discussion Survivor talk, might have spoilers.

[FaT McMarlin]

29 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Oh I see ,sorry...  😅.   I thought you meant just the prison ..   

I'd like to see a few places swapped round actually....    I like desolation point but don't really go very often because I'm not keen on coastal highway. 

I'd swap ash for forlorn maybe...  

If given the chance I'd make that swap between FM and AC. But then the region wouldn't ever be visited. 

Desolation Point is so small though. It feels like it should be a transfer region to Perseverance Mills. Useful and worth exploring but it feels so small like it was meant to be a pass through.

@ManicManiac I play on Voyager and have had a few attacks when I was sleeping. One was a bear that I thought I was safe on a ledge from, slept with meat on me and got killed. I also got attacked in my sleep in a cave while a fire was going in the entrance. Like your said, could have been a glitch or bug. I could have done something really dumb like sleeping with meat when it happened. I don't remember exactly. It was before the DLC came out last year and in one of my very first runs. There's a whole mess of nooby things I could have done to cause it and tons of nooby things I did that I somehow survived i.e. falling down the rope to TWM summit and survived. 

[Leeanda]

7 minutes ago, FaT McMarlin said:

If given the chance I'd make that swap between FM and AC. But then the region wouldn't ever be visited. 

Desolation Point is so small though. It feels like it should be a transfer region to Perseverance Mills. Useful and worth exploring but it feels so small like it was meant to be a pass through.

@ManicManiac I play on Voyager and have had a few attacks when I was sleeping. One was a bear that I thought I was safe on a ledge from, slept with meat on me and got killed. I also got attacked in my sleep in a cave while a fire was going in the entrance. Like your said, could have been a glitch or bug. I could have done something really dumb like sleeping with meat when it happened. I don't remember exactly. It was before the DLC came out last year and in one of my very first runs. There's a whole mess of nooby things I could have done to cause it and tons of nooby things I did that I somehow survived i.e. falling down the rope to TWM summit and survived. 

I love ash canyon but don't go as often as I'd like because I get sidetracked in twm😁.  

Maybe desolation is going to be a way to pm. , The broken bridge could be fixed up a bit so we can go through..  it'll be fun finding out .  I know it's small but it does have quite a few cosy spots... The lighthouse is very popular  ,plus there's the forge. Personally I love the church ,it's just a very calming and peaceful place to stay in.    

[FaT McMarlin]

1 minute ago, Leeanda said:

I love ash canyon but don't go as often as I'd like because I get sidetracked in twm😁.  

Maybe desolation is going to be a way to pm. , The broken bridge could be fixed up a bit so we can go through..  it'll be fun finding out .  I know it's small but it does have quite a few cosy spots... The lighthouse is very popular  ,plus there's the forge. Personally I love the church ,it's just a very calming and peaceful place to stay in.    

I tend to burn right through TWM to AC.  I think if it was more central, it would be my favorite place to stay. In DP, I usually just stay at the forge. Get done what I need to and get back to exploring aka dropping bears lol

[conanjaguar]

1 hour ago, FaT McMarlin said:

What difficulty are you running?

Stalker mostly, but over the last year I’ve turned to some of the insanely hard challenges… Deadman, Neo-Native, Snowballs, etc. etc…

[Leeanda]

6 minutes ago, FaT McMarlin said:

I tend to burn right through TWM to AC.  I think if it was more central, it would be my favorite place to stay. In DP, I usually just stay at the forge. Get done what I need to and get back to exploring aka dropping bears lol

Well the riken is a good place for shooting the bear,as long as you keep to the higher end of the boat. Otherwise it can reach you. 

I do like both twm and ash , ash is a more beautiful but sometimes confusing place but twm has a lot more resources and feels more open.

[FaT McMarlin]

3 minutes ago, conanjaguar said:

Stalker mostly, but over the last year I’ve turned to some of the insanely hard challenges… Deadman, Neo-Native, Snowballs, etc. etc…

What are these challenges you speak of? Never heard of snowballs, or neo-native?

[FaT McMarlin]

2 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Well the riken is a good place for shooting the bear,as long as you keep to the higher end of the boat. Otherwise it can reach you. 

I do like both twm and ash , ash is a more beautiful but sometimes confusing place but twm has a lot more resources and feels more open.

Hold up, you're saying I'm lucky beyond belief? I usually stand right above the door in to the Riken to hunt that bear.  I didn't know it could get up there. 

AC is terribly confusing. I've been pretty good about entering from the cave right to Pillars Footrest. From there I'm pretty confident I know where I'm headed. Still get lost way to often, but it's getting easier to become unlost.

[Leeanda]

5 minutes ago, FaT McMarlin said:

Hold up, you're saying I'm lucky beyond belief? I usually stand right above the door in to the Riken to hunt that bear.  I didn't know it could get up there. 

AC is terribly confusing. I've been pretty good about entering from the cave right to Pillars Footrest. From there I'm pretty confident I know where I'm headed. Still get lost way to often, but it's getting easier to become unlost.

It can't get into the boat but it can reach out and grab you from the low end...  

Oh I know AC is confusing.. after all this time I can still go round in a big circle 😁. 

Up high I'm ok but ground level has a lot of nooks and crannies and pathways.

[conanjaguar]

@FaT McMarlin

The original Snowball challenge was essentially to survive for as long as possible in TWM region on Interloper difficulty without leaving. It has since been adapted to other regions with varying success rates.

Here’s the original thread, by @Drifter Man: 

And @Gooner77’s thread, adapting the challenge to FM and succeeding:

And my (mostly failed) attempts: 

 

The Neo-Native challenge was proposed by @Gun Tech., the goal being to survive 50 days on any difficulty without using ANY man-made items. This thread of mine is (as far as i know) the only written chronicle of it…

 

[ManicManiac]

59 minutes ago, FaT McMarlin said:

That seems very interesting! Where do I find this chronical?  

Here are some of them (including my current run there at the end):

^This one was a pretty large-scale personal challenge... not just about getting Faithful Cartographer achievement but morphed into many personal challenges and how I rose to meet them.

^ For this one, I was testing myself to see if I could survive and thrive without ever visiting a forge on interloper.
TLDR: It's doable... but it's rough.   It was also some "As the Dead Sleep" training.

^ For this one, the main challenge was that I was playing with no sound and had to rely solely on visual ques to maintain situational awareness.

^ This one is my most current run.

I suppose it should also be noted that all of my runs (regardless of "difficulty mode") are all played with no feats.
I've never really been keen on feats, but that's only because I'm not really interested in things meant the make life easier for our survivor.  

---

1 hour ago, FaT McMarlin said:

What's your best advice for noobs wanting to develop better game instincts? What's a rule you follow that you developed for yourself that's really helped you stay alive?

I'd say that exploring and sort of forcing oneself to spend time in the regions goes a long way towards gaining an ability to sort of read environmental clues, animal behaviors, and an idea of where one can find shelter from any given location.  It's entirely possible to go many hundreds of days without ever getting into a wildlife struggle (if I've done it, then anyone can).

We just have to pay close attention to our surroundings.  We can hear wolf footsteps a good distance away, so we can be forewarned about nearby dangers even if they hadn't been howling recently.  It's also a good idea to get low (crouch) before cresting a hill or turning a blind corner... much less likely to get ambushed that way.

Stones are wonderfully versatile... and honestly is usually all I run around with as a mean of defense.  Guns, bows, hatchets, hunting knives... not really needed if we're paying attention to our surroundings.   With stones we can even use the wolves to hunt for us (if we are clever and careful about it).

As for the primary rule I follow that's most helped me survive... 🤔
I'd say, pare down what's in your pack to your most bare essentials and travel as lightly as you can.  This way you have plenty of room to pick up things as you travel.
(I discuss my list in at least a few of the chronicles I mentioned earlier, but if you like I can find it and repost it here too)

Now, what goes hand in hand with that would be... I wouldn't worry about finding a forever home, or a "main base."

I find that if we pick out a main encampment for any region we visit, that's what makes it more feasible to keep the pack light.  In addition to a primary encampment... also select other locations to make smaller encampments as a sort of stop over point.  This give you the freedom to drop things off as you go.  This no only helps keep your pack light... but also gives you small stashes of "emergency" supplies you can come back to anytime you're in the area or have need of later.

This way we keep a sort of quasi-nomadic sort of style... if you pick your primary encampments well, then you are never far away from the tools you've collected, or food and supplies you may need.

If we find we have a specific purpose needed a specific weapon or tool we want to use, then you'd just go pick it up and use it for what you needed (putting back when you're done).  That way you're not weighing yourself down hauling a set of tools/gear/weapons all over Great Bear Island.

There's at least a few points focused on the questions you've asked.
I hope it's helpful.
I know my playstyle isn't for everyone... but it's what's been working for me since I started playing back in the later part of 2014.   🤔  Gosh... has it really been so long?

[ManicManiac]

1 hour ago, FaT McMarlin said:

I play on Voyager and have had a few attacks when I was sleeping.

Thank you... it's good to know that's still a risk that's in play. 
I remember at least a few times where that was either glitched out or disabled...

[FaT McMarlin]

5 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

Thank you... it's good to know that's still a risk that's in play. 
I remember at least a few times where that was either glitched out or disabled...

Yeah, it's terrifying to me lol

 

I appreciate all you've linked. Just got home from work, it's going to take me a bit to read, Re read and absorb. That's so awesome, thank you so much!!!! I'll have questions out the wazoo here shortly lol

[FaT McMarlin]

6 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

@FaT McMarlin

The original Snowball challenge was essentially to survive for as long as possible in TWM region on Interloper difficulty without leaving. It has since been adapted to other regions with varying success rates.

Here’s the original thread, by @Drifter Man: 

And @Gooner77’s thread, adapting the challenge to FM and succeeding:

And my (mostly failed) attempts: 

 

The Neo-Native challenge was proposed by @Gun Tech., the goal being to survive 50 days on any difficulty without using ANY man-made items. This thread of mine is (as far as i know) the only written chronicle of it…

 

Just got home from work. Got allot of reading to do lol thank you for the info. 

Neo-native sounds awesome

[FaT McMarlin]

7 hours ago, Leeanda said:

It can't get into the boat but it can reach out and grab you from the low end...  

Oh I know AC is confusing.. after all this time I can still go round in a big circle 😁. 

Up high I'm ok but ground level has a lot of nooks and crannies and pathways.

Eeeeekkkkkkk!!! I should have been grabbed so many times lol

[Leeanda]

8 hours ago, FaT McMarlin said:

Eeeeekkkkkkk!!! I should have been grabbed so many times lol

They've also been known to glitch onto roofs, through walls and rarely climb trees,fallen ones obviously.  .  And of course the pv porch.

[FaT McMarlin]

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

They've also been known to glitch onto roofs, through walls and rarely climb trees,fallen ones obviously.  .  And of course the pv porch.

I've never had the bears glitch like that. Just the one time where the bear stood there turning in place.

I use the fallen trees but I really like to play ring around the tree with the bear. But I just dip under the tree and it has to go around. 

I was watching DDR Jake in BI and he had a TW glitch through the pier and right next to him at the locked aura door. 

[Leeanda]

20 minutes ago, FaT McMarlin said:

I've never had the bears glitch like that. Just the one time where the bear stood there turning in place.

I use the fallen trees but I really like to play ring around the tree with the bear. But I just dip under the tree and it has to go around. 

I was watching DDR Jake in BI and he had a TW glitch through the pier and right next to him at the locked aura door. 

You're lucky then...  I'm sure you've seen zaks videos with them glitching madly on the jetty. Or the dead one halfway up the cliff wall😁.    

I think most of the animals glitch or go buggy at some point.. the deer seem to be less prone to it,except the running right through you thing. Buts that's always been like that.. 

I do like the skating moose though😁

[FaT McMarlin]

51 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

You're lucky then...  I'm sure you've seen zaks videos with them glitching madly on the jetty. Or the dead one halfway up the cliff wall😁.    

I think most of the animals glitch or go buggy at some point.. the deer seem to be less prone to it,except the running right through you thing. Buts that's always been like that.. 

I do like the skating moose though😁

I've seen them, but I assumed it was from earlier game builds. 

Also, the Shoulder Lake bear near Drift Island in FA is just as lazy as the Miners Folly bear. I was trying to kite him to a safer location and he just decided to sleep mid ice. 

Mild spoiler: the air field during the aura is beautiful.

[FaT McMarlin]

https://www.xbox.com/play/media/G3E4EJ76Z7

Lol never pass up a sleeping bear. 

[Leeanda]

8 minutes ago, FaT McMarlin said:

I've seen them, but I assumed it was from earlier game builds. 

Also, the Shoulder Lake bear near Drift Island in FA is just as lazy as the Miners Folly bear. I was trying to kite him to a safer location and he just decided to sleep mid ice. 

Mild spoiler: the air field during the aura is beautiful.

They were from a while ago but there's still bugs with the bears...  I've had the flying into space one twice in the last few weeks.  So funny😁 

Lol.   Too tired to either kill you or be killed.  They do sleep at some odd times and places.

It is a beautiful view. 😊.    Something this game excels at.

 

 

[FaT McMarlin]

1 minute ago, Leeanda said:

They were from a while ago but there's still bugs with the bears...  I've had the flying into space one twice in the last few weeks.  So funny😁 

Lol.   Too tired to either kill you or be killed.  They do sleep at some odd times and places.

It is a beautiful view. 😊.    Something this game excels at.

 

 

He was very grumpy. This started the night before during an aura. He'd been after me for about 8 hours in game at that point. He just laid down so I took my chances. Granted I did use a fire but I try to get close enough that it might work to ward him off, or he might just charge. Yes I want to get to 500, but my insane need for bear death overrides my want of 500 days lol.

I'm so glad I don't experience many glitched bears. I'd possibly poo myself lol

 

The aura sounds and visuals couldn't be done better. The dev team really gave us a masterpiece to play in.

[Leeanda]

10 minutes ago, FaT McMarlin said:

He was very grumpy. This started the night before during an aura. He'd been after me for about 8 hours in game at that point. He just laid down so I took my chances. Granted I did use a fire but I try to get close enough that it might work to ward him off, or he might just charge. Yes I want to get to 500, but my insane need for bear death overrides my want of 500 days lol.

I'm so glad I don't experience many glitched bears. I'd possibly poo myself lol

 

The aura sounds and visuals couldn't be done better. The dev team really gave us a masterpiece to play in.

Lol. No wonder he was tired😁.   

They did...the music  is also beautiful... It fits perfectly.

[FaT McMarlin]

14 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Lol. No wonder he was tired😁.   

They did...the music  is also beautiful... It fits perfectly.

Lol yeah, I wore him out. No surprise here, a blizzard rolled in 5 min later.

I live the dark new string piece for FA. When it kicks in it makes my heart happy.

[Leeanda]

7 minutes ago, FaT McMarlin said:

Lol yeah, I wore him out. No surprise here, a blizzard rolled in 5 min later.

I live the dark new string piece for FA. When it kicks in it makes my heart happy.

It's nearly always bad weather after you kill something....  That's Murphy's law 😊 

My favourite has always been Desolation, and I'm lucky because it crops up more than the rest.

[ManicManiac]

18 hours ago, FaT McMarlin said:

That's so awesome, thank you so much!!!! I'll have questions out the wazoo here shortly

Always happy to try and help out a fellow survivor.