10 "stops" or checks with equal chance for failure each time. Players would have a better chance to understand their picking skill level as they see picks breaking sooner or later in the countdown. This would help to gauge how many pics might be needed to complete the task.

If the current system was intended to represent the challenge of each tumbler of the lock, a new system could still mark or save progress at each tumbler stage regardless of how many checks are made to get there so that only the failed segment has to be replayed, retaining the progress from the previous "tumbler".

Harder locks could have longer timers and/or more checks. Higher picking skill levels would have better odds at each check.

If all people want to see are the actual checkpoints then your suggestion is fine. It's still watching a timer and the pick might break on that last "tumbler" ten times. I don't see much of an improvement. Currently the timer doesn't go all the way back to the beginning but saves your progress at the last point where your pick broke. So a visual change while waiting for a timer to count down and picks breaking along the way is all that's needed?

 

[Riamus]

People say, please no minigame but that really is the only way to improve it. Right now it is basically a die roll test and if you fail your pick breaks and all of that is hidden behind the timer. The only way to improve lock picking is to make it somewhat player skill with the perk making it easier to do which means...minigame. I haven't seen one suggestion for a better method that is not a minigame but I'd like to hear some.

In my opinion, a minigame can work if it is simple and fast and in part skill-based. So like a bar with a line that whizzes back and forth and a small green region that you have to click when the line is in it. Succeed lock picked, fail lockpick broken. Perks can slow the line and/or increase the region. Different locks can start out more difficult or less difficult. The most difficult could have multiple regions and lines that you must click perfectly for each one. Something like that is a minigame but is fast and even arguably faster than the current timer. If your pick breaks you know why. Perking up makes it easier to hit those regions each time. For those with physical limitations keep the timer as an option.

I know some will hate even this but then what is it exactly that you want that is better than essentially a D&D skill check on a timer? And I'm not sure why you don't see improvement with the perk. I see vast improvement at rank one. I usually stay at rank one for quite awhile especially once I can craft my own lockpicks.

I would actually be fine with that kind of minigame as it can be done quickly even though it's skill based. It's the ones where you have to spend time trying to slowly rotate a lock just right or find the one small location where the pick won't break that I wouldn't want to see in this game with all the locks we see.

I think the biggest problem with the timer is that it resets each time to a few seconds even if you're almost complete. That makes it very frustrating for a lot of people. If it just continued where it left off, that would help. But it's also having the "dice roll" hidden so that you can't even tell what your chances were. If you max the perk and then get bad RNG and break 10 picks, it feels like the perk is useless. And at least in the past when I last used that perk, that did happen frequently. It makes you feel like there's no point to the perk because you're just left to RNG anyhow. Obviously, if it does improve the odds, it's worth it, but it's hard for that to seem like it's working with it being hidden. If it were instead a dice roll (think BG3) and showed your odds (20% = 17-20 works, 40% = 14-20 works, etc.) and then you see the roll, it at least lets you see that there are improved odds even if you get multiple bad rolls in a row. But I'm not sure that showing dice rolls would fit with this game. But it would at least feel better, I think.

But I'd be good with your suggestion, so long as it isn't too fast or too small an area when not perked. It shouldn't become an issue where people with poor reflexes or hand-eye coordination can't do it at all.

One other option is to keep things as they are, but increase your chances of success with each failure for the current lock. So maybe it's 30% to start without points in lockpicking, but each failure increase the odds by 5-10% (whatever works well). That will at least get rid of the 20+ lockpicks broken on a single lock that happens far too often.

 

[Fisher]

People say, please no minigame but that really is the only way to improve it. Right now it is basically a die roll test and if you fail your pick breaks and all of that is hidden behind the timer. The only way to improve lock picking is to make it somewhat player skill with the perk making it easier to do which means...minigame. I haven't seen one suggestion for a better method that is not a minigame but I'd like to hear some.

The most annoying thing about the entire lockpick system is the reset of the timer. Here's a simple solution as an example:

It currently resets to 4.5 on difficult locks. How about adjusting the reset time based on skills in lockpicking. 1 skill point, resets it to 2.5. 2 skill points resets it to 1.5. 3 skill points doesn't reset the timer at all and continues from where the lockpick broke.

It is so frustrating to see that timer reset each time.

 

[Roland]

I just plan on the cost being 15-20 lockpicks and always keep 20 on me. When it's less it feels good. When you get those rare times where you unlock it with one lockpick it's fist pumping time! I guess it's the expectations that people have that it should be able to always be done with 1-5 lockpicks so they're mad when it's more. I expect 15ish and am happy when it's less.

But I'm all for a visual change or skill-based change or an improving odds with each break change....whatever. It isn't a major issue to me. People who are driven crazy by it can drink the potion.

 

[NiteVIper]

Usually, as soon as I can craft them, I always carry a full stack with me. And usually end up finding them on every shelf after that lol. So the ones I find, I save them up and sell a stack to the trader and put other stacks in my vending machine.

 

[Riamus]

The frustration comes when you go into a POI that has multiple locked safes and chests and even if you bring a full stack of lockpicks, you run out before you even reach the loot room. And then you're stuck with either hacking away at the locked chest(s) or else leaving the loot. And it can take a long time to hack away at the larger ones. Once I have an auger, I don't really care because it's fast to break into them. Otherwise, I'm often hitting them with a wrench/ratchet/impact driver because those tend to do more damage per hit than other things (I never have a high level pickaxe). It works, but it's still time consuming. If I could be sure I'd get through any POI and open all the locked safes and chests without running out if I start with a full stack of lockpicks, it wouldn't really bother me at all. But changes to it could improve things as well.

 

[EvilPolygons]

We can increase / decrease wilderness POI density per biome now via xml. Currently, i believe density is higher in every biome when compared to 1.x. even more so in the wasteland.

Regarding storms, we have reviewed alot of feedback and have some plans on how to improve the experience with them. Some of which sound similar to some of the suggestions I have read / seen from the community. Stay tuned.

Hopefully your plans include ways to mitigate storm damage instead of getting rid of storm damage altogether.

Storms should be lethal to the unwary, careless, or unprepared. But there should be some kind of gear or consumable that reduces storm damage to manageable levels. Mitigation, not negation!

@meganoth recently suggested keeping biome smoothies useful (even after you've gotten the biome badge) by allowing the smoothies to lower storm damage by a considerable amount. I hate smoothies -- and wish we'd gotten proper gear/items instead of magical potions -- but that would be an excellent way to keep them relevant throughout the game.