manolitode

So I decided to give the real reishi tea experience a shot. Unfortunately we don't have reishi in my part of the world so I decided to get some freeze-dried capsules with reishi extract. Quite a lot of reviews claimed that reishi tastes pretty bad but I wanted to try for myself. Can you believe it... it tasted like mushroom. Not strong all but with a very gentle taste of mushroom, like a bland mushroom soup. I wouldn't drink it again just for the taste but will keep it at hand if I get food poisoned As for the science, some studies have shown some positive results, I'm sure there are negative effects too. 

Would love to hear opinions on eg fresh reishi and reishi tea.

(See the jar below, drew over brand/logo since it's HL:s forum and this is not a brand/supplement recommendation.)

1 hour ago, Makex said:

I saw moose at day one and tought "this is some sort of f u from game"  . After i got bow and arrows, no moose sightings. I tought i have all done by day 70 but atleast this time it takes more than that. I think i got bit carried away with rabbit hunting, i had fifteen hides at day 6. One would say i was swimming in rabbit meat  

For me bear coat is just something i want to test. Is it really that bad what others say. I know it takes huge chunk of your mobility circle? and it weighs a lot. I can only hope it keeps wolves away from me most of the time and that time it doesn't it provides fairly decent protection against biting.

For sure, they love to tease us with an early game moose 😄

Yes, two cons but I suppose you can skip the underlayer jacket slot and it's not too bad. Gotta try the bearskin jacket and bedroll sometime soon, been to long, just to count how many wolves they scare away, but I'm sure someone here has the numbers.

25 minutes ago, Makex said:

How many days has passed when you have almost all crafted? Now it is day 54 and i have two deerskin pants, rabbit mittens and hat. Bow and seven arrows (three is missing somewhere). Two bear hides curing for the jacket. 8 rabbit hides and plenty of guts (25 or something). Knife and hatchet. I think thats it what i have right now.

I just got the second bear and have to wait 12 days for hide to cure. I think the first one is already cured. First bear was at Desolation point and this second one in Milton.

That's neat, only the moosy stuff to go then How many days depend on the current strategy. Right now I'm trying to loot thoroughly around 95% or so in each region so it takes longer, as that's my main objective then, not to get warm as fast as possible. I like to stone 3-4 bunnies in the first days and leave them to dry, takes away the stress to gather guts for me. But probably around day 30-60 depending on whether there's find moose and bear in decent locations. I haven't used the bear coat for a long time cause it slows you down so much but should probably give it another shot. Anyone know how much more effective it is than the wolfskin coat at scaring wolves away? 

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

My entry:

Bitter cold hides a secret in this place of silent waters.

I say that's HRV, reclusive falls yes?

Full moon to new moon over FM railtracks, MT picnic area and ML trapper's cabin.

1 hour ago, ManicManiac said:

• Also of note, don't dump all your fuel on the fire... I think it's much wiser to only put on an hour's worth or so.  I say that because we can control how long we sleep for, and if the wind does happen to change direction and we don't catch it before it blows out... then we don't loose much.
• Lastly, the fire doesn't blow out right away... when the wind starts to "blow out" your fire, it gets dropped to something like 8 minutes.  This gives us time to "nurse" the fire.  If you have a good bundle of sticks with you... you can keep that fire going all through the high winds/blizzard by just adding one stick at a time and keeping the fire going.  It's a proven technique and I can confirm it works from my own gameplay experiences.

Sure, in best possible circumstances an hour worth of firewood will do, but without coal (and sometimes with it) there are plenty of situations where you'd have to add a lot more fuel to stay warm. Let's say you're fighting off cabin fever by sleeping outside and you had to add fuel for 5 hours to stay warm. The wind blows out the fire and takes the firewood with it. Like @Makex I find this a bit too skewed from a logical point of view (notice how I refrained from using the realism argument 😉). While the nursing fire-strategy is efficient it's also a little too odd that a dying fire provides the same warmth as a lively, flaming one. 

11 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

I think this feature of a wind-blown fire is really great for keeping a player on their toes...

Would have to agree there, definitely makes it interesting 😄

Congratulations on your progress 😊 Every death is a step up on the learning ladder and you summed it up pretty well yourself: "confidence will kill you". 

1) Damage will scare off the wolf. Knifes make a little bit of damage but cause the wolf to bleed out fast. Hammers on the other hand make a lot of damage but the wolf won't bleed out. Axes are somewhere inbetween these two. So hammer is the choice for a short fight, prybar works as well.  

2) From my experience wolf attack damage is inconsistent so yes, they may crit.

3) You'll receive aim assistance from revolver skill 4. Before that, I'd recommend luring wolves to safe areas where the wolves won't carry out their attack and practice your shooting ability from there. In MT you can lure them to the farmstead porch, in ML you can lure them to one of the fishing cabins. Stand just inside the cabin and the wolf will cease it's attack by the threshold. 

On 2/15/2020 at 1:29 AM, Dum_Gen said:

And don't you dare to critisize them. They did not specify release date, so they can take whatever time they want. Doesn't matter, if you will need to buy another computer/console, because the one that you own will be obsolete when new episodes will be released.

Feel free to share any thoughtful criticism, it's a forum with diverse opinions. Again, I understand that it's been a long wait when you're eager to solve Astrid and Mackenzie's mystery. As for timberwolves much can be said but we'll find ways to handle them and with practice, eventually what seemed impossible becomes doable. It's supposed to be a difficult game after all. 

On 2/16/2020 at 8:21 AM, Jimmy said:

To me, the game's already complete with Survival Mode

Wholeheartedly agree.

Seems like the wise thing to do, will also wait til the respawn timers are slower. Not til day 1200 but when I went to BI with a 300+ stalker timberwolves didn't respawn at all for 20-30 days. I don't know whether predators respawn more frequently in interloper than other wildlife but I'm thinking around day 300 would equal pretty few timberwolf encounters considering that and your description above. 

Alright so the cattails equals a deer give or take. Though I can't wait to get my hands on the mill that runs on northern light. 

Thanks for the inspiring read! Made me just a little more optimistic about BI 😉. Decided to venture into it the other day from FM just to grab some low hanging fruit (still  haven't maxed archery). I too feel like stealth is a must, gotta see the timberwolves before they see you. The first encounter was a moose between the transition cave and birch forest so I went further into the region and all was quiet and calm. Second was howling. Third was an aurora. Fourth I got the f out. 

Sweet that you found so many kits and matches. How did you find the reishi, rose hips and cattail amounts? About the boring trailer, it would've been nice with more crates up the rope by the cannery for sure, neat place for a sleepover if there was only firewood. 

On 2/15/2020 at 5:33 AM, GothSkunk said:

Well I live alone, and I don't fall asleep until sunrise, so I rarely have a problem when I'm playing TLD. I never get distracted. Best thing I find is to have a goal in mind. For me, this goal was most recently to collect all 71 buffer memories in the game. Took me 719 in-game days to do it, and I started in April or May of 2019, I don't remember which.

Now that I'm done, the goal is to finally explore and map the Hushed River Valley for the first time ever. It's exciting because I've never been there before until just a few days ago, so it's all brand new to me. 

But yeah, best advice I can give is to have a goal in mind, something to work towards. For me, that was collecting all the buffer memories.

Way to go! You obviously know how to plan for a long run and stay alive. Goals are helpful indeed, keeps me motivated and efficient. I like to have a main goal with the total run (like stay alive longer than ever Before), a handful of semibig goals (such as emptying regions or crafting a moose cape before day 30) and one or a couple of goals for each playing session. 

Ah, how exciting good luck with HRV, let the rivers be your Compass :) 

On 2/15/2020 at 6:44 AM, Jimmy said:

Habits like creating fuel and food caches across the maps, or emptying your inventory whenever you reach a central base, will improve your survival skills. There's no point wasting time and calories hauling junk you don't need.

As much as we enjoy blaming a wolf for our demise, it's often due to our own poor planning that we end up dead. Make it a habit to stick to safe routes when crossing the map, or be prepared for a wolf encounter with a torch in hand to start up a quick safety fire.

To spread resources to make a backup plan for future emergencies is a very well-functioning strategy. You're right that one can avoid wolves at most times by knowing patrols. But sometimes we're just out of control, if you consider these situations: You get lost in the heavy fog on the marshes of FM so you lost grasp of possible closeby wolf locations. However, you may be able to make that fire in case of an attack. Or, you've just goated down TWM on a heavy snowy night. You got sprains, 10% hp and you're cold. So you deploy the emergency stim in your vein, the night goes discobass so you can't see nothing but you run towards what you think is the cabin even though you know you might cross a wolf's path. 

On 2/15/2020 at 6:44 AM, Jimmy said:

And finally, as counter-intuitive as it is, make it a habit to start new games with the intention of dying. If there's a map you're not familiar with, or you want to develop your wolf baiting and hunting skills, make a throw-away game to experiment so you don't have to worry about death ending your hundred day Interloper file.

That's a very helpful approach to prevent disappointment. For me it works best to play with the mindset of surviving and how to be better than last run. Even if I die, it's been a while since I got upset, the first 1-2 years were worse 😃

13 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Usually to save resources. I can get my marathon done in the Dam without nursing a fire, whereas at Coastal Highway an unlucky blizzard blowing from the wrong direction could interrupt my crafting.

True, it's a major test of patience to craft a whole wolf/bear/moose coat there. Especially if mr. cabin inspector bear is still around But the shorter crafting sessions like deer and rabbit clothing are usually fine, at least til you got 2 incoming blizzards per day. 

There are obviously a lot of human behavior that can ruin a perfect game, such as tiredness, boozing and cats that unpause your game while you're out buying groceries. After recently going through a handful of early deaths in interloper I'll share two conclusions that though likely mentioned before are well worth repeating to help facilitate your longevity. They're from a psychological perspective rather than gameplay tactics and they're currently helping me stay alive. 

1) Success will kill you. If the weather is unusually warm, the wolf patrols are absent and most things have been going your way for an ingame day or two, you run the risk of becoming too relaxed. When you're too relaxed you start taking risks and make mistakes. As you already know by now, one mistake is enough to fade into the sudden long dark. Take a break from the game, whether it's 10 minutes or 10 days, and come back with a fresh cautious mind that won't let you do stuff to ruin an otherwise perfect run. 

2) Zoning out will kill you. This tend to happen when you're on a long journey or when the game becomes too easy as mentioned above. The problem is that when you're doing some deep contemplation on what your boss told you during appraisals or plan your weekend with your partner as you play you know that Mr. Wolf will jump out from behind a stone or a corner and there you go, thanks for playing. Again, take a break, plan your weekend or whatever, then get back to the game and voila, 100, 500 or 1000 hours wasn't wasted after all. 

What do you do to remain alert, do you lock yourself in to avoid distractions or are you just a natural multitasker? I'd like to hear the tips and tricks that help you stay sharp in your long run.

8 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Usually I finish this crafting marathon with a small amount of Cabin Fever, so I take my shiny new gear and go loop through Coastal Highway to work it off. I can usually find one or two bears near Fishing Huts, Waterfront Cottages or Quonset Garage, and now I've got a bow I can hunt them to get some bear hides curing for a bearskin coat next week.

If you're going to CH anyway, why not craft at the outside table by the fishing huts and you won't get cabin fever? Might just take a little longer due to bad weather.

3 hours ago, stefoid666 said:

As an aside, is it worth a trip to mountain town? never been before.  I have already nabbed all the cattails and coal from the connecting cave near the trappers cabin, but I have been too obsessed with the bow and arrows to go exploring.  Id love to get some tools because I have about 18 arrows heads and 6 cured birch, but each arrow takes so long

It's a must for reaching HRV, as mentioned above. Going to MT in early interloper is a pretty good way to die. Unless you know the routes of the many wolf patrols, I recommend you to stay out til you wear clothes with decent protection and wield an improvised hatchet. 

2 hours ago, stefoid666 said:

  I have never made it out of a HRV start alive - just dont know the route. 

Yeah, no buildings makes navigation in HRV tricky til you've gone full-blown nerd 🤓 When you enter the region from ML, turn left and keep walking along the left mountainside. That'll take you through an abundance of cattails and reishi. If you're careful and keep an eye out for the bear and wolves you will eventually find a safe Cave where you can rest if you brought a bedroll. Once rested, keep going forward on the left mountainside til you find a rope, climb it and continue to keep to the left mountainside and explore the lake. Use the same way back and you won't get lost in the wild.

1 hour ago, Shaun1981 said:

I don't understand how they can have a disk version out... But still be working on the DLC like they don't know what's going to happen if anybody knows about episode 4 please let me know I have been waiting to finish this game since 2017 feels like 2014 that's how long it's been

I understand that it feels like a long wait if you mainly play story mode. It sounds like you enjoy the game quite alot, I highly recommend giving survival mode a shot in case you haven't tried it yet. That's many hours of fun if it's your cup of tea You could be up for a few years wait til next episode since that's what happened between episode 2 and 3, we might to wait a while til a release date is published. There's been a great deal of improvements made since 2017 like new regions, mechanics, interface etc. 

2 hours ago, peepercreeper said:

who carries a tea cup with liquid inside it in a back pack?!

The same dude who carries an infinite amount of empty plastic waterbottles in his backpack and is able to convert air into pure snow by any indoor stove. 😉

I get that it's another realism issue, suppose you could around it by not carrying more than 1-2 cooked teas? Not much reason to carry loads.

12 hours ago, odium said:

this is a really thorough guide to shedding weight

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1953538782

 

Thanks, that's a great read!

5 hours ago, lore-nmj said:

The safest place in The Long Dark is.. The menu system. Everything else is trying to kill you.

If you're finding interloper too easy you can use the menu system to kill yourself. Just change language to mandarin. 

Aurora and full moon over Timberwolf Mountain.

2 hours ago, acada said:

If we get to prison facility, it could have some magnetic locks. You know, operational on Aurora only. Yes it can create some deadly traps like the mine in the CH. But it could be nice.

Yes, and you could get around the 'death trap' issue with doors that work like the one at the cannery in BI. Once open they stay open. 

Thanks for this heads-up, makes me think twice about using rose hip teas for warming up in a run with long term ambitions. I recommend you to explore a region where you haven't been for quite a while. If they made major changes there you've got a shot at finding respawned rose hips. For example the cave entrance by the crashed plane in PV. I lost a seasoned survivor down in moose overlook in HRV under the same conditions. Got butted, was out of rose hips (by 8 pieces) and couldn't climb out. 

12 minutes ago, turtle777 said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Cave at Mystic River Picnic Area

-t

Yeah there's a waterfall in that cave but it was phrased as a "waterfall cave in a cave", technically that's the same one cave. There aren't 2 loading screens. But okay then, semantics 😛

On 2/7/2020 at 1:28 PM, TropicalSurvivor said:

Questions:

1) Isn't it strange that the game has made us go further south until now, while we should go north?

2) Isn't it strange that the island has a bank branch, a post office, gas stations and even a hydroelectric plant, but it doesn't have any type of government structure? For example: City Hall, Police Station, Fire Station, Hospital, etc.

3) Shouldn't it be possible to communicate with the mainland through radio stations during the Auroras?

4) FM is one of the regions with the lowest human presence, however it has 3 radio towers, while other more populated regions have only 1, such as Milton, or even none, such as CH and DP. Why?

I don't have a clever answer but they are intriguing questions so I'll give it a go.

2) Sure and you could add more such as a landing field for aircrafts and the monopoly clothing store that provides all the island's inhabitants with certain ski jackets, wool sweaters etc. My guess is our game developers can't take more than a few infrastructure functions into account for the sake of realism only. One could argue that these structures exist but are located in other areas that we don't get to visit. As for hospital I'd say there aren't enough inhabitants from what we've seen so far. A doctor on the countryside might just as well be one guy or gal working from his/her home. City hall would be nice but Great bear could be part of another county, hence why there's no such building, same for police station. The big issue is the fire station, great bear has to have a fire engine in a garage somewhere which a few part-time firemen on the island have access to. 

3) Seems unlikely that electricity that can't keep a lightbulb lit sufficiently would be able to power a radio tower. And spoiler alert.

Apart from that, I agree that blackrock prison should be an exciting addition to the game, especially if it's oldschool with analogue locks. Watch the Walking dead season 3 and be inspired how an abandoned prison could be used!

7 hours ago, Daymo said:

There a secret elevator??? I only just found the waterfall cave inside a cave in PV. 
 

You found a waterfall inside a cave, whereabouts?