Snowballs in Hell

[Drifter Man]

@Thrasador As a minimum I would close the window  But I don't think that's the point of the game. The temperatures in the Mountaineer's Hut are just a rule of the game, and I'm playing according to this rule. Personally, if I insisted on a warmer shelter, I would go to another map. It's the difficulty that makes it interesting.

By the way, I don't have a bunch of cloth to make tapestries. I counted if I have enough to keep my socks from falling apart, and concluded that I don't 

[Thrasador]

6 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

@Thrasador As a minimum I would close the window  But I don't think that's the point of the game. The temperatures in the Mountaineer's Hut are just a rule of the game, and I'm playing according to this rule. Personally, if I insisted on a warmer shelter, I would go to another map. It's the difficulty that makes it interesting.

By the way, I don't have a bunch of cloth to make tapestries. I counted if I have enough to keep my socks from falling apart, and concluded that I don't 

Lol, well that sucks...

I have a ton of cloth from tearing up crappy clothes I didn't want, and a bunch of curtains in CH. There is still a metric crap ton of cloth there that I haven't torn up....

I play mostly on Voyager, and I don't make my playthroughs more difficult by limiting myself with additional self-imposed rules like you do, lol.

Ok, well good luck m8! Another interesting playthrough diary by you....

[Ruruwawa]

5 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Yes, bunnies can be tricky. You get one smell bar for the carcass. When you take the gut and meat, it's two, and that's enough to attract wolves from a wide area.

Yep.  For me the real surprise is that the wolves smell you when you are inside, period.  They can't enter the MH (like a cave), or attack (like a snow shelter)... and you still get cabin fever in the MH -- it's definitely "indoors".  But wolves can smell your bars when you are indoors..  unexpected!

[JAFO]

I very much hope that when TLD releases next week, the scent mechanism is toned down a notch or two.. don't get me wrong, I like it.. just I think it's a bit OP.

[Drifter Man]

18 hours ago, Thrasador said:

Lol, well that sucks...

I have a ton of cloth from tearing up crappy clothes I didn't want, and a bunch of curtains in CH. There is still a metric crap ton of cloth there that I haven't torn up....

I play mostly on Voyager, and I don't make my playthroughs more difficult by limiting myself with additional self-imposed rules like you do, lol.

Ok, well good luck m8! Another interesting playthrough diary by you....

I know what you mean - I lived for over 900 days in Voyageur sleeping in a bedroll and I collected all the cloth I could find between Mystery Lake and Desolation Point. When I mean all, I include the cloth you can get from furniture. All furniture in CH. I didn't keep numbers but I estimate I collected 1000 about cloth in total. That's not a metric crap ton, only about 100 kg, but it's enough to make tapestries for the rest of your life.

After a while, the Voyageur game became too easy and I started looking for a new challenge. I've observed it's a normal process with TLD players.

Thanks!

[Drifter Man]

13 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

Yep.  For me the real surprise is that the wolves smell you when you are inside, period.  They can't enter the MH (like a cave), or attack (like a snow shelter)... and you still get cabin fever in the MH -- it's definitely "indoors".  But wolves can smell your bars when you are indoors..  unexpected!

It wasn't a surprise to me but it's easy to forget. It can happen in a fishing hut, too. The bark you hear the moment you step out is pretty chilling.

3 hours ago, JAFO said:

I very much hope that when TLD releases next week, the scent mechanism is toned down a notch or two.. don't get me wrong, I like it.. just I think it's a bit OP.

My feelings exactly. I also dislike that you can attract wolves from afar even without having a single scent bar. The scent indicator is, let's say, not very indicative.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 47 / Day 71

The next three days were comfortable and unremarkable. I transferred some cooked fish and water from the fishing hut and collected sticks around MH and Landing Gear. I spent most of the time inside MH, warming up, and managed just fine without fire. Of course, cabin fever is building up in the background and will soon force me out again.

This is where we stand after 70 days survived:

• Firestarting: 31 matches, 0.98 L fish oil
• Medical: 12 pills of antibiotics, 2 bandages, 2 OMB wrappings, 1 stim, 5 rosehip tea, 19 rosehip buds, 14 reishi mushrooms.
• Clothes: Sweatshirt (21%), thin wool sweater (86%), wool socks (87%), cotton toque (49%), wool toque (39%), wool scarf (79%), deerskin boots (96%), trail boots (87%), rabbitskin mitts (72%), deerskin pants (88%). Bonus is at +9°C / +6°C.
• Food: a lot of fish, 7.5 kg venison, some rabbit, 3 boxes of crackers, 62 cattail stalks, 5 herbal tea and 2 coffee.
• Fuel: 221 sticks, 10 reclaimed wood, 4 cedar, 11 coal
• Tools: Flare pistol with 2 flare shells, hacksaw (24%), heavy hammer (55%), sewing kit (3%), quality tools, 1 flare, 3 fishing tackle
• Material: 6 cloth, 6 leather, 2 deer hides + 1 curing, 4 rabbit pelts, 6 guts + 3 curing, 1 scrap metal, 1 line, 1 fir firewood

I like the wool scarf I found on Day 62. It holds condition better than cotton toque while offering the same temperature bonus. I'll see how much it can be repaired with one cloth but it looks I can scrap the cotton toque and keep my wool scarf instead.

I spent 13 matches in 20 days. One was wasted (I misclicked while lighting a torch) - if don't count that one, I spend 0.6 matches per day on average. I can extrapolate that to last match on Day 123.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 47 / Day 74

I somehow stretched my run to 7 days without a match, but this time I didn't dodge cabin fever. I went to bed with about 35% risk: when I woke up this morning, cabin fever broke out. For some reason I thought that sleeping doesn't count towards cabin fever, but evidently it does. It's an interesting development and I'm curious how I manage 24 hours outside without sleep.

[Puckway]

Let me quickly say something "Snowball unrelated". Thank you @Drifter Man. For all your posts.
Especially for your 1000 days thread and for this one. Very interesting, perfectly written and so much to learn.

Keep going and all the best for Snowball 47 fighting cabin fever.

[Timber Wolf]

1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

I went to bed with about 35% risk: when I woke up this morning, cabin fever broke out.

Oh no!  Hang in there Snowball 47! 

[Hotzn]

5 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Snowball 47 / Day 74

I somehow stretched my run to 7 days without a match, but this time I didn't dodge cabin fever. I went to bed with about 35% risk: when I woke up this morning, cabin fever broke out. For some reason I thought that sleeping doesn't count towards cabin fever, but evidently it does. It's an interesting development and I'm curious how I manage 24 hours outside without sleep.

Hm. I think cabin fever does not rise when you sleep. But if 35% base chance are there, I think this is checked after 24 hours or so? So maybe it can break out in your sleep or when you wake up. Do you still have the resources to build a snow shelter? Your inventory says 6 cloth. I think you need 5, or is it more?

[Thrasador]

If sleeping didn't count twords cabin fever, then no one would get it. The only time I am indoors is to sleep, and I got a risk warning once....

I tear up clothes and sew outside, and use the workbench outside the fishing camp in CH....

[Drifter Man]

16 hours ago, Puckway said:

Let me quickly say something "Snowball unrelated". Thank you @Drifter Man. For all your posts.
Especially for your 1000 days thread and for this one. Very interesting, perfectly written and so much to learn.

Keep going and all the best for Snowball 47 fighting cabin fever.

Thanks for coming here @Puckway! It's the readers that give this thread its purpose.

[Thrasador]

2 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

Thanks for coming here @Puckway! It's the readers that give this thread its purpose.

That's for sure...

If it wasn't for us, you'd just be a crazy guy who writes diary entries to himself about a video game he plays....

J/K I like your threads too...good information on game mechanics and what is possible to accomplish...

[Drifter Man]

16 hours ago, Timber Wolf said:

Oh no!  Hang in there Snowball 47! 

Don't worry. It's not a disaster

12 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Hm. I think cabin fever does not rise when you sleep. But if 35% base chance are there, I think this is checked after 24 hours or so? So maybe it can break out in your sleep or when you wake up. Do you still have the resources to build a snow shelter? Your inventory says 6 cloth. I think you need 5, or is it more?

In one case I slept for a short time (2-3 hours) and the risk only increased a little - a few %. In another case I slept for 6 hours and the risk increased like by 30%. I was confused on this matter. But it is obvious now that sleep can give you cabin fever too.

The situation does not require a snow shelter, fortunately. In fact, a snow shelter would be of little help, since I would need a fire next to it anyway to survive. I'll simply go to the fishing hut and make a really long fire there. I'll avoid walking and running to stay rested for as long as possible. Next day, once cabin fever is gone, I plan to sleep for 2-3 hours to manage fatigue, and then stay at the fire for the rest of the day.

It will cost me a match and about 120 sticks. The risk is that 1) blizzard will come at an inconvenient time (sunset of the next day, when I'll want to go to bed again) and 2) I might have to deal with a wolf while exhausted. I'm taking one cup of coffee with me.

[Drifter Man]

3 minutes ago, Thrasador said:

That's for sure...

If it wasn't for us, you'd just be a crazy guy who writes diary entries to himself about a video game he plays....

J/K I like your threads too...good information on game mechanics and what is possible to accomplish...

That's absolutely right, although writing also helps me to sort out my thoughts and look at the game from a different perspective.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 47 / Day 76

I did as I said and spent ca 36 hours in the fishing hut. It was useful anyway because some of the raw fish was getting close to 50% condition and had to be cooked. In addition, I found out I had forgotten some raw venison on the ice and it was getting spoiled, too. I also used the time to practice firestarting and to boil water. I recorded my condition and confirmed 1% per hour rate for starvation and 1% per hour for exhaustion separately. With cabin fever you apparently do not slowly recover condition like you normally do when all you status bars are above zero. I wonder if you can recover condition with cabin fever while sleeping outdoors?

In general I managed my condition well and woke up at 100% this morning. The fuel spent in the fire can be replaced. However, a total of 12 hours only got me two fish! Eventually I lost my fishing tackle and stopped trying. I hope it was just bad luck, otherwise I can have serious problems with food some 10-20 days from now.

[JAFO]

On 7/27/2017 at 6:29 PM, Drifter Man said:

Eventually I lost my fishing tackle and stopped trying. I hope it was just bad luck, otherwise I can have serious problems with food some 10-20 days from now.

At least fishing tackle isn't going to be a problem.. with all those guts, and the tools you can harvest for scrap, you won't run out any time soon.

[Drifter Man]

4 hours ago, JAFO said:

At least fishing tackle isn't going to be a problem.. with all those guts, and the tools you can harvest for scrap, you won't run out any time soon.

No, I'm not likely to run out of fishing tackle before matches. I still have 4 and material for 9 more (in the tools).

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 47 / Day 81

With survival clock passing 80 days, it's time for another summary. A few notable points from the past days:

I made another trip for coal to the Cave of Engines, but it hasn't respawned yet. At least I collected about 70 sticks. The conditions were difficult and I returned to MH in 28% condition. A cup of herbal tea helped me get back on my feet.

All days after cabin fever (except one) either had a very cold morning or a morning blizzard, so I had to burn fire every day.

• Of the three fishing sessions I've taken since cabin fever, the first one was poor (with another tackle lost) but the other two produced nice catch again. I'm not going to starve anytime soon.
• I again forgot the effect of wind that can reach into the fishing hut. The wind put out my torch while I was making fire in the stove, fortunately after the fire has caught on.
• The second pair of deerskin pants is finished. I have no more clothes to craft, Snowball 47 is the best dressed Snowball ever. Even this couldn't protect me from the extreme conditions of the morning on Day 81 (see picture).
• The sweatshirt has worn out and I turned it into cloth. On the other hand, I repaired my rabbitskin mitts and wool toque.
• I forfeited hacksaw repair by processing my last piece of scrap metal into hooks and fishing tackle. Now I can only harvest the quality tools, otherwise they are useless.

Inventory overview:

• Firestarting: 25 matches, 1.01 L fish oil
• Medical: 12 pills of antibiotics, 2 bandages, 2 OMB wrappings, 1 stim, 5 rosehip tea, 19 rosehip buds, 10 reishi mushrooms.
• Clothes: Thin wool sweater (81%), wool socks (78%), cotton toque (39%), wool toque (97%), wool scarf (72%), deerskin boots (95%), trail boots (84%), rabbitskin mitts (97%), two pairs of deerskin pants (100%, 86%). Bonus is at +12°C / +7°C.
• Food: 18 kg fish, 2 kg venison, 1 kg rabbit, 3 boxes of crackers, 60 cattail stalks, 3 herbal tea and 2 coffee.
• Fuel: 170-180 sticks, 10 reclaimed wood, 4 cedar, 9 coal
• Tools: Flare pistol with 2 flare shells, hacksaw (24%), heavy hammer (50%), quality tools, 1 flare, 4 fishing tackle
• Material: 5 cloth, 6 leather, 2 rabbit pelts, 3 guts, 1 fir firewood

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 47 / Day 84

On Day 82 another deer spawned on the lake. Because I made a mistake and started running out of water, I went to the fishing hut on the next day to make some. In a foggy break between wind, I drove the deer into a wolf - unfortunately, in a very inconvenient position this time. The kill took place on the shore of the lake, the wolf was facing uphill and with its back to the lake, and there was no way to approach it without getting too close. I considered showing up above the slope, then running to a campfire, but even that would give me little margin for error. One key to long-term survival is keeping one's greed in check, and I let the wolf have the kill this time. I have enough food.

Today in the afternoon the cabin fever warning reappeared. It surprised me because I've been spending a lot of time in the fishing hut lately. Because of the bad timing, I will let cabin fever break out again tonight. Afterwards I will go to the fishing hut for another 36-hour session.

[Drifter Man]

On 27/07/2017 at 1:52 AM, Hotzn said:

Hm. I think cabin fever does not rise when you sleep. But if 35% base chance are there, I think this is checked after 24 hours or so? So maybe it can break out in your sleep or when you wake up.

I've just made an observation that fits your theory very well. I went to bed with 19% cabin fever risk and woke up 10 hours later with 20%.

[JAFO]

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I forfeited hacksaw repair by processing my last piece of scrap metal into hooks and fishing tackle. Now I can only harvest the quality tools, otherwise they are useless.

Was this a good move? I mean, the hacksaw is your primary means of harvesting frozen meat, yes? Wouldn't it have been better to use the last piece of scrap metal to fix the hacksaw, then harvest the tools for scrap, and make fish hooks from that? Or is it that you calculate that fish will figure much more prominently than venison in the days to come?

[Hotzn]

43 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

I've just made an observation that fits your theory very well. I went to bed with 19% cabin fever risk and woke up 10 hours later with 20%.

Yep, that one percent is likely to have been added either between the point in time you last checked and then finally going to sleep or between waking up and checking again. My further theory is that the chance of contracting cabin fever is tried the first time at 24 hours after the risk arose. So if you manage to reduce cabin fever risk to 0% within the first 24 hours, you should be safe from getting it. Not so important now that you have a way to deal with it even if you get it.

[Hotzn]

1 minute ago, JAFO said:

Was this a good move? I mean, the hacksaw is your primary means of harvesting frozen meat, yes? Wouldn't it have been better to use the last piece of scrap metal to fix the hacksaw, then harvest the tools for scrap, and make fish hooks from that? Or is it that you calculate that fish will figure much more prominently than venison in the days to come?

In the given scenario, I think a fire will be needed anyway to harvest meat. Since the carcass will thus thaw the saw would only be needed to save some time.