Blizzard Activities

[Wasteland Watcher]

When you've started a new game and haven't a whole bunch of gear but do have a warm place to shelter in blizzards, what do you generally do to pass the time waiting for it to pass?

[elloco999]

If I don't have any repairs or such to do: sleep.

[nicko]

If I don't have any repairs or such to do: sleep.

if you have some extra wood to burn why not light the stove and melt/boil water to drink and store. or cook other tea you might have?

[elloco999]

If I need water I will obviously do that, unless I'm short on matches then I will wait for better weather so I can light my fire using the magnifying glass. If I don't need water, I'm not going to waste a match lighting a fire I don't need.

[Doc Gonzo]

Ditto what Elloco999 said. Repair and/or organize items if needed. Melt/boil water if needed. If an option do some crafting ...

[Wasteland Watcher]

If I don't have any repairs or such to do: sleep.

Dumb question but I have to ask: sleep burns less calories than just "standing doing nothing" awake, right?

[elloco999]

If I don't have any repairs or such to do: sleep.

Dumb question but I have to ask: sleep burns less calories than just "standing doing nothing" awake, right?

I do believe so yes, but I'm not 100% sure. I keep forgetting to check how much calories standing around doing nothing uses, but sleeping uses 60 cals / hour and that is very little.

[druffzilla]

If I don't have any repairs or such to do: sleep.

Dumb question but I have to ask: sleep burns less calories than just "standing doing nothing" awake, right?

Yes, that is correct.

[Thelek]

in pilgrim mode, it costs 450 cals to sleep 12 hrs. in voyager, it costs 900 cals for 12 hrs sleep. i do not the cal usage cost for 12 hrs sleep in stalker, but i presume it is either 1350 or 1800. calorie usage in this game is far from realistic. personally, i burn about 1500 cals per day. but i am disabled and not very active. watching the show Deadliest Catch, they said that crab fishermen burn about 4500 per day. in my current game in voyager , my character is burning about 5000 cals per day, unless i do something like chop wood, then i can easily burn over 10k calories.

[Wasteland Watcher]

Thanks all for the advice and info. It's much appreciated.

In summary, what I got out of this is "if the weather sucks, stay in bed."

I'll start another post on calories.

Thanks again, and here's to hoping for more sunny days than bad ones.

[Thelek]

Thanks all for the advice and info. It's much appreciated.

In summary, what I got out of this is "if the weather sucks, stay in bed."

I'll start another post on calories.

Thanks again, and here's to hoping for more sunny days than bad ones.

to be honest, i spend as much time outside in bad weather as i do in good. if i know the map well enough, like ML, i use bad weather to travel to other buildings, collect firewood, and other such axtivities, because i have found that wolves dont seem to wander about in a blizzard. best do this only if you know the map REALLY well and have plenty of cloth for repairs to clothing, tho.

[Wasteland Watcher]

to be honest, i spend as much time outside in bad weather as i do in good. if i know the map well enough, like ML, i use bad weather to travel to other buildings, collect firewood, and other such axtivities, because i have found that wolves dont seem to wander about in a blizzard. best do this only if you know the map REALLY well and have plenty of cloth for repairs to clothing, tho.

Thanks Thelek.

Wow you are a trooper going out in blizzards!

I need some advice for hunting in bad weather: if you're down to your last two matches and it's overcast (or has been for the past two days) and your clothes are not quite enough to keep you warm (clothes you started the game with), do you still go outdoors and if so, do you "waste" a match to light a torch, use a flare, or the storm lantern?

BTW I've been taking the advice you and a few other people have been giving and pasting it into a file I've titled, "The Long Dark Safety Tips." Thanks!

[Thelek]

hunting in bad weather is not a good idea. the animals can sense you long before you ever see them. you would just be wasting precious calories. if it is just fog, head out and try to find some place you havent been before. maybe you will meet up with a wolf. if you are careful and maintain a good supply of torches, you can keep a single flame burning forever. simply drop your lit torch just before it goes out and light the new one from it. use the torch to light campfires and make sure you only sleep for as long as you have wood for.

good idea on the tip file. good name, too.

[Wasteland Watcher]

Thanks again Thelek.

On heading out on foggy mornings, do you use the flare then light torches or use the lamp? It seems wasteful to use a match or the fire striker.

I have an idea that I'll be able to stay out longer once I have fur clothes, maybe even with a torch, but right now I'm still dressed like a tourist.

I guess I *could* sleep all day on bad weather days where I don't have any crafting to do but it just "feels wasteful."

*********************************************different topic follows*****************************************

Yesterday was a weird day:

I exit CO around 8 hours sunlight remaining (I always exit the back door) and walk around back, see that it's a little sunny, so go to light a magnif. glass+stick fire for my torch behind the office like I always do and hear a deer run **right by me** and out to the lake where it's immediately taken down by a wolf.

I'm walking out towards the lake and contemplating stripping for a knife-fight but before I have time to the wolf starts making a beeline right for me so I quickly pull out the hunting rifle, take aim, and shoot it right in the head. It drops dead in its tracks.

I think, "That was easy and kind of a waste of a good bullet. Oh well, at least it's more meat."

I go out to the deer carcass and build a fire using a piece of fir wood that should give an hour and a half of fire but after cutting out just 1kg of meat it's almost out -- 2 min remaining. Even after throwing (wasting it turns out) my other two blocks of fir onto the fire it burns out almost instantly. By this time I'm starving and now no fire either, but at least I'm very close to "home."

So anyhow I end up rushing and cut out almost all the meat then run home to jump in bed cause I'm freezing by this point. And now it's overcast again.

I sleep an hour to warm up a bit and go back for the rest of the deer meat and guts. By that time it's dusk and I'm freezing again. I don't want to waste a match so I eat the last of my cattails, drink my fill of water, work a bit on making deerskin boots, then sleep.

I awake starving and it's overcast again so I just go dress the wolf as much as possible before heading in for a warm nap.

After the 2 session of this I awake warm and go out to see the sun finally came out so I promptly build a stick fire to light my torch and will cook about 5000 calories of meat, storing the rest (and storing any I won't be eating at that moment).

I'll have been starving for about 18 hours by the time my meat's cooked.

I think I'll still have 4 hours of sunlight after all the meat's cooked to explore a bit. I'm thinking of walking past the Derailment and proceeding forward as far as possible to see what's there with the intent to return home at dusk to work on deerskin boots until sleepy.

This is where I am now, on day 18, happy I have enough food to last three more days.

[WhiteSnowHawk]

I'll repair my clothes, tools, tidy up my base, or sleep. But I also like to go through my food items to remove any items that risk giving me food poisoning.

[Thelek]

whenever a fire suddenly dies like that, check the wind before wasting wood. a torch will burn in stronger winds than a campfire can, so if you are close to a building with a fireplace/stove/burn barrel, cave, or a well sheltered location, light a torch from the dying fire and start a new fire in safety. also, if there is enough sunlight, you can use the lens to start a fire in the upstairs stove at CO in the morning time.(i am guessing that the light coming through the window by the stove is sufficent to light a fire using the lens.) although less common, you can occaisionally light the stove at Trappers with the lens, but i have yet to figure out the exact timing for it. same goes for the farmhouse fireplace.

i always use torches whenever weather permits. as i mentioned earlier, i have never suffered a shortage of matches. i never light the torch until i hear or see a wolf,then i light it and prepare for battle. i try really to avoid lighting a flare, since once it is lit it cant be put out and it will mostly go to waste. the situation has to be pretty dire for me to strike a flare.

sounds like you have a good game plan. be careful around the derailment as there are usually TWO wolves hanging around there. the smaller one (usually 7 or 8 pounds of meat) will attack you first while the larger one (usually 10 - 12 pounds of meat) will lay low and wait until the fight with the small one is almost over, then he will start moving into a position to attack as soon as the 1st one breaks off. then, if she wasnt hurt too bad in the first fight, the 1st wolf will set herself up to attack you again as soon as the 2nd breaks off his attack. they will repeat this cycle until either you are dead or both of them are critically wounded. (by the way, i call these two "George & Gracie".

good luck.

[Wasteland Watcher]

whenever a fire suddenly dies like that, check the wind before wasting wood. a torch will burn in stronger winds than a campfire can, so if you are close to a building with a fireplace/stove/burn barrel, cave, or a well sheltered location, light a torch from the dying fire and start a new fire in safety. also, if there is enough sunlight, you can use the lens to start a fire in the upstairs stove at CO in the morning time.(i am guessing that the light coming through the window by the stove is sufficent to light a fire using the lens.) although less common, you can occaisionally light the stove at Trappers with the lens, but i have yet to figure out the exact timing for it. same goes for the farmhouse fireplace.

i always use torches whenever weather permits. as i mentioned earlier, i have never suffered a shortage of matches. i never light the torch until i hear or see a wolf,then i light it and prepare for battle. i try really to avoid lighting a flare, since once it is lit it cant be put out and it will mostly go to waste. the situation has to be pretty dire for me to strike a flare.

sounds like you have a good game plan. be careful around the derailment as there are usually TWO wolves hanging around there. the smaller one (usually 7 or 8 pounds of meat) will attack you first while the larger one (usually 10 - 12 pounds of meat) will lay low and wait until the fight with the small one is almost over, then he will start moving into a position to attack as soon as the 1st one breaks off. then, if she wasnt hurt too bad in the first fight, the 1st wolf will set herself up to attack you again as soon as the 2nd breaks off his attack. they will repeat this cycle until either you are dead or both of them are critically wounded. (by the way, i call these two "George & Gracie".

good luck.

Thanks for the advice and Happy New Year!

I am now doing exactly as you advised on watching the wind, not only with camp fires but even walking around. It seems indicate if the weather is changing.

Very interesting about George & Gracie -- it was exactly as you said. One was 3.5 kg and the other was 5.7.

I used a bullet for one and knife for the other.

On blizzard activities, I now have enough supplies to keep me occupied with my new hobby indoors when the weather is bad: sewing!

[piddy3825]

A blast from the past... 
Still a good question some 5 years later!

[conanjaguar]

One word...

Books!

[ajb1978]

Dang, crazy that an almost 7 year old thread is still getting replies!

Assuming I don't have anything better to do, I start decorating. Ever since the Placing Anywhere mod became a thing I like to save up all the books, newsprint, and paper I find and arrange them so that it looks like I'm doing serious research. Bookshelves just rammed to bursting with all the books I find, stacks of paper on the desk, maybe a spare mag lens sitting on top of one such stack, a cup of coffee off to the side.

Also with the recent release of the Item Piles mod that lets you bind firewood together into single items (which is something I'd been wishlisting for YEARS) I am doing that now. It's practical too, since instead of having say 500 sticks in a pile on the ground, I'll have 10 bundles of 50 sticks each, which are neatly stacked on top of each other in the corner thanks again to the Placing Anywhere mod. This drastically cuts down on load times since there are way fewer objects to render, not to mention reducing the amount of mouse clicks required to pick them all back up and add them to a fire.

[piddy3825]

2 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

Assuming I don't have anything better to do, I start decorating.

# me too
I mean, really after you get your survival game under control, what else is there to do in game to pass time?   especially with those awesome mods, like place anywhere and pile stacking.   How about starting a new thread about decorating the ole home base?  Maybe call it "Lair Tours?"    lol...

Edited June 24, 2022 by piddy3825
spelling

[Sgt Socks]

I have been resistant to using mods but I do think I'm going to venture into the ones you have mentioned AJB. I love TLD more than pepperoni pizza but the lack of crafting and "homemaking" options is to me the largest glaring hole in the game. It really discourages long runs because you just don't have much to do. You can only skin so many rabbits before you get so bored you find yourself on the ledge at Carter Dam.

I'm a strange bird so anything that helps me spend time organising stuff is a win! And being able to make my snug little cabin more than a space with messy piles of stuff would be a dream.

So I may just dip my toe a little bit and try the Placing Anywhere. Plus the Item Piles mod will save me turning the air blue having to manually pick up single sticks, lichen etc. Marvellous! 

[Semple Fi]

I go back out during blizzards depending where i am and the time of day.  I’ve found that making a tea/coffee/reshei/etc. allows me to operate outside considerably longer.  Also helps to boost the warmth when I’ve been freezing.  The additional time outside also drives towards the cold resistance achievement…. Crafting and reading and water boiling of course, but never wasted time.  
Also, if I’m low on supplies at a particular locale and in the middle of crafting, I just head out of town towards another area with a work bench and continue working from there while having access to more resources.