peteloud

Jimmy I think that you summed it up very well. I completely agree with you.

I am surprised that there is so much discussion on this issue. For me, I mostly play straight Stalker games, Riken is so much better than FM or BR. Of course it will be different at othger levels. It is hassle getting to Spence's Forge in FM because of the wolves. Once there there are limited coal, scrap, food and lots of wolves. BR is a hassle as half the times I have wanted to use that forge there was no heavy hammerthere and very limited coal. Riken, in DP has lots of coal nearby, lots of scrap metal in the ship and nearby factory and I have always found a heavy hammer there. At first the the food is limted, with only a deer or two, or rabbit, on the nearby island, but is not long before the bear wanders over and can be shot from the safety of Riken.

I have tried a few of these survival games, Green Hell, Survive the Pacific, (or something like that. It seemed to be a precursor for Stranded Deep), Raft, Northern Lights, and a few others that I can't remember. Usually I enjoy the games for a few evenings, but after those few evenings I lose interest. The problem is that TLD is so good in so many ways that, in spite of the bugs which many of us complain about, it is considerably better than all of the others such that I can't be bothered with those other games. TLD has spoilt me for all other games. That is why I am interested to see what HTL comes up with next.

Normally I play straight Stalker games but about 15 months ago someone in the forum suggested trying a HRV start in Voyager, so I tried that. The start was very severe, but after a while I enjoyed playing Voyager, without the hassle of the Stalker wolf packs. My current game is straight Stalker, with a Blackrock start. Voyager gives less challenge but is more enjoyable.

Yes, I think I agree with you. I never even considered that. It is so useless that I left it in the prison in my last game.

Stone Cache When they were first introduced I thought that I'd build one but the hassle and time taken to collect enough stones was too great. I am quite happy to just drop meat outside the house. Being outside it keeps well enough for me. If I had a great many light, small items, that would be a hassle to pick up, as with ammunition cases. I store those in any container a find, from a filing cabinet to a plastic box, so that they are easier to pickup. I have never had a reason to accumulate 200 or more sticks. There are many other items that I find are not worth the bother of using.

There are so many unneccesary items it is difficult to say which is the most useless item. The stone cache. (Does it still exist? I have never built one, when I tried to find out how to make one I couldn't find it.) If the stone cache has been dropped then the flashlight probably tops my list. Addendum I have just found the stone cache on the radial menu.

That movie clip was good. It's like a high resolution TLD.

I am surprised that this problem still exists. Years ago I reported this problem in great detail. Someone else did too. Now that we are nearing the end of TLD I can understand if HTL does not put much effort into solving problems. I actually agree with their strategy, if I am correct. I'd rather see HTL put their efforts into their next game. That, once again, starts me wondering what are HTL is working on now? In a recent posting I suggested a sequel to TLD based upon the current topography, or very close to it, with buildings and caves in different positions and a some new features and resources. Developing such a sequel would require one tenth of the resources, and costs, that were required to develop the TLD. However I feel sure that HTL has something much better than that being developed. I naturally tend to think of a similar survival games, but now that they have a great team with excellent experience and skills, they could try something more imaginative. What will come next from HTL?

That was a terrible experience, but here is the true story about a tough journey in Canada by John Fanklin, c. 1820. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18985 Go straight to Chapter XII if you just want the unpleasant bit

That is a similar description to problems I experienced in HRV several times. Usually I wasn't particularly close to the cave and often the damage was greater than 30%. It was as if I had been carrying the bedroll with me when I was attacked by the wolf/bear.

I had in mind to try that Better Stacking mod, but forgot about it when I downloaded the others. I have come across the ability to look around 360 degrees when in a car, in a couple of cars in the normal game. There is one in Blackrock. I presume this has been accidentally overlooked by HTL and a bug. It was great, but I don't want to give myself extra benefits that are not in the standard game. The mods that I downloaded seem to be working OK now, apart from Clutter Removal in Blackrock. That might just be a trivial reason such as needing a re-start. I couldn't be bothered to check it out fully.

Comparing a custom game with a straight game is like comparing apples and oranges. When I discuss issues relating to a particular game, I make a point of saying at what level the game is and in the one custom game that I have played, I make a point of mentioning the custom changes that I have made so that others can make a realistic comparison with games they have played. I try to be very open and honest about the problems and successes that I have when playing TLD.

I decided to try the remove clutter mod. I have an old game, a custom Stalker game with reduced wild life and reduced loot that is over 1,000 days. It has been everywhere so I can afford to mess about with this game. I was surprised to see how many mods there were, so I also decided to try adding Extra Hotkeys and Quicksave. I see that I can set the yield from Removing Clutter to 'No' so that it need not give me any extra resources. I had a couple of minor problems as I don't use the standard directories. I installed the three mods. Quicksave and Extra Hotkeys work fine but I still have a problem getting Clutter Removal to work. On trying Clutter Removal in another saved game it worked.

It's interesting to see how this mod works. I like the idea of tidying up some of the rubbish that lies around the place, but using this mod would give an advantage over playing a straight game. I think it reasonable to turn the scrapped objects into useful resources, but I prefer to play a straight game, as created by HTL, and not give myself advantages, (although not many others seem to be bothered.) It's not mods the irritate me, I am often impressed by the ingenuity and skill of the people who develop mods. What irritates me is that some people use mods then they bullsh*t about their apparent achievments, forgetting to mention that they were using 'helpers'.

There are several of the resources that I do not use, or have used once or twice and never again. (I usually play straight Stalker or Voyager games.) The flashlight is one of them. I've never used a spray can, or that little, but heavy, health drink. I have not needed an emergency snow shelter since I tried it in my early TLD days. I usually carry one accelerant but can't remember when I last used one. I don't bother with the flare gun. Until a few days ago I had forgotten about decoy meat for wolves. I haven't used that for years. There are a few others but I can't remember them at the moment.

I can't remember what the condition was. I do not normally wear a bearskin coat. I much prefer the wolfskin coat. So I was happy to harvest it and have the bearskin which I use for a bedroll when in cold areas. The reason I prefer the wolf coat is that it is easy to keep in good condition. I always have lots of cured wolf pelts scattered all over the place so I am able to repair the wolf coat when it gets to 85% condition. Whereas a bearskin coat is much more difficult to keep in good condition due to the fewer bears and the time it takes for a bear skin to cure. When I used bearskin coats I would spend much of my time wearing a 5 kg coat that was in not so good condition and was less warm then a wolf coat.

It was in poor condition and very heavy. It was very silly of me not to realise my mistake sooner. I assumed that I was wearing a good wolf coat and carrying a bear skin. In fact, I was carrying a 5 kg rubbished bear coat and not wearing any outer coat. In that condition, and with that extra load, I had to descend to the mine and climb back up again then get to the Foreman's Retreat in bad weather. I could hardly believe how incompetent I was.

Adding a PC so that I could lie in bed playing TLD should be easy.

I hadn't thought of that. Imagine the game with ML Office, PV Farmhouse and the Mountaineers' hut in TWM burnt down. That started me thinking how HTL could bring out a sequel with the same terrain for Great Bear Island but a completely different set of buildings & caves and a few new resources & abilities. It would be a very inexpensive way of developing a new product.

That damned bear coat! A couple of days ago I picked that up. As it's heavy to carry I thought I'd harvest it and get a 1kg bearskin. Instead of harvesting that I carelessly harvested my wolfskin coat and was left without an outer coat. I had just gone out to AC andf had no caches with wolfskins. It took a long time to kill four wolves and cure the skins and relpace the wolfskin coat.

I like the idea of random placement of caves. Many more caves could be prepared but only a selection of them randomly activated. (Although it is a bit late in the game development for such a change.)

I often criticise mods because some are just cheats, but this mod sounds great. I am tempted to find it and try it, but I am hesitant to 'corrupt' a long game. Perhaps I should split the game into a straight version and a modded version.

I think that the normal deterioration of bearskin bedrolls is too fast, (as well as the problem due to bear/wolf damage). In my current game I made a bearskin bedroll at the ML Office then stored it, unused, in the filing cabinet. When I wanted to use it, its condition was down to 79%. I don't know exactly how many days it was in the cabinet but I feel sure it was not more to 50 days.

If you want to know what travelling around Canada was, is, really like read, John Franklin's book, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18979 This makes Great Bear Island seem like a walk in a city park, (apart from the wolves).