Snowballs in Hell


Drifter Man

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 438
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Great thread, @Drifter Man, I hadn't come back here since my last comment.

Now I read all the new posts from there and was biting my nails, thinking "why, why, why doesn't he try the snow shelter?". Myself, I have never used it and I wasn't even sure that you can sleep there without a bedroll, but I had a dim memory (from reading other posts) that you can. Now, thanks to your report, I find this confirmed.

My first thinking was not to go for the summit, but to find a different location as base than the hut, using the snow shelter. And to construct it early, procuring the necessary cloth by harvesting some of the starting clothes. So you wouldn't necessarily need the hacksaw to open any containers. It would be interesting to see if that's a viable strategy (since harvesting the little clothes you start out with might be counterproductive when it comes to losing warmth), and also interesting to contemplate which spot would be ideal to put it. Maybe a spot with rabbits, and to put some snares right in front of the entrance. Could it be possible to harvest the rabbits while being inside the snow shelter? That could help a lot. Especially if you have the hacksaw.

Anyway, it was a relief to see that at some point the idea with the snow shelter came up and you tried it. You are the Captain Kirk of the TLD world, boldly going where no player has gone before and returning alive to talk about it. Really love reading your reports, keep up the good work! :)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

I don't personally trap rabbits next to the lake because it's too likely a wolf or bear will wander through while I'm harvesting.  Instead, I trap at the rabbit run that it's midway between the hut ans the path to PV.  It's in a bowl with a mound and trees in the middle.  I set my traps in the middle of the trees and that gives me (and my fire) a windbreak from just about any direction.

I love that spot. And its one of the better wood locations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9.1.2017 at 7:33 PM, GorillaDust said:

Is this not true in Interloper? From my experience, the tail of the plane has 8 or 10 different openable containers, with each big grey container having two distinct locked doors.

It is, cargo containers always have two separate doors with different kinds of loot no matter the mode. Only the amount of loot is considerably lower on Interloper (e.g. 2x herbal tea and 1x coffee instead of 10x herbal tea and 5 coffees on voyageur). ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/9/2017 at 1:22 AM, mystifeid said:

No, they don't. And congratulations on making the summit!

Thanks! This makes the cave/shelter combination more viable.

On 1/9/2017 at 11:55 AM, Ruruwawa said:

I don't personally trap rabbits next to the lake because it's too likely a wolf or bear will wander through while I'm harvesting.  Instead, I trap at the rabbit run that it's midway between the hut ans the path to PV.  It's in a bowl with a mound and trees in the middle.  I set my traps in the middle of the trees and that gives me (and my fire) a windbreak from just about any direction.

I think I found that place. My 2 (and later 3) snares only caught 1 rabbit over a series of days. Do you have a screenshot, just for me to make sure I'm placing them correctly?

@GorillaDust, @Troxism, I was indeed opening only one of the compartments. Realizing that I went all the way to the summit and back (and died on return) to get just half of what was there to take was quite a shock!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Great thread, @Drifter Man, I hadn't come back here since my last comment.

Now I read all the new posts from there and was biting my nails, thinking "why, why, why doesn't he try the snow shelter?". Myself, I have never used it and I wasn't even sure that you can sleep there without a bedroll, but I had a dim memory (from reading other posts) that you can. Now, thanks to your report, I find this confirmed.

My first thinking was not to go for the summit, but to find a different location as base than the hut, using the snow shelter. And to construct it early, procuring the necessary cloth by harvesting some of the starting clothes. So you wouldn't necessarily need the hacksaw to open any containers. It would be interesting to see if that's a viable strategy (since harvesting the little clothes you start out with might be counterproductive when it comes to losing warmth), and also interesting to contemplate which spot would be ideal to put it. Maybe a spot with rabbits, and to put some snares right in front of the entrance. Could it be possible to harvest the rabbits while being inside the snow shelter? That could help a lot. Especially if you have the hacksaw.

Anyway, it was a relief to see that at some point the idea with the snow shelter came up and you tried it. You are the Captain Kirk of the TLD world, boldly going where no player has gone before and returning alive to talk about it. Really love reading your reports, keep up the good work! :)

 

Thanks, @Hotzn!

My idea about the shelter is to put it at the entrance to the "engine-to-engine" cave that is closer to Crystal Lake. There are many sticks around, a rabbit run, and one can reach Crystal Lake very quickly - there is a convenient rope deploy point nearby. I still cannot get myself over the idea I should tear down whatever little clothes I've got. The problem I see that you will still need to light a match in order to do anything. Collecting sticks? Cattails? Harvesting rabbits? To do get any serious work done, you need fire, because you are freezing within minutes from setting your foot outside. And without (even with!) clothes, even the cave doesn't give you felt temperature above 0°C.

I think it should be possible to skin rabbits from inside the shelter. Another pretty cool idea :) It is possible to start a fire from there, so you can interact with the environment. The hacksaw is a must anyway.

Based on Snowball 29 experience, I think I will try with my next snowball to get crafted clothes as a priority. Invest in skinning a few deer carcasses, even far away from the base, and then in crafting boots or a coat. Then I might be able to survive some nights without fire and use the shelter, hut or cave to actually warm up - not just linger around zero.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Snowball 29 started in Timberwolf Mountain, lived in Timberwolf Mountain, and died in Timberwolf Mountain. He survived for 26 days.

When I started my last fire with the last of my 36 matches, I kept it burning for 79 hours. When the fire died, I died, too. I hadn't left the immediate surroundings of the Hut (Landing Gear, Crystal Lake) since Day 9.

S29.jpg

Obviously firewood wasn't the problem, I was able to get a lot of sticks until the last day. Matches were clearly defined - each night I had to start a fire, once they ran out, I was dead. But food proved to be quite a challenge. I ate all cattails near and far, stole two deer kills from the wolf on the lake (got 4 kg meat from each before the winds always blew my fire out). Snares were a failure. At first I placed two on a slope, not realizing at first that I can't build a fire there. Murphy's Law dictated that they caught 4 rabbits in 3 nights. Then I placed the snares on even ground and caught one rabbit in several nights. After that I moved them to the place described by @Ruruwawa and caught another one in several nights. Not nearly enough, plain and simple.

My clothes were turning to tatters very fast, I scrapped my socks, jeans and cotton toque before dying. The wool toque I found seemed to hold fine. This brought me to the idea that if I could make crafted clothes early in the game, I might be able to survive some days without spending matches. In general, the whole idea of surviving in TWM boils down to saving matches rather than using 1-2 per day...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Scyzara said:

It is, cargo containers always have two separate doors with different kinds of loot no matter the mode. Only the amount of loot is considerably lower on Interloper (e.g. 2x herbal tea and 1x coffee instead of 10x herbal tea and 5 coffees on voyageur). ;)

There also are fewer containers overall on Interloper. There's one at the Wing, one at the Engine, one at Deer Clearing and four in the tail section. That's all I could find. I'm not sure about Eric's Falls, I only passed through in thick fog and had more pressing matters to worry about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

And without (even with!) clothes, even the cave doesn't give you felt temperature above 0°C.

So... did you know if you go a bit further into the cave, there's a jump in temp?  On stalker it's +6C, dunno about interloper.   It might be a bit dark back there, but no worse than navigating the dam in the dark.

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Do you have a screenshot, just for me to make sure I'm placing them correctly?

Eep, no.   I'll see if I can walk one of my sandbox characters over to that part of the world for a screenie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

There also are fewer containers overall on Interloper. There's one at the Wing, one at the Engine, one at Deer Clearing and four in the tail section. That's all I could find. I'm not sure about Eric's Falls, I only passed through in thick fog and had more pressing matters to worry about.

Yeah, sure. But the individual containers themselves are similar (two doors, two loottables) on all modes. Although I believe that some cargo boxes contain a different kind of loot on Interloper than on the other modes. The container in Echo Ravine e.g. contains (or at least contained) coffee and tea whereas on Interloper I only found clothes there so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Do you have a screenshot, just for me to make sure I'm placing them correctly?

I put these in a spoiler tag because it's just big screenshots you'll look at once. Keeping the thread tidy!

From the hut, walk back toward PV, through the broken tree "arch".

20170111084714_1.jpg

Just the other side of the arch, there's a big dip (or "bowl") with four trees in the middle.

20170111084725_1.jpg

I put my traps around the middle tree.

20170111084803_1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, mystifeid said:

Nope, you got all of them. Would be nice to see you open both sides next time though!

That's good to know. Thanks!

1 hour ago, Ruruwawa said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I put these in a spoiler tag because it's just big screenshots you'll look at once. Keeping the thread tidy!

From the hut, walk back toward PV, through the broken tree "arch".

20170111084714_1.jpg

Just the other side of the arch, there's a big dip (or "bowl") with four trees in the middle.

20170111084725_1.jpg

I put my traps around the middle tree.

20170111084803_1.jpg

 

 

Thank you for the extra effort! That's the place I chose, too. I guess I just wasn't lucky.

18 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

So... did you know if you go a bit further into the cave, there's a jump in temp?  On stalker it's +6C, dunno about interloper.   It might be a bit dark back there, but no worse than navigating the dam in the dark.

I mean one of the big caves with a loading screen. There are two of them in TWM. They have constant air temperature about -5°C or so, like in buildings (this is why I also worried about cabin fever). With just basic clothes on Interloper, you usually have felt temperature less than 0°C inside.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With the help of my parked "1000-day" sandbox character, who has just about everything in storage in the Dam, I quickly checked my options as regards crafted clothes. First thing I noticed: Resolute Outfitter has brutally slashed the warmth and windproofing bonuses:

  • Rabbitskin mitts: from 4/2 to 2/2
  • Deerskin boots: from 4/3 to 2.5/2
  • Deerskin pants: from 3/3 to 2/2
  • Wolfskin coat: from 7/5 to 3/2

How is this compensated for - is the player now expected to wear multiple layers, such as two layers of deerskin pants?

As for my options, with only one sewing kit available I can craft 1 pair of mitts together with 1 pair of deerskin boots or 1 pair of deerskin pants. The boots offer slightly better bonus and need fewer pelts, so they seem to be the preferred option. I could craft more with the fishing tackle but that takes more time. Wolfskin coat is not an option, forever, because I have no knife.

Deer skins and guts cure 5 days, rabbit pelts are slightly faster (4 days? Need to check). Let's say I can get 3 deer skins and 6 guts by Day 3. Then, during the curing process, I could make my trip to the Summit. On Day 8 I will be able to start snaring rabbits with 2 snares and crafting deerskin boots with 2 skins and 4 guts. By Day 12 I can have those boots and maybe by Day 16 the mitts as well, for a total temperature bonus of perhaps +8°C. Then I could leave the crafting table and move to the snow shelter.

24-match snowballs are dead by Day 16, so this method is probably only viable with the hacksaw and a successful trip to the summit, anyway.

Enough theorizing. Let snowballs roll.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I mean one of the big caves with a loading screen.

I also mean the loading screen caves, like your engine-to-engine cave.  Do a little exploring, and you'll find one or two warmer areas a bit further in to the cave..  

The temperature change typically occurs where there's a seam in the floor.  The seam shown below is in the deer clearing-to-summit cave, coming from the summit side.  It's +6C warmer on the far side of this seam, which is farther into the middle of the cave.  That's on Voyageur; dunno what the bonus is on Loper.

20170111142534_1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

As for my options, with only one sewing kit available

You can craft the "sewing kit required" clothing with a fishing tackle instead.  When a sewing kit is in your inventory, it will default to that.  But if all you have in your inventory is fishing tackle, that's what will show up in the crafting interface (and be used).  Caution: it's a lot slower than the sewing kit.

Hatchet can substitute for knife for crafting in the same way.  Not that that helps a TWM-only interloper. ;-p

As for how to stay warm, yeah, you wear more clothing, often in multiple layers.  Usually you have to loot a lot of world to get a full set of clothing in interloper.  For the TWM-only interloper you may indeed find yourself wearing a second pair of deer pants for the extra +2C.   And even that may not be enough to stay warm in most interloper weather.  That's why being able to dart into someplace warm for an hour can be a big savings for time, calories and condition.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Deer skins and guts cure 5 days, rabbit pelts are slightly faster (4 days? Need to check). Let's say I can get 3 deer skins and 6 guts by Day 3. Then, during the curing process, I could make my trip to the Summit

There are also some cured skins in one of the containers in the tail section (the one that has medical supplies).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Drifter Man I thought I'd start a TWM interloper to check cave temps, but I have a request.  Can you spoiler the locations of the three possible tools for me, please?  I've found the magnifying glass before in the hut, but my current playthrough doesn't have a magnifier, nor a hacksaw or hammer in the hut or the fishing hut.  Where else should I look?

thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

I also mean the loading screen caves, like your engine-to-engine cave.  Do a little exploring, and you'll find one or two warmer areas a bit further in to the cave..  

The temperature change typically occurs where there's a seam in the floor.  The seam shown below is in the deer clearing-to-summit cave, coming from the summit side.  It's +6C warmer on the far side of this seam, which is farther into the middle of the cave.  That's on Voyageur; dunno what the bonus is on Loper.

I noticed, too, that there are regions with different temperatures, but the differences were in the order of 1-2°C. But I haven't checked the other cave under the summit thoroughly enough.

23 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

You can craft the "sewing kit required" clothing with a fishing tackle instead.  When a sewing kit is in your inventory, it will default to that.  But if all you have in your inventory is fishing tackle, that's what will show up in the crafting interface (and be used).  Caution: it's a lot slower than the sewing kit.

Right - it takes 20 hours instead of 12.5 to make one of the deerskin items, and I will spend two fishing tackles in the process. But it can be worthwhile, if I can get the required material. Snowball 30 has the hacksaw but so far it has been very difficult task just to get two deer hides and four guts. Massive investment of time, firewood, matches and condition.

23 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

For the TWM-only interloper you may indeed find yourself wearing a second pair of deer pants for the extra +2C.

Thanks - that explains a lot. If I find myself to wear one pair on TWM-Interloper, it will already be quite a feat :)

18 hours ago, Ruruwawa said:

 

@Drifter Man I thought I'd start a TWM interloper to check cave temps, but I have a request.  Can you spoiler the locations of the three possible tools for me, please?  I've found the magnifying glass before in the hut, but my current playthrough doesn't have a magnifier, nor a hacksaw or hammer in the hut or the fishing hut.  Where else should I look?

That's strange. I've never had such setup. I'm not sure how much I can help, but this is what I've found so far:

Hacksaw: On or under the workbench in the Mountaineer's Hut

Hammer: Under the workbench or inside the fishing hut under the stove (did you look properly?); another (?) in the tail section on the summit

Mag lens: Under the bed in the Mountaineer's Hut and possibly lying next to one of the corpses; once I've found one in the cave below the summit, next to the body lying on the snow about halfway through the cave - but in 3-4 other cases there wasn't one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, sarudak said:

Just FYI you can break down crates in the tail and get stuff too. One of them might help with your fire starting situation. :)

Only the single crates give anything and not all of them. I have never gotten anything from the stacked crates.

Thanks - I'd never think about that myself because I once broke down every-single-crate in the Dam only to find nothing except a pile of reclaimed wood. Is there a good place near the tail section to start a fire? Breaking down crates takes time, but if I manage to get to the summit in a better shape than last time, I might give it a try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.