Flight of the (Frozen) Phoenix

[Senauer]

Since I downloaded TLD last winter break my PS4 gamer life has almost revolved around it. Even if it’s only been a mere 7 months since I stepped into the quiet apocalypse, I have experienced countless hours of both epic survival and shameful failures, which have made me eager to explore and experiment with what Great Bear Island offers us.

It is only recently that I dived in these forums in my quest for further knowledge from TLD scientists, finding amazing survival stories and personal challenges which have really inspired me: @Drifter Man’s Snowball 47 in TWM, @Hotzn in his several Stalker runs, @TheEldritchGod’s Quonset Station Manager, just to name a few.

So, I recently came through a post by @kopo79 where he wondered about how many scrap metal would be needed to put the plane in TWM back in the air. Suddenly, memories of the film Flight of the Phoenix popped up in my mind. In the movie a bunch of people get stranded in the desert after a plane crash and, after facing extreme survival conditions, they decide on rebuilding the plane with the help of one of the survivors who happened to be an aeronautical engineer.

And then it occurred to me: what if our TLD protagonist had the technical knowledge to get the plane in TWM (or at least some of its parts) flying again? Which materials and equipment should he/she collect and bring to the summit for such a challenging enterprise?

I’m thinking this would be attempted in a Stalker run with the objective of gathering (at least) the following resources and take them to the Top of the World:

- Cloth/leather/hides

- Scrap metal

- Hammers

- Toolboxes

- Prybars

- Mountaneering ropes

- Fir/cedar wood

- Saplings

- Lantern oil

…

I have not decided yet on the quantities and of course these would depend on the items' general availability. For instance, it would not make sense to say “yay, let’s bring 20 hammers!” if only 3-4 would be obtainable in the whole world. But perhaps one could say “ok, let’s bring as many hammers as I can find after exploring all regions in the map”.

Scavenged supplies and gear should make sense from a mechanical/hydraulic point of view (Wright Brothers' style), as the quiet apocalypse has rendered all electrical equipment useless.

So, could you please provide any suggestions about which resources and quantities our daring engineer should aim for?

P.S.- I know that scrap metal is not the best material to get a plane flying, but as apparently there are no sheets of aluminium and titanium alloys available in Great Bear Island, I'll just face the challenge from a role-play approach 

[Khan_Drichthyes]

I'd say a group would have better luck building (or repairing) a boat to escape the island.  Sail power has no need of electricity or combustion.

[Senauer]

@Khan_Drichthyes Yeah, you're right. I had also thought about the boat option and certainly it would make for a great challenge as well. It could mean either repairing the Rikken (perhaps using the forge oven to later burn coal and propel the ship) or build a sail ship, as you suggest. It might be also a nice opportunity to role-play as a shipbuilding engineer that used to work for Hibernia previous to the end of the world, with the objective now of bringing to DP all the supplies and equipment needed for the task.

I know this boat enterprise would make more sense and look way more "realistic", but still, the appeal of somehow making the remains of the plane fly, even if it was by gliding and pedaling beyond the island until reaching the nearest strip of mainland... it's just too encouraging to not try it!

[TheEldritchGod]

I often thought that game could use an "Ending" quest. A few to be exact. Building a boat could be one. Putting together a power glider that could take off from the top of TWM and glide to shore would be another. And then there is mine:

Collect the skulls of a hundred wolves, two bear skulls, one moose skull, and a hundred pounds of wood, haul it up to the top of TWM, and make a giant wolf skull throne with burning flames leaping out of the bear skull eyes. Then you sit down and just go to sleep and die. Your ending is in a century, they find your frozen corpse on a throne of wolf skulls and the primitive humans of the future worship you as a god.

But there should be multiple "ways out".

[Cr41g]

that's beautiful...

[Senauer]

@TheEldritchGod, nice end quest indeed. Just replace the skulls with hides and you’re all set on your “way out” to become a postapocalypctic deity. I’d love to see a screenshot of that 

[kopo79]

Yeah i tried to test this repair the plane thingy...but testing takes too much time about item quantities.

Because it was in my own mind ,i thought that the plane is not that wrecked what is it in game....just a little engine failure and some propel mailfunction..

 

[cullam]

You could use cured hides as material for wings, with saplings as your ribs. Old airplane wings were often made from canvas. 

[Senauer]

@cullam, thank you! That would certainly make it more interesting and "realistic". And definitely, hides and saplings would weight way less than scrap metal. Let the curing begin...