Lulzes

Absolutely love this idea, I would add that smoking meats should also be an option for long-term food storage. In terms of game mechanics, it should involve collecting a lot of wood for the process, as well as requiring either calm weather conditions or an enclosed space such as an old barn. I'd also like to see smoked/salted meats have less of a scent in terms of attracting hostile wildlife. It's always frustrated me (and somewhat broken the immersion) that food left outside doesn't freeze, as this would also preserve the food for longer and reduce the scent. I'm guessing the decision not to include this as a game feature was a deliberate one made for balance purposes, and I also fear that for the same reason we'll never see smoked or salted foods.

The current format just lists buffer memories in a seemingly random order by region, with some regions' series of memories interrupted by another regions'. When you select a memory to view and then return to the list, it resets to the start again so you have to scroll down and hover over each memory entry to find your position again. Compared to the other data sections (such as rock caches or region landmarks) the buffer memories secton is a mess.

Why? 1.) We started off with only a couple of accessories (ear wrap and moose hide satchel). When crampons were added, it was easy to swap them out if/when you needed that 1 degree extra warmth (were the ear wraps ever useful?). As more accessories were added, swapping out or sacrificing the benefits became more and more of a harsh trade-off. Now there are eight possible accessories, although at this point the ear wraps are totally pointless. 2.) Realism. There's nothing stopping you IRL from wearing all of these accessories at the same time. 3.) If your goal is to reduce weight, you're going to wear the moose-hide satchel plus *either* the tool belt or the rifle holster, i.e. the two shiny new rewards from TFTFT are basically mutually exclusive. The only reason you'd wear both is if you just hadn't gotten around to killing a moose yet.

I got a Memento in BI which said to look at the top of the fallen lighthouse, but the distress pistol wasn't there.

You guys keep referring to these new caves as "shallow" but most of them are actually much larger than the older type of cave - one of them actually has a bend in it so you can't see the entrance from the very back. It just seems unrealistic to me that these larger structures wouldn't provide the same warmth bonus as the old type caves. Meanwhile there is an open tunnel around the "Miner's Folly" area (with bones indicating it's a bear den) that has an "indoor" area which seems far more exposed than any cave in the game.

So what is it with these new caves with no areas marked as "indoors" where you can sleep in the warm and cure hides and guts? And yet all of a sudden there are "indoor" warm spots in semi-sheltered outdoor areas, such as the overhang next to the Foreman's Retreat? Please bring back proper caves...

I registered on the forums just to add this suggestion. Late game (day 300+) gets pretty lonely and a dog would be an awesome companion. I was thinking along the same lines, that you'd have to train your new friend and in return he would be a small help, fetching sticks and barking if he sensed danger. He wouldn't be much use in a fight, but his assistance could at least reduce the amount of time you get mauled (a small reduction in the chance of injury) although there would always be a chance he could get injured too. My idea was that as you fed/trained your dog, you would unlock special abilities such as stick fetching or warning barks - at the highest level of training your dog could help with hunting by stalking prey for you, e.g. locating prey (show the dog a deer hide and he'll sniff out more deer), driving deer towards you or catching rabbits. I love the OP's idea of your dog warming you up at night too! Regarding the realism of a dog surviving, you could get around this by making the dog actually a wolf. It could be an albino (white) wolf that's not affected in the same way by the Aurora due to its genetic differences, so it's been driven out of its pack. When you find it, it's injured and starving, and although it growls at you it doesn't attack. If you drop some food it will eat it and start to follow you, but you'll still need to earn its trust so that you can treat its wounds (this may involve getting a few bites yourself).