manolitode

Thank you Sounds like the best plan is to fire a flare at the pack before they've spotted me and make a run for the tower.

I'm saving flare shells on my current loper run, with Bleak Inlet in mind. I want to be able to get to the watchtower (and possibly the cannery) before I level up archery to 5. So, a question for those of you who used a flare gun on timberwolves. Do the pack usally scatter? If so, for about how long? Or will it just decrease their morale meter a bit?

@stirfoo That's perfectly fine and I'm sure there are other games out there that may suit you better. Though it's interesting that two people can perceive the same game so differently. You play it cause it kickstarts your neurochemistry. I play it to relax and it's the only game so far that will actually slow my mind down rather than excite it. Skill leveling aside, I don't see that this game was designed to engage your reward mechanisms. Both visual and sound effects for finding loot in a box or slaying a deer are very very subtle for a video game.

I too use the dam for main storage at the moment. Not because I plan on staying in ML for endgame, but I will wait and see what changes episode 4 will bring to Coastal Highway before I haul all my loot there. As you already know, loot go missing with updates at times. No reason to put all the eggs in one basket

This is the probably the most The Long Dark congruent version of a "happy" ending that I've read in a while. But like some other folks, I want survival to end in a dark fashion. And I prefer the game to end because I did something good or bad. Not because of a landslide that is completely beyond the player's control. Oh well, when did we ever have control of the fate of our survivor. Upvoted for a clever idea 👍

I would avoid building a snow shelter at Quonset. It's the most hostile of all camps in CH and some players have reported getting dragged out of snow shelters when placed in wolf patrol areas. It's not a nice way to wake up. If you prefer staying around Quonset and setting up an outdoor shelter there is a much safer area in its vicinity. When you exit the garage facing away from the road there is a hill. Up the hill to the right you will find a calm deer spot. You don't have to worry too much about cabin feber in CH. If you sleep at the fishing huts, craft at the outdoor worktable, do some fishing, collect a daily nice pile of sticks you will be fine. Should you find yourself with a fever one day, just head up to the ravine and sleep it off in the warm cave. Good luck!

@Niev Well put, I think you summarized the potential of TLD quite accurately, which is confirmed from the overall positive response here. I don't think I've stuck with any game as long as TLD even though I know it inside out by now. In spite of end game monotony, I keep coming back year after year. Jumping is a topic of its own as you can see if you search for it but I do like these ideas about a greatly extended number of craftables, varied clothing and more. I guess focusing on endgame content for us oldies isn't a great businessmodel for HL when you can attract a new (and paying) playerbase with an expensive story. Welcome to the forum

I thought it was awesome the first time I saw it, in story mode back in the day. For reasons described above, it's a building designed as a solid main camp, with under-designed surroundings. It's not bad once you're able to eat predator meat from the 3 wolves and the bear you stealth-slay from above the cliff. I suppose adding a region past the broken bridge would make the hunter's lodge much more useful. Or at least a coal location to keep the forge up and running. What do you like about it?

Correct, no place that we get to visit up until the end of eisode 3 has power after the planecrash. Except for during the aurora. That is yet to be discovered, in this season or another. (I haven't replayed ep 1 and 2 since they remastered it so feel free to add did I miss something). EDIT: As for the option of being saved, then it wouldn't be The Long Dark anymore. I prefer death as the only ending. Even in story mode but I'm sure I'll be happy with whatever ending they come up with, they've probably figured out an intriguing finish.

The buildings on Milton main street because of the lurking wolves. The lighthouse in DP because of it's inaccessibility and small stove. And creeping wolves. I agree with above that the hunting lodge in BR is a great camp in a way, with stove and huge storage. But without any deer, cattails, fishing or nothing else to do it's more or less just a great building on an empty edge of the world.

I know, they're easy to miss til you know they serve a purpose You climb up til you reach the ledge, face it and simply click when the text says "ledge". Your stamina should be refilled within 5 min (ingame time). The shorter ropes aren't usually accompanied by a ledge, except for eg PV/TMW transition. edit: and do keep those gloves (and hat) on at all times to avoid frostbite, I even carry spare gloves in my pack

Alright, I'll guess you're currently not using the comfortable ledges where you can rest on the way up and wait for your stamina bar to refill. They're a godsend.

Well rested is the way to do it. Removing gloves, big no-no What climbing locations are we talking about?

Thanks for an interesting proposal It had my mind fire off many different scenarios of how this could unfold if implemented. I like the idea of flexible, perishable strength. Which we sort of have, eg if you're tired you can't carry as much as when you're rested. But I would prefer a deeper level of detail, eg if you eat fast carbs you gain a little carrying capacity for an hour, but can carry a little less tomorrow morning (do correct if there's any nerdy nutrionisists in here ). I realize I may ignite a discussion about how much weight is 'heavy' or 'herculian' but I find the game realistic with how much weight you can carry as it is. The game indirectly solves the potential issue of "working yourself up" to higher carrying capacity. You're not able to carry the extra "well fed" weight until you've been out there walking and grinding for 3 days. You won't be able to carry the extra "moose satchel" weight til you're 11 days in at the very least. That's plenty of time to get used to carrying a heavy load. Walking around with 88 pounds (40 kilos) on your back is not pleasant but perfectly doable for a somewhat young and fit Will,. However, I agreethat it would take a herculian Astrid to carry that weight, generally speaking. About the stamina, while I'd like faster stamina depletion for rope climbing, cutting it in half in early game would make some of our climbs considerably harder and possibly make important areas inaccessible. Thinking about it, that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Indeed, makes me wonder. Why haven't anyone suggested the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch on wishlist?

I paid even less and end up somehwere around 3 cents/hour. It's ridiculous. And that's for a game that won't spam you to buy figments like weapon skins and such. Thank heavens for a gaming company that care to conserve its soul.

I sometimes listen to audiobooks while playing. Every now and then emotional content from books are glued to the The Long Dark environment. So my favorite memories are when a certain location invoke a clear mental image of a certain passage of a book that moved me.

Well done indeed! I have also tried to find a path but failed. Did you find any loot?

Sure, map knowledge is key. I'd like to point something out that we already know. Difficulty is not in the maps alone. It's a nature/nurture thing, to make a stretched comparison. The maps are fixed, like genes. The environment is fluid, like your playstyle. You can start in Pleasant Valley, go for the tools, pick up some cattails and get out of there on day 3. That's easy. What I like to do is empty the map down to the last plant (but I'm sure there are still one or two I've yet to locate). I haven't tried PV as an endgame home yet, but now that you mention it, that would be interesting to try. Cold, sure, but the bears are easy to track down and that's some 90 kgs of meat. Interesting, I haven't made much use of the fishing pond in PV as it is too far from a shelter for my taste. Now that I think of it, few other spots in the game provide as varied wildlife. I like to linger in both TWM and CH. From my point of view, they are regions that maintain excitement even through longer periods of repetitive play.

It's nice to see a fellow Valley enthusiast here 😊 share a link to your Youtube PV adventure below if you want to. I agree that the loot became imbalanced with the plane crash site. There's more food, better clothing and a lot more cloth, even on interloper. While there's lots of more stuff to carry out of the region nowadays I can't say I find it that much easier after the update. Perhaps because I haven't changed how I play the map much. PV is one of the largest maps, BR one of the smallest, so the latter seems like a naturally harder area to survive in. Unless one is very much into wolf meat. It's true that the main danger in PV is its weather. The daylong blizzards, heavy fog and record low temperatures. A map like HRV, in comparison, looks hard at a first glance. No buildings, just you and mother nature. Still, there are plenty of shelters and an underground subway system. Getting caught in a blizzard there is like, ok I'll keep walking for 10 sec til I find a hill and thereby a shelter from the wind so that you can light a fire and throw a piece of coal at it. Get lost in a blizzard on the large, flat open spaces of PV and you may very well have to walk a long way to find leeward. Though one predator is pretty dangerous: the bear in the birch woods is a master at sneak attacks.

Waking up sometimes from light or by the sound of a howling wolf would make things interesting for sure. I also wouldn't mind an energy penalty from chopped up sleep as opposed to sleeping for 8 hours straight. And not being able to sleep directly after an intense wolf, bear or moose encounter.

So I decided to crown the midsummer’s eve celebrations by having my long time interloper totter down the ravine. Too bad, it was such a good run. Which is why I spent the morning of midsummer’s day starting all over. Unfortunately I always start in good ol' godforsaken Pleasant Valley. But just a few minutes into the game this morning I realized something. While I was busy elsewhere, eradicating the fish population and moving stuff from container to container, a subtle love for the Valley had grown on me. How I learned to stop worrying and love Pleasant Valley The point of starting in Pleasant Valley is to be done with it. To get out of there with all the loot before hell literally freezes over. It's a messy place without protection but with time it might just grow on you and anything beyond becomes a walk in the park. The disadvantage of starting in Pleasant Lovely is that if you die, you start over. And over and over and over. Nonetheless, it's a great starting region for plenty of reasons and I'll attempt at describing them below and thereby spread the love for the valley. Brace yourself for a wall of text. Getting out of there today First, a short summary of my wrestle with PV this morning. I was very lucky with the airplane clothes and found both a hat and gloves early on. But I was less lucky with some poisonous deer meat that really worsened my condition before I was able to sleep it off in a cavebed. So I roamed the region with very little health to begin with, so I had to stay warm and that slowed me down quite a bit. I spent a total of 20 days there, it may seem like a long time but I wanted to loot it all, down to the last cattail (more or less). I found all the tools but the prybar. I also popped my head out of the sand to craft some tools in Forlorn Muskeg and carry some stuff out of PV for future use. The weather Lets start with the reason why you don't love Pleasant Valley: the weather is so-so. However, there are ways to get around that problem. I like to carry a two day supply of food and water so that I can remain at a decent condition even when tedious blizzards have me staring at the inside of farmbuilding walls. Also, if you just stay patient and avoid the cold mornings, carry a couple of reishis teas to stay warm when scanvenging for cattails, you'll be fine. Also, your hand should always clench a burning torch, as it will prolong your excursions. And the coal in the coal mine is there for a reason. Perhaps you'll leave the valley looking back one last time with +30% protection, plenty of tools in your backpack and some rabbit and deer clothing. And all that from just one map. The gear If you pick up a handful of stones on day one and visit a couple of rabbit spots you can leave the hides and guts to dry and by day 6 you will have material for both gloves and hat without much hassle. That plus some regular clothing means you get +20% protection early on. Now if you’re playing pilgrim, voyager or stalker you won’t have any problems dressing up in Pleasant Valley. On loper, you gotta dry the hides and guts to be sure to get to +20% protection within the first week. The crashed plane alone may however contain a variety of useful clothes, from your favorite red and white hat to a thin wool sweater, extra longjohns. And when the sun shines its merciful light on your helpless cold body: the combat pants. The pleasant farmstead may provide you a ski jacket, the Radio Tower the combat pants. And possibly combat boots, which alone grants you 10% protection. And coolness. But still not enough coolness to wear the military jacket, like ever. The farmstead is the best shot you get at finding some useful tools. If you also visit the barn and coal mine you may find most of the Tools. Food There’s usually plenty of food to go around (but no airplane food for the loper) and if you happen to run out you can always scavenge the river's many bends for some 150 cattails. Tear down the cloth of Thompson’s crossing early on, leave it in the coal mine and bring some 12-15 coal with you down and you’re good to go hunter-(cattail-)gatherer. Finally, why you won’t die from a wolf attack... … because the vast open planes will help you spot the wolves from a mile. Which is why you don’t go exploring in fog since there are only a few wolf-free locations. … because you don’t run around smudging with fresh guts unless you’re close to a shelter. … because you don’t have any projectiles to fire at them and therefore take precautions like crouching at corners and hilltops. … you will probably die from a wolf attack anyway. Why the valley deserves your unconditional love Once you have depleted Pleasant Valley of loot you have pushed yourself to the limit of the standard difficulties. The game won’t get much harder. You may say, ”sure, every map is an excellent starting map once you know it inside out”. That is correct. You may say ”but the forge is so disturbingly far away”. That is correct. You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope some day you will join us. And the valley will be inhabited by everyone. And if you made it all the way down here through this stream of consciousness, guide or whatever, feel free to add, agree or disagree. And join us in emptying Pleasant Valley one last time, forever over and over again

I sort of agree that we should wake up when too cold. Unless we go to sleep already freezing, I'd prefer this particular game mechanic to be more realistic. However, we consistently reap the benefit of being able to control for how long we sleep and I would really prefer if we didn't.

Hmm I don't recall this building from survival content, where is it?

Seems a little bit rough but you raise an interesting moral dilemma that stir up some feelings. Storywise I would have preferred it if Astrid was unable to locate the insuline and a circumstance where she had to perform a humane kill. That would have made for some interesting character development. We didn't need the story to have us save three people to understand what Astrid is like. She's a doctor, we already know that she saves lives. I'd have appreciated a plot twist that challenged her most profound traits. With Will we got the chance to steal from grey mama in episode 1 if I'm not mistaken.