BareSkins Are Sleepwalking


BareSkin

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I’m currently in a quite long run on a Vanilla Interloper. Some frustration came in with this mode, that sometimes doesn’t seem “quite right” compared to expected behavior I’d have if I had to survive in real life:

  • The sleeping mechanism has its own healing curve, that doesn’t stack with background recovery (confirmed by personal science and @Ruruwawa). A good sleep on regular Loper (setting is “Medium”) on calories will bring you at least 32%, sometimes 40% without Herbal, depending on the bed you sleep in, but not only that since I got both values at Trapper’s. For the somewhat low price of 750 calories per day.

  • Since you lose 1% health per hour when you’re starving, it’s far more efficient to spend your day starved (14h=-14%), and the game allows you to do activities that use calories (harvest carcasses, harvest curtains, brake crates, whatever). That’s a net minimum of +15% everyday provided you find 750 calories, which is 5 cattail stalks. Maybe forbidding calories-activities while you’re starved would fix Interloper, but this option is not available in custom settings as far as I know.

  • The fix to this problem would be to disable “at rest recovery” curve and have the “awake” one play also during sleeping like @Drifter Man suggested, but this possibility doesn’t exist either, and the Low “at rest” curve is still giving you more health back than regular background, by at least a factor of 2 or 3 compared to calories cost.

  • Regular Interloper came with a fix that treated the symptoms instead of the cause: “Rest as a resource” is here to prevent you from sleep-healing as much as you want. Problem is, the only consequence of this mechanic, which actually arguably doesn’t seem realistic in the first place, is that on Loper you end up running stupidly around your indoors place before going to sleep. Which doesn’t punish you in any way since you’re starved already.

 

I felt frustrated the game makes me behave strangely like that, so I poked around a bit in Custom Settings to find what I could play on my next runs, that would force me to behave differently – more “realistically”. I’m not experienced enough to play a DeadMan mode, plus I feel it’s not really realistic that you can’t heal at all, and the Emergency Stim hunt would not be fun to me even if I knew where they were and was able to survive this mode long enough to find one which anyway is not the case.


Here is what I ended up with, a set of halfway alternatives: the Sleepwalker Modes are a rising slope from Interloper to Deadman.

 

Interloper

SW0

SW1

SW2

SW3

SW4

SW5

SW6

SW7

Calorie Burn Rate

Very High

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

VERY HIGH

Thirst

High

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

VERY HIGH

VERY HIGH

VERY HIGH

VERY HIGH

Fatigue

Medium

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

VERY HIGH

VERY HIGH

Freezing

Very High

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

VERY HIGH

VERY HIGH

VERY HIGH

Sleeping recovery

Medium

NONE

NONE

NONE

NONE

NONE

NONE

NONE

NONE

Awake recovery

Medium

Very High +2 %/h

High +1%/h

Med

+0.5%/h

Low

0.25%/h

Low

0.25%/h

Low

0.25%/h

Low

0.25%/h

Low

0.25%/h

Rest as resource

YES

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

NO

The slept part of the day is actually punishing: you have to be on calories for not losing precious health, but don’t get any recovery during this hours. Yes, this is a calorie sink. The next level would be a Deadman variation, where “awake recovery” is set to “None”

I’ll start on sleepwalker level 1, since being starved is -1%/h (confirmed by personal science today), it seems fair to me that being fed should be +1%/h.


Good assumption for the roleplayers / immersion:

Quote

Before you end up alone in the wild, you had a loving family. You wonder if they are fine, if the catastrophe hit them or not, you worry a lot about your partner and kids.

When you’re awake, the survival instinct of your animal cells and brain takes priority. But at night, you have nightmares. You see them torn apart, enslaved, killed by Nature or by humans. You see their bodies, frozen in the family house.

In your nightmares, you constantly fight to help them without any success whatsoever, you move your real body in every way you possibly can before waking up, sweating and horrified. When you don’t dream, you sleepwalk, and all this activity prevents you from recovering from the daily survival challenge.

Since the First Flare, nights became your greatest enemy. Every morning, you swear you’ll never go to bed ever again. But Nature commands otherwise. You are a Sleepwalker.

Below you will find the codes for playing these modes:

SleepWalker Level

Custom Code

0

8sDM-qj4P-KxuH-yaKO-LgEA

1

8sDM-qj4P-KxuT-x6KO-LgEA

2

8sDM-qj4P-Kxuf-xaKO-LgEA

3

8sDM-qj4P-Kxur-w6KO-LgEA

4

8sDM-uj4P-Kxur-w6KO-LgEA

5

8sDM-uj8P-Kxur-w6KO-LgEA

6

8sDM-+j8P-Kxur-w6KO-LgEA

7

8sDM-/j8P-Kxur-w6KO-LgEA

Deadman Style

8sDM-/j8P-Kxu3-waKO-LgEA

 

I’ve tested this mode a bit already, and it made me behave more realistically, so for me the SleepWalker variations hit their target. I hope some of you will test them, and if even only one of you likes it, I’d be glad to have taken the time to share my views in this post.

When I’ll play this mode (no idea when), I’ll report just here just like I do with the actual BareSkins, this is why I posted in "survival stories" section.

Edited by BareSkin
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15 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

Interesting analysis, hope you'll have fun with those experimental modes.

I tend to disagree about the purpose of rest as resource - I see it as much as a way to prevent hibernation (saving even more calories by constant sleeping) as the recovery limitation that you mentioned.

Well there's still the cabin fever to fight it a bit given the temperatures on late Loper, and if you spend your time sleeping, well, you tend to do less sticks runs, less hunting. Even if I end up hibernating, I wouldn't consider it an immersion breaker, as it feels quite a natural behavior to me in such circumstances.

Edited by BareSkin
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4 minutes ago, BareSkin said:

Well there's still the cabin fever to fight it a bit given the temperatures on late Loper, and if you spend your time sleeping, well, you tend to do less sticks runs, less hunting. Even if I end up hibernating, I wouldn't consider it an immersion breaker, as it feels quite a natural behavior to me in such circumstances.

Yep, I think other settings may balance Rest as Resource. Cabin Fever isn't that much of an issue when you get used to making all your cooking, water-boiling and even sleeping outdoors. But if other settings force the player to scramble for food every day then hibernation may not be an option.

Anyway, see what happens during your sleepwalking and report back :) I've been also considering some sort of a mixed custom mode if Deadman turns out not to be survivable in the long term.

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Just now, Drifter Man said:

I've been also considering some sort of a mixed custom mode if Deadman turns out not to be survivable in the long term.

I guess, compared to a regular Deadman, just activating the lowest possible recovery would fit you. That's still 4 % every 16h well fed, but unfortunately I don't see any other mode "in between". (or maybe add "no feats"?)

Edited by BareSkin
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You're forgetting a very important difficulty setting:  The abundance of edible plants.

Teas give you 110 calories and give a massive increase in the distance you can travel without getting cold damage.  They are extremely potent tools - for instance, you need a Feels Like of about -10 to make it from the barn to the farmhouse in PV without damage - but with a supply of hot tea to enjoy along the way you can do it in just about any temperature that you want because of the instant +20% heat gain you get per tea.  I don't think the Feels Like temperature changes how fast teas cool off - so a large supply of hot tea makes you basically temperature independent - you just need to drink more teas if its colder - you can travel freely until your teas cool off.

Cattails do not decay and do not attract animals, and have a better calorie/weight ratio than any other food that spawns in Interloper other than crackers and beef jerky.  Cattails are arguably better than beef jerky because they don't make you thirsty.  They represent 90% of your calorie supply until you can hunt.

Personally I think the lack of a rifle in interloper is not a fun gameplay decision - as long as rifles and bullets are rare, you get a very limited number of shots and have to haul around a 4 kg gun - compare that to under 2 kg for a bow and six arrows.  You will never get your shooting up that high unless you read a bunch of books, which is a questionable decision considering the low ammo supply.

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5 hours ago, fauxjargon said:

You're forgetting a very important difficulty setting:  The abundance of edible plants.

Every other parameters is regular Interloper cause I wanted to change the least possible parameters compared to what Hinterland judged as a good way to play their game. I just went to Custom Settings, chose Interloper, and changed the values I described.

I personally like that there is no rifle spawn on Loper, and that's part of the reasons I didn't play any other mode yet. I'm european: there's a very very low chance I would find a rifle anywhere if I had to survive, and if I did I wouldn't even know how to fire it. Plus it introduces this 2-stages play the first being you're defenseless, then there's a trip to the forge, and then part 2 when you're a hunter.

An I agree that changing the abundance of harvestable plants could create some more intermediate levels of Sleepwalker mode, the cattails stalks being a crucial resource.

Edited by BareSkin
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On 10/16/2018 at 6:56 AM, Drifter Man said:

I see it as much as a way to prevent hibernation (saving even more calories by constant sleeping)

Played it a bit much, problem is if/when you hibernate, you don't recover health, so that's something you want to avoid as soon as you're not at full health. Why saving calories if they're not used for background recovery?... It still feels less stupid than running around the place before going to bed.

Edited by BareSkin
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13 hours ago, BareSkin said:

Played it a bit much, problem is if/when you hibernate, you don't recover health, so that's something you want to avoid as soon as you're not at full health. Why saving calories if they're not used for background recovery?... It still feels less stupid than running around the place before going to bed.

Yep I just remember that when I tried switching off rest as resource AND cabin fever, I ended up sleeping almost all the time... if you don't need food, you spend less time outside, take less damage etc etc.

But anyway - suit yourself, that's what the custom settings are for. I'm now quite happy with no recovery at all :)

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@BareSkin, Excellent discussion.. but it might get better exposure if it was moved to 'General Discussion' instead of being buried in 'Survival Stories'.

Just a suggestion.. if you feel like doing so, just contact one of the mods and they can take care of it for you.

Edited by JAFO
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Problem is, it'll turn quite soon into the survival stories of some next BareSkin. No need for exposure, I play for myself. Tested it a bit, I can say this mode is promising to me as an in-between it feels good for "after interloper" and "before deadman"

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screen_17cf3d57-034b-4b89-9b5c-36721ad02442.thumb.png.9d33ebfe03c7d900f9e17070e31fb7cb.png

What is happening, when you fade into the short dark?

Bareskin11-Sleepwalker.thumb.png.31773a8a9357d91178fc745905311710.pngSleepwalker level1

-----------------------------

I choose Male, 2 feats (Cold Fusion and Free Runner) and random spawn, to match interloper as close as possible. I don't have FireMaster or Efficient Machine as an option.

--------

BareSkin11- D1 [Sleepwalker level 1]

Spawn at the regular 2-trees-bridge-near-cave spawn point, at noon, FL-27. Hushed River Valley. Again. Of course. Hate this map. I don’t run, for once, cause I don’t want to get fatigue building up. Fatigue is my enemy. I harvest the rose hips, and enter the ice cave before freezing, health is precious when you Sleepwalk. FL0+ in the cave, I explore and find a dead rabbit. Does this means there is the wolf tail inside the cave again? I don’t grab it, don’t want to get smelly.

I find the big blue cave, grab stones and sticks, can’t see a wolf tail anywhere. Continue on, to the big cave with the rope some Bareskin died in before for not having Cold Fusion. Accelerant and coal. Since the area is not wolfy, I go back to grab the dead rabbit before going up. I here something barking – It’s just a dog IRL in the neighborhood but my heart missed a beat.

Before leaving the cave on upper exit, I realize this cave has two entry points on lower part, only one in upper part. I spent time in positive FL, harvesting rabbit meat to warm up before leaving. Not very useful, I win only one-pixel temp bar for meat+gut, but at least I’m in mid-afternoon when I go out.

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There’s a path on my right, which I follow in the pre-blizzard weather. Blizzard kicks in rapidly, while trying to stay shielded on the right hand side I end up above the cave, find some peaches, wood, matches in a backpack. MATCHES! First time I find ignition in HRV, but I’m already freezing, so I decide to head back to the cave (sprain an ankle). There’s no use dying in a blizzard going around with no purpose.

In the cave, the water problem becomes manageable, and I can make torches to explores the cave. I nearly want to hack the save to be able to start again from here anytime an HRV spawn comes to me, since this start is so lucky. I light a fire at the rope point, prepare water and peaches, take a torch to explore the upper part. Drop the cedar in the fire, cook meat and heal the ankle with tea.

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Never thought I would ever start a fire in an HRV spawn.

I decide I’ll drop a torch before taking the rope down and continue the fire on the lower level to explore it a bit before dying, since I found some more coal thanks to torch exploring. I proceed as planned, light a new fire with my thrown torch after the blue light cave, put my last 3 sticks in which should bring me to the 3 coals sooner or later (or in 20minutes). Drop coal, drop the smellies and head towards where I came from to explore.

At some place I didn’t come before (obviously) I find 3 sticks, continue, mmmOK, that’s the other entry/exit. The one with a river on the left hand, let’s call it the River Entry, the other one will be the Bridges entry. The night is bright, there’s an ongoing aurora. Back to the cave. I chain-torch randomly, find a cedar in a dead end, but can’t find my fire…

Wait to much for my next torch-chaining, my torches are really too bad (13%). Spend a new match on a torch, find my fire. What can I do now? I drop the next coal + cedar I just found, pull torches and continue exploring. It seems I very often spawn near here, so experience of the cave is good to have for the next spawn.

New exploration of the rope cave: it’s rather small and has nothing to offer except a human container and a rope up. I’m saying to myself, if there’s only on exit up and two entries down, does it somehow means the top is going towards somewhere more restrained, then more valuable, like some kind of symbolic arrow?

I continue my lower part exploration, this time leaving on the left corridor (coming from rope cave). Find stone. Did I already see them and not grab them? Not my style. I decide I’ll take everything I see just to make sure. Continue on. 2 coals, and an ancient camp! 2 cedars, Catherine, matches, some wood, soda, sardines. What a treasure!

screen_a44e4392-fa6f-4d4c-999a-68b0e9785787.thumb.png.045197eeaa6794cc212fa8a0244f7a55.png

Heya, Darling! Phone number?

Oh man (I write it in real time as I play) ! A Bedroll! + Newsprint+beef+t-shirt. Double treasure! Golden! I was already happy finding Catherine, but now, that's a completely different business! 5 seconds before I was thinking science before dying, now I’ll have to think a bit more! I explore the surroundings to remember the place a bit more, it’s on the right hand just after some kind of rock ledge on which you can walk up. Remember to turn on right hand instead of going towards bioluminescent stuff.

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Jesus didn't appear in a better golden halo.

I find a precedent burnt torch just there, so the first exploration was with torch but didn’t see the entry to this treasure… Back to the fire, I want to sleep one hour just to make a save. Of course not for healing, I’m a sleepwalker. The gut has cured 3%, funny the game mechanics still work as if I’d live...

I think: the cave was positive FL even before I had a fire, thanks to Cold Fusion. I could sleep here 10h since I have water, and wake up in late morning to explore. Also need sleep IRL. The river exit will bring me, if I go down, downstream to Valley Cave and Moose Overlook, I’ve already tested it not to exit HRV.

All those bush-barrier are also annoying me a lot on this map, it feels un-naturally twisted, like if the Tetris developper told me his game is “like IRL”. LOL. I want to get as far as possible from this map I hate. It’s not a map, it’s a puzzle for bored multi-year players of TLD. I’ll sleep in the top part of the cave, since going down is less exhausting, and I didn’t explore the outside from the top part. Plus that’s the part where you don’t find dead rabbits...

 

Edited by BareSkin
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BareSkin11- D2 [Sleepwalker level 1]

The night is giving good advice, as they say, and I decided to use maps to escape HRV. After all, I’m still a fresh interloper who just got rid of rest-healing, and I’ve had enough HRV starts full of frustration. I’m not a DeadMan and that’s already a big deal to me to have sleep as an enemy, making the game much harder. Not using maps in HRV just makes it less fun to me, there’s no need for any other explanation.

Opening the HRV map confirms my feelings: it’s a puzzle. I love puzzles, but not in a survival game, even less on Loper-like difficulty. I think I'm in the center of the map, I guess the “river exit” is at Twin Sister falls, that’s the falls BareSkin8 downclimbed following downstream to the landslide and moose overlook. What an error! The exit is opposite of there… Even with a map I can’t understand how to reach it…A pre-bareskin7 did try to right side of the River exit, which lead him to die in front of a stupid bush barrier, as indicated by plan.

Seems I have to go all the way upstream to Offset Falls in order to have a chance. If the upper cave exit is at Reclusive Falls, that should help, it seems there’s a bridge there that will take me out of the river, then another one after Stairsteps Lake. Let’s go check in-game.

Drop the smellies before exiting the upper part, thinking my intuition might be good: where there is only on exit, it’s more valuable. I find a rope and a view on the valley with some fire somewhere I don’t care about. No river, no falls. Checking map, I think I’m at the “south” blue cave, the only one I see which is not near a river, plus there’s this rope on the left side of exit. Some loot is indicated above the entry… Yes, that’s where I found the match in yesterday's blizzard.

So, if I go to the exit on south path I’ll end up on a stupidbush (copyleft expression - reuse freely). Same on the other path. The map asks me to go down the rope since it’s the only no-hatchet way and then on several tree bridges. I go check the bridges below the rope to see if it matches map information. Fatigue is such a big enemy on SleepWalker, ropes are devil.

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Yep, there’s a big bridges behind, but not sure where to take it and where it goes, there’s no clear road in both case. But that’s where I’ll go, in mid-afternoon if the clouds don’t turn into a blizzard. It seems the upper part if the Ice Cave brings you to the “exit side” of the River (I now locate the double-tree entry near Long Shot Falls), both lower exits force you into a more dangerous trip in order to cross the river.

Sleep 1h in the cave (FL0+) in the bedroll, hum , that feels good, a bedroll… Retrieve 20% of tempbar only, I hate to sleep when I’m not starved but there will be ropes, 1 more hour, the bulb of the temp bar is now full, it’s noon so I check outside temperature: FL-24 and pre-blizzard snow. Pass time 1hr  (+1%health), pass time 1more hour starved (-1% health, 94%). Soda, pass time 2 h because outside blizzard, health 96%, in 3hr maximum it’ll be dark.

Still blizzard, but it turned and I would be protected as soon as I take the rope. I hesitate. Can I survive one more night in the cave? Could be. But I have a full temp bar, which can’t be wasted… In the long run the fuel, thus the water, will be the problem. I decide that for once, not acting might be a bigger problem than waiting since I know the cave to be sometimes wolfy.

I arrive below the rope, the tree seems to lead from left to right, which is not the way I thought I was supposed to cross it. I look for another path on the left, cause that’s what the map proposes and it keeps me windshielded. I see the tree bridges but can’t go to them because the 2m of snow is too steep. Once again, a much un-natural map feature. I definitely hate HRV. I go around, bear cave spawn, I’m not shielded anymore: quick hyporisk, but I can’t refuse the 3 cattails on my path.

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Yes, you have to go around this thing. Stupid.

The winds turn really often in HRV, that’s definitely true. I take the two tree bridges, facing the winds. Now the map says I just have to keep my left hand to the exit of this hell. I decide I’ll run, cause sleepwalking during night is less harmful than the hypothermia, and I’m starved already so no calories loss. I see the high tree bridge, then some cave. “Leave hushed river valley”… YES, thank you! Negative FL0- inside the new cave, I’ll light up a torch-fire and look if the temperature are not better deeper. I’m pretty sure the FL would be positive 0+ if my few clothes weren’t wet from the blizzard.

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I drop the 2 cedars since I will certainly find coal in the cave and it has better ratio, harvest precedent torches, pull out new ones (all 42%, must be a function of fire time/temperature), and leave for exploration on the next snow melting. I’ve been on a BedLoper for so long that I think I’ll need to find a bed really soon, but hey, I’ve got a bedroll and can sleep in caves! Wonderful. Coal, fir, cedar, empty corpse.

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Mecca Milton is this way dude, hurry up or you'll end up like me.

I find an exit to Moutain Town, torch instantly blown out. Back to the cave, spend one match and head back to the fire. Notice the head of the corpse is pointing towards Milton. Is it a new funeral ritual? This cave seems to actually be a tunnel, and quite simple. Before the fire dies, I drop 27 stones and transfer with the 2 lasts torches the Milton Exit, to save a match tomorrow morning. I hate fires whit only one can boiling.

Since the torch is not dead yet; I head out in the night in Milton map to see if I recognize the place, since I’ve done WinterMute (never set foot back in Milton since). I keep my right hand, can’t recognize anything, so I follow my footsteps back to the cave and light a fire in there.

2 first attempts fails, and the torch dies out just 1 microsecond before I click “Start” Fire” for the third one. I hear match noise, I’m angry but it’s a success. That was the match I was supposed to save by being clever and bringing my fire at the other end of the tunnel.

I go deeper into the cave to check temperature away from fire. Drop my bedroll in the dark, go check the temperature deeper for when the fire dies out, but I just simply fall in the void. I dropped my bedroll too close to the edge, I will learn later when I transfer light and fire to this place. Sprained ankle+benefits, plus I have to spend a new match to get back to my fire… the game told me I should sleep 4h. Science is stronger, I check the temperature anyway: FL0+ thanks to dried clothes. I will survive another night.

Sleep 4h.

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BareSkin11- D3 [Sleepwalker level 1]

FL+4 with fully dried clothes, sleep 6 more hours since I’m at mid-fatigue. I’m quite happy to see the Milton map (I mean in-game Milton, I won’t be using maps now that I’m out of HRV), it’s really been a long time. Remember I hated the town, full of wolves during Hard Wintermute.

3 passing crows in the skies welcome the new fresh meat on the map. It’s snowy but quite clear, let’s explore, armed with my mighty stone: I decide to follow the crows, cause why not, I’d go random anyway. I hear water fall so I must be somewhere in the middle of the map. Upper map, since there’s no water fall under Milton Bridge. 2 rabbits and sticks below? I go for it, see a road, miss the rabbit of course.

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The road resembles the one from early Wintermute, I’ve been wolfed/bear-ed so many times on this bridge…

The winds get stronger as soon as I try my luck a second time on the rabbit. They must be friends, the wind and him. While chasing the second rabbit, I decide I will follow the road down since the winds show me this way, but from above the road for situational awareness, since roads = wolves. I headshoot the second rabbit and begin moving from here, hyporisk soon. The winds are pushing my back, which is nice, I recognize the place: I’m at the blue trailer. I will never forget him, I still see it in a golden halo after all my Wintermute starts. You never forget your first night in a bed. Also first time I’ve seen a deer, I was so sure it would attack me at that time, I waited for it to leave before proceeding to the Church…

A wolf is walking fast towards me: I smell. Can I make it to the trailer before he catches me? I sprint. Answer is yes, but I was ready to drop decoy. I enter the trailer with only 4% hyporisk but I have only 64% health: did I lose 30% in yesterday’s evening fall? FL0+ in the trailer.

I loot tinderbook, 18% dog food, heavy hammer (didn’t even remember a workbench being here), and nothing more. I look at the hammer in perplexity: I just reported my last trip the the Forge on the forums with BareSkin7, and I nearly died going there. Well at least it might save me in a struggle, and backpack weight is not a problem yet.

I harvest the 2 rabbits, I decide I’ll eat them here before going the the wolfy church. I’m tempted to take the guts and let them cure here. The blizzards keeps going on, so I harvest the rabbits completely. At night fall, it’s still blizzard, and I can’t afford going outside to cook, this would make me lose my jeans (5%) and possibly my hoodie (15%). So the night will be spent here, I was right to fully harvest the rabbits. I let everything cure on the workbench, where they belong.

I eat 48% sardines and pass time for 2h to recover a bit. Still snowing, eat a cattail stalk, 2 more hours passing time. Health 65%, midnight, still snowing. Sleep 10h starved, to clear fatigue. Wake up at 54% (-10% for 10h starved).

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Just now, Drifter Man said:

Interesting to see how the custom rules can completely reverse behavior :)

I'm still in this run (despite the short BareSkin12 deadman) and ended up changing this point of view, on sleepwalker level 1 there's no use to starvation, being while sleeping or not, since sleeping "fed" for 10h is a virtual +10% health you just don't lose, so... being starved has the same punitive price whatever you're doing: -1%/h

Edited by BareSkin
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2 minutes ago, BareSkin said:

I'm still in this run (despite the short BareSkin12 deadman) and ended up changing this point of view, on sleepwalker level 1 there's no use to starvation, being while sleeping or not, since sleeping "fed" for 10h is a virtual +10% health you just don't lose, so... being starved has the same punitive price whatever you're doing: -1%/h

Makes sense! If sleeping starved means a health loss you cannot replace fast enough, then you just have to find more calories.

In fact, you should still prefer to eat before sleep because keeping condition while asleep is less calorie-intensive than when awake.

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BareSkin11- D4 [Sleepwalker level 1]

Wake Up mid-morning light grandma's fog (Grey Mother, you there?), match-torch-barrel fire, easy with the book I just found, drop inside the 2 cedars that I find right next to the barrel, then wait for rabbit to cook. I remember the church not being far, but traveling in this fog in a wolfy place…

As soon as the fire is up in temperature thanks to coal, I take off my clothes. Never done that before, seems stupid, but hey, I want at least a chance to repair them. Explore the area a bit, naked, for sticks and rose hips. I’m tempted to eat the 17% dog food just to get a second can, since I found antibiotics at the HRV bedroll camp and “rest as a resource” is disabled… but my brain refuses and drop the dog food in the snow.

Nearby Crows are for a deer carcass. I make a small detour in my naked sticks run to go check it: 1.7kg, and it’s on the path to the church, there are no winds, it’s tempting. Back to the fire barrel, I think next tempbar I’ll put my cloth on and go hacksaw one chunk. I finally hack (is hacksaw also a verb?) all the meat in 16minutes, since a water round is roughly 30 it’s fine, I’m back to unboiled water and something to put on the second cooking place - I love it-, at the cost of only half a tempbar. Ah, early loper temperatures… I’ll let the barrel fire finish cooking meat, and transfer fire to the carcass for hide and guts.

The weather clears up before that, I go check near the carcass for wolves, can’t see any. The fog comes back before the steaks finish to cook. I’m sure this clear window was the game wanting to help me. Pull up 21% torches then transfer the fire to the carcass. Fails twice and nearly got wolfed in the process, a chance fire attempts are enough to make wolf fear the place. Add a coal for a 1h30 fire matching harvesting time, then harvest.

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I already ate everything I wanted on the deer, now I want you, poor human creature with bare skin

Once I have harvested the carcass I run back to the trailer since there is a wolf in the area now, I drop everything to cure (total 3 guts, 2 rabbit 1 deer- the guts will be ready for day 10). I don’t get why I took only one gut (there are 2, right?) and I don’t even get why I took even one since the rabbits do the same…. Well, what's done is done and anyway I had to use a coal so... I eat everything (2200 calories) for not traveling smelly, and of course recover some condition.

Put my clothes back except the jeans, and travel to the church. I’m looking for the wolf from the overlook, find it: this passage will definitely be really risky. But that’s one less wolf at the church, I think.

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Strong winds when I eye-contact the church, but I should not hurry: better lose some health than losing it all : there another wolf in front of the church. I don’t even pick sticks or cattails, all my mind is focused on the wolf, and the church door. I enter it at the same time as hyporisk enters me.

God didn’t enter me, or maybe he was cold too: I’m still freezing inside, that’s not a good news. Short time solution is passing time in the bed. I then loot the church: 7 tinderbibles, storm lantern, 16% dog food (man, will I never get this second can?), 1 cloth. The church is constant temperature through the night FL-2, +1 inside the bed. I pass time until I get exhausted to recover, then alternate sleep and passing time.

Tonight I sleep with gods. I pray the weather ones, as usual.

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Edited by BareSkin
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BareSkin11- D5 [Sleepwalker level 1]

Early morning is blizzard and I’m at 58% health, and I need a fire for water. I burn few bibles and drink the holy words, but lose 1% to exhaustion. Pass time for 2h until I finish my calories (59%), then brake the altar chair and go outside spend my tempbar on a rabbit behind the church. I pick cattails, and have to give the rabbit to a wolf in exchange for my life. Back in the church, my four needs are empty (55%), only thirst is not red. Still no Nirvana, even though the place is well chosen. New fire for water and cooking air on the second spot, eat a stalk for not being starved while making water, then sleep 1hr chunks making water.

At nightfall I head up outside towards the big farmhouse downhill, the wolf from before is feeding on a deer and doesn’t care too much about me. When I arrive there, wolf in the orchard going to the workbench and rabbits behind the building.

Arrive at the building before hyporisk, but °µ%§!, it’s closed. Really? You're doing this to me, in the middle of the night? I go grab the key in the car (thanks Wintermute), enter at 47% health. FL-2 in the building, light up a torch to warmup and loot: loads of tinderbooks, granola bar, flare in the bathtub (?), running shoes, soda, Peaches, tomato, second can, cooking pot, porks and beans, light a fire in the stove, second cooking pot, drop all the books in the stove and launch mass-water-making, a mackinaw jacket (woot!), a ragged light shell (woot woot!), and better hoodie, a well hidden maglens!

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Only problem: I have no sewing kit, but I’m happy with the loot. While making water, I put the light shell above the Mackinaw, the second hoodie replaces the s-shirt. The running shoes are in the same crappy condition than my leather ones (22%), so they'll be harvested (less waterproof).

I don’t eat, cause I’ll go sleeping soon. I still have nothing to protect my head and hands. Tomorrow I should go to the workbench, try to find a metal scrap and turn it into a hook for sewing while I cook something.

I bed for 10h from 47% to predicted 37% if I don’t eat. I change my mind and decide I need to eat before sleeping, which is a virtual 10% health “gain”. I’m not good enough to afford losing 10% each night and try to spend 14h not starved for a net +4%/day.

So, granola bar + 3 stalks, and to bed.

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BareSkin11- D6 [Sleepwalker level 1]

This day will be a good day if I manage to repair some cloth, finish it above 50% health, and maybe kill some rabbits. Wake up mid-morning dehydrated but with 47% health. Head out with my full tempbar for maybe some loot at the workbench. While in the truck, I see rabbits fly away: there a wolf nearby. I head to the barrel and make a fire, but nothing to loot in there.

I snap one nearby rabbit, hacksaw the meat and drop the carcass, while it cooks I snap the second one. I bring the carcasses back inside, and saw some metal lamp to get a scrap. The weather becomes perfect after noon, I should go spend my tempbar on sticks run and cattails now that my business with the bench is done. I leave the 14% rusty dog food for the wolves. Still closed of course. Hahahahaha.

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A deer carcass near a marsh calls for a maglens fire, plus there are 2 rabbits nearby. I hacksaw the meat (its very warm, FL-4) then start the fire to cook-eat it right here. Go on a run, can’t refuse a Maple, miss one of the rabbits, grab cattails, everything goes well until the winds pick up and kill the fire I just dropped a coal in. I have choice to make, I’ll be smelly but the wolves are far if I take the path from behind.

My stomach is full, I decide to babysit the fire, harvest the skin (will be ready on day 12), leave everything else smelly in here, after all there are already 2 rabbits carcass waiting for me indoors. This is definitely a blizzard, I pick up some sticks and shrooms on my way back.

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Do wolves eat shrooms to get high?

The light shell is my best piece of combined protection and it takes only 1 cloth to repair, so I go for it. Hum, sewing kit is needed. I guess the hooks work only when crafting then? Too bad… but at FL0-, it’s not a problem once you’re in the bed.

Pass time until midnight, harvest the rabbits fully, then 10h sleep to clear fatigue.

----------------------

Conclusion on Sleepwalker mode after one week: This is definitely a challenge a bit harder than Interloper, much more calories to find, but I enjoy the behavior it asks from the player much better. The calories price on action becomes meaningful, and you have to be well fed to keep your health above sea level.

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BareSkin11- D7 [Sleepwalker level 1]

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Wake up in the afternoon, starved, drink and eat a cattail. Warm hours, I want to transfer to Milton to find a sewing kit. I have to leave 2 fresh guts here (will be ready on day 13), plus 9L of water. I take only one cooking spot, I think I’ll find one more in Milton. Prybar in the nearby key-car trunk, I exchange for 1L water.

Hum, is this a no-wolf day? None can been seen in the hay fields… Are they all waiting for me in Milton? I exchange 2 maple for 1L water on the way, and I cry leaving all these sticks and cattails untouched. Wolf howling from the place I just left, he misses me. Or maybe he found the dog food closed can? I approach the city crouched, trying to detect any movement, I feel I'll get jumped on every second. Crows on my right hand, I don’t care, I’m at 30.00kg anyway. Of course the stressing music begins, nice timing. Entering Grey Mother’s, no gunshot. Hospitality traditions are not what they were were anymore.

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Drop all stuff in the fridge, didn’t remember there was a stove in this house. 12 matches, cooking book, tomato, the expected cooking pot, porks and beans, loads of curtains and cloth for later, a second cooking pot (damn, if I knew…), SEWING KIT!, tinderbooks, combat pants (I think of poor snowball malediction), new jeans, thin wool sweater (woot!). This is a wonderful loot. Once the light shell repaired, all this temperature bonus will be game-changing advantage.

I feel stupid I took some water, since I knew there was a toilet. But hey, you never know if you’ll reach destination or not, so… It’s already night, no maglens possibility so I match-torch-stove in order to eat a bit before going to pass time in bed. I not exhausted at all, the day was stressful on nerves but not on exercise. Repair the light shell while boiling water, fails once then success twice (96%). Pass time 3h from 50 to 53, then sleep 6h to clear fatigue.

 

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BareSkin11- D8 [Sleepwalker level 1]

Wake up on morning, continue to repair, harvest to 4% jeans, ragged hoodie and t-shirt, the running shoes. I don’t suffer too many fails, the activity brings me in warm hours with a whopping +12°C cumulative bonus (from +4 before entering the house). Still no gloves or hats. It took 50% of my sewing kit.

Go spend my tempbar outside, there’s wolf between the house and the bridge, how many times did I die to him in Wintermute? In the nearby buildings, I find a whetstone, tomato. Behind the house in front of mine, there’s a rabbit, and I definitely want a sixth gut ( I have mitts and boots to craft), but as soon as I check the place from the overlook, the wolf near the bridge cloned itself and barks at me.

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He thought maybe we could have a chitchat in front of the fireplace. "Close encounter", as they say.

Cook 3 cans, go near the bed to pass time while I have calories, stop time during aurora and manage to read 4hours of Survive the Outdoors in the night.

BareSkin11- D9 [Sleepwalker level 1]

Wake up at 51% health starved, and I have no food left. Still snowing outside - will it even stop someday? The bridges wolves are not there anymore, stick run under the water tower, there's a deer near the old school so it should be wolf free. I of course get barked at as soon as I cross the road, and run for my life back to the house with a modest 14 sticks reward.

2h later I sneak into the bank, that’s really a guerilla happening here between the wolves and me. Fleece mittens that will cover my hands, better leather shoes (good I didn’t repair mine), soda, coffee cup, wool scrap (nice, no more frostbite at all!) and cash in the safe.

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Not worthless at all, I got one of my best game for less than that.

The wolf is patrolling in front of my house so I go to the Post Office: 2 tinderbooks. Leaving the place, the wolf cloned itself, no idea how I’ll be back home tonight, and the night is in 2h maximum. Loot the far houses: sardines, porkandbeans, there’s a deer carcass and cattail nearby, plus a house on top on the hill, second thin wool sweater. Milton is definitely a clothes-loot paradise.

In the last house, I can’t search it because it’s too dark, I eat some canned food and sardines, finish the book before real dark (fire starting 2), pass time for 3h, drink and eat cattails, sleep for 8h.

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BareSkin11- D10 [Sleepwalker level 1]

I wake up at 55% health and finish looting the house: firelog I hesitate to take (but I take), still no can opener. Grandma’s fog outside, I want to go to the deer carcass, I have only 7 stalks left. Lots of rose hips and cattails in the marsh, plus a rabbit on the hill with a house: the place should be wolf-free.

No maglens possibility at the carcass, but I can’t care less, I need to eat. Use the firelog in the fire, and lots of books, hacksaw-cook-it on site while finishing collecting cattail Jackpot. I observe a wolf making a deer kill near the old school. 1h later the weather clear up saying, why didn’t you wait a bit before spending a match? I’m fed, so I harvest the 2 guts and hide and drop them in the last house, just in case I come nearby when leaving the map. The hilltop house gives canned dog food, I’ll have to smash. I snap the rabbit while going down together with 4 birch, winds get strong and kill my fire while harvesting it.

Harvest the rabbit in the last house (+1 gut and pelt curing, harvesting level 2), head outside for maglens cooking (cooking 2) just under the house’s petrol tank... The wolves are still patrolling my house, since they didn’t see me sneak out. Stupid dogs. I enter my house from the back of the town, crouched.

 

BareSkin11- D11 [Sleepwalker level 1]

Wake up at 58%, sounds like a defeat given everything I ate yesterday. Morning blizzard, I craft things, look back in the journal: 3 guts 2 rabbit pelts and 1 deer in the trailer, plus 2 guts at the farm that should be OK quite soon. Maths are good fo rabbitskin mitts, plus there is a workbench in the trailer and I have a sewing kit, and 22 cattails left. I’ll take a reclaimed too, in case the hook is enough to craft and I don’t need the gut for making a full fishing tackle. For the boots, 1 gut is missing, plus I certainly don’t have the resources (calories) to craft it.

So the plan is simple: go back to the farm and finish looting the river cattails, grab the 2 cured guts and pelts; head to the trailer from behind and craft the mitts, downclimbing somehow to Milton, and leave. Outside, it’s heavy fog. Really not the best to sneak out of Milton, I can see the bridge wolf. 2 of them actually, I’d have to detour a lot even if I wanted to move now. I go back inside and do some chores, waiting for the fog to lift up.

My pack is ready and under 19kg, gained 2% while reading cause I was well fed, 60% health. Still heavy fog at noon. Patience, young padawan. I go upstairs, eat a cattail and sleep 2h. 1Cattail stalk = 2h unstarved sleeping.

The fog did lift up, it’s grandma's one now, I decide it’s good weather for traveling (no kidding!). I keep the wolf at the old school in sight while I follow the street to the farm, crouched. I can’t remember the last time I traveled in a positive FL, I love it… I can take all the time I want for sticks, mushrooms, roses, and cattails in the river. Deer in the hay field, no wolves there?

Since it’s so warm and I’m already starved, I explore all the way downstream: the waterfall is not accessible, and I end up with +35 cattails stalks! Here wolf howling from where I’m heading to: I’ll leave the last rabbit alive in the clearing, since Mother Nature gave me much more food than anticipated.

I go on a stick run instead, and find a rope down! (but no sticks) I didn’t even know there was some “below” part in Milton except the exit! I stopped using maps after exiting HRV. I wonder where it goes, but I’m a sleepwalker, so I hate ropes. Plus it’s dusk already. Gosh, the rope seems long, I can’t even see below. Plus there’s another rope down after that, and I think a cave in between the two, on the right. Definitely not for me. But maybe that explains why there’s a rope in the truck nearby, which I left the first time: you might need it if you go down.

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Arriving crouched at the farm, I hear a wolf jumping on a poor rabbit. I try to locate where it is to calculate safe passage to the house – it’s just in front of the door! I will need to make a big detour via workbench, and hurry before it finishes its meal. I arrive at the key-car the wolf has finished already, I crouch down and hide in the car, the wolf goes behind the house, I could sprint there safely, maybe? How can a wolf eat a rabbit so rapidly? Does he get food poisoning? Will I find its dead body tomorrow? The world seems unfair.

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I’m barked at during my sprint, the wolf changed his mind and wasn’t behind the house, I hide in the key-car again. The wolf tries to open the car, but he has no thumb, so this project is abandoned, and he leaves slowly, good see I can see him and decide when to sneak out to the indoors. Try to grab the rabbit, but you can’t, the carcass behaves like an harvested deer, you can’t transport it neither.

The two fresh guts are at 94%, they’ll be ready tomorrow for my move to the trailer. I follow my procedure of 1 cattail-2h sleep to clear fatigue mixed with pass time to recover.

Edited by BareSkin
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