Topic: "The Challenge"  (Read 42383 times)


Plotinus

« Reply #45 on: August 30, 2020, 03:04:36 PM »
Yeah, I got really lucky there.

You can sometimes find angos in the archipelago, being carried by an islander adventurer or an islander hunter, almost never lying around for sale in their shops. Finding masterwork ones is pretty incredible.


Plotinus

« Reply #46 on: August 30, 2020, 03:09:33 PM »
Day 101 14% injured, 0% starved

Checking out a new village in case they have any silver.

Day 102 14% injured, 0% starved

Checked another village, this one had the robber's quest. I accepted it but I am probably going to let it lapse. Returned home, found a glutton in my traps.

Day 114 13% injured, 0% starved

Finished my 1x2 sauna.

Day 119 10% injured, 0% starved

Visited some villages in driik, didn't find any silver but did get a travelling companion quest. Luckily, my character is actually is Sartolanian so it's going to be easy to take him to a village.

Day 123 7% injured, 0% starved

Traded 10 lb of superior elk fur for a perfect shovel. I'm going to go find the island where the reward from the travelling companion quest is, though I can't dig it yet of course.

Day 141 0% injured, 0% starved

Visited a new village, got the branches quest, bought some rye grains and flax seeds. The flax does rely on a mod but winter will be over by the time i plant them, and the OP says that's okay after winter. It's late soil month right now so I'm almost there. I still have 7 cloudberries left from way back at the beginning. I've been using them to bait my traps slowly and replacing them as they get eaten but soon it will be swidden and they'll go stale and I'll eat the rest of them.

Day 153 0% injured, 0% starved

It's Swidden (April) now. I have been building a little cabin just a few steps away from the sauna, mostly for lack of other things to do. The snow is thigh deep still and I'm checking everyday [alt-a s] to see if I can start preparing a little field yet or not, but it's not yet. I guess I should gather up my furs and wander around looking for travelling traders to get some silver, or failing that, explore the driik villages until I find one.  The robbers quest did expire, I never went looking for them.

Buoidda

« Reply #47 on: November 14, 2020, 08:55:56 PM »
On first go I soon resorted zooming out and was in Driik in no time. Didn't feel like a challenge anymore, so I quit.

I just had to try properly: Sharing my experience

At first it felt so exciting, not knowing where u are. Really lost. I had piece of paper taped so I couldn't see region clues. (They can also ruin your experience since they sometimes flash on zoomed-in map while map is loading.)

My strategy was to move towards populated direction asap. No hunting, no berry-picking, just go. It's easier to find villages, game and water if you move as much as possible. I did meet an elk near a lake at some point and soon wore elk. Starvation and cold weren't a problem.

Since I've spent six real hours walking south (zoomed in) and side-eyeing TV. Utterly tedious. No fun at all.

It turns out I was inside Reemi area the whole time. Without finding a single village (I've passed one) and only couple of useless mountains.

Spoiler: show

The character is alive and well but I don't think I am :P  So much for that saturday evening. Be warned.

PS. I'd modify the rules so that zooming out is allowed after finding first cliff/mountain. Or just tape the paper and zoom out immediately. Sure it's easier but rules also tell to have fun.  ;)

PPS. If I may say so, I'd suggest to rename the challenge something like the "lost challenge" or smth. Just to ease distinguishing between different challenges, I'm sure people invent more...   :o
« Last Edit: November 14, 2020, 09:12:12 PM by Buoidda »

Rhaikh

« Reply #48 on: April 10, 2021, 09:53:53 PM »
It's been a year so I tried this again.

Random starting location (press new world and then start immediately), HHA, winter, drop everything.
Slightly easier than original rules:
- Chose culture & rerolled a little bit.
- Allowed myself to zoom out only after reaching a mountain peak
- Not allowed to use villages

On my 2nd attempt, just killed a reindeer with a bow cornering it against a trap fence :)  Very hard, on the edge of starvation and freezing until this.  Did not really seek out cloudberries this time, all trapping and active hunting. *Edit*: My survival was still tenuous after this kill, but soon I took down a boar and 2 elk.  That's enough fur for some warm clothes which makes life much easier.  I was able to trap a bear, with 100 cuts drying, so I think that's a win.

Not being able to zoom out really changes the game a lot and is the main challenge.  I am not sure about the realism factor in searching for a mountain, it seems like you could just look up and see one.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2021, 02:47:35 AM by Rhaikh »

Utumno

« Reply #49 on: April 25, 2021, 11:48:09 PM »

Hi,

Tried this challenge a couple times, always ended up a frozen statue. My strategy was to be always on the move until finding a village. Never happened before death!

This time I tried something different. Spawned near a big lake, so just stayed there. The idea was to get prepared as much as possible before going on the walk to find civilization.

Sequence of activities was:

1. Make stone knife, javelin. (for general work, fishing)
2. Build first shelter (2 days) by the shore.
3. Spawn light lever traps (over 20 or so) all around the big lake. Bait them with whatever berry is around, don't eat them. Sacrifice berries to the gods, they like it.
4. Alternate days between mainly fishing, and, if food surplus, mainly exploring/collecting wood for heating.

Your main enemy is the cold, much more than hunger. Therefore you always need wood, and with just a knife that means cutting down young pines. Lots of them. Also, collect branches and pine needles as kindling. Think ahead: build up caches of small tree trunks in strategic locations around the lake, plus shelters next to each one. The shelters give you some protection against the cold, and serve as secure bases to retreat if it gets too cold.

When traveling around the lake, always carry some kindling with you , and OBSERVE YOUR TEMPERATURE. If it falls to "cold", you should be near one of your wood caches, or have enogh time to cut down a young spruce and fire it before getting too cold. Again, thinking ahead is essential. Interrupt ANY activity if you temperature gets too low: fishing, building, hunting, whatever: cold kills, always, and another opportunity will arise sooner or later.

Be persistent and organized, and always be doing something. In my run it took me 25 traps and 24 days to kill enough birds to manufacture a leather cord (15 ft), and therefore a stone axe. Starvation only lasted the first 6 days because, between fishing and birds, I was always pretty well fed, even had some leftover food in particularly good days. The weather varied quite a lot: some days were almost like autumn and I used them to the max, other were so brutally cold I could do nothing but stand near a fire, and I got frostbite a few times. But all in all it was survivable. Watch your sleep: being awake in daylight is important.   

Soon afterwards, a stroke of good luck: got a badger! Badgers are great animals because any human can just run them down. From its fur I made enough cords to build a primitive bow plus some arrows.
 
By the day 43 I had another badger and more birds, plus a reliable 2-3 pikes in reserve. From the birds' leather I made a leather cap and shoes, and from the new badger, a fur hood.

So there I was in the winter month, fully armed with stone knife and axe and bow plus arrows, and my old javelin. With shoes and a hood to have a little warmth. Apart from that, buck naked, but hey, I was alone. And with a full belly, surprisingly.

At this point i realized I could live indefinitely by the big lake, if I wasn't careless with the heating. I had two options:

1. Stay there until spring. Nothing new to do: fishing, birding, cutting down young trees, hunting the occasional animal. Pros: Quite safe, and it wasn't impossible that a big hervibore wandered about, offering the chance of getting some proper clothing and a change in diet. Cons: I'll have to live like that for months. Boring.   

2. Look for other people. Pros: My new gear gave me a better chance of completing the challenge than before, and I could actually stumble into an elk or similar. Cons: simply dangerous: already in winter month and getting colder, so mobility was compromised. I could well be practically disabled by hunger before hunting anything. Or just freeze, again. Or die of thirst.

Of course, being an irresponsible jerk, I choose 2.

Picked everything useful and went south. South is the best direction to go: from a random location, cultures tend to be closer in the north-south axis than in the east-west axis, and if you miss them, sooner or later you'll hit either another big lake or the sea. And that was what happened to me: after some days got to the ocean. Began walking west along the coast hoping to hit driik or some river mouth (to go upriver and explore). I used the cliffs as mountains (they have the same picture as mountains so I guess they are ok for the challenge?)  A few days later, an elk! Got him (almost freezing myself in the chase) and well, paradise: overcoat, mittens, fur boots, some 50 cuts. Yeah, the challenge was done. Only a matter of time, right?

I consider it done. I forgot some bad dream that had my happy self, just 3 days after the big kill, accidentely freezing to death  with all my damn new clothes on, trying to fire some stupid small trunk or something that refused to light up for a bit too long. But it was just a bad dream, a nightmire. I finished The Challenge!

Right? Right???




Tinker

« Reply #50 on: August 08, 2021, 11:00:27 AM »
Having tried lots of time I got fed up with dying 60% of the time due to not finding water. In other game starts I am always 3 or 400m from water, in the challenge it seems I can often travel 40km in a straight line with no sign of water.

Last try with the challenge I changed one rule - start at the beginning of summer and survive until winter starts. Luckily I found water the first day, and there was not much problem with cold but everything else was hard or harder, the biggest problem was food, almost no plants were harvestable and for the first week I saw no birds or animals, I had spent time making tools and crude weapons. I got lucky with a black grouse, single shot with a rock got it in flight, then 2 days later a squirrel but fishing attempts with a club were pointless. I have a dozen snares set but no bait until the berries are ripe, I placed the traps on berry plants so they are self baiting. I have decide a net might work better for fishing but need a raft to set it, my starvation penalties make it impossible to fell a tree with a stone axe so I need to collect fallen trunks, this will take some time.