Snowballs in Hell


Drifter Man

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Snowball 41 / Day 19

It is early morning of Day 19. Snowball 41 enjoys the -6°C sauna of the Mountaineer's Hut.

Three days ago, on Day 15, I managed to drive a deer into a wolf at Eric's Falls. This cost me a flare shell (missed the wolf again) but the gain of 8.8 kg of venison secured my food supply for a few days. I was hoping to use the "fire" trick to drive the wolf off - the weather was good - but the wolf made the kill on a steep slope and I couldn't get the fire going nearby. Maybe I should have started it farther away and lured the wolf in. Anyway.

On Day 16 my thermal underwear hit 9% condition and became dead weight. I scrapped it to get a piece of cloth.

In the morning hours on Day 17 I explored the cave I came in through from the Secluded Shelf and collected 8 coals. I came out of the cave at sunrise: air temperature was -37°C, meaning I would feel -6°C in the shelter. I waited for a few hours for temperatures to rise when a blizzard started. I could only return to the shelter in the afternoon and went to sleep before sunset. I woke up in the middle of the night with a hypothermia risk. The place was getting way too cold. The writing on the wall: leave and don't come back.

I lit a fire and started packing. First I repaired my hacksaw with one of the two pieces of scrap metal I had - so I can leave the toolbox behind. I scrapped the running shoes. I weighed all items carefully. In the end, I left behind a bottle of antiseptic (I keep an OMB dressing instead), 3 pieces of leather, 0.15 L fuel, leather shoes and the quality tools. Also two guts that haven't cured by now - they will remain in the cave for some other survivor to collect. A blizzard started and I kept the fire burning into the afternoon until it ceased. Then I dismantled the shelter and left.

I packed five kilos of cooked venison and although no smell icon appeared, the wolves were homing in on me from afar. Right under the first rope, I had to drive one away with my flare pistol - again, no way to start a fire on the slope. I ran to the second rope and waited to catch my breath before going down. I could see the wolf below approaching the rope and the wolf above was also returning. With no time to lose, I went down and started a fire to drive off the second wolf.

After a brief stop in the Cave of Engines, I reached the Mountaineer's Hut in the evening of Day 18.

  • Firestarting: 44 matches, firestriker at 86%, 2 bottles of accelerant.
  • Medical: 12 pills of antibiotics, 6 painkiller pills, 1 stim, 1 bandage, 1 OMB dressing, 6 cups of rosehip tea, 17 reishi mushrooms
  • Clothes: Same as before but thermal underwear and the two extra pairs of shoes are gone. Bonus is now +7°C / +3°C. In 8 days of continuous wearing, Ski jacket, thin wool sweater and trail boots lost 9%, down vest, plaid shirt and the two pairs of jeans lost 14-15%, and the two pairs of wool socks, two toques and the ear wrap lost 18-19% each.
  • Food: Three boxes of salty crackers, 4 kg of cooked venison, 6 cups' worth of tea and 7 cups' worth of coffee.
  • Tools: Flare pistol with 9 flares, hacksaw (68%), sewing kit (80%).
  • Material: 4 cloth, 4 pieces of leather, 3 deer hides, 5 rabbit pelts, 7 guts, 1 scrap metal

Firestarting, carcass harvesting and cooking are at level 2. I've burned the books that taught me.

As you can see, clothes won't last long. I'm thinking about which pieces to prioritize. As I said, the jeans will go (both pairs) as I only plan to have the deerskin pants once I craft them. Wool mittens will be replaced with rabbitskin mitts. I will also get rid of the socks and ear wrap once they wear out - they burn fast and provide little benefit. This will free up 6 pieces of cloth. It's difficult though how to handle the two toques and the items worn on the torso. I have a few days to figure it out.

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2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I will also get rid of the socks and ear wrap once they wear out - they burn fast and provide little benefit. This will free up 6 pieces of cloth. It's difficult though how to handle the two toques and the items worn on the torso. I have a few days to figure it out.

All of the stuff in your post was super helpful - I wanted to let you know that you might want to keep on one pair of sock.  It was pre-update but I did get frostbite warnings when my boot (not deerskin - hiking) got wet and started to freeze.  I didn't have any socks on, haven't had that problem with socks.  I just wear them down to a nub and switch to the next set.   

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13 hours ago, Jolan said:

wanted to let you know that you might want to keep on one pair of sock.  It was pre-update but I did get frostbite warnings when my boot (not deerskin - hiking) got wet and started to freeze.  I didn't have any socks on, haven't had that problem with socks.

I don't tend to get freezing boots because somehow, whenever I'm outside for a longer period of time, I must spend a lot of time by the fire. But I'll follow your advice and try to keep one pair if I can.

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Snowball 41 / Day 22

I spent most of the past three days at the crafting table and made deerskin pants and rabbitskin mitts. My clothes now offer +10°C / +6°C bonus. The sewing kit is gone and I used my last piece of scrap metal and my only extra gut to produce fishing tackle. One pair of jeans, the ear cover and wool mittens are now scrapped. This gives me 7 pieces of cloth in total, out of which five will go into my second shelter.

There should be about two to three days before cabin fever becomes a problem. My short-term plan is to remain for a few days here at Mountaineer's Hut, using the local resources - rabbits, sticks and hopefully a deer. I also want to visit the two Echo peaks and the Forest Cave. Then, once local resources are depleted, I'm moving to the 3-way cave to build a second shelter. Last time I checked, the 3-way cave had a temperature bonus of 8°C, compared to only 3°C of the alcove below the Summit, and should match or exceed the temperatures in the Mountaineer's Hut until about Day 35. I'll see how it goes from there. I may remain there to die or return to the Mountaineer's Hut for my endgame.

A for clothes, I analyzed how much temperature bonus and for how long time I can get from each piece of cloth. The winners were the wool toques and the thin wool sweater. I'd also like to keep the plaid shirt and one pair of socks. Therefore I will have 7 pieces of cloth available for repairs. At 70% success rate, I should statistically get five successful repairs, one per each item. Sewing equipment is not a problem as I have hook and line for another tackle and can produce one more tackle after I get another cured gut. If my estimates are correct, jeans will wear out on Day 44, the down vest and first pair of wool socks on Day 49, the second pair on Day 67, and the rest between Days 80 and 100. I don't suppose I have to plan that long into the future :)

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On 6/24/2017 at 0:28 AM, cekivi said:

That's the one! :D

And it may repeat the question but not necessarily the method used to answer it ;) 

Hence, different outcomes are possible. 

E.g. Q: Can we fly to the moon.

A: No, the rocket explodes.

Retry: can we make a better rocket so that we can fly to the moon?

 That's a different question. :P

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Snowball 41 / Day 28

Surprisingly, life is not bad in the Mountaineer's Hut. I'm putting off my move to the shelter for now.

On Day 22 I stole a deer kill from the wolf on Crystal Lake. The flare shell missed its target again - I really wanted to have the wolf out of the way when I harvest the carcass, but I just can't make the flare hit the target. While I left the fresh kill to freeze (hacksaw is about twice as fast when working on a frozen carcass), I bagged a rabbit and processed it in the fishing hut. A blizzard set in and I was forced to spend the entire day inside. Unsuspecting, I kept what was left of the rabbit carcass on me all the time, which caused the wolf circle around the hut. I nearly ran into it nose to nose while stepping out! So I dropped the smelly things on the floor, waited a while and then left safely (and recovered them later). It was almost night, so I returned to the Mountaineer's Hut and spent the next day gathering sticks and gradually processing the deer carcass. I was able to take 2 kg chunks at a time, without a fire. Whenever I touched the carcass, the wolf came in at a fast pace, and I withdrew home at a pace equally fast. After a while, when the wolf went off away, I would return to the carcass again. I managed to finish the job on Day 24.

Day 24 was also the day when cabin fever risk appeared. I visited the Forest Cave and collected a flare plus two pieces of cedar firewood - one of the last places I haven't visited yet. I also found some reishi mushrooms and rosehips in the area. With two extra pieces of cloth in my hand, I tried to repair my thin wool sweater but succeeded only once. Now I have 5 cloth left, which I want to keep for building the second shelter.

Cabin fever risk persisted into Day 25, so I started a partially protected fire next to the entrance into the hut and cooked the venison from the kill along with some rabbits. I also collected around 90 sticks. On the next day, I managed to repair my trail boots. Cabin fever risk went finally away but I know it will be back soon. The good news is that it can be addressed by starting fire outside the hut. As mentioned in this thread previously, outside fires get a bonus that makes them last longer. I tried to measure the times and got a +10% time for the indoor fireplace in Mountaineer's Hut, +25% time in the outdoor cave below the summit, +50% in the fishing hut and ca +90% at the doorstep of Mountaineer's Hut. So I really save a ton of firewood when burning the fire outside - although wind can blow it out if it comes directly along the front side of the hut.

I'm trying to limit making fire to once in two days, and use torch to get 1-match starts. Whenever I turn out to have more fire than I need (especially when warming up outside), I take as many torches from the fire as I can before leaving. I keep some of the best ones (> 40%) and process the rest into sticks. It's better than leaving the fire that still has 2 hours in it. In fact, each torch only costs about 2-3 minutes of the fire since you can turn it back into a stick. At firestarting level 5, you might even be able to generate firewood this way!

So it seems that the firemaking and cabin fever problems can be managed reasonably well for now. Whether or not I can stay in the Mountaineer's Hut depends mainly on one thing: when does the next deer appear on the lake and whether I can claim it for myself without being eaten.

Inventory:

  • Firestarting: 42 matches, firestriker at 58%, 1 accelerant (should be enough to make 66 fires).
  • Medical: 12 pills of antibiotics, 4 painkiller pills, 1 stim, 1 bandage, 1 OMB dressing, 5 cups of rosehip tea, 48 rosehip buds, 15 reishi mushrooms
  • Clothes: Deerskin pants (99%), rabbitskin mitts (97%), ski jacket (60%), down vest (28%), plaid shirt (47%), thin wool sweater (83%), jeans (24%), two pairs of wool socks (46%, 28%), trail boots (91%), two wool toques (62%, 33%). Bonus is still at +10°C / +6°C.
  • Food: Three boxes of salty crackers, 5 kg of cooked venison, 1 kg cooked rabbit, 28 cattail stalks, 5 cups' worth of tea and 7 cups' worth of coffee.
  • Tools: Flare pistol with 8 shells, one flare, hacksaw (66%), fishing tackle (37%) and two hooks.
  • Material: 5 cloth, 2 pieces of leather, 1 rabbit pelt, 3 curing guts

I brought those salty crackers all the way down from the Summit and intend to eat them as the last thing before death :)

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Snowball 41 R.I.P. (30 days 23 hours 31 minutes)

Bad weather reigned for several days and I found it increasingly difficult to keep a reserve of sticks. Starting one fire per two days was an unrealistic wish: blizzards strike more often than that, and make sure that they come at the least suitable time. But somehow I was able to continue and eventually decided to move to the snow shelter. Maybe it won't be better there but at least it shouldn't be worse.

On Day 30, before moving, I concluded that one pair of my socks can be better utilized as cloth to repair the other pair, and so I did that. I crafted my first snare and used another cured gut to make fishing line - now I had three fishing tackles. A deer appeared on the lake, some 8 days after the kill. To make use of this resource, I drove it into a wolf on Day 32 but didn't do it well: the wolf soon spotted me, left the kill and attacked. I ran for the fishing hut at first; realizing I wouldn't make it in time, I turned around and fired a flare shell.

I returned to my fire next to the Mountaineer's Hut and waited for the actions of the wolf. Unfortunately, he kept patrolling over the carcass - I couldn't get close. Eventually, light fog fell and I decided to sneak in and start a fire next to the carcass. So I liquidated my fire (by drawing torches from it, for reprocessing) and lit my best torch (48%) to carry the fire to the carcass. At that point the wolf was away at a safe distance.

But as soon as I came close, the wolf made a random turn and went straight for the carcass. I kept dancing around but the wolf would always make a random turn to thwart my moves. Eventually I was getting nearer but the torch was almost out, so I dropped it and replaced with another. Just as I was busy doing it, the wolf spotted me and ran towards me. I tried to draw the pistol but I wasn't quick enough.

Snowball41_RIP.jpg

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When I'm thinking about it, it wouldn't have worked anyway. With the new smell mechanic, the wolf would be on me the minute I'd step away from the fire. So, the question is: how to harvest animal carcasses in a wolf territory?

Edit #1: Damn, I'm now thinking, I could've tried to lure it away with stones... hmm... next time.

Edit #2: Maybe the wolf heard the sound of the torch falling onto the ice and reacted to it... I read somewhere that they now are aware of all kinds of sounds. Watch out!

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RiP Snowball!  30 days is great though.

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

hmm... next time.

Build a campfire?  I would have done that halfway to the carcass, scare the wolf off, pull a torch and build another fire at the carcass.  Far more reliable than a distress pistol shell (which can miss) or a torch (which doesn't scare off the wolf unless you chuck it at him perfectly -- it only holds him off while it's in your hand).

I haven't practiced the stone throwing thing much but I've learned it can attract the wolf to you if you are too close.  I think throwing from very far away while crouched is the best bet.

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11 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

When I'm thinking about it, it wouldn't have worked anyway. With the new smell mechanic, the wolf would be on me the minute I'd step away from the fire. So, the question is: how to harvest animal carcasses in a wolf territory?

Edit #1: Damn, I'm now thinking, I could've tried to lure it away with stones... hmm... next time.

Edit #2: Maybe the wolf heard the sound of the torch falling onto the ice and reacted to it... I read somewhere that they now are aware of all kinds of sounds. Watch out!

Have you tried driving deer into wolves by throwing rocks? I don't know if deer react to the noise of rocks, haven't tried it out yet. But maybe if wolves are attracted to the noise of rocks hitting something... then deer could be running away from the same noise?

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12 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

RiP Snowball!  30 days is great though.

I'm glad I finally made it past the 30-day mark. But it's only a two-day improvement over Snowball 34.

12 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

Build a campfire?  I would have done that halfway to the carcass, scare the wolf off, pull a torch and build another fire at the carcass.  Far more reliable than a distress pistol shell (which can miss) or a torch (which doesn't scare off the wolf unless you chuck it at him perfectly -- it only holds him off while it's in your hand).

Yes, that would be a possible way to go. Still, I don't know how to safely carry the meat away from the carcass (not to mention what to do if the fire suddenly goes out). By the way, is torch in your hand now reliable again in keeping the wolf from attacking?

3 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Have you tried driving deer into wolves by throwing rocks? I don't know if deer react to the noise of rocks, haven't tried it out yet. But maybe if wolves are attracted to the noise of rocks hitting something... then deer could be running away from the same noise?

Not yet, but I will try today and report :) I don't have much trouble getting the deer to the wolf on Crystal Lake, although sometimes I'm not happy about the precise place of the kill at the end. But if the deer run away from the stone rather than from me, it could add extra flexibility in herding (less walking required).

Edit: YES! You can drive a deer or rabbit towards any direction (including towards yourself) with a stone. They run away from the point of impact.

Anyway, I have some ideas how to proceed from here. Snowball 41 again suffered from ignorance - he didn't know how to hit a stationary target with a flare pistol, and was inefficient in gathering sticks. It's time for scientific research :) I set up a Voyageur test game where I can focus on other things than minute-to-minute survival.

In Voyageur it's so much loot everywhere now, and much of it is just redundant... I could live for 1000 days from it...

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12 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

YES! You can drive a deer or rabbit towards any direction (including towards yourself) with a stone. They run away from the point of impact.

Wow, this is huge!

12 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

By the way, is torch in your hand now reliable again in keeping the wolf from attacking?

I haven't found it to be so, but some folks swear by it.  I use them when traveling and they do seem to delay distant wolves from charging.  But when a wolf is closely tracking me I use the torch to light a campfire ASAP, before it can burn or blow out.  When the wolf flees from the campfire, I grab a fresh torch from the fire and try to break contact.

12 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I could live for 1000 days from it...

I laughed out loud. :D

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On 2017-6-27 at 10:30 PM, Ruruwawa said:

I haven't found it to be so, but some folks swear by it.  I use them when traveling and they do seem to delay distant wolves from charging.  But when a wolf is closely tracking me I use the torch to light a campfire ASAP, before it can burn or blow out.  When the wolf flees from the campfire, I grab a fresh torch from the fire and try to break contact.

I agree that I should learn to rely on campfires whenever I need to get rid of a wolf. It may cost a match but one match means perhaps by one day shorter survival for a snowball in hell, while a wolf attack means 100% death. Relying on the flare pistol is not sustainable - flares will run out. The flare pistol should only be used in bad weather or whenever starting a fire is impossible. In bad weather I'm not attempting to steal kills anyway.

With this goal in mind I started my Voyageur tests. First I checked stick spawn points around the Mountaineer's Hut. I found that the method developed by earlier snowballs was nearly as good as it can get, I just wasn't following it systematically enough by Snowball 41. Still, I found one convenient place close to base with a few additional sticks that I hadn't been aware of before. I also decided to try to expand these hunts more towards the Wing - but only in areas where I think I can safely avoid wildlife. I put circles with approximate number of sticks that can be found in each place on @whiteberry-toarda's map, color-coding the areas that should be visited on a given run. I'd be alternating between these three runs (orange, green, blue), allowing the sticks to respawn. Based on my previous experience, I only considered areas that are within 25-minute (in-game) walking distance from my base, and that are outside wolf patrol zones. The purpose of this system is to avoid wasting condition when going to places where sticks have not yet respawned. I found 224 sticks altogether in these areas, plus 16 branches close enough to base that they can be harvested without loss of condition, under favorable circumstances.

I also checked the surroundings of the 3-way cave, the place I wanted for my snow shelter. Verdict: not enough firewood. Mountaineer's Hut wins, I just have to make it survivable.

Now, about condition. In my experience, 10-hour sleep recovers 32% condition (38% with tea). So ideally, I should end each day in 60-65% condition and recover to about 95% during the sleep. If I end the day below 60%, I'm running up debt, if above 65%, I'm not utilizing the day fully. I checked the journal of Snowball 41 and mostly I was guilty of keeping my condition above 70%. By my estimate, I will lose about 20-25% each day to cold (60-75 minutes of freezing), leaving 7-12% to starvation. Back on Interloper, I will check how these estimates correspond with reality.

Finally, deer kills. Under Voyageur conditions, I tested the following method:

  1. With suitable weather, start fire at the base - the fishing hut would be best but I usually burn fire straight next to the hut. This should work, too.
  2. Drive the deer into the wolf on the lake using stones (much, much more efficient than herding them "manually"!)
  3. Approach the kill with a torch so that I'm in front of the wolf - does not have to be directly from the front but not from the rear where the wolf is usually ignorant of what's happening until I'm dangerously close
  4. With the torch, start a fire at a safe distance, throw a few sticks in
  5. Stand up and make the wolf leave the kill and go towards me until it runs away again from the fire
  6. Go home and wait for at least 3 hours, or even to the next day (it takes 6 hours for a carcass to fully freeze, and I want to work with my hacksaw; working with hacksaw on a frozen carcass saves about half of the time compared to a fresh one - about 80 minutes compared to 160 minutes).
  7. With a torch, return to the carcass. If necessary, drive the wolf away the same way as in 4.-5.
  8. Start a fire next to the carcass. It takes 6 minutes to start a fire (level 1), during that time the carcass already thaws by 5%, and I may not succeed at first - so the carcass should be at least 65 or 70% frozen. Put enough fuel into the fire to keep me above 0°C - this can easily be 40 sticks later in the game!
  9. Grab all meat at once. Even if the carcass completely thaws during the process, I will still get 1 kilogram per 10 minutes with the hacksaw when I try to grab everything while the carcass is still above 50% frozen
  10. If the fire goes out due to a change in weather, abort, ready the flare pistol and run like hell with whatever meat I have :)
  11. If finished normally, wait for the wolf approach and run away again from the fire, then make a dash for the base. If necessary, drop one of the pieces of meat as bait.

Finally, I think I got some practice in hitting a wolf with the flare pistol but don't want to rely on it.

The time has come for Snowball 42.

TWM_sticks_1.png

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@Drifter Man I like the new plan.  It'll be interesting to see how it works out for you.

Question about your stick map: you don't go up the path toward PV?   I often get many of my sticks there when I'm staying at the Mountaineer's hut.  I typically just go straight there on a day the middle yellow zone is still repawning.  I think you could do it within your "freezing budget" but I haven't timed it.

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On 29/06/2017 at 4:00 AM, Ruruwawa said:

Question about your stick map: you don't go up the path toward PV?   I often get many of my sticks there when I'm staying at the Mountaineer's hut.  I typically just go straight there on a day the middle yellow zone is still repawning.  I think you could do it within your "freezing budget" but I haven't timed it.

I checked the path to PV - I only found about 10 sticks there and it's way outside my freezing radius. But I tried a different idea - you can start a fire in the relatively covered path up Echo Peak West and use it as a temporary base to reach about 50-60 sticks in that area. Of course, the fire will cost you about 30 (even if you turn the surplus into torches afterwards).

The problem is, I would only go there when I'm out of sticks. And when I'm out of sticks, I don't have sticks to make extra fire :)

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Snowball 42 / Day 16

Snowball 42 wasn't dealt a great hand but nevertheless persisted through Phases 1 and 2. Yesterday he dismantled the death trap of a snow shelter - as soon as the last guts needed to produce crafted clothes finished curing - and returned to Mountaineer's Hut. With the help of regular doses of herbal tea, he managed to maintain his condition up throughout the difficult days and now has woken up at 83%. Fire is crackling in the fireplace, with about 1.5 hours remaining in it. Snowball 42 has some time to decide on how to begin Phase 3. The first order of business will be to get sticks as the only fuel left is a reserve of six coals and two pieces of reclaimed wood that should preferably go to snares. As for food, only two boxes of crackers and a few cattails are left, but there still are some more on Crystal Lake and rabbits can be caught easily now. Also, the material is ready for rabbitskin mittens and deerskin pants.

  • Firestarting: 28 matches, firestriker at 43%, 1 bottle of accelerant.
  • Medical: 6 pills of antibiotics, 1 stim, 6 cups of rosehip tea, 37 reishi mushrooms
  • Clothes: An assortment of basic clothes in various condition. Ski jacket (73%), sweatshirt (52%), hoodie (68%), jeans (45%), wool socks (77%), thermal underwear (45%) and wool toque (83%) are holding up for now, the rest (cotton socks, wool ear wrap, down vest, another pair of jeans) will soon turn into raw material. A pair of work boots (70%) was a great find, I'm also keeping a pair of trail boots that might be better for wearing outside. I have enough cured leather to keep them both in good shape. Bonus is now at +7°C / +3°C.
  • Food: Two boxes of salty crackers, 4 cattail stalks, 9 cups' worth of tea and 2 cups' worth of coffee.
  • Tools: Flare pistol with 6 flare shells, hacksaw (28%), heavy hammer, sewing kit (90%), 1 flare.
  • Material: 6 cloth, 7 pieces of leather, 3 deer hides, 4 rabbit pelts, 7 guts, 4 scrap metal
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I've been giving some thought to how the gameplay would change if there was a bedroll. Of course, many things would be easier - there would be no need to build a snow shelter to get to the Summit, the character could nap in caves instead of relying on coffee etc. But now that I excluded snow shelters near loading screen caves as non-viable in the long run, the same would be true for living in the caves themselves. Neither of the major caves has a lot of food lying around.

One option would be to rotate shelters regularly to go from one rabbit run to another, allowing rabbits to recover each time. Basically the player would be jumping from cave to cave, staying in each for 3 days. The lower indoor cave ("The Cave of Engines"), the one at Eric's Falls, another on the way between the Fallen Tree Bridge and Deer Clearing and the one at Deer Clearing itself come to mind. But I'm not sure if this kind of commuting would actually be safer or more efficient than simply staying in the Mountaineer's Hut, with access to *relatively* easier deer kills on the lake, to the fishing hut and the two rabbit runs nearby, and the option to occasionally save matches when the mornings are not too cold.

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Containers vs hacksaw condition

Sometimes I have trouble keeping track of what's in which container, so I decided to write their contents down here. It was discussed here before that it is important to know their contents as a Snowball cannot afford to open every one of them - that would cost 70% of hacksaw condition and the hacksaw is too important to be spent just like that. On the other hand: I think that there is no point in keeping the hacksaw above 30% after the Summit adventure is over. Why? Bunnies can be safely harvested by hand now, so the only job remaining for the hacksaw is to process deer carcasses (or wolf or bear, if the opportunity arises). I haven't been measuring lately but hacksaw still seems to lose 1% condition per 1 hour of work on a carcass, so one deer (say 9 kg) costs about 1.5% - again, hide and guts can and should be taken by hand alone. So 30% hacksaw condition enables a Snowball to process about 7 deer for certain, until it hits 20% and the risk appears of breaking the tool. Up to 13 more deer if lucky and the hacksaw does not break until 0%. This is more food than a Snowball will ever need.

So, which containers are worth opening, and which are not?

 
  1. Engine: clothes and shoes. Sometimes the shoes are useless but you can't tell in advance. Open both compartments (-10%).
  2. Wing: canned food in the bottom (more accessible) section, tea and coffee in the top one. Open the top compartment only (-5%).
  3. Deer Clearing: canned food in the bottom (more accessible) section, cloth, scrap metal and sometimes a rabbit pelt (?) in the top one. Open the top compartment only (-5%).
  4. Tail section forward: medical supplies - painkillers, bandage, antiseptic, antibiotics - in the bottom (more accessible) section, leather, rabbit, deer and wolf skins in the top one. Open the top compartment mainly for the rabbit and deer stuff (-5%). Bottom compartment is optional - six painkillers (if you aren't unlucky) are the only worthwhile reward.
  5. Tail section forward/mid: salty crackers in the bottom section, tea and coffee in the top one. Open the top compartment and (recommended) the bottom one as well. Getting 2400 Cal in salty crackers is not a great deal for 5% of the hacksaw, but it can really help you to get through here if you have trouble getting food (-10%)
  6. Tail section rear/mid: clothes and shoes. Open both compartments (-10%)
  7. Tail section rear: canned food and drinks. Ignore.

I recommend opening only 9 out of the 14 compartments for a 45% condition loss of the hacksaw. If your initial hacksaw condition is above 75%, this should be at no real cost in terms of survival. Even if you find a toolbox to repair the hacksaw, it may still be preferable to save scrap metal for fishing hooks. Conserve your hacksaw for deer meat only and 30% will be enough.

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You have the hammer, which can open the ice fishing hole.  Since you can't repair the hacksaw, maybe you can eek out a few more days at the end of your run by fishing.  I haven't measured it in months, but last time I checked the condition of a fishing tackle did not affect the break chance.  So I'd use tackle for crafting/repairs down to a few % condition remaining, then use them for fishing.  

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10 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

You have the hammer, which can open the ice fishing hole.  Since you can't repair the hacksaw, maybe you can eek out a few more days at the end of your run by fishing.  I haven't measured it in months, but last time I checked the condition of a fishing tackle did not affect the break chance.  So I'd use tackle for crafting/repairs down to a few % condition remaining, then use them for fishing.  

That's exactly my thinking, and the only reason why I hauled the hammer back from the summit without taking it apart. I have four pieces of metal, enough for 12 hooks, and will need at most 3 (or equivalent of 3) for repairs. So yes, I think it will come to fishing if I make it that far.

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