Gazbeard

Like someone said above, I hope the new toxic wolves have their poisoning capability balanced out by being easier to kill (i.e. weakened by starvation and the toxicity they carry). Even just being able to scare them off, or wound them, with fire-hardened arrows would go part way towards that. I never liked the Timber Wolf packs and they made me quit playing, streaming, and making youtube series, pretty much from the week they were introduced. Even now the only run I jump into every couple of months is a Pilgrim run to test new content and locations. Timberwolves killed the game for me, I'm sure Toxic Wolves will bury it. I certainly dislike the idea of the toxic wolves ... they are unneccesary and contrary to natural logic. Sure have normal wolves carry toxins on their claws and fur, not their teeth and saliva where it would also poison and kill them. Have contact with their fur or scratches from their claws infect us with the poison, but also have just that external contact also slowly kill the carriers; weakening them, slowing them, reducing their health stats as well as their strength. Otherwise, drop the toxins mechanic and just use rabies in the local wolf population to make them more dangerous than normal. Though to be honest, adding yet another wolf variant and hazard just makes me exclaim a quiet "FFS" and roll my eyes. Honestly, I'd have prefered a mechanic such as the new region carrying myximatosis (sp?) in the rabbit population, and the player having to return there every few hundred days to cull the rabbits to prevent it spreading to the healthy regions ... and do the same in any previously healthy region where the disease arrived. I'm also sceptical about the requirement for a full set of (civilian) N.B.C. clothing. Is there going to be somewhere close to the mine where we can store it if it's only needed for there? Will we be guaranteed no despawn of it from containers during database updates for future patches (long term players will remember those events)? Is it weight v cold-proofing balanced? Does it replace sufficiently the damage protection of clothing that would need removed to wear it? What is the encumberance and movement penaltiy it delivers - enough to increase melee difficulty, or the opposite? Will cattails and other plants (e.g. reishi, rosehips, burdock, birch, etc.) growing near the mine also be contaminated? If so how will we tell healthy from poison-bearing plants? I have so many questions around this one-purpose clothing set, and worry this may be the mechanic that introduces "adding stuff to justify jobs at Hinterland" rather than "adding stuff to enhance the game". Almost all of the other stuff in the announcement is much welcomed, it's only the wolf variants and the whole toxic environment and protective clothing addition that concerns me. I particularly welcome the travois and thermos, although I would have preferred an antler-runner sled to a travois.

OK, All excellent stuff and I'm enjoying the refresh of the game very much. However, concerning the notes about no changes to weather and temperatures, plus the "lucky or unlucky" loot runs, here's a few observations ... I mainly play story mode and Voyageur Survival (Steam is only showing 2500 hours played, but it took me a further 1500 to record my Voyageur 1000 days YouTube series - did one of the TLD updates wipe time-played off Steam histories at some point? I enjoy Voyageur and I'm a loot hobo in all games (don't mention Skyrim - p-lease) 😜 however, in my livestreamed TLD TFTFT new start I've had : - Spawned into Mountain Town on the way from the plane crash - yaay familiar territory - in a blizzard, at night ... took 5 in-game days for the blizzard to pass (no increase in bad weather? Hmmmm). - Looted the MT map 100% - 12 cookpots, 3 hatchets, 2 hunting knives, 200-ish rounds of revolver and rifle ammo, bedroll in Orca, NO hacksaw, hammer, or firearms anywhere on the map. - Transited to Mystery Lake - found a bedroll in the cave on climber's shelf, still no hacksaw or hammer. - Looted Mystery Lake 100% - found a revolver, Vaughn's rifle, Mariner's pea coat, combat jacket and trousers, mukluks, another 6 hatchets and 4 hunting knives, low quality bow and 4 arrows, bedroll in camp office : still NO hammer or hatchet. - Looted the ML end of the ravine as far as the broken trestle bridge (IRL vertigo stops me crossing that thing in a blizzard), still no hammer or hacksaw, but found my 4th jerrican of oil and a rabbit stole one of my arrows - never trust rabbits. Was very surprised that Voyageur had neither hacksaw nor hammer in the dam (also no bedroll there but maybe because of the one in the camp office) but did get cookpot numbers 13 & 14 in there. Although I have enough matches to not be a problem (and 2 mag lenses) there is definitely a lot less matches in Voyageur than there used to be, and blizzards are a lot longer lasting (apart from that initial spawn blizzard they're lasting 12-15 hours, instead of the previous 2-6 hours, but appear to be less damaging to clothes). I would be a LOT less laser-focussed on the hammer and hacksaw if fire hardened arrows were in the initial DLC content (big disappointment, not gonna lie). So I'm now debating (on day 41) whether to head to PV or Coastal in search of the hammer and hacksaw before doing my first forge run. This is a new all-time low for me ... not doing a forge run before day 14 and it's the major downer I'm having, everything else (despite no fire-hardened arrows) is all good but I am worried about all the reports of gear loss due to teleporting when sleeping - not happened to me (yet) and I hope the bug fix is in place before it gets me. Wondering when I'll be able to head to the new maps in the Far Territory (i.e. when will I get the hammer and hatchet to let me forge before I go there - I feel naked without a full quiver of arrows).

Christmas Crackers?

Is this in the game yet because I cannot see it in my inventory crafting list, nor is it added at a workbench, campfire, or firebarrel. I really do hope it is not an item restricted to the new DLC maps (I have paid for the DLC and installed it) - if owning the DLC is the pre-requisite, then the crafting recipe should still appear on non-DLC maps if you own the DLC. Same applies to the travois - can't see anywhere how to craft it. In Voyageur I've also searched every inch of the Milton Town map and found no guns, hammer, or hacksaw, therefore cannot go to Muskeg to forge and press on through BRR to the airfield. I'm guessing I have to now do the traditional Milton - Mystery Lake - Pleasant Valley - Coastal - DP - and back again search route to find the tools for a forge run?

I have it on auto update and it's just begun downloading a moment ago ... yaay.

UK here - not available on Steam yet

Must confess the Darkwalker event has me about as excited as the idea of lying in a bath of worms for 24 hours. Everything else in the announcement looks great (provided there's no Timberwolves in Ash Canyon ... is that going to be the same new region in Episode 4 with the prison?)

You're in Sandbox mode there (top left of your screenshot) not in the special event mode.

Or, like many other games - you have to log into the game each day and complete an action (any action) to get that day to count.

Haven't started yet so no idea which meaning the "survive 25 consecutive days" phrase has. The event is only 4 days old, so has anyone got the badge yet? That might clear it up.

I've read all all of Jeff and Manic's posts above and just wanted to add my tuppence about the low calories strategy. What neither of them mentioned is the "too hungry to ... xyz" mechanic that currently exists in game. Especially the "too hungry to read" status. I'm not sure what level of pampered upbringing the architect of that mechanic had, but as someone with both lengthy military service in field conditions, and someone who in civilian life had lengthy periods of poverty and destitution through protracted unemployment due to conditions acquired in that service; there is NO such status as too hungry to read. Sure you might not be able to absorb quantum physics theory or the subtleties of brain surgery when your calories in stomach meter has just hit empty, or maybe you can barely turn the page of a book due to a moose stomping, but you can certainly read "to take your mind off it" when hungry or in pain. Reading with calories meter in the red should certainly be possible - perhaps with a knowledge acquired penalty ... perhaps receiving only 25% of the skill points compared to reading when well fed, and then having to read for the full period again to get the other 75% of the skill points whilst fed above 50%? I'm also not a fan of the cabin fever mechanic as implemented. Cabin fever risk should not acrue whilst active or sleeping. Activities such as cooking, mending, crafting, harvesting, etc. should be "null time" in cabin fever accrual. In fact, I'd go so far as to say only passive and active "passing time" should accrue it. Again, as someone with service related health issues, I only go outside twice a week for brief visits to the doctor for treatments. Other than that, I haven't been outside in almost 8 months (not even stepping into the garden) and that was for hospitalisation following a heart attack. Do I get cabin fever? Nope. I keep myself busy indoors and don't even notice the days passing. Does it mean my social skills are fading? Probably.

Never had either of those crashes fixed in this patch, and never heard of other people getting them, nor have viewers reported or mentioned them on any of my videos or livestreams. However ... Are the ninja wolves being fixed? The ones that just "appear" one pace behind you without a warning growl or bark, and then rip your face off. Also are the telepathic wolves fixed yet? The ones that can predict your aiming point with a firearm or bow and jink to move in a different direction at the exact same time as you start aiming. Are the radar guided wolves fixed yet? The wolves that lock onto you and begin trailing you from half way across the map just because there's line of sight between your location and theirs, even though the wolves themselves are not yet rendered on screen, but their audio effects are playing from the direction they're stalking you from. Are the levitating bears in Forlorn Muskeg being fixed? The ones that can not only walk across weak ice that players fall through, but also melee the player on that same ice without it breaking and the bear falling through, yet the player does fall through the moment the melee finishes and before they can apply medications, despite the bear weighing several times the weight of the player and all their gear.

https://www.twitch.tv/atheenon/clip/KawaiiSoftCurryBCWarrior

https://www.twitch.tv/atheenon/clip/KawaiiSoftCurryBCWarrior

It has been shown several times on livestreams by different players that Interloper does contain revolvers - the most consistent discoveries being at the HRV mysterious signal fire ... but reports are also surfacing of finding one in Coastal Highway, Pleasant Valley, and now in Bleak Inlet too.