peteloud

I've shot them in both of those places in the past.

Many of the criticisms I read here reflect the irritations that I feel with the developments since Episode 3. Every now and again I wonder if HTL is losing it. Pre-Episode 3 I had no doubt at all that it was the best game I have ever played. I have played over 3,500 games days mostly at Stalker to Voyager levels, and thoroughly enjoyed the challenges, (and I don't use mods to make it easy). Now I am forcing myself to return Wintermute to complete Ep .3, (at hardest level), which I gave up ages ago when I was halfway through. I am not enjoying it, but I feel the need to complete it, because I don't want to think that I was defeated by it. I am close to giving up with TLD.

After reading this thread I decided to try changing my clothing strategy. I replaced my Bearskin Coat with an Expedition Parka and changed my bearskin bedroll for a standard bedroll. It has been a pleasant change. Being able to walk quickly makes the game less frustrating. I hate slowly slogging on into a headwind when I have a load over 40Kg. I found it easier to keep my total load to below 40Kg, (using a moose backpack), and have been able to travel faster. I have been careful to avoid travelling in bad weather, this has been made much easier because know the maps and where there are good shelters. It would be very different for someone who doesn't know the maps and the placement of shelters. Early in the game, when you might be caught out in a blizzard the extra warmth of bearskin can be very important. I have also started to reduce the amount of food I carry around. That has also lightened my load and beneficially speeded me up.

I have a had several visits to BI and the cannery and made loads of ammunition. It was very simple. I was finishing off old, pre-revolver games and couldn't be bothered to travel around the whole area collecting ammo so I was limited to the number of empty cartridge cases that I had. Even with mininmal looking for lead and chemicals it was easy to find far more than I needed to restore the empty cartridge case that I had. On my last trip to the Cannery I ended up with over 150 bullets, with loads of everything left over. I rather like making ammo and using the milling machine. It is stress relieving. However I do think that the ammo making equipment would be better at the Hunting Lodge in Broken Railroad. I think the game would be improved if the balance of the whereabouts of essential tasks was rearranged.

I am out in The Cannery Workshop at the moment. I have had several visits to BI and the Cannery, mainly tidying up the loose ends of old games. In my present run I have been completing a Voyager run of over 1,100 days which fully mapped all of the earlier regions. I remember that you, Ice Hole, were helpful in solving a couple of goating problems that I had with my last couple of very small unmapped areas. What has surprised me is the difference in difficulty between the wolves in an earlier Stalker run and the wolves in this Voyager run. At Stalker level BI was very hazardous whereas at Voyager level the wolves are not much of a problem. I suspect the gap between Voyager and Stalker is too big. Of course if I was using mods to give myself ever-lasting life, unlimited carrying capacity and restore any resource once is slipped below 100% condition, then the difference between Voyager and Stalker, or between Interloper and Pilgrim wouldn't matter. I still dislike the new wolf behaviour, not simply because it is more difficult, I chose to play Stalker because of its difficulty, but because of anomalies in the wolf attacks. As wolves attack I find that my arrows, which I would normally be confident were a hit, do not hit. There seems to have been some changes in the targetting of the wolves. I find that if I delay firing my revolver or arrow until the wolf is close, then my revolver or bow will not fire. I can't decide if my weapon has been deliberately de-activated or that there is a lag in firing weapons due to a processing problem. There are very clearly new lag problems in other aspects of the game, particularly with sprains. I also dislike it when I am attacked by a wolf, and when it is driven off I find that another wolf which I have not been able to see is still chewing up my legs. Because I don't see this wolf, before, during or after its attack I can not defend myself from it. One thing I often muse upon is why these problems suddenly appeared in TLD. Has there been a change of strategy, Unity, or has there been a change of staff and it is all down to one person?

If you have a map showing you where each cairn is then it is a is second rate challenge. It would just be a case of going around ticking them off. Finding all of the cairns without a map, so that you have to search everywhere would be a serious challenge. I have never set myself the task of finding all of the cairns, but on a 1,000+ day Voyager game in which I have fully mapped every region I have only found 94 cairns. Finding all of them, without a map of them would be a heluva challenge.

I have 285 locations. There were couple of places where I should have sketched the map but forgot, so there might be more locations. Most of these places were mapped months ago with only Bleak Inlet and a couple of areas in PV remapped in the past few days.

I dropped a few arrows on the floor in the BI Cannery, I can't remember which room, when I returned for them they had disappeared. I found them below on the snow a few days later.

Does Hinterland intend to make a major revision of the wolf behaviour or do you intend to keep it the same, or close to the same, as it is now?

I only recently looked at mods. When I realised that using mods it was possible to not die, to have unlimited carrying capability, to give yourself any equipment that you wanted, restore to 100% condition all of your resources it sounded fun. It might have sounded fun initially, but It spoiled the game for me. One of things I have enjoyed about TLD apart from the challenge of surviving in the frozen wastes, is this forum. I find it interesting to see what achievements and difficulties others have, and learning from their experiences. In spite of TLD being a single-player game it felt like it was a group activity against the challenges of Bear Island. I felt that I knew and respected some of the regular contributors. When I realised that some players were using these mods and not mentioning it, I felt that much of what I read of the experiences of others was misleading and the the respect I had for others became questionable. That, and the problems with timberwolves, decided me to have a break with TLD for a while. I still think it is the best game I have ever played and I'm sure that I'll return to it, but it is good to escape from Bear Island and try another game.

Hotzn, I agree with most of what you say. I fully respect , "The people who discuss long interloper (or deadman, or even more difficult custom modes) runs on these forums here do it to exchange knowledge and enjoy insights, . . . ". That is one of the aspects of TLD that I very much like. In this forum there is a camaraderie in which people share their experiences to help others. However a few weeks ago there appeared several posts where people were claiming implausibly long Interloper runs. I resented this because it undermines the difficult achievements of those who have done well in Interloper without fiddling. It also means that advice they give can be misleading. However such contributions have ceased, so the matter is best put aside, until it happens again. JAFO, Your comment is poor. I know that the main comment that I resented was inaccurate because the writer has apologised, but there were other implausible comments ". . . since you struggle with it . . . ." I have never been reluctant to admit when I find TLD difficult, therefore my comments were nothing to do with my finding the game a struggle or otherwise. ". . . 'Loper is VERY do-able. That's been proven many times over. ". What do you mean by, "proven" ? Those "Very do-able" claims might have been made by people who who used mods. to give them 100% health, (i.e. can not die), unlimited carrying capacity, give themselves all the equipment that they wanted, and restore it when its condition deteriorates. To me, people who do that, then claim hundreds of days survival at Interloper level are misleading others. Because I know how difficult Interloper is, I have respect for people who have survived many days at Interloper, and I feel that their real achievement is being diminished.

As many of us have been trying to solve this issue of the shortcut, and no-one has yet succeed I think that the problem is too difficult. I have given up trying. If there is a shortcut, and it seems silly for there not to be, then I think that HTL would have done better using their time to make TLD more attractive to potential customers, and increase sales, rather than investing in challenging us old hands. I have enjoyed trying to find a shortcut, in spite of failing, but such a strategy, at best is for the old hands, who have no need to buy the game, therefore don't produce income for HTL. At worst it can irritate players who give negative reports on the game. Don't get me wrong. I think that TLD is the best game I have ever played and I think that there are a great many very clever aspects of game psychology in TLD. I think that HTL has produced a superb game and I hope it continues to develop and have many, many others as happy as me with the game. I missed the contribution from m0j0TX before I wrote this. I agree with many of the points that he/she is making.

My reasoning would be that it means that everybody is playing a different game, which makes it difficult to compare incidents that they experience with incidents that I experience.

I am beginning to think that the game might be better if custom modes were removed. One of the interesting aspects of playing the game is comparing your playing of the game with other people's playing of the game. I do not mean that in a competitive way, but with a learning objective. When I play TLD I don't have any interest in doing better than anyone else, but I do like to find out how others tackle particular problems and find out about things that I might have missed. If everyone is playing at a different custom level it is difficult to compare your experiences with the experiences of others. For example I might puzzled by why I am freezing and struggling to survive the night in a fishing hut, then I see that someone else seems to be in a similar situation but not on the point of death from hypothermia. If everyone is playing a different game because of customisation then it is difficult to compare experiences and learn from others. If there is a limited set of fixed levels of play I would know that another person playing at the same level as me is experiencing the same problems therefore I can learn from their handling of a particular problem. Having written all of that, my favourite level of play is a custom Stalker game with the wolves turned down one level.

There are two reasons for my suggesting this. Playing the Survival game on TLD at Interloper level without cheating is very difficult. So when someone claims to have survived at Interloper for hundreds of days that person's advice and discussion should be high quality, reliable information and advice. Many players might develop their strategies based on the advice. If that advice is Bullsh**, from some who has been playing a game at level easier than Pilgrim then the information and advice can spoil the game for others. The second reason is that I dislike seeing bullsh***ers bragging.

I wish that there was an encrypted code built into the save file so that when cheaters modify their save file to give them all sorts of benefits which make their Interloper game easier than Pilgrim then it was obvious to others that they were cheating/bulls.... .

I became fed up with Ep.3 after a lot of timberwolf attacks while getting the first couple of survivors down from the crash site, so I gave up playing it. I get the impression that TLD developers are having fun trying the beat the hard-core players, and ignoring the mass of general players. Quite simply, the timberwolves spoiled the game. It is no longer enjoyable, so I found another game and started playing that.

I agree with you. I have had three or four trips to Bleak Inlet and around the cannery, concentrating on the workshop and failed to find or create a shortcut. A while back I read a comment which referred to a hidden area in BI. I can't find the comment now, does anyone have more info.? I have searched all of BI, at least I think I have, and not found anything which I regard as hidden away or secretive. The only places I didn't investigate were a few side tunnels in the cave between BI and FM. I assumed that they were just the usual side tunnels that were dead ends or returned to the main route I am surprised that you and another did not find the room around the corner from the the rope climb in you first visit. I found it first visit and did not think of it hidden away or anything unusual. It is great for resources and cooking but can be very cold in there. I am now about to give up with TLD until the timberwolves are revised.and updated. I can't be bothered with the hassle of fighting them.

I have found more than enough batteries, Stump Remover and sulphur, in Mystery Lake, Milton & Bleak Inlet, the problem is having enough cartridge cases to fill.

It seems to me that many things have changed in interactions with the timberwolves, in other aspects too, (this is playing at Stalker level). Before the timberwolves I felt that I had learned about wolf behaviour, and I could risk a clash with a wolf. When a wolf attacked I'd drop a decoy and try to shoot it. That did not always work and often the wolf would get through and chew me up a bit. Now wolf behaviour is unpredictable, (that probably just means that I haven't learned what their behaviour is). Timberwolves behave completely differently and, to me, it seems there are flaws in timberwolf attacks. In the last two timberwolf attacks I lost my revolver. Twice earlier my clothing was very heavily damaged. As I have mentioned elsewhere, when I delay shooting to try to get a close up shot at the wolf my gun or bow & arrow won't work. This results in the gameplay being one level harder than before. I have a found a few other minor irritations. Previously I used my bow to shoot rabbits, now that is difficult, whereas killing rabbits with stones seems to be easy. Previously a bow & arrows was my preferred weapon, because it was light and was pretty much the same when it came to killing wolves, bears & moose. Now the bow seems to be degraded and stones and the revolver are being promoted by Hinterland. All of these things are very subjective, so it could be that I am just being unlucky and not they are not systematic changes. However, the net result is that after happily playing well over 3,000 game days, I am now finding the game irritating rather than enjoyable. What also fascinates me is why this has happened. What has caused Hinterland to introduce these changes? I can understand HTL wanting to introduce new elements into the game, and full marks to them for thinking like that, but it seems to me, and quite a few others, that some of the changes have not been done well.

I felt sure that I had thought of the solution to the shortcut to the Cannery Workshop. My plan was to place a can of gunpowder next to the arcing electric cable beside the stepladder that is close to the milling machine. I expected that at the next aurora the explosion would blow a hole in the floor and the ladder would drop through the floor to the ice below. It didn't work. The cables in the vicinity of the milling machine were not arcing during the next aurora or the two after that. I tried throwing a flaming torch at the cans of gunpowder. It harmlessly burned beside the can. I still feel that there could be a similar solution, but I got fed up trying.

I like your analysis and suggestions for solutions, although I am not sure that all of them are practicable.

I am becoming fed up with these timberwolves. On my latest trip to BI I had at least three attacks by packs of timberwolves. As I was out of ammunition I was using bow & arrows from a slightly elevated position. Several times I had what seemed like a very good shot, easily aimed at the wolf and I expected a kill, or at least a certain hit. The arrow flew into the ground near the wolf or over the wolf. These were straightforward simple shots that should have hit it. At other times I waited until the wolf was much closer but my bow was inactivated, so couldn't fire an arrow. I had a similar experience with the revolver earlier in the game. Afterwards, only about a quarter of the arrows were recoverable, The rest had just disappeared. It is one thing to be injured or killed when I make a mistake, but I resent it when I am injured due to a bug, an unreasonable random action or bad game design. I am slowly getting to the point where I am starting to think that I can't be bothered to to put up with the timberwolves and that I should look for another game.

Recently I was impressed when I read of the unbelievable achievements of some Interloper players. I was also very sympathetic when I read one comment when someone reported that they were struggling to reach 10 days in Interloper. So I decided to investigate. Here is my new Interloper game on Day1. This is my outfit. Here is my equipment. With a start like this I can hardly fail to achieve a 5,000 day Interloper game, if I had the time to play it. I had a little help from one of the unofficial mods for TLD. So far I have not been interested in using mods. They make the game easy, make comparisons of achievements and difficulties meaningless. I now understand and agree with Hinterland's attitude to mods.

Several times recently I have wanted to kill a wolf for food. I let the wolf start a zig-zag approach attack and waited with, my revolver aimed, for that last part of the attack when the wolf runs straight at me and closes in. The revolver wouldn't fire. This was not to it being faulty, it seems that the revolver is inactivated when the wolf is close enough to give you a sure hit.