What does insomnia actually do?

[SpanishMoss]

When walking through the glimmer fog on pilgrim, I intentionally got insomnia to see what it did.

Open getting it, you have to wait 35hrs before it goes away. The timer only ticks down when outside the glimmer fog.

However, it doesn't seem to actually do anything, I slept perfectly fine uninterrupted for a full 12hrs. (Contrary to the description of the affliction)

Granted, I did drink an herbal tea as the tip suggested. 

Does it work differently for anyone else?

Also, when you have the insomnia risk affliction, it says as one of the ways to escape it "go underground" But there's only one underground area in the entire map. (Under the hanger) unless I'm missing something

[DaPepster]

The only thing that I've seen that Insomnia does is randomly wake you up after a random number of hours of sleep with the message "Something woke you up."  Which is something that veteran players will recognize from the earliest days of the game up until 12-18 months later when they removed it, so it's literally nothing new and something that was resurrected from the past. 

[Kranium]

I wonder if caves are a safe place from the new fog? I haven't tested that yet. I mean, a cave is underground, innit?

[Serenity]

I haven't noticed much. It's weird. I've heard people say they are waking up during sleep, which would disrupt condition recovery. But I haven't experienced that myself. Even if it happens, it's not a huge deal on most settings. Unless you play with decreased condition recovery - and thus really need the long sleep - it usually doesn't matter.

I think I didn't get insomnia in caves, but I can't say for sure and haven't really tested it.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Serenity

[Morrick]

12 hours ago, SpanishMoss said:

However, it doesn't seem to actually do anything, I slept perfectly fine uninterrupted for a full 12hrs. (Contrary to the description of the affliction)

Granted, I did drink an herbal tea as the tip suggested.

Same here. And I didn't even have tea to drink. (Since the updating of the loot tables, I'm finding herbal tea way less frequently, by the way).

In my case, insomnia lasted 27 hours. I slept twice in that time interval, and sleep was peaceful in both instances. Insomnia had no impact whatsoever over my regular activities.

In my opinion, what insomnia should do (better) is to accelerate your fatigue level when you're up and about, because you're supposed to be more tired than usual. If your status got to 'Drained' mid-afternoon, this affliction could have the potential of being truly annoying. 😉

[Mistral]

It is pointless, but so are the spray cans, and we live with them in harmony.

[Shi-an]

I think the idea is that it's not incredibly detrimental in itself but can cause problems when combined with other issues. So you take some cold damage, don't heal as much because of insomnia, are attacked by a wolf and that difference in condition means the attack is fatal.

The main issue with changing it is that while it's easy to live with, it's difficult to counter. As far as I know you have to sleep at the Hangar (annoying if you're trying to do stuff in a different area of the map), or bring herbal tea (limited in supply). Right now the effects are minor in line with how limited the methods of preventing it are.

 

[RossBondReturns]

If you have no tea...and have been attacked by wildlife getting insomnia can be deadly.

Because you fail to get sleep which means you continually loose condition.

And if you were attacked by a Bear and a wolf...(like happened to me) and have no Tea...then yes the stacking issues of Condition loss on condition loss can bring death.

[xanna]

"Wait 12-24 hours for the affliction to pass"

Damn, even in a game my insomnia is way worse than they tell me it should be..

[tulkawendark]

Not every condition needs to be a severe debuff. In this case, the glimmer fog in itself is a much bigger punishment than the side effect it causes, these two combined is enough. I find insomnia to be something that can indirectly contribute to the long dark journey and it's fine the way it is.

[xanna]

I like having an affliction that isn't such a harsh effect. It could be a real problem when condition is very low, but otherwise it's easy to ignore. I think that it's cool to have a range of different intensity afflictions.

[stratvox]

I've found it to be pretty mild, but insanely difficult to avoid. Like the others here have said I suspect it's not intended to be seriously debilitating on its own, but combined with starvation or an animal struggle could be what tips you over the edge. I've had it a few times (I've been living out at the island cabin; I'd love mindful but there's a serious paucity of food there) without it being really brutal. I've had my sleep interrupted a couple of times from it... in the custom game I usually like playing I only do low condition recovery while sleeping and I could see it being much more serious in that context. At first I was a little irked that I couldn't avoid it in the backs of caves, but now that I've seen how minor it is I find it far more understandable. I still need to do more testing (for example, the rate of insomnia risk accumulation is 1%/10s real world time is one finding, and it doesn't matter if you're outside, in a building, or in a cave) because I think that the rate of condition recovery while sleeping is slower when one has insomnia, but I haven't figured out a way to directly measure it yet.

[hozz1235]

On 12/12/2022 at 7:14 AM, Mistral said:

It is pointless, but so are the spray cans, and we live with them in harmony.

Hey, I actually find spray cans pretty useful!

• In complex caves, I mark the mouth of dead-end passages
• In the really complex HRV caves, I use identifying marks to point me to specific cave exits
• Lately, I've been using it when I've discovered and looted a memento cache/marker
• On cars whose hoods won't open, I mark the hood to denote that I've looted it
• In some hidey-holes (not fully caves) where shelter from the wind is good, I'll mark for a good fire-making spot

[MarrowStone]

Maybe they should make it so the sleep condition recovery is impacted even more but Im fine with it being relatively pain free. Or maybe they make it so the first 2 hours of sleep gain no recovery so you have to sleep in larger chunks of time and hope you dont wake up

[Glacia]

5 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

Hey, I actually find spray cans pretty useful!

With the DLC update, im using spray cans sometimes for my first time in +500 hours of game. Because they help a lot with locating mementos, one or two marks can give you a precise clue about where the hidden cache is located 

[CelloMan]

As a visual effect, I really like the Glimmer Fog, added variety to the already pretty complex weather mechanics. As an affliction, Insomnia is decidedly MEH. Too easy to get, too hard to avoid, too little of an impact. But we must remember, this is only the first draft, plenty of time for it to be adjusted.

First of all, there should be a noticable difference in the rates of insomnia risk if one is actually walking around in it, inside a building, hunkered deep in a cave etc. They should make our decisions matter more, as it is now, I just shrug and keep on keepin on, no reason to search out shelter since I'll just get it anyway. It should be balanced out so that when the fog first starts, if you make a beeline for the nearest shelter you can avoid getting it, but if you dawdle along or don't know the map and get lost, you definitely get insomnia. Easily avoidable if you know what you're doing, but inevitable if you don't. 

Then they should make it have a little more impact, but last less long. I like the way it has an increasing duration if you keep getting exposed to the fog, but since it's basically unavoidable, it's always maxing out the duration. When you reach the end of the insomnia risk bar, it should slap you with a solid 6 hours of discomfort, and slowly climb from there if you are somewhat exposed (shallow cave, flimsy structure) or quickly climb if you insist on walking around in it willy nilly.

It's impact could be higher, like making a significant reduction in alertness regeneration. Like a ten hour sleep, if fully impacted by insomnia, would only net you around half of your alertness. I don't think condition regen should be dramatically impacted, mainly just make you extra sleepy and need more naps. But maybe make it so that all teas, if consumed hot, reduce the duration or severity. 

And what about a little visual effect, or even auditory artifacts, some light hallucinations, tunnel vision, maybe even a nightmare or something? Imagine being awoken from a dead sleep by a bear mauling or a moose stomping, only to wake up again on the floor next to the bed, clothes dampened by sweat and your heart pounding in your ears. I'm talking some PTSD kinda stuff. Lot's of possibilities for some really neat psychological/physiological effects, which we know Hinterland does so well (i.e. the Stim rush, Asphyxia)

All in all, I'm loving this DLC content so far, and I'm super excited to see how things progress over time. 

 

[acada]

On 12/12/2022 at 10:43 AM, Kranium said:

I wonder if caves are a safe place from the new fog? I haven't tested that yet. I mean, a cave is underground, innit?

Nope. I had the risk and went to cave. It fully developed into afflicton.

I think on its own the insomnia is just nuisance. But early on I had food poisoning. I decided to ignore it and craft my rabbit hat. I think 50% condition went down and was not recovered even after 10 hours sleep. In this situation the insomnia can be dangerous.

[ChillPlayer]

17 minutes ago, acada said:

Nope. I had the risk and went to cave. It fully developed into afflicton.

same goes for the holes, mini caves like that one near final approach. They are underground (caves are usually on the same ground) and I hoped that they would provide protection but they don't. I think the cellar at the hangar is the only safe place.

[mfuegemann]

I found that the blue trailer next to the runway was protecting me from glimmer fog too.

[acada]

And the cottage on the island does not protect against glimmer. One would say that it could be insulated. But probably it goes into through chimney.