Ruruwawa Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Warning: spoilers ahead! I describe loot locations and tactics you might not be familiar with yet. After all of August in the story, or in Pilgrim knocking out achievements, it feels wonderful to be back in Interloper. My start lands me in Timberwolf Mountain near the three-way cave. It's mid-morning and the weather is mild. This is my favorite Interloper start, I'm feeling lucky! First I head to the cave to grab the matches, torch, some firewood and a lovely can of tomato soup. Then downhill toward the Hut via the cave of engines. But before reaching the cave I stumble upon something even more lucky... I know what you're thinking: "ehem, Ruru, that's just a ratty old scarf." And you're right, that's exactly what it is. But it's also another piece of cloth 'on the hoof' so to speak. Or on my head, for now - my first hat. But what it really is, is an opportunity. I put it on and turn around. Screw the hut, I tell myself, I'm going straight to the summit! It's not the first time I've gone to the summit on my first day in Interloper, but I usually go to the Hut first. But with a lucky hat and another piece of luck I'll describe later, it's possible. The trick is getting up three ropes, including the very tall summit rope, without coffee or a bedroll. I need to manage the cold and critters, as always in Interloper, but rest is my most critical resource now. To conserve energy I'll to take an efficient path: no sprinting, no wolves, and hopefully no sprains. I head toward the rope up to Deer Clearing, but not directly. I swing in the direction of Echo Ravine to pick three rose hip plants and duck into a cave to warm up. I make some water and cook up the rose hip tea. I can't climb a rope with a sprain, so this tea is necessary insurance. Finally I heat and eat the tomato soup, and head to the rope. It's a pretty short climb, so my rest is still over half when I reach the top. I continue straight ahead. It's possible to turn left here and go over climb/glitch over the hill as a 'shortcut' to the next rope, but I don't do it. I've tried it before and I find I waste too much time, rest and condition dodging the wolf there, or get a sprain, or both. I opt for the longer, safer route. I pick three more rose hips and four reishi mushrooms as I swing past the Deer Clearing cave, then head around the hill to the rope Secluded Shelf. This rope is a little longer, but not too bad. I reach the top with a tiny sliver of rest remaining, but otherwise I'm in great shape: 80% condition. It's mid-afternoon when I enter the cave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifter Man Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 2 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said: It's not the first time I've gone to the summit on my first day in Interloper, but I usually go to the Hut first. But with a lucky hat and another piece of luck I'll describe later, it's possible. Yes! But inevitably, you will reach the Summit without... pants I wish you good luck and a hacksaw up there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Wolf Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 This is great, @Ruruwawa! I look forward to seeing how this plays out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 5, 2017 Author Share Posted September 5, 2017 Onward to the summit... The cave at Secluded Shelf has a fixed temperature, but I have to light my torch to start warming up. That's ok, I need to get through the cave. I do a thorough search of the cave and collect a few pieces of firewood and 11 coal. Whoa, coal-nanza, my luck is holding for now. I find a corpse with a skill book: carcass harvesting. Not useful enough to haul with me but I at least can burn it. I need to warm up completely, but my true priority now is sleep. No bedroll, and there aren't any beds or cars on top of TWM, so my only option is a snow shelter. The recipe: 5 cloth + 15 sticks. I picked up the sticks on my way to the last rope (another advantage of the longer route), so I just need the cloth. I can harvest my starter clothes -- jeans, hoodie, thermal underwear, sport socks -- for 4 pieces. The lucky hat makes 5. Here we go! I prep the reishi mushrooms and build a fire to warm up while I tear up my clothes. I cook and drink a reishi tea, then head out to build the snow shelter. I'm sorry to say placing the snow shelter can be pretty darn finicky; ideally it should be near a campfire to keep me warm so I can get a good long sleep. The top of TWM is not fire-friendly: it's very windy. I opt to pick the spot for the fire first, based on two game mechanics. First mechanic: the wind tends to blow at the player, not the fire. I find a little notch in the rock and build the fire there. Then I build the snow shelter the closest-to-the-fire spot I can find. It's not super close, but that might be better because of mechanic #1 -- the wind can blow at me instead of my fire. Game mechanic #2 to the rescue: the hotter the fire, the farther its heat reaches. Yay coal. I pump the fire up to 6 hours and pop into my cozy new bed. The arrangement works. I sleep in two hour stretches to check the fire, but it doesn't go out. At six hours I pump another 3 hours in, and sleep for 2 more. After 8 hours of sleep I'm mostly rested with about 90% condition. It's still night, but the Aurorae are out. I cook and drink the last reishi tea, pull torch, and head for the summit rope dressed in only running shoes. The Aurorae entertain me while I catch my breath halfway up. I try not to think about the fact I'm already freezing. I reach the top with a tiny sliver of rest remaining, which I sprint away trying to get to the plane ASAP. I'm freezing, hungry, exhausted and fending off frostbite on my head, hands, chest and legs. But I'm here. Remember how I said in my first post that I needed one more bit of luck to make this work? When I enter the plane, there it is. A hacksaw sitting atop a wooden crate. A 100% hacksaw! I don't have a screenshot because at this point I'm pissing condition away, but if I did I'd photoshop it with a halo and god rays. Maybe angels and harps too. Only 50% of Interloper sandboxes have a hacksaw at the summit... so I got lucky again. I build a fire, break open the coffee/tea and food containers and stop the condition leak. I stabilize at about 50%. Then I loot everything (ah, the luxury of a 100% hacksaw). There are spare shoes and wolf pelts I don't want but I take everything else. For the first time I replicate @Drifter Man's special TWM magic and get 13 rounds for the distress pistol instead of the usual 8. The fire starter I pick up is 82%. Overall, a damn lucky first day of interloper life! But no pants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 5, 2017 Author Share Posted September 5, 2017 The search for pants begins... Day 3 (I'd call this day 2 because only 24 hours have passed, but the game keeps time differently. From now on I'll use the game's numbering.) I decide to leave the summit by climbing down the rope. Billy-goating down the mountain seems too risky, since I'm low condition and fully exhausted. I'm also worried about getting frostbite on my ass. But even carrying a spare rope I'm not overburdened. So I drink a coffee, descend the rope and fall back into my snow shelter for a nice nap. It's mid afternoon when I tear down the shelter, and descend to the Hut. Along the way I deploy a rope so I can return to Waterfall Cave in the future. The Hut has a second ski jacket, matches and a magnifier. I gather some cattails, then head over to the Abandoned Prepper Cache in PV. The cache has zero loot for me, but I get a great night's sleep in the warm. Day 4 The weather is not so nice today (welcome to PV!), and again I'm worried about frostbite to my ass. For simplicity, I'll just call this "assbite" from now on. So I take the rope down from Skeeter Ridge since it's quicker than my usual billy goat route. I grab some birch saplings along the way and a bunch of shrooms at Draft Dodger's and warm up inside while harvesting cloth. My plan is to harvest the deer carcass at the river, so I head over there before fully warm since I plan to build a fire at the carcass. It's not there. The weather turns clear and (in-your-face) windy as I press on to the farmhouse. No deer carcass at the farmhouse either. Well, that shoots down plan A for crafting some pants with the deer hide I brought from the summit. My assbite risk is up to 60% so I loot the farm, make water, and cook reisei tea. I score matches, a prybar, a second toque, socks and a shirt. Also a spare hacksaw. Pants Plan B is Signal Hill, I decide. The wind dies around dusk so I heat some tea, make some torches and head over to check it out. No pants. I get coffee, a sewing kit, a thin wool sweater and a good night's sleep. Day 5 I swing past the red barn to loot it. No pants, but I get a stim and a hammer. Back to the farmhouse to repair my clothes and think about Plan C. Day 6 My Pants Plan C is to move to the dam, harvest the nearby deer carcasses and get the hides curing, then loot ML. Either I'll loot pants or craft pants, but I'm not leaving ML without pants! I travel through the cave to Winding River and find a deer carcass just inside the far end. Score! In Winding River I grab a rabbit then head to the dam. I'll have to get the final deer carcass later because it's too windy for a campfire and my assbite risk is high again. I loot the dam and score a second wool ear wrap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotzn Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 Excellent read! The scarf meant snow shelter and pantlessness right away. Funny to find a book on carcass harvesting on a dead body. And I like it that at some point you say "reisei tea", as reisei is Japanese and can be translated as "coolness". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Wolf Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 3 hours ago, Ruruwawa said: I'm sorry to say placing the snow shelter can be pretty darn finicky Have you tried this spot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 5, 2017 Author Share Posted September 5, 2017 40 minutes ago, Timber Wolf said: Have you tried this spot? nope. Looks like that's inside the cave? If so, much better spot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Wolf Posted September 5, 2017 Share Posted September 5, 2017 10 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said: Looks like that's inside the cave? Yep! And toward the back of it, so you should be able to have a wind protected fire nearby. Granted, I haven't tried this spot since the FC update, but I doubt anything has changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifter Man Posted September 6, 2017 Share Posted September 6, 2017 15 hours ago, Timber Wolf said: Have you tried this spot? Yes that's the right place It's difficult to find the right spot in there where the game actually lets you to build the shelter - I think there is just one special spot where you can do it. Some snowballs stayed there for about 10 days until the shelter got too cold to be safely habitable without fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 6, 2017 Author Share Posted September 6, 2017 It's day 8 and I've looted about half of ML, no pants yet. I do have some deer hides curing so I'll be able to craft pants in five days if none turn up before that. So I have some time for... Reflections on Pantlessness This isn't my first pantless summitloper... On 1/17/2017 at 4:03 PM, Ruruwawa said: I did a run to the summit to try it, starting with the mag lens in the hut. (Loads of wind and 2 blizzards, like your run, ugh.) There was a hacksaw at the summit, sitting atop a wooden crate in an impossible-to-miss spot (yay!). Unfortunately no hacksaw on the way up meant no coffee or spare clothing, so I had to tear up my starter clothes to make a snow shelter to rest before the final rope. After looting the summit had no pants (or longjohns) at all! Brrrrr......! And omg my legs are white. My first trip to the summit on Interloper was also my first encounter with pantlessness. Since then I've started a few lopers on TWM (with pants) for the awesome summit loot before heading out to explore the world. For a long-run Interloper sandbox (as I hope this one will be), my early game strategy is to get to a forge ASAP to make a knife and arrowheads -- ideally before the weather worsens starting day 20. Getting out of TWM on day 2 this time is a wonderful start, but pantlessness seems to be slowing me down... I'm spending a lot more time managing frostbite risk than I expected. I know the broad strokes of Frostbite prevention: cover all body parts, never wear frozen clothing, warm up in front of a fire or sleep in a warm bed. Because I'm not able to cover all body parts, I'm paying more attention than ever to the increase and decrease of frostbite risk. And I don't really understand it. I've seen the risk jump up when I'm almost completely warm. I've seen it refuse to drop over several hours indoors. Frostbite risk appears to be a more subtle beast than hypothermia risk. If I can understand it, maybe I can spend my time outside more productively. So that's my mission over the next five days: figure out how to manage my pantless frostbite risk. Hopefully without chaining myself to a campfire. I have some observations and questions to get me started: Sometimes I don't get any pantless frostbite risk while outdoors. I'm warm, with a full temp gauge. Is a Feels Like >0c enough? Must air temp be >0c? Must warmth gauge be full? Being near a fire (or a torch) often decreases pantless frostbite risk. But not always. What's the minimum Feels Like for risk to decrease? What's the minimum Air Temp for risk to decrease? What's the Feels Like / Air Temp for risk to start increasing? What's the temperature range where the risk neither increases or decreases? Does the presence of fire have an effect independent of temperature? Does indoor vs outdoor matter? Frostbite risk seems to rise quickly, and decrease slowly (compared to hypothermia risk) How fast does pantless frostbite increase? How fast does pantless frostbite decrease? Is the rate of increase influenced by temperature? By the presence of fire? Finally, because I'm still digging the Aurora after 115 days of aurora-free Pilgrim, another screenie. I find the sound they make rather soothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotzn Posted September 6, 2017 Share Posted September 6, 2017 Pantlessnessology on the rise? Pantlessnessologists have often been frowned upon within the TLD scientist community. For a long time, their field work - often perceived as irritating by the layman - was considered as merely an academic exercise without much practical value. However, this could now have changed unexpectedly due to recent breakthroughs achieved by Prof. Ruruwawa. Ruruwawa's new description of assbite (Ruruwawa et al., Assbite as a phenomenon on early TWM runs, Journal for Temperature-related Survival Phenomena, 2017 [524]) has roared like thunder through TLD science and caught the attention of all the big names involved in TLD theory. "As many a great discovery in the history of mankind, my ideas were triggered by mere coincidence", says Ruruwawa modestly, "as I was trying to reproduce results from recent snow shelter experiments performed by Prof. @Drifter Man. In doing so, I felt this immense cold coming at me from behind! This awakened both pain and curiosity, and my attention turned 180 degrees, so to say. And I just went on from there." While expectations may now be high for the new kid on the block, there are also doubts being voiced. Some say that the long-term value of shooting-star disciplines like Old-Bear-Coexistology or 1000-Day-Damology has yet to be proven, and that interest in pantlessness may soon cool down again. Prof. Ruruwawa and team may now find themselves under pressure to produce more tangible results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 6, 2017 Author Share Posted September 6, 2017 3 minutes ago, Hotzn said: Pantlessnessology on the rise? Pantlessnessologists have often been frowned upon within the TLD scientist community. For a long time, their field work - often perceived as irritating by the layman - was considered as merely an academic exercise without much practical value. However, this could now have changed unexpectedly due to recent breakthroughs achieved by Prof. Ruruwawa. Ruruwawa's new description of assbite (Ruruwawa et al., Assbite as a phenomenon on early TWM runs, Journal for Temperature-related Survival Phenomena, 2017 [524]) has roared like thunder through TLD science and caught the attention of all the big names involved in TLD theory. "As many a great discovery in the history of mankind, my ideas were triggered by mere coincidence", says Ruruwawa modestly, "as I was trying to reproduce results from recent snow shelter experiments performed by Prof. @Drifter Man. In doing so, I felt this immense cold coming at me from behind! This awakened both pain and curiosity, and my attention turned 180 degrees, so to say.. I laughed out loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prestermatt Posted September 6, 2017 Share Posted September 6, 2017 24 minutes ago, Hotzn said: Pantlessnessology on the rise? Pantlessnessologists have often been frowned upon within the TLD scientist community. For a long time, their field work - often perceived as irritating by the layman - was considered as merely an academic exercise without much practical value. However, this could now have changed unexpectedly due to recent breakthroughs achieved by Prof. Ruruwawa. Ruruwawa's new description of assbite (Ruruwawa et al., Assbite as a phenomenon on early TWM runs, Journal for Temperature-related Survival Phenomena, 2017 [524]) has roared like thunder through TLD science and caught the attention of all the big names involved in TLD theory. This is the best thing I've ever read on these forums. I've spent too long in academia, I guess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Wolf Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 7 hours ago, Ruruwawa said: So that's my mission over the next five days: figure out how to manage my pantless frostbite risk. This aroused my curiosity, so I did some testing. What I discovered pretty quickly is how difficult it is to accurately measure for this. Since hours and minutes have been removed from the game, it's hard to be sure how much time has passed. Furthermore, in order to find out what at what temperature frostbite risk can begin to occur, you need to find a way to stay at a specific temperature. This isn't easy to do. Here is what I have observed so far. Sometimes I don't get any pantless frostbite risk while outdoors. I'm warm, with a full temp gauge. Is a Feels Like >0c enough? Feels Like is what's used in the calculation, I think it holds steady at 0c Must air temp be >0c? Air Temp is not used in the calculation Must warmth gauge be full? I don't think the warmth gauge reading matters Being near a fire (or a torch) often decreases pantless frostbite risk. But not always. What's the minimum Feels Like for risk to decrease? I think this is +1c What's the minimum Air Temp for risk to decrease? I don't think this is used in the calculation What's the Feels Like / Air Temp for risk to start increasing? I think -1c Feels Like What's the temperature range where the risk neither increases or decreases? I think its 0c Does the presence of fire have an effect independent of temperature? Untested Does indoor vs outdoor matter? Yes. It seems to be impossible to get Frostbite while indoors Frostbite risk seems to rise quickly, and decrease slowly (compared to hypothermia risk) How fast does pantless frostbite increase? Untested How fast does pantless frostbite decrease? Untested Is the rate of increase influenced by temperature? By the presence of fire? Untested I ran my first tests in the basement of the Hunter's Lodge in BR which has a static -5c Air Temperature. This allowed me to keep my Feels Like temperature static as well. I was unable to acquire frostbite risk, I always died of hypothermia first. I ran my next tests inside the Mountaineer's Hut, which doesn't have a static temperature, but rather a temperature bonus. I would start with a particular Feels Like and then pass one hour of time, then switch my clothes around to get back to the same temperature I started with, then pass another hour. I tested from the range of -1c to -10c. Just like at the lodge, I was unable to contract frostbite risk, because I would always die of hypothermia. Then I ran tests in the fishing hut on TWM. Here it was pretty easy to acquire frostbite risk. I didn't have time for too many tests, but intend to focus the next batch on pinning down the Feels Like temperature where the frostbite risk begins. I will do the clothes rotation thing to try to keep the Feels Like at the same spot after passing each hour of time. I did do some very quick tests with fire and found the hotter the fire is the quicker the frostbite risk decreases. Conversely, the colder it is the faster the frostbite risk increases. That's all I've got for now, but will keep looking into this. Oh, and please substitute assbite for all frostbites above, as I kept all body locations covered, except for my ass. *Updated this with better answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 7, 2017 Author Share Posted September 7, 2017 UPDATED following more testing. Thanks @Timber Wolf. I've been doing some testing too -- my methodology is to use a stopwatch to time changes shown by the UI. Let me summarize what we've seen so far: For missing clothing-frostbite risk, Feels Like is the key factor Frostbite risk occurs and increases outdoors at Feels Like temperatures less than -5c. It can not occur or increase indoors. Risk increases faster at colder outdoor temperatures Lit torches /flares have no effect beyond adding +3c to Feels Like temp With no fire present, a Feels Like of at least 15c is need to reduce risk. This can include temperature from a bed, clothing, a torch, etc. But you can hang around for hours at feels like temps between -5c and 14c and not see your risk decrease. A fire (campfire, stove, forge) can decrease assbite risks more quickly, possibly even at negative temperatures. At 0c (the lowest temperature I've been able to test), the rate of decrease is 1% per 60 seconds (real life time). A Feels Like of 15c with an indoor fire decreases risk by 1% per 20 seconds. Compare that to 1% per 30 seconds at 15c with no fire. That's 50% more time to clear the risk. Indoor fires seems to far more effective (2.5x faster than outdoor fires) to clear assbite risk. More testing needed! You don't need to right next to the fire, just within it's radius. (The radius of a hot fire is much larger than that of a cool fire.) Risk decreases faster at higher fire temps. A Feels Like of 40c with an indoor fire decreases risk by 1% per 8 seconds. My practical takeaways: Outdoors, a Feels Like of at least -5c will prevent assbite risk A campfire, torch or flare that raises your Feels Like of -5c may not do much for your warmth gauge, but it's enough to prevent assbite risk. Helpful for harvesting a carcass and other outdoor chores. Don't rely on simply being indoors to decrease your risk. Unless you have a fire, you'll need a Feels Like of at least 15c to decrease risk. One easy way is to just sleep it off if your clothes + bed give you a Feels Life of at least 15c. The quickest way to get rid of assbite risk is standing next to an indoor fire. The hotter the fire, the faster your risk decreases. But I'd still like to quantify the lowest outdoor temperature you can endure before getting assbite risk. Is that 0c, 1c or -5c? @Timber Wolf is right, it's -5c. At -6c I start to see my risk increase. Also I've disproved my full-gauge theory now... it's not a factor. I think the question of how fast cold temps increase your risk has some good practical use as well. If it's typically 2x faster at dawn than dusk, for example, that's another practical takeaway. On 9/6/2017 at 6:00 PM, Timber Wolf said: Oh, and please substitute assbite for all frostbites above, as I kept all body locations covered, except for my ass. For science! \o/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitrinePeridot Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 I have found this wildly entertaining. I am unfamiliar with many of the places you describe, and, as much detail as has gone into this, I doubt it will ruin my own, personal experiences when I manage to get there as I will no doubtless not remember where exactly you said this and that was. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitrinePeridot Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 8 hours ago, Hotzn said: Pantlessnessology on the rise? Pantlessnessologists have often been frowned upon within the TLD scientist community. For a long time, their field work - often perceived as irritating by the layman - was considered as merely an academic exercise without much practical value. However, this could now have changed unexpectedly due to recent breakthroughs achieved by Prof. Ruruwawa. Ruruwawa's new description of assbite (Ruruwawa et al., Assbite as a phenomenon on early TWM runs, Journal for Temperature-related Survival Phenomena, 2017 [524]) has roared like thunder through TLD science and caught the attention of all the big names involved in TLD theory. "As many a great discovery in the history of mankind, my ideas were triggered by mere coincidence", says Ruruwawa modestly, "as I was trying to reproduce results from recent snow shelter experiments performed by Prof. @Drifter Man. In doing so, I felt this immense cold coming at me from behind! This awakened both pain and curiosity, and my attention turned 180 degrees, so to say. And I just went on from there." While expectations may now be high for the new kid on the block, there are also doubts being voiced. Some say that the long-term value of shooting-star disciplines like Old-Bear-Coexistology or 1000-Day-Damology has yet to be proven, and that interest in pantlessness may soon cool down again. Prof. Ruruwawa and team may now find themselves under pressure to produce more tangible results. I love it! Beautifully done. Bravo! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 8, 2017 Author Share Posted September 8, 2017 Veritas vos liberabit... "The truth shall set you free..." Well, perhaps not truth, but knowledge. It's the morning of day 10 and I've searched all of ML... definitely no pants. The deer hides need a couple more days to cure. And I made a mistake that further delays pants. I only harvested 3 guts with the hides, doh. I have more guts curing, but gut #4 pushes the pants back another two days. Should I flip my schedule and do my forge run before I craft some pants? The weather in ML is sunny and mild, so maybe Forlorn Muskeg won't be as windy and heartless as usual. Heck, maybe I'll find pants at the forge. I decide to go for it and pack a hammer and some scrap metal. I know my enemy Assbite now, and I no longer fear him. I take off down the track, and it really does feel liberating to be out of the dark, squalid dam and on the move again. Wolves are guarding the Derailment but I sneak past them easily. I'm thinking maybe FM won't be so bad when I notice the crows have stopped squawking. Sure enough, a few unassuming snowflakes drift by. Rut roh. I sprint for the tunnel and almost make it before the storm hits. No matter, I have Assbite's number now. I bask in the glow of a toasty fire in the tunnel until the storm passes. It's late afternoon when the wind finally dies; I pack up and head into FM. Since it's FM and it's not blowing a gale, it's foggy -- naturally. But I don't mind. I've spent quite a few days in FM and I feel confident I'll find the forge. First stop: Poacher's camp. But it's a bust -- no matches, no clothes -- just coal and scrap metal. I make a note to check the Shortwave tower for matches next time I'm here. Then I turn south and head out over the ice. Pretty soon I find my path blocked by a patrolling wolf. I throw a couple stones to shift him aside and continue on. So far, pretty routine. Gradually the fog and gathering darkness conspire to make it challenging to pick my route. I have to stop and consult my map often. A couple times I do a sprint-of-faith over the thin ice, hoping there's an island ahead lurking just out of sight. I'm lucky. I manage to find Old Spence's Homestead without falling through the ice. I've marked my path to the forge in green here; the blue line is my path back to ML. I fire up the forge and craft through the night -- a knife and 16 arrowheads -- then fall into bed for a few hours. It's late afternoon when I'm ready to head back. Warm weather, no wind -- a lucky break for my bare ass. Plus a very heavy fog which is not so lucky. I decide I've tempted my thin ice fate enough for one trip and follow the shoreline back. That's wolf country but the fog will make it harder for the wolves to see me too. It's slow going. I catch myself turning out onto the ice a couple times and have to retrace my steps. Every time a familiar landmark looms up out of the gloom I sigh with relief. I've just found the rail tracks when I hear a bark, finally a wolf has spotted me. But I can't spot him. Is he invisible? The growling follows me all the way to the tunnel but all I see is the fog... pretty spooky! It's foggy in ML too, and the wolves are still guarding the Derailment so I crash at the camp office for the night. Back at the dam next morning, my hides are cured. Gut #4 still has a couple days to go so it looks like I'll be crafting arrows tomorrow. But the next day, PANTS. And that means freedom to go where I want. Can't wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAFO Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 9 hours ago, Ruruwawa said: The weather in ML is sunny and mild, so maybe Forlorn Muskeg won't be as windy and heartless as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Wolf Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 10 hours ago, Ruruwawa said: fire up the forge and craft through the night -- a knife and 16 arrowheads -- then fall into bed for a few hours. Why not forge a hatchet? It's the better defensive weapon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 8, 2017 Author Share Posted September 8, 2017 3 minutes ago, Timber Wolf said: Why not forge a hatchet? It's the better defensive weapon. Because it weighs 1kg more than the knife and I don't plan to wrestle wolves. Once I craft a bow I'll start carrying decoys and the wolves will come to me on my terms. In past sandboxes I'd craft a hatchet later on to break down chairs to liberate more cloth. A lot of cloth is tied up in metal furniture these days, so I'll probably start with the hacksaw. I do break down boxes and small furniture in early game for fuel but the hammer is fine for that and (like the hacksaw) I can repair it with infinitely renewable resources. My long term source of fuel: sticks and coal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Wolf Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 1 minute ago, Ruruwawa said: Because it weighs 1kg more than the knife and I don't plan to wrestle wolves. Once I craft a bow I'll start carrying decoys and the wolves will come to me on my terms. That definitely makes good sense. I guess after being in hundreds of wolf struggles with the testing I've done, I can't help but feel like I need to be armed the best I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruruwawa Posted September 9, 2017 Author Share Posted September 9, 2017 Pantless no longer! Day 15 - I craft arrows in the morning, gather fuel in the afternoon. By evening gut #4 is ready and I start to craft the pants. Darkness interrupts me. Day 16 - PANTS!!!!! In the afternoon I craft the bow too. Now I can finally pay back the wolf who keeps stalking me outside the dam. I grab a decoy and run out to challenge him. He's there. I drop the decoy, step back, pull out my bow and discover... I forgot to grab arrows. Really, Ru? Really? Of course he charges me and I stabbity him with my knife. He's hurt, but so am I. Blood Loss from two wounds, 60% condition lost. Not much damage to my clothes, thankfully. I hear @Timber Wolf's voice in my head as I hobble back to the dam... "why not forge a hatchet?" Touche, bro. But at least I have pants. Day 17 now (translation: 15 days plus some hours survived) and I'm finally past the Assbite phase of my Interloper journey. Interloper life gets pretty routine now, so I don't expect to post more about this sandbox. Was tearing up my pants worth it? I think so -- I'd definitely do it again. And I'll probably progress faster next time now that I know how to manage frostbite risk. Regarding frostbite risk, what a complicated mechanic! Having a Frostbite affliction is appropriate for this setting, but I don't find this implementation very enjoyable. So much hinges on knowing your exact Feels Like temperature when outdoors, which changes constantly. It's unsatisfying gameplay to be repeatedly opening the UI to check your exact temp. I wish my core stats gauges helped me track the progression of frostbite risk, as they do for Hypothermia. That's all -- may your ass be warm and happy! o/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timber Wolf Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 13 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said: pull out my bow and discover... I forgot to grab arrows. Really, Ru? Really? If I had a nickle for every time I planned on doing something in this game and then forget the key item I needed to do it - well, I would have a whole lot of nickles. | 16 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said: Blood Loss from two wounds, 60% condition lost. Not much damage to my clothes, thankfully. I hear @Timber Wolf's voice in my head as I hobble back to the dam... "why not forge a hatchet?" Touche, bro. 17 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said: Regarding frostbite risk, what a complicated mechanic! It really does seem to be. It's a bit annoying and I'm not sure I want to spend any more time trying to figure it out. Then again, well, that's the kind of the thing that I do. 19 minutes ago, Ruruwawa said: Interloper life gets pretty routine now, so I don't expect to post more about this sandbox. If you do keep on with this, I hope you'll report back if you survive for a long time. I certainly wouldn't mind hearing how things are going when you reach 100 days. In any case, good luck with the rest of your journey - Pantaloper! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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