Dan_

Great news! Very excited for signal void and the enhanced beachcombing. A boat full of goodies seems very enticing, could spawn a multitude of new user-created challenges. I'm ready to do some science, bring it on! 🤓 1) May I ask two small questions? 2) Will signal void be available on all difficulty modes?

I mean, if we ever get to that point, just let me craft this: You could just scare away most wildlife and be super warm at the same time. Just need to be mindful to not sleep anywhere near a real bear would consider a suitable den, they might want to befriend you a bit too much. In all seriousness I do wish the new clothing items are craftable, but I'm counting on them just being normal gear. I was one of the whiny people always clamoring for a craftable hat back then, sorry HL,( wool toques were rare on Loper back then, and bears kept eating mine ), and when they announced they'd be doing a craftable hat, they mentioned it would be craftable in the announcement itself. I don't get the same energy this time, hopefully they surprise us but I'm certainly not expecting it.

Yep, pretty much my thoughts. They could just release something trivial within the 10 weeks and call that an update, there's no firm dates for specific features. I much rather play only 2 or 3 updates in between the initial and final version, that actually have enough content to actually produce a difference in gameplay, than to get a couple new items every two months, then have the new cycle of bugs and bugfixing that comes with it.

Yes! Waking up with a cup of coffee and some TLD news, feels really good. The clarity on dates and features is much appreciated. Excited for the new clothing, variety always improves the game, fingers crossed for craftable items.

I always felt that the wolfskin coat it's pretty much never worth the hassle in Interloper. It decays faster, it's not warm enough and the mobility penalty is crazy high for something that looks very tidy and well crafted, compared to the raw look of the bearskin coat. If you're gonna waste 30+ hours of crafting, which requires a sizeable food supply to keep well fed, damages your knife and accrues cabin fever risk, it might as well do that for the vastly superior coat in the bearskin. Availability of pelts is the only thing the wolfskin jacket has on the bearskin coat, but a quick weeklong trip to PV and you have your four bearskins. I suspect the wolf jacket is this bad exactly because of this, it's so easy to accumulate wolf pelts through carcasses and the eventual struggle that the challenge involved in getting a wolf jacket is actually forging so you can craft it. I'm still holding out hope for this:

My sincere apologies if my comment gave you that impression, it wasn't aimed at you or anybody in this thread in specific. I was talking in a more broad sense reading reddit and comments on twitter and here at the forums. I'm honestly enjoying the game as it is, and it definitely feels great having a ton of new stuff to look forward to.

Yep, we are well within the expected dates. I hope nobody gets me wrong about this because I mean this is the most friendly way possible, but judging by the threads I'm reading and comments on other social media platforms, I feel like people are setting themselves up for disappointment with the DLC content drops. If we recall the roadmap ( which granted was a bit vague and subject to change ), there are multiple re-works of systems and mechanics within the expected content drops, not to mention full maps and new animals ( with AI programming, admitedly one of HL's main concerns ). No specific item in the roadmap has a set date to it or even a 100% firm commitment, they've made that very clear. It would be naive to think these major reworks are going to come early in these steady drops, I'm fully expecting us to get some new tool variants and minor changes in the first drops, like some animations and basic changes and having the thick end of the content after the middle and more likely towards the end of the year. Animals and systems would involve a lot more building, testing, balancing and polishing than for example a big map or new crafting recipes and items. I have a feeling these would be available more towards the tail end of the first season pass. These are just my two dimes, I'm just tempering expectations a bit.

I'm in full agreement with the OP, and would like to add the caveat that at mending 4, your repairs always seem to have a 100% success chance when done with a sewing kit. Only when repairing the bedroll with your bare hands is when you have a 85% base chance, so I'm guessing the sewing kit and fishing tackle add the remaining % chance on top of that. I think it would make sense you could still fail at level 4, provided getting to level 5 doesn't take 400 days when playing in a more casual manner, for example, mending clothes only when they reach 70% condition, etc. I'm in the middle of my only long term playthrough after TFTFT and I hit level 5 cooking, carcass harvesting, archery and fire starting by around day 140, without resorting to any power levelling tactics (not that I think it's wrong to use them, I did in the past and I just choose not do it lately). This was done by basically moving around, looting and killing big game once I had the bow. I don't think any of the skills are unbalanced as far as levelling progression go, mending is the lone exception. I also would like to point out that some skills are meant to be reworked in the near future with TFTFT, so I'm anxious to see Mending changed to incorporate crafting and maybe a smithing skill introduced, with debuffs and bonuses applied when forging, etc.

I can't make that affirmation with full confidence, it might very well be the case that the mementos were: Meant to be on Interloper, thus the missing keys are bugs/issues. ( Maybe something to do with the distinction between Stalker's random loot and Loper loot tables. Not meant to be on Interloper, in which case it makes sense that the keys spawning is a bit hit and miss, it was never an intended feature. I honestly do wish the memento caches would be great additions to Interloper, they honestly don't make that much of a difference difficulty-wise and improve player experience a lot. I always play interloper, but with the rifle and tool variants I'm sincerely feeling that I'm missing out a bit on the fun. Gonna have to do a custom run to get my goodies.

Same with me, beelined to Bleak Inlet lured by the prospect of a cowichan sweater on loper, quadruple checked every car. The key doesn't always spawn even though the lockbox is still there. Key is always inside a silver sedan, coming from the Worker Residences side from what I've gathered watching other players find it. That sedan sadly is not on the bridge in my save file, there's a red sedan without any keys on the visor in it's place. I might roll some muskeg spawns and try to make my way there to test across multiple saves if it has been removed/patched or if it's just random chance of getting the correct car to show up.

Yes! That would be pretty neat as a mechanic. I reckon they want to limit the proximity cooking a bit to keep six pot stoves as OP as they are, but it would make a lot of sense to at least melt the water (given that campfires and stoves top at 80ºC ) when placed nearby a fire source.

Have to say I disagree. It has absolutely beautiful views, it is so nice to observe the different hues of sunset contrasting agains the almost black rocks. Not to mention the actual charred woodlands and birch groves on the opposite side. It has tons of variety in a relatively small region. Crazy good loot and plentiful wildlife to hunt, fishing and decent coal spawns. Also connects to TWM, which is the best OG region by far. HRV is the same, it's always a loot fest and you acumulate so many pelts just by virtue of staying there. It's absolutely expansive and the multi-level layout can be confusing at first but once you know your way around the region and how to use the ice caves to move penalty-free, it's an absolute breeze. AC and HRV are two of my favourite regions, I guess it comes down to personal preference. I love the more wild and undeveloped zones because they force you to face the cold and disorientation more frequently.

Yes, without cold fusion and clothes, I don't think there's a single building where ambient temps are positive. Can't say I checked every building though. I do like OP's idea for a mechanic, it could come with a penalty in warmth given the water temps were just above freezing. Consuming the water would bring the risk of disentery and drop your warmth bar in relation to the amount of unsafe and cold water you just drank.

Well they did reset and I'm sure that's not intended behaviour, but at the same time I really don't care. I still have my feats and challenge badges, which I do care about, so I'm good.

Yep, saplings are very abundant. I don't think I craft a second set of 15-20 arrows before day 200, you just don't need that many unless you are actively trying to rack up wolf kills for the stats page, which sadly got reset with the DLC. Fifteen saplings give you 45 arrows, at 4 animal shots per arrow that's a whole lot of meat and pelts to rack up. Even factoring everything like misses and lost arrows, everytime a new region is added you get a ton of extra saplings. Maybe that's some good science to be done, count how many birch exist in an Interloper world spawn. I'm conservatively guessing on the 200-230 range, probably more. I honestly recall having around 30 birch saplings sitting at the dam in my longest tenured and oldest save ( 700+ days ) before the DLC wipe. I was doing some beachcombing statistics for myself and had a pretty great time farming saplings, cloth and scrap. Birch shows up in crazy frequencies, every week I did the pilgrimage and beachcombed from CH to DP, waited a week and did it on the way back as well, I got at least one or two birch to show for it, plus some 2-3 pieces of metal and 4-5 cloth. If any firemaking item spawned in beachcombing, you could reasonably do a beachcombing + hammer only challenge run.

Nope, I always beachcomb saplings at a decent rate. Almost every pass I took from CH to DP yielded at least a birch and a maple, not sure if this will change with the beachcombing rework HL has on the roadmap, but it's pretty much limitless.

You're already doing pretty well! It only gets easier from here. Freezing is inevitable, taking cold damage is not really detrimental if you know your A to B's. I know a lot of people like to be warm outside everywhere but that's just not possible in Loper, you can get up to 30C clothing and feel pretty warm in the afternoon in some regions, but some like Forsaken Airfield, Bleak Inlet, etc are just too cold even in the late afternoons. Accept taking damage, the healing rate in Loper is crazy high as well, condition is a resource you can use. Need to memorize where lightsources are, flares, matches, firestrikers and actually move. You can't just sit around and enjoy some camping time this early in the game when you're learning, need to acumulate resources, get a maglens, pair of bear coats, bow and at least a dozen arrows and a flare gun with shells. Food is only an issue if you don't know where the cattails are, there's too much of it. Not much in the way of canned food, but after you got your bow, the sheer number of bears, moose and deer is staggering. Final tip, learn the way of Legolas. The bow is by far the best weapon, infinitely renewable ammo and materials, you can reuse shots so 15 arrows will last you forever. Practice on bunnies, they don't bite back and are quite tricky to hit when you're just starting, you'll be conquering GB in no time with a bow in your hands. If you're playing with medium resource availability you should find bows scattered around the world, just start using them. The progression into forging and crafting your bow in Interloper is only natural from there. There's no hope for survival if you are still unable to feed and defend yourself with a bow in hand, need to cull the wolves in many places to explore and collect resources. Good luck!

Well, I just spent some good 40 days on FA with my new long-term Loper save (Second try, first spawn was on release week, and I found a hunting knife and bullets on vanilla Loper and no hacksaws, abandoned that save) and I think I can provide some initial thoughts on the region. What's there to like? First off, I absolutely love the expansiveness and overall feel of the region. The openness is reminiscent of one of my favourite regions, Forlorn Muskeg. There's plenty of sticks to be had around the forested edges and nearly no firewood available closer to the central interest points of the map, so hanging around the Final Approach or the Surveyor's burnt cabin is not really an option long term. but it does provide a fun back and forth between there and the airfield outbuildings. I accidently ate raw bear meat while crafting a few arrows on Broken Railroad during my prep time for the airfield, therefore I had a lot of little friends in my belly arriving there. I did a quite intensive routine of exploration and hunting the first few days, because I knew I had to accumulate food and settle down somewhere to withstand the last few days with basically no stamina and little condition margin to spare. So I'm familiar with most locations and even mapped a good chunk of the region myself. Love pretty much all the cabins, I know people have been complaining about the lack of workbenches but I honestly don't mind, the nicer cabins ( Mindful and the other one at Drift Island ) have almost an "airbnb upstate cottage" feel to them, so I think not having a workbench there fits. Love that we can now loot the planes and choppers, and honestly the region itself is really well done and has a really well thought out layout. I also approve of the extra-long transition which honestly does feel like a trek, albeit one with a not-so pleasant destination waiting at the end. Plenty of opportunities for the forthcoming safehouse customization. Imagine if we could rebuild Surveyor's Memory, or find a ready made foundation and some materials laying around a scenic and currently wild corner of the map? Having few shelters is actually a nice feature here. Love the new more random loot as well. Took me a good damn while to find a hammer ( had to traverse 5 regions AC-TWM-PV-ML-MT), but it sure felt awesome finding it. Transitionless buildings, all of them. Awesome things to watch a blizzard from, Mountaineer's Hut vibes from Mindful and Island Cottage, these are S-Tier buildings. What I honestly think needs work Glimmer fog + Insomnia - The effect is really cool and well done, it was really framey for my computer the first time it happened but I think some shader caching took place and now it's silky smooth. What I dislike is that insomnia has almost no practical detriment that I can think of and the frequency which the fog triggers coupled to the frequency and duration of the snowstorms. I can't remember a pair of consecutive days that either of them didn't happen, and for a new region I'm trying to experience and explore it's very annoying sitting on a cabin munching on 5 days old meat waiting for the weather to clear a bit so you can do some hunting. Make it 30 degrees colder, but I think the fog/blizzard combo needs an adjustment. They're not hard to deal with and won't kill your character, but they do make exploring very frustrating. Lack of predators - Saw and killed a moose ( won't spoil location ), killed the bear and lost his corpse and several deer and doe. Honestly, I think I saw and killed less than 10 wolves at this point. At this rate, it's almost like playing pilgrim because you really don't have to fear anything. The wolves seem to patrol around specific interest points, so that's already good, increase pack size specially in good locations near the roads and main cabins. The choke point near Angler's Den with 4-pack of wolves springs to mind, make getting to the nice places a true gauntlet. With all that said I honestly think the expansion it's well worth the price, specially given there's more upside to come in the form of update drops. Map is huge and there's tons of new assets and terrain to explore, I really can't complain about the quality or the price, I do think maybe some adjustments are needed to make the new regions a bit more challenging but I also trust HL's team to do it as time goes. 9/10 Scientific and unbiased region Tier-list that is objectively the truth: S - TWM, AC, HRV, FM A - PV, ML, CH, DP, FA B - BR, BI, MT, BLR

Wow! I knew answering that long form questionnaire way back when wouldn't be in vain. Thanks for listening to the community's suggestions and actually following through with them! Excited to get back into the game and experiment with all the new mechanics and content. Can't wait! As silly as this sounds, this alone is already will greatly improve my enjoyment of the game. A collectible with practical uses, gotta catch 'em all.

Just finished playing EP4, I won't spoil anything but as a survival mode enthusiast I gotta say: This is the first time I truly enjoyed playing the storyline. Well freaking done HL! Can't wait for the conclusion and also for Blackrock to be in survival mode.

A bit late to the party but I finally got my hands on Ep4. Enjoying it so far, though I must confess I was a bit reluctant to go into wedgie cave the first time around hahaha. Love the mix of wolves and timberwolves we got so far.

Excited for episode four, but I won't even lie: I'll be trying to climb that big rock as soon as I get to it. 🤣

Two tried and tested ways: Shoot it from outside the detection range. Not very hard to do if you got good aim, just make sure to not have anything stinky on ya, otherwise it's detection range is quite large. If you headshot and get a critical, you drop him on spot. If you hit and make it bleed, wait for the bleed out timer. If you miss, the bear will just run away. Easy money. Shoot it from a ledge, fallen tree, fishing hut or any inacessible spot for it's pathing. If you shoot it and it charges ya, just move enough on the ledge/hut/tree to break the chase and the bear should run away whimpering. Just be careful because to some of the trees the bear can path to, in that case just jump and it should break the chase. Same applies in case of a missed shot. This is an easier option and allows you to put two arrows on it's head, which with decent archery skills is pretty much guaranteed to kill it.

Hmm, if you can replicate that you might want to submit this to the technical support section. I've been doing some long term time in HRV with my oldest tenured survivor and slept in the Ice caves many times over the past couple weeks, no issues finding spots for my bedroll in any occasion. This might be a bug, so I'd recommend you to spawn a pilgrim character there and try to sleep in the caves, if you're unable, please consider submitting a bug to technical support. PS: HRV is an amazing region, it surpassed TWM as my favourite a while back.

I loved the old UI style, it had quite a lot more personality, though it lacked in usability compared to the modern one. Same thing about the central HUD, the one that replaced the four bars, loved that thing but the current UI is better. What I feel was truly a downgrade was the change in some book covers, the Frozen Angler for example had an amazing cover art and it was simplified along the way. The frontier shooting guide also had an amazing art with the hunter carrying a rifle on his shoulder.