TheEldritchGod

I've learned to go exclusively with the flare gun. They come right at you and if you miss, they run. If you hit, they still run, but are going to die, sooner or later. I used to perch on things and shoot, then jump to break line of contact, but that's so much more complicated then walking up to him and shooting him in the face.

Bah. Include it to scare bears and you can make it a plaid flare for all I care. Either that or give me my bear spear in the survival game. Damn I love that thing.

New Base: Log sort. Found a wind proof location directly behind the trailer. So many wolves yet no bears. So you can lure them all in and then snipe them as you wish. Not quite sure why I'm collecting hundreds of these pelts, but hey, details.

Leave an animal unharvested. I've gotten frostbite in my obsession to harvest every hide from every animal I kill. Why do I need a 300th wolf pelt? the first 299 wasn't enough? I have enough guts to make mountain climbing rope. enough rabbit pelts to make a giant rabbit. Yet i keep collecting them. I'm onto my 18th bear pelt. I don't even use the bear coat.

You only healed one of them. Had you healed both to begin with, they would have healed together. Yes, you didn't know to do that, but you should have checked both icons.

Just a thought, make a microwave able to cook, but only during the aurora. Just make it a one "cooking surface" fire that only turns on during the aurora.

I have seen bunnies romp through fire. Those bastards are hard core.

It's called the "Escape Key'. Keep your finger on top and listen for crows/barking. You do get a milisecond of warning.

I finally got around to testing it and... yes. Apparently it does heal you when you are playing Deadman. Holy crap. I think I could actually play dead man long term now. I'm going to have to farm the ravine like no body;s business, but still.

Really? Be more specific so I can test the exact conditions. We are talking about Birch Bark tree, yes? You know, I never tested it with BOTH off. Would that really make a difference?

Confused. Are you talking a specific new game mechanic, a new rule set, or just using d20 as the core and adding on the lore. If so, what sort of world building are you talking about?

UPDATE: I have been running about and figured that the top two locations for Birch Bark are Ravine and The Birch Forest that surrounds the Lonely homestead on Pleasant Valley Map. LITTLE KNOWN FACT: I've watched a lot of playthroughs and almost everyone completely ignores the Cattails that are due east (if you are lonely homestead, look to where the closest waterfall is. THAT IS WEST. Go the opposit direction between two rock outcroppings.) of Lonely Homestead. Over there is a marsh area that is rich in cattails. It's fairly isolated and since I started visiting it, I have yet to get jumped by wolves. Of course, I just jinxed myself. Of the two, the Ravine Map is superior to Pleasant valley birch forest, both because of the lack of predators, and because of the close proximity to shelter. However, numerically, PV seems to beat out Ravine in NUMBER of birch bark harvested. (But not by much). Just another reason why Ravine is my Cabin Fever recovery/must-see vacation home-away-from-home/tourist trap. Oh. And now that I have been playing Interloper more, My estimates of "Effective" Harvest numbers of Birch Bark tea have dropped. I'm lucky to get enough birch bark on average to equal one cup every three days. I dunno if it's a Interloper thing. or what. Frankly, I am using BirchBark tea as "Compressed Fluid" not really as a healing agent. For example. Birch Bark is .22 water, but .1 weight. AND it can have up to 125 calories a cup. The 2? points recovered (I'm sorry. Since they took away the EXACT condition percentages, I'm having a hard time determining the EXACT amount of healing) is not much, but I have figured out something: If I'm going to be traveling, and I drink a hot cup of Birch Bark right before I go, and the weather allows me to remain above freezing, and maybe I eat a Cattail before hand, I believe I recover 3 points total? 3-Ish? Which seems to translate into 3 hours of starvation, I can get away with. In the beginning of Interloper, before I get situated, I tend to see-saw between Starvation living and Well Fed, depending on my plans. Well Fed for shipping and long distance traveling, Starvation when settling down in an area to get crafting done. That sort of thing. I recommend hording Birch Bark tea, until it is time to travel long distances. With the low weight to water ratio, the token calories, the fact it can be heated, and the minor amount of healing, means it is vastly superior to any other fluid, including water and soda. Since you can drink one every 2 hours for full effect, I recommend it mostly for Interloper, where the higher thirst rate makes it, ironically, much more useful. Effectively 3 cups of birch bark replace .66 liters of water. And 2.5 cattails. So, in theory, you could drink one every 2 hours while traveling. So it is possible to JUST take BBT with you and save on the weight. However, I don't think that's the best way. I suggest instead to carry .5 liters of water for every 1 BBT. Upon waking up sleep, drink 1 cup and max out with the water, if you aren't at max condition. If you are at max, save the cup and starve for a bit, drinking it as the day goes on to remain hydrated. Figure on using it around 2 hours, ten minutes after waking up on interloper. The thirst rate seems to out pace the BBT by ten minutes, so you should carry SOME water around. Although, I am experimenting with 2 BBT for every .5 liters of water. Drink one waiting up, max out thirst, a second cup at 2 hours 10 minutes. Soda MIGHT be a substitute for water, IF you are trying to maintain Well Fed. Soda weighs .25 for .22 of fluids. So from a strictly fluid perspective, soda is the worst. However, if you are TRYING to maintain your calories, then it is a candidate for Water replacement. Not everyone uses my play style (which is, first thing, power level cooking), but if you do as I do, then use BBT alone for long trips, and combine BBT and Soda for long trips when you are trying to keep the Well Fed Bonus. Which means, save up your BBT and Soda for the right time. YES, I know, popular wisdom is that Soda never causes food poisoning. Well, I'm here to tell you I finally got food poisoning from a can of 6% soda. It doesn't happen often, but it does. Because soda spoils so quickly outdoors, I recommend, if you are stock piling soda, to wait until you have cooking 5, just in case.

For the record, since this is still being discussed, I could forgo the mods if HLG just added "BRUTAL" difficulty. You know, crank everything up to 11. All the mods that made the game so much harsher. I mean, if the mod guys can do it, should be easy to add to the core game. Make them options on the custom menu, then add Brutal Difficulty and I'll be a happy (if frozen) camper. Maybe Deadman. Would love official Deadman settings.

Not sure. That seems to be the case.

I know I am particularly harsh about the game, as is my nature. However, as I have been wear testing Steadfast ranger, I have been noticing a number of little things. The Subtle change of the backpacks. The slight movement at rest. The way the Menu screen "settles" into place when it first loads. The VAST improvement to the audiology of The Long Dark. I am certain you have adjusted SOMETHING. I cannot tell exactly what, but I detect it from time to time. You see, I am blessed/cursed with truly insane levels of pattern recognition. It has it's perks, it also is annoying as hell. I just wanted to say, there are many things you updated in Steadfast Ranger, but I know there are many undocumented improvements that you put in the game as well. I can detect them. Tiny... tiny adjustments. So small most players will miss them. Well... I notice them. I do not know who on your staff is making these minute improvements, these tiny adjustments that are... to someone such as me... so welcome. The menu load, to someone such as I seems more like you are waking up to the menu, not that it is crashing into existence. My job involves working with people who cannot speak and are so physically disabled that blinking may be the only form of communication they have. I am intimately familiar with the secondary characteristics of audible communication. I have spent over a decade perfecting the art of talking with those whose only interaction with others may be nothing more than a facial tic. My world is a world of the subtle. As someone who deals with this, I wish to assure you, your work is not only noticed, but should be praised. You may fear that, perhaps, your efforts are wasted. That no one will notice the adjustments. Maybe you wonder, "was it worth it?" Let me assure you, as an expert in this field, it is. Maybe no one else will notice (I seriously doubt that), or maybe, they will notice, but just not bring it up. But I assure you, on some level, it registers. Everyone notices the secondary characteristics of verbal Communication. We all respond to facial expressions and body language. Some understand it, most do not, but we process it none the less. People may be focused on the new Pistol, or the New tea, or griping about the Sprain system, but none of these features, will have as great an effect as these tiny... tiny details that will, in the long run, have a much greater impact on the playing experience then all the new toys and all the new game mechanics you could cram into the game. I was not sure if I should post this, but, as I said at the beginning, I am a harsh taskmaster. I expect great things from people, because I know people are capable of great things. It is... heartening... when that faith is rewarded. As such, I feel it is needed to point out when you are doing things right. You are doing the subtle things right. Thank you for your efforts, Bob

Yes. Tested the tea in all settings of Condition Regain (awake). It does not work when set to None, like the Herbal Tea does not function when Condition Regain (sleep) is set to None.

Having given it a great deal more testing, as far as Birch Bark Tea is concerned, I have my updated assessment of the new addition to the game. It is the only renewable source of plant calories in the game. This might seem like it is overpowering. Having done a number of play throughs where I set it on Super Tourist and power slept through 50 days to make an effort to collect from various sites, By the third time though I have come to the conclusion that the drop rate of Birch Bark is so low that It may take up to a year to equal the amount of Rose hips alone that the game gives you. And this is based on me running from map to map to gather up as much as I can, not just limiting myself to one map. Furthermore, I know that when a certain limit of Birch is reached, no more birch will drop until that which has dropped is gathered. On any other difficulty where you aren't on God-Mode, I see no way to actually reach the maximum level of available Birch bark. So, while yes, the Birch Bark is unlimited, the drop rate, accessibility, and other limiting factors mean that it is a lot less of a benefit, than at first glance. And for those who claim we don't need more plant calories because we have so much in the way of Cattails, I would point out I collected every cattail in the game once on super tourist mode. The Maximum number of cattails that can be collected is 1087. There is a MAXIMUM amount of 217 days that you can live on cattails, assuming you use starvation sleeping and get by on 750 cal/day I estimate there are enough rose hips to make 129 rose hip teas and 294 Reishi Mushroom tea. compare that to, at most, 1.2 Cups of Birch Park tea per day. So, it would take about 352 days to equal the amount of calories you can get from Reish and Rose hip tea UNDER IDEAL CONDITIONS. And assuming I made some mistakes, that there are more Reishi and Rose hip available, and considering that in Voyager, Stalker, and Interloper you CAN'T devote yourself 24/7 to collecting Birch Bark, I would conclude that under real game play conditions, the maximum amount of calories you can collect from plants prior to Birch Bark tea is 215,925. Assuming that real game conditions, we have the rate you can collect Birch Bark of at MOST .6 cups per day, that results, Under ideal conditions, that we have only increased the over all amount of Plant calories in the game 12.6%. IF YOU PLAY FOR 365 DAYS. So it takes a full IN GAME YEAR to reach +12.6% calories that you would NOT have without Birch Bark tea, IF you bust your ass doing nothing but gathering Birch Bark. Considering most players stop playing somewhere between 100 to 200 days, It's closer to a real game bonus of +5% calories that you didn't have previously. It is hard to judge this, because play style and length of game play make up a HUGE part of the variability, but I stand by my estimation. Conclusion: On Average the REAL additional plant calories added to the game world is +5% from Birch Bark Tea. Honestly, a pathetic amount. Now, Some have suggested that the Birch Bark tea is OP. In My Opinion, It is hardly game breaking and I would in no way shape or form, having run the statistical analysis on Birch Bark Tea, recommend Nerfing the tea in any way. It's a nice addition and even at the far end of the bell curve it adds +12.6% Under ideal Birch Bark hunting conditions. Even if we make it +10% for the average, we are only speaking about the same bonus you get from the Badge that reduces your caloric intake by 10%. Let that sink in, that weak ass Badge that adds +10% calories is a superior benefit when compared to the Birch Bark Tea. Now that I have run the numbers, we compare it to the other brewable teas. It cooks as fast as the other fast brewing teas, It provides a weak bonus that last two hours. (I cannot prove it, but I suspect it only bumps up your awake healing rate by +0.5/+1/+1.5 percent depending on your at walking around healing rate.) While not something to sneeze at, as every point of condition recovery matters, but it is HARDLY an overwhelming benefit. It grants 30% rehydration, which means given how long it lasts, only in games where the thirst rate is at Very High will you be able to chug more than 4 in a row from being bottomed out. Herbal Tea is a much better benefit, even with walking around healing rate maxed out. The regeneration only works while all four meters are in the white. So while it does add to health and grants water and food, One must be rested and warm to take advantage of it. It can be drunk hot, to help it keep your temp up and gain the healing benefits. Clearly it is best used in conjunction with a cup of coffee. When getting up from a long sleep before a long planned hike. You should have these on your fire, let them get cooked, then have the fire go out before they boil away. Sleep your maximum amount of time, wake up, then drink the coffee and the Birch Bark Tea in quick succession, assuming you didn't heal fully in your sleep. This one two combo will grant you the maximum warmth and energy, slow regeneration, while granting you up to 250 calories and 60% water. Frankly, it's overkill, but that is the optimal use, not the most efficient use. It can be used without the coffee of course. SUMMARY: Birch Bark Tea is a sensible addition to the game. It gives the players something else to go "Ooo! Shiney!" over and helps to make the game a little more enjoyable. The benefits are worth using, while at the same time, mild enough as to not be game unbalancing. It only adds an effective +5% extra "easy to get" calories, and that is spread out over time. Depending on game play, unlike Reishi or Rose hips, you may LOSE potential Birch Bark Tea, thus greatly reducing your potential extra calories, if you take too long to gather it. It may be renewable, but it has its' limits. In My Opinion, The tea is an excellent addition to the game. There are no known flaws, nor any bizarre interactions with other game mechanics that could be exploited. Finally, in comparison to the other teas, it fits perfectly with the world as it has been constructed. It fills in a minor gap in the game and completes the set of Brewable drinks. No improvements or nerfing is recommended at this time.

I agree that the Birch Bark tea is more calories in a world with too many calories. However, I typically play custom mode with Plants on Low, which equates to 1/3rd as many plants, so it balances out. It is also why I think interloper should have plants set to low, instead of high.

Seen it happen. Once. Landed on its edge leaning up against the side of the box they flipped the coin into. Normal Quarter. And don't say, "Doesn't count." It is in fact, my point. You never know how things will interact in every set of circumstances.

Sigh... I feel I should weigh in on this. On one hand, I love the modding community because they allow me to crank the difficulty on the game up to 11. Now that I am forced to play without mods, I find Interloper to be a walk in the park. I no long can freeze to death inside? SHEER LUXURY!!! That said... I have to approve of the change to the new code system. The performance is simply the bomb. I am so glad he switched over because so much crap that I have had to deal with in the game are gone. The Sound Quality ALONE is SO WORTH IT! And the graphic improvements, well, my eyesight is shot to hell and I see in 16 crayola colors, so high end graphics are lost on me, but I have noticed the improvements all the same. (love the new backpack design) I hope the change wasn't just to screw modders. I doubt it was. It seems like the choice to switch code architecture was one based on performance and I cannot disagree the performance is VASTLY improved. However, yes, modding has been dealt a terrible blow. Regardless, I must defend the game designers in this case. There is a reason they discourage modding. THIS IS IT. If they were supporting mods, then they would have to weigh the needs of the modding community against the needs of the code itself. The ability to turn on a dime as far as what sort of architecture is paramount in this industry. Two different sales models, this is. And I will be the first to say, "PICK A LANE" The Game Designer who tries to make everyone happy, makes NO ONE happy. HLG has picked a lane. No Mod Support. It makes me sad, but, I respect it. I understand it. I know that time is a fungible resource and time spent on mod support is time spend NOT improving the base game itself. However... as a caveat... I would point out this: The Unofficial Mod Support in many ways has been FREE GAME TESTING for TLD. Many of the people who were in the mod community came up with great ideas and ways to modify the game in ways that not only were interesting, but were then Wear Tested time and time again. We know EXACTLY how these mods worked, where the bugs were, what worked, what didn't. What streamlined the game, what screwed it up. What people actually added to the game, and what was useless fluff. Perhaps, instead of a disdainful dismissal of the modding community, we could take all that "off brand" game testing and present HLG with a "Best of" list of suggestions that Raph could just... add to the game itself. Why worry about Mod Support, if all the features the mod community came up with becomes part of the core game? Of course, Raph would have to be the one reaching out for the feedback, but I assure you, there is no animosity among the modders. I have no doubt they would each LOVE the opportunity to expound at great length the mods they created/played, if asked. Just my two cents.

Okay, Mechanically, I like the new sprain system. I like the whole pain can be separate from the injury thing. I like how you can bust an ankle and two wrists and NOT just take a bottle of pain killers to shrug it off. (BTW, Every thought of adding an over-dose mechanic?) However, that all said. While I think you NAILED it for Interloper, I have to agree that this isn't a one size fits all situation. You might want to tone it down. Like on the custom menu, instead of: SPRAINS? Yes/No. Maybe: SPRAINS? None/Low/Medium/High/Very High/WTF ARE MY ANKLES MADE OF GLASS??? Just back off the probability of the risk kicking in on easier levels a bit. Not for interloper. Oh... I love it right where it is for interloper. Ooo. Maybe some gloves give better Wrist Support? Some boots give better ankle support? Might sound like a small thing, but if I knew Combat Boots and Hiking boots made me immune to Sprained Ankles, SCREW THE WARMTH, give me some Sprain Immunity! Just make sure you give it to boots that have low warmth values to make sure to make it a difficulty choice: Do I want the most warmth bonus, or do I want immunity to ankle sprains? Ooo! Now THERE is a dilemia. Not sure what the answer would be. OH! I got it! DRIVING GLOVES! Those useless, only good for sources of leather, gloves! They are FINGERLESS! So, they would, logically, be the only gloves you could wear that give you the flexibility and manual dexterity to be immune to Wrist Sprains. And they are made of LEATHER making them a bitch to maintain. Oh, I would STILL carry a pair around and switch them in and out when going mountain goating. And when are wrist sprains mostly a problem? FIRING A WEAPON. Those are the only gloves that allow you to expose your fingers! So, obviously, they would be the gloves to let you shoot a weapon better! It is PERFECT. And it makes the player agonize over conflicting advantages. Bonus! TL/DR: Make Sprains more on a sliding scale and tone it down a bit for easier difficulties. Add Wrist Sprain Immunity to the driving gloves. Add Ankle Sprain immunity to the Combat Boots, Trail Boots, and Mountaineering Boots (I don't want to make those boots any more awesome, but they ARE a quest reward so, I guess it's not a BAD thing.)

Oh, I get that my "sensitivity" to mere fractional game imbalance is much higher then most, but you are talking to someone who spent years writing books statistically analyzing d20 3.0/3.5. I have seen the effects of GCC take a wonderful game and render it silly. The ability to make a frog STROLL at supersonic speeds... ON STILTS. The Infamous Pun-Pun build (a first level character that could destroy and remake reality on a whim). The only way it could have been prevented, in retrospect, would have been aggressive push back against all the tiny flaws as they were released. And lets fact facts. 4th edition sucked. It just did. It was an abortion of a game, day ONE. Statistical analysis is my thing. I'm just good at seeing flaws. They jump out at me. Exploits just... appear obvious to me. And I like this game. So, when I find something broken I point it out. Aggressively. I have no desire to see what happened to previous games I liked happen here. Or rather, I wish to put off the inevitable as long as possible. GCC WILL ruin any game eventually. It's the flaw inherent in every game because every game is a simulation. Either the game must stop growing and remain frozen in it' current state to prevent GCC, or it must grow and suffer its eventual fate. In the end, both are a form of death for a game. All games are simulations that are, by the nature of all games, simplified reality. Any simplification of a system leads to exploitable flaws. The margins are where they appear. The very small. The very large. Tiny details lead to huge problems. It is not a matter of IF but a matter of WHEN. I wish to put off WHEN for as long as is humanly possible. Because no one... NO ONE... can see every possible outcome. This may seem like No Big Deal now, but how do you know this doesn't lead to the game breaking in a year? Yes yes, chances are it won't. Chances are everything is FINE. Statistically I know this. I also know, flip a coin and let it land on a table, sooner or later... it will land on an edge. It is only a matter of time. Game complexity makes the coin thicker. Abd that's not a bad thing. Game complexity also increases a game's shelf life. It breathes new options and possibilities into a game. You WANT ever increasing game complexity. That's why I like the pace you are doing it. Slowly. Grudgingly. I approve of this. Some may complain about it being too slow, but they are players, not game designers. I know what kills a game. If it is any consolation, I'm good with the rest of the update. Well, maybe the Sprain system could be toned down a little FOR EASIER DIFFICULTIES, I like it right where it is for Interloper, but I agree with some of the complaints it's a bit too... aggressive. But that's for another post.

Not quite sure about the game mechanics. If you set health recovery (awake) to none, you gain no benefit, healing wise, from BBT. If you set it to low, it seems to be a +2% gain over 2 hours, and when set on Very High, a +6% recovery. But these are just guesstimates. Still, a renewable source of calories that ISN'T animal based? Oh HO! I can finally work on my DEAD WORLD challenge. Interloper without any animals. NONE. No rabbits. No Fish. No Bears or Wolves or moose. Just you and the unforgiving barren wasteland.

One can hope. However, my experience has been, the longer an exploit remains in a game, the less likely it is removed. People come to expect the exploit so when it is corrected, it doesn't feel like a correction, but like a punishment. Hence why I am jumping on this immediately and stressing it so vehemently. I feel if the adjustment isn't done soon, it won't happen at all. I happen to like this game and would like to put off Game Complexity Collapse for as long as possible. GCC Theory: The more features/sub-systems you add to a game, the more interactions between said features/sub-systems resulting in the exponentially increasing possibility of unforeseen results, usually of a game balance destroying nature. Eventually, with enough complexity, the game becomes unplayable. (i.e. World of Warcraft has been flirting with GCC for years now, with many classes having become "unplayable" in the opinion of hard core players.)