Drifter Man

No complaints from me. I hope you can enjoy making TLD as much as I enjoy playing it.

2125 hours in game since... 2016, I think. I've paid a whopping $0.02 per hour of fun

10 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

I spend all night harvesting the deer carcass that was hidden behind some stalagmites by a mischievous leprechaun.

Interesting to see that this delayed carcass spawn trick still works on people... even on experienced kegstanders 

In extreme interlopism & deadmanship, much depends on the familiarity with guaranteed loot spawns - matches in particular. Now that nothing is guaranteed anymore, a new chapter on these disciplines needs to be written  Keep going!

I use a few unofficial names for wolves and wolfpacks: the shortwave wolf, the three muskegteers, and the Jacket (the gang patrolling on Mystery lake, coined by @BareSkin)

On 10/20/2022 at 7:26 AM, conanjaguar said:

”‘Twas a glorious hunt indeed. Swift and sure flew the stones from the mighty Native’s hand, and rapid was his gait in catching the unconscious animals. His calloused hands sent the rabbits painlessly to the world beyond…” Such is how the reporter Nhotz from the Interloper Monthly Magazine would describe it, and he would not be too far off.

Definitely Nhotz style of writing... for a moment I thought Interloper Monthly was in print again...

On 10/6/2022 at 2:28 AM, Hotzn said:

Old Hotzn is currently on approx. day 600 of what he calls the Real Life Interloper Little Daughter Run. Condition is down to 23%, cabin fever risk high.

Nothing a few 10-hour sessions of uninterrupted sleep could not fix. In a cave, of course 

On 10/6/2022 at 2:32 AM, Hotzn said:

+1 for the alert.

You're always most welcome here. I'll let you know again if/when I launch another survivor with public reporting 

10 hours ago, BareSkin said:

First time I wrote this, in my mind it was already "copylefted". This is a very little contribution compared to the great time I spend reading your stories. Nearly as good as a WW&S WIC bargain!

Good to see you around buddy!

The whole forum is already a massive piece of collective cultural heritage.

Oh no, another native joins the Round Table.

You really need to respect those wolves and give them some space!

But you just like to live dangerously, don't you?

7 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

”Excuse me sir, could you give a starving wolf a dime for a can of dog food?

What a sad way for an insurance agent to end...

On 9/22/2022 at 9:38 AM, conanjaguar said:

@Drifter Man

Good to hear from you again!

What would you suggest I do with Native 4?

Oh, I'm just lurking around

I have no advice for this unfamiliar challenge... I guess the usual, move fast and leave a trail of curing items that you will collect later. And, maybe, do not sign any dodgy insurance contracts.

Congratulations to Ancient 3 for coming back from the dead, if only temporarily, after being technically dead... even the deadest of my Deadmen never came back to life after hitting zero!

On 9/20/2022 at 12:05 AM, conanjaguar said:

Wolfgang Wolf & Sons Wolfbite Insurance Company

Last time I spoke with Wolfgang Wolf, he worked in Milton - he was in charge of old-age pensions for survivors. So, he must have moved into insurance since then...

9 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

“grandma fog”

That's actually @BareSkin's term, I only borrowed it 

It is always sad to read about Rusty invoking Clause 15.4.

10 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

I want the very trees to shake and tremble in fear at the first sign my approach.

You might be disappointed, but I've never noticed anything strange about trees when walking by

A few notes about bears... there always are two bears in FM - one that Native 1 has already met and another at Poacher's camp. ML has 4 bear spawns that I know of, although only 2-3 are active on any given run (usually two, I believe). CH has three bears and so far I've always seen all three in all runs. So, there are plenty of bear skins for your Native to claim!

15 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

To be eligible for full wolfbite insurance benefits, a survivor must have no more than fifty (50) percent condition left. Provided that you qualify, you will be visited by your local agent. Should you survive the experience of approval, you will be entitled to a pension of one bandage and one dose of antiseptic daily for the remainder of your (very short) life.

You forgot about the insurance premium:

The survivor shall present 1 (one) opened can of dog food, in at least 15 (fifteen) percent condition, at the locomotive engine near Train Loading Area before dusk on each day until the expiry of the contract or of the survivor, whichever occurs earlier. For the purpose of timekeeping, "dusk" is defined by the survivor saying the phrase "It's getting dark over here". Failure to present the agreed insurance premium by the agreed time on any given day shall result in immediate termination of the contract and of the survivor.

And dispute resolution:

Disputes shall be referred to the independent arbitration team at the Orca Gas Station. The arbitration team shall have 3 (three) seconds for deliberations before presenting and executing their decision. The decision cannot be appealed. The survivor is advised to use the 3 seconds wisely.

We could go on

On 8/25/2022 at 12:15 AM, conanjaguar said:

The risk of that is that if the weather gets bad, it will stay bad for a while! But, I guess that’s good, eh?

Yes, that's the idea - it would be challenging in a different way, and more suitable for a long run game.

Just couldn't get around to playing TLD recently. The new run will have to wait

Watch out, a crazed, glowing Sir Aurora Uther could walk into the night and sign that wolfbite insurance that Rusty is selling.

So, I kind of abandoned the run in TWM. There's one thing I'm not happy about in my setup: weather variability. In regions like CH it is ok, but in TWM the weather goes wall to wall several times a day. I don't like that. Maybe I'll try the opposite - minimal weather variability. 

On 8/20/2022 at 7:27 AM, conanjaguar said:

Perhaps when/if Uther finally fades, I will give snowballing another go... on a separate thread, of course, to avoid wasting precious knights.

Yeah go for it - knighthood is not required for snowball status

Day 93

I wake up early and use the starlight to read a few chapters in a book for pyromaniacs. Another long day awaits me. With the first rays of sunlight, I start a fire and make a few liters of water plus a cup of big moose kicks to kick me out of the cave.

It is still early morning but light fog falls soon and the temperature is tolerable. I inspect the car and corpse at the End of the Road and make my first warming break at the Derelict Cabins. A second break comes in the bear cave on the way to Misty Falls, which in my run has no bear.

Near the road bridge I notice a wolf patrolling near Point of Disagreement and realize that this is another place I still need to check out.

At Misty Falls I choose to continue towards the bunker without a stop in the cave. The crest of the hill on the way can be treacherous, so I ask a rabbit to test the waters for me:

I don't get to recover my arrow. After a warming break in the bunker, I go searching for the wolf in the general direction of the blood trail, but only run into a bear. In the end I give up and return to the climb.

A couple hours later I am at the Mountaineer's Hut, safe but hungry. I end up eating the MRE I found inside Scruffy's cave - that didn't last long. Fortunately, I find a deer on Crystal Lake, and as the last thing of the day, I drive it into a wolf and get a wolf-deer combo. Food shouldn't be a problem for the next few days while I'll be visiting the places I skipped in the first days of my run. Mountaineer's Hut is the perfect base for my plans.

22 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

@Drifter Man

Keep it up!

By the way, are there any regions that you have not extensively snowballed?

Well, I only ever snowballed in TWM. Other regions that are suitable for snowballing are HRV, FM and I would say even Ash Canyon would work, although it has a loading screen cabin. I briefly tried HRV but it didn't work well for me...

19 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

Whatever happened to @Hotzn, by the way?

I imagine he's busy somewhere, fighting wolves bare-fisted.

Days 87-91

One thing is certain: the Holy Grail is not in Desolation Point.

I crisscrossed the small region, visiting all the major and minor locations. Stone Church, No. 5 mine, Hibernia Processing, Broken Bridge, the Riken, Lighthouse and whatnot.

I observed the local wildlife. From the last run, I remember that DP is fairly easy to handle. One bear and two wolves at Hibernia, joined by a third at night - when you kill them, they will not reappear for a long time, maybe 20 days. Two other wolves that move between the Stone Church and the Lighthouse - same story. Meanwhile, the weather is mild. DP is a friendly region for interlopists, even though food can get a little scarce.

I got to Harvesting Level 5 while processing a wolf near Hibernia. I paid a visit to Scruffy - I used my usual hyper-careful tactics and waited a few hours for poor Scruffy to die:

I noticed that poor Scruffy was limping after the hit - I haven't seen this animation for a long time, but I remember that wolves used to slow down limp before dying. After processing Scruffy, I searched the cave - it had a rifle and some food as well as Scruffy's own miniature branches. As far as I know, they can only be found in this cave.

But no Holy Grail! Back in No. 3 mine, ready to leave, I realized that I am being tested. Soon I will have to answer the fundamental question of The Long Dark: How far will you go to get a second pair of underwear?

I recounted the few places remaining where it could still be.

• Echo ravine - the cave and one container I did not open in the early days, when I ran out of hacksaws in TWM
• A bunch of other places in TWM - the Echo peaks, Forest Cave
• Ash Canyon - the ravine that leads to Shattered Cove, the wolfy passage between Angler's Den and the Long Falls, Foreman's Retreat and Homesteader's Respite
• Anywhere between the Long Curve and Three Strikes in PV
• Anywhere the Lonely Homestead area in PV
• Random bunker in PV (good luck finding it if you don't know where they are)
• One of the lockers that I left unopened back when I had no prybar - also in PV
• The elevator mine shaft in CH
• The cars on the Spruce Falls bridge in MT
• Blackrock and Bleak Inlet - two regions I'd prefer to avoid at this time.

Still many difficult places.

Day 92

Today I went for a long walk. I crossed Crumbling Highway and passed through heavy fog to the coastal house above the Wolfsite, my base in CH. The weather was holding, and I continued upwards, past the Abandoned Lookout and though the Cinder Hills mine to PV. It's always a temperature shock when you arrive in PV from the warmer regions near the sea - and PV welcomed me with bad weather straight away.

The blizzard broke out as I was nearing the End of the Road. Fortunately I was right at the nearby cave and took shelter in there.

My plan is to continue via Derelict Cabins () to TWM and to search the few remaining places there that could still have the Holy Grail.

On 8/15/2022 at 5:02 AM, conanjaguar said:

Field Dressing Your Kill, Volume 1, for which there is no Volume 2.

Indeed, the greatest mystery of TLD. Where is volume 2?

Live long Sir Uther, live The Hotzn Way!

On 8/17/2022 at 3:39 AM, Gooner77 said:

Another wonderful piece of storytelling (and this time with video!). Ever thought of taking up streaming? 

No, that wouldn't work for me, but it's great to hear that you've been enjoying the story.

I'm finding (again) that these long runs with reduced difficulty are hard to translate into interesting writing (or video). It's mostly just walking from one place to another...