Tbone555

2 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

Then pick them up and hoard them someplace.  You still don't have to choose to shoot anything.  Even the timberwolf will be able to be killed with the bow.  It has to be that way since interloper has no pistol or rifle in it.  You're qualms shouldn't prevent a weaker player from having access to enough rounds to get to a Level 5 skill or even to just shoot more if they want to.  If a player wants to just use the pistol and not use a rifle or a bow, that's a choice they should be able to make... not encumbered by your sensibilities over there being some ammo lying around in the world.

It basically brings us back to the need for a custom setting that is specific to ammo because, by your scenario, it's going to take a wildly different amount of ammo available to make a crack shot feel like they're just surviving as opposed to the player who isn't a crack shot or who is opting to use the revolver as the scare tactic it's intended to be.  They are going to balance it to an average demographic.  If you want something more refined, you will have to use a custom setting.  Hopefully, they make such a custom setting available.

So what you're basically saying is that the game needs to be made easier for newer, or "average" players.

When has this ever been the essence of the long dark? Up until now the long dark has been VERY punishing and unforgiving to newer players. Before wintermute it just threw us into the sandbox in a "swim or drown, good luck!" Fashion. And that's what made it such a great survival game. And now we really have people saying it should be easier on new players? Oh how the times have changed.

34 minutes ago, jeffpeng said:

I'm kinda tired of the "if you don't like it don't do/use it" argument. A game - every game - lives from the boundaries it sets. Contrary to apparently common belief balance IS important even in a single player game. Be it TLD or be it freezing Minesweeper. Give yourself unlimited ammunition, make every rabbit drop 100 kilograms of meat, and make it rain stims with every blizzard. If you don't like that don't use that stuff. No, it doesn't work that way. One can agree or disagree with a statement or sentiment, but flinging this generic dismissal at every person that dares to disagree with something the game does/doesn't or a certain direction the game is headed just doesn't cut it.

... sums it up pretty nicely. The dev and/or your settings set up the boundaries, which you then use - and if you can bend or even break - any way you can.

On topic, and this time seriously: It was my position that the revolver is redundant long before they introduced it, and I'm still claiming that it is indeed a redundant weapon that adds not particular gameplay value (yet?). I am, however, sorta happy it isn't the magical "does it all" weapon (even if it does everything, just not very good), and also that you don't find it in Interloper, which makes it pretty much a non-issue for me personally. When you are a thorough looter and a proper hoarter you stack up ammunition very quickly - so quickly that I would indeed advise to dial it back a bit. Maybe by a third? A fourth? 

On the other hand I feel like the revolver adresses the issue that some people not keen on doing Interloper anyways desire another sustainable way of defense somewhere in the middle of the bow, flare gun and rifle. And the revolver is just that. It does almost everything the other weapons do, but worse. So it is the classic jack of a traits, master of none. But for it to be (anywhere near) as sustainable as the bow you need that amount of ammunition. And I wouldn't be surprised if this is the actual reasoning behind the relative abundance of revolver ammunition.

But (and this is a big but) if the actual reason for the abundance of ammunition is actually that you need it to shoot your way through the game in the future I am indeed not a fan. But since this remains to be seen I'm not ringing the alarm yet. There are enough hints to be worried, tho.

This discussion also brings back the constant feeling that there is a gap between Stalker and Interloper that would deserve it's own preset difficulty. Please don't point to the custom sandbox at this point. I know it's there, and I've been using it extensively, and yes also for this exact purpose, but many people would prefer a "well balanced" experience that fits their profile rather than patching together their own. I outlined this before once: basically Stalker-strength wolves with Interloper-level tracking capabilities, and in reduced numbers as found in Interloper, with Interloper loot scarceness but tools, weapons and rare instances of premium clothing such as the Expedition Parka, with Interloper weather, but the Stalker cold progression, and Interloper consumption and recovery metrics, but Stalker-Level loot decay and punitive mechanics (such as Cabin Fever and Parasites). Basically taking the edge out of Interloper, while also doing away with the Stalker-Style wolf swarming and still offering a "full game" in that you get to use, albeit rarely, every item in the game. But that's just my 2 cents on the side on this.

This.

6 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I'm sorry, I don't see that unless you let the existence of the rounds in the world cause you to behave like you're in a survival shooter.  Nothing makes you pick them up when you find them.   Nothing prevents you from just sticking them away in an obscure cabinet somewhere and forgetting about them after you find them.  Having them potentially be there enables weaker players to at least have a chance at getting the skill to Level 5.

I disagree whole heartedly with this statement. I refuse to just "not pick up" the rounds. Because this is a survival game and I'm going to use every resource provided to survive. That's my role as a survivor. It's hinterlands role to make sure survival isn't all that easy for me and I don't get TOO many resources

1 hour ago, jeffpeng said:

I kinda see how the forge isn't really interesting for anything other than arrowheads for anyone not playing Interloper. Even on Stalker you get buried in tools, and if you are both thorough looting and conservative using them there is no realisitic way to run out of tools in a thousand days. But on the other hand I don't really like the idea of being able to make "superior" tools considering how crude our manufacturing methods are and what little tools we got. But being able to create tools that obviously surpass what we can find which is made with modern machinery and by professionals feels .... weird. What I could get behind is that over time forging would get better, and your selfmade tools would slowly approach the level of the tools you find. But that still wouldn't make a Stalker player value the forge more.

I remember reading the argument that something shouldn't be in the game for a game difficulty that a big portion (the majority?) of players doesn't touch. But I disagree on that. A lot of the available mechanics in TLD only ever reveal their true potential in Interloper games, and I cannot help but feel that Interloper is the way sandbox works best. That is my personal opinion, of course. But I personally think the real, true way of making the forge make sense is to play with Interloper loot tables.
 

I agree, the only way to make the forge make sense is to play on interloper, which basically makes it an interloper only tool. But not everyone prefers interloper. More power to you if you do, I personally can't last 20 days. Stalker, which I prefer to play on, is hard to me. Interloper is just sadistic haha!

The only issue with this is that the forge was introduced before interloper was. But it has absolutely no balancing for any other difficulty except interloper. Maybe once they add the bear spear I'll have some reason to use the forge but until then, I've played this game for almost 7 years now and I have only used the forge twice, and those two times were just because I wanted to mess around with it, being a new addition at the time.

The idea of superior tools isn't as bad as it sounds. It's definitely something that would come with a new skill. As your skill goes up you would learn how to make more professional grade stuff and your steel would hold tighter. Which is very very typical to smithing your own blades - forged blades are typically much higher quality than what you'd buy at John Deere. And by superior I do not mean supertools. I mean SLIGHT buffs. Like downing wood chopping time for cedar to 35 minutes instead of 45. Downing carcass quartering to 45 minutes instead of an hour. Things like that. This would give you incentive to take up that metalworking skill and use the forge more. And using stag, your tools would also be heavier and degrade a little faster, so there's also still incentive to use the basic tools, if you're worried about the weight of your pack.

1 hour ago, jeffpeng said:

Further makes me fear that TLD will have a serious shoot'em up portion to it. One of the most enticing aspects of the game (to me) is that you don't run around shooting your way through problems. Sure, in Interloper you still don't do that, and Stalker (with better clothing) already has a bit of hack'n'slay to it, but ... meh. I just hope TLD doesn't lose its identity over this.

That's what I'm saying. Even if the timberwolves do balance the revolver rounds out, that means we're gonna pretty much have a survival shooter on our hands. And like I said before the long dark is NOT A shooter and never should be

On 6/30/2019 at 9:41 AM, ajb1978 said:

If RNG cooperates, two expedition parkas, two cowichan sweaters, gauntlets, wool toque, balaclava, moosehide satchel, wool ear wrap, two snow pants, two wool longjohns, two climbing socks, insulated boots.  I prioritize warmth first, windproof second.  Defense and waterproofing aren't real big concerns for me, since I can ditch wolves no problem, and double-tapping C to keep an eye on my clothing is easy.

I typically don't bother crafting clothing, as the weight isn't worth it.  But if I'm looking for a cool paper doll, I like the cloth toque, wolfskin coat, deerskin pants, driving gloves, and mukluks.

I'm curious, what's your clothing stats at with this setup? I crafted my bear skin coat yesterday, and I do love it simply because it's badass and it has a high chance to scare wolves away. But besides that I'm not sure if it's practical, as far as the stats to weight ratio goes. I'm sitting at 34f with 14f windproof bonus. Which really doesn't seem worth it since I had to lose a bunch of extra layers to make up for the weight of the coat itself.

23 minutes ago, Skelegutplays said:

How about having the knife handle only craftable with a moose antler as deer antlers are not thick enough for this.

Also it would be more balanced because if you could do it with deer it would be too easy to get.

Well that's really not true, realistically. Knife handles are made from deer antler all the time. Just bought one for my dad for his birthday, that's what gave me the idea. But I do like the idea of making it another moose hunted item, to balance it out

1 hour ago, UpUpAway95 said:

If stalker players are getting 60-80 rounds on average per map zone and only 12 rifle rounds... and this is not just RNG... then it could mean that Hinterland has introduced a difficulty specific way to manage just the individual types of ammo because it's so much higher than the averages I'm seeing on the lower difficulties (even though the lower difficulties have consistently easier loot settings per their templates in the Custom menu.  All I"m saying is that, if that is the case, I hope they add that individual ammo setting to the Custom menu so that, if I want to play a Stalker game with the lower average revolver ammo spawn I'm seeing in Pilgrim, I could do it or if I wanted personally to play a Pilgrim game with the higher ammo spawns found in stalker, I could do that too.  What 'type" of TLD play is most enjoyable for you is not necessarily what it is for me on any particular given playthrough.  Custom settings have enabled a lot of different imaginative types of playthroughs... I'd like to see them expand it rather than start in with the sort of dogma that "this isn't this type of game" or "you shouldn't do that" or "it's cheating" etc.  It's a single player game.  We single players should be able to play it within whatever confines Hinterland wants to give us regardless of prefered difficulty level

Well I wasn't saying any of those things about custom sandbox, and I have no quarrel at all for people who do enjoy it. I DID say that it feels like cheating to me. That's just how it feels to me specifically, obviously the custom sandbox has a huge following and there's nothing wrong with that. The custom sandbox is a great idea and I'm still totally for it being improved on, and may try it again some day. It's just not my cup of rosehip tea. I prefer playing the specific difficulty experiences hinterland themselves tailored for the game, and that's just the way I enjoy playing. I didn't mean to bash the custom option in any way.

Anyway this discussion doesn't seem to be going much of anywhere. Only time will tell if this was a mistake or intentional for the addition of new predators. And a new topic in the future may be opened up to debate on if the timberwolves make the game feel too shooter-esque. Lets hope that hinterland is smart about the new addition and tunes the timberwolves as to not just be zombie wolves.

3 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I do think you've been lucky though at finding rounds because on my several starts testing the revolver spawns when it first came out, I never found more than 40 (correction 50) rounds for the revolver on any of the individual maps I cleared repeatedly on those starts (Mountain Town, Mystery Lake, and Coastal Highway - i.e. the major maps where loot is found).  The revolver itself was extremely rare since I frequently did not find one at all; whereas I was regularly finding 3 or more rifles in each map.  When I queried Raph on it, he basically said that the tuning was done over the entire game world and that the intent was that the revolver itself would be found with about the same frequency as the rifle, but rounds would be more common than the rifle.  My current playthrough (Voyageur), starting in Mountain Town and having cleared it has yielded in my finding : 2 rifles, 1 revolver, 35 rounds of revolver ammo and 25 rounds of rifle ammo, and no bow or arrowheads/broken arrows.  In other starts, I've found more rifle ammo than revolver ammo.  Make of it what you will, but that's how the numbers are playing out for me.  Never anywhere near 100 revolver rounds per map.

The Baseline Resource Availability for PIlgrim is Very High and for Voyageur its High.  It's Medium for Stalker.  Every other custom setting that controls loot is also more liberal on Pilgrim than on Stalker, so unless Hinterlands has introduced an ammo setting that's specifically higher for stalker, the only way I could explain your luck is luck.  If they have introduced a specific ammo setting, I hope they add that one into the custom settings as well so that individual players can control it individually.

100 rounds was an overstatement, of course. I should really refrain from using sarcasm in such a way when I know hinterland is gonna be reading this lol, I apologize. The more accurate number is 60 - 80. But do you know how many rounds I've found for my rifle? 12. That's a huuuuuge difference, for a survival game. Those two numbers for this game are the difference between day and night, and they've just made wolves a complete non threat. To be fair, in my experience flares don't work AT ALL on wolves anymore even when stepped on, so it is nice to have another reliable wolf repellent added.

Maybe timberwolves will balance it out. But let's look at what that means - if you have to use THAT many rounds of ammo to keep threats away, you're bordering on a shooter game. And the long dark is NOT a shooter game and should never feel like one.

49 minutes ago, FrozenCorpse said:

I've read that it is only the last bullet that determines the bleed-out rate, but I'm curious if each hit stacks the initial damage so that several shots at center-mass could theoretically bring a large animal down even tho none of them are necessarily critting...

I also read that simply discharging the revolver without raising it to aim has some interesting results.  I guess I'll just have to put a few rounds in the gun and see for myself before those TW's appear on the scene and I get all hoardy again...

Well the other day I shot a bear like 8 times. 5 with the revolver, 3 with the rifle. It tried to steal my moose meat. Last mistake he ever made. And he did not go down with those 8 shots, but instead fled back to the unnamed pond where I found his still warm body the very next morning. Either it got confused and spawned in his body still warm, or it literally took him ALL night to bleed out. So I don't believe it does stack initial damage

44 minutes ago, FrozenCorpse said:

I've read that it is only the last bullet that determines the bleed-out rate, but I'm curious if each hit stacks the initial damage so that several shots at center-mass could theoretically bring a large animal down even tho none of them are necessarily critting...

I also read that simply discharging the revolver without raising it to aim has some interesting results.  I guess I'll just have to put a few rounds in the gun and see for myself before those TW's appear on the scene and I get all hoardy again...

I've done this just to scare some wolves off before and there isn't anything particularly interesting about it. It just places a very inaccurate blind shot vaguely where you were pointing. It does scare the wolfies though. Some of them at least

In my latest game, the wolves seem to be getting more aggressive. As I stated I've been pretty much killing them for fun and now they don't seem to scare off with a warning shot. I pretty much HAVE to hit them to make them flee. 

1 hour ago, FrozenCorpse said:

I'm curious if you experimented much with the pistols accuracy at range...?  I'd be interested in hearing how that worked out for you since I only bring mine up to aim once the wolf is focuses on the decoy.  After firing, the wolves I wasn't aiming at will scatter briefly and my intended target is either dead, or dying & running all over the place.  Did wolves still tend to scatter as easily when shooting at them from far away?  How did the aim and bullet drop hold up?  Did you find the effective range to be significantly shorter than you would expect IRL?  If you missed your target entirely from afar, did they immediately launch into an attack or just turn and begin stalking you?

tyvmia

I didn't experiment with it at range at all, unfortunately, these are great questions! I did however discover that it makes a decent tool for hunting deer, despite the description specifically pointing out that it's NOT a hunting tool. I think they changed the description though. Either way you won't be dropping a deer with one shot or anything but it's good enough to make it bleed out with one well placed bullet at 100 percent condition, if you're hurting for a rifle and don't mind tracking. If I find another dozen or so rounds I definitely will experiment with range and get back to you!

23 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I would say that this is inherently false.  Hinterland has likely crafted each difficulty mode to a group preferences held by an "average" of certain groups of players (a demographic).  The custom settings are there so that individual people can fine tune those settings to better accommodate their individual specific preferences.  You're opting yourself not to use them... and that's fine.  If Hinterland wants to retune the revolver rounds to suit you and not me, I'm also fine with that... Hopefully, they will work it such that I can change it to how I like in in the custom settings then.  I have no qualms about using custom settings to enhance my own experiences in this game and I don't consider it at all to be "cheaty."   It just means I fall outside whatever "average" demographic they used for that particular standard difficulty level.

Custom difficulty isn't excluded from my statement, I meant that aswell. Some people prefer to play the experience hinterland has hand crafted while others prefer their own rules, and that's fine too. But this is a game in progress where problems do arise with new updates and an uneven drop rate for a new item isn't as easily fixed as "just play custom sandbox."

This may or may not be intentional by hinterland. If it was intentional they need to hear the opinions of their player base until they give us an actual need to be finding 100 rounds per map, or if it's unintentional then it needs to be fixed.

1 hour ago, ajb1978 said:

Yes there is a path through the upper dam, but in the hallway it requires a perfectly timed sprint to make it over the wires inbetween sparks.  In my experience it's extremely difficult to time that, and I've only successfully made it across without getting burnt once.  Especially since sometimes you can get "stuck" on the edge of some of that debris on the ground when approaching it from the Mystery Lake side, stopping you from moving forward while you're standing directly on top of a sparking wire. If you absolutely must make the trip...throw caution to the wind, strip off whatever you don't want damaged, and just take it head on.  Treat the burn, or let it heal on its own, and move on. Once you're through that, it is possible to weave between the turbines, take the far stairs up to the catwalk, loop around to the other side, and a mountaineering rope down will lead you down from the catwalk, right next to the lower dam transition.

In Story mode, the lower dam also has a bit of a puzzle section where there is an impassable sparking wire, and you have to find a way to get to the switch to shut it off. And then further on, there's another "time your sprint" moment at the base of a flight of stairs, but that one is more likely to succeed than the one in the hallway in the upper dam.

When I was collecting buffer memories from the lower dam, I just camped out in the cave down by the river behind the dam.  Then go in the back way, check the computer, and break stuff down until the aurora ended, then just walk back to my cave without worrying about the wires.

The only problem with it is that sometimes, at least on stalker mode, if you touch the wires you can die before you even knew what happened. It's happened to me on multiple occasions and frankly I'm scared of the dam at this point, during the aurora at least

33 minutes ago, loriaw said:

That's fair enough ~ although the game mechanics and limitations are not viable options for either a hunting game or any form of 'cabin decorating' sim (I've never played a sim type game or the SIMS so I may be wrong, but I doubt it).  

I do prefer a relaxing game rather than knuckle clenching and stress, but I play games to relax rather than an adrenalin charge (all games, not just this one).

Well hinterland has crafted each difficulty mode to peoples specific preferences for that reason. And that is basically all I did when I played voyageur, I hunted and decorated my shelter with extra gear because that's about all I could find to do.

I am having trouble now with my revolver rounds, I'm down to three bullets because I went a little crazy on the wolves on mystery lake xD in no way complaining however, because as I said this is the way I prefer it. I suppose it does balance itself out eventually

Is there any way at all to traverse to the lower dam during the aurora in survival mode? I know you can get through the lower dam easy enough, but the wires in the upper dam make the lower dam inaccessible during the aurora. The only way to explore the lower dam is if you camp out in the lower dam and just wait for the aurora to show up. Which can take a full week or more and it's really not worth hording food and camping out just to see the dam lit up

8 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

Yes, but always with a caveat.  Recovering from four sprained limbs with 4 hours sleep.  Getting mauled by a bear, and getting over it by sleeping well.  Climbing a rope and needing to rest for 6 hours just to recover from that one climb.  Only getting 4 days worth of food out of an entire deer.  Etc etc etc...it's semi-realistic at best, and always has been.

I agree entirely, but there is a certain line. Green zombie wolves and dying light style blue flares are a little too out there for a survival game based on semi-realism. We all know a lot of the mechanics we have make no sense, but also they at least kind of do. If you know what I mean.

Still, hinterland has always been AMAZING with proper balancing with their items and whatnot, so I'm sure this new system will probably be a much needed mechanic to keep us alive out there. I just wish they could have come up with something better than "these flares will scare timberwolves off because they're blue"

I mean that's just like... wut?

2 hours ago, TheHunter280 said:

I see you are refreshing my old post but thank you anyway to bring it back

Stag handles don't seems to be realistic for hatchets and efficient for knives. Antlers aren't big enough for hatchet handles dunno how tough is keratin and what make a knife efficient is foremost it's blade and antler is too much busy work. What's more realistic is to make axe handles out of hickory but we don't have that and the toughest trees in Great Bear Island are maple trees.

Steel indeed change structure when striked but self forged tools are better because you fit them to you and your environment

 

 

Oh my apologies, I had no idea a topic like this already existed. I'll make sure to check yours out! I just really want to see some practicality added to the forge because it has never ever been a useful mechanic to me. I'm not against the forge - it can be a great idea. It just needs a huuuuuge overhaul.

25 minutes ago, FrozenCorpse said:

1:15 in the video...

Okay, good. Here's evidence that they do exist. However these are football flares and not authentic road / emergency flares. What are the chances that these are gonna be floating around in the great northern nowhere of great bear? Slim to none? Not to mention even if someone does like blue flares, these blue football flares only last 60 seconds which is in no way ideal. They don't make standard 30 min emergency flares in blue. And as was mentioned before, the color of the flare should have absolutely no effect on wildlife. They're gonna all emit the exact same kind of light and work relatively the same. I absolutely love this game and love most of the decisions the team has made. But blue flares and green wolves just seem so "just because." to me. And if these flares are special, they'll feel just as videogamey as the UV flares from dying light, as mentioned above. Yes it is a videogame, and I'm completely fine with their portrayal of this apocalyptic event and the effects of the aurora. Some liberties are gonna be taken for the story of the game. However it has always been a game centered around realism also. And I feel like we're forgetting that more and more.

But again, I'll give it to them. They're pretty.

41 minutes ago, ajb1978 said:

Except the storm lantern, as was discussed in a separate post.  Wick-based storm lanterns do exist, and mechanical-striker pressurized mantle lanterns do exist, but wick-based with a mechanical striker apparently does not.

That's not to say it's completely impossible though.  There's no reason it can't exist, it just for whatever reason...doesn't.  Similarly, blue flares could be quite possible with the use of copper chloride.

Oh okay, I actually didn't know that. I learn something new on here every day

I'm not ENTIRELY against them. I mean they are very very pleasing to the eye. And blue is my favorite color. Maybe they will have a reasonable explanation for us at some point other than "timberwolf repellent just because"

16 minutes ago, Southerner in Snow said:

Honestly, I have no idea about this addition, I have searched a bit and so far the only "blue roadside flares" I can find are either blue smoke grenades or the circular LED flares police use for guiding traffic (atleast they use them for that here in Atlanta).

It'd be good if we could have more released by hinterland or @Raphael van Lierop himself cause the only thing I know from the picture and caption is that it's a blue flare that is possibly only useful for exploring and possibly scaring off a wolf or timberwolf at night. Perhaps this is specifically for Timberwolves as the caption says "New threats mean you'll need new tools to defend against them".

who knows maybe the wolves have adapted to red flares and are no longer scared of them so we have to use blue ones ; ).

I'm not against the addition of a new tool to defend against timberwolves. But the thing is, every tool we currently have in the game actually, uhm. Exists. 

Soo.. what's the deal with the blue flares?

Last time I saw something like that was UV flares in dying light. And I'm pretty sure those don't actually exist. Neither do blue flares. The only thing I've come up with, is blue LED "flares" which are essentially just flashing lights. Which would make sense with the event being that the animals are scared of unnatural light. But these flares would not be present in such a rural area as they're usually used by inner city police forces for traffic stops. And besides, these are not those. Because it appears to be just a blue reskin of the standard red road flare.

This just doesn't make sense and is a little too videogamey for a survival game that strives for realism, in my opinion. What do y'all think? Any logical way we can explain this one?

Does everyone remember the early days?

When the insulated boots were the best clothing item in the game. When the woodpeckers would peck on metal and everyone wondered why they heard a cell phone ringing? When the entire ocean was frozen. When the original forestry lookout was still standing... Btw that was my favorite location in the game and I'll never forgive you hinterland ... or how about when we saw a snow shovel on the main menu? Before custom difficulty. Before the forge. Anyone remember the original survivor interface? Having to do without a radial menu? When cooking was as simple as selecting the item and time automatically passing. Before we needed cooking utensils, before skill trees, before layered clothing.

Those were the days.

Look at my new kitten, isn't he the most adorable little thing!?

he got his name because of his pure ferocity. He always wins fights with his brothers and sisters in his litter. And when he became old enough to pick up and hold, he would almost constantly hiss and try to bite you. He's become a little more friendly now but as soon as I picked him up off his sister whom he was pinning down and biting, and he started hissing at me, I immediately knew his name.

plus bears are my favorite animal

let's show off our pets! I'm curious to see who keeps my fellow survivors company in the quiet apocalypse

I have a suggestion for the forge ladies and gentlemen.  One that may actually make us want to use it.

As you know, I've never been for the forge. Until they add the bear spear to survival mode, I have literally no reason to use it. I can find a knife and hatchet easily and can find arrowheads with not much more difficulty. That makes it useless to me. However. If they offered alternate, more powerful tools, it would actually make sense.

Here's how it would happen. You would get a new skill tree, a new harvesting option, and possibly a new skill book added to the game. And obviously new crafting recipes. The stag handle knife and hatchet.

You would learn these recipes at level 3 of the forging skill. At level 1 you can still make improvised tools, but as you level the skill your tools work better and better, last longer, and crafting times decrease. You'll be able to harvest deer and moose antler, and use a work bench and high quality tools to make a "stag handle." Then you would take it to a forge with some steel, and forge your knife or hatchet. The stag handle tools will be much better, but slightly heavier and stronger than the standard hatchet and knife. Still not as heavy as the improvised tools. And since forged tools tend to have much much tighter steel than manufactured, they would cut much better aswell drastically decreasing wood cutting and carcass harvesting times. There would have to be a new texture made for the hatchet, but the model for Jeremiah's knife in pre-dux (which I'm not sure is actually obtainable at the moment. Look it up on the wiki if you never got this item) is already a stag handle blade. What do y'all think?

Just as the title states - What do y'all tend to wear in the long dark to keep the chill off your bones? I remember back before they added defense, waterproof and encumbrance value to clothing and we would all rush to get the heaviest warmest stuff. But with more recent updates, you have to be tactical about what you wear. Me, I like to be light, reasonably warm, and defended. My current outfit is as follows -

I like light but warm jackets. Ski jacket is an ideal jacket for me, and layering two light sweaters or one heavy sweater underneath it provides pretty decent warmth and defense. Rabbit skin hat and balaclava are both pretty light and very very warm. Wool socks and trail socks are very ideal, preferably two pairs of either. I like trail boots or deer boots. They may not be the warmest, but they're not the worst by far and offer great mobility. Leather work gloves solely for the defensive value, they're my favorite gloves in the game. And as you can see I have snow pants on with cargo pants layered over them for the extra wind blockage and damage protection. Work pants offer much better protection, but they're not very warm and they're very heavy so they're not ideal. Heavy boots are a huuuge no no. Ski boots especially. I hate being slowed down as I travel a lot. Heavier coats are good if I can't find anything else, but as long as I can find a ski jacket I usually stay away from them.

This setup has kept me completely warm on most days, but I know it won't last. I've had some hides curing to make some clothes for when the weather turns. I plan to replace the trail boots with deerskin boots, keep most of my clothing as is, and craft me a bearskin coat. Which is heavy, yes. But offers the best cold protection in the entire game and it shouldn't weigh me down too bad as long as I keep the rest of my clothing light.

So what do my fellow survivors think of my setup? How do y'all prefer dressing yourselves in the morning to face the quiet apocalypse?