Challenging is good, boring is not.

[mayaknife]

Four blizzards in five days. I've harvested all of the cloth, scrap metal and reclaimed wood that my base has to offer. I've boiled up enough potable water to fill a swimming pool. I've made enough charcoal to map all of Asia. What is there left to do but play cards and sleep? And so I sit for five minutes watching progress bars advance until the game decides that it's going to let me do something interesting.

At last, a sunny day! Let's go map the western half of Pleasant Valley! I tromp over there under blue skies but then fog rolls in making mapping impossible. Tromp home. Next morning it's sunny but by the time I get to the area I want to map the fog has again descended.

I'm holed up in a barn, warming up by a fire. Fifteen more minutes before my clothing is dry. Not much else I can do so I'll just skip time until it's done. But wait, no, I can only skip time in increments of one hour. So once again I am stuck sitting on my hands, waiting for the game.

The Long Dark is excellent at evoking a sense of solitude and desolation. Alas it is also far too often excellent at evoking a sense of boredom.

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

6 hours ago, mayaknife said:

I can only skip time in increments of one hour.

You can indeed pass time in smaller increments.  You have to press the "cancel" button when your desired amount of time has passed.  I use this extensively while traveling, e.g. come close to hypothermia, duck into a cave, warm up for 15 minutes, then head out again.

It would be nice if there was a "15 minute" button, though.

[UpUpAway95]

7 hours ago, mayaknife said:

Four blizzards in five days. I've harvested all of the cloth, scrap metal and reclaimed wood that my base has to offer. I've boiled up enough potable water to fill a swimming pool. I've made enough charcoal to map all of Asia. What is there left to do but play cards and sleep? And so I sit for five minutes watching progress bars advance until the game decides that it's going to let me do something interesting.

At last, a sunny day! Let's go map the western half of Pleasant Valley! I tromp over there under blue skies but then fog rolls in making mapping impossible. Tromp home. Next morning it's sunny but by the time I get to the area I want to map the fog has again descended.

I'm holed up in a barn, warming up by a fire. Fifteen more minutes before my clothing is dry. Not much else I can do so I'll just skip time until it's done. But wait, no, I can only skip time in increments of one hour. So once again I am stuck sitting on my hands, waiting for the game.

The Long Dark is excellent at evoking a sense of solitude and desolation. Alas it is also far too often excellent at evoking a sense of boredom.

Hunt... craft clothing.  Climb a mountain.  In general, go outside and play! 😀

[Serenity]

 Pleasant Valley

There is your problem

[Sito]

Yes UnPleasant Valley can be a game breaker. I started a new game with some harsher weather conditions than the previous one and started in CH to loot clothes and get kitted out. It was cold and I had to manage my condition but it was fun. When I got to PV however, the conditions were so bad that there was no chance to play outside and travel and map. I was not prepared for that level of harsh weather so I quit that game and started another with a bit easier settings.

I am better used to condition management now after many more hours of play that I plan on starting up a new game that will be very unpleasant. Just waiting for the next update to fix the corpse disappearing bug.

[piddy3825]

Lol, yeah just sitting around can be boring when you're waiting out a blizzard especially 4 in 5 days so you just got to make up something to do. 

I like to sprint up and down the stairs until my stamina runs out.  I keep doing that until I am so fatigued I'm tired enough to sleep. 
Then I work my way out to the car and take a nap.  

Benefits are I'm almost always fully rested and I never have to worry about cabin fever and before you know it, time has passed with minimal boredom!

[piddy3825]

here's what you do when you are really bored while riding out a series of blizzards...

[mayaknife]

5 hours ago, piddy3825 said:

here's what you do when you are really bored while riding out a series of blizzards...

That's cool. Where did you get the figurines? I've got about 200 hours in the game and don't ever recall seeing any.

[mayaknife]

On 2/17/2022 at 4:25 AM, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

press the "cancel" button when your desired amount of time has passed.

Huh. I was sure that I tried that once before and it didn't work. In any case, if it works now that will improve my QoL. Thanks for the tip!

[manolitode]

The Long Dark is a hard game. It's major premise is to keep you from doing the things you want to do. If you really enjoy a game like The Long Dark which is indeed superslow at times, then you probably have another reward circuit setup in your brain than if you prefer the average reward-spamming game. That's not saying that this or that wiring is better.

[UpUpAway95]

1 hour ago, mayaknife said:

Huh. I was sure that I tried that once before and it didn't work. In any case, if it works now that will improve my QoL. Thanks for the tip!

It'll work.  What it doesn't do is generate a save if you cancel before it runs "full circle."

[piddy3825]

1 hour ago, mayaknife said:

That's cool. Where did you get the figurines? I've got about 200 hours in the game and don't ever recall seeing any.

I hope your a pc player because that is a mod called "Wooden Statuettes."  Each carving takes one piece of fir wood and about one hour to carve in game time and offers
nothing else besides decoration, so no game changing mechanics making anything more easy or difficult.  Just good to help pass the time, like when there's a blizzard and you don't have much else to do besides nap.  Besides the wolf and deer carvings, there is also a bear and a moose!  

oh, I also use "place anywhere" a very decent mod that improves greatly on the object placement system in the game.  I did my best to make my "savage nature" scene look kinda plausible, glad you liked it by the way!

[Leeanda]

It'd be kinda cool if HTL sold them on their store. 

[SpanishMoss]

2 hours ago, mayaknife said:

Huh. I was sure that I tried that once before and it didn't work. In any case, if it works now that will improve my QoL. Thanks for the tip!

You can also press "esc" to cancel any passing of time

[hozz1235]

If you're familiar enough with the map, you can make a mad dash to another location and break down more stuff; however, this is also a common cause of death!

[piddy3825]

On 2/18/2022 at 3:22 PM, Leeanda said:

It'd be kinda cool if HTL sold them on their store. 

Yeah that would be very cool indeed, especially if they we actually hand carved outta wood.  
I'm afraid that demand would be so high that we would end up with cheap plastic injection molded crap made in China...

[Leeanda]

2 minutes ago, piddy3825 said:

Yeah that would be very cool indeed, especially if they we actually hand carved outta wood.  
I'm afraid that demand would be so high that we would end up with cheap plastic injection molded crap made in China...

I agree!  I  definitely wouldn't by a cheap plastic one!  Without the craftsmanship they'd lose their beauty and personality! 

[odizzido]

There is also a mod that lets you read in smaller chunks so you can read for 30mins while cooking.

[UpUpAway95]

28 minutes ago, odizzido said:

There is also a mod that lets you read in smaller chunks so you can read for 30mins while cooking.

That's one I really wish HL would incorporate into the vanilla game... for those of us on console who don't use mods.  Maybe it will be legitimately allowed on console after they bring in mod support.

[odizzido]

They really should. It's one of those things where you just shake your head in disappointment. You read for 59 mins and 59 seconds and 99ms and put your book down and it's as if you never read at all. It doesn't make sense and feels extremely artificial/gamey.