v388 Interloper feedback

[Hotzn]

I might be a little late with commenting on v388 and Interloper, but I've only recently had time to play a little. So here...

Starting in PLeasant Valley, I plundered the Farmstead, the Outbuildings and Rural Crossroads, then found the entrance to the mine transitioning to Coastal Highway. Crossing the mine was a little adventure, as my only lightsource was a brand I took from a fire I had made at the entrance. I soon realized I couldn's light another fire deeper inside the mine, so the brand going out would likely have been my doom. Luckily, I found a corpse in a side passage with a torch next to him. That item was well placed indeed.

Coming out on the other side, I made my way into Coastal Highway and set up my base on Jackrabbit Island - a place I have come to like in previous Stalker runs when Interloper didn't exist. In the beginning it was a bit tough to get my hands on enough food, but after getting some guts from ravaged deer carcasses and making snares for use on Jackrabbit Island, things eased up a bit.

I then discovered a couple of things I liked. Firstly, the stick respawn rate is forcing me to move around the map. I need sticks to make fires quite often (I have the magnifying glass) and Jackrabbit Island alone does not provide them in adequate numbers. So I have established a route from there over the little islands leading to Fishing Village. I will stop there overnight, sometimes crafting things at the workbench. The next day, I will continue along the road to Lopg Sort, also collecting sticks everywhere on the way. From there, I may either visit Coastal Townsite (if I have enough food with me) or return to Jackrabbit Island. When I am back home, I am loaded with sticks and can use them directly to make a fire next to the rabbits caught in my snares.

It was pivotal in this run to find a hacksaw and a magnifying glass early on. This made it unnecessary to travel to some forge. I may do this at some point in time, but currently I neither miss the knife nor the hatchet too much. Neither the bow. Haven't even found a Maple sapling yet.

It seems to me that on some days wolves will spawn in certain places, on other days deer. Leaving the cabin on Jackrabbit's through the door facing the coast, I sometimes see a wolf in the little baylike area down to my left. On other days, I may see a deer straight ahead. So far, they have never been there at the same time, so no easy chasing one into the other. I like that.

I like the new clothing  system very much. It's interesting to experiment, switching outside layers inside and seeing how the values for water resistance etc. change. I have only scratched the surface here, so I can't fully comment. But in principle it's a great addition. The artwork is also nice, and the new clothing items are welcome. It also seems to me that the crafted clothes are not as overpowered as before. They still seem to have their advantages, but it appears it is not a no-brainer anymore to wear them. Nice.

The campfires are reusable now. I don't know whether this has been introduced with the last update or before (didn't play much lately), but I like it. What I don't like is that the burnt-out campfires are now permanent again, littering the landscape over time. The "sliding rabbits" have also returned, unfortunately, and combined with the permanent campfires they sometimes lead to a situation where I can't harvest them - because they have slid "under" a burnt-out campfire and I can't click on them anymore. I would advocate for burnt-out campfires to disappear after a couple of days. And for dead rabbits to remain in the place where they died.

It seems I can heal faster in my sleep if I drink a cup of herbal tea before going to bed. This may be an old feature, but I've only just discovered it. I like it.

I also like the temperature boost a piece of coal gives to a fire. That has been a life-saver at times, and I always carry one lump of coal with me in case I get caught by a blizzard somewhere and need a really hot fire.

At times I seem to find a lot of crow feathers in places over which crows are circling. Probably a bug.

When I pick up sticks on Jackrabbit Island, my girl sometimes remarks, "I hope nobody needs this anymore". While this may make sense when picking up a can opener in an abandoned house, it seems a little off for a stick lying around in the wilderness.

[palbi]

2 hours ago, Hotzn said:

after getting some guts from ravaged deer carcasses

I would very kindly know, how did you make it without a knife? No tools can be found in this mode (except of hammer), and bare handed you are not allowed to get meat/guts/fur out of frozen carcasses.

I also made several runs in this mode (the longest success was 7 days) and without very first forging a knife (and occasionally a hatchet) you're doomed to die, because canned food to find is nearly impossible.

I am an old gamer, encountered games where the AI was badly cheating against the player. I sometimes imagined to make a burlesque-game, where the player has simply no chance to win (yeah, I know casinos have made it already...). So, Interloper is just like these, except of the fact, that they told it to be very (very very) unforgiving, so no complain about it. But it's really very hard, the mentioned 7 days succes I made with lots of Alt+F4, when the situation got tough...

[Karl Grylls]

21 minutes ago, palbi said:

I would very kindly know, how did you make it without a knife? No tools can be found in this mode (except of hammer), and bare handed you are not allowed to get meat/guts/fur out of frozen carcasses.

I guess he made a campfire near to the carcasses until he can get the guts with bare hands

[Ohbal]

That's probably one of the most useful and less known gameplay features of TLD: unfreezing carcasses with fire  

[ElvisHunter]

17 hours ago, palbi said:

and without very first forging a knife (and occasionally a hatchet) you're doomed to die, because canned food to find is nearly impossible.

There are enough cattails in the game to keep you alive for quite some time. Eventually having a knife is nice, but not having it doesn't doom you to die.

[palbi]

4 hours ago, ElvisHunter said:

There are enough cattails in the game to keep you alive for quite some time. Eventually having a knife is nice, but not having it doesn't doom you to die.

Well, might be right, but by the time I could collect a bunch of them, I got frozen. Guess, it's a matter of luck too.

[palbi]

8 hours ago, Ohbal said:

That's probably one of the most useful and less known gameplay features of TLD: unfreezing carcasses with fire  

I really didn't know about it. Thx!

[palbi]

8 hours ago, Ohbal said:

That's probably one of the most useful and less known gameplay features of TLD: unfreezing carcasses with fire  

Well, since learning is essential, here in the game too, do you have any hint how to use the flares/torches to scare the carnivores away? (I don't want to kill them at all cost...)

[Pillock]

16 minutes ago, palbi said:

Well, since learning is essential, here in the game too, do you have any hint how to use the flares/torches to scare the carnivores away? (I don't want to kill them at all cost...)

Flares and torches aren't fool proof. You can right-click to brandish them (or burning brands) at an approaching wolf: sometimes the wolf will run away and sometimes it won't. Flares tend to be more reliable though, followed by torches, and then brands last.

I find they are best used to delay the wolf from attacking so that you have time to make your escape, rather than to allow you to stand your ground and scare it off.

Lighting a campfire will always work, however: wolves never come within a certain distance of them, whether you have finished igniting them or not. If it isn't too windy to do so, and you have plenty of matches, lighting the campfire is far and away the best method of staying safe from wolves.

(Bears are a different matter. Just don't go near them. If they start to charge, your only hope is either to flee somewhere he can't get to, or to shoot him with a flare gun or rifle. ) 

[Hotzn]

On 1.1.2017 at 10:39 PM, palbi said:

I would very kindly know, how did you make it without a knife? No tools can be found in this mode (except of hammer), and bare handed you are not allowed to get meat/guts/fur out of frozen carcasses.

I also made several runs in this mode (the longest success was 7 days) and without very first forging a knife (and occasionally a hatchet) you're doomed to die, because canned food to find is nearly impossible.

I am an old gamer, encountered games where the AI was badly cheating against the player. I sometimes imagined to make a burlesque-game, where the player has simply no chance to win (yeah, I know casinos have made it already...). So, Interloper is just like these, except of the fact, that they told it to be very (very very) unforgiving, so no complain about it. But it's really very hard, the mentioned 7 days succes I made with lots of Alt+F4, when the situation got tough...

One possibility is unfreezing the carcass by lighting a fire next to it, as has been mentioned. When the carcass has unfrozen down to 50% or less, it can be harvested by hand. The other possibility is, well, the hacksaw. Frozen carcasses can be harvested with the hacksaw. This is a great advantage, as you can begin harvesting as soon as your fire is warm enough to protect you from freezing. So you don't lose time waiting for the carcass to unfreeze. Granted, you could make use of that time making drinking water on the fire, but you run a risk that the weather turns bad and kills your fire. For that very reason, it is always advisable to start the fire when the weather is not just turning bad. Ideally, start the fire when the sun starts to come through, even if you have the hacksaw.

Another tip: Make sure to bring enough sticks to the carcass, so you can harvest it fully and don't have to return. One stick gives the fire +1°C, so if you have to compensate for a "felt like" temperature of -20°C, you need al least 21 sticks. The more the better. I also have made it a habit to harvest the meat first and cook it immediately. Raw meat attracts wolves over large distances on Interloper, so you don't want to have the wind snuff out your fire when you have just harvested the meat. And check for each item how to harvest it best - meat is harvested a lot faster with the hacksaw, so use that. But if a deer carcass is unfrozen, I think the hide is harvested faster by hand (not sure now, check it).

[Hotzn]

11 hours ago, Ohbal said:

That's probably one of the most useful and less known gameplay features of TLD: unfreezing carcasses with fire  

Yes. Some of us older players know this mechanism back from times when a hunting knife was a rare and precious resource. 

[Hotzn]

3 hours ago, palbi said:

Well, since learning is essential, here in the game too, do you have any hint how to use the flares/torches to scare the carnivores away? (I don't want to kill them at all cost...)

Better than waving flares around is to avoid confrontations altogether. When the wind is calm, stop occasionally and listen - if there is an animal nearby, you can hear it. From the sound it makes you can even tell which animal it is. Keep some stamina in reserve, so you are able to do some running in case of emergency. If a wolf spots you and gives chase, try to bring some kind of obstacle between it and yourself. This will slow the wolf down. For example, turn around a boulder, then run quickly to the next obstacle and get behind it. I have found this to be more reliable than using flares or some such. Another tip: When leaving a building - especially the Quonset Gas Station - don't just run away from the building, exposing yourself to any wolf nearby and maybe getting your way back cut off. Look around carefully first, peek around the corners of the building, and if a wolf lurks around, get back inside, wait a little and try again. And: Never ever carry raw meat around with you.

[mystifeid]

Another tip: chase deer so that they are very close to a protected cooking area before you kill them - that way you can alternate harvesting and cooking/warming up and not have your fire blown out by the wind. When it is very cold, a warm drink will allow you to harvest twice as much. Even better if you can chase another deer back to the same spot before you start to harvest.

[palbi]

11 hours ago, Hotzn said:

When leaving a building - especially the Quonset Gas Station - don't just run away from the building, exposing yourself to any wolf nearby and maybe getting your way back cut off. Look around carefully first, peek around the corners of the building, and if a wolf lurks around, get back inside, wait a little and try again.

I always do so. 

Thanks for all the advices!

(One strange experience was, when a wolf killed a rabbit right before my eyes, but as soon as it noticed me, left the rabbit behind and immediately attacked me. I don't think it's lifelike, will call the developers' attention to this.)

[cekivi]

On 2017-01-02 at 3:43 PM, palbi said:

Well, since learning is essential, here in the game too, do you have any hint how to use the flares/torches to scare the carnivores away? (I don't want to kill them at all cost...)

Another useful tip is wolves generally won't charge if you're facing them and far enough away. A tactic that often works for me is to back away slowly until I can break line of sight with the wolf (preferably a hill) and then sprint beyond their detection range before the wolf catches up.

However, I don't know if this tactic works on Interloper as I haven't played it much and generally try to avoid getting detected in the first place