v152 (new Map Coastal Highway) Feedback

[Blackwood]

Too many wolves! I could stop here :roll:

I had a an old save game where I had looted the mystery lake map except for the bunker and went to the Coastal Highway map straightaway. Met/Shot/Avoided 4 wolves going down the mountain to the first two houses at the coast (the ones with all the logs in the water). Looted the place and was greeted by two wolves leaving the house. Thankfully I had the rifle from mystery lake and around 15 rounds. The ice seemed to be infested with wolves. Around 4-5. So I went along the highway to the fishing camp and met two more wolves... Looted and went straight for the islands. Met another wolf at misanthropes homestead and got nearly killed trying to scare it away with a flare. Went to the town which had two more wolves (they really like buildings, don't they?) patrolling the area. Went up to the abandoned lookout. You can see it from the ice. Found a rifle, but not much else. So rested a night and moved on since I had no food left. Met a wolf, killed it, while gutting it another wolf attacked me. Killed it. More meat I can't carry. Yippee. So with 30% condition I found a blocked tunnel entrance, foraged some wood -> condition down to 14% thanks to worsened freezing effect. Started a fire in the tunnel entrance to cook some meat. Fire was blown out by the wind. Unable to start another fire. Froze to death despite premium winter coat, mittens, insulated boots, cargo pants, thick wool sweater etc.

New game: Explored half of the mystery lake map and set up in the camp office. The amount of wolves (or their distribution?) now is insane. There are two wolves going past the camp office every day it seems. I went from the camp office to the derailment and met 3 wolves on the way. WTF? Are they traveling in packs now?

Distribition of wildlife: The amount of wolves seemed to have tripled overall. There seem to be more wolves than deer on the map. Which is ridiculous considering that deers and rabbits alone could not support that many predators IRL. Unpredictability means for me either no wolves for hours and than meeting three to four in one place. This needs to be changed. It kills the fun.

Tool condition decay change: I like it. Finally we can actually use the tools without worrying that they break after 3-4 uses. Great!

New foraging option: I really love this change. Nothing worse than having an insane amount of meat (from a wolf eating a bullet while eating a deer :mrgreen: ) and no wood to cook it or not being able to forage enough wood to melt+cook water. I can reliably forage cedar firewood (better chance of starting a fire) or fir firewood (to repair the rifle/hatchet/knife).

Enhanced condition bars: The indicators provide feedback how actions influence hunger, thirst, cold and fatigue. This was not really clear for me before. Sure the calorie burn per hour is shown, but easily missed.

Soft fatigue weight limit: I'm not sure I like this change. With the new system I have to set up a base of operations much earlier and consciously manage my inventory and weight. Traveling with 29 of 30 kg is near suicide since the limit will drop at around 1/4 fatigue and movement speed decreases. When I have to kill a wolf or find a deer while exploring I cannot collect all the meat I want. When I reach the next cabin I have to take a nap.

Sleep interruptions: These are utterly pointless while sleeping indoors. "You're sleep was interrupted." So what? Back to sleep. Rinse repeat until dawn. Why was my sleep interrupted? This seems to be a pointless change.

Changed meat values: Meat is now heavier and has less calories making it less valuable. I need to store it in a central location and cannot take as much with me which limits the time I can explore the map. Also the meat of a deer/wolf will not last as long due to having less calories. Haven't tried rabbit meat yet.

Snares: I didn't live long enough to consciously use snares. (hint: the wolves had something to do with it)

Coastal highway area: The new houses are great. Cupboards can store up to 40 kg :shock: Nice. Traveling there is really dangerous. Not only are there are more wolves overall, but going downhill from the railway doesn't leave much space to avoid any wolves I encounter. So I have to deal with them, fall to my death or go back to the nearest building and take a nap hoping they disappear. The areas with more than one house seem to be especially infested with wolves.

Reduced loot: It is fewer, but the food at least seems to be better.

Increased freezing damage: Blizzards are now a real danger. Planning your approach is now required to survive. Nothing worse than being stuck in a shelter with no food and a blizzard outside.

TL;DR The game is less random now and the player needs to be more careful. The new map is huge. But the wolves are a real deal breaker. Their distribution needs to be tweaked.

[Beanie]

Thought I'd add my feedback on an admittedly limited two or three hours in the new zone. So...initial thoughts, really.

Things I liked:

The new cabinets and containers and especially the amount you can cram into them!

The rate of change indicators for Thirst, Fatigue and so on.

The ability to use a tool to open cans, and to fight wolves.

Running on the road surface. I really am hearing "Run, Forest, Run!" every time I do it. Nice speed boost.

Things I'm not sure about yet:

The general tweaking of the mechanics. It isn't too bad, but I'm finding myself watching the condition indicators far too much. Might just be a case of getting used to the adjusted rates of change.

Things I don't much like:

Too many wolves! Seriously, it's like Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". They're everywhere! What gives?

Wolf-fighting. I know it was unrealistic before, but I had hoped a fight using the hunting knife would at least be as easy as the previous punch-ups. Instead, it seems a lot harder. I had a couple of fights and got badly mauled, once down to just 3% (Don't worry, I'm a trained professional.... don't try this at home!). I'll try it again without the knife and report back.

Too little loot! Now, before anyone goes waggling fingers and saying it isn't meant to be easy, I appreciate that it is supposed to be hard. But there is a difference between hard and tedious. At the moment, I'm finding an item in a cabinet/drawer maybe one time in ten, perhaps even less. All the rest are empty. In the game, this quickly becomes tiresome and makes you wonder why you are bothering, especially with the accelerated time factor. Please guys, don't let this turn into "Drawer opening simulator". Put something minor into the drawers if needed, like single matches, but at least let us feel like the effort of searching was worth it.

That's it for initial impressions. Still haven't seen the whole new area, of course.

[xnoybis]

I found a way to deal with wolves. Take the fight to them, seriously. There's plenty of food around to heal up with later.

In my last playthrough in 30 days I found about 10 antiseptics total, so not a lot compared to the population of our fluffy friends. What I would do is rest up completely, have condition at 100%, be warmed up and light on gear (drop everrrryting, well, except for clothing, weapons/tools, antisept and bandages), you need the speed. Mild weather is also a good thing to have (so the aftermath is manageable).

I would go out, find a wolf, make sure he has no friends hiding in the bushes and charge him. Mash right mouse button as soon as he's in range (even before the animation kicks in). I would take about 5-10% damage usually before he scampers off, then chase him down - he will stop and turn around and attack again. Repeat and poof, one tango down (it took two attacks with some kind of a weapon in hand). Now find another, there is one not far away. Don't bandage or antisept yet. Repeat the process. Splash two. Now bandage, maybe antisept - I would only do it every other hunt and pray I don't die of infection - something to keep in mind if you're low on antibiotics. Carve up the bastards, carry the 15 or so kilograms of meat home and heal for the next 2-3 days. The lowest I went using this approach was 8% condition, but most of the time I would not go below 50% and still have two wolves in my freezer.

[Trandor]

@xnoybis

That's exactly the way I dealt with them, even before the last update. Only I spawned the wolves on me, instead of chasing them down. The way about it is I simply put down my bedroll and go to sleep for an hour, then start mashing my LMB, since wolf attacks are seemingly 100%, when there's no fire next to you.

Still seems like the best idea to deal with them now, especially since you get more uses from antiseptics and can produce bandages from clothes.

[furq]

Before the wolf hotfix and fatigue balance it was tricky, but now I gotta say hats off to you guys, it's the perfect amount of danger, I feel I can explore now, if I pick the right day ofc. Just one thing, happy with the wolf amount but are they supposed to walk next to one another ?, and a deer or 2 would be nice to see, Would give you my firstborn for a way to make bullets, with all the wolves about ammo is going to run scarce soon

[Burning Bridges]

Seems all right to me now. I usually got to around the wolves (the trick seems to be to move over open spaces and stay away from places where they could surprise you), it seems that I will have to fight them from time to time, but that is allright, the game was a but too easy before.