Interloper, first experiences, small feedbacks.

[togg]

I open this so that I'll not pollute other topics, I'm on my 6th attempt.

 

I started in PV, found three box of matches without going on the radio station or all the part near TWM. Harvested two guts near the house@bridge@waterfall. Found one hammer at the Outbuildings. A lot of cat tails everywhere. Then CH, lost a couple of matches more than necessary in the mine, discovered my first lantern inside it. It would be interesting to know what are the best spot for the lantern and if there're fixed spot, if the one in the lantern is it's kind of funny
CH is less cold that I thought it would be! I had -4 celsius I was soo happy. You really can't stay more than a couple of days in PV. Now I have 2 hammers, hacksaw, lots of water, almost no food, and two guts that are not ready yet. That was probably my biggest mistake until now, I've forgot multiple times in the last two days to drop the guts on the floor. I'm too focused on surviving I've figured out that I can't make it to DP in this situation. I need to survive in order to have the guts ready. My best chance is to loot the rest of the map and send some deer to a wolf.

At the moment the game seems pretty perfect on balance.
 

[jolynsbass]

Yes, I agree - a generally great balance on Interloper, for expert players. My first few runs had a average length of 2-3 days. I'm currently on a run that has lasted 11 days, and things are looking up (have 5 deer skins drying and 8 guts - enough for the Deerskin pants and boots. Yay!)

I saw my first really cold blizzard in this run: -68 degree degrees F! Now that's cold!

I've learned new techniques for managing food in the interloper difficulty - in every other mode, I like to keep my character at the top of the food meter, and never let it run down in to the "starvation"/empty zone. But there just isn't enough food around in interloper to do that, so I'm learning to cope. It's very fun, indeed!

Most intense moment so far - getting into two rounds (one immediately after the other) with a wolf near the Quonset gas station - only having a hammer to drive him off. First round left me at about 17% health, so I was going to run for the nearest shelter, but then was attacked for round 2 immediately (might have been a different wolf). My health dropped to 1%, and I drove the wolf off just in time to whip out an emergency stim (emergency is right!), and my health bumped up to 15%, and I made it into the nearest home, barely having survived that vicious encounter!

Yep, loving the interloper mode - though it drives my kids crazy! ("Just play Stalker, dad!")

[togg]

Well, long story shot, I died around day 10. I'll describe the days before and then sum up the conclusions! I was sad to die but probably it's for the best since I have a lot of thing to do and interloper was distracting me. So ,I was on misanthrope, with bad health, without food, in need to survive a few days to have the guts ready. Tried to badly sleep, wasn't a good idea. A blizzard hit outside but I needed to go to the cabin between the two islands in order to cook mushrooms and hips to stop starving just for a night. It worked. Then I went to jackrabbit and sleep most that I could to get health back. Just before the morning started I tried go near the western fishing hut because I remeber a wolf attacking a dear there a couple days before. Nothing left. Useless socks on the beach.
Then I've discovered the western part of the map, I had never explored it completely, it was amazing to find the cat tails on the river, then sneaking on and find a dear to harvest with calm.

 

Another dear already on the ground later, the trailers etc. I was in good enough health to try my plan involving a wolf and a dear... It worked!

 

 

Now I was on top of it, after some more harvesting, harvesting, cooking, sleeping etc I come back to Quonset and have this beautiful view:

After making 4 fishing tackle (<3) I came back to the lookout in order to take all the coal that I left there. I was starting to feel too confident.

I went to a fishing hut and stayed there 4 hours. A lot of fish all cooked. Then Misanthrope again avoid the bear.
Now the tragedy. I went near the waterfront cottages in order to harvest some sapling. A wolf was there, I thought I could avoid it by climbing a small hill but it doesn't work that way at all. I had the pribar but he still left me with low health. And I was freezing. My stupid mistake here was trying to reach the quonset garage sticking to the plan of dropping the woods there. I didn't even use one of the two stim that I had and I completely forgot/didn't see the coastal house. On Quonset there were 4/5 wolves. Dead. Very Bad.

So what about interloper? I think that playing it really makes you appreciate the game in a different way.
- I had never considered campfires so much, of course I used them to harvest carcasses but it wasn't such a basic element. Now I'm considering walking as Prometeus with a burning stick in my hand to light one each 300 meters.
- Health was never an issue, just a number that I liked to see at 100% most of the time. I never thought twice about what I could recover in one night etc. Now it's one of the basic numbers that drive me around. All because of the extreme cold basically.
- The waiting time for guts etc become meaningful. It's not just boredom. It resonate with your journey on the world.
- Hunting / finding food * is way more interesting since you can't just shot a round of rifle, this is probably the first time that I have carefully planned sending a dear to a wolf. Or the mushrooms to just have that 100 calories.
- Coastal Highway is a whole different map now. I hated it on stalker, for me it was just a bunch of houses one after the others, full of loot that I didn't want / can't take with me. Now it could be one of the best. I've appreciated the clever verticality and the panic of being lost in blizzard here.
- In my runs (this is the 6th) I never had a problem with cabin fever but anyway it clearly blends more strongly with the game, it's not just a new problem added to avoid people ibernating (and it was already pretty clever in that way).
- * Cat tails. I always loved them, they're the best. Now my love is grounded.
- Finding special items feels special. In this run the lantern in the mine was a turning point.
- Time of play. Everything is more compact, you don't need to get to day 50, push yourself to do stupid things, in order to be challenged. It's better, even if here to get to day 5 you have to play a lot of hours anyway.

There're other stuff as well. The only negative thing is that at the time being exploring for the beauty of it is not an option. The game has completelly lost this side. I don't know if it's recovered once you manage food and stronger clothes. I've heard some complaining about animal clothes so I guess you're still hitted hard by cold. I'll have to get to day 20 to find out.

 

[togg]

3 hours ago, jolynsbass said:

Yep, loving the interloper mode - though it drives my kids crazy! ("Just play Stalker, dad!")

ahaha Stalker is for the kidss!!

Great story, glad you survived dammit.

[jumpingbean77]

Just died in my second attempt, the first did not take more than some minutes, man the wolfs are mean.

I must say that I love Interloper, where Stalker was easy, Interlooper is a struggle from start. I had to move continuously, food was just one time abundant when I got to fish, but then the wood run out. Just picking sticks... I love that there is less Wolfs, but that they are more deadly. In this run the Nature was my enemy, just the way it should.

I still think though that it feel strange to rely on sleeping bag in lack of car/bed. It almost killed med, but maybe that gave me some fun aswell, just dosent feel logical.

[togg]

1 hour ago, jumpingbean77 said:

Just died in my second attempt, the first did not take more than some minutes, man the wolfs are mean.

I must say that I love Interloper, where Stalker was easy, Interlooper is a struggle from start. I had to move continuously, food was just one time abundant when I got to fish, but then the wood run out. Just picking sticks... I love that there is less Wolfs, but that they are more deadly. In this run the Nature was my enemy, just the way it should.

I still think though that it feel strange to rely on sleeping bag in lack of car/bed. It almost killed med, but maybe that gave me some fun aswell, just dosent feel logical.

Yes the wolves changes are particulary scarying. I've died instantly on my 8th attempt on TWM, a wolf runned me down I was so far away and he was eating a rabbit he just wanted me dead.

Now on my 9th, standard path on PV, get to the mine to CH on day 2 same as always. I'll see tomorrow. I've tried to change something little and go to the radio station but there was a wolf there and I had to run back on standard path. Sigh.