Best TLD Survival Location IRL

[Hesha]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one...

Assuming that the map is accurate and that there is no safe way to leave the overall map of the game. Provided that wildlife locations and behaviour (i.e. aggression) are as they are in the game. And also granting that all buildings are as they are in-game.

Where would you make your base, if your survival wasn't subject to the rules of this game and you had all options and dangers of real-life survival?

[TROY]

PV farmhouse. No question.  IRL, spring will come eventually, and those tractors are most likely Diesel engine rigs and would run by simply hand cranking the engine via the PTO shafts. Crops, fishing in the rivers. Also, once the wolves were cleared, they'd stay that way. 

Or, because if we are applying IRL, to one thing, it's only fair to do so across the board, I'd spend the winter working on one of the boats at Hibernia, getting a mast and daggerboard on it, making a sail and getting ready for a trip to the mainland come spring. 

It would greatly depend on whether or not I found another survivor whose company I could tolerate. Even those of us who greatly enjoy solitude would eventually need interaction to maintain sanity, especially in an apocalypse type event. You'd always be wondering if you really are the last. And under the given circumstances, it's clear that Great Bear is not our home, and the urge to "get home" would be very powerful for most. 

[Mroz4k]

33 minutes ago, TROY said:

Or, because if we are applying IRL, to one thing, it's only fair to do so across the board, I'd spend the winter working on one of the boats at Hibernia, getting a mast and daggerboard on it, making a sail and getting ready for a trip to the mainland come spring. 

Wouldnt Coastal be better for this? You would get more of an access to wood that way, and still had an access to some of the boats, lying around on Misanthrope´s or in fishing village.

I think I agree with TROY for the most part - which is why my choice would be probably one of the Waterlogged cabins (if they are present there) or a cabin in Fishing village. Has access to most of food sources one can think of - fishing, as well as hunting, during the winter. Would simply need to avoid risky areas, or craft some bow and arrows with stone tips and put Wolf´s bane on the tips, drive the wolves out so they stay out. Avoid bears, and there is nothing much to be afraid of. Simply wait for the spring, finish up a sail, maybe put a float on a side of it as well just to make it more secure on the open water, stock up on supplies and off I go for the mainland. 

Now, I dont want to make a new topic just for a a bit different question, but I had a bit different idea in the mind:

If we assumed that there is not a single house on the Bear Island left standing (they would be ruined, so there would still be some civilized loot to be found there) - but without access to the civilization and not having a ready-house to inhabit, where would you all live? And if you planned to build your own cabin, where would that be? We assume its spring.

If I had to build my own cabin, I think I would like to put is somewhere by the Pleasant Valley´s fishing hut. So I have fishing close at hand, from both the pond in the winter, and rivers during the year, with access to farmable land down the valley, plenty of game around and not much in terms of predators per location. Also, the cabin building materials are pretty close at hand, be it gravel and stones by the streams or pond, and ever-present trees for logs. I bet there would be moss for roof somewhere down under the trees as well. And cattails for the roofing. And before building the cabin, I would likely inhabit the cave up there - since its close-by to my building site, would simply make it a bit more weather and animal proof first.

[TROY]

Well, I chose Hibernia so I can work on the boat indoors, and so I could scavenge the Riken for any needed Marine hardware. Plus it's a bit  up the east coast of the island, most likely making it closer to the mainland. (No way to know this for sure of course)  

[Mroz4k]

12 hours ago, TROY said:

Well, I chose Hibernia so I can work on the boat indoors, and so I could scavenge the Riken for any needed Marine hardware. Plus it's a bit  up the east coast of the island, most likely making it closer to the mainland. (No way to know this for sure of course)  

If it was a whaling plant, wouldnt it actually be closer to the open seas? At least that would make more sense to me. But thats just a speculation.

I can definitely see benefits to working on a boat indoors, considering the temperatures and wildlife. 

[TROY]

31 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

If it was a whaling plant, wouldnt it actually be closer to the open seas? At least that would make more sense to me. But thats just a speculation.

I can definitely see benefits to working on a boat indoors, considering the temperatures and wildlife. 

Not necessarily. A good harbor, with safe passage and deep, navigable waters would be chosen usually over proximity to open sea. (At least, where I live, but the fisherman here are chasing lobster, not whales, lol!)  Although, by the looks of the Riken, that spot may not have been so ideal. My assumption was based on the fact that since the island is off the west coast of the mainland, its likely that the east coast of the island is nearer. Again, only a very broad geographical assumption. There could easily be points of the mainland that would be closer to the south or north shores of the island. The biggest factor to me would be indoors space to work, and the large number of other boats from which to strip materials that may be needed. 

[Mroz4k]

3 hours ago, TROY said:

My assumption was based on the fact that since the island is off the west coast of the mainland, its likely that the east coast of the island is nearer. Again, only a very broad geographical assumption.

Fair enough, also pretty good logical assumption. I would still probably choose Coastal over it for more of a comfort and safety, but you raise very good points.

[Hesha]

Well, I guess I would completely re-evaluate the threat of wolves. If wolves were this aggressive IRL, I think they would have gone extinct centuries, if not millenia ago. I mean... an animal, any animal really, that mindlessly and fearlessly attacks humans on sight, would be so easy to ambush or trap and kill, even with basic equiment, as long as you are not caught by surprise or when wounded or overburdened. I can think of so many ways to lure such aggressive wolves into a death trap... that would actually make survival a lot easier than in a realistic scenario, because you would have such an easy source of food.

[Mroz4k]

23 minutes ago, Hesha said:

Well, I guess I would completely re-evaluate the threat of wolves. If wolves were this aggressive IRL, I think they would have gone extinct centuries, if not millenia ago. I mean... an animal, any animal really, that mindlessly and fearlessly attacks humans on sight, would be so easy to ambush or trap and kill, even with basic equiment, as long as you are not caught by surprise or when wounded or overburdened. I can think of so many ways to lure such aggressive wolves into a death trap... that would actually make survival a lot easier than in a realistic scenario, because you would have such an easy source of food.

This is exactly why I found the move "The Grey" so riddiculous.

But no, wolves are not that aggressive, not to humans, anyways. Other animals, mostly livestock, thats a different story - wolves are rather smart (not intelligent, smart) animals - same as many other predators they can pretty well evaluate how dangerous what is, so they wont pick on people that much, but when it comes to livestock, they are able to butcher a lot of it just because its on their territory. In a short documentary about Wolf hunters in Siberia, it is shown what an over-grown population of wolves can do to its ecosystem. Also, pays to remind that wolves can actually multiply rather fast when they are not actively hunted. 

And no, just because something is aggressive, it is not easy to trap or fool - that would be a very deadly line of thought.

[TROY]

1 minute ago, Mroz4k said:

And no, just because something is aggressive, it is not easy to trap or fool - that would be a very deadly line of thought.

Im pretty sure Hesha was referring to how the Wolves in the game behave. They ARE mindlessly aggressive, and would in fact be easy to lure, trap, and kill.  

[Mroz4k]

2 minutes ago, TROY said:

Im pretty sure Hesha was referring to how the Wolves in the game behave. They ARE mindlessly aggressive, and would in fact be easy to lure, trap, and kill.  

Oh.
Well, yea, they are actually really easy to lure. Lets be honest, dealing with wolves is pretty easy - just drop a lure, back down, and put an arrow in them once they walk into your line of fire. 
Wouldnt be so easy IRL, but in game, yea, they are really stupid. No instinctive ability to "guess" the strenght of their opponent, no instinctive self preservation.

[Hesha]

Yeah, that is what I meant. With wolves behaving like they do in game, you could build a cage with two doors and lure them in or lure them into a pit or net or whatever. With them beelining for you like that, it would be quite easy to lure them into traps.

I mean, IRL wolves only survived for so long, despite being competitors to humans, because they are so damn afraid of us. I mean... hasn't mankind basically eradicated each and every animal that wasn't afraid of us (looking at you, Dodo and Giant Sloth)?

[Hesha]

21 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

Oh.
Well, yea, they are actually really easy to lure. Lets be honest, dealing with wolves is pretty easy - just drop a lure, back down, and put an arrow in them once they walk into your line of fire.

That's what I meant. And it would be quite easy to kill them in ways that don't risk your health as much as killing them with a hatchet or don't use resources like arrows.

[Mroz4k]

36 minutes ago, Hesha said:

I mean, IRL wolves only survived for so long, despite being competitors to humans, because they are so damn afraid of us. I mean... hasn't mankind basically eradicated each and every animal that wasn't afraid of us (looking at you, Dodo and Giant Sloth)?

Umm, no.
Wolves are not that afraid, if anything they are rather curious. And I wouldnt consider bears to be affraid... and they are still here. 

Most animals get wiped out because of hunting, quite often they are simply being hunted for a single resource... like whales, for their flippers which are highly valued as a delicacy, for example. Excessive hunting is whats responsible for extinctions.

Also, seems that wolves are making a come-back. In here they are almost entirely extinct, but in some parts of the world they are overpopulated, usually because they climbed to the top of the food chain in that area, and without natural predators to compete with them, they are overgrowing.

[Hesha]

3 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

Umm, no.
Wolves are not that afraid, if anything they are rather curious. And I wouldnt consider bears to be affraid... and they are still here. 

Most animals get wiped out because of hunting, quite often they are simply being hunted for a single resource... like whales, for their flippers which are highly valued as a delicacy, for example. Excessive hunting is whats responsible for extinctions.

Also, seems that wolves are making a come-back. In here they are almost entirely extinct, but in some parts of the world they are overpopulated, usually because they climbed to the top of the food chain in that area, and without natural predators to compete with them, they are overgrowing.

Erm. No.

Just read up about the big wolf-hunts in France a couple of centuries ago. They pretty much eradicated wolves for the single reason that people didn't like them around where they lived. And it seems to be consensus that only those wolves who were most afraid of people and hid the best survived.
And since you are from central Europe, you should know that the ONE and only reason, why wolves are making a comeback, is because goverments decided that they WANT them back and are actively protecting them, to the point where they are paying shepherds money for sheep taken by wolves and for training wolf-deterring dogs. And you are certainly aware that wolfs HAD gone extinct in all of Western Europe and have been reintroduced into some countries, not because they're so resilient that they can simply make a come back, but because they are allowed back.

There is also some type of fencing that flutters in the wind and deters wolves. They are really quite timid when it comes to humans.

Also, what you're saying about whales is incorrect. That's sharks that get hunted for their fins. Whales have been hunted for their oil and meat and I guess their bones at some point.

[Mroz4k]

53 minutes ago, Hesha said:

Just read up about the big wolf-hunts in France a couple of centuries ago. They pretty much eradicated wolves for the single reason that people didn't like them around where they lived. And it seems to be consensus that only those wolves who were most afraid of people and hid the best survived.

Not sure what you saw. I live in central Europe and am rather well aversed in history. The reason why wolves were pretty much eradicated in the entirety of the Central Europe is because they were causing significant damage on the livestock. And it also ties to the fact that Europe is the pool of civilization, and is way too densely populated to really allow for much in terms of free wilderness. That means that the ecosystem for wolves was entirely eradicated here in the Europe. Only just now the grey wolf is slowly starting to make a comeback, because of efforts of nature preservation agencies. With eradication of wolves in the Europe, different problems arised - certain animal species overgrew the areas, because they were not naturally hunted down by the wolves. Hence another reason to attempt to bring them back and re-introduce them into the enviroment.

The reason they were hunted out is not because "people didnt want them" - they were actively hurting people´ livelyhoods, thats why they were eradicated. 

Of course wolves are only getting back because they were allowed to... there is no more free enviroment for them in here. If they were not cultivated, they wouldnt be able to return back. 

53 minutes ago, Hesha said:

Also, what you're saying about whales is incorrect. That's sharks that get hunted for their fins. Whales have been hunted for their oil and meat and I guess their bones at some point.

Yes, sharks are being hunted for fins as well (amongst other things). And whales WERE hunted in the past for the oil, mostly, since it was the only similar substance allowed and the world had a big need for it. Thats in the PAST. Now they are being illegaly hunted for flippers which are considered a delicacy in the Japan. Do more research before you go calling out bullshit. Whales are no longer hunted for those resources, as the civilization long ago went to kerosene instead. 

Maybe you shouldnt argue with someone who objectively has a first hand experience and knowledge. An european would instantly know the main reason of why the wolves are gone is the fact that Europe is so overpopulated. Take Germany for instance - cant go for 3 km and not run into a house. There is no more wilderness, just tiny, couple of tens of square kilometers of national parks, thats hardly a place that can accomodate more then a few packs.

Last hike I went to was to the mountains close by, it was middle of the week, late summer. I met 200 people over the course of 7 hour trip. And Czech Rep is not even that big... imagine more developed countries. There is more tourists and cyclists in the mountains then there is the wildlife. Thats the reality - take a guess why the wolves wouldnt be able to come back.

Same like me, calling a bullshit on someone in these forums claiming that a bear, chasing a cyclist video was shot in western Czech Republic where such encounters are common... it may have been shot in CZ, but not in the west as there are no bears there anymore, maybe here in the east, but in that case it was a very rare encounter - we have a total of maybe 10-20 brown bears inhabit local mountains, and most of them are more commonly located behind the borders in Slovakia. Which is actually less populated then CZ. Funny how that works...