UTC-10

I have noticed a problem that seems have cropped up rather recently (I attribute to whatever else was updated when Escape the Darkwalker event update occurred). I hope that this can be resolved. Basically from a stack of items, like a stack of sticks, fish, fir wood, and even picking up rabbit carcasses, etc. it has become difficult to get a response when hunting around the pile to be able to pick up something. For instance with a stack of sticks, it was usually pretty easy to pick up the sticks, one by one, of course, as your cursor roved over the pile, but now as your cursor roved over the stack, the tooltip "stick" will flitter on and off. It can be difficult to get the "stick" to show so it can be picked up. Running the cursor along the edges of the stack - the head, tail, and sides - seems to be much more fruitful. Single items do not seem to have this issue unless it is a rabbit carcass. When dealing with a snared rabbit, I found that pointing the cursor at the center of the carcass yielded no response but putting it at the head or butt end got a response and the carcass could be picked up. So things were not broken but certainly seemed odd and can be a bit of a problem and frustrating. With no expertise in this, I suspect a collision issue has arisen for items in close proximity to each other - like a pile of sticks - and for, whatever reasons, the ends of the stick can be responsive while the "collision" issue may block access to the stick at any other point. I have been reminded about how dropping a torch or other item into a pile of sticks has caused me to have to pick up a bunch of sticks until the item tooltip showed up even though the item was pretty visible in the pile.

In the realm of nice to have if implemented but unlikely... A way to make the game keybinds output as a configuration file that could be imported at need such as when the game decides to occasionally or persistently put the keybinds back to default. It might be a small ASCII file perhaps comma delimited or carriage return delimited. Of course the devs and programmers have a lot on their plates but just a thought.

It just happened to me a few hours ago. I should do the same.

The devs came up with (to them) a simple and workable game mechanic. They would not want to make things overly complicated just for the sake of being realistic. I watch a video let's play where the player will heap more wood and/or coal on a fire because the wolf he killed was just beyond the warmth radius of the fire he was using to carve up a deer or bear. It didn't work. He's done it before to no avail, but maybe this time... On one level, his actions would be pretty reasonable - more heat, the farther it extends - on another level, it would be futile - the heat goes only so far and no farther. The former is more complicated, especially if other environmental effects can have an effect, while in the latter, the mechanic is rather straight-forward and simple. The player would probably like the former while the devs would like the latter. Depends on who has to do the work to make it so. Otherwise, as a player, I have no objections to a more complex fire/heat bubble.

Perhaps Hinterland should not have rolled out the Unity update concurrently with the Escape the Darkwalker event. As for the user file location your path to the folder where it should be looks okay to me: C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Hinterland\TheLongDark On a PC, under Windows 10, try opening file explorer and the doing a search for "*.68231" either on the Users folder and subfolders or on the local drive which would be "C:" for me since I have only one drive and see what it turns up. 68231 is the file extension for the build and the "*" is the wildcard. The file you want is "user001.68231" and hopefully it will turn up. If it does not turn up, perhaps start then pause the game, switch back to the desktop and try the search again. If the game runs it has to be somewhere (I expect). If for some reason the user001 files is not being saved then that could point to why your key bindings revert to default every time the game starts. Good luck.

It looks like Hinterland is going to make Escape the Darkwalker into a challenge and, as an enhancement, add a capacity to banish the Darkwalker. This as part of the December update. I would also hope they add a badge or something for those who get all pages as there is no "official" recognition of that (for bragging rights). I would never try for all ten, I am not that enthusiastic, but players who go the distance should get some recognition.

The way the coal mines exist in the game it is no wonder that they were no longer worthwhile to operate commercially and even for limited local coal production they seems pretty marginal (better than nothing but not by much). In terms of game balance, I would not think coal mining would be necessarily a good thing because of the "balance" consideration by the devs. Such a mechanic would almost certainly be better overall than the existing mechanics, but whether it would be worth the effort by characters to get that better effect would be a question.

In the beginning the devs likely thought about what fuel would storm lanterns use and decided on kerosene instead of gasoline. Given the expect short duration of story mode - I recall that the decay line was 100 days and was later changed to 1000 days after the wide-spread popularity of survival sandbox became evident - having literally gallons of fuel per car available for lanterns, torches, and fire accelerants, probably seemed wildly excessive. Having closed that door rather than open it - there can be quests that require supplies of gasoline - the devs came up with kerosene --> lamp oil and lamp oil could be harvested while cooking fish. Of course the devs could always reopen that door, but probably that is not a serious priority since there is a source of lamp oil for lanterns and other purposes already in the game. I would not be against being able to get gasoline for lanterns (and one may hope for Coleman camp stoves or equivalent) but I don't see the devs going to the trouble... hmmm December update and new gear...

Hinterland may eventually do something about NPCs in a survival mode setting, but that would start to make survival mode look more like story mode. Obviously not to the same extent, but while story mode lives I would guess they wouldn't want to make survival mode look like it. It would be a lot of effort better spent on bug fixes, new gear, new regions, and story mode development and implementation. If Hinterland decides to add NPC(s) to survival mode, that's fine. If the NPC was useful to me, then I would use it. If not, then I would not.

Understand that the Deathwalker, if not in contact (>200 meters) with the character will likely spawn somewhere in the middle of the region or zone that was being transitioned into. This is also true when it first enters the game, after the 15 minute grace period. If in contact (<200 meters) the DW will spawn on the other side of the transition the same distance away when the character makes a transition. There is a visual counter in the top center of the screen with a distance counter. Probably best to just assume that it has spawned and operate accordingly. Make use of the lures to make it go where you don't plan to be or remain. Don't worry about wasting. There are many cans of glyph paint - one at each green fire and inside many locations - so the likelihood of running out is infinitesimal. In fact, a fair proportion of your carried weight will likely be cans of paint. It is not hard, generally, to avoid the DW though much of a run (up to six pages, to get more requires some doubling back through previously visited regions and zones). Wolves can be a bigger problem as I have found out on a couple runs. Hope this helps a bit. Good luck.

Have you looked on the lower part of the fuselage where there is a frozen corpse? I am not implying that it is on the corpse but maybe it fell through the plane's deck to the fuselage below. Also maybe post the screenshot if you can? I only use a PC so something like verify the game files (I am on Steam) is something that might otherwise have been suggested. I know nothing about the XBOX so cannot even suggest what to try. Sorry.

I have done runs lasting 2 hours 20 minutes (5 pages) and 2 hours 7 minutes (6 pages). I am not particularly interested in extending things beyond the objective of getting the two badges and the feat. I did a coffee run and got 6 pages but died to wolf attack in Broken Railroad and that ran about 2 hours. Congratulations to those who worked to get long survival times.

It is important to not be in contact (be beyond 200 meters) with the Darkwalker when a character transitions to another zone or region. It appears (no way to really know) that the DW, in this case, would spawn in the center/middle of the next zone or region. Then it has to start heading towards the character which can take a while. If the DW is in contact (less than 200 meters, there is that counter that shows the range to it) when the character transitions, then it will ?immediately? spawn in the next zone or region at the same distance to the character. This suggests that a character make use of lures intelligently but as often as practical. Using it only when the DW gets close is worthwhile but one has already tended to sacrifice the advantage of making the DW go someplace, making it waste time to do so, where the character has left a long time ago.

The lure lasts about 1.5 game hours. If you go inside a dwelling (so the outside technically 'despawns') and remain inside and sleep for 2 hours or more (presumably you could spend 2 or more hours of 'real' game time but I don't think most anyone would) when you exit the dwelling, the lure will be once again at full bar and will not expire. I suspect that similar to the "healing bear effect, if one spends longer than the lure would last in the 'other world' inside a dwelling (an interior cave should do as well), when the character comes out, the outside world is respawned and, by some glitch, the lure is respawned like new and the lure expiration timer status was not applied (so it spawns like new) and will not be applied (will not expire). If one sleeps only one hour the lure respawns in its existing state meaning the expiration timer still applies. I expect that will be addressed at some time but probably not during the current event. It is not as if the Deathwalker won't eventually get to it and destroy it, or that the character won't be driven from the region in 30 real-time minutes or so.

I have found (my impression) that if the DW is not in contact (>200 meters) then when it does spawn in the next region/zone it would tend to be towards the middle of it. If in contact (<200 meters) then it spawns, for the most part, the same distance away when one transitions. I have had both these cases occur but cannot say whether my experience was as consistent as my writing implies. I guess my experience so far says if in contact (<200 meters) with the Darkwalker expect it to be as close after any transition, such as to a region or zone, as it was before the transition. Use the lures strategically and freely. Make the Darkwalker take every step to any placed lure. Make it take the time. Hustle as needed to stay out of contact (>200 meters) with it. I can only say the above seemed to work for me. Good luck.

I completed two runs. On the first, I completed the participation badge then got devoured on my way to the sixth page. On the second, the primary objective was to get six pages and, after some thought about how things went in the first run, I completed the six page collection in a bit less time than my unsuccessful first run. On both runs I was not really scared but there was a good deal of tension which made the time I spend on each run seem like nothing. The fact that death was the final result also freed up my thoughts since there was no tomorrow there. To me, it made a positive difference. I spent about 2:20 (1st run) and 2:08 (2d run). That was probably about as long as I would have wanted. I wonder if there might have been a badge for those who did get all ten pages? I would never go for all ten pages. I am not that energetic. But others might have appreciated some kind of recognition.

I think whether or not the Darkwalker is in contact (<200 meters) matters when going through a transition. If not in contact (>200 meters) the game likely defaults to putting it in the middle area of the next region or zone so laying a lure inside would then draw the DW to the entry point and if the character is at the exit point he might be able to leave without the DW getting into contact range. If in contact the DW spawns in closer to the transition. I have no way to know if that is what happens but when I exited Cinder Hills mine with the DW well within contact (about 80 meters away) when I appeared in Coastal Highway the DW was about 80 meters away along the snow-plowed road. I don't remember the distances as I was getting a bit scared. My strategy was to impose as much delay on the DW as practical. But at the entry of the connecting link to Desolation I could go no farther without rest. There my luck and time ran out. 😞

Might try clicking (assuming you use a mouse) on one of the other filters, like the A-Z one. A flaw, perhaps, with the ammunition work bench is that it sets the filter to ammunition and an ordinary work bench does not reset the filter to A-Z.

I do not think Hinterland would go to the trouble of making a specific wolf, outside of a quest requirement, for instance, different compared to other "normal" wolves. I seem to not do so well (though I don't die) in melee with wolves, in general. In Winter's Embrace, I lost 70-80% of condition in one wolf attack which came out of nowhere (well there was limited visibility, relatively dark, moderate snowfall, but what's to worry I had a revolver at ready 😱). One reason I stick to Pilgrim mode. 🙂

If you want it in some form, be sure to speak up. I find it okay though I am not particularly interested in playing it often. I would expect something like Escape the Darkwalker to be more of a challenge rather than a custom game option. Within the challenge framework, if it was added, I think the evolution of the challenge would eventually see different (harder) difficulty be made available primarily in weather and predator numbers and behavior. On the other hand, the short duration of the challenge would seem to weigh against such since time is short and even if one had a mother lode of gear to choose from, only a certain amount of it would be of practical use in the challenge.

When the Darkwalker chased me from Pleasant Valley into Cinder Hills. It was not really close, probably down towards Thomson's Crossing (I hope). But when I came out into Coastal Highway the darn DW was on the snow road maybe (I forget) like 80 meters away. I dropped a lure and moved down the road then off to one side (I do not know if I could survive being in the path of the DW while it was heading to a lure) and got past it. This was the beginning of the end for my condition was down to <5% and I had to use a stim to get back enough condition to be able to move in a straight-line. It finally got me in the connecting link to Desolation. I was out of energy and out of time and out of options. Later I wondered where the DW would have spawned in Cinder Hills if I had ducked back into the mine. Obviously, if it spawned in the entrance area I was done, but if it spawned in the middle of the mine, I had more options. If I try the event again and get into a similar situation I'll have to try it. I hope I remember and am not too flustered. 😓

The DW got me in the cave to Desolation Point. I was just too exhausted to move far (besides carrying probably too much gear). Now that I look back on it, I wonder if I had stepped back into Crumbling Highway just where the DW would have spawned? At the transition to the mine, where I would have died immediately, or maybe in the middle of the zone and have to travel to me? I would imagine the former was more likely than the latter, but if the latter occurred, I'd have been able to go back into the mine, sleep off my fatigue, and if it spawned in the mine again, do it again, before heading through the mine to Desolation. If I ever get the desire to try again, I might try that. For Science!

There have been some youtubers who got courtesy early access to Dark Walker. I watched a 2 hour playthrough and gods it was scary. Plans thought out earlier lasted until the Dark Walker appeared then the plans came apart in the presence and threat of the Dark Walker. I was thinking of trying the event but now I don't know. 😨

With that concentration of things and facilities, I would imagine that there would be a "horde" of wolf packs and timberwolf packs prowling the region. If I never thought about leaving the region to check on other bases I may have set up, this proposed region would be very good for a final base.

Killing a wolf outright with a melee weapon (knife or hatchet) can happen but usually it gets driven off and can bleed out. That can take time. It is not a good idea to be in biting range as it wanders around before finally dying - it can decide on the last great bite of defiance or something. Always try to take precautions before going where there may be a threat. The revolver is a useful tool, but it is not a panacea to the threat of wolves. Be aware, if you were not, that firing the revolver without aiming can provide a benefit of "frightening" the wolf if the wolf is at a reasonable range. A "frightened" wolf does not attack. It is a bit more interested in getting away. At that point, an aimed shot might be tried without causing the wolf to attack. Good luck.