TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY
is the first paid content for THE LONG DARK since we launched on Steam Early Access back in 2014. Those of you who read my dev diaries or follow me or Hinterland on Twitter know we’ve been considering ways to create a more long-term sustainable model for ongoing Survival Mode improvements, and in my last dev diary I hinted at the form this might take. Since sharing that info, we’ve had more time to refine our thinking and planning, and so today I’m proud to be able to share the results.
But first -- the obligatory marketing blurb:
Deep along the spine of Great Bear tracks a steep mountain range that bisects the island.
This is the Far Range, an imposing wall of rock that stands vigilant over
Great Bear’s priceless resource riches.
Over the decades, many have tried, few have succeeded to crack open the wealth within these rocks. And mysteries abound. Dark stories told around campfires, about abandoned mines and remote airfields that hold many secrets.
Now, with the aurora blazing across the sky, is the Far Territory ready to surrender its stories? Will you survive long enough to wrest any truths from the rocky grasp of this old, dark territory?
Makes you feel cold just reading about it.
WHAT IS THE EXPANSION PASS?
The Far Territory is our first attempt to expand the world of Great Bear Island with something entirely new. To get there, you must take a long and treacherous journey along abandoned railway lines, tunnel systems, and caverns, to get to the hub region that then connects to three other large regions. We’ll be revealing this new part of Great Bear Island to you over the course of the 12-month Expansion Pass campaign. Some of the things you can expect to see added in TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY
include:
Three new Regions, connected by the long travel zones and hub region. The first of these Regions, “Forsaken Airfield”, and the travel zones all launch with the Expansion Pass. The other two Regions will be released over the course of the 12-month campaign.
Three Tales, narrative-themed Challenges that take place within your Survival game, each revealing insights into the Far Territory’s mysterious history.
New gameplay systems including: Handheld Shortwave, Travois, Safehouse Customization, Trader, Complex Recipes for Cooking, and new Item Variants. We’ll share more info about each of these features on the larger Expansion Pass site we’ll be launching closer to release.
20+ minutes of new Survival music (10+ minutes included in the first Drop).
And much more...
WHAT ABOUT FREE UPDATES?
In addition to the huge amount of new content and features going into the paid Expansion Pass, we will also continue making meaningful free updates with new systems, content, and improvements to the “base” Survival Mode, including:
Full global loot and wildlife refresh. We’ve redone all the loot tables, all the pre-placed loot, and rebalanced the loot economy across the entire game. The Resource refresh will go live for all players when the Expansion launches, and the full Wildlife refresh will come some time next year.
Visor Notes. You’ll be able to find notes under visors (and other locations) that point to supply caches and other useful things, hidden all over the world.
New First-Person animations. We’ve added a whole bunch of new animations for harvesting actions, and more.
Thermos. You know — to keep your drinks warm.
Visual enhancements (focused on high-end systems).
Burdock, a new edible plant.
Improvised Crampons, so you can make them yourself. Watch those ankles!
...and a range of enhancements to existing systems.
Please keep in mind these are just partial lists. We’ll share a more complete list as we approach launch, but this should give you a sense of the scope of the Expansion Pass, and some of the other things we’ll be doing to keep the game fresh for all our players.
All of these updates will be released in content “drops”, with our goal being to release a new Drop every 8-10 weeks. This cadence is pretty aggressive in comparison to how we’ve been updating the game since we started releasing Episodes, but with the major changes we made to the game’s structure, splitting Story and Survival into two separate games, and other pipeline and workflow improvements the team has implemented during the last year or so, we are in a much better place to deliver frequent, meaningful updates to Survival like we did in the earlier years of the project. And we’re very excited to be getting back to that!
We’ll be releasing a full roadmap for TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY
on our Expansion Pass site closer to launch, and we’ll share the link here, on our social channels, in the forums, and to our mailing list.
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY
will be priced at $19.99 USD at launch. (Your pricing might be different depending on where you are buying in the world, as we do our best to price sensitively accounting for the power of your local currency.) There will be a bundle option that lets you save a bit of money if you already own THE LONG DARK. At the midway point the price will go up by $5, to reflect that more of the content is available. At the end of the 12-month campaign, we’ll increase the price by $5 again, to $29.99. So, the best time to buy TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY
is at launch, but if you prefer to wait until the end of the campaign to see how all the content and features turned out, you can certainly do that! We won’t be “sunsetting” or “vaulting” the content afterwards, so your purchase will be protected over the long term.