Observations on Map Clues (Spoilers? Maybe?)

[MarrowStone]

Update: @Frozen guy pointed out the Cargo Plane Crash occured on Sept 6th

That means September 6th 2019 is the minimum date of the Event....

This explains why the cattails are still green, the hay is in the feilds, etc. 

However, that doesnt explain why some people seemed to get a heads up on the event while others didnt.

 

[Wastelander]

Yeah, that's one of the most puzzling things - if the event was completely unannounced and everyone was surprised, there shouldn't be that many cars on the road. If it was a gradual thing, however (perhaps affecting longer cables first, i.e. power lines and then gradually increasing in power to affect radios and other stuff), that would make sense. The fishermen and campers would probably be the last to notice. Also, places like the Misantrophes Homestead and Jackrabbit Island apparently aren't connected to power lines, so the inhabitants of these locations would probably realize that something was off very late, perhaps only when the TV breaks and the neighbours are all suddenly gone. 

[MarrowStone]

@Wastelander up on the furthest catwalk in the turbine room, there's a snowy pile under a window suggesting a tree smashed it in, I always Imagined he Dropped down there.

[Felli]

55 minutes ago, Wastelander said:

Well, I'm not in DP that often so that was an easy mistake to make

As for corpses, yeah, they all have a story - it just isn't written down and some are hard to catch, but they're deliberately placed alongside the items around them. The hatchet-guy in ML? Froze to death during his last, desperate attempt to get a fire going. Now, the dead dude in the Camp Office is something I can't really get behind - how did he die? Why was he there?

Also, another thing I can't quite wrap my head around: How did Fluffy get into the dam in the first place? Canines aren't exactly renowned for their ability to open doors, so is there a broken window somewhere or something? And then, why did he go in there when all the deer and rabbits are outside, not to mention stuff like water and his pack?

 I thought of all the modern food in DP was either leftovers from people who were trapped when everything occurred, (since there was a highway running through) or from people who migrated there in search of shelter. Possibly people out on the water, hunters, or even the odd hermit that may have still lived there.

 

My hypothesis on Fluffy is that she came in through the broken window of the dam and couldn't get back out. In the room where you normally find her, (the turbine room?) there's a broken window with a snowdrift leading up to it. The drift stops just shy of the height she would have needed to climb out. The drift is high but not high enough for a wolf to scale. Chances are she either smelled food or got curious. The ground was probably level enough for her to get in from outside the window, leaving her stuck in the dam with no way out.

These are all just guesses though so don't quote me on it

[MarrowStone]

@Felli 

That was my hypothesis on Fluffy too.

Also, ive been hearing a lot of people use "she" to describe Fluffy the past month, was there something I missed? Don't get me wrong I have no complaints about it I'm just curious.

 Are there puppies somewhere in the dam!? Maybe its her den!

[Wastelander]

Personally, I'm using "he" because Wolf is a male term in german grammar, so unless we get good evidence of Fluffy's sex, I'm sticking to that since it's "Der Wolf" for me, as opposed to the female "Die Wolf" or the neutral "Das Wolf", both of which make little sense in German  

[MarrowStone]

3 minutes ago, Wastelander said:

Personally, I'm using "he" because Wolf is a male term in german grammar, so unless we get good evidence of Fluffy's sex, I'm sticking to that since it's "Der Wolf" for me, as opposed to the female "Die Wolf" or the neutral "Das Wolf", both of which make little sense in German  

Ah, at least you have a reason, I just use "he" and "dude" for way too many things, including females and things i cant tell but now that I like thinking its a poorly placed Den now, Fluffy's a she to me. 

[Wastelander]

1 minute ago, MarrowStone said:

Ah, at least you have a reason, I just use "he" and "dude" for way too many things, including females and things i cant tell but now that I like thinking its a poorly placed Den now, Fluffy's a she to me. 

I have to admit, there's another reason - I feel way better about shanking a wolf that doesn't have to take care of cute little puppies

[MarrowStone]

Except, breeding doesnt happen until December so, its not a den.. darn

[Wastelander]

Well, the bears do get out of hibernation, so wolves doing some lovin' isn't entirely out of the question I guess. I often say that in TLD the world as we know it has ended for us humans, but things have also changed for animals it seems.

[Mikhail_Reign]

There are many cars on the side of the road half way to somewhere, but without dead people in them. The build up of snow on them, and their placement suggests the snow wasn't bad when they stopped, and built after.

 

what we can get from that is the initial effect was sudden (stopping cars enroute to places) but not extreme (killing them in the car or near by). While there ARE some bodies near cars, they are the minority, suggesting that MOST people had a chance to at least start making it to safety before the worst of it hit, killing them in random positions.

 

So my 'timeline' put the whole initial event over the course of a day. Enough time passed between the start (which stopped the cars and killed the power) and the first 'wave' of weather for permit people to get out, wonder what had happened, walk home/nearest building AND THEN the weather hit, forcing them to hunt for wood, or die inside, but not enough time to just 'walk out'

[MarrowStone]

Good Points, @Mikhail_Reign

From how the cars are stopped (Not sudden) Id probably have to guess that the alternators in them stopped working, without electricity running the fuel pump, the cars would whine and slowly stop running. (This happened to my car a week and a half ago).

Your suggestion that the weather lagged behind the Event and people ran, also makes sense. It even says so in a trailer: "First, there was a brilliant light..." " People Ran Scared"

Which could suggest a gamma ray? Or A very bright Aurora.

Also I do hope the devs didnt forget this music, You cant hear it in-game as of now.

[Wastelander]

I think we can rule out a gamma ray burst - once they get strong enough to penetrate our magnetosphere they're also strong enough to murder an entire hemisphere. 

[MarrowStone]

19 minutes ago, Wastelander said:

I think we can rule out a gamma ray burst - once they get strong enough to penetrate our magnetosphere they're also strong enough to murder an entire hemisphere. 

Alrighty, Good to know :)...  *hides underground*

[Wastelander]

Just now, MarrowStone said:

Alrighty, Good to know :)...  *hides underground*

 that probably ain't gonna help you - GRB's are, in fact, considered a threat not only to humanity but the biosphere as a whole. But hey, they only happen a few times (per day, just in case you didn't get your share of existential dread today ).

Back on topic, here's something that puzzles me - as I said earlier, there are some buildings obviously not connected to the electrical grid, yet they have TVs and stuff - maybe there's generators we don't know about that could become important in story mode?

[MarrowStone]

3 minutes ago, Wastelander said:

 that probably ain't gonna help you - GRB's are, in fact, considered a threat not only to humanity but the biosphere as a whole. But hey, they only happen a few times (per day, just in case you didn't get your share of existential dread today ).

Back on topic, here's something that puzzles me - as I said earlier, there are some buildings obviously not connected to the electrical grid, yet they have TVs and stuff - maybe there's generators we don't know about that could become important in story mode?

Gas powered TVs are the thing of the future! Big Oil succeeds in making the entire world dependent on them!

[Wastelander]

1 minute ago, MarrowStone said:

Gas powered TVs are the thing of the future! Big Oil succeeds in making the entire world dependent on them!

You actually made me laugh out loud IRL. Few people manage to do this. You can be proud!

But still, there's some buildings that just scream "There's a generator in me!" - especially on Jackrabbit Island and Misantrophes Homestead. Add to that the as-of-now inaccessible basements, and yeah, I'd bet actual money that there's a generator down there.

[alone sniper]

Like to have ability that we can harvest fuel from car for using generator! 

[MarrowStone]

@Wastelander

Those are Basements!? All this time and I didnt think of that? For some reason i dismissed them as a stairwell Closet... But now that you mention it, that makes much more sense!

Oh, and you're welcome for the laugh today. 

[Wastelander]

1 minute ago, MarrowStone said:

@Wastelander

Those are Basements!? All this time and I didnt think of that? For some reason i dismissed them as a stairwell Closet... But now that you mention it, that makes much more sense!

Oh, and your welcome for the laugh today. 

Could be those as well, although a house without a basement does seem weird at least to me - where I'm from, every house has a basement, and said basement is basically meant to withstand aerial bombardment (in fact, the basement of the place I live in and where I wash and dry my laundry sheltered a dozen people during WW2).

[MarrowStone]

Id say theyre locked interior basements, My house's foundation is 200 years old and so it just has a crawlspace and a water heater cellar we made 2.5 x 2.5 meters across.

[Wastelander]

Small or not, a basement would make the most sense there. And even if it isn't, I want to know what's behind those doors!

This is also my 1337's post. 1 f33l 1337 n0\/\/

[cekivi]

The thing that always bothered me was the disconnect between the climber's journal and the game setting. The climber's journal indicates the event happened in early September. BUT there was already enough ice for ice fishing huts to be placed on lakes and (egad!) the ocean!

For sea ice to freeze enough to support the weight of a hut means a long time with below zero temperatures. So the huts would indicate more of a December-January event date. Which of course conflicts with the journal. It's hard to reconcile the two

[Wastelander]

1 hour ago, cekivi said:

The thing that always bothered me was the disconnect between the climber's journal and the game setting. The climber's journal indicates the event happened in early September. BUT there was already enough ice for ice fishing huts to be placed on lakes and (egad!) the ocean!

For sea ice to freeze enough to support the weight of a hut means a long time with below zero temperatures. So the huts would indicate more of a December-January event date. Which of course conflicts with the journal. It's hard to reconcile the two

Well, the event could have caused some freak weather for all we know (which isn't much, or, to be honest, almost nothing). Regarding the timescale we're talking 'bout that'd have to be some extremely freaky weather though, so maybe that's out of the question. 

[MarrowStone]

The fishing hut point is very odd indeed, maybe in 2019 they make ones that are anchored and float like a buoy? 

Just helping the devs here XD