GorillaDust

Don't play angry. I learned that lesson the hard way yesterday. Started the day comfortably in my campground up in Marsh Ridge in Forlorn Muskeg. I had been living for about a week in the outdoor cave (178 days into a Stalker game). I was waiting for a non-foggy day to go out and explore this new region. Finally got one, and left camp early morning. Worked my way to roughly middle-map and discovered the High Blind. Then (as usual) the fog rolled in. It was at that point that I realized I had stupidly left my bearskin bedroll in the cave, even though I knew this was a map with no beds. Dumb. Now I knew I had to return to my cave in case the weather worsened. I followed my own footprints to the train tracks, and could find my way back from there. Easy-peasy. Walking back to my campground, uneventfully. I was heading up Hat Creek when I got a notification. Frostbite on my foot. What the hell - I hadn't even noticed that my boots and socks were completely frozen. So I got pretty irritated at that. But kept playing. Then in real life my wife asked me a question that I answered in a snippy way thanks to my irritation about the no-warning frostbite affliction. That started a little argument that got me more worked up, and distracted me mentally from the game. I kept playing through. I checked the temperature, and went to sleep in the cave. Wake up 5 hours later to see if it had gotten colder than my bearskin would protect me against. It hadn't, so went back to sleep for another few hours. Wake up in the morning. More frostbite. Idiot. I hadn't taken my frozen boots and socks off and put them next to the fire before going to sleep because I wasn't paying full attention. Now I've got a permanent -20 health. Fantastic. And the IRL argument with my wife continued. Man, I'm feeling really angry and irritated now. I should have shut the game off at that point. Didn't. Instead, I left my campsite again in an attempt to cover the ground I hadn't the day before and discover more of this new map. My mild real-life anger overcame my common sense and patience. It was foggy, as usual, but I set out anyways. I figured I can just hug the right side (east?) wall to orient myself. Of course, this means steep ground in some parts, leading to two sprained wrists and a sprained ankle. Save the painkillers though - I can do this. On the far side of the railway line, I made my way along a new road, across a fallen trees bridge, and I found a new cave with an even more significant warmth bonus near the back! Awesome, I'm so great at this game to discover this new cave despite the fog! This will be my new staging ground for discovering the far side of the map. Let's just set down my bedroll and wait out the fog. ... GODDAMN it I forgot my bedroll again. More anger. More irritation. Kept playing. OK, so let's drop all the other heavy stuff I'm carrying (firewood, coal, water, etc) - I'll have to retrace my steps again and get my bedroll, some food, etc to make this cave a new staging ground. The good news is, the fog has cleared so I can easily see my way back without having to be too careful. Walk out of the cave without a worry in the world. WOOF WOOF! A wolf is nearby that I hadn't seen on approach. Too close to avoid, and can't run thanks to sprained ankle. Hide near the back of the cave! Get my bow ready! No - two sprained wrists. Take painkillers, quick! Take first painkiller, heal first wrist. Take a second painkiller. No - not for my ankle! Too late, the wolf is on me. Attacks me, drops my health down to 40%. Damn it, this is serious. Have to make it back to my campground to sleep it off. So heal up, then out I go again, this time more carefully. Great, clear day now. Would have been great for exploring the muskeg. But I make my way back along the path I came. On the road, I hear crows - oh, I can see them! I wander over to see what it is - there's a little island down there, easily accessible, with a dead body on it and what appears to be a flare. I hop down a little hill to get to the island, loot body (nothing) but take the flare. OK, back to the path. Nope. Can't return up that hill - it's too steep. Shit, this is serious. There are wolves on one side of the island (the side heading back towards home), and what looks like thin ice everywhere else. What can I do? I decide to go backwards away from home, and away from the wolves. I hug the rock wall across the ice. Thin ice warning. Oh God. Try to sprint through it instead of returning to the island. Idiot. Crack, through the ice I go. Back on the island now freezing, and at 25% health. Start a hot fire, quick! Nope, I dropped all my firewood and coal in the cave. I have a few sticks, and there are more on the island. By the time I strip my clothes off and lay them next to the fire, and get it hot enough, I'm down to 15% health. But stable. Dry clothes, get warmth back up. Now what? OK, just gotta get past the wolves and find the path again, then it's a relatively painless return home since it's a clear day. Forget sneaking, we gotta move fast. Crack the flare, and take a stimpack (first one I've needed in 178 days!) Let's do this! Hyah! HYAH! Brandishing the flare towards the wolves to scare them off, I dash across the ice close to the wall. Thin ice warning. Again? Was this island and corpse some kind of booby trap? Can't be thin ice this way too - I can sprint through this! Nope. Crack through the ice. Back on island at 3% health, soaking wet, hypothermia, with no flare (I guess the water doused it?). I just stood there watching as two wolves advanced on me and finished me off. Don't play angry. Every single time I have died in this game is due to my own impatience. Anger and patience do not mix. So don't play angry. And yes, I apologized to my wife. EDIT: Missed the best part. That last fire that I lit on the island? To dry my clothes and stave off hypothermia? It unlocked firetstarting mastery level 5. It was also the last fire I ever lit.

I've noticed this too. (logged a bug report already) The way it was implemented doesn't seem to match Hinterland's description of the affliction ("it decreases your maximum fatigue"). It actually could be seen as an advantage for a couple of reasons: I had about 20 days with parasites (I'm on Xbox so had a longer wait until the Hotfix and the map ran out of mushrooms/medicine before I could heal). In those 20 days I was sprinting everywhere like a carefree little fairy. No risk of fatigue and no dramatically lowered carry weight as I grew tired. During those 20 days I killed a bear, and was gleefully eating 900 calorie chunks of bear meat until I was full for days on end with no risk of recontracting parasites. I just hotfixed and finally cured my parasites yesterday. It was actually surprising how quickly I got exhausted. Bring back my parasites!

Hi Patrick - any idea when the 326/7 hotfixes will hit Xbox One? I'm being annihilated with the 325 version of Parasites - I caught it after eating 4 pieces of wolf meat over 4 days (Bad luck for me - 8% risk = infection). I have used all of the antibiotics and all the Reishi I could find in Mystery Lake and still have six more days of parasites left... :\ Edit: Also, I'd like to echo somebody else's request elsewhere on these forums to please rebalance fishing to account for parasites. I would love to use fishing more often except the weight/calorie ratio is far too prohibitive.