question Clothing-Balancing weight + efficiency

[Decappa]

Question for you survival experts. As the title says how do you balance your clothing? Do you try and keep weight low or go for maximum stats regardless of weight? Also do you always fill every slot when possible?

I’m currently wearing all but one accessory slot with some good stat items and bonuses of 19c warmth, 7c windproof, 21% damage protection. But in total my clothing weighs almost 6.5kg and has my stamina down to 80%.

Not too bothered about min/maxing myself, just wanted to know how everyone else deals with it and if you’ve found a sweet spot.

 

[ManicManiac]

@Decappa

I think it does largely depend on individual playstyle.

For me, I tend to focus on warmth (because I like to roam around and explore rather extensively).  So, I focus on what will give me the greatest insulation and windbreak bonuses.  Now my loadout is not a little bit heavy, and the does impact my stamina bar quite a bit (mostly from the insulated boots)... but for me that's fine.

I travel carefully maintaining good situational awareness (so I rarely need to sprint at all).  I try to evade and avoid predators (unless I'm specifically hunting them) so I'm less concerned with the armor rating.  I also tend to focus on what items have better overall warmth values.  I do weigh insulation & windbreak against weight in the case of coats (and to a lesser degree boots).  With coats I ended up sticking with 2 expedition parkas rather than the bearskin coat.  I choose the expedition parka as my ideal because it had a better warmth-to-weight ratio (2.67 °C/kg with the parka vs 1.2 °C/kg with the bearskin coat), and the windbreak bonus beats the bearskin coat (to me making up for the 2°C difference in insulation against the additional 3.5kg of weight).

The Clothing page on the fandom wiki has each item statistically quantified for reference (admittedly I can't vouch for how accurate the page is).  If you'd like, use this to plan/pick out what clothing loadout would be best for your particular playstyle. 

55 minutes ago, Decappa said:

Also do you always fill every slot when possible?

Yes, since I tend to focus on warmth I do always try to fill each slot with the warmest thing I can find, until I can put together my ideal loadout.

Edited October 5, 2020 by ManicManiac

[Valuable Hunting Knife]

I keep meaning to sort a lightweight 'smash and grab' outfit for when carry capacity is important, but once I've got established I tend to stick to my tried and trusted outfit of:

bunny hat/scary balaclava

wolf coat/ expi parka

Cowi & fish sweaters

bunny gloves

ear wrap

snow & deer trousers

both types of long johns

2 x climbing socks

deer boots

 

Ease of repair is probably a factor, once I've gone round the block hunting nomadically for a while I've got a good supply of skins at all my main haunts.  I'd possibly trade out wolf coat and deer boots for mac jack and mumluks, think that saves a bit of weight without too much penalty (apart from the wolf scare chance, which you'd get from a bear roll anyway).  I find this gives me enough sprint stamina to usually dodge wolves, but enough armour to survive if I do get caught.

Probably explains why I always try and keep the well fed bonus.

On a slight tangent, I'd love the option to outfit your survivor at the start of each run- yuppie ski dude would be in for a tough time!

 

[TiffTastic]

My load out is pretty similar to VHK above there, I like to roam and frequently make outdoor campsites so I’ll load up on warm stuff. My variances are that I use 2 expe-parkas usually instead of wolf or bear coat, I’ll use snow pants and combat pants sometimes, although I use deer pants too. I’ll take mukluks over deer boots, not just better, but lighter and easier to repair. 

[Stone]

Max warmth. That's playing Loper mind. Stamina, I believe, only affects sprint and I generally find sprinting counter productive. Maybe that's just down to play style.

[ajb1978]

On 10/6/2020 at 4:09 PM, Stone said:

I generally find sprinting counter productive.

Sprinting comes in handy when traveling long distances.  It gets you to your destination faster, which means you take less (or no) freezing damage.  It also drains your fatigue faster, and low fatigue at the end of the day means you can sleep for a longer stretch of time if you want, to recover the maximum possible condition.  So a combination of sprinting a lot and knowing you can recover up to 32% condition, you can know how much freezing damage you can afford to take on your journey and still be at 100% the next day.

Even if your sprint bar is cut in half due to your clothes, it has no impact on your overall speed.  With a full sprint wheel, sure you can sprint for a long time.  But it also takes you a long time to recover that full wheel.  Half a wheel = half the sprint time, but also half the recovery time.

[Stone]

Very good point @ajb1978 re the sprint bar.

[FluffyComeHome]

I actually have different sets of clothing I use in different circumstances. Just like RL, the same clothes don't make sense for every situation. I don't mind being extra heavy if I am warm enough to hunt or gather wood, or need added protection when killing wolves. I can set up a snow shelter to hunt from so I don't expect to go too far. If I am exploring a new area I like to stash the heavy gear and run light for a bit to get a feel for the area. If its super cold I like the bearskin coat over the Expedition jacket. If its a wolf infested area I use the wolfskin coat over the bear coat. It really just matters how fast I need to move for a given area balanced with average temps and available resources.

And like ManicManiac said, it also depends on your play style. I usually play loper or voyager so also adapt for that.

Edited October 10, 2020 by FluffyComeHome

[whirls]

On 10/8/2020 at 11:40 PM, ajb1978 said:

Sprinting comes in handy when traveling long distances.  It gets you to your destination faster, which means you take less (or no) freezing damage.  It also drains your fatigue faster, and low fatigue at the end of the day means you can sleep for a longer stretch of time if you want, to recover the maximum possible condition.  So a combination of sprinting a lot and knowing you can recover up to 32% condition, you can know how much freezing damage you can afford to take on your journey and still be at 100% the next day.

Even if your sprint bar is cut in half due to your clothes, it has no impact on your overall speed.  With a full sprint wheel, sure you can sprint for a long time.  But it also takes you a long time to recover that full wheel.  Half a wheel = half the sprint time, but also half the recovery time.

you are right. I tested it. Sprinting is helping you to control how tired you will become at the end of the day. This tiredness helps you a) to recover more health through sleeping and b) to sleep or skip the night, since you might not be able / not like to do anything during night. Instead to be idle in night, you can "hibernate", since sleeping reduce the consumption of calories and water.

But what I missed in TLD was the exact differences - lets say how expensive sprinting really was. My test route marked in green:

 

I started with full warmth, fatigue, belly and not water. At the end I had following stats:

 

 

The temperature difference reveals, that with sprinting you are around 18-20% faster than with walking alone. The fatigue difference reveals that with sprinting you consume 300% more fatigue. Water and calories will not make any difference.

The 20% faster are not really worth it, especially because the drained fatique will result in much earlier encumbrance, which in turn slows you down. Means in average sprinting makes you not faster, but slower. Therefore you can use sprinting only for the two points mentioned above (a), b)).

Without this test, I couldn't know that, because the game is quite irritating you with the little arrows at the fatigue bar: When you walk it shows you most times 2 arrows down. When you sprint it shows you only 3 arrows down, but actually it should show you 6 arrows down. I suggest to put an option for replacing the arrows with values instead - only for the players, who are interested 😉

 

 

 

 

[whirls]

On 10/5/2020 at 4:41 PM, Decappa said:

Question for you survival experts. As the title says how do you balance your clothing? Do you try and keep weight low or go for maximum stats regardless of weight? Also do you always fill every slot when possible?

I’m currently wearing all but one accessory slot with some good stat items and bonuses of 19c warmth, 7c windproof, 21% damage protection. But in total my clothing weighs almost 6.5kg and has my stamina down to 80%.

Not too bothered about min/maxing myself, just wanted to know how everyone else deals with it and if you’ve found a sweet spot.

 

Hope its not too late to give an answer in this thread 🙂

 

During day, you will find most valuable stuff by traveling outside. If your warmth bonus of your cloths is to less, you might need to warm up during the day, which cost you time or weight (for carrying fire fuel). So most efficient day is a day without a warm-up break. With 12-14 Celsius of warmth bonus, you will achieve that. In some day time you even increase warmth when outside - depending on the weather:

 

If you get less then 10 degree Warmth Bonus. You will lose way too much warmth.

Another consideration is to avoid strong winds, by moving aside to boulders. Strong winds will drain your warmth much much faster and slow you also down on headwind. You can use sprinting to move faster to better tactical positions. Also when walking on streets will speed you up (different terrain). All these factors need to be considered in order to estimate how long you will be exposed to coldness during the day, which in turn help you to decide how much warmth bonus you need.

 

[DrZ]

So in non-Interloper modes I found myself balancing weight and warmth by aiming for the best coefficient (see the wiki for clothing). I ignored protection as I try to stay out of fights anyway.

Having recently switched to interloper however my thinking changed. I now go for max warmth. Two bear-skin coats sounded ridiculous to me (you know... "only" +2° C compared to a wolf skin coat and you "pay" with even more weight while not using the windproof bonus of the inner coat) but now I hope to get them soon in my current run.

Yes, +2 °C sounds weak but assume you are -6 °C in mystery lake outside: If you add 2°C bonus you gain 50% more time outside. Not to mention the cold regions like Bleak Inlet or Pleasant Valley where I feel my Interloper needs every warmth bonus possible.

[peteloud]

51 minutes ago, DrZ said:

. . . I now go for max warmth. Two bear-skin coats sounded ridiculous to me . . .

Ages ago I used to get a bearskin coat as fast as possible, but now I have changed my coat strategy.

Bearskin coast are great when they are new.  But as they lose condition their warmth benefit is also lost.  So they become a heavy coat that doesn't give you full warmth.  Maintaining bearskin coats is a problem.  Bear skins are not easily and quickly come by, therefore repairs usually have to be delayed prolonging the time spent with a heavy bearskin coat that is not giving you its full warmth potential. 

Wolfskin coast are less warm but because of the abundance of wolves and their pelts it is easy to keep a wolfskin coat in good condition giving you its near maximum warmth benefit. The weight saved wearing a wolfskin coat is often important.

Edited November 22, 2020 by peteloud

[mayimbe]

I prefer to balance between weight and quality, because there is no use wearing two bearskin coats if you are going to be overweight all the time. for me the ideal garments are the following:
military coat plus expedition parka, Canadian hat, green wool mittens, cowichan fisherman's sweater, snow pants plus combat pants, climbing socks, insulated or military boots or if you find the traditional boots better and an ear cover. These garments give you a good heat and protection bonus and you also have a lot of space in your backpack, for me it is the best clothes, I play in stalker mode.

[DrZ]

22 minutes ago, peteloud said:

Wolfskin coast are less warm but because of the abundance of wolves and their pelts it is easy to keep a wolfskin coat in good condition giving you its near maximum warmth benefit. The weight saved wearing a wolfskin coat is often important.

Interesting. Also as Interloper in PV or BI?

23 minutes ago, peteloud said:

Bearskin coast are great when they are new.  But as they lose condition their warmth benefit is also lost.  So they become a heavy coat that doesn't give you full warmth.  Maintaining bearskin coats is a problem.  Bear skins are not easily and quickly come by, therefore repairs usually have to be delayed prolonging the time spent with a heavy bearskin coat that is not giving you its full warmth potential.

That is a valid point and here this connects again with preferences and play style (which I love about this game btw - everybody likes to do things a little bit different which might change other habits as well...). For me this is not a problem as I center my play style around bears. They give the hide and plenty of meat and guts which I use to establish a base in every region. If you have enough meat and water you can save a lot of matches as you simply wait till the weather allows for the magnifying lens to be used for additional cooking.

On the other hand I do not get that many wolf hides. In my current run I had to hunt 3 of them to get the 4 for my coat and I was wondering if I should have gone for the bear coat directly... Again, play style as I avoid wolves to the extreme (using stones do distract or torches to repel).