Drifter Man

No worries, no need at all to apologize - all I wanted to say is that the loss wasn't so great to cause desperation. At least not yet

My jaw is still dislocated in awe.

Deadman 11 / Day 4 The plan for today is to search Mystery Lake (the lake, not the whole map!). I hope for a bedroll. I need a hacksaw, too, but I don't think I'll find one here. The howling of the wind tells me I'll have to wait for later in the day. I calmly watch the slow transition as daylight seeps into the windows of the Camp Office. My condition has jumped to 79%, probably an effect of the well-fed buff. I slowly search the building, hoping to find some food I missed yesterday, but there's none. Then I make two quick trips to the lake and back, collecting a few cattails. My outfit leaves much to be desired but at least it protects me from frostbite. Around midday, I finally head out onto the lake in earnest, harvesting cattails and keeping one eye always out for the Jacket. However, wolves are gone, only deer are in sight. I reach the first fishing hut, then hop to another and start a fire - two failed attempts make me use some kerosene from the jerry can I brought from Will's crash site. I warm up and make water. Heavy snow is falling but the winds are relatively calm, and most importantly, the Jacket has taken a day off. I avoid using any time acceleration out of fear they might spawn. I go around the little island in the center of the lake and get all the cattails I can. The fishing huts yield a can of fish and a chocolate bar. I eat the chocolate right away but leave the fish for later: at 30% condition they could give me food poisoning. Wise, very wise, Mr. Deadman. The air is warm - with a torch I'm at felt +1°C - but the visibility is getting worse as I approach the lake cabins. A while later the winds break out into a blizzard. I hop from cabin to cabin, finding nothing of real use: for a while I consider taking a pair of work boots but it's in such a poor condition that I leave it behind. I sleep for one hour in the last cabin before heading out into the blizzard. It's getting late and I want to start from the Camp Office next morning. I manage to locate the fishing huts along the way and make a warming fire inside one. I melt some snow - two liters in total - and make use of those water tablets. By the time I'm warmed up, night has fallen. Aurora shows me the way to the Camp Office while I watch out for any glowing green things. Just before bed, I eat the sardines and get my food poisoning. Luckily, I have one prepared dose of reishi mushrooms, so I start a fire in the stove and make my medicine. Condition drops back down to 75% before I go to sleep for 2 x 5 hours. No hacksaw and no bedroll, just poisoned fish... but the cattails will keep me fed for more than a day.

I wouldn't say it was a day wasted - the weather was so bad that I wouldn't get anywhere anyway, and there was nothing to do indoors. And while Deadman is not for the faint-hearted survivors, I don't think you are one You're right though that the extra guts and hide can make a difference to my future.

Deadman 11 / Day 3 A wave of freezing air, felt -33°C, hits my face when I open the door. So that's a no. Minus 20 a few hours later. "Warm" enough for me to make a dash to the deer carcass at the rock formation. I make it, and start an emergency fire as soon as I reach, both to warm up and to deter a wolf that is on me. Still, I lose 1% condition before the fire is up and roaring. One kilogram of meat is cooking when the wind picks up, turns around and kills the fire - again. I stay with the fire for as long as it burns, then change position and start a new one - unfortunately, it has to be away from the carcass, which is too exposed to the wind. I'm determined to wait out the bad weather to finish my work. I try to pick up some sticks but the wolf keeps an eye on me and doesn't let me roam around. Finally, the wind dies down and I return to the carcass. I get the remaining meat out of it (0.3 kg) and am about to start with the guts, when... yes, you guessed it. The wind won't let me have this deer carcass. The guts and the hide are lost. It's afternoon already and I still need to move on. I return to the cabin and have two or three hours of rest. The wind continues to blow hard as I head into the dusk, felt -11°C. I carry two rabbit carcasses, stripped of all meat and guts, for use as bait. No wolves appear, though. I proceed to the Rail Tunnel and to the Camp Office, taking care to stay shielded from wind, and avoid the need of a warming break. I drop the rabbits shortly before reaching my destination. I search the office in the remaining daylight but only find water tablets and a can of tomato soup. Smashing cans tonight: 16% lost, 30% lost, 20% lost... The well-fed buff is earned but I know I won't be able to keep it for long. Another day, another night.

Thanks - my literary skills declined over the time, but if you can tolerate my writing, I'll continue dumping my journals here

Deadman 11 / Day 1 Will's plane used to be a hopeless start. Now, with the redesigned Milton map, it's much better. But taking off at midnight and in strong winds doesn't help - I'm already freezing when I hit the first climb up. I grab a jerry can of kerosene, birch bark and some firewood, but I don't stop for rosehips, as much as I'd like to. Emergency stim at Crashed Plane... the one that cost Deadman 10 his life is 11's first. Wolf bark as I breeze through the passage to the pond... I just keep running and the wolf switches to a rabbit. I don't stop for cattails either, not until the pond under the Radio Tower, where I pick a bunch. The cave and the Radio Tower offer nothing. A few minutes later I slip into Grey Mother's place, grabbing matches and some food in the darkness. I'm tired from the running and choose the bed. When I wake up in the morning, blizzard rages outside. I search Grey Mother's place. I stock up on water from the toilet, along with some food and an assortment of clothes in poor to medium condition. I take the pot from the stove and a few books as well. A magnifying lens is also a welcome addition. No can opener though. I have two recycled cans already, but I'd hate to waste food from the unopened ones I found. The blizzard soon ends, which is unfortunate, as I wanted to use it as protection from wolves. But no wolves appear as I jump first to the bank, then post office, then two other houses. A coffee mug in the microwave: interesting, this didn't use to be on low loot settings. I knock on the door at Orca, suddenly remembering that I need a prybar here. Then the Park Office, its bed warm enough to stay for a while without fire. I need rest. I wish I could sleep for longer, but sun is setting and I still have ground to cover. Down the rope and to the cave, nicely supplied with matches and coal. The wolf is here but is again occupied with a rabbit while I climb the other rope up. Collecting sticks and cattails along the way, I reach the cave to Trapper's and start a fire with the magnifying lens, just to pull a few torches to guide me through. When I reach Trapper's - the necessary stop and frequent hub of a Deadman - I kill two rabbits, drop them at the doorstep along with another one I found in the cave, and go to bed. Deadman 11 / Day 2 I can't afford enough sleep to get fully rested, I have too many things to do today. First, harvest meat from the rabbits. Second, carry everything to the barn, start a fire next to a deer carcass. Harvest, cook, eat. I end up with five fresh guts and a deer hide, which I drop in the cabin. A supply of cured guts waiting at Trapper's cabin for the Deadman to return: the cornerstone of my Deadman strategy, which relies on snared rabbits for food. It's getting late now and I'm tired - I was working on the carcasses with bare hands - nevertheless, I decide to push on to Unnamed Pond. The second carcass at the rock formation behind the hill makes me change plans. I decide to harvest it in the remaining daylight and to return to Trapper's Homestead. I set up a campfire and wait for the carcass to thaw. When it's almost ready, wind picks up and kills the fire. It would be too dangerous to stay there now while darkness falls, so I retire back to the cabin. The carcass will have to wait. The journal says 75% condition, all of that lost between Will's plane and Grey Mother's. Emergency stim still available... a decent start overall.

Almost right

Cabin Fever would come on Day 55 even before the update, with cabin fever turned off. Turning it off would just give you a 50-day grace period. It would appear things haven't changed with the hotfix - but I haven't played since.

Yep, considering the area of the map (36 km2 compared to 16 km2 of ML), the bear density is not too high.

Glad you enjoyed! When a thousand suns set behind the Dam, the man from the Styx shall return, so the prophecy says.

It probably is. I arrived at the top of the rope and saw the bear below, so I made a campfire and decided to wait for it to leave. Before the water was done, I saw another (?) bear approaching me at the top of the rope, so I quickly packed up and climbed down. I thought I was surrounded by bears, but perhaps it was the same bear in both cases

Yeah sorry about that. I'm not in the TLD state of mind these days. I wouldn't make a good run Thanks for giving me bearings on that bear. This means I met four bears in PV in two days. One at Signal Hill, one under Signal Hill, one at the Farmstead and one at the Barn. Unless I'm mistaken, there are four possible bears in PV in addition to these, for a total of eight. It's Bearville there.

I still don't get clear direction & distance from the howls, so for me it's not a radar - just permanent howling all over the place I think a lot people are happy with the extra capacity. I often read survival accounts going like "I'm hauling !@#$ kg of stuff from base A to base B". Players that like to hoard supplies - and carry them to their bases to look at them there - will always welcome more capacity because hauling stuff isn't fun. On the other hand, I often get to the situation where I decide to leave valuable things behind simply because I need space for other, even more valuable things. That's the kind of decisions that makes the game interesting.

By the way: I met a bear near the PV Barn - is it the same bear as the one at PV Farmstead?

Although I'm not in the mood to start another deadman, I launched a few short runs out of curiosity about the latest update. Observations: some nice visual improvements were made to frozen water surfaces and to fires (both campfire and torch) wolves now howl so frequently that it becomes annoying game sometimes crashes when saving (either complete crash or the screen turns dark) - this wasn't happening before the update I like the stats of the rabbitskin hat, it's a great addition and does not make the wool toque redundant I don't like the well fed buff, it adds too much carrying capacity for too little effort and, to a large degree, removes the need to decide what to take in the backpack and what not to. 30 kg capacity was, in my opinion, the optimum to make this decision-making interesting. I'd prefer having a 2-5 kg penalty for starving to an easily achieved 5 kg bonus for not starving.

Thanks for following the story! I also feel that the terminal encounter with the wolf is inevitable. No matter how good you are, at some point something will work against you. The wolf growled after I dropped the bait, which was probably an indication it was still following me, I should have paid attention to it. I've never been in this situation before and won't repeat the mistake next time, but I'm sure something else will happen anyway. I'm thinking of launching another deadman after the holidays, until then I've just got too much on my plate. I should also watch some games of cricket to get some tips on rabbit hunting.

The game was stressful initially, but after I retired it became no more stressful than any normal Interloper. You still have to be careful and watch the weather and your temp bar, but it does get easier. Anyway, thanks for following the story, also for the info on BR stims! Thanks @Hotzn. I miss the Stalker and Interloper runs from the old days - I think they eventually inspired me to become an extreme interlopist. Maybe it's time for old Hotzn to launch a new one after the December update?

Deadman sub-challenge #2

Some players like to document toilets, others (like me) dead wolves... your favorites seem to be sprained limbs

I think positively about it - I learned a great deal about the late game in this run. Especially about wolves. I'll do better next time. Every run has its wolf.

Deadman 10 / Day 115 Blizzard. All day. I harvest 1.2 kg meat from the ravaged wolf carcass in the cave, to make sure I don't run out of food too soon. Deadman 10 / Day 116 I wait until the afternoon for better weather. Winds blow hard for the sixth day in a row, but when they give me a brief break, I make a run for it. As I approach the road, I hear the unmistakable "bear sounds": Mere 9 days after I killed it, the bear has returned. There's nowhere to hide and the bear has to die if I want to pass through, so it gets a rocket flare stuck to its side. By that moment the winds have returned... again. I've already spent half of my temp bar and am forced back to the cave. I use sunlight to start a campfire, prepare hot tea and warm up. The winds stop but I'm not ready yet, instead I sleep for an hour. When I wake up, the winds are back. I feel like a prisoner here. The winds are so punishing, it's felt -20°C all the time, I can't go anywhere in this weather. Then, at dusk, the winds finally slow down to "moderate". With hot tea in me and torch in hand, I get felt -5°C out of the wind and -8°C when exposed. Good enough. The bear lies dead by the roadside, but of course I don't stop to harvest it. It will rot in place. Instead I search one last car (find a piece of cloth, nice) and collect sticks. I still have enough of my temp bar to deal with the last wolf at the cave to HRV. The wolf approaches me for sure, I see it from afar and find a good position. It ignores the bait and charges when I draw my bow. I miss my shot. This is where it ends. Having survived for 115 days, 'Number 10' returns to the Styx.

It should be next to the backpack in the small open cave at Marsh Ridge - at least that's where I always found it.

Well that could be very useful info. I'm already thinking of going to BR to get these two stims. That part about being sub 85% shouldn't be a problem All stims I know of (including your info): Cinder Hills Mine (at least two possible locations within the mine) PV Outbuildings - the Barn TWM Summit - Tail Section Ravine Basin - Train Engine (However, I think I once found it in the boxcar above the Ravine) FM - Marsh Ridge MT - Crashed Plane DP - Lighthouse (or another alternative location?) BR - Hunting Lodge BR - ravine under the broken bridge Deadman sub-challenge: collect all stims!

Deadman 10 / Day 111 All-day blizzard. It stops just before sunset, so I give it a go. I attract the wolf that guards Crashed Plane but miss two out of three shots. The one that hits just brushes off. I lose two arrows in the dusk, spend huge amounts of fuel in an emergency fire, and the wolf kills most of the rabbits in the area in the meantime. I'm forced to return to my starting point before night sets in. Deadman 10 / Day 112 Strong winds all day. I don't move away from the cave as I wouldn't get anywhere at all. I eat all my bear meat and start digging into chocolate bars and cattail stalks. I also run out of water, so I make a fire to boil some. Sun hasn't shown up for two days. Deadman 10 / Day 113 Still no sun and winds continue with unabated strength. A break in the winds in late afternoon makes me decide to run for it again - it's the only chance I may have. After the vine climb the winds are back in full force and I'm making emergency fire again. But this time the fire survives, I warm up and it's not too late yet. I collect some sticks and cattails, recover my two lost arrows and lure the wolf in. I don't miss this time and because the winds have eased off, I even get two 1 kg steaks from the wolf carcass. I leave them on the fire with enough fuel left so that they finish cooking before the fire dies, and leave towards the plane. I find the stim, two pieces of scrap metal, one piece of cloth and a scarf that can be turned into another, plus a some urgently needed firewood. Then I proceed to the vine climbs: if the weather holds, I can loot Will's starting point and still return before nightfall. But winds hit back again and I have to run to Will's cave to save myself. Stimmed back to 29% condition, I sleep next to a campfire until next morning. Deadman 10 / Day 114 With enough warmth and daylight, I search the place and find a soda (still usable - on Day 114, in an outdoor container!), a nearly full jerry can and nearly expired painkillers. I harvest the carcass at the crash site for 1.7 kg venison and repair my clothes while cooking it. Unsafe camping practices I finally make it back in the afternoon. I'm even able to harvest the remaining meat from the wolf carcass plus the other deer carcass nearby. Two finished wolf steaks await me at my abandoned campfire. The sun shows up briefly before nightfall, too late for fire.