ajb1978

No question, just circling back on something from Mailbag 26. @JeremiahJohnson asked about adding thunderstorms to the game, to which you responded that you had not heard of thunderstorms in the winter.

Well, thundersnow is definitely a thing!  It's rare and requires rather specific conditions to occur, but it does happen.  More frequently by the Great Lakes, but hypothetically there's nothing stopping it from happening over Vancouver Island...or Great Bear for that matter.  And it's one heck of a wake up call, especially at night the way the lightning reflects off the falling snow.  It's like a bomb going off in the sky.

If caught outside in a blizzard, take off your clothes.  You're going to be dealing with 3 bars of cold anyway, may as well spare your clothes the storm damage.

The only time the game crashes on me is survivor mode, if I start having way too many objects in the area.  I'm a bit of a hoarder, and once I get settled into a permanent location, I can easily end up with over 1000 sticks in one pile, dozens of cedar and fir in another, a big pile of coal in the corner, dozens of water bottles, etc.  And even then it will only occur when I am making repeated trips indoors and outdoors, such as if I'm cooking up an entire moose or something, tossing cooked meat into the snow after putting 2 fresh steaks by the fireplace.

Although in that case, there is a weird symptom that precedes it.  The two pieces of meat that I just cooked, one of them will somehow instantly be 0% ruined when I go to drop it in the snow.  When that happens, I know my next area transition will crash the game, so I can pre-emptively restart.

7 hours ago, ferryvg said:

I'm not found anything around Hunting Lodge

It's outside, but tacked onto the hunting lodge. Search during daylight or with a lantern lit--it's rather difficult to spot at night unless you know exactly where to look.

And again, this particular note will not contain the code, but it sets you onto a side quest which will result in you obtaining it.

Without giving away the total solution, there is a note posted outside the Hunting Lodge somewhere.  That note doesn't contain the code, but it will set you on the path.

Without giving it away, I will say be sure to thoroughly search every interior location for notes and books. The side quests are mostly initiated by finding a note or skill book. The hatch no longer belongs to Jeremiah, and the quest instead starts by finding a note with the hatch code on it. 

The abrupt eviction was a bit jarring, but fits the narrative. Jeremiah is a hermit by choice, and as soon as the mutual need is resolved, he wants his life (and his privacy)  back. 

But I mean he lets you keep the rifle. So that's pretty awesome of him. 

I do hope this paves the way for more "moral dilemmas" like that in the future.  Like in the old trailer, where you don't see it happen but it's heavily implied that Will killed someone with a hatchet.  Maybe being in that specific situation and having to make a choice completely in a vacuum whether or not to intervene.

And generally, I like when these kinds of decisions affect the game, but not too much.  Like avoiding any of this "oh you got the bad ending because you didn't save so and so".  Just like...slightly different paths.  For example, spare the prisoner, he eventually makes his way to the coastal highway, takes the supplies in the abandoned lookout, and places mountaineering ropes that offer a shortcut down from the lookout.  Kill him, and those ropes aren't placed, but then the supplies remain in the lookout instead.  Either way has an effect on the game, but neither is really a reward or punishment for making your choice.

I pulled the knife out, personally.  And he probably won't survive anyway. That wound was deep, and probably pierced intestine. Untreated, that wound will become septic for sure, leading to a slow tortured decline in health, and a miserable end.

So there's a rebranding on the moral dilemma.  Push the knife in and grant a quick death, or pull it out and let him suffer. 

Will and Jeremiah seem to talk about morphine a lot, and given that morphine never actually plays a role in the game at all, leads me to believe there is some subtext there.  Was that intended to serve as a sort of anti-drug PSA?  I mean for all the things they could be talking about, such as the risk of infection, possibly Jeremiah's injuries needing stitches, broken bones, etc. there seemed to be a disproportionately large amount of dialogue around morphine's addictive properties, and the euphoric side effects.  I'm just wondering if you can provide context or backstory for that.

1 hour ago, reginaphalange said:

I woke up this morning and decided to give finding a pie

one

more

try.

@ajb1978 gets the first slice

WOOHOO Congrats!

And....omnomnomnomnomnom

11 minutes ago, reginaphalange said:

What's odd is that twice I went there just now and both times all that was waiting for me was a newspaper. Both times. And I'm not seeing any candybars at the cabins either so I don't know. In any case I'm Done now. I tried. I'll have to have the real pumpkin pie soon to make up for it.

That is odd.  I started three separate games, and all three had a pumpkin pie there.  Meh well at least you tried, that's got to count for something right?

13 minutes ago, reginaphalange said:

I started three new games to see what I could find in CH and nope, no pie. Only misery and death. I never found one pie. I feel I missed out.

4 minutes ago, reginaphalange said:

I started three new games to see what I could find in CH and nope, no pie. Only misery and death. I never found one pie. I feel I missed out.

Try the fishing hut between the Log Sort and the Coastal Townsite.  Like smack in the middle, if you drew a line between the log sort and townsite, closest to the shore. I started a game as a test, and I don't know what compelled me to seek out that particular fishing hut, but it contained a pumpkin pie on my first try.

A bittersweet homecoming.  I feel like I have concluded this survivor's story, but I kind of don't want to say goodbye.  The first day was a mad rush to get as much done as possible.  I was set for life, I could've just sat down and done nothing the rest of the game.  Day 2, I kind of did just that.  I went out, saw a few wolves, was like...nah, don't need to deal with that.  Went back inside and waited out the clock.

Day 3, I started to get paranoid, and began gathering firewood.  Killed several wolves, one managed to jump me so I took him out in CQC.  Good on you man, you got farther than any of the others.  You actually managed to take a solid nip.  Day 4, I left everything behind and ventured into the one remaining region I had not yet visited.  Mostly catch-and-release looting, although I did take some ammo with me.  And two pies, one of which I ate, the other which I saved as a collector's item.  It's the principle of the thing.

And now, I have returned to the main base, my clothing banged up a bit, but with a brand spankin' new moosehide cloak that I will never wear.  Wondering what future adventures this survivor may have gotten up to, if 4DON were 10DON.  Farewell my friend.  I'm thankful I got to share your story, and wherever you go after this event concludes, I wish you the best.

I decided to go the distance, and using terrain for cover and tactical use of pumpkin pies and hot coffee, made it to the wrecked plane.  I acquired a nice moosehide cloak, 10 rounds of rifle ammo (not that I need it anymore), along with a bunch of candy bars and some coal.  None of which I really need anymore.  I went down and camped in the story mode starting cave, built a nice fire to warm up and dry my clothes, slept a bit, then made the return trip.  The wind shifted in an unfortunate direction that afforded no cover, so I was eventually brought down to freezing.  Just as I took shelter in the church and started a fire, the time was up.  I won.  4 days survived, same guy.

I feel obligated to get him back to the Camp Office, just to provide a nice conclusion to this story. But I kind of regret bidding this survivor farewell.  He accomplished so much, in so short a time.

Well for the last day, seeing as how it's all blizzard and no wolves, I left my formidable arsenal behind, replaced it with cedar and coal, and decided to venture out into the storm.  I hadn't the time to check out Milton prior to Day 2, and I found myself wondering what goodies I had missed there.  Even in the open when the storm is raging at its strongest, I'm only at 2 bars in the cold.  And by pressing my back up against a tree to shelter from the wind, I'm one bar in the warm.  So I made my way through the forest, stopping periodically at a tree or rock to warm up a bit, and made my way to the transition cave with just a few points of condition loss.

Slept, warmed up, then took the rope down.  Made camp in that cave to warm up again, climbed up to Milton Park.  Stopped briefly at the park office, the gas station, then on into town where I started checking houses.  I was able to upgrade my heavy wool sweater to a Fisherman's Sweater, which I patched up to 100% with some cloth found on the floor and the sewing kit I had brought with.  Then on to Grey Mother's house, where I found a nice pumpkin pie waiting for me.  Still an hour and 14 minutes to go, but I think I will continue to explore the rest of this region, and finish 4DON the same way I began: Looting!

Now I know what it's like from the other side of the fence...all these people having fun playing the final day, and all I can do is read about it until this evening when I get home!

YOU
SHALL NOT
PASS!!!

I strongly suspect (although I haven't diligently tracked this) that there are a couple of possible preset configurations for ML and CH (Edit: And PV too...I seem to recall the layout of the rural crossroads varying from game to game, though I don't often spend much time there to say that with any conviction), and the game selects a template when you start.  Sort of like how there are different loot spawn templates, such as if you find a hammer at the mountaineer's hut on Interloper, you're guaranteed to find a hacksaw at the summit.  So I think the total number of interior locations remains the same in each game, it's just that the entrances to those locations move around on the map depending on how the intact and destroyed houses are arranged based on the template used for that run.

This aggravates my OCD.  Flip that chair right side up, man!  And straighten that bench while you're at it!

This is half question, half feedback.  I know you briefly touched on this in Mailbag 3, but are there any intentions to expand fishing into a more involved user experience?  The hunting experience is pretty well fleshed out already, and remains a modest challenge even at high levels, especially if you hunt big game.  Fishing in its current state it's kinda like making a trip to the supermarket once you hit level 5.  I for one would enjoy a "minigame" experience.

Hiking half a day
A growl, is it a wolf?!
No, just my tummy.

A tale of forgetfulness, regret, and the reason why I tore up several perfectly good articles of clothing.

Can't make the climb out.
I'd better rest up a bit.
....where is my bedroll?