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.

The point of my post is that nowadays they are not afraid of fire, and that is due to lifelong close proximity to humans ... but what about way back when we lived in caves or mud huts and the very first wolves were being domesticated as watchdogs ... which of the canis lupus variants were the ones easiest to tame and overcome their fear of campfires and illuminating burning torches? From those evolved all the varieties of dog we have today.

Domesticated cats and dogs are tamed predators and not afraid of fire ... in fact they enjoy curling up in front of it as much as humans do. Yes I know they're domesticated, but from which species were they domesticated way back yonder when the limit of their domestication was to rove round the settlement and warn of intruders while being thrown a bone or two now and then?

If you are so worried about too much ammo - play on Interloper difficulty ... problem solved.

Didn't like or enjoy them in Episode 3, and expect to like them even less in survival.

Yeah - I remember in Wintermute Predux having to lug the bolt cutters from Mystery Lake to the Gate to the Hunting Lodge in BRR ... urgh - no thanks.

All I can say is that based on the asshattery antics of the timberwolves in Episode 3, I won't be heading to BI in survival mode ... and once they spread out to other regions I may end up uninstalling TLD. From their arrival in Episode 3, the timberwolves (to me) have felt like Raph and Hinterland punishing the playerbase for not previously playing the game according to some never released playstyle guide, or for using loot tables, or Whiteberry's maps, or whatever. Nothing I've read in this thread changes that opinion. Sorry Raph, but you shot way wide of the mark with the timberwolves - all punishment and no reward. HRV was bad enough with it's confusing layout that led to my character's death everytime I spawned there or tried to visit with an established survivor (even on Pilgrim mode), but from what I'm reading - BI and the timberwolves could be what costs TLD a lot of its playerbase.

What does the "EP" in the thread title stand for?

I've been wondering guys ... what if we've all been howling up the wrong tree regarding the new mechanic? Maybe it's nothing to do with ammunition crafting, maybe it's refining generator fuel from lamp oil / fish oil. That would be just as neat and useful in many ways too.

But that's Sketchy Wolf ... sketchy because it gets stuck in the cave walls after glitching into them if you lay a campfire down at a tunnel intersection (any tunnel intersection).

PS4 ... Sony Playstation 4 ... SONY as in Sony Music That'll be the same Sony that issues 1000's of invalid copyright claims on Youtube videos and Twitch VODs for each valid one they issue, and they issue millions of valid ones weekly. Could be a good reason for Hinterland to remove music from PS4 editions. No idea if that's the reason, but as a paranoid Twitch-prone Youtuber who won't even hum to himself when recording anymore, it seems logical enough to me.