Loonsloon

In case you missed it the series kicked off: 

49 minutes ago, Catlover said:

Interesting, and I completely agree. Are there any mods that do make wildlife behaviour more realistic?

So, there is the Animal Behavior mod that allows you to tweak some settings. I used it in my Mod Soup run. The basic thing I was hoping for was a probabilistic flee when confronted with a torch/fire. The stock wolves are too predictable and need some noise added to their ‘decision making’. I’m not sure that this mod really accomplished it but it succeeded in eroding my confidence in ‘guaranteed’ wolf defence and made the run more fun. 

On 3/19/2022 at 9:13 PM, Mig_zvm said:

I have had an experience on Stalker Survival Mode where I was able to stand behind a fire and throw several torches at the bear's head.  Eventually I moved closer with a torch and the bear fled.  Maybe I got lucky?

Interesting that runs counter to everything I know about wolves and bears - when you approach a wolf close enough with a torch it charged you I think. In my don’t throw rocks at bears video, I’m pretty sure the reason he charged was that I staggered into that critical charge radius. But I wasn’t holding a torch. One could do a science episode on this. But having done some of these, I’m now of the mind that I want to know less about what’s ‘behind the curtain’ of TLD, to preserve some of that uncertainty that I have about it. Like when I realized that you could reliably bypass wolves with a torch - they always flee - it broke the game for me and I had to start looking into mods to try to regain immersion. Hinterland would do well to make it such that no technique works 100%. 

On 3/5/2022 at 3:14 PM, Leeanda said:

I wish fires stopped bears! Sadly they don't or I'd stand in a circle of fires when I'm shooting them🙂

So my understanding is that bears treat fires sort of like wolves do: if they approach a fire in normal walk they will stop at a certain radius.  But like wolves, this depends upon them being able to see the fire when they are at that radius. If they get close enough to you to enter charge without seeing the fire they will charge you and disregard the fire. In this case the bear charged before it saw the fire. Here’s the first time I saw a bear stop at a fire:

https://youtube.com/shorts/BC77R1RxwJA?feature=share

more now:

I did a livestream series on YT through 2021 called "Mod Soup" where I explored all the TLD mods that interested me and derived a final 'ModLoper' mod configuration that I view as the ultimate enhancement of Interloper - making it as hard as I feel it should be.   In the first 10 episodes we tested various mods and by episode 11 ("Consumption") I had a static mod config that I was happy with.  We then 'consumed' the Mod Soup in a full Modloper run over the next 30 or so episodes.  Through the series we had visits in chat from major mod authors and discussed their mods while playing them (!), and I learned a lot about what makes TLD challenging, compelling, and fun.  I hope it is appropriate to post this here; moderators can advise.  Thanks and enjoy!

A couple more:

If you want to catch up on the series here's the playlist:

A couple more:

41 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Cool! 🙂

Never seen a wolf actually killed with the hammer before!

Yea the icon said ‘scare’ but it definitely left a mark

Here's a few short highlights of runs gone by:

On 8/18/2021 at 3:10 AM, Leeanda said:

On  A Bad feeling!  

Oh ok I’m confused because there was no fire in that encounter. Are you thinking of Tag Team right after? In that case I wanted to avoid going inside because the moose can despawn. More generally I do fires outside to take advantage of the “outdoor burn bonus”

On 8/16/2021 at 12:39 PM, Leeanda said:

Just wondering on theat why you made fire outside instead of going in the house to warm up?

Sorry which fire?

On 8/11/2021 at 11:36 AM, Leeanda said:

Great compilation!  A bad feeling epitomises everything about the game, definitely my favourite!

Thanks! That dirty little encounter really stuck with me.

A compilation of some of my most gut-wrenching, nail-biting, & memorable wildlife encounters over two years of survival mode runs.

My two cents on paid content addition - yes please (particularly Survival); it seems to me that Hinterland has been overly generous with the region expansions.   Ash Canyon for instance (also HRV, and Bleak I suppose I've learned to 'love') blew my mind and I kinda felt like I should be paying for them because they were so great.  I've put in several thousand hours into TLD and paid 30ish bucks for it on PC and something like that on PS4 to try HDR mode.  But I'm a die hard fan and I suppose my money is guaranteed.  As for the new guys and gals...not sure what draws them in.  Is it Wintermute or Survival?  Either way, paid DLCs might actually bring more attention to the game and bring in more folks compared to free updates.   Might seem strange to ask for stuff to not be free, but I really do feel like I've had the games value in entertainment multiple times over.  I also wonder if the game is underpriced for it's quality, which crosses over from video game to art, and succeeds in both worlds as I see it.  Of course I want to see this thing stay financial viable; there is vast wilderness of your minds that we have not yet explored!  That being said, if the vast wilderness were to appear in the next title, I'd not be disappointed because the part of the game I enjoy most, Survival Mode, has felt complete for me since 1.47 (though it keeps getting more complete:).  But I do feel like Great Bear could already be 'done' and I think Hinterland could attack the next title if they aren't already.  That is unless they want to expand custom mode, add mod support, add more varied regions (airfield? tundra?), add procedural map generation, etc., of course it will be even completer and I will surely consume.  But for a guy like me you're already way into bonus territory and these things might not affect the newcomer's decision. 

On 10/29/2020 at 2:48 PM, Karl Grylls said:

That puzzles me. Because in the release video to the patch version in which the included snow shelters Raphael clearly said, the shelter will not protect you from wildlife

 

//wait 18:25! You can decoy wolves with stones?? In case i haven't make a mistake: Wow i didn't know that. I thought that the update release video in which Ralph said that stones are an early tool for hunting rabbits with a little chance of scaring wolves contained all information available

I’m not familiar with said release video but as I showed in the vid, the snow shelter appears to be a safe haven from every dangerous animal (in v. 1.83). Note that I haven’t tried hiding from the Darkwalker in there...  as for stones, I use them to lure wolves but skilled players can hit a charging wolf and turn it with a stone. Moose are scared of stones but Im not sure if stones break a moose charge.

A blizzard is coming - but can you cancel it by bravely storming out? This TLD Science Lab episode attempts shed light on the 'Bluff Call'.

More experiments on fire burn bonuses:

My ascent to knowledge about the outdoor fire burn duration bonus:

Can you hunt from a snow shelter?  I'm jumping into an old Voyageur save (v. 1.83) to experiment with hunting dangerous game:

Can you kill a wolf with the heavy hammer?  Jumping into my old Winter's Embrace save (v1.83) and do this nasty experiment.