Why do I refuse to allow myself to set up more than one base?

[irlsupervillain]

Hey guys! First I wanna say hello to everyone, I just recently joined the forum I bought TLD for PC back when it was still on beta in Steam, and recently picked it up again about a month or so ago! I've been having a lot of fun, sinking almost 30 hours in recently, although I'm definitely still figuring things out.

That brings me to my question, or rather, my wondering: why am I unable to bring myself to set up bases in other regions? I've created my home base in the Camp Office, and I've been doing a good job keeping it stocked, and keeping the tedium at bay. I've explored FM, Ravine, and a good chunk of CH, but whenever I start to make outposts or secondary bases in the other regions, I find myself unable to part with any of my sweet, sweet loot. This was so bad that recently I had to make 2 treks to lug almost 90kg of supplies from Quonset to CO! 

Has anyone else struggled with being able to make secondary bases like this, and how did you force yourself to do it? Any tips would be appreciated!  Thanks!

[Pillock]

WARNING!

Personally, I'd rather delete my save and start a new game than wreck up my current one by moving things to a new region ( and back again ) because of a game update.

But if you're looking for an excuse to up sticks and move bases to a different region, I guess this is it.

[irlsupervillain]

Just now, Pillock said:

Personally, I'd rather delete my save and start a new game than wreck up my current one by moving things to a new region ( and back again ) because of a game update.

But if you're looking for an excuse to up sticks and move bases to a different region, I guess this is it.

Yeah, I saw that  I guess if everything inside CO gets nuked, I can try and get out of the habit early-game, before I create what is essentially a hoarder's home once more 

[chr1schi]

I felt the same as i started playing this game. Normally 30h in a game is is lot. But not in this one. I played so far 350h and i have a lot of fun doing it. I think you are now ready to go the next step and play in a more difficult mode. If you are not in Stalker than play Stalker. If you are now in Stalker than play Interloper. Interloper is for me the real game mode. You will die a lot but also learn a lot. But thats ok. Dying is a part of the game. In Interloper you have also a new gameplay. No guns, rifles, knifes or hatches and way less lot. You have to use crafting to survive. This is way more challenging, but also hugely satisfying if you succeed. Good luck!

[Dan_]

8 hours ago, irlsupervillain said:

Has anyone else struggled with being able to make secondary bases like this, and how did you force yourself to do it? Any tips would be appreciated!  Thanks!

It all comes down to how you want your survivor's mindset to be. I'm not really into prepping for example, but I keep nearly every building stocked with at least a good steak and some water to get me out of trouble in a moment of need. I usually have a bigger cache with pelts, guts, arrowheads and sorted tools in buildings that have a workbench and I travel with 15 cattails on me for emergency food. You really don't need much else. 

From what I pick up, your survivor seems to be in more of a homesteading mindset which is fun in it's own way. I really don't think there is a way to change that, but a good starting point would be to choose one or two other buildings for a more permanent base elsewhere in the map.

To determine which base to use next, you need to question how do you play the game: Can you deal with lots of wolves? Are you an avid fisherman? Do you enjoy hunting large game? Can you live without easy access to cloth?  Do you have good gear to fight the cold?

Recommended ( All have a workbench exception made to the Rabbit Grove cabin )

Mountaineer's Hut at TWM:

PRO-> Large game with Moose and up to three bears, fishing, transitionless building to watch the blizzards from inside. Sunny days are not uncommon but weather is colder than ML. Cattails close by.

CON-> Cold inside and you can freeze to death in your sleep ( +20ªC clothing recommended ), Wolves patrol around the house.

Farmhouse at PV:

PRO-> Big game, warm building, cloth supplies to last 300 days, plenty of firewood to break down, fire barrel outside. Huge building for organizing your stuff. Six slot stove.

CONS-> Fishing hut demands a long'ish trip, little renewable firewood nearby, map is huge and you can get lost, no warm caves nearby, UBER COLD with blizzards every other day. Building is huge with shelving to spare to put your clutter. 

Barn at PV:

PRO-> Big game to hunt, warm building, workbench. Closer to CH and TWM than the farmhouse. |

CONS-> No fishing, little renewable firewood nearby, map is huge and you can get lost, no warm caves nearby, UBER COLD with blizzards every other day. Little space for organization.

Paradise Meadows at MT:

PRO -> Resources, cloth, outside workbench with fire barrel, close to milton basin for awesome hunting trips and forging at FM. Weather is good. Six slot stove. Cattails close by.

CONS-> Wolves everywhere with bad sightlines to ID and shoot them. Poor amount of renewable firewood outside. No big animals to hunt nearby. 

Fishing camp at CH:

PRO-> Fishing, good firewood nearby, beachcombing, bear nearby. GREAT weather for maglens fires and travelling in general. Cattails close by.

CONS-> Outside workbench with no fire protection, small building with little resources. No stove inside.

Jackrabbit Island at CH:

PRO-> Awesome fishing, beachcombing, rabbit trapping, easy route to forge and great weather.

CONS-> Limited renewable firewood, wolves sometimes can smell you and climb the hill. No stove inside.

Rabbit Grove at CH:

PRO-> Rabbit trapping, easy route to the ravine for a safe hunting trip, nearby bear. Higher ground to see predators from afar.

CONS-> No fishing or beachcombing, tiny building to organize your stuff. No stove inside.

The Riken at DP:

PRO-> Rabbit trapping, can make decently protected outside fire at the wheelhouse, good amount of metal to harvest, FORGE, beachcombing, great sightlines for predator spotting from the deck, bear and moose nearby. Coal is plentiful in this region. 

CONS-> No fishing, little firewood to harvest ( you can go to hibernia for that and face the wolves ), weather is moderate but can get really cold for long periods of time, scarce wild edibles.

Hunting Lodge at BR:

PRO-> Big game to hunt, good amount of resources, workbench, cattails, warm cave nearby, awesome views. Big building with shelving and spots to put stuff into, six pot stove, rifle rack.

CONS-> Tucked away at the farthest corner of the map ( for now ), WOLVES, WOLVES, EVERYWHERE! You have to go through FM which I love, but it's not for everyone's tastes and then face numerous wolf encounters at choke points in BR. Weather is decent, but not ML, CH, MT nice. Firewood is limited outside but good inside. 

Cheers and safe travels! 

[NardoLoopa]

11 hours ago, irlsupervillain said:

Has anyone else struggled with being able to make secondary bases like this, and how did you force yourself to do it? Any tips would be appreciated!  Thanks!

I don't know about "Forcing yourself" to do something you don't really want to do, but there are very good reasons not to stick to one base if you want to survive for a long time; eventually you will exhaust the area of supplies, or the radius for you to get supplies and bring them back to your one base, will get larger and larger.  This means more work (expenditure of resources including time) to move said sundries back to your favorite location and probably more danger.  Also, it means that in these journeys you are farther and farther away from your main point of safety.  If wolf-poo hits the fan, while you're away from home, what is your strategy to get back to homebase?

For all these reasons (and probably more), it makes sense to have waypoints that radiate out from your preferred location.

It also depends on what difficulty and how long you plan to survive.  If you're playing Voyager, and just want to hit 500 days, you can probably do that just on the Mystery Lake map.  I wouldn't consider it a very interesting game experience, but to each their own.

[Ice Hole]

1 hour ago, NardoLoopa said:

wolf-poo hits the fan

Pure gold!

[Guest jeffpeng]

I'm kind of a hoarder myself. It's not as bad playing on Interloper as the amount of stuff is rather limited, but on Stalker it gets pretty serious. My longest so far game on Stalker, which went past 700 days, saw me running out of space on the floor to put things in the cave in The Raven Falls Railroad aka The Ravine cave. I tend to loot a region, get everything I deem valuable and then "close" that region. I've done something similar on my Sleepwalker LvL 4 run, where I hauled about 120 kilograms of stuff from the cave in the Basin all the way up to the Farm just recently. Just that small distance took me a week.

I'm not the biggest fan of multiple bases either. When I have no reason to revisit an area why would I maintain a "safe house" that is not my main base towards that area. It's something else with places I know I will revisit. Best example is probably Spence's on longer runs. I keep that place stuffed when I leave because I will eventually return, as well as usually the Poachers Camp since it's probably the easiest to reach safe place on the entire map which otherwise really is quite the pain.

[NardoLoopa]

My strategy is a bit similar, but evolves over the course of a game.

- Enter a region.  Consolidate all loot in one or two Waypoints, which I use as a local-base.  This includes long-curing skins.

- If it's a "thru-region" I'll leave those around for longer than if it's a "once and done" region.

- If there is a reason to return (coal, forge, beachcombing, known Moose location, lots of cloth, cured skins, heavy things) then I leave a Waypoint to support my return

- If it's a terminal "once and done" region, then I might pack up and haul things to a nearby thru-region (or Hub-region).

Eventually, there will be only a couple of regions that will have local-bases, though I usually leave unessentials there just in case.

The goal is to setup "safe" routes to long-term resources through established waypoints, and slowly consolidate as much as is useful to a nice place for long-term living.

[TheEldritchGod]

Easy. You don't.

Every map needs all the loot moved to a central travel corridor. All travel corridors heading to the central base. As you move along it, you pick up stuff and drop it off. I drop stuff in the middle of the map out in the snow all the time. As I come back that way, everything moves along to the central point. Once a region is clear, I never go back. So I always start by cleaning out BR. And by clear out I mean every plant, every wooden item you can break down, every carcass harvested, every container opened, every curtain pulled down. Everything. If I can interact with it, I strip it down to nothing.

The only problem is killing wolves. The pelts build up. Stay too long in a region, you'll kill so many wolves, you'll have to stay longer just to haul out the pelts.

But once BR is empty, You never have to go back.

Now, the FM forge, I'll leave that stocked, but only because I might need to come back again sometime. So I'll leave a trail of water and food from there to the poachers. Other then that, all metal moves to the forge, everything else on the way to Quonset. Then ML is looted Then everything to Ravine. Then everything to Quonset.

Now, TWM, I'll hit that first, usually. The gear is too valuable to resist. Everything on the map to the hut, including the ropes. Then everything to the abandoned prepper. Then to the farmhouse, to the Minimart, to CH's abandoned look out, to quonset.

DP? Everything goes to the Riken and any metal from TWM, PV, or CH goes to the Riken. Some food supplies, and everything else comes to Quonset.

Finaly HRV, You loot every plant, all the gear, then move it out to grey mothers, to the Orca X, then no ropes down to Fm.

[irlsupervillain]

Definitely some good strategies to try out... I know I shouldn't pick up every shiny piece of loot when I pass through a region for the first time, but I just can't help it! A fourth prybar? Don't mind if I do... lol

Provided my CO primary base doesn't get nuked with the redux release next week, I'm going to try and set up Spence as my second big base and keep it stocked! Now, to decide what to bring.... 

[Ice Hole]

16 hours ago, irlsupervillain said:

I know I shouldn't pick up every shiny piece of loot when I pass through a region for the first time, but I just can't help it! A fourth prybar? Don't mind if I do...

I read that in Bender's voice?

Oh another visitor(to the forums).

Stay awhile.

Stay forever!
 

 

[irlsupervillain]

1 hour ago, Ice Hole said:

I read that in Bender's voice?

All according to plan 

1 hour ago, Ice Hole said:

Oh another visitor(to the forums).

Stay awhile.

Stay forever!

I've already been sucked in, it's too late for me!!

[devamadhu]

I've relocated to the Camp Office in ML in pretty much every long game I've played. At this point, it just feels like my home (well, the home that I share with a corpse ). I've explored every region pretty extensively at this point. I've summited Timberwolf Mountain, burned the books at the Milton church (heaven forgive me), rattled the whale bones at the Hibernia Processing plant, and even found myself rejoicing over hidden dog food at the Old Spence Family Homestead. 

I'm on day 370 or so in my longest game, and after many many weeks in Mystery Lake working towards level 5 in all the skills, I started to feel a bit stir crazy. I just got back from a long trek through the Dam, Pleasant Valley, and Coastal Highway to collect any supplies I had left behind when I first started out. I could stay in those regions longer when I visit, but I honestly feel excited to return to the Camp Office each time I come back to ML.

I don't like the extreme and unpredictable weather in Forlorn Muskeg and Pleasant Valley; Coastal Highway, Desolation Point, and Milton don't have enough wilderness (although I do like the ocean views in CH/DP); Timberwolf Mountain and Hushed River Valley feel too desolate and make crafting a pain; and Broken Railroad feels monotonous and too far removed from the other regions.

I appreciated the adventure of exploring all these places, but I play TLD partially for an experience of long-term survival. At this point, I've hoarded an insane amount of meat, tools, water, and other supplies and it makes me happy to look out on my little electronic bounty each day. I'd say live wherever you love! No need to force yourself to create elaborate secondary bases if you don't want to. I've found that stocking a few key places with enough food and water to last a few days gives me time to rest, hunt, and explore without having to stress too much.

[Kilkegard]

Once upon a time I was mauled by a bear and had to crawl back to Main Street in Milton past at least two hungry wolves.  Since then I make it a point to set up "safe places" all over the maps.  I make sure there is, at minimum, a good supply of firewood and a good cache of food.  In ML, I have the main base at the lake office, but there is a locker full of food and another of clothes at the dam; a good supply of fire wood and some food at the logging camp, the trapper cabin, and a fishing hut (with door)  on the lake.  Currently setting up a snow shelter, firewood and food store in Muskeg in a northern part of the map under a little rock overhang by the hunters blind.  I've got a few more places picked out to store up some emergency supplies. 

I did have one occasion, caught outdoors very late, blizzard coming on, where I had to use the safe place in Muskeg, Went thru over a days worth of wood trying to keep warm and wait out the blizzard and the night.  

These little safe spaces make me feel a bit more confident about traveling further from home base.  If I get into trouble, I don't have too far to go to get some relief.

[UpUpAway95]

I'm relatively new to the game, but what seems to be working for me so far is to use a base of sorts within each map, but when I decide to move to a new map, I take only the stuff I believe is most useful and keep the weight under being over-encumbered.  That means I leave behind heavier items that I don't immediately need (like storm lanterns and prybars) and don't take multiples of things like sewing kits or whetstones.  I also don't carry a lot of food and water between zones.  The essentials are really only fire-making materials (sticks), food (rabbits), and water.  None of these have really been a problem since I'm not on interloper.  What has gotten me in trouble most often is being over-encumbered, not starving or thirst.

The disadvantage is that I have abandoned hides and such curing all over the map.  Eventually though, I anticipate I'll be back through those areas and be welcomes by fully cured items that I can then just craft right away.

[romerabr]

19 hours ago, Kilkegard said:

a locker full of food

Don't leave food on lockers, it will vanish if reaches 0 condition. Drop it on the floor, and it will last forever (if you have level 5 cooking).

[DariusGalaxyz]

Hey buddy, I'm totally with you on this one. I too don't like having multiple bases. I like having everything I've acquired in 1 centralized location, probably not the wisest thing to do, but can be managed. Quonset was my place of choice, until I found the Pleasant Valley Farmhouse and proceeded to move all my stuff from Quonset in Coastal Highway to PV. I've had many of those kinds of moves. Actually, I think I moved first from Quonset to the Carter Dam, then from the dam to the PV Farmhouse, lol. I should probably have a couple of areas where I have at least the basic supplies in cases of emergency. I think I got over 200 days before Hinterland wiped the Sandbox saves.

One thing I was upset about during my first save was I accidentally shot the rifle once, before I found out about the achievement for 50 days without a rifle shot. The 2 or 3 Sandboxes I've done were all Pilgrim. This time I'm going for more of a "normal" mode with Voyager. I've made it 5 days so far, but I'm at Trapper's Cabin with no food left, lol. I tried finding the prepper's caches without saving, but then I was just walking along on flat ground and my wrist got sprained, which obviously means an irreverisble save, lol. I might be able to make it to the Carter Dam where there should be plenty of food to be had. Problem is it's night--time and I have no sleep bar left.

[Bano]

I believe the reason one hoardes off the bat is due to the unknown element of the game. You get yourself thinking, oh I need that or could use that or it should have some purpose. 

But as one gains experience, you begin to understand subtle nuances. It’s trusting you will find what you need or understand how to get it. You learn the maps and begin to realize, oh canned peaches are here too. 

Speed, imo, is one of the most crucial parts of survival partly due countering the effect of cold. Cold will kill you the quickest and efficient survival focuses on the most immediate threat. 

Experience will help you breakout of thinking you need everything. When you begin to know the maps, try setting out a general course and establish way points or caches. Remember to think hierarchy of need...cold, thirst, food, then rest. So your waypoint, at least initially, should be out of the cold and have at least 1L of h20 and 1kg of food.

also, think of way points as your recovery point from condition loss. The more you set up, the more you can explore smaller parts of the map with less condition loss while at the same time accounting for a place to recover in case things go south. 

Its cliche but think outside the survival box.

happy surviving!

[piddy3825]

On 12/12/2018 at 8:03 PM, irlsupervillain said:

Hey guys! First I wanna say hello to everyone, I just recently joined the forum I bought TLD for PC back when it was still on beta in Steam, and recently picked it up again about a month or so ago! I've been having a lot of fun, sinking almost 30 hours in recently, although I'm definitely still figuring things out.

That brings me to my question, or rather, my wondering: why am I unable to bring myself to set up bases in other regions? I've created my home base in the Camp Office, and I've been doing a good job keeping it stocked, and keeping the tedium at bay. I've explored FM, Ravine, and a good chunk of CH, but whenever I start to make outposts or secondary bases in the other regions, I find myself unable to part with any of my sweet, sweet loot. This was so bad that recently I had to make 2 treks to lug almost 90kg of supplies from Quonset to CO! 

Has anyone else struggled with being able to make secondary bases like this, and how did you force yourself to do it? Any tips would be appreciated!  Thanks!

Oh, I feel your pain!  I have suffered from similar tendencies to loot the map and hoard.  It wasn't until I played the Nomad challenge where you have to move from map to map and live for at least 3 days in every regions specified location when I finally realized the simplicity behind selective looting and multiple base camps.   Now, I figure where ever you can find a workbench and a bed you got a good start for a bivouac.