Snowballs: Hushed River Valley

[Drifter Man]

22 hours ago, cullam said:

I can confirm that on Stalker, I've had a campfire blow out in the crawl-space of the shelter by the pleasant valley farmstead, multiple times. Almost like the wind blows through the gaps between the boards... Sometimes, I wish we could re-enforce our little shelters. 

I think there are two types of windproofing: 1) walls, which protect from wind from certain direction to a short distance of a few steps (like terrain) and 2) areas declared windproof by the devs, such as caves, Mountaineer's Hut, Old Spence Family Homestead. Those barns apparently are the first type, so if you build a fire at the north side, it won't be protected from the south because the south wall is too far away.

[Hotzn]

2 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

I think there are two types of windproofing: 1) walls, which protect from wind from certain direction to a short distance of a few steps (like terrain) and 2) areas declared windproof by the devs, such as caves, Mountaineer's Hut, Old Spence Family Homestead. Those barns apparently are the first type, so if you build a fire at the north side, it won't be protected from the south because the south wall is too far away.

Which means it could be protected if placed in the center? I see field work for TLD scientists coming up...

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 54 / Day 99

Day 99 was busy but unremarkable. I went from Camp Office to Trapper's Homestead to pick up a hacksaw I left there (I left the one I had with me in FM at the Spences'). It was nice to find everything as I left it when I first came from HRV on Day 14 or so, including two deer hides and four guts. Just the old clothes that I kept in the locker are now ruined. Then I made a trip around Unnamed Pond and Logging Camp to the Dam, and spent the rest of the day and early morning with repairs.

Snowball 54 / Day 100

Blizzard, then deer hunt in the Ravine at dusk. When multiple deer live in a small area, they are difficult to hunt, because when you send one running, they all start running (which is as it should be). After the hunt I choose to sleep in the cave.

Snowball 54 / Day 101

Sticks, boiling water, cooking.

[Drifter Man]

8 minutes ago, Hotzn said:

Which means it could be protected if placed in the center? I see field work for TLD scientists coming up...

Either that, or not protected from any direction at all

[Dan_]

Wow! I'm amazed how your fire by the crafting table at Old Spence was not windblown for four whole days! Great find, I did place fires under that crafting table before but I was always micromanaging the time and only crafted a spare set of gloves for the fun of it, nice to know it's a viable permanent fire spot. 

Snowball #54 is a complete baller right now, flaunting that moose cloak about.  Gotta say I'm a huge fan of the bear coat but the moose cloak is just indestructible, it never gets wet so it rarely goes down in condition. If only it got a small windproofing or warmth boost it would be hands down the best coat in the game. 

[stratvox]

I like the moose cloak on the outside, bear coat on the inside combo. Yeah, it weighs a ton, but it's warm af, very waterproof (really good for when you have to walk through a waterfall in those ice caves) and has a very good chance to scare off wolves. Keeping all those inner layers dry in the way the cloak does is just very very nice.

[Dan_]

7 hours ago, stratvox said:

I like the moose cloak on the outside, bear coat on the inside combo. Yeah, it weighs a ton, but it's warm af, very waterproof (really good for when you have to walk through a waterfall in those ice caves) and has a very good chance to scare off wolves. Keeping all those inner layers dry in the way the cloak does is just very very nice.

I very my coat choices but most of the time I'm doing double bear coats, mobility is overrated when you can shoot anything point blank. I admit the cloak is good for those surprise wolf attacks, though.

[Riotintheair]

23 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Either that, or not protected from any direction at all

If I use the little back room it's protected from most directions, at least for the one at Trapper's, the one at PV Farmstead, and the one at the PV outbuildings. I've cooked in these locations regularly (in pre-1.33 play) and the wind directions that blow out my fires are pretty narrow and seem to line up with visible gaps in the structure at all 3 sites.  It's not safe for a good long sleep and they can get reduced if the wind swings through a wide arc, but unless I get super unlucky and have the wind settle in the gap, I can refuel the fire and go on. I believe I've only lost 2 fires before finishing my tasks in those sites over a couple hundred days and a huge majority of sessions don't face any difficulty even when a blizzard blows in. They're not as good as a cave, Spence's, or the Lighthouse summit (which is also a perfectly safe outdoor space you can light a fire in despite all the broken glass), but they're better than other outdoor cooking spots.

[Drifter Man]

22 hours ago, Dan_ said:

Snowball #54 is a complete baller right now, flaunting that moose cloak about.  Gotta say I'm a huge fan of the bear coat but the moose cloak is just indestructible, it never gets wet so it rarely goes down in condition. If only it got a small windproofing or warmth boost it would be hands down the best coat in the game.

It can't be perfect - it's nice that every item in the game has its pros and cons.

[Drifter Man]

20 hours ago, stratvox said:

I like the moose cloak on the outside, bear coat on the inside combo. Yeah, it weighs a ton, but it's warm af, very waterproof (really good for when you have to walk through a waterfall in those ice caves) and has a very good chance to scare off wolves. Keeping all those inner layers dry in the way the cloak does is just very very nice.

 

12 hours ago, Dan_ said:

I very my coat choices but most of the time I'm doing double bear coats, mobility is overrated when you can shoot anything point blank. I admit the cloak is good for those surprise wolf attacks, though.

Thanks for the tips, I was actually going to ask what people prefer to wear on the torso - everything else is pretty clear, but the choice wolf/bear/moose is not. I think I'll craft a wolfskin coat first as the inner outer layer, it is the easiest one to get material for and to maintain.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 54 / Days 102 - 104

Winding River. I killed the local wolf and harvested three ravaged deer carcasses. Two of the carcasses were overlaid on the same spot - when I harvested one, the other became available.

I want to get a new bow before leaving for CH, plus a few fishing lines.

[Dan_]

Deer hide extravaganza!  Crafting by the dam I presume?

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Thanks for the tips, I was actually going to ask what people prefer to wear on the torso - everything else is pretty clear, but the choice wolf/bear/moose is not. I think I'll craft a wolfskin coat first as the inner outer layer, it is the easiest one to get material for and to maintain.

Yep, that's pretty much it for me as well. The wolf coat has amazing warmth to weight ratio and is absurdly easy to maintain, not to mention very durable as well. I usually double the bear coats so I have an excuse for actively seeking and hunting them, but that's not a knock on the trusty wolf jacket. 

[stratvox]

Wolf coats are pretty much always the first, since they insist on bringing me snacks and furs every time they see me. I have a few of 'em scattered around in my current long term run (at day 433 currently!). Every once in a while I make a new one and leave 'em somewhere central in case I find myself needing a quick fix for a destroyed coat... though I have to admit I think I'm never going to end up using any of them.

Moose cloaks are the bomb when it comes to armour value; wolf struggles, bear maulings, and moose rampages are significantly more survivable because of it. 

[Drifter Man]

18 hours ago, Dan_ said:

Deer hide extravaganza!  Crafting by the dam I presume?

The hides are mainly for repairs, but I plan to use the guts for a bow soon.

[Drifter Man]

13 hours ago, stratvox said:

Wolf coats are pretty much always the first, since they insist on bringing me snacks and furs every time they see me. I have a few of 'em scattered around in my current long term run (at day 433 currently!). Every once in a while I make a new one and leave 'em somewhere central in case I find myself needing a quick fix for a destroyed coat... though I have to admit I think I'm never going to end up using any of them.

Moose cloaks are the bomb when it comes to armour value; wolf struggles, bear maulings, and moose rampages are significantly more survivable because of it. 

Interesting about those bear maulings. I thought they all leave you at one tenth of your initial condition, regardless of protection. Does clothing matter in bear attacks?

[Riotintheair]

I almost always use a wolf hide coat and ski jacket. My goal is a 22 C warmth bonus with a total character carry weight of 27 kg or less when leaving home for the rounds (sticks and meat, it's always sticks and meat). Other arrangements I use are moose/wolf, moose/ski. I generally don't think the bear items are worth the weight increase, especially as they lead to me having a voracious appetite for bears, but loads of people like double bear and maybe someday I'll give it another try... I hate being slow and the reduced carrying capacity makes me heavy a lot more on the return trip to base, and both of these make it more likely I'll need to wrestle with a wolf, which is awful with the bear coat because it's such a pain to maintain even without wrestling wolves and the bear coat looses some of its warmth edge with every slide in its condition (it's pretty much trivial to maintain a wolf coat at >95% as the repair components are always on their way, so my bear coat is always competing against essentially a 100% wolf skin coat).

I do usually craft a bear bedroll for colder wilderness regions, as with it I can confidently sleep through the night in warm zone outdoor caves without a fire, even in post 50-day Interloper. Maintenance of the bear bedroll requires diligent, but not extravagant, bear hunting when it's in heavy use, and a 2-bear region is sufficient to maintain it in working order even after bear respawn times have gone to 50 days.

[stratvox]

6 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Interesting about those bear maulings. I thought they all leave you at one tenth of your initial condition, regardless of protection. Does clothing matter in bear attacks?

Hmmm. I've been wearing this outfit for a long long time on this run. I got mauled by a bear some weeks previously and ISTR that I had more than ten percent left at the end of it but my recall may not be right. 

Might have to try and trigger one and see what the results are.

Bleah. Not looking forward to that. Might have to wait a bit so I can be sure to get mauled somewhere I can get to shelter quickly. I just killed the bear outside my current cave (which is pretty ideally situated for this experiment) so it'll be a while before he shows up again. The other bear in this region (HRV) is quite a hike from any shelter. Maybe the bear by the bridge in MT....

[Pillock]

19 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Interesting about those bear maulings. I thought they all leave you at one tenth of your initial condition, regardless of protection. Does clothing matter in bear attacks?

 

12 hours ago, stratvox said:

Hmmm. I've been wearing this outfit for a long long time on this run. I got mauled by a bear some weeks previously and ISTR that I had more than ten percent left at the end of it but my recall may not be right. 

Might have to try and trigger one and see what the results are.

Bleah. Not looking forward to that. 

Bear attacks take 90% of your current condition, minus protection.

If you're on 100% with no protection, you'll be left on 10% (obvs)
If you're on 50% with no protection, you'll be left with 5% (90% of 50% is 45%)

If you're on 100% condition with 20% protection, that protection saves you 20% of the 90% (18%), so you only suffer 72% damage, leaving you on 28%.
If you're on 50% condition with 20% damage, that'd be... mymathsisshitwaitasec .... 72% of 50 is... 36. So you're left with 14%?

This is from observations I've made from accidental attacks - I don't tend to "test" these things scientifically, I'm afraid. But I'm pretty sure that's how it goes. (And I've been attacked by bears by mistake quite a lot of times over the years!)

[stratvox]

Yeah. Here's my clothing now.

And the cloak doesn't even take that much of a beating from a bear mauling, and does an excellent job of protecting the clothes underneath it. Based on your metric, while wearing this, a bear mauling would leave me with 55% condition remaining. Seems about what I remember. I didn't lose any clothing, but I did have to repair mittens, hats, and boots. The outside pants ended up around 80% IIRC. I have since repaired the cloak, but I think after the mauling it was down at 70% or so, so it wasn't a huge omg omg omg rush.

Reminds me. I should go see if the moose has returned yet up at Monolith Lake.

[Drifter Man]

21 hours ago, Riotintheair said:

I'll need to wrestle with a wolf, which is awful with the bear coat because it's such a pain to maintain even without wrestling wolves and the bear coat looses some of its warmth edge with every slide in its condition (it's pretty much trivial to maintain a wolf coat at >95% as the repair components are always on their way, so my bear coat is always competing against essentially a 100% wolf skin coat).

Those are good arguments for a wolf coat. In fact, I'm thinking that my moose outfit can also get difficult to maintain if I get into wolf fights (I have avoided them completely so far, over 100 days straight without a struggle). I understand I can harvest and re-craft the moose cloak, but that's another 20 hours at a workbench. Better go out and hunt a moose, I think.

[Drifter Man]

17 hours ago, stratvox said:

Might have to try and trigger one and see what the results are.

I didn't mean you should go and get mauled by a bear to test my theories 

[Drifter Man]

5 hours ago, Pillock said:

Bear attacks take 90% of your current condition, minus protection.

Thanks for clarifying and sharing this here! So protection does matter. Also thanks to @stratvox for sharing his moose cloak experience, it looks it's a very tough piece of clothing.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 54 / Day 110

In the afternoon I set out for Coastal Highway. I know it is an old map, but in my opinion, every map in TLD is a piece of art, so I look forward to seeing CH again. I look forward a little less to meeting its traditional inhabitants.

I'm also told that the Quonset Station has reopened for business, so I should check it out and see if I can meet the manager.

After a warming break at the trestle (taking advantage of a brief show of sunlight before nightfall), I reach the trailer at Train Unloading and sleep there. In Coastal Highway, I hope to:

• stock up on cloth for repairs
• find a thin wool sweater in a salvageable condition
• maybe kill a bear so that I can start working on the bedroll

Snowball 54 / Day 111

First I reachthe Fishing Camp and warm up in the cabins - the weather is bad, so I spend the morning indoors, harvesting curtains. I find two forgotten cans of soda under a bed and behind a chair - I was here briefly before on my way from TWM, I must have overlooked them. The weather clears up in the afternoon, so I move to Jackrabbit Island. I find a pair of wool socks in 71% condition, which raises my hopes for the thin wool sweater. I don't forget to say hello to the firestriker guy on the far shore of Jackrabbit. Unfortunately, his firestriker is at 28%. Still, this is almost as good as a box of matches.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 54 / Day 112

I get up at daybreak. Although I am well supplied with cattails (and some chocolate bars I found in good condition), I should supply my local base with local food. The original plan was fishing, but I don't feel like spending a day in a fishing hut right now.

I head out onto the ice in light fog and hit one of the four deer in the area between Jackrabbit and the coast. The deer runs away and dies at Jackrabbit, where I harvest it and cook all the meat at a campfire. Weather is kind and the fire - about 25 sticks and one coal - burns almost until nightfall.

The beauty of Coastal Highway! Fifty thousand shades of blue.

[FunkyFuggerson]

Im confused, how does this relate to the only HRV? Or are you going to be doing say a supply run to some regions to get a bunch of essentials, (Cloth, matches, arrowheads) And then hole up in HRV only occasionally heading to FM for arrowheads, tools, and crafting?