1000 Days in the Dam: An exercise in inventory control

[Drifter Man]

Day 567 (524th Day in the Dam), second entry

Here's my first take on the important inventory items and how many days are left in them. Clothes are out of the picture for now until I get more complete data on their durability, but I don't think they will change much.

• Cloth equivalent (incl. bedroll): 165.20 pcs / 1770 days
• Bow (incl. maple saplings): 10.92 pcs / 2087 days
• Arrow shaft (incl. birch saplings): 25.21 pcs / 429 days
• Knife (incl. whetstone): 10.44 pcs / 1353 days
• Match: 96 pcs
• Arrowheads: 4 pcs
• Flare: 4 pcs
• Hatchet: 3.96 pcs
• Lantern fuel: 11.11 liters

Cloth will last an eternity - the bedroll now needs four times less cloth for repairs than before. Bow and arrow will also last longer because I'm being forced to move from 3 deer per 10 days to two. Knives will degrade faster because I need them to harvest more rabbits, but I also found several new whetstones, so the outlook has actually improved. Matches are no longer a factor - I only needed one match in the last 20 days and I can get hundreds more in the world.

I've come up with an idea to cut down on firewood and cooking time requirements. The main problem are those tiny rabbit chunks that take 20 minutes to cook. I mentioned that for 2 deer, 31 rabbits and 20 liters of water (standard 10-day diet) I need 35 hours of fire and 270 sticks, which is barely manageable. But if I catch even more rabbits and only take the 1-kg pieces, the situation changes dramatically:

• 2 deer, 38 rabbits, 20 liters = 29 hours of fire / 222 sticks
• 1 deer, 54 rabbits, 20 liters = 31 hours of fire / 240 sticks
• 70 rabbits, 20 liters = 33 hours of fire / 256 sticks

I could go rabbit only, put away bow and arrow, and save both time and firewood!

Can I bag 7 rabbits a day, every day?

I don't know, but I sure want to try!

Rabbits beware! Armageddon is coming!

[Drifter Man]

20 minutes ago, Vhalkyrie said:

Wait, do they start the 50 day grace period from the time you reload your game?  I thought it was from your calendar start date.  IE on Day 240 I am more than 50 days over.  If the grace period starts from the time after the patch, I have a ways to go until I can see what happens.

I don't know - just speculating. In my opinion, most likely no, because they knew people would want to start experimenting right away.

[Drifter Man]

Day 577 (534th Day in the Dam)

In what will be known by history as the Great Bear Island Rabbit Massacre, I caught 73 rabbits over the course of ten days (plus one deer) and confirmed that one can live off rabbits in the Ravine. I also collected 282 sticks in the Ravine alone and managed to cook everything along with 20 liters of water. It cost me average 3261 Cal per day and my knife degraded by 13%, both quite extravagant figures. 15 snares were ruined, meaning I will have to replace the guts, putting even more pressure on knives. Rabbits freeze fast and taking the guts with hand is not an option, the meat must come first. Maybe I could use fire like @Vhalkyrie does and thaw the carcasses while cooking the meat. But then again, taking the guts with hand will cost four times more calories. I'll need to figure this out.

Needless to say, those were busy days, as I had to go to the Ravine every morning and still find the time (and sunlight) for cooking. I don't think I'd want to live like this normally, but it is good to know there are options. One deer and 54 rabbits, of which I will only be taking the 1-kg pieces, will be my 10-day schedule from now on. It is wasteful, but it saves a lot of time and firewood; it is an efficient method if you have a surplus of rabbits.

• Cloth equivalent (incl. bedroll): 164.00 pcs / 1757 days
• Bow (incl. maple saplings): 10.90 pcs / 4165 days
• Arrow shaft (incl. birch saplings): 25.00 pcs / 850 days
• Knife (incl. whetstone): 10.31 pcs / 831 days
• Match: 94 pcs
• Arrowheads: 4 pcs
• Flare: 4 pcs
• Hatchet: 3.93 pcs
• Lantern fuel: 11.11 liters

As you can see, I'm saving arrows, but burning away knives at the same time. I love this aspect of this game. You can only save one resource by using another. I may have to rebalance again in the future.

My clothing and food degradation tests continue in the meantime. None of the food items placed in the test locker has degraded by a single percentage point over 10 days. The meat has been there for 30 days; no decay either.

Owing to this exercise I have about 12,000 excess calories in storage. I think I can afford to spend 3 days getting the mountaineering rope and pay a visit to the bottom of the Ravine.

[Pillock]

3 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

Owing to this exercise I have about 12,000 excess calories in storage. I think I can afford to spend 3 days getting the mountaineering rope and pay a visit to the bottom of the Ravine.

Do not go there unprepared. Please, please.

[Vhalkyrie]

16 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

Owing to this exercise I have about 12,000 excess calories in storage. I think I can afford to spend 3 days getting the mountaineering rope and pay a visit to the bottom of the Ravine.

Don't forget to take your sleeping roll and coffee with you.  I read that someone died down there recently because they climbed down there, and were too tired to climb back up. 

A few tips, if I may, since I climb in Timberwolf frequently.  It's always best to start a climb up when you are full fatigue, usually right after you wake up.  Climbing down the rope is negligible fatigue.  It's very important not to be encumbered at all when climbing up.  Anything that drains extra fatigue is bad.  I climb *up* Timberwolf and *down* home, but you'll be going in reverse climbing *down* the Ravine and then *up* home.  If you start bright and early right after you wake up, I imagine you'll be fine.  Don't try to climb rope if you are "tired" with fatigue at 50%.  Your tiredness will effect your encumbrance, and that gets scary as you probably won't notice anything until you get towards the top.  Keep your fatigue high and encumbrance low and it will be a piece of cake.  

[Drifter Man]

24 minutes ago, Vhalkyrie said:

I read that someone died down there recently because they climbed down there, and were too tired to climb back up.

That's scary! Coffee and an emergency stim will go with me. But I wonder about the bedroll... it is 1 kilogram I could save... but I could compensate by taking cattail stalks instead of meat. One kilogram of stalks can keep me going for a day. I'm going to carefully weigh all items that I need to take along.

The first challenge is to get the rope in the first place. I already know where to find it, but the place is dangerous. I once got lost in the hills between Camp Office, Derailment and the River in Pilgrim. Night fell and a blizzard struck. I weathered it, Pilgrim characters are nearly immortal. I had to jump off a cliff to get out of there.

[Pillock]

31 minutes ago, Vhalkyrie said:

Don't forget to take your sleeping roll and coffee with you.  I read that someone died down there recently because they climbed down there, and were too tired to climb back up.

Yeah that was me. It would be a criminal waste if 1000 Days in the Dam was cut short in the same way.

I had coffee and I had a stim. Didn't take the bedroll because it was only meant to be a short exploration trip and I wanted to be lightweight so I could carry potential goodies home.  But it's the one piece of kit that you should absolutely not leave behind. The coffee and the stim were not enough for me. There is only one way out, and if you are tired you cannot make it. It is not worth the risk.

[Vhalkyrie]

12 minutes ago, Pillock said:

Yeah that was me.

Sorry man.  But thank you for your sacrifice.  You may have saved other lives!

[Drifter Man]

You died so that others could live.

Bedroll goes to the backpack.

[Vhalkyrie]

Just now, Drifter Man said:

You died so that others could live.

Bedroll goes to the backpack.

Amen.

Don't forget to pack your 'camera' and take photos of your adventure!

[Dinhammer]

Wow.  You guys are really psyching me out, here.  I'm about to head over there, so let me get this straight.  The procedure is:

1) Rest to full; 2) Drink 10 cups coffee; 3) Strip buck naked; 4) Shimmy down the rope with nothing but a bedroll and three dozen stims; 5) Die anyway?

 

[Vhalkyrie]

11 minutes ago, Dinhammer said:

Wow.  You guys are really psyching me out, here.  I'm about to head over there, so let me get this straight.  the procedure is:

1) Rest to full; 2) Drink 10 cups coffee; 3) Strip buck naked; 4) Shimmy down the rope with nothing but a bedroll and three dozen stims; 5) Die anyway?

 

Haha I hope not!  I haven't done this myself, and unfortunately, I'm on the other side of the world at DP right now.  But now I want to.  I love rope climbing in this game.  

It's very, very important that you are well rested when you climb up.  So I absolutely think you should bring the bedroll.  If your fatigue is 50% or lower, don't attempt it.

The Mountaineer's Code for TLD is:

1) Be well rested when climbing up.
2) Never encumbered.
3) Never when fatigue < 50%.

The reason you must be well rested and not encumbered is because your fatigue will drop like a rock when climbing up.  If you fall below fatigue 50%, then your max encumbrance starts to fall below 30kg.  This makes you drain fatigue faster.  You see where that is going.  So absolutely take a nap before climbing.

I have never fallen in 70 days on Timberwolf.  On TWM, you should be able to climb two ropes on one full charge of fatigue.  General rule - some ropes are much longer.  In those cases, there's usually a ledge where you can take a break.

[Dinhammer]

I do get the impression that this climb is... special.  Just looking at the screenshots of the rope, it seems a longer climb than anything I've come across summiting TWM.  I'll count the "steps" on the rope and compare.

[Pillock]

12 minutes ago, Dinhammer said:

Wow.  You guys are really psyching me out, here.  I'm about to head over there, so let me get this straight.  the procedure is:

1) Rest to full; 2) Drink 10 cups coffee; 3) Strip buck naked; 4) Shimmy down the rope with nothing but a bedroll and three dozen stims; 5) Die anyway?

 

Got it in one!

It probably isn't particularly difficult, really. I just didn't think. There's food, fuel and shelter down there (and prizes!). You could probably live there as a hermit for quite some time if you wanted.

It is a very long climb to get back out, though. There are certain terrain features that lead me to suspect that the whole place was designed specifically as a death trap for ill-prepared and unsuspecting... pillocks. Oh well.

[Vhalkyrie]

1 minute ago, Dinhammer said:

I do get the impression that this climb is... special.  Just looking at the screenshots of the rope, it seems a longer climb than anything I've come across summiting TWM.  I'll count the "steps" on the rope and compare.

The new rope climb on PV is quite special too - lol.  There's 2 rope climbs.  The first one is fairly short.  The second one is much longer, with a resting ledge.  It's tough to do in one go, even with max fatigue.

[Vhalkyrie]

5 minutes ago, Pillock said:

It is a very long climb to get back out, though. There are certain terrain features that lead me to suspect that the whole place was designed specifically as a death trap for ill-prepared and unsuspecting... pillocks. Oh well.

I'll take dying on an adventure over dying to a candy bar while in bed with hypothermia.  I've done that.  Not the most glorious way I've ever gone out.  

[Dinhammer]

Two late-breaking questions that may save my life, to whomever might know...

-Does the fatigue expended vary with difficulty level?  (This is a stalker run.)

-Is it advantageous to go ultra-light, or does anything below the encumbrance "red" limit use the same amount of fatigue/restedness?

(I am probably overthinking this, yes. If it were impossible, it wouldn't be in the game.)

Damn... that's a long way down.

[Vhalkyrie]

4 minutes ago, Dinhammer said:

Two late-breaking questions that may save my life, to whomever might know...

-Does the fatigue expended vary with difficulty level?  (This is a stalker run.)

-Is it advantageous to go ultra-light, or does anything below the encumbrance "red" limit use the same amount of fatigue/restedness?

(I am probably overthinking this, yes. If it were impossible, it wouldn't be in the game.)

Great questions!  I don't know.  (I'm on Voyager).  I am guessing that anything below "red" encumbered the same fatigue rate, but I don't know.  I'm theorizing values above "red" encumbered is linear increasing fatigue drain (at least, eyeballing it from my TWM rope climbs).  Sound like something up Drifter Man's alley.  

[Vhalkyrie]

8 minutes ago, Dinhammer said:

Damn... that's a long way down.

Sneaky devs.  It's probably a trap they put all those goodies down there so it would be difficult to climb back up!  

Geez, I'm jealous guys.  I'm locked into DP for the weekend, but I really want to be on the rope climb with the rest of you.   Stay safe out there - I'll be eager to follow along!

[Pillock]

6 minutes ago, Vhalkyrie said:

I'll take dying on an adventure over dying to a candy bar while in bed with hypothermia.  I've done that.  Not the most glorious way I've ever gone out.  

Standing at the bottom of a rope looking upwards, good health, well supplied, fine weather, plenty of daylight remaining, no animal threats. Absolute certainty of death.

It's probably the funniest of the many ways I've managed to get myself killed.

 

3 minutes ago, Dinhammer said:

Two late-breaking questions that may save my life, to whomever might know...

-Does the fatigue expended vary with difficulty level?  (This is a stalker run.)

-Is it advantageous to go ultra-light, or does anything below the encumbrance "red" limit use the same amount of fatigue/restedness?

(I am probably overthinking this, yes. If it were impossible, it wouldn't be in the game.)

I'm not sure if it varies with difficulty, but the more tired you are the lower your encumbrance limit is - and you get tireder as you climb. There is a ledge half way up where you can take a break, build a fire, make some coffee, have a kip, recharge - but it's not the most relaxing place to spend time, I don't imagine (I didn't make it that far, even).

[Vhalkyrie]

4 minutes ago, Pillock said:

Standing at the bottom of a rope looking upwards, good health, well supplied, fine weather, plenty of daylight remaining, no animal threats. Absolute certainty of death.

Ok, now you've scared me.  

Did you get any stims while you were down there?  I haven't found any yet, so I wouldn't be able to take it with me.

[Pillock]

12 minutes ago, Vhalkyrie said:

Ok, now you've scared me.  

Did you get any stims while you were down there?  I haven't found any yet, so I wouldn't be able to take it with me.

I don't think I found one down there, no. They might spawn there sometimes, but I always carry one with me. Only one, though - I had about 4 of them stored back at the dam, 5 minutes walk from the top the rope!

If I'd had my bedroll I would have been fine - there's a cave down there, and a deer carcass, and rabbits and wood for fuel. You can take what you like down there - as long as you have a way of recharging. Four coffees and a Stim didn't cut it for me, but I didn't go about it very intelligently. Even if you carry too much or you're too tired and don't make it first time, if you've got a bedroll with you you can come down again, chill out and go later. If you haven't got a bedroll, you have to get your calculations exactly right (or run around in a panic and then fall off the cliff, which is what I did).

I don't think it's a massive deal if you're sensible about it.

[Vhalkyrie]

1 minute ago, Pillock said:

I don't think I found one down there, no. They might spawn there sometimes, but I always carry one with me. Only one, though - I had about 4 of them stored back at the dam, 5 minutes walk from the top the rope!

This was on an existing pre-patch character, right?  Where did you find your stims?  I have an old character, and I don't know where/if I can get them.

[Dinhammer]

I think I have seen the stims spawn in random containers in old playthroughs. The one I found just happened to be in a first aid box.

[Pillock]

Just now, Vhalkyrie said:

This was on an existing pre-patch character, right?  Where did you find your stims?  I have an old character, and I don't know where/if I can get them.

No, this was the one I started with the new patch - I only play one at a time and I deleted the old because I wanted to try out the new stuff afresh.

Found 4 Stims in Mystery Lake. I hadn't been anywhere else yet. (Or maybe it was 3. I think it was 4 though.)