BareSkins are dying

[greatwhitegamer]

Oh yeah. Sorry, forgot about that part. I always seem to make dumb mistakes on the forums.  Well, good luck on your loper run!

[BareSkin]

 

BaSk6 - D1 [Vanilla Loper][nomaps][Cold Fusion]

 

Crashed at unknown place, 2h before dark. Maybe the Hushed River Valley again? Come on! Lots of rocks everywhere. Yes HRV, but from above. FL@-6, thanks to Cold Fusion feat. Wait, there’s no river. Must be Timberwolf Mountain, then? Just completed Hopeless rescue in an alternative life, so the place is fresh in memory. Also went for the summit a first time while doing Nomad challenge. I feel somewhat lucky to end up in a “familiar” place, yet hostile.

All those rocks, I must be near Echo things, but from above, so maybe not far from a cave to the Silent “thing”? (note: I was speaking of Secluded “thing” actually but couldn’t remember correctly). Time to explore. Find a descending rope to the left, I will take it because anyway I don’t have a hacksaw not fire to explore the caves, the summit is useless fatigue. But before that, go for the OMBL and shrooms just near. Barking wolf, I run away and crouch in a mini-cave. The wolf passes 10m away and takes an eternity to leave the place, while I watch my temp bar going down. Atfer 2 RL minutes, I peek an eye at the wolf. It’s buggy and tries to go through a rock, unsuccessfully. I crawl to the descending rope, of course the wolf “unbugs” just for my pleasure. I think the rope brings me down to “ground” level, hopefully on the right I would find mountaineer hut. Or the Bear, for that matter. Hyporisk kicks in when my foot touches the ground. I go right side, a barking wolf makes me run away in the opposite direction. I crawl above the Echo valley, just beneath where I spawned .

Going around on top of this high point, I see the red wing, 1 hr till dark. I was right, the Hut is on the right. There’s also a Bobby near the Echo point I’d like to loot. Echo Peak East, I loot 1 cedar and OMBLs. No dead Bobby.

Let's head towards the wing, and I will turn right before arriving, to reach the Hut. Condi 78%. Check the wolf from a high point before going, it disappeared somewhere. Double sprain… I might be already virtually dead. Not that I could use my hand anyway… I crouch before reaching a hilltop, can see the south side of the lake and the Paradise Hut now. Only problem, there’s a bear patrolling between me and my goal, just where it was full of walking deer meat during the Challenges.

I dance around the bear while taking sticks from the south lake hilltop. There’s the usual wolf north side of the lake. I play it safe and decide not to loot the fishing cabin. Get some cattails on my way to the Hut. Rowing boats: empty plastic container but it’s some minutes only before pitch dark so maybe I missed something, I close the Hut door in an IRL relieved breath.

Before looting the place, I have 27 sticks, 1 cedar, 4 cattails. FL in the Hut is Zero+ since my temp bar is indicating “up”. Find a Climber’s Note from when I have spare time (as if), scrap metal, hammer, 12 matches, soda, book on carcasses, 3 cedars+1fir, 1 rope, 1 worn ski jacket (sounds nice), empty first aid box, 3 charcoal, 1 New Simple Parka (woot!).

Solobrainstorming: the hammer is good for fishing or if I ever decide to move to a Forge, but would I carry it? On the other hand this hammer is useless for Summit, to pessimists out there which I am part of. Maybe it’s good on wolves too, never had to try before. The 2 coats seem nice. 12 matches sounds few and reduce the usefulness of the hammer-fishing prospect thought. At least, I’ll be able to read my first book in TLD, because there is a high chance I survive this night. Tomorrow I’ll head to the Wing. After reading.

I laugh IRL thinking that on Interloper you don’t need the backpack subdivision Fire/Aid/Food/Clothes, everything fits well in the “mixed” 4*5 matrix.

I’ll make a fire tomorrow to make water in my “Only-One” can (patent protected) and go out with warm shroom beverage inside my stomach. Oh wait no, what if I do need antibiotics later? Can’t remember why you would need it, food poisoning? Never had to eat raw meat *intentionally* and out of Wintermute EasySave, so I don’t know. I hate making fire without using the 2 cooking places anyway, these 12 matches worry me.

Thinking I’ll fade slowly in a warmy short dark tonight, I open my book, but the books speaks to me. Hum, I’m not “Healthy enough to focus on research”. Condi 56% seems healthy to me, given the starting conditions… or maybe that the double sprain and the hyporisk? Screw it and let’s get some sleep, wondering if the Summit is good enough only for its distress pistol.

 

[BareSkin]

BaSk6 – D2 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

I wake up thinking I need to get some guts to cure before anything else, cause I found scrap metal and I have a workbench, a fishing hut and a hammer. I take the matches and tinder before going out, in case I need a fire to heat up a carcass. One match spent to get a fishing line is well spent. I wake up some 4 hours before dawn, I find 12 more matches I didn’t see the day before, near the fireplace. FL -6°C but I read the book for 1hr, just in case I die, I don’t want to die a second time not reading a book. I decide it’s not luxury to make a fire, tempbar is empty, so does hydration one. Soda just topped it a bit before sleeping.

Hyporisk kicks in at the same time my first fire attempt fails. Second attempt wins, I have to put worth of 1hr sticks go reach a FL>0. First time a fire didn’t warm me up whatever its temperature. That’s a mechanic I discover, and it changes a lot of things with sticks and time management. I will need to find lots of sticks. I brake the crate without the hammer and find a tin of sardines.

While looking at the fire, I see a sewing kit “above” it, on the fireplace “edge-balcony” (what’s the right word?) If only I had something to do with it… I decide the socks are useless and will be better of repairing my worn ski jacket, but before I do that my brain lights up: repairing the coat would need 2 cloth pieces, and I cant scrap the jeans or the thermal.

I decide to go break the second crate. When finished the fire is embers, in the panic I dropped a Reclaimed Wood in it. I hate myself as if I dropped a snare, but anyway had no gut to make a snare. The sun rises while I brake the bench by hand, just in case I don’t die before the hammer (LOL, never been so optimistic in my life!). Heavy fog outside, heading to the Wing would be suicidal, if the weather doesn’t change before my fire gets out. Inside Hut, air temp is +2°C, I decide to let the fire die. 44% condi, starved, but water is not a short-term issue anymore.

I would love - and it would make sense - to see a function that would let us do reading or sewing while inside the bed for its warmth bonus. The idea brings back a ton of childhood memories, reading books inside the bed with a flashlight so that my parents can’t see the light under the door. I should put it in the wishlist, but too lazy and I’m sure it’s already there.

I wish I could break the useless second bed. Even if I wasn’t alone, I would sleep with any people in only one bed for warmth, regardless of sex or age. Maybe if I was an Astrid I would think differently.

I head out as soon as the fire dies to try looting the fishing hut I can’t see from the boats in a heavy fog. I pray that it can be closed in case I’m chased by a wolf on the way. FL-22°C. A rabbit is on my way, I kill it, drop it as soon as I can and move from my position. The fishing hut gives me a ragged cotton toque, a reclaimed wood and frosbite risk. I hear a deer running away while a sprint back to the Hut, with my fellow companion, the Dead Rabbit. In the Hut FL is -5°. I decide to go in the bed until noon temperature, the +5° bed bonus should warm and heal me up, condi 37%. I wake up at 26%, what?! The interface doesn’t show the decimals, and that was what mathematicians would call an asymptotic zero, but from the minus side, I guess…

I decide I need a fire, but want to take advantage of clear weather to go out on a stick run. Harvest around 20 sticks and a rabbit, sprint back and enter the Hut @ 15% Condi. I want to take meat from the rabbit before lighting up the fire in order to use that second cooking place, so I go for the smallest harvestable amount, half a kilo. I perfectly know the trick with escaping while harvesting to get smaller chunks, but I decide not to use it since it’s not an intended game mechanic (else we have more choices), or so I think. Might revise my moral judgment soon. My cooking skill won’t go up fast this way sinnce it’s strangely not based on the number of kilograms of cooked food you eat, I’m aware of that but I stay true to myself for at least one more day.

I finish harvesting that meat with 9% condi, I hear my heartbeat. Attempt #1 fails, 7% condi. 2^nd attempt fails. 3^rd attempt fails , 1% condi. FL @-1, I jump into my bed to remove that temperature red bar, wake up 1 hr later with “1-pixel” condi due to starvation. I’ve basically switched my death ETA from minutes to an hour.

 

[BareSkin]

BaSk6 – D2 – part 2 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

I decide food poisoning isn’t an option, and eat all my precious cattails before going back to bed for 1h. Why didn’t I eat them before the short sleep? Pure stupidity and panic. FL@+1°C, no red bar so I shouldn’t die right here and now. I wake up with hyporisk removed and 3% condi. New try on the firemaking. It fails again. 4 fails in a row with 60% chance each seems unlikely, but I thank RNG god not to be born again in HRV. I still have 2 more tinders in cattail head form. 5^th attempt works, I don’t drop lots of sticks inside since FL is already positive. I just want to cook that meat and continue harvesting the rabbits.

I have difficulty placing things since my survivor is moving as if drunk. Frosbite risk goes away as I finish harvesting the meat of second rabbit, while cooking and eating straight away. Got back 1% condi from 1h spent without red bar I guess, total 4%.

When the fire goes out, FL is at -5. Last time I though -5+5=0, I lost 11% condi. I calculate that maybe scrapping the cotton toque and the socks to repair my ski jacket would lead me to positive territory? I would lose +0.6 to win roughly the same amount, with risk of failure and head frostbite, that’s a no brainer.

I begin to think I am doomed, the bed can’t warm me up, and if I burn my remaining fuel just for sleeping (20sticks, 3 cedars) I’ll die from cold tomorrow morning. But tomorrow morning is better than during the night, right? Staying in TWM without a hacksaw sounds like a short-term suicide for an inexperienced player like me.

I consider burning the fuel while preparing a strategic retreat to Pleasant Valley, in a hope that there is some kind of altitude-temperature link and some clothes to loot. Maybe I can benefit the fire warmth in the morning to finish harvesting guts and pelts, sleep to get condi back to 10%+ in order to walk correctly, and leave all this stuff here to cure. The hammer is useless since I don’t have a fishing line, but I will have to bring it to protect myself in a wolf attack, to get at least a chance to survive.

Harvesting the second gut with no fire brings Temp bar from full to half. I decide not to harvest the pelts. I sleep 2hrs, I wake up with few temp bar left, 7% condition. Mechanic seems to be 1% per hour slept, which means no bonus compared to “living” these 2 hours. I fail my fire with the last cattail tinder. Craft tinder, but Blizzard wakes up outside. Come on little fire, come on! Success! I make water and get the two pelts. I go sleep for 3 more hours warmed up with a partial Reishi tea, that should bring me to midnight.

Wake up at 12%, midnight light and no wind, I decide I will make the move right now. I take the book I dropped before to avoid burning it, and leave the reclaimed wood in the hatch, with the 3 cedars I didn’t burn, the scrap metal I didn’t turn into a hook, the rope I didn’t use, and some water. I really believe I will be back here, even if scientifically I wouldn’t bet a penny on it.

On my way to the Leading Gear, lots of sticks and get one more rabbit, I know the place for not being wolf-patrolled on its mountain side, plus seen wolf on the lake before departing. You gain +3°C from TWM to PV. I lose vision when taking the rope down, I arrive drunk at the prepper cache, condition 7%.

Finding the bed in pitch dark while drunk is a challenge, I use my “move away from light backwards” technique. I wake up fully rested 2 hours before dawn, 13%. I decide to try looting the place in the dark. After trying, and finding nothing at all in the 8 file cabinets, 3 lockers and the workbench drawer, I abandon the idea and try to find the bed again to pass time for 1hr to dawn light.

 

New record for BareSkins!

[fauxjargon]

You're doing great.  I really enjoy reading these, keep it up!

[BareSkin]

BSk6D3 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

Looting again but in daylight, I find strictly nothing (except breakable stuff and a tinderbook). Is it even possible? The last chance requires a prybar. I think there is a red toolbox with drawers in the red barn south from here ("south" I don't know, just straight down from here, nut since I come from north of world map...), with a chance for prybar. I decide to harvest the rabbit meat and go out to cook it. While it cooks, I have to go back to the cache for warmth. Harvest the gut, drop it with the carcass, go out to get the food and water, come back at the cache with 9%, due to freezing for going 15m away and back, but I earn 2cedars and 363 cooked calories.

There is definitely nothing in the prep cache, except its inherent temperature. But I’ll starve soon. I should use these precious calories to sleep-heal until afternoon warmth, and get my chance heading towards the red barn. I should find some arrowheads there, but my brains starts singing “no woman, no cry” except it says “no hatchet, no bow” and laughs at me.

I sleep 4 hours until noon, wake up @13% (9+4= 1%/h rule confirmed), starved and dehydrated, one problem I can fix, the other not. I should go out now, but there’s a blizzard outside. I do a last check of the cache while waiting the blizzard to end, just to make really sure there was literally nothing. I harvest the pelt, the blizzard like Pleasant Valley and doesn’t go away, in 2 hours it’ll be dark. I lick the inside of the rabbit pelt, there is really no more meat on it, damn it!

I’m doomed, I’ll have to stay here overnight and die from starvation and dehydration. If it stops just before dark, I’ll have to go the the Farmstead cause there is no bed in the red barn, and no “indoor” at the abandoned farm to the right hand from here where a bedroll could be found. And the direct route to the farmstead is packed with wolves.

Thinking of it, I can’t understand why this time I found the Prep Cache, but not in my precedent life in FM. Maybe I do need new eyes?

1h before dark, I decide to take my chance in the blizzard. When I leave the cache, I see the blizzard has turned and is now facing towards the rope to TWM. Even with the wind in my back that was a long shot, now with the wind facing the Barn direction, it’s just… I go back to the cache. The blizzard stops 2 hours later, when I’m at 7% and can’t walk straight anymore. I prefer to fade away in my bed, in the middle of the night (-I go walking in my sleep-), from starvation and dehydration.

First time a BareSkin makes it out of its spawn map. And I learned a lot about sleeping mechanics.

 

[BareSkin]

Long live Bareskin!

BaSk7-D1 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion][nomaps]

Crashed in TWM again, looking around I can see the red part of what I believe is the ground-level Wing, 3-4 hours till dark. Hum, I’m near an Engine too, the “hidden” one I suppose inside Echo valley. It’s already snowing. I decide to go on downclimbing the rocks towards the Wing, the Hut should be on the right. I must be somewhere near the fallen tree bridge but can’t afford to look for it.

The rock-downclimbing is payed with a fall, I’ll have to make it to the hut double-sprained+benefits. HypoRisk when setting foot in Echo Ravine. I miss the “exit” and end up under the fallen tree bridge looting empty Bobby and his empty backpack, but grab 1 hardwood and rose hips. I go back and look for an exit on the left. I actually didn’t miss the exit, but arrived in the Ravine just after it.

Sticks on the way, wolf far away on the lake I take cattails and OMBLs, and leave the rabbits alone cause of sprained wrist. Enter the Hut with 24 sticks, 56% life, many rose hips and some OMBLs, 2 cedars. The FishHut gave me a cloth and driving gloves. FL@0+ inside the hut, thanks to Cold Fusion, the only Feat I have. Dog Food, fishing book, sewing kit and 4 hardwoods, 12 matches, ragged Down Vest, Mag Lens. I food the clothing loot quite poor, this Down vest, even repaired, seems a bit light on warmth bonus but hey, who said I had a choice?

There’s still some day light, I need to choose a tentative repair on the jeans or the down vest, both ragged. I go for the vest, as its windchill protection will actually apply and is better than the jeans’. It works! I decide to go to bed while its warmth bonus is still achieving FL>0, then I will start a fire for water, prepare some tea and pray for good weather to get the hell out of here. No Hacksaw, no TWM. Period. Thank you BareSkin6 for the note you left.

I sleep 1 hr, to check how the bars drop during this time, then 3 hr in a row. Start fire to make water, first attempt success, burn the fir to reach positive FL. 2H30 making water and warming up. The dog food can’t be cooked/warmed up, I smash-eat it cold. No second can, obviously.

I find decent leather shoes in the Hatch while wanting to drop the rope in it. Nice find, much better than my original 50% running shoes. Still +3 bonus but I know inside my heart the decimals have been upped, and I learned the hard way that it does matter for asymptotic FL=0. Proof is, I now have two arrows in front of the fire. Luxury! I’d like to harvest the running shoes but 1h15 is too much, I prefer caring about the water while eating cattails and prepare rose hips.

When the fire burns out and the tea is ready, I need to decide if I drink it right now and go out in the midnight light with its slow caressing snow, or burn another match tomorrow morning and bet the weather will not degrade. I take my chances walking in the night away from TWM. Can’t find the sticks on the way but I do kill a bunny around midnight, how can there be no achievement for that?! I arrive at the PV Cache with 42%, departed with 50%. Tea warmup really buys you some time out there in the cold, and some precious %.

Sounds strange you don’t get warmed up by boiling water by the fire, by the way.

[fauxjargon]

Good progress... mountain-goating down cliffs that the developers don't want you to go down is obviously risky, but there are pathways and strategies opened up by the technique that are invaluable to interlopers, especially in TWM.

[Hotzn]

You learn someting new every run.

[BareSkin]

BaSk7-D2 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

I didn’t learn my lesson last time, I didn’t make a torch, the Cache is pitch dark. Find the bed with my trusty “backward” technique, and drop in there for 9hrs but 60% fatigue should let me only a fraction of that. I wake up during daytime at 52% health and loot 1 tinderbook and find 5 locked lockers (total 6). My mind hesitates between “nice there is stuff in here if I find a prybar”, and other thoughts I can’t write here.

I harvest the midnight rabbit meat and hear strong wings outside while doing so. Near the stove while cooking rabbit I find 1 cedar and salty crackers, both immediately put to use. The wind is blowing from PV, so no traveling. I do take a torch this time. I sleep 1h chunks while waiting the blizzard to go off. I harvest the leather shoes, the weather turns and I head towards the Valley mid-afternoon.

Pass the Disagreement point, sprain my wrist while going down the waterfall rock-downclimbing with temp bar already red, plus winds pick up again along with a light fog. I continue ahead since I know PV a little bit from Nomad challenge, I mentally locate the red barn and the farmstead on its right side, the wind is pushing me there. Hill above the river, no wolf seen, I sprint to the red barn, the farmstead is too far away and I can’t pass the potential loot and heat.

I light up my wood torch, loot ground level (1 cloth, simple tools) light up the fire barrel and drop the torch. Then, then… OMFG, we can light up a torch on another dying torch with 100% success?! That must be a useful feature, I immediately think about navigation through caves, in case one day I find ignition in an HRV spawn.

I unfold the visors in the car, for superstition. While melting snow I loot upstairs (whetstone, prybar, stim, hammer). Dudes, prybar! Do I really feel like going up to the Cache again? Rose Hips tea is ready, it’s dark in 1hr. I decide I’ll head to the farmstead for its bed and its 6-way stove Rural lacks, hope the wind still blows towards it.

I exit the barn warmed up, and head towards… the BEAR, like 20m away. Fastest 180° of my life, I run towards Rural then go towards the Farm. Bear doesn’t seem hungry, and I hope its presence will lessen wolf probability. The wind has stopped, good news for my temp bar. 100 m farther, I have to run away from a wolf. No idea how/why my brain believes bear=less wolves, experiences show no correlation with my faith. Hyporisk disappears, only to appear again 10 seconds later.

I enter the farm basement with 22% health at dusk: wood matches, hacksaw, whetstone (but nothing to be “whetted”) worn combats boots in a forced locker. New book “Frontier shooting guide”, but I though there was no rifle on Loper… bandage, cured leather. The car has another shooting book. Man, they liked to shoot things, those farmers. This hacksaw makes me think… is it reasonable to go back to TWM? With the very few survival experience I have, the answer seems clear to me. But I like challenges, let’s not put a final word on this thought.

In the Farm I loot thanks to moonlight, I find a Tuke, I’ll stop running with head frostbite risk, thanks! Useless additional sewing kit, “Wilderness kitchen” book, maybe this one could be useful, tinderbook, cedar. Red stomach while looting ground level, I wonder if I want to brake some stuff and eat after that, cheating the game. Is that what’s called the starvation hack? Well, I decide not to, this run is already good to me since I made it to the farm. The kitchen gives crackers, 3 Peaches, sardines. There is a second prybar in the indoor-outdoor part. For metal scraps, I guess?

The Library gives 3 tinderbooks, this Farm is generous, I didn’t even go upstairs yet. Where I find strictly nothing except the toilet water. Hundreds of drawers, not the slightest wearable cloth. The worn wool Tuke was downstairs and is already a good catch, and all these curtains available are nice. I discover not every bed is equal, so I choose the big one of course, eat all non-cooking items and go for 9hr repair sleep.

[BareSkin]

19 hours ago, fauxjargon said:

Good progress... mountain-goating down cliffs that the developers don't want you to go down is obviously risky, but there are pathways and strategies opened up by the technique that are invaluable to interlopers, especially in TWM.

On Hopeless Rescue challenge I did make it to MH from the summit without any rope, right under the tail section. That actually made me pretty sad but hey, I'm just a player.

 

14 hours ago, Hotzn said:

You learn someting new every run.

Nelson Mandela said "I never lose. I either win, or learn". Please give him a copy of TLD, it becomes "I always lose, and always learn".

[Hotzn]

10 hours ago, BareSkin said:

Then, then… OMFG, we can light up a torch on another dying torch with 100% success?! That must be a useful feature, I immediately think about navigation through caves, in case one day I find ignition in an HRV spawn..

Since you've discovered this yourself, I may comment: yes, it is useful, and for different purposes (which you will discover in time). If you should ever read survival stories and stumble across the expression 'torch-chaining' to a a certain place... you now know what that means.

[BareSkin]

3 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Since you've discovered this yourself, I may comment: yes, it is useful, and for different purposes (which you will discover in time). If you should ever read survival stories and stumble across the expression 'torch-chaining' to a a certain place... you now know what that means.

I realized while looting the upstairs barn that bringing a fire gives warmth (quite few but could clear one downarrow I suppose) and free ignition to the next fire (just like firetraining I started next to the Barrel some other day), but PV didn't allow me to really put it to use, as soon as I walk outside the torch get blown out. This thing saying fire is a wolf repulsive? I tested it several times, it's crap, even when you throw it at them right in the face.

 

BaSk7-D3 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

Back to 47% from 20, I understand sleeping heal is not linear because hey, you know, 1% per hour for 9 hours doesn’t make 27%. Yeah, call me Newton. I’ll recall 9hrs straight recovers three times more than 9*1h, that’s a good mnemonic.

Today on BaSk Episode: Cooking peaches and making water, repairing clothes, then weather permitting expedition to Rural or Signal, maybe some bunnies? Looted combat boots? +300% weight for +50% warmth, meh. Thanks to the curtains, I repair the wool toque and down vest to “New” status. Melt some snow and cook Peaches, find a second can, woot!

Check the weather, it’s clear, it’s noon. Take the hammer (for wolves) and prybar, leave as much stuff as I can, and go out to Rural with warmth bonus from peaches. Find matches in a car, the HeartBreak Bridge deserves its name today, but I don’t look at anything else than the road and my stamina while crossing wrongly named Contemplation Bridge. Before arriving to Rural, I notice a deer carcass on the left side. I resist the temptation, 42% when I arrive at rural, picked a dozen sticks to warm up another peaches for return trip.

Find scrap metal, soda immediately used to get rid of red hungry bar, wood matches again, sewing book in the store. Remember a house across the bridge, with a Canadian flag and big bed, but there’s none. Strange, seems maps are slightly different compared to the challenges. Worn trail boots in another house (which didn’t exist in Nomad - the house), I immediately switch to them (had leather shoes), +20% waterproof on boots are worth the .5kg, and driving gloves slightly better than the ones I have. There’s also a warm bed, but I fear if I don’t go back now, the weather would turn worse.

During the trip back, I go off road for sticks, towards the carcass. Third attempt fire to thaw the carcass, I feel stupid I didn’t use accelerant found at the store. I also feel stupid I have left both my cans to melt snow with a short stove fire at the farm, never thought I would come across an easy carcass. I hacksaw 1.5kg meat, and feel stupid to have started fire to thaw the carcass, because man, I have a hacksaw! But at least it protected me during the operation. 2 steaks and pinnacle peaches, I’ve never had such a treat yet, health 19%. Bon appetit!

Warm peaches, warm late afternoon and cold-fused sprint allow me go get back to the farm drained but with no condition lost. I feel like that was a good day. I’m so proud of my new boots repaired to “decent” state, I might sleep with them! I end this day looking a bit at my first Aurora on Interloper. I love this game.

[JAFO]

On 9/15/2018 at 10:32 PM, BareSkin said:

While looking at the fire, I see a sewing kit “above” it, on the fireplace “edge-balcony” (what’s the right word?)

The word you're looking for is "mantelpiece"..

2 hours ago, BareSkin said:

This thing saying fire is a wolf repulsive? I tested it several times, it's crap, even when you throw it at them right in the face.

Don't give up on the concept.. experiment more. Think outside the box.

[BareSkin]

BaSk7-D4 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

New record!

Knowing the place a bit from Nomad challenge, I recall there is waterfall with rope+cave+rabbits+ maybe deer carcass when going towards the Signal tower. That’s the plan for today, calories. Plus looting Signal Hill, maybe.

Today is a beautiful day, FL-16 around 11am. Crossing the roads, I snap two rabbits – sorry dudes. I enter the cave with 14 sticks, 5 shrooms, 2 rabbits, and hyporisk. FL @-6. Fire, water, harvest rabbits, cook meat, warm up last peaches side-fire cause I decided I would go up to the tower, not using the rope. The nice weather is too rare to be spoiled. Eat the rabbits, no deer carcass. The fire dies when I add fuel, strange bug. Loose 2 more matches but I can’t pass on the meat, nor travel with it. When the new fire dies out, I have to leave .4kg meat uncooked. Climb up, put the rope in my backpack, and head into wolf territory towards the tower, armed with my mighty stone.

There is a deer carcass in front of the tower with 1kg meat, I prefer taking shelter before freezing. Loot of the radio control hut: flaretorch, tea & coffee (woot!), sewing kit, tinderbook, trail boots again (7% better than my repaired ones). The game is speaking to me:

 

Quote

Dude, can you really not try a Summit? Gave you hacksaw, tea and coffee, whatyawaintin’ for?

Hum, a bedroll, maybe? I’ve found one several times in an abandoned green shack full of bunnies between here and the TWM passage on the left bank of the map, but the journey would be long. I go out 2h before dusk to hacksaw the deer and deploy the rope nearby, 34% when leaving the hut, no fuel except a reclaimed wood from the inside. Stick run produces a dozen, I start a barrel fire thanks to the mag lens with 1kg meat to cook. 1 cedar near the barrel, nice. 27% when the meat start its pleasing cooking sound. Prepare some coffee, the pack is under 15kg but the climb down is long, I have only 30% left before exhaustion, don’t want to risk it plus the warmth bonus is equivalent to condition in this context. Last hour daylight, rope down. Ledges produce 3 sticks, 1 cedar and an empty Bobby. I really did the right call with the coffee, I would have died on the rope without it.

The wolf place near the farm has no wolf but has bunnies, I crouch to kill one but it changes its path, I abandon the idea and arrive inside the farm at 18%. But tonight, it’s herbal tea time dudes! Rock and Roll!

I begin to wonder if a Summit attempt on a newbie seventh Loper spawn is reasonable (I know it’s not), but I don’t have to decide yet since I have no bedroll. That might be tomorrow’s mission, but I’m also tempted to take a day to care about my health before going to someplace I somehow locate between the tower and the cache, that could possibly have a bedroll. That’s a lot of “ifs” with 18% condition. With herbal tea in my stomach, I use my 900-ish calories to sleep 11 hrs.

[BareSkin]

BaSk7-D5 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

I wake up just before dawn dehydrated (even if was full) with 46% health, there was an aurora this night. That’s +28%/11hr. That’s less than 3%/hr w/ herbal tea. That’s strangely less than my previous measure at 3%/hr w/o Herbal. There is some king of diminishing return here, bigger than the tea effect, I suppose you don’t wake up from dehydration, but instead lose condition during the last hours of sleep, maybe? I’ll keep with 9h and try 8 and 10 sometime, just to find that zero-derivative point (yeah, call it “maximum”). I’ll mnemo-remember that a full bar takes 4 perfect nights.

Calorie store soon empty (88cal.), I wonder if the wolf area is still populated with bunnies. A cattail run would certainly be counter-productive. I open the clothing UI and regret harvesting my 7% socks during the first days, I was so sure I would found another pair (bad habits from challenge). Now I swim in cloth and sewing kits but have no socks to repair.

The aurora doesn’t let me use the toaster nor the microwave oven, bummer (I should add it to Whishlist, warming food without fire is important feature). Not a big deal, I was out of bread and peanut butter anyway. I look at the books, I suspect “Stay on target” is for Archery cause it has an arrow on it, contrary to “Frontier shooting guide” which I suspect is for Rifle and then become an Interloper tinderbook. Anyway I prefer the cooking one if I find time to read.

A 27% tin sardines can poisons me. I didn’t pray hard enough. While losing my precious health, I craft 2 Reishi from my 5 shrooms, fail the fire with my last cattail head, process a stick and grab a tinderbook, light a fire, use both cooking pots to get the reishi faster, drink them, and then throw all the nasty word I know to my screen. Oh, that’s actually only 1 reishi to treat (2 pills, I looked very fast and had no antibiotics).

Don’t want to waste the warm up bonus from the tea, and I will anyway be exhausted soon, so I leave some snow on the fire and go out to check yesterday’s bunny point. Grab-snap 2 bunnies and 9 sticks,run back to the farm and enter just when temp bar goes red. Survivor says “It’s a shitty way to die”, and I nod at my screen. I begin to have empathy for this guy, and I feel like I need to apologize about the sardines. Grab the boiled water, resist temptation to go to bed for clearing red exhaustion since my stomach is empty.

Harvest the rabbit meat and use the last 2 spots on the stove to cook .5kg chunks. Eat 3 chunks, let the fire die during fourth harvesting, hate myself, decide to go to bed for 3 hours to clear exhaustion. Health 14%. Wake up, drink, finish harvesting and light the fire again to cook the last .8kg meat. I also decide to cook my last peaches (where did I get this fourth one?), at this point loosing a warmup is less important than dying, and I found tea and coffee for warmups. Still have 7hours to clear the poisoning, don’t think I can make it alive. If only I could eat these 2 useless pairs of shoes…

Can’t figure what the emergency stim will do to me (“boost of energy”?! Sounds like bad Viagra marketing), but I understand it will drain me which is already done, so I have nothing to lose, I’ll eat as many calories as I can, take the stim and go to bed trying to clear these last 7hours.

I have little hope.

[JAFO]

1 hour ago, stratvox said:

The reason your recovery was worse was because...

Pretty sure that counts as giving tips, @stratvox... it's hard to fight the urge to help, I know, but that's a big no-no.. see the OP.

If you delete it quickly, BareSkin may not see it.

 

8 hours ago, BareSkin said:

The fire dies when I add fuel, strange bug.

Don't think I've ever seen a bug like that.. sounds more likely to me that you were just a fraction slow getting more fuel onto a one-stick fire.

You're doing very well, mate.. carry on!

[BareSkin]

14 hours ago, JAFO said:

Pretty sure that counts as giving tips, @stratvox... it's hard to fight the urge to help, I know, but that's a big no-no.. see the OP.

If you delete it quickly, BareSkin may not see it.

Didn't see it, thank you @stratvox :D. Anyway I took the habit of reporting things here with few days of lag.  I hope not helping will not prevent you from reading these newbie adventures

14 hours ago, JAFO said:

Don't think I've ever seen a bug like that.. sounds more likely to me that you were just a fraction slow getting more fuel onto a one-stick fire.

Could be, I too k the habits of babysitting fires a bit too much.

BaSk7-D6 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

I clear food poisoning before midnight, and the stim gives you health pure and simple (I understand why they are golden in Deadman mode), I’m at 29%. All my needs are still fulfilled so I would guess 1stim=15% health.

Had I been lazy this morning on harvesting the shrooms before climbing to the tower, had I been not clever enough to go out immediately after Reishi warmup for the bunnies and lucky enough they were still there with no wolf around, I’d be dead by now. Eventually, I didn’t need the stim, hope I won’t regret it but I don’t think so. I will never ever again eat anything below 30% (*spits on floor*, it freezes before touching the ground).

I feel so proud to be alive.

I’m in a desperate need for calories because yesterday has not been productive. I dream of full venison steaks, and think about my wife, already mad at me for killing virtual bunnies. I’ve already looted many places and the nearby rabbits.

It’s around 11PM, if I go back to bed I’ll lose condition for starvation. I go downstairs to turn heavy scrap metal into light hooks. I have the choice between bare hands and light tools, but the interface doesn’t show any differences. I assume the tools are less time/calories and go for it. Can’t craft, no light. Newbie mistake, I go back upstairs hating myself. I notice the night is clear and -12°C FL.

What if I pack and go to the bunny/bedroll potential place with a coffee in my stomach? There, my accumulated fuel could be turned into calories, maybe? An easier way to survive would be to go to Rural, then escape in the mine to the next map. I know that’s the good decision to make, and that’s what I would do IRL. But that’s a game, and I have a hacksaw, and leaving PV through this cave would make TWM containers one more map away… Plus, I don’t know how to escape this map towards Mystery Lake, so…

Start a fire, boil some unsafe water and make a coffee, pack the accumulated fuel (10cedars) and cooking and fishing book in case I don’t come back. Like, if I find this bedroll and prefer making it to the cache instead. While I wait for the water, I hear wind, go check outside, it’s blowing from my intended direction. I abandon the idea and will have to wait daylight., starved in my bed.

Hum, the Stove doesn’t graphically “die out” like campfires do, I end end letting it die for the second time. Let’s go to sleep till daylight. Woke up with 6% health less, but I’m welcomed with the utmost joy by?... A blizzard. Can’t read book in bed, can’t read books when hungry, seems like books are useless on Loper. I decide to harvest the guts instead, but don’t consider it starvation hack since there is no intention, was already starved not on purpose, have nothing to eat, and I’d prefer the blizzard not being a reality. Daybreak, still blizzard, go down for my scrap metal to hook conversion.

The blizzard turned and would now be in my back, I hesitate, check the FL, result: -38°C, I don’t hesitate anymore. Craft the 2 metal scraps and some tinder, still blizzard. Blocked in the farm, I decide to light up a torch for a better basement inspection, and find quality tools. Repair my shirt with a curtain, 3^rd attempt success but blizzard is still going on. Will it ever stop at some point in the day? I harvest the pelts, it’s noon, 18%. I have to do something, but need to stay close. Let’s head to the nearby waterfall (ex-rope to Signal), bunnies are often found there.

Drop to 9% when the cedar brings me above FL0 in the cave. Find the two dead rabbits from last time, man I had left some food in one! Immediately hacksaw it, .4kg. The heartbeat sound is really stressful. The sounds are one of the jewels of this game. Eat the rabbit, drink any calorie I have in rose hips and whatever else. Drunk survivor seems angry because it didn’t heal anything? Sometimes he’s a stupid man, just like me. I pray for the weather to turn to get cattails and rabbits in the warm hours.

Weather turns better, FL-5, maybe I could make it back safely to the Farm following the river and grabbing cattails? Go out under warm coffee and with a torch, instantaneously blown by a facing-evilwind. Shelter in a minicave, but if I stay here in 3hrs we’ll be doomed, me and my 496 calories. Air temp is going down now. Don’t panic, you’re at 9% but no red bar yet, you have time to pray for a wind stop. This heartbeat is just the game tricking you into doing something stupid.

30 minutes later, wind stops and I head to the river bank under the waterfall, with a torch. Drop it immediately to kill 3 rabbits out of 4 I’ve seen, grab tons of rose hips, loot a Bobby that has… guess what?… wait for it… trail boots, again. I drop’em immediately (-bam!-) and head back to the farm downstream, still drunk. 3 scent bars, but I’m desperate, if a wolf is near the farm it’s over. No wolf behind the snowhill, I thank God even if I don’t believe it exists. 15 calories in front of the stove, I eat the 2 cattails I found, it buys me time to harvest all the meat, then open the stove and three, two, one, IGNITION!

The screenshot I posted in day 5 was actually supposed to come here, all these rabbits, mmmm

I will live another day. I’m too stressed to test diminishing returns on sleep, and I go to bed at 9% for 9hours at a lavish 1745 calories store. But before that, I read a book, because hey, I can. Choose cooking cause calories are my main problem, and in case I go back TWM I still have no can opener. It’s too dark to read. God, reading is even harder than surviving, I’ll keep it for tomorrow morning. Maybe.

[BareSkin]

BaSk7-D7 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

 

The simple fact of surviving one week on my seventh survival run, all on Loper, makes me proud. I’m not that trash at that game, it seems. Got 2 guts and 2 pelts to dry. I understand 2 more pelts would make rabbitskin mitts instead of driving gloves, but that would mean surviving in here few more days. In order to survive, you have to behave as if you will. I think it would be easier with a fishing hole since I have a hammer, but I can’t bring fresh guts back to Crystal Lake.

29% health, it seems I couldn’t sleep the 9h I asked, I’ve slept around 6h. I realize the hard way that Fatigue is actually a resource, but I don’t regret yesterday’s coffees because I needed the calories, the rabbits were heavy and I couldn’t afford dropping under 50% and get uncumbered. Should I just have run stupidly up and down the stairs before going to bed? It sounds like broken game mechanic. You can die in your bed cause empty bars don’t wake you up, but a restored Fatigue bar wakes you and prevents you from healing?! Sounds crazy. Basic survival instinct says it should be reversed, IMO. Except for the cold of course, since it’s anesthesia.

Get two more pelts (yes, the night decided me to stay here until the gloves, or at least to believe in it), calorie store already low? You serious, after 3 hard-earned rabbits? Pelt harvesting is expensive in calories, not only time. Loper is a torture. I guess I have no other choice than going outside looking for crows. The lone wolf nearby becomes a temptation, if I don’t die, I eat. But I don’t even have a knife so the temptation goes away rapidly, I’d prefer this run to achieve a full week survival, and that means being alive at dusk.

I go out in a bright sunlight around 11am, go towards the barn, push a deer towards a wolf. The wolf “locks” it, there is a rabbit nearby, but the cold tells me to come back inside. I’ll warm up and go back in the afternoon to check if I find a deer carcass with some meat left. Now, I am the animal waiting for the re dominant species to end its dinner. Hard lesson for human ego.

A workbench menu is like a candy shop with empty pockets.

Go out mid-afternoon, walk 50m and I'm pushed back into the house by EvilWind. While outside I’ve seen flying crows coming from where a potential dead deer should be, maybe they are organized in team shifts for circling around corpse? I hope so. Killing my time, I find a yet unseen chocolate bar under the desk in the library.

Writing this in the journal makes me think of a song called “Killing Time” from an old (90’s) french rock band (called “Dolly”, not “The Forest Talkers”). I listen to it on Youtube while waiting looking at the wind, it goes so well in a TLD run:

One more life
To see
This beautiful sky
Before she comes (death is feminine in Latin languages, I guess it’s bad translation from french)
Crashing down on you

What would you give
For one more life
Just to live

…

Living day by day
Who cares about tomorrow

Keep cool now
Cos when it is time to go , you'll know
Killing time
These walls are closing in on you

There’s another good one for TLD called “The world is brutal”, but it’s in french.

I have fun being windshielded right behind a broken window. Wind stops, I go across the river, 3 wolves, no crows. Since the weather is good and clear I go for the rabbit. As soon as I snap it away from this world, blizzard kicks in. Instant hypo, find a shielded place, start fire with accelerant, FL @-8 with 1.5h stick fire. I decided to take torches and get the hell out of here ASAP. This rabbit was too expensive and going for it was a mistake.

I of course get lost, I end up at heartbreak bridge and didn’t cross the river so I know I have to cross it, see the car on my left, I know I must walk against the wind to the farm, can’t see a damn thing. That’s a pity, wind was pushing me towards it 3 minutes ago but I got stressed walking with a dead rabbit between two wolfy territories. I follow the electric lines, get through the door @9% health. How can the weather turn so badly, so quickly? Thinking the plan was to go out to make a fire using the mag lens near a deer carcass, it sounds like a rough day.

BUT, I officially survived for 1 full week, whatever happens. Congrats to myself! Senator JAFO will be proud too, he knows the long dark side very well.

I eat the chocolate bar, miss to let the fire die again, for 1minute. Tonight, Fatigue resource, I have plenty. 16 sticks left, but a lot of torches. Drink herbal tea as if it was my last one, eat cooked meat and head out for 9h sleep. Only 8 hours, no enough calories for 9. Research had the last word: 36-8=28% for 8hr sleep with herbal, that’s 3.5%/h. So it seems herbal gives roughly .5%/h bonus, which upon a base of 3 is ~15+% sleep efficiency bonus. Not that much of a deal, but nice if it’s free. I would guess it’s coded for a much bigger bonus (50%?) but only during the first hours of sleeping.

[JAFO]

A full week? Congratulations!  

You're picking up some good insights into techniques and the game mechanics as well.. they'll serve you well. (And we all share your frustrations with the fatigue/sleep mechanic.. you'll learn how to deal with it, in time, but it will never feel 'right'.)

And you're discovering the delights and joys of Un-Pleasant Valley! It would be such a nice place, if only....

 

5 hours ago, BareSkin said:

think about my wife, already mad at me for killing virtual bunnies.

This made me chuckle.. you have my sympathies..

[BareSkin]

BaSk7-D8 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion]

Another day fighting for calories. I have at least one additional gut curing downstairs on the bar, and a hook and a hammer/prybar, but no fishing hut. An endless story. Except it ends. Soon.

Wake up starved, outside its dark and very windy, I harvest yesterday’s rabbit gut and wind goes out. It’s still pitch dark, I go for 3 more hours bedtime, since I can’t read hungry.

Around 11am, wind stops and gives way to one of these wonderful days, just like yesterday… I go towards the waterfall, there’s the bear. Still not confident about the stones, didn’t get the Stone-Age Sniper achievement so I refrain hunting it and cross the river before heading to BunnyCity. As soon as I snap one, medium fog, I hesitate between shelter in the cave and going back right now to the farm. Fear of being trapped in the cave with no bedroll makes my legs decide it’s the farm even in hypo already. Above the crest, I can’t locate the bear, I also notice sticks respawn is really minimal, I’ve looted the area like 2 days ago and find only 3 sticks. Enter the Farm at 18%. Half my health for 1.1kg meat doesn’t seem like a good deal.

At noon, with meat harvested the temptation is to eat this and go to sleep, but it’s coded to be inefficient cause I don’t have enough Fatigue built up, only 50%. I’ll have to refrain eating, and break the stairs with my trail boots during afternoon. I grab the torches from yesterday blizzard and turn them all back into sticks except one.

Light fog outside, I sprint to check the mail (kidding, that’s more about building up Fatigue-resource). Nobody has sent a kind word for me. Not even a stick or a rabbit. Light fog seems a really nice weather, it’s somewhat warm, or at least it feels like. I’m tired enough now, time to cook. 6 hours is the maximum sleep time without starving at night. I try to hack the game and start reading a book at 24calories with a torch, but the game isn’t that stupid. I’m at 29%, it’s midnight. The night outside is clear and full of terrors, FL-19. My brain urges me to “do something”, like going check if there’s a bedroll at the green abandoned rabbit spot.

But I’d better not. I need to make a wolf kill a deer, patience, young padawan, patience. I’m thinking that I found many trail boots and only one black pair of boots, maybe the rare ones are better? Question boils down to: is .5° worth 1kg and -10% waterproofing? Tough call. I decide it’s not , maybe because the sentimental view I have for my boots, after all I slept with them, we’re linked. Start a fire, I’m decided to go out it fails, I take that as the game speaking to me “dude, don't be foolish again, go back to bed”. I obey and sleep for 4h until early morning, 25% condition and a blizzard. I unsuccessfully lick the rabbit pelts, still 0 calories. Repair my driving gloves to “decent”, fail once.

Tomorrow, the game won't speak to me, and I'll be foolish again. But BareSkin7 doesn't know that yet.

[fauxjargon]

You're having a tough time.  Still, great to read about.  Remember, early days Interloper is all about move, move, move.  You need that loot, you need those calories.  My 100 day Outerloper character was burning through cattails and other nonrenewables like there was no tomorrow until day 80 or so, when he was able to slow down, hunt, and eat meat.

[codfish107]

On 9/18/2018 at 9:01 AM, BareSkin said:

Remember a house across the bridge, with a Canadian flag and big bed, but there’s none. Strange, seems maps are slightly different compared to the challenges.

I'm late on reading your current run. From what you were saying on Day3, some buildings like the buildings of Rural Cross Roads (not including the store) have a chance to spawn ruined or intact. There are other small groups of residential type buildings with random ruined/intact spawn chances on some other maps, but since you might consider it a spoiler i won't tell where they are.

 

On 9/18/2018 at 6:06 PM, BareSkin said:

Dude, can you really not try a Summit? Gave you hacksaw, tea and coffee, whatyawaintin’ for?

I read that out of context at first and thought you were talking about a summit soda.

[JAFO]

8 hours ago, codfish107 said:

I read that out of context at first and thought you were talking about a summit soda.

Thanks.. I feel better now about reading it and wondering for a brief moment how another poster had managed to edit a line into BareSkin's post, before realising what was actually going on...  

[BareSkin]

BaSk7-D9 [Vanilla Loper][Cold Fusion] - part1

I realize if I went outside at midnight last night, I would have forgotten to take both my cans left on the stove. Until past noon, I wonder if this blizzard will stop before I’m dead or not. One temp bar lets me go check the rabbits, non to be found at waterfall and under the Tower new rope placement. Next temp bar, go towards the red barn, but no deers, only bear and wolves. Condi 18%, If I do nothing tomorrow morning I’ll be as good as dead.

I will go out in this light fog towards the supposed bedroll and rabbits, in a desperate attempt (I'll learn later it's called Three Strikes). Warmup herbal tea and head out. Seeing the bridge just before the objective, I just can’t leave the 1.4kg meat on a dear (sic) carcass. That’s 14m in the cold, but it buys me a chance of surviving the night.

that's hacksawing it without the UI

I pray that I find a bedroll there. I arrive at dusk and light a fire in the barrel, there’s another deer carcass here, if only I knew… Manage to start fire under heartbeat, 9% condition. Immediately cooked venison in pots, then go around for loot: book on starting fires, fir, empty containers, no bedroll. Rage takes control of my body. Aaaarrrgghhh, MODAFAKAAAAA! I shout so loud towards the Universe, the wolves go back to their caves, they know when to avoid danger. The bear hears it, shrugs and thinks “one more that didn’t have what it takes, poor guy...”

Still 13 minutes for next venison, I go for the nearby 0.9kg of the second carcass. Newbie mistake, I’m away just enough from the fire. Condi 6%, I might be dead as well, the night will fall and I’m without bedroll in the outdoors in a Loper run (I know some masochists do it on purpose). I know the road from here back to the farm or towards the cache, but I can’t walk properly, and in the cold it’s too far, I'll be dead from Hypo before arriving.

I pause the game, stretch my real body, and do some solobrainstorming: I’m in a place I can’t move from, its dusk, I have a fire the wind won’t be able to blow, I’m only at 50% Fatigue because of the morning blizzard. Stomach shouldn’t be a short-term issue, nor dehydration, nor fuel since I brought a lot. It means my four needs should be OK short-term, the biggest threat is exhaustion but I have 1 coffee and an under-15kg pack. I should keep my 6% condition through the night, ruling out some fire/temperature mechanic I don’t know of. I recall you gain condi in the background with all needs OK, double check in the wiki (I literally wrote weaky in the Journal...) this idea is true, which means I should be back to normal vision at morning, but exhausted. Then, we’ll see.

I drink my coffee, read a book, cause well, I like to do it before dying, but “you can’t focus on research when your condition is this compromised”. Hey, Game, I feel perfectly fine OK? Why is there always a problem when I want to read a book? You don’t know how to read and you’re jealous, that’s it? How could you let me loot all the big places in PV and find no bedroll nor a decent coat? You sadistic bast**d!

I click the fire barrel to stop Mackie from moving away. Yeah, that's hacking the game mechanics a bit, but it takes too much of my attention span.

That's how you stop your 6% survivor from constantly moving away. The title makes you think better.

Test the theory with 1h pass time, condi +1%, theory validated. Drop all my fuel in the barrel and pass time for 12 more hours looking at my fatigue bar.

But I press Esc like a madman when I see the midnight light.  I nearly kill my keyboard.

To be continued...