Serenity

21 minutes ago, MarrowStone said:

The cave will be in this ravine thingy and is arguably warmer than the Mountaineering hut. Do NOT freeze in your sleep.

There is also an always warm indoor cave close by. When I learned the map I did on Voyageur. Spawned there and stayed there. I lived in the indoor cave for a long time until I scavenged better clothing.

Chasm cave is pretty shallow. Not that great for living

28 minutes ago, LowSpeedHighDrag said:

@MarrowStone

Timberwolf Mountain, are resources really scarce that I must prioritise food & water even more?

There is plenty of stuff there. The summit has a ridiculous amount of loot. But there are other things to find too. Cloth and scrap metal are a rarity though

Can you clarify? I don't understand what you meant by starving route, nor which hut you mentioned

There is only one hut on TWM. You can starve during the day and only eat before sleeping

26 minutes ago, Ice Hole said:

The drop point for the logs are being released down the ravine.

That seems like a great way to damage your logs

The wolf and bear coat have that too. It's a chance to scare them when they encounter you. They whine and run away. Very funny (unless you want to hunt a wolf), but it's random and thus not reliable.

I think you used to be able to drain lanterns for fuel. Maybe I remember it wrong. Now the only way to get the fuel is to break them down (I really hope they add proper fuel management some time). So that's a valid way to play if you want the fuel, but don't have use for the lanterns.

But yeah, putting some lanterns at transition caves is a good idea if you travel a lot. Cinder Hills Coal mine especially to get coal now and then

Last game I left a heavy hammer in the Riken thinking I might force there again. I had two other hammers, but kind of regretted it. Never went back there

Day 50-60 seems like a good time for me personally. That's when you can have at least the deer boots, deer pants, a wolf skin coat and a moose hide satchel if you get lucky. It's also when the weather becomes pretty cold even with all that crafted gear. And the loot there hasn't decayed to nothing yet.

Don't expect the super loot of lower difficulties though. Most containers don't spawn and the ones that do have far less. There is the distress pistol + shells. Maybe wool ear wraps. Maybe a firestriker. There is also a thin wool sweater in a lower container. I also like to do it just for having done it.

You can do it later. People have been up there after hundreds of days. You can also do a first day ascent if you really know what to do. It's just a question of working around the weather. Knowledge of the ascent route would really help though. Interloper isn't good for exploring maps you don't know.

Also is it possible to travel to PV from Carter dam? I know it is coming from PV. 

All the transition zones go both ways. Getting from ML to PV is easier than the other way around arguably. A lot of people struggle with the one way door exiting the dam.

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so it's more a luck based mode then a fair mode (or do you know the map from the back of your hand)

It's both. Some loot is completely random. Some is fixed or semi-fixed (like tools and some of the matches). Much of the clothing is random, but I know that the farm house in PV has a good chance for a ski jacket and that Signal Hill can also have some good clothing. For things like hammers, bedrolls or hacksaws can you also learn that certain locations have a good chance for one.

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you don't understand, i had 1 flare, if i don't keep making fires and pull torches out to keep it going i'll die in a single day from the cold

Using the flare in FM is a must. But otherwise I indeed don't get it. It's just not necessary. At this stage I mostly make fires for water or cooking. I very rarely need to make fires just to warm up in the very early game. About the only exception are extremely long trips and then it has to be worth it. Or spending the first night in the mountaineering hut on TWM. I've made a fire for warmth in the fishing hut when I traveled between Rural Crossroads in PV and Signal Hill, but that's about it. Finding matches is a must but even early on you don't need many if you know what to do. 

Sure, the game has marginal locations where you need a fire to survive. What I'm saying that most of these can be avoided in the early days. In almost all cases there is plenty of survivable shelter around. Later on when you visit more wilderness areas away from civilization you're better equipped and prepared.

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So looting a deer carcass needs a fire too.

Usually yes. If you're just after a hide you can harvest it with a hacksaw in the cold and take the condition loss. Can also be worth it.

Most importantly it lets you do several things: harvest a deer for hides/gut and meat. And get some water with it. You don't waste matches that way. The hides are very important because you want the deer skin gear as quickly as possible.

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i can warm up in a bed allright, but then a storm hits and i can't go outside cause i freeze to death in 3 minutes.

So find some things to do. Read a book. Harvest curtains. Break down some furniture or boxes. Repair your clothing. Yeah, you will sometimes get stuck indoors with little to do. But it's more of an annoyance than a threat.

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Cause yeah, you don't find any clothing, i tried 12 runs so far, even in my current run i visited like 20 interiors and i only found a toque.

Not true. The high tier clothing doesn't exist, but there is underwear, wool ear wraps, thin wool sweaters, ski jackets, combat pants, combat boots for example. It gets colder soon, but it's actually pretty warm at the beginning and just few degrees of warmth bonus are a huge help.  What really makes a difference early game is crafting the bunny gear. It won't last long but it's possible to be completely warm outside in ML a few days in the late afternoon.

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the whale yard has nothing

There can be several packs of matches and a bedroll there. A DP start is very challenging, but that's mostly because of the very long and dangerous trip to CH. The Riken is also very cold and the lighthouse usually isn't warm either at the start. My favorite starts are TWM or PV.

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only strategy that seems to work so far is to run to the next house, run to the next, run to the next till my condition gets to low, grabbing cattails and catch a few bunnies along the way (if i got lucky and found matches), then get some condition up (easier when i found some coffee) sleep, and start running again to the next building.

Early on you need to stay on the move and keep looting, yes. But once you've cleared out some locations you can settle down for crafting and be pretty comfortable. The phase where you run around frantically only needs to last for about a week. I often like to start in TWM, get two packs of matches and a tool there, get to PV for some more good loot (really only the farm house, barn, maybe rural crossroads, and Signal Hill). Then go to either CH or ML for the crafting phase (up to a wolf skin coat). After then back to TWM for a summit run around day 50-60.

Once you can hunt deer it's also not too hard to keep up the well fed bonus, though you need to hunt pretty often.

Interloper is difficult very early on, yes. But a common complaint is that it is too easy once you crafted your stuff and have accumulated lots of resources.

Maybe watch some YouTube playthroughs to see how other people spend the first week.

You just need to adjust your strategies. Lots of weird decisions there. I have no idea why you need to make fires so often. If you need to warm up go to a bed and rest or sleep for an hour. Looting deer carcasses is a good excuse to make a fire and boil some water in the process. Another great early water source is toilet water. Less so in ML (there is some in the dam), but a good deal in PV and CH.

Interloper doesn't railroad you into one play style, but you can't do the same as on lower difficulties

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 i eat 4 rabbits a day

You only really need to eat before sleeping. Together with the cold you'll lose a lot of condition that way. But condition management is essential on Interloper. If you have herbal tea use some early on to regain more during sleep. Later on it's not hard to be at 70-100% condition all the time

With the protection value from crafting clothing, you can survive attacks even on Interloper. Early game it's almost certain death. But avoiding wolves is part of the game. Learning where wolves are and how to escape them (break line of sight or drop a decoy). The heavy hammer also has chance to get wolves off your back before they kill you. Even early game: 

Another thing to do: get the distress pistol out of the Ravine. That gives you a few get out of jail free cards when you encounter wolves. And there are some more shells on the TWM summit.

There are still lots of resources on Interloper. Less so in containers, but plenty of tools and especially plants. You just have to move in a wider area to collect them. Then you still end up with several tool boxes, hacksaws, hammers, lanterns and bedrolls. You definitely notice that the higher tier clothing isn't available, but aside from that you really don't need too much. ML alone has a little over a hundred cat tails and you need just around 5 to survive a day.  Each deer carcass has a steak and gives you a hide for crafting. It's only the start that's difficult. Once you're established Interloper can be relaxing too.

Trapper's a bit far away from everything. It does have a nice bunny area for snaring though. I like the trailer at the hydro dam. Crafting in the dam itself. A wolf free area and a cave in the Ravine. Several hunting areas nearby.

But you can have several bases and move between them. Dam -> Camp Office -> Trapper's is a good route. In CH I like to change it up between Qonset, Fishing Camp and Jack Rabbits depending on my needs

But really, it's too early to settle down in one place. Explore and loot other regions. Go to the summit of Timberwolf Mountain. Loot Milton. Check out HRV. You can still return to ML later.

It's nice when it happens, but don't rely on it. It's relatively rare. It can also happen when you want to hunt a wolf.

The coat is a must have on Interloper. But for warmth there are better man made coats in lower difficulties. And protection isn't as important with less lethal wolves

5 hours ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

 I said you are getting a Condition increase when you get the Well Fed buff. Therefore, when you lose the buff, you lose the associated Condition increase.

I can understand why it was implemented that way. But what some people are expecting is that once your condition goes down and your total condition again fits into your regular condition bar, you don't lose anything further. You've already lost that extra condition from taking damage of some sort.

Items start decaying as soon as the game starts. And stuff in container's despawns when it hits 0%. It's not an issue though with the standard 100% decay rate of Stalker. Much less the lower difficulties. You have plenty of time and don't have to rush anything.

Only Interloper's 200% is annoying and may require some meta gaming around the decay rates

I try to mix things up a bit now and then, but there are simply routes that are more efficient than others. You try to minimize your time in the cold and loot as quickly as possible so you naturally fall into the same patterns.

Where you can mix things up is the order of regions you visit

54 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

You can also craft outdoors... in Forlorn Muskeg and Spence Farmstead and in Mountain Town at Paradise Meadows Farm.  

Fishing Camp in CH too, but that's more tricky with the fire and a possible bear now and then. Still, when I lived in Quonset Garage I made a trip to the Fishing Camp now and then for crafting. Also allowed me to collect some sticks along the way. And that was only for long projects like two wolf skin coats. You don't need it for short projects

The only times I ever get cabin fever is getting greedy with forging on the Riken. Like making an extra knife and more arrowheads. Even then you can easily cure it by spending a night in a cave. In DP you can use the church too. I've also slept in the cave under the arch in Crumbling Highway

I would like it if crafting doesn't couldn't against the time. Or maybe only half as much. So if you keep busy you can stay indoors. But if you just do nothing inside you have issues. That would prevent the eat & sleep hibernating it was meant to combat.

It's highly problematic as deer can run far away. Usually the die somewhere other than you thought they went

12 hours ago, Marcurios said:

i only play the game for like a month now, so i could be mistaken, but right now it looks like the lack of scrap metal is going to get you killed in the end.

Go to the hydro dam or Hibernia some time and check out all the things you can saw up for scrap metal. Shelves, locker doors, random things lying around. It's a lot of work but there is tons of scrap metal.

All the worries about running out of things are mostly theoretical

There are tons of plants in the game. You'll get bored long before you run out of anything vital

Wood, coal and animals respawn. The rest is finite.

The idea is that plants don't regrow in winter. But wood keeps falling down from wind. In fact you can find more new sticks after a blizzard

14 minutes ago, Marcurios said:

I don't see that getting stuck because of exploration is a risk that one has to take and be ok with,

It isn't. Being stuck is not ok. But including an easy to abuse tool that makes mountain goating easier is too much of a price to pay to fix these cases.

10 hours ago, Martin Prchal said:

Ok thanks, that's not area I find myself in very often, but I'll keep an eye out for it. Maybe I'll send a Pilgrim survivor over there. It's weird to me that there are places on the map where you can get stuck like this, it seems to me that the map is usually pretty well made.

It's not unusual. There have been tons of bugfixes about similar issues.

But as said teleporting you a bit to the side is too prone to abuse. Climbing around in difficult areas has its uses in this game. There are some nice short cuts that way (climb down Timberwolf Mountain. Or the lookout tower hill in ML). You shouldn't get stuck, but it does have its risks.

Quit and reload if the game hasn't saved yet. That can happen if you get injured but never pass time when this happens

Also make a debug screenshot and report it as a bug

If you truly get stuck somewhere report it as a bug. They will fix these instances and there are have been tons small of changes to terrain. I once got stuck right next to Qonset Garage between that stone border and two stacks of pallets. So they moved the pallets apart.

Otherwise be careful with walking around in extreme terrain. There are some nice short cuts that way, but it can also end badly. You can get trapped on ledges that you can't get down from

right, i already started to realize some stats can easily be abused, you'll lose more health from two subsequent wolf fights then a day without food.
and matches and or a firestarter are important to have, but they're quite abundant, fire is life...lol

You can make things harsher. There are settings with limited or even no condition recovery during sleep. There is also a setting for awake condition recovery (when all your needs are met). So you can and need to abuse your condition a bit, but if you overdo it you suffer from it.

Loot can also be made much rarer to the point where most containers will be empty. With 2-3 packs of matches per map you still end up with plenty, but you don't have the hundreds of matches you can find on lower difficulties. Relying on the mag lens and good weather becomes much more important

It also saves when you get injured

You can get around all this by manually backing up your save game now and then

It would be nice, but it probably very, very hard to implement. It seems like interior locations are actually different maps. Or at least you get teleported to some other location on the same map away from the regular word. Some houses are bigger on the inside than outside. Just look at the Camp Office! So they'd have to redo a lot of stuff