Hushed River Valley is difficult


peteloud

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Sheeesh!  HRV is difficult, and that was just at Voyager level and after 140 days preparing, collecting resources and building up skills, before going into HRV.  I dread to think what it would be like at Interloper.

I didn't use any mods or look at anyone's map to make it easier.  I tried to remember to develop the map as I progressed but I'd often forget, or duplicated areas of the map.  I found the map very confusing and wished that I could add symbols to mark places and help me navigate. Many times I was lost and the map was only a little help.

I found a much needed moose skin, rifle and deer skins needed for repairs, but they were little help.  I was so overloaded and had to leave gear behind to climb ropes etc. so that I couldn't get that moose skin to a work bench in Milton. Now I'll trouble find where I left it. I didn't find the moose bag.

The experience was so stressful I was pleased to find my way out of HRV after 37 days. It was so good, and relaxing, to be back at that trailer near the church. Now I shall have to fatten myself up and stock up on a million pieces of cloth for repairs and snow shelters and face the wilds once again.

 

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If I'm preparing to go to HRV, I clear out a few houses in Milton of all cloth, and dump it in the HRV exit cave, so I can just get back to there, when I need to start fixing things. It's a tricky map, but it makes for a new and interesting challenge! 

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After finding Hushed RV difficult I returned to Milton, Mystery Lake and Forlorn Musteg to equip myself better.  I returned with a Moose pack, bearskin & wolfskin coats, 3 bedrolls a million bits of cloth and a load of arrows.

When I re-entered HRV the second time it was not difficult.  It was equivalent to at least a grade easier then before.  Of course I was helped by my map of about 75% of the region from my first visit.  There seemed to be few wild animals.  I found the bear asleep in its cave, I wounded it with one arrow and found its body a few days later.  The moose wasn't hanging around Monolith Lake.

As I explored I realised that I missed the region with the signal fire on my first visit by a wrong turnng at a crucial point.  If I had found that area then it would have greatly eased the difficulties I had. (I am deliberately avoiding giving details which might help).

I deliberately avoided looking at other's maps.  Using a map, especially the superb Whitberry maps, and knowing where shelters etc. are makes the game considerably less exhilarating and less challenging. Now I shall look at other's maps to see what I missed.

What a fantastic game.

 

 

 

 

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On 28.7.2018 at 11:47 AM, peteloud said:

After finding Hushed RV difficult I returned to Milton, Mystery Lake and Forlorn Musteg to equip myself better.  I returned with a Moose pack, bearskin & wolfskin coats, 3 bedrolls a million bits of cloth and a load of arrows.

When I re-entered HRV the second time it was not difficult.  It was equivalent to at least a grade easier then before.  Of course I was helped by my map of about 75% of the region from my first visit.  There seemed to be few wild animals.  I found the bear asleep in its cave, I wounded it with one arrow and found its body a few days later.  The moose wasn't hanging around Monolith Lake.

As I explored I realised that I missed the region with the signal fire on my first visit by a wrong turnng at a crucial point.  If I had found that area then it would have greatly eased the difficulties I had. (I am deliberately avoiding giving details which might help).

I deliberately avoided looking at other's maps.  Using a map, especially the superb Whitberry maps, and knowing where shelters etc. are makes the game considerably less exhilarating and less challenging. Now I shall look at other's maps to see what I missed.

What a fantastic game.

Wasn't there a peteloud some time ago who proclaimed in public that he had given up on the game? ;) 

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I found HRV to be exhilarating and fun.  Always on my toes, alert for the bears around my base camp caves.  Spent over 40 days exploring, then another 3 dragging everything I found back to the Milton cave entrance.  Found the signal fire.  Good stuff there.  Worth the climb.  I hope everyone explores HRV.  It is a great experience.

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Guest jeffpeng

I guess one could say HRV drives the entire "learn the map" experience to the maximum. HRV is exceedingly difficult to navigate with multiple layers of terrain and the ice caves that connect everything somehow. The only area that is not accessible by cave is the actual valley iself, everything else can be reached without actually climbing long ropes one way or another - assuming you have a hatchet. The ropes inside the caves luckily are so short that you can climb them up multiple times in a row, hauling whatever gear you have up there (if you wish to).

The entire scrub-brush-obstruction-thing makes starting in the area especially "fun". It might actually be fun, but I guess it's also prone to frustrate people quite a bit. On stalker I hung around in HRV over a week before finding my first hatchet, which then quickly opened up the map. But without a hatchet many paths are closed off which makes the map very "patchy" and requires you to take very long detours, not to mention making the signal fires inaccessible, at least the norther one, as well as other interesting locations.

Once you have settled there, there are a few very interesting shortcuts. The most interesting is probably that you can easily goat down next to the tree bridge that leads to the "Lonely Cave". By that you basically have a direct foot path from the elevated south-eastern exit of the waterfall-less cave system (the one located close to the southern signal fire spawn location) to the Milton transition cave. Hence, if I don't plan to stay in HRV indefinitely, and since it is illuminated 24/7, I end up setting up camp there most of the time, having a very easy option to haul stuff out of HRV.
 

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3 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

HRV is exceedingly difficult to navigate with multiple layers of terrain and the ice caves that connect everything somehow. The only area that is not accessible by cave is the actual valley iself, everything else can be reached without actually climbing long ropes one way or another

The caves exhibit pronounced wormhole effect - they are more or less flat but connect places with large elevation differences on the surface. By the way, did you know that sea level in Desolation Point is about 80 meters below the level in CH and Crumbling Highway? :)

Question: when you kill the wolf in Ice Cave A (waterfall-less cave), does it reappear or is it gone for good, like Fluffy and Scruffy?

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6 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

The caves exhibit pronounced wormhole effect - they are more or less flat but connect places with large elevation differences on the surface. By the way, did you know that sea level in Desolation Point is about 80 meters below the level in CH and Crumbling Highway? :)

Question: when you kill the wolf in Ice Cave A (waterfall-less cave), does it reappear or is it gone for good, like Fluffy and Scruffy?

They also connect places that are much farther away than they would appear to be from inside the cave. This is funny since houses are much bigger on the inside than they should be, while caves seem to suffer from the inverse effect. And no, I did not know that. 80 meters of difference in sea level is quite.... severe. Edit: I think it's simply safe to say that scale isn't the primary focus of the level editors :D

Sort-of-answer: It hasn't respawned for me in over two weeks, but then again it wasn't even there the first time I visited the cave. So while not "snowballing" as hard through HRV as you do, I'm pretty sure the wolf has a chance not to be there in the first place, which "might" be true even after getting rid of it once - so I can't say for certain.

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Thanks @jeffpeng. I don't plant to kill that wolf bare-handed and claim the cave for myself just yet, but my curiosity about the nature of that wolf led me to that question.

I've just also learned that Scruffy in DP can "not be there" and then spawn, just like this one. As far as I remember, Fluffy either was in the Dam (in which case you would consistently find her there), or wasn't (in which case she would never spawn).

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45 minutes ago, cullam said:

@Drifter Man, do you mean that if she spawned in the first place, she would re-spawn? Or just that until you took her out, she'd consistently be there. Because I DEFINITELY never saw her re-spawn... 

I mean she'd consistently be there until you took her out. No, she wouldn't respawn afterwards. Not for 954 days :D

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On 8/13/2018 at 9:29 AM, Drifter Man said:

Thanks @jeffpeng. I don't plant to kill that wolf bare-handed and claim the cave for myself just yet, but my curiosity about the nature of that wolf led me to that question.

I've just also learned that Scruffy in DP can "not be there" and then spawn, just like this one. As far as I remember, Fluffy either was in the Dam (in which case you would consistently find her there), or wasn't (in which case she would never spawn).

When Fluffy was in the Dam, she could spawn in later in a run, if she was not there the first time you went in. Gosh, it was so long ago. But I know I had runs where I cleared the Dam, left, came back to go through to PV or come back from, and there she was, and surprised the heck out of me. A few deaths from it as well. Quite a few of us on the Steam forums, back when Fluffy lived in the Dam, discussed this and a good number of folks reported the same thing. Not sure if it was a glitch at the time, but Scruffy does the same, so we all assumed it was intended.Not sure if Raph or Hinterland every commented there about it. Again, it was a long time ago, i terms of version changes and updates.  I just figured if Fluffy did this in the Dam, after she escaped and moved to the country and became a caver, she would do it in the ice cave as well.

I never count on a Special Wolf not making an appearance, unless I know I have already killed it. :huntingknife::wolf:

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20 hours ago, ThePancakeLady said:

When Fluffy was in the Dam, she could spawn in later in a run, if she was not there the first time you went in.

Then I'm probably wrong - in that case it is "consistent" behavior of Special Wolves :) The question now is, is the HRV Ice Cave wolf a Special Wolf?

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