ajb1978

Done deal. And it occurred to me I haven't played any recently released games at all this year, so this is actually the only category I can vote for.

In any given run there are between 2 and 4 mag lenses in the entire world. But yes, ML and MT are the only regions where you're guaranteed to find one every time.

That's because they necroed a 3 year old post.

5.1 surround sound. Take an hour fine tuning the speakers and intensity, and you get some top notch directional audio. You can tell left, right, front, back... the only negative is that the subwoofer is tied to the front channels only, so if you're facing a waterfall, SUPER loud. Turn around, the waterfall turns into a kitchen faucet.

I really don't know how to explain it, so I'm just gonna say yes it's trial and error...to an extent. There is a science to it but I can't exactly translate it to words. It's just more a thing you get a feel for with practice, like "yeah that log looks like it'll be safe". Log bridges are always safe--at least for now. Logs that are perfectly flat on the ground or embedded in the ice, like the ones you see in the Muskeg to act as footpaths over thin ice...those are NOT safe. The ones that protrude upwards at a weird angle, like the broken tree by the creek where the moose spawns in Pleasant Valley, that's a prime sniping point. Actually just bagged a moose from there the other day. As a general rule of thumb, any position that is A: high enough off the ground that the animal can't make physical contact with you, and B: there's no obvious way to walk to, is going to be safe. Drop down from above, goat your way halfway down a near-sheer slope, etc. Yep there are a few locations like this that you can find as well. The barn at the Spence homestead is another, but the small shed just to the east of it is not. I haven't tested this in about a year, but the little roof overhanging the red barn in PV deters bears, and presumably wolves as well, although I usually just enter the barn itself for cover. The enclosed porch on the PV farmstead is another safe haven, and actually counts as "indoors". There's a bear that meanders by there on occasion, and that porch makes a perfect hunter blind. (Ironically the actual hunter blinds seem to amount to jack squat. I've been attacked by wolves in them before, and unlike a log that you can just drop off the back end, in a hunter's blind you're cornered.)

I really don't know how to explain it, so I'm just gonna say yes it's trial and error...to an extent. There is a science to it but I can't exactly translate it to words. It's just more a thing you get a feel for with practice, like "yeah that log looks like it'll be safe". Log bridges are always safe--at least for now. Logs that are perfectly flat on the ground or embedded in the ice, like the ones you see in the Muskeg to act as footpaths over thin ice...those are NOT safe. The ones that protrude upwards at a weird angle, like the broken tree by the creek where the moose spawns in Pleasant Valley, that's a prime sniping point. Actually just bagged a moose from there the other day. As a general rule of thumb, any position that is A: high enough off the ground that the animal can't make physical contact with you, and B: there's no obvious way to walk to, is going to be safe. Drop down from above, goat your way halfway down a near-sheer slope, etc. Also if a wolf is currently tailing you, you will know immediately if you get into safe place, because they instantly go from their "growl and stalk" mode, to "wander aimlessly" mode.

Yep, you've just outwitted the wolf's pathing AI. Besides evading wolves, this kind of trick also comes in particularly handy when hunting big game. A bear or moose that might not drop in one shot and come charging at you, for example. If you perch yourself someplace they can't reach before you take your shot, they will flee instead of counterattack if they don't drop in one. Then just follow the blood trail until they eventually collapse.

Actually something just occurred to me, and I'm kind of kicking myself for not noticing this sooner, but Timberwolf Mountain has a problem now. Echo Peak West and Echo Peak East are misnamed, because Echo Peak West is in the east, and Echo Peak East is in the west, if you orient the map the way the current world map suggests. If you look at the old color map where TWM is turned 90 degrees clockwise, then yes the peaks are named correctly, but current state they are not.

Starting from the locked gate, turn around so that the gate is immediately behind you. Take the path to the right. You will cross some boards over the electrified water, then down a small tunnel. The tunnel leads you to a small chamber, where one of the fuses can be found. In this chamber you will see another electrified pond with two steel drums floating in it. A short path to the right of these steel drums leads you to the bolt cutters and a corpse.

If you're using Windows 10, you can use the built-in Game Bar to record. Press Win-Alt-R to start or stop recording. You can also use the GUI in the Game Overlay, by hitting Win-G. If this doesn't work, check to confirm that you have the Game Bar enabled. Hit Start, click the Settings cogwheel, then choose the Gaming group. The Game Bar settings are in there. If you're not using Windows 10...As was stated OBS Studio is a free download.

Also don't spend TOO much time trying to get unstuck if you see the dangerous slope warning. The last thing you want to do is suffer a sprain and lose your ability to reload your last save.

Yup, remember that Survivor mode used to be called Sandbox, and the original intent was that Sandbox was just a temporary testing environment, and Story mode would be "The Game". Sandbox was originally going to be retired at launch. But the devs recognized that Sandbox had taken on a life of its own, and believed (correctly) that the majority of their player base preferred Sandbox. So Sandbox became Survivor, and is an entirely alternate mode to Story. A separate universe, if you will.

I'll just leave this right here https://hinterlandforums.com/forums/topic/34982-use-the-force/

This is the biggest reason you should upgrade to Windows 10, right here. Windows 7 is dead, and Microsoft no longer supports it. That means any security exploits that are discovered for Windows 7 PC's now until forever, will never be fixed. And while it's unlikely some malicious coder will program a virus or worm to exploit a newly-discovered vulnerability on a fully deprecated OS, that risk is non-zero.

Well I stand thoroughly corrected. Bugs suck!

Be prepared for a lot of frustrating days ahead if you want to collect all the buffer memories. If a specific location has 5 memories, every time there's an aurora you have a 20% chance of getting any one specific memory. They don't cycle through in order. And by default, an aurora occurs about once a week on average, so best case scenario you can expect to be at a single location for 5 weeks before you finally collect them all. Or maybe you'll get 4 of the 5, and then get nothing but repeats for three straight months in a row before #5 finally pops up. Just keep at it, keep slugging away, and you can eventually pull it off. But your quest to obtain all buffer memories will take hundreds of days, easily. It's a good way to keep busy while working towards the 500 day survival achievement. And doing a little cartography/cairn hunting during the day is a nice alternative to simply passing time.

For the cave? Hmm.....

It doesn't matter if your meat is next to a fire or not, it only matters if it's indoors or outdoors. Or, in the case of a cave, whether it's towards the front or back of the cave. Clothing doesn't degrade faster next to a fire either. The rate at which clothing decays depends on whether it's stored in a container (slowest), worn indoors (medium wear), or worn outdoors (high wear). Bedrolls degrade MUCH faster if you leave them rolled out, vs. rolling them up after use. I don't remember the exact statistics but it's something like 0.5% per day regardless, and an additional 0.1% per hour it's unrolled. So if you leave it unrolled on the floor, It's going to drop 3% condition per day. The times you're reporting sound a little extreme, but my guess would be you underestimated how much time had passed that the thing was unrolled. Or it was in worse condition than you thought when you laid it down.

That's not really what gaiters do. They're to protect your legs from underbrush or from damage by your own cleats. Gaiters would be primarily a defensive item, to provide some additional damage resistance. If you wanted something that adds a mobility boost, snowshoes would make more sense. According to some experiments I did last year, you move 16% faster when walking on paved roads vs. any other terrain. Having snowshoes equipped could impart this movement bonus on any terrain.

Ah yep, found it. My hunch was incorrect.

Because I've played Ep 3 four separate times now, and while I was more mission-focused than exploration-focused, I'd like to think I would have noticed that cave by now.

No, the Ravine cave has reeds and cattails, as well as a fallen tree and a deer carcass by the entrance. This looks more like a possible coastal highway, crumbling highway, or desolation point thing. Guess it's time to fire up a throwaway Custom and find out.

Yeah interior locations are different than named locations. Named locations are entirely outdoors, and consist of map icons like the Camp Office, as well as location triggers like Derailment. Something like transitioning from the Upper Dam to Lower Dam would count as a Location in your journal, but not as a named location for advancing the Faithful Cartographer feat.

Oo I like that. I would make a point to earn that just for the sake of earning it. Like map 500 named locations across multiple survivor games, or something like that. I believe there's 176 named locations in the game so hypothetically you could achieve this in just three survivor games, if you're thorough.

There's nothing to indicate that the field is stable when the aurora isn't in the sky. We could just as easily be dealing with "unstable" and "ridiculously unstable". At any rate, the devs have already made two huge concessions for Story mode as it is. Originally the stance was "No maps will be in the game. Feel free to draw your own." But that got negative pushback from the player base, and finally it's like ok fine, they introduced charcoal mapping with Faithful Cartographer. And then people started asking for a GPS, and the stance was that no, you need to learn to navigate by landmarks. But the pushback was still present, so for Story mode they made another concession and started showing the player's position and orientation (like a GPS). But Survivor mode stayed true to the original vision. It's intended to be a different experience for the player. A GPS does make sense in Story mode. Story mode is about completing specific tasks and advancing the plot, so if you get lost and don't know where you are that directly detracts from the storytelling experience. But Survivor mode, getting lost and not knowing where you are ADDS to the experience. Exploration is the whole point. So I wouldn't expect a GPS added to Survivor mode now or ever. I wouldn't mind a Custom mode toggle "show player position on map" being added to enable this feature in Survivor mode, but really once you've played the game enough you don't need it. Maybe if you get a raw deal and start a Survivor run in dense fog, it might take you a bit longer to get oriented, but there's enough unique landmarks in the game that veteran players really don't need maps. And for people that DO need maps...enjoy that experience of getting lost and sense of uncertainty as to what lies over that next hill! Apart from the rare occasion where they release new regions, that's something you only get to experience for the first couple hundred hours or so. So soak it up while it lasts.