...Memory Lane...

[ManicManiac]

I honestly wasn't sure if I would be exploring that cave today (without getting mauled or having to harm the wolf who'd chosen to make its den there).  However, after a half a night's rest (and a fair bit of coffee)... turned out I was feeling up to it after all.  The only variable I couldn't account for was weather.  I was hoping the bad weather would have blown itself out; after the blizzard that hit last night. 

The last thing I needed was to be snowed in and stuck inside a wolf's den overnight.

The weather that morning was a bit foggy, but nothing so bad as to badly limit visibility.  By the time I'd made over to the Broken Bridge, it seemed to have cleared up quite a bit.  I pulled out a flare and prepared myself to step inside.  Once I saw the entryway was clear, I decided to save the flare and see if I could at least take the path on the right with out being spotted... I knew there was only three ways this could end.  I'd either manage to pull it off... I'd be mauled, and have to fatally wound the wolf... or I'd have to outright shoot the wolf to avoid a mauling.  😖

From the sounds of the howls, rustlings, and patter of little footsteps... is seemed to me that wolf was in the main chamber.  I got low and headed up the divergent path.

When I reached the end of the path... I peeked over the edge into the abyss.  It was hard to make out, but I was able to spot the outline of a moving shape lurking hear the deer carcass just below.  I know it was going to far riskier to goat down from here.  There would be a good chance that the wolf could get into a position to block the way out (which of course would lead to a standoff).

Instead, I decided to creep backdown to the antechamber where the paths diverged, and approach from there.  The hope was to either use the flare to "pin" it to the far wall... or keep it rooted in the center of the main chamber.  This would be the moment of truth.

Thankfully, everything went to plan! 
It was a very tense few minutes...  I'd managed to catch the wolf's attention while it was near far wall, and it stalked towards me before digging in its heels in the center of the chamber.  In this situation, I was the invader.  I was intruding on its home after all.  I careful skirted along the wall all the way around the cave (but finding little besides the deer carcass - but I was certainly going to leave its meal alone... I didn't need it).  I backpedaled out of the main chamber and back towards the exit.  As expected the wolf stalked close but the flare kept it at bay.

I'd succeeded in my small goal... I'd explored a "wolf den" and managed to get away clear with no harm coming either me or the wolf who's home I intruded upon.  Even if that had been all I accomplished that day, I'd have been supremely happy about it.

However, there was still a lot of daylight left... so I set out on a route aiming to finish exploring all the notable locations in Desolation Point.

I was just getting in for the evening when I noticed this...

I quickly dropped some gear and went to go take a look... 
I was just beginning to think I wouldn't get to see it before moving on to Timberwolf Mountain.

The Lonely Lighthouse in an Aurora... one of my favorite sights in all of Great Bear Island.
I can now work on getting ready to head out to Timberwolf Mountain tomorrow... very very contentedly. 

[Leeanda]

Congrats on making it through the cave.😊. 

Beautiful aurora pics💗.    

Where did you take the shots of the road from? Near the rope climb?

[ManicManiac]

@Leeanda
There's a "half" fallen tree across the gap that I climbed out on... there is a branch blocking the way, and I didn't dare press my luck to see if it was a viable one-way shortcut.   

Edited March 25, 2023 by ManicManiac

[ManicManiac]

I was sure it would take a couple more days to "finish" exploring Desolation Point.  The weather held up though, and I make some good time on that route.  There is another Car to visit on the way out (right below the hill leading up to the church), but as I said... I'll check that on the way out.  

 

[Leeanda]

6 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

@Leeanda
There's a "half" fallen tree across the gap that I climbed out on... there is a branch blocking the way, and I didn't dare press my luck to see if it was a viable one-way shortcut.   

Ah I see.. thank you.    I thought it mightve been on the rock ledge round the side of the mine. I've been tempted to see how far round there I can go but wasn't sure if it was a instakill or not.

[ManicManiac]

Specifically, it's off the rock ledge next to Katie's Secluded Corner... and the tree looks like it might be possible to get across to the area right near the mine entrance leading towards Old Island Connector (Crumbling Highway).

For that pic though, I was crossing from the Secluded Corner side.  From the looks of it, even if it could be fully traversed... it looks like a one-way path.  I don't think we could get back to the Secluded Corner from the opposite side.

[Addendum]
or where you talking about goating around the rim of that ridge line? 🤔
As far as I know (and as of the last time I was goating around for Faithful Cartographer) that's not a fully traversable way to get around Blocked Highway.   ...but about half-way is a nice vantage point.

Edited March 25, 2023 by ManicManiac

[Leeanda]

Thank you... I see where you mean now.  I had to zoom in on the picture after to see the mine .

It does look rather risky up there.😊

[ManicManiac]

From that tree is where I grabbed the pics of down the road including the lighthouse, the other side for the Mine Entrance/exit, and looking down on Blocked Highway.

It seemed like too good a spot to just take one screenshot.  

[Leeanda]

High risk but high rewards😊 

 

You're missing something .....🐻.     It's the first time without his snapshot😁

Edited March 25, 2023 by Leeanda

[ManicManiac]

@Leeanda

I took snapshots of the bear...  
Today I even sat down in it's den. 😋

This one was taken in the first two days after arriving in Desolation Point.  I thought I included it... but if not:

If memory serves, this was after I was on the way back from the Waterfall near Matt's Truck.
On this run our Ursine friend takes an unusually wondering path up and down the road.
I suppose that route is not so unusual, but most commonly in the past I would find it ambling around through Hibernia and past the Riken.  In this run, it seems to stick to the road... then out on the ice around the rock formations, then back up to the road, and back to its den.  It has yet to deviate and take its old "normal" route.  

Edited March 25, 2023 by ManicManiac

[ManicManiac]

@Leeanda

I just took a look back through my chronicle... Sharp Eye!
I'd neglected to include my snapshot of the bear.  

Thank you!  Well spotted. 

[Leeanda]

2 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

I took snapshots of the bear...  
Today I even sat down in it's den. 😋

This was in the first two days after arriving in Desolation Point.  I thought I included it... but if not:

If memory serves, this was after I was on the way back from the Waterfall near Matt's Truck.
On this run our Ursine friend takes an unusually wondering path up and down the road.
I suppose that route is not so unusual, but most commonly in the past I would find it ambling around through Hibernia and past the Riken.  In this run, it seems to stick to the road... then out on the ice around the rock formations, then back up to the road, and back to its den.  It has yet to deviate and take its old "normal" route.  

😊.   Good job.  He mightve complained about being left out . No one likes an angry bear😁.  

I've only seen him on the road path once  ,he usually goes the Hibernia/riken route on my runs too..  

 

[ManicManiac]

I was looking over the stats kept in the Journal... I realized when I cited the run at 205 days; turns out I had mistakenly been looking at one of the "All Time" columns.   😖  Oops.

Well, to rectify that I will now clarify:
As of today's route and the following night's sleep the duration of the run so far  -  41 days.

For anyone else interested in The Numbers...

 

[Obscured for those who don't really want to scroll through pages of stats... ]

Edited March 25, 2023 by ManicManiac

[Leeanda]

Good stats.😊.  

2 questions....

How can it be 52% world explored when youve only been to 4 maps 

And can openers found??? Why is that on here?😁

[ManicManiac]

@Leeanda

Thank you, I have to say... in this context I'm kind of happy to see so many metrics with "zeros." 🤭

I can't say I know for sure how that metric is calculated/updated.  I guess I could venture a few guesses... but I can't claim to know for certain.  Could be a bug out calculation perhaps?  Maybe Pleasant Valley, Mystery Lake, and Coastal Highway have more square kilometers of explorable area then I've given it credit for?  🤭🤔

I'll check one snapshot I'd taken when I was still working on Pleasant Valley... (which was before the last update which included stats for the TFTFT regions)

Relevance of the Can Oper stat... No idea whatsoever.  

[Leeanda]

5 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

@Leeanda

Thank you, I have to say... in this context I'm kind of happy to see so many metrics with "zeros." 🤭

I can't say I know for sure how that metric is calculated/updated.  I guess I could venture a few guesses... but I can't claim to know for certain.  Could be a bug out calculation perhaps?  Maybe Pleasant Valley, Mystery Lake, and Coastal Highway have more square kilometers of explorable area then I've given it credit for?  🤭🤔

I'll check one snapshot I'd taken when I was still working on Pleasant Valley... (which was before the last update which included stats for the TFTFT regions)

Relevance of the Can Oper stat... No idea whatsoever.  

I know there has been a few oddities with stats in the past... It's been worse since BlackRock was added.  So bugged is likely. 

The can opener is probably one of those things that'll always be a mystery😁

[ManicManiac]

@Leeanda
I was sure I had a screenshot of my loading selection menu from a little earlier in the run... possible it was deleted the last time I tidied up my screenshots folder.   

The method I use to get rid of the HUD for the shot and still get a more manageable file size - I press both F10 and F12 simultaneously, though this sometimes results in two screenshots being taken and added to the Screenshots folder in Steam... as well as the usual F10 screen-grab that dumps to the desktop (they are better resolution and sans HUD, but the file size is a bit more unwieldy for the purposes up inserting them into posts).

Those "meta" type screenshots do tend to get weeded out of the library when I'm trying to tidy up those extras with HUD elements still in the mix.  

...long story short 🤭...  I don't seem to have an older load menu shot from this run to compare that percentage.

Part of me thinks that perhaps it's bugged or maybe really does keep track of the amount of area rendered in visual range (which would include all caves and transition zones - which of course also increase the total traversable area).

Ultimately, I don't know... that's about the best idea I can come up with at the moment.  

Edited March 25, 2023 by ManicManiac

[Leeanda]

2 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

@Leeanda
I was sure I had a screenshot of my loading selection menu from a little earlier in the run... possible it was deleted the last time I would cleaning up my screenshots.   

The method I use to get rid of the HUD for the shot and still get a more manageable file size - I press both F10 and F12 simultaneously, though this sometimes results in two screenshots being taken and added to the Screenshots folder in Steam... as well as the usual F10 screen-grab that dumps to the desktop (they are better resolution and sans HUD, but the file size is a bit more unwieldy for the purposes up inserting them into posts).

Those "meta" type screenshots do tend to get weeded out of the library when I'm trying to tidy up those extras with HUD elements still in the mix.  

...long story short 🤭...  I don't have an older load menu shot from this run to compare that percentage.

Part of me thinks that perhaps it's bugged or maybe really does keep track of the amount of area rendered in visual range (which would include all caves and transition zones - which of course also increase the total traversable area).

Ultimately, I don't know... that's about the best idea I can come up with at the moment.  

Well if it includes the transition zones that'd make more sense.. not sure it'd account for quite so much % wise  though but I suppose some are quite large areas.   

Maybe admin have an answer....    And to the can opener too😁

[ManicManiac]

@Leeanda
If actual land area is taken into account... then each region would have a different value rather than just a percentage evenly distributed based on the total number of regions.  Since Pleasant Valley is so much larger than any other region (though I can't account for The Far Territory, since I've not been there yet and honestly I'm not sure of the size of Blackrock), it's conceivable then that just exploring Pleasant Valley alone would be likely to dramatically increase the total percentage of the "world explored."

I guess all I'm saying here is that it's also possible that the metric is correct, and we just don't really know how it's being determined. 🤔

 

[Leeanda]

15 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

@Leeanda
If actual land area is taken into account... then each region would have a different value rather than just a percentage evenly distributed based on the total number of regions.  Since Pleasant Valley is so much larger than any other region (though I can't account for The Far Territory, since I've not been there yet and honestly I'm not sure of the size of Blackrock), it's conceivable then that just exploring Pleasant Valley alone would be likely to dramatically increase the total percentage of the "world explored."

I guess all I'm saying here is that it's also possible that the metric is correct, and we just don't really know how it's being determined. 🤔

 

Oddly I've just looked at mine and it says 62%. .while not searching half of them thoroughly I have been to every location except hrv. .   

I'm kind of confused by it ... Well more confused than I normally am.😁

Edited March 26, 2023 by Leeanda

[ManicManiac]

Hmm... there definitely seems to either something amiss... or we're missing something.  
Again, I don't pretend to know either way... just venturing ideas and speculative guesses trying to account for what we're seeing... with that you just described; I'm out of ideas. 🤭

[Leeanda]

1 minute ago, ManicManiac said:

Hmm... there definitely seems to either something amiss... or we're missing something.  
Again, I don't pretend to know either way... just venturing ideas and speculative guesses trying to account for what we're seeing... with that you just described; I'm out of ideas. 🤭

Well I doubt it's mapped as I've hardly done any...  What about looted?

[ManicManiac]

@Leeanda
Possibly, I suppose.

I tend to suspect that i's more to do with what has been rendered.  In that way, it could account for each square kilometer as we go along... and the distances accounted for would essentially be everything that has swept across our visual/render distance.  (again I can't know for sure... just an idea)

I didn't mean to dwell so much on metadata 🤭

Edited March 26, 2023 by ManicManiac

[Leeanda]

Also a possibility.🙂.  

If you don't wish to continue this particular subject I understand.🙂.  

I'm hoping someone can explain the can openers though😁

[ManicManiac]

For the next step in the journey:


Since I'm essentially finished exploring Desolation Point (I'm double checking my journal to make sure), then it would be time for one last sort and stow before heading out to the next region on the list:

Region	Discovery
Mystery Lake	22 Sep 2014
Coastal Highway	30 Oct 2014
Pleasant Valley	7 Feb 2015
Desolation Point	18 Sep 2015
Timberwolf Mountain	16 Dec 2015
Forlorn Muskeg	19 Dec 2016
Broken Railroad	1 Aug 2017
Mountain Town	1 Aug 2017
Hushed River Valley	14 June 2018
Bleak Inlet	10 Dec 2019
Ash Canyon	7 Dec 2020
Blackrock	6 Oct 2021

I was also pretty pleased to realize I was able to explore Desolation in Point in 4 days.  I suppose if I had pushed harder, I could have got it done in maybe two.  

Timberwolf Mountain has been my favorite region to live in at least since 2016 (admittedly it took me a little while to "warmup to it" 🤭).  It will be nice to return.  Lounging on the pier, sipping coffee while looking out on Crystal Lake... watching wolves skulking around (occasionally harassing/eating deer).  A push for the Summit is always an interesting trip.

I'll have to see what the day brings.  I'll double check the journal to make sure I didn't miss any significant points of interest, and get things sorted and ready for departure.

Desolation has been a pretty generous place... I'd found a revolver, flare gun, and another bow & arrow set.  All things I will leave behind at the Lonely Lighthouse of course.  As always, I only want the barest of essentials as I move from region to region.  I think the only exception might be for Bleak Inlet, Blackrock, and any place I'm likely to have to deal with Timber Wolves.  While it's certainly possible to stealth past them if we are careful and watchful enough... I don't think it's unreasonable to bring a revolver along with me for Timber Wolf defense.   

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by ManicManiac