Frostbite


peteloud

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I have just had a close encounter with The Long Dark.  (Stalker, 800+ game days).

I was out in FM, shot a bear with bow & arrow and went to get the hide.  I found the bear, skinned it and set out to return to the red railway carriage. En route I fell through the ice when trying to avoid a wolf. Everything below the waist was was completely soaked, and my warmth gauge went all read.  I immediately raced back to the red carriage to warm up.  I had previously suffered two permanent impairments from frostbite.  I could see two frostbite warnings and frostbite developing.  I was aware that if I didn't warm up quickly I'd be in serious trouble.

I got back to the carriage, stripped off my frozen trousers, boots & socks and got into my bearskin bedroll.  I soon started to warm up and my warmth gauge went from red and on up to full normal warmth.  However I still had frostbite developing in spite of being fully warm. Over the next 12-24 hours, I'm not sure of the exact details, I continued to develop frostbite until I suffered two more permanent impairments and still had two frostbite warnings.  I was surprised that it turned out like this. In the past, the few falls through the ice that I have had were soon cleared without much problem.

Is this the normal progress of frostbite?

 

This brought up another question.   Is it better to get into your bedroll wearing wet or frozen clothes, or better to take off the wet/frozen clothes?  Do wet and/or frozen clothes have a positive or negative warmth contribution?

 

 

 

 

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So what is the optimum approach to such a problem?

Normally I am against seeking or giving spoilers but in this situation the solution seems not to be logical.

In such a real situation I would take off my frozen/wet clothes, put them near a fire to melt/dry and get into a warm bedroll.  This is what I did in the FM red carriage and it was a very bad way to remove the frostbite problem.  It made it worse.

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The key metric is "Get somewhere warm". You need to have a fire going that gets the air temp above zero degrees and be there. You can even be buck nekkid and have your clothing on the floor next to you, but if the air temp is below zero it won't matter what you do, you will continue to develop frostbite until you get somewhere where the air is above zero.

ETA: this is different from drying clothes next to a fire. Clothing will dry even if the air temp is below zero if it's next to a fire, but frostbite will not resolve until you spend time in a place with the air temp above zero. A Feels Like above zero doesn't cut it.

Edited by stratvox
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Frozen clothing in the long dark doesn't decrease your warmth it just doesn't give the warmth bonus it usually does. It also weigh more, there have been a few times I forget this and get really confused when I get encumbered without picking any thing up or getting tired. 

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