Bad Start Turns Great


Cosmoline

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I've had a lot of deaths in TLD in the past weeks I've been playing it. Once I was attacked four times in succession by Fluffy at the dam, each time punching him off, mending myself and hoping he was going off to die. Fluffy dies hard. And several times I started out in the coastal map thinking it would be easier because there are so many more easily reached houses. But there's a wolf by every rotten cabin, I swear. Ambushed over and over again often coming around a corner carrying loot.

So today I figured I'd try on the harder map again, and ended up starting in a cave nearly frozen. Found a hunting knife somewhere but no food. Scrambled to the railroad tracks, and had no choice but to go back to the hydro dam to avoid freezing solid. Fluffy. Oh yeah, he was there. I figured I was finished, and I nearly was. He lunged at me but this time, maybe because of the knife, I managed to get him pretty good. Based on prior bouts with him I expected he'd be coming back. So I patched my wounds up, grabbed a flare and went running through that tunnel balls out. Ran to the rifle, grabbed it, loaded it, and then I saw Fluffster, dead as a doornail. Didn't even need to shoot him. Got the meat and my trophy hide and with that start I clawed my way back to health. Wasn't going to stay in that tomb though. One more scramble got me to the logging cabins, where I rested. Then another mad scramble up the hill to the lookout for another night's rest. Then one final push got me to the trapper's cabin. And you know what? I just stayed there. My original plan was to go out and loot the lake, but with the crafting options I've been able to get deer boots made and I'm half way to the epic wolf fur coat. I'm actually finding it much easier to live there than relying on loot. Only problem is I'm running out of kerosene and my clothing is still woefully chilly. I figure with some lucky shots I should have the jacket and be able last a few more weeks at least, which is way better than I did on the highway.

Just made it to 20 days. Could do 30 I think.

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I had to do a run over to the coastal map. Ended up having to fight multiple wolves along the way. I don't know if I just got careless or if the suckers are actually set up to patrol the route up and down the mountain and in the townsite. I got mauled a bit but once did manage to exercise some of the old Rule Three-O-Three just before he pounced. Somehow made it back, half frozen and exhausted, laden with better clothes and spare material. Only thing I didn't find was more ammo, but oddly the coastal map seemed to be spawning empty Enfields left and right. Even found one in a fishing shack.

Looks like I'm going to steam past 40, mostly relying on double kills. It's going to get nasty when I run out of ammo though. I tried the fishing option and found it pretty miserable. At my current rate I figure I'll be able to stretch things out to about 45 days. Maybe 50 with some luck. You really start to feel the loss of those cartridges you wasted early on.

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You really start to feel the loss of those cartridges you wasted early on.

All of the long time players can definitely relate to that... it doesn't take long to realize how precious the ammo is (even when it seems like you've found a lot, the tendency is still to waste it as the fast/easy way out of some annoyances)... and then we pay for it when we really need it.

Early days playing are usually a learning experience of:

"Awesome! I've got the rifle and ammo - I'm indestructible now!!!"

Wolf - Bang - Meat!

Wolf - Bang - Meat!

Wolf - Bang - Meat!

Wolf - Bang - Meat!

Wolf - [click] - "Uh-oh..."

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I've figured out how to stretch things in a non-exploit way by herding deer into a passing wolf, then taking what's left after he's done. Sometimes a few kilos at least. And I've got a bunch of snares which do add up. With the game you have an unlimited amount of gut and leather. The big shortages I'm starting to run into are scarp metal for repairing the all-important knife and cloth for the non-crafted clothes. If they come up with some craftable pants, shirt and hat I'll be reasonably OK. But otherwise I'm bound to be half naked.

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My best run started at 7pm in the middle of a blizzard out by the dam.

I made a mad dash to the logging cabins and got mauled by a wolf just around a corner. Survived it. Spent the night in a trailer with the food and soda in there. And after that it was all uphill.

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Coastal Highway of Death map.

that's a very fitting description ;)

My worst start that turned great was when I was spawned in Stalker during a blizzard above logging camp. I thought I make the best of it and followed the rails to the office - via usually wolf infested Derailement but because of the blizzard, no wolves were there and it was indeed the first time I saw the rifle spawn there. In the end I only made it to day 40ish though :\

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Nearing 110 days now. It's gotten to be a routine of rabbit harvesting and scavenging whatever fido leaves behind. I have 6 rounds left. The meat is holding up and I have the magnifying glass. Cloth is running low but the real shortage that crops up is gut, esp. with rabbit snares getting destroyed. So periodically I will do a double kill to restock the larder and get 4 more gut. I think I should be able to stretch it out another month maybe. But every time you open the door you roll the dice. A few times he was literally snapping at my heels when I got back into the cabin. He also sometimes shows up right around a corner or over the ridge near the rabbits. Once he would have had me except he was going for a bunny instead. I've learned how to wait for a deer and use it to clear a path by herding it ahead of me.

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Pushing toward 150 with three rounds left. I've now given up trying to harvest bunnies. It's time consuming and requires a fire every night, using up too many matches. When you're farming rabbits it's two trips a day at least to the rabbit grounds and that means you can't just conserve your energy indoors or passively scouting. And it's boring and risky to make the trips. So now I've started going toe to toe with the wolves to steal their deer. I end up getting injured but typically get both the wolf and the deer meat without firing a shot. I find bandages are actually becoming critical now, and antiseptic rinse.

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Thanks! I'm near 170 now. I have about 4 bandages left and almost no clothes. I've scrounged one last round for the rifle, but I'm saving it. Fighting the wolves works good but I'll soon be out of antiseptic and worse bandages. Then that's probably about it for me. I can't see getting much beyond 190. I did go back to snares for a bit, and I think the cost/benefit on those isn't as good as I initially thought. There's a lot of fussing around with them.

Most of the matches I horded have somehow vanished. I'm not sure why they were programmed to lose their percentiles so fast, but it kind of undercuts my careful conservation efforts earlier in the game.

I can't complain too much, though. After the rough start, my guy has never once gone hungry and hasn't gotten into the red for freezing at all. Most of the time he's fully fed and watered and at 100% condition.

If I had it to do over again I would focus more on saving cloth for bandages instead of repairing clothes. I can actually manage with the wolf fur, rabbit mittens and deer boots if I have a good sweater. I wasted a lot of cloth trying to keep everything above 90% when I really didn't need to. I should have let a lot of the extra clothes just rot down to a lower percent, then turn them to cloth. Though I guess it was handy to have a complete set of clothes for the long treks to the Coastal Highway map.

I would also do all double kills. It takes more planning but nets huge amounts of meat. The key is to get in a good vantage point over ground with ONE wolf who patrols. Like the hill behind the trapper cabin. Then wait until you see the two getting close, or herd a deer into him. Chase them both and approach with your knife saying "once more into the fray." :D

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I was down to the very last bandage and no more matches. The wolf had decided to boycott my stand, so the food was running low. Got one last double kill, then decided my guy should go out in a blaze of glory instead of scraping by on the last bits. So I had him strip naked, run down a wolf, mortally wound it in a fight, then die chasing the wolf and crying "Valhalla"

Could have stretched it out a few more weeks I suspect, but as it is I made it to the leaderboards at 22. Fun game!

Overall impressions:

The game starts awesome but after about day 50 when the found food runs out completely you really are restricted to making a base camp, farming rabbits, and going for double kills. It's the only way to survive. And the viable bases are restricted to the trapper's lodge, lake office, and maybe Rabbit island on the other map or the far cabin at Mystery lake. But those last two have no workbenches.

The game punishes you for being frugal. For example I stockpiled lots of matches thinking I was a clever boy and made a point of boiling tons of water to maximize each match. Well that came back and kicked me in the groin by day 200 when the matches almost all vanished. I did find the magnifying glass but you need calm weather for that.

The wildlife doesn't respond very realistically to your presence. I've mentioned before that the middle and end game would be better with some AI tweaks in this respect. I'm going to post a wishlist thread with some of these ideas fleshed out more.

Overall though it's a stunningly beautiful game that with some additional work should become an all-time classic.

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