GothSkunk

This, after I had just killed the bear that roams around on the other side of the river in the Broken Railroad zone: Sheesh, this is a dangerous zone!

Which is why I specified wildlife/burn damage.

Climb down? What, down into the Milton Basin? That can't be a bug. Once you climb down into the Milton Basin, the rope snaps and you can't get back up. What better time for Methuselah to BE in the gas station?

I see where you're going with this, and I think you would have been on to something, were it not for the redux's of Episodes 1 and 2. Before Ep1&2 Redux, Mackenzie spent a lot more time down in that valley after the crash. It served as the game's tutorial. But after the Redux, you climb out of that valley after just a day or two, I think. You don't even have to harvest the free deer carcass for food. In either case, by the time Mackenzie gets out of the valley, Astrid is already out of Milton. I think that it stands to reason to assume that while Mackenzie is in Milton running favours for Grey Mother, Astrid is comatose in Molly's care. Based on the narrative elements of Chapters 1 and 2, I'm hesitant to entertain the idea that there are multiple auroras resulting in multiple disasters over the course of a few days. I want to believe that The Big One -- the one that brought down Mackenzie's plane and kicks off Chapter 1 -- destroyed everything worldwide and would have also resulted in the airliner crashing in Pleasant Valley. If the airliner and Mackenzie's plane crashes did not occur on the same night, that's a pretty glaring narrative inconsistency. That being said, Mackenzie's interactions with Methuselah have also been inconsistent, but only if we act on an assumption that Methuselah is flesh, blood, and mortal. I think Methuselah is supernatural, especially with his name being a reference to Noah's father. Maybe he even is THE Methuselah. And if that's the case, maybe Father Thomas is too. After all, Milton's priest left their church behind and does his sermons over Skype, according to the note left behind in that church. Why would HE have left, and not Father Thomas? Come to think of it, where the hell is everyone else in Thomson's Crossing? The houses are abandoned. Is Father Thomas the only resident there? And if so, why? What good is a priest without a congregation? As for how such a detail could be missed, I think many -- if not all -- of us were just so excited to play Episode 3 that we weren't examining the story with a fine-toothed comb.

Presently, pain is tied to sprains and set to a fixed time of 2 hours per sprain. That's okay, we can keep that... for sprains. But I think it should exist for other conditions as well, and not be fixed to time. If your condition falls within a threshold due to an attack by wildlife or burning, the Pain flag should trigger, and persist until condition is raised above a certain point. For example: 76-100(110)% condition = No pain 51-75% condition = Mild pain (wildlife/burn). All RNG actions have their success chance reduced by 20%. Infrequent FOV blurring 26-50% condition = Significant pain (wildlife/burn). All RNG actions have their success chance reduced by 35%. Frequent FOV blurring, limping <25% condition = Excruciating pain (wildlife/burn). All RNG actions have their success chance reduced by 50%. Persistent FOV blurring, limping Broken Ribs: Excruciating pain for days 1-3. Persistent. Cannot be improved. Significant pain for days 4-7. Persistent. Cannot be improved. Mild pain for days 7-9. Persistant. Cannot be improved. Pain abates upon successful treatment of Broken Ribs. Painkillers: Painkillers can nullify the effects, temporarily. How long the effect lasts depends on the level of pain you have. 2 hours for excruciating, 4 hours for significant, 6 hours for mild. Just a suggestion. Feel free to add your own ideas about how it could be implemented. I just think that Pain should be available as a persistent affliction in addition to how it currently exists.

I think things are just fine the way they are. Currently playing: Survival Mode, Custom settings. (Interloper-level weather, calorie needs, gear, Stalker-level wolves, water needs, rifle spawns, wolf damage, minimum health recovery). Goal: Collect all buffer memories. Desolation Point, Coastal Highway, Timberwolf Mountain, and Pleasant Valley complete. Working on Mystery Lake.

The improved lighting effects from electronics and artificial lights during the Aurora look amazing! Great work!

Okay... I'm stoked! That machinery... is it for crafting ammo, I wonder?

Even the cheek makeup is on point!

Not to mention, due to the nature of the party line in Pleasant Valley and presumably the rest of Great Bear, if the phone ringing in the hunting lodge WAS in fact Molly calling Astrid, then if Will picked the phone up at the hunting lodge, he'd have been able to insert himself into the conversation between them, find out that Astrid is alive, change the whole dynamic of his story, etc. "If he had picked the phone up" being the operative sentence.

You could, yes. But, do you have enough to survive the super-blizzard on Day 4? Even indoor locations are going to be freezing cold.

174 bullets No revolver. But, 2 rifles and over 80 cartridges.

There is a part of me that suspects Father Thomas is similar to Methuselah, insofar as he's actually a supernatural entity who's come to Thomson's Crossing when people are at their most dire need of help. Perhaps sent from God himself. On the other hand, he could just be the village priest. Though I'm perplexed as to why he stuck around when the priest from Milton did not. And if that's the case, an endlessly ringing party line would be insignificant to him.

Something occurred to me while I was out running errands today and I wondered if it crossed anyone else's mind as well:

I expected to find pancakes hidden behind this spoiler. That I didn't was disappointing, but an albino moose is fine too.

Given everything she says to you over the phone, and that she went out hunting with a perfectly good rifle, I disagree strongly that it suggests anything of the sort.

I can't remember where I found all of them. Only that I did. Basically, you should find everything if you do all the side quests as well as the main quests.

It just occurred to me that her husband could have been a prison inmate. There was, in fact, orange fabric found in the upstairs bathroom. Could have been from a prison jumpsuit. Husband could have been among the escapees from the prison bus. Being familiar with the area, he might have tried to get back home, only to find himself being chased by wolves. Molly could have seen him, run out with her rifle instinctively, and then just decided to let them have him. But yeah, I was definitely getting strong Cathy Bates vibes from her, as well.

Timberwolves are definitely a challenge. I'm terrible at hitting fast moving objects with any weapon, but even so it's the most reliable way to deal with them. On the one hand, I welcome the change. The decoy method of hunting wolves made their presence a mere nuisance rather than a threat. And their pensive stalking meant it was also possible to perhaps avoid them by just out-walking them. Timberwolves force you to be patient and precise with your aiming and, to the best of my knowledge, not rely on decoys to slow them down enough for an easy arrow shot. But on the other hand, if you have no way to defend yourself, they are vicious. Encountering them in a Survival Mode sandbox in the first few days would surely mean death, especially on Interloper. I didn't try using a decoy on them due to my experience with the regular black wolves; once they start charging you, they're committed to the attack. And since these Timberwolves are constantly going full tilt, I just assumed that a decoy would be ineffective.

Having played Four Days Of Night, knowing that it's possible for Hinterland to program endless blizzards, AND that there is no mention in the journal about "waiting out the storm," I didn't want to take any chances either, and I slogged through the blizzard from the Thomson's Crossing to Signal Hill, stopping at one of the bunkers on the way to warm up. But yeah, the blizzard did end after I got to Signal Hill. First it stopped long enough for the story to progress so that Astrid could use the radio during the Aurora, then it came back after a few hours and stayed for one more full day before finally subsiding the day after. I have no idea if it is scripted to last a certain number of days, or if it requires the story to progress in order to end.

I was hoping for a way to hide this behind a spoiler tag, but since it doesn't look like I can, I've just added a spoiler warning in the title. You should only be here if you've completed Chapter 3. Apparently resented her marriage, but stayed in it because she'd rather not be alone. Implies husband was abusive, but never gets into specifics. One day just snaps, and watches wolves kill him. Is now alone. Astrid comes along. Is happy to have company in the house now, especially another woman. Seems rather insistent that Astrid stay in the house; locks her in both before going out to hunt, and after getting angry for Astrid assuming she's married. Tone of voice takes an ever-so-slight change when Astrid speaks of Will. Sounds disappointed that Astrid didn't leave Will to die like she did her husband. Hunts Blackrock Prison escapees for sport. Calls randomly on the party line. Finds comfort in talking and confiding to Astrid. Likes the company. Before Astrid goes to the mine to leave Pleasant Valley, asks about Will. Asks if he's "one of the good ones." Lady is a bona fide Misandrist.

I'm so excited I took vacation just to enjoy this! Okay, so I REALLY took vacation so I could be with my family during Halloween and three family birthdays this month BUT this just happened to be a happy coincidence.

(Bottom of the stairway to Carter Dam Administration) (Top of the stairway to Carter Dam administration) (Inside Carter Dam administration area) The Gamer in me has known for decades that 'just because a door exists in an environment does not mean (the player) can open it,' and so for ages the fact that I cannot interact with these doors has been nothing more than a passing acceptance. Walk up to the door, no option to interact with the door appears. Okay. Accept it and move on. But recently, the narrative-explorer side of me has been wondering, 'what is it about these doors, story-wise, that they cannot be opened?' So my question to you is: What's behind these doors? Stuff? Things? Zombies? Will we ever know?

Thank you for the answer! Especially about the hatchet. It's been bugging me for a while now.

Good day! I have a couple questions. One about ambient lighting, and one about the utility of a hatchet. Ambient lighting: I've been playing Long Dark since between Rugged Sentinel and Vigilant Flame. In that time, I've noticed several changes to ambient lighting in indoor locations. Does the game's engine present a challenge when trying to appropriately light certain indoor locations? By my observation both here and on the Steam discussion forums, one particular location that keeps popping up is the Pleasant Valley Barn, which for a long time was too dark to traverse even in daylight, resulting in complaints (though thankfully, no outrage). On the other hand, there ARE indoor locations in game, which I feel SHOULD be dark by design and impassable without a torch/lantern, even in daylight. For example, Carter Dam's lower areas (Carter Hydro Dam and Environs: Lower Levels). There are absolutely no windows except in the staff break room at the far end of the map. Once you go through that bulkhead, even in broad daylight it should be pitch black all throughout until you reach the staff break room at the other side. Appropriate lighting of indoor locations would give torches and the storm lantern increased utility. As they are now, their current utility is rather limited because many locations are so well lit ambiently, even in darkness. Which brings me to my next question: Are there plans to increase the utility of hatchet tools? I know a hatchet is required to properly traverse the Hushed River Valley (a region I admit I have not yet visited), but otherwise their utility seems questionable right now. The only other purpose they seem to serve at the moment is to cut tree limbs into firewood (and even then, minor limbs can be cut into firewood with a hacksaw) and break down certain environment objects into reclaimed wood. They can be used to quarter animal carcasses, but so can knife tools, with the exact same efficiency (at least, time-wise. Not sure about the decay of the tools when quartering). In my current survival sandbox, though I've crafted an improvised hatchet for the first time ever, I've left it behind because I just don't see a purpose for it until I decide to finally go to HRV (AFTER I've collected all the game's buffer memories).