A few mode game modes for you

[Guest jeffpeng]

Hello fellow survivors,

while the available game modes already offer a wide range of experiences, for those among us that play this game a bit longer than the average Steam reviewer those might become a bit.... stale. Have no fear, Jeff (that's not actually my name) is here. Three more game modes that give the game a new spin in one or the other direction:

 

Outcast [ssnM-vT8P-N2Nz-S6C6-dAAA]

Feats: 2, choose your start

Nature has turned her back on you and the entire island. Nobody has been living here for ages while winter rules with an ice cold fist. Can you survive the quiet and more importantly cold apocalypse?

• Wildlife is passive unless provoked, but sparse
• Weather is punishing
• Resources are scarce and tools need to be crafted, but rifles can be found
• You require more water than on Interloper, you also tire faster
• You recover less condition when you sleep, and no condition while awake

You don’t have to be afraid of wildlife, but the weather is even more punishing than on Interloper, with loot being just as scarce and your recovery being reduced. Pilgrim at the end of time.

 

Apex Predator [++1A-P8jg-Dw/b-gKEE-AgEA]

Feats: 3, choose your start

Everyone has fled the island with wildlife running rampant. Everyone - but you. Load up on guns, bring your gear. It’s fun to prevail - or at least pretend. It’s either you or them. (Probably them.)

• Weather is forgiving and the world takes a long time to cool down
• Loot is plentiful if not abundant
• Hostile wildlife is as common as Stalker, but as fierce as Interloper, tracks you down from half the map away and does never fear (so it's basically Deadman predators)
• Deer, rabbits and fish have left the island with every other sane lifeform
• You require more water and food, but don’t tire as fast and are almost impervious to the cold
• You don’t recover condition naturally
• High chance for Aurora

The weather and cold are not your problem. Your real enemy is everything that moves. The world is full with supplies, but you will need all of them to stand a chance. The Aurora looming over you every other night doesn’t help. This isn’t survival. This is war.

 

Ranger [8tHM-bm8P-Kx9r-j6GO-7wAA]

Feats: 2, random start

Roaming the frozen wastes and struggling against the elements you aren’t sure if you are the hunter or the hunted. Maybe both - only time will tell.

Mostly Interloper with a few tweaks:

• Full Item availability, including tools and weapons, and slightly more frequent loot
• Predators will seek you out faster, especially if you are smelly
• You recover less condition when you sleep, and also less condition while awake
• You tire faster

You like Interloper but you don’t like half the game not being in the game? This fixes that, and provides the necessary offsets to still make the game challenging - but not overly punishing.

 

I played Outcast quite a bit over the last few weeks, and I find it surprisingly challenging and almost cerebral. Apex Predator is actually harder than it sounds, and actually closer to Deadman than you might think. It's definitely fun - until you die. Which you do quite frequently. The idea for Ranger, which I've played a few longer games on, I originally got here on the Forums, I believe from @stratvox, and I find it actually quite well balanced. 

Maybe one or two are for you.

Thank you for reading.

[stratvox]

Thanks for the shoutout, @jeffpeng 

[Guest kristaok]

Sounds good! 

[jhickie]

Nice! I'm a big fan of custom challenges. I really like your descriptions, like a movie tagline with game mode highlights. Nicely done, @jeffpeng

I might have to give Outcast a go. It sounds like Deadman with a little recovery and less animals. I'll likely turn the rifle off though, I only use guns for 4DoN and Story mode.

Thanks for posting these!  

[Guest jeffpeng]

39 minutes ago, jhickie said:

I'll likely turn the rifle off though, I only use guns for 4DoN and Story mode.

It originally didn't have the rifle. The rifle is mostly in there to make hunting animals available earlier. Since everything runs away from you and rabbits will not suffice to sustain you unless you actually mass-trap them, you'll have a hard time getting some calories before crafting a bow - which is kinda a challenge in itself. It's not deadman, and for an experienced deadman this is probably vacation, but as we all know not everyone has the skills or the nerves to do deadman (I'm on the nerve lacking side). But ofc everyone can adjust those settings to their own preferred dose of masochism  

 

[turtle777]

On 10/31/2019 at 12:49 PM, jeffpeng said:

Outcast [ssnM-vT8P-N2Nz-S6C6-dAAA]

Love this one, can't wait to try it.

Thanks for sharing.

 

-t

[turtle777]

Ok, spent the last couple of days playing Outcast. I'm still on my first try, at 44 days. It's challenging, but doable.

The cold is crazy (Pleasant Valley style in every region). The faster exhaustion and slow condition recovery is something that changes game play quite a bit. Requires a different approach to the game. Now that I'm close to day 50, warm days are -20C, most days are -25C, often even -30C. Many days are just way to cold with early clothing to even be able to do anything productive. When it gets warmer (less than -25C), I can gather enough sustainable food (i.e. rabbits), and collect enough firewood to survive. Making progress is very slow. I'm crafting deer skin boots and pants now, and it takes a long time to gather enough hides, cure, spend time crafting not gathering food/wood.

I have been using the rifle sparingly (probably 3 times), and I have not yet gotten to the forge. At this point (since it's gotten so cold), I would need to have better clothing and more food stored up before I could imagine crafting at the forge for a few days.
I still feel like this is a good challenge. I haven't come to the point where I'm "comfortable" (i.e. I can maintain well fed without a problem).

 

-t

Strategy lessons learned:

I kind of messed up early on and goofed around too much, and wasted the warm early days. I spawned in Mountain Town, and took more than 20 days just looting and getting acclimated. It's biting me in the butt. I couldn't even harvest carcasses until I found a hacksaw around Day 30 in ML. And even now, harvesting with the hacksaw takes forever. Harvesting hides and guts takes very long time, it's too cold to do so on most days. Tried keeping a fire going while harvesting, but it often gets blown out.

I should have run to Broken Railroad Forge ASAP, and forged a knife and hatchet ASAP.

Edited November 12, 2019 by turtle777

[Guest jeffpeng]

4 hours ago, turtle777 said:

Strategy lessons learned:

Funny I came to the same conclusions. It's just that I usually head for the Riken if I want to craft early. In general (meaning also on vanilla loper) having an early knife really is a valuable asset, and I kinda started basing my strategy around that rather than rushing the summit. The hatchet ..... well I can live without that. But you really have to try and do what I call "staying ahead of the curve" meaning ... ahead of the onset of eternal winter until day 30.

But reading your experiences I think the mode achieves what I set it out to do. Sadly there is no good way for a comeback mechanic if you dabbled away your early days. Maybe adjusting the "World gets colder over time" to medium would provide more time to prepare for people that do not appreciate rushing through their first days.

Thanks for the feedback!

[turtle777]

I’m determined to make it, even though I squandered time early on. It just takes longer now. Once I get my deer skin pants and boots, combined with rabbit mittens and hat, I only need a bear skin coat to be mostly impervious to the elements. 
 

I’ll get there. 🙂

 

-t

[turtle777]

Well, another thing that's really different: those wolves are so damn shy, it's hard to kill them. I need those pelts, but hunting wolves is not in my skill set (yet). I'm so used to Stalker. 🙂

 

-t

[turtle777]

Weather is killing me. I'm good with sustaining food with rabbit snares, but at this point, fire wood is the real problem.

It's too cold to go out and collect for more than a few minutes. And this is Mystery Lake. Crazy.

 

-t

[turtle777]

On 10/31/2019 at 12:49 PM, jeffpeng said:

Outcast [ssnM-vT8P-N2Nz-S6C6-dAAA]

Feats: 2, choose your start

• Wildlife is passive unless provoked, but sparse
• Weather is punishing
• Resources are scarce and tools need to be crafted, but rifles can be found
• You require more water than on Interloper, you also tire faster
• You recover less condition when you sleep, and no condition while awake

 

Jeff,

What are the Settings for aurora in Outcast ?

I’ve been trying to use the elevator in Cinder Hills Mines, waiting for an Aurora for 30 days and counting. 
It’s boring as hell.

-t

[Guest jeffpeng]

36 minutes ago, turtle777 said:

What are the Settings for aurora in Outcast ?

Low.

My idea behind that was that with passive wolves the aurora is actually beneficial. But that was before the new Cinder Mills Mine.

[turtle777]

On 1/5/2020 at 3:43 PM, jeffpeng said:

Low.

My idea behind that was that with passive wolves the aurora is actually beneficial. But that was before the new Cinder Mills Mine.

Holy cow. I had to wait 53 days for an aurora. Geez.

 

Well, finally it came, and I was able to go into Cinder Hills mine using the elevator.

Was it worth it ?

 

Not really.

Found very little loot.

0.57 L of lamp fuel

1 tin of sardines

1 bag of crackers

1 rifle round

1 ear wrap - SPOILED !!! (Damn it)

 

-t

 

There's one more wacky thing regarding the elevator.

 

I loaded the elevator up with food, water, and lamp fuel, just in case I get stuck.

Well, it was clear that if that were to happen, I would have no chance surviving cabin fever.

What was weird is that when you press the button to have the elevator move, all my loot in the elevator disappeared. Once I went back to the "ground" level from where I entered into the mine, my stuff re-appeared. Just glad it wasn't gone.

 

I'm just glad I can move on with my life.

Edited January 10, 2020 by turtle777