Supplies vs Time to Survive

[BAC]

Greetings,

First of all I am totally captured by this adventure.

But, I wanted to throw in some thoughts and suggestions concerning supplies and time required to survive.

I find it a little off that I would be hunting for scrap metal to maintain my hatchet and hunting knife. Metal is almost impossible to work with without proper tools and some blacksmith training. Truly, I believe the only thing needed for these 2 items would be a whetstone or even as simple as a rock for sharpening. I think this should be what the degradation represents and the lower greater the degradation the longer it takes to harvest meat or harvest firewood would be.There should be a small percentage for breakage for both items. Possibly handle breakage on the hatchet in which case the fir wood would be needed for repair with the knife adding to a reduction in repair time as a tool to carve the handle. Breakage of the knife could occur if using it to open metal cans. Degradation of the sharpness would be drastically reduced for using these tools for that purpose. Many items needed for everyday maintenance can last half a lifetime. A broken knife could still be used, but have a permanent reduction to it's quality percentage.

Gathering firewood - very time consuming. I once saw a show where the goal was to homestead in Montana for a year. One of the primary goals slated ahead of time was to have 12 cords of wood prepped just to make it through the winter for heat and cooking in a traditional cabin. I think you have the foraging about right. The one thing that I think could be put in place would be calories burned should be in relation to ambient temperature. This would provide enticement to gather wood and keep a fire going as much as possible to reduce the need for the much harder to acquire "food".

Requesting a tinder box or can. ( is that the right term?) All these cans would make an excellent container to store coals in for the next fire to start if maintained each day. It could just display a percentage of time left that it is usable to start the next fire. It could be made with scrap metal and wire to hold a top on.

Clothes - possibly a daily maintenance requirement of an hour or 2 for general maintenance each day. Drying clothes, mending imperfections, cleaning, etc. This can be easily done in a cabin, but not so much sitting around a campfire. If not performed for the day then the clothes degrade a percent per day, a quarter being permanent. This would especially be applicable when leather is used.

Cloth - again readily available. Curtains, beds, cars, etc. Might be better to build it into a total available like reclaimed wood is for each structure.

Guns - chances of anything breaking for say a six shooter or a bolt action is pretty slim. But they will degrade in accuracy if you don't have cleaning supplies. Kerosene and cloth would work fine and a stick could be made to push it through the barrel. ( I would also like to request a 22 caliber revolver and possibly rifle options for the future, very effective for rabbits, squirrels and birds.

Scrap metal should not be difficult to find, especially with a knife or hatchet. All those cans I''m opening and eating from are scrap metal, cars are full of wire and thin metal. working it could be done by hand, but very time consuming. The simple tools would be a prime item to use here, but should degrade slowly with use once you have them.

There could be a basic degradation percentage for each category of items, then each item would just have a single modifier applied to that general percentage? I dunno, I'm no coder, but just trying to throw out some different ideas.

I believe all activities should be tied into a penalty based on ambient temperature. Fingers just don't function as well when cold. I feel the real issue in a survival situation should be "time" itself. There are so many tasks to be completed each day that just trying to keep up, not accounting for bad weather days where there is little productivity should a primary issue.

One other item to request - binoculars. Very handy to glass for wolf kills or injured game.

Other items I have read about in posts

Thanks to you all for such an amazing piece of work.

[miandelam]

Good thoughts, I especially agree with:

Quote: I believe all activities should be tied into a penalty based on ambient temperature. Fingers just don't function as well when cold. I feel the real issue in a survival situation should be "time" itself. There are so many tasks to be completed each day that just trying to keep up, not accounting for bad weather days where there is little productivity should a primary issue.

True. Initally I didn't wear the mittens because I thought I would be less able to do stuff but as far as I know it doesn't make a difference but the cold especially should have an effect. Some sort of clumsymeter