ManicManiac

I decided that there was enough daylight to risk taking a look at what was further up the road. Oh no. I was mistaken... about a lot. I was much closer to the end of the road than I thought. I thought I might be able to reach the mine. I also thought perhaps I might bet another opportunity to get down the river below. I should have known Great Bear Island wasn't going to make it that easy. Well, I was already there, so I figured I may as well look around before heading back for shelter. Looked like a good vantage point... Hmm... definitely no good way to get down or across. It looks like Fool's Corner was the right spot to get down after all. 🤔 Following the train tracks backwards, I came across this. Hmm... if Hushed River Valley taught me anything... it's to check out around scrub brush. There's usually a path or out of the way nook to check out.

@Smol Alien I'm not sure how I missed this when it was first posted... but I was glad to come across it. Well done.

The storm raged for a while... but not nearly so long as I'd mentally prepared for. I didn't have much to mend (at least not without it being wasteful of cloth), so for the most part I just sat and thought more about how to deal with the Timberwolves that were prowling just up the road. I knew of course I'd need to give them a wide berth (I mean unless I wanted to have to load my revolver - which I didn't), but the question remained about which side of the road would be better. 🤔 I supposed that I would just have to wait and see. Much to my delight, the storm broke sometime around noon. Half a day is better than a wasted day. A bit hard to them out... but there ahead were at least four Timberwolves. Here I had to decide, my first inclination was to break right and keep to the ridge line. As I got a little closer and spent a little more time observing, it seemed that their roaming today tended towards the right-side of the road. With that in mind, I decided to reroute and approach from the left-side of the road instead. I spent some time watching and waiting. It seemed bit of a path leading from the road, and the Timberwolves didn't seem interested in wandering this far from the road. It turned out that I had made a good choice. I'd both found a cave, and there was a bit of a goating opportunity (there to the right of the cave) that seemed to promise a way to continue on past the Timberwolves. Perhaps if the opportunity presents itself, I'll head back around along the ridge line... but for now, better to find and secure a place I can fall back to for the night (or if the weather turns on me again). No Road Cave turned out to be pretty desolate. While I did find an abandoned campfire... there was nothing to find except two sticks and piece of cedar nearby. I goated up on the rocks just outside the cave... There are the four Timberwolves just ahead through the trees. This cave seems a risky place to hole up, but I can make it work if need be. Just on the other side of the rock formation I was just on, I see the road continuing on (I'd presume closer to the mine if the signs were to be believed). As I looked around a little bit more... I saw what looked like a promising looking back path as well. I figured, if nothing else... it might loop me back around again and I might either have double backed near Wedge Cave. There was also the possibility that through that narrow pass, might be something really significant. There were at least a few hours left of daylight... naturally I was going to press on (at least a little further). 🤭 The horrible crag of Blackrock itself. This can't be an easy way to the prison. I can't believe that would be the case. Ha! Nope. Looks light a tight corner, or dead... either way there's a wolf prowling right down middle. Now at this point I had a choice to make. Do I turn around... or do I try to stealth this wolf? Naturally I was going to press the initiative. The good news is that it's not a dead end. The bad news is that this is Fool's Corner. I vaguely remember this spot. I wasn't sure that I wanted to head down the climb... so I decided to try to make it through the pass. If nothing else, I'd come out close to one of the other nearby Caves. I did opt for a closer look over the edge... Finally, I have eyes on this stretch of the river again. Still though, it doesn't feel like the right time to make this climb. There's more to explore up here before I head down there. Besides, I feel like I remember there being another way down further up the road. If that's the case, then I could run this trench from end to end if I hold off for now. I did admittedly use a stone to distract the wolf and draw it off... but I was able to slip past unnoticed. By the time I made it to the end of the pass... it looked very familiar. I think this is the trail I'd come across when I was exploring around Whistling Perch. I knew where I was! Which meant I knew safe routes to at least two caves and even a primary encampment at the Bricklayer's Retreat. The only question that remained was how much time was I willing to spend exploring these back trails... and how far was I willing to back track. 🤔 The answer was not at all... not right now. I got the feeling that I didn't have that much further to do before reaching the mine. I'd have time later to really dig into the out of the way places (after I get my bearings vising more of the major locations). There was everyone... right where I'd left them. Wedge Cave there below... but I rathered trying to get back to No Road Cave. It feels dangerous trying to stop over at No Road Cave for the night. It's like these Timberwolves are right on the doorstep. However, I'm going to press it... I've learned that the way I most improve, is by testing the limits of what I think I'm capable of. It was a tense few minutes... but I made it back to the cave. I can hear the Timberwolves outside pawing and rooting around out the snow. Very disconcerting. I'm not especially tired, but I stop over here for the evening. I've only got 14 sticks on hand... but I do also have a few pieces of coal. That should be enough to weather a storm (assuming it's not a Pleasant Valley style 18-24 hour blizzard). 🤭

Given that the blizzard hit early this morning... I doubt there will be much progress made today. I'll spend most of my time mending and maybe sorting through my pack again to see if there's more that I might leave behind. It'll also give me more time to consider the next route. 🤔

As others have mentioned, I can also confirm. We've had possible wolf spawn in Hushed River Valley's Ice Caves since 14 June 2018. Hushed River Valley | The Long Dark Wiki | Fandom "Sketchy" occasionally appearing in the Ice Cave was one of those wonderful little surprises for us to find. 🤭

Nice! No more manually typing in the spoiler tags... like a troglodyte.

I hope all that science you've done got recorded in a support ticket. Lots of good detail. link enclosed:

@Ansible You've clearly been playing this game for a while. If we each open support tickets for these things... then it's much more likely that Hinterland will be tracking on it and very likely get them fixed. Whether it's barrels partially phased into a wall... or pipes floating in the air... or pine trees that have phased through boulders... or any other sort of what I tend to call "Strange Geometry" in my support tickets. This right here is a perfect example. Take a debug screenshot (F8) and attach it in a support ticket. This will help Hinterland to find, track down, and fix these little anomalies that much quicker. https://hinterlandgames.zendesk.com/hc/en-us Also, since you brought it up... I'll be rounding 2,500 hours myself pretty soon. Not as much as some... but respectable, I think.

@Leeanda ...being able to use the travois to haul deer/wolf carcasses to more ideal locations to harvest might be nice for some folks as well... 🤔

@Leeanda Once Blackrock is done, my trip down Memory Lane will be complete. At that point... I do think I will retire the run (scurvy awaits). The original idea was to dovetail this run into my first explorations of the Far Territory, and once done with Memory Lane just lift all the personal challenge restrictions that I had put on it up to that point. In either case... once I'm done with Blackrock. I'm going weapons free, I will actually start hunting/harvesting plants again, finally start experimenting with all the new systems & items (cooking, tip-ups, lures, etc...). You know, I think you're right... I think it's been nearly 2 years since I the last time I used a weapon in this game.

@Leeanda You know... good point. Those are some good roleplaying opportunities. I will have to remember start getting into that habit/work it into my playstyle.

The rest of the evening was spent hoping the fog would lift... I was eventually able to sit up on a good vantage point to scout the road ahead. I caught a glimpse of at least two (maybe three) Timberwolves prowling up the road and the area near the shoulder on the left side. 🤔 Even though I still wasn't very tired, I went to bed down anyway. However, what I woke to was a blizzard. I suppose that means I'll be waiting a bit longer...

I was just trying to let know you that I meant no offense... and of course supporting that your dislike of the change was perfectly valid. So often folks get prickly with me any time I don't agree or offer a differing point of view. I was only trying to keep it amicable.

@CobraGeneral Regardless of how anyone gets to Great Bear Island... Welcome to the wilderness. Also... nothing to be ashamed about. Picking up the game during a giveaway is a perfectly legitimate way to have acquired it. I assume it was when Epic was offering it for free (steam doesn't really do freebee's anymore as far as I know )... but rest assured that all those sales and giveaways were very likely approved by Hinterland for their game's participation (that they were fully aware of it, if not compensated by the platform). If you do feel so inclined there are things like soundtracks you can purchase, there's the DLC, and (one day) there's the merch shop if you'd like to show Hinterland some additional support.

Fair enough, I clearly missed that bit they did clearly mention. I only meant share my personal experiences with Hinterland support. I didn't mean to imply that it's the universal experience across the board. I was only trying to be encouraging, and that so far I'd not ever felt neglected by Hinterland Support.

Fare enough, and I totally understand where you're coming from, I do. I wasn't trying to denigrate your position on the matter. More that I was just offering @conanjaguar my thoughts on the sort of options we still have available to us for when we don't have a knife/hatch (improvised or otherwise). Yes, we'll all have to adapt... and it's perfectly valid to not like the change (of course)... especially considering how it will affect your preferred personal challenge style. I do feel for you on that... please don't get me wrong. I wasn't in any way trying to trivialize your opinion... just offering folks who read the thread another angle to maybe consider.

They are not really "making" anyone do anything... we can have more than one save. Folks know that... right? We don't "have to throw away" anything... we can still finish up our old runs. Here's the story in my case... I'm right now still working on a personal challenge run. When I'm done with the final region on my trip down Memory Lane... then I'll consider the challenge complete. Before the update I was going to just continue on the same run and just lift all my previous restrictions. So... now we have Scurvy for new runs... okay... cool. I'll finish up the run I've been working on for nearly a year, and when that's done... I'll start a new one to include scurvy. Because it's not affecting old saves, I can still finish out my ongoing run as is. I think that was a good choice. So many folks say they love the early game struggle (or gripe about the imagined "late game problem" 😒)... so why is starting a new run something that people are bucking so hard about?

It really seems to be a no-win scenario... If they did add blanket scurvy to all saves (old & new) then the forum would be getting inundated with complaints about how unfair it is, and about how people lost their precious long run... how mad they are and how they want their money back and won't play again (and all that nonsense). If they don't have scurvy affect old saves... then as we can see... we have folks disappointed/upset about that too. I for one appreciate the consideration and foresight on the part of Hinterland. I think if Scurvy had been blanketed across all saves... so many people would have been blindsided and likely furious about it. "Just woke up with advanced curvy and died... I quit... [expletive - expletive - expletive]"

@conanjaguar Yes, it's going to potentially make my next Forgeless Interloper run very difficult. But, the more I think about it... there are a lot of Ravaged (prop) Carcasses around. Plus if you get a wolf to hunt for you... the deer it fells you should be able to strip by hand too. Also... if we happen to find a prybar or heavy hammer (and bit of metal too, I suppose), fish cook nice and easily (no knife, hatchet, or hacksaw needed). There are things we can do... But then again... I here for the struggle. It's what I love most about Great Bear Island.

May I just say... that is some of the best weirdness I've seen yet.

@Raphael van Lierop I really appreciate the consideration and foresight. Thank you very much.

I'm reasonably sure that you will... sometimes it can take a bit. I imagine their queue can be rather busy. There have been times where I didn't hear back on a ticket for a week or more... but so far, I've always gotten at least some indication that they are tracking and working on the issues I've reported. @Admin

I got up sometime midmorning, but it was still a bit too cold and the weather was feeling a bit threatening. I laid back down for an hour or so... the wind had died down some and it felt like a much better time to venture out. So many blind hills and corners. I was starting to lose track of where I was while picking up sticks and trying to get familiar with the area... almost got myself turned around (not the ideal thing when there are Timberwolves about). I would have like to get back to the ridge, keep track of the river... but I'd wandered a back trail near to Foreman's Clearcut. Ended up doubling back to make sure I kept my bearing. After that, I decided to keep to the road until I got a bit further ahead. Besides, I do need to focus on finding the next shelter. There will be time walk all the foot trails after I get a good fix on more of the area's landmarks. It's tense being on the road though. The Timberwolf pack I'd spotted the other day was prowling the roadway... and there was no reason to think there might be more ahead. The good news was that it was warm enough outside that I was able to keep warm on my own... so I had the time to take it slow. The careful pace seemed to have paid off... I think I see a cave here just off the road. Most definitely a cave... and perhaps a way up to a nice vantage point. I dropped off the sticks I'd managed to collect along the way... only 33 of them, but that would do (I also kept two pieces of coal with me from Bricklayer's Retreat). This would be a good spot to fall back to... but I did also want to at least search around on the other side of the road. I'd like to get eyes on the river again too. However, it seemed as though weather had other plans. The wind was kicking up again, and I was starting to get cold. I decided I was still going to go out... if for nothing else than to try and gather more sticks. The closer I can get the count to 60, the better I'd feel about holing-up for the night. As I crept up over the slope and rocks, I spotted a Hunter's Blind. That was definitely worth prospecting... and I knew I can safely get back to Wedge Cave relatively quickly if I had to. I continued to crawl up the slopes, better take it slow until I got a better idea of what was around. I heard hooves and rooting around just over the hill. I already felt better about the area... live deer at least meant no wolves. I felt much better about picking up the pace to get to the Hunter's Blind. Deer and Ptarmigans... duly noted. Whistling Perch... not a bad spot. I think I see a Rabbitskin Hat some poor soul left behind. "I hope nobody needs this anymore..." 🤭 because I will certainly make good use of it. Hmm, I'll have to keep an eye out for this spot. Oh yes... this will do very nicely, and replace this Aviator Cap. Now... part of me wanted to continue pressing on and exploring the trail. The other part wanted to heed the weather and just get back to Wedge Cave. Though by now, I suppose it's not surprising which of those internal voices I listened to. 🤭 Interesting... I thought that was a solid rockface, but there is a trail back there. 🤔 Later... I had to stay focused. I came upon some relatively safe goating opportunities. Managed to get up there without spraining anything. 🤭 There ahead, was most of the area of back trails I wanted to cover. I know I spotted a bear down there somewhere when I was up on the other vantage point facing back this way. However, I don't see it now... maybe I'll come back tomorrow. I now know I have a reasonably safe route back there. Now it was time I got back to Wedge Cave before dark... I was starting to run out of daylight and the weather didn't seem like it was going to let up. Of course, no sooner than I had thought that... it stopped snowing. I decided to slide down the slope on to the back trails... sure enough, saw a familiar landmark right away. It would be smooth sailing back to Wedge Cave now... though I was still going to keep my head on a swivel. As I walked by this rock formation again... I thought it looked like there might be an interesting nook in the middle there. I was right. A nice little out of the way nook... but there was nothing there to be found. As I got closer to Wedge Cave a deadly dense fog started rolling in. I wasn't very tired yet... but I was just going to have to spend the rest of the evening in the cave. It's home... for now. I did manage to gather 31 more sticks, so now I have more than I could need for warmth or water. And safe for the night.

Adapt and overcome is at the heart of survival.

Okay, I just heard a bit of unfamiliar and rather foreboding music begin to swell... for a second, I was really on edge thinking something might have been stalking me. I looked around in every direction... even looked up in the trees. Let me just say the new music is absolutely fantastic.