WanderingPalm

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  1. Here’s a random fluff one I came up with reading through suggestions on the wish list. Let’s call it the “Green Thumb” challenge. The idea is to grow a potted plant on a windowsill in every interior location with a window. Since that’s not a mechanic in the game, we’ll have to make do with a few in-game items. For supply reasons, this should probably only be done in Pilgrim or Voyageur (or a custom setting with high loot). In every interior location with at least one window, place an empty tin can on the sill (this is your pot). Next, water your plant, by placing a water bottle next to it on the sill. Lastly, “grow” your plant by depositing a cattail head in the can (or next to it on the sill, if it can’t be put in the can). Once every valid location has a plant growing, your job is done, and you can enjoy your little potted plant as you continue to survive. There’s not much meat to the challenge, but maybe it can be a fun use for the items everyone has too much of.
  2. That’s actually a really interesting mechanic, but I would think that the crows’ cries would alert wolves, bears, and moose, as well, if their brethren have been being killed lately. Maybe you wouldn’t need to appease the crows with crackers so much as just go X number of days without killing or harvesting an animal? Less realistic, maybe, since we’re operating on an accelerated timeline, but more practical than trying to find crackers. This would also mean that if you aren’t willing to wait the X days for the crows to stop warning wildlife away from you, you’re limited to hunting during blizzards, when the crows wouldn’t be out. And then you’re basically the ultimate predator, stalking bears in a blizzard, when they think they’ll be safe from you.
  3. I cannot agree harder. The new music is pleasant, but I can’t NOT compare it to the original, which is just so... moving. Iconic. Perfect and atmospheric. I would also sit and listen to it and it feels like such a letdown when the new song plays instead. Again, not that the new song is bad— it’s a lovely composition, but it just doesn’t move me the same way. To me, it doesn’t represent the game’s atmosphere or the harshness of the weather or the loneliness of the survivor’s experience or the wild beauty of nature reclaiming civilization. It’s just... a nice song that has no emotional attachment for me. Granted, that’s my very biased opinion, since I’ve played since 2014, but my roommate has only been playing since the game was launched on ps4, and he was livid when the music changed. I’d love to be able to use the old music for the main menu. I miss it a lot.
  4. The best change: The trapper’s homestead in Mystery Lake no longer has a chimney that generates smoke all the time. That chimney always freaked me out. Like, I kept expecting the survival mode of the game to suddenly have introduced some feral survivor who would attack me for walking into his house (though maybe I just was affected more deeply than I expected when they unexpectedly added Fluffy. I mean, I still don’t trust any interior location ever because of her). But I also ADORE that the devs finally granted the fans the custom mode. I still haven’t utilized it, because I still want to get the achievements (again) and earn the feats, but at some point, I will only play custom mode and never look back. I also love that they got rid of the tool select at the beginning of a Wolf struggle, because I would always panic-click the first thing (usually a fist or knife) instead of the thing I wanted to use (an axe). I loved when they added mapping to the game, even if I’m not a huge fan of how it was implemented (fingers crossed that on the update I’ll be able to “ping” my location by drawing on an already filled out map, and it will temporarily highlight where I am, and more importantly, show which way I’m facing!). I love that they listened to the fans and added a craftable hat. I love every addition to the map, and for the most part, the overhauls to the maps (when they added that fence and all that stuff right outside the Dam was really exciting! And holy crap, the difference between the old, empty Dam and the new, cluttered Dam is awesome). The game became more real and way more fun once item decay and mending became a thing, and I get a lot of satisfaction from repairing clothing that degrades over time. Y’know, as much as I played the game in the early versions (playing since late 2014), I can’t remember the mechanic used before the paper doll for clothing (was it just done from your inventory?), which I guess means that the paper doll mechanic was a change I deemed so important that I promptly dismissed memories of the before-time. And, of course, the overall art improvements over the years. Oh, and for the story mode: when they changed the conversations to all have voice-overs instead of just the opening part of the conversation, and then the rest of the conversation being a jarring silence that made you think the game glitched.
  5. Hm, what if we remove the option of starting at TWM? You can choose to end there if you want, but that means you’re out a lot of matches, clothes, and tools right at the start. Maybe I should make different levels to this challenge. Any game mode Voyageur+, but state what game mode you used in your run. Easy- rules as listed originally Medium- Easy rules, additionally, no doors allowed (no cars, no fish huts with doors, etc) Hard- Medium rules, additionally, starting zone cannot be Timberwolf Mountain Very Hard- Medium rules, but you may not access TWM at all Insane- Very Hard rules, but also may not utilize any man-made construction (eg. building, shelter, car, train, etc), or loot contained within such a building or vehicle (ruined or otherwise) ((this is essentially the No Looking Back—Natural Survivor challenge))
  6. I remember an old challenge (I forget who posted it... Stormwolf, or something? Good dude, in any case) where the idea was that you would get to the Hydro Carter Dam and drop anything you didn’t start the game with outside of it. Then, it was just a matter of how long can you survive inside the dam using only what you find in there. Very accessible to both experienced and inexperienced players, even in the current version of the game. I’ve seen challenges ranging from “catch the biggest fish” to “the vegan” challenge (in which you couldn’t eat any fish, meat, dog food, pork and beans, condensed milk, or other animal product, and also couldn’t use leather products), both of which are pretty accessible to a broad range of players. I just posted the “No Looking Back” challenge, which would be accessible to newer players, and would likely help you get better at some mechanics in game. For the more experienced, there’s the hard mode, which also doesn’t allow the use of anything with doors. I know there’s a whole bunch of suggestions for other challenges out there, but I can never seem to find them when I’m looking for them.
  7. I think you may be overestimating what you can carry, or what not being able to go into buildings truly limits you to. Sure, this challenge is a little different in style from the “how long can you last” challenges that pit you against very limited supplies in one location, which can generally be measured in days or maybe weeks. This challenge is more likely to run weeks to months in game, unless I bump it up to Interloper (but I honestly think it would be too undoable then), but it just means it’s a different style for those interested in a challenge with a lot more variability in the method to your success. Part of what I find interesting here is the planning and discussion of different methods. And discussing which specific buildings and places might be still accessible even with the limitations of this challenge. The hard mode version of this would potentially be one that doesn’t let you use anything with a door, I think. Perhaps that creates a more finite experience? EDIT: Actually, the more I think about this, the more I like the hard mode of not using anything with doors. No more cars, no fishing huts with door, no mountaineer’s hut that kind of wrecks the curve with not trapping you inside, and no dam for all those resources. It’s just you, the weather, and what caves or ruined buildings you can find (and maybe snow shelters if you can get enough cloth). I’m going to have to add that to the challenge.
  8. The goal of this challenge is to survive as long as possible. The rules of the challenge: >>You may only enter an area that requires your game to save, ONCE each. This means that if you start in Mystery Lake, you may leave it, but you may never return. This also means that if you enter a house, you may not leave it, unless it has an exit that would put you in a different zone than the one you entered from. The idea being that you are unable to turn back, and will only move forward—retracing your steps is not an option (but for the sake of gameplay and accessibility, let’s say this doesn’t limit paths within a zone). >>You can spend as long as you want in any zone, provided you do not return to a zone >>The game mode should be set to Voyager >>You choose where you start your game >>No feats are allowed >>Report how long you survived, and what your path was Feel free to discuss! This was a fun one for my roommate and me to theorycraft the best route and determine what the best location would be to end in.
  9. Yes please! Item Priority has come up a few times over the past year, so I know there are others who want it, too! This should include things like: what item you pull out as your light source, what weapon you pull out when hunting, what weapon you default to in a Struggle, what item you drop as a decoy, what ignition source to default to when starting a fire, etc.
  10. This is perhaps the most elegant solution I have seen for the rotted meat still being edible exploit! Yes, a million upvotes to this post! Further, I think that food should lose calories as it decays. It’s ridiculous that you can eat a rotted hunk of meat at 0% condition and still get the full calorie intake of a freshly cooked steak.
  11. Is it possible that there are hidden checkpoints along the bar that allow you to strike back? Obviously ignoring the one you can get right at the start of the struggle if you time it right. So when you fill the bar to that checkpoint, you get to attack, then again at the next checkpoint— though I suspect this is me simplifying it way too much. Perhaps it indicates the guaranteed end of the struggle. If the wolf has variable damage, then so would you, surely, so perhaps the bar is just indicating that if you roll low on every strike you get, the struggle would still end by the time you fill the bar. Or similarly, it indicates the guaranteed end of the struggle no matter your weapon (ie, the bar always displays where the struggle would end if you were bare-handed), and the fight naturally ends before the gauge is filled completely because you’re using a weapon. Or it could be the wolf’s health. So if you fill it completely, it just dies on you. So being exhausted makes you do less damage, although you strike just as frequently as normal, which means that using the hatchet would scare it off just as easily as normal. Ehm... why the wolf heals that quickly is a mystery, if this is the case. The world may never know.
  12. So is there a cap to the number of Striking Events the wolf gets? In which case, the length of the struggle doesn’t matter. If there is no cap, then that seems to indicate that the longer it takes for the player to do the minimum damage to beat the wolf (as would be the case when Exhausted, since the gauge fills slower), the higher the chance that the player will suffer more Striking Events. Are Striking Events at random intervals? Or set? Can you measure Struggles by the number of Events you suffered? If we know each Event does about X damage, and we’ll suffer at least Y Events, then that tells us the danger of the encounter even better than the tests that show the total damage from an encounter. Because let’s face it, humans are not as consistent as a macro (and prone to panic, besides), so I know I, at least, will take longer to fight off wolves. XD I find it hard to believe that a longer fight had no different outcome, and am wondering if, perhaps, you were simply too efficient in fighting it off to see the consequences of fighting while exhausted. As always, you and your methodical testing are incredible, and the community thanks you! <3
  13. More incredibly useful information from Timber Wolf! While the damage suffered may not be any different anymore with different exhaustion levels, it's still worth noting that being exhausted makes the struggle bar fill slower (as Timber Wolf mentioned in the test)...though why that doesn't equate to more damage being sustained, I have no idea. So it's not that exhaustion has no effect on struggles, just that it's essentially irrelevant. I wonder why they changed it? Actually, except the Stink test, all of these results surprised me. I wonder if seeing the durations for each struggle might shed some more light on the results? Surely fighting the wolf for longer would make you more susceptible to taking damage (regardless of what the exhaustion test showed). Or am I wrong in thinking that the duration is less variable than damage?
  14. Yeah, but imagine all the sprains you'd get finding the mushrooms, harvesting them, preparing them, and then cooking them! And man, if you need to forage some fuel for that... Will would have died before he ever would have experienced some sweet sweet shroom pain relief.