UTC-10

I went to the Fishing Camp and did not find an outside lost and found box. All of the meat, stones, charcoal, and water, etc. was gone probably into the box outside the Quonset. Inside the cabins, things were as they had been. No inside lost and found boxes. I went to Desolation Point and discovered in the outside lost and found at the Lighthouse that it did, in fact, contain several 0% raw meat pieces. I took them out and put them on the snow to find that two of the five were like graphics of cooked meat but I could not click on them. When I came out of the lighthouse the next day, the cooked meat graphics were gone and there was three raw meat (two wolf and one venison) on the snow. Don't know what to make of that. The results of regional lost and found seemed to be the same as in Pleasant Valley and Coastal Highway. Things get swept away to some central lost and find box in the region. I am taking some precautions to try and not lose all my raw and cooked meat since we do have the December Survival Update and eventually episode 4 and 5 updates, but I think a lot depends on whether something specific happens in that location. If Episode 4 ends up in Coastal Highway, I expect that the Quonset garage is going to be affected. I am kind of wondering if that broken bridge in Desolation Point might end up repaired by episode 5. Always wondered what was on the other side of the bridge.

In Coastal Highway, I watched as a wolf chase and kill a deer. The carcass fell into the snow and disappeared. Since this was Pilgrim, the wolf fled on my approach but there was no sign of the deer at all. This was the most recent time it happened. I think it happened one other time (since the Crossroad Elegy update) in Pleasant Valley. I didn't, but next time it happens, I'll take care to get a screenshot and report it.

Be aware that the lost and found boxes are containers. Items that were 0% condition and did not have salvage/harvest value will disappear when they get relocated (by the lost and found process) into the lost and found box. Items like 0% food will disappear because while they can still be consumed per usual game mechanics, they do not have a harvest value while 0% torches will survive because they can be harvested for a stick. Similarly 0% clothes should survive because they can be harvested for cloth or cured leather, etc. Food items do decay while in lost and found and any food item that reaches 0% in lost and found will also disappear, although that can take a while. Items that were "out in the snow" as in not inside a building, cave, or similar enclosed (transition screen entry/exit) or in a container will generally be consolidated outside some location. In Pleasant Valley, that would be the farmhouse and the formerly Crossroads store, so the effect is pretty widespread for the region. Similarly in Coastal Highway, so far I have found the regional lost and found box outside the Quonset garage and nowhere else (still going over so maybe there's another by the Fishing Camp but unlikely).

On Timberwolf, I found a lost and found box in the Mountaineer hut which contained what I assume was all the things, excepting 0% food items, that had been on the snow outside the interior caves and in the non-transition caves. Stuff inside interior caves (caves with transitions) was intact as I don't think those caves were modified. I kind of though this might be the case (lost and found) after I found the changelog that said it had been applied to all regions.

The signal tower you thought I meant is not toppled. That was the original one dating back to Story mode if not earlier (I had not entered FM at that point). I remember seeing "let's play" in Story mode where it existed. I do not recall when the toppled signal tower was introduced (or even the other signal tower in the SE corner of FM). If you can see the toppled tower the cave that seems to spawn up to half a dozen coal (how often I do not know, probably every week or two weeks at a guess) is nearby up on the higher ground (same level as the tower) and not at the level of the ice.

The toppled signal tower and the cave I referred to lies between Broken Railroad tunnel and Old Spence forge. I was surprised to eventually discover that Forlorn Muskeg had three signal towers. The third one I found was by the Muskeg lookout (I think that was how the location was named) near where the snow shelter had been but which I never got to use. It just decayed away. Sigh.

Unless Story mode handles it differently, you'd need four pieces if you were extravagant with wood or seven or eight pieces if you weren't. As far as forge temps go. Your best bet would be the cave near the toppled signal tower in Forlorn Muskeg. Good luck.

I have now gone to Thomson's Crossing. Thomson is located on the nominal "West" side of the river and there used to be accessible houses on the nominal "East" side of the river which are no longer accessible or there anymore. I am saying West and East because of the way the game map is oriented, so North would be roughly towards Timberwolf. What happened to the player contents of any of those houses that was used prior to episode 3 going live? Things that were outside - raw and cooked meat, sticks, coal - ended up in a lost and found box outside the Crossroads store. Pretty much everything in the area that was outside and player-related seemed to do so, but since the Crossroads House on the "North" side was removed there was no place for a lost and found box to be put for interior player-related contents. I understand about 0% things not surviving in lost and found, but I do recall I had a fair assortment of tools, cured hides, cured guts, clothing items, etc. stashed in the Crossroads house and it is a disappointment if they just went *poof*.

Just adding that, for me, I have confirmed that food decays in the lost and found box. I am watching a cooked fish and a couple of cooked venison at 5% now and were higher a few game days ago. This box is outside so maybe that accounts for slower decay, but just thought I'd mention it.

Just have to write after just playing: I saw a wolf chase a deer for a couple minutes, near the barn and the chase was so long it is hard to describe in any detail, before going out of sight. I did see a wolf kill a rabbit, then after that the wolf agroed on another rabbit and then proceeded to chase the rabbit as far as the bridge over the river, maybe 200-300 yards, before they went out of sight. These cases were not stalks where the deer or rabbit runs a distance while the wolf moves with a purpose. In both these cases, the wolf was going full tilt, actually catching up to the deer and rabbit as they fled, but then never actually catching them. I watched as the deer did a "instant" change of direction and the wolf then lumbered into a turn to follow, falling behind, and even then the wolf would catch up to the deer and be snapping at its hooves to no avail.

I don't know about items that might be lost, generally, but I do know that lost and found consolidated everything (so far) that I had left on the snow and ice outside my various bases in Pleasant Valley to the box on the front porch of the farm house. I do know that the vast amount of ruined (0%) cooked and raw meat that was around the farm house and outside the bases has gone the way of ruined items put into containers. Gone. I have not yet moved beyond the line (towards what was Crossroads and now is Thomson's Crossing) of Draft Dodgers and Pensive Pond yet because I was moving stuff back so they could again be stopping points. But I am not sure just what might have happened to my base in the Crossroads house and the pile of coal, etc. that was at the fire barrel, etc. maybe there will be a lost and found outside that house. I expect the interior, if it changed, to have the stuff inside in a lost and found box. I have tested the lost and found box on the farm house porch. Items that can decay will decay while in the box, albeit rather slowly. Items that don't decay won't. Although it may be tempting to keep stuff inside it because the lost and found box has unlimited capacity (of course you can't put anything into one) there is no guarantee that another round of landscape changes won't result in its contents being replaced by whatever else got scavenged up rather than added to, or the box might go away eventually whether it is empty or not (unlikely though).

The actual prepper caches appear only in Mystery Lake and Pleasant Valley. There are nine prepper caches and each one has a particular spot. In the two regions where they can spawn only one will spawn in each region. The only way to find one is to visit each and every possible spot until you find it. Many maps, even out of date ones like Whiteberry's, are still reasonably accurate as far as general locations go but keep in mind they are only general locations. You may have to look around.

Since the episode 3 update, I have seen four instances where a wolf was unable to catch a deer. A couple might be the deer outruns the stalking wolf, but in some the deer and the wolf were running at full speed. Even when the deer did some crazy turns (i.e. evasive maneuvers?) the wolf was completely unable to catch it. This last one, the wolf agroed. Chased the deer at full speed across the field NW of the farmhouse, crossed the road, went up a hill to a rock outcropping, and when I caught up to them I took a screen shot of the deer and wolf running, but not moving, in the manner shown. I shot the deer which died and the wolf then scampered off in fear mode. I don't know if this was working as intended or a bug or something but I did report it on the chance it was an actual problem. Note: I know about previous instances where animals get stuck but the wolves not catching the deer is getting me extremely frustrated.

Although I understand that some players have lost valuable items, so far I have found Lost and Found to mostly do what the devs wanted it to. Mostly... In my limited experience, looking around the farmstead and part of Pleasant Valley, things to be aware of: Things left on the snow, outside of a location or building, can end up in the lost and found box on the farmstead porch. Things in containers, like the drawers in the Pensive pond ice fishing hut, lockers in the Signal Hill control hut, the interior of the Pleasant Valley - Winding River cave, will tend to stay put. I did find a lost and found box in the control hut for things left on the shelves and tables but even that was not absolutely consistent. If like me, you had a stack of ruined (0%) meat (raw or cooked) and 0% canned goods, and they got moved, they are probably toast. Around the farmstead I had quite a bit of ruined raw venison and now it was all gone. The lowest condition item (of any kind) I found in lost and found was 1%. No 0% stuff. I am a bit disappointed to lose all that ruined meat. The wolves worked really hard to supply me with it. Now all their hard work was for naught.

Not going to happen at this point. Not with Episode 3 due to go live and a survival mode update in December. The cooking interface would have to change, new items possibly introduced, new graphics, and ramifications of what it all means in game terms. It has been requested for a long time. I wouldn't mind being pleasantly surprised for Hinterland to actually do something soon but realistically they have more things to worry about, such as bugs and game-play, than a recipe book and recipes.

The first time 4DON was run, it was in the main game. That caused some disarray between journal days and actual days played. For instance, four days represented four real time days so you could play a couple weeks of in-game "days". Then 4DON was made an opt-in game modification since not everyone appreciated the event. Things that were acquired in the event did not carryover or back to the main game. For the purposes of 4DON, every 24 hours from start of the event represents a different "day". Different events on each "day". I do not know beyond that since I did not play 4DON the last time. Also unless something has changed, if you opt-in then you should stay in until the event is over as it was a modification of the game files. I could be wrong, so hopefully someone can correct this.

Prepper caches do not show up on the charcoal maps. The OP has a point since I do think that permanent structures and objects should be something that can be mapped. Of course, the map location of things can be really off compared to the underlying map. On another note, I would like the particular area of the map, when I come back and use another charcoal, be updated with things that are no longer there disappearing and anything that is now there appearing. But that's probably more effort than Hinterland wants to put into that as it is optional whether one maps or not.

More cooking spots would be nice, but I think it would be OP. Since fire starting skill, once leveled, is always on, if there was some kind of handicap associated with the additional cooking surfaces, it would mean that the handicap would always be there. Depending on the handicap, it could become a real pain. We'll see what turns up in Pleasant Valley when Episode 3 goes live. Be interesting what HL has for us with December.

I try think in terms of what the devs would consider fair trade-offs to balance one advantage with a disadvantage. Because the graphic image would likely have to be different to distinguish each type of enhanced campfire, I would not consider it a candidate for implementation anytime soon. An alternate to this enhanced mostly wind-proof campfire might be to reintroduce the old campfire (no ring of rocks around it), make it more forgiving of the underlying surface so it could be laid on a steeper or more irregular surface than previously, and only provide warmth with the collateral effect of warming previously brewed drinks and foods that can be heated, that were placed near it. This old-style campfire would despawn much like fully harvested carcasses do now in the game and/or by the next morning or something. Other features, pro and con, would depend on what it would do to game balance.

Yes I can say that pulling torches from a fire just the way you and I and others do was something that the developers knew that players would resort to. Pulling torches from a fire was exactly the way to get torches without having to craft them before the devs changed them to brands. In part, at the time, they wanted to make players use kerosene to craft torches and pulling them from a fire got around that. And now that they changed them back to torches, we're back to doing just that. You did leave off the part of the post, "they would, in effect become torches." That was the point I was making to ajb1978 about why were brands removed and replaced with torches. There was nothing that said that the devs couldn't have made all those "fixes" to brands which would make them less of a pain, but to what purpose? They made their choice and I, for one, am quite happy they did. Others may disagree.

I started in Voyager. Played in it until the torch trick was 'fixed', among other changes (e.g. intestinal parasites, I believe) which didn't bother me as much, so I dropped my Voyager game and started Pilgrim and never left it. I know that I have gotten bad habits from playing Pilgrim - I mess with the wolves rather than they mess with me - but the pace of the game and the environment in Pilgrim suits me.

I think that if brands were "fixed" so that they could: Be re-lit, be harvested, be burned, and be put into inventory, which would also allow for ruined brands to be disposed of (but harvesting if allowed would obviate that need), they would, in effect become torches. You could differentiate between brands and torches - you can only pull a brand from a fire, while torches had to be crafted - but having two items that could do virtually the same things and be handled very similarly was probably thought as an unnecessary complication so brands were eliminated. I also don't think that a flaming brand was thought to be something you could realistically throw with any degree of accuracy or range when brandishing was changed back to throwing.

Currently the game has electric, gas (natural or propane), and wood-fired stoves. How about a kitchen stove that uses kerosene (or its replacement, lamp oil)? It would provide an alternative to places, like the the prepper caches, draft dodger, and the lake cabin, where there is no visible sign of a utility connection. It would also seem consistent for the houses on Misanthrope and Jackrabbit for similar reasons. Not every house that it might make sense would have one, and it would require the player to have lamp oil to use it. It would only have one setting for its burners unless or until the much requested recipes and more elaborate cooking was ever implemented. A variant would be something like a Coleman camp stove which has two burners and is mostly portable. Uses lamp oil, is relatively wind-resistant, and needs regular maintenance. One major reason against it would be that to have a level stove, there would have to be the capacity to place it (temporarily) or modify the landscape temporarily. The game does not currently allow for that, much, but as long as that problem is understood, the stove could be placed on any generally flat horizontal surface. Of course, we've gotten along with holes in the reality for a long time, so probably something once Story Mode is concluded.

I have the fire master badge so I start at Level 3 fire starting so I don't need to but have gotten into the habit of carrying and using tinder plugs just about every time I start a fire. I now feel a bit funny not using tinder plugs when I start a fire. Before I used tinder plugs to mark paths and just left them in the trash cans, but lately I have been picking them up and replacing them with cattail heads or something else. Sure I can use cattails for tinder, but I am not going to be a purist about it. As long as the paper lasts, I'll use tinder plugs. After that, well... I'll see.

I would guess that if a mental fitness aspect was added to the game, there might be reason for alcohol as a morale booster (you don't feel the pain of the sprain or broken ribs, but anytime you move you stagger all over like when in extremis at less than 5% condition *), or maybe a temporary palliative for cabin fever (i.e. you can sleep indoors if insensible drunk but it resets the "cure" time outdoors to max again among other effects). * While drunk you can shoot yourself or just discharge the firearm, repeatedly, if you handle a loaded firearm or try to clean it or try to unload it. Attempting to craft gives a real possibility that you'll destroy what you're crafting including all materials. Don't forget setting yourself on fire or burning yourself while trying to light a campfire or stove. Ruining your hatchet or knife if attempting to maintain it with a whet stone. I leave out the possibility of amputating a hand or several fingers while chopping wood.