Dx421

Vacations are nice 😁

Projects are good too. 

You could set up a 'shop' somewhere (stock shelves) I've got a 'swap shop' in the Pleasant Valley Community Hall - Stacks of clothing, books, plenty of spare bedrolls 

Great job on the new region! 😀

Good mix of buildings and wilderness, plenty big enough, fun to explore!

I wandered the entire region before I finally remembered 'tails' requires the radio and I'd need to use it to progress things 😅 but enjoyed the progression once that process was started. 

Only 'negative' thing I could find - The location for the mine key was a little lackluster and the scene/set dressing didn't really make sense. Maybe having some control stations for pump equipment or something. Maybe making the location have a small office with the key on a key hook instead of the current setup.

But what does it do????? 😫

I've experimented with it but couldn't figure out any noticeable impact. 

I used to use decoys extensively. 

I'd always carry one scrap of rotten meat alongside the 1-2 pieces of fresh food grade meat. The game drops the rotten meat (which is nice) But I did this because I didn't want to kill the wolves. 

I think my record was 273 encounters with 0 struggles. 

That all changed with custom settings. Now I just turn animal aggression off and I only hunt for food. 

Still don't used water purification tabs though. 

I think the best place to start is researching the item's flavors and recipes associated (at least until you can get the genuine article for true comparison)

Online sources I'm finding compare burdock root to artichoke and ptarmigan compares with hare (rabbit) 

As far as ordering the items - I would look at the local meat markets and butchers that you have in your area and ask them. They should have access to "insider info" (suppliers) who wouldn't be available for online retail. 

It's also accurate to describe TLD as "science fiction" yet I think very few people would think of it as a scifi game.

In the end we just use words as best we can to describe ideas.

Also; 

Making a new crafted bow would be nice - leaf spring bow (Googling will show more pics and vids but I'll attach an example)

Crafted at the milling machine this is more what I'd expect a repairable bow would be like (can replace various parts including the bow 'shaft') 

Of course this might just be going in a direction Hinterland doesn't want for their game.

I have mixed feelings on the subject. 

While the string could be the thing that breaks it's also possible the shaft breaks and that wouldn't be something we could repair.

Then again; there are parts on a rifle that could break and wouldn't be repaired with a rifle cleaning kit so...

Yes to bow repair 👍

(The 'sport bow' is def my fav 😁)

18 minutes ago, hozz1235 said:

I think the concern is, if "food ingredients" spoil, can they still be used as an "ingredient" to cook with.

I've seen comments that ruined flour could still be used, although I haven't tested yet for myself.

My biggest curiosity is the potatoes and carrots though - Those are required in some of the special recipes and they seem fairly limited (at least in the settings I play at)

I'd expect flour would be inside storage (dry place)

The expansion to the cooking system has been great. Hopefully Hinterland will take a pass at decay and item storage when they start working on 'safehouse customization'. With the current 'exploits' (never use containers, can cook ruined food, never get sick at level 5) decay isn't all that impactful. 

20 minutes ago, wizard03 said:

Maybe shell casings????? Best I got right now. 

You can use a milling machine on brass. 

'Neck turning' is a process that reduces neck thickness variations and allow the bullet to be release squarely into the rifling

https://blog.westernpowders.com/2016/05/when-accuracy-counts-part-two-neck-turning/

Pretty much making better ammo. It can be done with a milling machine, if you have jigs and rigs and some knowledge.

Making new casings would take whole chunks of metal and a lot of time. But it could be done. Not sure where we'd get the brass bars though

14 hours ago, peteloud said:

I am beginning to think that the game might be better if custom modes were removed.

One of the interesting aspects of playing the game is comparing your playing of the game with other people's playing of the game.  I do not mean that in a competitive way, but with a learning objective.   When I play TLD I don't have any interest in doing better than anyone else, but I do like to find out how others tackle particular problems and find out about things that I might have missed.

If everyone is playing at a different custom level it is difficult to compare your experiences with the experiences of others.

This was an issue as Hinterland created new difficulties levels back years ago.

Numerous players were having issue communicating their strategies because some were playing Voyageur, other Stalker, others Pilgrim. When Interloper was added it was a completely different game that required very different tactics.

Should everyone play on one level so all information is easy to share? No. Clearly the game benefits from those 4 levels, players can build up and ''advance'' if that's what they think they're doing.

Those levels continue to change, Interloper now is not what Interloper was in test branch. Even DMC doesn't get that experience. So comparison is only so valuable and old info becomes outdated. 

Custom is best for those who have already played the game 100s or even 1000s of hours and want to keep creating new scenarios and challenges for themselves.  It should not be removed.

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OP has a great idea. Adding in 'tough starts' would give some welcomed challenge 👍

4 minutes ago, manolitodeespana said:

Oh that's right, forgot about the good ol' 1750cal MREs and the luxurious "problem" of carrying everything down the mountain and out to PV. I suppose I was expecting something similar on first interloper climb but there wasn't more than a few cans and some crackers. Don't think I ever ended up weighing more than 35kg after looting all containers including summit and descending (on loper).

Yeah I just did 5 runs up and down the mountain about a week ago. I had 4 container compartments full of stuff - somewhere between 80-120kg if I was to guess (I should have made a note) 

Each climb I'd carry down 15-20kgs, even after 5 runs there's still some extra tools up there. 

(This is playing on a Custom setting that uses the Stalker world spawn but with lower container densities. Lowering container density in custom settings has no effect on the plane crash containers)

From my experience: Some locations benefit from better lighting. 

If there's a moon out it can be enough to work by. 

Caves, and locations like the Mountaineer's Hut almost always benefit from this. 

4 hours ago, manolitodeespana said:

Cool, do you recall what the temp was on the summit day 100 on loper? I suppose it should be more challenging than climbing on day 1. I have yet to make it to the summit on difficulties below stalker, but living off the summit for 2 months, I suppose there was an abundance of food in the containers?

 

It was cold enough on Loper that a 20 degree warmth bonus wasn't enough to not freeze, I remember that

On Voyageur there's lots of food in the containers (*One container has nothing but MREs nearly a dozen on Voyageur, Stalker has these too, another has crackers and peanut butter. It's very different on Loper). I conserved a lot by starving during the day since I was just trying to pass the time. The survivor can last for a few days with no food if you don't mind the condition drop (*depending on the difficulty settings of course). Doing that I still had food when I came down the mountain. 

(BIG EDIT: It's also important to note I did this in 2016, small parts of the game balance have changed since then I can't say for certain if the calorie burns are the same)

8 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

It's not specified, but since you're banging them out of scrap metal I would assume they're just "generic pointy metal thing" and not specifically broadhead tips.  Frankly I think exploding arrowheads crafted with gunpowder would be cool, but totally don't fit the theme or atmosphere.  Broadhead arrows do, and they would serve as a nice contrast vs. the "simple arrow" we can currently craft.  Simple arrow--gets the job done...sometimes.  Broadhead arrow--gets the job done...period.

I can get behind that reasoning

Maybe Hinterland can just call them ''Refined Arrowheads'' some of the ones I've seen sold IRL have sections cut out of them, not sure how that helps but the survivor could do that with a milling machine 👍

I've never played an update that wasn't worth starting a new save. 

Everything in the game gets little tweaks and it changes the whole experience. 

Using an old save you'll miss out on the new skill books, they have a chance of spawning in all the regular book locations you've probably already collected from.

The milling machine is a fun idea. But repair could be done differently.

I repaired a small rifle once that was misfiring because the trigger had worn and wasn't catching. The trigger was just a piece of metal with a hole for a pin to pivot on and a few angles to catch where it needed to. No amount of cleaning would make that trigger work, it had to be replaced. 

Rifles and pistols in the game could break in a similar fashion and we'd have to craft replacement parts. Even generic ''Rifle Parts'' would be more realistic.

Besides firearms there's not much that a survivor needs a milling machine for... A camp stove comes to mind but you can make one with hand tools. Metal animal traps are typically forged and need spring steel in their construction. Lantern is hand tool repair since the metals thin.

You can mill engine and other vehicle parts but it's hard to tell the exact rules of the event and what engine types do and don't work and why.

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Arrowheads into Broadhead Arrow Tips, which can be used to craft Broadhead Arrows that do more damage than a Simple Arrow.  This would give Interlopers some incentive to risk the cannery.

I like the idea but aren't the arrows already broadheads? 

Record?

I've been on the summit on day 1 many times. Shortest run was around 8 hrs with a Voyageur start in the TWM region back when I was still trying to get feats and achievements. I spent 2 months on the summit in a snow shelter to get the Pacifist and Silent Hunter achievements. It's probably possible to do it with less if you get a stim or coffee.

On Loper I've only done the summit once, but that was around day 100.

12 hours ago, DaPepster said:

On a related note, has anybody made a list of any of the locations where the gun smithing research books spawn...?

I don't *typically encourage loot lists so I won't disclose any of the locations I found them in.

But I will say I found 5 (IIRC) *gunsmithing books total after exploring all regions without visiting all locations in each region.

That's a good point wizard.

I think with a little work they could make Broken Railroad into that kind of map. They just need to add in the bolt cutters from story mode and a few Timberwolf packs. 

Maybe the region is still too small compared to Bleak Inlet though. Another reason to rework it. 

I've heard the phantom bear before, and like @ajb1978 been attacked by them. 

Curiosity kills. 

Better to leave at once. 

The hunter's blind isn't the only place where the phantom bears can appear. I've encountered them in TWM and CH as well. It's a pretty old 'bug'.

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- As of 1.69, I avoid wolf contact if at all possible, even though I have 30 rounds with the revolver.  I do alot of crawling....this slows me down (and gets boring admittedly).  In the past, I could stay upright mostly, drop decoy, and haul ass to my destination.

I don't think the wolves are much worse than they were before. But some of the behavior is strange to say the least

Decoys are still a good option IMO. But you have to plan the drop with the new wolf pathing.

Once they take the bait the behavior is the same as it was the last few patchs - Wolf will trot away, typically in the opposite direction from the player. As long as that direction wasn't where you were trying to go it's an effective tactic. 

Keeping your eyes on the wolf and backing away from them still works. Running doesn't seem effective anymore unless you plan to jump off a cliff

Agreed!

Although there should be some benefit from crafting the lead. 

They could make a forging skill and lock a few recipes behind higher levels. But I think we'd just grind those levels with lead anyways