What's your favorite forge ?

[turtle777]

5 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

For some reason, players like to complain about the wolves in Broken Railroad; but they are no more difficult to deal with than wolves anywhere else on the map and certainly not more difficult than the wolves in the similar narrow stretch that Crumbling Highway is (and it's necessary to get through that section to get to Desolation Point)...

Totally agreed. That's part of why I don't like DP.

Yes, traveling during blizzards is an option, but the distance from Poachers to RR Maintenance Shed is long. Doing this in early IL game with limited clothes is quite dangerous.

Spences is really the safest / easiest option, IMO.

-t

Edited February 2, 2022 by turtle777

[UpUpAway95]

6 hours ago, turtle777 said:

Totally agreed. That's part of why I don't like DP.

Yes, traveling during blizzards is an option, but the distance from Poachers to RR Maintenance Shed is long. Doing this in early IL game with limited clothes is quite dangerous.

Spences is really the safest / easiest option, IMO.

-t

Early game, I agree that Forlorn Muskeg is probably the best bet (I think I said that farther up thread).  Going into Broken Railroad is much safer once you already have a bow and some arrows and travelling anywhere in a blizzard is much easier in a bearskin coat. 

If you are traveling into Broken Railroad in a blizzard, you can usually start a fire and warm up fairly safely in the railroad tunnel entrance (either side - one end or the other is usually out of the wind enough to get a fire going).

[Shadox]

I usually forge in DP, since its the nearest forge to CH and thats where i always settle down. Coal is abundant in all the caves around and the Metal in Riken alone is enough for many tools and arrows. Only real downside is that its a inside forge, and all those indoor crafting hours can add to cabin fever risk. Which might require 3-hour sleeping intervals in a cave, car or snow shelter afterwards.

After looting BR, theres no point in going through those wolf corridors just to forge in my opinion. 

FM forge is great too, less materials around compared to riken, but sufficient and its a outdoor location so cabin fever isnt a concern

[turtle777]

Ok, after playing TLD for many years, I went to forge in DP for the first time. 
Didn’t like the experience at all. 
 

- even when the forge is lit, you can not see anything around it. If you stash different items nearby (scrap metal, wood, coal), you have to search in the dark

- no work bench is a hassle as well

- always having to exit carefully to avoid the bear 

Well, none of the above is horrible, but it’s still my least preferred forge. 

What was fun though is that I confined myself to DP and CH only (plus crumbling highway and ravine - in order to have a guaranteed spawn of hammer, hacksaw and bedroll).

I don’t plan to leave these regions, I want to see how long I can keep it. 

-t

[piddy3825]

24 minutes ago, turtle777 said:

Ok, after playing TLD for many years, I went to forge in DP for the first time. 
Didn’t like the experience at all. 

- even when the forge is lit, you can not see anything around it. If you stash different items nearby (scrap metal, wood, coal), you have to search in the dark
- no work bench is a hassle as well
- always having to exit carefully to avoid the bear 

you know @turtle777about the only thing I can agree with is that not having a workbench nearby is indeed a hassle.

As to the having to seach in the dark, what's to prevent you from pulling a torch outta the furnace?  I drop stuff into separate piles while using the forge in the "dark" and although it can be quirky in there it's definitely not a deal breaker, or is it?  And next time you leave the ship go out the galley door and take a quick look around before you jump down on the ice.  If there is a bear nearby, you'll see him from the safety of the ship's deck long before he'll ever have a chance to jump you.  

For me, the only real pain is not having/finding a cooking pot anywhere in DP.  Which really sucks if go there without bringing one, especially if you are planning on spending some serious time there.   

btw, have you had a chance to gather coal from your private DP coal mine yet?  That's probably one the best features that DP has to offer, a self sustaining practically limitless coal supply.  Not to mention probably the greatest concentration of metal shelving, tables and chairs in the game!  

[turtle777]

Yes, coal is abundant. 
Haven’t found a cooking pot in neither CH nor DP in current IL run. 

-t

[Leeanda]

I have to say that the Riken does have a charm of its own.  Good sniper spot for the bear too as long as you're at the highest end cos he can get you lower down. 

Shame desolation is at the end of the main map though.

[yoww89]

Unpopular opinion here but as I've spent most of my days in Carter Dam, BR is so close I don't bother going to other forges. You just got to make sure you have enough health to survive one or two possible struggles if you miss your shots on the way there, but most of the time you can just completely avoid wolfies. One full night of sleep makes it safe enough for any experienced stalker player. Plus, one delivery of coal should be enough for all the years to come if you already used all pieces that spawned in the region. I mean 4 pieces per forging session (min) is very little when talking mid to late game.

[turtle777]

2 hours ago, yoww89 said:

I mean 4 pieces per forging session (min) is very little when talking mid to late game.

Yes, I agree. There is an "however" though.

With only 4 coal, you also need plenty of other fire wood. That might be hard to come by in later interloper runs.

The amount of coal I got from my recent Cinder Hill visit (41 coal) is ridiculous. But the problem is schlepping it all to DP.

-t

[yoww89]

41 minutes ago, turtle777 said:

Yes, I agree. There is an "however" though.

With only 4 coal, you also need plenty of other fire wood. That might be hard to come by in later interloper runs.

The amount of coal I got from my recent Cinder Hill visit (41 coal) is ridiculous. But the problem is schlepping it all to DP.

-t

Fair point. As I'm yet to run on Interloper I didn't know that. I went Stalker for all the extra items (guns most importantly 😂) and I'm trying to get all the Feats in this run before trying loper.

[piddy3825]

1 hour ago, turtle777 said:

Yes, I agree. There is an "however" though.

With only 4 coal, you also need plenty of other fire wood. That might be hard to come by in later interloper runs.

The amount of coal I got from my recent Cinder Hill visit (41 coal) is ridiculous. But the problem is schlepping it all to DP.

-t

Yeah, @turtle777, you never should have to schlep coal or firewood to DP.  

I can't see why a player would ever want to carry a massive load of coal into a region that has a regular self sustaining supply of coal?  I understand that many Interloper players carry some coal but not for the express purposes of forging.

To illustrate my point, I just launched a new Stalker game spawining in DP with the intent of staying there for the duration of my run.  I figured Stalker since I wanted to spawn in DP and of course you can't choose your spawn point when playing Interloper or I would have. 
My first order of business was to gather coal so I swept the transition cave  in DP from the crawl to the DP exit and it yielded 22 pieces of coal.  That does include 5-6 lumps that you usually find in a crate and those do not respawn.  So expect maybe upto 15 lumps as an average that replenish.    Next I swept the abandoned mine and picked up 9 more pieces of coal which also include 3-4 lumps in a crate.  So maybe only expect 5-7 lumps that replenish later on.  After I made my way to the Riken, I picked up another 8 lumps of coal in the hold bringing my coal total for my first forging session there to 39 lumps of coal. 

Of course once I use the coal I find on the Riken, I will need to collect more and bring it aboard but that's to be expected no matter what forge I frequent in the game.  As to firewood, fairly huge amount of fir and cedar that replenishes by the Stone Church and near the bridge.  Not to mention all the crate wood...

 

 

[Kranium]

I'm a BR fanboy, honestly. But it's not due to the forge alone, it's a combo of everything there which makes it my go-to for forging. I'm also talking about mid-to-late-game, as well.

 

Hunting there is arguably easiest, so the wolf danger, to me, is no worse than anywhere else. For example I shoot most wolves thru the window/doorway of the outdoors part of the M. Shed, and I'll lure them there if necessary. 1 shot 1 kill no danger. Over time, I've built up a huge cache of coal + wood there, too. I've made sort of a supply chain of cairns which I top up whenever I pass nearby on my way somewhere else, and/or pull closer (leapfrogging, basically) whenever I'm heading in that direction.

 

So now I have BR so well-stocked with things it doesn't have much of to start with, and it's essentially my vacation home now.

 

I use FM early game usually, but I don't like the region at all (kinda boring & I hate pathing around thin ice) so I otherwise do little more than pass thru as quick as I can.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Kranium

[DiscoJonny]

On 2/1/2022 at 3:22 PM, Jimmy said:

As a regular Interloper, I typically use Spence's forge over the Riken.

Considering that you cannot control where you spawn and that a player usually finds the heavy hammer in ML on Interloper difficulty, it just makes more sense to use the forge at Spence's in FM once you've acquired the requisite tool(s) than to travel all the way to DP once you have acquired the hammer. 
I'd say the opposite is true if you play stalker or the lesser difficulty settings, why not just spawn into DP where you will find all the tools and then can immediately get started forging.  

Nothing better to insure survival early on than being able to control your spawn point and make it happen with a conveniently placed forge nearby!

[turtle777]

1 hour ago, DiscoJonny said:

Considering that you cannot control where you spawn and that a player usually finds the heavy hammer in ML on Interloper difficulty, it just makes more sense to use the forge at Spence's in FM once you've acquired the requisite tool(s) than to travel all the way to DP once you have acquired the hammer. 

Yes, ML is a guaranteed hammer spawn in IL.

Between CH and the Ravine, you'll also get a guaranteed hammer spawn. But the avg. distances to travel to the Riken is greater than from ML spawn points to Spence's.

Granted, if you spawn in CH and find the hammer there, going to DP is perhaps an ok decision. If you have to go to the Ravine to get the hammer, you might as well move on to ML and Spences. When spawning in TWM or PV distances to DP and Species are probably about equal.

-t

 

Edited February 19, 2022 by turtle777

[DiscoJonny]

On 2/19/2022 at 11:39 AM, turtle777 said:

Yes, ML is a guaranteed hammer spawn in IL.

Between CH and the Ravine, you'll also get a guaranteed hammer spawn. But the avg. distances to travel to the Riken is greater than from ML spawn points to Spence's.

Granted, if you spawn in CH and find the hammer there, going to DP is perhaps an ok decision. If you have to go to the Ravine to get the hammer, you might as well move on to ML and Spences. When spawning in TWM or PV distances to DP and Species are probably about equal.

-t

 

Where exactly does the hammer spawn in Coastal Highway?  
I don't think I've ever heard of the hammer spawning in Raven's Ravine either.  Where exactly does it appear?
Might just come in handy next time I launch a new loper game, you know?

[Ahad Ahmet]

My favourite spot is BR for sure. I played stalker before and now playing on interloper, tried all the forges and i think the best is the one in BR. 

You only need to bring hacksaw, hammer, some food and 4 chunks of coal if you want to use minimum amount of coal. bringing coal should not be a problem since you just always carry coal with you (at least i do) on interloper. For the wolves, i either have a torch in my hand from the last stop to warm up myself and teas, if not that i always carry a flare or two if the wind blows away my torch and a wolf sees me, so i use a flare to get in. Once youre in there, you can get as many reclaimed wood or scrap metal as you want for the first forge. + there is an outdoor but warm bed for you to sleep (if the weather is ok) to avoid getting Cabin Fever. 

The problem with the FM is that you also have to carry all that scrap to there. Yeah, i definitely dont want to do that. 

For DP, i genuinely dont like there since there is so limited amount of loot and at the corner of the map. Yes you will get ton of coal but still the loot is trash and there is no food like BR or FM.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Ahad Ahmet

[Glflegolas]

I have actually used all three forges at various times.

Desolation Point is the most convenient for coal, but it's a bit out of the way, and the Riken is really dark inside, meaning I always need to use light sources. Desolation Point tends to run out of food rather fast too, so it's not really a good place to live for any length of time.

Forlorn Muskeg is the most central forge and offers lots of light to see by and sufficient coal, but it isn't indoors (so no carrying smelly food when forging) and I don't really like navigating the Forlorn Muskeg unless the visibility is at least halfways decent.

Broken Railroad isn't a bad region overall with the massive hunting lodge not far away, but, as others have said, all the coal has to be lugged in from Forlorn Muskeg. It's not a forge that I have used very often for the latter reason.

[peteloud]

1 hour ago, Glflegolas said:

. . .  Desolation Point tends to run out of food rather fast too, . . .

In Stalker the bear usually walks over to Riken and can be shot from safety.

[piddy3825]

4 hours ago, Ahad Ahmet said:

For DP, i genuinely dont like there since there is so limited amount of loot and at the corner of the map. Yes you will get ton of coal but still the loot is trash and there is no food like BR or FM.

 

2 hours ago, Glflegolas said:

Desolation Point tends to run out of food rather fast too, so it's not really a good place to live for any length of time.

 

 

50 minutes ago, peteloud said:

In Stalker the bear usually walks over to Riken and can be shot from safety.

 

 

I'd have to agree with peteloud regarding the "food" issue at DP.  Perhaps the lootable food items are limited on Interloper difficulty but the huntable wildlife provides more than enough calories to sustain a player quite nicely for many days if not weeks at time.   

Now I pretty much player stalker mode so in my game play I usually find a sufficient amount of lootable items to tide me over as I get my hunting groove going, but between the nearby bear den in close approximation to the fish processing plant, the deer population down by the Riken and also in the little frozen bay, not to mention the prolific rabbit warren by the stone church I usually harvest more than enough meat to keep my well fed status, pardon the pun, "well fed."   Not to mention the constant onslaught of wolves that are eagerly lining up to become my next meal and warm garment, not necessarily in that order.  For a bonus on calorie production, there's always the moose that typically spawns on the bridge.    Not only that, but hunting and harvesting the menacing predators is also relatively easy considering the many vantage points a player can use from which to shower their prey with arrow after arrow if need be.   

The only thing I really lament over when camping in DP for any length of time is the absence of two liter cooking pots...

[turtle777]

17 hours ago, DiscoJonny said:

Where exactly does the hammer spawn in Coastal Highway?  
I don't think I've ever heard of the hammer spawning in Raven's Ravine either.  Where exactly does it appear?
Might just come in handy next time I launch a new loper game, you know?

Ravine: Train Wagon

CH: Fishing Hut, Car Near Log Sort or Fishing camp under workbench

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11n0wfRQadaWay4feLbunF9dxIbS2hZ3O_I57x5JfF6s/edit#gid=235955453

-t

[Kranium]

I mean, for me the FM forge is barely any more central than the BR one, it's within spitting distance. Coming from 2 of the entrances to FM, it barely takes any longer to get there.

[Ahad Ahmet]

14 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

the huntable wildlife provides more than enough calories to sustain a player quite nicely for many days if not weeks at time.

Yes BUT i was talking about the first forge of the run so that's not really possible. And for the later forges, i would still choose BR if i have already been DP, but if i havent  i might just go and loot what i can find and get some coal. 

[Ahatch]

I voted DP for a couple of reasons first off I usually play Interloper and it may seem that the DP forge is somewhat more difficult to get to but quite often I find myself in Coastal Highway anyway and I will always make the the trek to the Riken to forge simple because -->

• First off if you crouch a lot you can usually easily bypass the wolves on the Crumbling Highway region and then the transition cave you load up on coal
• Once on DP you head to the coal mine and warm up and then skirt along by the church and across the bridge down to the Riken usually pretty safe route. 
• I usually have air shafts and bow already in my inventory due to abundance on CH / ML so once I get to the Riken I just have to forge then head over to Hibernia to make arrows. 
• I will often stay a bit on DP once I have the archery kit and kill the bear if it is the one that walks by the ship. It is an easy kill from the top of the Riken otherwise I will return to Coastal Highway soon after. 
• Lastly I'm not a huge fan of crossing Forlorn Muskeg if I'm unarmed as there is often wolves blocking key crossing areas and the weather tries to kill you by introducing blizzards or fog. 

[Leeanda]

I'm waiting to see if anyone chooses 'other'.  😃🤔

[piddy3825]

10 hours ago, Ahad Ahmet said:

Yes BUT i was talking about the first forge of the run so that's not really possible. And for the later forges, i would still choose BR if i have already been DP, but if i havent  i might just go and loot what i can find and get some coal. 

Ok, but I still think it only applies in this case to first run loper players.