Scavenger run


Drifter Man

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Following the Steadfast Ranger update, I put the pure Deadman mode to rest. Living on a fixed amount of condition is no longer naturally possible, unless I put the artificial condition on myself that I cannot drink birch bark tea. With that said, I quite like the birch bark tea idea, even in the Deadman context - but the condition gain would have to be no more than 1%. Nonetheless, I choose to stay true to the Deadman principle of zero condition recovery.

My next project is very experimental. I kept the Deadman settings but eliminated all wildlife - wolves, deer, rabbits, moose, bears, fish. I will be surviving on scavenged food from deer carcasses, plants and any anything else I can find. I am curious to see how far I can make it. I also make this choice because I want to explore areas I normally avoid due to wolf activity, and to build my mind map of birch bark locations, which I hadn't paid any attention to prior to the update.

8MHM-/z8M-Dw+S-AXKm-OAAA, and away we go.

Day 1

My starting time is midday, location Mystery Lake, above the Clearcut. Not a good one because it is hard to find ignition around here - the first condition of survival. The winds are quite strong and in my poor clothing, I am freezing before I reach the cabin at Unnamed Pond. The cabin is too cold, of course. I sleep in the bed for an hour.

I can't afford to care about the weather too much, however. Soon I am on my way again, up Frozen Creek (a path I normally steer well clear of) and down to the Camp Office. An ragged bedroll (33%) and a worn sports vest is found inside, nothing else. I sleep there for another hour.

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After I cross Mystery Lake to the mouth of the River, my thirst meter goes red along with the freezing one. Now I have two problems, but I still stop to take a few cattails, my only food.

I don't think I've ever found ignition on the lake - at least the chances aren't great. But I remember finding a flare at the hunting blind on the way to the Dam. So that's where I will go. Someone seems to have been here before me:

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No flare (and no nothing, except rosehips) at the blind. I press on to the Dam and reach the trailers. I don't go to bed - I need water first - so after searching the first trailer quickly, I continue to the Dam and get water from the toilets. It isn't much, but it will do for now.

The floor is too cold for me, even with the bedroll, which only gives +1.7C. I return to the trailer for the night, eat all my cattails and go to bed in 51% condition. The toll of the first day was a heavy one.

Day 2

I wake up and drink all my remaining water. Either I find ignition today, or I die.

I run to the Dam to minimize the loss of warmth and start searching. My first useful find is a granola bar, which saves me from immediate starvation. The safe has a wool ear wrap, good but not good enough to bring me to positive temperatures. I hesitate and then decide to check the hated office upstairs. I waste about an hour there, finding exactly nothing.

Then I go downstairs. Remember my friend on the upper level? He is still my friend. My savior. This time he kept a flare for me.

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A little more confident now, I search the Lower Dam. A wool scarf and a toque finally nudge me to positive temperatures, but I've already lost most of my temp bar from the warm bed in the trailer.

My next step is out of the emergency exit and on to the Winding River. It is unusual to see it so motionless, no rabbits, no wolves. I'm freezing almost immediately, but I get some more cattails before heading to the small cave on the left bank. Sometimes there are matches. Not this time.

Should I break out the flare and make a warming fire? What if winds pick up and make it impossible to carry the fire to the next cave? I might be unable to pass through in the darkness. [Well, I could still use the bedroll trick]. In the end I press on, freezing and starving.

I reach the Cave System, light my flare and start my first fire next to the deer carcass. My condition is 30% at this point.

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Water is boiling while I wait for the carcass to that. 1.8 kg of deer meat fixes one of my problems for now. I even get one gut out and leave it in place to cure. I'm conscious that guts and pelts are strictly limited in this lifeless world. At the same time, I cannot afford to harvest the carcass completely here and now. The rest will be lost.

When I'm done with the meat, I drink birch bark tea (I found bark for one dose), pull two torches and move across the Cave System, collecting coal along the way. I am tired by now but cannot afford a break. I'm determined to reach the Farmstead tonight - and the guaranteed matches I need so much.

I make a break at the Hilltop Cave. Winds blow too hard and I don't want to lose my fire - besides, torches were running out. I put 2 liters of water in each pot (brought from the Camp Office) and sleep for an hour. When I wake up, the winds are still. Four liters of water still need an hour to boil. I check my supplies: 2 liters on me, that will be enough for tonight, no need to haul 4 more. I drop the non-potable water on the ground, warm up a can of peaches, eat it, pull out a few great 49% torches and leave.

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It's getting dark and I'm exhausted. When the rope is in sight (I can't go down the rope anyway), I decide Signal Hill will do for tonight. I can transit to the Farmstead tomorrow. A while later I reach the hill and use the light of my torch to search the inside. Good finds: trail boots, work gloves, a can of peaches and coffee, plus a flare - my second source of ignition in this run. I'll live another day, but right now it's off to bed. 35% condition.

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Day 3

I start the day by reading a cookbook. Three repair attempts on the toque - the third one finally succeeds. A silent blizzard rages outside and I have to wait until the afternoon before I can leave Signal Hill. My first stop is at the cave below the rope - I'm already running out of warmth, so I start my second fire with my second flare. There are bones at the cave mouth but the game settings are firm - no bear shows up.

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Warmed up, I continue to the Farmstead. Furious winds blow my torch out quickly, but I reach my destination without losing any condition. A book on archery is found in the car - useless. The basement has matches, hacksaw and painkillers. I start a well protected fire close to the deer carcass nearby and wait for it to thaw. It's almost down to 50% when I realize that I have the hacksaw now.

I work on the carcass until the night. The wind tries to kill the fire twice, but I manage to harvest everything - however, I am unable to transfer the fire to the Farmstead. So I just go in, drop the guts and pelt, find a bed and fall asleep.

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Day 4

The loot in the Farmstead is not overwhelming. The usual peaches in the kitchen sink, a can opener (very welcome), water and a few pieces of cloth from curtains. I wait for weather, then leave the building and follow the river in the direction to Draft Dodger's. I'm hoping for cattails but only find a few.

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I make one warming break before I hear crows in the distance and find a deer carcass. I don't know this place well but I think I'm at the river that runs along from Rural Crossroads to Three Strikes - I think that's how it is called there. Winds are kind and let me have the whole carcass - however, they kill my torch soon after I leave the site.

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I end up at Draft Dodger's for the night. I didn't plan to, but there's something magical about that cabin. I often lose my way and run into it unexpectedly - at other times I'm looking for it and can't find it. Today it's the former case. I'm not tired yet but the winds are too strong for me to continue, so I drop the guts and pelt in the cabin and decide to stay. Draft Dodger's usually has a small edible treat for me - a granola bar under the shelf or nuts'n'stuff under a bed. This time it has both, which is great - I'm nearly out of food.

I finish the day with reading two more chapters of the cooking book and preparing some reishi mushrooms and rosehips.

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On 5/23/2019 at 12:27 AM, Gooner77 said:

No rabbit gloves? I don't think I am on board with this. Haha. Interesting idea, can you actually turn fish off in the game? 

Yep, there isn't much progression to look forward to in this run. I'm not too enthusiastic about it either.

You can set fish spawn chance to None, as with all other wildlife. I haven't tested if it actually works, but I suppose it turns off fish :)

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Day 5

Things are taking a bad turn. The fact is, my condition is 34%, I'm out of food and the world is unusually cold for an early interloper weather.

My first idea is to climb up the rope to Skeeter's and warm up halfway at the carcass - I heard crows yesterday. It is felt -34C, my temp bar is running out before my eyes. I almost grab the rope when I check my fuel: 30 sticks. I won't even be able to make it to positive temperatures.

Two hours later it is minus 28. I climb up to the shelf but the deer is not there. It must have been other crows.

I don't take a break. Instead I climb the second rope and run to the basement at Skeeter's. I find quality tools on a shelf, a can of dog food (which I eat immediately) and a pair of socks in the washer. I sleep in the bedroll until I'm fully warmed up - it is afternoon now so the temperatures should be more tolerable. But the winds are still strong and I can't stay outside. I just check the corpse and containers around Skeeter's - I get a bit of food or two - and return to the basement again.

In late afternoon, felt -19C, I transit to the bunker. I eat whatever food I found, determined to go on to TWM as soon as I can, even at night. I earn my well-fed buff for now.

Three hours of sleep. The sun is setting. I peek outside, it's a blizzard.

I wait a little more in the bunker, still blizzard. I lose my well-fed buff. I still have a can of pork and beans as my last reserve.

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Sure enough, the blizzard rages all night while I alternate between sleeping and waking and spend my last calories. I can immediately tell when the blizzard ends from inside the bunker - the near silence of the blizzard gives way to thundering roar of a "normal" snowstorm.

It is morning of Day 6, my condition is 25%, I'm starving and it is felt -40C outside.

 

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Day 6

I wait in the bunker. When I'm starved down to 23% - the night is not over yet - I realize I cannot afford losing any more condition. I still have some rosehips, resihi and coffee on me, and I need some water anyway. I climb into the cold night and light a fire in the stove close to prepper's bunker.

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I spend all morning keeping my stomach above zero with tea and coffee, making water and taking short naps in my bedroll. It isn't until the afternoon that the weather becomes tolerable for the transit to Mountaineer's Hut. I make it without having to start a fire - although barely - and collect around 40 sticks and 5 pieces of birch bark at Landing Gear.

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Fortunately, in the hut it is felt +1C. I start a fire nonetheless and soon I'm making magic medicine. I find a ski jacket and some old clothing in the hut, along with the usual matches and firewood. The warmth of a cup of birch bark tea fuels my first expedition on Crystal Lake - I collect around 20 cattails and crucially, a sixth piece of birch bark. Then I warm up at the fire and go for another round - more cattails and sticks. A third, short run around the hut to bring in more sticks and I decide this is enough for today. I don't see any more birch bark trees in the vicinity, but I'll definitely be looking for more at the Wing tomorrow. I know they're there.

Two stale granola bars - 23% - before bed, fortunately no poisoning. I let the fire die down to save fuel and restart it after midnight, when temperatures drop below -5C. It was a busy day, even without wolves. My condition is back up at 37%, which is much better than the day before, but I'll need to find more birch bark to be out of the woods.

However, a pre-update deadman would be practically dead by now.

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1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

However, a pre-update deadman would be practically dead by now.

Interesting project - could be fun however with the same mode and added wolves? The world could feel a little empty with no danger on the deck.☺️

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Cool challenge, I'm in for the ride wherever it leads!  :) 

On 5/22/2019 at 5:31 AM, Drifter Man said:

I put the pure Deadman mode to rest. Living on a fixed amount of condition is no longer naturally possible, unless I put the artificial condition on myself that I cannot drink birch bark tea.

I appreciate you feel strongly about this but, respectfully, I don't follow the logic.  It seems to me that Deadman is the artificial thing.  Not a part of the game, just a challenge cooked up by a handful of streamers.  It seems to have run it's course in that crowd too; I just checked both YouTube and Twitch and found only 3 guys making Deadman videos in recent months. 

So, what's the expectation of Hinterland here -- undertake development work to support a community-designed challenge played by just a few people?  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy following the community challenges -- yours in particular, @Drifter Man.  But I'd prefer Hinterland stick to it's knitting and deliver on its own goals and commitments first.  If manipulating game settings is included in mod support in the future, great.  That would give the community the means to directly support the challenges it creates.

Until that happens (and unlike the well fed buff) there's a simple workaround:  don't use the new tea in the Deadman challenge.  Why is this so impossible?

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4 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

Cool challenge, I'm in for the ride wherever it leads!  :) 

I appreciate you feel strongly about this but, respectfully, I don't follow the logic.  It seems to me that Deadman is the artificial thing.  Not a part of the game, just a challenge cooked up by a handful of streamers.  It seems to have run it's course in that crowd too; I just checked both YouTube and Twitch and found only 3 guys making Deadman videos in recent months. 

So, what's the expectation of Hinterland here -- undertake development work to support a community-designed challenge played by just a few people?  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy following the community challenges -- yours in particular, @Drifter Man.  But I'd prefer Hinterland stick to it's knitting and deliver on its own goals and commitments first.  If manipulating game settings is included in mod support in the future, great.  That would give the community the means to directly support the challenges it creates.

Until that happens (and unlike the well fed buff) there's a simple workaround:  don't use the new tea in the Deadman challenge.  Why is this so impossible?

The deadman challenge wasn't just a challenge. To many of us it has become the main game mode. It adds to the difficulty making choices really count. I don't see @Drifter Man asking for something from Devs. It's just a fact that it's not purely the same with Birch Bark. When you go at the game at the deadman-mode, the challenge is to do what it takes to survive. I subtracts very much from this experience to make up all sorts of house rules. 

Of course Hinterland should stick to their plan (one could argue that putting af revolver into the game was a derailer to please the community☺️). At least to me it isn't a big thing with the birch bark since Bark Man-mode is funny too and several other things (the S-word) made the game better in so many ways punishing the absurde goating that was allowed earlier.    

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18 hours ago, Looper said:

Interesting project - could be fun however with the same mode and added wolves? The world could feel a little empty with no danger on the deck.☺️

Yes, it is a little empty. I don't expect to go very far with this run. The good thing is that I've already visited numerous places that I haven't seen in a while.

7 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

I appreciate you feel strongly about this but, respectfully, I don't follow the logic.

I don't feel very strongly about it. As @Looper noted, I don't ask anything from the Devs. I like the update and as you can see, I eagerly try out the new birch bark thing. I just noted that the Deadman challenge - where you are given a code of custom difficulty settings and see how far you can make it - is gone. So be it - I'm already making new adventures.

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Day 7

A blizzard starts in the morning, so I'll have to keep the fire going. Interestingly, it's the old familiar blizzard, with howling winds at all. The silence of the blizzards I've survived post-update must be a bug then. The only difference is that this blizzard started while I am "outdoors".

I've brought a piece of scrap and quality tools, so I use the time to repair my hacksaw. Then I put four pieces of cloth into the bedroll to get it up to 90%. A bit of sleep, then I attempt the ski jacket - but this time I fail.

The blizzard ends in early afternoon. I've been resting in the meantime, so I am ready to go. The winds are still strong but I think I'll be fine.

Headed towards the Wing, I check out every group of birch trees I can find. There are lots of them but not that much bark. In the end I find 8 pieces. The container has tea, coffee and canned food, as always. I even visit the Forest Cave - a place I used to avoid because of wolves - but find nothing but some firewood.

Warmed up with birch bark tea, I continue across the fallen tree bridge to the next cave. There are no carcasses on the way. I stay at the cave, sleeping for a few hours, waiting for winds to subside. Then I head out into the bright, cold, starry night.

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After another warming fire near the Cave of Engines, I check out the cave in the Echo Ravine and the container at the lower Engine. Wool socks and a thin wool sweater are good finds. I dispose of the rest, only keeping some cotton socks for cloth. It is a strange feeling to be there without wolves. There's a dead guy in the cave with an open laptop in front of him - I wonder what his last google search was.

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Day 8

Today I search the area of the other Engine. Lots of reishi mushrooms, no new birch bark. There's a deer carcass on the shelf on the way down to Crystal Lake - I work on it into the night and harvest everything, then drop the guts and pelt in the cave to be ready for collection on my way back.

My condition is 49%, I lost a fair bit to freezing due to failed firestarts - I'm still at Level 1. That would have been worrisome for a Deadman. For a birchman, no big deal.

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Day 9

Drifter Man stands in the Cave of Engines, looking East. The Ice Fear is mild. Drifter Man is utterly bold. He has with him his hacksaw Hackmoril. All wolves are gone from his world. He yawns again...

Boring day, too cold and windy in the morning to go out, and afternoon ruined by a blizzard. Drifter Man, still utterly bold, rips apart some old clothes and fixes up his fashionable ski jacket. Then he sleeps some more. In the afternoon he walks out of the cave and builds a fire to turn his plentiful 'shrooms into a liquid 1000-calorie bomb. Drifter Man stands in the safe area of the cave mouth, but he is as stupid as he is bold - he builds the fire just out of the protected area and the blizzard blows it out soon.

He shrugs and builds another one. His position at the cave mouth lets him light a torch from the dying fire, so no match is wasted.

The blizzard ends after nightfall. Drifter Man is determined to make at least some progress today, so he drinks a coffee, grabs a torch and heads out into the night. Ice fear is still mild as it isn't very cold. He stops at a carcass near the rope to Deer Clearing and puts Hackmoril to work. He leaves the guts and hide on the carcass though. It is too inconvenient at the moment to harvest the carcass completely.

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Up the rope to Deer Clearing, and Drifter Man finds the cave in the darkness. He knows this area by heart. It is warm enough in the back to sleep until the morning, although he knows he will have to burn fire later.

Edited by Drifter Man
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Day 10

I start a fire early in the morning and have to invest nearly all of my sticks to overcome the cold - a blizzard has struck again. I wait until the afternoon for the blizzard to end. I try to pass time repairing my ski jacket again, but I fail and have no more cloth.

Following the blizzard it is still windy. I make my first short exploratory trip to some birch trees I can see - there are saplings but only one piece of bark. Back to the fire and warm up, then to the container: 3 tomato soups, 2 cloth and 3 scrap metal. No rabbit pelts :(

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The weather gets better in late afternoon as I move to the Secluded Shelf. I get 1.1 kg meat from a carcass on the way, then pass through the cave and take all coal I can find. I end up on the shelf below the Summit. I'm not completely tired yet, although it is already night, so I start a fire in the "prep cave" and get meat from the carcass there. While it is cooking, I pay a visit to the rope attachment point and deploy a rope there.

Finally, I'm exhausted, so I feed the fire with sticks and coal and go to sleep for 12 hours.

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On 5/27/2019 at 1:34 PM, Drifter Man said:

Day 9

Drifter Man stands in the Cave of Engines, looking East. The Ice Fear is mild. Drifter Man is utterly bold. He has with him his hacksaw Hackmoril. All wolves are gone from his world. He yawns again...

 

I laughed a lot seeing this reference to the olden TWM run II. The wording is actually from Lords of Midnight - to me one of the best video games ever, with an AI of a couple of bytes steering the forces of evil in a manner which I find baffling until this day. The author and programmer (a one-man team, those were the days) was a phenomenal writer, too. Shame he died.

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7 hours ago, DaveMcD said:

Looks like an interesting mode. I might give it a go once I've wrapped up my current Deadman Run (with Birch Bark) that I'm doing on my tiny little youtube channel.

I'm not sure I recommend this mode - it is good for exploration of hidden/wolfy places but as others mentioned, without wolves and crafting, there's not that much to do. But if you find it interesting, go ahead :)

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1 hour ago, Hotzn said:

I laughed a lot seeing this reference to the olden TWM run II. The wording is actually from Lords of Midnight - to me one of the best video games ever, with an AI of a couple of bytes steering the forces of evil in a manner which I find baffling until this day. The author and programmer (a one-man team, those were the days) was a phenomenal writer, too. Shame he died.

Ha - now I know where it comes from - I'm too young for a 80's game, in addition I come from the other side of the Iron Curtain where PC's were unheard of at that time. For me, these words embody the boldness of the early practitioners of extreme TLD :D

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Day 11

Summit Day. An ugly one, windy. I give up waiting for better weather and sacrifice some condition for the privilege to actually do something. At the plane, I add a ski jacket, a toque, a wool ear wrap and a pair of wool socks to my wardrobe. There's a new hacskaw, which is nice, because poor Hackmoril is about as good as two pieces of scrap metal after opening all these containers. Unusually, I leave the flare gun and ammunition untouched. Why bother with it on this run.

Day 12

Another windy day. I search the area of Eric's Falls and apart from mushrooms and cattails, I also find another piece of birch bark - so I can make tea again. Evil wind plays its usual games and eventually I get surprised by a blizzard late at dusk, far away from shelter. As I said though, I know the area by heart. I find my way to Deer Clearing and its cave even in poor visibility.

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I think I can conclude at this point that the Wing is the only place with good amounts of birch bark in TWM - which is not very useful in normal runs because it is always heavily patrolled by wolves (+ bear and potentially moose). You can also find some at Landing Gear and at the rabbit run at Crystal Lake. There's still a corner or two of the map I haven't visited but this seems to be about it.

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