Timberwolf Mnt: Fresh Start Feedback (Stalker Mode)

[CuteBeaver]

I thought I would give some feedback to the team regarding the new zone Timberwolf Mountain, and what it took to stay alive with nothing on a fresh start. Let me start by saying this zone is truly amazing. Hats off to each and every one who worked on this map. I love the difficulty its almost insane. The distance between "warm" locations is amazing it forces you to consider your options more then other zones.

As a new arrival to Timberwolf Mountain you quickly learn to keep moving. Using twigs and covering distance to keep my fires going was absolutely hellish. I went through far more matches then i would have liked but it was good because you understand you won't survive on the mountain like this. I found and then cheesed the cave near the engine sleeping through the durability on my bedroll for a few nights until the warmth it provided no longer allowed me to keep positive temperatures. That feeling of slowly seeing your doom approach as the bed roll warmth bonus keeps decreasing was awesome. The struggle was real to accumulate enough sticks for my exploration journey. For food I survived off cat tails, teas, and lured a wolf off a rabbit kill next to the cave. My condition was typically ranging between 30% morning to the 10% sundown on good days. Sometimes barely making it through the night when I had left the cave. Thankfully i had found another bed roll which kept me alive for the journey towards lower elevations.

The map kinda funnels you down towards the mountaineers hut, since eventually as a new spawn you will be exhausted w/o a hatchet having not slept enough. Which is great because that location provides just enough perks to keep you going. I also found my first hatchet in there and a sharpener. By then i was accustomed to rationing myself on cat tails. This felt like the land of plenty. I would eat 3-4 of them per night. Striving for 3 cat tails as ideal, and 4 if I had suffered too much condition loss from the cold. My clothing wasn't enough to keep me warm inside the building. I could sleep during noon hours if there was no storm and the bed would keep me positive but there was no real huge warmth gain that allowed me to do anything constructive. So I began to figure out a routine for keeping a perma fire.

Wake up one hour + minutes before the camp fire was about to go out. If I had done well the previous day gathering wood it would be roughly at sunrise. However I found as I approached day 23 or so there was an undeniable shortage of burn time on my fire. Over time, even though i was busting my arse collecting wood I was slowly burning through the excess pile provided when I found the place... I remember on day 23waking up with 6 hours or so left of darkness some nights, and actually foraging for sticks in the middle of the night our of desperation. Scary yes! Amazing? Yes!

I kept doing this gathering small twigs and if a branch was located close to my cabin i would break that down. Nearby I would need at minimum 3-4 sticks to keep the timer on my fire = to how I left it. This was a game of stalling for better conditions. Sometimes I wouldn't even get more then 2 sticks going outside. (Pointing this out for balancing reasons in case you need to know this) The issue wasn't because there were stick or branch spawns nearby. It was because the rate at which they dropped/respawned again that really made me run a deficit. As I learned that I couldn't count on respawns I began to extend my range at the cost of health and taking freezing damage. During these predawn hours and roughly until 10 hours remaining of daylight the game was simply... keep the fire alive...

As the sunlight rose above the hills I would gradually extend my reach collecting things I may have missed in the darkness and going farther away from the cabin. When it felt like roughly +15 degrees I would take a stab at chopping a limb apart for choice firewood. The rest of the day became a game of minimize your condition loss while putting as much time on the fire as possible.

I would then repeat. Depending on how much wood I managed to chop, or how many sticks I managed to gather directly affected my health for the next day. I was ranging from about 55% (good sleep) to 35% (bad sleep) and then roughly 15% condition by the end of the day. The struggle was real, but it was also really rewarding. I had a few moments of greedily collecting sticks near a wolf which was patrolling. Peeking around the tree and picking up sticks while his back was turned. The experience had the whole "your living by a thread" feeling to it. I just wanted to say I liked it. This was truely awesome. However I wanted to draw attention to possible issue with the twigs and respawn in case you guys were intending for this location to feel less punishing. Personally I think its do-able. However its hardmode for sure <3

Once I managed to make some deerskin boots it was a major game changer. Some days I can sleep during the day without much fear of temperature drop. I am not sure if this was your intention... for us to sleep during the day and do things at night to keep the fire alive. Either way having half the wood requirements allows me to regenerate my health much easier. The cost of keeping a perma fire is gone at the expense of matches, so I can choose to rebuild my wood supply slightly over time or struggle with the fire. I would say its nearing a slightly positive feel but its hard to tell. My hatchet is nearly worn to nothing though. I went from using my hatchet 1-3 times a day to maybe once every two days to keep alive by switching away from the perma fire now that I have clothing. In the middle of the night I do need to run a fire, and resort to my branch breaking, and stick collecting until sunrise to keep alive. However that is a fraction of the cost to my hp, hatchet and wood supply as before. I am working on some rabbit skin mittens right now and I am pretty sure once those are completed this location will be very comfy.

Approaching Day 35 and my future looks bright... except for this 20% hatchet hehe but thats part of the fun <3 I hope this feedback was helpful for the Mountaineers Cabin location and possibly how Timberwolf Mountain feels to freshly starting players.

I have this sneaky suspicion you want me to take that rope in the cabin and find the downed plan in the mountains... Which could have a crowbar to open all these metal presents you scattered around Cheers and thanks for giving me the best sandbox game yet!

Final result: 37 Days hatchet gave out and eventually died from the cold. Best game yet (not in terms of duration but with regards to "oh snap" moments. ~Cheers next time I will make it to the crashed plane.

[Scyzara]

Couldn't agree more. TWM is definitely my favorite map so far and starting a game there is great fun, especially if you don't know the landscape yet. Had an awesome time starting there right after the TWM release.

Kudos to whoever designed this awesome landscape with its various nested altitute levels, cliffs and canyons. It's great how you can unlock new travelling routes by realigning the climbing ropes. Gives the map a more dynamic feeling in my opinion.

Once you know every nook and cranny of TWM things get a lot easier ofc, but that's just natural and a general problem of all premade maps. Doesn't make a lot of sense to complain about this.

The only thing that I truely dislike about TWM is thus the overall amount of items you can find inside the cargo containers. (Or to be more precisely, rather the amount of cargo containers themselves). One tenth of the current number would have been enough imo. But well, at least you have to work a bit to acquire that loot - definitely a step into the right direction imho.