Why is surviving so boring after 5-10 days?


Whisper

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1. It so easy to kill wolf - toss the decay and have a long time to aim at very close distance. No problem, no risk, no starve at all. If you have no arms no problem - you can beat a wolf on Stalker with bare hands!

2. You tools are always at good condition - 10% or 90% it does not matter. Find one and give a lifetime warranty. After that find a second one.

3. Any indoor is a bastion forever(you don't have prybar for breakthrough? No problem) but have no defenders - lonely wolf at dam and tons of loot after solve a little problem with it.

4. If you really lazy for hunting and crafting take a trip at another location! It's open 24\7 and new loot can always wait for you.

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Keep killing the wolves, you will run out of bullets and then bandages.

I found myself thinking the wolves were easy (they are) as long as you have ammo. You will find more bullets in game than bandages. So be careful hunting wolves by hand (knife) to save ammo.

Remember, the idea is to survive as long as possible, so avoiding wolves is the best option unless you can go 2 for 1 with a deer. Fighting too many wolves will have you running around without pants at times because they can break before you fix them if you are not careful.

Edit:

If you want more danger, you can always go bear hunting.

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No, you can one shot kill a wolf with decay and bow too. And arrow will be no missing.

And if you really want to 200 days survive craft the max 40 fishing tackles from 10 wolfs and deers and fish and sleep, fish and sleep after that!

It will be wonderful gameplay.

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Surviving is never boring. The game is what you make it to be. Sure there are in game some things / mechanics you can exploit - if so you desire. But doing so - don't complain that the game is easy.

If I'd hibernate in my house non stop and start complain that game is boring and nothing happens what would you make of that? It's same with shooting the bear from the porch and then entering the door and waiting for him to bleed out. You can kill a bear without abusing it's pathing.

I'm currently on day 52 on voyageur, only completed ML (fully loot / exploration) with small peaks in PV. I'm fairly positive that I can go past 150 days without leaving ML again and I never hibernate (it's just so boring & dull, I want to play the game not stare at 4 bars and sleep eat drink sleep to pass time). And then I will still have PV & CH with at least 1 bunker and dozens of items waiting for me.

Surviving doesn't imply you are hard pressed every hour of every day to crawl back from the claws of death and every step you take in the wild can be your last. This is not a horror survival game where everything wants to kill you hehe :) And lastly, the destination is not as important as the road getting you there ^_^

Just take your time and enjoy the amaZing world around you :)

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"In-game" survival is boring because there is basically nothing to do, as opposed to "real-world" survival, where you tend to have little or no "free time".

I say there is "nothing to do" because essentially everything in this game is abstracted, removed completely from the players control, and there is no "stimulation" for what we do. In real life, when I sharpen a knife or an axe, I have to pay attention to what I am doing, take care with the tools, etc. In-game, I open a menu, press a button, and watch a progress-bar move across the screen while time passes. Same thing with cooking. And repairing/crafting things. And looting. And with firebuilding.

In real life, firebuilding is a VERY involved process. It takes time to make tinder, to lay the kindling properly, to lay the fuelwood in a pattern (known as a "lay") that will let the fire burn the most effectively based on the weather conditions. In-game, you literally do all this instantly with the press of a button. No stimulation, no actual interaction. Just button-presses and progress-bars with black screens.

Not even touching "anything else" we could be doing in any free time we might have. Wood-carving, map-making, note-taking, nothing. Just eat, sleep, drink, "craft" and walk. Most of which is represented by more progress-bars.

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I kind of agree with your opinion, but I also understand this is an alfa.

I also get bored out of my mind once I get to have enough food to simply stay indoor and cook/sleep/cook/sleep.

That's why I said if custom settings were available I'd choose to have harsh weather and wildlife but take away the eat/drink part that to me is frankly very boring.

This is also why when I get to around 20-30 days of survival I simply start a new game.

To me the thrill of a new beginning is the best: you're on your own without anything and you have to walk around trying to not be killed by a random wolf attack. It was also way better when I didn't know all the maps by heart because now I know exactly where and when to expect a wolf appear.

I think the most interesting gameplay will be released in the form of story mode, though, where you get a goal and you don't drag the game on forever.

So I hang in expectance of the first release of that.

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I do hope that eventually the waiting part gets replaced (might be optional) to doing the actual work that is required. Although chopping wood will probably get boring, having to do your own crafting and firemaking would be amazing if done right.

I don't know if there is any intention to change the whole waiting concept. If this is not implemented by Hinterland I sure believe that people will make this themselves when modding will be available. It must be said though that it is extremely hard to make something like firemaking realistic compared to the real world and fun at the same time. If done wrong it gets repetitive, but if done right it can enhance the game in so many ways. Cracking a safe also could have been a bar filling up, but that is implemented because it is relatively easy to make. Making your own bow would be awesome, even though I would probably fail. Heck, I would probably die trying to get a fire going, but I wouldn't mind that.

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I think minigames, like sharpening etc. would be nice, but I expect a lot of new things with storymode.

But considering this is Sandbox alpha, boredom in the longrun is really self-explanatory. Activate yourself. Craft all the fur-items including the bedroll, visit the other maps, try leaving the rifle behind, go for achievements.

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Thanks to everyone for their posts and I absolutely agree with desrocchi, with every his word.

If you have a real game skill to survive already you need more challenges - aggressive-smart wolfs, closed buildings and transition areas(infected zones may be?), the need to find bunkers and more more challenges.

But 200 days or "Wrapped in Furs" is only what to do when nothing to do really.

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I kind of agree with your opinion, but I also understand this is an alfa.

I also get bored out of my mind once I get to have enough food to simply stay indoor and cook/sleep/cook/sleep.

That's why I said if custom settings were available I'd choose to have harsh weather and wildlife but take away the eat/drink part that to me is frankly very boring.

This is also why when I get to around 20-30 days of survival I simply start a new game.

To me the thrill of a new beginning is the best: you're on your own without anything and you have to walk around trying to not be killed by a random wolf attack. It was also way better when I didn't know all the maps by heart because now I know exactly where and when to expect a wolf appear.

I think the most interesting gameplay will be released in the form of story mode, though, where you get a goal and you don't drag the game on forever.

So I hang in expectance of the first release of that.

I´m pretty sure that you didn´t explore every location in only 20-30 days so i don´t understand a restart after such a short run. The game gets definetely more exciting the moment your matches are gone, your bullets are gone and also your sewing kits. I´m playing the game to survive as long as possible that´s my own goal but a restart just to find new stuff cause i have no jacket or whatever isn´t an option.

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It's your decision how boring the game will be and unltimately how long you will survive. The mechanics right now are quite fine tuned against boredom if you play for the long run. If your goal is to reach day 10 and then reset you will be bored out very fast.

If your goal is to get pass day 200 while exploring everything the game has to offer then it's a completely different story. You'll find yourself in situations where your adrenalin is pumping high almost every time you startup the game. This is especially true if you play Les Stroud style, making decisions as they come and don't settle forever in one place. Also, don't clear the map you are in and proceed to the next, instead tell yourself: I'm in ML now and I want to go to PV, taking in whatever comes on the road. Next time chose a different route and loot what you find there.

"Let's go bear hunting in PV" is always a good idea if you ever feel bored, especially the one west of Signal Hill - first you have to find him, then you have to survive him and when you managed to do all this you can almost be certain that a blizzard will make it very difficult to get all the meat safely to your camp.

Recently someone in my stream tried to lecture me on how I am making mistakes by picking up all the food and eating it right away. What he didn't understand is that I did this by choice so I have bullets later in the game to hunt for materials for my cloths and meat for my stomach. I used to save all the food for the "end" game but I had to realize that all the saved food only gets me 5-10 days longer into the game - the same a well placed wolf combo bullet (or bear) can get me. The new curing system also requires some short-term planing ahead, you can't just craft yourself new clothes after some handfights with wolves have torn them apart.

But it took me alot of trying and dying to get to this "pragmatic" playstyle where I rather rely on my hunting skills than finding stuff, and I very rarely stay in the same place for long, I'm constantly on the move except when gathering stuff for crafting. Not only are my runs much more succesfull now, I surely have much more fun, more adrenalin in my veins and less boredom ;)

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I´m pretty sure that you didn´t explore every location in only 20-30 days so i don´t understand a restart after such a short run.
Not for that single run, but I simply know what I'm going to find if I move to another location that I already know everything of. It's just more of the same.
The game gets definetely more exciting the moment your matches are gone, your bullets are gone and also your sewing kits. I´m playing the game to survive as long as possible that´s my own goal but a restart just to find new stuff cause i have no jacket or whatever isn´t an option.
Exciting in-game moments are there for sure, I get them without drawing the game on as long as 6-8 months.

I like to have reasons to be out in the wilderness looking for a hatchet or a knife, looking for those damn maples not having anything to defend myself with in case of a wolf attack.

Finishing matches is not exciting to me. It does not create a "oh, my!" moment.

And given 200 days I'd still have plenty of matches to use - I probably use 10 matches in a 30 days run and don't tuch any matchbox to avoid starting its decay.

I collect lots of meat and eat it raw until it decays too much, then I start a fire -1 or 2 matches - and cook everything I have and distill all the water I can.

This is not exciting. Well, not to me at least.

Exciting to me is being outside hunting, searching, scavenging.

It used to be "exploring" too, but now there's not a single corner of the maps I don't know.

I must add - this is the opinion of a person who admittedly does not like sandbox games, I enjoyed all I could out of this pre-release, but it's the story mode the place where I will get my fun.

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It's your decision how boring the game will be and unltimately how long you will survive. The mechanics right now are quite fine tuned against boredom if you play for the long run. If your goal is to reach day 10 and then reset you will be bored out very fast.

I Agree with ChillPlayer in this quote, although I personally don't play to see how long I can survive. I play to see how much I can learn about the game mechanics and have fun trying to outsmart the hostile wildlife, which helps me survive longer.

For me, each day is a new day. Of course this is because I totally love sandbox games. Seems like there is always a ton of choices and directions I could go, just to do it, I have yet to be bored. Mostly I just relax in the immersion and take the time to stop, look around and listen. Its a beautifully hostile yet at the same time a very peaceful world. I think it is fun just to see whats around the next corner, of course that's just my opinion.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think I kind of agree with all of the comments made by most.

Firstly, "the game gets boring" it kind of does but it is up to you to play it as you wish, I always make sure I don't just repeat, repeat repeat. As many ppl have said this is an alpha and only a sandbox alpha at that.

Areas are the same. This is something I would like to see change. When I first started this game I really enjoyed exploring and I also thought maybe it would be a random spawn map and was disappointed when I realised it wasn't. At least the bear spawn areas are reasonably random.

Cook & sleep, cook & sleep. Yep I think we've all done this especially if you've had an awesome couple of days killing deers, wolves & a bear so you end up with 40kg+ of cooked meat and that doesnt include your storage backup supply. Like most others I leave an area when i'm comfortable (leaving the supplies behind) or feel like moving on.

Watching bars (cooking, repairing etc), Yep can be tedious but how else would you do it? its all well and good to say something is rubbish/tedious/boring but why not make an actual suggestion on how to improve it. I do also feel the bars are boring but. Time passes quicker when doing these, you have to keep an eye on your levels while doing this (easy I know).

Hunting wolves This is WAY to easy even from early on, all you need is 1 piece of meat, a bow (better)or gun and you can kill wolves without any fear. This is however fun sometimes.

I know there are more comments/opinions but I've written too much already and dont want to bore you all LOL :lol:

There are something lacking in the game but that is to be expected being an alpha. I look forward to further improvements and additions.

And remember ppl, sanbox isnt for everyone but I think I will prefer it to story driven mode. I like the freedom to do random things and I do really enjoy this game

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  • 3 months later...

Because it becomes too easy to survive. You can get plenty of each item from every map (even at transition points) and surviving becomes no longer a skill. I explored all 4 maps (in voyageur - 260 days), I have more than 40 bullets, 20 arrows and a lot of other vital items. Game turned to "Deer Hunt". Then I moved to Trapper's Homestead (my start point) to have my retirement days. I also survived enough (and got bored ofc) in stalker mode.

What can be done? Maybe a new hard mode can be added. Not with many more wolves ofc, with less items. For example if I could find max 5-7 bullets at a map, bullets would be more worthy for me, even one bullet would cheer me up. Bow and arrows can be removed from this mode, they really make surviving too easy. You can find matches from ever corner but they're ruining quickly, less matches with long durability would make it more realistic. I don't need to use firestriker or magnifying lens. Put just 1 knife and 1 hatchet to each map, you can find them if you're lucky or capable to survive long enough. Surviving even 30 days must be a record, this is what I understand from surviving. Otherwise I have to see spring and melting snows in 260 days!

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To each his own. We all have our preferences. I like open world games and the freedom to do whatever I like. I'm sure I'm gonna hate story mode but that's ok, I don't have to play it. I for the life of me can't figure out why people like games like Fallout 4 and yet it's super popular, so there you have it, different strokes for different folks.

The only part that is boring in this game is the eat/sleep strategy when you are trying to climb the ranks of the leader board. Hate that? Don't do it then. Could the game have more randomness? Sure. More dangers? Of course. Be patient, it's Alpha.

Maybe at some point they'll put a crazed mountain man npc that spends the whole game trying to kill you and gathering all the resources for himself, lol.

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