UpUpAway95

Hunting Lodge in Broken Railroad.

Big Mass Effect fan... so, initially drawn to the game after finding out Mark Meer and Jen Hale also did the voice acting in TLD.  Their initial encounter in Wintermute Redux had me sold.  Absolutely cannot wait until the two of them get another scene together (I hope at least) in Ep. 5.

The artwork is very reminiscent of several "Group of Seven" works

Next, the ability to create a lot of variety between runs by using custom options without resorting to mods.  Once I discovered the custom menu, I was 100% hooked.

and finally, what's not to love about a game set in the wilderness I grew up with, rode kms in (trail riding on horseback) and what is now pretty close to my own backyard.

21 hours ago, Moosemaster said:

That is also a reason this would not work. One of the many symptoms of cabin fever is difficulty concentration so unless our character has the mildest version of cabin fever possible (yes the symptoms he has are the mildest possible) reading would not help

That's one reason I thought maybe people would prefer it to be called something else - something not associated with an actual health issue.  There doesn't seem to be as strong a reaction against the insomnia being caused by the fanicful "glimmer fog" despite the fact that it comes on suddenly due to pure RNG (which is a thing I don't like about illnesses in other survival games) and there is only one place you can go in the entire Far Territory to get out of the way of the "glimmer fog."

So, if they changed things up such that it isn't supposed to make any sort of sense and to top it all off comes on totally at random... but still makes people go outside to play... maybe that would put to rest a lot of the complaints about it.  (Since, 24-hours outdoors in this game is not an unreasonable consequence as it is far less onerous than 1 week not being able to climb a rope.)  The only thing remaining is the "math" of the mechanic that lets a person know they are building up their risk of cabin fever over time.  I think a lot of players simply don't understand it or they overthink it.  So, the easiest way to simplify it is to take away the warning of it building up altogether... a la FO4 style... some days you just go to sleep and wake up with an infection.

Bottom line on reading - it's not something we can do when we have any illness... so I simply disagree with making cabin fever an exception to that.

12 hours ago, Lexilogo said:

Custom difficulty settings are good to have, but are never an excuse for bad game design features, especially when they are on by default. They're only relevant in discussions of Cabin Fever to let people know it can be turned off, not to defend it.

Unless you haven't actually trawled the game's wiki. If you are playing TLD organically, Cabin Fever is extremely unintuitive for a bunch of reasons:

• As far as I know, the game has no warning Cabin Fever is coming- I don't remember off the top of my head if there is even a loading screen tip about it
• The invisible Cabin Fever grace period depending on difficulty has no info on it and is likely to confuse players as to what they've suddenly been doing differently
• There's no indication that Cabin Fever is a weeklong tracker, as opposed to an invisible meter or etc
• There's no indication of what does and does not count as outside to the point where even veteran players are frequently confused as to the exceptions. HOW is any player on Earth supposed to realize that the inside of a car, the interior of a fishing hut, or the inside of a cave counts as "outdoors", but numerous other interiors in the outdoor zone don't?

This is an odd thing for Hinterland to ask players to do, when they designed the crafting system that usually requires you to be indoors to do it and incentivises long crafting sessions

If we agree going outdoors doesn't provide any consistent game design threat to players (especially when, Ravine aside, numerous other spots essentially provide all the benefits of being indoors while counting as outdoors) what is the point of a mechanic that disables timeskipping if it doesn't provide such a consistent game design challenge, besides annoying the hell out of people via disabling timeskipping?

Broken Ribs are definitely the most dangerous status effect in the game (besides arguably frostbite's permanent consequences) but there are two important differences:

• In application, Broken Ribs are very clear about the fact they are a rare status effect granted by failing a very specific task (hunting moose) as opposed to being implemented very specifically to shut down a method of play (which, for the record, is not always bad)
• In consequence, Broken Ribs present you with a dangerous gameplay scenario and ask you to use some medicine and survive it for ~5 days. While being forced to survive in a zone you might prefer to leave definitely takes away player agency (as do most meaningful consequences in videogames) there are plenty of ways players can handle it because, well, it's still TLD survival, it's simply a travel restriction. By disabling timeskipping, Cabin Fever inherently cuts off part of the foundation of TLD's survival mechanics

No, you make choices over the previous ~5 days without any transparency on the mechanic then Cabin Fever Risk pops up

LMAO - Do you always get your jimmies in such a knot whenever people merely disagree with your negative take on things.  I'm OK with the game mechanic as it is... I have never had a problem with it or figuring it out when I was new at the game (without the Wiki, BTW).

Sheesh - an you accuse me of being "passive agressive."

17 hours ago, diggity said:

Once I spent all day and night at the Riken forge making arrowheads.  When done I went to sleep at the top of the ship, in the little bridge/helm room.  That should technically be outside -  I went outside to get there, had to climb the steps,  didn't have to open a door to get in, therefore it's outside.  Still got cabin fever.  Wasn't happy.

That portion of the ship is indoors (you go through a loading screen to exit to the deck; and if you try to start a fire in that area, you'll get the message that you can't start a fire indoors).

Xbox save bug(s) are a known issue... different iterations of it keep turning up, it seems.  If you're on a Xbox Series X, I have discovered a sneaky way to unlock console freezes in most games.  When the game freezes, I immediately hit the big X (center) button on the controller (which overlays the main console home menu over the open game).  Then, I just wiggle the left stick to move through the icons on the top, but I don't select anything.  Then, I just hit "B" to close the menu and return to the game... and so far (without fail) this has unlocked the freeze and I can continue playing normally... without having to shut down the console and lose progress. 

I should note that this didn't work for me when I was still on Xbox One; but you might want to still give it a try if you're not on an Xbox Series X.

Generally, I think there's a problem if the game can't upload to the cloud as it's saving... in my case, this is usually due to my internet connection being momentarily slow or disconnected.  For me at least, these sorts of freezes happen in most of my games, often when they are autosaving.

6 minutes ago, Kranium said:

Broken ribs make sense. Cabin fever doesn't.

Perhaps they should just give it some fanciful "zombie apocalyse" sort of name like some games do with a variety of afflictions... disassociating if from an IRL disorder but maintaining what it asks of the player to keep track of in the game to avoid it.  It makes sense to encourage players to not spend all their time indoors and teach them about other alternatives for doing tasks normally thought to be indoor ones (like crafting).

Aurora Fever - you get suddenly if you refuse to go outside during an aurora (for example).

4 hours ago, ridankrad said:

What you did IRL to cure cabin fever is quite different than in TLD. What you describe sounds like the effects of isolation which you cured by spending time with people. That makes perfect sense. But in TLD survivor mode, there's no one left. Hence my earlier suggestion to make non-skill books a resource since they are a window back to a time when other people existed and might offer a reprieve to the survivor's state of mind. I also suggested that staying active (e.g. crafting, cooking, etc.) should be treated differently than just passing time aimlessly. What do you think of these ideas?

The player cannot read with any of the afflictions.  In game premise is that the character cannot concentrate sufficiently to do so.  I think if they allow reading during cabin fever (regardless of whether it's just skill books or other books - and you know my opinion about opening up too many skill points), they are going to get barraged with requests to allow it for any affliction and then "you're never too tired to read" requests, etc.  Then I would suggest it would get to the point where having a reading mechanic in the game at all is pretty pointless... might as well just give skill ups for actually doing the tasks instead.

5 hours ago, elpresidente said:

I find it annoying because even though I am doing normal everyday activities, at some point the game decides that this is not nearly enough and I must be punished for doing what every sane person in a snowy freezing environment will do - stay inside a comfy home when they don't have a reason to be outside. So I spend one day making a coat and another day making bow and arrows and the game is like "OMG you are losing your mental state! Get out in this blizzard RIGHT NOW and enjoy the outdoors!" This is utterly ridiculous and makes no sense. It is VERY immersion breaking.

The game doesn't just suddenly decide... you make the choices over the previous 6 days of gameplay that lead to the risk visibly climbing to 100%... and you don't get cabin fever until that 100% is reached.  You have options like making that bear coat and your arrows at Forlorn Muskeg forge, or the outdoor workbench in Blackrock or Coastal Highway or craft them using short intervals and take breaks to gather sticks for that fire that would keep you warm or gathering stones to make that cache to store your meat or... lots of other things.  Of all the inflictions in the game, it is one of the easiest to avoid.

The OP says they are stuck in a car eating bear steaks... They aren't as stuck there as they think they are... nothing is stopping them from getting out of the car.  Why don't they hunt down a deer and cook up some venison at an outdoor fire?  If they are tired, they can still sleep in the car (recommend doing it in 1 to 2 hour increments to be sure they are staying warm enough, but if you're warm enough awake, you're warm enough asleep. 

As far as being completely unable to pass time... not true... start to break down something and then cancel it.  The harvesting time still passes and by cancelling just before you complete the task, you don't actually destroy whatever it is you're harvesting.  Too cheesy... well, then take whatever excess clothing you have in your base out to the car and start breaking it down or break down sticks to build up your supply of tinder.

Broken ribs, especially in zones like Ash Canyon, are far worse because, unless you have a stim, you're not able to climb a rope and it takes 5 days to heal them.

3 minutes ago, Glacia said:

Correction, i mean "most players" rather than just players. Indeed several systems have been requested to be removed but no one like cabin fever.

IDK why... broken ribs are irritating, last longer, and do a lot to "pidgeon-hole" the player's gameplay (all the complaints about cabin fever given here).  I've heard lots of players state that they are the absolute worst aflliction in the game.

1 minute ago, Glacia said:

Experienced players almost never face cabin fever because of the adapted playstyle, and even if you get it, you can cure relatively easy.

That's my point, cabin fever isn't problematic or hard to deal, but offers nothing interesting to the game. I think people complaining or asking for removal, just do it because they find the feature as an annoyance, not because they have problems to deal with it.

I disagree... with less negativity about it and just little adaptive gameplay, it can encourage the player to spend an enjoyable 24 hours in the Ravine.  I can teach new players to pay attention and balance their time spent indoors with time spent outdoors... enabling them to become "experienced" players in that aspect.

Also, I asked, what do sprains add to the gameplay or food poisoning or insomnia... just irritation.

Further, you contradict yourself... you said in an earlier post that a particular type of rework would "make the system meaningless."  To do that, it cannot actually be meaningless now.

You also said that not a single player likes it - Guess what - I'm a single player and I like it OK... better than sprains, better than broken ribs, and from what I can tell so far, better than insomnia.  I like being able to tell when some illness is going to hit me... which I can do with cabin fever and parasites.  I can also logically know when I'm taking  a big risk for food poisoning and, to some degree, broken ribs.  I can't yet predict a glimmer fog (although, on the plus side, those only hit in the Far Territory (so far at least).

14 hours ago, diggity said:

Been requesting and even demanding its removal/rework for years, apparently it's not going to happen unless someone does a hunger strike.   In the meantime rather than stay indoors by the cozy fire, I will wander around outside in extreme life-threatening conditions because I'm "feeling a bit cooped up" even though I've spent months/years already wandering around outside and have to, to survive. Sure why not.

Come on - it's literally 24 hours that you have to spend outdoors (if you happen to have managed your indoor/outdoor balance poorly enough that you actually got cabin fever)... and fishing huts and caves count as being outdoors... and there's a ton of caves in this game.  Not to mention the fact that your fires last longer the colder the surrounding air, so there's a definite benefit to cooking in caves (where the fire is sheltered anyways).  You also don't have to stop your normal outdoor activities...  You could go off to the Ravine and pick up birch bark, hunt deer, and stone rabbits to your heart's content... cook it all up in any one of the 3 caves (one of which even has a bed) in the zone and never have to worry about a predator... a pretty fun way to spend 24 hours in this game.

1 hour ago, Glacia said:

Cabin fever is the only feature that players have been requested to remove since the first days of the release.

And of course removing it, it's still a very requested choice and with the current status of the system i see no reasons to not do it.

You don't remember the number of people demanding that sprains be removed, until HL gave them the option in custom to disable them?... and the number of people who have continued to demand reworks to the system because you shouldn't be able to just slap a bandage on them and go on or because they find the slope indicator "immersion breaking."  I don't think I can recall a single feature added since I started playing that has not be asked to be removed right after it was added.

What does "insomnia" add to gameplay this time around... and what would a "mental health" system add?  Micromanaging and annoyance... because that's what diseases in a survival game do... prevent the player from just going off and doing everything without risk of something annoying or irritating happening to them.  In the case of TLD, it doesn't take much to manage the risk of cabin fever without going to extremes like (as another person posted here) cooking naked in a blizzard.  I've watched 100s of hours of streamers playing on Loper who haven't gotten cabin fever and have essentially just played the game and only avoiding long crafting session indoors (easily done by just using FM as your preferred forge).

13 minutes ago, SuperStriker16 said:

Oh ok, that takes a load off for beachcombing, I thought it was instant death if I accidentally went to close to the edge and fell in. Thanks for the clarification, because no matter what, I’m not testing it.

Lol - don't blame you.  Ice has historically been my  nemesis.  You may respawn back on the ice close to where you fell in... cold, wet, and with the immediate risk of hypothermia.  You also may be a bit disoriented... I can't count how many times I've taken a step only to fall in again because rather than walking towards the more solid ice and the beach, I just walked back out onto the thin stuff.

The ability to make crampons is a big plus and the fact that they now show you how the ice is cracking... giving you time to get off it before it breaks.  Best policy though - never go beachcoming overencumbered in any way or with clothing that slows you down very much... go light and agile or best to stay home.

45 minutes ago, xanna said:

For the record, this took about 3 revolver shots and 3 arrows. The killing shot with the bow got me up to level 4 archery 😊

Nice job!... and love the picture post... LMAO.

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

Oh I see. My apologies .  That seems a bit odd  . It's worth keeping an eye on .  Its bound to be intentional though as I can't see anywhere going without blizzards for so long that people will lose out or feel it's too lunfair.

It's just a test.  Beachcombing used to refresh without the need for a blizzard.  I think it's a good change... if you do turn blizzards off in custom, there is now an associated consequence... you lose out on "unlimited" beachcombing and the newly introduced exotic things washing up on the beach... and it is still the player's choice which features they want or don't want in any particular custom run they start.

43 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

I've noticed they have made BC much easier - you can actually walk right out to the item and grab it without weak ice.  I remember having to run out, grab item (while ice was breaking) and run back before you fell in.

I do have crampons on though...

Yes, I'm aware of that and think it's a great improvement.

I did another pass in CH after a snow storm (not a blizzard since those are disabled in this run).  I did come up with a sapling and a broken arrow (both of which I would say I might have missed on previous passes).  Still, nothing has yet respawned/refreshed in the areas where I had collected items on my first pass.  So, at this point, results are still looking like, without blizzards, beachcombing is not refreshing.  Only more time will tell if this is an infallible conclusion or just bad RNG in my run.

I've now thoroughly searched probably 80% of CH and only now found a hatchet (I found two actually right next to each other up at the train loading area).  Still only one actual knife (which was found earlier in the upper mine).  Still no guns of any kind.  I think I only have the lower (aurora) mine left to search that is a site of any concentration of loot.

20 minutes ago, Kranium said:

Bingo. All it would have taken was a warning. But nah, they did a rugpull. I am over 100 days in, all setting up for this since my previous 500+ day interloper run was declared null & void on the previous update - but at least we were warned beforehand, so that one was OK by me. This one feels like a purposeful sucker punch.

Doubt that all it would have taken was a warning.  You might have been OK, but others still griped about it.

You're on PC and people have already modded it to suit them, so... you should be good.  That just leaves players who can't mod on console and who are so stubborn that they can't play 3 hours on lower difficult to experience the Tale (and don't lament about all the prep it takes because, on a lower difficulty, it takes almost none). 

Honestly, I do hope, HL will rethink it and eventually change the standard Loper to include it so those who are simply being stubborn and won't even consider playing a custom game where they have some choice can at last stop complaining about all the ways in which the standard Loper difficulty doesn't suit them.

... and I'm sure they won't think twice if the next Tale excludes Pilgrim difficulty (because maybe HL won't want to make a "passive" version of the cougar, an apex predator) about telling those disappointed by it that they should just "git gud" and move on to Loper.

Just now, Leeanda said:

Glad you found one.   I had to practically walk into an oak tree to notice it this morning so I wouldn't feel bad about the crowbar or the beachcombing.  😀 

I've just arrived in coastal myself so I'll check out what's on the beach.  I did just leave bleak but after the blizzard I only found a trunk  but I'm not familiar with traipsing around on that patch of ice so didn't push my luck. 

What I'm testing is whether or not blizzards are required to refresh beachcombing items... or whether they still refresh just based on elapsed time.  In this run, I've intentionally set blizzards to none and any respawn I can set in custom to be as quick as possible (so I'm getting quick respawns of sticks and such).  From what I'm seeing so far though, without blizzards the beachcombing is not refreshing at all.

6 hours ago, Leeanda said:

There are a few small things I'm getting too. Invisible gunpowder in a locker,weighing nothing. Took it out ,still invisible .put it on the floor for it to vanish permanently .  Tools are very rare so I'm not surprised you haven't found a pry bar. I've only just found a hammer and that was in a cache not out in the world. .

The only consistent bug I've found is the diary and journal don't work.  The keyboard won't appear .

It's still worth reporting ,but I hope you can get into the lockers when you find a pry bar..  

Well, I finally found a prybar - embarassed to say it was laying in the snow near a truck right beside the Quonset (lol).  Agree though - tools are rare or at least seem to be rarer than they were.  I haven't yet found a hatchet and I just found my first actual knife (did find an improvised one fairly quickly).  On the other side of the coin, I have a shoe/boot collection that would probably rival Imelda Marcos' at this point and 4 lanterns.  Of course, with things being more randomized in general, I wouldn't expect them to be as balanced run to run or as consistent.

Beachcombing - which was the point of this run with no blizzards - continues to be non-existent so far...  I found a tin can, cattail stalk, and a book of cardboard matches on my first pass and nothing has washed up since that I can see.  (I'm not the most fearless beachcomber though, so I could be missing some small stuff farther out onto the ice... doubt I'm so bad at it that I would miss a trunk or a boat though.  😃

39 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Custom indeed but they could make the feats work for that too.

I'd be absolutely down for there being a toggle to turn prepper bunkers, plane crashes, etc. on or off in custom.  Moar toggles please... the more they are the more variety I can build into my various runs 😀  Not sure whether there's a technical limitation on how many they can add... but yes... please... as many as can be done.

ETA:  Custom = liberation (of the player for the player by the player).  If I set up a custom run and I don't like the "resulting difficulty" of it, I have no one to blame but myself... no point in ragging on the devs over it.

1 hour ago, TheOtherBob said:

They just added assloads more loot to the game that constantly refreshes after every blizzard and all you have to do is go pick it up, yet they totally couldn't possibly add the Signal Void tale to interloper because they were afraid to upset the loot balance.  It's laughable.

I"m currently doing a custom run with blizzards off as a test and, as best I can tell, they have just actually made beachcombing tied to actual blizzards rather than timed respawns.  Loot from beachcoming was always "constantly refreshing."  Now, at least, it seems there has to be a blizzard for it to refresh.

I would say they've perhaps been a little too generous in allowing more exotic loot to spawn via beachcombing; but they could always scale that back to just finding little things like saplings, tin cans, and the odd feather or arrowhead.

1 hour ago, SuperStriker16 said:

Maybe make it where you have to spend 5 days 18 hours a day indoors, in a row before you get it instead of 3 days 16 hours a day in a row.

There are a number of aspects they could/should tweak or change about it to make it a more palatable feature for what are, probably, the majority of players who play at difficulty levels where it is part of the the "standard.".  I don't think they will or should outright remove it, however.  An option to turn it off or on in my runs is good enough for me (and that can be done now).

35 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

 

  Hide contents

That one, like the one in HRV, are identified by the handheld shortwave as well.

I haven't gone into the Far Territory yet, so I'm not carrying the shortwave... so, one can stumble into them without starting the actual Tale.  I just stumbled into my second one - in Coastal Highway (looks like the pilot overshot his landing), and I'm really enjoying just exploring individual zones in the main game areas and finding "random" new things.  I'm not really in too big of a rush to start the official DLC at this point. 😀

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

I'm glad you got it sorted and I really hope you never need to reinstall it again!  

I'm still seeing some inconsistent minor issues with different reloads of my save file.  For example, I'm currently doing a short "test" in Coastal Highway (familiarizing myself with the new beachcombing feature) and I haven't yet found a prybar.  Several of the lockers in the quonset, therefore, are still locked.  The red locked symbol, however, appears and disappears and then reappears on different launches of the save file.  Being positive (or not 😀), the lockers are remaining consistently locked whether or not the lock symbol is there to see it or not.

I also found a cache note under a visor that did not have a key with it.  I'm hoping that's the way this note should be and that I'm not still having a problem with keys not spawning when they should.

ETA:  Just a thought - are you playing on an Xbox One or Xbox One X or are you on an Xbox Series X?  Just trying to eliminate the possibility that it's be some sort of compatibility issue with the Series X (which is what I've upgraded to).

17 hours ago, UTC-10 said:

Repeatedly shooting an animal  has a chance of a critical result with each hit.  There is also a chance of a not-critical result which means a bleed.  

Bleeding a bear is one standard tactic for killing one.  It requires the infliction of one bleeding wound and not taking actions that could result in the bear being "healed" as a result.  This would apply to deer and wolves as well.  If the hit is a critical then the animal drops dead on the spot. 

At least in the "old architecture" of the game - It is worth noting that a wounded, bleeding bear will leave a constant blood trail even if it takes hours and hours to die, as will every other animal (except the moose who don't ever leave a blood trail).  However, a bear that has had a glancing blow will stop leaving a blood trail.  If that happens, the bear will not eventually bleed out and it appears to have healed.  I've seen the same thing happen once with a wolf where I followed it around for awhile as it continued to limp and then suddenly the blood trail ended and I could see in the distance that the wolf I had been following suddenly stopped limping. 

So, I think that the player who pummels the moose with consecutive non-critical hits is depleting an unseen health bar (perhaps just by making the critical hit chance go up with each hit), but then, I think, the wounded moose heals very quickly once the pummelilng stops (or the crit chance returns to its original value).