Pantless! An Interloper journey


Ruruwawa

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3 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

I don't find this implementation very enjoyable.  So much hinges on knowing your exact Feels Like temperature when outdoors, which changes constantly.   It's unsatisfying gameplay to be repeatedly opening the UI to check your exact temp.

Right from when the UI changes were introduced, it was pointed out what a kick in the 'nads it would be for Interloper players.. and that's exactly what it has proven to be..

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10 hours ago, JAFO said:

Right from when the UI changes were introduced, it was pointed out what a kick in the 'nads it would be for Interloper players.. and that's exactly what it has proven to be..

I don't exactly agree.  For the rest of my interloper play I'm fine with the HUD temp/condition gauges.  Take hypothermia risk, for example.  No chance of that until your temp gauge is empty and then the rate of increase is constant regardless of the exact temperature.  The degree of threat is easily visualized in your condition bar.  I rarely open my health panel to check exact temp or condition when managing hypothermia risk... maybe once in several game days of Interloper play.

For frostbite risk there's a world of difference between -5c and -6c.  Frostbite risk is much harder to clear than hypothermia risk so the it really is helpful to manage that 1 degree difference.  Both -5c and -6c are somewhere in the "one down arrow next to your temp gauge" range, so the main HUD is useless here.  Only the health panel UI can help manage frostbite risk.  

This particular kick in the nads happens only when you don't have all your body locations covered.  On a Interloper typical run that's head and hands during the first day or two, but there are quite a few hats and gloves to loot in the world.  I found 4 hats and 3 pairs of gloves in ML while searching for pants, for example.  So it's a severe problem, but not a persistent one.

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Enjoyed this, thanks Ruruwawa. Another awesome addition to this particularly awesome sub-forum. Makes me want to contribute something but I haven't been playing much lately and interloper is evil with its lack of rifle fun times. Either way it was very interesting to learn how easy it can be to get to the summit. I always over prepare in retrospect.

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2 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

Nice story. I was secretly hoping the wolf would turn your pants to shreds so that your pantless journey could continue :D

Hey now, I worked hard for the those pants!  >:(:D 

Frostbite isn't a very fun-to-manage mechanic, so I'm glad I still have pants.  Honestly, I think I'd prefer 20 days of parasites.

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Pantaloper update, and a reflection on Food and Fire

Day 37 for me now, and I've reached an important Interloper milestone so I thought I'd post an update.  But first that reflection...

Interloper strips TLD survival down to bedrock.  Tools, clothing, and weapons are all extremely helpful but optional -- getting by without these is very harsh but it's possible.  But bedrock is food and fire.  Fire is cooking, water, light, a shield against wolves, a tool to combat the cold (and cabin fever).  And food, of course, is the showstopper.  No food or no fire = game over.   

This basic truth has a powerful influence on my Interloper travels and priorities.   After making pants and a bow on day 16 I stayed in the dam for a few more days to read some cooking and archery books, and craft arrows, mittens and boots.  Then I headed to Desolation Point. 

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Why DP?  Food and fire.  DP is not an exceptional place for food because there's no fishing.  But it's pretty good for hunting -- compact with reliable spawns and nearby shelters to warm up in.  Loads of rabbits too, so not a bad place for skilling up archery.  On the other hand, it's a spectacular place for fire.  

On reaching DP, the first thing I did was pick up coal from both the transition mine and the in-region mine.  40 pieces!  That's 40 hours of fire in about 3 game hours.  Then I dragged my coal and all the stuff I'd brought from the dam to the Riken.  Yeah, I know.  Some people hate how dark the Riken is, some folks hate the tilt.  But the wheelhouse is a great spot for an outdoor fire, nearly as windproof as a fishing hut and far closer to sources of fuel.  Bonus: it's a short, sheltered, wolf-free walk to a warm bed.

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I spent the next several days persuing a very specific goal:  Cooking 5.  First I had to round up a little chow for my survival -- a couple deer -- plus a bunch of sticks.  As I was cooking dinner I heard a bear snuffling past the Riken.  I ran out on deck and sent a mid-range arrow into him.  Got a good stick, which was semi-miraculous since I'm not a great shot.  (Crafting arrows, reading books and hunting helped, I guess, because my archery skill was already level 3.)  Next day I found him and harvested him.  I started the hide and guts curing, then stacked 25kg of glorious bear meat on deck for some post-cooking 5 consideration.

Next I killed four wolves and quartered them.  Quartering saved some condition loss while harvesting, to be sure, but mostly I wanted the meat in bags.  I brought it all back to the Riken.  Indoors (for warmth) I harvested each bag of meat -- usually about 2kg -- into tiny slices by aborting the harvest ASAP.  I got about 30 -35 slices per bag this way.  Nine bags, so about 300 slices total.  Then I spent my days breaking down boxes for more firewood and cooking toxic, parasite-inducing "wolf chips."  I used a few for bait, but I put the rest into a container so they'll poof from my world forever when they rot. 

The result: Cooking 5!  Which turns every predator into fast food delivery -- food sorted!  It also let me bank a very nice chunk of outdoor time despite all the indoor time I spent crafting and reading. We know from @Timber Wolf's research that cabin fever risk kicks in when your indoor hours reach 78% of total hours for the past six days. so I have some flexibility now.

I'm back in CH currently, looting what I can before it poofs forever.  The pickings are extremely thin, in part because I got a bad roll on destroyed buildings.  None of the waterfront cottages survived, and there's only one house in the townsite in addition to the garage, plus one house at the dock.  The three town wolves did deliver themselves to my bow, and I got some sunny weather to cook them up so at least I'm well fed. :D 

And that's the real value of cooking 5: freedom.  I'm not as warmly clothed as I'd like yet (I'm hoping for another bear hide or two), but I can move around the world more easily because the food will come to me.  Soon I'll head back to DP to work on my next milestone -- archery 5 -- while I feast on bear meat.

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On 12.9.2017 at 3:11 PM, Drifter Man said:

Nice story. I was secretly hoping the wolf would turn your pants to shreds so that your pantless journey could continue :D

:D - that would have been hilarious.

Can we create a community challenge around assbite? Like... travel from the Maintenance Yard in BR to the Whaling Thing Facility in DP as fast as possible without getting assbite. The challenge would of course involve never to wear any type of pants. Would that make sense as a challenge? Pantlessnessologists forward for the answer, please!

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3 hours ago, Hotzn said:

:D - that would have been hilarious.

Can we create a community challenge around assbite? Like... travel from the Maintenance Yard in BR to the Whaling Thing Facility in DP as fast as possible without getting assbite. The challenge would of course involve never to wear any type of pants. Would that make sense as a challenge? Pantlessnessologists forward for the answer, please!

That's a pretty fun idea.  You'd have to reach the end with max 100 condition, of course, because otherwise you could go pretty fast by just just letting the frostbites rack up.

Also, the weather can be pretty mild during the early game on the easier difficulties.  Just to ensure ass-kicking weather, maybe make it stalker?  Also, require a distress pistol shot from the top of the lighthouse for a bit of extra challenge / tradeoffs (do you spend time searching for coffee?).

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On 9/15/2017 at 0:25 PM, Ruruwawa said:

It also let me bank a very nice chunk of outdoor time despite all the indoor time I spent crafting and reading.  370 of 905 hours -- meaning my indoor hours are 59% of my total hours thus far.  We know from @Timber Wolf's research that cabin fever risk kicks in when your indoor hours reach 78% of total hours. so I have lots of flexibility still.

Check that again - cabin fever is a running average of your previous 6 days, not your total time spent indoors/outdoors. ;)

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53 minutes ago, Timber Wolf said:

Check that again - cabin fever is a running average of your previous 6 days, not your total time spent indoors/outdoors. ;)

How did I forget that? /facepalm  Well all good, I've been outside a lot in recent days so now I'm clear to craft a bunch. :D 

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17 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

That's a pretty fun idea.  You'd have to reach the end with max 100 condition, of course, because otherwise you could go pretty fast by just just letting the frostbites rack up.

Also, the weather can be pretty mild during the early game on the easier difficulties.  Just to ensure ass-kicking weather, maybe make it stalker?  Also, require a distress pistol shot from the top of the lighthouse for a bit of extra challenge / tradeoffs (do you spend time searching for coffee?).

Hell yeah - introducing a distress pistol shot would make this definitely more interesting! You would have to choose whether to get it from the Summit or the Ravine (probably the latter). And concerning your 100% condition requirement, I think that was in part already included when I said "without getting assbite". But granted, firing the distress pistol at 100% condition would also require not getting headbite, handbite or footbite, and in addition to recover at the lighthouse back to 100% as well (which would require bringing along some food). The difficulty would have to be at least Stalker. On Interloper the challenge might result in a chore, one would have to try it. If it's still challenging on Stalker and good fun, then maybe Stalker would be better.

But my real question was: Is assbite management a challenge when going for the speedrun? And maybe even fun? That's why I was asking the Pantlessnessologists, sobre todo el famoso profesor Ruruwawa...

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2 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Hell yeah - introducing a distress pistol shot would make this definitely more interesting! You would have to choose whether to get it from the Summit or the Ravine (probably the latter). And concerning your 100% condition requirement, I think that was in part already included when I said "without getting assbite". But granted, firing the distress pistol at 100% condition would also require not getting headbite, handbite or footbite, and in addition to recover at the lighthouse back to 100% as well (which would require bringing along some food). The difficulty would have to be at least Stalker. On Interloper the challenge might result in a chore, one would have to try it. If it's still challenging on Stalker and good fun, then maybe Stalker would be better.

Yep, my bad, I think "without getting assbite" covers it.  I don't think requiring a full 100% condition at the end would be needed, just the potential to reach 100% because you didn't get frostbite.

2 hours ago, Hotzn said:

But my real question was: Is assbite management a challenge when going for the speedrun? And maybe even fun?

You would be forced to manage frostbite risk in a challenge designed this way, yep.  You couldn't just rely solely on coffee or stim-chaining to jog across the world because even at 100% condition you can get frostbite risk.

As for fun, I think it could be.  I mean we're talking about facing a cold, harsh wolrld without pants.  Something to tell your grandkids about, if nothing else. ;)

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3 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

As for fun, I think it could be.  I mean we're talking about facing a cold, harsh wolrld without pants.  Something to tell your grandkids about, if nothing else. ;)

Reminds me of the notorious song "Pants on the ground"... man, watcha doin' with yo pants on da ground? Lookin' like a fool with yo pants on da ground!

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1 hour ago, Salty Crackers said:

Why do you need an outdoor fire on the Riken? I always cook in the furnace.

Interloper, so hanging around outside without a fire is challenging.  I'm past day 50 now and the warmest outdoor Feels Like I've seen in the past week is -18c.  So I cook / make water outdoors to avoid Cabin Fever.

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