World Decay Particulars....

[JoE Smash]

Does anyone have more defined info on "World Decay?" I tried very hard to Google the particulars, but all I can find is the generic description from the patch notes: Over time the world gets colder, the weather gets worse, the animals get scarce, etc....

Like how cold? -50° everyday all day? If I don’t climb Timberwolf Mountain in the first 60 days will it be too cold to loot the tail section? Will it just be one continuous blizzard every day until you die from cabin fever? Do all the rabbits and deer disappear and get replaced by 30 wolves and bears on every map?

Like I want to know how bad exactly? What's the temperature cap if any? -50°? -100°? Can you have a continuous blizzard everyday for five days straight? Longer than that?

Does anyone know?

[Samsonguy920]

It was stated that it won't get to impossible levels, at least on anything that's not Interloper.  And I doubt it is meant to be a longer version of the challenge Whiteout to where you are eventually going to be stuck inside.

I think what it is is the weather just gets more unfriendly until it hits a new range for you to be in. By then you should be doing better with decent clothing and supplies so it wouldn't seem too much a difference. Just more a factor kicking you in the butt not to expect sunshine and lollipops.

I wouldn't expect any exact answers. The weather will always be changing, predators will always be ranging in new areas, and supplies will always not be replenishing...except on the beach.

[JAFO]

A long time back, someone did a fair bit of work, charting temperature changes over the course of the day/night cycle. I don't believe anyone has repeated the experiment with regard to gradually deteriorating temperature and conditions, in the various modes. It would be interesting to see it tried, but it would be a huge job.

[JoE Smash]

7 hours ago, JAFO said:

A long time back, someone did a fair bit of work, charting temperature changes over the course of the day/night cycle. I don't believe anyone has repeated the experiment with regard to gradually deteriorating temperature and conditions, in the various modes. It would be interesting to see it tried, but it would be a huge job.

Yeah, I was mostly hoping for an official Hinterlands reply at some point. Like I said I looked it up to the best of my ability by searching here and online in general, but all I can really find is the vague paragraph from the update stating that there is now World Decay and the World will get increasingly harder.

I really would like the hard facts at some point, like negative temperature caps for each map at least. That is my biggest concern, and maybe caps for blizzard duration for each map, for risk of cabin fever...

[Drifter Man]

An easier way to judge the rate of world decay is to measure the temperature bonus given by caves or indoor locations without a loading screen. The bonus gradually increases to compensate the decreasing temperatures outside, so that these locations remain about as warm as they were at the start - otherwise these shelters would become completely useless. I was told about this by @Troxism: In the Mountaineer's Hut on Interloper, the bonus is constant at 10°C for the first 5 days, then increases linearly to 30°C on Day 50. I can confirm that 20 days into the game the bonus is already 16°C, so the numbers check out.

In summary, on Interloper the temperature is said to drop by 20°C in the first 50 days, then remain constant. It's pretty huge then, it means that past Day 50 you get something like -50°C air temperature in the morning and -30°C in the afternoon. I have no idea about the lower difficulty modes - someone with a long-lived Voyageur or Stalker character could check this. I assume that both the rate of decay and the cap are less severe.

[JoE Smash]

6 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

An easier way to judge the rate of world decay is to measure the temperature bonus given by caves or indoor locations without a loading screen. The bonus gradually increases to compensate the decreasing temperatures outside, so that these locations remain about as warm as they were at the start - otherwise these shelters would become completely useless. I was told about this by @Troxism: In the Mountaineer's Hut on Interloper, the bonus is constant at 10°C for the first 5 days, then increases linearly to 30°C on Day 50. I can confirm that 20 days into the game the bonus is already 16°C, so the numbers check out.

In summary, on Interloper the temperature is said to drop by 20°C in the first 50 days, then remain constant. It's pretty huge then, it means that past Day 50 you get something like -50°C air temperature in the morning and -30°C in the afternoon. I have no idea about the lower difficulty modes - someone with a long-lived Voyageur or Stalker character could check this. I assume that both the rate of decay and the cap are less severe.

Holy crap! That is insane! I am at like day 30 on Voyager, I should probably go try to loot the tail section now then?! Or is it too late?! Can clothing even compensate -30°

[Drifter Man]

13 minutes ago, JoE Smash said:

Holy crap! That is insane! I am at like day 30 on Voyager, I should probably go try to loot the tail section now then?! Or is it too late?! Can clothing even compensate -30°

I don't know about Voyageur but I don't think you should panic. Interloper is designed to make people rely on fire rather than clothing to stay warm. Voyageur environment, in my opinion, is not engineered to kill you, it is supposed to give you a balanced experience. Try checking an outdoor cave you know when you walk by, then start a fresh Voyageur game and measure the bonus for the same cave - and you'll know by how much the temperature has decreased in 30 days.

[JoE Smash]

27 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

I don't know about Voyageur but I don't think you should panic. Interloper is designed to make people rely on fire rather than clothing to stay warm. Voyageur environment, in my opinion, is not engineered to kill you, it is supposed to give you a balanced experience. Try checking an outdoor cave you know when you walk by, then start a fresh Voyageur game and measure the bonus for the same cave - and you'll know by how much the temperature has decreased in 30 days.

Ok, thank you.

[JAFO]

11 hours ago, JoE Smash said:

Yeah, I was mostly hoping for an official Hinterlands reply at some point.

Hinterland basically do not give out such information. It's one of the things they prefer players discover for themselves.

[JAFO]

10 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

An easier way to judge the rate of world decay is to measure the temperature bonus given by caves or indoor locations without a loading screen. The bonus gradually increases to compensate the decreasing temperatures outside, so that these locations remain about as warm as they were at the start - otherwise these shelters would become completely useless.

Thanks mate.. that is incredibly helpful to know!

[Carbon]

Stalker run in .392 (I think), PV, over 100 days in, playing outside naked...

[Drifter Man]

7 hours ago, JAFO said:

Thanks mate.. that is incredibly helpful to know!

Actually the credit should go to @Troxism. And be aware, there are locations with temperature bonus that are outdoors (you can't cure guts in there), and these do get colder with the rest of the world.

[Troxism]

Interloper has a temp drop of 20C that increases linearly between day 5 and 50 (so 0.44C drop a day between those times)

Stalker has a temp drop of 15C between day 20 and 200 (0.0833C a day)

Voyageur has a temp drop of 10C between day 25 (I think, not sure) and 200, so about 0.057C a day.

I am not very sure about the voyageur values, but tbh, outside of Interloper the temp drop is irrelevant (unless you want to sit outside in blizzards), because you have access to far better clothing below Interloper anyways. In addition, the same 'feels like' temp drains your heat bar much much faster on Interloper, so on Stalker you can easily stay out for a while even if your 'feels like' is -5C, while on Interloper this doesn't give you much time before you start to freeze. So minor negative 'feels like' don't really matter as much below Interloper. You can easily walk around outside during most of the day on Stalker even on day 100-150 with decent clothing. So between that and better clothes, and +5C temp (and the fact that you have an extra 150 days to do any looting you want to get done), makes the temp drop on Stalker more of a formality in my experience (after the decay update I looted absolutely every single item in the entire gameworld in a Stalker game, without even doing it 'in a rush' and I was easily done well before 150 days much less 200 days). Basically the only effect is you can't go out during the coldest parts of the day and that is it (and in the late game, that is hardly an issue).

As for the other elements of decay, tbh I've never really noticed them. I think on average you get a few more blizzards and sticks take a little longer to respawn, but neither of these is significant enough for me to actually have noticed a big difference (it certainly doesn't force you to move around or rely on alternatives or do anything special if you aren't extremely wasteful/poorly prepared). Blizzards don't last any longer from what I can tell (be careful with this; the map you are on has a HUGE effect on blizzard lengths, TWM has the shortest ones by a huge margin, PV the longest, so if you swap maps around you will experience varying lengths that have nothing to do with world decay)

[JoE Smash]

Well that sounds reasonable for me in Voyager then, tyvm for your report.

One element that I grasp why they implemented it, but I wish they did not is the gradual decay of all items (allegedly) upon game start.

Mostly in reference to found food and clothing. 

I know they are trying to limit the potential sandbox duration to 500 or a 1000 days total, but I wish decay was upon arrival in each map instead.

The current mechanic is making me feel rushed to try to collect everything before it becomes ruined due to the decay mechanic.

The first 60 days flew by. Crafting clothes and other items ate up days, so do blizzards. I am concerned that at the rate I am going, which is a pretty gradual nonchalant way, the stuff in the crates at the top of TWM will all be puddles of goo, lol. 

I mean I could make a B-line through the cave in CH to PV and rush to TWM now, but I don't want to yet. I want to finish looting CH, then probably DP, then PV, and my last great act will be TWM. However at my current pace I will probably get to TWM around day 200, lol.

I'm just worried all the "epic loot" in the locked boxes will mostly have big red X's on half of it. I guess that will help me decide what to take down with the new 30kilo rope restriction, lol....

[JAFO]

26 minutes ago, Troxism said:

Interloper has a temp drop of 20C that increases linearly between day 5 and 50 (so 0.44C drop a day between those times)

Stalker has a temp drop of 15C between day 20 and 200 (0.0833C a day)

Voyageur has a temp drop of 10C between day 25 (I think, not sure) and 200, so about 0.057C a day.

Many, many thanks for saving me the trouble of checking this myself! (it was near the top of my to-do list)

[Troxism]

14 minutes ago, JoE Smash said:

Well that sounds reasonable for me in Voyager then, tyvm for your report.

One element that I grasp why they implemented it, but I wish they did not is the gradual decay of all items (allegedly) upon game start.

Mostly in reference to found food and clothing. 

I know they are trying to limit the potential sandbox duration to 500 or a 1000 days total, but I wish decay was upon arrival in each map instead.

The current mechanic is making me feel rushed to try to collect everything before it becomes ruined due to the decay mechanic.

The first 60 days flew by. Crafting clothes and other items ate up days, so do blizzards. I am concerned that at the rate I am going, which is a pretty gradual nonchalant way, the stuff in the crates at the top of TWM will all be puddles of goo, lol. 

I mean I could make a B-line through the cave in CH to PV and rush to TWM now, but I don't want to yet. I want to finish looting CH, then probably DP, then PV, and my last great act will be TWM. However at my current pace I will probably get to TWM around day 200, lol.

I'm just worried all the "epic loot" in the locked boxes will mostly have big red X's on half of it. I guess that will help me decide what to take down with the new 30kilo rope restriction, lol....

There is no need to worry about 'limited' sandbox duration. All you technically need to live forever in this game is a Magnifying Lens, which never degrades, and re spawning stuff like animals/sticks. And while scraping a living off just that would be a challenge, trust me, you will be sick of playing long long long long long before you actually run out of all these other supplies that make things much easier (like cloth for clothes); all those things can be stretched to thousands of days on Interloper if you play conservatively, much less on Stalker or below. The fun part of this game is the start, don't be too eager to get to the end.

[Carbon]

 As @Troxism implied, one shouldn't rely on packaged/processed food. In fact, breaking this reliance is a key aspect to moving up in difficulty from Voyageur to Stalker, etc. Losing this dependency will motivate you to get crafted weapons made quicker (arrowheads, bow) which will raise your chances of long-term survival. Starting a new game, crafting - getting to a forge - should be on the forefront of the player's mind and should be the prime motivation in the early game (aside from the obvious basics, of course) regardless of difficulty level. Even on Pilgrim, its good to get into this mindset and will serve you well when you want more of a challenge.

[JoE Smash]

1 hour ago, Carbon said:

 As @Troxism implied, one shouldn't rely on packaged/processed food. In fact, breaking this reliance is a key aspect to moving up in difficulty from Voyageur to Stalker, etc. Losing this dependency will motivate you to get crafted weapons made quicker (arrowheads, bow) which will raise your chances of long-term survival. Starting a new game, crafting - getting to a forge - should be on the forefront of the player's mind and should be the prime motivation in the early game (aside from the obvious basics, of course) regardless of difficulty level. Even on Pilgrim, its good to get into this mindset and will serve you well when you want more of a challenge.

Was talking about the loot at TWM, m8. I already went to Forlorn Muskeg after starting in Mystery Lake to forge 16 arrowheads. I have 20 working arrows now. 

All clothes slowly decay too, not just the peanut butter....