Doc Gonzo

@Drifter Man Am I mistaken or did you basically invent, or at least bring to fame, the deadman challenge? If I'm not mistaken WOW, what a cool honor.  Dude well done!   If I am mistaken you still had an important role, IMHO, in bringing the idea into the game. 

(Apologies I haven't followed the news about the upcoming update here very well but I recall reading your deadman challenges while biting my nails ... loved them.)

Beautiful stuff Hinterland, @Raphael van Lierop ... just wonderfully done honestly.   Here's hoping for 50 more years ... thanks for all you do. 

@Drifter Man really glad you're back to posting these.  They've always been a favorite of mine.

@Raphael van Lierop, hopefully this is a fun and open ended question for you ...

Tell us something about TLD that we don't know ... 

On 11/16/2018 at 6:12 PM, Drifter Man said:

 

 

I think these are all true statements about CF. Another thing is that the game gets a lot easier initially (on Interloper) if you disable it. So it's also a heavy-handed mechanic that makes the game harder (but not more fun). When you make the game harder in other ways (like Deadman), you no longer need CF - but it turns out you can't get rid of it anyway.

Right now, CF has forced me out to do something I was going to do anyway - go to Milton, to get material (wolf pelts and cloth) in greater quantities and with more reasonable weather conditions than in ML. Unfortunately, I had to leave before reaching cooking level 5. I should get there very soon though.

Thanks @Drifter Man and apologies for the hijack

Thank you both ... I panicked when I first read that thinking Drifter had died but from his screen cap that obviously wasn't true.    

Salute @jeffpeng and @BareSkin!

5 minutes ago, jeffpeng said:

Congratz. I can't even imagine how to do this. Amazing accomplishment - and still going. Make it a 100! *cheers intensify*

I'm missing something here, help an old man out? What does that mean, "waking up doubly dead"?

1 minute ago, jeffpeng said:

I think the reason it sticked around is that the game does a lot of things to make you do things because doing things is fun and challenging, right? Staying home all day isn't. And there is the problem that at a certain point you have everything you'd need to just hit the "skip 10/20/50 days" button if it existed. I'm not a hardcore loper player (although I think I'm getting there) but basically all my Stalkers die of boredom. I guess my current loper will eventually suffer the same fate. CF is a way to combat this, albeit poorly designed.

It would be half the issue if the Custom Toolbox would actually work as intended and had all the levers needed to truthfully create the difficulty you want AND the feat system would be smart enough to realize when someone isn't playing "Pilgrim++" with those settings and still grant progress. But I agree that CF is more of a nuisance than an actually working mechanic and hence should be considered broken. Once you have a game mechanic you work around instead of work with or against .... it's misplaced. Plus nobody can tell me that for a person that grew up in civilization dwelling in a cave (or snow shelter ...) is more mentally healthy than living in a house.

I guess this speaks to a larger problem than the necessity of cabin fever in and of itself as a mechanic.  Late stage games become boring.  I've had an 800+ day run and yes it was boring. I admittedly started passing time on the porch (after the introduction of CF) because there wan't much of anything to do.  

You do still have to harvest food and gather firewood but even firewood can eventually be stockpiled in quantities that are outlandish.  

The thing is even before CF on that long run I ended up forcing my self to find things to do.  Base building in every region, check.  Camping out at another building for weeks at a time, check.  Bear hunting for the love of bear hunting, check.  Even fishing became a way to pass time.  I didn't need to fish but I was bored out of my skull so it was a break from the routine.  

4 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I've learned to live with it, but nothing can make me like it... I never wanted hibernation. I just wanted to stay indoors when I feel like staying indoors.

This is my opinion exactly.  CF was introduced, if my memory serves me correctly, as a counter to people who were hibernating as a way to get onto the leader boards when they were still up on Steam.  They've long since been removed as it was determined that players had altered the game's data to artificially inflate the number of days they'd survived.  Thus CF solves a problem that no longer exists.  

I'm also always baffled why anyone playing TLD today would care if a player hibernates.  I can understand that it's not their cup of tea but what possible negative effect could it have on you if another player does enjoy it?  TLD isn't (and never will be) multiplayer or an MMO, thus what player A does has no consequence on what player B does.  

It's folly to think that during a raging blizzard you'd suddenly develop the overwhelming desire to abandon your warm, well-stocked base for no reason what so ever.  No one, no matter how cooped up they felt during that situation, would behave in such a way. 

Like @Drifter Man I tolerate CF but I refuse to embrace or like it ... it's like a law that was written a hundred years ago and has long since outlived its purpose but for whatever reason, remains on the books.  

On 10/27/2018 at 5:41 AM, Drifter Man said:

Thanks and apologies today - I need a bit of a break. In addition, 4DON starts tomorrow. I'm taking on my special Halloween challenge: make 1000 wolf coats in 4 days

Completely understandable.  Specially with 4DON in full swing.  We don't need you burning out in this thread ;-)

Loving every update @Drifter Man ... keep them coming!

1 hour ago, Hotzn said:

I like Snowballs/Deadmen surviving, but that quick staccato succession of some Deadmen is a nice change of pace. Let's hope Deadman 10 holds out longer... 

I agree ... really hoping number 10 gets a good long run ;-)

Still lovin' these @Drifter Man ... keep them coming, great reads!

1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

The entertainment was mostly mine, although I was happy to share bits of it!

I did not fire the remaining 2 shells - you're right I could have tried again, for shooting practice if for no other reason. I wasn't too interested in extending the run though. My plan has failed, everything else would just delay the inevitable.

I actually had a backup idea, going to CH to try fishing again. But by the time I realized I'm really not going to get food from snares, I'd lost too much condition for the trip to be an option.

Anyway, there are two flare guns in the Ravine Basin now, in case you're interested. Getting the second one may require some serious rock climbing.

Edit: Another thing - I was constantly in the Ravine to keep an eye on the snares, but I could have as well been starving in the Dam, crafting a bow.

No, wait, I couldn't. I didn't have any spare guts and once I did, I used them to make even more snares

So what are you thinking about for your next run?  Any ideas?

A few years ago I remember you discussing the percentages of players that utilize the various difficulty levels.  I believe voyager was the most popular, followed by stalker and finally pilgrim.  This was before the addition of the interloper difficulty if my memory serves correctly.  How do the percentages look today?  I'd be curious if the game's age, the introduction of interloper and story mode have made any differences. 

A fantastic, glorious ending @Drifter Man .... great read!

Last weeks mailbag had a lot of really promising responses about the future of TLD and I think a lot of us were very encouraged by the answers that were given.  Many of the systems you said you felt might still need tuning might, when implemented, go along way toward curing the monotonous nature of the game those of us who enjoy long sandbox runs experience. 

That said, I've read before that Hinterland is aware of the monotony that players face after a certain number of days survived and I was hoping you'd share some of your thoughts on the matter.

To be clear, the monotony I'm referring to occur in  sandbox games that last a very long time.  After a certain point, baring the introduction of a new zone or game mechanic you're stuck, boiling water, hunting and gathering firewood for the most part.  Any hints? 

@Drifter Man Enjoying your stories as always!  What's your eventual end goal with these?  Tough challenge if I'm understanding it correctly (thanks for the info @JAFO).

Looking forward to more...

@Raphael van Lierop Here's one I've seen asked a few dozen times across the various TLD communities yet I don't think I've ever seen answered.  Are there any plans to implement an autowalk feature?  If the answer is no I think a short explanation would be helpful.

v/r

DG

That's pretty awesome ... 

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