The Struggle

[Bloodskye]

I just wanted to share an experience here because I thought it was somewhat comical but frustrating at the same time and I know for a fact that most of you have similar stories.

The whole in-game day was centered around going to Signal Hill to collect ptarmagin feathers with the bow and fire hardened arrows. I decided to camp out until morning because it was dark, so I went into the nearby cave. It turned out that the birds weren't around so I decided to go to the community center in Thompson's Crossing to collect a cache that I hadn't picked up yet. After collecting it, I decided to take the shortcut home through the field of the outbuildings because I made my base at The farmhouse. I took a little bit of a detour through the lake near the birch trees and found a moose. Since I had my travois with me I decided to sneak up on it and get some meat. Well that all went sideways and it decided to stomp me. Now I have broken ribs and the moose is walking away from me slowly. I picked up what was left of myself and ended up killing it. With my limited movement I was barely able to load up my sled but alone carry anything else. As soon as I'm done loading up, a huge blanket of fog decides to roll in. Now it's getting dark and even though I know the region, I have no idea where I am. Not only that, but after taking a few steps I hear a bear behind me. He must have been walking right behind me the whole time I was trying to find the road because he was really close. I dropped the sled, pulled out my distress pistol, and waited for him to charge. When he did, I shot the flare and he left me alone.. for about 3 seconds. I hear him again and he charges. Keep in mind I'm in dense fog. I somehow managed to spot him and shoot him again and he falls dead right between the bags of meat that I dropped and my sled. So now I have a ton of meat,, 2 hides, a huge amount of guts, and no idea where to go. I left everything there and headed out to where I thought was possibly the road. It ended up being a house at Thompson's Crossing. I slept there for the night and headed out in the morning to find my stuff. It took me a half a day but I found it. No sooner did I grab all that I could with broken ribs had a blizzard hits. Now that I could see I dipped into the barn in the outbuildings but the blizzard ended up lasting literally all day. I stayed there until morning, and somehow managed to get some of the meat back to my base. I'll be going back for the rest of it once I repair everything and heal up a bit. I can't wait too long because it'll despawn. 

This is a perfect example of how TLD can turn on you in a second. I just felt like sharing this so please feel free to share your own stories if you like.

[xanna]

This is TLD in a nutshell. Thanks for sharing! Hope you heal up well and get all your food.

[LostRealist]

1 hour ago, Bloodskye said:

pulled out my distress pistol, and waited for him to charge. When he did, I shot the flare and he left me alone.. for about 3 seconds. I hear him again and he charges

This particular thing has happened to me plenty of times, once just recently. I'm such a garbage shot, I miss bears at near point-blank with the distress pistol consistently. And then every single time I turn around and walk away like it's a job well done, until "Wait, is he actually sti-- OH SHOOT"

[Leeanda]

It's amazing how quietly the bear can move....and how muffled the sound can be in the fog... 

I have enough trouble seeing him in that birch forest on a clear day lol..

I hope you heal soon,and enjoy that meat,it's well deserved

[twyn1]

Well played, in the end!! At least you'll have plenty to eat while you heal.

 --- stories like these are why I play on Pilgrim ... I still get lost in the fog or blizzards on maps I've been to dozens of times ... throw in an aggressive moose and follow-up bear ... no way ... plus, I can't shoot to save my life (no pun intended) ---

[Bloodskye]

All meat, hide, and guts secured and even picked off a couple deer coming back with the bear meat to repair the sled. When I arrived the bear was frozen of course, and at 55%, but cooking all that meat should put me well over level 5 cooking. Ribs are almost healed too (20 hours of rest to go). 

[artmunki]

I've never forgotten my first real lesson in just what sort of game I was playing, right back when I first made the switch from Wintermute to Survival.

I'd spawned in PV (on Voyageur) - thought I'd lucked out when I realised after a bit that I actually knew where I was, tho that also made me very very nervous about those wolf packs (remember, the PV part of story mode has timberwolves). I managed to find my way to Thomsons and spent the day looting, scoring most of my clothing layers (tho not much actually good stuff), a bunch of snacks (and plenty of toilet water, of course), and even a knife and a rifle with a few rounds.

Feeling pretty good about my start, I headed out for some more exploration, only to get jumped by two wolves in succession on that rolling field outside Thomsons, near the crashed pickup. I patched up my wounds (I was actually carrying antiseptic too!) and limped back towards the Community Hall to make some repairs to my tattered clothes and rest up, but as I reached the village I saw that a buck had wandered up from the river, so I quickly dropped down, carefully crept closer, took aim and ... POP! My first ever one-shot-kill, dropped just between the hall and that wee boat hut on the river. I was delighted, and in my excitement I immediately started harvesting it ... completely forgetting about my injuries and trashed clothing. And of course, PV did its PV thing and hit me with a sudden blizzard, and I hadn't yet figured out that you can cancel harvesting. Faded into the long dark over the carcass of that precious deer, still dreaming of a hot meal.

I think one of the things I've always liked most about TLD is the lack of hand-holding, and the fact that your most productive teacher, especially in early play, is always your own mistakes. I've never felt like the game was out to get me - sure, it's a tough game world, but every single time I've faded into the long dark, I've know it was because I screwed up, and I've learned something about how to do better next time. That's damn good game design.

[LostRealist]

2 hours ago, artmunki said:

I think one of the things I've always liked most about TLD is the lack of hand-holding, and the fact that your most productive teacher, especially in early play, is always your own mistakes.

That is well put. The very first thing that drew me to this game was the "Well here you are, there you go, you'll figure it out" situation that you start out with.

[artmunki]

1 hour ago, LostRealist said:

That is well put. The very first thing that drew me to this game was the "Well here you are, there you go, you'll figure it out" situation that you start out with.

It's a rare feature in games, and even more rarely done well. Hinterland have achieved something really quite special with this game.

[Bloodskye]

When I talk about TLD with people who haven't yet played it and want to, I tell them it's a FITFO game. They're like "what?". I'm like FITFO....figure it the f@*k out.

[TonyInPleasantValley]

Oh Pleasant Valley, what a place, what a name!

So I had a very similar experience as the OP in that birch area. Seems almost every time I walk through it, a blizzard hits and usually a bear is encountered. It taught me a lesson as I darn near froze to death, died of thirst/hunger. Made me a better player I think because I vowed to figure out better ways to play. I use fire starter material like cat tails now as trail markers. Any place I have a safe house, I run markers from there out to roads or frozen creeks so if a blizzard hits, all I need to do is find one of those markers and follow it to a house. This has saved me many times. Also put them in confusing areas to guide me so I don't walk right past the path I need to hit to get to a rope, cave, etc. Also use sticks and wood from time to time as I can also pick them up for a quick fire once inside or out of the wind. So far, after about a year of doing this, I have not seen them disappear due to game mechanics/cleanups so I think this is worthwhile. Also started using paint a little more as at one time I thought it was pretty useless, but like how it marks up the map.