UTC-10

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.

Yes, harvesting the meat fully to stop the rapid decay when it remains on the carcass is standard and being unable to carry any significant portion of it, given that one has gear and clothing, is also standard. I would harvest the meat in 10 kilo batches and drop them in separate piles away from the carcass (for organization purposes) then try taking things as my weight capacity allowed back to base. I recently started using quartering which - a bear takes 2 hours - yields up to 8 quartering bags, the bear hide, and the guts. Being in Pilgrim I can manage 2 bags at most unless the character gets me angry where I might take a third bag and hobble slowly back to base. Quartering bags would be half meat and half "bone" so still has to be harvested for the meat but that can be done at base. How fast quartering bags (and their contents) decay depends on who you ask but it has some value.

The short answer is no. The longer answer would be that food poisoning is generally a small number (other people's subjective view on that notwithstanding). So you can get food poisoning but it is not (imo) a big risk. Of course, if concerned that one may get the brass ring, one might eat sketchy food just before bedtime so if it does happen, it can be treated and then the rest of the treatment (sleep ten hours) won't get too much in the way. You can get credit for "cooking" and get hot food as a result but not affect the chance of food poisoning.

The December 5 update (regardless of whether the DLC was purchased or not) affected the survival mode save game process so the pre-update saves while not wiped out could no longer be accessed except in the Time Capsule (Steam). It was not the DLC or expansion areas that caused the save game process to be updated. That update was going to happen. I might speculate that if not for this save game process update that we might have been able to continue with all of our old save games into TftFT. The changes to the save game process did seem to speed up saving the game with no momentary hitch as the game finalizes the save. So there was some improvement. Anyway, so any save game started post-update but before buying the DLC should be fine is my guess.

All I know is that the bears in Coastal Highway bleed out and die - the one that frequents the Waterfront Cottages area and the one near the Coastal Townsite (I did it twice) - and this is with the new run the update forced me to start. All I can otherwise say is that it can take quite a while for a bear to bleed out.

Thanks for reminding me. I forgot about this. I went up the road from Log Sort and went through the transition from Coastal Highway to Ravine. No problems. I went across the railroad trestle and mapped a ways then returned to Coastal Highway to get back to what I had been doing. Definitely no problems with the transition. I was even able to map out the Train Unloading area trailer (Coastal Highway) which, for some unknown reason did not show up before. Probably needed to step a foot to one side to get it or something. I had been making trips through Cinder Hills Mine to move stuff from the Coastal Highway side to the Pleasant Valley side and had no problems on any of those.

An ersatz and expendable form of fire barrel. Because it is consumed by the fire, it would not be permanent. The use of a section of log would probably make it somewhat not casually portable. It can make use of crafted line from gut (crafted line does not burn in this instance) in its crafting. A hatchet or hacksaw would be needed to craft. How long it would last, would depend on implementation decisions as it might have a specific time limit i.e., 2 hours then it goes out regardless since the log was consumed or it might be a one-time use for a maximum of one or two hours. Harvesting of the Canadian Candle could yield one piece of wood or a few sticks plus some charcoal (dev implementation decision). The base stock would be obtained by deciding whether the character wants a Log or Pieces of Wood from a tree limb. For limbs that yield 3 pieces the character can obtain one log in lieu of those pieces. For larger limbs that yield 5 pieces, the character can obtain two logs in lieu of those pieces. Crafting The Canadian Candle is crafted by splitting the log into 4 or 8 pieces, clearing out an interior cavity, cutting a vent hole in the side, then reassembling the pieces, tied together with crafted line, which the end (making assertion that it would be smooth enough) then serves as a platform for cooking, water making, with the body of the log serving as fuel and a wind shield. It has one nominal cooking surface that requires a pot to use though there might be accessories like a grill to substitute for it. Recycled cans (two) can be placed on the top beside the fire hold and will melt snow at 2 the normal duration. Whether the Canadian Candle can be extinguished and moved to another location then relit is a dev implementation decision. Game implementation matters and I may be reaching about what it can do but it did look interesting in this video on Kent Survival channel on youtube Swedish Torches - 3 styles of 1 log fire .

I should make the trek from Coastal Highway to Ravine just to see if the problem you have appears. I have been up to the tunnel but not tried to cross into Ravine because I decided that I would go through Pleasant Valley. I better check. I have already been through Cinder Hills Mine (which BTW is reflected in the journal as Abandoned Mine) to Pleasant Valley and no trouble.