ManicManiac

oof... made about halfway. Still managed to not be noticed. The only two places I had to stand up to make the leap are already done. I might actually have a chance to slip by unnoticed all the way to the workshop door...

With the dawn, I take the next step... I have to get to the workshop door today. I missed these two marine flares on the way in... since I don't have any weapons, it might be wise to pick up these extra too. If I'm spotted (and it's probably going to be unavoidable today), I will likely need to run for my life on the way back out. As I made my up to the pipes that I needed to traverse to reach the next building... I stopped and counted now 12 Timberwolves in the yard. The Cannery Rush is on, and the Timberwolf incursion has well and truly begun. If the incursion continues at this rate... this pack might yet again double or triple in size. And unlike Blackrock (where a pack might break off the chase when you leave their territory)... the Timberwolves of Bleak Inlet are more likely to just mercilessly hunt you down until you're dead... or they are. 🥶

Hmm... looks like the storm shows no sign of stopping. I guess I will be staying here in the breakroom after all. I will sleep in a series of short naps though... just in case the skies clear and an aurora hits. If that happens, I'll hightail it to the Workshop door and deal with the consequences later. I'll have to take the next steps tomorrow.

It took huddling up under the blanket on the floor for an hour to try and (mostly) warm up again. Now I have to decide if I'm going to sleep here tonight... or try to sneak my way to the Workshop door to camp out there. The more I think about it... the breakroom is probably a touch warmer. I should probably just hole-up here for the night... but we'll have to see how I'm feeling as I wait around. I may get impatient again (I'm nowhere near tired yet).

After waiting around in the trailer for a few hours... I got a little impatient and tried another run at getting to the rope undetected. Managed to get inside and even managed to fine couple of minor items... Since I seemed to be clear to ascend free and clear, I decided to see what I could find in the breakroom just around the corner. Found a little more food... which is great. I have no idea how many days I will be waiting for an aurora. So far so good... having gotten this far, I'll try to remain undetected. Though, I tend to think it's unavoidable once I get up into the rafters... but we'll see.

I had to backpedal... and quickly. It seems the pack fans out to cover every corner of the yard. I may have to wait out the storm... I have to be able to see them better, if I have any hope of finding an opportunity to slip past. 🤔

Than answer is no... the blizzard won't clear out the initial pack at the cannery. If I can get to the rope without being spotted... I'll try to get to the breakroom and stow a few things before making a break for the rope. If I can just get to the second level without getting spotted... I would consider that an achievement. but honestly, it's not likely. With the pack out in force... I doubt I have a good opportunity to get to the nearby safe, but oh well. Completing the Cannery Rush itself is the only real objective here this time around.

After warming up for a little bit... I was determined to quickly set about the task at hand. Confirmed four Timberwolves in this pack... and after a few more minutes observing them, it seemed clear that they were not likely going to be wondering out (as I've seen them do in the past). For better or worse... I'm going to try and stealth my way in. I can here their footsteps just on the other side of that semitrailer... 😖 I slipped inside the Conex Container they'd converted into a small bunk house trailer. Very "homey" in here... I don't remember it being so nice in previous visits. I kind of wish I could take that kettle with me. Sneaky crackers in the garbage can... thank you, that will help sustain me another day while I wait for an aurora. As I was searching through the trailer... I heard the wind really kick up outside. I might have a blizzard on my hands. However, it occurs to me that this could be amazing luck. If the blizzard clears out the initial pack that is prowling around... I can at least finish searching first floors of the compound and break room before heading for the rope to start the full incursion. 🤔 But first I have to poke my head out... and hope there isn't a Timberwolf pacing around right in front of the stoop.

Yes indeed. 👆 For the other platforms that can't support that feature (specifically because it was a feature available to Hinterland on the Steam platform)... Another solution is to just simply choose to keep to the regions one likes best. Just because a region is there, doesn't mean we have to anything more than maybe pass through it on the way to places we like better. If there are pieces of gear or items we don't like... we can also simply choose not to use them. The point is, just because an update introduces us to something we may not like... we can still exercise player choice, and just choose to avoid those things/places.

Maybe not a song per se... but something for the aurora powered radio on this haunted time of year.

I count four Timberwolves... I was going to sit a while and observe their route, but I was still losing warmth and getting close to freezing. So, I did have to head back to the nearby trailer to warm up again.

Hmm... doesn't look like the weather is going to be kind. Oh well, I'm starting the scouting phase anyway.

I'll get started by scouting the Cannery... With luck, the pack usually prowling inside the compound might also have a route wandering out. Ideally, I'd like to be able to hit the breakroom, the trailer, and the safe inside the compound... but that's only doable if the pack inside wanders out. If they don't... then I'll still try to stealth my way inside... but if I do get spotted, it will likely have to be a mad dash for the rope. 🤭 Regardless... I start the weaponless Cannery Rush, today.

🤔 To be fair... one of the "effects" of massive blood loss is loss of consciousness. 😋

I managed to wake up sometime midmorning. This wasn't ideal for time I'd have to cover a lot of ground, but on the other hand perhaps I'd slept warmly through the likely most bone chilling part of the day. Timberwolves... and they are very likely going to be skulking near the climbing area (because of course they are 🤭). And now they've turned back around and are heading right where I'm trying to get too.... too bad I can't crawl any faster. I didn't dare look over my shoulder again... it got to the point that I could hear their footsteps behind me, but I managed to slip down the rope undetected. More Timberwolves off in the distance... may have to take the slightly longer way around. Interesting... I could swear this wasn't here the last time I checked these vehicles... oh well. I'll take it. Not yet... but soon. I did stop by my encampment at the Washed-Out Trailers. It's nice to see these two... and even though I did find them within the region, but I going to leave them here until I'm ready to leave the region. I'm still determined to take on the Cannery Rush with no weapons. Last stop... Had a little bit of daylight left... so I hauled what I found throughout the day back to the Washed-Out Trailers to hunker down for the night. Tomorrow, I start the Cannery Rush. Here's hoping that tomorrow will be kind of enough to give me an aurora. 🤭

@chrislacruz That's the Headache affliction icon from The Long Dark. I did look up that publication series/collection you mentioned. Some wonderful art there also.

With an aurora having just hit... it might be a day or two (depending on weather, perhaps longer) before another flares up. Once the sun comes up... I need to head back down the climb and get to the Coastal Highway Terminus as quickly as possible.

@conanjaguar [context: all those folks who get upset with every update, no matter what that update contains]

Precisely the real heart of the matter... the time compression mechanics. As I've discussed previously, I think this is why real multi-player just isn't really feasible without addressing all the actions that compress the passage of time: passing time (both standard and for cooking), harvesting, mending/repairing, fishing, sleeping... For example if we want to chop a limb that takes an hour... and we have another player there with us, then how do we keep the time of day synchronized? Do we disable time compression? In which case in order to chop that limb we have to sit and look at a progress wheel for 12 minutes of real time. (real world to in-game time is 1:12... where 1 minute of real time equals 12 minutes in-game... therefore 1 hour in game is equal to 12 minutes real time) **On the flip side... do we just make both the players experience accelerated time if one starts an event? Well then, we risk the other player being stopped in their tracks and suddenly losing an hour of time, if they were out and exposed to the elements at the time... they might end up freezing and losing condition at an alarming rate because the other player choose to chop wood. Probably not the game play experience anyone would want. This gets worse if we start talking about sleep. Some of those previous discussions: Maybe there are mods out there to address it... and you know what... if so, great. For those that want it, then there it is. But frankly I'm not a fan of the idea of ever making TLD multiplayer. I think it undermines the lonely isolation. ...also, I don't usually want to get away to Great Bear Island, only to still have to deal with other people's non-sense. When I do feel like dealing with other people's non-sense, I feel like that's what story mode is for (and then at least those "other people" have the good decency to be scripted and there for the purpose of advancing the story )

And... if the player is paying attention, then they would check for bleeding after an attack... and then the player would never again die because they made the mistake of going to bed while still bleeding out. I'm not a fan of the kind of "hand-holding safety nets" that wishlist items like this propose. Raph as mentioned many times before he didn't want the game to hold the players hand... and I really dislike the idea of the game having guard rails to save the player from their own bad choices and mistakes. I think the better answer is for the player to learn from their mistakes/misfortunes and to better pay attention to their survivor & to their surroundings.

At this point, probably best to just ignore the negative actors and let the admins sort them out. When they start saying things like "glad that people still believe in fairy tales"... that's when folks are probably just trying to get personally insulting and to antagonize more hostility. I think the less attention we give them, the better. And no... try as they might, when they try to strike back at me for saying so... I won't be responding.

@axl Bad form when folks try to get personally insulting to other posters on the forum.

I do too.