ajb1978

So to expound on the mapping mechanic, there are a few things to keep in mind.  The charcoal essentially reveals the terrain within a certain radius of your position.  I don't know exactly how far, but I think it's something like 50m in all directions of you.  In MOST regions, the terrain can obstruct your view.  So if you are at the bottom of a valley, you won't get much revealed, but if you are perched at the highest point of a rock with nothing in the immediate area being higher than you, you can map everything in the radius successfully.  There are some regions that ignore this mechanic, notably Timberwolf Mountain.  But the old-school ones, like Mystery Lake, Coastal Highway, and Pleasant Valley, the higher you are the better you are.  The radius you can map doesn't change, but depending on the size of the region, a single use of charcoal can have drastically different results in how much of the total map is revealed.  For example, compare the effects of charcoal in Pleasant Valley to the effects of charcoal in the Crumbling Highway.  Night and day.

And then there's the Raven Falls Ravine, which for whatever reason doesn't map a circle, but a weird oval.  I dunno.  I don't make the rules, I just shoot wolves for fun and profit.

Also, sometimes an icon on the map won't properly trigger unless you're at a specific elevation.  So say you're trying to map a mine entrance, you're right next to it, and nothing appears on your map.  Maybe if you get slightly above it, then re-map the area, the icon will appear.

You'll get the hang of it.

Aurora Day!  Armed with a rifle, 71 rounds, and two flashlights I left the camp office to return to Pleasant Valley and find that last bunker.  Turns out I didn't even need both, as just one was sufficient to keep the doggos at bay.  I even had a few hilarious moments where a pack of doggos couldn't decide which one would have aggro, so they all just stuttered about barking at each other, and not doing anything.  Well long story short I found the bunker (a food bunker as it happens) and headed back to Mystery Lake overloaded with candy bars and water.  I took the long way there and back, because I was NOT going to risk the dam during the perma-aurora, so by the time the long tedious trek was done...well... I had gotten sick of avoiding wolves.

I have 5 minutes left before Day 3 is in the bag. I have 71 rounds that will be worthless after today.  I put away the flashlight and pulled out the rifle, then cut a bloody swath right through the thick of them. With unerring aim I dropped wolf after wolf, and my rifle rounds dropped into the 60s, then 50's, as my circuitous path through the twisting trails and hills of the region left a trail of bodies in my wake.  Like an avatar of avenging Interloper victims, I paid back the wolves in full for all the pain and misery they had wrought upon so many, for so long.

Now it is just me, alone in Mystery lake, accompanied only by the dead--man and wolf alike--and my still-smoking rifle.  I might head back out and harvest the meat, just for the heck of it.  Waste not want not, right?

1 hour ago, jhickie said:

I completely forgot about the bunkers as well, I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for those too.

It's entirely possible the bunkers are placed during 4DON, and aren't random.  The spoiler tag below contains the locations where I found the bunkers.

Yup I'm heading back to PV to try and find that bunker I missed the first time around.  I'm packing two supercharged flashlights, so I can use one while the other recharges if need be.  The infinite wolf repelling light plus bright and clear landscape make for the best bunker-hunting conditions you could ask for at night!

Got TLD, and a fresh bottle of mead.  It's a good day.

Edit: Figured I'd share my "flashlight pro tip" that works best when you're carrying two or more.  Press 1 so your primary flashlight comes up.  Open up your inventory and manually select "Use" on the other secondary one.  Now just keep that secondary one up and ready at all times.  If that battery ever dies, tap H to instantly shut it off and put it away, then press 1 bring up your primary (fully charged) flashlight.  You can swap them out in just a few seconds like this, which can save your bacon if your flashlight runs out of juice at an inopportune time.

Oh I wanted to circle back here and say I had the exact same issue when I was migrating from PV to ML in 4DON.  These huts were missing their textures.  Also, I went and found a bunker in ML, and the entire ceiling was missing. Unlike my earlier anecdote about the cave, this one did not resolve upon turning around and looking back again.

There's always custom mode.  If you think Interloper is too easy, you can dial your own homicide in Custom.

1 hour ago, Andrey Grebenkov said:

Guys, please help me. Is it normal that I played on the first day for a two hours and on second day too, but so far I have not recieve the eclipse badge?🎃🌑

Sounds like one of those days didn't register the full two hours.  If you hit Tab to bring up your objectives, it will tell you how many hours/minutes you have remaining in that day.  And it's actual time spent playing, so if you hit Esc to pause and go do something, the clock is stopped until you resume playing.

And when that badge finally pops...you'll know it. I was lining up a shot on a wolf suddenly this big purple badge appeared on my screen, with the howling sound effect.  Nearly made me miss my shot!

1 hour ago, DarkTreader said:

I think I remember them saying that indoor locations will be locked at -20C, so... I'd guess that if your base temp is higher than +20, you may not even need to make a fire.

We'll find out in 2 days!

It's a repeat of last year's so yes if your feels like is +20C or higher, you could hypothetically just stand around and do nothing.  But where's the fun in that?  There's pumpkin pies to be found!

Scrolling through the Wish List and saw this, and found it interesting because this is exactly how they open up paths in Episode 3.  Every time a new area needs to be unlocked, an earthquake hits, to explain why the terrain has changed.  For example the tree bridge that lets you get back down from the Burned Ridge Cave, if you go directly there at the start without having the quest telling you to investigate the crash, that tree is not there.  Also if you make a beeline for the mine, a tree has fallen across the road making it impassible.  The earthquake at the end of the episode coincides with the removal of this tree.

As a core element of survivor mode, I think this would not be a good thing, as it directly infringes on the player's freedom of choice.  However it could make for an interesting Challenge mode.  You spawn in one region, and must survive x many days in just that one region.  And then set animals to NOT respawn.  You have to try and make it all last until the next earthquake, and then you can proceed to a region with fresh supplies.

2 hours ago, ProsPex said:

Do you mean #34 (at the crash site)? Cairn #24 is in FM.

Hmm I just took a throwaway up there and 34 does seem to be missing now as well.  And Cairn 1 of course is still missing.  

Pretty sure there is no revolver.  I did a day-long grind on day one, and fully explored the available regions, looting every structure, car, and hit up all the hot spots. Even found a bunker in mystery lake, although the one in PV eluded discovery.  I found 2 pumpkin caches in MT, ML, and CH, and a whopping 5 in PV....zero revolver.

I think 4DON is likely either scripted to use the rifle and only the rifle, as a bit of extra challenge (in that if you miss your first shot, you won't get a second), or because it was recycled from last year maybe it wasn't updated to include the revolver.  They suppress rifle spawns and manually insert them in specific locations, whereas rifle/revolver ammo share a spot on the loot table...so it's entirely possible it was an oversight.

2 hours ago, Gooner77 said:

Also found rabbit mitts at a pumpkin, that's seems to be a rare item with no bunnies. 

I kept the mitts but I'm thinking I should go back and try to find where I left those Gauntlets.  If bunny mitts get chewed up in a wolf struggle, you have nothing to repair them with.  At least the Gauntlets you can rip up a shoe to get the needed leather.

I started playing at 5am and apart from a few breaks for meals, played straight through until around 10pm.  That allowed me to do a very thorough investigation of every region, and accumulate a total of 79 rifle rounds 71 (useless) revolver rounds, two rifles, two bows, 9 arrows, and multiple flare guns and flare shells a ridiculous amount of lamp oil, and enough candy that my descendants for generations will be born with cavities and type II diabetes.  The ammo I carry with me, the rest of the supplies is still stashed away at a central location on each map.

For gear, I've got a moosehide satchel, wool ear wrap, expedition parka, moosehide cloak, cowichan sweater, fisherman's sweater, two layers of snow pants, two thermal underwear, two climbing socks, rabbitskin mitts, and mukluks.  I can be standing outside in gale force winds and the feels like is still 3C.

Today I started in Pleasant Valley, went back to the CH to gather up the rest of my arrows, and then made my way to ML.  I made the entire trip without engaging a single wolf, but grew tired of my cautious style so I went out and shot 9 wolves today just for the heck of it.  Since the area was clear, I spent some time chopping firewood for the long nights ahead.  (I rarely chop firewood or go on wolf purges in normal play, but since this is a short event I feel much more free to use up my gear!)

I haven't tested this in my main save but in 4DON I have noticed that when crafting arrows, the tools are not being used.  Before the Episode 3 release, I would be prompted for which tools I would like to use, which would reduce the crafting time of the arrows.  Now, I am not even being prompted.  With Simple or Quality tools in my inventory, the arrows take 1.5 hours each to craft, and the tools are not losing condition.  Is this a bug, or was this intentionally removed?

Edit: I'm pretty sure this is a bug after further review.  I am able to select .5 hours when crafting an arrow now, but it goes on to fully craft that arrow even though I've only spent 1/3 of the time needed.

Most of the good points have been made already, but I have one more to contribute: Type 1 diabetics can and have been able to survive without insulin by eating a diet primarily of fats and protein.  Prior to the discovery of insulin as a treatment for hyperglycemia in diabetics, this is how the disease was controlled.  Now obviously it's not ideal, as patients did need to essentially push themselves to the brink of starvation in order to survive.  But they did survive.  So likewise Dimitri could survive by eating basically standard Interloper fare until they were able to raid a pharmacy or find someone with the knowledge of how to extract insulin from an animal pancreas.

2 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

I want to finish scouring Pleasant Valley as well... now I'm really curious to know if there might be extra treats out there for me as well.

I did a pass of PV and didn't find a bunker, but didn't want to spend too much time chasing wild geese so I moved on.  I did find a bunker in ML however, so odds are one spawned in PV as well and I just missed it.  Honestly I'm doing well enough that I don't think missing one bunker is going to matter!  I'm on track to finish ML within the hour, then on to MT.  And then I will have a well-fortified base in every region, and will be on track for a solid Day 2

1 minute ago, ManicManiac said:

...did you happened to find a revolver?  I'm curious if it was meant to show up or not.

Not yet... I have found two rifles so far however.  One was by a cache on the Coastal Highway, I think it was by

, and the other was actually NOT by a cache.  I just so happened to stumble onto it in the dark, in Pleasant Valley by the

.

I'm hoping ML or MT has a revolver.  I'm hitting up all the bunker spawn points in PV to see if I can score one last haul, then I'm heading to ML next.  My plan is to build up a cache of stuff in each major region, then decide what I want to do next.  Since I know what to expect this year I'm feeling a little less cautious than last year.

1 hour ago, ajb1978 said:

So...I just found a 4th supply cache/pumpkin in PV.  Just saying.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

First one on Skeeter's Ridge, second one southwest of the farmhouse, third by three strikes farm, fourth one just across the river heading from the farmhouse to the big red barn.

I just found #5 in PV! 

1 minute ago, hozz1235 said:

Will you please include spoiler tags for such info? 

I updated it with a spoiler tag almost immediately because I figured someone would ask lol

On 10/25/2019 at 4:35 PM, Admin said:

Day 1 - Quiet

• Each 4DON region has 2 supply caches (3 for PV), marked by pumpkins. These persist for the entire 4DON event.

So...I just found a 4th supply cache/pumpkin in PV.  Just saying.

On 10/22/2019 at 7:12 AM, Cr41g said:

if memory serves me correctly there is only candy and pie...unless you plan on surviving on just tea and cat tails...

You can scavenge venison off pre-placed carcasses, and of course eat wolf meat.  I think 4DON uses Voyageur as a baseline difficulty, so intestinal parasites wouldn't even be a thing.  But yeah no deer hunting, rabbit snaring, or fishing.

2 hours ago, RegentRelic said:

The priest in Milton left before the first flair as we see during episode three in a note.

Exactly this.  Fr. Francis McGill was withdrawn by the Archdiocese due to inactivity in the church.  Having some familiarity with the Catholic church, this was most likely decided based on how centrally located the church was.  No doubt Fr. Thomas has also had problems with attendance, but Pleasant Valley being more centrally located on Great Bear, it would make sense why their superiors chose to recall McGill and not Thomas.

Loving Episode 3!  Already did two playthroughs to try and catch any subtle details, and that brings me to my questions.

"Molly" is a name derived from Hebrew, and means "bitter".  She certainly is bitter...was that name chosen for her intentionally, or is this a happy coincidence?

Also, Astrid's name badge in the lab cutscene shows that she works for Seraphim.  Seraphim, or Saraph as singular in Hebrew, were the highest class of angels and regarded as symbols of light and purity.  Astrid does indeed seem to take on a guardian angel role for the crash survivors, so once again was this chosen intentionally, or is this a happy coincidence?

I had the same thought, but wrote it off as artistic license.  The plane crash survivors factor in to the story that Astrid is a doctor trying to take care of them.  Townsfolk merely hunkered down for some warmth does not, and so they would have literally just gotten in the way.  (I'm just glad there is no penalty for accidentally stepping on people.)

The thing that got me though is that party line.  If Molly is doing as she says, and is just ringing the line repeatedly until Astrid eventually happens by a phone and answers....why is Father Thomas not losing his mind?  Imagine that phone just ringing non-stop for hours waiting for Astrid to answer.  You think he'd pick it up and be like "Whoever this is, you know I got God on speed dial right? Do not test me!"