You Never Forget Your Many Deaths

[Drifter Man]

3 hours ago, stapeliad said:

I died once while making deerskin pants.

Another way to die!

[Drifter Man]

On 4/11/2016 at 3:28 AM, Vhalkyrie said:

I've found that maintaining the scarf and heavy sweater are worth keeping, as suggested, and the rest can be scuttled if you're in a bind for cloth.

Actually, since the Sandbox Roadmap was posted with the frostbite affliction in it, I've had second thoughts about this recommendation. It may be a good idea to keep some of these fast-degrading clothes in a container somewhere, in case they are needed after a future update. I brought a toque and a pair of socks from Coastal Highway, just to be sure.

[Vhalkyrie]

6 hours ago, stapeliad said:

I have also died of food poisoning from a granola bar, ironically while trying not to starve to death.

Death by Granola Ebola - that's TLD life  

[Vhalkyrie]

3 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Actually, since the Sandbox Roadmap was posted with the frostbite affliction in it, I've had second thoughts about this recommendation.

I'm curious about that frostbite affliction.  How will it be different than hypothermia?  Frostbite usually occurs due to exposure or inadequate protection on an extremity, like not wearing gloves or shoes.  Wonder if you'll get frostbite if you walk outside without wearing shoes (which I have done on occasion when forgetting to get dressed before going outside - lol!).  The wolf coat technically seems to have a hood on it.

I keep one of each clothing item.  I just wish that darn hat wasn't so darn cheap.  I have a wool skiing hat that I've had for almost 10 years.  The only thing that is missing is the little poof ball on the top, which my cat tore off and chewed up long ago.  However, the rest of the hat is still in perfect condition!

[Drifter Man]

I'm curious, too... And I want to be ready for whatever Hinterland throws at us 

[Vhalkyrie]

I moved out of Trapper's and into Camp Office in my laptop game.  The bear isn't there at the Lake.  I saw a bear at the Clear Cut, and that's a terrible place for bear hunting.

Just like the dozens of other times I've moved into the Camp Office, I remark at how perfect it would be to live there.  2 stoves, plenty of containers and open shelving for storage, and a workbench.  And yet, I cannot co-exist with the wolves.  There's a massacre outside the door and on the Lake.  I simply suck at stealthing past wolves.  They always pop out just around the bend or corner.  There's a nasty choke point between the Lake and the rabbit run where I always get caught.

Since there isn't a bear for me to hunt, there's no need for me to stay at the Camp Office.  I'm in progress moving supplies to the Dam.  This game wasn't my cleanest for dispatching Fluffy.  I walked inside the Dam, and ran into her in the corridor to the lower level.  I shot her with the arrow, but she didn't die.  So I had a wounded Fluffy with an arrow sticking in her head on the loose.  I proceeded to organize my supplies, and heard her whimpering and yelping every once in a while.  Finally heard her die.  I returned to the Camp Office for another load, and returned.  I went looking for her corpse, but couldn't find it.  Not even 24 hours had passed, and she simply vanished with my arrow.  She was inside the Dam with nowhere to go, so this isn't a case of tracking blood and not being able to find the body.  I had this happen with a bear before, but that could have been chalked up to me just not finding the body.  The body had nowhere else to go, and Fluffy simply vanished.  I'm not sure what triggered it, but I am now convinced that corpses that disappear isn't always a matter of not looking in the right place.  Sometimes, it might have actually disappeared before it was supposed to.

[Drifter Man]

The same thing with Fluffy happened to me and I've seen it reported at least twice more around here. When you leave the Dam after killing Fluffy, the carcass disappears.

Your arrow should be there, though, on the floor...

[Vhalkyrie]

I'm going to be taking a break from TLD until the new updates are in.  I've started playing Subnautica, which is an undersea survival/exploration game.  Turning in my wolf coat for a diving suit for a while.  I'll be back with new stories with the new updates! Hope it won't be too long, and see you soon!

[Drifter Man]

Hope to see you back soon! Enjoy the underwater world - and don't drown there

[Vhalkyrie]

I see there's a new update!!!  Unfortunately, I am travelling again on Friday. I'm super bummed that I won't be able to check out the new changes!  I can't wait to get home to try it out!

These items in particular have me dancing with joy!

* Removed decay from Matches.
* Added various rope climbs and climbing anchor points across all regions (including access to a couple of previously inaccessible areas).
* Added rope gear spawns into a few locations (also made available in older saves).
* New! The game now supports Steam Cloud Saves for Windows, Mac and Linux. This means that you can continue to play your saved games across multiple systems (provided you are using the same Steam account).

Rope climbing in all regions?  OMG YES!  This has me written all over it!

[TheRealNFK]

I'm going to fire up a new save and try the two new modes Hopeless Rescue and Hunted, Part One (or as I like to call it, my own personal version of The Edge).

[Vhalkyrie]

3 minutes ago, TheRealNFK said:

I'm going to fire up a new save and try the two new modes Hopeless Rescue and Hunted, Part One (or as I like to call it, my own personal version of The Edge).

I've never seen that.  Maybe I'll see if I can snag a copy while I travel so I can get prepped for The Hunted - lol!

[TheRealNFK]

4 minutes ago, Vhalkyrie said:

I've never seen that.  Maybe I'll see if I can snag a copy while I travel so I can get prepped for The Hunted - lol!

Do it! I caught it the other day on cable and it is a good movie to get yourself psyched up for a TLD session.

[Drifter Man]

23 hours ago, Vhalkyrie said:

These items in particular have me dancing with joy!

* Removed decay from Matches

I thought you were excited about the Matchless Day

[Vhalkyrie]

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I thought you were excited about the Matchless Day

Haha well that is a personal challenge for another day  when I get back to my game I'll show you how close I came!

[Vhalkyrie]

I'm back home and trying out the new patch. First thing is to load a separate sandbox game and test out parasites, cabin fever, and wolf/bear management.  Then I will see how I do on TWM with these changes.  If all goes well, I'll be looking for those new rope sites.

[Drifter Man]

Great, I'm already looking forward to your findings! Some very interesting changes have taken place.

[Vhalkyrie]

v.327 Parasites and Wolves

I loaded a separate parked sandbox game that I previously used to quickly test out wolf and bear behavior.  That behavior has now changed, but this sandbox is ideal to test out the new changes without risk to my 225+ 'main' character.  I already had a rifle, bullets, and a locker full of bear meat.

This game only had wolf and bear meat stored, plus canned goods, which was perfect.  Since I had a lot of bear meat, it seemed ideal to check out parasitic infection first.  The first thing I did was kill a couple of deer and stored them as safe food to eat while I infected myself with parasites.

Fun times.

While hunting deer, I noticed they made some improvements to the blood effects.  When I shot the deer, it left a very large blood splatter on the ground which eliminated the question, "Did I hit it?"

I knew that they already hotfixed parasites from a 10 day infection down to 5 days on Voyager.  And 2 doses are needed or 1 mushroom tea per day.  I had all required medicines.  I had enough for 4 teas and the last dose would be the antibiotics.

I didn't know how bad the infection would be, so I prepared expecting for the worst like it was hypothermia.  I cooked enough deer meat and firewood for 5 days of treatment in case I would be locked indoors.

Finally, I took the plunge.  I ate my first bear meat raw.  To my surprise, I only got a warning for a 75% "parasite risk".  Ok.  So the first piece of raw bear meat didn't give me parasites.  I began chowing down on my cooked bear meat.  I got to 93% parasite risk, but no parasites.  I was too full to eat any more, so I had to go chop firewood to get hungry.  I came back and ate enough for 100% parasite risk.  Still no parasites.  Hmmm...

I took one more bite and finally got the affliction.  I'm not sure if you have to eat beyond the 100% risk, or if there was supposed to be some time delay.  If you get a blood infection risk from an untreated wolf bite, then it can turn into an infection sometime later.  I'm not sure if that's what supposed to happen with parasites, or if I got some extremely weird Vegas luck rolling the RNG.  

So now I was infected.  Yay?

I went outside and continued to collect sticks and firewood.  Still didn't know how bad this was going to be, so I tried to collect a lot of resources in case I was homebound for the last days.  In the process of doing so, I noticed a few changes around the Mystery Lake Camp Office and wolf behavior.

I don't know if they moved the wolf spawns, or if it's random, but the wolf that used to hound me near the Camp Office is gone.  I was able to come and go without running into a wolf at the doors.  I also walked from the Office to the Lake Cabins without getting hassled.  If it's not a fluke, then this suddenly addresses my grievances with the Camp Office and makes it an extremely attractive place to live.

In its place, though, I found a wolf wandering around the back side of the Lake Cabins.  I slinked off before it could spot me.

I found another wolf - rather, it found me - near one of my favorite firewood/stick gathering zones near the Camp Office.  The new "curiousity" wolf behavior is indeed "curious".  Once it growled and approached me just like the v.302 behavior, which gave me plenty of time to run away (diseased, I am not ready to check torch/flare behavior).  Another time it spotted me and ran full charge with no warning what-so-ever.  I also ran full charge into the Camp Office, probably just escaping by milliseconds.  A third time, it ran off yelping.  A fourth time while out on the Lake, one seemed to be approaching me in a 'curious' state.  It seemed to be stalking me, but hadn't decided what to do.  I didn't give it a chance to decide, and booked it into the Office.  So wolf behavior is very, very random.  I have no idea how I'm going to deal with this.

The parasitic infection itself seems to be pretty mild.  Staying well fed and hydrated, I only lost 2% condition per day and ended at 90% condition on final treatment day.  Hypothermia, food poisoning, and blood infection are far, far more deadly.  The main issue with parasites is that it will eat up your antibiotic supply.  This is the part I object to the most.  I'm all in favor of the suggestions for birch tea, which is an actual real world remedy for worms.  The antibiotic treatment is immersion breaking, and surpasses my suspension of disbelief.

An interesting side effect of the parasitic infection is that it is safe to eat the infected food while taking treatment.  While I was treating the worms, I ate my bear and wolf meat supply with no ill effects.  This will probably be changed in the future, but for now, if you must eat carnivore meat, and you have the parasite affliction, go ahead and eat the rest of your tainted food while you take the treatment.

I like that the stored, cooked food no longer deteriorates at sub-light speeds.  The cooked meat seems to act more preserved like jerky, which is way more believable for the region and climate.  I like this change.

I dislike the new (fire)brands.  They give off almost no light, and are environment trash when they reach zero condition because they don't decay, and they can't be broken down into sticks like torches.  Useless.

The new Rest mechanic is weird.  I am usually exhausted or near exhausted when I go out chopping wood and collecting sticks by the time "2 hours til darkness" rolls around.  I tried to go to sleep at 8-10 hours until daylight.  However, most of the time I ended up waking up at "2-4 hours til daylight".  I boiled water during this time until dawn, but it doesn't feel natural.  It's interrupting my game flow, and I just don't see the purpose.

The graphics update is absolutely stunning.  I play the game on Ultra setting.  They turned an already pretty game into something glorious.  The footprints in the snow and the glowing edges on the snow at night are beautiful.

I did not checkout the "Cabin Fever" affliction because my experimental sandbox character is only 30 days, and there is a 50 day grace period.  Cabin Fever is also going to be particularly difficult for me to reproduce in-game because I am always outside collecting sticks on a daily basis.  It may be easiest for me to try this with my TWM character and move back to the Farmhouse temporarily.  I always got my own personal version of Cabin Fever there anyway.  I was worried about the original Cabin Fever implementation, but since they changed it to consecutive 6 days indoors, this is something I should never see in my normal games.  But this is what we shall find out.  The Farmhouse seems the most likely place where I would expect to see this with my normal playstyle as I always got stuck indoors during the long blizzards.  I can will it to happen there pretty easily.

[Vhalkyrie]

This isn't all of my matches (I have more stored in a bunker on PV), but I promised to show how close some of my matches were to decaying before the v.327 patch.  

I was trying to burn up the red matches by making water, but I definitely would have lost these in v.302.

[FromAfar2016]

Quote

I took one more bite and finally got the affliction.  I'm not sure if you have to eat beyond the 100% risk, or if there was supposed to be some time delay. 

I did a similar experiment in a voyager game once the patch had been released, and I managed to contract it after three days of just eating enough cooked wolf meat to maintain a 9% risk.  So it is random, and I just had bad luck and you had very 'good' luck! 

 

PS:  I love reading your posts here!  Thanks for putting in all of this time to share your experiences here

[Vhalkyrie]

Wolves, Oh My!

I loaded my main game in TWM.  I took a quick look around, and nothing of note has changed.  The wolf, deer and rabbits are still in the same place.  The ice lake has had a texture upgrade, but everything else is as it was.  I headed towards the PV Farmhouse.

On the way there, I noted that the Burned Ridge Cave had a makeover.  They added boulders and rocks.  Unfortunately, they buried a sleeping bag and water that I left in the cave.  Oh well - cave-in I guess.

They also changed the terrain and cut off my route down to the Draft Dodger's Cabin.  I navigated an alternate route down.  I later found my first Mountaineer's Rope on the PV map to climb back up - woohoo!

The spawns around the PV Farmhouse have changed.  I couldn't find the rabbits that I normally trap.  And *four* wolves spawned in the orchard.   Those 4 black dots in the middle are wolves.

I scooted around them and snuck into the Farmhouse.  The only thing of value left in there are 9 wolf pelts.  Since wolf hunting is slightly more complicated now, I came back for my reserve pile.  I was going to test out the Cabin Fever affliction here, but with the wolf pack and the missing rabbits, I'm thinking its not a good idea.  I should be able to test the Cabin Fever from my PV bunker location instead.

As I exited the Farmhouse out the front porch, I ran into a bear!  I ran back into the covered porch just as it got up on its hind legs.  I continued to watch it from the safety of the windows.  I got a good look at the new bear texture and animation.

Once it waddled off, I snuck out the back and followed the river to Draft Dodger's Cabin.  I parked there until I can get back to it after work.  My next step is to return to TWM to stock up on rabbit and fish for 7 days.  Then I will hunker down in the bunker to give myself Cabin Fever.

To cure myself of Cabin Fever, I will first check whether sleeping in the Mountaineer's Hut counts as "outdoors".  This should be no.  After checking that this doesn't work (expected behavior), I will head towards one of the rope climbing ledges and sleep under the stars.  Since all items in the world now decay, I might as well open up some of those cargo containers I was saving and bring them back to the bunker.

[hauteecolerider]

Sounds like a plan! Do let us know what you find out!

[Drifter Man]

Thanks for putting your life on the line and checking the new afflictions.

You mentioned you didn't see the purpose of the new sleep system. I think they want to prevent hibernation as a method to save calories, although I can't see anything wrong with it - you should be able to rest and do nothing whenever you want. The right way to prevent hibernation (if we want to do that at all) is, in my opinion, to make starvation generally un-workable. If people have to scramble for food every day, they won't have the time to hibernate.

I like the new brands - but I have reservations about the persistence of useless ruined items in the world. Brands are especially difficult in this respect because you can't even pick them and carry them out of the house, for instance.

About your matches, you still had about 90-100 days left in them  But maybe your trip away and the lack of Steam cloud saves have just saved you from matchlessness?

[Vhalkyrie]

8 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

You mentioned you didn't see the purpose of the new sleep system. I think they want to prevent hibernation as a method to save calories, although I can't see anything wrong with it - you should be able to rest and do nothing whenever you want. The right way to prevent hibernation (if we want to do that at all) is, in my opinion, to make starvation generally un-workable. If people have to scramble for food every day, they won't have the time to hibernate.

Yeah, exactly.  If the purpose is to prevent hibernation, this is the wrong way to do it.  Calorie restriction/starvation is still alive and well.  All the hibernators have to do is hibernate/starve for 6 days, sleep outside for 24 hours, then go back to hibernating.  At least, that's what I think will happen.  I'll let you know when I try out the Cabin Fever affliction.

I don't like how this disrupts the flow of my game time.  That's what I mean by not seeing the purpose.  It's a penalty that doesn't harm those who are abusing the system, but it does inconvenience the legit players.  No purpose.

8 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

I like the new brands - but I have reservations about the persistence of useless ruined items in the world. Brands are especially difficult in this respect because you can't even pick them and carry them out of the house, for instance.

Right on that point again.  I won't use them for as long as they persist forever.  I'm using more lantern fuel as a result.

8 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

About your matches, you still had about 90-100 days left in them  But maybe your trip away and the lack of Steam cloud saves have just saved you from matchlessness?

Haha - yep!  My recent travel also saved me from Day 1 patch funkiness.  

[Drifter Man]

3 hours ago, Vhalkyrie said:

Haha - yep!  My recent travel also saved me from Day 1 patch funkiness.