Mroz4k

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Climbed a small rock incline, only to be greeted by a bear, staring me down some 5 meters away from where I just climbed up. He reared up, I crapped my Snow pants, he charged me and I just enough in time managed to back away and fall down the rocks before he could give me a bear hug.

Damn, that was close.

But I do need to wash my snow pants now.  

I will take this as a sign that I have overstayed my welcome here in the Hushed River Valley  

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 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.

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.

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.

Killed the bridge troll. Was a big one, too, even though in the end was only worth 35 kg of meat.

Knew that I would had to deal with him first before I could cross the bridge. So, after leaving Hushed, Ive gathered some stones on my way toward the bridge. It was time to hunt a bear...

I have decided it would be best to set up an ambush. Ive climbed the stones by the entrance of the bridge, and waited for the bear to show up. And sure enough, slowly he trudges over the bridge to exact his toll on me...

Used the stones to lure it into a position - and as I was right above him, Ive uncrouched, drew my bow, thump... right in the noggin. 

Then I sat down for a 2 hour card game, waiting for a head wound to do its job...

Im my meditation, I crapped my freshly washed snow pants once again because I heard him run right by me two times, as I assumed I was safe, high up on the rocks... but no mauling took place.

After snacking on two wolf steaks, Ive decided to go search for my new rug.

On the bridge, one of the cars blessed me with the advanced guns book.

Then I saw it from the bridge. Damn.

Getting to it was not that difficult, and I was gonna loot the bottom of the lake anyway, but after processing it, of course the Aurora had to happen.

Right now, Im roasting my bear steaks over a fire, waiting for this hellish time to pass so I can continue on in peace  

It is the eve of the 32nd day of my Voyager experience... and I am finally ready to leave the Hushed River Valley. The bear encounter rattled me a little bit... because I know that the next part will have me, walking over the Highway bridge above Milton... which is from my experience a death trap... with that long, narrow bridge, and the bear always patrolling it.

If I want the Silent hunter achievement, I cannot shoot it with a distress pistol. Which means sneaking close to a car, shooting it then ducking into a seat. Ugh.

Decided to take a little breather, listed through the journal. Day 2... a grim reminder of how fragile life can be, even on Voyager... as I´ve fell down to 3% condition due to my own arrogance.