Faithful Cartographer Interloper run II


Hotzn

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Hotzn, look into the mirror! Did you do this? Did you fall prey to a bear for not listening before camping? Like a noob? Did you really do this? What are they going to think - Scyzara, toebar, selfless and the rest? Bad Hotzn! Bad! OK... Interloper, play the girl, no badges...

Day 1:

I spawn... somewhere. It's daytime, and,of course, cold. I may search around in the menus for more information, but it feels clunky... I have a feeling the game has become more cumbersome, but can't exactly put my finger on it. I liked to have numbers, it just gave me a better impression of how cold exactly it is. Anyway, maybe I just have to get used to it.

I run along with the wind and come upon three cars and two dead bodies. What happened here, traffic accident? I have actually never been here, but I know where this place is - in Pleasant Valley. I search everything, finding a granola bar in one of the cars. Where to go from here? The fallen tree is pointing like a fateful finger, and I decide to head in that direction. Indeed it takes me to the rope leading up to Timberwolf Mountain. Should I go there? I have once found my demise doing this, I think it was my very first Interloper run when Interloper was brand new. Still, there are likely matches to be had in the Mountaineer's Hut, and matches are somewhat important here. So yes, after plundering the bunker (nothing much) I make my way up the rope.

Gathering sticks on the way (and freezing mightily), I successfully reach the hut, finding a box of 12 wooden matches (yay!), a sewing kit, a ski jacket, a book and another granola bar. I make a big fire and warm up, then - no wolves on the lake, only deer and rabbits - gather cat tails and loot the fishing hut (hammer, scarf, Canadian toque and book on fishing - excellent). Back to warming up in the Mountaineer's Hut and feeding the fire. It is now dark and snowing outside, so I will have to spend the night here. Dismantling the crates, I have enough wood to keep the fire going until morning. I even manage to sleep and make plenty of water.

 

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Day 2:

The morning is spent gathering more cat tails on the lake. One last warming up at the fireside, and in the early afternoon I leave again for Pleasant Valley. I reach the bunker at the transition in the late afternoon, and since I am very tired I eat granola bars and cat tails, drink to my satisfaction and go to bed.

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Day 3:

Waking up somewhere a little more than halfway through the night, I find myself fully rested and healed back to... TAB... no... press F... ah, there it is, 71% condition. It's pitch black down here inside the bunker. Let's go through the equipment... 31 cat tail stalks at 150 cal each, plus a packet of beef jerkies. Enough food for now. Also enough water - roughly 4 liters. Firemaking: 11 wooden matches, 19 sticks, 33 cat tail heads for tinder. That's OK, will need more matches soon. Should have pulled torches from the fire in the Mountaineers Hut to save matches, but I am not sure I want to exploit the torch thing. I'm really wondering why they went back to torch-pulling, find it hard to understand, the brand had solved the torch exploit so well. Anyway... tools - I have the hammer and sewing kit, nothing else. More tools would be nice, especially the hacksaw. My current clothing gives +5°C warmth and +2°C windproof bonus. Could be improved, but it's not my priority now. I have a piece of cloth and no bandages. Can I harvest it in the dark? Yes, I can. I contemplate the bandages in my inventory and see I can check a box there, saying "add to radial". I check and unckeck the box, but cannot see any difference in the radial (bandages appear in the medical subsection of the radial anyway) so leave it unchecked. Hotzn, make a plan!

I want to head out for the road, then strike right to the rural crossroads and from there to the Outbuildings (red barn), Farmstead and, ultimately, Radio Control Hut. I shall be more careful with bears this time, obviously. And I will not start if the weather is nasty or the wind is blowing in my face. I can easily spend another night here in the bunker, so not to worry.

I also need to drop some things I gathered. Especially the stones are heavy. I keep three of them. And the cattail heads seem excessive. I keep 10 of them. Then it's waiting time...

At some point in the late morning, I set out. Hit the trail and head left to the road. Soo, all too soo, I start freezing. Decide to make a fire huddled next to a big boulder (in case wind should come up, maybe I'm lucky with the direction). TAB doesn't bring up the temperature, and I should really know it to see whether my sticks (collected some more on the way here) suffice to stop me from freezing. Maybe I acn find it in some sub-menu, what the hell, I just start the fire. Second attempt works, aaand... all my sticks are not enough. There are no more sticks nearby, but some branches, so I eat more freezing damage while dismantling one of them. Three more sticks on the fire, aaand... it's enough, one little arrow pointing upwards. Phew. But lo and behold - the sky has darkened, wind is picking up, and the fire is on the wrong side of the boulder. Brilliant. I huddle next to my little fire, waiting to warm up. Check, check... fire has 9 minutes left, so the wind is blowing it out. And then a blizzard starts. No protection to be had here, so off I stumble into the raging snow.

Following the trail, I hit the road, turning right. After what seems like an eternity, I reach Rural Crossroads. Entering the first building to the right, I have frozen down to 35%, my clothes are only giving me +4°C (the damage blizzards do to to clothes seems to have been toned down - not sure if I like that change, though it could have saved my life this time). But luckily, luckily, the building is quite warm inside, a mere -1°C, so I feel like +3°C and can warm up while dismantling some crates for more firewood.

The house on the other side of the street has a bed, so I can stay here overnight (which I plan to do). I notice new carpets and bedsheets, but boy...are these colours psychedelic! Do you guys at Hinterland have that kind of carpets and bedsheets at home? Also the toaster is now... green. Seems a bit weird. Anyway, the house provides good loot (wool sweater, wool socks, granola & candy bar, tomato soup and sardines). I also harvest a curtain, then exit and return inside to see if the "loot bug" selfless has described still exists...

Hmmm... I find a can of dog food in the dark corner next to the fridge, to the right... but I'm not sure if that wasn't there before. Might have overlooked it. Apart from that, nothing.

I do some eating, clothes repairing and curtain harvesting, check my clothes (jeans and sneakers are about 50% wet), then cross the bridge and check the store and the other little building there. Almost pitch black inside, I am practically unable to see (although some daytime remains - indoor lighting does not seem right). Also, someone put a window texture on the fridge door - so that's intransparent and almost blindingly bright in the dark building. I find a box of wooden matches nevertheless, waste one for further search but then decide to leave and cross the bridge again. I enter the cabin with the bed, do some further clothes repairing (gotta love that Canadian toque - gives me +3°C when fully repaired) until all my clothes give me +7°C. Not bad for day 3. Then I eat and drink and go to bed for 9 hours (after I have placed my wet clothes on the floor).

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Day 4:

I awake in the darkness, healed back to 67%. Outside, a blizzard is blowing. I manage to find my jeans and sneakers in the dark and realize they have dried over night. Good, I put them back on. So, what's the plan for today? Hit the road and venture over to the Outbuildings, I guess. Have to wait out the blizzard though, so I eat some cattails and rest. The blizzard keeps going, so when the light comes up I start harvesting more curtains and repairing more clothes. In the early afternoon, the storm dies down, and I set out...

I try looting the store and the adjacent building again, but am turned off by the darkness inside. I have to continuously squint my eyes while searching, this feels unnatural in mid-afternoon. I have the feeling the game has made a step backwards here - we've had these discussions about interiors being too dark, then it was fixed. Now it's back. We've had the discussions about torch-pulling and that was solved by the brand. Now torch-pulling is back. Why, oh, why? The game is making a step backwards for every step forwards with the Faithful Cartographer update. That's my feeling at least.

Freezing, I reach the red barn. It's late afternoon, but again - darkness everywhere, can't see a thing apart from right where the windows are. I light a fire in the barrel to pull torches, so I can see something. Then search the barn and... bingo! Hacksaw under the metal table downstairs! Upstairs, I also find a candy bar and an emergency stim. The stim is a powerful item, but I never really liked it very much being in the game. Probably because there are so many other items I would so have loved to see instead (candles... sigh). Anyway, I take it along, this is about survival after all. Further search reveals, interestingly, a lump of coal (upstairs, in the red toolbox). I like that find - it does not seem out of place in the barn, and I can really use it. Perfect.

Then I make another interesting discovery: I can actually fall through the loose floorboards upstairs! Didn't think that was possible. I like this very much, and I am almost disappointed that I am landing on a haystackand don't sustain any damage. The game is missing out on an opportunity here - it is obvious that the floorboards are loose, and those who tread unwary should be punished with a sprained wrist or ankle at least.

At long last, I do pull three reserve torches from the barrel for later, snuggle into the pickup truck and go to sleep for 9 hours...

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Day 5:

Again, I awake in the darkness, healed back to 89%. Maybe 3 or 4 hours until daylight. Check your things, Hotzn... 2 litres of water left, but that's no problem - as long as there is fire, there will be water. 11 cattails is all the food. Now this will become an issue soon. I may find the occasional candy bar at the Farmstead and Radio Control Hut, but then I either need to move on through one of the mines or start looking for game. The plan, under any circumstances, is to head out to the Farmstead next.

I sleep and rest some more and go into starving mode. The little sun icon says the sun is up, but it's dark inside the barn. I peek outside... It's snowing heavily, but the wind has subsided. There is a bear about behind the barn, and off towards the Farmstead, wolves. I circle around all wildlife sucessfully and reach the Farmstead with only a little freezing. It's daytime, but very dark inside. Searching the house is a chore. I find a can opener, a prybar, some books, a can of Pinnacle Peaches and some antibiotics. In the basement a box of wooden matches. Lighting a fire (with a torch, yes) in the fireplace, I pull a torch and search the house and basement again. Seems I didn't overlook too much. I make some more water, do a little optimisation of equipment, and then it's off to bed. The plan for tomorrow: Make it up Signal Hill to Radio Control Hut.

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Time for a little feedback: I still love the game, but find the Faithful Cartographer Update a bit disappointing so far. Maybe it's too early to say so, since I have not yet tried the two main additions - stoning rabbits and drawing maps. At least I think those are the main additions. The UI is just different, I cannot see any improvement. It seems that now we have to often keep a button pressed to perform an action, whereas before a single click was enough. Honestly - the single click was better. So all in all, the game has rather moved sideways than forwards. At least some of the changes are not understandable to me.

I will try stoning rabbits soon. Concerning the map, I do not know yet whether I will derive pleasure from doing that. I know the maps quite well, so don't need a drawn map.

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2 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Time for a little feedback: I still love the game, but find the Faithful Cartographer Update a bit disappointing so far. Maybe it's too early to say so, since I have not yet tried the two main additions - stoning rabbits and drawing maps. At least I think those are the main additions. The UI is just different, I cannot see any improvement. It seems that now we have to often keep a button pressed to perform an action, whereas before a single click was enough. Honestly - the single click was better. So all in all, the game has rather moved sideways than forwards. At least some of the changes are not understandable to me.

I hear ya - and don't be afraid to switch the CTS option on in the settings - then no more holding. ;)

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3 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Day 5:

Again, I awake in the darkness, healed back to 89%. Maybe 3 or 4 hours until daylight. Check your things, Hotzn... 2 litres of water left, but that's no problem - as long as there is fire, there will be water. 11 cattails is all the food. Now this will become an issue soon. I may find the occasional candy bar at the Farmstead and Radio Control Hut, but then I either need to move on through one of the mines or start looking for game. The plan, under any circumstances, is to head out to the Farmstead next.

I sleep and rest some more and go into starving mode. The little sun icon says the sun is up, but it's dark inside the barn. I peek outside... It's snowing heavily, but the wind has subsided. There is a bear about behind the barn, and off towards the Farmstead, wolves. I circle around all wildlife sucessfully and reach the Farmstead with only a little freezing. It's daytime, but very dark inside. Searching the house is a chore. I find a can opener, a prybar, some books, a can of Pinnacle Peaches and some antibiotics. In the basement a box of wooden matches. Lighting a fire (with a torch, yes) in the fireplace, I pull a torch and search the house and basement again. Seems I didn't overlook too much. I make some more water, do a little optimisation of equipment, and then it's off to bed. The plan for tomorrow: Make it up Signal Hill to Radio Control Hut.

Thank you so much for sharing your story!  Keep it coming - I learn something new every time you post! :)

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I've been 'cheating' by turning up the brightness level in the graphics settings way beyond the recommendation. It makes the exploring of building interiors a lot more satisfying.

Agree with you about the torches. It's a real shame to have lost brands.

Enjoying having a good story to follow here again. Thanks for posting it! 

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Day 6:

I wake up... somewhere before dawn? Little moon icon is still up, but the windows are shining yellow-ish in the otherwise dark house. Back to 96% condition, but hardly any food left (8 cattails and one soda can). If I travel up signal hill, I will either freeze a lot or I must make a fire on the way. However, a fire will require quite a lot of firewood to actually warm me up. And I will lose time making the fire and warming up, and this time loss could permit a blizzard to set in. Hmmm...

I seem to have gotten thirsty, and my girl says, "I'd eat snow if hypothermia wouldn't kill me". I don't remember having heard this audio cue before, is it new? Nice explanation for players why they can't eat snow... if they care to listen.

I want to break down a chair in the bedroom, but it says "requires light to break down". Interestingly, I can see pretty well in the light shining through the window. Hard to understand this, unless there is something unintendedly wrong with the indoor lighting.

Going downstairs, I decide to try and make some old man's beard bandages. Don't find the option to craft them. Have they been returned to the workbench? Or do you apply lichen and bandage separately now? Hmmm...

Going outside into the closed porch, I see it's darker outside than it should be judging from the lighting inside. So yeah... not synchronized. There is a bear in front of the porch by the way. So back inside and wait... I pass 2 hours aaand - magic! - it's dark again inside! Another recurring bug, we had this some versions ago iirc.

I break apart a cabinet door lying around, finding out that it is now possible. This is probably because the little sun icon has crept over the "horizon". Then I venture out to the car in front of the farmstead (bear has gone over to the wolves). I find - fittingly, I like it - a pair of driving gloves on the back seat. Returning to the Farmstead, I am already freezing. Wow, this is quick! Better make fire on the way up to signal hill after all... so I break up a table and around noon leave the house. I walk through the nearest orchard towards the road, because there are quite a lot of wolves on the other side of the trail. When I approach the road, I see another wolf lurking around on the other side (towards the bear cave). I cut across the trail and run, hoping to avoid attention, cross the fence through a gap and walk up the little slope at the foot of the cliff. Here, I make a fire to warm up. It's a felt -11°C, so I don't even need too much wood. A little experimentation shows that reclaimed wood - at 0.25 kg apiece - adds +3°C to the fire, while a stick at 0.15 apiece adds +1.0°C. So reclaimed wood carries a little more energy per weight. Shall keep that in mind.

Fully warmed up, I pull three torches from the fire, leaving the third one burning. It doesn't help me much, because as soon as I have left my little camp, the wind picks up and blows the torch out. I make it to the Radio Control Hut without incidents but a sprained wrist (which I can sleep off there). Now let's see... ah! A pair of combat boots in one of the lockers next to the bunk bed. Cool, I haven't had these before... they are at 28%. Hm... excellent protection and waterproof. Temperature-wise OK, but heavy and slowing me down by 7%. Interesting, this really provides for choices. My sneakers are just 0.5 kg, and the combat boots 2.00 kg. That's quite a difference. But in future wolf-fights they might be just the right thing. What else... ah! A decent Mackinaw jacket! Very warm, but slows me down by 3%. Hm... interesting. And... a flare... Pinnacle Peaches... tin of sardines... and a tin of coffee. Always good to visit Signal Hill.

I need to warm up, and what better way to pass that time than harvest a pair of driving gloves. This gives me one leather which I can use to boost either the sneakers or the combat boots. Before deciding on that, I go back outside and collect some Rosehips, lichen and a Maple sapling, returning to the hut for more warmth. Then I repair my jeans a little (they should really be blue in the clothing screen, currently they are grey) and the day is over.

So, what's the plan for tomorrow? I want to leave Pleasant Valley. The nearest exit is to Mystery Lake, but I would have to pass the dam and... Fluffy. So no. I prefer Coastal Highway anyway, because I want to establish my base on Jackrabbit. Home, sweet home. So it's the mine. The question is, do I make a stop overnight at Rural Crossroads? I think I should. So... I will pass by the little lake with the fishing hut to see what can be gained there, circle round to Rural Crossroads for the night. Then one day later it's over to Coastal Highway...

But all this is tomorrow. Today, the work is done. I eat the sardines and Pinnacle Peaches, quench my remaining thirst and go to sleep for 9 hours...

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4 hours ago, Hotzn said:

Going downstairs, I decide to try and make some old man's beard bandages. Don't find the option to craft them. Have they been returned to the workbench? Or do you apply lichen and bandage separately now? Hmmm...

That's right, now you craft an OMB wrapping separately (no need for workbench) and apply it independently of the bandage. The bandage fixes the bleeding, the dressing fixes the infection risk.

4 hours ago, Hotzn said:

shows that reclaimed wood - at 0.25 kg apiece - adds +3°C to the fire, while a stick at 0.15 apiece adds +1.0°C. So reclaimed wood carries a little more energy per weight. Shall keep that in mind.

And cedar, last time I checked, gave 6°C and 1 hour to the fire at 0.50 kg apiece, so it has the same per-kg values as reclaimed wood. You need about 7-8 sticks to get a 1-hour fire though, so if you plan to have the fire going for a fixed period of time, the one built from sticks will be slightly warmer.

4 hours ago, Hotzn said:

I need to warm up, and what better way to pass that time than harvest a pair of driving gloves. This gives me one leather which I can use to boost either the sneakers or the combat boots.

Now I'd go for combat boots just for the protection against wetness - you're going to travel a lot, in all kinds of weather, and sneakers do get wet very fast. I'd get the combat boots to decent condition until you find something better. I think trail boots would give you the kind of balance you're after, Snowball 41 proudly holds on to a pair of these.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 18.6.2017 at 6:31 PM, Timber Wolf said:

I hear ya - and don't be afraid to switch the CTS option on in the settings - then no more holding. ;)

That one was gold - didn't know about the option. Thanks a lot and +1.

On 18.6.2017 at 6:33 PM, Timber Wolf said:

Thank you so much for sharing your story!  Keep it coming - I learn something new every time you post! :)

Thanks for the heads up. I find your posts equally instructive by the way, and given your knowledge of the game I'm a bit surprised that you can still get something out of my posts. Anyway, makes me glad. :)

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On 22.6.2017 at 8:10 PM, Pillock said:

I've been 'cheating' by turning up the brightness level in the graphics settings way beyond the recommendation. It makes the exploring of building interiors a lot more satisfying.

Agree with you about the torches. It's a real shame to have lost brands.

Enjoying having a good story to follow here again. Thanks for posting it! 

Good to hear I'm not the only one who has a problem with darkness inside buildings. I guess it must be tricky for the devs to hit the sweet spot. It should be a little challenge to find every piece of loot in a building, and I don't mind having dark corners or cellars or even whole buildings where you need to use a light source. Heck, the mines for example - they may be pitch dark, because that's what I would EXPECT from a mine. However, when I am in a room with several windows and it's daytime... it just feels strange not being able to see anything properly. That's when squinting my eyes gets on my nerves.

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On 26.6.2017 at 2:52 AM, Drifter Man said:

That's right, now you craft an OMB wrapping separately (no need for workbench) and apply it independently of the bandage. The bandage fixes the bleeding, the dressing fixes the infection risk.

And cedar, last time I checked, gave 6°C and 1 hour to the fire at 0.50 kg apiece, so it has the same per-kg values as reclaimed wood. You need about 7-8 sticks to get a 1-hour fire though, so if you plan to have the fire going for a fixed period of time, the one built from sticks will be slightly warmer.

Now I'd go for combat boots just for the protection against wetness - you're going to travel a lot, in all kinds of weather, and sneakers do get wet very fast. I'd get the combat boots to decent condition until you find something better. I think trail boots would give you the kind of balance you're after, Snowball 41 proudly holds on to a pair of these.

Thanks for the tips. I think the game is missing out on an opportunity when it comes to the different kinds of wood. Long ago, there was Cedar, Fir and reclaimed wood. Cedar gave a much better chance of starting the fire, Fir gave longer duration. I think it would be good if Cedar gave us more temperature and Fir more duration. So if we planned for a potential emergency fire on the way, we would take along Cedar to warm up fast and then move on. Whereas if we planned to make a real camp somewhere, maybe overnight in a cave or so, we would go for duration and take Fir. Hmmm... on second thoughts all that becomes moot as soon as we have coal, as that gives us both insane temperature as well as duration for the least weight...

Concerning the combat boots, I didn't consider wetness protection so much so far. Maybe because I didn't run into any wet-clothes-freezing problem. But I shall keep that in mind and maybe go for the boots. I have to admit that I haven't gathered too much experience with the clothes, since I haven't played much during the last months. All these clothes mechanics are still pretty new to me.

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17 minutes ago, Hotzn said:

Thanks for the tips. I think the game is missing out on an opportunity when it comes to the different kinds of wood. Long ago, there was Cedar, Fir and reclaimed wood. Cedar gave a much better chance of starting the fire, Fir gave longer duration. I think it would be good if Cedar gave us more temperature and Fir more duration. So if we planned for a potential emergency fire on the way, we would take along Cedar to warm up fast and then move on. Whereas if we planned to make a real camp somewhere, maybe overnight in a cave or so, we would go for duration and take Fir. Hmmm... on second thoughts all that becomes moot as soon as we have coal, as that gives us both insane temperature as well as duration for the least weight...

I have the following data for different fuels (durations are nominal, i.e. what the UI tells you the duration is, and at base firestarting skill)

  • Sticks: 52 minutes and 6.7°C per 1 kg
  • Reclaimed wood: 120 minutes and 12°C per 1 kg
  • Cedar: 120 minutes and 12°C per 1 kg
  • Fir: 90 minutes and 8°C per 1 kg
  • Coal: 200 minutes and 67°C per 1 kg

When away from base, I prefer taking cedar with me plus some coal. Reclaimed wood has the same parameters but a lower firestarting chance.

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1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

I have the following data for different fuels (durations are nominal, i.e. what the UI tells you the duration is, and at base firestarting skill)

  • Sticks: 52 minutes and 6.7°C per 1 kg
  • Reclaimed wood: 120 minutes and 12°C per 1 kg
  • Cedar: 120 minutes and 12°C per 1 kg
  • Fir: 90 minutes and 8°C per 1 kg
  • Coal: 200 minutes and 67°C per 1 kg

When away from base, I prefer taking cedar with me plus some coal. Reclaimed wood has the same parameters but a lower firestarting chance.

Interesting but I always thought Fir wood burnt the longest being a harder wood?

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15 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

I have the following data for different fuels (durations are nominal, i.e. what the UI tells you the duration is, and at base firestarting skill)

  • Sticks: 52 minutes and 6.7°C per 1 kg
  • Reclaimed wood: 120 minutes and 12°C per 1 kg
  • Cedar: 120 minutes and 12°C per 1 kg
  • Fir: 90 minutes and 8°C per 1 kg
  • Coal: 200 minutes and 67°C per 1 kg

When away from base, I prefer taking cedar with me plus some coal. Reclaimed wood has the same parameters but a lower firestarting chance.

Excellent data. And it shows what I presumed - that the game is missing out on an opportunity here. As is, Fir is inferior in all aspects and therefore moot (it can still serve to craft or repair stuff, but given its abundance that doesn't really count). Shame really. Fir should have more fire duration, less chance of firestarting. Whether or not the temp bonus should also be modified... not sure atm...

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1 hour ago, Hotzn said:

I find your posts equally instructive by the way, and given your knowledge of the game I'm a bit surprised that you can still get something out of my posts.

Thanks!  I still have a lot to learn about Interloper, so I love reading stories like yours. :)

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Day 7:

Waking up at... well, shortly before dawn, I am starving, but still at 94% condition. It's pitch dark, and a blizzard blowing outside. I realize I made a beginner's mistake by not dropping my Maple sapling on the floor overnight - it could have done some curing. Well, not a critical one. Time to make a plan for the day. I've got 8 cattail stalks left and a Summit Soda. That will carry me roughly two nights with good healing. I will make a stopover of one night at Rural crossroads so I won't reach the mine exhausted. The question is: Should I walk the big arch and hit the pond with the fishing hut? What could be gained there? I already have the hacksaw and am loaded with 27 kg. Hmmm... maybe matches. Can never have enough of those. But the big arch is long, I could freeze a lot, and wolves might get in the way. No. I'll take the shorter route down the rope and pass by the bear cave. Hit the road and collect what is at the green barn in the woods by the roadside. If I arrive early at Rural Crossroads, I may use the time to collect some cattails there. Yes. I will plan for a fire on the way though for warming up and will  have to collect some sticks on the way to get enough warmth...

Reaching the rope without incidents, I scan the terrain downstairs for the bear... nothing. At the bottom is a deer carcass, but stopping to harvest it would mean abandoning the plan, and I have made the experience that abandoning the plan usually leads to trouble. So off I go. Hit the road and make a fire to warm up on the first bridge. While I wait for the warmth to creep into my bones, I make some more water. In the meantime, fog has fallen. I grab some torches (really, the torch pulling...) and move on. See the green barn between the trees and check it out... a corpse... nothing on it. Just a couple of Rosehips to be had here. Back on the road, I toss the torch and see if I can light another torch by holding it to the one on the ground... it works... and a check reveals I didn't use a match. Perfect, we live in torch-world again.

Next another deer carcass to the left. Had bad experiences with that in another run. No thank you. When I finally reach the little store at Rural Crossroads, I check it again. Some visibility inside now because of the torch. Seems I didn't overlook anything though. The texture of one of the fridges is definitely wrong.

I walk across the riverbed from here, but there are no cattails at this spot. Enter the cabin with the bed on the other side to warm up, then step back outside to try the new map feature. I've got some charcoal so it should work, shouldn't it? I open the map by pressing "m". Hmmm... no button for drawing. Ho does this work? All right, general TLD knowledge tells me to go looking in some other menu. Inventory... charcoal... aha - I can "equip" it. Done. Now I can open the map again and... sketch. Guys, not meaning to criticize, but it's not exactly obvious that you have to "equip" charcoal to use the map feature. Would be nice if you could just start sketching from the map menu as long as you have charcoal on you. Anyway, what did I sketch now? Right. A little cabin. To be honest, I knew before that that cabin was here. Also I realize I gingerly sketched while a blizzard started and lost quite a bit of my condition. Hmmm... I don't see myself using that map feature very often.

Back inside the cabin, I need to warm up and somehow make use of the time. So I eat a cattail stalk and use the calories it gives me to study my book "Wilderness Kitchen" for one hour. Then darkness is falling, and I drink the remaining soda, eat most of my cattails stalks and go to sleep for 9 hours.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Day 8:

Waking up in the darkness, I satiate my thirst and go back to sleep, but soon wake up fully rested and at 78% condition. It's about the break of dawn. What's the plan? I can't afford to lose much condition, so I won't be doing much gathering of anything. Might try to grab some cat tail stalks at the river across the street from this cabin. And warm up in the cabin on the other side of the road, dismantling wooden boxes for firewood when I'm cold. I should get going towards the mine around noon at the latest. Let's hope I don'r get caught here in Rural Crossroads by a blizzard...

The early morning stroll on the river yields a couple of cattails. I have now 8 in reserve - another night of full healing and then some. I also picked up 6 mushrooms and a number of sticks. Let's see... 23 sticks altogether, plus 3 reclaimed wood. Enough for one good fire, and I am almost at 28 kg (hammer, combat boots, books and all), so shouldn't think about carrying anything else. A deer carcass between the cabin and the river is tempting, but it would mean diverting from the plan. So no. I will warm up again in the cabin and then hit the road. I shall take care not to miss the mine (they changed the terrain there, and as a consequence I once missed it and was doomed)...

I notice that when I travel by walking on the road, my girl starts to jog on those stretches where there isn't any snow, and travel is faster even without running. Where the trail hits the road from the right (coming down here from the little lake with the only fishing hut in Pleasant Valley), I start freezing and therefore settle down next to a boulder to make a fire. Wind is blowing, but apart from that the weather is friendly. Almost all my sticks and two reclaimed wood go on the fire, and while warming up I make one more litre of water. Then I just grab a single torch from the fire (got 4 more in my backpack) and move on. Hav some difficulties finding the entrance to the mine again, but finally get there. At the entrance, I make another fire to pull more torches and then cross the mine. Hardly see a thing, and my girl is kind of holding the torch in her face to make sure it's blinding her. Something should be changed about this, a torch should not be as good as the lantern or a flare, but should enable us to see more or less all right. Squinting my eyes trying to recognize anything at all, crossing the mine is more work than adventure.

On the other side, the weather is nice and everything peaceful. I turn right at the first opportunity and descend to the trailer I know to be there. Again, almost darkness inside although it's still daytime outside. Hrrrch... I search the trailer anyway... nothing.

I want to try the mapping feature again. Step outside of the trailer, equip a piece of charcoal, "survey" the area. It seems this time my girl drew a little more than on her PV map... hmmm... maybe the amount of mapping depends on how high you are positioned in the area? How far you can see? I should be able to verify that once I am on Jackrabbit Island.

Anyway, I have reached today's planned destination. A little daylight remains, and I am not yet fully exhausted. But I am encumbered and quite tired, not in a condition to run into a wolf now. I guess I will stay in the trailer tonight and spend the rest of the day optimising my equipment and planning the nest steps.

Experimenting with my clothing, I notice something strange - the inner layer of my outer layers does not grant me its protection bonus against attacks. That seems a bit weird, since any attacker would have to work his/her/its way through both my outer and inner clothing layer, would they not? So sturdy clothes should protect me, irrespective of whether they are worn on the outside or the inside. Just my thinking, not that it's a big issue.

So, Hotzn, how to continue from here? 8 cattail stalks are left, and I will eat 5 tonight. So by tomorrow evening, I will need to have procured more food. A little might be found in the fishing camp below me or in the cabin on Jackrabbit Island (which I should reach tomorrow), but I would rather not rely on that. There should be a deer carcass next to the trail leading down from the trailer I'm currently staying in to the fishing camp. I should try to get the meat from that and maybe guts and my first deerskin. But... that might attracts wolves. Maybe not the meat, since I plan to cook it on the spot. But the rest. Anyway, I will need guts soon to make snares, otherwise I would have to rely on stoning rabbits, and I have not yet practiced that. So... do I have enough firewood as not to freeze while harvesting said deer? 12 sticks and 1 reclaimned wood... no, that's not enough. I brought 14 lumps of coal from the mine with me, but I would need to spend 20 minutes at the fire before I can put that on, and might sustain freezing damage during that time. Or... I could light a fire, move on to the fishing camp, return after 20 minutes, boost the fire with coal and then harvest. Yes, that seems like a sensible thing to do.

On another note - how long will I be able to stay on Jackrabbit given my current fire resources? I don't have a magnifying glass yet. But 25 matches left. And maybe I'll find more when scavening around Coastal Highway. So I should be fine for a while.

With these thoughts, I eat 5 cattail stalks, drink and go to sleep for 9 hours...

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