one wAcKy rUnThRouGh

[Skuopbahdwoop]

Started playing the Long Dark again, and it's been really fun, but I've gotten my fair share of funny encounters.

So for reference, I'm playing on Voyager and I had survived about 20-30 days when this happened. Spawned in Mystery Lake as a beginner for a while, and decided it would be a cool idea to go to Forlorn Muskeg and make it to the Spencer Family Homestead to use the Forge there (because, for some reason, I thought it had a lower difficulty setting than Coastal Highway, plus I had gone there once or twice when I played Story Mode, so I knew the area a bit better). 

So I make my base at the poacher camp (I know it's not a great base, but it's the only location on the map I knew about), and after a day I set out to scout the railroad leading to the entrance to Mystery Lake. My big plan was to hug the corners of the map and make it to the bottom right (where I thought the Homestead was based on the wiki directions), and then scout from there to see what was up. Turns out, on the hill next to the railroad tracks on that end there's occasionally a wolf. 

First round, I was confident. Had a piece of ruined meat I could drop as a decoy, and my rifle with a few shots. I was still running on a high of being able to snipe my first wolf point blank. I figured I'd let it take the bait,  crouch down and shoot it, and then quarter it and bring the stuff back to the base.

Then I almost died and restarted the day; since this is my first playthrough where I haven't died on the first week, and I /really/ didn't want to lose it because I was stupid. 

So second time, almost died again. Third time, I finally remembered I had bait I could drop. The wolf stopped for a second, and we both collectively looked down at where....I had dropped fresh gut. Not meat. Because I had apparently forgotten I had gut in my inventory (which probably explains why the wolf kept sneaking on me to begin with). The wolf gave me a look for a second, like "are you really this stupid?" and then proceeded to maul me. I kind of sat there for a second, watching my condition drop, thinking "Well, the definition of insanity is trying the same things an endless amount of times expecting different results, so maybe I should try something else." Then I realized I risked permadeath so I immediately fought the wolf off and restarted the day again. 

Gathered my firewood again, failed at starting a fire for a few times, cooked up some meat and water. Figured maybe the homestead was too difficult for me to get to at the moment, and I should scout more around the camp to figure out what was what. So I decided I'd try to hit the Northern radio tower and see what was up there, since I knew from the maps I looked at it was somewhere near the poacher's camp (in case you haven't noticed, I'm terrible at navigating by map). So it's a cold day, kinda foggy, I'm carefully walking across the ice patches (because I've fallen in and gotten hypothermia a few times on other playthroughs, and I didn't feel like getting it again), when I look up and think "hmm. That rock looks like it's moving. That's kind of weird." Turns out, that rock was a bear, and turns out bears don't particularly like when you get too close. Needless to say.....I restarted the day again. 

Now it's cold and I go "ok, so I can't go to the homestead, can't go to the radio tower. Let's go across the railroad tracks, where it is nice and safe and I hopefully will not die." 

So I drop every single thing in my inventory that could draw animals to me, even my bait. Because I just want to explore and figure out where I am, for goodness sake! I want to find the cool things! 

I walk across the tracks for a bit, admiring the sunrise (it's seriously beautiful, guys. This game is wack in terms of art)....and then I run into a pack of wolves. At this point I've restarted five times and I'm /really/ getting tired of having to gather up all my morning firewood if I'm just going to get attacked a few hours later because I lose focus and forget that there are a bunch of animals who want to eat me at every corner. So I restarted again and figured I'd just wait for better weather before exploring, and I'd stay inside. Then I realized, I don't have much firewood. Maybe I should fix that. So I go around and break down some fir/cedar limbs, get hypothermia risk because it was cold and I forgot to make a fire, and I for some reason think "oh hey, the bear is gone now, weather's not that bad, maybe let's give that radio tower another shot! I can make a nice fire over there, gather resources, have a fun time. I'm pretty sure it's close enough, and my clothing's warm enough that I won't get hypothermia before I get there if all goes well." 

Turns out, when crows fly overhead and they're not going to a carcass, it means the weather will change. And it turns out, fog is actually very common in Forlorn Muskeg. So I'm wandering around this icy patch in a giant circle, get the weak ice indicator....and I got hypothermia and had to run back home before I died. 

It was a fun week. 

If any of you guys have funny stories about poor planning or wildlife encounters, please put them below! Hope this post gave some of the more veteran players a chuckle at my expense; I am horrible at this game even if it's really fun. It's a wonder I've been able to survive as long as I have even without restarting when I'm going to die. 

[Looper]

sounds like my first voyager🙂 thanks for sharing and keep it up

[Gracia_WolfSlayer]

Fun tip. you can throw rocks to lure wolves to or away from you! So, how you mentioned leaving the bait and wanting to shoot the wolf when he goes for it? Instead get in a good spot to shoot from, throw a rock to land roughly where you'd like the aim your shot, and the wolf will go to where the rock lands! sometimes you need a few to lure them if they're farther away. This also works on bears.

You can also do it to distract them so you can more easily sneak past.

[Skuopbahdwoop]

On 11/24/2020 at 3:18 PM, Gracia_WolfSlayer said:

Fun tip. you can throw rocks to lure wolves to or away from you! So, how you mentioned leaving the bait and wanting to shoot the wolf when he goes for it? Instead get in a good spot to shoot from, throw a rock to land roughly where you'd like the aim your shot, and the wolf will go to where the rock lands! sometimes you need a few to lure them if they're farther away. This also works on bears.

You can also do it to distract them so you can more easily sneak past.

Whoa, really? I always assumed you could only use the rock on rabbits. That’s absolutely wild! I’ll try that next time I’m playing TLD. Thanks for the tip!