The Truly Sad Condition of this Game

[daenderman505]

Upon completing the entire 5k km of road that this game offers, I can say with at least 80% confidence that the developer has probably not done the same.

As I was going through my run, there were multiple occasions where my vehicle would randomly combust on calm, straight road with no loose cargo being held on the vehicle, multiple occasions where the road was simply too steep or terribly generated for safe passage of any vehicle, multiple instances where when trying to open a door ends up standing your character up inside the cabin, clipping him through the car and killing him instantly, and multiple times where buildings lagged the game's engine to the point of simulating a crash and turning my vehicle into a singularity. In addition to physics mishaps, the UI sometimes mysteriously disappears after saving, multiplayer is a laggy, shambling mess with inventories sloppily just glued to the outside of players and not even being hidden, and the rabbit pathfinding is probably the worst AI pathfinding I've ever witnessed in a game (and I've played bethesda games).

The gameplay, in conjunction, is not better at all. I originally chalked this up to this game being developed by a small team, or that it was never meant to be anything meaningful and just be relegated as a passion project, but it got absurd throughout the run. There are no stakes, and there is no reward (spoiler, I know.). There is only monotony, which I only got through because I thought there was something very special at the end of the 5k. There is no survival mechanic besides avoiding the rabbits, there is only driving through barren wasteland (horribly patchy and sometimes straight up perforated wasteland) and finding some fun little toys or sex dolls or whatnot along the way once you've upgraded your vehicle to max performance after 30 minutes of gameplay. The player model is warped beyond belief, nothing that should be easily accessible or free from game-breaking bugs (cough cough glove boxes and trailers cough cough) is free from game-breaking bugs or accessible. Long story short, in its current state, TLD is simply the most bare-bones, undeserving game I've ever played. It's more like an idea, or a model presented to beta-testers, than an actual playable game.

The last great atrocity is that event past the lack of workshop support, the updates take half a year to come out despite the shabby state of the game, literal hundreds of game-breaking bugs, it still costs money to buy. I bought this game for about $12 bucks, $4 more than I got IL2 BoS for (it was on sale, but still), which I am in actual disbelief about. This game is a meme, and I understand exactly why now; it does nothing to dispel the widespread stereotype that indie games are terribly made, cheap imitations of good ideas.

My last complaint is about the developer. TLDs definitely been more than 2-3 years in development, with what I can assume is the undivided attention of the developer, and yet he still does the cheeky thing some devs do where they put "added new bugs" in the update logs. I can understand if the dev is doing this in his offtime, and so doesn't devote his entire life to this game; I actually applaud that. What I'm irked about is the fact that he knows how broken this game is and purposefully adds shiny new distraction vehicles and "secret items" in his updates (which are also a disappointment, the magic genie lantern does absolutely nothing but light up) instead of working on the actual issues that make this game so incredibly tedious to play. The next update, in my opinion, should take as long as it needs to fix the broken road generation (this means removing the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ rocks that jumpscare you when they spawn 10 meters in front of you and fixing the max/min angle gradient they spawn with), the glitchy UI, the broken player model, the random vehicle exploding, rabbit pathfinding, physics optimization, real survival mechanics (food, water, rest), and AN ACTUAL MEANINGFUL ENDING.

In conclusion, don't buy this game. If you have bought it and are still able to return it, do so. Wait until the dev realizes what the real problems are and fixes them, at which point I would highly recommend this game. If you continue playing to try to reach the 5k mark, play observantly and note all of the bugs you come across, putting them in the bug reports discussion. This game needs to get better, and I have high hopes!

[EmmyDeerest]

Incredibly different opinion, here. Literally all the things you've complained about are my favorite parts of this game. I love how janky the game is, and if all the problems were ironed out I just wouldn't have fun. It's not your thing, which is entirely valid. I'm not sure how upfront the trailer is, as I got the game from word-of-mouth, if it's not obvious how janky the game is then the dev should definitely consider showcasing that in the trailer for the game.

[daenderman505]

yeah I used to think the jank was endearing at first, so I totally get you here. The thing is that it used to only be jank object physics, like bottles and tanks clipping through objects, which was somewhat manageable. As I got into the larger vehicles, like the truck and bus, I noticed bugs that would result in the entire car's structure morphing and tires turning into things that didn't look like tires. I'm all for the simple premise and look of the game, it just has way too many game-breaking bugs to justify both its price and its presence on Steam as a full game. oh, and there's no ending, the road just ends.

[Mister Jeff Man]

It is an early access game, the dev streams show they are at least aware of some of the jank. The thing about the road just ending, you could either drive all the way back, or I think the devs should add a house or something at the end.

I do look forward to multiplayer, but I think having one road for however many players will not end well.

[TamarLence]

I got this game mostly for the janky physics and the unusual game play. I am fully aware it is early access, but my issue is all my stuff just falling out of the car. I can no longer do a run without all my stuff disappearing or glitching out of my trunk. I'll just have to wait for a patch to smooth out a few things.

Originally posted by Mister Jeff man:

The thing about the road just ending, you could either drive all the way back, or I think the devs should add a house or something at the end.

I believe I saw a post from the dev saying that that they plan on making an end point, but it has not been added yet.

[postal.boy]

Originally posted by TamarLence:

I got this game mostly for the janky physics and the unusual game play. I am fully aware it is early access, but my issue is all my stuff just falling out of the car. I can no longer do a run without all my stuff disappearing or glitching out of my trunk. I'll just have to wait for a patch to smooth out a few things.

Originally posted by Mister Jeff man:

The thing about the road just ending, you could either drive all the way back, or I think the devs should add a house or something at the end.

I believe I saw a post from the dev saying that that they plan on making an end point, but it has not been added yet.

in the june stream i think it was gen who said he wanted to add moms house in 1.0 the first offical release

[™Steve154™]

How come you guys are saying this road ends. I started a new game and am now at mile marker 1859km with 2846 ltrs of diesel in a tanker trailer and 131ltrs diesel in the truck.
So how does the road end?
The only thing i can think of is you have turned around at some point and headed back to the start. i allways keep the power poles to the right-hand of the road.

[Igoreuss]

While the game is really buggy and these bugs sometimes are horribly annoying, the game is very relaxing at least imo, also bug fixes will come faser or later

[Foxtrekker]

There are definately some valid points here. After accumulating 5 jerry cans, barrels of supplies they all slipped out of my flatbed without my knowing going up and down some ridiculously steep hills. All the work i put in collecting that stuff was lost. Had i not gotten lucky and found enough to keep me going i would have had to reload and climb all those hills again hoping not to lose all that again lol.
So i'd so +1 for some mounting points or something so that you don't lose all your stuff. We can mount these arms and all these useless things but not the important ones ??

Also true about nothing at 5k. Should be at least something plus even maybe some rewards at every 1000 etc.

A little jankiness is fine as long as you can get your stuff back without too much trouble, but dying randomly and losing items can cost you hours of play time you can't get back.

[FourMore]

Originally posted by Foxtrekker:

dying randomly and losing items can cost you hours of play time you can't get back.

If you step out of your car the game autosaves. I stop at almost all buildings. Also if you have quarter full tank you are basically unstoppable. Also pull your handbrake so you don't have to run after your car down a hill.
You can store the most important items like rubber hose, binoculars in your inventory. (that is also janky af, but it works.)

[EmmyDeerest]

Originally posted by Foxtrekker:

There are definately some valid points here. After accumulating 5 jerry cans, barrels of supplies they all slipped out of my flatbed without my knowing going up and down some ridiculously steep hills. All the work i put in collecting that stuff was lost. Had i not gotten lucky and found enough to keep me going i would have had to reload and climb all those hills again hoping not to lose all that again lol.
So i'd so +1 for some mounting points or something so that you don't lose all your stuff. We can mount these arms and all these useless things but not the important ones ??

Also true about nothing at 5k. Should be at least something plus even maybe some rewards at every 1000 etc.

A little jankiness is fine as long as you can get your stuff back without too much trouble, but dying randomly and losing items can cost you hours of play time you can't get back.

This is actually what the recent update solved. The baskets that you usually stick to the back of a moped now freeze objects in place inside them after they settle. The one downside is when you reload, everything starts physical, so you need to make sure they're settled on your car in an intelligent way so they'll stay in the basket long enough to lock.

You can even shove barrels in the back of your car (standing upright) and put an upside down basket on the roof, so it "locks" in place from above. (Make sure it's at an angle so the corner of the barrel is inside the basket)

[TamarLence]

Originally posted by EmmyDeerest:

This is actually what the recent update solved. The baskets that you usually stick to the back of a moped now freeze objects in place inside them after they settle. The one downside is when you reload, everything starts physical, so you need to make sure they're settled on your car in an intelligent way so they'll stay in the basket long enough to lock.

I must have missed that in the updates. I'll have to give this a try, thank you for mentioning this!

[EmmyDeerest]

Originally posted by TamarLence:

Originally posted by EmmyDeerest:

This is actually what the recent update solved. The baskets that you usually stick to the back of a moped now freeze objects in place inside them after they settle. The one downside is when you reload, everything starts physical, so you need to make sure they're settled on your car in an intelligent way so they'll stay in the basket long enough to lock.

I must have missed that in the updates. I'll have to give this a try, thank you for mentioning this!

No problem! Honestly that was formerly the thing that regularly drove me away from the game, so the baskets really breathed new life in for me.

[Foxtrekker]

Originally posted by FerencCneref:

Originally posted by Foxtrekker:

dying randomly and losing items can cost you hours of play time you can't get back.

If you step out of your car the game autosaves. I stop at almost all buildings. Also if you have quarter full tank you are basically unstoppable. Also pull your handbrake so you don't have to run after your car down a hill.
You can store the most important items like rubber hose, binoculars in your inventory. (that is also janky af, but it works.)

Autosave wouldn't really do me any good in this case because i have no idea when all my stuff fell out and i wasn't really thinking it was going to fall out since i made it 1000 km just fine. I wasn't really wanting to keep trying to stop while crawling up a hill at under 20 kph and then slamming the brakes and parking brake at the same time to slow down after each peak lol.
I've never had a problem losing so much in the past, but now that this flatbread truck seems to have leaks i might have to rethink my options...

Add to that i think theres a bug with the autosave because my game keeps flashing every few minutes like it's trying to autosave in the truck even though it's turned off.

I appreciate the advice, but being a 4 time 5k veteran i thought i knew what i was doing lol. This current version it looks like i'm going to have to be extra careful though!

[Foxtrekker]

Originally posted by EmmyDeerest:

Originally posted by Foxtrekker:

There are definately some valid points here. After accumulating 5 jerry cans, barrels of supplies they all slipped out of my flatbed without my knowing going up and down some ridiculously steep hills. All the work i put in collecting that stuff was lost. Had i not gotten lucky and found enough to keep me going i would have had to reload and climb all those hills again hoping not to lose all that again lol.
So i'd so +1 for some mounting points or something so that you don't lose all your stuff. We can mount these arms and all these useless things but not the important ones ??

Also true about nothing at 5k. Should be at least something plus even maybe some rewards at every 1000 etc.

A little jankiness is fine as long as you can get your stuff back without too much trouble, but dying randomly and losing items can cost you hours of play time you can't get back.

This is actually what the recent update solved. The baskets that you usually stick to the back of a moped now freeze objects in place inside them after they settle. The one downside is when you reload, everything starts physical, so you need to make sure they're settled on your car in an intelligent way so they'll stay in the basket long enough to lock.

You can even shove barrels in the back of your car (standing upright) and put an upside down basket on the roof, so it "locks" in place from above. (Make sure it's at an angle so the corner of the barrel is inside the basket)

Are you saying that the baskets actually stick to the car surface or that they just freeze items inside them? I'm thinking the baskets will just slide out of my truck like everything else did.
I'll have to take a look at this though, thanks.

[meredith999]

i love it just dont hit small or mid size rocks im the middle of the road as they send u flying