Skuopbahdwoop

any veteran players have advice for how to deal with wolves? I’m completely terrified of them and want to avoid them at all costs, but I need to kill them in order to get the coat. I can hunt bears or moose no problem; but when I try to hit a wolf I just freeze and I keep missing, even at point blank. But I’ve seen people who can just calmly see a wolf and fire off a shot and insta-kill them. Does anyone have any advice for getting over wolf fear and getting some pelts better? Much appreciated, thank you :)) 

Oh, nevermind! Turns out I have just been clicking the wrong buttons. I kept clicking L2 instead of R2, and now it seems to be working fine. Sorry for the confusion! 

On 12/30/2020 at 7:16 PM, ajb1978 said:

Every Survival mode game ends, whether you hurl yourself off Timberwolf Mountain, botch up and get killed by wildlife, or simply delete the save. And while we can certainly just delete the save and tell ourselves that our survivor made it off the island, I'd like to actually be able to SEE that happen. Like patching up an old rowboat, you shove off, the game fades to black and congratulations you escaped the island. Just something to make it more real. Not holding my breath though.

I agree...I really like the mental challenge survival mode poses, but it could be interesting to have optional objectives. Honestly, I'd be down for more challenges if anything- that's pretty close to an objective, and it would be cool to see more of them! But I just love playing TLD in general. 

On 12/30/2020 at 3:42 PM, piddy3825 said:

I had to chuckle when you wrote that you found it funny that many of the responses come from players with thousands of hours of play time which is true.  then you remarked on how you learned to play, by researching the wiki, watching tutorials and by playing the game, taking risks and developing your play style.  Well, that's pretty much how those of us with thousands of hours in the sandbox did it too!  Back when the game was first released, the forums provided that community experience that you alluded to in multiplayer mode that you said you enjoyed.  We'd play the shit outta those limited maps and then jump on line into the forums and compare notes, discussing techniques and strategies that helped us become better survivors.  You would not believe how many "test" runs I made seeing how much damage my character could take jumping down from the side of cliff, or running out onto the thin ice to see how long it would take to die from hypothermia!  ahh, good times!  Glad to hear your back to playing in the sandbox!

Oh jeez, that actually sounds super cool! One problem I've just consistently been having is wondering how far I can push my character before I die. I'm not really a risk-taker in survival games- I tend to just pile a bunch of resources in a base and then explore and operate from there. But that's not really something you can do in TLD, at least not the long term- it's forcing me out of the comfort zone, and it's actually been kind of fun to take more risks and be more mobile. Still cripplingly terrified of wolves, though... but hopefully if I get better at fighting them off then that'll change! Happy new year to you! 

Thought I’d share my opinion on here, since a lot of the responders seem to be ppl who have thousands of hours clocked into the game and I am,,,not one of them lol. 
 

I first got TLD for the PS4 back right after the rugged sentinel update as a used copy for about 17 dollars. The person recommending it told me it was a really intense survival sandbox like Minecraft, and I was excited to try it out. I immediately fell in love with the art style and the music, and it has a very addicting quality about it that makes you want to invest hours in crafting and surviving and exploring the huge map.

But there were things that made me put it down and not touch it until this year, and a lot of it was for two reasons. I want to preface this by saying in no way am I trashing the game or the developers for their hard work, or trying to whine/complain because I didn’t pay enough attention. Just offering up my perspective.

One reason was just a severe lack of understanding the game mechanics. A big benefit for veteran players is how the game doesn’t offer a tutorial or a huge learning curve, as it has an extreme survival component to it that after enough practice you become appreciative of; but when you’re getting into it it’s easy to feel frustrated and confused. I remember I’d eat up all my rations really quickly, thinking if my food bar went down into the red then I would immediately die and lose my world. I didn’t know how wolves could find you, or weight management, or how to hunt- so I’d be left climbing up cliffs and spraining my ankles every couple minutes with an 80lbs inventory, since I was afraid if I didn’t have a crap ton of fire resources and health items then I wasn’t playing the game right. I’d lead a wolf into a deer and then rush it and take the hit to my clothing/health, and then run after it and harvest the two carcasses and that was the only way I knew how to hunt. And even playing story mode (back before the redux), a lot of the mechanics I was still confused by moving into episode 2. I remember I was in forlorn muskeg once and I died 5 times to a bear, pack of wolves, hypothermia, falling into ice, and just not understanding the buffs/aiming system well enough. And I got frustrated and was a lot like OP- I felt like a game where it didn’t teach you the mechanics in simple terms, or a more forgiving navigation system? The benefits of the atmosphere/exploration didn’t outweigh what I felt were huge costs.

The other reason I dropped it was just because of a perceived incompatibility with the game’s message. I’m not a huge video game enthusiast- TLD is currently one of maybe 4 games I play regularly- but I tend to like games that focus on rich lore, crafting, and especially having some kind of social aspect- whether multiplayer with other people or having fun side quests to do for NPC characters. Going from that into a game that focuses primarily on isolation, hopelessness, and being the only person left alive in a hostile and worsening world made it difficult to get into for more than a few hours at a time- and that initial clash kind of biased me against getting better at the game. So I stopped playing.

However, I decided in 2020 during quarantine, after seeing some playthroughs of it pop up in recommendations, that I wanted to give it another shot. Watching other people enjoy interloper runs convinced me I hadn’t given it a good enough chance, and it wasn’t like I had much else to do. And honestly? I’m not ashamed to say I was completely wrong about it. I started off by watching other run-thoughs, reading through the wiki, memorizing the maps and watching a ton of guide/tutorial videos that explained a lot of the game mechanics I was having trouble with. With that confidence I spawned into Mystery Lake and just started exploring around the map, getting a feel for where everything was and trying to take a few more risks than I had done previously.

I’m still not good at the game, per se- weight management and prioritizing resources are still things that escapes my hoarder gremlin state of mind- and I still find it gets a bit tiring/emotionally draining to play survival for long periods of time; but I’ve actually grown to really appreciate the atmosphere of the game and all the new content. The updates to cooking, navigation, and aiming, for instance, were huge benefits that really helped me work more on the map and not feel as stressed out about conserving every possible resource as long as possible. And accessibility options like camera dampening. Plus, seeing all the new maps I’ve yet to explore are really exciting, and it gives me incentive to get better at the game (and over my crippling fear of wolf encounters lol). So like what most others have said, it is really difficult to get into at first- TLD is incredibly unique in terms of its gameplay and atmosphere, so the unknown difference can make it challenging to get into- but if you look through the wiki or get some help from the variety of wonderful forums here, there’s a lot this game has to offer if you can survive those first couple of nights. 

From what I can tell, the survival bow is surprisingly accurate to how a real life bow shoots. When you’re aiming from a distance, always aim a little bit higher to your target- the amount depends on how far you are. Beyond that a lot of it is just practicing with the aiming system and getting a knack for where it needs to be- it gets a bit intuitive like most other weapons in the game. But like everyone else has already said, practicing on a target or object, maybe even on an easier difficulty like Pilgrim, will be the most helpful thing. 

Howdy! So I recently did a massive update for TLD on the PS4 (version 1.32 all the way up to Hesitant Prospect) and started a new world. I figured out how to move and place items on shelves and rotate them recently, but it doesn’t seem to work correctly. Sometimes it does, but usually when I try to move an object from the floor up to a shelf, even when it turns green, as soon as I place it the object returns to its original position. Am I using the wrong controller buttons, or is there something I need to fix in game? Thank you very much! 

On 12/27/2020 at 7:21 PM, ManicManiac said:

So far in all my time playing in the survival sandbox, I've never found myself at all bored.
For me the answer is simply applying a little Player Choice:

That’s really interesting, actually. I’ve thought of TLD as really driven by player choice, but it’s cool to really see how ppl have taken the bare bones survival sandbox and customized it for challenges and such. 
 

i think at the end of the day the main qualms I have with survival mode is something I wouldn’t want the developers try and fix. TLD is beautiful, but very isolating- the atmosphere really gives you this sense that you’re the only person left alive. And I’ve seen people do really amazing things in the game, and have had a lot of fun with survival myself. I guess I’m more into games that have a more social aspect at times- I love doing little side quests or interacting with NPCs in other games, then? (though i will say I’m not a big gamer, so TLD is one of maybe three or four games in my rotation.) So maybe basic survival isn’t my cup of tea, so to speak. 

On 12/28/2020 at 5:12 PM, Glflegolas said:

 

Possibly the funnest way to play Survival Mode is to publicly announce some objective, then stream your gameplay on Twitch or record YouTube videos -- this is an extremely fun game to watch people play, too.

 

That’s what I’ve been thinking as well. Ive kind of just been playing the game the same way every time- running around Mystery Lake, finding weapons, exploring, avoiding wolves and conserving legit every resource I can find. But doing challenges with some pals might be fun, so I’ll keep that in mind! 

thanks y’all! 

So I’ve played The Long Dark survival mode for a while, and I just had a question for players who have more time clocked into the game.

what exactly is the main objective for survival beyond just surviving? I’ve been enjoying my playthrough so far, but even now I’m beginning to get a bit bored. Once you’ve gathered enough food and water to be somewhat comfortable, and you’ve explored everywhere, what really else is there to do? You could do challenges but when playing solo, the game feels really exhausting and boring if you play it for too long. I suppose a lot of this is due to the fact that I’m not a big gamer, and I may not be the type of player who is best suited for the atmosphere that TLD has. 
 

still, I’d love to hear what people find entertaining about survival! Or any tips for how to make it more fun when going into the later game. 

On 12/22/2020 at 6:09 AM, bobbyem said:

1. I find taking a rest on a ledge to be a trap. I see those pieces of wood laying there as both bait and a warning. Like the remnant of a previous climber being forced to give up some of his precious resources in order to keep climbing. As long as I get over encumbered after I start climbing I can always keep going. Getting stuck on one of those ledges is fine if I have the means to rest up without freezing to death. Not sure which feat you are referencing but I will have to check it out. Going up Timber Wolf Mountain this week took me like three days just because of all of the ropes I needed to climb. Again, I get it but I would like to get something to reduce the grind after 300 Hours played. I am sure many of you have all of the badges but some of them are pretty silly in how much grinding I need to to. I have lit 500 fires and I am only halfway to getting the fire badge. Sure the badge would really make the harder difficulties a lot easier but what is wrong with that? It is still hard. 

2. We probably have different play styles but I would love to hear some of your suggestions. Maybe you have a thread already?

3. I found this function finally! Thanks! 

4. Hm yeah. Like I said before I don't know if the phenomenon is a constant thing or just at certain times? I guess I could buy it either or but like I also said the map is a bit lacking.

5. You might be right. But the I don't think that this would be much of a coding challenge for the Hinterland team, and also we already have lots of stuff in the game that is pretty much useless or at least next to useless(IMO). Like the flashlight, ammo crafting supplies, tools, hammer and so on. Sure I might have had use of these once or twice but they don't really add enough value for the weight they have. That said I don't mind them being in the game. It all adds to the emersion and playing styles available to us.

6. Sorry. A deadfall trap is just a simple trap where you have a heavy object being triggered to fall on the animal. For a mouse this could be a large rock or something like that. Yeah on my most recent playthru I run into a lot of bad food. Would like to have a way to get rid of it. "Discard" or like you said. Having it despawn. Like I said earlier the mice would probably be very little food but trapping them would give us something to do and add some more life into the game. I really don't like having animals in the game that are untouchable. That really breaks the emersion for me. I know the point of the game is that the wilderness is a beautiful but unforgiving place but I still appreciate every bit of life in it(and being able to eat it  ). 

I completely agree. Anything that makes TLD more immersive is 100% in my book. 

On 11/24/2020 at 3:18 PM, Gracia_WolfSlayer said:

Fun tip. you can throw rocks to lure wolves to or away from you! So, how you mentioned leaving the bait and wanting to shoot the wolf when he goes for it? Instead get in a good spot to shoot from, throw a rock to land roughly where you'd like the aim your shot, and the wolf will go to where the rock lands! sometimes you need a few to lure them if they're farther away. This also works on bears.

You can also do it to distract them so you can more easily sneak past.

Whoa, really? I always assumed you could only use the rock on rabbits. That’s absolutely wild! I’ll try that next time I’m playing TLD. Thanks for the tip! 

@ManicManiac howdy! Apologies for digging up something old, but I just wanted to clarify my thought process on the HUD notification.

first off, I’m the first to admit I’m not a good TLD player. The longest run I’ve had is 46 days on voyager and I’ve come close to dying due to my own lack of situational awareness many times before. However, I know that this is due to my own lack of understanding of the mechanics of the game, and I would never want to suggest an unfair advantage or “spidey sense,” as you put it, simply because I’m not good at basic wildlife encounters. 

my reasoning is similar to why auto walk or press and hold accessibility options exist- just because I’m able to triangulate sound cues or hear the wolf barks, does not mean other players who may struggle with that could. Having a HUD notification much more like the sprain risk or encumbered risk, at the same time a wolf would be making a sound cue, would balance the playing field for those who may not be able to triangulate/recognize that sound cue exists. And this isn’t a perfect concept; for example, would the HUD icon be spawning in a corner of the screen much like the sprain risk, or would it be in the direction of the wolf? Does it spawn whenever the wolf is stalking you, or only when it is close enough to start charging? It’s not an easy mechanic to implement, and it would need to be balanced heavily to make sure it wouldn’t give ppl an unfair advantage- much like how the press and hold button was thought out. 
 

apologies if this responds sounds rude or defensive, I’m genuinely not trying to sound that way- I just wanted to clarify my thought process, and agree with your point that accessibility is always a good thing to have in a game.

@Shadowin welcome to the forum! Apologies, it’s been a while since I checked my inbox. Thanks for commenting! 
 

it’s a difficult balance, yeah- there are so many cool ideas from real life survival that would be nice to have, but may not necessarily serve the best purpose for the in-game context. Plus the whole making sure the game is achievable but still incredibly challenging is difficult to maintain. 
 

i had been wondering if maybe a cool idea for the salt mechanic/smoking mechanic that could balance out the insanely OP cooking bonus you get from cooking level 5. As it stands you could just make a bunch of snares, get endless rabbits, and then just spam the carcass harvesting and cooking stats until you can run around eating ruined meat with little to no penalty. It would take time, sure- but once you reach that level, what’s really making survival challenging? Conceptually, if you made the cooking 5 be less powerful but balanced it with some mechanic that allows you to preserve meat for a really long time, it would imo balance out the cost/benefit. But at the end of the day it’s all up to the developers. 

On 11/21/2020 at 5:03 PM, manolitode said:

I'm a little unsure what you suggest so bare with me ☺️ Are you mainly concerned with accessibility, difficulty or both? 

If you suggest a visual cue for howls and growls: hopefully it will be introduced in the closed captions subtitles with future updates, as an option for those with impaired hearing. As for triangulation, panned sound and growl volume changes with changed distance would be a nice addition, but as they are now they're no good for triangulation.  

If you suggest that the HUD indicate hostile wildlife near you, even though they don't stalk you, it's more a matter of difficulty. Since wolves are our minor boss fights they should be demanding in my opinion. If we keep cutting corners a wolf or something nastier will jump us eventually, a warning would make that and other scenarios too easy. Also, I really like how the HUD is thoughtfully minimalistic and subtle. It's almost like you're wandering through a painting. 

Oh no I totally agree! Wolf attacks are fun because you can't ever expect them, and it's always terrifying to just be wandering around the area, admiring the scenery, and then see a shadow on the hill below stop and look over at you. 

I meant something more along the lines of accessibility- sometimes with all of the different parts of a scene I can find it difficult to notice or hear where a wolf bark is coming from- like when the wolf is actively charging right towards you and escape is inevitable unless you know where it is. Having a simple HUD icon kind of like the sprain risk, that activates around the time someone should hear the wolf barking, is probably the best option; since if the icon appeared just whenever there was danger of a wolf attack, that would give people an unfair advantage in the game, and I'm not really about that. 

I agree about the HUD style, though- the Long Dark is so beautiful and too many notifications would get in the way of that. And your ideas about triangulation are neat! Kind of like proximity volume and stuff would be really cool for immersive purposes. 

Started playing the Long Dark again, and it's been really fun, but I've gotten my fair share of funny encounters.

So for reference, I'm playing on Voyager and I had survived about 20-30 days when this happened. Spawned in Mystery Lake as a beginner for a while, and decided it would be a cool idea to go to Forlorn Muskeg and make it to the Spencer Family Homestead to use the Forge there (because, for some reason, I thought it had a lower difficulty setting than Coastal Highway, plus I had gone there once or twice when I played Story Mode, so I knew the area a bit better). 

So I make my base at the poacher camp (I know it's not a great base, but it's the only location on the map I knew about), and after a day I set out to scout the railroad leading to the entrance to Mystery Lake. My big plan was to hug the corners of the map and make it to the bottom right (where I thought the Homestead was based on the wiki directions), and then scout from there to see what was up. Turns out, on the hill next to the railroad tracks on that end there's occasionally a wolf. 

First round, I was confident. Had a piece of ruined meat I could drop as a decoy, and my rifle with a few shots. I was still running on a high of being able to snipe my first wolf point blank. I figured I'd let it take the bait,  crouch down and shoot it, and then quarter it and bring the stuff back to the base.

Then I almost died and restarted the day; since this is my first playthrough where I haven't died on the first week, and I /really/ didn't want to lose it because I was stupid. 

So second time, almost died again. Third time, I finally remembered I had bait I could drop. The wolf stopped for a second, and we both collectively looked down at where....I had dropped fresh gut. Not meat. Because I had apparently forgotten I had gut in my inventory (which probably explains why the wolf kept sneaking on me to begin with). The wolf gave me a look for a second, like "are you really this stupid?" and then proceeded to maul me. I kind of sat there for a second, watching my condition drop, thinking "Well, the definition of insanity is trying the same things an endless amount of times expecting different results, so maybe I should try something else." Then I realized I risked permadeath so I immediately fought the wolf off and restarted the day again. 

Gathered my firewood again, failed at starting a fire for a few times, cooked up some meat and water. Figured maybe the homestead was too difficult for me to get to at the moment, and I should scout more around the camp to figure out what was what. So I decided I'd try to hit the Northern radio tower and see what was up there, since I knew from the maps I looked at it was somewhere near the poacher's camp (in case you haven't noticed, I'm terrible at navigating by map). So it's a cold day, kinda foggy, I'm carefully walking across the ice patches (because I've fallen in and gotten hypothermia a few times on other playthroughs, and I didn't feel like getting it again), when I look up and think "hmm. That rock looks like it's moving. That's kind of weird." Turns out, that rock was a bear, and turns out bears don't particularly like when you get too close. Needless to say.....I restarted the day again. 

Now it's cold and I go "ok, so I can't go to the homestead, can't go to the radio tower. Let's go across the railroad tracks, where it is nice and safe and I hopefully will not die." 

So I drop every single thing in my inventory that could draw animals to me, even my bait. Because I just want to explore and figure out where I am, for goodness sake! I want to find the cool things! 

I walk across the tracks for a bit, admiring the sunrise (it's seriously beautiful, guys. This game is wack in terms of art)....and then I run into a pack of wolves. At this point I've restarted five times and I'm /really/ getting tired of having to gather up all my morning firewood if I'm just going to get attacked a few hours later because I lose focus and forget that there are a bunch of animals who want to eat me at every corner. So I restarted again and figured I'd just wait for better weather before exploring, and I'd stay inside. Then I realized, I don't have much firewood. Maybe I should fix that. So I go around and break down some fir/cedar limbs, get hypothermia risk because it was cold and I forgot to make a fire, and I for some reason think "oh hey, the bear is gone now, weather's not that bad, maybe let's give that radio tower another shot! I can make a nice fire over there, gather resources, have a fun time. I'm pretty sure it's close enough, and my clothing's warm enough that I won't get hypothermia before I get there if all goes well." 

Turns out, when crows fly overhead and they're not going to a carcass, it means the weather will change. And it turns out, fog is actually very common in Forlorn Muskeg. So I'm wandering around this icy patch in a giant circle, get the weak ice indicator....and I got hypothermia and had to run back home before I died. 

It was a fun week. 

If any of you guys have funny stories about poor planning or wildlife encounters, please put them below! Hope this post gave some of the more veteran players a chuckle at my expense; I am horrible at this game even if it's really fun. It's a wonder I've been able to survive as long as I have even without restarting when I'm going to die. 

Totally! Quarantine has been a huge incentive for me to get better at the game. 

I thought about this when I got surprised attacked by my 5th wolf of the day. Could there be a visual HUD indicator when a wolf/other dangerous animal makes a noise threateningly at you but it's not within your eyesight? I've messed around with volume variables but it can be difficult at times to focus/triangulate a wolf bark before I get knocked out. It could be something even just turned on or off like camera movement in the accessibility options. It wouldn't need to be overpowered, either- just a visual hud on the screen that something dangerous is around you so you have to find it, like when you're on a steep incline and it warns you you're at risk for spraining; or the weak ice warning. 

Just figured I'd throw this out there as food for thought! 

Does it need to be either one way or the other? I understand players who want a really challenging, non-renewable experience. That the only goal of survival mode is to survive, and that players who want to survive should be more conservative with their resources. I'm not discounting that, or trying to complain like "waaahhh!! the game is too hard because I don't have 7 guns and 50 pounds of food I can find outside my door!!" The Long Dark is built on the idea that eventually, the resources you have won't be enough. There will be, inevitably, death. And a lot of players prefer that experience.

But at the same time, it seems somewhat unrealistic there wouldn't be some renewability beyond beach-combing, especially where plants are concerned. If rosehips, mushrooms, saplings, and old beard plants can exist for multiple in game months without rotting or freezing to death, it stands to reason there must be enough renewable plant life for them to exist. In addition, herbivores like deer survive in the game for years- surely there must be enough consistent vegetation beyond what the player interacts with so they can continue to live/respawn. It wouldn't be much- but if after maybe one or two in game years there was a respawn of certain items like a few scattered birch saplings, or some mushrooms- that would be believable to me. I mean, we're talking about a game where a freaky Aurora makes wolves glow wild colors and sparks broken-down technology that's been frozen and weathered to life again. If that's something that's possible, why can't a bit of renewability be as well? 

Plus, snow is rarely stationary, and since the game's lore is based in a geo-magnetic event that drastically changed the region's geography to the point that survivors either had to move from suddenly dangerous areas/couldn't access new locations (as seen in survivor notes), couldn't that also be explored? Maybe something like rare earthquakes or avalanches that occur throughout the regions if you survive long enough, uncovering new locations/items you may have not had access to in the current geography. It would inspire players to explore the regions again, combing for things they missed/couldn't get before; and could prevent the inevitable stagnancy where you've either used up all your resources and the only way out is death, or you've locked down one region and there's not much incentive to go back to it. It adds more playability to survival mode. And in the end, I would imagine something like this could be tweaked in the custom options- like you could spawn a world where there is eventual renewability, versus a world where you could switch that off if you wanted the game to be more challenging. Plus! It wouldn't even need to be overpowered- just makes it more accessible.

And I do understand that the developers have tweaked things like wildlife behavior and game mechanics to make the game harder- such as how it only takes 12 hours before you dehydration is fatal, rather than in 3 days irl. Plus, wolves rarely circle around humans and attack en masse. That's just the way the game is played. But I don't see why renewability couldn't be some variable you could change in a custom setting, as it could be a good safety net for newer players that could give them a chance to get on their feet and learn when it comes to natural resources, instead of just ruining their whole playthrough. In my experience, something like that could be equally inspiring and demoralizing- making it less accessible to newer players interested in the game but haven't followed all the updates. To an extent, at least- it just makes sense that something like this could be customizable for different player experiences. 

Sorry if this post seems rude, I genuinely don't want to offend anyone. I'm a newer player myself, and I'm not really...very good at the game; I just killed my first moose a few days ago, for instance (and it took me a couple tries because I kept missing my arrow shots). But it just seems logical, at least in the lore the game establishes, that there's something to be said for sparse renewability; which could be manipulated like wildlife/weather behavior to tailor the game's experience to your play style. 

Thank you for the kind words! 

Yeah, I had figured salt would have been something introduced before, even if it was just in a forum. I do think it would be a neat mechanic to have salt or smoking abilities to preserve meat further, and have less of a smell- would even help conserve weapon condition, since if you just get a moose and preserve the meat then you could save a few arrows in the late game. And also, why not have stew!! It would be such a cool game mechanic to have fancier meals, where you get a thing of stew that spoils really quickly but when heated up it gives you a big hunger bonus. 

I do think that if salt was implemented though, it'd need to be balanced a lot to keep the game challenging. That it would either take a lot of salt in order to preserve meat, or "curing" it with the salt would require multiple in-game days for it to dry out, etc...just to balance out the benefits you would get from being able to create a meat with longer-lasting condition and a reduced scent gauge. Plus, I'd imagine if you got a high enough cooking skill things like salt preservation for meat wouldn't really matter, since you could just go around eating ruined meat without fear of parasites (at least, I believe, in easier difficulties). But at the very least, I agree that it would be an interesting thing to explore in future updates. 

(also sorry if things I'm talking about have already been implemented in the game- I have the PS4 version and I've only been able to get the update to 1.31, or the update right before the cooking system got overhauled to cooking pots and stuff. So my experience with the cooking mechanisms is just sitting by the fire watching the circle HUD while time is sped up.) 

Oh jeez, first time posting on this forum but here goes! 

I had wondered when I was boiling water on one of my play-throughs, about some kind of salt mechanic. Like if you could boil out water and get salt, or find it in stores/indoor bases (because I'd find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be bags of salt anywhere on the island). If you got enough salt, couldn't you use it as a meat preservative, to make its condition last longer? It's a stupid idea, I guess, since there's already jerky and if you get a high enough cooking skill condition doesn't matter as much on the meat- but I figured I'd post it here if nothing else. Maybe someone could make something better out of the idea, at least? Have a wonderful day!