Wasteland Watcher

I love its resolute adherence to realism. I believe it's more realistic than any other game I've played.

Though the sound of everything I carry can admittedly be annoying at times, I think it really adds to the realism and atmosphere. I mean...when I'm out in the woods hiking in real life, I really can hear every little sound I make, so it seems like the sounds are amplified. And in game, this normally means that unless I am moving from one zone to another (e.g. really loaded down), I really am carrying as little as possible so I make less noise

Without reading everyone's comments I just want to state that though I like the premise of Cabin Fever, I don't think the implementation in TLD is correct way. Except for blizzards I spend every moment I am awake, healthy, and full of energy outside. But because of the strange way CF is implemented in TLD I spend an uncanny amount of time cooking and melting snow outside--on the outside wall of the cabin which there's sometimes a stove or fireplace. In pleasant valley farmhouse I would go outside to the nearby stable and melt snow & cook there -- in a blizzard! Whenever I need to harvest cloth or break down sticks into tinder...I step outside to do it. I've even done this with a wolf lurking nearby...saw it and instead of thinking "maybe I should do this indoors," I thought, "hmmm, guess I better crouch here when doing this. Be stealthy!" Now ... who's more insane, the guy with cabin fever, or the guy who is afraid of catching cabin fever?

Experience with parasites: I contracted them from some leftover wolf meat I had from before the parasitic implementations. As a Voyageur player the 24 hour reset seems reasonable. I'm no scientist but I believe they'd pass through my system after 24 hours. The current 5 day antibiotic resolution seems appropriate. Opinion: I'm not in favor of a "renewable" resolution and I believe Hinterland isn't either: the reason they added parasites is to make wolves and bears a food choice with serious risks. What happens if you don't treat the parasite infection? You die just like an untreated wolf bite infection, right? It's clear that the entire purpose of introducing parasites is to deter players from treating wolves and bears as a food source and I agree with this. Prior parasitic infection I viewed wolves as just another food source. Now I don't. If I hadn't had any leftover meat in my locker I wouldn't have eaten it. Now if I kill a wolf, I'm much less likely to consider it food. I won't consider eating wolf at all now unless I'm completely out of other food: I'd rather use one dose of antibiotics to treat a wolf bite than use six to treat parasites plus the one used to treat the wolf bite in the first place. That's wasteful. I may take down a wolf to get the deer it took down, but I'll leave that wolf to rot. All of it unless I need to waste time taking its hide. Wolves and bears are predators to be avoided. i can live off of rabbit and fish supplemented by deer.

Just hope Devs hammer out story mode rather than spending resources on new weapon addition and tweaking. That and make metal tools last as long as metal instead of lasting as long as...wood?

I agree. Even as an avid gun owner (and fan of Fallout 4) I would hate to see this game become more about the weapons than the experience. The first time I found the rifle I was ecstatic, mainly because I didn't expect to find any weapons. Equally so when I crafted my first shoddy bow. I would hate to see weapons become easily found/overused. I imagine the .303 in-game is like the "emergency" rifle that is leaned up in the corner, behind the armchair, in cabins all over the Rockies. It just fits the environment. However, a scope would be a nice find (and take the place of binoculars.) Erik, I'd really like to find binoculars but am leery about the addition of scoped weapons to the game. You mentioned FO4. Interestingly, my disappointment in that is the main thing that made me google "PC survival games" which lead me to finding this diamond-in-the-rough of a game. From past experience, and also from the tons of YouTube comments I've read about various games over the past 10 years (and read on other gaming forums over the past 20 years), I've learned that the more weapons added to a game, the less actual thinking there is. Like you, I'd hate to see the focus skew towards weapons.

Having (too many) more weapons changes the game dynamic from "exploration and food/shelter for survival" to "I wonder what it's like to kill with ." If I wanted a to play a game about killing with different weapons I would not be playing TLD. I'd probably be playing Call Of Dummies or Falldown 4.

Thanks for the advice and Happy New Year! I am now doing exactly as you advised on watching the wind, not only with camp fires but even walking around. It seems indicate if the weather is changing. Very interesting about George & Gracie -- it was exactly as you said. One was 3.5 kg and the other was 5.7. I used a bullet for one and knife for the other. On blizzard activities, I now have enough supplies to keep me occupied with my new hobby indoors when the weather is bad: sewing!

Question for the DEVs: You all live in Canada. Are 1/3 of you gun-toting hunters?

Thanks again Thelek. On heading out on foggy mornings, do you use the flare then light torches or use the lamp? It seems wasteful to use a match or the fire striker. I have an idea that I'll be able to stay out longer once I have fur clothes, maybe even with a torch, but right now I'm still dressed like a tourist. I guess I *could* sleep all day on bad weather days where I don't have any crafting to do but it just "feels wasteful." *********************************************different topic follows***************************************** Yesterday was a weird day: I exit CO around 8 hours sunlight remaining (I always exit the back door) and walk around back, see that it's a little sunny, so go to light a magnif. glass+stick fire for my torch behind the office like I always do and hear a deer run **right by me** and out to the lake where it's immediately taken down by a wolf. I'm walking out towards the lake and contemplating stripping for a knife-fight but before I have time to the wolf starts making a beeline right for me so I quickly pull out the hunting rifle, take aim, and shoot it right in the head. It drops dead in its tracks. I think, "That was easy and kind of a waste of a good bullet. Oh well, at least it's more meat." I go out to the deer carcass and build a fire using a piece of fir wood that should give an hour and a half of fire but after cutting out just 1kg of meat it's almost out -- 2 min remaining. Even after throwing (wasting it turns out) my other two blocks of fir onto the fire it burns out almost instantly. By this time I'm starving and now no fire either, but at least I'm very close to "home." So anyhow I end up rushing and cut out almost all the meat then run home to jump in bed cause I'm freezing by this point. And now it's overcast again. I sleep an hour to warm up a bit and go back for the rest of the deer meat and guts. By that time it's dusk and I'm freezing again. I don't want to waste a match so I eat the last of my cattails, drink my fill of water, work a bit on making deerskin boots, then sleep. I awake starving and it's overcast again so I just go dress the wolf as much as possible before heading in for a warm nap. After the 2 session of this I awake warm and go out to see the sun finally came out so I promptly build a stick fire to light my torch and will cook about 5000 calories of meat, storing the rest (and storing any I won't be eating at that moment). I'll have been starving for about 18 hours by the time my meat's cooked. I think I'll still have 4 hours of sunlight after all the meat's cooked to explore a bit. I'm thinking of walking past the Derailment and proceeding forward as far as possible to see what's there with the intent to return home at dusk to work on deerskin boots until sleepy. This is where I am now, on day 18, happy I have enough food to last three more days.

Thanks Thelek. Wow you are a trooper going out in blizzards! I need some advice for hunting in bad weather: if you're down to your last two matches and it's overcast (or has been for the past two days) and your clothes are not quite enough to keep you warm (clothes you started the game with), do you still go outdoors and if so, do you "waste" a match to light a torch, use a flare, or the storm lantern? BTW I've been taking the advice you and a few other people have been giving and pasting it into a file I've titled, "The Long Dark Safety Tips." Thanks!

Thanks all for the advice and info. It's much appreciated. In summary, what I got out of this is "if the weather sucks, stay in bed." I'll start another post on calories. Thanks again, and here's to hoping for more sunny days than bad ones.

Dumb question but I have to ask: sleep burns less calories than just "standing doing nothing" awake, right?

When you've started a new game and haven't a whole bunch of gear but do have a warm place to shelter in blizzards, what do you generally do to pass the time waiting for it to pass?

I sure hope Hinterland Staff take note of this and make it possible to shoot through chain link fences. It'd be a bad oversight if bullet/arrow-proof chain link fences remain in The Long Dark.

Though more weapons are cool I'm hoping the Dev Team keeps focused on working on the things needed to bring the game out of Alpha. And one thing I hope people won't forget is that Canadians aren't all "gun crazy" like the US and that they are probably not scattered about everywhere. In summary, more weapons are always nice as long as they are weapons we would realistically find out in Canada. Not just added for the sake of wanting a certain weapon in game. Just my opinion, which is all about keeping the simulated realism of this great game intact.

The unforgiving, challenging realism. In a few more words: I hope Hinterland never dumbs down this game to make it "easier" for people who ask for that. The only changes I'd like are ones that add more realism/realistic challenge. This game is one of a kind. Absolutely astounding. Playing on "Voyageur," as difficult as it is for me, I love it. As often as I get food poisoning and hypothermia ...and die, I love it.