Gaming the game a little TOO hard?

[straffin]

I really, REALLY want to get to Cooking Level 5 as soon as possible. All of this is from TWO wolves. 🤣

(Stupid blizzard blew out my fire before I finished.)

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by straffin
more info

[odium]

i never shred predator meat, too much of a pain to eat before level 5 cooking.  i will shred one whole deer early on to get a boost

[Mistral]

2 hours ago, odium said:

i never shred predator meat, too much of a pain to eat before level 5 cooking.  i will shred one whole deer early on to get a boost

Why would you have to eat it straight away though? Just leave it to the ground or wherever and eventually get back to it when you're L5

Anyway, if it's a major catch I usually make two or three campfires next to each other for faster cooking while I'm carving, otherwise it's so tedious

[ManicManiac]

A windblown campfire will knock down the burn time, true... but it doesn't ever blow it out completely.  It just negates all the burn time down to about two sticks (I forget the exact number it caps at, but it's low).  If the player keeps a good quantity of sticks nearby, we can continue to tend the fire and keep it going even though a blizzard.

What I do is just add one stick each time the windblown campfire gets below seven minutes.  This way I can keep cooking and keep the heat of my fire, even through the harshest to winds or blizzards. 

Granted, if folks use the "pass time" or "wait till ready" options... they tend to miss this small window of opportunity, but it's there. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by ManicManiac

[Dr. S.]

1 hour ago, ManicManiac said:

A windblown campfire will knock down the burn time, true... but it doesn't ever blow it out completely.  It just negates all the burn time down to about two sticks (I forget the exact number it caps at, but it's low).  If the player keeps a good quantity of sticks nearby, we can continue to tend the fire and keep it going even though a blizzard.

What I do is just add one stick each time the windblown campfire gets below seven minutes.  This way I can keep cooking and keep the heat of my fire, even through the harshest to winds or blizzards. 

It's 9 minutes.

But I wonder if you've done this recently? If the wind is strong enough, you can't add fuel, you get the message "It's too windy to maintain a fire" instead.

[ManicManiac]

@Dr. S.

As recently as last month... but I can go out and test it again.
(I kept my last Personal Challenge run, just so I can easily test things like this)

The only time I would see that message, was when I tried to add more sticks beyond the burn time cap but I was always able to add the one stick to get it back up to the burn time cap.

Like I mentioned, I will test again and see what happens.

Edited March 6, 2021 by ManicManiac

[Dr. S.]

53 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

@Dr. S.

As recently as last month... but I can go out and test it again.
(I kept my last Personal Challenge run, just so I can easily test things like this)

Maybe it's setting dependent. I see that message a lot when trying to keep a fire going in the wind.

[ManicManiac]

33 minutes ago, Dr. S. said:

Maybe it's setting dependent.

You know, that's a great point!  I hadn't considered that...
In my current interloper run, I'm fairly well setup at the Fishing Camp over in Coastal Highway.  The next time I'm out cooking or boiling water, I'll be sure to setup a quick campfire outside the hut (out in the open) and I'll see what happens. 

(blizzards and high winds have been pretty frequent in my run so far... so there is a decent chance I will get to test it soon)

Edited March 6, 2021 by ManicManiac

[straffin]

2 hours ago, Dr. S. said:

But I wonder if you've done this recently? If the wind is strong enough, you can't add fuel, you get the message "It's too windy to maintain a fire" instead.

This. This is what happened when I tried to add sticks. 🤔

[straffin]

11 hours ago, odium said:

i never shred predator meat, too much of a pain to eat before level 5 cooking.

Wasn't planning on eating any of it...this was strictly to pump up the Cooking level (hence the "gaming the game" subject...not for survival, but to work the game mechanics in my favor).

[Stinky socks]

If you keep clicking fast, you may get a chance to add a stick to fire during blizzard. I was able to add sticks during that message if I kept spamming the button. I think what happens is, if the wind slows down or changes direction just for like half a second, you can add that stick. 

[ManicManiac]

I was able to get a fire going out a little ways from the Fishing Hut (enough that it was exposed from nearly all directions... however I don't know that the wind was blowing hard enough.  I was easily able to keep the fire up by adding one stick at 2 minutes of burn time. 

I know I couldn't keep a torch lit, but I didn't try to add more than one stick at a time (because I didn't have many to spare) so I guess I didn't check to see the burn time cap.  From my stats screen I know that for most of the day the wind was blowing at -17* C.

Will try again tomorrow, weather permitting.

Edited March 7, 2021 by ManicManiac

[hozz1235]

On 3/6/2021 at 7:31 PM, Stinky socks said:

If you keep clicking fast, you may get a chance to add a stick to fire during blizzard. I was able to add sticks during that message if I kept spamming the button. I think what happens is, if the wind slows down or changes direction just for like half a second, you can add that stick. 

Why continue adding fuel when the wind is going to blow it out anyways?

[hozz1235]

On 3/6/2021 at 5:47 PM, straffin said:

Wasn't planning on eating any of it...this was strictly to pump up the Cooking level (hence the "gaming the game" subject...not for survival, but to work the game mechanics in my favor).

I don't see anything wrong with this.  You're cooking to raise your cooking level.  Whether you eat it, really doesn't matter.

My favorite technique for raising cooking is:  1)  "cooking" tea and coffee and 2) placing canned goods (except dogfood, yech!) next to a fire so you have secondary cooking while cooking something else.

[Stinky socks]

1 hour ago, hozz1235 said:

Why continue adding fuel when the wind is going to blow it out anyways?

When you almost have something finished cooking. It usually caps fire at 9 minutes, so if you wait until like 1 or 2 minutes left and then add a stick, you can successfully finish cooking that meal.

[starlin]

On 3/7/2021 at 11:31 AM, Stinky socks said:

If you keep clicking fast, you may get a chance to add a stick to fire during blizzard. I was able to add sticks during that message if I kept spamming the button. I think what happens is, if the wind slows down or changes direction just for like half a second, you can add that stick. 

^ This.  If you watch the wind direction (or the camp fire smoke) you can see it blow out when the wind effects start showing sharp angles.  Its hard to get a sense of the wind speed, but there is a definite set of thresholds where it caps the fire, and if even higher, prevents you from stoking/lighting at all. 

 

I also learned you can warm cups and cans around a fire, without having to be on a cooking slot. 

[straffin]

14 hours ago, starlin said:

I also learned you can warm cups and cans around a fire, without having to be on a cooking slot. 

Discovered this myself in that same cooking session. Dropped all my teas/coffees (so they'd not be in the "Cook" menu options ahead of my meat slabs) and after, oh, 8 or 9 in-game minutes, I hear something boiling... 🤣