1000 Days in the Dam: An exercise in inventory control

[Ohbal]

I love this thread. The worst part is that we are getting closer to the 1000 days mark... only 49* to go! What are you going to do then @Drifter Man?

EDIT: just saw the "days in the damn" last update. We have a bit more of 49 days left in your story  

[Drifter Man]

The thread may actually be slowly coming to a close, unfortunately. I don't think I will have much time on my hands next year.

But anyway, thank you guys for your support!

[Drifter Man]

Day 952 (842nd day in the Dam)

I'm back to the Dam with all the loot from Pleasant Valley:

• 153 pieces of cloth
• 60 pieces of scrap metal
• 6 bandages
• 2 emergency stims
• 4 water purification tablets
• 136 matches
• 1 firestriker
• 1 fishing tackle
• 1 flare shell (useless but cool)
• 21 rifle rounds
• 1 hunting knife
• 1 arrowhead
• 1 rifle cleaning kit
• 2 sewing kits
• 1 whetstone
• a pair of insulated boots
• 5 maple saplings
• 38 reishi mushrooms
• 18 lichens
• 168 rosehip buds
• 5 portions of herbal tea
• 2 boxes of crackers
• 1 tin of sardines

I left some more stuff in the Valley, including a hatchet and two more stims. I found a rifle at the Signal Hill and took it apart in place for scrap metal. I'm thinking now it may have been a mistake, should have left it there.

What to do now? I'm considering returning to the Valley again to continue my exploration. I'm out of superchocolate, but maybe I could kill a bear to fuel my expedition.

[Patrick Carlson]

It's been an epic account so far. Even if you don't push on past 1000 days, it's a great artifact for the community. 

[Pillock]

1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

Day 952 (842nd day in the Dam)

What to do now? I'm considering returning to the Valley again to continue my exploration. I'm out of superchocolate, but maybe I could kill a bear to fuel my expedition.

You don't want tips, but how about a general warning? (nothing specific, no locations mentioned)

I've died many, many times on Pleasant Valley through exploring. The weather changes, you don't know where you are or what direction to go, night closes in, you can barely see ten paces ahead, you run into a pack of wolves... Maybe you'd handle it better than me, but I have come a cropper several times from positions of self-perceived invulnerability. Please just be careful! 

(sorry if I sound like somebody's mum)

1 hour ago, Patrick Carlson said:

It's been an epic account so far. Even if you don't push on past 1000 days, it's a great artifact for the community. 

I second that!

[Drifter Man]

2 hours ago, Patrick Carlson said:

It's been an epic account so far. Even if you don't push on past 1000 days, it's a great artifact for the community. 

Maybe it is fitting that I am about to end at this point. I feel I'm running out of steam and struggle to keep the writing engaging. Initially I was very busy uncovering the mechanics of the game, but now I find very little useful content to include in new posts. Somehow the knowledge that I cannot possibly reach the end even if I am wasteful with resources, took away my motivation to seek optimum strategies. I've found the answer I had been looking for from the start. The answer is: Forever.

With that said, I'm really happy that I've had readers who keep coming back. I wouldn't have made it this far without your support.

[Drifter Man]

51 minutes ago, Pillock said:

You don't want tips, but how about a general warning? (nothing specific, no locations mentioned)

I always value advice, and especially your advice - if it weren't for you, my run would have ended at the bottom of the Ravine basin hundreds of days ago. In Pleasant Valley, I always watch the weather.

[cekivi]

6 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

I always value advice, and especially your advice - if it weren't for you, my run would have ended at the bottom of the Ravine basin hundreds of days ago. In Pleasant Valley, I always watch the weather.

Note that Pleasant Valley is navigable (even in bad weather) once you know the map. It's actually one of my favourite maps to survive on. However, if you don't know your landmarks and where shelters are you can easily get killed in a blizzard due to the poor visibility. The road and river are your friends. If you can find those you can orient yourself quickly towards a shelter.

[Ohbal]

1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

Maybe it is fitting that I am about to end at this point. I feel I'm running out of steam and struggle to keep the writing engaging. Initially I was very busy uncovering the mechanics of the game, but now I find very little useful content to include in new posts. Somehow the knowledge that I cannot possibly reach the end even if I am wasteful with resources, took away my motivation to seek optimum strategies. I've found the answer I had been looking for from the start. The answer is: Forever.

I think you have taken your trip further than the current saandbox design is ment to last, or at least to remain enjoyable. I would hate to hijack this wonderful thread with a gameplay discussion, so I'll leave it for another day and another thread. But I can only guess that most mechanics will be adjusted once the sandbox becomes a full-year cycle, and I can only hope that the HT team will be able to find a way to intruduce a true resource management challenge (as the one I think you were originally looking for with your experiment).

[Timber Wolf]

@Drifter Man

This is an amazing and impressive accounting of your journey.  I have no idea how you could stick this out for so long, but thanks so much for sharing it!

[Drifter Man]

On 11/17/2016 at 11:23 PM, Ohbal said:

I think you have taken your trip further than the current saandbox design is ment to last, or at least to remain enjoyable. I would hate to hijack this wonderful thread with a gameplay discussion, so I'll leave it for another day and another thread. But I can only guess that most mechanics will be adjusted once the sandbox becomes a full-year cycle, and I can only hope that the HT team will be able to find a way to intruduce a true resource management challenge (as the one I think you were originally looking for with your experiment).

I totally agree, and I actually hadn't thought about it this way before. The game is not meant to last 1000 days (although I know there are players who have survived much longer than that). After all, there is no steam achievement for 500 or 1000 days, only 200.

And @Timber Wolf, thanks for your support!

[nicko]

v375 there is an in game achievement to survive 500 days!

[Scyzara]

3 minutes ago, nicko said:

v375 there is an in game achievement to survive 500 days!

Yeah, but the 'efficient machine' feat is to survive 500days in all of your games together. Not to survive 500 days in the same game.^^

[nicko]

7 minutes ago, Scyzara said:

Yeah, but the 'efficient machine' feat is to 500days in all of your games alltogether. Not to survive 500 days in the same game.^^

oh really are you sure? I thought it was for one game play? im at 415 days in my game still have not got it and i have played many other game plays that would well total over 500. odd. I wonder if it is because i deleted older game plays/saves! that's all i can think of.

[Drifter Man]

Day 954 (844th day in the Dam)

After 956 days, 12 hours and 29 minutes survived, 2,810,012 Cal expended, 2431 km walked, 274 successful repairs made, 261 bow and 28 rifle shots taken, 53 wolves, 3 bears, 196 deer and 1943 rabbits killed, over 4 tons of meat harvested and consumed, 397 fires started, 12 cases of food poisoning, 1 of hypothermia (deliberately induced for testing), 11 of bloodloss and 1 of intestinal parasites,

I decided to park this sandbox for good and discover other aspects of this amazing game.

As the final thing to do, I updated my decay rate test results according to the latest data.

• ---------------------------------------------------------------
• Food decay           backpack  indoor    indoor    outdoor  
•                                container open      container
•                      %/day     %/day     %/day     %/day
• ---------------------------------------------------------------
• beef jerky                     0.076     0.076
• candy bar                      0.190     0.183     0.018*
• cattail stalks                 0.000*         
• condensed milk                 0.775               0.197
• dog food                                           0.136
• energy bar                     0.675     0.664     0.337
• granola bar                    0.258               0.023*
• herbal tea           0.039*    0.049     0.048     0.051
• military-grade MRE             0.043     0.041*    0.023*
• soda                           0.125     0.126     0.675
• peanut butter                                      0.400
• pinnacle peaches               0.258    
• pork & beans                   0.100               0.547
• salty crackers                 0.000*    0.000*
• tin of coffee        0.061     0.076     0.076     0.074
• tin of sardines                0.052*    0.052     0.264
• tomato soup                    0.152    
• ---------------------------------------------------------------

 

• ---------------------------------------------------------------
• Decay of clothes     constant  indoor
•                      wearing   container
•                      %/day     %/day
• ---------------------------------------------------------------
• basic boots                    0.084
• construction boots             0.039*
• wool scarf           0.467     0.083
• deerskin boots       0.310
• deerskin pants       0.107
• heavy wool sweater   0.131
• jeans                          0.037
• rabbitskin mitts     0.417     0.075
• toque                0.507     0.102
• wolfskin coat        0.155
• wool longjohns       0.071
• wool socks           0.440     0.083
• winter coat                    0.052
• expedition parka               0.019
• ---------------------------------------------------------------

 

• ---------------------------------------------------------------
• Other items          backpack  indoor    indoor    outdoor
•                                 container open      container
•                      %/day     %/day     %/day     %/day
• ---------------------------------------------------------------
• accelerant           0.123     0.150     0.153     0.147
• distress pistol flare          0.049               0.047*
• antibiotics          0.079?    0.076     0.076     0.078
• painkillers          0.078?    0.074     0.076     0.078
• water purif. tablets 0.128     0.149     0.157     0.152
• ---------------------------------------------------------------

Two notes: 1) * means that the item in the test has degraded by fewer than 10% and the result may be very inaccurate; 2) I mentioned earlier that accelerant, antibiotics, painkillers and water purification tablets (also tea and coffee) degrade more slowly in the backpack than in a container. The latest numbers do not confirm this for antibiotics and painkillers, which surprises me, because I could swear I observed in the past that pills from the same batch (some left in a first aid box, some taken in the backpack) showed a clear difference in the rate of decay. Unfortunately, there is a bug that causes pills stack up in your backpack and assume one condition level, and this may have happened in one of my exploration voyages, ruining the results.

[nicko]

sheesh lots of rabbit hunting then 1943 rabbits? did you fish much? should have a KG fish caught.

[Drifter Man]

14 minutes ago, nicko said:

oh really are you sure? I thought it was for one game play? im at 415 days in my game still have not got it and i have played many other game plays that would well total over 500. odd. I wonder if it is because i deleted older game plays/saves! that's all i can think of.

You can check the badges' status e.g. from the main menu, a bar is shown with a percentage how far you have progressed towards the achievement. If yours is at 83% (equivalent to 415 days), it is only the current game that counts. If it is higher, your older games count, too.

[Drifter Man]

Just now, nicko said:

sheesh lots of rabbit hunting then 1943 rabbits? did you fish much? should have a KG fish caught.

The Ravine is a great place for rabbits but not for fishing  I only caught 7.3 kg of fish while in Coastal Highway.

[nicko]

7 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

You can check the badges' status e.g. from the main menu, a bar is shown with a percentage how far you have progressed towards the achievement. If yours is at 83% (equivalent to 415 days), it is only the current game that counts. If it is higher, your older games count, too.

thanks I just checked my sandbox game says the achievement is at 88% and i currently have two games plays, one at 417 days and other at 250 days, That is why I think the 500 in game achievement is based on one game play and not over multi.

[Drifter Man]

1 minute ago, nicko said:

thanks I just checked my says the achievement is at 88% and i currently have two games plays, one at 417 and other at 250, That is why I think the 500 in game achievement is based on one game play and not over multi.

There is one more possibility - that you started the game before the badges were introduced. The days before the badges were added to the game definitely don't count.

[nicko]

5 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

The Ravine is a great place for rabbits but not for fishing  I only caught 7.3 kg of fish while in Coastal Highway.

the dam is on Mystery lake map yes?so why not just go fishing near the main cabin -bit of a walk i guess?

[nicko]

3 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

There is one more possibility - that you started the game before the badges were introduced. The days before the badges were added to the game definitely don't count.

hrm maybe. I can't remember, guess I just need to keep persisting with this game plays and see what happens

[Drifter Man]

2 minutes ago, nicko said:

the dam is on Mystery lake map yes?so why not just go fishing near the main cabin -bit of a walk i guess?

Bit of a walk with wolves on the way, and the rabbits are closer and easier  But I considered fishing for a while, I even turned one of the huts into a coal bunker with 200+ coals.

[nicko]

hehe 200 coals nice. you could craft a lot of arrow heads with that, long as you have the metal and hammer

[Drifter Man]

8 minutes ago, nicko said:

hehe 200 coals nice. you could craft a lot of arrow heads with that, long as you have the metal and hammer

I have 112 pieces of scrap metal ready in the Dam, more in the Riken, and I could turn the stuff in the Dam into scrap for over 300 additional pieces. I could craft until kingdom come, the main challenge would be to haul it all to the forge and then back.

However, you don't need a whole lot of arrowheads, especially if you hunt in a place like the Ravine where you don't lose them often. The improvised hatchet is useless when there are hundreds of sticks lying around, and repairing the hacksaw is a more efficient use of scrap metal for meat harvesting than crafting improvised knives.