What was your biggest mistake when you discovered TLD?

[Vhalkyrie]

11 hours ago, Girlybits said:

... only I huddled a little too close and didn't realize I was burning to death.   So I burned to death, in the freezing cold, in the middle of a blizzard.  Epic fails.

Oh my... Now that is one death I haven't done! I have been burned, but I didn't know you could burn to death!

[Jolan]

New biggest mistake for me!  It turns out you can harvest sticks for tinder plugs.  d'oh!  I think not realizing that might have resulted in oh, 10 or 12 deaths.

 

[Pillock]

Spoiler! This concerns a newly created area, made accessible in the Tireless Menace update. Spoiler!

I haven't just discovered The Long Dark - I have coming up to 400 hours of experience in the game - so this sorry tale might be out of place in this thread. But it is nevertheless a very stupid way to die.

 

Spoiler

So there's this new rope anchor point that leads down into the ravine basin - you need to find a rope first, but that's not difficult in Mystery Lake. It's a cool area, and I found some really special kit down there.

HOWEVER!

Do NOT go down there without a bedroll, as I have just done.

My character is too tired to climb the mother-loving rope back out again. As soon as I set foot on the bottom of the rope climb, I realised what I'd done.

I drank 4 cups of coffee before my first attempt back up, but it wasn't enough: I started to slip after reaching exhaustion, and gently lowered myself down again. I tried using my emergency stim, but that wasn't enough, either (I have 3 more of them stored in the dam, but did I bring them with me? Guess). In desperation I continued the climb, knowing that there was no other option. But I fell.

I am now severely injured - single-figures condition - and trapped in the bottom of the ravine. There is no way out. I can heal my injuries, eat and stay warm, but I will die of exhaustion. I cannot rest, and I have no more stimulants. I don't know how long it takes to die of exhaustion - in a way I'm quite relieved that I'm so badly injured from the fall.

There is no way out except back up the rope. And I cannot do it.

Two months I'd survived, happily at the lake; I was well supplied and comfortable. Too comfortable. The wanderlust caught me, and I felt the urge to explore.

I feel so stupid.

The thing is, I bet the developers knew that this would happen - they designed it to happen like this, even. The swines. If anyone from the team reads this: Thank you. Have a good laugh on me.

 

 

[markwars1972]

The dumbest mistake I ever made was about 5 minutes into my first ever run.  I spawned really close to a dead guy with a knife laying next to him.  I picked up the knife and walked a short distance to a deer carcass and thought wow, food already.  When I tried to harvest the meat from the deer I had no idea what I was doing buttonswise and ended up harvesting my knife...lol.  That character obviously didn't make it very long.

[Dinhammer]

5 hours ago, Pillock said:

I haven't just discovered The Long Dark - I have coming up to 400 hours of experience in the game - so this sorry tale might be out of place in this thread. But it is nevertheless a very stupid way to die.

Stupid?  Nah.  I do think your situation takes the prize as the most frustrating way to die I've seen so far, though.  What a bummer!

If I had that much time invested in a playthrough, I'd definitely park it and wait for further updates.  Maybe when the primitive shelters come out, you'll be able to recover with no bedroll.  Or something.

[Patrick Carlson]

6 hours ago, Pillock said:

Spoiler! This concerns a newly created area, made accessible in the Tireless Menace update. Spoiler!

I haven't just discovered The Long Dark - I have coming up to 400 hours of experience in the game - so this sorry tale might be out of place in this thread. But it is nevertheless a very stupid way to die.

 

Hidden Content

 

No one's laughing at you! But we appreciate you sharing your story. As I'm sure you know well, we've all been there, especially when it comes to >>that one time<< you leave your bedroll behind. It's almost always the case that you end up needing it more than ever. 

[Pillock]

Just now, Patrick Carlson said:

No one's laughing at you! But we appreciate you sharing your story. As I'm sure you know well, we've all been there, especially when it comes to >>that one time<< you leave your bedroll behind. It's almost always the case that you end up needing it more than ever. 

I was laughing. I'd had it so easy up to that point, then BAM - dead. But that's what I like about this game!

I've got into the habit of leaving my bedroll behind if I'm only going on short trips... complacency is what kills me more often that anything else.

It was a funny way to go: standing at the bottom of a rope looking up, perfectly healthy but knowing with complete certainty that I was going to die. But it was also funny because whoever designed that new area obviously did so with that outcome in mind. And I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

[Felli]

I've done most of these things, including the 'leaving your bedroll at home'. I think my biggest mistake when I first started was to ignore everything I was taught as a child in remote Northweatern Ontario...

If you see a bear, get the hell away from it. Back up, move away and generally put as much road between you and Smokey as possible. That being said, What do I do? 

I ran thought I'd shoot it in the head, it was such an easy target. Lesson number two: Bears have incredibly thick skulls.

One terrible mauling and lack of a bedroll meant I died swiftly and painfully. Should have listened to my gut (And Mom's common sense) on that one. ^^"

[RJ_Dalton]

I think my biggest mistake is forgetting to take my sleeping bag with me when I go somewhere that's going to keep me away from my current base for a night.  I usually put the sleeping bag in a storage unit when I settle in a base because it's heavy.  And then I forget about it.

I don't know how many times I've gotten to the dam in Mystery Lake, nearly exhausted, only to realize I'd forgotten my sleeping bag.  That's frustrating as hell.

[Ruruwawa]

On 4/29/2016 at 8:09 AM, Pillock said:

Spoiler! This concerns a newly created area, made accessible in the Tireless Menace update. Spoiler!

I haven't just discovered The Long Dark - I have coming up to 400 hours of experience in the game - so this sorry tale might be out of place in this thread. But it is nevertheless a very stupid way to die.

Quite an exciting story!

A similar "complacency" mistake ended a lovely long run for me recently.   I'd been living in the Ravine forever, and crossed the zigzig on train trestle many times.  So I thought to myself, "I wonder if I can do it while sprinting?"

Turns out the answer (for me at least), was no.

[Pillock]

2 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

Quite an exciting story!

A similar "complacency" mistake ended a lovely long run for me recently.   I'd been living in the Ravine forever, and crossed the zigzig on train trestle many times.  So I thought to myself, "I wonder if I can do it while sprinting?"

Turns out the answer (for me at least), was no.

Woops!

[Nasdaq401]

Giving up on it and not giving it a fair chance.  Came back 2 months later and fell in love.