Morrick

Very well, then! Sunset at Forlorn Muskeg: The vanishing Trapper's Cabin:

What a cairnage! Congrats!!

Ooh, that would be nice. Like, combining a spent flare with gunpowder… (I'm not a pyrotechnician, though, I don't know if it's possible).

I completely forgot about those. Thanks, Ice-H!

Did I mention I love the light in this game? A special mention to the cabin at the Cannery Worker Residences, which just saved my life. I was exploring the area roughly beneath the radio tower, in seach of a possible shortcut to the exit to Forlorn Muskeg. Night came, but I was well-equipped, so I started a good fire, warmed up my tea, ate some food. Sky was clear, and soon an aurora came. I went to bed, only to wake up a few hours later freezing and caught in a bastard blizzard. I figured it was more or less a straight line to the Cannery Worker Residences, so I started marching on. Most of my outer clothes were 85-88% frozen, my Hypothermia Risk meter was at about 75%, and when I took this screenshot the 'Feels Like' was -62°C. Good thing I had stocked a few fir logs and lumps of coal in there. The blizzard went on for the best part of the afternoon, but I emerged in the early evening, dry and mostly unscathed, with all my outer clothes repaired. This is the fourth time Bleak Inlet tries to kill me since I came.

I had another of my survivors, originally stationed in Mystery Lake, try going to Bleak Inlet with already a rope in hand, so that I could enter the region from above, then climb down below. The puzzle (or rather, the grind) was finding a rope. I didn't find any in Mystery Lake. The one in the train car in the Ravine is needed to climb down to the Ravine Basin. After some time spent going to places where I thought I had seen a rope spawn in previous gameplays, I ended up returning to Pleasant Valley and removing the one I originally deployed on Signal Hill. From there, back to Mystery Lake, the Ravine, down the basin, and finally into Bleak Inlet. It took me almost an in-game week because of course the weather decided to be shitty. Also, carrying an extra rope means 5kg of additional burden, and part of the trip wasn't fun because I was exhausted and encumbered.

I watched the video expecting a huge fight with the timberwolves, honestly, but I agree that the experience was intense and nerve-wracking nonetheless. The constant growling gave me anxiety and at the same time made me want to have a grenade launcher to concoct a quick wolf stew.

This was taken during some perilous nighttime wandering, after falling into thin ice, and trying to reach a good spot to light a fire. The 'Feels Like' was -39°C. (I hope I'm not spamming this thread too much with my screenshots…)

The Cannery is clearly a front. I mean, have you tried their sardines? Something fishy is going on there, let me tell you.

Absence / Presence.

They could have killed the Timberwolves with their atrocious sardines, for that matter. Since I started playing The Long Dark 1 year and a half ago, the chance of getting food poisoning by eating Last Resort sardines for me has been 98%.

I know. The Mountain Lion cape would assume its function. And being harder to get, it would make for a more satisfying reward. Just my two rifle shell casings. 😉

Additional back-on-topic thoughts: maybe what bugs me the most about the way to reach the workshop (not the way to access it, which is fine by me), is that it feels contrived. In all my Survival Mode exploration, the world of The Long Dark has felt natural. The environmental obstacles to reach a place have always felt natural: e.g. I can't go straight there because a landslide has blocked the passage. Or: I have to find a rope if I want to climb down there. In this case, the environment — the Cannery industrial ruins — feels engineered, feels like a set of coincidences that are too bad to be true. It doesn't feel natural, but something that has been broken down here and there on purpose to make a place difficult to access. It feels like a game within a game. And this isn't The Witness or Portal.

Sometimes I wonder: maybe instead of annoying wolf packs, it would have been better to introduce a new predator (e.g. Mountain Lion or whatever fits The Long Dark's habitat), whose appearance is scarce, which is hard to kill, but rewarding in that if you craft clothing from its skin, it acts as a deterrent with other predators. I don't mean full immunity, but a greater chance to be left alone when you go your way and stumble onto a wolf, bear, or moose. Just thinking aloud here.

Oh, I knew you would enjoy this. I would have probably enjoyed it more if my character's name were Mario or Sonic...

Apologies in advance for the off-topic reply, but this part brought back so many bad memories of past Interloper attempts. My survivor got to 7 failed tries before successfully starting a fire, and I got so mad because I lost precious time and tinder. I also thought it was a record, but you beat me to it. I really felt your frustration here!

@ThePancakeLady Thank you wholeheartedly for your kind words. This game is so beautiful that it has turned me into a screenshot addict. The only other game I had ever captured screenshots before was Half-Life 2 and its two Episodes. There are probably many other games that are more impressive visually than The Long Dark, but the way their gameplay is engineered doesn't really invite sightseeing, so to speak.

Bleak Inlet does indeed have bleak weather. I've been there for, uh, 6-7 in-game days, and the weather has pretty much traversed the whole spectrum of annoying. Wind, heavy snow, fog, blizzard, strong wind, more fog, blizzard, two auroras, wind, wind, wind. In one instance, I crossed the Long Bridge at such a slow pace against the wind that I was barely moving. Hinterland really meant "wind-swept coastline" when describing the region. And I used to complain about the weather in Broken Railroad and Pleasant Valley! Temperatures are on the low end even during the day. I rarely saw a "Feels Like" greater than +4 C. Thank goodness I have very warm clothes, and just when I was searching a car I got my Cold Fusion badge! I also advise caution when walking on ice in the Frozen Delta area and behind the Fallen Lighthouse isle. There are spots of thin ice — I learnt it the hard way. Fortunately, it's not very deep water, so only your clothes from the waist down get wet/frozen. Still, this region is amazing, and it's quickly becoming one of my favourites.

You need to find the code to gain access. That's okay, I like a bit of treasure hunting. It makes sense. Then you have to wait for an aurora for the security system to be powered. That makes sense too. But — unless I did things in a rush and missed something — there is only one way to reach the workshop in the first place. And that way is, shall we say, not linear. To me it feels too much like a platformer puzzle, and a bit 'out of character' for The Long Dark, if you know what I mean. I was curious to know your thoughts about it. (I still haven't accessed the workshop, as I went on exploring the rest of the region, but I wonder if maybe the Great Bear Island authorities are hiding a UFO in there, given how convoluted gaining access is, hahaha!)

There's some good stuff at the Last Resort Cannery 🙂

Some initial views of Bleak Inlet. Pensive Lookout, crack of dawn. Maybe it's too early to venture outside... Pensive Lookout: later, in the hazy morning, a distant view. The valley below, as seen from the Echo One Radio Tower. Bleak weather for Bleak Inlet: This is already becoming my favourite region. On Pilgrim, of course.

I can't resist taking screenshots, apparently. I have a folder that's getting close to 10 GB worth of The Long Dark's screenshots. If there were a 'Faithful photographer' achievement, it would be mine already. 😉

I was eager to explore the new region. Luckily I had one of my 'errant pilgrims' (heh heh) located in Coastal Highway, so it was just a matter of getting to the Ravine, then to Bleak Inlet. Starting in the wee hours of the morning, I should get to the new region in the early afternoon at the latest, I thought. The weather thought otherwise. The crisp clear morning rapidly turned into a blizzard. Managed to get to the trailer right below Train Unload, warm up, sleep a bit, bid my time, and essentially wait until the day after. And the day after the blizzard was gone and now there was… a thick fog. Reached the Ravine, crossed the Trestles Bridge with almost no visibility (always a train load of fun, that), went down the basin, and thankfully the entrance to Bleak Inlet was very easy to find. By then, the weather got worse again — gusty wind and snow. I love the fact that you don't have to explore much before encountering a man-made structure. The path from the Ravine entrance to the Pensive Lookout is rather linear. Good thing I started my exploration on Pilgrim, because just as I began approaching the Lookout, three timberwolves came about! Now I'm getting warm inside the Lookout, waiting for the weather to clear so that I can take a look at the region from this vantage point. 🙂

[Warning: almost totally off-topic remark!] Earlier I was taking another look at the artwork accompanying the announcement… It vaguely reminds me of Dishonored's art style.