86 replies to this topic

[BrewerGeorge]

Yeah, that's pretty much how it works

There are people on Reddit with 1500+ days survival.

You could probably really increase your days by not doing anything except finding food and fuel, and resting/sleeping. That's kind of the problem. There's no rescue, no way to "win"  It's about how long can you go before you lose.  I think this was always intended to be a story game with puzzles, kind of like Myst.  That's why the movement is so rudimentary (even for the time the game came out), choices are so limited, and so many things are scripted actions. I think the popularity of Survival mode, and the willingness of people to grind, must have come as a shock to the developers.

 

I'm also really annoyed with the game because the key to the Paradise Meadow house didn't spawn (it's a bug with the latest update) so I have to trek over from Milton any time I want to use the workbench in the barn there.  Not to mention all my rare drops have been extremely shitty. Old fashioned parka instead of revolver? Gee, thanks.  I've got 15 days or so, and I'd just start over but the bug will still be there by all accounts

[Stains_not_here_man]

Yeah, that bug pisses me off. The key spawns for me about 50% of the time.

[BrewerGeorge]

Yeah, that bug pisses me off. The key spawns for me about 50% of the time.

Hmm, that tempts me to try a new one and go directly there. Can you only have one survival game going at a time?

[Stains_not_here_man]

No, you can have as many as you want until you run out of save slots (10 or 20 iirc)

[BrewerGeorge]

I started a new survival game after surgery yesterday and played about six hours before I forgot the rules of survival and purposely jumped off a mountain ledge. It was late and I was ready to go to bed.  I'd had trouble climbing a rope, had fallen and hurt myself, so I just thought "screw it, I'll start back with the last save tomorrow."  It wasn't until I'd jumped and died that I remembered the whole 'erases your save' rule.

 

Oh well, it was a shitty spawn anyway.  I'd already checked everywhere in Mystery Lake that had a chance of spawning either gun and found nothing.  I also ran out of matches, which is a problem for which the game has no real solution other than finding more matches. No bow drills here.  I'd planned to save a torch to carry fire between locations, but my last FOUR matches were spent without creating a useful fire due to failures.  I had to crawl under the floor of that barn that's everywhere and huddle in my sleeping bag to survive.  Luckily, I found another 20 matches pretty quickly, but if I had not I would have been fecked.  I was already down to 10 when I jumped off the mountain.  This is another of the holes in the me caused by turning a scripted adventure into  sandbox.

[Stains_not_here_man]

There's a magnifying glass to start fires with

[BeersBeers24/7]

I think this is on Xbox game pass. I'll check it out.

[BrewerGeorge]

I've got this game handled now.

 

The new girl is on about 30 days, roughly.  She's been through it and come out on top.  At about 10 days gametime, I accidentally went far afield without a bedroll or anything to cook in.  Middle of a blizzard, I got ambushed by a bear on the bridge in the upper corner of Mountain town.  Clothes torn up and within one little sliver of dying, I had to use the emergency steroid shot to live long enough to bandage.  The only "shelter" in the area is the little hollow that is the bear cave.  The bear was still standing at the head of the bridge between me and the cave so I shot the fecker in the face and dropped him.  Then I staggered towards the cave to build a fire.

 

Right after I get there, the steroid shot wears off and my tiredness tanks. I'm wet and my Cold bar is near the bottom.  I don't have even a can to warm a beverage and I can't sleep without a bedroll.  I had to stand beside the fire long enough to dry out and warm up.  You know how when you're really bad the controls stop working normally?  I kept having to work to not fall into the fire while warming up.  Once I had some warmth built up I limped over to one of the cars on the bridge, crawled into the back and slept for 4 hours.  Woke to red warmth meter, of course, but made it back to the cave and started the fire again.  Now that I wasn't dying I tore up my socks and one pair of long underwear to get cloth to repair my Mariner's Coat and Gauntlets from their bear damage.

 

I repeated that warm/sleep process about three more times - cutting a few hunks off the bear to cook and eat in the process.  (Luckily I started with enough water.)  Mid-day the next day, much the worse for wear with condition bar at about 1/3 and serviceable amounts of the other meters, I started back towards the church, dragging that bear skin and as much meat as I could carry along with me.  At that point in my education about the game, I didn't understand the scent mechanic, so I didn't know why the wolves kept attacking me during the walk back.  I killed 3 of them between the bridge and the church. 

 

The can was where I'd left it beside the fire in the church and there was a bed there.  I spent two days recovering - and going back for those wolves' meat and skins - before I headed back to Milton.  Even after cooking the bear meat wasn't very good because it took me so long to process, and I got food poisoning twice from eating it.  I just summoned my inner Vagus and kept eating while standing on that bear's skin and guts curing on the floor.

 

Now, at 30 days, she's the Mistress of Milton and has raided Mystery Lake for the last few days.  Her clothes are so strong that I'm starting to think about removing some of the doubling up items to save weight.  The only thing I'm still missing is a revolver and a hacksaw.

[Stains_not_here_man]

Awesome

This kind of emergent storytelling is what I absolutely love about this game.

Also, it's a masterclass in a certain style of game design where everything is basically an independent "system" that works together to create something that seems more complex than the sum of its parts. But that's a whole other conversation

[BrewerGeorge]

OTOH, I'm thinking about going searching for the .wav or .mp3 file "I hope nobody needs this" and replacing it with a file of silence.

[BrewerGeorge]

BTW, I still think it's all about the luck of the loot spawns. This girl was incredibly lucky to find Gauntlets, Mariner's Pea Coat, AND Mukluks all within the first three days.  Some of the best clothes in the game almost immediately is a HUGE leg up.

[Stains_not_here_man]

Yeah, it's definitely a thing. On the Reddit subs they refer to it as the cruelty or mercy of the RNG (random number generator).

If you want a challenge, start on Timberwolf Mountain and try to hit the summit on Day 1 or 2. There's GREAT loot up there if you can make it

[BrewerGeorge]

Alright, these wolves are really starting to piss me off.

 

First, I shot one with my one and only arrow and he ran away.  I tracked his blood trail all over the map - for like 20 minutes - but it eventually just disappeared and I lost the damn arrow.

 

Now there are two of them skulking around outside my main base in Milton, trying to mess with me every time I come and go.  I'm in the big house on the hill so I can see pretty well.  I come out the door and I've got two of the feckers growling at me from two different directions.  Again I shot one of them with the rifle and tried tracking the blood trail for 10+ minutes before it disappeared.  Have you ever successfully followed a blood trail to a dead body or is that just bulllshit?  Killing them doesn't seem to really help, they just come back as a new spawn.  The wiki says if you leave the body to rot they won't spawn as quickly, so I guess I'll try that.

 

They're really fecking annoying, though.

[Stains_not_here_man]

Yeah, I've tracked the blood to a body. Depending on where you shot them it can take 1-8 (I think) game hours for them to bleed out, so sometimes you'll be tracking them for a LONG time.

There's a trick where when they run away, you "pass time" for a couple hours. Often, they'll bleed out in that time, and the game prevents them from leaving "rendering distance" while passing time so they'll end up much closer to you. Walk in the direction you saw them run and listen for crows overhead.

[BrewerGeorge]

...

There's a trick where when they run away, you "pass time" for a couple hours. Often, they'll bleed out in that time, and the game prevents them from leaving "rendering distance" while passing time so they'll end up much closer to you. Walk in the direction you saw them run and listen for crows overhead.

Nice! Thanks.

[Stains_not_here_man]

I died last night on day 157. I was in Forlorn Muskeg trying to make my way over to the forge to see if there was a hammer over there and a blizzard came up. Couldn't see shit and got mauled by a bear. I managed to shoot him with my flare gun as he walked away and bandage up the wound but then I walked on to some thin ice and couldn't back off in time, and the plunge finished me off.

New game, Random start location. Broken Railroad. Headed for the hunting lodge and got a rifle and a box of bullets there. Made my way from there to the trapper's cabin in mystery lake. After work I'm going to head to Milton and then maybe hit the hushed river valley and try to find the moose satchel.

[BrewerGeorge]

I didn't know you could find the moose satchel.  I thought you had to make it.  Cool.

[Stains_not_here_man]

Yeah, the location changes between like 3 or 4 different spots in HRV. You will see smoke rising in the distance, that's the "mysterious signal fire." Depending on where it is, it can be pretty hard to get to, but there is always a moose satchel there.

In Ash Canyon you can get a "technical backpack" that permanently increases your carry capacity by +5kg and Crampons which make rope climbing easier and reduce sprain risk. I usually like to try and go for that and/or the satchel early on. I have died many, many times in HRV... Bring warm clothes and make sure your bedroll is in good shape

Edited by Stains_not_here_man, 08 February 2022 - 09:57 AM.

[BeersBeers24/7]

How long is one day in game time?

[Stains_not_here_man]

One day of game time takes 2 hours (1 minute passes in game every 5 seconds)

There are a of things that speed up time though