Perfect base... Now?


thekillergreece

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On 6/14/2018 at 11:34 PM, thekillergreece said:

I stopped playing The Long Dark since Summer 2017 because I wanted to allow more and more updates to be released it which would make the game all new and refreshing. They added Moose but I did not play to try it at all. They added new cooking system and I decided to restart my whole running session starting from yesterday and I am happy that I did that. I would spend hte whole summer playing this beautiful game.

Now. They added Broken Railroad (I do know it has some good shelters but is it worth it?), Mountain Town and Hushed River Valley.

They added moose, new cooking system which means a house with a stove up to 6 cooking slots is now recommended. So, I need your help guys which region should I form my base? I used to form my base at Waterfront Cottages in Coastal Highway. But they added the new cooking system so its probably not worth it anymore. Not to mention it only has a fire place and no stove. Oh, not to mention I might as well feel "repetitive" by forming same base again, again and again. (1st run which lasted like 200+ days, my base was at Waterfront Cottages. Second run which lasted 60+ days my base was at the same location, same house. I dont want my third run to be the same lol).

 

Suggestions please as I gather supplies. <3

If you want to exploit the cooking mechanic then you want to set your base up at the old Barker farm house in Milton.  As I scavenged the town on my last play through I ended up with 6 cooking pots which is totally awesome when you want to mass produce potable water for your base.  Much better than Pleasant Valley farmhouse just due to the fact you've  limited wood resources as compare to all of the replenishing limbs, branches and sticks you find around the farm house in Milton.

Not to mention the relative close proximity to various hunting areas with an abundance of wildlife.  Found my first rifle in car in Milton.  That never happened beforfe and i have been playing this game for years now... lol.   What else is nice about Milton as a home base is the ease of which you can get to Hushed River, Mystery Lake or Forelorn Muskeg.  

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On 6/29/2018 at 11:21 PM, piddy3825 said:

If you want to exploit the cooking mechanic then you want to set your base up at the old Barker farm house in Milton.  As I scavenged the town on my last play through I ended up with 6 cooking pots which is totally awesome when you want to mass produce potable water for your base.  Much better than Pleasant Valley farmhouse just due to the fact you've  limited wood resources as compare to all of the replenishing limbs, branches and sticks you find around the farm house in Milton.

Not to mention the relative close proximity to various hunting areas with an abundance of wildlife.  Found my first rifle in car in Milton.  That never happened beforfe and i have been playing this game for years now... lol.   What else is nice about Milton as a home base is the ease of which you can get to Hushed River, Mystery Lake or Forelorn Muskeg.  

Yeah I'm really liking this location, I feel like with the new cooking system 6 pots for cooking is so crucial for running an efficient base. At trapper's cabin I felt like I spent so much of my time cooking on the two burner stove.

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  • 4 months later...
Guest jeffpeng

Something I discovered for myself only recently (as I wasn't aware of it until @peteloudmade a post about it) is the Milton Basin Cave. The cave is spacious and as warm as any, you only have one or two wolves patrolling the ice plains which is easy to overlook from a distance (especially since the cave is slightly elevated), there is a lot of firewood to almost sustain a permafire without ever leaving the area. You get to enjoy mild Milton weather, it has two rabbit spawns and up to 3 deer, and together with the wolves (assuming you have cooking 5) you can sustain yourself down there for a very long time. When stuff runs out, you can make a short climb-less trip to FM's Marsh Ridge which has firewood o' plenty, not no predators and more rabbits. A crafting table is just up two ropes at the Farm, and, of course, the forge in FM is less than a day away.

It's my steady no. 2 end-game-shelter right behind The Ravine . It's arguably easier to sustain than living in the Ravine and you have a short way to the forge, but you have to look out for wolves every day and overall world accessibility is not as good with the Ravine basically being right in the middle of ML, CH and PV.

 

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3 hours ago, thekillergreece said:

Are they good enough for cooking?

I do most cooking outdoors in the fishing huts, fishing for an hour while things cook behind me. I do like the giant stoves but I never really use more than two spots. The camp office has a 2 spot upstairs and a potbelly down if you really want to get some water going.

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  • 1 month later...

The six burner stoves are really helpful, but six cooking pots aren’t that necessary. Meat or fish can just be placed on the stove with no pots, and if you have at least a couple of pots, you can use them to make water while you cook meat. Eventually, making 12l of water at a time with two cedar or one fir becomes overkill. 

 

Why is there no love for the hydro dam for a base? It’s central to everything, with close access to 2 maps, and decent access to 2 more. There’s more storage than you could ever fill, multiple work benches, two outdoor safe zones with books and crannies good for blocking the wind, thousands of hours of wood, a moose, deer, and wolf spawns nearby, and some decent views. It isn’t the prettiest place in the game, but it certainly makes for a good base. 

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  • 2 months later...

In my long road to 500, I've found the cave on the backside of ML to be safe and bountiful (Old Bear cave).  It's great for Retirement.

- Close workbench in Camp Office

- Forge isn't too far (ML->FM)

- Close doored Fishing Hut on the lake.  Safe, warm(er).  Plenty of Oil for lamps.

- Very good lines of sight on the lake for the 4 wolves that hang out there.

- The wolves are easily avoided via the path back to the Camp Office.  Also, easy to navigate to in heavy fog.

- Placing your fire near the inside/outside boundary in the Cave allows for long-fires (outdoor bonus), immunity from Cabin Fever, or safety from Blizzards (when you sleep on the inside).  Also nearby fishing cottages with beds, in case ultra-security is required.

- Wolves do not patrol close to the exit -- and there are two directions to go from the Cave mouth

- Good amount of replenished wood

- Rabbits close by, up the nearby rope.  Paths available up and down in case you don't want to use the rope.  Seldom wolf near the rabbits.

- Sometimes Deer on the lake.  Also deer close to the Camp Office

- Regular Food-Trunk, in the form of the Lake Bear: Randal.

image.png.b498fe21bc7383c0d5a51d455cc0149d.png

Downsides:

- No coal nearby

- No containers in the cave

- No 6-burner oven

- So safe, it's a tad boring

 

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On 6/15/2018 at 4:44 PM, cullam said:

Are you talking about a THIRD forge? I've never heard tell of such a legend... 

There are a total of three forges in the game (so far).

About the bases - my main base is always the Camp Office because it's in the center of the map of the most central region on the map. If you want to loot other regions for all possible resources you can pile them in the Camp Office in ML. If you don't want to explore at all you can just start in Mystery Lake, collect everything and retire in the Camp Office. You can just go fishing anytime the weather allows it, start fires with the magnifier in sunny days and cook outside behind the back entrance (to use the advantage of the outdoor fire) and live the good life. Collect sticks, fish, cook, eat, sleep, repeat until the end of time (if you're going for a record of days survived).

Other than that, here is where I set up temporary bases on other regions:

Hushed River valley - the bigger ice cave system with the most entrances. I've mapped it so I can navigate it faster and know exactly where I can pop out in the region. You can safely travel from one end of HRV to the other via these caves. Just bring a lantern.

Milton - the big house in the town is a fairly central place in that region. Yes, there is no workbench there and I used to climb the rope up and go to the trailer safely but that doesn't exist anymore. Now I cross the bridge, go behind the church and then reach that trailer without encountering wolves. I use that house because it's close to two computers that are usable during Aurora, and the third is not too far.

Broken railroad - hunting Lodge is definitely a place you've got to visit, but after that go set up base in the more central maintenance shed because: has a forge, it's easy to clear it up from wolves by taking shots through the door of the outside office, has the two computers that work during Aurora and has an outdoor bed to fight cabin fever. Just look out for the cables on the floor.

Forlorn muskeg - ether Spence's because of the forge and workbench, or the cave next to the waterfall because of the laptop (but you have to clear the two wolves first).

Pleasant Valley - the signal hill radio control hut, because it's has a workbench and a computer, it's closest to the only fishing spot in the region and closest to the exit to ML. There are plenty of caves around if a storm hits and you can't go home quickly enough, and there is a cave right next to the pond with the fishing hut that is perfect cover if a storm hits when you're fishing.

Timberwolf mountain - of course the mounteneer's hut, it's the only good place for a base. Plenty of caves to sleep safely anywhere else though.

Coastal highway - the fishing camp is the safest place that is relatively central in the region and has perfect access to fishing huts of course. You won't be hungry there. The workbench is outdoors, but you can always wait for good weather.

Desolation point - I'd always pick the lighthouse because it has less wolves than hibernia, it's further from the bear and closer to the exit towards CH, the Riken with the forge is close too and the church and the coal mine are more convenient as well.

You'll say "but there isn't a six-slot stove at any of these places". Yes, these stoves do save you time and wood, but I don't mind cooking outside so I have a longer burning fire as a bonus anywhere I am, and wood is not really an issue in this game, neither is time. The most important thing is to have a workbench close by, and wherever possible a fishing spot.

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My choice is still the good old Camp Office.  There are 3 indoor slots for cooking (2 upstairs and 1 down) and  nicely sheltered outdoor locations for fires around the house.  Light a camp fire or two or three outside with the magnifying lens, take a torch in and light the two stoves and you've got at least five and possibly several more  cooking slots using no matches at all.  If the fire(s) outside get hit by a wind, just start more on a different side of the house using a torch from one of the inside stoves.  The path towards the Trapper's Homestead drops ample sticks and you can always transport tons of reclaimed wood from the dam, if necessary.  Between fish, deer and rabbits, there's always plenty to cook even without taking out the bear or moose.  The workbench is right inside the building with you and there are two nearby caves for warding off cabin fever... or spend the time sleeping in whatever fishing hut spawns with the door.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I don't think in my current stalker run I'll move away from the Dam. There are some solid advantages: you can sleep in a bed in the nearby trailer, there's a workbench, you can take a walk to the cave in the Ravine if cabin fever starts being an issue, it's such a central waypoint you could call it a commercial route. The main disadvantages are its outright ugliness and the absence of a kitchen, apart from that fire barrel. As for food, deer and rabbits can be found in the Ravine, and the river bend near the trailers has deer and is a known moose home.

But the main reason it will be my current main base is its amazing storage space. I've been using my limited gaming time by playing Wintermute recently, so I still had to properly resume playing since the infamous Redux menace. You know, "we don't guarantee for the safety of your items if you're in the following regions". I had vague memories of lengthy forced marches carrying a heavily laden backpack filled with a grand variety and amount of supplies to the cave in the Ravine and then back to the Dam as soon as the threat waned, making use of its many lockers, drawers and whatnots. This evening I loaded my old survival game and I started checking containers to arrange stuff in a proper and logical way. I gave up halfway. Eight lockers, the file cabinet near the workbench, trash cans, the front office desk drawers, the shelves and suitcase near the entrance, the red tool box, some container nearby... ALL FULL. I always pick up EVERYTHING. Even that improvised hatchet I found in Milton's Basin, EVERYTHING. It's sick. And I still have to cross the Ravine, explored less than a quarter of Pleasant valley and didn't dare going into the HRV.

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18 hours ago, Hawk said:

The newest one - the third one - is located in the maintenance shed in Broken Railroad.

It was added in the Redux release of Wintermute, but it is there in Survival mode too.

thanks man!  did not know that.  I should start paying more attention to the updates. :$

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Personally, I prefer Jackrabbit Island as a base. However, I also use the Camp Office a lot, and a kind of weird one that I like is the Draft Dodger’s Cabin in PV. 

 

Jackrabbit Island:

I’ve started to stray away from it a little with me spending more of my time in CH closer to the Fishing Camp, but you can’t beat those rabbits. Sure, there’s the wolf risk, but there’s no bear and it’s relatively tame compared to some...ahem...OTHER locations in CH. Beachcombing is great too. Lacks a fire and a workbench, but there’s a workbench close by and you can cook in fishing huts. However, at this point, with manual cooking, I would just recommend something with more cooking slots.

 

Camp Office:

Been transferring my stuff over to here from CH for a while. Two cooking slots on the stove upstairs, right next to fishing huts. Some people say there’s wolf problems, but I find that they never really get too close. If you’re afraid of dodging them on the lake, then use the Lake Trail. Two spots nearby that are good for fighting cabin fever (Lake Overview and Dave’s), and somewhat close to the FM forge. Trapper’s isn’t far either, and I prefer the Camp Office just because of its proximity to the lake, which is where I focus most of my time when in ML.

Draft Dodger’s Cabin:

This is a weird one that I’ve been experimenting with. I wouldn’t put this as high as the farmstead (not much beats that, but I’m not going to talk about it in this post), but it certainly can be surprisingly effective. Decent proximity to TWM, good hunting opportunities, somewhat central location. If you want some action, head up to the ridge and hunt some wolves. Unfortunately, it’s not very close to the fishing hut, but it’s not as far away as some other bases. Just a nice location that I thought I’d share.

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