[SPOILERS] Episode 3 from a rusted veteran POV

[BareSkin]

Hardened Survivor, obviously, as in my first minute as a TLD player.

 

So. Met Molly, grabbed a revolver (first time for me), went to her barn (new building in PV?) and got “There will be blood” achievement on my way thanks to this brand new firearm and a very lucky headshot. Discover I can grab empty shells, sounds nice but have to grab my glasses to play (who said "old"? heard you, shush!). Fire in the barrel, phone call from the psycholady. I get from the photograph in her desk that the dead body in her basement is a close relative. Could be a husband, but I’d bet on a brother. A former convict, for sure, would fit well with the lore.

As a player, I liked that suspicious way in which Molly makes you confirm you abandoned Will to his fate.

Perfect time for traveling, follow the road to Crossroads, find a cop that allows me to grad the improvised knife that likely made him dead, follow the blood to a Spencer’s style broken barn with a dead convict. Nice fire there with a coal found on the place, then back on the road to crossroads. Pass a wolf hunting a rabbit that seems hard-scripted, arrive to Crossroads, they changed all the place, no more gas station.

See wolves patrolling around the smoking building, crouch but tempbar is nearly empty. When I feel kinda safe I run to the door and proceed to meeting the priest. He’s fat, as the churchmen have always been during harsh times for the real poor.

I decide I will try to make the playthrought obtaining and keeping Well Fed, for the fun of it since I’m quite sure I’d still be able to starvehack since it’s an “intended” feature of Interloper left in there for years by design.

Check on the people there, sounds like I’ll have to find insulin and lost luggages. Sleep there, then I proceed to the Red Barn, not forgetting the blue flares in the blue sedan (will I have red flares in the red ones?). Found hatchet nearby the sedan, windbreaker in the barn. Drop all tools and stuff in the Red Barn as it’s a central place and I like to travel light. Found a bow too, but I keep the revolver, as I never play with firearms usually.

I already have two bedrolls, it feels very strange. Sleep there in positive FLT without fire, fix clothes and tomorrow will be about finding the airliner, which with a map is not that hard.

 

No screenshots yet as I didn't know I would like to report the adventure in the forums. Next entry will have.

[BareSkin]

sneaky sneaky Moonwalk

Leave the Red Barn crouching backwards around 2PM, follow a road I usually never take (no indoors, bear roaming around) and get to the airliner. As expected in the region, I met a bear but it is lazy. Have to make a fire-pause midway after crossing the river, because you know, EvilWind and nowhere to progress shielded: we are in Pleasant Valley after all. Still can’t place fire even on a slight slope, shame. The 1-reclaimed fire immediately gives me 2 up-arrows, seems too easy.

Wind dies down before dusk, I get ready to proceed to the crash site with a 75% tempbar but now with a lit torch. Find crows indicating a dead deer and a cave on the way on the right hand, good fallback option. The last part to the airliner is double-wolf territory, but there’s a hut so I decide to crash down there for now after finding a hacksaw in front of the door.

the airliner is right there smoking, locating it is not the real mission

Since I have too many stones I try it on wolves attention. Funny enough they seems to work together. I have the info I searched for: they are only 2, and on the right side of the road. I also learn that the porch is not blessed ground as I am attacked!

Under shock, I didn’t even notice the fighting interface didn't pop on my screen, my head is somewhere else: I’ve been attacked THROUGH THE FIRE! Madness!

I enter the house to treat my blood loss and get my heartbeat back under control. They work in team, each one biting you a bit and fleeing away, despite the fire. I can test it a bit more, as I have bandages and know I’ll fully recover thanks to cheated sleeping recovery. 911 calories, I’m ready for the standard 10h-sleep after playing a bit more with wolfpack mechanics. Shooting on them with the revolver, I understand the red bar is kind of a team-lifebar, empty it and they go away. I grab the 6 shell casings. In the panic my fire died. Anyway, it’s too late to get to the plane.

Or is it? There a fire there, and I have a bedroll so I should be fine if I proceed now before night is fully dark, the fire will guide me and the wolves have fled. When I see “Point of Disagreement” appearing, I wonder if that cabin I just left have always been there? All my runs have seen me from Prepper straight to the RedBarn which is the nearest bed and a dangerous travel, but maybe I’ve just always ignored this cabin? And when climbing I always went for Skeeter’s ropes for the same reason…

A bareskin usually carries a lit torch or a bow, but well...

At the plane, the fire does indeed produce warmth, which is good news. I’ll always remember episode 1, starting in Hardened Survivor even as a (masochist) newbie and continuously dying from cold near the flames of my crashed plane...

I like opening the door of the plane, entering a safe place is always a very TLDesque feeling. But this is strange you can’t sleep on the passenger seats. Find a lot of clothes in the suitcases. Can’t deploy my sleeping bag anywhere, it gets me annoyed now that the fire doesn’t make me safe I don’t want to lay outside. I eventually find a place and go for the night. It really would have been easy to code (like any car bed) and more immersive to sleep in a seat. Hum, 10h is only 600 calories, is “Hardened Survivor” actually only a Stalker settings?

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by BareSkin

[BareSkin]

[Real life second day of playing]

Next morning, search the crash site, I could open a swimming pool filled with airline food for retired sleepwalkers. I spend the morning sorting out and fixing the best clothing, then go for Dimitri’s insulin, wondering if he’d had done the same for me. I also prepare new bandages. I find more food, more clothes, a distress pistol, and start to hear a “survivor” whining. Can’t see what her problem would be with all this loot around… oh OK, she’s blocked under a seat row, probably with broken legs. I am lucky she’s right beside Dimitri’s suitcase…

Happy Valentine's

Before clicking her, I wonder if she dies if I shoot her. I guess not but I don’t try (anyone a lil bit more more psychopath than me tried it?), She asks me to end her life, I wonder why I hesitated before speaking to her (would have made it easier). And I Can't helping seeing in Gwen some character from my childhood TV show Les Minikeums:

 

Dr Astrid cutscene, I wonder why a biologist would have Analysis mathematics on a white board (limits when n is infinite does not make much sense in Biology…), and I also wonder if Will’s child is still alive. That would make Astrid even more a despicable character to me.

What, I need to bring Gwen back? You gotta be kidding! She just wants to die, and I still have two rounds in a revolver… I bring Gwen back to the airplane, but her clothing is not enough to get warmer. Sounds stupid, we’re swimming in ski jackets and thin wool sweaters, but I cant add clothes on her. So, looking for fuel for a fire I find a nearby cave and decide we’ll spend the night here, pretty sure we’ll find wood in here.

It’s funny how Astrid is so careful with people, and then… just throw them on the floor like a potatoes bag. Since we are in a safe zone, I appreciate the aurora while collecting fuel. Shamelessly, I use the old tricks and put the fire in the outside part of the cave and Gwen inside. Reload the revolver, sleep 2h, yes the outside fire bonus is still applied, good news.

I spend the night looking for fuel, and understood tomorrow I’ll have to drag Gwen down to Dodger’s via a tree bridge. I always hated Skeeter’s Ridge Trap, so I’m glad this zone disappeared.

------ next day----

I carelessly drop Gwen to go answer the phone, and understand why it was buggy the first time I tried to play this episode: I arrived at this phone before going to the airplane, so it didn’t make sense to hear Molly say I saved someone. Anyway, the body was her husband. And she’s so creepy I would like not to answer any other ringing phone, but my guess is it would stop my progress through the episode.

So it’s barrel-fire to warm up with the cedar I picked up there, then sleep 2h until midday and harvest beloved cattails. I go go straight to the red barn but I wonder about the church artifact, you know me, very faithful. Oops, Skeeter’s still exist since the artifact is there, and I need to go. Bummer. It’s perfect time to go, but I’m too tired for a rope climb. Oh, I find a GO! Energy Drink. This is new, and it’s here just for my case I guess.

I unload myself as much as I can (keep my bedroll, cause Skeeter’s) and go start the climb under drugs. But… I can’t leave Gwen in bed while going to Skeeter’s ?! I wonder if I let her outside, will I be able to enter Skeeter’s? I’ll never know, since there’s no rope anyway. The night will then be spent at Dodger’s.

I wonder how I will make it back to Crossroads with a survivor on my back, between a wolf pack and a bear near the Red Barn.

Edited March 1, 2020 by BareSkin

[Hotzn]

Good read, as always. Please do go on.

[BareSkin]

[Real life third day of playing]

In the morning, from pure sleepwalker habit, I start to cure 2 rabbits.

 

We get ambushed as soon as we leave Dodger’s, I hastily throw away my survivor, drop a fire, they don’t attack, once the fire has taken drop a coal and proceed with shooting on them. I obviously also shoot on cartridges instead of picking them up (they're so tiny). Reminds me this stupid instant-click match consumption when holding an unlit torch.

2 wolves shy away after 6 rounds, I track the last one with its own blood to finish him. I extend the fire in order to drink a bit, then off we go and we’re lucky the wind just died in a clear afternoon. Only 4 rounds left. They came from nowhere and I was careful enough to drop all the smellies as soon as I was outside. Those attacks seem scripted. One every day maybe?

The red barn is wolfed, as always so I cut south-east thanks to the sun (yes, I know I also have a map) for the river leading to Crossroads. Let’s hope no bear today. I’m glad to see the Crossroads smoke.

I fear there will be more survivor to carry, since the interface doesn’t say “Gwen” but “The survivor”. I kinda liked the challenge posed from this game mechanic, but twice or more would become boring a bit I fear. No more wolves roaming around the Hall, good news. I treat Dimitri and the motion capture equipment HL bought is really nicely used, good job. It’s strange tho that Astrid knows who’s who between the “patients” (we only have their first names) and the people who died. She never spoke to anyone yet, is she a medium or something? That's a scenario micro-failure IMO. Anyway, Chapter 3.

Ouch! As excepted (and hoped not), 3 more carrying missions... This doesn’t feel funny, even maybe a PITA, but that’s the price to pay to know what’s after, that I hope will be entertaining. Oh, I thought all this food was for ma and left it at the crash site! Sounds I’m good for another trip… I put the revolver down since with 14% condi and 4 cartridges it seems useless now, but I get more blue flares, and I have some more in the barn. There’s distress pistol in the Hall, was it here from the beginning? Anyway, time for a good sleep.

----

Trail boots in Rural store, nice but not much better than mine (Astrid's are the exact same). Hum I like the distress pistol technique to find the survivors. After bringing back the closest one (near the road), I search the Hall neighborhood, find a balaclava (of no use, have 2 tukes and it's ugly in green, please make a black one) and a rifle, plus a Mariner’s Pea Coat, nice. I get food poisoning from a bad cooked rabbit, so the night will be spent in the Hall under antibiotics.

-----

Next morning, I decide to go back to the airliner (and pick Tall Tales on the way), get the gasoline I didn't even touch near dodger’s and the survivor near the barn. Now that I have 11 rifle shots I feel more confident. Heading up north towards Prepper, I see the sun ahead of me. It probably shouldn’t be here IMO (I thought this had been fixed? the sun rises in the East, and dies in the East too if Prepper's is straight north)… I decide to go by the river for cattails.

I have to stop in a cave, start a fire, get hunted by a wolfpack despite the fire (AND being IN the cave), headshot with the rifle on the only wolf I can see, it seems its friends stop playing with me. I see there are foliage-beds here and there in the caves, this is really nice (removing the bedroll fear from hardcore games), hopes it’s the same in Survival maps.

Recharging the rifle, I wonder if I could retrieve the rifle shells too so I light up a torch to search for it: I can, this is really nice. Now, about what to do with it... I only get 1% parasite risk from the first 1kg steak, it used to be 4% right? 4% on the second steak, 9% on the third (full belly). Is it a prime number series, +1,+3,+5?... I’ll stop tempting my luck here, plus it’s mid-afternoon: travel time.

Have to stop again cause of cold in the fallback option cave I noticed on my first trip to the crash site. I take the pelt, just as a habit. Night at the cabin where I was first attacked through a fire.

Fallback option from first passage (hence no Well Fed yet)

 

[BareSkin]

Next morning I visit Misty Falls Picnic Area for the side quest, first time I come in this place in my TLD player life (745h). There’s an indoor cave, I find the hidden spot behind the waterfall, the cold couple here is sad seeing, but I do appreciate the satchel. On my back, I see the red torch has a life-bar, was it already like this before?

In skeeter’s, I find the church artifact, my fourth knife and third hacksaw, and luckily get away with intestinal parasites risk. Upon exit, I go check the rope to Dodger’s: now it’s not a guaranteed one, you have to put the second one yourself cause I find a rope nearby. Of course it’s still possible to goat down from Timberwolf, but at your own sprain risk.

I haul everything I can down to Dodger’s despite me spotting 2 wolves roaming down there, and sleep there since there’s a blizzard coming. I sacrifice the local rabbits to sneak into the place. The raw rabbits I left here when carrying Gwen will be my meal tomorrow morning.

----

Next morning, I leave the rifle in Dodger’s before leaving for the plane as light as I can (10,0kg). At skeeter’s, I eat a 6% steak with no consequences. At the airplane I take every calorie left, when back down at the phone I take the jerrycan.

I grab another survivor (not the one I planned to), and even if very careful I get the – for sure scripted – wolfpack attack. Since I left my rifle in Dodger’s, I have to spend flare shells on the 4 wolves. The mechanic seems to be the same as when the Old Bear hunts you down: he just comes from nowhere whatever you do. It’s kinda boring, I’m close to the Farmstead, but it’s closed, so I spend nearly all my flare shells.

I have no idea what you do if you have no more ammo: scripted guaranteed death? I reload 3 times until I kill one of them and get rid of this annoyance. Also, I can’t bear Astrid shouting like a madgirl when you try to sneak between the wolves.

This is actually very painful as a mechanic. I can’t imagine fighting a pack on Interloper with no weapon, not even speaking of any harder custom...

Anyway, I carry Wade to Crossroads in the dying sunlight. My bedroll in front of the fire just disappeared, it takes me 10 minutes of panic to find it near the entry, go figure why, maybe a bug from adding the second survivor bed?

Now the survivor seems better clothed than me... nonsense

------
Next morning I find Ava and immediately crouch to avoid the nearby bear attention. He ends up showing me his back, to my relief. I’ll have to take the long road back to the Hall. Usual scripted pack attack, but this time I took my revolver so it’s EZPZ cause after 2 hits they strangely disappear (their life was still more than 50%), A typical PV blizzard welcomes me home (does not apply on survivor on your back...), so I follow the electric lines to the bonfire. Maybe that’s scripted because I bring back the last survivor? But I didn’t reach the calories target, so I guess not.

4 survivors brought back, I miss only some calories. Tomorrow’s mission will be to go back to Dodger’s to take the rifle and what’s left there (a deer pelt, maybe calories?)

-----

I put the church artifact back, kill two rabbits and run to the Hall to eat them, then have to stop on my way do Dodger’s in the cave where I killed a wolf before: cause it’s night, and there are 4 steaks waiting for me here. I want to eat non-transportable (smelling) food and keep the dry one for the mission.
The default option for starting a fire is still not using the lit torch if you have one in hand, this is very annoying. Night in this cave near End of the Road, as there is a foliage bed.

---

I get woken up just before the 10h input because my tempbar reaches 0, the game is forgiving even with the harshest setting. Sneak into Dodger’s, lots of dry/canned food I left there, I wait for the wolves to go away before escaping the place in the afternoon, but a blizzard tells me otherwise. I sleep it off for 4h then proceed in the warm hours back to Crossroads not without a heat stop at the red barn. The wind is pushing me, it’s not that often so I allow myself a smile. I check the church, but we are not “tomorrow” yet, for a reason I can’t understand since I spent a night in the cave. Next: Chapter 4.

 

[BareSkin]

I’m asked to leave the Hall. As soon as I proceed, the phone rings. I don’t want to answer. I understand that I have no choice. Astrid complains about Molly waiting so long to tell her about the Radio, strangely enough she didn’t bother asking the Father why he didn’t tell her about the escape to Perseverance Mills, I can’t understand why. The Father knew the exit from the beginning, he just played it unfair about the survivors a straightforward “help me help them, and in return I’ll show you the exit” would have been much better. Father would have been a strong man instead of a small liar.

In the morning I wait the blizzard out doing some repairs and preparing coffees, in case the access to the tower must be done by the rope. I take a hacksaw and a prybar, I’ll go to the barn for the bow too. I also fill up the storm lantern, cause I got 40kg bag, what a joke…

I return to the church, it still procs nothing. Seems buggy, the artifact has been there for 2 days. But I find the rabbitskin hat, so I take it. Did I miss it the first time? Oh no OK, it comes with a thank you letter. Strange way to put it, Thomas could speak to Astrid about it since we spend our time chatting nonsensical beliefs Astrid doesn’t even have (Methuselah?). Well…

Since we’re in a blizzard and it pushes me to the red barn, I also take the curing guts there. Oh, I can’t craft any clothing, OK. But I craft 2 snares and 1 more arrow, total five. Good weapon against a pack, reusable ammo. Then in an orange dusk blizzard the next trip is towards Molly’s barn, for sleeping there before the Radio tower. The dead wolf here can’t be harvested: bummer. Cattails instead then.

I would never find myself in such a situation on a sleepwalking run

-----

Strangely, I didn’t notice in Custom Survival (since bad weather=indoors) but the wolves don’t seem affected by the weather, they see you just as well as in a clear day, from far away when you can’t (and yes, the wind was blowing my smell away from them).

I’m still in a blizzard but I still take my time for the sticks, cause you just, I just have to sleep, and no consequences. At the rope, I’m shielded so I drop a fire (cold bonus++), coal, and proceed to the nearby carcass, eat the meat and warm up 2 coffees near the fire. Heating hot meat or drinking boiling water doesn’t warm you up, it sounds strange. Next step is bandaging an ankle and climbing the rope (shielded) under heat bonus, then to the radio shack. I’m lucky I know the road by memory Only 7 cattails left.

Then again, why would you go out in a blizzard?

On my way I’m super careful to drop sticks when my clothes get wetter to avoid sprain risk, but I still get a double sprained wrists on the ascending slope: no more rifle. Usually since it’s blizzard no problem, but obviously it’s not blizzard for everyone in the Episode. I welcome the arrow on the dead prisoner. The place is messy as usual, tea and coffee as usual, very good calories (an MRE!), few cartridges, flashlight, a stim under the bed, combat pants!

I really do appreciate the cross story wit Mackenzie on the radio, and she seems glad he’s alive. If she’s not going to save their child, I will blame her forever for using then abandoning him. If she is, I’ll forever blame her for not telling him. I also appreciate the feminist terrorism nonsense, it echoes a lot in today’s world in which I see lots of feminists being as stupid as the men they try to fight and turning it into gender-war. You can’t blame every male just because you weren’t strong enough to stand up against a bastard. As we say in french (and I guess in many other languages), better be alone than badly accompanied.

 

So I guess tomorrow will be the start of finishing the side quests before leaving PV. I will actually find the caches side quest later, I suppose it here to help your fill the Hall cabinet before the storm... I guess going to the mine will be the end of Episode 3. I'll finish the side quests and drop my comments about the main storyline in the next post.

[Hotzn]

Nice. Concerning some of your questions/comments:

Foliage beds are now also found in some places in survival mode, plus you can sleep in the hay/straw in some barns. Not sure if all foliage beds from the story are also found in the sandbox.

Food poisoning risk has not changed in a while. It used to be 1% -> 4% -> 9% for every time you start eating 'bad' meat, and still is so now.

[Drifter Man]

20 hours ago, BareSkin said:

I only get 1% parasite risk from the first 1kg steak, it used to be 4% right? 4% on the second steak, 9% on the third (full belly). Is it a prime number series, +1,+3,+5?...

Maybe that's what she was trying to figure out with those limits?

[BareSkin]

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Maybe that's what she was trying to figure out with those limits?

Totally make sense, since it's a biology research. Nice catch! So she knew she'd have to eat wolf even before she received this distress call...

[BareSkin]

Alright, finished it, so here are my 2 cents:

What I didn't like:

I was frustrated to be defenseless while carrying a survivor, I don't see why I could use flares to keep the scripted wolf a bay. No, you have to drop/throw your survivor, get a fire done, and fight them. This "only one solution approach" was a bit boring. To me this felt contrary to TLD, because no countermeasures.

About the religious stuff, well I'm not a believer, and even though my point of view was defended by Astrid rhetoric, I was frustrated to have to keep this wooden cross even after having carried it to the airplane to appease Thomas. Didn't like Methuselah Prophet much (except his look and overall appearance and timing), but Thomas was really someone I felt despite towards: he stands there on his fatty cheeks, doing nothing, then takes the right to give you advice you didn't ask for.

About Astrid. I hoped I would feel better about her, but nothing left the idea to me that she cowardly abandoned me to my death after using me to go to great bear despite giving no news for years. I think "Astrid", I think insults.

UI comfort problems: When I hold an unlit torch, I still consume a match for every misclick.When I hold a lit torch, the firestarting interface is still proposing me to use a match by default.

Despite the addition of some foliage beds, we still can't decide to sleep anywhere. This makes no sense. Make it possible to sleep anywhere, with no health recovery, no warmth bonus, and maybe for a penalty (your back hurts, can't run for x hours or get a weight penalty), idk, but this feels stupid as it is.

Doing the same mission 4 times in a row. Go fetch feeling.

What I did like:

The addition of candles. OK, it's still  decorative but it shows that it could be handled later in Survival. Candles have always been missing really badly in TLD lore. We should be able to craft it with cloth and (fish?) fat (or cured gut?) in order to save matches in late games.

The wolves that don't just flee away anymore as soon as you try to start a fire: that mechanic was killing the threats, thus the game

I liked playing in PV thanks to the "easy mode ("hardened" survivor?), I usually go through it as fast as possible because you know, the blizzards in open ground.

The crafting system is promising

The ability to dismantle fires

The graphics, as usual are very well managed, I still stop for watching.

Overall, the dialogues are very nicely written (despite what I think about the content)

Molly's character, she's mad and a terrorist, but the character is perfectly written, just like Grey Mother.

Neutral:

That would have been nice to have an achievement "You shot on the White Stag". The only achievement you don't want to have.

About the wolfpack behavior, I wonder how you could survive it in Loper+. Before  when you spawned defenseless if you encountered 1 wolf (the silent one behind the hill, you know), you could break line of sight, try to crawl back to an indoor holding your lit torch, play patience game from high ground, hide in a cave (no pathfinding) whatever. Now the wolves run to you from afar, so if you're without a firearm and ammos (which you are), you're basically dead. Best things you can do is make them wait-growl with a fire and pointing them with a stone, and wait for your death from something else (most likely cold when fuel runs out). I don't want to have to play TLD with mandatory firearms, cause it's not survival to me in my European mentality.

It felt short (1 weekend), but I think the lenght is very nice for an Episode in a story with five of them playable in a row (in the final Wintermute product)