Some questions from newbie

[Spiky]

I played the game a bit for few hours and figured out some basics, but with everything I do in game I have more and more questions. Would be great if someone would be so kind and gave me answers. I will eventually add more questions later.

1. Why don't animals leave footsteps in snow? It would be nice addition to be able to track them. Do devs plan to add this feature in future updates?

2. Do items disappear and eventually respawn later? For example, if I drop something, will it be there once I get back in few in-game days/weeks? What about dead animals and animals generally. Are they spawned when new game is started and thats it?

3. How can I know how long will, for example, boiling water take? Sometimes the action I start takes more time than my fire lasts, which is big problem for me.

4. I was making hot peaches. I cooked it few times, checked inventory, but the item description said nothing about the item being cooked (hot). Only once I drank it I saw some message in inventory menu, telling me that the meal warmed me up.

[Hatchet]

1. Probably to save on memory, espesially on the harder modes where there's 1 wildlife every square meter.

2. Items have a certain amount of time before they dissapear or spoil, you can look it up on a wiki as each item degrades slightly with each day, but it's different for most items.

Once an item is fully degraded it will vanish, even if item spoil it will just say; " Item 'X' has gone bad " and it will vanish into thin air, no spoiled or degraded product left behind (for now)

3. Boil 0.5l write down how long it takes, double that time for 1 liter, double that time again for 2l and so on... pretty solid if you ask me.

4. Only cook canned food when you need the warmth bonus, i think cooked food stays warm for 9 ingame minutes, but i'm probably slightly off.

Cooked canned food is only good for the extra warmth bonus, otherwise you may eat it "fresh" from the can.

4.5 It's weird that whenever you cook canned food and thee/coffee you do not automatically ingest it once cooked, unlike any other product you can cook.

So if you cooked some can food, don't cook anythig afterwards, go into your inventory and manually select to eat cooked food before it goes cold again, the protagonist has no brain as of yet, so use your own

like you said, you can cook peaches multiple times, but it has no use other than draining your fire.

[Spiky]

1. Probably to save on memory, espesially on the harder modes where there's 1 wildlife every square meter.

2. Items have a certain amount of time before they dissapear or spoil, you can look it up on a wiki as each item degrades slightly with each day, but it's different for most items.

Once an item is fully degraded it will vanish, even if item spoil it will just say; " Item 'X' has gone bad " and it will vanish into thin air, no spoiled or degraded product left behind (for now)

3. Boil 0.5l write down how long it takes, double that time for 1 liter, double that time again for 2l and so on... pretty solid if you ask me.

4. Only cook canned food when you need the warmth bonus, i think cooked food stays warm for 9 ingame minutes, but i'm probably slightly off.

Cooked canned food is only good for the extra warmth bonus, otherwise you may eat it "fresh" from the can.

4.5 It's weird that whenever you cook canned food and thee/coffee you do not automatically ingest it once cooked, unlike any other product you can cook.

So if you cooked some can food, don't cook anythig afterwards, go into your inventory and manually select to eat cooked food before it goes cold again, the protagonist has no brain as of yet, so use your own

like you said, you can cook peaches multiple times, but it has no use other than draining your fire.

1. fair enough

2. what about items that i dont touch and their degradation does not start? For example dead frozen deer or branches

3. what about cooking meat? does it also say how long it will take? I am not sure, I may have missed that

4. what confuses me is this: if i cook meat, it will change from raw to cooked. but if I do the same with coffee, the item description wont change at all and if i dont remember what i just heated...

4.

[elloco999]

2. The degradation process starts when you interact with it (click on it or find it in a container, even if you put it back). This is also true for the frozen deer carcasses you find, but not for those animals killed by you or wolves, for killed animals the degradation process starts immediately.

3. You can easily find out for yourself: start a fire, check the burn time and cook some meat. Check how much burn time is left and there you have it. Tip: it doesn't matter if you're cooking 0.1kg or 1kg of meat, it always takes the same time.

You can determine how long it takes to melt snow and boil water the same way.

4. Heating canned foods or making tea or coffee is probably intended to eat/ drink it immediately. But it should be in the item's description if it's hot, so I would report this as a bug if I were you.

[starfighter441]

1. If you interact with a wolf, (shoot it, or fight it) you will see tracks if you follow it. If you break off the chase they disappear though.

[cekivi]

It is sometimes hard to see the "hot" descriptor for an item as its image does not change. If an item is hot though selecting in in the inventory will have "hot" in brackets beside the item's name.

[Spiky]

It is sometimes hard to see the "hot" descriptor for an item as its image does not change. If an item is hot though selecting in in the inventory will have "hot" in brackets beside the item's name.

I know that if I make cup of tea, the item will be added to inventory (and my box of tea will lose one sack, which makes sense). I am pretty sure that I had such situation where the item did not have that "hot" description you are talking about. Maybe it is only case of specific item and I was "lucky" to experience it. Anyway, I reported it a bug, so if there is something, devs will hopefully fix it.

[starfighter441]

You have to drink the tea or coffee pretty quickly after making it, otherwise it cools down. Same thing with the other canned goods such as soup or peaches.

[cekivi]

I agree with starfighter. You've got less than 5 min in real time Spiky to enjoy your hot beverage/meal in game before it cools off.

[pkay]

2. what about items that i dont touch and their degradation does not start? For example dead frozen deer or branches

To answer this; I've passed a couple of carcasses at the beginning of the game due to lack of tools, and when I returned a couple of days later they were gone. I think 2 in-game days for dead animals before they disappear. Same goes for hunted animals. Human bodies seem to stay forever.

The branches seem to respawn in the same/similar areas after a couple of days after chopping them for firewood.

[elloco999]

There is a difference between animals killed after the game starts and carcasses that are already there when the game starts. The carcasses that are already there when the game starts (or rather, get spawned when you enter a map for the first time) look different and have a different name if you hover over them. These carcasses will remain for ever as long as you don''t touch them.

Carcasses from animals killed (by you or wolves) will disappear after a few days, whether you click on them or not.

And yes, branches do respawn every day or two.

[Jolan]

In my inventory hot items have a very small, light grey descriptor at the top next to the item name (almost unreadable).  So (hot) peaches.  

[Jolan]

I have a newbie question - how on earth do you fight wolves.  The furry navigational hazards are a nuisance.   I've been mostly smashing keys randomly.  I'm on a pc

[cekivi]

@Jolan: depends on your system. If you play on PC than getting attacked by a wolf triggers the "fight" animation. You have to click the left mouse button as fast as possible to fight the wolf off (you're filling a struggle bar at the bottom of the screen). Once you've done enough damage to the wolf (or enough time has past) the wolf will let go. The longer the struggle lasts the more condition you lose, the more your clothing is damaged and the greater your likelihood of a bleeding injury. Your goal is always to end the struggle as quickly as possible. Having a weapon greatly increases the amount of damage you can do to the wolf (each click fills up more of the struggle bar) making the wolf let go quicker. In order from least to most effective weapons you can use are hands < pry-bar < hatchet < hunting knife. The best weapon you have is automatically equipped during a struggle.

Although wolves continue to be annoying, once you have a hunting knife you can usually fight one off to the point where the wolf is near death at the cost of ~25% condition loss and possible bleeding in case you're ever desperate for food. Deliberately attacking a wolf with a knife has saved me from starvation more than once

[Jolan]

Thanks cekivi!