ajb1978

Well in that situation you just whacked a rabbit with a stone hard enough to knock it silly, for no reason. Maybe even broke a few of its ribs. If you think about it, breaking its neck is a faster death than snaring them. With a snare, the rabbit basically gets its neck caught, and systematically pulls the noose tighter and tighter in its panicked attempts to break free, until it essentially chokes itself out. It could take upwards of 20 minutes to die that way. On the other hand, a very forceful breaking of the neck severs the brain stem, which causes near-instant death. It's functionally the same as decapitation. So it may seem brutal, but it's really the kindest choice. It reminds me of the part in story mode where

If you ever find yourself stuck, and you don't get un-stuck within a couple seconds, quit the game. If you struggle too much trying to get loose and you suffer a sprain, the game saves and you're finished.

The dead guy is after the first rope climb up towards High Meadow. The matchbook is after crossing the rope bridge leaving High Meadow, but turning around and looking back.

So even with the improved mapping mechanics and addition of vistas, some maps continue to have huge swaths of black blobs all over the place. Ash Canyon REALLY made it stand out, as even the finished map looks like someone shot it full of holes. And of course other maps like Hushed River Valley, Mountain Town, and Broken Railroad don't make use of the full square space, and end up with massive chunks cut out of the corners. Quite frankly it's an eyesore, especially to a completionist who likes to collect every possible thing. So I would ask that if a map reaches a certain percentage of being revealed, it just automatically finishes it off. Clear up any black blobs, give nice clean edges, etc. Someplace like Mystery Lake or Forlorn Muskeg, maybe require that 90% of the map be revealed, because that's a very attainable goal. Once you hit 90%, boom, all the extraneous little gaps get filled in. Someplace like Broken Railroad, maybe only 75% is needed, since a lot of that map is dead space.

Heart failure. If you read his note, he mentions feeling tightness in his chest, and refers to surgery. This is a man who should've been on light duty, not mountain climbing.

I'm going to make this as blunt as possible: VR is not a thing here. That's it. If you don't like it, you're free to entertain whatever hypotheses you wish.

My first and so far only experience with this region was at the tail end of the Darkwalker challenge. I gotta say, that's the way to go. Finishing up the challenge in a completely unfamiliar region where I can't even use knowledge of the area to my advantage made for a much more intense finale. I mean I still won of course, because it's me.

It's just a cinematic effect called shakey cam. It's used in both film and video games to make things look more "real", as if some amateur were filming with a camera, to convey a sense of presence.

Nope, it's just there to make you panic. It IS possible to get to the phone before it stops ringing if you time it just right, but you can't click on it to interact with it.

I lost my darkwalker badge too but I will probably have it re-earned in about...well however long it takes me to

Well I jumped directly into the Darkwalker challenge, because he and I have some unfinished business. Upon gathering the last note and learning the final condition for defeating him, I realized I really planned my route backwards. It was a mad dash through the half-fogged regions to get where I needed to go. I ended up using an e-stim to sprint the final leg of the journey and made it through the transition with literally seconds to spare. Had I been even a minute slower, the fog would've destroyed all my food and energy drinks, and I would've been in bad shape. But I made it. And I'm forced to stop for a while because I have real life stuff to do... but when I return, oh yes. The Darkstalker is going down.

Pretty solid that the release coincides with my lunch break. The real question though is will I log back in to work in time...or will I suddenly begin feeling ill and have to take the afternoon off.

As you've probably noticed there is a specific point at which the cave considers you to be indoors. Saplings, hides, etc. placed towards the back of the cave will cure, while ones towards the front do not. If you find where that invisible boundary is, you can place your fire on the outdoor side, and your bedroll on the indoor side. This will give your fire the duration bonus of being outdoors, plus the ability to light it with a mag lens. And place your bedroll on the indoor side, so that you get the interior warmth bonus. If you position things carefully, you can also fit up to three rock caches in the outdoor portion of the cave. Unfortunately they have a ludicrously large footprint, so you're forced to space them very far apart from one another.

I'm not sure I understand the question. Do you mean people actually physically move their heads to see something that in no way involves their head position? That just seems far too ludicrous to be true so I can only assume I'm misunderstanding the question.

Beavertail hat! Protects the back of your neck, better defense rating than rabbitskin. Although beavers would be very difficult to capture since they are very inactive during winter. They really only come out after dark to forage food or fix up their dams or whatever. The actual beaver lodge itself would be way out on thin ice where you'd have no hope of actually reaching, so if you wanted to trap a beaver you'd have to break the dam, then set up a trap by the break.

Nope, but starting over at capable or hardened survivor, you'll have a much different experience than on green survivor. Your subconditions decrease faster so you'll find yourself scrambling for resources more than on green survivor. Alternatively, stick it out until Episode 3. Timberwolves are hostile even on green.

I would like a realistic frostbite treatment. i.e. Frostbite Risk becomes "Frostbite" which confers the standard condition penalty. You can then treat Frostbite by warming back up to 100% and not hitting Freezing again for 24 hours. At that point, the Frostbite affliction ends, and you can recover that condition normally. If you again hit Freezing before the 24 hours is up, the Frostbite become Necrosis, and the condition loss is then permanent. Because in real life, say your hand freezes. Leave it frozen. When you're in a safe condition, THEN warm it back up, and keep it from freezing again until it recovers. That's how you recover from frostbite. And again in real life, if that same area re-freezes before it's had a chance to heal, you will 100% lose it. Be it a finger, a hand, an arm. It's gone if it freezes twice in rapid succession.

Yeah it's supposed to appear on the table next to the bed. If it's not there, check to see if the cache spawned in. The cache it points to is at the southern end of Mystery Lake, to the right of the Rail Tunnel if you're facing it. There's some boulders off to the right, slightly north of the Rail Tunnel, and the cache spawns in there. If neither the cache nor the note exist, it's possible your save was so old that it is no longer 100% compatible.

I tested this a little bit and it appears that the DW spawns that many meters away from the player regardless of how far away they were in the previous region. They also don't spawn in the center of the map. I used my grace period to get to the FM/ML transition, then wait until the 15 minutes were up. I then crossed through to ML and stood there in the rail tunnel on the ML side. After letting the DW get close, I could hear it coming up from different directions on different attempts. Using the same save (outdoor area transitions don't trigger a save so I reloaded the same start as a control group) I went to ML again and waited until the DW got close two additional times. The first time it was approaching from my right, indicating it probably came from the lake cabin area. The second test it was coming at me from behind indicating that it spawned in off the map past the rail tunnel. And the third time it was coming at me from the left, as if it spawned in closer to Trappers. Three tests isn't much of a sample size, but it's enough to confirm the DW isn't starting from the map center. I think the game just rolls a 360 sided die and the DW spawns in at that bearing, however far away from you it was when you left the previous region.

Lock and load. He's going down.

I mean you can just walk away from wolves, so it's a similar concept. Just that if you don't notice them first, they can be on you before you have chance to react. If you do spot them first, you can just walk away from them too. With the added requirement that you have to periodically look back to remind them that you know they're there. Otherwise they'll eventually go into a silent attack charge from behind.

I liked that one Forest Talker who refused to meet with you face to face in story mode episode 2. You conduct your deal through a closed door. I wouldn't mind a survivor mode NPC of that ilk. Someone you can trade and barter with, but you never actually meet face to face. He or she would task you with bringing them certain supplies, and 24 hours later the agreed upon payment is left outside. It would be a nice way to provide a plausible means to renew any resource, even things like MREs or emergency stims or whatever. Stuff that doesn't show up via beachcombing.

Using a ward before you sleep is actually a waste of paint, as they burn out in game-time. The Darkwalker moves in real time, so once you go to sleep the ward would only prevent him from getting close for a couple real-time seconds tops. The best use of a ward is if he gets close to you, put a ward on the ground at your feet, then move away from it. It'll buy you some time to get some distance from it. A good trick to cover tremendous distances at once is to drop a ward to stall the Darkwalker, sprint away until your stamina is depleted, then pass time and esc-cancel almost immediately. Your stamina is now full. Sprint again. Repeat until you're as far away as you can get without taking a detour, sleep to recover your Fatigue, then drop a lure and you've got tons of time to piddle around the map looting or looking for bunkers while the Darkwalker heads to the lure.

I wouldn't mind a mountain lion, and the behavior I would suggest is similar to the weeping angels in doctor who. They stalk you silently with no warning, and while your back is turned they advance slightly faster than your unencumbered walk speed. If they get close enough (wolf attack distance) without you noticing, they attack from behind. This initiates a penalized struggle, in which you have only your bare hands. If you happen to see one however, you can turn and face them. As long as you're looking at them, they freeze in place. This allows you to back away, and if you get far enough without looking, they disengage. But once you first notice them, if you turn away to see where you're heading, they sprint towards you at breakneck speed. When you turn back to face them, they freeze in their new position. If you charge a mountain lion, there is a strong chance they will flee. But if the dice don't roll in your favor, you'll face a struggle similar to a regular wolf struggle. You pick your weapon, etc. Aiming a weapon causes the mountain lion to flee 100% of the time. Basically they're an ambush predator. If they get the drop on you, you're effed. But if you're vigilant, you can keep them at bay with minimal effort.

Running each region until the fog had already appeared, and in several cases remaining on the deadly side of an area transition until I was nearly dead (to buy a little bit of extra time), then crossing over to safe territory and sleeping off the damage. The trick there is knowing what transition zones are linked to. For instance, the cave linking Crumbling Highway to Desolation Point counts as part of Crumbling Highway. So if you run the DP clock to zero, the moment you enter that cave you're no longer in toxic fog. Similarly, Cinder Hills Coal Mine is part of Coastal Highway, so if you're in PV you can hang out outside the mine entrance until the fog arrives and have clean air simply by entering the mine. Another thing you have to plan on is your food being destroyed. Cross into safe territory, drop all your food, then cross back before you wait out the clock. Of course, you also have to plan your trips so that you avoid the Darkwalker while waiting just outside the entrance. It requires a very strong knowledge of the maps as you have to lure the darkwalker away from the area transition when there's only minutes to spare, and the fog is at its thickest. My first attempt I gathered all 10 pages and only lasted about 5 hours, but I learned a lot. My second attempt I deliberately waited until the fog appeared to see if it was an insta-kill, or if I had time. Turns out, I had time, and I exploited the crap out of that fact. (Also interesting fact, the basement of the Abandoned Harris Home in Crumbling Highway shares a timer with Coastal Highway, not Crumbling Highway. A clever survivor can exploit this.)