Is it possible to swim off this island

[Homocommando]

Gaps between islands were small when the ice was there... But it wasn't possible to swim (unrealistic I could swim in ice cold water)... Now you can swim but the gaps are larger...

Apparently you can only swim 7 wilderness tiles with 100 swimming skill... But I am not sure how diagonal movement works? Technically I would only have to swim across 3 tiles diagonally NE, and then 2 tiles straight to the north...

Also to me it seems that the fatigue is random... Once I swim 1 tile, get 1% fatigue, once I have to swim many tiles to get 1 fatigue... Weird...

[Plotinus]

It's not exactly 7 tiles with 100 swimming, it depends on your encumbrance and on your endurance. It will vary from character to character how far you can safely go at 100 swimming.

Yes you can probably make it, if you endurance is good and you're unencumered -- you want to be naked for the attempt, you can come back for your stuff later once you have a raft.. To be sure, Try swimming diagonally from the bottom right of the tile with your shelter, to the tile northeast of it, and then back again. Count how many laps you can do diagonally.

The fatigue increase is not very random - you always get 1% for the first step, but after that it shoud be fairly consistent to 2%, then to 3%, and you will always get the message "you feel moderately fatigued" right at the halfway point -- if you go in a straight line and get to "moderately fatigued", you can turn back and reach the shore safely. 5 tiles is 320 steps, so see if you can do 160 steps before you get to "moderately fatigued" before making the attempt.

[PALU]

You can carry a very small amount of stuff with you.
- You can wear a small amount of clothing for no encumbrance.
- If I remember correctly, you can have an encumbrance of 1 with no penalty compared to 0. I've used that to bring a small amount of stuff with me.

There's only a small window where the water is warm enough not to cool you down, and you can't really afford any cooling when going for a long distance swim. You can do shorter distances when cooled down (assuming you can warm up at the destination), and you can start your swim training (from 0) when the water is quite cold, as you can't stay in for long anyway before getting tired.

The exact point at which you get your tiring percentages is indeed random, but for long distances this averages out. Also note that your range is more random at lower skill levels, as you get swim attempts that won't propel you forward.

[Plotinus]

Yeah, it might be that you don't manage to get your skill up to 100 in one summer, though you should try very hard. Do the nettle thing I suggested in the other thread as a backup plan, it's good to have several plans that you're working on simultaneously. You can probably get swimming good enough to collect nettles from nearby islands this summer, though manage your fatigue very carefully, be conservative with how much you carry. Thresh them at the place you harvest them and then make more trips instead of fewer carrying a safe amount.

[PALU]

All my attempts to start on a remote island have succeeded in getting back during the first summer (starting in "spring"), ignoring the ones where the character died before getting the chance to start training swimming. I think I may also have had an attempt where I managed to get to an island where I made a raft and paddle, only to succumb to the robbers that had dumped my character on the island in the first place.
But yes, hard and consistent swimming training is required, with multiple swimming sessions per suitable day to get as close to the maximum daily improvement as possible. I think some escapes may have been made with only 90+ skill, though.

[Plotinus]

I did have one character that took multiple summers, but his island was very remote, more than 14 squares from the nearest island. I had to do the nettles thing with him.

[McKwack]

Gaps between islands were small when the ice was there... But it wasn't possible to swim (unrealistic I could swim in ice cold water)... Now you can swim but the gaps are larger...

Apparently you can only swim 7 wilderness tiles with 100 swimming skill... But I am not sure how diagonal movement works? Technically I would only have to swim across 3 tiles diagonally NE, and then 2 tiles straight to the north...

Also to me it seems that the fatigue is random... Once I swim 1 tile, get 1% fatigue, once I have to swim many tiles to get 1 fatigue... Weird...

Why did you decide to try swimming off the island instead of crafting both a raft and a paddle, again?

From the looks of the zoomed out map, once you managed to craft a stone-axe, you should be able to get enough lumbers to start your raft-building project. Especially now that we could use the stone-axe to make boards from lumbers (which you could then use to craft paddles), I see no reason why you couldn't build a raft from the get-go. 

..unless you just want to try building up your swimming skills, which is a different matter altogether.. 

PS in my latest attempt to start on an island (or island chains), I got lucky and found 3 tree trunks, already fallen and up for grabs.. 

[JP_Finn]

Trunks have never been the problem for raft building. Tying material yes. And no boards for paddle without an axe has been the main hurdle in older versions.

[PALU]

As JP_Finn said, the absolute hurdle used to be the requirement of a real axe to make a paddle, as it used to be impossible to make boards with a stone axe.

Tying material is also an issue, although you can eventually scrape together enough materials for ropes, so that part was a matter of time, but a raft without a paddle is useful as a platform from which to fish, but not for traveling between islands (it would be if you could tow it and climb up onto it to rest when you get tired, but that's not a game feature).

[McKwack]

Trunks have never been the problem for raft building. Tying material yes. And no boards for paddle without an axe has been the main hurdle in older versions.

"in older version", yes, that's why I said "especially now", since I would have thought that OP is playing the latest version (if he's not, then it's my bad, sorry..)

As JP_Finn said, the absolute hurdle used to be the requirement of a real axe to make a paddle, as it used to be impossible to make boards with a stone axe.

Tying material is also an issue, although you can eventually scrape together enough materials for ropes, so that part was a matter of time, but a raft without a paddle is useful as a platform from which to fish, but not for traveling between islands (it would be if you could tow it and climb up onto it to rest when you get tired, but that's not a game feature).

CMIIW, now that you could make a stone axe using spruce withes, as long as you could find at least 2 spruce saplings (1 withe for the axe and the other 3 for the raft), you should be good to go.

[JP_Finn]

Not wrong, but spruce saplings aren’t only option; birchbark is solid option as well.

[Plotinus]

Trunks have never been the problem for raft building. Tying material yes. And no boards for paddle without an axe has been the main hurdle in older versions.

"in older version", yes, that's why I said "especially now", since I would have thought that OP is playing the latest version (if he's not, then it's my bad, sorry..)

As JP_Finn said, the absolute hurdle used to be the requirement of a real axe to make a paddle, as it used to be impossible to make boards with a stone axe.

Tying material is also an issue, although you can eventually scrape together enough materials for ropes, so that part was a matter of time, but a raft without a paddle is useful as a platform from which to fish, but not for traveling between islands (it would be if you could tow it and climb up onto it to rest when you get tired, but that's not a game feature).

CMIIW, now that you could make a stone axe using spruce withes, as long as you could find at least 2 spruce saplings (1 withe for the axe and the other 3 for the raft), you should be good to go.

He didn't mention it in this thread, so it makes sense that you didn't know. There was a previous thread where we convinced him that it is sometimes possible to get off the island, and he mentioned it there that it's 3.62,  http://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=7361.0


Withes were added in 3.60. If he has a real knife, he could get his timbercraft or carpentry high enough to make fine or perfect withes and make a fine stone axe that way, but if he only has a stone knife, it won't work, he'll get poor ones only, and his island is small, so the saplings are limited and he shouldn't attempt making them until the skill is quite high. But that's another viable option, and some more skills to work on training up once he's got his three skill ups in swimming for the day.

[Homocommando]

Withes were added in 3.60. If he has a real knife, he could get his timbercraft or carpentry high enough to make fine or perfect withes and make a fine stone axe that way, but if he only has a stone knife, it won't work, he'll get poor ones only, and his island is small, so the saplings are limited and he shouldn't attempt making them until the skill is quite high. But that's another viable option, and some more skills to work on training up once he's got his three skill ups in swimming for the day.

ooooo how much timbercraft and what's the best way to level it up, apart from making boards???

[Plotinus]

I'm not sure In your urw folder, there's a file called diy_glossary.txt, it shows which crafting items increase timbercraft. It looks like wooden stake and staff, but they have a penalty that makes it harder to learn from. still, you could chop down slender tree trunks and make wooden stakes or staff and expect to get some skill increases. you can get up to 3 per day, but the first easier than the third.

Otherwise, you can get skill increases from chopping down trees. make them into logs with the stone axe before you make them into blocks, because that's three chances per tree -> trunk, log, block. if you go striaght from trunk -> block then you miss one of the chances for a skill up, and your trees are limited on the island so that matters. make sure you leave at least four trunks for the raft and paddle, don't use all your wood. you can do this on neighoburing islands, as well. There are a few you can swim to.

If you're open to playing with mods, you could install one of the older versions of BAC, I remember a bug that trying to make modded boards, which was still impossible with the stone axe, would give you skill ups even though you never succeeded at making boards, but i forget what version it was fixed in.  But of course if you're open to mods then you can solve the whole puzzle that way, too, add a "rough board" item that takes 8 hours to make and only yields one board from a whole trunk but is still possible with a stone axe. If it were me, that'd spoil the excitement of trying to do almost impossible thing and maybe succeeding or maybe drowing with the shore in sight, but if you are bored and are starting to hate the game then it's a good option, you  should always try to have fun and not be bored when playing.