MrWolf

Yes, I think Desolation Point might be closer, but in terms of walking distance it's hard to say. The advantage of DP is you'll pass through two mines (Pleasant Valley to Coastal Highway then Crumbling Highway to DP), where you'll get enough coal to forge anything you want.

Thanks for the video, some great moments! Several of those clips showed one of the more frustrating things about this game, that when you go through a loading screen, nearby animals do not appear until they are out of your field of view. That caused a few of the "turn around and all of a sudden something is there" moments. The video is a good collection of some funny reactions.

And make sure you've opened the can with a tool. Smashed-open cans do not (or should not) give you an empty can after eating the food, regardless of how or if the can was heated.

Fishing tackle is not faster than a sewing kit for crafting - it just seems that way if you do not have a sewing kit in your inventory. I think it's a bug, but it's been that way for a long time. If you don't have the item (sewing kit or fishing tackle), the reported time is much higher. Next time you have both, check the times, then drop one or the other on the floor, and check the times again.

The answer to the original question of does quartering reduce the amount of meat is: not enough to matter. I tracked this for a long time, comparing the amount of meat available before quartering and the amount in all of the bags afterward (bear, moose, deer, and wolf). It was always within .2 kg for bear and moose and .1 kg for deer and wolves (sometimes more with quartering, but often less), so I'm guessing the difference is in rounding or something to that effect.

Sorry if I missed your point about leaving meat on the ground. As for decoys, I dropped some and wolves took them just a few days ago. It changed a year or so ago so that wolves wouldn't walk right up to a decoy at your feet, but they certainly do still take the decoys if you're not too close.

There are two decay rates: Indoor and outdoor. Outside, it doesn't matter if you store food in a container, backpack, trunk, corpse, or drop food anywhere on the ground. Anywhere outside (and some inside places like two-temperature caves or the farmstead house porch in PV) have the same "outdoor" decay rate for food. Animals will only take food dropped on the ground if something is dropped while a wolf or bear is "locked on" and following you. Otherwise, the animals do not know the food is there. Decoys work, but you need to back away. If you drop a decoy and stay close, a wolf will walk back and forth and not take the decoy. If you drop it and keep moving, when you get a certain distance away, the wolf will take it.

I also encountered the wall of snow in the Timberwolf Mountain summit cave. I hadn't been there since Polaroids were introduced so I didn't think about one being there. A corpse must be behind the wall of snow because crows are circling above. I found a Polaroid, not too far from Eric's Falls.

Yes, a can automatically opens when you place it near a fire. If you don't eat the warmed-up food and put it back in your inventory, it looks like an opened can and you can eat it any time (it doesn't need to be reopened).

Yes, there is a small chance of food poisoning in fairly good condition cooked meat. I've recently had food poisoning in two different games eating cooked deer meat at 70% and 75%.

Inspired by Admin's post with the virtual background, I've been taking screenshots for a long time (hi-res without UI, reduced to 1920x1080). They're night time or darker images that work well for desktop wallpaper. I have triple monitors and each monitor changes to a new image every minute or so. The Long Dark is so beautiful, it makes for fantastic desktop wallpaper. I currently have 456 images, added to a ZIP file and I put on Google Drive. Here's a link (hope it works, I rarely use Google Drive), feel free to use them if you'd like. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N36r-Mj515VJRabw_rh5Ng1azwFzOjhn/view?usp=sharing

Dropping meat as a decoy is no different than opening your inventory and dropping a selected piece of meat. Neither will attract animals unless a wolf or bear is "locked on", following you. In that case, pressing the "drop decoy" key or opening the inventory and dropping something smelly will function as a decoy. Don't store quarters any longer than necessary. They deteriorate quickly and disappear when they reach 0%. At least the rate of decay of quartered bags is the same indoors and outdoors, so it doesn't matter if you leave them inside or outside until you harvest them.

Ha, yes, many times I've wondered what on earth is that thing in the distance moving over the landscape so quickly then I realize it's something on my monitor.

No, unless it's a very recent change.

Yes, hides and guts will cure in the Mountaineer's Hut. I don't know about the feat but I expect time spent in the hut counts as time spent indoors.

I agree. I love the in-game music but I've turned it off since it started playing different music when a wolf aggros. It would be nice to have a setting to disable that, similar to how we can disable the Timberwolf morale meter.

Of course Black lives matter. All lives matter. I do not support the specific "BlackLivesMatter" movement because I do not support some of its goals, like defunding the police. What happened to George Floyd was tragic and I'm glad the bad cops responsible for it are being prosecuted. I think the cop with the knee on Mr. Floyd's neck is a bad guy and would have done the same with a white person, Asian, or any other race. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the cop is a horrible racist and did that only because Mr. Floyd is black, but we don't know that. Regardless, the vast majority of police are good people with good intentions and turning the death of Mr. Floyd into a "police are bad" issue is wrong. I've enjoyed the 3,000 hours I've spent playing The Long Dark, and I'll continue to enjoy many more. Hinterland can use the money I paid for the game in any way it sees fit. I don't have a say in how Hinterland spends its money but I do have a say in whether I'll give another dime to Hinterland in the future.

I don't find that to be the case in my games, at least not early. In the early game, I find it helps to harvest as many deer carcasses as possible (that always or almost always produces feathers for me). Otherwise, the number of feathers spawning around corpses and deer carcasses seems to vary from run to run. My current Interloper run (started on June 1) is finding fewer feathers around corpses and deer carcasses (without harvesting the carcass). I only harvested one deer carcass before forging and I had around 25 feathers by the time I forged on day 8. My previous Interloper run (started on May 25) definitely had more feathers, it seemed every carcass or corpse had feathers. I also harvested 7 deer carcasses before forging on day 14. In that previous run, I had over 50 feathers by day 14.

Interesting, thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of that issue. I mostly based my comments on feathers found around existing corpses and carcasses. I just checked the corpse on the Coastal Highway island near Misanthrope's and there were no feathers. There were also no crows at the time, so I wonder if that's related... now that I think of it, are we more likely to find feathers if crows are circling? I don't know that I've seen feathers when there are no crows. I've been playing this game a long time and never really thought much about that. It still feels early, I think I need more coffee.

@Gun Tech. I'm an Interloper player and I haven't noticed a difference in feathers in any recent update. In my experience, it has always varied from run to run. It seems like there's a random number component at the start of a run that determines how frequently feathers spawn. I'll find many feathers in some runs and less in others. My current Interloper run is on the lower end. Some carcasses and corpses have no feathers or a single feather, others have several.

Stones seem more plentiful now, and it doesn't take very long to collect 50 of them. I think the rock cache is a valuable addition because I can have a decent size storage container in places that don't otherwise have them, like when I spend time in Hushed River Valley. I know there's no benefit over dropping things on a cave floor or on the ground, but a container is handy when I have a lot of things that stack, like cattails. I don't care about the ruined food disappearing in a cache or any other container. It's just my personal play style, in my Interloper games I never eat or cook anything that's less than 10%.

I agree, it would be very interesting if we had to worry about animals stealing/eating food left on the ground. The only incentive to put meat and other things into a rock cache, same as any other container, is to make it a bit easier to drop/pick up (especially items that stack). The rock cache is still a very nice addition because we can have a container in places where there isn't one. For example, spending a lot of time in a cave in Hushed River Valley and not having to leave many individual items scattered around the cave floor.

The rock cache now acts like any other container. Meat decays at the same rate outside in a rock cache or other container, or on the ground. I put some low condition meat in a rock cache yesterday (the cache was built after 1.78). The meat reached 0% and is no longer in the rock cache. Before 1.78, a ruined item would stay in a rock cache. Now, a ruined item disappears when it's put in a rock cache, same as any other container.

Playing Interloper, I haven't noticed any difference in the quantity of wolves. Maybe something changed or was fixed with the spawns in a custom game. Repairs to clothing? If so, it's no easier for me. I just tried to repair jeans, four failed attempts in a row. Are you using a sewing kit or fishing tackle? I had been thinking that fishing tackle was more reliable because I hadn't had a failure with it in a long time (though it takes longer than a sewing kit). But I had a failure with fishing tackle recently, so maybe not.

The walking wolf usually appears with the loading screen and does not indicate that the game is saving. It will say "Saving" in the lower right corner when a save happens. That usually happens just after or at the end of the loading screen. Passing time for at least an hour also saves progress. If you're inside a building and want to save, just exit and re-enter the building and the save will happen when you re-enter. Or if you're outdoors and warm enough or have a good fire going, pass time or sleep for an hour to save.