ThePancakeLady

BRM (Blackrock Mountain- as opposed to BR- Broken Railroad) in Stalker is a bit tougher. Not "feared" but not a region I want to hang out in for a long time. Lots of toothy things that want to kill me, lots of choke points where they wait to ambush me, poison gas hazards that can kill me, loot that (by the time I am kitted out to go there and survive/thrive) I probably already have a good deal of (besides the ballistic vest- which I honestly don't use and hate lugging around). It has some truly beautiful views, and a distinctive character of its own. I do enjoy it somewhat in Pilgrim or Voyageur, but since I play mostly Stalker, the larger Timberwolf pack sizes, the Timberwolf Morale being more difficult to break, the increased number of regular wolves, the increased number of blizzards and bad weather in general, along with other many other differences between Pilgrim > Voyageur > Stalker default settings- BRM just isn't my favorite region to visit and loot, or to spend a lot of time in. I try to get in and out asap. I think saying it is "feared" is maybe not the best term. Perhaps "disliked" or "avoided" would be a better way to describe it for me and for some other players, (while others love the place!). I did enjoy it in Episode 4 of Wintermute because of its unique character and challenges (and no permadeath), but I don't enjoy it anywhere near as much in Survival mode (in any experience mode). One of the main reasons I go there is if I start a new save and spawn into a region that connects to it, and I want to go grab the Noisemaker recipe in early game.

Since @Raphael van Lieropwrites them, he would be the one who knows when a new Dev Diary will be published. There is no set schedule, so when he has time and has new news to tell us, or an update on ongoing work to share. He did post this a little bit ago: ...so I am guessing when he has more information about that, Part 6 of TFTFT, or Wintermute Episode 5 to share.

TLD + Torchlight mashup confirmed. 😂

Hey! Welcome to the forums! 😃 Take a look around, find a few ongoing threads to follow and participate in (Fan Art- Screenshots For Screenshot Saturday is always a good one, and I enjoy @ManicManiac's "The Ghosts of All That Was" thread. Some great ongoing threads by streamers posting their streaming series. Into memes? There's an ongoing thread of TLD memes too. So many things to look at, participate in, and enjoy here! Welcome to The Quiet Apocalypse! I hear there's a bingo night and barbeque going on in Thompson's Crossing- BYOB (Bring Your Own Bear)! Hope to see you there! 😁

Somewhat off-topic, yet still on-topic: Did you know that "The North Pole" (where Santa is said to live) is not the magnetic North Pole. It is the northernmost point on the Earth's Axis. The magnetic North pole is actually in the southern hemisphere, and the magnetic South pole is in Northern Canada. Otherwise a compass (which is also a magnet) would not point in that direction, since with magnets- North always repels North, South always repels South when ends are placed facing each other. How is this relevant? In my mind, the machine caused such a large fluctuation or change in the Earth's magnetic fields that a geomagnetic reversal or anomaly was initiated (which would qualify as a geomagnetic storm on its own... add a large CME or series of CMEs and --- oopsie!). Geomagnetic reversals or excursions have happened many times in Earth's history, and supposedly none have been definitively linked to any mass extinction events. The game is science fiction- the machine in the game may be exploring a concept of the machine being used to intentionally cause a massive magnetic anomaly or geomagnetic reversal/excursion, unintentionally causing one, or accelerating or altering one already in progress. Theoretical science instead of known/proven science.

The little cabin in CH, off to the side where the road splits coming down from the train unloading trailer and blocked tunnel, headed down to The Tooth and The Log Sort. It's just "Cabin" on the maps, but I've called it my Vacation Retreat (or just "Retreat") for years. A great spot to do some hunting, gather some resources, and just take a break- I always stock it up with water, salty crackers, a pile of cattails, a few coffees, a few teas, and some fishing tackle to do repairs while I am there. It's an old screenshot, but one of my all time favorites.

Would it be interesting? Maybe. Would it possibly be more work than you are thinking it might be? Maybe. I don't think that location needs a room full of dead bodies and bones added- for people who haven't played Wintermute Story Mode, a basement full of bodies or bones with boxes of bingo cards scattered around might be a bit confusing, and in Survival mode Thompson's Crossing is a fairly loot-rich location (in modes other than Misery or Interloper) as it is. And it would be really disappointing for people expecting a treasure trove of loot if they made it like the basement at the Abandoned Harris Home in the OIC instead of like the basement at the PV Farmhouse- small, not a ton of loot, and full of dead bodies? Nope.

Almost obsessively picking up every stick I see while traveling, even if I don't need them. Do I really need to have 100+ sticks in my backpack? No. Can I stop picking the darn things up? No.

Yeah, I've done "far but safe" in Stalker- and each time was dropped back in outdoors, near predators but not right within their detection range, the same way I would spawn in at the start of a new run. I am guessing the respawn will follow the same rules as an initial spawn follows by mode- Stalker and Loper you are not going to spawn in indoors in an initial spawn, so you won't during a Cheat Death respawn, and you may spawn in near predators and have to move in the right direction to not have them detect you immediately. The same way an initial spawn at a new save start can happen. The Wiki has unfortunately had more inaccuracies on it since TFTFT first dropped than it used to in the past. Some old information that isn't accurate after all of the updates has been left up and not edited out, and other new information isn't always accurate or complete. It's good of the people writing the Wiki to keep doing it, but I don't trust it like I used to. It's player-made, not vetted or authored/confirmed by HL. TL;DR: It may depend on what mode you are playing in, OP. Not sure it's a bug, but it won't hurt to report it in case something isn't working like it should.

Not sure if it still works or not (been a while since I bothered) but some of us used to "speed level" mending by snaring a ton of bunnies (or taking them however you prefer), then crafting the Rabbitskin Mitts and Hat- and repairing them after they took *any* damage, or harvesting them and crafting them again. It does require curing a ton of rabbit pelts and guts, but bunnies are far less limited of a resource than cloth is, and you get meat as an extra. Still takes a while, Mending Skill Lvl 5 takes forever, no matter what. And yeah, this ^^^. Intentionally go out into blizzards to increase decay on your clothing faster so it needs repaired more- but you will go through a ton of cloth, cured leather, animal skins (if you are wearing animal skin gear), sewing kits, fishing tackle, etc. Crafting and using fishing tackle seems to be better than burning through sewing kits, with the amount of scrap metal you can find or harvest and guts being a renewable resource, while sewing kits are finite.

Everything seems to balance out- the new stuff is balanced out by how much more challenging the Far Territory regions are. But yeah, this. ^^^ For me, my playstyle(s), and my preferred mode(s)- everything balances out, but feels a lot fresher with new stuff to do- a reason to try new things and change my strategies instead of "I *only do this and only go there*". Ask again after the DLC is actually finished and all of the new stuff is added, and all of the changes are made, maybe, and any and all bugs (and some of the exploits they allow) are patched?

Made it, narrowly avoiding a wolf struggle by lighting a flare that scared it off (surprising in Stalker!). Got to the Riken a bit cold, and looting in the dark until the sun finally started rising, proving yet again that the Riken is one of the creepier places on GBI. Found some good loot, always happy to find this:

When you know better, but do it anyway...

It doesn't. I assumed it was fixed because I haven't encountered any stuck/dancing-in-place birds since the last hotfix- but it was a random thing that didn't always happen (on Steam or XBox) and not everyone saw consistently. So, apologies- I should know better then to assume. The weird audio (hearing ptarmigans where there are none) is new for me on both platforms though- not something I recall encountering before the last hotfix. Wondering if they are separate bugs, or part of the same bug. Kinda thinking this thread should be in Technical Discussions instead of in TFTFT Discussions. Yeah, I've seen that too, in several different regions- flying usually close to (away from) but not right at a nesting site. And I agree- I like it. It's a nice detail that feels right.

Was this behind the Paradise Meadows Farmhouse, by any chance? I was back behind the hill behind the farmhouse looking for saplings and kept hearing them, but not seeing them, and no nest showing up when I mapped the whole area, several times. It seemed like they were up on top of the hill (not the one where a body can spawn, but the other one). I am wondering if the bugfix to stop them from getting stuck and dancing in place broke the spawn points or something- now the audio is stuck in place, but not the birds? I've also had one single occurrence of the nest up at the ML Forestry Overlook where the birds were there and flew away, but the sound of them kept playing until I went into the building, closed the door, putzed around and came back out after looting the place and mapping the Polaroid Vista. Only had it happen once, and I haven't been able to reproduce it. Thinking this might be a newish bug. I haven't reported it yet, since I don't have a savegame or session log for the one time it did happen at either place, but I should probably report it anyway.