Constellations

[Mentalpatient]

 

More than once I've tried to navigate by the stars. I'd like to suggest better patterns of stars in the game.

And while I'm at it, a chance of finding a 7x scoped rifle. I'm always right clicking my rifle to look at things.

 

 

[nicko]

i doubt navigating by stars will be an option in this game anyways. who does that these days apart from you?lol

scope? we are not at war.

[Tbone555]

2 hours ago, nicko said:

i doubt navigating by stars will be an option in this game anyways. who does that these days apart from you?lol

scope? we are not at war.

navigation by stars remains a very useful navigation tool. any survivalist know how to locate the north star at least. if youre lost in the woods in the middle of the night, it can be the difference between life or death, knowing which direction youre heading in.

have you ever been hunting? i find a scope preeeetty useful on the old 30-30. its not like he's asking for a tactical laser scope with a fully auto trigger modifier, extended mag and silencer. many many many people use scopes for hunting and just target practicing.

love the name, mentalpatient, and im in agreement with these suggestions. welcome to the forums, friend!

[Wastelander]

I'm unsure of the feasibility of navigating by the stars, so I'll leave that to smarter people to decide.

I definitely agree on the scope though. Maybe a rare spawn, like 1 per map or even 1 per sandbox. Loses condition only upon animal attacks and can not be repaired, as condition goes down the glass gets smudged and maybe there's even little cracks.

Welcome to the forums mentalpatient!

[Wasteland Watcher]

6 hours ago, Wastelander said:

I'm unsure of the feasibility of navigating by the stars, so I'll leave that to smarter people to decide.

I definitely agree on the scope though. Maybe a rare spawn, like 1 per map or even 1 per sandbox. Loses condition only upon animal attacks and can not be repaired, as condition goes down the glass gets smudged and maybe there's even little cracks.

Welcome to the forums mentalpatient!

Absolutely great idea! One per sandbox

 

And on constellations... absolutely yes!

[Corrosive]

Scopes would be handy and are pretty common on hunting rifles.  Binoculars would also be a handy find, although heavy to lug around, maybe one with a cracked lens.

As for the star map, with the sudden lack of light pollution in this game world wouldn't things be harder to find with all the new stars? Pardon my ignorance on the subject

[TLD Survivalist]

I may not use stars but i try and use the points of which the sun rise and set for navigational direction... Doesnt the sun rise in the east and set west??.. Excuse me if I am not correct

Oh and +1 on the scope and durability properties

 

[cekivi]

The sun does not rise in the same area for all maps according to a forum post that investigated it

And hunting scopes are quite common. Potentially not in the game area since there's not a lot of clearings to require long range shooting but they are definitely not rare. If you found one though it would likely already be on a rifle.

And yes, it is possible (and very easy) to find North using the starts. Whether you can navigate only by knowing the direction north is depends on the player

[TLD Survivalist]

Awww thats rough!! Well glad to know that now so I dont continually try to gauge which direction the sun is moving in.. Thanks for the headsup cekivi... Thought it might have been too good to be true... Who knows perhaps sunrise and sunset will be fixed positions in the full game... Would definitely make navigating as a whole a heap load easier.. As for the North star idea... Im for it.. Wouldnt make much difference for me though as I prefer NOT to travel at night. Them wolves get a whole lot more vicious at night

 

[Hatchet]

23 hours ago, nicko said:

i doubt navigating by stars will be an option in this game anyways. who does that these days apart from you?lol

scope? we are not at war.

Tried it the first time i played TLD, wasn't dissapointed i had better use the mountain tops instead but yeah i can agree that it might sound stupid in this day and age, but heck we're also using stone tools. . .

Interesting idea!

[Ruruwawa]

There is one fairly distinctive cluster of stars, unfortunately is directly overhead.  So no help for navigation.

For the purposes of natural navigation, I think it would a huge step forward to move that distinctive cluster to the N, then fix the position of the sun so it matches the new(ish) Great Bear Island map.  Also the direction the sun travels -- isn't there one map where it travels W to E?

[Wastelander]

36 minutes ago, Hatchet said:

Tried it the first time i played TLD, wasn't dissapointed i had better use the mountain tops instead but yeah i can agree that it might sound stupid in this day and age, but heck we're also using stone tools. . .

Interesting idea!

Especially a pilot, as Will Mackenzie is, should be able to do this. +1

[Landogarner]

18 hours ago, Corrosive said:

As for the star map, with the sudden lack of light pollution in this game world wouldn't things be harder to find with all the new stars? Pardon my ignorance on the subject

In my experience the constellations are actually easier to find the less light pollution there is.

While there are a whole lot more stars, the bright ones that make up the constellations are even brighter and more noticable.

[Resethel]

1 hour ago, Landogarner said:

In my experience the constellations are actually easier to find the less light pollution there is.

While there are a whole lot more stars, the bright ones that make up the constellations are even brighter and more noticable.

That's part of the reason why they were chosen as constellations ^^

[cekivi]

15 hours ago, TLD Survivalist said:

Awww thats rough!! Well glad to know that now so I dont continually try to gauge which direction the sun is moving in.. Thanks for the headsup cekivi... Thought it might have been too good to be true... Who knows perhaps sunrise and sunset will be fixed positions in the full game... Would definitely make navigating as a whole a heap load easier.. As for the North star idea... Im for it.. Wouldnt make much difference for me though as I prefer NOT to travel at night. Them wolves get a whole lot more vicious at night

 

The sun path is consistent for each individual map. It's just inconsistent between maps. Still, considering the number of times you can't see the sun at all it's not great for navigating.

Personally, I'd really like to see the constellations Ursa Major, Ursa Minor and Cassiopeia in the game since these three constellations allow you to triangulate to Polaris (the North star) and work as effective navigational aids.

[Hobbesyb]

Checking stars are the first method used by humans to find their way on boats.
Indeed, finding the north star is the best idea to find your way at night.
During daytime, use the sun ! it's heading south around noon, rising east, setting west.

Light pollution is off in the game after the collapse of civilisation, so yes, stars should be found a lot more easily.

PS : I'm an astronomer =)

[hauteecolerider]

2 hours ago, cekivi said:

The sun path is consistent for each individual map. It's just inconsistent between maps. Still, considering the number of times you can't see the sun at all it's not great for navigating.

Personally, I'd really like to see the constellations Ursa Major, Ursa Minor and Cassiopeia in the game since these three constellations allow you to triangulate to Polaris (the North star) and work as effective navigational aids.

Yes to the inconsistency of the sun's path between maps. I especially notice it going from Pleasant Valley to Timberwolf Mountain - the compass flips 180 degrees. Ugh!

And I'd love to have Ursa Major and Ursa Minor up! What about Orion? That's the other constellation I can recognize with any consistency, thanks to the Belt.

20 minutes ago, Hobbesyb said:

Checking stars are the first method used by humans to find their way on boats.
Indeed, finding the north star is the best idea to find your way at night.
During daytime, use the sun ! it's heading south around noon, rising east, setting west.

Light pollution is off in the game after the collapse of civilisation, so yes, stars should be found a lot more easily.

PS : I'm an astronomer =)

Cool! Another Expert on the forum! Yes, the sun is southerly in the game. It is kinda confusing, because to me, with the sun being so far south at noon, I'd expect the nights to be a whole lot longer. Like 13-14 hours of night and 9-10 hours of daylight . . .

[Scyzara]

7 hours ago, hauteecolerider said:

Like 13-14 hours of night and 9-10 hours of daylight . . .

These were the original game settings as far as I know, but they got changed for gameplay reasons. People just struggled too much to fulfill their daily tasks with only 10 hours of daylight. I personally hope that the aurora will add enough visibility at night to change the duration of day and night once again. 

[Hobbesyb]

9 hours ago, hauteecolerider said:

Yes to the inconsistency of the sun's path between maps. I especially notice it going from Pleasant Valley to Timberwolf Mountain - the compass flips 180 degrees. Ugh!

And I'd love to have Ursa Major and Ursa Minor up! What about Orion? That's the other constellation I can recognize with any consistency, thanks to the Belt.

Cool! Another Expert on the forum! Yes, the sun is southerly in the game. It is kinda confusing, because to me, with the sun being so far south at noon, I'd expect the nights to be a whole lot longer. Like 13-14 hours of night and 9-10 hours of daylight . . .

Actually, the region where we play is very far north, then, in winter, the sun travels very low on the horizon, and days should be very short.

[starfighter441]

Re: Rifle scope.

If we were to find one laying about, not already mounted on a rifle, then you would be looking at expending at least a handful of rounds zeroing it.  Something to think about if you only have a handful of rounds...

[Wastelander]

49 minutes ago, starfighter441 said:

Re: Rifle scope.

If we were to find one laying about, not already mounted on a rifle, then you would be looking at expending at least a handful of rounds zeroing it.  Something to think about if you only have a handful of rounds...

I'm not well-versed on firearms, is that what those little turning things on a scope are for? Like, adjusting the reticule or what it's called?

What you say makes sense so. Maybe instead of spawning a singular scope, make one of the rifle spawns per sandbox a spawned rifle. Or do you have to zero in a rifle regardless? Does that have to do with your height, arm length etc.?

[Tbone555]

yknow, it could be my diseased imagination. but one night i sat out late to stargaze and see if i could find any constellations to naviagate by. i found a cluster of stars that had a shape resembling a galloping horse

again, could have been my imagination. don't know which direction it was in, however..

[cekivi]

@Tbone555 well, there is the Pegasus constellation...

@Wastelander you can bore sight a rifle using a stand and a fixed point. While not very accurate it also doesn't require ammunition. Accurate sighting of a scope normally requires bore sighting first to get you in the general vicinity of your target and then you shoot rounds and adjust until you can achieve the desired grouping. For hunting rifles with large game this is normally 3 rounds within a 5 cm diameter circle at 25 m. Rifle ballistics then means your gun will have roughly the same accuracy at 100 m and shoot slightly high in between. Depending on how good your initial bore sighting was you can do this in only 5-6 rounds.

You can also target shoot to adjust the iron sights that are used on the rifles presently in the game. However, I don't think that mechanic has been implemented.

Height and arm length changes how you hold the rifle, not how the rifle is sighted. To safely and comfortably shoot a rifle a tall person normally needs to extend the stock while I shorter person will either need to shorten the stock or use a smaller, lower caliber firearm. However, in all cases, the position you hold your head to aim, and thus the scope's accuracy, should be the same.

[starfighter441]

56 minutes ago, cekivi said:

@Tbone555 well, there is the Pegasus constellation...

@Wastelander you can bore sight a rifle using a stand and a fixed point. While not very accurate it also doesn't require ammunition. Accurate sighting of a scope normally requires bore sighting first to get you in the general vicinity of your target and then you shoot rounds and adjust until you can achieve the desired grouping. For hunting rifles with large game this is normally 3 rounds within a 5 cm diameter circle at 25 m. Rifle ballistics then means your gun will have roughly the same accuracy at 100 m and shoot slightly high in between. Depending on how good your initial bore sighting was you can do this in only 5-6 rounds.

You can also target shoot to adjust the iron sights that are used on the rifles presently in the game. However, I don't think that mechanic has been implemented.

Height and arm length changes how you hold the rifle, not how the rifle is sighted. To safely and comfortably shoot a rifle a tall person normally needs to extend the stock while I shorter person will either need to shorten the stock or use a smaller, lower caliber firearm. However, in all cases, the position you hold your head to aim, and thus the scope's accuracy, should be the same.

A concise explanation of how to sight a rifle in.  I see that there are now hulls that you can chamber which emit a laser beam that you can adjust your sights to, but something like that would not be functional in the Long Dark.

[cekivi]

Exactly