Cabin fever duration doesn't quite feel realistic, and still needs some tuning. Here's why.


pi972

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Tired of spending many consecutive days shut inside the PV farmstead, I decided to move to Timberwolf Mountain. Packed my things up, waited for the (rare) clear day, and left. Just before I left, I did notice a pop-up saying I had acquired a 20% risk of cabin fever... Oh well, surely it won't affect me anymore since I'm just about to go on a major trek.

Hours later, I arrive at the draft dodger's cabin and am forced to spend the night due to blizzards. That's fine, slept nearly the whole time. So I keep going, eventually reach the bunker just below the rope to TM, sleep there for a bit in order to regain my strength, and finally climb the rope and arrive at TM. After a hard trek, I arrive at the mountaineer's hut, where I can rela- YOU HAVE ACQUIRED CABIN FEVER

Huh. Okay. I feel like that was quite the gruesome trip and my character is probably just tired and glad to be home, but she did indeed spend some time in the cabin and bunker, so maybe she's still feeling a bit stressed and claustrophobic. Ah well... Since I can't stay home, I decide to explore the mountain. I go up the river torwards the arch, get attacked by 2 wolves, climb some steep hills, then a blizzard strands me near the plane engine. I sleep for a couple hours behind it, but then the wind changes direction and I decide to press on, freezing to death but determined to reach shelter. Eventually I get attacked by another wolf, go down a rope, get attacked by TWO MORE WOLVES, use a stim to narrowly avoid death, and limp home in the middle of the night at 20% condition or so. Finally I reach my lovely hut, collapse on the bed and- YOU CANNOT SLEEP INDOORS FOR 5 MORE HOURS DUE TO CABIN FEVER

What I'm trying to say is that the mechanic still needs some tuning. Surely, after all that, my survivor would be willing to open an exception, after all she is near death and impossibly tired from sprinting around all day. Such gamey limitations only serve to break your immersion and take you out of the game, like not being able to sleep without a bedroll, or losing 80% of your blood due to a bear mauling and not being able to sleep because you're not tired.

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3 hours ago, pi972 said:

or losing 80% of your blood due to a bear mauling and not being able to sleep because you're not tired.

Yeah, you'd think losing 80% of their blood would be enough to make anyone tired.. heck, donating 0.5 litre of blood does it for me.

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6 hours ago, pi972 said:

...or losing 80% of your blood due to a bear mauling and not being able to sleep because you're not tired...

I completely agree! I have no doubt that I would feel drained... :)

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I agree cabin fever needs some tuning. If one is actively cooking, repairing gear, or reading books and such, that time should not be included in the "cabin fever countdown timer." 

It should only take effect if you spend too many days passing time doing nothing (the "solitaire" selection from the radial menu) indoors... maybe 8+ hours.

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On 5/24/2017 at 11:37 AM, JAFO said:

Yeah, you'd think losing 80% of their blood would be enough to make anyone tired.. heck, donating 0.5 litre of blood does it for me.

Technically losing 80% of blood would make anyone dead, but ok.

Cabin Fever is rather absurd feature at this point, that serves no practical purpose but to irritate players. It simply makes no sense that player "gets tired" of being in warm comfortable home. After few days or in general. Cabin Fever equals becoming suicidal, the way its implemented at this point.

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Hinterland has shown some resistante to the concept of a custom difficulty that the player can customize as they like, so I won't insist on that. I just want cabin fever to be readjusted. Doesn't need to be removed, not at all! But it has to feel realistic. As it stands, it's just a half-assed feature that kills your immersion.

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4 hours ago, pi972 said:

Hinterland has shown some resistante to the concept of a custom difficulty that the player can customize as they like, so I won't insist on that. I just want cabin fever to be readjusted. Doesn't need to be removed, not at all! But it has to feel realistic. As it stands, it's just a half-assed feature that kills your immersion.

Agreed

The gameplay mechanism forcing us NOT to stay forever inside adds some challenge, and I have come to like it

However, cabin fever as it is now is (to say the least) not immersive (I think of much worse words :p) and for a game like TLD based upon ambiance, this is a major weakness

Cabin Fever should not prevent to sleep inside, but it could give maluses to skills (increasing with time) and/or prevent to gain xp

This should force players to prevent / cure cabin fever, but not in a suicidal way

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11 hours ago, Dirmagnos said:

Technically losing 80% of blood would make anyone dead, but ok.

Hey.. I was just rolling with the obvious exaggeration @pi972 made.

Heck, I can be as pedantic as anyone.. but even I could see it was intended merely to emphasise a point.

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