Just started a new run thinking of the future...

[The_Hawk35]

And I decided to do it as I would if this were a real survival situation with a nod to what might be story mode and how it might work in the game...

I'm starting in ML and will stay there until I need to head out for new resources. I'm expecting it to last quite a while here, and then need to move to CH, I'm going to guess that matches will be my main limiting factor on any map. I'm NOT counting magnifying glasses in this as it is very very rarely useful.

This had me thinking what I would do if this were a real survival situation, again in the constraints of the game...

I'd take wolf, bear, and deer fat and I'd render it, not for fuel as fire starting with tinder and fire bows would last a long time. Rather I'd use it to water/wind proof my clothing. I'd harvest fir to create pine tar using used food cans, great for use in water proofing and protection.

I'd go looking for a bee hive and try to harvest honey and more importantly wax. I'd use the wax to coat matches to preserve them and to create fire starting fuel.

I'd harvest every piece of electronics for wire that I'd use to make snares for rabbits, (I figure once I moved to CH finding wiring harnesses in cars would be a huge boon). I'd create a walking stick with a sharpened and hardened end to help me walking around and for defense. I'd use the newsprint I found as insulation in my clothes to retain heat and wick away moisture, I'd also use rabbit fur for this. I'd use the Seat cushions to provide insulation where ever I'd set up camp, at the very least in the bed I'm sleeping in. I'd convert at least one of the small huts into a smoke house to preserve meats, and to create dried gut strings.

I'd set up those snares above to capture a TON of rabbits. Once I found the barn in PV I'd use it to store hay as a means to store TONS of ice from the lakes and streams for warmer weather. I'd collect all the ash from fires to put in barrels and use that to create lye for soap to reduce my scent to wolves.

I'd use tree bark to create a large net (it would take WEEKS at a time) that I'd use deer/wolves bladders to suspend under the ice in the lakes and rivers to harvest fish, you cut 2 holes in the ice 30-50' apart and suspend the net between them, you can get a fair amount of protein with little caloric effort.

When I'd set up a base camp (the Camp Office, the Quonset hut, the Farm House) I'd pee all around it every day! I'd hold my pee even if wandering around just to spread around, it creates a barrier that reduces (not eliminates) predator incursion.

Frankly if I had to manage all of these things the game would lose a LOT of it's tedium as I'd have something to do weekly. Yes there would be days of down time, usually used to repair items and create new items, but I'd have to make sure that I fed a smoker fire daily at least. I'd need to harvest wood ALL the time, I'd need to gather ice, I'd need to monitor traps.

Interestingly more ways to actually survive would reduce tedium even in long games. You'd have to track how long items had been left to sit and when it would be right to gather.

The only problem is that then it becomes more of a grinding game. To ease that I could see making animals more responsive to predation (as they have started to do) so you have to husband your 'flock'.

Also as there are stores in CH and PV maps, I could easily see them having a SMALL number of seeds. You'd need to get to the PV map to use these, and the crows and deer would more likely take the seeds if you didn't care for the crops. That would mean staying outside all day long in the weather to scare off the threats.

So that's a part of where I could see the game going in the long term. What do y'all think?

[TLDFAN]

The Sandbox is a bit of a grind. I think the magnifying glass Is pretty useful its just you need to use it in a window. What is not useful is the window of realism we have for moving a piece of burning wood from outdoors to indoors. Also sucks that that window for starting a fire with the magnifying glass may only come once every 2 or 3 days.

[The_Hawk35]

Yeah I've had success starting fires with the glass, The really limiting factor is the weather that will come along and blow it out unexpectedly.

[TLDFAN]

Does the magnifying glass essentially live forever? Will it light an unlimited number of times?

[The_Hawk35]

No the condition deteriorates, but it's time based I believe not use related.

[FoneBoneJay]

No the condition deteriorates, but it's time based I believe not use related.

See so then there is no sustainability here at all lol.

[The_Hawk35]

Nopee gonna need fire bows for that.

[FoneBoneJay]

Nopee gonna need fire bows for that.

Been asking for this for several patches. I'm not sure if the devs are not interested in it or simply working on making it work well. I hope its the later. I will lose interest in playing pretty quickly knowing I can't sustain, in the end that always sort of breaks my fun. Knowing if something can be endured and sustained repeated, I think there must be a gamers psychological term for that but it even if there isn't it is how I feel about it.

[TLDFAN]

What is ridiculous is making a fire bow would take less calories than running around all over the damn map looking for alternatives. I mean I don't mind the run around for the critical items but the way the game has it... I typically find a gun in the first two days, rounds or not are even more plentiful and either a knife or hatchet or both in the first 2 days as well. If you visit Camp, Trappers, Lookout and Dam, you can usually find all of that stuff inside 2 days. Then once you have that, you have the means to standoff attack Wolves after they take a deer or engage a single in blade to jaw combat with full health.

In any event however you get meat it doesn't matter. With Stalker where it is right now you can be taking on a live animal but isn't really even necessary because if you simply put a mile or two walking in you will come across a dead deer that a wolf killed and ate most of and almost always be able to take something from it. If you have to fight and kill to live you want to do it as fast as possible, get the meat, and then get back. Already having some wood stocked for a fire when you get back is a good idea too.

So here we are though for the next 100 or so days in Stalker assuming you don't get jacked by the Wolves without the means to start a fire after the resources run out. Inside that time we could be crafting a fire bow that would take less than 2 hours to make and be do-able to make fire for even a novice indoors with some dry tinder.

Was watching a newer "Dual survival" plane crash on desert island edition and they actually used the ball bearings from the plane for the top socket to promote less energy loss to friction on the wrong side of the spindle. Resourceful. I am sort of amazed at all the things "our man or our woman" can craft but they can't make a bow drill and start fire on their own?