UpUpAway95

18 hours ago, KingFuzz said:

You get that this game isn’t meant to be easy, right? Bugs are one thing but having to light a torch in a dark room is part of the game. It seems like you just don’t like the core game. No slight towards you. Makes sense why you want to use mods. But calling a game bad because you don’t like it is far from constructive. 

Making the game more annoying or tedious is not necessarily improving it in terms of it being challenging.  (I find that a number of games seem to confuse this difference, resulting in games with things like menial and repetitive fetch quests or enemies that just take more and more bullets (or arrows) to kill, etc.)

Yes there are errors in the lighting code - mostly in lighting in areas not updating correctly or, if you will, consistently.  Some of those issues have been persistent and some of the efforts to fix them is, I'm convinced, why we have some much darker interiors than they used to be previously.  Many of the lighting changes occurred in conjunction with the "split" between survival and Wintermute (not sure, then, if the changes were by intent or coincidence or lingering errors or new errors in the code).

I don't think @peteloud is necessarily trying to make the game "easy."  I'm sure he does uses torches, etc.  Hopefully, there are still adjustments they can make to make the game more comfortable on the eyes (so I can play for longer periods of time and without undue eye strain).  I also don't feel that players should have to fall back on using mods.  They should be able to expect that the devs will deliver to them the best game they can without relying on modders to fix such issues for them  I have nothing against mods, but feel they should be for "fun additions" rather than for fixing problems in the game.

3 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

Carcasses and by extension quarters begin decaying by 1% per game hour from the moment the animal hits the deck. Whether you quarter it or not, the meat on the carcass begins to decay by 1% per hour the instant the animal dies. This means that in just a hair over 4 full in-game days (96 hours) the carcass will despawn. Quarters despawn at the same rate as the carcass, and share its despawn time. So if you kill a moose and walk away, in a hair over 4 days, it and everything on it is gone. If you kill a moose, quarter it, and walk away, in a hair over 4 days all the quarters will despawn, but the gut and hide on the ground at the quartering site will remain because they are now separate objects. Once meat is removed from a carcass, it also has a reduced decay rate from slightly reduced to borderline preserved, depending on whether you store meat indoors or outdoors. But any meat remaining on a carcass or on a quarter is bound to the 96 hour despawn time, and its condition degrades accordingly

Similarly if you quarter a moose, haul everything away, but fail to harvest the meat from the quarters in time, you can lose the meat entirely while keeping the hide and gut.

TL;DR: Get the meat off the carcass ASAP.

Then I can't explain why, about a year ago now,  when I had a bag from a quarter (bear meat) on me and another bag left outside frozen from the same bear had vastly different conditions to the meat when I harvested each bag one right after the other - something like 20% different if I recall correctly.  I remember being very alarmed by the low condition of the one batch of meat.

At the time, I put it off to having the one unharvested bag on me when I was near my fire (it had therefore thawed) while the other bag had remained outdoors frozen; but if it is, as you say, that the quarters, indoors or outdoors all decay at a set rate at 1% per game hour, then the meat from those two bags should have only been minimally different (max 3%).

I decide on whether to quarter or straight harvest depending a lot on where the animal died (i.e. how exposed will my fire be) and how far away is a sheltered spot where I can build a secure fire and harvest the bags.  Sometimes attempting to harvest an entire bear or moose where it died is almost an assured death sentence.

Further note - the carcasses of deer, rabbits or ptarmigan killed by wolves and left (because the player scared them off) will despawn much more quickly than those killed by the player if the player leaves the immediate area without first interacting with the carcass in some way.

2 hours ago, Leeanda said:

I can imagine the state of the island if they did stay... outside of my base at pv farm would be covered with bear carcasses lol..😁.  If it was stalker it'd be even worse..

Not to mention that we'd all be buried in crow feathers and just think of the noise (caw, caw, caw)!  It would be deafening.

I remember when I first started playing years ago now, I lost nearly half a quartered moose to decay because I thought the bags would last the same as meat portions when frozen outdoors. 

Quarters decay much more rapidly that cuts of meat even when kept frozen.  In addition, if you've placed the bags in a location where they thaw (or don't freeze), they will decay just that much faster. 

Also, item decay rates (which include foods) are affected by your difficulty setting (as can be seen quite clearly by comparing the various templates in the custom menu).  Pilgrim is "Low"; Voyageur is "Medium";  Stalker is "High"; and Interloper is "Very High."

Ravaged "prop" deer carcasses have been fixed and won't despawn until you "tamper" with them.  Even opening the menu to view how much meat is on them does count as "tampering." 

On 10/25/2023 at 3:15 PM, dahemac said:

This is an old observation. But I really think it needs to be addressed.

I understand the game design reason for setting up the navigation puzzle that is the Bleak Inlet Cannery Parkour to the Workshop. But it is only an interesting puzzle once.
Surely in role-playing logic anyone having figured the thing out once, would do something to shorten it. No one would willingly do it twice. They sure as heck would never jump a second time from a roof to the boat.

They could shovel the snow away from the door in front of the car.
They could put one of the ladders that are scattered around up against the broken stairs on the shore side of the broken pier building.
They could put a climbing rope from the crane on the Workshop side of the broken room so that they could climb up just there.

There ought to be a way of “fixing” the connection once the player has first, once, figured the puzzle out.

It somewhat spoils the cannery to do this parkour over and over and over and over and over. I genuinely feel annoyed every time I have to do it now that I have done it so many dozens of times. Please, someone needs to address this.

I remember when everyone was diligently hunting for a place to deploy the rope found there in anticipation that it was there in the cannery specifically to allow the parkour to be skipped on subsequent visits.  Certainly, some great alternative there.  One I thought of is if HL would add in a fire-escape ladder somewhere on the same side as the forge or even inside the forge that the player could lower to the ground during their first visit (creating a floor hatch opening that could be used on subsequent visits).

I think the ingredients are plentiful right now, but I expect them to be scaled back and become rarer after this introductory phase (which seems to be the pattern for every other item I've seen introduced to the game over the years).

Once the recipes are made, they are cooked items, so I expect their rate of spoilage will be a non-issue once cooking level 5 is attained  (I've not attained cooking 5 yet in any of the short runs I've started in various parts of the map, so perhaps someone can confirm this notion).  Do they still give the buffs after spoiling once Level 5 cooking has been attained?

Anything we can find to cook helps us level up cooking quicker, so that's not a bad thing.  However, it is more efficient to level by just cooking the meats and canned goods as in the past; and then make bannock, pancakes and porridge with the found ingredients (flour, cooking oil, salt, & oats).

My only problem is that prepared acorns and acorn grounds still only appear under the main crafting tab and are not repeated under the medicines tab.  Prepared Burdock, Prepared Birch Bark, etc. appear under both tabs.  I realize that the acorns do not make a medicine, but they are not really a cooked item yet either.  Still, I always seem to look for them under the medicines tab first before remembering that they only appear in the main.

I like that the cooking menu allows us to view the required ingredients for each recipe we have without actually being at a fire and that it divides the items that require a cooking pot from those that require a skillet - although I can really see what would prevent anyone from making a small stew or serving of porridge in a skillet that holds a litre of water if no other more suitable pot was available.😀

3 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

It isn't your eyesight... Places  like the dam have got a lot darker .  Maybe something in the accessibility section could be implemented..

An accessibility option to adjust interior/exterior contrast in lighting would be a wonderful thing for me.  Not sure whether they'll ever do it, but it would extend my ability to play by quite a bit.

1 hour ago, LostRealist said:

While it's definitely not nice that it's giving you outright headaches when playing the game, my instant thought on that is "Try that in real life then"... so long as we're talking about dipping in and out of Townhomes or something on a loot run, it's pretty spot on. Without artificial lighting, coming indoors after spending hours surrounded by white is very hard on human eyes.

I honestly never thought much about the darkness of interior locations in TLD. Yeah, many times you can't see jack, but light sources are available and I always considered "conservation of resources vs. ability to see things" as part of the balancing of this game. But that's just my two cents. I'm obviously far from pleased to hear that it causes physical symptoms for you, that's nasty.

I just don't see an easy way to fix it. The stark contrast between the snowy outdoors and the mostly wooden, brown or dark grey interiors would always remain...

Agree - there is no easy way to fix it.  This game has white exteriors due to snow and dark interiors due to their being no electricity and a requirement, on some maps, to jump between those two lighting conditions rapidly.  I don't have as much discomfort with games that have more evenly lit environments.

In addition, when I started playing, some interiors were more lit than they are now.  I could, for example, see without a torch to at least walk through the Carter Dam.  Now, it's impossible for me to walk even just beyond the entrance doors without getting stuck on the furniture along the way or walk right into a wall.  If it's not that they've made the interior darker than years ago and it's just my old eyes, I'm more concerned because it means I'm losing vision rather quickly and I can look forward to a white cane in my near future.  Hopefully, it is just that they decided to make the interiors darker than before.

1 hour ago, James Hickok said:

Yeah yesterday i shot a bear in his cave near the Tales bunker in PV (i was waiting for aurora in the bear cave close to the bunker) and he did flee. I made some water on the fireplace and notice he came back and died in front of the cave enterance (it looked like it). Pizza delivery i thought and was about to run to it to start harvesting. Then the thought - he is messing with me ! And i decided to take a shot at him. The basterd got up and chargeg towards me :D:D hopefully i managed to shoot it again and it died right by the fire  

Somehow that reminded me of the move "Home Alone" - tipping the pizza delivery guy with a bullet. 😀

4 hours ago, AdamvR said:

I'm sorry to hear that - it must be awful to get headaches from the game we like so much...
it only shows up automatically after first installing, so it is easy to forget about, but there is a setting/brightness where one can play with the slider to find the right balance for them - maybe you can find a setting that is more comfortable, but still challenging.
(as I continue to believe, that in addition to realism, the indoors are also darker on purpose, so that one cannot find all loot/move around in caves without using torch or lantern)
Hope it can help you.

I have fiddled with the brightness settings a bunch and I even change them a bit as I'm playing to give my eyes a "different" view and rest them a bit.  The issue is more about the different between the high gain and low gain atmospheres; that is, continually moving from the whiteness of the scenes outside into the total blackness of most of the interiors.

I do pull torches from fires to use as I search.  I still burn through more supplies than  others because torches blow out between buildings (requiring more matches overall).  For that reason, I do use my lanterns and fuel whenever and wherever I find them.  In other words, I do get by; but it would be nicer and more comfortable on my eyes if the games lighting were more friendly.

Please also note, as I've aged, my eyes have gotten worse (pupils are very much slower to adjust to lighting changes) and I get headaches.   It's just a part of growing old.  Eventually, I'll hit a point where I'll probably have to stop gaming altogether - but I'm not at that point yet; and I'm grateful for that.😀Growing old is really just an exercise in Perseverence (Mills).  Can't wait for Episode 5.

11 hours ago, peteloud said:

I avoided Mods for years but the level of illumination was so bad at times that I installed House Lights.  Lighting is better now    

I think I have another Mod installed but can't remember. 

However I have to admit some Mods add interesting and fun activties. I like piddy's rearrangement of rooms.

I find the lighting in this game is very hard on my eyes and I often get headaches if I play for any length of time at a sitting.  I absolutely have to use torches or lanterns indoors - even just to avoid getting stuck on furniture.

While I have nothing against mods, I wish they would consider putting some of the "fixes" modders have implemented into the main game for those of us on consoles who don't (or can't) use them.

Mostly rocks, especially when trying to locate a carcass of one.  For such a big animal, I sure have an issue finding the dead ones sometimes.  I know they died because I always check my journal for a day or even two after shooting one (unless I kill it outright, of course).

55 minutes ago, peteloud said:

No, I gave up, but that was not my game/computer. 

 

However I did manage to sort out the problem with my computer not being able to reinstall TLD from STEAM.  It was the version.dll  file that was part of Mods that I was trying out.   Previously both TLD and the Mods were working perfectly, so I don't blame them.  I have no idea what corrupted the version.dll file, perhaps it was something that I did.

Having had a brief look at the lastest TLD, I think I shall continue my wait for Episode 5.

I hear ya.  I'll probably be taking another long break from it soon - It's not that I'm upset over anything this time around.  I haven't been experiencing too many serious bugs (humorous ones, yes - today I had a bunny walking about 10 feet above the ground 😀); and I still think the rifle spawns have been reduced too far to make room for other "stuff."  Mostly, it's that I'd prefer to play the game story somewhat "fresh" when it is complete.  Ditto for the DLC.  Hopefully, we won't have to wait too much longer for either of them to be finished.

On 10/27/2023 at 7:59 AM, peteloud said:

What the final straw was today was when in a game I couldn't light a fire.  Whenever I tried many other things didn't work.  Fortunately I backup my saves so that it didn't result in Permadeath.

However I have so many versions of TLD and more backup saves than I could count and I have a few Mods running so there is a possibility, although I doubt it, that I might have brought on the problem myself. This was further complicated by not being able replace my TLD download from Steam, so I wasn't playing my usual game.  Whatever, the game is no longer the exciting challenge that it has been.

Bugs like that are never fun.  Hopefully, you got it working again.

Also another thiing we'd be able to do if the game were trying to be realistic is jump over obstacles or at least step over the shorter ones (like the parking curbs around the gas station next to Thomson's Crossing in Pleasant Valley.😀

47 minutes ago, LostRealist said:

Just now ran into him again as well, I think that bear is indeed a fixed spawn, and the bear that lives in the beach forest and patrols around the outbuildings might also be. Where there definitely is variation is in the two bears that are kinda "stacked on top" of one another if you head uphill south from the farmstead. Those guys seem to be dependant on your game difficulty/spawn rate settings.

Then there's the bear east of Thompson's Crossing who is my third bet on the fixed spawns in PV.

Interesting what you say about the moose though, with it having several exact spots around its spawn there. I only ever met the birch forest moose there once, so I can't confirm, but the way the marking are spread in that forest would surely suggest it.

 

And since this is turning into the "Wildlife advice" thread, I have another quick one: Ptarmigans do appear in a custom run that was started before installing the DLC, right?

I don't know about custom runs started before the DLC, but they are definitely spawning in any custom runs I've started within the last couple of weeks.

1 hour ago, alarik said:

There are fantastic things like you are writting, and it is ok cause it has sense, but this game trys to be realisctic. Omg.. to hunt rabbits with stones so easy? The rabbits are not assholes, 1 rabbit will run away from you for minimum 100 meters when it see or listen you. Come on go out to field and look them.

The left water on the snow, should be frozen. No the water that you take with you in your clothes. And the same with left food on the field with the wolfs.

i play intrude mode always, and the wolfs run always when you atack them with one stone if they are eating other animal... always. So too much easy to steal food to the wolfs. 

It doesn't really try to be realistic, period - If it did, we'd be able to lift turned over chairs into their proper position.  We'd be able to lie down on a sofa to sleep.  We'd be able to fell trees.  We'd be able to drag logs and carcasses back to a base.  We'd be able to hacksaw ALL the bed frames in the Hunting Lodge rather than just the occasional one elsewhere in the world.  We'd be able to read in bed.  We'd get more than 1 scrap metal when breaking up a bucket and more than 11 kg off a dead deer, etc. etc. etc.  A pilot in the north in Canada would have matches and survival gear aboard his plane (since it is a law in Canada).  So, no - I disagree with you.  The game does not really focus on being realistic.

It's a game and some things are done for game convenience/balance - like water that doesn't freeze.

As far as animal behaviour - it is adjustable in the custom settings.  Nothing says you have to play on a standard mode.  Try increasing the detection range and the rabbits will sense you from farther away.  Try decreasing wolf fear and there will be a higher chance that they will attack you rather than run from you.  However, if you play on "passive animals" setting, all animals on the map, even bears, will 99% of the time run from you all the time since that "passive animals" setting overrides the wolf fear one.  However, if you get close and you attack them, they can still attack you even when on passive mode.  I've been attacked while playing in standard pilgrim mode (which uses the passive setting).

I don't know which difficulty "intrude" is - pilgrim, voyageur, stalker, or interloper.  If it's interloper and you're finding it too easy - try NOGOA or NOPE (community derived custom settings that are's harder than interloper overall).  The codes for them are probably found somewhere on this website.

1 hour ago, UTC-10 said:

The game has had a long time problem with displaying accurate numbers. They can be off by 0.01 from what they should be.  

I have had full lanterns that ostensibly had 0.99 liters and lantern fuel bottles that had 0.49 liter though when it came to the refilling screen the lantern would have 1.00 liters and the lantern fuel bottle would have 0.50 liters.  

I took a look at your posts and realize that, in this case, the discrepancy between what the inventory screen shows (i.e. 0.10 kg) and what the recipe screen shows (0.09 kg, in red) would be a more serious problem.  Should be reported for it does affect actual game play (if one uses Frontier Cooking a lot). 

I can confirm the exact same problem with oats.  I have .10 kg in inventory, but the cooking screen is only recognizing.09.  I think you're right that it's probably related to the same rounding error that's long been in the game.  It is annoying since I hate to see anything go to waste and these little bits left over will likely spoil before I find more of the same to combine with it to perhaps use up some of it.

41 minutes ago, Smellyfries said:

Agreed, once you get the blueprint by finding one, and collect all of the materials, there really isn't any limitation in crafting noisemakers that require the ammunition workbench. I mean, it's just a can filled with gunpowder, then tied together with some cloth. 

Maybe as a compromise, your effectiveness with crafting noisemakers could be tied to your gunsmithing level. At level one, you can only make them at a ammunition workbench, as your character isn't comfortable enough to handle gunpowder at a regular workbench. But maybe a unique perk given to you at level 3 is the ability to make them at any workbenches.  

Maybe at level 5, you can just make noisemakers anywhere, without the need for a workbench. Would give the gunsmithing skill a little more use in my opinion.

Some really great ideas.

Rather than having just a setting to turn rifle and/or pistol spawns completely on or completely off, I'd like to propose a setting that would allow the player to select the numbers of these items they can expect to spawn in the world in specific runs.  A separate slider for each weapon type would be added as follows:  rifles, pistols, distress pistols, and bows.

Off - would ensure that no weapons of the applicable type would spawn in the game world (as it does now).

Very Low (Variants Only) - would ensure that only the variant weapons of that type spawn and at completely randomized locations.

Low (Variants Only) - would ensure that only the variant weapons of that type spawn in the game world at their guaranteed spawn locations

Medium - would allow a very limited number (up to, say, 5) of the applicable regular weapon variety to spawn at random locations, along with the appropriate variants.  In addition, it would randomize the variant spawn locations.

High - would work the same as low but with an increase in the maximum numbers to 10 (or whatever HL feels appropriate to cover an average expectation for finding frequency)

Very High - would activate a further parameter that would ensure that at least 1 of the applicable weapon type would spawn in each zone of the map (enabling one-zone runs that are controllable in custom to facilitate a desired play style for that specific run.

ETA:  For example, Standard Interloper settings would would be "Off" across for rifles and pistols, low (variants only) for bows (allowing the only bow variants to spawn, but still disallowing the regular pre-made bows), and distress pistols to medium.  A custom interloper player, however, could ensure they are unable to find a bow varant by turning that setting from the standard "low (variants only) to off or make things a little easier for them by allowing a few pre-made bows (with an associated broken arrow) to appear in the world.   A gunloper could also make things more difficult or easier by mixing and matching various settings for the variety of weapons in the game.

58 minutes ago, Bloodskye said:

You have to basically let the characters suffer a day and it's after moaning and groaning about their stomach. I only know this because I ate some fish that was at 50% thinking it was fine and getting food poisoning right after waking up. Let that be a lesson kids, choose your breakfast wisely.

Pancakes, hot off the grill.

The game isn't really intended to be realistic.  The very premise that auroras drive the animals crazy is not realistic nor is the premise that auroras can suddenly power flashlight batteries that have been long dead.

Realistically, the water pipes in the houses would have all frozen and burst.  Every soda can and any tin cans with anything liquid in them would have also frozen and ruptured. 

Re-melting water every hour or so would be a big annoyance that would not add anything to the gameplay, IMO.  As would having animals steal every scrap of food left outdoors.

Wolf fear is different at different difficulty settings and is also adjustable in the custom settings, as is their detection range.  Of course, the range covered by these sliders could be expanded to provide even harder settings if the player desires to use them.

I definitely agree with restoring at least some of the regular rifle spawns that were reduced when the variants were added.  Regular rifle spawns have become far too rare.

However, I would prefer that the spawns of the variants should be in a guaranteed single location rather than in one of 4 or 5 locations within a single zone (or as in the case of Vaughn's Rifle) spread over a zone and a transition zone.  I like doing one-zone runs and having so few rifle spawns means that I, more often than not, end up playing without a rifle for the whole run despite intentionally enabling rifle spawns because I expressly want to use a hunting rifle.  If I want to use a bow, I disable rifle and revolvers spawns.  Note:  I've only found 3 regular hunting rifles in any runs started since the variants were introduced, so I intentionally also start these rifle runs in zones where a variant is located; however, I also often wind up playing without a rifle at all in my Mystery Lake runs since, by my rules, I'm not allowed to go into Winding River in order to chase down Vaughn's Rifle and I've yet to find a regular rifle in Mystery Lake.

So, in short, I disagree with the idea on randomizing the variant rifle spawns.  Like the crampons, ballistic vest, noisemaker schematics, and now specific recipe cards, special weapon variants should remain as guaranteed spawns (and I'd love it if Vaughn's Rifle spawns to be redone so that all of them are in Mystery Lake proper).

3 hours ago, I_eat_only_wolf_meat said:

Only if Hinterland adds different seasons (which would be incredible).  Maple sap starts to flow when the days are above freezing and the nights still dip below the freezing mark.  Even then it's only for a relatively short time as winter progresses to spring.  It's the chemical energy the tree stored the previous year being staged to make new leaves.

 

Of course if realism isn't a concern than anything is possible, and there's nothing wrong with a little creative freedom.

The fact that maple syrup spoils very quickly in this game is already a departure from realism as it keeps quite well for very long periods.  I think the easiest solution is to make the syrup less susceptible to spoilage.  Really, I would prefer the new recipe ingredients to all be usable in recipes despite their being in a "ruined" condition.  They advertise that 0% potatoes can still be cooked to be safe to just eat again, so why not allow the same for all other recipe ingredients - i.e. that the recipes still allow them even when they are at 0%.  This would make the cooking of those recipes truly something for the later game - not something the player needs to rush to find ingredients on the maps before they spoil only to discover they have insufficient cooking skills to use them anyway.

Alternatively, they could add a generic pancake syrup to the game that essentially never spoils.