Dan_

Thnaks for the update, can't wait to get home and enjoy it!

I know this gets asked a lot but how is the switch version coming along?  I understand there is a need to keep the visuals close to what a good PC can achieve but I'd trade some of the visual flair for the opportunity to play one of my favourite games in any impromptu free time. I've seen how taxing SSAO can be to the PC version, I could without it for example. 

I'm leaning towards getting a switch and TLD would be the ultimate deal sweetener for me. 

Thanks!

23 hours ago, Dan_ said:

Maybe the bear will prove to be a blessing in disguise to rabbit whisperer deadman? 

Boy, how wrong was this dumb dude I'm quotin' here? ☝️

Sucks to see such a good run go so abruptly, kinda of a bummer really. I was getting the deadman itch again but I don't feel so good about it right now. 

Maybe the bear will prove to be a blessing in disguise to rabbit whisperer deadman? 

Ace writing as always, thanks for sharing! / Back to lurk mode. 

It's just when the contents boil dry, I believe is 10% condition lost when it happens. Had that happen to me recently, some of my cans are looking a bit rough. 

Day 34, I think it's fair to say you are the Forlorn's legitimate emperor, hats off my friend. 

Pay attention to your condition, pretty much anything can take you down if you're under half, rest and recover before proceeding to more dangerous endeavours. 

Other than that, pick up sticks. This is TLD's only true golden rule. 

Sticks respawn with the blizzards, even if you don't need them now just pick'em and drop the bundle at convenient spots like caves, outside stoves, fishing huts and fire barrels. 

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

It's possible, weather in other regions received a shake-up as well a few months ago.

That makes sense, I stayed 20 days in Coastal Highway to constant blizzards and the occasional nice day peppered in, then I moved to DP and the weather was surprisingly nice most of the time. 

Impressive, I wonder when you'll hit the last two firestarting levels and get that bigger duration bonus. That could be a game changer in regards to keeping you a net positive in firewood reserves. 

I must confess I'm surprised by the wind behaviour in FM in this run, I wonder if they changed it but before HRV came out FM was the windiest and most miserable place to torch travel. I couldn't keep a torch lit unless i travelled in heavy fog. 

In the March dev diary you've mentioned the team is hard at work on a new region for survival mode but it most likely would not be ready for the forthcoming update. Can you confirm we won't have the new region when the update drops or can I still maintain a sliver of hope it might come in this update? 

I'm already pretty happy with the prospect of a revolver, new clothing and food item BTW. Anything else would be a major plus. 

"Wolf Close Encounters: 99". Yep, this is really not for the faint of heart. Impressive run. 

4 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

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.

Oh, absolutely, neither was I implying it was a wasted day, I apologize if the wording I used gave you that sense. I was just stating that to play deadman effectively you have to maximize the opportunities the weather gives you, and I still find myself on that easy interloper mindset that you can do whatever you want no matter the weather. Your brain has switched to adapt to the deadman meta, mine still hasn't despite a good'ish deadman run. 

Same here. Permafire eh? This is actually a viable strategy if you got the guts to travel around unarmed, I'm still amazed at how you can torch travel safely avoiding the wind and the predators. Hats off, sir.  

23 hours ago, Goodzilla said:

WOW thank you very much for this link to Timber Wolf's experimentation!!!

That is just great !

Also, I should add: These values are relevant to the regular hatchet. If using an improvised hatchet, the figures change and the hammer has lesser average damage but higher deviation, while the improvised hatchet has higher average damage but less deviation from the mean. 

Meaning that in Interloper the hatchet and hammer are pretty close to one another in terms of effectiveness against wolves. TimberWolf has done an incredible job on these threads. 

Deadman is back! Thanks for posting your adventures, it amazes me to watch the thought process that goes into surviving a challenge like this. I'd be already desperate and thinking how could I've wasted a whole day trying to get a single carcass when the time is ticking on, but then I remember how much guts and hides are crucial to a good deadman run as your previous runs have shown over and over again. I'm learning more about the deadman meta, from the master himself. 

46 minutes ago, Goodzilla said:

I am wondering what is your experience in close-up fights with wolfs.

 

The pinch bar is the weakest after my experiences.

 

So leaves us with the hatched or the knife.

 

I think the knife is a little bit better than the hatched, but not sure if it is like this or if this is only what my mind thinks would be better in real life.

 

 

You can find more detailed experimentation by the awesome @Timber Wolf here:

In short, there are many variables that determine your rate of success in a struggle, weapon choice is just one of them and it has huge variance even when isolated from other factors. That said, Hatchet is the best in average and has the less amount of deviation from the mean.

Fantastic progress! Rocking crafted clothing like a boss. 

When the game inevitably gets primitive firestarting, challenges like this will get more and more interesting. 

1 minute ago, BareSkin said:

It works, but I wouldn't bet my life on it, it's really out of desperation given the probability of the hit "connecting"

Well then, we just found some cool stuff to practice, don't we? 

I'm going to fire up the game this weekend and test if you can hit consistently, a few new interloper lives will be sacrificed to science once again. 

What's up, got your PM and came to check the thread. 

As you can tell, I did try survival at FM only. After spending 100 days in that region a long time ago, I was feeling confident.  It's perfectly doable but heavily dependent on strategy and crucially RNG. I still have the 13 days survived save but I stopped playing him completely. Getting matches at high blind is crucial if you want to set any records there, I did not. That and the fact that you have to prepare, use and abuse snares to sustain yourself after the cattails feast starts to get thin. 

I'm liking your attempts so far, but I'll echo BareSkin's comments on Spence's. It's impossible to survive here long term since you will need a fire non-stop. I stayed mostly at Marsh Ridge, you have the warm inside cave to hide when the blizzards get way too tough and there's a good spot for a snow shelter by the stim cave where you can build a decently protected fire to sleep in a pinch. 

A good fuel saving strat is to wait out the cold morning inside the cave and then sleep after the day starts to get warm. You can then go out and explore in the afternoon and on early nights, just mind the wolves.  The fog also tends to occur by late afternoon, so it's a really good strategy. 

Another slightly perverse mechanic many people do not take into account is snow shelter decay, if you go away for a crafting voyage ( I did for snares ), you will need cloth to repair your snow shelter since you just can't come back fast through the cold and night, so stock it up before settling up at the ridge. There's always a sports vest by the Muskeg Overlook and you need to check the abandoned campsites for those extra food and cloth you get from dismantling the snow shelters. 

Also, I'm intrigued to see if throwing stones to scare charging wolves actually works, I've seen a video but I did not try it yet. It would be a game changer since wolf zones are pretty much no go without a torch. 

Good luck! 

This is a brilliant thread! I will surely pay more attention for potentially good campsites and pay a visit to the ones I've recognized from the other posters. Thanks for sharing!

23 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

Isn't the bear at SH the same as under?

I seldom see that bear in my playthroughs but I always assumed it was. Can't recall the last time I saw a bear up at signal hill without it being based at the cave under the rope. I might be terribly wrong, my current loper save is more than a year old and it only has four bears in the entirety of PV ( farmstead, barn, ML transition and cave by waterfall near the derelict cabins ). 

6 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

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

Not gonna lie, I saw your avatar pic in the index boards and clicked immediately hoping to see another deadman run. 

It's not the same bear, the farmstead bear ( AKA Chester ) is based on that cave east of the long curve and it circles from the farmstead, near the hay storage close to outskirts of three strikes and then back to the cave. His other route is straight through the orchard towards the farmhouse. 

The PV barn bear is based on a shallow cave at the eastern edge of the birch forest ( not far from the lonely cabins ), I lack knowledge of his specific routes so I usually wait by the barn until his path gets close to his cave and then shoot him from the rocks that border the river.  

Happy hunting. 

8 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

The abrupt eviction was a bit jarring, but fits the narrative. Jeremiah is a hermit by choice, and as soon as the mutual need is resolved, he wants his life (and his privacy)  back. 

But I mean he lets you keep the rifle. So that's pretty awesome of him. 

Both great points.

McKenzie wasn't really his friend, he was useful at that particular time. Had Jeremiah suddenly warmed up to Will and started sharing some brewskis and farts over the campfire the character would feel shallow. A hermit is a hermit!

6 hours ago, ChillPlayer said:

But for me it's the other way around, TLD makes me behave inside a game as I would in RL. As a player of any other game I would've killed the bastard without hesitation, the story offers enough reasons to do so. But in RL I don't think I would be able to kill a human being, especially not one who didn't cause me any direct suffering and that's the reason why I pulled the knife out. I didn't spend a single thought though on why I haven't received the knife, I already had a flare gun and a hatchet and that's all I needed at that point in the story.

That's a very interesting thought process, I'm always invested in a character when playing any game (I'm always as lawful as one can be in RDR for example) and he does mimic most of my own set of beliefs, but I'll mix in some roleplaying in there as well. I usually don't make the mental connection in a 1:1 scale from the real world. 

In real life, I'd probably leave the knife where it already was given that it rendered Hobbs immobile. My thought process would be: How to mitigate the risk that this convict tracks me down and tries to kill me if he ever recovers? He did go after my ex-wife after all, with god knows what intention and I wouldn't have the stomach to harm him directly either. In game, I pushed the knife as soon as he started talking like a sadistic you know what. 

Regarding the possession of the knife after the scene, I honestly did not want it. The scrap metal shard is lighter and can be used as a knife in a pinch, I already had my hatchet by then and with the amount of food available I haven't really had to hunt and skin animals. 

It was, now that you mention it, I recall not finding it down there before and also saves on which either the lodge stim was missing or the crate stim wasn't there ( just a whetstone ). The loot tables might have something to do with it as you've postulated. 

30 minutes ago, jeffpeng said:

One of the cabinets has its bottom drawer missing - there.

You're right I remeber now that you pointed it out to me.  It might change based on loot table, I will test and report back shortly, Thanks!

I have news! @jeffpeng:

You can find both, I just did it on the same save. Crate had a stim and a whetstone, and the stim by the missing drawer on the cabinet upstairs was there as well. There's three in BR.