The Long Dark has become Cooking Mama and Solitaire

[straffin]

Sigh... I'm out of things to do.

I just crossed day 400 on my Stalker run. I have just the one last "500 day" achievement to go. Got all the badges, all the cartographer points, etc. Now, I'm finding myself carting entire bear-loads of meat to the cave above the Camp Office in ML, cooking water in cooking pots all day for a day, cooking bear all day for another day, then:
Wake, eat, drink, play cards for 8 hours, drink, play cards for another 7 hours, eat, drink, sleep for 9 hours. Wake, do it all over again.

What the heck am I gonna do with myself for the next 100 days that won't risk the run?

(I actually have two more Polaroids to find, and I'm gonna go after the one in Coastal Highway, but I'm too "scared" to try for the one in Ash Canyon that I'll have to glitch to because I'm worried the glitching might wreck the run somehow.)

Whee. 😕

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by straffin

[manolitode]

Way to go! Your time is worth more than playing Groundhog day mode for another 100 days. A few suggestions below to keep you entertained:

• Harvest your favorite piece of clothing
• Only sleep outdoors
• Go bowhunting for moose
• Take appropriate precaution, then eat raw meat
• Repair all gear and tools to 100% 
• Craft 50 arrows and all hide/guts gear
• Find a new campfire spot where the fire can't be put out by wind/blizzard, build a snow shelter and live there for 10 days.
• Level up your remaining skills (if any left, perhaps fishing or archery in your case?) 
• Kill 10-15 wolves in one ingame day 

[Stinky socks]

Maybe you could find @piddy3825 and spend some time with him in the cabin. I am a little worried because I've seen him do all sorts of dangerous things. Latest endeavors involved microwaving flammable materials during Aurora. It would be a terrible tragedy if he accidentally sets house on fire and burns half of milton town to ashes. Perhaps you two can have a good time together and watch some twilight zone when the power is on🙂👍

[piddy3825]

If you are on the Mystery Lake map,
have you found the prepper's cache?  If you haven't found it you should.  Even on Stalker mode, there's a pretty good amount of loot.  everybody can use and extra
whetstone or two, right?

is the dead guy cohabitating with you in Camp Office?  you can do like I did and use him for storage and such.

I used the curing in place glitch to make him nearly invisible!  Can you find Waldo?

 

sometimes I like to load myself up with raw meat, then I go and stand outside the fishing shack  and wait for fluffy and his crew!  Yeah I might get chewed up 
a bit, but sometimes it ends up badly for fluffy!

 

so little to do when you get bored as your playing to get that 500 day achievement, I understand that very well.  

Now a days I just spend most of my time fishing so I can fill all my lanterns up with oil....

 

 

[acada]

My current hobby is placing fires in impossible places. Previous one was testing rabbit grove depletion. I will return to this one. The result was not clear after 50 days.

[Leeanda]

Try and find all the cairns, go fishing, see how long you can keep a fire going for(inside and outside) collect stones and make some caches!

Edited August 27, 2021 by Leeanda

[straffin]

Thanks for the great suggestions!!

14 hours ago, manolitode said:

Level up your remaining skills

Got that achievement pretty early, with Gusmithing being the last (of course). Worked hard on that one since it affects the rest of the gameplay. #whatruinedfood?

7 hours ago, Leeanda said:

Try and find all the cairns

I really dislike the cairns in-game, mainly because I *REALLY* dislike them in real life.
https://www.adventureresponsibly.co/blogs/the-trail-ahead/dont-be-a-cairn
https://friendsofthesmokies.org/blog/dont-move-rocks/
http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/08/25/new-graffiti-national-parks-fight-stone-stackers/

Many of them are *really* obscurely placed, as well, so, unless there's a map of them all, I'm unlikely to go back through everywhere *that* thoroughly. 🙂 
 

13 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

have you found the prepper's cache?

Ask my double Expedition Parkas, my double Combat Pants, and my Mukluks if I've found the Prepper's Cache in Mystery Lake (a clothing cache, in this case, near the Carter Dam). 😄 

14 hours ago, manolitode said:

Craft 50 arrows and all hide/guts gear

I actually started out near Desolation Point and forged a ridiculous number of arrowheads before I left. Didn't use any of them until I got the Pacifist achievement, but have been pretty well off, ballisticly, since then. 🙂 I *am* also sitting on a ridiculous number of pelts and hides, but when you're decked out in Expedition Parkas, Combat Pants, and Mukluks, it's hard to want to go full-fur. After 500, tho, I was considering ditching man-made materials completely and see what that's like. Maybe I'll do that sooner... 

[Leeanda]

18 minutes ago, straffin said:

Thanks for the great suggestions!!

Got that achievement pretty early, with Gusmithing being the last (of course). Worked hard on that one since it affects the rest of the gameplay. #whatruinedfood?

I really dislike the cairns in-game, mainly because I *REALLY* dislike them in real life.
https://www.adventureresponsibly.co/blogs/the-trail-ahead/dont-be-a-cairn
https://friendsofthesmokies.org/blog/dont-move-rocks/
http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/08/25/new-graffiti-national-parks-fight-stone-stackers/

Many of them are *really* obscurely placed, as well, so, unless there's a map of them all, I'm unlikely to go back through everywhere *that* thoroughly. 🙂 
 

😄

🙂

Thanks for the links and I get your point but this ain't reality and you are obviously bored!☺️. Someone did mention a cairns map to me somewhere on the forum but can't remember where!

[straffin]

On 8/26/2021 at 11:48 PM, manolitode said:

Kill 10-15 wolves in one ingame day 

Nuts... started late and only managed 9 before the blizzard hit: 6 by direct bow-shot, 1 by bow-shot bleed-out, and 2 (arg!) by knife wound bleed-out. This was after taking out the Misanthrope's Homestead Island bear, using his pelt to attract the wolves the next day. It should be awfully quiet around the Quonset Garage for the next several days. 😅

Edited August 30, 2021 by straffin
add picture

[piddy3825]

1 hour ago, straffin said:

Nuts... started late and only managed 9 before the blizzard hit: 6 by direct bow-shot, 1 by bow-shot bleed-out, and 2 (arg!) by knife wound bleed-out. This was after taking out the Misanthrope's Homestead Island bear, using his pelt to attract the wolves the next day. It should be awfully quiet around the Quonset Garage for the next several days. 😅

That is a good day out on the ice indeed!  Now to harvest all that meat!  

[manolitode]

4 hours ago, straffin said:

Nuts... started late and only managed 9 before the blizzard hit: 6 by direct bow-shot, 1 by bow-shot bleed-out, and 2 (arg!) by knife wound bleed-out. This was after taking out the Misanthrope's Homestead Island bear, using his pelt to attract the wolves the next day. It should be awfully quiet around the Quonset Garage for the next several days. 😅

Beautiful beautiful killstreak indeed, well done!

[Leeanda]

10 hours ago, straffin said:

Nuts... started late and only managed 9 before the blizzard hit: 6 by direct bow-shot, 1 by bow-shot bleed-out, and 2 (arg!) by knife wound bleed-out. This was after taking out the Misanthrope's Homestead Island bear, using his pelt to attract the wolves the next day. It should be awfully quiet around the Quonset Garage for the next several days. 😅

Isn't that going to involve  a lot of Cooking? I thought you were trying to avoid that?😃

[straffin]

14 hours ago, Leeanda said:

Isn't that going to involve  a lot of Cooking? I thought you were trying to avoid that?😃

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Indeed, but the cooking can come later...much, much later, if it ever comes at all.

[straffin]

So, funny story/stories...

After the nine-in-an-evening evening, #10 showed up the next morning and met a similar fate near the same location. Four more showed up over the next few days due to my stink as I tried to harvest the first 10. It was slow-going, partly due to the weather, but largely due to my wanting to conserve my knife edge and doing all my harvesting by hand. When all was said and done, I only ended up with a dozen pelts due to two of the first victims actually despawning before I could get to them. Oh well...how many wolf pelts do you really *need*, anyway? (Answer: None. Bears make a better coat anyway. 😛)

Edited August 31, 2021 by straffin
more detail

[piddy3825]

43 minutes ago, straffin said:

l...how many wolf pelts do you really *need*, anyway? 

as many as possible!  they make excellent wall decorations!

 

[straffin]

7 minutes ago, piddy3825 said:

as many as possible!  they make excellent wall decorations!

Ha! Haven't gotten into mods yet, particularly the "place anywhere" mod. I'm terrified that anything could mess up my 400+ day run before I reach 500. After that, tho, mods galore!

[piddy3825]

2 hours ago, straffin said:

Ha! Haven't gotten into mods yet, particularly the "place anywhere" mod. I'm terrified that anything could mess up my 400+ day run before I reach 500. After that, tho, mods galore!

actually you can "hang" pelts or hides on walls without using any mod(s).  It's been dubbed the "curing in place" glitch and it allows  you to cure any hide against most surfaces.  the process is fairly simple, yet time consuming.  when a pelt or hide reaches 99% cured, you pick it up and hold it against the wall.  you just stand there holding the item up against the wall, you will see it in a solid red pattern.  As the clock progresses and you reach 100% cured, the item turns from red to its normal color and viola" the item is cured in place.  I've experimented with this process extensively since it was first discovered.  Here's a pick where I covered the peg board sales rack in the gas station in CH>

 

[manolitode]

I'm also in an endgame, working to stay engaged. Your carcass collecting inspired me to a new challenge: kill 10 bears while revisiting some areas you haven't been to for a while.

First to go down was the bear by the fishing cabins in ML, I got him close to a cabin for an easier, not so windswept, harvest. Second victim was the bear sniffing out PV farmstead. Lured him to the front porch and headshot him, which made for another easy harvest. Go indoors, chop down furni. Go outdoors, chop up furri. And the third to meet his maker was a fella in TWM. Facing the lake by our beloved hut I followed the river left uphill til I found a buggy creature. He took an arrow to his back and ran away with neither footprints nor bloodtrace. After two days of searching for his carcass I gave up. Too bad, it was my favorite arrow  

Next up was the bear at MT bridge, which has to be the easiet bearkill in TLD, always slowpoking by the predator-safe vehicles. And that's where I am now. 4 down, 6 to go and still enjoying myself. I'm off to HRV next to finish off both bears and live the caveman dream til their hides are cured. I'll finish the challenge with a fast extermination of the tree muskebears in CH and the lonely Pooh in DP. That should leave enough hides to last me through the long relentless winter.

[straffin]

10 hours ago, manolitode said:

predator-safe vehicles

Okay...I don't understand this one...yet. Is this taking pot-shots at a bear from behind a vehicle then dodging *into* the vehicle when the bear gets close? Doesn't that mess with the damage/bleed mechanic like dodging into a building does?

[Leeanda]

No! I do it all the time when hunting bears especially on the bridge at MT!

Edited August 31, 2021 by Leeanda

[straffin]

I usually goat half-way down a rock face and shoot with wild abandon as they can't reach me there. 🙂

[Leeanda]

Don't blame you! I tried doing the standing on a large rock attack! Twice it nearly got me killed this week by the bear not me falling off! You'd be surprised how agile those things are!

[straffin]

UPDATE: Just cleared Day 500, so CHEEVO!! YAY!! but most of that was still Cooking Mama and Solitaire because I decided to try to collect all of the Buffer Memories as well. Wow is that BORING! Sleep outside in a Snow Shelter during the day, then pass time though the night, finger hovering over the ESC key to jump out of "Solitaire" when the goofy noise starts ONLY TO FIND THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE THAT MEMORY!! ARGH!! 

Also started going after all of the Cairns (map-assisted)...less boring, but still kinda tedious. Anyone know how to get to #160 (which is supposedly somewhere on the rocks on the other side of the river from Carter Dam)?

(One cheevo left... All Challenges. Still have Archivist, ATDS, and Darkwalker left...not looking forward to those...)

[Leeanda]

13 hours ago, straffin said:

UPDATE: Just cleared Day 500, so CHEEVO!! YAY!! but most of that was still Cooking Mama and Solitaire because I decided to try to collect all of the Buffer Memories as well. Wow is that BORING! Sleep outside in a Snow Shelter during the day, then pass time though the night, finger hovering over the ESC key to jump out of "Solitaire" when the goofy noise starts ONLY TO FIND THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE THAT MEMORY!! ARGH!! 

Also started going after all of the Cairns (map-assisted)...less boring, but still kinda tedious. Anyone know how to get to #160 (which is supposedly somewhere on the rocks on the other side of the river from Carter Dam)?

(One cheevo left... All Challenges. Still have Archivist, ATDS, and Darkwalker left...not looking forward to those...)

You found a map for the cairns? I tried the previously suggested link and came up with nothing! 

 

[straffin]

3 hours ago, Leeanda said:

You found a map for the cairns?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=937442672

Interested in hearing more about the whole "Since I was banned from the TLD forums for no reason I stop working on the guides. Who do they think they are?" thing. Anyone willing to share some general info?