It's about time! Hello :)

[ThresholdSeven]

Hi everyone! I've been playing The Long Dark for a couple months now and decided it was time to join the forums. I enjoy the struggle of exploring and figuring out a game by myself, but I have looked up a few hints here and there

The Long Dark has become my favorite game and I can't wait for what is to come.

I look forward to relating some of my encounters and experiences, contributing to bug reports, helping players with the knowledge I've gained and learning more myself. After over 500 hours of game play I still learn something new almost every time I play.

[bethany]

500 hours is pretty impressive! Glad you decided to come out of the shadows and join us.

Looking forward to hearing about some of your experiences -- Do you have one from recent memory that stands out?

Welcome to the community!

[ThresholdSeven]

My most memorable experience is kind of a nightmare. I still wake up at night in cold sweats after seeing the glowing eyes of that beast close in.

It was near the end of my last run. I was nearing 800 days. It had taken nearly a month in real time to get there as I barely did any hibernation at all. Everything was hunky dory until I face checked around a large boulder in the Coastal Highway right into a bear. I ran. It followed. I was surprised by how far I actually got. I thought I was going to escape the monster. I was weaving in and out of trees, but it finally got me. I knew it wouldn't kill me but I was in big trouble. As it walked away from my bloody and battered ruins of an almost-corpse, I crawled bleeding and freezing to the nearest cabin which luckily wasn't that far away, although I wasn't sure exactly where it was or if I would make it. I barely did manage to find it in time, bandaged, ate and recovered in the bed. My clothing was ripped to shreds, but I was alive.

I made my way to the Carter Dam, which held my closest stash of supplies. There, I could start to repair my clothing and get back on track. I was reminded how difficult it is to survive with a very low warmth bonus. I was accustomed to my full set of crafted clothing. It was a constant struggle to keep warm and keep fed. I didn't have that many supplies at the Dam and had to hunt, harvest and cure the necessary hides before I could repair my clothing. I couldn't risk traveling to either of my main bases (Trapper's cabin or PV farmhouse) as I was always either freezing, starving, fatigued or dehydrated. I tried but wouldn't get far before I knew it was best to return to the Dam. The luck of the bear attack continued and I was attacked by many wolves in my search for hides and food, many of which I had to fight off with my knife.

I was nearly back on track and had everything fixed except my wolf skin coat. I went out on one last hunting run for meat while the last of my wolf skins cured in the dam. I realized that I had made a huge mistake. I did not save a scrap of meat to use as a distraction for a wolf. I was in trouble because I was starving and needed to hunt. I shot a wolf as it charged me, but it ran off. I followed his blood trail from the Train Loading Area over the hill to the Logging Cabins. Before I could find the wolf I was tracking, I ran into another wolf. I drew my bow and it started to charge. My arrow whizzed over its head and it lunged. I heroically fought the wolf off with a mere knife but I was injured. I left my own trail of blood as I headed for one of the blue shelters. I quickly entered and tried to find a bandage. To my horror I realized I was out! I frantically searched for cloth and found an old deteriorated jacket in my backpack. I shredded it into scrap cloth. I knew it would be close. I was almost dead. All I needed to do was prepare a bandage out of the scrap cloth. Alas, I bled to death while crafting the very item that would have saved me.

To rub salt in the would, I noticed that while I was crafting the bandage that I had an extra piece of scrap cloth on me already, prior to ripping up the coat. If I would have made that piece of cloth into a bandage right away instead of taking the time to rip up that coat, I would have lived.

Morale of the story, make sure never to leave your shelter without ready-made bandages and meat scraps to distract/bait wolves. Oh yeah, and don't face check around boulders in the bear country of Coastal Highway.

[bethany]

Wow! That was much more than I expected, and a fun read. Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to hear more