Doc Feral

She's called Porchetta. My younger son's idea...

Kittens totally rock. Then they grow up and totally rock.

I'm sure the wolf hood idea isn't so new, but after three days and seven steps away in the list it's close to reposting.

That said, who knows if "timberwolf" is a true new animal or just some toughened up wolfie, to point out Astrid is smaller and weaker than Will, and she shouldn't go around carelessly hacking at big toothy dawgs. 

Taking a leisurely stroll through a mine or tunnel is a nice way to pick up some coal. It's the best fuel and it respawns, not as fast as sticks but it's more than worth a weekly trip.

Wow, that's an original idea. Not like that boring wolfskin hooded cape.

Bear: PV's barn (tractor), Spruce Falls bridge (cars), CH fishing hut with door, or wherever there's something I can hide in without losing sight of the bear and I can attract its attention again by throwing stones. Clbing on a steep hill with a ledge to jump onto is good as well. I tend to be aggressive with bears if I plan on staying.

Deer: Raven Falls Ravine, hands down. No wolves.

Moose: I usually attack on sight, no time to be picky, it's a rare opportunity.

I think you can always freeze to death in your sleep if you start sleeping when heat indicator is already in the red zone, regardless of difficulty level. Same goes for thirst and hunger.

On 6/19/2019 at 1:16 PM, UpUpAway95 said:

I'm of the opinion that they should do something with the cooking skill level-up to negate the "mincemeating" just to level behavior.  Cooking skill could be changed to be based on total weight of items cooked rather than the number of times you cook anything... and that total weight could be set at a much higher amount... making getting to Level 5 cooking as difficult as it is to get to Level 5 in other skills that generally take a lot longer (like fishing or mending).

Fishing and mending take much time to level up because they're less used. You don't mend clothes every day, while you may light fires, harvest and cook meat several times. Ranged weapons's success depend largely on the player's skill, which tend to be high in a gamers' world. Fishing is a bit unlucky because it relies on... well, luck. You gain experience by catching fishes, which is a random chance and it's modified by your level. So when you're incompetent you have a hard (and loooong) time leveling up, and as you improve you gain experience faster.

On the other hand, mincemeating wolf meat means you can't eat it.

25 minutes ago, AlexandraRussia said:

And don't forget the wolves. There only a fur coat can be made from wolf skins. And then the wolf is useless. Because to eat meat you need level 5 cooking.

"Guess who's the most frequently killed (it's a close fight with the rabbit) animal which has only one use? And guess which is the clothing slot which only has two items in the whole game, one craftable and one not?"

You didn't guess, I presume? I was exactly talking about wolves. And accessories.

Since it's quite a recuring quirk of mine I thought it would deserve a topic. We all drooled over Jeremiah's oh so extremely awesome wolf hood. Wolves are more plentiful than we'd like them to be. Wolf pelts can only be used for crafting a jacket. There are only two accessories in the whole game. Putting all these facts together the only logical answer is: WOLFSKIN HOODED CAPE

It would be an accessory, and cost many wolf pelts to craft, as much as six (to keep up with TLD's wasteful crafting), and a long time, 30-35 hours. It may be as heavy as the bear coat, cover the head and give a hefty overall warmth bonus. It would add some chance of scaring off wolves, but it would surely scare off prey animals, maybe even doubling their detection range (like "Holy Donner and Blitzen that's the biggest wolf I've ever seen!".

I don't actually enjoy blasting other people's ideas, but...

Moose is rare, and it already has two possible uses, cloak and satchel.

Bear is not so rare, but requires dedication to hunt, and already has two uses, coat and bedroll.

Deer is plentiful and has two uses, pants and boots.

Rabbits are everywhere, easily killed and have two uses, hat and mitts.

Guess who's the most frequently killed (it's a close fight with the rabbit) animal which has only one use? And guess which is the clothing slot which only has two items in the whole game, one craftable and one not? wolfskinhoodedcape

One-shot bear kill. Judging by the arrow's position the poor bear would have died by starvation, and it probably committed suicide by force of will.

13 hours ago, ThePancakeLady said:

But why would there be metal detectors on Great Bear in the first place?

You never know what you may find on an icy shore.

In the description of the Harvesting skill it states that when you're at low levels you work in a clumsy and dirty way (or something like that, reverse translation), so it would make sense to earn a temporary scent penalty after harvesting, from having blood and bits sticking to your clothes, disappearing after a while or maybe needing some form of cleaning (water, snow, or maybe ash from an extinguished fire). Yes, I admit it's just another "make things harder just for the hell of it" idea.

As you level up cooking you'll get more calories from meat, making cooked meat richer than raw flesh, probably meaning it's easier to digest. Either that, or the survivor becomes proficient in extracting big fat sleeping coleoptera larvae from logs and adds them as seasoning. So experience already gives you more food, just not in the way you asked.

On the other hand, there's something I'd love to see added to spice things up a bit and since it came up, I'll open my own topic. Thanks for the hint. No, not larvae.

4 hours ago, Fuarian said:

Old Bear's Cave is just a Wintermute scene. There's no hint as to where it is, but chances are around the Mystery Lake - Forlorn Muskeg area. Where we already have a transition zone. But perhaps if that rail tunnel gets blocked, the cave is an alternative but with the risk of running into the Old Bear and having to "minigame" your way around him.

When I was in it I tried to open the map and it pointed somewhere in northern Forlorn Muskeg, for all that matters. Anyway I asked about it in a mailbag

Question from @Doc Feral:

So maybe that cave won't appear, but a similar one. Kind of a waste, with a couple of ropes and some smoothing to make it less of a one-way tunnel it would have made for a nice transition zone.

Partially OT: in CH it's not impossible to arrange a meeting between two bears. The one on the ice can follow you to the village where another usually roams. Last time I was followed by the sea bear, I killed it near the Quonset and then the urban bear bothered me as I was harvesting. I'm sure taking a screenshot of the couple (both alive) is possible.

5 hours ago, Fuarian said:

Add a transition between Broken Railroad and the Hushed River. Because if you look at the world map, they literally connect. 

That would make BR a bit more appealing. At the moment it's a good place for a loot run (or to start a game, in a "loot, leave and forget" way) and that's it, half of the map is basically a narrow single lane road.

Apart from that, I'm not sure adding more detailed transition zones would add much. On the other hand, there's a very beautiful and interesting one already made, it just needs a litle fix since it lacks access points: Old Bear's cave.

Edit: to tell the truth, the Old Bear's Cave just needs a couple of climbing ropes to get to the upper openings. Ready for use.

23 minutes ago, peteloud said:

It doesn't seem to matter what you do with meat. 

Raw meat degrades to 'Ruined'' but still can be cooked and eaten.  Cooked meat degrades to 'Ruined'  and can still be eaten.

I think that this needs changing. It makes survival too easy.

As someone previously suggested, a decent way to fix this (even keeping the current trashcan behaviour of level 5 cooking) would be to decrease calories of meat as it degrades. Maybe not 1 to 1, but if a ruined steak started to amount 20% calories of the fresh one it would be significant.

1 minute ago, UpUpAway95 said:

The difference to me is intent.  I don't go out intending to create a huge stockpile of meat by killing several deer in quick succession.  As you say, you could wind up having a load of wolf meat lying around as well if you're the story that has difficulty leaving any meat on the carcass, but you're intent is basically just fending off attacks.  You can't go for days eating wolf or bear day after day without hosting parasites after every meal either... so sometimes I just don't waste the energy to harvest the meat off the predators.  If they make changes such that you can't recook ruined meat to bring it's condition back, you'll probably just find a lot more people leaving the meat on the carcasses to rot.

Keep in mind that reaching level 5 cooking is easy, with or without grinding by making mincemeat. Parasites stop being an issue rather early in a game.

True, but if you kill a moose or bear you'll have enough meat to call it a stockpile, unless you allow it to go to waste, which I wouldn't. Same goes for wolves, if I kill one by struggle or to make an area safer I feel bad to just leave it to rot.

1 hour ago, Nogen said:

I don't have the feeling that the OP was asking for an exploit in game.

All "legitimate" ways had already been stated. And it's an irrelevant exploit if ever here was one, it basically gives the illusion of smoking meat.

45 minutes ago, XaldinVii said:

Does that preserve its condition percent, so it stay at that percent until it is picked up @Doc Feral?

From what I've observed it remains smoked in time. Frozen in time sounded inappropriate for this. A cooked but not picked up piece of meat is like an unfinished crafted item, it has no decay rate because it's not "in game". The process of cooking meat or fish is considered finished only when you pick the steak up (proof is that, as you may have noticed, that's the moment when you get the experience points). So if you don't touch the meat left on the cooking slots of an extinguished fire it won't decay because it's "out of play".

Some may call it an exploit, but since it occupies a whole cooking surface and the advantage is so insignificant I like to pretend I've smoked it and left it on the rack.

Cook it on a well-timed fire and leave it untouched on the cooking slots.

4 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

There is a burn barrel in the Dam for use as a "kitchen".

 

Yes, but getting to it takes probably more time than going to the ravine cave, where you may even be able to light fires with the lens.

It's as wolfy as the PV one, but firewood is nearer and you won't bump into a bear as you walk out in the morning.

5 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

On the occasions that I shoot a moose right by the Dam, I use the nearest cave in the Raven Falls Ravine transition zone as a kitchen.   Just make a ring of campfires around the perimeter of the cave, you can cook the whole moose in a couple hours.

For serious long-term sustainability, Coastal Highway is second to none.  Plenty of hunting and fishing, beachcombing to restock your supplies of finite items.  The one negative is there really is no place to set up a proper kitchen.  No structure has more than 2 cook surfaces, and there are no windproof caves to set up a ring of fire.  You just have to painstakingly cook 2 piece at a time until it is done, or take your chances with the wind.

Yes, the Raven Falls Ravine is a typical vacation spot of mine, to avoid cabin fever and hunt some deer in peace.