Interlopers beware. Timberwolves are ridiculous.


MrWolf

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I knew I shouldn't have brought my long-running Interloper character into the new region.  I came in from the Ravine entrance, across the logs, and was molested by a pack of 4 timberwolves.  I made a fire up against a rock wall, which only seemed to encourage the wolves.  One ran right through the fire to take a chunk out of me.  I used up my 3 flares.  I'm a horrible shot with the flare gun (never seem to remember to aim higher than I think I should) and didn't actually hit any, but the bar at the bottom of the screen went down and they ran away.  I should have gone back to the ravine then, but found a cave on the left side.  I warmed up and ventured out of the cave to have a look around (not carrying any scents but that doesn't seem to matter), and the wolves were back on me at about the same time as the warning bar at the bottom of the screen.  It was a fairly short and pathetic battle.  I killed one with an arrow and the others kept coming.  I didn't last long.  How are we supposed to deal with timberwolves in Interloper?  I started a new run and I'm not going anywhere near the new region in Interloper again.  Probably.

Edited by MrWolf
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Thanks, and yeah, I hope there is a tactic for timberwolves in Interloper.  I thought about my post as I wandered through the ice caves in my new HRV run.  I probably shouldn't have posted in such a salty frame of mind.  I can deal with a long run being cut short by an unexpected wolf or bear, been there many times before.  But the timberwolves are a different story.  They seem to detect us from a long distance, whether or not we're carrying smelly things.  Fire doesn't seem to affect them, maybe just those blue flares.  Without a gun, I wonder how we'll deal with timberwolves in Interloper.  

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10 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

@MrWolf / @stay puft

Has pitching stones not turned out to be a valuable tactic?

I'm no interloper (I'm sorry to say), but I'd found stones to be really effective... at least in chapter 3.

:coffee::fire::coffee:

Stones as a distraction or deterrent?  From my encounters in story mode and my brief encounter in survival, I think the timberwolves are attracted to you when they're beyond a stone's throw away, so a distraction probably won't work.  I did try throwing stones at them in my first survival encounter, when I also used the flare gun.  I bounced a stone off a timberwolf and it didn't seem to make any difference.  I was too focused on trying to follow where they were going to notice if the bar at the bottom of the screen changed when I hit one with a stone.  Maybe stones would help if you're in a place where the timberwolves can't get to you and you have time to sit there and throw them.

On the bright side, I just noticed that timberwolf spawns can be disabled in custom settings.  I've always enjoyed vanilla Interloper and I've never started a custom game, but I'll use Interloper settings without the timberwolves now.  I'm excited to explore the new region again, but first, off to the forge and all that.

 

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Dont worry about losing your long run character, i had to deleted all my long interloper runs because they get corrupted after episode 3...

And yes, i wonder the same. Furthermore, altough i´ve always take risks and like to exploring all the world on interloper, what would be the point to risk our character in the new region which major value is to crafting ammo and repair guns? totally useless on interloper.

I think they should add a revolver,  with a difficult spawn spot of course such as mysterious signal fire or the summit and also with no ammo and no cleaning kit spawn at all. So, in every new run we´ll need to get into the new region to get ammo and use the revolver to defense our self from the timberwolves (they will be in other maps soon). So far, is the only possible solution i´ve found

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5 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Stones as a distraction or deterrent?  From my encounters in story mode and my brief encounter in survival, I think the timberwolves are attracted to you when they're beyond a stone's throw away, so a distraction probably won't work.  I did try throwing stones at them in my first survival encounter, when I also used the flare gun.  I bounced a stone off a timberwolf and it didn't seem to make any difference.  I was too focused on trying to follow where they were going to notice if the bar at the bottom of the screen changed when I hit one with a stone.  Maybe stones would help if you're in a place where the timberwolves can't get to you and you have time to sit there and throw them.

On the bright side, I just noticed that timberwolf spawns can be disabled in custom settings.  I've always enjoyed vanilla Interloper and I've never started a custom game, but I'll use Interloper settings without the timberwolves now.  I'm excited to explore the new region again, but first, off to the forge and all that.

 

Im a loper player but I've tried the new region on voyager and i found that in addition to hand holding marine flare, they dont charging if you are by a campfire. Then i throwed torches to his nose until their moral broken. But i dont think this will working on interloper

Edited by The Black Knight
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I started a new custom game with Interloper settings and set timberwolf spawns to none.  I scrolled through the rest of the settings and saw that rifle was "no", but revolver was "yes".  I wonder if that's a bug or is there actually a chance of a revolver spawn in Interloper?

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4 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I started a new custom game with Interloper settings and set timberwolf spawns to none.  I scrolled through the rest of the settings and saw that rifle was "no", but revolver was "yes".  I wonder if that's a bug or is there actually a chance of a revolver spawn in Interloper?

Some information i pick up from other sites (spoiler). Not checked yet

seems like there are a revolver spawn chance at signal hill and into the dam

 

 

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3 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I started a new custom game with Interloper settings and set timberwolf spawns to none.  I scrolled through the rest of the settings and saw that rifle was "no", but revolver was "yes".  I wonder if that's a bug or is there actually a chance of a revolver spawn in Interloper?

Given that the revolver was introduced specifically to be able to be featured in ep 3 with Astrid and her timberwolf encounters, it would make sense to make it available specifically to deal with the new region.

That's actually kind of interesting; that'll mean people on long runs will want to tour the world again to look for the things that go with crafting firearms. Part of the rationale for the new mechanic is to give later game goals; maybe the idea is that going into BI will be suicide in an early loper run, but could be viably attempted after the player has kitted out, so they can access crafted firearms and tools.

I've got to get into the cannery so I can figure out what the capabilities are in there. It occurs to me that the tools depicted would be capable of making high quality hatchets and knives; you can make excellent knives with those machines and old sawmill blades, for example, far better as a knife that what could be done with scrap metal and a forge. Finding a broken revolver that can be repaired could be a big motivator for trying to get in there.

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9 minutes ago, Serenity said:

I'd be fine with the revolver in Interloper and very, very little ammo, so you have to largely make it yourself. The revolver is good for self defense, but not really suitable for hunting.

All you'd really need to do is to put one in the world, and zero firearm cleaning kits; that'll push people into BI pretty quick.

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I totally think the Revolver should be added to Interloper. However, it would have to be done very carefully.

1. There should only be one or two Revolvers across the whole island, with no guaranteed spawns.

2. The Revolvers would start at around 10-20% Condition with cleaning kits being very scarce.

3. Ammunition should be extremely scarce, with maybe 15-20 rounds across the island. Casings would be more easily found, but still rare. Ammo parts would be limited.

This would make the Revolver the equivalent of what the Distress Pistol once was when the only one was in TWM- a extremely rare but game-changing piece of equipment with scarce ammo that required special consideration on when exactly to use it. The Distress Pistol is now relatively easily obtained in Interloper, so why not have the Revolver as well?

 

P.S: Don't add the Rifle to Interloper in any capacity.

 

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Guest jeffpeng
15 hours ago, The Black Knight said:

they dont charging if you are by a campfire

If that's the case then their behaviour is different then from Crossroads Elegy. Because there they didn't care a whole lot.

4 hours ago, Salty Crackers said:

I totally think the Revolver should be added to Interloper.

Having had my first initial run-ins with the twolves in testing Stalker games I tend to agree, although I don't really like the taste of how the revolver was eventually sneaked into Interloper. But I guess we'll be seeing more twolves across the island later, so I guess it's something we'll have to get used to.

It's a bit sad that my prediction that twolves will cause hell of an upset to Interloper kinda held true. I really wished they would have made it work to some degree without "Stalkering" the experience. I'm torn on this, as always (professional fence sitter here), but while I respect that changes have to be made to keep a game alive, and the ruling on if it was for the better or the worse is still out (although I feel a big nay coming), I'm not super happy with how game modes that have been established for ages are significantly changed with every other update.

In general I think Bleak Inlet will see very little traffic from Interloper players before they actually are full equipped tanks, and even then it'll probably be a place you don't go unless you have to. From that perspective adding unique crafting options to the region really makes sense. Being able to craft "real" hatchets and knives? That would be awesome. But is it worth to risk your 100 day Interloper? Your 1000 day Interloper? Or in @stay puft's case your 1000 year Interloper? I don't know.

Also, something I want to address again at this point: why do custom games do not contribute to feats although Pilgrim does? People can perfectly well play "old Interloper" now in the state it was in with Redux (no birch bark, no twolves, no revolvers, code: 8sHM-bj8P-Kxsj-maGO-7gll), but then they won't receive any progress towards feats as a drawback. That simply makes no sense. It never has, and it never will.

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Guest jeffpeng
On 12/11/2019 at 1:05 AM, ManicManiac said:

Has pitching stones not turned out to be a valuable tactic?

I've tested that only in Stalker so far.... but .... apparently hitting a wolf with a stone kills about as much of the "morale meter" as throwing a torch at their feet. Missing a wolf with a stone does exactly nothing. So in essence .... you have to be really darn good with hitting stones to make that a viable strategy to survive.

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I'm extremely conflicted about the revolver being added to Loper.

On one hand, it's like how the hell do we deal with these timberwolves? Nearly impossible to hit with the bow, very erratic pathing, hit-and-runs, pack hunting and morale, fire doesn't work, bait doesn't work... Really, the only thing I've had any luck with is those marine flares, and even then that just buys you some time. I want to kill these jerks, not just run away. A gun would help.

On the other hand, I think guns go against the spirit of Loper. Flare gun is already too much, firearms of any kind seem to be at odds with the "craft everything you can to survive" mentality of Loper. I was hoping for the bear spear. This was a shocking discovery. Dozens (hundreds?) of Loper runs with me never once thinking, "I could use a gun". The only time I've fired the revolver was EP3, and I can't remember the last time I fired the rifle.

Much like @Salty Crackers said, I think the only way Lopers will be ok with the revolver being introduced into our world is if it's a fully crafted solution, like the bow and arrows. I would take it a step further, though. As in, any revolver you find should be broken and unusable. You should need to find everything to craft bullets, and there should be no usable bullets in the world, only casings. The hope is that, much like crafting the bow and arrows at the forge, you should need to visit BI at some point to fix your gun and craft your bullets. You should NOT be able to use the revolver without a trip to BI's cannery.

I've been exploring BI on a custom spawn, but I think it's time to fire up my 580 day Loper run and start exploring for revolver stuff. I'm interested to see how this shakes out.

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I like the revolver ideas in this thread.  I agree it would balance nicely with the Timberwolves and new region addition for interloper players if added with certain dire conditions.  That said Jeff and jhickie have good thoughts about interloper being sort of dragged into the gunpowder age.  

It's just too bad there's no other way of countering the Timberwolves as far as I know, that would work but still be difficult and fit interloper themes.  The revolver is far and away the best thing.  Fires don't really work in my experience and decoys, nah.  The main difference from reg wolves is the meter and you get more than one at a time.  So there's a big divergence right there to start off with - but THEN on top of that also the fires and decoys do nothing.  Has anyone tried farting in the wind?  Maybe that will work in interloper.  Perhaps they will add non-gunpowder interloper deterrent in the future when they start to spread to other regions.  Maybe craftable giant stickmonster scarecrow type things or giant gut slingshots.

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Just my 2 cents: I won't jump on the "yeah revolver" train for interloper, yet. Interloper is the hardest mode, so it's hard, so we die. Remember not so far ago when we were saying that interloper was too easy ? Remember when you started interloper, when you were dying from the cold, from the wolves, from the bears... Now, I die only because I'm stupid when bored, I've learnt to deal with the rest.
Let's learn the new map, let's learn the new tricks. Maybe we'll find a way. I, for example, don't see why you don't just kill them with your bow, they also have lacks in their pathways that allow you to shoot safely. But I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so maybe you all figured that out already.

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8 minutes ago, LkP said:

Just my 2 cents: I won't jump on the "yeah revolver" train for interloper, yet. Interloper is the hardest mode, so it's hard, so we die. Remember not so far ago when we were saying that interloper was too easy ? Remember when you started interloper, when you were dying from the cold, from the wolves, from the bears... Now, I die only because I'm stupid when bored, I've learnt to deal with the rest.
Let's learn the new map, let's learn the new tricks. Maybe we'll find a way. I, for example, don't see why you don't just kill them with your bow, they also have lacks in their pathways that allow you to shoot safely. But I'm trying to avoid spoilers, so maybe you all figured that out already.

I'm avoiding spoilers too and I like this approach/thought process.

Part of my concern is that people will just avoid the new region.  There's no motivation to encounter those risks to go there.  However, it seems they will be heading to others before too long, so that would null that out.  And by that time hopefully we can figure out how to deal with them.  And....I guess there's the motive to go there now.  It's sort of meta, but.

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10 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

Also, something I want to address again at this point: why do custom games do not contribute to feats although Pilgrim does? People can perfectly well play "old Interloper" now in the state it was in with Redux (no birch bark, no twolves, no revolvers, code: 8sHM-bj8P-Kxsj-maGO-7gll), but then they won't receive any progress towards feats as a drawback. That simply makes no sense. It never has, and it never will.

This is my current biggest complaint about the game.

I fell in love with custom settings because I like some things lax and some things beyond interloper brutal. Not getting credit for feats when I'm playing on a mode significantly harder than stalker when I could achieve them in pilgrim if I was willing to put up with the boring grind to get them makes me very sad.

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1 hour ago, dbmurph22 said:

I'm avoiding spoilers too and I like this approach/thought process.

Part of my concern is that people will just avoid the new region.  There's no motivation to encounter those risks to go there.  However, it seems they will be heading to others before too long, so that would null that out.  And by that time hopefully we can figure out how to deal with them.  And....I guess there's the motive to go there now.  It's sort of meta, but.

So, I've just made a try with a (not so) long run in Voyager, making him leave his peaceful retreat from TM. It's a voyage, so easy-peasy. Still, with just bow and arrow, the 3 Timberwolves were just running in circle around a high ground while I was shooting. After 2 dead, the third one went on infinite fly mode.

You may avoid the region but, visiting only one 'inside' spot, I've found loot I've never seen before (apart from the one that came from the update), so my guess is that you'll find reward in loper too (btw, the challenge to go there and face the wolves can be a reward by itself).
I just wish Hinterland would make the timberwolves' fur special, that could be a great way to make us go play with a pack.

Can't wait to see timberwolves around the farm in PV... 6 to 8 of them roaming in an area... 😛

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I have a couple of thoughts. First, I've taken down the TWs on the radio tower plateau in BI with just a bow and arrow. So, it can be done. I also think that taking them out from distance using a bow and arrow should also be very doable, though I was not able to do so there... just not that hot of a shot I guess ;) . At any rate, a couple of things... I think that a good mechanic would be allowing the player to equip a hatchet, knife, prybar, or hammer (or even fist!) and use it to defend oneself... basically having the possibility of using it to swipe whichever wolf is coming in for a taste and doing a block on the attack, while costing some morale, based more or less on the "hatchet > hammer > prybar > knife > fist" sequence where the fist is pretty dang inconsequential. In that case that'd be about timing the swipe properly. Heck, I could even see using the rifle both as a rifle while they approach on their attack and as a bludgeon when they're right on top of you could also be cool. I also recognize that's a LOT of dev work, so....

I'm very intrigued at what the possibilities would be of having wolves and timberwolves be both competitors and cooperators... wolf takes down deer, timberwolf intimidates wolf away from deer, that sort of thing. For instance, having a group of two to three timberwolves and four to five wolves cooperate to bring down a moose would be totally awesome to behold. Also having them have the possibility of turning on each other as groups could lead to some interesting entertainment for the player from a distance ("Let them fight!") as well as opening up some exploitable behaviours; for example, leading a group of timberwolves to a wolf feeding on a deer or rabbit  could lead them to zeroing in on the wolf and deer as easier prey and leaving the player alone.

I guess this is all a roundabout way of saying that a big upgrade on the animal AI and interactions would be extremely cool... while recognising that it's a big project and would probably need to be carried out in the background over the next few updates because this sort of thing would need to be rolled out as a package so as to not destroy game balance. Things like adding rabbit warrens, so that rabbits have a chance to escape a marauding wolf or timberwolf pack, as well as the player; adding herding defensive behaviour to deer and giving them the possibility to have successful defences against wolves and timberwolves under certain sorts of circumstances; having bears and moose be able to come in and lay waste to a timberwolf pack in short order by just flat out smashing the first one that tries to attack... but also be able to fail, so that there'd be a possibility that the player could watch a long battle royale between a pack and a bear or a pack and a moose. Upgrade the possibilities for interactions between bears and moose, permitting them to both quietly tolerate each other on over to having the bear go for taking down the moose... stuff like that would add a great deal to the richness of the experience of the player as they wander The Long Dark.

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I kind of stated my problem with these new wolves in this thread as well. 

 

That being said, I find it to be a very fair warning you issue. I know I will be avoiding this region with Loper and Custom survivors unless they've very well geared and maybe not even then unless I need resources or get bored and think it's time for them to fade.

After kicking the bucket with a new challenge (it's a super fun one even if I didn't last long and I LOVE it!) I ended up creating new Loper survivors (certainly glad I didn't bring any Loper well established ones to the zone). I wanted to explore the area, but 4 times that I started as a new Loper, three times I got dropped onto the map in the middle of the night and once it was daytime but horrendous fog where my left foot couldn't see my right one. It was actually very fun to re-live 'I'm a newbie and have no clue which way I should be heading' moment, but the point of exploring went void because none of those survivors have lived to see the light of day to start building a picture of the area in my mind. :D

This map certainly drives a hard bargain; heavy artillery had to be used. In order to explore the zone, I ended up bringing Rambo, my 220 day voyager survivor. I used her to explore all the previous maps, including HRV. Spent a couple of days leaving the Railroad where she was established in the hunting cabin and had to check every Muskeg cave until I found that entrance. Funnily enough I haven't ran into any Timberwolves yet, only saw a couple of packs from the distance. :P I'm sure they're waiting right around next corner!

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