A Few Dead Men


Drifter Man

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Guest jeffpeng
4 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

wolves now howl so frequently that it becomes annoying

It's like a permanent wolf radar. I mean it's really hard to get surprised by a wolf now - that's good. But being trained to really listen to the wild your are put on permanent alert now. I'm not sure I dislike it as much as you do, but I preferred it pre-redux as well.

4 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

 I don't like the well fed buff, it adds too much carrying capacity for too little effort and, to a large degree, removes the need to decide what to take in the backpack and what not to. 30 kg capacity was, in my opinion, the optimum to make this decision-making interesting. I'd prefer having a 2-5 kg penalty for starving to an easily achieved 5 kg bonus for not starving.

I'd have gone at it this way: start the game well fed, reduce basic capacity by 5 kg, and then keep well fed as it is now. This way you avoid the starvation system to be more punitive, and you essentially achieve the same effect without diluting the carrying system. There is an important component to why positive reinforcement (rewarding) works better than negative reinforcement (punishing) in games, so I understand HL's reasoning here.

But I also agree that 5kg extra for not-so-much effort makes the game easier with little need. I already wasn't the biggest fan of the satchel, and now bumping cap again by 5 kg makes careful selection of travel gear rather pointless. In Stalker the satchel meant free rifle. Now 5kg on top of that mean a full free set of tools. On Interloper this basically makes wearing two bearskin coats a nobrainer. Yes, you need to bring more food, but an apt survivor will have little worries keeping himself fed once a bow is acquired (which is something that should be done rather quickly in any case).

I know that there is a rather large portion of players out there that constantly demand more carrying capacity, but they will keep demanding that until there is a custom option to outright disable carry cap altogether - which is something I tried, and it makes the game terribly dull on so many levels ... But I guess this is like Multiplayer: People will keep demanding it until they got it and realized how bad an idea it actually is.

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6 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

By the way: I met a bear near the PV Barn - is it the same bear as the one at PV Farmstead?

Not gonna lie, I saw your avatar pic in the index boards and clicked immediately hoping to see another deadman run. :D

It's not the same bear, the farmstead bear ( AKA Chester ) is based on that cave east of the long curve and it circles from the farmstead, near the hay storage close to outskirts of three strikes and then back to the cave. His other route is straight through the orchard towards the farmhouse. 

The PV barn bear is based on a shallow cave at the eastern edge of the birch forest ( not far from the lonely cabins ), I lack knowledge of his specific routes so I usually wait by the barn until his path gets close to his cave and then shoot him from the rocks that border the river.  

Happy hunting. :coffee:

Edited by Dan_
Grammar
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22 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

It's like a permanent wolf radar. I mean it's really hard to get surprised by a wolf now - that's good. But being trained to really listen to the wild your are put on permanent alert now. I'm not sure I dislike it as much as you do, but I preferred it pre-redux as well.

I still don't get clear direction & distance from the howls, so for me it's not a radar - just permanent howling all over the place :D

22 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

I know that there is a rather large portion of players out there that constantly demand more carrying capacity, but they will keep demanding that until there is a custom option to outright disable carry cap altogether - which is something I tried, and it makes the game terribly dull on so many levels ... But I guess this is like Multiplayer: People will keep demanding it until they got it and realized how bad an idea it actually is.

I think a lot people are happy with the extra capacity. I often read survival accounts going like "I'm hauling !@#$ kg of stuff from base A to base B". Players that like to hoard supplies - and carry them to their bases to look at them there - will always welcome more capacity because hauling stuff isn't fun.

On the other hand, I often get to the situation where I decide to leave valuable things behind simply because I need space for other, even more valuable things. That's the kind of decisions that makes the game interesting.

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21 hours ago, Dan_ said:

Not gonna lie, I saw your avatar pic in the index boards and clicked immediately hoping to see another deadman run. :D

Yeah sorry about that. I'm not in the TLD state of mind these days. I wouldn't make a good run :)

Thanks for giving me bearings on that bear. This means I met four bears in PV in two days. One at Signal Hill, one under Signal Hill, one at the Farmstead and one at the Barn. Unless I'm mistaken, there are four possible bears in PV in addition to these, for a total of eight. It's Bearville there.

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23 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

Isn't the bear at SH the same as under?

I seldom see that bear in my playthroughs but I always assumed it was. Can't recall the last time I saw a bear up at signal hill without it being based at the cave under the rope. I might be terribly wrong, my current loper save is more than a year old and it only has four bears in the entirety of PV ( farmstead, barn, ML transition and cave by waterfall near the derelict cabins ). 

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Guest jeffpeng

I don't know PV as well as I should. For me it's pretty much a big transition zone I usually try to get out of as fast as I can. But 8 bears seemed a bit excessive, even to me.

 

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PV is huge, but it has its rewards. Personally, I found the Forest Cave (just down the hill from the pond) to be a great place to base. Lots of wildlife, lots of wood, lots of other resources. There's a bear nearby but not too nearby, the moose shows up at the pond from time to time, there's deer, rabbits... and the wolves are far enough away to not be a serious hazard.

N.B. cave living means you want to try to keep a perma-fire going, but once you get Fire 5 that's not too difficult. Perma-fires are awesome because if you start to get cold you just amble on home and if you've had a fire going for a week you're warm again in under an hour.

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On 31/12/2018 at 12:09 AM, jeffpeng said:

Isn't the bear at SH the same as under?

It probably is. I arrived at the top of the rope and saw the bear below, so I made a campfire and decided to wait for it to leave. Before the water was done, I saw another (?) bear approaching me at the top of the rope, so I quickly packed up and climbed down. I thought I was surrounded by bears, but perhaps it was the same bear in both cases :)

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On 31/12/2018 at 11:57 PM, Drifter Man said:

It probably is. I arrived at the top of the rope and saw the bear below, so I made a campfire and decided to wait for it to leave. Before the water was done, I saw another (?) bear approaching me at the top of the rope, so I quickly packed up and climbed down. I thought I was surrounded by bears, but perhaps it was the same bear in both cases :)

There is sometimes a bear living in the cave between Cascading Falls and the exit to Winding River whom I’ve encountered near Hill Top Cave. I thought that was the bear that visited Signal Hill. The other side of a Hill Top Cave, in the dip where birch saplings sometimes spawn, is another cave that could also be home for a Signal Hill visiting bear. There do seem to be lots of bears in Pleasant Valley and you probably are surrounded most of the time, but fortunately it’s so big they aren’t too dangerously close.

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20 hours ago, Czhilli said:

There is sometimes a bear living in the cave between Cascading Falls and the exit to Winding River whom I’ve encountered near Hill Top Cave. I thought that was the bear that visited Signal Hill. The other side of a Hill Top Cave, in the dip where birch saplings sometimes spawn, is another cave that could also be home for a Signal Hill visiting bear. There do seem to be lots of bears in Pleasant Valley and you probably are surrounded most of the time, but fortunately it’s so big they aren’t too dangerously close.

Yep, considering the area of the map (36 km2 compared to 16 km2 of ML), the bear density is not too high.

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Guest jeffpeng
48 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

Glad you enjoyed! When a thousand suns set behind the Dam, the man from the Styx shall return, so the prophecy says.

Deadman 11 confirmed for 2022!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think ive calculated it correctly 

Lets take the 1000 sun setting part. 1 RLH  (real life hour) is equal to 12 IGH (in game hours) so 2RLH is equal to 24IGH. So 1000 long dark days are equal to 24000 IGH so then if X is the RLH that corresponds to 24000 IGH then we get this

24000 - X                                                                          24        - 2    then    X = (24000 * 2)/24 and we get 2000 RLH

2000RLH in days is approximately 83 days. 

From January 7 that put ls it on March 31, I think 

 

 

Or it might April first, so it might be just a joke :)

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  • 2 months later...

Deadman 11 / Day 1

Will's plane used to be a hopeless start. Now, with the redesigned Milton map, it's much better. But taking off at midnight and in strong winds doesn't help - I'm already freezing when I hit the first climb up. I grab a jerry can of kerosene, birch bark and some firewood, but I don't stop for rosehips, as much as I'd like to.

Emergency stim at Crashed Plane... the one that cost Deadman 10 his life is 11's first.

Wolf bark as I breeze through the passage to the pond... I just keep running and the wolf switches to a rabbit. I don't stop for cattails either, not until the pond under the Radio Tower, where I pick a bunch.

The cave and the Radio Tower offer nothing. A few minutes later I slip into Grey Mother's place, grabbing matches and some food in the darkness. I'm tired from the running and choose the bed.

When I wake up in the morning, blizzard rages outside. I search Grey Mother's place. I stock up on water from the toilet, along with some food and an assortment of clothes in poor to medium condition. I take the pot from the stove and a few books as well. A magnifying lens is also a welcome addition. No can opener though. I have two recycled cans already, but I'd hate to waste food from the unopened ones I found.

The blizzard soon ends, which is unfortunate, as I wanted to use it as protection from wolves. But no wolves appear as I jump first to the bank, then post office, then two other houses. A coffee mug in the microwave: interesting, this didn't use to be on low loot settings. I knock on the door at Orca, suddenly remembering that I need a prybar here. Then the Park Office, its bed warm enough to stay for a while without fire. I need rest.

I wish I could sleep for longer, but sun is setting and I still have ground to cover. Down the rope and to the cave, nicely supplied with matches and coal. The wolf is here but is again occupied with a rabbit while I climb the other rope up. Collecting sticks and cattails along the way, I reach the cave to Trapper's and start a fire with the magnifying lens, just to pull a few torches to guide me through.

When I reach Trapper's - the necessary stop and frequent hub of a Deadman - I kill two rabbits, drop them at the doorstep along with another one I found in the cave, and go to bed.

Deadman 11 / Day 2

I can't afford enough sleep to get fully rested, I have too many things to do today. First, harvest meat from the rabbits. Second, carry everything to the barn, start a fire next to a deer carcass. Harvest, cook, eat. I end up with five fresh guts and a deer hide, which I drop in the cabin. A supply of cured guts waiting at Trapper's cabin for the Deadman to return: the cornerstone of my Deadman strategy, which relies on snared rabbits for food.

It's getting late now and I'm tired - I was working on the carcasses with bare hands - nevertheless, I decide to push on to Unnamed Pond. The second carcass at the rock formation behind the hill makes me change plans. I decide to harvest it in the remaining daylight and to return to Trapper's Homestead. I set up a campfire and wait for the carcass to thaw. When it's almost ready, wind picks up and kills the fire. It would be too dangerous to stay there now while darkness falls, so I retire back to the cabin. The carcass will have to wait.

The journal says 75% condition, all of that lost between Will's plane and Grey Mother's. Emergency stim still available... a decent start overall.

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Deadman 11 / Day 3

A wave of freezing air, felt -33°C, hits my face when I open the door. So that's a no.

Minus 20 a few hours later. "Warm" enough for me to make a dash to the deer carcass at the rock formation. I make it, and start an emergency fire as soon as I reach, both to warm up and to deter a wolf that is on me. Still, I lose 1% condition before the fire is up and roaring. One kilogram of meat is cooking when the wind picks up, turns around and kills the fire - again.

I stay with the fire for as long as it burns, then change position and start a new one - unfortunately, it has to be away from the carcass, which is too exposed to the wind. I'm determined to wait out the bad weather to finish my work.

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I try to pick up some sticks but the wolf keeps an eye on me and doesn't let me roam around.

Finally, the wind dies down and I return to the carcass. I get the remaining meat out of it (0.3 kg) and am about to start with the guts, when... yes, you guessed it.

The wind won't let me have this deer carcass. The guts and the hide are lost. It's afternoon already and I still need to move on. I return to the cabin and have two or three hours of rest.

The wind continues to blow hard as I head into the dusk, felt -11°C. I carry two rabbit carcasses, stripped of all meat and guts, for use as bait. No wolves appear, though. I proceed to the Rail Tunnel and to the Camp Office, taking care to stay shielded from wind, and avoid the need of a warming break. I drop the rabbits shortly before reaching my destination.

I search the office in the remaining daylight but only find water tablets and a can of tomato soup. Smashing cans tonight: 16% lost, 30% lost, 20% lost... The well-fed buff is earned but I know I won't be able to keep it for long.

Another day, another night.

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Deadman is back! Thanks for posting your adventures, it amazes me to watch the thought process that goes into surviving a challenge like this. I'd be already desperate and thinking how could I've wasted a whole day trying to get a single carcass when the time is ticking on, but then I remember how much guts and hides are crucial to a good deadman run as your previous runs have shown over and over again. I'm learning more about the deadman meta, from the master himself. 

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