Thoughts on the Travois

[Glflegolas]

Made one of these up in Forsaken Airfield, loaded it down with around 20 kg of fish, and set off for Camp Office. Here are my thoughts on it so far:

Is it useful?

Very much so! It's excellent for getting all the meat from a carcass in one go, carrying large amounts of fish, moving from one base of operations to another, and moving car batteries. It is excellent in wide-open regions, such as Forsaken Airfield, Pleasant Valley, Forlorn Muskeg, and Coastal Highway. If you are planning to have your safehouse far from good hunting and fishing grounds, I'd go so far as to call the Travois an essential tool.

Any travois-use tips?

For a longer trip, don't carry more than 20 kg of supplies on the Travois. If you carry too much weight and are forced to pack it up, you will not be able to move. I suggest carrying smelly items on the Travois, as this reduces your scent radius. Also, try to stick to roads and open terrain wherever possible, as navigating difficult terrain can become a major hassle as you will be forced to pack/deploy/load/unload frequently. Finally: listen extra carefully. You can't turn your head, so wolves will be harder to detect.

Where is a travois not useful?

Any region that has a lot of rope climbing, and, to a lesser extent, complex terrain. The Travois probably isn't especially useful in Hushed River Valley, Ash Canyon, or Timberwolf Mountain (with the exception of the Crystal Lake area). It is also not helpful when moving to/through Mountain Town, as carrying a bunch of extra gear on the Travois will result in having to make multiple long, tiring rope climbs.

Any complaints?

The major one: lighting. I can't hold a light source with the Travois equipped. While this may not be an issue to some people, I wish there was a way to hang the Storm Lantern to the end of the handles! Travelling through the long tunnels in the Far Range Branch line was not fun at all.

The second minor complaint I have is that it doesn't seem to be exceptionally durable. This trip used up around 67% of the Travois' durability. While I don't imagine most people do long trips like this very often, it does appear that I might not make it to my final destination (Misanthrope's Homestead) without a repair en-route. 50% more durability would be ideal for me, but, then again, I imagine lots of people will only use it for short trips after hunting/fishing, in which case the Travois will last a very long time before needing fixing.

Overall:

This is a great addition to the game, thank you Hinterland

[KingFuzz]

I wish I shared your optimism, but it’s turning out to be more of a hindrance for me. That said, I may be using it inappropriately going from one region to the next. 
 

Pros:

-no smell when carrying meat in the travois! 

-you can carry an extra 100+ lbs without sacrificing walking speed. Not running while lugging it around makes sense and therefore really isn’t an inconvenience. 
 

Cons:

-it’s resource heavy. 4 maple saplings is kind of ridiculous.

-it’s extremely limited in what terrain it can go over. I get not going uphill with 100+ lbs of weight but the ability to go downhill with what is essentially a sled shouldn’t be a problem, and it’s unfortunate that it is. BTW if you try going downhill and it turns out to be too steep your travois is now stuck and you now have the lovely task of unloading ALL your gear, walking it to level ground, dropping it, going back, getting more gear and the travois, taking that to level ground, and loading the travois back up. This is a needlessly frustrating task. Simple solution: enable downhill travel. 

-you can’t go through a cave with it. So traveling from one region to the next via cave is completely out of the question.

-as you mentioned, durability is kind of a joke given how resource heavy it is.

 

I hope no one tasks this as being unfair to Hinterlad. The concept is very cool and ultimately I’m sure I’ll find better use for it but for now I’m finding it more frustrating than it’s worth. 

[twyn1]

On 12/12/2023 at 9:07 PM, Glflegolas said:

...

Any complaints?

The major one: lighting. I can't hold a light source with the Travois equipped. While this may not be an issue to some people, I wish there was a way to hang the Storm Lantern to the end of the handles! Travelling through the long tunnels in the Far Range Branch line was not fun at all.

The second minor complaint I have is that it doesn't seem to be exceptionally durable. This trip used up around 67% of the Travois' durability. While I don't imagine most people do long trips like this very often, it does appear that I might not make it to my final destination (Misanthrope's Homestead) without a repair en-route. 50% more durability would be ideal for me, but, then again, I imagine lots of people will only use it for short trips after hunting/fishing, in which case the Travois will last a very long time before needing fixing.

Overall:

This is a great addition to the game, thank you Hinterland

Great Post!

I definitely agree with the Lighting issue, I did the Far Branch Line trek as well & it was dicey at times, so an option to hang a lantern or hold a flare against the handle would be nice.  Durability of the travois didn't matter as much for me on this trek. I stopped in Broken Railroad overnight, where I knew that I had some cached supplies and could do a repair, but that was just a lucky happenstance. 

I did have a "stuck" situation in the small stretch of Broken Railroad going to Forlorn Muskeg where you have to cross over a fallen tree, I managed to get the travois all the way across, but then could not get off the end & also could not get up the slope leading to the railway. Had to drop the travois, load myself up, climb the slope, and dump things twice to get everything ferried and loaded back up. I had anticipated this possibility and was sure I was well-rested and had plenty of daylight, but it would not have been fun if the weather had turned. 

I think just being able to use the travois for hauling those huge moose/bear harvests or an all-day fishing catch is definitely worth the resources. Also, will be handy if you decide to relocate everything and can get a bunch of stuff to a staging area quickly. And because you can fold it up and carry it, you probably wouldn't need to make more than one or two in each game.

I think there was a thread somewhere here that talked about maple sapling spawns being upped (or having more saplings in the spawns?)

[Glflegolas]

Until/unless the lighting issue is fixed, the Travois is nearly useless when it's dark out, or when travelling through a dark cave.

I'm guessing the durability of the Travois is somewhere around 15-20 km, as I walked with it for 2 in-game days straight (Island Cottage to Misanthrope's Homestead) and it wore around 96%. That's something I can easily verify with screenshots, however. For someone who lives in the Mountaineer's Hut and is merely doing short trips to bring home hunted game from the Wing, that's loads of durability. For a nomad who likes to travel around Great Bear a lot carrying lots of supplies (guess who I am?), that can mean a lot of Travois wear.

It's definitely a tool I like to keep on me, because I can be a bit of a pack rat, and having a bit of extra carrying capacity is pretty handy

[Dan_]

Honestly I'm in the first camp you mentioned, people who use it mostly to pack heavy quartering bags/spare tools. I usually have a 'stocked' (Loper, so stocked means a toolkit, some extra pots and tons of pelts and meat) base in every map so I tend to leave stuff scattered around and then concentrate the loot once I'm travelling back to the spot. I did manage the long journey from the Camp Office to the ZoC using the Travois, and sometimes you do have to go through the hassle of unpacking and deploying again but that feels like a decent tradeoff to me. Beats ferrying tons of stuff back and forth long distances multiple times. The durability could be a bit better, albeit the cost of repair is pretty negligible and almost a non-factor. 

[Glflegolas]

Oh, I'm also going to mention that the Travois is very handy for beachcombing. Some of the items that you can find (raw fish especially) can be pretty heavy and get you encumbered fast. 

[TeflonGoon]

I love it and think it's a great addition. There need to be new Steam achievements, like an extended Beneath a Starry Sky that goes for 21 nights or Trek 50 km Pulling a Travois.

I like that we need to "portage" through rougher terrain, but going downhill would be nice.

I don't think it's resource heavy considering what it offers (I'm glad it doesn't require maple to repair!), but I do wish it was more durable.

Tips? If using it for the long haul:

• Keep 50 stones in it to make a rock cache when portaging, so you don't need to pick up 30+ sticks, 25+ cloth, etc.
• Keep a few deer hides and guts in it for repairs
• Drop the travois and scope out unknown terrain in advance

 

[Shadox]

So glad about the Travois. Because of it, i can finally finish the tale on my Day 670 Interloper. Because i looted most regions bevor that tale was enabled, i had no car battery for the PV Tower (others are repaired) .. and today i hauled a car battery from ZoC to Pleasant Valley. Did take a while, but worth it I love that thing. Decay is a little fast, but easily repairable. And helps alot

[Glflegolas]

I heard the story of somebody (was it @piddy3825or @hozz1235?) who hauled a ton of coal from Desolation Point's coal mines to Forsaken Airfield to stay warm in blizzards. Well, I'm sure a Travois would come in real handy for that.

[piddy3825]

5 minutes ago, Glflegolas said:

I heard the story of somebody (was it @piddy3825or @hozz1235?) who hauled a ton of coal from Desolation Point's coal mines to Forsaken Airfield to stay warm in blizzards. Well, I'm sure a Travois would come in real handy for that.

wasn't me

[twyn1]

One more slightly irritating "stuck" situation ...

In Pleasant Valley -- the road (trail) that leads from Thomson's Crossing up to the Signal Hill tower .. there is a hill about 2/3rds of the way back down to the main road, just past the Picnic Area.  I had the travois loaded and went up just fine but got stuck on the downward slope of the hill; could not back up to try shifting my view a bit, and kept getting "can't go over the edge" warning.  Had to dump stuff I was carrying, then unload & carry everything from the travois literally 2 yards away, drop it, close  & pick up the travois and then load it all back up. Grrr...

Either let the player back up a bit to try again or make some way to slightly "shift" the travois once dropped, to see if you can continue ... esp. on a clearly marked road/trail that you expect to be able to traverse. 

Still love the thing, but this was frustrating!

[hozz1235]

9 hours ago, twyn1 said:

One more slightly irritating "stuck" situation ...

Someone needs to make a revised version of this 😆

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by hozz1235

[twyn1]

HA!! Totally!! 😁

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

I was a little leery of the travois at first, because of the investment in materials and its numerous limitations.  I can tell you, though, that this thing has revolutionized fishing for me in interloper.  I can carry 20 kilo of wood, coal, and sticks out onto the ice, and bring back as much fish as I can catch in a reduced scent container.  Honestly, it's usually more like 30 liters of drinking water because I'm low level fishing and I eat more fish than I catch.

Because it makes fishing more fun and less of a chore, It really dovetails nicely with the new scurvy system and its dietary fish requirements.

[Shadox]

2 hours ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

Because it makes fishing more fun and less of a chore, It really dovetails nicely with the new scurvy system and its dietary fish requirements.

Thats my main use for the travois, its so handy. Also quartering a bear or moose and take all back to the main base. 

Using it to bring more loot back to the main base is a little difficult and only an option of no climbing is required on the entire trip, but with being so easy go repair, easy to deploy and put back for only 1 kg, its such a great addition

[DaPepster]

I like the Travois.  My biggest complaint is that it won't go over some complex terrain nor thru open doors or gates.  Also, unloading and loading it due to such circumstances is a real pain that takes several minutes of inventory searching and sorting to get around such an obstacle. 

 

My recommendations are to permit the usage and creation of separable compartments on the Travois that can be easily loaded and removed along with the ability to tie it to the end of a rope so you can either raise it after ascending or lower it before descending a rope (something I suggested for the backpack long ago).

[codeNick]

My impressions are similar to the previous ones, however it degrades faster. Travelling from airfield to transfer pass lost 50%. Also the issue with getting stuck at unexpected places, had to unload, move and reload. Overall its a good strategy to carry lot of materials. 

[Leeanda]

Not for me I'm afraid...  Too slow,too many restrictions and I'd rather use the maple for bows.i go through them like treacle ..

[turtle777]

On 12/19/2023 at 9:04 PM, Glflegolas said:

who hauled a ton of coal from Desolation Point's coal mines to Forsaken Airfield to stay warm in blizzards.

With ZOC out, that won’t be necessary anymore  

Transition cave from FA to ZOC got plenty of coal. Plus the mine in ZOC.

-t

[turtle777]

I have my first experience with the Travois. Needed to haul a battery.

This seems to be the best use case for me. 

For al other stuff, it becomes really tedious. Due to terrain, you have to constantly load and unload, if the travois is full of small stuff that just adds up, it's so much busy work.

-t

[I_eat_only_wolf_meat]

On 1/3/2024 at 11:51 AM, turtle777 said:

Needed to haul a battery.  This seems to be the best use case for me.

Fishing too.  largely flat area to travel.  tons of wood and coal to bring out, and lots of water and fish to bring back.  I think fishing will be more important as the true extent of scurvy becomes apparent.

[turtle777]

7 hours ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

Fishing too.  largely flat area to travel.  tons of wood and coal to bring out, and lots of water and fish to bring back.  I think fishing will be more important as the true extent of scurvy becomes apparent.

Yes, good call. Only issue is that you have to clear the area of wolves before doing that.

Btw recently saw Wonz do fishing out of a snow shelter in ZOC. So strong. Doesn't work everywhere, but where possible, it's pretty sweet.

I was able to do it in BR.

-t

[past caring]

Posting here - though it's potentially a separate issue/topic.....

I've not had the chance to play a massive amount since part 4 was released, but with my old save, I did notice that in a couple of places where I had previously harvested maple saplings they have regrown. And I wonder, because the travois takes quite a bit of maintenace, whether this was a deliberate change - only I've seen no mention of it in the release notes?

 

[Shadox]

Yes, theres alot more maple. Even in Spots without maples before. Same for Burdock, there are often 3-4 in Places where just a single burdock was before. A change that i like alot.

The Travois just needs maple for crafting though, so you dont need to invest more than 4 maples in it. It degrades pretty quick, at least on interloper, but its easy repaired with just a deer hide and a gut.

[Stranzua]

I haven't crafted it yet, but I'm not surprised that it can be a little annoying to maneuver. Walking over the slightest bump can be a problem sometimes.