Without a doubt, one of my favorite games

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

I love the brutal difficulty of survival mode, the beautiful colors, the art style, the atmosphere, the storyline of authored mode - just everything.

Here are a few suggestions, random tips, and the like :

• Wind should affect the distance at which predators can "smell" you
• One should be able to easily pull unlimited drinking water from freshwater ice fishing holes.  It could be made potable with the water purifier pills.
• A "you can't go that way" message would be far better than discouraging misguided exploration with infinite falling damage
• If you're in a structure and need firewood, look up in the rafters and along the walls.  Sometimes you'll see a stray plank or wall decoration that can be broken down

[hozz1235]

Welcome to the forums, @I_eat_only_wolf_meat.  Glad you're enjoying the game as much as the rest of us.

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

Thank you.  I'm late to the party, but I'm on Day 220 of a Stalker survival run now.  I've done all the exploration myself without relying on Google, so it's been a steep learning curve.

[piddy3825]

hello @I_eat_only_wolf_meat,  

So glad to hear your playing "blind" so to speak, learning how to play the game without "googling!"  That speaks volumes about the purity of your gameplay.
I hope you have achieved level 5 cooking skill by now, only because your avatar's name is "I only eat wolf meat!"  lol, otherwise constantly having to deal with parasites will be a daily concern for you until you do!   

I agree on a few of your points, like wind affecting distance for smelling the player and that non-potable drinking water should be attainable from fresh water fishing holes.  That would make perfect sense in terms of using the water purification tablets.  On the other hand, prompting a warning sign about dangerous terrain ahead seems simplistic and counterintuitive to the game's essence.  It's not like the weak ice warning you get when venturing too far from shore on the icepack.  When you are standing on a cliff side looking down, I think it's reasonable to expect injury and or death without warning if you were to proceed any further.  I guess that kind of behavior is what they would call "reckless" and what better way to learn what terrain to avoid in the future other than to be injured or killed in the process of discovery?

Anyways,  welcome to the forums!     Game on!      Play hard!   Die hard!   

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

2 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

When you are standing on a cliff side looking down, I think it's reasonable to expect injury and or death without warning if you were to proceed any further.  I guess that kind of behavior is what they would call "reckless" and what better way to learn what terrain to avoid in the future other than to be injured or killed in the process of discovery?

I agree.  If you're rock hopping around on Timberwolf Mountain, and misjudge something, you should be injured (or killed) in some kind of proportion to how far you fell.

I probably didn't make myself very clear, though.  I was talking about places like the rocks near that railroad trestle where it seems like you can explore by hopping down maybe 5-10 feet to the next rock.  However, that fall of a few feet will kill you instantly because (it appears) you're going "out of bounds" into non-explorable area.  So yeah, the game should be deadly, but only for reasons that actually exist in the game - i.e. I fall 100 meters from the plane at Timberwolf Summit.

To get back to game features for a moment, I would *love* to see a "disrobe" button on the wardrobe screen to make it easy to take off all your clothes in case you need to go under a waterfall or something.  Just a nice feature that should be easy to code (if any dev is still going on for this game)

[piddy3825]

34 minutes ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

 

....I probably didn't make myself very clear, though.  I was talking about places like the rocks near that railroad trestle where it seems like you can explore by hopping down maybe 5-10 feet to the next rock.  However, that fall of a few feet will kill you instantly because (it appears) you're going "out of bounds" into non-explorable area.  So yeah, the game should be deadly, but only for reasons that actually exist in the game - i.e. I fall 100 meters from the plane at Timberwolf Summit.

 

ahhh, yes!  The ole instakill areas where one misstep leads to the end of a glorious run with unanticipated finality!  Yeah, there are a few areas like that, I know, from practical experience.  The first time it happened to me, I was on day 482 and thought it was gonna be smooth sailing to get that 500 day achievement.  
that was an epic WTF moment for me to be sure.  It only got worse from there as the second time it happened I was on day 842 of a survival save game that I had been playing off and on for over 3 years.  at best the height of my precarious perch was ridiculous, definitely survivable as compared to previous falls in game, but no as instadeath claimed my survivor ending my run in pursuit of 1000 days.  I've learned now to avoid certain areas, particularly when it comes to goating around in
Raven's Ravine especially near the train trestle like you mentioned.  

since you mentioned that area, you should look up a video here on the forums posted by @Gun Tech., he found the one and only way down to the bottom of the ravine avoiding the instakill zones!  I know you stated you have avoided googling videos, but in this case, I think you'd get a kick outta watching how he did it!

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

I looked at a few of his videos.  His sanity is suspect but the dedication is admirable 😁  Nothing wrong with "out of game" solutions to "out of game" problems, in my opinion.  I just don't like spoiling the surprises and thrill of exploration that the game storytellers designed for us.  That's what we're paying for, after all.

Anyway, those "killbox" areas are what I was talking about.  A "You can't go this way" is a little hokey, but so is instant death from a five foot drop.  At least it wouldn't destroy a 800 day survival run.

 

[Stinky socks]

7 hours ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

destroy a 800 day survival run.

Backups!💿📀 unless you're on console😁

Seriously. Whoever suggested permedeath is good for the environment is

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

Well, like I said, I'm pretty OK with the permadeath.  Just not permadeath due to an "out of game" mechanism like a killbox.  A simple "You can't go here" message would be much more graceful.