UTC-10

You find alternate uses for something that is more useful/valuable than its original purpose which has declined in importance. Due to the ravages of Lost and Found, I would use cattail heads for trail markers and eventually replace them, if I had the time and inclination, with campfires. Cattails and other things got swept up in Lost and Found, negating a lot of effort to mark trails and safe crossings, but campfires were not touched. So I went back to upgrading trails of cattail heads, tinder plugs, stones, even charcoal with campfires which were permanent (unless they sank beneath the snow and ice) and were more visible in most conditions, even pretty low visibility.

It would appear that you ran afoul of the long ago fix to make using the lantern's ignition sequence as free light have some small cost in lantern fuel.

(Just checked in game) Crafting a new bearskin bedroll would require two cured bearskins, five cloth, and six cured gut plus a knife or hatchet, harvesting a 45% bedroll to get one bearskin then crafting a new one looks to be a losing proposition considering a mend would take one bear skin and one cloth. I recall that for awhile a bedroll would need one bear skin, among other things, but that seems to have been "fixed". Mending the bedroll maxes out at 62.5% IIRC (50% plus 12.5 % which would be the bonus of 25% due to sewing skill).

Knowing nothing about how the game makes its determination of condition loss, I wonder if the problem is, in part, that the variable that determines condition loss is not being cleared before the determination is made so whatever random number happens to occupy the variable gets applied to whatever item it gets applied to. If you had had a struggle then the algorithm might then apply the sub-routine that determines what number occupies that variable and would override whatever had been there. You killed the wolf so no struggle. When the game then runs through its programming post encounter, it skips the now much condition was reduced sub-routine, and if the condition loss variable is not ZERO (for any reason, i.e. it was not cleared) it gets applied to whatever item the algorithm happens to fall upon. So perhaps somewhere in the algorithm even when dropping an item on the floor/snow there is a condition reduction variable that should be ZERO but if it is not then condition get reduced anyway by that random number.

There seems to always have been the occasional problem with loss of condition for things like the bearskin bedroll. I have not seen it but do not doubt that it can happen. I have noticed and reported a separate issue with erratic and sometimes substantial condition loss for medical items such as antibiotics, pain killers, and water purification tablets. Don't know or think they would be related but seeing water purification tablets go from 24% condition to 0% condition in coming down Timberwolf from Eric's Falls to Mountaineer Hut is a bit much. Crossing a transition, dropping on the floor, moving from one medical shelf to another medical shelf in the same farmhouse all trigger (usually) some degradation of condition. Once it has been degraded condition loss seems to stabilize until the next time.

The Misanthrope bear goes by the fireplace house at Waterfront Cottages within easy revolver, rifle, or bow range. If the house is intact, shoot from the railed porch with the front door to escape through near at hand if needed.

I figure I only put down a beginning suggestion for effort required and benefits gained. If it were to become a game feature I think it would have to seriously thought out and ramifications considered. Like the "no tinder needed" benefit for Fire Starting which relieves the player of having to make tinder (pretty easy to make tinder plugs if the character has a stick and a few minutes) but seems maybe the wrong kind of benefit (i.e. a bit trivial) but that was how the skill's benefits were viewed back in the implementation stage. If a series of new skills were introduced that could be part of Skilled Survivor II (reach five skills at level 5 for I, ten skills gets II). But unlikely though possible with survival being split from story mode.

Might be better to have a skill tree: Mountaineering for which certain benefits while engaged in climbing can be obtained through effort rather than have a few items that once found confer a benefit. Let's say for Mountaineering it requires 10 x existing level ascents and separately descents to get to the next level. To get to level 2 requires 10 ascents and 10 descents (full climbs not climb half way up then climb back down). For instance as an initial thought: Level 2 confers +5 kg of encumbrance for descents. Level 3 confers +5 kg of encumbrance for ascents. Level 4 confers reduced fatigue energy cost for descents. (two down arrows not three, whatever that works out to be in game terms) Level 5 confers reduced fatigue energy cost for ascents. (two down arrows not three, whatever that works out to be in game terms) Anyone who really seriously wants these benefits is going to expend the time and effort to do it as quickly as they can. If one does not care for the benefits then just carry on and ignore the skill. If one does enough climbing over time it will come eventually. The lower levels allows the character to carry more. The higher level allows the character to do it longer or be less affected by the climb. A surrogate for increasing experience in the activity. We all have to do some climbing. Places where climbing becomes more necessary would be on Timberwolf Mountain and Ash Canyon. I know that for myself (being a Pilgrim player) I will walk the long way around rather than do a climb if I can avoid it. I may be mistaken about the fatigue expenditure of walking up to Skeeter's Ridge rather than the two climbs from Draft Dodgers but I often feel any climb take just too much of my fatigue.

I suspect that if Episode 4 had expanded play involving Astrid that the possibility existed for her to find the workshop and be able to deploy a shortcut for access (for quest purposes, of course) and that would then become available for survival mode players. Why give something away for free when it might be of use to a quest (the thinking at the time)? So, no quest. No shortcut. Because of the physical separation between Coastal Highway and Bleak Inlet, there might also have been an explanation for that robo-boat that took her from presumably Coastal Highway to that dock in Perseverance Mills.

I don't think it would ever happen but if it did I would hope that whatever the male alternate would be that they get rid of the "cough, gotta drop some gear" comment as that (for purely subjective reasons) just makes me mad and kind of "ruins" my mood at the time. 😠

You're missing the Hunting Rifle 😁but a nice collection of the variants. 👍 I haven't been pursuing the variants though I won't leave them behind if/when I come across them. Got Barb's rifle first as the first rifle anything I found that was a relief.

If you want arrows without the forging, better do more beachcombing and trust to luck. Usually individual broken arrows wash up though I have seen the occasional intact arrow. Be sure, of course, to have the feathers and arrow shafts so the broken arrows can be crafted into simple arrows at a convenient work bench. I forged about 18 arrowheads, still have 5 arrowheads left, and have about 30 arrows. Several from the Barn in Pleasant Valley, several found next to ravaged deer carcasses, and a fair number more from beachcombing in Desolation, Crumbling, and Coastal Highway. It was by no means fast but it was much more rewarding than beachcombing in those areas before the December update. Good luck. I also use the revolver on occasion to hunt. Got a doe which was the devil to find (it went further than I imagined at the time) and later on a buck that dropped dead on the spot. I play Pilgrim so predators usually would not be a problem but I always would carry the revolver as the best trade-off between using a bow or rifle. This was especially true when I had not yet acquired a moose hide satchel (using the rifle).

It would be nice to have painted symbols be visible in total darkness conditions for limited periods of time but I don't think that will happen as just plain being able to see in low-light conditions has been problematic for years. I have some luminous things in my bedroom and while, in real life, I can shine a light on them to refresh them, the devs might have a bit more of a problem with that kind of effect in the game.

Probably one of those glitches that crop up every so often. Now that you mention it, I think I ran into that glitch in a slightly different way. I was picking up sticks from a pile and then suddenly (I may have gone inside) I had a couple hundred sticks in inventory. ??? I do not remember all the details as it was pre-DLC update but it was puzzling. Haven't seen the like of it since then and it was only that once is relatively recent memory. It was notable because "it just happened".

I don't think Quartering is going to be exchanged for carrying a carcass. It has been around too long. It was the devs' response to being able to move a carcass other than a rabbit. The carrying of a survivor was a Wintermute work-around which relieved the quest devs (by fiat) from having to work out how to make it an actual general mechanic applicable to Survival mode (the two code bases were kind of joined at the hip at that time). So carrying survivors would not be applicable to carrying a carcass. I would be interested in the capacity and manner of functional implementation of a travois. Is it an addition to the character's weight capacity (at the cost of no running) either in absolute (a given number of kilos like the Moose hide satchel or a percentage increase to capacity so the greater the character weight capacity the greater the additional weight subject to exhaustion) or will it be a separate device that has a fixed weight capacity separate from the character (I doubt it but it is possible)? Wow what a long question. 🙂

I do hunt. I just will stop using low condition arrows. Not that I have a pile of such, just a couple, but in places where finding a carcass can be a challenge or the food situation is not bad, I'd rather get the arrow back rather than have it and the animal disappear into the hinterlands never to be found. In the situation I described, I was actually writing off finding the bear carcass when the clue dropped that led me to it. Otherwise, I would console myself that at least I got the broken arrow back and could craft a replacement.

For the first time I was going after the bear on Skeeter's Ridge. It would walk in the East-West valley that its cave accessed into and come around past the Hunter's Blind and by the crashed plane. I opened the plane's cargo door and the bear passed close enough for a good hit with an arrow (I keep low condition arrows since they break on impact as a means to wound [if it didn't kill] a critter and even if I don't find the carcass I still have the broken arrow that I can harvest). I was prepared to run up into the passenger compartment (and did anyway) if the bear came my way. It didn't. I presume that the game knows that it can't path to that location so the alternative is it runs away. The bear took awhile to bleed out. I presume it was heading largely back to its cave when I had to go back to the abandoned prepper cache to eat and sleep. I spent the next two days searching that narrow valley for the carcass. I went all along the Southern side of the valley, even climbing up to the ridge (next to the crash plane area) and nothing. I was calling it quits when I decided to keep an eye on the Northern side of the valley but the bear carcass couldn't be there, could it? I had not seen nor was there really any place to have a dark spot on snow. Then I found a crow feather. Looking up I spotted a murder of crows circling where they should not have been. Climb up the slope and there on a rock projection was the bear carcass. 😲 A sampling of meat was 34% condition. I took the hide, that kilo of meat, then decided based on its condition to quarter the carcass then head down to the bear cave to rest. Next day I moved the quartering bags, bear hide, bear guts, and the single kilo of bear meat to the abandoned prepper cache. Only anomaly was that I only recovered five bags and there should have been seven or eight. I had pulled one bag from the snow - the cursor detected it - but two or three bags were never found. Lost about 1/3 of the bear meat, but 2/3 was better than none which I was already rather resigned to. I play in Pilgrim so YMMV.

I have found backpacks in places I would not have expected to find them. Not that somebody couldn't have dropped or placed them in that spot, but I had never seen it appear in given spot before. Not surprised.

The game has its inconsistencies that seem to be related to how the scene was set up. I am in at Thomson's Crossing and in a number of spots there are things that [should] be breakable but are not. Metal pails for one. I understand that some of this is because the scene we see often is a sort of a painting hence we cannot move the plates, cups, etc., from tables and counters. Things we can interact with were placed there. I have often lamented that the obvious planks leaning against the Camp Office could not be broken into reclaimed wood, among other things in the game. I would presume that burned-out torches are just that burned out so have no further fuel value. A decision was made that it has no further use as a torch so to get some use from it one has to harvest a stick from it. If spending two minutes to harvest a stick from a burned out torch is too long and easier just to toss it into a fire then one does without the benefit of that stick. I think I figured out one part of that anomaly. At Log Sort there were the log rafts and it was one time easy to step up and cross them and then it was a struggle and then it became easy again (about time of episode 3). I had the idea that I could put a campfire in the lee of the logs to shield them from the wind then I discovered there was an invisible force plane (that incidentally prevents placing the campfire next to the log raft) that was an easily traversable slope onto and off the log raft. I suspect that is why the 2x4 board or railroad track or 3 inch high snow bank can stop us dead in our tracks as the devs did not go through the whole game and put these little ramps over all instances of these "insurmountable" slopes. I am still not happy that it happens but maybe better understand why.

Now if only harvesting charcoal from a fire, while having nothing already in hand, would put the charcoal into my inventory automatically instead of forcing me to do the "put it away" action. A QoL thing as it can be pretty irritating though it is not a big thing.

I do recall that throwing a stone at a wolf that is busy doing something else like feeding is completely ignored. It probably does not fall in to the parameters of the wolf AI that something is hitting me (unless using a lethal weapon) when its busy with more important things like gobbling up the animal meat. Since I play Pilgrim trying to check whether "aiming" a stone has the same effect as aiming a bow or firearm, can be problematic. I may give it a try just to see. I dislike giving out incorrect information.

I don't think the game differentiates what a character is using when aiming. Aiming is aiming. Stone, revolver, rifle, or bow, it does not matter. The intent probably was to forestall the wolf standing still while the character aims a bow, revolver or rifle at them. OTOH, the act of aiming can provoke the wolf to actually attack. I seem to recall that occurring to me when in the Winter's Embrace event which was in Voyager mode.

We should not equate what the game terms "Master Gunsmith" with skilled, experienced real world gunsmiths who have workshops for their craft. So far our "skill" is related to fixing firearms on a milling machine, casting generic bullets, mixing gunpowder, and reloading ammunition with no need for primers (certainly all simplification decisions by the devs). We lack the kinds of materials, machinery and tools we might expect a real gunsmith would use to fashion a workable firearm from scratch. That said, the devs can by fiat say "you can craft a firearm" and work out the implementation but that would undercut the premise of what was the unplanned game difficulty called Interloper.

About a year-old pics of a sleeping bear and a dead bear. There were differences in posture between sleeping and dead. Always be careful. Pilgrim play so I can get close to a sleeping bear. The dead one ignored me. 🙂

1) Odd Behavior Two sets of four water purification tablets, 34% and 36% condition in drawer work bench in Quonset Garage. Tablets moved one by one to backpack inventory, four tablets ostensibly same condition show up as one, one, and two tablets, all showing the same condition. Tablets were moved back to drawer, which unaccountably then combined them according to their condition, then moved to backpack inventory using the Move All to Inventory. I had to use the work bench drawer because the first aid kit I originally had them in had a lot of other stuff that I did not want to move to inventory. 2) Odd Decay [Same day] Left Quonset Garage and walked up to Abandoned Mine (aka Cinder Hills Mine), through the mine to the Pleasant Valley side. Was going to leave the tablets there then discovered their condition had changed to 20% and 17%. Another four tablets taken a few days earlier which had been about 30% at the Quonset Garage had decayed to 13%. The Odd Behavior is an inconvenience. The Odd Decay is relatively more serious since once the tablets get to Ruined (0% condition) they become useless unless I find other tablets that would allow me to rejuvenate them. Have fun figuring this out. 👍 Thanks.