Much More Trick than Treat

[HavocFactory]

I don't know how anyone is possibly surviving this. After exploring the entirety of the Coastal Highway on Day 1, I was fortunate to find a total of less than a half dozen candy bars. And I used them all to stay (barely) alive. I found a nifty cache with a rifle and stim as well, so I was feeling ok going into today... not great, since there was almost no food. Anywhere. I found only one carcass with only .8 kg of meat, and no fishing tackle. It's like the only food in the game for the event is an occasional candy bar, coffee, and tea. No fish. No canned goods. Nada.

On top of this, the permanent night mechanic seemed like a cool challenge - until I discovered that no matter how raging my fire, it did not warm me up! A serious WTF moment for me... I don't understand why they would do this. Is it a bug? If so, it's a pretty big one for a game that depends on light and warmth, with a special challenge of exacerbated darkness and cold. It certainly made exploring a whole map interesting...

Then, Day 2. I'm holed up with plenty of firewood and gear (though I'm beginning to realize that much of it is useless, since it's garbage in eternal night where fire doesn't warm you up, and the only food items are coffee, tea, and candy bars...), but no food. So I leave the safety of my shelter, and I am immediately attacked by a wolf. It's like hyper-aggressive mode - one bark, and BAM! I didn't even have time to equip the rifle. Five(!) injuries from the attack, two *new* articles of clothing ruined, and even though I fought it off with the hatchet, the wolf escapes unscathed?!? No blood trail or whimpering at all - not that it matters, as I had to try to get back inside. I failed to make it to the (very) nearby shelter, of course, owing to... wait for it: WOLF ATTACK! Again, WTF? Dead within 15 minutes of turning the game on.

I took a second shot at it, just to see how it went starting out with the wolves active (I mean, it's not like they are turned off normally, right?). The experience was even worse from a food standpoint - where I had started with a candy bar the first time, I started with nothing the second. And found... wait for it: nothing. After making it to more than half the structures in Coastal Highway, and fighting off another wolf attack, I literally did not find a single candy bar, or food item of any kind. Needless to say, I starved to death after trying to survive on one tin of coffee.

I'm kind of put out by the whole experience. I love this game, and have about 125 hours in it, and started playing well before the official release. I recently returned to it to check out the story mode, which is enjoyable (albeit a bit too much like a tutorial for an experienced player). But unlike  basically every other game with special events which are meant to be an added dose of fun, this one seems like it was either poorly conceived, or intentionally nasty to the loyal fans. C'est la vie, I suppose. Bon chance to all of you who are already having better luck than I was!

[MarrowStone]

I spent a good 6 hours on the first day looking for supplies, and I couldn't hold a candle to what some people are sharing screenshots of... candy bars seem to be bugged for some players, some bars dont give calories at all while others are more nutritious than an MRE. I havent had the 0 warmth fire bug yet. 

Visibility was terrible this second day so I just stayed inside and sorted my loot, (mostly clothing and crafting supplies, both pretty useless for such a short term game.) I lucked out with a ton of flares but honestly I dont want to encounter any wolves this entire event, too risky and Im a terrible shot in this game.

I did observe some wolves from afar, but they noticed me even though I was downwind and not sprinting.

I think the new events should be objective based rather than time based, that way you can get multiple chances, but it forces you to confront the dangers.

On a positive note: They made this game super scary and intense. I'm classifying it as a horror game until the 4 nights are over. Also the night ambience has been noticeably turned up and its pleasing to hear all those night creatures.

[Kiena]

It sounds like you ran into a bug. Fires are definitely supposed to warm you up, and they're working fine for me.

The food isn't a bug, though - all that's available is candy bars. (Well, plus coffee, tea, cattails, and deer carcass meat, plus wolf meat the second day.) Each bar is worth 2500 calories (or should be - some people apparently were bugged there, too).  So just a few bars can last you a long time, especially if you do the starve-eat-sleep trick.  Did you check outside the doors of the various houses in CH? There's often a little bowl there, with a candy bar or two, or sometimes a few other goodies, too.

As for the wolves, they did warn us that there would be a lot on this second day! I never went out without a torch or flare ready to hopefully scare them off. It helped a lot to be prepared from the first day - it sucks that you lost that character.

I'm sorry you didn't have fun! I hope the next event, whatever it ends up being, is more fun for you.

[hozz1235]

It's odd how there could be different loot levels for different people.  It should have been the same across the board.  I spent quite a bit of time on Day 1 hoarding.  I moved fast..through the main spots in CH, through the Ravine, big spots in ML, town of Milton then all the way back to CH (where I had missed the rifle).

Sorry your experience didn't go well.

I also noticed that "Fire was not overcoming ambient temperature" (which IS a custom setting  you can choose when making a custom game).  Most of my fires where inside though.

[Savra]

I haven't had any issue with fires, but I've noticed the candy bar thing. At first I thought they were all worth 2500 calories when I picked them up, but then I noticed some were dropping down to around 700, 500, and even 200 calories. I've been wondering if they drop in calories if you keep them in your inventory too long or as their condition deteriorates, but that doesn't seem to affect some of them at all, so I'm thinking it's just a bug. EDIT: Someone in another thread mentioned these are probably just "leftovers" from the 2500 calories ones that still had some of the candy bar left. That makes the most sense, so that's the theory I'm going with.

Luckily, I managed to find a rifle at a jack o' lantern and plenty of ammo at different locations. I've killed a couple of wolves and harvested every dead deer I've come across, which has gone a long way in keeping me fed.

I'm sorry to hear you've had a rough time. You still have a couple of days to get the Twilight badge if you want to start a new character!

[Strategizer]

Returning Player.  To give you some idea of my "skill level" it took me until the 2nd day to recall how to place items in a specific spot with a controller.  Well I think I found  4 candy bars, looking lots of places.  I would be is SUPER bad shape if I didn't get a Hunting Rife and a few rounds on day 1.  4 wolves have been able to sustain me.... barely.

Having tons of fun and I'm still alive even though I don't know what I'm doing.  Very low of food at the moment, but I have like 20L of water.

Thinking of taking my last 3 rounds of ammo to hunt another Green wolf.  

[TheEldritchGod]

Lets see, day one I looted the entire island and have 118 bullets, 22 flare shells, and 11 arrows. What I'm ticked about is I couldn't find enough wolves to kill because of the low respawn rate. I only murdered 46. SIGH.

[HavocFactory]

LOL - the difference in loot drops is staggering. Also, you must not have a job, eh? I feel like looting the whole island on Day 1 must have been an eight or ten hour endeavor, and probably more like twelve or fourteen if you were thorough. Even with the time, I don't think I could have pulled that off with my fires not working to warm me up...

[deathbydanish]

I basically stayed indoors all of the second day, I had enough candy bars to pull it off. In the meantime I just boiled water and sprinted so I could get the associated feat. I stepped out once or twice, I remembered I forgot to pick up the candy bars from a nearby house, immediately ran into a demon wolf and noped out of that situation all the way back to base.

[Cr41g]

1 hour ago, HavocFactory said:

LOL - the difference in loot drops is staggering. Also, you must not have a job, eh? I feel like looting the whole island on Day 1 must have been an eight or ten hour endeavor, and probably more like twelve or fourteen if you were thorough. Even with the time, I don't think I could have pulled that off with my fires not working to warm me up...

Day 1 was a Sunday...

[NardoLoopa]

1 hour ago, Cr41g said:

Day 1 was a Sunday...

The SABBATH!   (joking).

But seriously, shouldn't dedication have rewards?

[DaveMcD]

8 hours ago, Savra said:

I haven't had any issue with fires, but I've noticed the candy bar thing. At first I thought they were all worth 2500 calories when I picked them up, but then I noticed some were dropping down to around 700, 500, and even 200 calories. I've been wondering if they drop in calories if you keep them in your inventory too long or as their condition deteriorates, but that doesn't seem to affect some of them at all, so I'm thinking it's just a bug. EDIT: Someone in another thread mentioned these are probably just "leftovers" from the 2500 calories ones that still had some of the candy bar left. That makes the most sense, so that's the theory I'm going with.

Luckily, I managed to find a rifle at a jack o' lantern and plenty of ammo at different locations. I've killed a couple of wolves and harvested every dead deer I've come across, which has gone a long way in keeping me fed.

I'm sorry to hear you've had a rough time. You still have a couple of days to get the Twilight badge if you want to start a new character!

Youre right in your edit. The lower calorie bars are *usually* half eaten ones that are leftover when your character can't fit in any more chocolate. they're 2500 cals each which is all your guy or girl can fit in their stomach. whatever is leftover goes back in your inventory, same as if you hit esc halfway through eating. you can test this easily. put all but 2 of your bars away in a locker somewhere or drop them. make sure you have partially full stomoach, now eat a candy bar. you should still ahve 2 candy bars one of which is now hovering in the lower calorie amounts.

As for the fire thing - if ppl only play the lower difficulty settings then they might be used to a fire warming you from as soon as its lit. On this difficulty you need to enough fuel to get the temperature up. if the temp feels like -25C you'll need to add a lot of sticks to get into the positives.... or it might be a bug, would need to see some screen caps while looking at the fire setup.

Can anyone who's had multiple runs confirm vastly different loot tables? I found CH mediocre for loot but PV was a shopping mall full of heavy coats and lots of chocolate. I looted all of CH in under 2 hours and half of that was going slow and stupidly creeping around thinking wolves were not part of the missing wildlife. I also stupidly thought the world would go crazy after the 2 hours so I hurried about. After about 4 hours I had some pretty good loot including 2 rifles, 2 torches and lots of candy. I found good loot to generally be in the traditionally difficult places.

[Savra]

21 minutes ago, DaveMcD said:

Youre right in your edit. The lower calorie bars are *usually* half eaten ones that are leftover when your character can't fit in any more chocolate. they're 2500 cals each which is all your guy or girl can fit in their stomach. whatever is leftover goes back in your inventory, same as if you hit esc halfway through eating. you can test this easily. put all but 2 of your bars away in a locker somewhere or drop them. make sure you have partially full stomoach, now eat a candy bar. you should still ahve 2 candy bars one of which is now hovering in the lower calorie amounts.

Yeah, I don't encounter being full much in the main game or having such high-calorie food, so having candy bars leftover is a nice surprise!

[cullam]

There might also be a difference of where people are looking for loot. Most of the best loot is by Jack-O-Lanterns, rather than in the usual indoor places. And the majority of food is in candy bars, primarily found in bowls, outside of houses. So if you go around searching in cupboards, you're going to find VERY little! 

[Guest jeffpeng]

Sadly haven't had opportunity to start before day 3 I can only share my experience from day 3 and 4.

Personally, while having a very close call on day 3, which was mostly my fault, I must say that I found it rather easy to avoid most of the wolves on day 3, and that I found enough candy bars that they lasted me through day 4 as well. Making from Jackrabbit a run to the fishing camp, and double backing from there to the waterfront cottages, checking the fishing huts on the way, I found lots of candy and always had either higher ground, or plain view over the ice. Turned out to be a pretty good strategy as it allowed me to avoid all but one wolf, which I managed to escape. I finally ended up in the Garage after having a brush with death after carelessly having no tinder to pop a fire when a wolf actually got me, but I survived the struggle.

Day 4 was more of a thriller as I refused to just sit idle until the 4 hours were up, and after looting the remainder of the townsite (and almost getting lost in the storm doing so) I made my way all the way back to the fishing camp and up along the bear creek to the train unloading. I know that was a pretty hefty detour, but following the creek seamed to be the only reliable way for me to navigate such a distance in the storm. I reached the cave with the short blind rail track in the ravine at 28% condition and with a full days worth of firewood and coal (so actually two days) and sat out the remaining 30 minutes.

So, what I can say about the two days is ... that I found day 3 to be rather fun, but maybe a tad too easy, but day 4 would have been terribly dull if I had just waited out the two hours, and it wouldn't have been any challenge at all. I must agree that it would have made more sense to make this objective-based rather than just "survive" for a given time, especially if you consider that if you are a really patient person, you can stretch those two real-time hours with a very limited amount of resources if you avoid time lapsing... by doing nothing.