What Is The Gameplay At This Moment?

[Cursethedawn]

In the rather short time I've been playing (longest run was about 13 hours) I have found what I can best describe as "down times " where I'm a little lost about what the game play is supposed to be. Maybe I'm missing something or doing something wrong so let me explain.

The situation usually goes like this. I travel to somewhere like the Camp Office. In there I find food, wood, stove, drinks, etc. Outside it is night time or a heavy winter storm so outside is not the place to be. This means I am in the Office, not cold, or hungry, or thirsty. I'm just there in the dark doing nothing and waiting.

What is the game play supposed to be at this moment? What should I be doing? I thought crafting but there isn't much to craft. I thought maybe just brave the storm but I always end up severely frozen causing more problems for myself. So instead I'm just standing in the room, in the dark, listening to the wind howl outside. It's extremely boring and I feel I'm missing something.

[elloco999]

Well, most people sleep during the night. It's a great way to get fatigue down, warm up and of course to pass the night so you can see again and go do something.

[Cursethedawn]

Sleeping has such huge penalties I only do it when I need to. It doesn't necessarily have to be at night, really any time there is a storm outside.

I dunno it seems like a design issue. When you've got everything you need at that moment and nothing is pushing you to move, what do you do? Obviously you need to search for more supplies etc. But if there is a snow storm outside you'd be an idiot to go out in it if it were a survival situation.

[Cosmoline]

There IS no game at the moment. I think a lot of folks are forgetting this is an alpha sandbox designed to work out bugs and test the programming. The game hasn't actually come out yet. So while it's really fun to run around the maps, they are just a stage set for a play that hasn't started yet. It's not going to be a minecraft type building game, at least without modding. There will be NPC's and actual plot lines.

[Migga]

Well yes, it's an alpha and there's still a lot of work ahead, but in my opinion it's already a game.

The goal is pretty simple, it is just about surviving as long as possible. I'm pretty sure even when the game is finished and the story mode is completed, there will still be a sandbox mode just to play with it.

To the OP: In the beginning (first couple of days) you won't be able to do much in your "downtimes". All you can do is wait until the storm is over, which makes totally sense if you want to survive. In these situations sleeping for 1-2 hours can help to outlast the storm. Of course you can just sit down and wait but I agree that this would be kind of boring.

I don't think that sleeping has any penalties when you are healthy. Of course your hunger and thirst goes up quite fast, but sitting around for an hours in game or sleeping for one hour shouldn't make a huge difference (at least that's my experience).

Once you gathered some equipment you can use those downtimes to harvest clothing, repair the stuff you are wearing, cook food or water or craft stuff. My favourite activity if I get caught in a snowstorm during my first 1-2 days is foraging wood inside and cooking water afterwards. You can never have enough water supplies and it's still better than waiting or sleeping.

[coryduran]

I'm a little bit confused as to what you think are the big downsides to sleeping? As far as passing time is concerned it's the most efficient way calorie wise and what not to pass time.

Like others have said this is an alpha sandbox so the only real game there is at the moment is surviving, and pushing yourself to last as long as you can. There are theoretical ways to live forever (Without hibernating) so many of the more hardcore players on these forums are trying to do things along those lines, figuring out a way to live indefinitely and what not.

[FoneBoneJay]

@cursethedawn:

all the tips provided here are true, it (was) about surviving the elements, until recently..

the theme of the game before was

How long can you survive?

until it became..

How long can you survive...

...a wolf attack.

LOLOLOLOL true dat

[Hancer]

My favourite activity if I get caught in a snowstorm during my first 1-2 days is foraging wood inside and cooking water afterwards. You can never have enough water supplies and it's still better than waiting or sleeping.

how do you forage wood "inside"?