Realism challenge

[Catlover]

I have been playing TLD a bunch recently, and sticking to a custom (harder) Voyager is getting to be pretty dull. So, I thought that I'd try a realism test, see how it goes. Here is the rules that I'll be sticking to, in order to try make it realistic. 

Weather will be awful, max on everything but blizzards because I actually want to move an inch outdoors before one starts. 

Wolves will be set to medium, bears and moose set to low. Rabbits will be medium and deer medium. Fish will be, you guessed it, medium. 

If I remember correctly, you can choose how high wolf fear will be. I'll set it to high or medium if possible, as wolves rarely attack. Though I won't make bears and moose passive, as I fancy a challenge, and bears are still hostile irl. 

Timberwolves. I'll enable them but make it so that they won't be a giant pain in BI. 

No loot chances and such will be set to medium or high. To cut myself a lil slack, I will keep guns such in the game, as I need to brush up on my hunting skills, and I guess that you could find them in an apocalyptic setting. Feel free to say if I'm wrong!

Plants will be low, as there would typically be very few in such a winter

I will spawn in a random place, with everything randomized, indoor spawns turned off.

Let me know if you have any ideas on how to make it harder/ more realistic. I'm open to a good challenge!

[Catlover]

Night 1

The lovely view from a car window

I start at near midnight in BR, with moderate winds, and a bit of food and soda. Not a great place to begin, but I'm grateful for the amount of food, even if they're low condition. I started inside a train-tram thing, so perhaps I crashed and ended up here? I go along with it, assuming that I was in a train crash or something. Looting a hidden medkit (I say hidden, but it was basically in plain sight-)) I find bandages and antiseptic. Not too bad, though I prefer the more natural Old Mans Beard. That was all I could find, and the car beside held nothing. 

Quickly getting the hypo risk as I began walking, I hurried towards a nearby shelter, before turning abruptly and walking away. Turns out it was the good ol Garage, BR version, . As I have no grace period, going in would be stupid, even with wolf fear enabled.

Attempting to climb a nearby slope to survey and locate the nearby Hunters Lodge, I sprain my ankle. Brilliant. I slap a bandage on the sprain, take a screenshot, and keep going.

Bandage first, screenshot later

I find a stopped locomotive not too far up the tracks, but was unable to find a way in. Giving up after a few moments, I head off, still on the hunt for the Hunter's Lodge. I barely get a few meters away when I hear a Bark Bark. Fortunately, I wielded a single flare, forgetting to take a screenshot as I hurled it at the poor lupine who probably just wanted a hug. Picking up the flare, in case Fido decided to go for round two, I begin heading off again, up the tracks, vision still irritatingly blurred due to the sprained ankle and lack of painkillers. Oh well, it would sort itself out eventually. I hope. 

Gave me a mini heart attack when I found him

I barely begin walking when I hear more growling. I whirl around stupidly, jumping slightly as the luminous green optics glared out at me from a surprisingly close distance. Once again, the poor beast gets slapped with a flare, hopefully for the last time.

Annoyingly, it flees towards where I wanted to go. Deciding to just leave it be, I head on, realising that I had already missed the way to get to the Lodge, but figuring that I could just find somewhere else to warm up, as frostbite risk began to rear its ugly head. As it got blocked, I reluctantly head back slightly, heading off a different way, down a small canyony place, finding a pretty little waterfall

 

Can you see it?

I head towards it, deciding to place a fire and bedroll on a little outcrop, using some cedar wood that I had found somewhere, and a bunch of sticks, eight to be exact. I was still cold, and so decided to heat up some peaches that I had, before having a nap, hoping that it would be at least a bit brighter when I woke up.

As you can tell, life's not going well so far

Beginning to expect this run to be a fail, I keep going, my frost-bite risks both 32% and 18%. Hypo is 30%, so I really should find shelter soon. Now, I'd even head to the Maintenance place and tussle with a few wolfies. 

As I stumble, blurry-sighted, the wind picks up substantially, and I can only pray that it doesn't turn into a whiteout. Aware of the risks, I begin running a little, trying to relocate the tracks and retrace my steps.

Well, at least one thing is going right. I come across the railroad pretty quickly, and begin heading down, scaling a half-fallen tree and looking around a bit for unwanted visitors, though, I suppose that I'm  the unwanted visitor. 

Yes! Two things have gone right. My pain, an irritating hindrance, finally healed itself, and I can see what appears to be a gateway to another universe - or, more realistically, a tunnel probably leading to Forlorn Muskeg, another place I am not overkeen on. Still, hopefully I can traverse the marshland there and find somewhere decent to hide. 

A gateway to another universe, way ahead of me

As I head towards the tunnel, I turn back, noticing the winds dying down. There's a patch of blue in the distance, steadily moving towards me. With luck, there should be clear skies in an hour or so, I hope. 

Indeed, I was right. At least, about where the tunnel would take me. Arriving in the dark, cloudy FM, I am instantly on the lookout for the infamous weak ice and plentiful carnivores. Perhaps I should turn back and search the cabin, I think to myself, considering briefly. Or, at least, I could find a better location to wind up in. I decide to probably do that, after I loot, or at least attempt to loot, what appears to be a train derailment. Spoiler alert, I find absolutely zilch, aside from two pieces of rather useless scrap-metal. 

I hope that Mr.Wolf doesn't come at me

Frostbite now at 79%, I keep going, thinking that I see a structure in the distance. Perhaps I'm seeing things, but I hope not. Reluctantly, I end up walking past a few scrub bushes, aware of how even spending 20 minutes could be a matter of life or death. Still, I wish that I had gathered what could've been fourteen sticks in total. Enough to build a decent fire. As I head on, I hear a handful of eerie howling, but am yet to be bothered by another wolf. I bet it will happen.

 

I think I can see a structure way ahead

Yay. I get frostbite. It was bound to happen, and decreased my maximum condition by a fair bit. Won't be long until I get get some more frostbite. I'd love to make wraps, but 1, I have no cloth, and 2, I'd probably die whilst crafting them.

I feel a little bit of relief as the red carriage comes into view, hoping to find coal or whatever to make a hot fire. But, quickly, the relief drains away as my game lags slightly, again, this time slapping hypothermia in my face. I'm definitely not making it until sunrise, but I won't bother deleting what has happened so far from this topic, so you can all watch my steady demise. All I need now is to fall through some ice, or get my face ripped off by Fido. Not that I'll make myself fade into the long dark. Perhaps there's hope yet. 

I find three lumps of coal, but I still require tinder. Now, I am at the creepy music phase, where my vision is yet again blurring. I can't start a fire, and death is inevitable. I fade into the long dark after finally harvesting a scrub bush. Better luck next time!

   

R.I.P

Second Attempt

Night 1

Nothing like an inspirational quote to start it off

I start at midnight, the skies clear, and dusty grey, a sign of the approaching dawn. I check where I am, and find out that yes, I'm in ML! Finally, the game is giving me a bit more of a chance. Only thing is that if I remember correctly, my location is sometimes wolf-territory. It begins to lightly snow, as I head down the slope and towards two trailers and a ruined building. It is not windy, which is good, and though there are clouds on the horizon, they don't seem to be showing an oncoming blizzard, which is always pleasant.

 

Pretty! 

Making sure that I am alone, I begin heading for the ruined structure, breaking up a branch whilst I'm at it. However, my plans are ruined as the wind picks up slightly, the snow falling more heavily. Guess that it's trailers first, ruin later.

I reach the first trailer as one canine begins howling. It seemed rather close, though I heard no barking as I began sprinting inside. Fortunately, I begin warming up inside of the pitch black trailer, something that hasn't happened for a while.

It will cut off here, temporarily, whilst I quickly  save this, before resuming their story.

[Catlover]

It will continue from here.

 

I light one of my precious matches and scan around, finding a sports vest, book and accelerant. All will be useful. Unable to have a nap, I reluctantly depart from safety back into the cold, intending on going towards the ruined structure, or, if the weather has not improved, the other trailer.  

It's still snowing, though I manage to head towards the ruin, careful not to run and alert others to my presence. I find an empty dead guy (shame that I cannot steal his clothing), a firelog, cedar firewood and some newspapers. There's also a stove which I can use to boil water and cook my peaches in the morning. 

'I need to find someplace to escape this cold'

Stop complaining, I'm just about to head into the second trailer. This run seems to be a piece of cake so far, compared to the one before, and I can only hope that it stays this way.

(Also, sorry for the current lack of screenshots. I forgot to take one in the ruin, and inside of the trailers is basically pitch-black) 

I am tempted to light another match and search the trailer again, but opt for sleeping and passing the time until there is a bit of light. 

Day 1

Six or so hours of cards later, it finally brightens up, though with an ominous rattling sound outside. However, luckily, it dies down not long before everything grew light. Maybe there will be sticks for me to collect.

Pretty, aside from the notification in the corner, Sorry about that!

I head out into a pretty, albeit freezing, morning, before heading back into the trailer to quickly loot before I head towards the third and final trailer. Then, I'll be off, hopefully towards either one of the main structures. Or the lake cabins. After I finish ML, I should be ready for whatever the harder maps have in store. Though, are we ever truly ready in TLD.. 

There are some decent items, including a chocolate bar, jeans, and a fair bit of reclaimed wood. After double-checking, I head back out towards the final trailer.

Brilliant! What do I see when I first enter the last trailer? A storm-lantern. Call me strange, but I always feel more comfortable with one of those. They make night-time traveling so much easier. When they have fuel in, that is. I grab it quickly, slightly disappointed by the 34% condition and only 0.24 litres. Still, a storm-lantern's a storm lantern. It shouldn't be hard to find scrap metal, and a work bench to repair it later on.  

I also find a can-opener in decent condition, as well as tinder and fuel for the fire that I''ll probably start before I go. I have no water, and I'd better do it now when there's no chance of wind ruining anything. Knowing this game, I'll die of thirst with a blizzard raging, rendering my firewood and such useless. After breaking apart a crate, I head towards the ruin to begin boiling at least a litre of water. Hopefully there will be no hostile lupines waiting around as I head out of the trailer.

I hope those clouds don't arrive any time soon!

The wind picking up slightly, I head toward the ruin again and begin making a fire, hearing a medley of wolf-howls as it finishes. They seem distant enough, but I'm still wary as I begin boiling my water. I could warm up some peaches, but decide against it, expecting that I should come across the lake, or Trappers Cabin, or whatever it's called, pretty soon.

Grabbing a torch, just in case, I begin heading off, having gotten my litre of water, plus a little extra. 

 

Glad I brought the torch

I find the location of the two howlers, one seeming to not care, the other coming a little too close. I begin to move around the snarling beast, but it runs, either trying to attack, or get past me. Not taking any chances, I hurl the torch at the brute, which, ears pinned, turns and runs the other direction. 

The second simply howls, and begins pacing back and forth. Great. That was exactly where I wanted to go. Waiting until the right time, I try to inch past both wolves, knowing that I could just assault them with my flaming stick if needed.

I barely go forward, when the wolf turns, giving a snarling bark. It seems wary, but I hold on tighter to the torch, expecting to throw it at the second, who is now advancing towards me with rather unfriendly intentions. 

It runs for me, and I freeze momentarily, before throwing my torch at the second wolf, who yelps and runs away. Now comes the challenge of sneaking past them both to get to the truck in the distance. I could leg it, but I decide to sneak, crouching and reluctantly leaving a few sticks that are in their direction.

I am a tree stump.

Still crouching, I begin crawling away towards a hill, my heart plummeting every time the lupines move in my direction. I decide to name them both, calling one Log, and the other Stump. The two brothers, who seem to be doing all they can to keep me from surviving. Weird, one of the howls, and snarls sound just like ones in WQ3. I find that slightly amusing, but brush it aside, focusing on avoiding the duo and getting past to, kind of, safety.

I finally dare to stand when the closest, Stump, begins to move away. Not daring to breath, I keep speed-walking away, hoping that the snow would soon stop. Oh, yes, it started lightly snowing amongst this small patch of drama. 

I notice one of the radio-towers a fair distance away, and keep my eyes on it as I keep moving forward, away from the wolves. To get to it, I'll need to cross the stump-land, and it seems like the brothers hate me doing that. To make matters worse, I hear a faint howl in the direction that I am traveling. Hopefully I will not meet this rather distant canine.

Another shelter. I just have to cross Stump-land to get there

I speed-run down the slope towards stump-land, gaze darting from the brothers' last location, to my next shelter. There, I will probably sleep and end this bit of the story. If this is the intact tower.

A foggy view

Turns out this is the destroyed lookout. I survey the damage with what had to have been a rather distraught expression. To make matters worse, a blizzard had began. It is more heavy snow and wind, than a blizzard, but give it an hour or so and we may have a full on whiteout. Not great.

By the time I had found a sheltered area and put on a fire, using one of my two accelerants, the heavy snow had been dialled up a notch. Now it may even be classed as a whiteout. Or just a bad blizzard. I take the risk of throwing all I had on the fire and sleeping for an hour, praying that the wind wouldn't change direction. 

Wow. I sleep for an hour, mercifully undisturbed, and awaken to a full-on whiteout. 

 

Hot chocolate, anyone?

I had expected some snow earlier on in the morning, but the whiteout surprised me. At least I was warm-ish, with a fire and bedroll ready to go. I decide to sleep for another hour, hoping that the blizzard would die out a little, though not really expecting it.

I decide to brave it, waking up to exactly the same weather as before. I found books, cedar firewood, some other handy things, and this:

I didn't even know that hunting rifles spawned here!

Searching the dead guy, I also find an MRE ration. For a game with low abundance settings, I have hit the jackpot! Now, all I have to do is wait out the blizzard, and then head out to other locations and hope that the brothers have moved on by then.

I begin cooking some peaches, humming the song under my breath as I pass the time. I then eat them and nap for another hour. 

How did this even happen!? I awaken to the blizzard being even worse than before. Not much worse, but still! I slap some more fuel into the fire, and nap again, wondering how long this will go on for.

Night 2

I brave it and sleep for three hours, night falling and the blizzard still raging on outside. I begin to grow worried, only having four hours left in my fire. I don't want to be like the corpse nearby, not again.

I sleep again, and finally get some good news. It's still a blizzard, but it's steadily dying down, going from whiteout to your typical blizzard. Hopefully, in a few hours, it will all be over.

Yes! I sleep for another two hours, and wake up to heavy wind, but no snow. I decide to sleep for one more hour before I refuel my storm-lantern and head out.

It ended just as my fire ran out

I will leave it here, and resume the adventures soon! Any advice/criticism on where I went wrong is greatly appreciated! I will see you soon with more of this person's adventures ^^

[Catlover]

Night 2 continued

Pretty decent view

I venture out of my 'shelter' into the biting wind, searching around for anything I may have missed during the blizzard, finding nothing but good views. Despite the cold, I decide to head off to seek out some better place to spend the night. My lantern is not currently needed, the full moon providing great visibility as I make my way down, hoping that the brothers have gone to sleep or whatever. I have a rifle, so I'm not too scared, despite having only shot at animals twice before - and only hitting them once. 

Not great. I notice a distant stag and bring out my hunting rifle, only to remember that I have no bullets. Slightly irritating, but I carry on, hurrying as the hypo risk kicks in. I freeze, though mercifully not literally, as two wolves come into view. I had gone away from the clearcut, and expect these to be different wolves, though for the sake of the story I'm playing in my mind, I assume that it's the brothers, trying to make me perish before my first full night had come to an end. 

Hey, I don't remember these being here! I stumble across two small cabins, and a corpse, a fair distance away from the canines. I begin to warm instantly, though I decide to head back out to harvest a few sticks, secretly hoping to catch the sunrise as the moon begins to sink below the horizon. However, I witness nothing but the gathering of a bunch of sticks. Not that I'm complaining. 

I begin heading back in as one of the two wolves begins to head in my direction. I expect that it's pure coincidence, as I'm a fair distance away, but even so, getting back in the cabin is a pretty big relief. 

Another decent thing about the cabins was that I had found bunnies on my doorstep, not literally, sadly. Though even I am not stupid enough to get them in the kind of windy weather that I was experiencing. 

I sleep for what was probably half an hour, as I was not yet tired, before waking up and draining the last of my water. Once the wind dies down, then I'll head out and boil some water. Whilst I wait, I search the half-lit cabin as best as I could in the dim light, reluctant to use what little fuel I had in the storm-lantern. 

I turn and jump slightly, noticing a dead body ungraciously placed beside the door. I wonder how this one died, but don't dwell on it for long, stealing whatever he had (absolutely nothing) before finishing the place as best as possible.

Rather reluctantly, I turn on the lantern, having no look with my search. I found books and newsprint, and after a brief check in the outhouse, a prybar. All I really want now is a hunting knife and hatchet in case of a wolf attack and to harvest wood and such.  

Day 2

I begin scanning around again as it gradually grows brighter, searching for some cloth in order to repair my clothing as I have little else to do during the current weather conditions.

I do as much as possible until I grow starving, venturing outside before swiftly changing my mind and heading back indoors as I notice heavy winds and moderate snow, the tell-tale signs of a blizzard. Again. Honestly, I may as well be in Pleasant Valley judging by the weather here. Though, it isn't quite as bad as there. 

I get back to sewing my clothes, hoping to wait it out. I have an MRE ration, so I should really be fine. Water will soon be an issue, but when needed, I'll just start up a brief fire beside the outhouse. 

Well, I found the answer to how the person met their demise. I found a bottle of low condition painkillers beside them, giving me a hint to how they faded into the long dark.  

It's freezing, but I head out of the cabin as the weather brightens up, the wind and snow dropping. It's still a little foggy, but not enough to stop me from heading out. I give the cabin a small farewell, and head onward, seeking out the lake. My time here in ML will hopefully be up soon, as I plan to head to CH in a week or so.

Spooky, foggy forest

The rest will be resumed soon

 

[Catlover]

unfortunately this story has come to an end after I gained hypothermia, lost a bedroll, and threw a rock at a bear's bottom (no regrets) 

However, I am starting a new attempt here, later, with a twist. I decided to set a goal, and do something that I have never thought about before. Try climb TWM. I'm setting up a new topic soon for strategies,  as I've heard that it's difficult to do, so feel free to help out! Who knows, maybe I'll stop dying of sheer stupidity. 

Also, the challenge will be modified to Interloper on all but animal hostility which will be around Voyager difficulty. It'll be hard, but I need to improve!

Edited October 19, 2020 by Catlover