Playing in the sandbox - how much time do you spend decorating?

[piddy3825]

Chatting with some gamer friends the other day and the subject of base building and decorating became the main topic of discussion.  We compared various open world games we've played where crafting and base building are big components of the game but somehow the conversation kept steering to TLD where just staying alive becomes the main focal point and everything the player does is merely to keep from dying and seeing how long they can live.  

That posits the question, how much time and effort do you spend in decorating your home base, knowing that if you mess up and die all that work and time spent just disappears?

For me, once I've got some decent clothing and have acquired a bow and some arrows, I spend my time looting the map for the region I'm in and haul all the goodies to that location I call base camp and layout my lair.   Once you have 10 pots, 18 lanterns, 12 rifles, 32 wolf hides and 16 hunting knives you don't just put all that stuff in a locker.  Or do you?

So , how do you play in the sandbox?  are you a decorator or do you just stuff everything into storage lockers?  Where's your favorite base camp and what do you like to do in the space to "personalize" it?   Looking forward to hearing about your play style and what you like to do to keep the sandbox fresh and interesting?

[manolitode]

I didn't use to be a decorator but now I find that I enjoy it very much. So I like to color tables by filling them with cups of tea, if you got the patience you can sort of make a creative painting. And make peculiar shapes out of the 842 cans that you end up with. I'm currently residing by the fishing cabins. The storage is limited but a rock cache in front of each building does the trick 😃 

[odium]

to some extent i do.  i layout all my skill books, and usually my tools/whets/sew kits, etc, things i use a lot but may not carry out the door.  hides it depends on location, quonset i organize using the slew of drawers and lockers, smaller bases i sort on the floors, tables etc.  

[Valuable Hunting Knife]

I'd probably do more decorating if it was easier to place items, and if you could you place all items rather than just a select few.  I think they do seem to rotate more after the last update?

I'm also loathe to spend too much time on it, only to have it all put in a lost and found box if an update drops (not complaining about the L&F boxes btw, it's a better solution than losing all your gear).  As it is, I tend to use a rather idiosyncratic storage system depending on where I am located.  I hate putting items in places they shouldn't fit (rifles in filing cabinets etc.).

That said, i did attempt to fully restock the Orca garage a couple of months back, sadly the screenshots weren't a lot of cop.

[piddy3825]

22 hours ago, manolitode said:

I didn't use to be a decorator but now I find that I enjoy it very much. So I like to color tables by filling them with cups of tea, if you got the patience you can sort of make a creative painting. And make peculiar shapes out of the 842 cans that you end up with. I'm currently residing by the fishing cabins. The storage is limited but a rock cache in front of each building does the trick 😃 

I'd love to see some screenshots if you have any to share!  The colors of the teas can be very vivid, especially when you have 6 two liter pots making teas, soups and coffee on the 6 burner stoves in the game.  I've also found that chopped reishi and rosehips look very cool when placed on plates and in bowls.

[piddy3825]

14 hours ago, Valuable Hunting Knife said:

I'd probably do more decorating if it was easier to place items, and if you could you place all items rather than just a select few.  I think they do seem to rotate more after the last update?

I'm also loathe to spend too much time on it, only to have it all put in a lost and found box if an update drops (not complaining about the L&F boxes btw, it's a better solution than losing all your gear).  As it is, I tend to use a rather idiosyncratic storage system depending on where I am located.  I hate putting items in places they shouldn't fit (rifles in filing cabinets etc.).

That said, i did attempt to fully restock the Orca garage a couple of months back, sadly the screenshots weren't a lot of cop.

Oh, don't you know it!  Item placement has gotten a lot easier since the last update but certainly leaves a lot to be desired.  I understand your point about the lost and found boxes... definitely a blessing in disguise.  I recently revived an old saved game,  where I too tried to restock the gas station on CH only to find 85% of everything I had ever touched and placed in the world all to be stuffed into one interior box and one exterior box.  Literally took days to empty them both out and sort thru all the stuff and put it back in place.  

[hozz1235]

My decorating?  Sorted piles on the floor 

[Sherri]

I like to arrange food on shelves & tables & spare tools & weapons on counters.

A bear hide makes a nice rug.

I do wish we could hang clothes & hides on the walls.

[piddy3825]

3 minutes ago, Sherri said:

I like to arrange food on shelves & tables & spare tools & weapons on counters.

A bear hide makes a nice rug.

I do wish we could hang clothes & hides on the walls.

nice!  we cant hang clothing from the walls, but you can do hides!  check this out...

 

when this

becomes this!

 

[Sherri]

Woah I did not know that!

[piddy3825]

10 minutes ago, Sherri said:

Woah I did not know that!

It's been called the "curing in place glitch" and you can manipulate hides to dry into place where you set them.  the way it works is that you leave a hide to dry on the floor until it gets to 99% cured and then you pick up the hide and hold it up against the wall, or a window or a door.  sometimes even the ceiling...  As you hold it up it appears red because you cant technically place it there, so if you just stand there and wait,  and you just stand there and wait... and wait... once the curing timer hits 100% the hide turns its normal color and is frozen in place.    In the pictures above, it was actually mid afternoon when I placed the nearly cured bear hide against the wall.  Sometimes you have to wait a very long time for the magic to happen.  Different wait times with each different animal hide.  Rabbit pelts, for example, cure extremely fast, so when you hit the 99% you have to move fast cause it will dry in place in mere minutes.  But in the case of the bear hide, I musta stood there hold it up against the wall for 10 hours or so in game time.  Since it does take a while to do,  i typically leave the game running and go do something else to kill some time, otherwise it's like watching paint dry... boring!  After killing some time, I came back and checked on my progress only to find the sun had gone down and the screen was just black with this red hide glowing in the middle. I thought it looked pretty cool and no sooner had I taken the screen shot, the hide cured and I was plunged into darkness.  Subsequently lite the torch  so I could admire my "handiwork" and was pleased with the way the placement turned out.

 

 

[Sherri]

Oooohhhhh haha.

[acada]

My decorating is limited to put tools I need right behind the door. And the only criteria is to put them on ground or shelve in way they stick out. So for example perpendicular to wood tiles or diagonal to window light cast to the floor. Plus I place a lantern right behind the door. So when I come back from the night trip, I dont have to search for it.

Firewood is on pile near fireplace or stove.

Rest of items resides in cabinets.

Outside are piles of fish and meat.

So I am not decorating. Just little tidying.

[piddy3825]

22 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

My decorating?  Sorted piles on the floor 

that's funny, but very functional.  sometimes I make bug out piles, where I drop one of every item that could be used to outfit my character into the same pile.  The resulting "stack" of items looks pretty cool as they "layer" themselves in a big pile!  

[piddy3825]

3 hours ago, acada said:

My decorating is limited to put tools I need right behind the door. And the only criteria is to put them on ground or shelve in way they stick out. So for example perpendicular to wood tiles or diagonal to window light cast to the floor. Plus I place a lantern right behind the door. So when I come back from the night trip, I dont have to search for it.

Firewood is on pile near fireplace or stove.

Rest of items resides in cabinets.

Outside are piles of fish and meat.

So I am not decorating. Just little tidying.

A tidy lair is lair is half decorated!  Nice idea about perpendicular placement.  I've never thought about the effect that placement has of casting shadows using light, but the idea is brilliant!  

[dustinmico]

Before.. I stuffed everything in storage lockers... trunks.... filing cabinets..... etc. But.. now that I know you can drop and move items... decorating and organizing is an essential part of my survival and sanity.

[piddy3825]

28 minutes ago, dustinmico said:

Before.. I stuffed everything in storage lockers... trunks.... filing cabinets..... etc. But.. now that I know you can drop and move items... decorating and organizing is an essential part of my survival and sanity.

Where's your favorite base camp and what do you like to do in the space to "personalize" it?  

[ajb1978]

I've been using the cure in place glitch ever since I discovered it back in alpha to wallpaper my house with animal hides.  This serves a twofold purpose: One, it's friggen awesome, and Two: it gets the stuff up off the floor, which helps with organization.  I'll have my wolf wall, my bear wall, my rabbit wall, my deer wall, and my moose wall.  I don't bother with gut.

On that subject, the best way to use this glitch is to wait until it hits 99%, then drop it on the floor and pass time for 12 hours.  Keep an eye on the hide while you do this, but also keep an eye on the hours you've passed.  If you see it change color somewhere between 3 and 4 hours passed...Esc-cancel, reload your last save, and pass 3 hours.  Then position it with RMB, and you've just shaved 15 minutes off your real-world wait time.  I normally don't condone save scumming, but this is already using an exploit for the fun of it so it gets a pass IMO.  If you make a point of selecting more wait hours than you actually intend to wait, you can Esc-cancel early once you see the hide change color, and avoid triggering a save.  Then you know approximately how many hours you have remaining before it hits 100% cured, and can plan your real life activities around that time table accordingly.

[PrincessAutumn]

Not too much at first as I had plenty of drawers to store stuff but then soon I'd forget where I'd put my stuff lol I also recently discovered there was an in game journal that I can write in to make a note of where I put my stuff, it also lets me kind of write my own story of some sorts. Never knew there was such a thing in all my years of playing   .. Though I have put things on counters  just to get them out of my inventory and to save weight. In one save, I had grey mother's kitchen table and dining table covered with sodas and other canned items and talk about OCD, holy God it is bad with me 

Edited June 20, 2020 by PrincessAutumn

[piddy3825]

52 minutes ago, ajb1978 said:

I've been using the cure in place glitch ever since I discovered it back in alpha to wallpaper my house with animal hides.  This serves a twofold purpose: One, it's friggen awesome, and Two: it gets the stuff up off the floor, which helps with organization.  I'll have my wolf wall, my bear wall, my rabbit wall, my deer wall, and my moose wall.  I don't bother with gut.

On that subject, the best way to use this glitch is to wait until it hits 99%, then drop it on the floor and pass time for 12 hours.  Keep an eye on the hide while you do this, but also keep an eye on the hours you've passed.  If you see it change color somewhere between 3 and 4 hours passed...Esc-cancel, reload your last save, and pass 3 hours.  Then position it with RMB, and you've just shaved 15 minutes off your real-world wait time.  I normally don't condone save scumming, but this is already using an exploit for the fun of it so it gets a pass IMO.  If you make a point of selecting more wait hours than you actually intend to wait, you can Esc-cancel early once you see the hide change color, and avoid triggering a save.  Then you know approximately how many hours you have remaining before it hits 100% cured, and can plan your real life activities around that time table accordingly.

I should have given you credit for the discovery in my earlier post.  no disrespect  meant by my omission.  you are the Master and I, your Padawan...

[piddy3825]

19 minutes ago, PrincessAutumn said:

 I have put things on counters  just to get them out of my inventory and to save weight. In one save, I had grey mother's kitchen table and dining table covered with sodas and other canned items and talk about OCD, holy God it is bad with me 

looking forward to seeing some of your screenshots!  Where's your favorite player base?

[PrincessAutumn]

2 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

looking forward to seeing some of your screenshots!  Where's your favorite player base?

Thank you, I'll have to remember to upload them  .. As  for my favorite base camps, that's hard to pick as I do have a few.

To start, I love the Camp Office in Mystery Lake due to how centralized it is with access to both hunting and fishing and you never have to walk far if you get a deer, wolf or are carrying fish. Plus it's nostalgia too as Mystery Lake was my first region I ever played in the days of early alpha and have learned so much by just playing in that region and a lot of trial and error

My next choice would be both Pleasant Valley Farmstead and Signal Hill radio tower as the farmstead has a high number of items even on Stalker difficulty. And Signal Hill because there's a good chance of finding some of the best items in the game (EG) I have found the expedition parka with plenty of food and rifle ammunition.

 

How about you? Do you have a favorite base?

[piddy3825]

1 hour ago, PrincessAutumn said:

How about you? Do you have a favorite base?

Like you, I too have many lairs I like to call home...  
Camp Office is one of my favorite places and when I find myself in ML I typically also set up shop in Trapper's spending my time fairly evenly between the two locations.  In PV, for example, it's almost always the farmhouse.  If I find myself in DP, then I like the lighthouse.   When I find myself needing to go to the cannery workshop in BI, I like the cannery workers residence with the little fishing shack outside.  In mountain town, I prefer the Farmhouse with it's close proximity to the rope dropping down into the basin.  On CH, it's almost always the gas station.  And for those rare times that I do make the trek thru muskeg and out to the old hunting lodge, I prefer the rail road maint. building.  But hands down, my most favorite is the Mountaineers Hut on Timberwolf Mt.

[ajb1978]

6 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

I should have given you credit for the discovery in my earlier post.  no disrespect  meant by my omission.  you are the Master and I, your Padawan...

Well now I feel like a jerk lol.  That was not my intent behind my choice of words, it was just reminiscing about the past.  I still have the fateful screenshot--pure luck that the hide cured where it did--that set me on the path.  Serendipity is a powerful force!

[ajb1978]

4 hours ago, PrincessAutumn said:

My next choice would be both Pleasant Valley Farmstead and Signal Hill radio tower as the farmstead has a high number of items even on Stalker difficulty.

While Pleasant Valley is not my preferred choice of places to live, I would like to draw your attention to Thompson's Crossing.  The part of town west of the bridge is not patrolled by wolves, it has a moose spawn point to the north, and there are a whopping 12 cooking surfaces in close proximity.  Community center, 6 on the stove, 2 more on the fireplace.  2 on the grill out behind the rural store, and 2 more on the grill in the park with the swing set.  It's not an efficient use of fuel to get all those fires going at once, but it is a very quick way to grill that moose you just shot.