mountain-exile

Get impatient and travel in a blizzard or heavy fog, even if you know the way, especially at night: This is a sure way to get turned around in a way that will get you killed. I'm pretty familiar with TWM, and was making my way back from Ash Canyon when a blizzard hit right around dusk. I made it to the Forest Cave, and should have STOPPED there. But no, I was impatient, and wanted to get back to the Mountaineer's Hut. So I gathered up what wood I could find, and headed off into the storm on what, I thought, was a straight-line shot to the Hut. If I had been smart, I would have just followed the mountain wall around to the left, which would have led me right to the Hut, but no, I knew better...I KNEW I could find Crystal Lake. What I ENDED up finding was ANOTHER cave...one with bones in it...yup, the bear cave under Echo Peak. The bear hadn't come home, yet, but probably would be, soon. Because I was freezing at this point, I built a fire, and still had wood and coal to spare. Didn't have the flare pistol (had mistakenly left it somewhere), but had a rifle...hmmm...question was, though, did I have enough wood and coal to wait out the blizzard AND the bear, who was bound to come along any time now? Probably not. So, from the bear cave to Crystal Lake is a pretty straight shot right out of the cave...you just have to go in a straight line. I made a snap decision to try for it. So, back out into the storm I went. I was walking-running-walking, when I stopped, and thought, "This is dumb...I have enough wood, I should just go back to the cave and wait out the bear, blast him when he comes, then spend a comfortable night 'indoors. I mean the FIRE is still BURNING!" Yup...could just barely see the inviting glow through the blowing snow. This leads me to my second tip: If you're going to do something in TLD that might save your life, commit to it, because if you don't, you will most likely die. While I was standing there deciding whether I should continue on or go back, who should loom up out of the murk but the same bear I was thinking of offing. Needless to say, things got ugly -- and bloody -- from there. Three attacks, and I went into my own Long Dark. Could I have taken the bear out if I'd remained in the cave? Probably. I was ready for it, and far enough back in the cave to get two shots into it. Would the bear have missed me if I'd kept walking? Probably; I didn't see it until it was almost on top of me (of course I could have been unlucky and wandered into it, but my trajectory on THIS trip would have taken me diagonally away from it). Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Grab a glass of water, pet my cat to calm down, aaaand...restart.

Sounds like a personal observation?

About the hammer and acorns, that's what I was thinking. Hell, even the First Nations people would use a grinding stone. Just pick up a rock and start grinding on any flat surface -- a road, the ice, a rock, a floor -- it shouldn't be that hard, just time consuming.

I'm the same way; I don't even pick up charcoal anymore. There should be a way to annotate a map (if you're DOING the map in charcoal, you should be able to update with your own NOTES in charcoal), which I THINK you used to be able to do before Ash Canyon or Bleak Inlet came out (I might be mistaken and remembering another game). The older maps were much, MUCH better at showing details; these new ones are, quite frankly, pretty messy, so I don't/can't use them.