Mroz4k

So did a couple more runs of Voyageur, moved forward a little bit.

After passing through the coal mine, I got up on the other side. Found a skill book there. It was still a blizzard so I decided to push through to the Lookout. Lookout had nothing of significance. I quickly climbed down to the level of highway, and headed straight for gas station, taking advantage of the blizzard. Inside I found another sewing primer book! Next was Misanthrope. There I also found a skill book, and Ive decided to try and loot the Desolation point next. The Commuters lament had the car as per usual, there I dropped off all the unnecesary gear, and by the evening I have entered the crumbling highway.

Dettered a wolf on my way through, Ive managed to get into the basement. Another book there, another Sewing primer. The night begins and I push onward to the coal mine, with intention to rest there. And so it happens.

Next day I drop extra gear at the mine (I will pass through here on the way back anyways, so I can pick it up then) and go loot the DP. I spend next three days here, searching through DP for valuables. Amazing finds! Frontier book, a book on fishing and another sewing primer. During my search through Rikken, a bear suprised me, so I went through the ship on board, and shot it from the safety of higher ground straight into the head. It ran off and I decided to read a book to let it bleed out.

I didnt check my statistics, because for some strange reason, this bear survived... my arrow broke on contact with its skull. Yet, the bear was nowhere to be found. Later on, when I looted through the other locations, I heard bear sounds a couple of times, but not knowing the bear survived, I chalked it to my imagination. Didnt see it again afterward. I paid a visit to the Wolf den, hoping for a book, but no luck there. Suprisingly, there was no longer that skull with antlers there... There was just a single inhabitant in this time. I saw it for a glimpse of second after entering the second hall, and it went back into the main hall. I realized following it would not be wise, so I made a fire, picked a stone up and threw it at the end of the corridor straight ahead of me. Wolf was baited in, when it saw me, it charged. 

Thump.

One shot straight in between its eyes, the beast perished into the long dark. 


After almost three days spent in this forsaken place that is Desolation point, it was time to pack up my belongings and leave back for home. The next plan is to slowly move my way over to the Camp Office in next two days, after I checked a couple of more places that could still hold some survival knowledge. This last few checks will conclude the "soft loot" of the entire world, where I mostly focused on looting just the items found outside the containers, focusing mostly on survival knowledge.

Here are the "lyrics" to Elegy, the visual poem of Long Dark, pretty sure yall know what I am talking about. I needed to write them down for a reason I wont say right now  
 

Do you remember?

The steady thrum of the city´s heartbeat.

Technology
Always pumping lifeblood to thousand, now dead industries

Industry,
now erect husk on a long forgotten shore

Remember the sky?
The light with beautiful fire,
Skies so bright that you forgot stars even existed,
But the stars, they didnt forget us.

What kind of survivor were you?

Did you walk the expanse of the nature, feel the wind burning your soul?
Did it remind you who you were?
Did it shape you?
Did it break you?
How did you keeo breathing when it took everything you knew and loved? Did you survive with compassion? Did you remember truth of humanity? Did you survive for yourself alone? Did you revel in the solitude? Did you hunger for connection? 

Did you seek out others, and could you save them? Could you save yourself?

Did you hold under the promises of old men after their fires died out?
Did you hear their voices echo in your head as you face the wrath of nature that they ignored? Unleashed? 

Did you settle into the silence?

Did you crawl into it, whimpering?

Did it crush you? Did you embrace it?

Did you remember the power you could summon?
It flowed through the wires
A ghost in the machine, a Trojan Horse
Our glory, our servant
Our doom

Did you stare at the sun, the moon, the wind, your constant companion?
Do you remember yesterday? What is tomorrow?
How will you face this quiet apocalypse?
Where were you, when the lights went out?

How far will you go, to survive...

The long dark...

I will be playing more Voyager, but I think Im gonna stop writing about everything. Just in case something interesting starts happening.

I think I might take a couple of days off from the forums, not yet sure if I actually will, or if I will come by here and there, just not feeling great today. Im not as bad as I was health-wise anymore, but I am feeling quite a bit depressed today, probably just the collection of things coming in all together.

I rely on you, friends  If I am going to act like an ass on the forums, please be sure to correct me ASAP. I will be most grateful for that.

That said, I will try my best to be the warm and cuddly bear I usually am  

I am ashamed now.

I have just gotten a warning by the Admin (and I know which one , saw them reviewing the same topic where this happened) - because I was very cold to one of my fellow members in my feedback towards their idea.

First, I am sorry, and this little warning, as harmless as it was, helped me realize that recently, my behaviour here on forums have not been the best, in the past two days or so, I have reviewed my own posts and I have been less warm & more critical and colder then I would usually be. This brings me shame, and now that I have realized this, I am hoping I will be able to combat it and return to my usual cheerful, more friendly approach. The last thing I want is to make someone uncomfortable here on forums.

I am also pondering over why this change in me happened. I have recently gone through a bad personal experience, but as far as I can tell, this did not influence my behaviour here, because it happened well over a week ago, and in fact, I have been more inclined to be even friendlier to others than usual. Making new friends is kind of the best way to mend a broken heart...

I have gotten into a nasty scrape with another forum member lately, a person that I will not name, but this person has been very hostile to me in recent days, jumping at every chance to assault me, report me or denounce me. As I am trying to ignore such attempts as best as I can, I am also just a human person, I too have feelings and this kind of behavior is something that I am not immune against. This not an excuse for my behaviour - I own to my mistakes, but I guess this might be the reason why I have been more detached, less warm and more inclined to snap out at others then I usually would.

Well, realizing where the problem is, that is the first step. Now, I just have to make sure that I keep this in mind at all times, so I won't be rude to anyone again.

End of the road loot was disapointing. Turned my direction towards the Cinder hills mine - that is my next target. The blizzard was raging on, and I was exhausted.

Screw it. Dont care, I can rest up in this cave here, got enough fuel to last with a nice 10 hour nap. So that is what I did. I shredded an old hoodie to wait with fire for the use of my coal lumps. Made a nice, warm, lenghty fire in the cave, and took a nap till mid day. Woke up at around the noon.

Nice weather outside, snowing midly. Took five steps out of the cave - blizzard again. Whomever said PV is 18h of blizzards a day was not joking. A cruel, cold one, too. Did not even reach the mine as I started losing condition to freezing again. But no matter now - soon after, I reached the mine.

Voyager continues! 

Not sure where I left off, but at day 52 Ive spend most of that, running through the PV, trying to reach the mystic campsite and the cavern, because I believed it might have a skill book for me. The morning I started at the Radio tower, and since I brought a rope with me from the Ravine´s train, I deployed it on the rock behind the tower and climbed down. Normally a futile task, but there is a corpse mid-way there usually, and sometimes has a backpack with a skill book in it. No luck this time. Ive traveled up the road to the long curve, but nothing of interest there. Ive heard a bear as the wind picked up, but could not see it - so I quickly removed myself from that area. After a brief stop by the lonely cabin, I made my way up the other part of the path towards TWM. I was nervous because of the bear that resides there, but luckily, a blizzard took off and i was able to pass with relative safety, altough a bit of a discomfort. Sadly, in the low visibility I lost my bearing and didnt find the point of dissagreement. Ive reached the mystic cave, though - another bow, an arrow, but no skill book, and a rifle outside. Havent seen many rifles this game but I know of a few in case I need to go grab one. Spend the night in a cave by the nice fire. Got jumped by a wolf outside in the morning. Damn, these bastards bite... took down about 20% of my condition, not bad for the fact I have pretty sturdy clothes on... (by not bad, I mean it hurt quite a bit). I stopped by the Preppers hatch to drop off some heavy items there, and continued on. Took a short nap, too, to regain some extra fatigue and condition in case I got into more struggles as I continue on.

Day 53 is now ongoing. To shorten it up - I found the rope by the Skeeter edge, but I laughed at the prospect of climbing it down. I instead expertly climbed down the ledge next to it - took me less time, no fatigue drain and I took no fall damage. For once, I didnt even sprain anything.

The weather got windy, but no worries. Heavy snowfall, gotta be carefull. This soon turned to Blizzard. Eventually I got into the Barn. I decided to take advantage of the blizzard´s savety and visited the "bear country" - the birch forest behind the barn. Then I cut through to the Derelict cabins as I started losing condition from the freezing. At Derelicts, Ive build a fire to warm up. I put on two hours worth of fuel, and I dropped a can of peaches NEXT to the fire (not actually on the top). Then I went for 2 hour long sleep. When I woke up, I have a toasty can O peaches waiting to fill my stomach.

The plan now is to get to the car at the End of the road, and then make it to the mine connector to Coastal Highway, where I plan to spend the night and recover a bit.

I hate being sick. I just want to sing, but cant because I have a cold, and it sounds nosey and just baaad. 

 

Day 50. Spend a few days just relaxing, getting ready for another adventure. Had to decide where to go - shall I finish up looting the PV, or should I try to make my way through the Ravine?

Decided to go into a ravine, and spend the night sleeping in it so I can climb up in the noon of 51st day, without the need for an injection. The ravine had a real nice prize - an advanced guns book. Still, I decided to go visit the PV first. Now, I am going to finish up looting it, then move over to Coastal, and try to finish my "fast loot over the world with the Desolation point, by then, I should hit my first level 5 skills. At least, that is the plan.


50% of the world explored. Havent been everywhere, it is entirely possible I missed some books in the more remote places. But overall, with the exception for rifling and sewing books, Im satisfied. Quite a lot of archery books this time around. Could have used less - very easy to level up archery even without it.

Most of the ideas I have would come from a very long deliberating at the issue where I consider all benefits, demerits and potential challenges, as well as the impact on the current balance of the game... till I am certain it would not alter the game too much.

But occasionally I get enlightened and the idea, that is so simple yet so elegant just falls into my lap  

Like the idea with the medicinal plants. I think it could improve the game so much it would bring in a lot of the sandbox survival players back, even if it doesn't necessarily bring anything outright new to the game.

On continues my Voyager journey. 

Last time, I bagged a bear with a single arrow headshot, processed it and prepped for a move back to my main base of operations at Camp Office. I loaded up on the gear I brought from the Milton park office, both bear rugs, one which was now cured and the other quite fresh, and a good chunk of bear meat, too. I knew Id look tasty to all predators but figured I could get by and shoot whatever comes my way.

Despite seeing the wolf well in advance, I lost a sight of him, and as I was prepping to deal with him, he ambushed me from behind. Took the most chunk out of me... makes me wonder if predators do more damage the smellier you are... could very well be... more "motivated" to kill you, I suppose. Either way, some swings win a hatchet and it runs off, but not before damaging ALL of my clothes by a significant bit, and taking out about 30% of my condition. Considering I had highly protective gear on and was at full strenght, this was odd.

Made it to Office without other altrications, except for spraining ALL the limbs, even the ones I did not know I had... 

Next morning after, I reorganized my bookshelf collection of survival knowledge, that I have acquired so far: 

On the left are books, already finished. I like to keep them anyway for nostalgia reasons. On the right are the ones I am working on right now. All in all, the early quick-run through the majority of world´s locations is paying off - I can obtain this knowledge from books mostly, without having to ruin a lot of game´s tools and wasting the fire materials on practising them. 

I have yet to visit some locations in Pleasant Valley with possible book treasures, then the Coal mine, all the coast regions and the train trestle ravine connector. Meaning there is still a potential of obtaining some 20 more books out there. There could also be more books in Forlorn Muskeg or Milton region, but I am unsure if I discover those before reaching level 5 with most skills already. Might require deeper dive to find those.

I am not satisfied with my amount of rifle books yet. I would ideally like to obtain the level 5 skill without firing the rifle once. For that, I will need more advanced gun books. Luckily, I believe Coastal region, Desolation point, and maybe even the bottom of Ravine in connector might hold these valuable texts. I hope so, for more Frontier guides is not going to help me much, past level 3 they do not offer any more insights into firing a rifle.

That said, I never really use rifle, so I can wait till Ive properly looted the entirety of the world anyway.

I am thinking of doing a forum series on "the mysteries of the Great Bear", which would focus on the mysterious and unexplained of the island, as well as on some conspiracy theories as to the nature of individual locations, events, or other phenomena of The Long dark.

I have many things in my mind, and wonder about plenty of things as I sip the reishi tea in the evening.

Things like - where the Blackrock prison is located on the island? To whom did the bones found in Forlorn Muskeg belong to? Why is there a constant winter on the island, even if we see indication that there were farms before... any many more.

I have great many theories and would love to discuss them with my fellow forum members.

Might call it Crazy Prepper´s Ted Conspiracy theories.

thoughts?
 

Actually, why not.

First little tip: Coffee management. 

Biggest advantage of coffee is the fatigue reduced buff. This is an amazing help with rope climbing. But, that also means you dont need the buff for very long - just long enough to climb the rope. Coffee is rare & valuable, so unless its a speed run, Id suggest you manage it  

So, here is how you can stretch out the use of a single cup of coffee:
1. Drink up a fully new cup of coffee. Hit escape as soon as the bar goes down by about 13%. This will mean you only take a sip of the coffee - from the full cup (0,10kg) you will take a sip, and be left with about 0,08kg. Now, each time you take a sip, leave it "drinking" for more and more - that way you will stretch out a single coffee cup over the course of 4-5 rope climbs. The great thing is that taking this "sip" of coffee gives you the fatigue reduced effect only for a little while, usually just long enough to climb a full rope. You get to save the precious fatigue, and as soon as you no longer need the buff, it will be gone  

Thank you all for following me. Let me know if you are keeping up with my status updates  Would like to know im not just writing to myself.  

That said - I will start posting my tips & various tricks from TLD I picked up over the years. Give you guys an extra edge if you want it  Not to mention various other stuff, too.

Day 45.
The plan was to go pick the stuff up from Milton park. Left early in the morning with full fatigue. Made it to the cave, and noticed the bear, patrolling the bottom plateau under the Trappers. Ive decided that after I finish up my run for items, I will need food, and I need another rug to craft a coat, eventually. This bear will have to die.

I went on a very light run, just clothes, bow and 4 damaged arrows, a few odds, and ends. Collected fuel on my way through the cave. Slept at the end of the cave for 2 hours. Down the one rope I go, I go grab a hatchet that's lying in the snow by the nearby corpse (don't want it to rust up, do we? ) - then continue on to Milton rope. Wolf is minding his own business this time. Before I climb the rope, I take a sip of a coffee.

I grab all the beautiful stuff I had in Milton´s park office, including the bear rug, now 90% cured. Too bad I dont have one at nearly that capacity, crafting that would be awesome... two advanced rifle books, one frontier, sewing primer and target practise books. And a cooking book, I believe. Climb tired me up, and the bed here is warm, so I take clothes off except for rabbit hat and gloves, and take a 5 hour nap. 

Its evening, so I dress up, and down the rope I go. Wolf still doing his thing. I stop by the cave to grab all the coal in there, and the bedroll before it gets ruined. I finish off the rest of my coffee, and up the rope I go. After a short walk through the cave, I am back at Mystery lake.

Too late to trekk home to Office. Hungry, too. Remembered that I dropped two pieces of venison by the Trappers ages ago. So, spending night at Trappers - actually, maybe not a bad idea... tommorow, it shall be the bear hunting day... 

Day 47, time to bag a second bear. Still before day 50, so I still cant use a firearm to kill it, if I want the silent hunter achievement... nevermind. Going old-school .

Cant find a frickin single stone for the life of me. Had to walk all the way behind the stone wall of the Milton cave to find some pieces. Going to need those to lure the bear into the ambush.

I sit on a sharp rock by the entrance to the Trappers... this should make me out of the reach of the bear. Here he comes... One stone throw - he trudges to it. Another stone throw, right down below me... He comes by, obediently. Stand up, draw up the bow... Thump. Roar. Bear falls down. Headshot, clean kill. Dont think I have ever instakilled a bear with a bow before. Woah. Gotta love level 4 archery.

Ripped off about 12 kg of meat from the carcass, then quartered it. Nightfall comes. I take the proccessed bear and shove it inside the house. Next couple of days consist of me, cooking up steaks and water as I rest and reach the Cookbook, then target practise, then sewing primer.

Loads of high quality clothing is starting to degrade, will have to start doing a lot more repairs... also should pay a visit to Pleasant valley farmstead, where i left some high end clothes in bad condition as well. Wanna repair it before it wears out entirely.

Day 44 of Voyager run for achievements. Its night, just finished last skill book I have left here. Still have more left on waiting for me at the Milton park office, a LOT more, or at least I believe so. Next order of business - go get them, and the other items as well. Gonna pack light, see if I can get it back and forth in a day, after all, it is two fairly exhausting rope climbs.

I give up. Time to make some pasta to satisfy my need to feed, tortillas tommorow  

I am sooo hungry IRL, and I have everything that i need to make kickass homemade tortillas... yet I am so lazy to actually do it  

Forlorn Muskeg has became quite a hostile place since last time I visited. Cool. Cant wait to come back, battle hardened with the survival knowledge of old...

The high blind also had yet another archery book - have 3 of those and already level 3... it would appear I will soon have the level 5, without even crafting more then one bow, 4 arrows and barely shooting 14 critters so far... cannot beat this knowledge.

Though I would be more glad for more gun books and books on sewing.

Succesfully I reached the den, as the fog began to lift, I finally dared to look over my shoulder, to learn if I was about to die. The bear was nowhere to be seen. My distraction must have worked, then.

I progressed over the tree trunks, nervously looking over at the den. No bear. Muskeg bears, it must be something that makes them just so... evil. What if that spawn of hell decides to cut me off?

In the end, I could not handle the idea the the bear will be waiting for me at the Spences - so as I passed by the broken radio tower, Ive diverted into the cave to spend the rest of the night there.

In the morning, on my way to spence I was jumped by a wolf. No bait, so I missed my arrow on approach. Still, took one strong swing with the hatchet and the wolf ran off. As I reached Spence, the wolf accompanied me, and died right by the entrance. So I took its steaks, they will be a welcomed snack for when I return here to forge more arrowheads one day.

After a short pause at Spence and a quick nap, off I go by the barrel shack. Destination high blind. Stopped by the peanut butter rock - and was rewarded by peanut butter. The high blind had a very used bow, and an arrow - a welcomed change. The cave earlier had a skill book, and so did the spence... which puts my overal amount of survival knowledge very high... I will have to take it easy in the Camp office again for a while, read up on all of it. Not to mention the extra books, waiting for me in Milton park office.

All in all, life is good!

Oh god... my delay has caused me to traverse the Muskeg during early night... and a heavy fog ensued.

To be on the safe side, I decided to approach Spence´s from the middle of the map, to avoid the bear den that I would have to walk past...

Im walking beside the tracks when I hear ravens... and a growl. It found me... this deep, dark siloulette of a bear I can barely make out, heading straight for me.

Im only armed with a bow, no elavated places around me. Fear. Ive instantly dropped both of my last pieces of meat, hopefully that will distract it... and I headed straight back, towards the den I initially avoided.

It seems to have worked because right now, I am still alive... but I can still vaguely hear the raven´s behind me... 

Deep fog everywhere. Dark. A bear, stalking me. Cant fire a distress or I will lose my achievement progress. Heavily overencumbered and tired, no way I could drop enough things till the bear caught up to me...

My only hope is reaching its den first, and walking over the overhang, hopefully losing its trail, or at worst, reaching the tree trunks I know are there, where I know I will be safe.

It was a bit of a detour during my Voyager run, but I had to make a fire anyway and de-freeze some clothes I found in the outside containers... so I felt inclined to make a visit to one of the eeriest places in TLD in my opinion, and pay my respects once again to the unfortunate survivor who died ages ago on the Great Bear, and of whom now only a couple of yellowed out bones remain.

Thank you for the follow. Looking forward to chatting with ya, if you are ever up for it  Dont be affraid to shoot me a message on my Forum index page, or even send in a private message, about anything.

Forgot there is no rope here. Did not anticipate that... but no matter. I can simply change my plans, go visit and probably spend the night in Hunting lodge first, or maybe, if all goes well, come from Lodge with the rope in time to make it down the ravine anyway.