What silly things do you do in real life while playing?

[Jolan]

I had a friend point out recently that when on heading out on a loot run, like on Timberwolf and I'm heading to the summit with a mostly empty pack I tend to hum or sing "The Happy Wanderer" and when coming back I tend to hum or sing the Volga Boatman song.  What silly things do you all do?

[Sarah17]

Jump out of my skin if the baby cries / the dog comes in the room / any random noise occurs! 

[shade_grey]

47 minutes ago, Sarah17 said:

Jump out of my skin if the baby cries / the dog comes in the room / any random noise occurs! 

Sounds like you have a story that would be a great contribution to this thread:

 

[peteloud]

Drink too much.

 

Every time there is a bit of a wait, and my left hand is free, I pick up my glass of plonk and have a sip.

[DaveMcD]

4 hours ago, peteloud said:

Drink too much.

 

Every time there is a bit of a wait, and my left hand is free, I pick up my glass of plonk and have a sip.

Welcome my friend to the Drinkerloper club.

[UpUpAway95]

Read forums.

[ThePancakeLady]

Spin my chair around to see if I can rotate before a wolf eats my face off. 

Sucks when my knees hit the side of the desk sometimes... but I still do it.  Because if my character is going to get hurt I will too, for #immersion.

[ajb1978]

11 hours ago, peteloud said:

Drink too much.

Every time there is a bit of a wait, and my left hand is free, I pick up my glass of plonk and have a sip.

Hah same here!  Although for me it's mostly when traveling.  I tap Q (my custom hotkey for auto-walk cruise control), and occasionally course correct with A/D or the mouse.  Which frees up my hands to take a drink.  TLD is the only game that happens with, just due to the amount of time where I don't need to be actively doing something, but I can't just get up and walk away.

Another TLDism is I will go about doing some daily chores, while my character in the game is cooking food or boiling water.  Since I have a 4x day length multiplier, 3 in-game minutes pass for every minute of real time.  So if it takes an hour and a half (roughly) to melt and boil a full pot of water, that's a half hour in real-time I can get stuff done around the house.

[hozz1235]

Why is that drinking seems to compliment this game so well?  Perhaps those few second timers other have mentioned.

I've managed to cut my consumption by finding a way to "speed up" game play so I find myself using that more and more often which means less frequent sips.

[JujuBear]

My room is studio-in-the-making so I have this little MIDI/Electric piano by my side often (along with my other instruments). When I have a bit of downtime in-game I like staring at the scenery and allowing it's beauty inspire me into composing a little melody. Super stress relieving. and fun..well,  until you realize that a bear's been creeping up on ya.

[MarrowStone]

@ajb1978, does the day length multiplier make you freeze slower? I mean can you travel further without freezing due to time passing slower? I suppose you could probably complete a faux hopeless rescue in less than a day in that case. 

[ajb1978]

24 minutes ago, MarrowStone said:

@ajb1978, does the day length multiplier make you freeze slower? I mean can you travel further without freezing due to time passing slower? I suppose you could probably complete a faux hopeless rescue in less than a day in that case. 

Yes, I would say overall it makes the game MUCH easier.  All of your sub-conditions decrease slower proportionate to the length of day multiplier.  Light sources last longer as well, fires start in less time, etc.  (At 4x time dilation, once you get to level 5 firestarting you can mag lens a fire with a single stick, and immediately harvest a torch without having to add a second stick.)  You still only have 5 seconds on weak ice, but hunting can be much harder because animals take that much extra time to bleed out, if they don't drop in one.  Ropes are unaffected--you can still chew through half your fatigue with two moderate climbs.  (Edit: Sprinting is also unaffected--you still burn up your sprint/climb meter in real-time.  Sprint meter recovery IS affected, so at 4x length of day, expect to spend 4x as long waiting for your meter to recharge.) Condition loss due to a sub-condition hitting zero is also reduced by the length of day modifier, as is condition loss due to a bleeding bite I think.  I haven't actually let a wound bleed long enough to test that one but I would bet on it with 95% confidence.

It objectively makes the game easier, as the benefits to the player far outweigh the two negatives (long bleed-out time and long sprint bar recovery).  But I like being able to use the crackling fire as background noise.  I've literally left the game running overnight in real-time while I slept, because the crackling fire made for nice background noise.  A 12 hour fire burns for 3 real-time hours at 4x.  That 3:1 ratio meant that when I woke up, yeah the fire was out and I had some condition damage from thirst and exhaustion, but I was able to sleep it off back to 100% to save the game, then shut down and get ready for work.  It's great.  Love it.  I'd be all-in on a "real-time" version, where 1 minute is 1 minute.

Edit: As for the faux Hopeless Rescue...maybe.  If you made a point to grab up a few emergency stims, you could hypothetically pull it off in less than a day.  But because each climb still chews up your stamina normally, if you don't find enough e-stims to handle the climbs basically right away, you can't do it in a day.

Edited July 25, 2019 by ajb1978

[MarrowStone]

@ajb1978, Thanks for explaining in depth how it affects gameplay. Appreciate it!

[MarrowStone]

Anyways, on topic:

I drink too, but water or tea. 

Something I never do while playing TLD is listen to my own music for whatever reason. The wilderness sounds and intermittent songs are too much of a treat.

 

[Willy Pete]

I once leaned in towards my screen to try and look behind a shelf or something in game, didn't work for obvious reasons.

[Jolan]

3 hours ago, Willy Pete said:

I once leaned in towards my screen to try and look behind a shelf or something in game, didn't work for obvious reasons.

sort of like when I tip my head to see under something better

 

[winterstorm]

I have a habit of blowing on the screen when I'm lighting a fire, especially at the start of a new game when my firestarting ability is questionable. It works about as well as leaning while cornering in a racing game. 

[Rap Turner]

Whenever I encounter a wolf I either sing "Let's dance" by Bowie or "Let's dance to the Drummer's Beat" by Herman Kelly

[JaySovereign]

I shout "come get some!" at the wolves when they spot me. Perhaps I should be more careful because I swear they're getting better at sneaking up on me...

[rakshasa]

When I'm out in the real world, I want to look up and scan the sky when I hear crows call, and certain dog barks make me jump out of my skin...

[FluffyComeHome]

Okay, probably shouldn't admit this out loud, but what the hey...it's a thing.

I was settled in for a nice long session of The Long Dark. I needed another bearskin and was cautiously hunting through the fog over by the lake. I could hear crows and remembered that they often accompany bears... so I started moving towards their raucous cries. But each time I thought I was getting close, they seemed to move. Frustrated and cold, I kept tracking the until the blizzard hit. I gave up and ran for shelter. Just as I got a nice fire roaring, the sound of those crows came back...and they were louder than ever!!! It was then that I realized the crows were outside my window about 10 feet from where I was sitting at my computer. Yeah...that happened.

 

[Jolan]

On 9/13/2019 at 6:51 PM, winterstorm said:

I have a habit of blowing on the screen when I'm lighting a fire, especially at the start of a new game when my firestarting ability is questionable. It works about as well as leaning while cornering in a racing game. 

Hey leaning works, I know it does!  

[Jolan]

On 9/16/2019 at 4:11 PM, JaySovereign said:

I shout "come get some!" at the wolves when they spot me. Perhaps I should be more careful because I swear they're getting better at sneaking up on me...

One of my high points was when Princess Buttercup and I both said "its you or me" at the same time when starting a combat

[Jolan]

On 9/18/2019 at 1:30 PM, rakshasa said:

When I'm out in the real world, I want to look up and scan the sky when I hear crows call, and certain dog barks make me jump out of my skin...

Crows have made me edgy since the original Resident Evil   But I can see where hearing them might make you pause.  Is a corpse? Is a BEAR!!!!

[Jolan]

On 9/27/2019 at 5:40 PM, FluffyComeHome said:

Yeah...that happened.

Somewhere, there's an atmospheric programer who's feeling all warm and fuzzy now.