The Final Dark - Endless Night Interloper

[Guest jeffpeng]

Ciaran / Days 41 to 45 - There's only one ....

Seriously?

This is getting old.

Well, I think, I can't wait forever. Aurora wolves don't respect torches, but they do respect arrows. A quick check reveals no new rabbits at the snares. I finish cooking, eat up, warm up some tea, pack the hammer and get going. The Summit beckons, aurora or no aurora. Ha - no aurora. Alright then.

Harvey is patrolling his cave, so I reach the Wing traversing the hillside. I witness a wolf chasing away a deer, but since the canine doesn't put in the effort required to catch it I move on. Since I want to avoid freezing and have a nearby wolf I make camp at the container, and throw in a lump of coal. I don't expect to find much. Indeed the door with the cans is empty. I, however, do find tea and coffee. Still. A bit of canned food would have been nice. Since it's probably the only occasion I'll ever get to it I break the crate while warming up. I also collect 4 nearby birch saplings.

Crossing the tree bridge and passing the rabbits I press on and make camp in the halfway cave. After putting on some water I return to the rabbit grove to do what needs to be done. Sadly two of the tree have miraculously vanished since I came along 5 minutes ago. I hate it when they do that. I'm more successful at the other grove on the way to the three way cave, where I get three. Not too shabby, and enough for the night.

After cooking and eating them I make a quick sprint over to the three way cave, collecting the matches and firewood, and also finding some surprisingly well preserved sardines and the book about fire starting. I return and sleep.

The next "morning" I get going and climb the rope, then decide to bravely skip deer clearing altogether, preserving a match. Approaching the slightly exploitative climb to the next rope the weather turns sour.

Climate change, hu?

Of course I sprain my ankle, but that was expected. I make the climb, find a maple sapling up there, and enter the cave. I regret not having brought the storm lantern - it would have saved me this match. Ah well. In the cave I find the expected mountain of coal, firewood, and a book about proper steps after facilitating the demise of an animal.

I traverse the cave, but leave a fire burning at the mouth. Also I store stuff I won't need on the summit here already. I'll be back, as I will take this route back. Now that I lit the match I might as well make use of it - or so I think. I look for the rabbit, but despite my best efforts can't seem to find it. Oh well. I get back in, put on some water and offer the appropriate amount of firewood to the gods of thermodynamics, and rest.

When I wake up it's an outright blizzard outside. Not what I planned. As reading just isn't a thing in indoor-caves I craft tea. And more tea. Then it passes. Well then. No carcass at the prep cave, just some wood. The climb is done without having to stop, and I get some tea going in the cave up there. I also find a book about what the authors calls "guns". An interesting concept, involving propelling a piece of lead at high speed through a steel tube with the explosive decompression harnessed from igniting a mixture of potassium, sulfur and coal. Truly fascinating stuff, I always liked science fiction. Just think about what you could do with such a device. Probably even conquer Japan!

While indulging myself in delusions of grandeur I reach the Tail Section.

Summit: check!

I stoke a fire (after failing three times, again), and get to work on the containers. 2 packs of tea and a tin of coffee, the 4 packs of crackers, wool socks (yay) and a lot of shoes I'll never need, all of the clothes intact, including the ear wraps, and the soda cans. The canned food is lost. I also find another issue of A Sewing Primer, the flare pistol, 2 cans of graffiti paint, and the fire striker at 53%, also the pelts and the meds. The disinfectant I leave, of course. Finally I break the crate that has the matches. I'm done here. As always I decide to bring the rope, and as always I will probably never use it. Warmed up, but pretty exhausted I leave.

The slide down is bumpy, and my ankle goes on strike in response. More bandages. As I crawl towards the cave the rabbit I was missing earlier taunts me knowing I don't have the time to do anything about it now. I leave both ropes at the mouth of the cave and enter. I'll probably be back at some point. Only now I realize I must have left my cans in the cave at the summit. That's not good. Meh. Well, I have soda. And lots of tea.

I make it through the cave with the torch still alive, but then rest before leaving, as I am mortally exhausted. After ten hours of sleep I leave towards deer clearing. Buttsliding down my right ankle gives in once again, but that's okay. I make camp next to the container. I mean the soup actually has a chance of still being there. And I even get Firestarting IV. And yes, the soup is still very much fine at 54%. My hacksaw survives even the second door with 15%.

I warm up, and gulp down two of the cans on the spot, thus also having two cans again. At the cave I find a valuable flare, and a can of beans at 41%. I drop everything unnecessary, stoke a fire and sleep an hour to warm up. Then it's time to do some decent hunting for once.

I'm not sure you can get much more accurate.

Running back and forth between the deer and the cave I take and cook all the meat, and even take the hide. Not having to worry about food for once is a massive boon. Sadly there is no way to bring it back home. But nothing comes without a cost, and while I get some water boiling a blizzard is upon me - and I'm too slow to react. I'll have to sit this one through. At least I have enough firewood with me and more than enough books to read. I finish the second one about fishing, and a bit about mending clothes. Then the world returns to normal again.

I rest in the back of the cave. The next "morning" I have a difficult decision to make: leave the food here, or risk running into a wolf. I don't have far, as I just wanna jump down to the three way cave. Do I or don't I dare? .... I do. I leave most of the clothes I don't need behind, except the additional wool toque and those ear wraps, and leave. No wolf - I'm lucky.

The entire rationale behind this is with that much surplus food I for once do not have to care about calories - meaning this preserves me a match, at least for the bit between deer clearing via three way cave to the halfway cave - where I then can maybe read a bit, and rest another night, recovering most of the condition lost.

It hurts like hell, and I'm two thirds to hypothermia, but I make it to the halfway cave otherwise unscathed. I kill time harvesting the guts of the two rabbits I left in the cave, repairing my socks, crafting new bandages (I used quite a few) and finish one issue of A Sewing Primer. I even give my wool toque a makeover. Then a blizzard rolls in and it's time to sleep.

When I get up the weather is still abysmal. Luckily I have (almost) all the time I could want. I fix up my bedroll, which was wearing out quite notably, and read a page about fire starting. Then it's aurora time again, in still much too windy weather. Another page later at least the wind is mostly gone. Well, let's do this. I eat what I can and leave the rest for future me. When I reach the bridge the aurora is already gone again.

The Voyage home is pretty much uneventful. I have to make a few stops, and still arrive pretty frozen, but otherwise happy that I actually did it. I sort out my loot and stuff what I can where it belongs. Looking at it I'm just fascinated how much stuff you can find at night in a world that has hardly anything in it.

Stuff.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Ciaran / Day 46 to 48 - Harvey

I slept an hour (mostly since I wanted to save the game and actually take a break). Taking a look at my snares I find two rabbits and rearm them.

I also take the time to see how cold the world actually is without wind. -17 °C with a torch in hand. Since we are on day 46 this will get a bit worse, still, so let's say -18°C. If I add 4°C to that twice, which is what I would gain from bear skin coats, and another 1°C from deer skin pants I arrive at -11°C. Fixing clothes here and there would maybe land me another 2°C. So -9°C is the absolute maximum I can expect. That's pretty bad, to be honest, but it's better than what I have now.

I cook the rabbits, then pick the rest up, and pose outside. I need to stock up on food.  I get one wolf. The other one takes off with my arrow. Damn.

Can't argue with a good shot: A wolf.

I'm a bit heartbroken about the arrow, but on the other hand it's almost a miracle I recovered all of them so far. And I needed to craft new arrows anyways. Plus my bow is showing some serious wear. I just wish I had two instead of one wolf of food reserves. However, another problem with perpetual night: I only get crows on auroras. That not only makes recovering the wolf nigh impossible, it also puts a rather harsh limit on how many arrows I can produce - something I did not factor in, initially.

Crafting three new arrows I get Archery III - I'm so woefully behind on that. Since I cannot only rely on my archery skills I craft four snares, and place them at the grove on the lake.

Obstacle course for bunnies.

I sharpen my knife and get the last remaining gut from the wolf, then it's finally time for a proper rest.

There are several things I can work towards now. I can start hunting bears, but honestly I feel less than confident doing that without Archery V. Although: I have flares, which would make things much easier. The flare pistol is another option - but then I'd have to find the bear somewhere after running off. Who know's if I can recover it? Another upside to hunting a bear successfully would be that I can breathe very easy in terms of food for quite a while. My 20% bow should be good enough, 4 arrows should suffice. I guess we have a plan. I pack up what I think I'll need, but just as I want to leave the aurora is back.

I won't stop posting these.

Now what do I do. I won't hunt a bear this way. That's nuts. I get out to gather some firewood, then something rather unforeseen happens: The wolf from the bowl comes flying down, barking frantically. But my aim is true (I'm like really good at this, apparently ^^).

Was a bit over-confident: A wolf.

Only now I realize I still had some leftover from yesternight in my bag. Sigh. Well, all is well that ends well, or so they say. Running back and forth, and warming up in bed in between I get the meat and the hide. Checking both rabbit groves I find only one new rabbit. Disappointing. The aurora is gone by now, but the thick fog outside again discourages any thoughts of hunting a bear. I rest, gather a bit of wood, and rest again.

Then the fog lifts, and I check my supplies. Flare - check, bow and arrow - check, firewood - check, bandages - check, stim - check. In the cover of night - ha ha! - I venture out to find victory ... or death. It doesn't take long to find Harvey approaching the Lake. I think, then risk it. A long range arrow - and the bear bolts. I hit, but not critically. Damn. Just what I had wanted to avoid.

I follow the trail, but soon lose it on rocky terrain. Worried I abandon the search, and make camp near his cave. With some luck Harvey will just show up to die. Luckily it doesn't take long until he does.

On his last legs: My esteemed neighbor Harvey. (Do not eat neighbors!)

Patiently I wait. When he's close I rise up and render the coup de grace on him, but not before he throws a last insult at me. I bring the fire to him, and look at the beast.

Not my usual precision, but good enough.

Yum!

I get to work, and take hide and all 37 kilograms, while cooking a good bit of it on the spot. The weather hold until the end, although I now find myself in thick snow. But I don't worry too much. I've heard of a nearby cave that has no current occupant. So I even get to work on the guts. I get 6 done, then the weather finally gives in and reduces my fire. I pack up the meat I cooked and the guts, and get to Harvey's cave.

Sadly it's too windy to salvage the fire. Harvey's cave is warm and cozy, albeit a bit smelly. I bed myself on his hide and sleep a while, waiting for the wind to subside. An hour later calm but snowy weather gives me enough confidence to haul the raw meat to the hut. With the the wolves from both the bowl and the lake dead all I have to fear are the ones from the forest. But they never show up, and after warming up I make the trip to the cave again.

While warming up after stealing some more of his guts a blizzard shows up. Sleeping and passing time I mostly dodge it. After getting the last remaining guts I pack up shop, trusting that the wolves won't be back yet. As a final insult I even steal his Reishis. I get everything home safe, and now sit on a weeks worth of food - at least, my first bear hide and a ton of guts to decorate my hut with. What, you thought I'd use them for crafting? Nah. This place, one day, will be known as The House Of Guts.

Kidding. (Or am I?)

[dbmurph22]

Still no sun, eh? 

Congrats on the summit and some excellent Crystal Lake hunting, @jeffpeng.  By Day 50, you're surely now permanently nocturnal.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Ciaran / Nights! 49 to 52 - The Relatively Extensive Dark

The next few days are dominated by crafting and searching firewood in between. I manage three days without having to fire up, living off the bear meat I already cooked and the water reserves that had piled up at the hut. With growing frustration I witness my snares being widely ineffective, hardly yielding any game, and also that the wolves won't return. Hadn't I "relieved" Harvey of his muscular body, I would have to seriously think about moving out.

Also firewood will, as expected, become a long term concern for me. Sticks do not replenish as fast as I would need them, something Sasquatch learned the hard way. At least I have a hacksaw and the means to repair it, and as long as I have abundant food I can afford to saw down a fir limb once in a while. It's a costly endeavor, tho, as it means freezing for over an hour straight, unless I am willing to trade 1 coal for 3 fir. Which isn't the worst trade you can make, but having a hatchet kinda would be nice. I almost regret I didn't make one when I had the chance.

On the bright side I notice that I can sleep in a full blown blizzard. It's still a bit cold (-2°C) standing around in the hut, but with the 5°C from the bed I'm safe and warm in any case. That's pretty amazing. I also have 10 arrows now. And I manage to establish a small outpost at the forest cave, where I catch this monstrosity.

Eight legs, two tails, two heads? Whatever could it be?

This occasion also prompts the end of the "Relatively Extensive Dark" as I sadly killed both wolves in the cold part of the cave - something that only occurred to me after the fact. But I'm not letting those two go to waste. Although, this also goes to show that I am by now very confident about reliably defending myself with a bow. Also this day marks the demise of my trusty hacksaw I kept all the way from the muskeg. But, no worries, I still have a 100% one at the hut.

I get everything home safe, despite a third wolf picking up my delicious scent. There I cook what I got, and end up with 35 kilograms of meat, over 20 of that bear. Meanwhile I even get most of my deer skin pants done.

Mightily exhausted, but confident I won't starve anytime soon, I get to sleep.

It won't last forever, tho.

Edited December 18, 2021 by jeffpeng

[Guest jeffpeng]

Ciaran / Nights 53 to 57 - One night on the Concrete Lake

The next night I get my pants done, while, every time I'm warm and the weather permits, go out and search for firewood. I even find the arrow the wolf took a few days ago. In fact crafting has become something I do to warm up in between firewood runs. My cooking extravaganza burned (literally) most of my firewood reserves, and before long I will need more water.

While the lake itself is completely devoid of life at this point I still find a wolf in the nearby forest next to the Engine Gorge. It ends up dead on my doorstep, claiming my bow in a short lived victory.

Took one for the team ... or so he thought: A wolf.

Good thing the replacement is already ready. The other wolf from the forest I meet the next time I go searching for firewood there. I hit, but miss the kill shot. It takes off in panic, but "luckily" the arrow broke, so it's only half a loss. Soon after I see the wolf limping on the lake - take a shot  - and outright miss. I recover my arrow, follow freezing, and finish it grumpily. Not my best performance. While gathering 2 kg of meat I almost get lost in a blizzard. I should have seen this one coming. Is that negligence seeping in?

After a good rest I get the rest of the meat and guts, but decide to leave the hide hoping an aurora might yield me a few feathers.

I stick to my foraging routine until I have 4 wolf hides. Not only do I recover a lot of the lost sticks, I also completely avoid making a fire for days, again. Considering I have a hundred matches and like 50 additional charges of fire strikers ... at 3 days per fire .... night 500 at least seems feasible. Not that I realistically plan to keep going this long. Although .... that would be quite the achievement. Then again: for that to work I need a more reliable food source. My snares aren't it, that's for sure. The lake is more like Concrete Lake than Crystal Lake at this point. Nothing lives here anymore.

I get started on my wolf skin, but that will take some time. Meanwhile I am out of water, and I can almost feel cabin fever knocking at my door. So maybe, just maybe, I think, I can solve three problems at once. I pack 150 sticks, a pot, my hammer, my jerry can, and craft 6 fishing tackles. Well, here goes nothing.

Give a man a fish...

The good news first: I now have 35 liters of water. Hooray. Also: If cabin fever was anywhere near me it's now well and good staved off. Then: It's of course so damn cold that I get a full 100% fire bonus. More so: I still have 35 sticks left. Worth mentioning: I still have all my fishing tackles. Finally: I have more lamp oil than I did before. So, there is that.

The astute reader might have noticed how none of the good news do relate to fish, except maybe that very positively framed part about lamp oil. Admittedly, it wasn't worse than I expected it to be. Technically it was even better, since I really expected to catch nothing at all. I, however, did manage to catch some fish, and actually enough so that I didn't make too much of a calorie deficit from fishing. But while this might somewhat be a solution to cabin fever while stocking up some water, it's not a way to procure calories, and it won't be until I get seriously proficient at it - which is almost impossible to achieve having no way to practice. Realistically it's books or bust.

I keep working in my coat for about a day .... and then get cabin fever risk. Like seriously?

Go fishing, they said.

Well, I think, I wanted to get some stuff from the bunker, anyways. 🙄

[Dr. S.]

You’re at about the point where I got permanent cabin fever in my endless night run. I reported it and got a reply that the cause had been found, but I don’t know if it’s been fixed. In my case the CF risk never declined until I got CF, then I couldn’t get rid of it. Every 24 hours it would cure then immediately reappear. 

[Guest jeffpeng]

Well, after some testing I must agree that Cabin Fever is borked on Endless Night. That's way more than just unfortunate. So, subsequently, until this is fixed.... Ciaran is put on hiatus. Indefinitely.

Also I want to propose a fix to this problem: Remove Cabin Fever already. It doesn't make the late game interesting. It just makes you live in caves. 🙄

Edited December 19, 2021 by jeffpeng

[DsnowMan]

Huh. Sounds like when you get to day 50 on endless night, you win!

[tulkawen]

17 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

Also I want to propose a fix to this problem: Remove Cabin Fever already. It doesn't make the late game interesting. It just makes you live in caves.

It makes me live in the Custom Interloper mode without the cabin fever. 🤣

I really enjoyed this thread. It gave me the prompt as well to try this Owl mode, however, my mark was 30 days.

[Drifter Man]

Great read, I enjoyed it sitting warm, wearing my double underwear 

[I wonder if that means that I win a third pair?]

[Guest jeffpeng]

Well, a lot has happened since Ciaran ventured out into the dark and hit that unexpected brick wall that ended his marvelous journey. Sadly, there still is no date in sight at which this issue will be fixed - because, and yes I tested it, it persists. But since I really want to play this mode again I will bid him farewell, and start a new one. This time, however, I will not play with cabin fever. The reasoning is simple, and doubly so: On one hand Endless Night and Cabin Fever just don't work in concert. Plain and simple. On the other hand I keep advocating against Cabin Fever, but keep playing with Cabin Fever - for which my only reason is, or was, that I wanted to not make the game artificially easier. This ... has to stop. So the next time I try this I will consider living in perpetual darkness enough of an offset to compensate for having Cabin Fever disabled.

So, long story short: consider Ciaran officially retired, and consider @Drifter Manhaving been awarded a third pair of only slightly used, moderately smelly underwear that almost isn't too tight to wear comfortably.

[conanjaguar]

Sounds like Ciaran faded into the (literal) Long Dark. Keep it up with the Endlessly Insomniac Adventures @jeffpeng!

[Karl Grylls]

On 12/19/2021 at 5:56 AM, jeffpeng said:

Also I want to propose a fix to this problem: Remove Cabin Fever already. It doesn't make the late game interesting. It just makes you live in caves. 🙄

first: great series, i enjoyed reading it!
my 2 cents about CF: In my opinion it's a good mechanic in general. It prevents players from staying all the time indoors and collecting the numbers of days survived. Also it's realistic - as a mechanic. However, i think the way it works currently is not good, because you can catch it way too fast -.-
I hope part of the upcoming DLCs will be a mental health system, where this gets an overhaul and other things will be added

[Guest jeffpeng]

Just now, Karl Grylls said:

first: great series, i enjoyed reading it!
my 2 cents about CF: In my opinion it's a good mechanic in general. It prevents players from staying all the time indoors and collecting the numbers of days survived. Also it's realistic - as a mechanic. However, i think the way it works currently is not good, because you can catch it way too fast -.-
I hope part of the upcoming DLCs will be a mental health system, where this gets an overhaul and other things will be added

Mental health is something I've seen attempted or even implemented in games. Green Hell has it... and it's basically just a nuisance to manage. If they somehow find a way to make it work properly I'm the first to be impressed, but I doubt that it is even possible since it would involve taking control from the player to actually make it meaningful.

As for CF being generally good: Without inciting too much discussion about this I obviously disagree. 😅 I think, if anything, an active play style should be rewarded rather than an inactive play style punished, especially since a lot of unintuitive ways exists to circumvent it - you just have to know how. And this "how" is part of what I call "hidden knowledge", meaning knowledge about how the game works that is neither obvious nor is the game teaching it to you. You kinda have to read up on it to actually understand it, and a mechanic sufficiently complex and obscure that you have to read about it on a wiki to understand it is inherently badly designed. Finally: the actual reason CF was introduced isn't even in the game anymore: the leader board. Since there is no (official) competition for the longest time survived anymore let people hide in Quonset all day long if that's what floats their boat.

[Karl Grylls]

1 hour ago, jeffpeng said:

Mental health is something I've seen attempted or even implemented in games. Green Hell has it... and it's basically just a nuisance to manage. If they somehow find a way to make it work properly I'm the first to be impressed, but I doubt that it is even possible since it would involve taking control from the player to actually make it meaningful.

As for CF being generally good: Without inciting too much discussion about this I obviously disagree. 😅 I think, if anything, an active play style should be rewarded rather than an inactive play style punished, especially since a lot of unintuitive ways exists to circumvent it - you just have to know how. And this "how" is part of what I call "hidden knowledge", meaning knowledge about how the game works that is neither obvious nor is the game teaching it to you. You kinda have to read up on it to actually understand it, and a mechanic sufficiently complex and obscure that you have to read about it on a wiki to understand it is inherently badly designed. Finally: the actual reason CF was introduced isn't even in the game anymore: the leader board. Since there is no (official) competition for the longest time survived anymore let people hide in Quonset all day long if that's what floats their boat.

Didn't know about mental health system in Green Hell. This game is also really hard by default, so i guess the devs there wanted it to be that way?
As for the other reasons: i have trust in Hinterland's ability to deliver a good mental health system - which makes the game harder, obviously. But that's not a bad thing. We will see what they will come up with. Short term speaking, i could see them removing it from the game, but on the other hand, they have given us the opportunity to disable it long ago...

[Guest jeffpeng]

2 minutes ago, Karl Grylls said:

This game is also really hard by default, so i guess the devs there wanted it to be that way?

You mean GH or TLD? ^^

[Drifter Man]

I agree - I see no reason for CF. It just prevents you from living like a civilized person and drives you into caves instead.

I clearly remember than CF was off in deadman mode back in my days, but it came to haunt me anyway after 50 days. Doesn't turning CF off in the custom settings only give you a 50-day grace period?

[Karl Grylls]

14 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

You mean GH or TLD? ^^

Green Hell ofc^^

Well, CF can be changed like, you are still able to stay indoors but not in the same building you got cabin fever from. But this would make it ridiculous, because it doesn't achive the purpose it was introduced for.

Hm, i still want something like CF in the game, but i don't see a good way to implement it.

[conanjaguar]

1 hour ago, Karl Grylls said:

Hm, i still want something like CF in the game, but i don't see a good way to implement it.

How about a flea infestation? After all, our survivors struggle with wolves and bears, kill them, harvest them, take their hides (where the fleas live) back to camp and leave them there, and then wear them!
Every week or so, fleas would infest your base, and you would have to go shake out your clothes, blankets, and hides, or else go crazy from the constant itching.

[Guest jeffpeng]

3 hours ago, Karl Grylls said:

Green Hell ofc^^

I pretty much quit Green Hell because it's not challenging enough for my taste. 🤣 Once you realize that you can kill anything by just shooting it in the face - which is unbelievably easy - you lose respect for everything short of 4 or more natives at the same time.

2 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

How about a flea infestation? After all, our survivors struggle with wolves and bears, kill them, harvest them, take their hides (where the fleas live) back to camp and leave them there, and then wear them!
Every week or so, fleas would infest your base, and you would have to go shake out your clothes, blankets, and hides, or else go crazy from the constant itching.

Creative solution - however I question how enjoyable that would be. ^^

[Guest jeffpeng]

5 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I agree - I see no reason for CF. It just prevents you from living like a civilized person and drives you into caves instead.

I clearly remember than CF was off in deadman mode back in my days, but it came to haunt me anyway after 50 days. Doesn't turning CF off in the custom settings only give you a 50-day grace period?

That setting didn't work for some time. If CF is on you get it after 50 days - just like Voyageur. If CF is off (and the setting is working) you're not getting it, period.

[conanjaguar]

2 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

Creative solution - however I question how enjoyable that would be.

Well, to be honest, probably not very enjoyable at all. I have owned cats for much of my life, so I should know!

[Drifter Man]

On 7/1/2022 at 4:29 AM, jeffpeng said:

That setting didn't work for some time. If CF is on you get it after 50 days - just like Voyageur. If CF is off (and the setting is working) you're not getting it, period.

Good to know, thanks. No more CF.

[Guest jeffpeng]

I just had to put this here.

And yes, I know, I know. It's been a while again. I'll see what I can do.  😅

[Karl Grylls]

Is it....can it be....possible? 😱