A Few Dead Men

[Drifter Man]

Deadman 14 / Day 16

When I wake up the sun is already up but the basement is still too dark for me to search it. I spend one or two hours repairing some clothes, although they don't really need it. The basement and the farmstead don't offer much of value. I get a new can opener, which is nice. I drop off some water and sticks because I'll need to take the rope with me from PV.

Later in the morning I go outside, process the Farmstead carcass and proceed towards the rope to Signal Hill.

When I climb up, I pack up the rope (for the Ravine) and move to the Hill.

The radio hut has the usual supply of canned food and a mackinaw jacket, which will need some repair before it is really useful. Still, I leave my old trusty windbreaker behind. After a short sleep I cross via Hilltop Cave to Winding River. My original plan was to process the carcass in the cave and sleep through the night, but there is no carcass this time. So I continue towards the dam and settle down at the non-loading screen cave, after eating a 1.9 kg deer for dinner.

[Drifter Man]

Deadman 14 / Day 17

I wake up with the fire still having 3 hours in it. I use it to make some water, but not much - the rope from Signal Hill is weighing me down. Before the fire is out and before the temperatures rise outside, I do a bit of wood gathering and also repair my mackinaw to 100%. Just as the fire is about to end, I drink hot tea, pull out a torch and leave.

Old home. For 900 days or so. I used to run a spreadsheet back then, with a list of supplies, consumption and degradation rates. I knew when my knives and maple saplings would run out. Around day 8000 if I remember. The game has changed a million times since. I've changed too. I used to be a TLD scientist, then became an astute interlopist. And as it usually goes, I ended up being a dead man.

Although one thing that hasn't been touched in a while are these textures. The back of the dam is a museum of what TLD used to look like.

It's funny to think how well I know this place, as if it was a real location. I believe this is one of the reasons why Hinterland never went with procedural world generation or how is it called when the game just generates new environments for you. Because this way you never create real places - places you come back to a thousand times, places that live in the minds of the community although everyone goes there alone.

I pass through the Dam, already looted, and a while later I am climbing down the Ravine. At the bottom I pick up four spare shells for the flare gun - I intend to use them to blast my way through the wolf patrols in Broken Railroad and HRV. There also is a stim, two chocolate bars and a ruined soda in the train.

The back of the cave is very warm. I intend to stay for the night but it would be a waste of fuel to start a fire now. With the third grave ticked off, I harvest the carcass (1.8 kg) without fire and return to the cave to warm up. Then I sleep in 1-hour intervals until the morning.

[Drifter Man]

Deadman 14 / Day 18

I build a campfire in the cold part of the cave at daybreak. Not that it is cold but I need to cook the deer. When I'm done, I sleep a little more before moving on.

At the top of the rope I'm half tired. I take a short break in the cave on the way to ML. Then, fighting the Evil Wind, I make my way past the trailers (wolfless today) and to the river. During a warming break the winds die down and give way to fog.

I walk on, collecting cattails, and sneak past the wolf that guards Northern Access. The fog thickens and now I can't see a thing. I proceed carefully to the opposite side of the lake where there should be no wolves, then head to the rope at Western Access.

After one more break at the nearby cave, I stim myself, climb the rope and make a dash to another cave at the top, between Mystery Lake and the railway tracks. There I'll spend the night.

Tomorrow things could get tricky. First I need to get down on the other side, so I'll sprain a bunch of limbs. Then I want to get from there to the Maintenace Yard in one day. There is no suitable shelter along the way I know of - Poacher's is too close. There is a reasonably covered hole in the ground in BR where one of my Deadmen slept once, so I could camp there if the weather turns nasty - I hope.

At least food shouldn't be a problem.

[Hotzn]

Ah, 1000 days in the dam. I must have been a young man when I followed that...

[Drifter Man]

On 12/29/2019 at 2:42 AM, Hotzn said:

Ah, 1000 days in the dam. I must have been a young man when I followed that...

Oh no, you were already staring down wolves in TWM, the first to walk the path of extreme interlopism that many would follow...

[Drifter Man]

Deadman 14 / Days 19-21

The events of the following days would bore a Norman, but a brief account is in order.

I did get a sprain on my descent from the cave above Camp Office to the railway tracks. I fixed it straight away with a bandage because a long way was ahead. In FM I only stopped for a few cattails.

The weather was perfect and I only spotted one wolf far in the distance. After a warming pause at the derailed train at the exit to BR, I crossed the Landslide and gave a preventative flare shell to a wolf guarding the entrance to the Maintenance Yard. It didn't threaten me but I wouldn't want to end this challenge without even firing a flare gun!

After making a stop at the fourth grave, I went to the shed for the night.

Next day I returned to FM and made my way up the Hat Creek and via cave to Marsh Ridge.

The ridge was lifeless, there wasn't even a deer carcass. I grabbed the stim though. It's my last and I'll save it for a real emergency. Then I returned to the cave and processed the freshly spawned deer carcass (1.9 kg meat, unusually fresh meat at 80% and not even completely frozen).

The next day saw me crossing the Milton Basin and climbing up to Milton.

I passed through the Barker Farm, avoiding a wolf patrolling the farther end, and then the Chruch, which required even more sneaking around wolves. But I managed to keep my clean zero-wolf encounter score. I didn't stop at the trailer and went straight for the HRV cave to make camp for the night.

If all goes well, the challenge should be over tomorrow.

[Drifter Man]

Deadman 14 / Day 22

About time to put an end to this challenge

I wake up in the cave and use the time and daylight in the early morning to repair some clothes. They don't need repair but I have nothing else to do. Then I drop what I'm not going to need - ever again. Whetstones, sewing kits and excess supplies.

The afternoon grants me some great weather, with winds nearly still and clear skies. Almost unheard of in HRV. After visiting a snow camp - out of curiosity - I make one warming stop at Stairsteps Lake next to a hollow tree and listen to wolf traffic.

I hear nothing, but a little later, when I'm on the way, I do spot a wolf nearby. It howls - and I listen for reponses. A lot comes from the other side, but nothing from the direction I'm going. Is it going to be this easy?

I'm still on my guard as there could be a bear, or a silent wolf. Indeed, a wolf is guarding the path to the Many Falls Vista, as usual. I could easily get past it with the flare gun, but for some reason I want to keep my zero-wolf-encounter record in this challenge. So I start another fire and wait for it to move off. Unfortunately, it seems intent on hanging around, so eventually I grant it a permanent buff of improved rest:

The rest is just a walk in the park. I claim the title of the laziest deadman (longest completion time)

[JAFO]

3 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

so eventually I grant it a permanent buff of improved rest:

I love the way you put that... 👍

 

3 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I claim the title of the laziest deadman (longest completion time)

From what I've seen, that makes you THE winner by Hinterland's standards. The "Challenge Completed" Best Time screen tracks your longest run record, meaning they regard it as like a proper Deadman run, in that the longer you survive, the better. It's rather amusing to see everyone treat it as if it were a speedrun, like the other challenges.

Edited January 10, 2020 by JAFO

[Drifter Man]

5 hours ago, JAFO said:

From what I've seen, that makes you THE winner by Hinterland's standards. The "Challenge Completed" Best Time screen tracks your longest run record, meaning they regard it as like a proper Deadman run, in that the longer you survive, the better. It's rather amusing to see everyone treat it as if it were a speedrun, like the other challenges.

That's one way to put it I guess... I wonder what the dead would think about a mourner passing by their graves in such haste  It is indeed ironic that the original goal of Deadman - "survive for 30 days" - was turned into "survive for less than 3 days".

However, finishing in record time takes different skills and a kind of willingness to waste your character that I don't have, so it is absolutely an achievement for itself.

[Guest jeffpeng]

19 hours ago, JAFO said:

It's rather amusing to see everyone treat it as if it were a speedrun, like the other challenges.

Oh I've seen it from both sides. It's just much less time consuming doing it the quick way. Men and their race cars, you know  

Edited January 10, 2020 by jeffpeng

[Dan_]

On 1/10/2020 at 4:39 AM, Drifter Man said:

However, finishing in record time takes different skills and a kind of willingness to waste your character that I don't have, so it is absolutely an achievement for itself.

This. I much rather spend a few more hours mending my clothes and warming up by the fire before setting off in ATDS.

Funny how ATDS and Deadman are quite similar in terms of setup and game tuning, but have completely opposite metas. Lowkey good design by Hinterland. 

[Drifter Man]

23 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

Men and their race cars, you know

In addition, shortest completion time is something people can compete for. There used to be a leaderboard of longest-time survival mode survivors, until it no longer made sense and Hinterland removed it.

9 hours ago, Dan_ said:

Funny how ATDS and Deadman are quite similar in terms of setup and game tuning, but have completely opposite metas. Lowkey good design by Hinterland. 

I agree - they managed to make it as bleak and depressing as they could

[Hotzn]

Congratulations. Good read, as always.

[Drifter Man]

On 1/13/2020 at 3:18 AM, Hotzn said:

Congratulations. Good read, as always.

Thanks Old Hotzn!

[BareSkin]

OMG, it's gonna be SO difficult not to read it before playing it myself

 

[Drifter Man]

On 2/29/2020 at 8:49 AM, BareSkin said:

OMG, it's gonna be SO difficult not to read it before playing it myself

 

Enjoy the run! As a hardened survivor, no matter how rusty, I found As the Dead Sleep a little less challenging than I expected, but still fun.