killing time

[JonathanG]

Begs the question, where are you getting all this ammo from? I'm on my last two bullets and constantly having to run from wolves.

[ThresholdSeven]

Begs the question, where are you getting all this ammo from? I'm on my last two bullets and constantly having to run from wolves.

I'm guessing you are unaware that you can craft a bow and arrows.

[phaedrus]

We do know that late-game needs a bit of work, and definitely have a few ideas we think you guys will like. In the meantime, there are some players out there that set challenges for themselves that can be quite interesting and rewarding. If you haven't given any of those a try, I'd be happy to link a few here.

i would love that, please do

Please post links to some of the challenges.

[bethany]

phaedrus said:

Tbone555 said:

bethany said:

We do know that late-game needs a bit of work, and definitely have a few ideas we think you guys will like. In the meantime, there are some players out there that set challenges for themselves that can be quite interesting and rewarding. If you haven't given any of those a try, I'd be happy to link a few here.

i would love that, please do

Please post links to some of the challenges.

There are some interesting challenge threads on Reddit. You can find more by searching "challenge" in our subforum:

https://www.reddit.com/r/thelongdark/co ... s_to_make/?

https://www.reddit.com/r/thelongdark/co ... hallenges/?

There are also a few here in our official forums. The time for competitive participation has passed since this post was originally made, but they're still fun adventures to challenge yourself with:

Seven Screenshots Challenge

Sea to Summit Challenge

[lucbay300]

On 12/15/2015 at 8:33 AM, elloco999 said:

Yeah, I generally have much more than 15L of water as well, but 15 is my limit. 

Seriously! I carry around 17 pounds of water and I freak out if I get any bellow that! I'm so stupid! That's probably why I simply cannot get under 66 pounds of gear

[lucbay300]

Just kidding, After 6hrs of high level calculations, I realized that I only carry 10L of water, but thats still a lot.

[cekivi]

@lucbay300: 10L of water is actually 22 lbs of water... so actually more than you first thought

You can normally get away with 1-2L of water if you're exploring from a base camp. Maybe take 4L if you're moving a long distance. Just remember to always boil up a liter whenever you light a fire to warm up and rest.

[SteveP]

Personally, I make beads and string them on sinew to decorate my wolf skin coat. I also like to practice flint knapping because I know I will one day have to master this arcane skill. I make atlatls and practice sticking darts into the dart board that conveniently was left at the camp office. I repair the holes in the roofs and walls of the cabins where I stay. I write in my journal how much I miss my loved ones. I count up my supplies and do the arithmetic for when my last knife, hatchet and matches will be gone. I want to build a meat cache to freeze my meat supplies and fish. I also experiment with creating stringed musical instruments; I find that without these constructive activities, I would slowly but surely go insane.

 

On 2015-12-14 at 10:40 PM, Wasteland Watcher said:

How long will the meat keep in the locker before spoiling?

In your experience what is lowest percentage a cooked meat is safe enough to eat to avoid food poisoning?

Practically speaking, 100% cooked meat would last about 100 days before it is no longer useful as bait.

The risk of food poisoning becomes possible at around 80% but you can also eat meat at 70% or even lower. It's like rolling the dice. I try not to waste meat so I don't hunt until necessary. I would save the bullets for bear hunts and use bow and arrow on wolves and deer.

It is very tempting to go hunting when bored; this is counter productive to long term survival since it wastes a limited resource: bullets and arrows.

[Wasteland Watcher]

12 minutes ago, SteveP said:

Practically speaking, 100% cooked meat would last about 100 days before it is no longer useful as bait.

The risk of food poisoning becomes possible at around 80% but you can also eat meat at 70% or even lower. It's like rolling the dice. I try not to waste meat so I don't hunt until necessary. I would save the bullets for bear hunts and use bow and arrow on wolves and deer.

It is very tempting to go hunting when bored; this is counter productive to long term survival since it wastes a limited resource: bullets and arrows.

I've gotten food poisoning twice in one week (game time) now eating cooked venison at 70%. 
I'm pretty good about waiting until I'm down to 9 kg meat before hunting/snaring.
But...I have this strange complex where I feel the need to harvest the meat off of every downed deer I come across and the last three were fresh kills that had 8 ~ 9 KG meat at 70% when found...
I should have waited until they were around 50% raw but I got bored during a blizzard and BBQ'd. Now I still have 7 kg cooked venison at 67%...

I'm tempted to waste the meat by just using it for bait but I prefer 0.1 kg pieces of meat for bait...

[SteveP]

And you can still eat meat down to around 60%. but do expect the food poisoning and be prepared for it. Eat the dicey food just before bed on an empty stomach and if you get sick, consume all the rest of the low quality meat since you cannot get sick twice. You still need a reserve of good condition meat for when you awaken hungry and in case of bad weather.

[Wasteland Watcher]

Just now, SteveP said:

And you can still eat meat down to around 60%. but do expect the food poisoning and be prepared for it. Eat the dicey food just before bed on an empty stomach and if you get sick, consume all the rest of the low quality meat since you cannot get sick twice. You still need a reserve of good condition meat for when you awaken hungry and in case of bad weather.

Thanks for the good advice

I actually brought all the questionable meat up and put it in the nightstand next to bed...with 6 L water, just for the purpose of chancing it at night. Since I don't use antibiotics for food poisoning anymore I basically spend two days in bed. 

[elloco999]

7 hours ago, lucbay300 said:

Seriously! I carry around 17 pounds of water and I freak out if I get any bellow that! I'm so stupid! That's probably why I simply cannot get under 66 pounds of gear

I don't actually carry 15L of water, that's just the minimum I want to have at my main base. If it drops below that, I will boil some water ASAP.

I generally carry 1-2L, maybe a little more if I'm planning a long trip. I do have caches of water and emergency food at strategic locations, so if I run out of water for some reason more is always nearby. And of course I always carry supplies to start several fires, so boiling some more water is never a problem. And like cekivi said, if you do make a fire for some other reason, use it to resupply your water.

3 hours ago, SteveP said:

The risk of food poisoning becomes possible at around 80% but you can also eat meat at 70% or even lower. It's like rolling the dice. I try not to waste meat so I don't hunt until necessary. I would save the bullets for bear hunts and use bow and arrow on wolves and deer.

I have gotten food poisoning from 93% meat and other from 99% meat, so unless this has changed it is possible to get food poisoning from any food. It's just that the chance is much lower if the condition is high.

On the other hand, I'll eat meat even if it's below 10% and I don't really get food poisoning all that often. I only do this once I'm past the initial phase of the game and have myself a solid base. You can easily sleep the food poisoning off if you have everything you need for the next week or so. Of course I'm not going to risk eating low quality food when I'm almost out of supplies and I need to go out soon, or before I'm settled at a good base.

[cekivi]

I guess my character has an iron stomach

I've eaten meat down at 50% with no repercussions. Ah, the fun of random number generators

 

[Wasteland Watcher]

On 11/13/2015 at 2:30 PM, Tbone555 said:

so what do you guys all do for fun when playing on your longer runs? i really need ideas

Move to the Logging Camp. It's got almost as much storage as Camp Office but kind of a better location regarding being in the middle of resources.

[ SPOILER Follows ]

I also like this location because it's close to the 'edge of the map.'
I plan to make forays into the other zones but "return to base" every day or every other day.

[Raphael van Lierop]

It may be worth noting that your chance of getting food poisoning from eating something depends not only on that item's condition, but on the item itself. Ex. You have a higher chance of getting food poisoning from Raw Meat (of any Condition) than from a Granola Bar (of any Condition). So, item Condition doesn't tell the whole story...

[cekivi]

1 hour ago, Raphael van Lierop said:

It may be worth noting that your chance of getting food poisoning from eating something depends not only on that item's condition, but on the item itself. Ex. You have a higher chance of getting food poisoning from Raw Meat (of any Condition) than from a Granola Bar (of any Condition). So, item Condition doesn't tell the whole story...

Actually, @Raphael van Lierop, could you clear up something for me? I remember seeing on an update or forum that you could eat freshly caught fish (so raw fish at 100% condition) like sushi to maximize the calories earned (since cooking reduces them) at minimal risk of food poisoning. The one time I tried this (fillet was at between 95-98% condition) I immediately got food poisoning. Does this mean that eating sushi is a really bad idea (being raw trumps being fish) or did I just get a bad random number?

[cekivi]

Also just realized you can up-vote answers to questions and follow users. Who knew?

[SteveP]

Topic drift is kind of inevitable. It's all good. It comes down to there isn't a lot to do when there is "free" time and you don't want to venture outdoors. I guess you can always make fish hooks, spare clothes and torches and boil water and break down things like crates and furniture. Without a hatchet,  you have to do a lot of breaking down recycled wood until you can forge an improvised hatchet and hope you have a Heavy Hammer to do it. Writing in the journal is another thing you can do to spin your own story. It's been a long time since I had so much spare meat that there was spare time but once you have the rifle and bow and other tools, survival becomes a lot easier. It's one reason I have tried to think of risks that only kick in later down the game such as ketosis or depression or preparations to deal with running low on certain materials requiring a new strategy such as flint/obsidian knives. Did you know you can knap ceramic tiles, TV screen glass, bottle bottoms, ceramic plates among other materials? Old TVs had really thick glass great for knapping. Dunno how you supposed to crack them open without hurting yourself. Ok, here's the trick:

 

[Raphael van Lierop]

17 hours ago, cekivi said:

Actually, @Raphael van Lierop, could you clear up something for me? I remember seeing on an update or forum that you could eat freshly caught fish (so raw fish at 100% condition) like sushi to maximize the calories earned (since cooking reduces them) at minimal risk of food poisoning. The one time I tried this (fillet was at between 95-98% condition) I immediately got food poisoning. Does this mean that eating sushi is a really bad idea (being raw trumps being fish) or did I just get a bad random number?

There is still a chance of food poisoning from eating raw fish. But, this chance is quite a bit lower than eating raw non-fish meat.

[cekivi]

Thanks for the clarification!

[SteveP]

Bethany, the link you posted for the challenges on the Hinterland forum didn't work; it took me to the Index page with a  message about maintenance or something. I would suggest the OP try a search of the forums using the word Challenge. There are a few ongoing ones such as the longest rifle shot (mine), screen shots and the Sea to Sky challenge if I recall.

I've seen videos where people spell out words using firewood to signal for help or build a series of bonfires on top of a car.

There are of course, the in game Achievements that make interesting challenges. We kind of copied that idea for the challenge concept.

[illanthropist]

On 3/2/2016 at 1:42 PM, SteveP said:

Dunno how you supposed to crack them open without hurting yourself. Ok, here's the trick:

And all the bit's you don't need can just leave in the garden for the kids to play on! 

[bethany]

4 hours ago, SteveP said:

Bethany, the link you posted for the challenges on the Hinterland forum didn't work; it took me to the Index page with a  message about maintenance or something. I would suggest you try a search of the forums using the word Challenge. There are a few ongoing ones such as the longest rifle shot (mine), screen shots and the Sea to Sky challenge if I recall.

I've seen videos where people spell out words using firewood to signal for help or build a series of bonfires on top of a car.

There are of course, the in game Achievements that make interesting challenges. We kind of copied that idea for the challenge concept.

Yes, that last link was from our old forum system, and I'm happy to update it. The reddit links still work fine. Thanks for pointing that out. 

[SteveP]

2 hours ago, illanthropist said:

And all the bit's (of the old TV tube) you don't need can just leave in the garden for the kids to play on! 

Yeah, don't do that. The shards from flint knapping especially glass or obsidian are very sharp so you need to have a work area. The phosphor coating on the inside of the TV tube are also hazardous. Dust is also a hazard of flint knapping so many advise wearing a filter or even a respirator. The guys who flint knap tend to ignore all this. There is a significant health hazard from exposure to flint dust known as silicosis. Miners also used to have this from drilling. A better source of glass is a heavy tempered glass which is very good for knapping. You aren't going to develop silicosis over the short term. Remember that silica dust is hazardous to the lungs so even small amounts while not sufficient to be a chronic condition, are still not beneficial to the lungs. End of health warning.

[illanthropist]

29 minutes ago, SteveP said:

Yeah, don't do that. The shards from flint knapping especially glass or obsidian are very sharp so you need to have a work area. The phosphor coating on the inside of the TV tube are also hazardous. Dust is also a hazard of flint knapping so many advise wearing a filter or even a respirator. The guys who flint knap tend to ignore all this. There is a significant health hazard from exposure to flint dust known as silicosis. Miners also used to have this from drilling. A better source of glass is a heavy tempered glass which is very good for knapping. You aren't going to develop silicosis over the short term. Remember that silica dust is hazardous to the lungs so even small amounts while not sufficient to be a chronic condition, are still not beneficial to the lungs. End of health warning.

Aye, i was just amazed by his "leave no trace" in the video, been looking at getting into knapping, got some bits collected, still need to buy some plumbing supplies to make a bopper and flaker.  Will do it come summer when I can sit out.  Gonna start using the glass bottle bottoms, they seperate easily enough with a big nail or drillbit.