Serenity

4 hours ago, Sherri said:

It would blow my mind if language is enough to give a game an M rating... but all the animal killing doesn't? I have no clue how game ratings work though. 🤷‍♀️

Americans are extremely weird. Violence is no issue whatsoever. Stabbing someone with a screw driver in Episode 2 is delightful family entertainment. Perfectly fine for the little ones. But say a "bad" word and people freak out.

This has nothing to do with "Hollywood" by the way. Film ratings aren't set by the movie industry, but by an opaque and extremely conservative ratings board. Although it does reflect society in some ways as the double standard between violence and sex/swearing is obvious everywhere.

On 10/9/2021 at 2:20 PM, Sceh said:

There was a clear warning that they could harm you when you first encountered the noise-makers. So maybe ... I dunno ... use with caution?

And you're holding a can of black powder with a burning fuse in your hand. There is a bar decreasing when you light it. What do people expect?

The throwing mechanic itself is a bit weird though. It doesn't seem to fly very far and it is possible to throw it basically at your feet. I'd have expected something like stone throwing. Just shorter. More control that way.

I liked the region. Should be fun in survival mode (I hope there will be a fishing hut though). Didn't like the very poor, artificial wolf placement. Huge packs in very narrow choke points. Little to no roaming. It feels more like obvious blocks set in your way instead of naturally roaming creatures like in most places in survival mode.

The character work was easily the best yet. Too bad it's overshadowed by the bad gameplay as far as the wild life is concerned.

They also don't roam much if at all. And there is no spawn variation. In survival mode wolves can have a pretty large patrol area if the terrain allows it. You can pass a certain dangerous spot, but you're in luck and the wolf is far away. And they spawn and despawn. So on some days you don't get a wolf at all. Or it may only be two instead of three.

In Wintermute they are always there however and always in the exact same spot. That contributes heavily to the artificial setpiece feeling.

I could see it working in Ash Canyon for example. If there is a discrepancy it doesn't seem huge.

Small cabins or trailers also seem to match or at least be close enough.

The wolf placement feels too much like gamey set pieces and is not fun. It's not like that in survival mode at all. Having wolf packs block narrow paths is pretty rare (like in Ash Canyon in one place) and usually it's just one or maybe two. When there are packs there is usually plenty of space to avoid them. It always feels organic and not predictable. But in episode 4 whenever you need to go to some location you can be absolutely sure that there will be 4-5 wolves in an extremely narrow space. If you are lucky there is exactly one alternative route. It's so obviously scripted that it distracts from the gameplay.

The timberwolves also seem broken. Or maybe I accidentally set my game to the lowest difficulty. The growl and follow you, but then usually run away when approaching. But sometimes they attack. Doesn't feel right.

The biggest issue with converting other houses to this is that many ended up being bigger on the inside than the outside. At least the oldest ones. So there is a huge conflict between the interior design and the space available for the house.

Better to just drop everything. It's silly how they taken even your clothing. It's not worth losing stuff by trying to figure out what is fine and what not.

1 hour ago, Pencil said:

Warmth: Some interiors have temperatures above freezing, so this is not a problem. Check

Beyond the very, very early game all of them really. Except the mountaineer's hut. It's only when you are almost naked that you might just be one or two degrees short. As soon as you find a few items of clothing you'll be fine.

So I want to know, does the magnifying glass lose condition? Do cans lose condition? Can you get metal from beachcombing? 

No. Only when you burn water I think.

And while you can get can metal from beach combing it really shouldn't be necessary. There is sooo much metal in the game. So many things you can saw up.

Early crafting is really only necessary on Interloper. Simply because high end clothing doesn't spawn and you have to make your own hatchets and knives. On all other difficulties there is tons of loot everywhere. Even Stalker has stuff everywhere. Just visit the major locations and you'll eventually find all you need (though that doesn't mean you can't find stuff in out of the way corners sometimes).

You will probably want a bow eventually, but until then you can use a rifle. So again below Interloper it's not a priority.

Keep an eye out for tools: hacksaw, heavy hammer, hatchet, knife. Also the bedroll.

9 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Trouble is with forlorn there is very little to do there! It can be fully explored in one day depending on weather of course!

I'm watching a YouTube series where someone spent a month at Spence's Farmstead and literally kept a fire going for the entire time. It was really interesting and with that goal in mind time passed pretty fast. Another goal you can set yourself is to actually harvest natural resources like cat tails, mushrooms, saplings and rose hips instead of just walking by most areas one time.

And some other regions like Mystery Lake don't really have more to do either. But somehow certain people seem to be fine with sitting at Trapper's Homestead and snaring rabbits for 500 days, but maps like HRV and AC are supposedly bad because "there is nothing there". Now BR on the other hand - that is truly a tiny map

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

Still its a bit unfair after spending all that time harvesting it in the first place! 

No. It's right for game balance. Quartering is not something you usually do. And almost never with small animals like deer and wolves. It allows you to harvest animals in the safety of a shelter. And you get the guts + hide for free. In return bags are heavier than the pure meat and they decay very fast.

This isn't so unusual. The beginning of Interloper just isn't all that cold. It only feels that way because of the horrible starting clothing. It's only when the temperature decay sets in that things get truly cold.

Also note that it's getting towards late afternoon. That's the warmest part of the day. Mornings are much colder.

The ice caves (there are two of them) are huge. And yes you can sleep inside. There are large caverns at some point too. But even in the narrow areas you can place a sleeping bag

There are also some very nice outdoor caves. There is a great cave near the end of Stairsteps Lake that's very centrally located in that subregion. Monolith Lake is also nice, but a bit isolated.

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 I could see a smoke near Many Falls Vista. So I thought, it is easy

It's pretty simply once you've figured out the map

2 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

This was an original save from years and years ago.

That's probably the reason. Migrating between versions can screw things up

There is nothing to "add" to the game. There are no DLCs or anything yet. Just the regular patches

There are lots of options going from there. The climb to the basin is between the two caves on the upper edge. Otherwise you can do these things:

• Looking down on the muskeg there is an indoor cave on the upper left side that takes you to Hat Creek
• You can also walk to the creek without using the cave from its entrance
•  In some places you can easily goat down the cliff side if you don't have a rope for the climbing spot

Map: https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1756937047924325810/A0AF282B9BEF1EF9B40F68262216B1101398ED20/

This is a wish rather than a technical issue. It's working exactly as designed, but I agree that it would be nice if clicking a fire with a torch would automatically open the fire starting menu with the torch selected.

The running away thing is pretty much the gimmick of Pilgrim (like Stalker has tons of wolves and Interloper has relatively little loot). As aid the setting should be "Passive Wildlife". That's the only thing that's activated on Pilgrim only. "Wildlife Detection Range" is when animals react to you as you walk up, but I don't think that's actually lower on Pilgrim

That has nothing do to with smell. And I don't think even the regular fear mechanic. It's a special setting that has them run from you

Start a custom game and take the Pilgrim preset. Then try setting the wildlife detection range lower.

You could also try turning off Passive Wildlife altogether. That's what causes them to run I think. Then wolves will attack you, but all the struggle stuff is turned all the way down, so it shouldn't be an issue. There also some other things you can still make easier like the scent meter increase from carrying meat

10 hours ago, Sus-wolf said:

 Can I eat wolf meat on occasion and avoid it? Is there a general rule of how much I can eat?

It's pure luck. You usually get away with eating a little just from the dice rolls. But I've gotten parasites from 1% risk. It can happen

Most of the time there is plenty of other food around. You can cook your kills and leave the meat for later. That raises your cooking skill. At level 5 you can not only eat predator meat risk-free, but also rotten meat. It's a somewhat silly mechanics, but it is what is

The mountaineering hut has a guaranteed box of matches. And between it and the fishing hut you are guaranteed either a hacksaw, a hammer, a mag lens or a storm lantern. Some of them may be more useful than others at that point, but one is always there

In PV there is a chance for a bedroll in the Mystic Falls Picnic cave. The barn doesn't always have a tool, but there is a chance for either a hammer or a hacksaw. The farmstead basement usually has either a hacksaw, hammer or mag lens. Only one of the four loot tables does not have a hacksaw between those two.

In general hacksaws aren't that difficult to find. A bedroll can sometimes be a bit tricky if you're unlucky. Going without one is frustrating, but you can work around it.

It's all about map knowledge. You can explore in Interloper, but that's more for the landscape and natural resources and not the tools. Each map has some locations where a tool can spawn. People know that and beeline for that. That said, a lot of those locations are ones you'd normally visit anyways. Crystal Lake on Timberwolf Mountain has a guaranteed tool (hacksaw, hammer or mag lens). The farm house and the barn in PV have good stuff. In ML it's Trapper's Homestead, Camp Office and the Hydro Dam. In DP it's Hibernia. 

There are also four different loot tables so things can be a bit different each time. I'm not telling you that so you memorize them. Personally I don't as that's too much meta knowledge for me. But it means that in one game you can find some great stuff in the Qonset Garage and in another you don't. The chance for a Qonset hacksaw is actually 50%. There is also a good chance for a heavy hammer on the map. And maybe even firestriker. But some other maps have more possible spawns.

There are also multiple tools spread around, so you actually end up with multiple hacksaws, hammers and storm lanterns and can leave some in strategic locations. There is really plenty of loot in Interloper with all the maps added. It's just not all in one place like on lower difficulties. As far as natural resources go it's even an overabundance of stuff. Even matches are plentiful enough that you can be somewhat wasteful and still survive for hundreds of days.

Personally I like the TWM start for the loot. Two boxes of matches and a tool. Then off to PV for probably a hacksaw and a hammer. And maybe a bedroll if very lucky. But FM can be good too if you don't directly go to ML, but visit Spence's Farmstead, the Bunk Houses and the High Blind

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combat trousers

That's high end clothing on Interloper and an excellent find

It's indoor. It's warm and you get cabin fever there

I do think that tracks and especially blood disappear way too fast. If you lose them once or twice you can forget picking up a trail again. Which is problematic given the weird routes shot animals usually take. It shouldn't be that way. But it has been like that for a long, long time. This isn't a recent change if one happened at all

12 minutes ago, ajb1978 said:

Of course your luck won't last forever and eventually that torch will blow out, but may as well make the effort y'know?

Sure, sometimes. I just dislike telling people that that need to carry one everywhere, every time. It suggests that this is something that's needed for success, even if you don't intend that. As a specific playstyle that's fine, but there are other ways to play to game.

It can also be situational. I usually carry torches for long trips like going from ML to CH, ML to FM or FM to BR. But otherwise it's easy to do without.