Well... isn't this just peachy? (Day 2)

[JAFO]

So.. I didn't get to play until the last 6 hours of day 1..  So it turned into something of a rush to stockpile supplies.

I looted Jackrabbits and Misanthropes before heading for the Quonset. Worked my way along the coast looting as I went, then headed up Bear Creek, gathering cattails along the way. Found the JOL with rifle at the picnic grounds, then headed for ML via the Ravine. No rope, so no flare gun. Looted the dam, then (slowly) hauled all 50kg of gear to Trappers.

Dropped a whole bunch of stuff at Trappers and set out (one hour remaining) to gather as many cattails from the lake & river as possible before holing up back at Trappers.

Well.. that was the plan, anyway.

Wound up at the solitary cabin on the lake where the bear usually hangs out when day 2 kicks in. And me with my rifle + 27 rounds left back at Trappers to save weight!

Lake is CRAWLING with devil wolves. Shitshitshitshitshit!

Crouched the whole way, I make my way slowly towards the Camp Office. One wolf passes by just 30m away, but doesn't notice me.. I get as far as the river mouth and find my way blocked by more wolves. Well, since I'm here, let's see if the bunker is up the top of the ridge. Nope. Bugger. I have one mega-candy and 17 cattails. Enough sticks and cloth to make a snow shelter if needed. Dare I try to wait it out?

Check online to see what's coming on day 3. Oh crap. Aurora wolves. So much for that great idea.

So now the plan is to try and crouch all the way back to Trappers.

 

Wish me luck.. I'm gonna need buckets of it!

[bobtux]

Haha , you're lucky !! I've search for a rifle and only found 30 cartridges but no rifle . You  can do it !! Show them wolf who's the boss of the wild Canada

[JAFO]

Well.. that was an interesting experience... assuming that being scared shitless counts as "interesting".

Obviously, the only thing for it was to stay on the high ground so much as possible. A quick check showed the river mouth was still being patrolled by at least 3 demons, so I backtracked up the ridge a ways and made my way carefully to the river. No wolves in sight.. dashed across the ice and up into the trees on the other side. Got up as high as I could and started working my way around to the Camp Office. Halfway there, sprained a wrist and an ankle. Naturally, I only brought one of my six bottles of painkillers with me.. oh well.. four tablets later I'm rolling again.

Get above the Camp Office and no wolves in sight. They're all over the lake, of course. The wind picks up, sounds likely to get nasty. Dash across to the doorway and in. Make 3 litres of water then into bed. Wake up, wind is gone, but there's a mega-fog outside. Killed time for an hour, check, fog, back inside.. rinse and repeat 4 times. One one check, ate a mega-candy, saw my stomach fill to the top, went out and back in, and now my stomach is at 25% tops. I think there's some bugs with that candy.

On the last check, it had turned into Grandma fog, so I decided to chance it.. crouched my way up to the railway line, stopping to look and listen every 15-20 seconds. Made my way into the trees on the LH side, and headed for the tunnel at maximum warp crouch. Halfway there, sprain a wrist.. damn. I need that throwing arm in case I have to distract a wolf. Swallowed my last 2 tabs and crept on, still checking every 20 seconds or so. After only 3 forevers, I arrive at the tunnel, and begin crouching my way along the wall towards Trappers. Sprain another wrist and ankle. Not much later, I sprain the other wrist and ankle!

The best thing about having four sprains is at least you know you won't get any more. The worst thing, of course, is that McKenzie won't stop moaning about it. It's a wonder he doesn't bring every wolf in the region down on us.

After just 2 eternities, I arrive at the cave to Milton. Go inside and look for coal. After a while figure I may as well get four hours sleep here and deal with the sprains. Wake up and keep searching for coal. After a while it dawns on me that maybe I don't need to be crouched any more. Sigh.. not my proudest moment!

Arrive back at the Trappers end of the cave with 10 coal. Nice. Go inside, dump all my loot and crash out for 10 hours. Wake up hale and hearty, with just 20 IRL minutes until I've got my second day's 2 hours up! Yeah baby.. soon I'll have that Twilight badge!

[JAFO]

18 minutes ago, bobtux said:

I've search for a rifle and only found 30 cartridges but no rifle .

Ow.. that has to hurt.. keeping my eyes and fingers crossed for you!

[JAFO]

The weird thing was, the whole way from Camp Office to Trappers, I didn't see or hear a single wolf.. Except at the start, there was a far-off sounding one down by the derailment.

So the feeling I get is that the wolves aren't everywhere.. which is what I was worried about.. but they're just in their regular spawning zones.. only a hell of lot more of 'em, of course!

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, JAFO said:

So the feeling I get is that the wolves aren't everywhere.. just in their regular spawning zones.. and a hell of lot more of 'em, of course!

My experience in Coastal Highway at Quonset with the wolves is nuts. 11 killed so far, 4 bullets left. Area is more quiet now thankfully. I have a flashlight, so I am looking forward to tomorrow Day 3 to survive without bullets.

[Khan_Drichthyes]

25 minutes ago, JAFO said:

So the feeling I get is that the wolves aren't everywhere.. just in their regular spawning zones.. and a hell of lot more of 'em, of course!

Gosh, I figured that new, unexpected spawn points would be part of this event.  I holed up at the Lookout Tower but wasn't able to loot Trappers.

[DaveMcD]

I'm  not 100% sure but I think they respawn faster after dying too unless the higher numbers are just rotating through their zones faster. I've killed 4 so far. 3 outside the dam gates and one behind the dam.

They are still afraid of a campfire and lured by bait so seem like normal wolves apart from the eyes. 

[stapeliad]

6 hours ago, JAFO said:

Wish me luck.. I'm gonna need buckets of it!

That's terrible.  Good luck.

[MarrowStone]

4 hours ago, JAFO said:

Sprain another wrist and ankle. Not much later, I sprain the other wrist and ankle!

I cant confirm this, but sprains seem to be tied to looking around wildly while walking, I know, sounds dumb, but I only seem to get them when I move my camera quickly while walking, esp on a slope.

If you need to look around more than 30 degrees, stop first.

I only sprained my wrist the first 24 hours because I was sprinting on the inside of a slope to save time in order to get back home.

Again, I cant confirm this, could be superstition. But I used to have a rig that would always have a noticeable frame drop/stutter during rolls for sprains and it always seemed to be when I was moving the camera. 

[NardoLoopa]

6 hours ago, JAFO said:

Made my way into the trees on the LH side, and headed for the tunnel at maximum warp crouch.

Great story.  Glad you made it.

Would be interesting if the wolves spawned close to wherever you camped out -- giving incentive for either handling them, or escaping and then leaving you mostly free to look for loot you didn't find yesterday.

[apples]

I can't play much today. Your thrilling tale is filling in the gap. Thanks for sharing!

[The Frozen Narcoleptic]

••• Note to self ••• Try harder to avoid dozing off when using rope points, especially during 4DON

 

[JAFO]

Having just 90 minutes remaining of Day 2, I thought maybe it would be smart to use it gathering more firewood. I'd already gotten most of the wood from up the ridge-line heading towards Unnamed Pond.

So I leave the Tapper's cabin (very mild Grandma's fog) and rifle in hand, head up the gully to the left of the ruined barn. Halfway up the slope, I see a 3 log cedar limb.. whip out my trusty hacksaw and break it down. (Has anyone found a hatchet?)

As I'm finishing, my water and food meters bottom out. I don't have any food on me, but water, yes. I drink my fill and turn for home. And almost immediately get barked at by a wolf. Ok.. don't panic, keep walking and start praying. Running doggy footsteps behind me.. sigh.. here it comes.

The only melee weapon I have on me is the knife I found in the Dam. I give as good as I get, but by the time the wolf runs off, I'm down to 5%. Houston, we have a problem. I get bandages onto my two wounds, but now I'm down to just 1%. The dark seems a lot darker than I remember. Desperately, while weaving around all over the place, I try to catch a glimpse of the light from the cabin windows. After a bit, I manage to spot it. Saved! Kinda. At least I have a rough direction to stagger in now.

All you people who complain about the un-realism of those windows glowing in the dark can get stuffed. I officially now love 'em!

Somewhere up the hill behind me, I hear the wolf drop dead. Boy, that was quick. Guess I hurt him as much as he hurt me.

My thoughts turn to my empty stomach. Crap.. I may yet die from starvation before I can get to shelter. How ironic. I remember I have 2 coffees on me.. calories! I down both of them and stagger towards where I think the cabin is. Now and then I catch a glimpse of light, and eventually manage to run into the wooden rail fence. I fight my way up the path, and eventually reach the cabin. Now all I need to do is find the door. Turns out to be a lot harder than it seems. Back away a touch, carefully, aware there's a cliff I could easily step off if I get it wrong, and wait for my vision to come back enough to figure out which side of the cabin I'm looking at.

Damn.. I need to get around to the other side.. what fun! Finally I'm looking at the correct side.. move towards it and grope my way along until I find the door.

Time to disinfect my wounds, which are already at 65-70% infection risk. Next, fire up a lantern, grab a candy bar from the safe and wolf it down. (I see what I did there!) Figure I could really use some herbal tea as well, so grab a pack of that, stagger over to the stove and light a fire. Make 2 teas and drink one. Collapse into bed for 10 hours sleep, and wake up at 28%.

New problem.

My rifle is out there, dropped in the attack. Oh joy.

Edit: And thanks to typing this up, I just barely missed my chance to recover it before Day 3 started. So now I need to go get my rifle with an aurora running.. and me with no flashlight. Life just gets better and better, doesn't it?

[JAFO]

Retrieving the rifle turned out to be anticlimactic.

Crouched my way up the slope, grabbed the rifle (and a torch I'd also dropped), crouched down the slope backwards, looking uphill and rifle in hand, until back on level ground, then sprinted for the cabin.

I might just spend the last 2 days sitting in a rocking chair outside the cabin door with my rifle, popping any wolves or other creatures that dare show their face at Trapper's Meadow. I've had enough adventure for a bit.

[MikeF1227]

Hi guys, I love the game and everything it’s trying to accomplish. On day 127 in sandbox (easy because I’m still figuring things out) so 4DON was a real challenge. I say WAS because I got brutalized by wolves last night. Started Day 1 on the ice in CH and made it all the way back to ML (plan was to chill at the Trappers or Camp Office). Finished Day 1 at the dam, then fired up Day 2, walked out to a nice starry night, then immediately got blindsided by one wolf. Fought her off with my hatchet, but before I got back inside got hit from behind by wolf number two. Managed to get out of that encounter alive but bleeding from three wounds. Bandaged and cleaned myself up, then sprinted for the doors. I thought I could outrun wolf number three before he took me down litterally on the doorstep. Guess I’ll try my luck at the badges next year. Still having fun, just a bit bummed. 

[JAFO]

1 hour ago, MikeF1227 said:

I thought I could outrun wolf number three before he took me down litterally on the doorstep.

Bummer.. better luck next time!

[JAFO]

So I've moved all my gear and loot to the ML-MT transition cave as a precaution against the Trapper's Cabin burning down. Spent the last 20 minutes of my 2 hours taking long-range pot-shots at the wolf that frequents Max's Last Stand. Didn't manage to hit him, but I'm pretty sure I parted his hair at least once.

I'm now taking a nap in my new home, waiting for day four.