How could I limit myself to make it harder?


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After about 50 (in-game) days split into several playthroughs Stalker is becoming too easy and as with many other games I play, I want to intentionally handicap myself to make it harder.

I was thinking about using only reclaimed wood to start fires – there would be only 50% chance and this would waste matches. Or I could allow myself to carry less than 30 kg.

Any other ideas?

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@pinoy fluffy – Abandoned Lookout currently have bugs with wolves – since it's not a normal house, wolves come and enter attack mode, making it impossible to leave without shooting them

@Jeremy – I don't wear pants anymore once I discovered that they provide least warmth per kilogram :)

@RJIII – Good one, but It probably should be the opposite – to not drink any sodas, since in real life they would only make you thirsty :)

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don't use the rifle, survive at least 120 days, get Pacifist and Silent Hunter in Stalker. The thing is, 50 days over several games is not very much, you practically always quit before it get's hard.

Stalker is among other things difficult because loot is rarer and there are much more wolves around the major spots. Now if you only play to day 50, you won't notice an impact due to rarer loot, because for 50 days it's just enough. But beyond that, when you reach day 100 or higher suddenly things like cloth, sewing kits, antiseptic or matches become very important, not to mention that you'll run out of ammo pretty soon and that's when the real test begins.

Watch my "3 final days..." video in the signature to get an idea of how dire the situation can become and what risks you have to take once you're out of everything.

So the short answer to your question is: play it longer ;)

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@ChillPlayer I just ended a playthrough where I wanted to get 50 days achievement. Last 20 or 30 days was a chore. Waiting 100 days until things get interesting isn't a good solution. I'll try to get the Pacifist and Silent Hunters achievements though.

I'm right now limiting myself by:

- Carrying 5kg of dead weight - untouchable wood. Will try to to increase it to 10kg.

- Not eating any food below 50% quality.

- Using rifle to only shoot deers. It's a long distance – wastes ammo.

- Not harvesting tools for scrap. Only exception is harvesting one duplicate tool to try repair the other.

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@ChillPlayer Waiting 100 days until things get interesting isn't a good solution.

well you still have to make it to 100 days in the first place, it's not just waiting. And because of your lack of experience regarding scarcity of supplies I'd guess you run into troubles much earlier than 100 days. Instead of artificially trying to make the game harder you could just continue to play it - the record in this forum btw is 900 something days, so you see where you stand in comparison with your 50 days. The game is not made (yet) to make it hard from the beginning but it becomes very hard the longer you play it and mistakes you made early on (like wasting bullets) will cost you dearly.

But don't take my word for it, try it out: The next time you begin a new stalker run, challenge yourself to survive at least 150 days. If you manage that and still find the need to limit yourself further, you can always opt for the no-rifle-option ;)

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- Stay in a lake office and keep fire going 24/7 so to not waste any matches.

- Craft all the clothing so you only need leather and gut for repairs which are renewable.

- Place a bunch of traps across the railtrack and occasionally kill a wolf when it catches a deer near the house.

- Rinse and repeat for months until you're out of resources.

Forced myself to do this until day 50 just to get an achievement. Even without going to the Highway I still had a reserve of bullets, flares, sewing kits, repair tools, hatchets, knives, prybars and scraps. You just don't understand – I want a gameplay LIKE it's a 100th+ day (scarcity of supplies), I just don't want to do chores waiting for them to come, burning through resources until they're gone. Days 1-10 are interesting, days 20-100(?) are boring, days 100+ are interesting again. That gap is bigger then the good bits combined.

> Because of your lack of experience regarding scarcity of supplies I'd guess you run into troubles much earlier than 100 days.

It's the opposite – my experience in games with scarcity of supplies (my favorite type) is the problem here. I'm not running into any troubles, so I have to either force myself to be wasteful (not gonna happen) or to put on handicaps.

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We really need stuff to build, weapons, kits for traveling, shelters, fire starting bonus giving items like char-cloth, and we need more realism. Being able to literally make snow out of thin air, and boil mounds of water without actually finding the containers is quite ridiculous.

I understand the desire for a high level of playability but unrealistic gameplay is contributing to the boredom of players. The game is too easy to master in it's greenhorn state even on the most difficult player settings.

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If you want a building to live in, you could stumble upon the Trapper's Homestead (and hope there is no rifle there to tempt you) and try to survive using whatever loot is there. Don't leave that plot of land. You should run out of resources rather quickly, and as the claustrophobia sets in, resist the urge to wander.

Or just confine yourself to being outdoors, do not enter any buildings, do not loot any corpses, and enjoy wolf attacks with no bandages or antiseptic while freezing and out of matches.

Limiting your area and resources can only help get you to the end more quickly.

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As someone suggested here, I tried not entering any houses (apart from fishing huts) and it's great! Exactly what I was looking for. Except maybe for the poorly scripted wolf behavior, like them attacking you through fires or running in circles around the huts indefinitely or insta-killing you when trying to leave.

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You can actually control which side the wolf comes from when you're stuck in a fishing hut. If you stand at the back facing the doorway, stay to the left side - you can hear the footsteps outside. Slide to the right and they follow around the back of the hut and then stop. Do this a few times to get the wolf's location, and then you can run out and turn towards it to attack.

I haven't found a way to prevent them from attacking through fire though.

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  • 3 weeks later...

You just can have a sleep if a wolf is outside the fishing-hut and you do not want to fight with him, just make sure the fire is burning the whole night (so you do not freeze to death) ... next day the wolf already got bored and went away. I do this all the time. I read somewhere in this forum, that a wolf entered the fishing-hut, but i never had this problem ...

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Be sure to check out our subreddit in the coming weeks! (http://www.reddit.com/r/thelongdark)

I had a couple of users asking the same question, so we're going to start weekly or bi-weekly player challenges. We're collecting ideas now, so if anyone has anything they think might be fun, let me know! I'm already seeing some good ones we might be able to use ;)

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