The Flame Must Live!

[LunarLime]

Intro

Hello fellow winter enjoyers! Today I'm going to be starting a new challenge called "The Flame Must Live". In a very short summary, the challenge is I have to keep a fire going forever, by any means necessary. If the fire dies out, game over, start again. I'm sure that I'm far from the first person to create this sort of challenge, but I've made a few rules to hopefully make it different.

To Begin

How I'll begin, is I'll pick a random region to spawn and run towards the nearest house with a fireplace of some kind inside it. I'll pick up any sort of fuel inside or anything in the near vicinity outside, and light the fire with the matches you start out with. Once that's done, the fire will be called "The One Fire" and the challenge begins truly. I have to keep feeding the fire fuel forever. If it goes out, it's game over. Obviously, if my character dies, that's also a game over.

transporting

"The One Fire" is the only fire I can light, I can't light another one without transporting it. To transport The One Fire, I have to use a torch that I either create, find, or pull from The One Fire itself. If the Torch goes out from strong winds, I have to go back and get a new one. If The One Fire goes out, but I have a lit torch, the challenge goes on. One thing is I CAN NOT create a campfire at all. The One Fire has to be made on an already existing fireplace of some kind, whether it be a stove, or a fireplace. If the campfire is something that was already placed in the world without me placing it there, then it can be used.

Difficulty

The difficulty is going to be custom . It's basically Stalker difficulty, but with just a few adjustments. Here's the code if anyone is interested  

8HjY-mmqa-DhqG-5CqG-N+MB   

One Small thing to add...

One thing that I need to state is I will be using a few mods, but don't worry, none of them will be cheating. Obviously I won't be using anything like "Infinite Fires". Almost all mods are just things that add some 'background stuff', that likely won't come into play much. The most game changing mods that I have are some new food items. If any mods come into play, I will be sure to mention it, what mod it is, and who made it.

Okay, that about all. Time to get started...

Edited June 24, 2023 by LunarLime

[LunarLime]

Attempt 1

Day 1

So my start is about as good as it can get. I spawn in Mountain Town, near the bridge. It was night, but sunrise was only about an hour away. The closest fire spot I know of is in the church. It was a campfire, but not one I placed, so it's a valid spot for The One Fire. I run down that way to begin the challenge. I make it before I started freezing, pick up a few books, and light the fire. Took me a few seconds to find it the dark, but when it was lit, I scrounged around for more books, and added those to the flame as well.

The books, plus a stool I broke down for wood, and a cedar log I found outside added up to 4 hours of fire life. I won't stay in the church for very long... I'll move to Grey Mother's house later today, but I'll do that when it's warmer outside. For now, I'm going to rest.

[conanjaguar]

Are there enough sticks around the church to sustain The Fire?

I should think that going to Grey Mother’s house would be a better option, it’s in the middle of a couple hundred pieces of reclaimed wood, if you can find a hatchet, that is.

A tip: only travel in fog, it’s the least prone to sudden wind gusts that will blow out your torch.

[LunarLime]

35 minutes ago, conanjaguar said:

Are there enough sticks around the church to sustain The Fire?

I should think that going to Grey Mother’s house would be a better option, it’s in the middle of a couple hundred pieces of reclaimed wood, if you can find a hatchet, that is.

A tip: only travel in fog, it’s the least prone to sudden wind gusts that will blow out your torch.

I had to start the fire at the closest fire spot that I knew of. The campfire in the church was closer than the stove in Grey Mother's house.

Edited June 24, 2023 by LunarLime

[ArchimedesLP]

I've done a few versions of this. Definitely fun to play around with and see what's possible and how far you can push things. I guess you are allowed to chain torches on your way to the next fire location?

[LunarLime]

10 minutes ago, ArchimedesLP said:

I've done a few versions of this. Definitely fun to play around with and see what's possible and how far you can push things. I guess you are allowed to chain torches on your way to the next fire location?

To an extent, yes.

I'm going to need to strategies somewhat when moving however. Some places I won't be able to go, like climbing up ropes.

[ArchimedesLP]

8 minutes ago, LunarLime said:

To an extent, yes.

I'm going to need to strategies somewhat when moving however. Some places I won't be able to go, like climbing up ropes.

 

Definitely the restriction on firestarting locations will make things difficult, but I think you can still get some ropeclimbs in as long as it's carefully planned and you always retain the option to backtrack to your last fire.

 

Milton is a tough place to start, to leave you'll need to transport the fire all the way from the farm to the broken building in the basin, or from the park building all the way to trapper's. I'm not sure which is more difficult.

[conanjaguar]

2 hours ago, LunarLime said:

Some places I won't be able to go, like climbing up ropes.

You can carry a lit torch up and down ropes just fine… probably best to craft a few 100%-ers just for that purpose .

2 hours ago, ArchimedesLP said:

from the park building all the way to trapper's. I'm not sure which is more difficult.

I’ve torched from the park to Trapper’s multiple times, it’s about as easy as it gets. You can also camp out in the cave between the ropes (which has some guaranteed firewood) if things get windy. I was also about to say guaranteed matches, but really, you only ever use ONE match in this challenge .

[Leeanda]

13 minutes ago, conanjaguar said:

You can carry a lit torch up and down ropes just fine… probably best to craft a few 100%-ers just for that purpose .

I’ve torched from the park to Trapper’s multiple times, it’s about as easy as it gets. You can also camp out in the cave between the ropes (which has some guaranteed firewood) if things get windy. I was also about to say guaranteed matches, but really, you only ever use ONE match in this challenge .

It's the stamina issue that may be a problem....  It nearly killed me climbing up the rope to the park office... 

[ManicManiac]

Well done.  I always appreciate the creativity of folks making their own personal challenges.  
I've always been a vocal proponent of the idea that we can drastically change our player experience simply by choosing to change the way we play.

I think this one is rather interesting.
It reminds me a little of a side challenge where I was forcing myself to live out in the open at the "park" next to  the Church at Thompson's Crossing.
The idea was to keep the fire alive for as long as possible and could only take shelter there to tank the blizzards of Pleasant Valley.  It was a nice little camping trip that I ended up keeping going for 31 days.    - I was really just there to try to speed up mending progress, work on my "Straight to the Heart" merrit badge, and go for my "Blizzard Walker" merrit badge.  (I know I'll never use feats... but I do still enjoy earning the badges )

On 2/3/2021 at 2:51 PM, ManicManiac said:

I'd say that the camping trip has been a success.  
I did decide to let the fire extinguish after 745 hours (just a little over a full 31 days).  The very frequent blizzards did their job well.  As of right now, my mending very nearly maxed out (perhaps just another one or two more mending actions should get that skill maxed out).  Also, very near the end of my little camping trip I earned my Blizzard Walker badge.

  

Honestly, I love your idea for a personal challenge.
I wish you well on your current adventure. 
 

Edited June 24, 2023 by ManicManiac

[ArchimedesLP]

30 minutes ago, conanjaguar said:

I’ve torched from the park to Trapper’s multiple times, it’s about as easy as it gets. You can also camp out in the cave between the ropes (which has some guaranteed firewood) if things get windy. I was also about to say guaranteed matches, but really, you only ever use ONE match in this challenge .

 

Yes, it's not bad if you have the option to camp out in the climbing area cave(and the transition cave.) But according to OP's rules they can't make new campfires, only use existing fire locations. I don't remember for sure if either of those caves have existing fire pits. That's a long way to backtrack if you make it 80% of the way there and then the wind blows your torch out.

[conanjaguar]

40 minutes ago, ArchimedesLP said:

don't remember for sure if either of those caves have existing fire pits.

I’m 99.987654% sure that both the open cave and the transition cave have existing fire pits…

[LunarLime]

So, still sitting in the church. I'm only able to stay outside for brief amounts of time, since morning is super cold, and my clothing is about as weak as it can get for now. I was able to get a good amount of sticks for The One Fire, and some cat tail celery while I was out, which should allow me to stay here until it gets a bit warmer so I can head in Milton. I'm also using a can to boil some water while warmed up.

If the wind also settles, I'll be able to move The One Fire into Grey Mother's house, I would like to do that ASAP. I Should be able to do it with a torch I pull from the fire itself.

[conanjaguar]

1 minute ago, LunarLime said:

I Should be able to do it with a torch I pull from the fire itself.

Multiple torches are always better than one if you have unexpected delays, I suggest you pull as many as you can . Does lighting a torch from a torch that you took from The One Fire count as taking a torch from The One Fire itself?

[LunarLime]

2 minutes ago, conanjaguar said:

Multiple torches are always better than one if you have unexpected delays, I suggest you pull as many as you can . Does lighting a torch from a torch that you took from The One Fire count as taking a torch from The One Fire itself?

That's actually a good question that I forgot to mention in the first post. 

Answer: No, I CAN NOT 'chain' torches together. Transporting has to be done with only one torch.

[LunarLime]

Wind died down enough for me to be able to transport the fire to Grey Mother's house. I spent most of the day gathering up sticks around town. However, I did manage to make my way up to the picnic area, and found a hatchet in one of the benches. Also found a firearm cleaning kit inside the 'picnic hut'. As it got late (and too cold as well) I went back to call it a day. 

While I was rummaging through the house for anything that could go into the fire, I found a revolver under the master bed, along with some ammo. Perfect for Milton, as it seem to be the favorite hangout spot for wolves. Other that that? I also read through 5 hours of the animal harvesting book. I forgot where I found (guessing somewhere inside Grey Mother's house). After that I fed the fire enough fuel to last the night and went to bed. 

[LunarLime]

Day 2

Next morning I used my hatchet to gather up some tree limb logs to fuel The One Fire long enough for something I planned as soon I spawned here. I was hoping to head to the prepper cache today, and fortunately I did. With about 10 hours of life on the fire, I made my way to the cave towards the cache. Inside the cave I gathered a few pieces of coal while I ventured through. 

I got to the bunker and luckily it was a stocked one. The most worthy things I found and took were as listed (From what I remember):

• Survival bow 
• 4 arrows
• An arrow head
• Lantern 
• Lantern fuel (roughly 2 liters)
• Quality tools
• Hunting knife
• Hacksaw 
• Gunsmith book
• Archery book
• 2 snares
• 3 cured rabbit pelts
• 2 cured guts
• Hunter's Revolver (One of the new revolver variants)

First time I found one of the new variants in part 3 of TFTFT. It's description says it's "deadlier at a longer range" So more range? Cool, my favorite rifle is the Curator's Rifle because of it's range. Anyways back to the house! The One Fire needs me!

[LunarLime]

The attic in this Milton home is weird....

[Leeanda]

3 minutes ago, LunarLime said:

The attic in this Milton home is weird....

You're not wrong there,its downright  creepy.

[conanjaguar]

3 hours ago, LunarLime said:

Lantern fuel (roughly 2 liters)

I think this would be better spent on torches than lanterns… a 100% torch will get you a long way.

[LunarLime]

1 hour ago, conanjaguar said:

I think this would be better spent on torches than lanterns… a 100% torch will get you a long way.

I just call it lantern fuel. I know it's really called 'kerosene', but I've gotten the habit of calling it lantern fuel, because... Well what I use 99% of it for all my playthroughs.

Also, asking this in the nicest way possible, but can you please stop with backseat gaming? I know you're trying to be helpful, and I appreciate it, but I would like to just play on my own, and make me own mistakes, and learn them, and backseat gaming is a really big pet peeve of mine. Also, I'm realistically going to a lot further into the run than what my posts suggests, so any help you can give here is likely to be pointless.

Edited June 25, 2023 by LunarLime

[conanjaguar]

23 minutes ago, LunarLime said:

can you please stop with backseat gaming?

Yep, not another word from me 🤫.

Edited June 25, 2023 by conanjaguar

[LunarLime]

So, check list on what has been happening, and I plan to do

• The One Fire still lives
• Been searching the houses in Milton for better clothing (Nothing too great)
• Read through the harvesting, archery, and gun smithing books 
• Hunted enough rabbits for enough pelt to make the mittens, just waiting for them to cure
• Same with wolf skins for the coat, waiting for them to cure
• Couple auroras happened. Gathered some buffer memories
• Still plenty of firewood remain for me to chop
• Made 3 torches for transporting. Can't chain them, but nothing stopping me from keeping multiple of them on hand for a few transports

As for what happens next, I plan to go to Hushed River Valley to get Woodwright's Bow soonish. But going to scout ahead to see if I can move The One Fire up temporarily. That's about it for now... 

Edited June 26, 2023 by LunarLime

[LunarLime]

This wooden ladder right here... You should be able to break it down for wood, but you can't...

[LunarLime]

Is anyone else having this strange bug where dead rabbits keep repeating their "dying sound" and having glitched out animations? I swear, the wolves in Milton have munched on like 5 rabbits, and every time they glitch out like that. So strange...

I'm likely going to take a short break from TLD until that get resolved. It's giving me a migraine.