"The Challenge"

[jonottawa]

I think it would be more fun to have a community character with a challenging start (maybe ditch the hurt, helpless and afraid start and just do the Unreal World start but without any items or clothing?) that we could each play separately and report on how we fared. The only rule would be no do-overs (you get one shot, no going back to old saves.) And disclose all mods (preferably people would play with no mods so we'd have a level playing field, but disclosure at a minimum.)

If Sami likes the idea, maybe he could pick the character?

[kaumostardust]

Or share the save file. Then everyone can control the character for a month.

[Privateer]

Or share the save file. Then everyone can control the character for a month.

 There is/used to be some community characters that were passed from hand to hand after some months of game time passed.

… I think I recall most of them dyeing a couple year back. One or two may still survive or been restarted.

[Edico]

Curious if anyone has tried this with the new fire mechanics... Seems much harder

[甜汤]

It's really simple, it only requires high fishing skills. Even if it starts with a serious injury, you can live by fishing. This is boring, because when you are satisfied to survive, the so-called challenge only takes time to accumulate. If you are unlucky, you are doomed to die. If you are lucky, it is not too challenging. Since there is no clothes, there are two solutions to the problem of keeping warm. To steal clothes in the village, you need to be lucky to reach the village. After solving the warmth problem, you have more time to find places to fish to meet your food needs. The second solution is constant fire, which wastes a lot of time, requires high fishing skills, and is lucky to find waters where you can fish.

[Tinker]

I assume from your post that you have not tried the challenge, or you got a really lucky start.

It is difficult to fish, even with high skill, without tools. In a dozen or so starts I never had high fishing skills and only once did I find any water within two days, and that seemed to have no fish.

Stealing clothes from a village would help with warmth but I have never found a village in any of my starts.

[Privateer]

 Yup died again yesterday

[Plotinus]

Beginning of Dead Month

Day 1 67% injured, unable to stand.

Destroyed my items, decided to head west and veer south around trees. I set myself to stealth mode to train my stealth up while travelling. I am in a spruce mire, so i gather some rocks and some cloudberries, one of the only berries that are worth gathering at this time of year for thirst (you can stay abundant on them if you gather enough). lingonberries normally wouldn't be worth it because they take a long time to gather and don't provide much liquid in exchange, but because i'm gathering fatigue by crawling around, I do gather them when my fatigue is over 10% because i need to waste time anyway to defatigue myself. I also gather one of each kind of unknown mushroom so that I can practice identifying them. Whenever I get cool, I look for a tree trunk and light it, then stay by it until I'm warm again, gathering branches, making a stone knife, making torches. I pay attention to the terrain, when I reach a lichenous pine forest, i abandon the southwest direction to go in a circle around the edge of the lichenous pine forest and am rewarded by finding a hill, which i also go around the edge of, but no mountains this time. This won't always pay off but it will more often than not. I resume the southwest heading. When evening hits, I keep going, looking for a fallen tree trunk, then light it on fire and eat some lingonberries so my stomach will be full and I can sleep the full night long instead of waking up from hunger every few hours.

Day 2 62% injured, unable to stand.

I continue southwest. My method of carefully exploring near lichenous pine forests pays off and I reach a mountain. I peek on the peak and discover I'm near north eastern Sartola. Since I can't use the F6 map I don't know in which direction I'm near it but I'm going to keep heading southwest. However, I can see another mountain two tiles north of me, so I'm going to zoom back in and check out that first, because I'd really like to find some water and I can't see any from here, even though it's late morning, so this is as good as the visibility is going to get. I don't see any water from the other mountain either, so back south to the first and then continuing southwest. Found another mountain. If I go northwest one tile and then straight north I1ll hit a small lake. I'll stay there tonight and then come back. There's another mountain to the west of me, but I want to heal my wounds a bit. I find a log near the lake and push it onto the ice to break it, then pull it back. I heal my wounds, light the fire, get some sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night in the rain so i do a little rock fishing. No fish.

Day 3 57% injured, unable to stand.

I head back to the mountain, look up but I can't see anything new so time to head due west to the next mountain. From the next mountain i can see another lake one tile northwest and a bunch of tiles north so i'm going to head to that for the night. each tile is 64 little squares wide so i just count how many times i go left and if i hit 128 (2 tiles) then i start going right again instead.

Day 4 53% injured, unable to stand.

I didn't make it to the lake before i fell asleep so i continue towards the lake. It wasn't very far away. Went back to the mountain, still can't see any new mountains, still north east of sartola, so I go back to my southwest pattern. I'm cold and exhausted and it's evening so light a log and go to sleep but unfortunately wake up at midnight vigorous, so I light a torch and continue on. By the small hours, I'm bitterly cold so I light another tree trunk. This is the problem with travelling at night.  I wait by the fire until I'm tired and then sleep the rest of the night.

Day 5 48% injured, finally I can stand. 12% starvation

Now that I can stay this is going to go better. I'll have to waste less time recovering because walking isn't tiring like crawling. I'm not too worried about the starvation, after 4 fulls days I'm 12% starved so that's about 3% starvation per day. I can survive another month and it won't take me that long to find a village. I do have to hurry because it's only going to get colder but for now I can light a fire whenever i get cold and still have lots of time for walking. Next month I won't be able to walk 20 steps without going from hot to numbingly cold. This means no more berry gathering. I have about 7lb of berries and I'm only going to eat them if I go multiple days without finding water and am in danger of dying of thirst, or if they start to go stale. I happened upon another mountain. There's another mountain southwest of here, 6 tiles west, more tiles than that to the south so I'm going to head for that. From this mountain there's another mountain to the west, just one tile south. And from here the are some mountains to the south. North west of those mountains is a small lake where i'll camp tonight.

Day 6 45% injured, 15% starved

Heading back to the mountain, now that it's morning I can see another mountain to the south, 6 tiles to the east, so heading that way now. And from there, there's one directly southeast a few tiles away. Still "near northern sartola" I'm really curious if i'm heading in the right direction or not but bouncing between mountains is the safest way to go. The next mountain is 8 tiles west and 14 tiles south which is going to be harder not to lose my count and i might overshoot it or something but if I don't make it there'll always be another mountain. I made it there safely and now there's one just one tile south and a long way to the west and it's near a lake! I'm spending the night at the lake and then continuing on tomorrow.

Day 7 41% injured, 16% starved

No fish at the lake, healed my injuries, heading back to the mountains. There are a few mountains in a row. From here, if I had northwest until I hit the water and then west until I hit the hill and then go northwest one more tile I should hit another mountain but if I don't hit the water where I expect to then I just need to follow along the coast and I'll still hit the mountain. And now it says I'm in north eastern Sartola. I don't see any roads yet but it's only a matter of time.  If I go to the southeast edge of these hills and then go straight south, then follow the lake counterclockwise until just before I reach the hill and then go straight south again, I'll reach the next mountain. I must have miscalculated because I never found this lake but sooner or later I'll find something. I found a thicket! I checked all four sides in case there was a road or other village-like tile near it but there wasn't. it was a long shot, groves are often near villages but thickets are random. I have come to a lake. I'm pretty sure it's not the one I was aiming for. I'm going to explroe around it. I drop 3 spruce twigs near the shore so that i don't go around in circles if I go all the way around. I spend the night at the shore

Day 8 38% injured, 19% starved

I'll continue this another day.

[Plotinus]

Day 8 38% injured, 19% starved

Continuing around the lake, I found a mountain. Now I'm "near eastern Sartola." I guess I'll continue around this lake till I get to some hills and then go west to the next mountain. Continuing around the lake, I see a forest reindeer carcass in the ice. I'm going to go get it, but first I'm going to pull a trunk to the shore and light it on fire because the water is very cold. Miraculously, I didn't fall through the ice. With the stone knife I was able to get 29 cuts of meat from the forest reindeer carcass, which will keep me fed for a while. I roast only 10 of the meat cuts because the stale timer resets when you roast them and I want to be able to eat all of them before they spoil.

Day 9 33% injured, 19% starved

I wake up and my tanning forest reindeer hide is ready to be picked up, my fire is burnt down to embers. I pick it up and go back on my way. I'm going to wait until I'm cold again to do more tanning, I don't have time to waste. I reach the next mountain but I don't see any other mountains. There's a lake to the west so I'm going to head towards that. Going to go around it, then when I hit the lichenous pine forest west of the lake, I'm going to go west to the next lake and then go around that. We'll see. Again I leave 3 spruce twigs by the lake to mark my place so if I see it again I'll know I've gone all the way around. I need to pay more attention when circling around the ice, I keep walking onto the ice and falling through, but while warming up by a fire I finish tanning my 9 lb forest reindeer fur. Next time I light a fire I'll make some clothes but now I'm going to sleep.

Day 10 27% injured, 12% starved

Continuing around the lake. I reach my spruce twigs again so now I'm just going to go west. I find a large lichenous pine forest area with a hill and explore around it but don't find any mountains so I go west some more. Eventually, I find a lake and drop some branches and start a circle around it. Found a mountain by exploring a lichenous pine forest but it's too dark to see very much 'm going to head north to a lake and then come back in the morning. I wake up in the snow so I make a shirt and then go back to sleep.

Day 11 24% injured, 12% starved

From the mountain, if I go south one tile then east to the lake, then due south I'll hit another mountain. I'm now "Near Sartola" so maybe I'm not heading in the right idrection but we'll see. From this mountain if I go southwest till I hit the lake then follow it clockwise then I'll hit another mountain. While going around that lake I found a squirrel so I took some time to throw rocks at it. At the mountain, I see that if I continue along this lake I'll hit a river. rivers are great. There are often villages along rivers, and there may be other mountains by the river later, and it will also lead to the sea. If I hit the sea, I'll continue south until I find another river and then go along it until I get to a lake and then go around the south side of the river. I think this is the best path to finding a village.  Another option, if I get lucky with finding more mountains, is to pay attention to when I stop being "Near Sartola" and see if I reach sartola proper, then if I pass through Sartola and come out the other side I could turn around and weave back and forth through sartola until I find a village. I spend some time gathering heathers but I get cold so I light a fire for the night and skin and butcher my squirrel carcass.

Day 12 18% injured, 10% starved

Continuing along the river. I've come across a lot of fords but I haven't crossed any of them. I encounter a lichenous pine forest and veer away from the river to explore it and am rewarded with a hill, and eventually a mountain. The mountain turns out to be bordering the same river i was following so i would've found it anyway. It's late afternoon now so I'll head back to the water and light a fire and make some fur footwear with the rest of my forest reindeer fur and squirrel fur.

Day 13 15% injured, 3% starved

Well I'm in Sartola now and it's snowing a lot. Next mountain: follow river to the rapids, then continue following the river west until it turns to the south, then head straight south to the mountain. Still in Sartola! And if I had south from here I'll hit another river and there's a mountain, i just go south to the water, west to the hill, north to the lichenous pine forest, west to the mountain. From here, south to the river and there will be some more mountains along the river. Followed this chain of mountains and now I can see this river joins the one above it to the west of me so I want to go back the way I came and around it to continue along its south bank, or maybe venture across one of the fords. It turned out there was a ford just south of the cliff so I lay down and inched my way across the surface. Success! The ice didn't break. But I forgot to look where the mountains on the south side of the river are so back to the cliff. Looks like if I go to one tile east of the second rapids and then south I'll find a mountain. Looks like there's a river south of me too but I don't see any other mountains yet. I'm going to go back the way I came and continue west along the river.

Day 14 13% injured, 0% starved

I reached a mountain at the end of the yesterday and camped with a fire. Now it's morning and zoomed out I see I am once again "Near Sartola", so I will go southeast to the next river and head back east through Sartola until I reach the other side again. Spent the day heading east along the river, nothing of note happened.

Day 15 12% injured, 0% starved

Almost out of food again, but it'll be a month till I starve. Found some more mountains. The next one is just east of the second rapids and north from there. And then back south to the river, follow it to the hill, then two tiles northeast of the hill. and then back to the hill, and the one tile west and a bunch of tiles north. Going east to the lake for the night and going to view this mountain again in the morning.

Day 16 11% injured, 0% starved

Headed back to the river. The next mountain is south of the river, one tile west of the rapids and a few tiles south but it looks like the river is ending in a small lake soon so maybe I'll get there via ford or maybe i'll get there by going around.

Day 17 8% injured, 0% starved

Starting to starve again. I'm in Southern Sartola and I don't see any other mountains from this one so I'm just going to keep heading west along the south side of this river. I've been carrying a rock equipped and throwing it at any bird I see and finally got lucky.

Day 18 7% injured, 0% starved

continuing around the river.

Day 19 5% injured, 3% starved

continuing around the river.  Thoroughly explored a large lichenous pine forest but no luck this time. Finally found a mountain and I've passed through Sartola again so going to head north back to the river, spend the night, and try going east again. Managed to catch a pike with a rock!

Day 20 4% injured, 4% starved

From here I should go east to one tile east of the hills, then south to the next hill, then east to the next mountain. And then one tile east and a few tiles south. And then one tile east and 2 north. From here I don't see any mountains so I'm just going to east and hope for the best. No mountains, but I did finally find a bit of water so I'll camp here for the night and then circumambulate it.

Day 21 2% injured, 0% starved

The ground goes up quite steeply just a little bit around the lake so I follow it, find a  hill, follow that, find a mountain and now I know I'm back in Southern Sartola and I have some more mountains to check out. Next is one tile north and a few to the east. I see a field to the north! I don't see a village but where there's a field there's a village. So if I go straight north until I hit the lichenous pine forest, then straight west until I hit the hill, then from the hill I go north one tile to the lichenous pine forest, north one tile to the heathland and then I go west from there. Once I hit the field I don't know, I guess I'll go west for a bit, say 5 tiles, then 1 tile north and 8 tiles east and 1 tile north and 8 tiles west again -- or we'll see. I found a road and then I followed along it and then I saw dog tracks and then I found a village. So from here on out it'll be smooth sailing. Now I help a villager out with some chores and hopefully get a better knife out of it. While I was wandering around, I was collecting feathers when I saw them so I'm going to make some arrows to sell.

Day 22 0% injured, 2% starved

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough feathers to make enough arrows to get a broad knife, even with my reward. I borrowed a fine axe in the village to make a wooden bowl so I can carry some water around with me, and a wooden shovel in case I wasn't too late for digging but it is. I guess my next step is to make a trap fence without pit traps, I'll buy a leather rope from the village so I can make a stone axe and a bear trap for my trap fence.

[Plotinus]

key ideas:

* pick a direction. East is probably bad because you might wind up north of njerpez territory where there's nothing. North can be good because there are lots of mountains so it'll be easy to find one and easy to go from mountain to mountain, but it can be harder to find water, and northern villages don't have fields or roads between them so it can be harder to stumble on one. This is offset by the more mountains I guess. South can be good because there's lots of water and you're basically guaranteed to hit a river eventually. West can be good, you'll probably hit a river or the sea.

* pay attention to the terrain. If it's sloping down, follow it to find water. You can drink water in pine mires and open mires safely. Get some cloudberries early on (spruce mire, pine mire, open mire), but use them for security as a last resort -- if you're too thirsty to stand, you'll have them. If you eat them when you're only a little thirsty and then you find some water soon, then the berries are gone. I still have my berries by the time reach the village. You probably don't need more than 5 lb of berries and you're in a race against time with the cold.

* rivers and lakes are your friend, especially early on. It's pretty common for animals to misjudge the ice. If you explore all rivers and lakes thoroughly, you might find one dead animal per season like I did, more if it's a herd animal

* when the land slopes up, explore thoroughly to find a mountain. once you find a mountain, you can bounce from mountain to mountain for a while if you pay attention to where you have to go.

* whenever you're cool, start looking for a tree trunk and light a fire.

* pick a direction and stick to it, but once you find your way into a cultural territory, if you pass through it to the other side, try to turn around and pass through it in a snake S part, sooner or later you'll find a road.

* don't waste time fishing; it's really hard with a rock and you're in a race against time, but it's okay to fish a little if you wake up in the middle of the night and you want to wait until morning to start moving again, because you might get lucky.

[Teellox]

I borrowed a fine axe in the village to make a wooden bowl so I can carry some water around with me

Wait, that's a thing you can do? I've always had villagers get angry with me if I'm holding something of theirs for too long, even if I haven't moved out of the village tile.

[BlankPaper]

I borrowed a fine axe in the village to make a wooden bowl so I can carry some water around with me

Wait, that's a thing you can do? I've always had villagers get angry with me if I'm holding something of theirs for too long, even if I haven't moved out of the village tile.

If you leave the axe on the ground and craft your wooden bowl on a nearby tile, they won't get angry and you still get to use the tool!

[Plotinus]

Yeah, I justify it in my head like "if I don't pick it up then it signals to them that i'm not intending to steal it or buy it and i'm just asking them to borrow it" When I'm better off i can give them some food to thank them.

I've spent the next couple days constructing a tiny bit of fencing and a bird trap, which has caught a bird. i light a single slender tree trunk with 3 branches whenever i get cold, and it's pretty slow going with a stone knife and stone axe. i'm thinking of going back to the village to craft a bunch of wooden stakes there by their fire with their axe.

[Plotinus]

Day 26 0% injured, 8% starved

In the past few days I've made 16 fences and 1 light lever trap, which caught a raven in my trap so I'm going to make some more arrows and then hang out in the village making more wooden stakes because it takes forever in the cold with having to light fires all the time.

Day 33 0% injured, 33% starved

My trap fence now has 1 light lever trap, 1 bear trap, and 1 small deadfall trap with 8 fences between each. I'm going to visit another village now. I wound up buying another leather rope but I can't really afford anything else.

Day 40 0% injured, 47% starved

My trap fence now also has a large deadfall trap. I'm going back to a village now and goint to make some 48 wooden stakes  and then my fence will be done. I am starting to get concerned about the starvation, next goal is a fishing rod. Got the branches quest, maybe I'll finally get a broad knife at this village. Success! It took ten squirrel hides worth a reward (it was the same village I got my last quest from), 16 rough arrows, and 1 arrow, but it was worth it.

Day 42 0% injured, 52% starved

I spent a couple days visiting some other villages in hopes of finding a fishing rod. Then when I got back to my trap fence, I found an elk in my bear trap! I'm saved!

Day 47 0% injured, 39% starved

I made an overcoat and leggings out of the elk fur and have dried most of the meat and roasted the rest.  I'm exploring a new village now, still hoping for a fishing rod. I made notes of what items the village has for later but nothing I can buy now. Now that I'm a bit better equipped with furs, I'm going to take a trip down south because there will definitely be fishing rods in islander villages and sometimes islander territory extends onto the mainland. Also, the ice is thick enough now that it's safe to cross it.

Day 51 0% injured, 20% starved

I had to visit 2 villages in islander territory but I did find a fishing rod. The islander adventurer only wanted one rough arrow for it so that's pretty good. I'm out of food again but I'm going to be just fine. I think I'll start trying to build a house very slowly, still with my stone axe, but doing quests religiously every 14 days so that I can try to get some rewards and a better axe. Also, I'll check my trap fence everyday and reset them until I get a skill up. You can get 3 skill ups per skill per day but I'm not in that much of a hurry.

Day 63 0% injured, 31% starved

I got another quest 8 days ago and got a reward at the village that has the masterwork handaxe. With the arrows I've made, I have almost enough to buy it but not quite. I've mostly been working on training up trapping, but I just happened on a fatigued badger so i followed him till he was breathless and killed him. My dried elk will be ready in about a week, too. I made some badger mittens out of the badger, and also a fur hood out of the rest of the badger and a little bit of my overcoat. As you can see from my starvation, I'm not spending all that much time fishing -- only when I'm cold and waiting by the fire. Otherwise I'm training trapping up and moving logs from my trapping area to where my home will be -- this is less efficient than just chopping them down at my new home but I find it relaxing.

Day 68 15% injured, 27% starved

Had a few really cold days and I got a bit frostbit so i've just been sitting by a fire and fishing until this cold snap ends, couldn't venture away from my fire long enough to do much else. Just got a squirrel today. I think I1ll make it (and a little bit more of my overcoat) into a cap. Tomorrow I'll check the village again for another quest and by the time I got home i'll have some dried elk cuts ready.

Day 69 15% injured, 28% starved

Wounded adventurer quest! He says it's in a lichenous pine forest with a heathland south of that so real easy. The reward is a treasure in a cave (yay no digging) in Fallencliff in southeast Sartola. Great. I could have just kept his woodsman's axe which would have been really useful to me right now but I'm betting that the treasure in the cave better.

Day 70 15% injured, 28% starved

There's an escaping small bear in this cave but I'm really determined to get the reward so i'm just going to try to avoid it. 1 masterwork trident, 2 masterwork angos, masterwork leather shoes, masterwork fur footwear, 2 masterwork leather boots, 4 superior winter elk furs, 1 bronze flower-ornamented comb. I safely avoided the bear. On my way home, I take a break to sit by a fire and craft a cloak. Normally this would be a waste of a superior fur because they are very valuable for trading and the best cloak you can make is just decent, but I want to be able to light fewer fires. I'm also going to repair my other clothes that I had previously cannibalised a bit to make more clothes sooner than I had new furs for.

Day 71 14% injured, 25% starved

Traded my elk fur cap, 5 rough arrows and 11 arrows (and my 7 squirrel hides reward) for a masterwork handaxe. life is going to be good from now on.

Day 79 15% injured, 0% starved

checking my traps i find a badger, and while processing it, a bull elk, and while processing that, an eagle owl.

day 84 13% injured, 0% starved

Finished processing all of those animals, went to a village, got the forest spirits quest, so I guess my next goal is to find some silver but it's not a very high priority goal; i want to build a small sauna.

day 91 10% injured, 0% starved

It's the start of Pearl month now, February. I have built two walls and a door so far of my sauna. I'll put this aside now and play some more another day.

[Tom H]

TWO Masterwork Angos? In my 800+ hours I've never even SEEN an Ango. The value of those must be off the chart!