"The Challenge"

[koteko]

But still the torches will burn down - do you make sure to always have one lighted torch on? I never noticed a feedback like "the torch will burn down soon" but arguably, I don't use them often..

[Privateer]

I'm 0/1 on this challenge, injuries to hands prevented making stone tools, found water on day 3 but had no means to break ice. Fell through ice to get a drink and froze to death..

[caethan]

But still the torches will burn down - do you make sure to always have one lighted torch on? I never noticed a feedback like "the torch will burn down soon" but arguably, I don't use them often..

Yeah, you get messages about 30 minutes before the torch burns out, so I just always kept a torch on. 

[Míriel]

    Hi everyone, I've been trying The Challenge for a few days and I liked it very much. I was very lucky in my random character, only a little less than what I usually play with, she could walk at 6 km/h which is very good for me since I like to run big game to exhaustion also, the initial wounds weren't serious and I could make tools right away, even better, I started by a river so cleaning wounds and running big game against the not yet frozen river provided me with clothes fairly soon.
    What I really liked was that since I couldn't zoom out except in hills and such I had to memorize my surroundings and the location of my traps and shelters which is a very realistic challenge, and that I noticed I could play a whole life without meeting anyone and I would be fine, I wouldn't have clothes or tools above rough and crude quality but I could make a living (a very important realization since I couldn't find a single village in 120 days), also I used traps in large scale for the first time and it was exciting to find animals trapped in them and wonder if I could make them more efficient.
    In the end that was my undoing, a lynx was roaming around my traps to take the birds in it so I baited a big deadfall trap I made for a previous lynx doing the same and the next day it was caught I moved in to kill it with blunt blows and it clawed me into unconsciousness and death  , next time I'm going to stone them to death.   

[littlemoons]

The Challenge is fucking insane, I did six runs recently.

First four attempts ended up dead due to thirst. Fifth time, I can't remember how I died. Sixth time, sixth time I lasted sixteen glorious weeks with only a leather cap on my head, dozens and dozens of bird traps that only yielded about one carcass every three days, drinking water from swamp puddles, and running from campfire to campfire trying to ease some heat into a human popsicle.

Eventually, it was just a death through attrition, as this swamp was just too wide with not enough game to sustain life. Not enough energy to do harder tasks as starvation sapped the strength and willpower even as an elk showed up during the last few days of life. A gamble to be patient and wait for smaller game that may never show up or risk using that last bit of energy to set a trap for an animal that may just have been passing through and already was long gone.

It has been my proudest and most memorable game yet. 

[Lurcolm1]

Fuck it. Imma try this.

[Jakob]

I like this challenge but some things become really tedious, picking berries and walking through spruce forests, for example. Would it be within the limits of the challenge to fast travel via the wilderness map if closing your eyes?

[Dr.Hossa]

Dug this out...

This is f***ing hard. im gonna die. winter month is starting in a few days, and i dont have anything but a crude javelin, berries,a stone knife, a crude staff, and crude club and some torches. they really help 


Really a completely different playstyle. I dont know if its really doable, if you arent getting really really lucky straight at the beginning.
You could also say that its a different game like this. And you learn a lot, even if you have been playing this for a long time...

[Zed McJack]

I used to start every game like this, but the last try with new 3.61 version seemed harder. Dont know is it just a feel or some of the mechanics changed?

[Tom H]

Trying it out for the 1st time. Random tribe is Drik, which means I have almost no skills at all. I managed to get ONE skill up to 50% with a creation point- SWORD...lol.

Threw rocks at a hare and some birds, all to no avail. A stone knife allows for fire and branches, and three found slender trees permit me to make a shelter, which takes me SIX HOURS to complete...bah! I just de-construct and carry the spruce twigs and the slender tree trunks with me when I leave.

Fed on lingonberries, 'sweet' berries, and 'nice' grass for 3 days. Even when I eat my fill of berries I'm told it leaves me unable to quench thirst, which was at least not yet fatal.  Found a lake on day 4. The area immediately taunted me with a doe and fawn. Didn't even try because I can't be away from fire long enough to chase them. I did brain a squirrel that wandered near. One cut and a ragged fur.

Even Neanderthals dressed better than me...

[Dr.Hossa]

I think it is very interesting to try this. I made quite some valuable experiences...

I find it highly important to mention the lessons i have learned in that "stone age" approach. You definitely will be trained in some aspects of survival and basic way of ingame-life and surely will adapt your playstyle in general after that. Many of those lessons are kind of "obvious", but one tends to ignore these little rules now and then, because the game doesnt punish you enough for it, when you have gathered some wealth. I mean, THATS real - realism...

For example, sleeping at night and being awake at day is kind of important/favorable in urw. But here, it is vital to (at least try) to stick to the circadian rhythm, simply because you just cannot afford losing the berry-gathering time... you lose more resource when you are doing stuff at night, because its colder and you have to stop more often to make a fire... not to speak of the darkness. You will learn that pretty quickly. So, if you happen be be vigorous at night, best you can do is light a fire and sit down to craft some tools/torches/tan a hide...

Name: UgaUga
I thought that name would be appropriate for a guy probably mainly using stone tools...

UgaUga cannot fight very well, but isnt particular bad in any weapon skill also. the best one is club, with 53 %. Uga likes club, club smashes things.
He has good acgriculture and cooking skill(which will help tothing in the start), but the other adventure skills are quite crappy, at about 20-30 %. That is were i put all 5 points in.
He is not bad at swimming and climbing, at least climbing can be useful sometimes. but i think i will not risk that most of the time with 45%...
And he is slow. 4 km/h-slow. Means that even with a little encumbrance he is on 3 km/h... 25% penalty so to speak...

And yet he still managed to run down a deer XD

Report of events will follow shortly

[Dr.Hossa]

So,....

By the way, unsurprisingly UgaUga is from Sartola. But the description of the stats say everything.

I started in a hillariously big open mire/pine mire region. I think i spawned somewhere outside Owl tribe territory, i have to admit that i didnt close my eyes.
But i've never opened the minimap after starting and actually i cant remember now if i am north, or west, or northwest of the settlements...

Anyway, my stupid aproach is not finding a settlement, but trying to make a living in that cozy swamp... 
At least until beginning of dead month, i am well fed and got a almost complete(if torn and ragged) fur clothing...
But neither i have any food reserves, nor some way of permanent shelter to survive the winter.



Ok lets get started.
If i didnt get lucky with my stats, i am happy with the injuries. Just some bruises and punktures, one serious one in the shoulder, but no bleeding and i can walk.
And i can use my hands...!

"Fascinating" berries are quite everywhere in that mire, so first thing i do is pick as many as i can. Doesnt make sense to try making distance with 1 km/h.
The first two or three days, i am just gathering berries, tearing branches from trees with bare hands(while i sit near the fire – dont waste time...)
I cant clean my wounds, because i cant break ice without tools.
But cleaning has a risk of getting the wound to bleed anyway.
As i will learn later, you can (try) to stop bleeding with bare hands, which i didnt know before.

Nevertheless, i try to proceed south while berry-picking.
My walking speed climbs up to 2 km/h the third or fourth day, so i want to find a forest for stones.
Grouse and capercallie are commonly seen, but theres no way for me to catch one.


So i proceed until i finally get to the forest edge.
First thing i do, is searching two stones, make a knife. No time to waste.
I gotta cut those small trees asap.

Next, make a shelter. yeah, took long, be sure you pause the process before your nutrition gets low
As i managed to keep like 30-60 berries in my inventory, i can actually stay on scarce/temperate.
Next step, a staff. That one is quite important. It has the same damage as a club, but better bonuses, so that critical hit on the animal's head can make the difference when its unconcious.

when i have spare time (when i am cold, so i cant leave the camp, and its dark) i make more stone knives for thwrowing. I dont know if they do make sense, but i somehow feel they would perfom better than just a rock.

One thing, i guess is worth mentioning, is that i am constantly keep the wood-sprits pleased with one berry-sacrifice/day.
So, the next days i make trips on various locations of the swamp, where i am accumulating more berries, for having more time to craft stuff.
Returning to the camp just when its raining/snowing, otherwise cut a small tree and sleep by the berries outside.

Berry count rises to roughly 100, my nutrition starts to become good.
So i spend one day making two crude javelins at my shelter.
Injuries are healing well, i can walk with 3 km/h, run at 7.


On the next or overnext berry-trip, i get lucky.
A small reindeer doe with her calf is crossing my path!
I constantly have done my sacrifice, and the spirits understood, that birds wont help me. I am well fed, vigorous and ready, and it is early morning.
I do NOT drop anything, because the encumbrance penalty already kicks in at 6 or 7 lmbs, and doesnt change till 60 lmbs. Therefore i run around with almost all my stuff, just to be ready for everything.

The chase doesnt seem to go well at the beginning. I manage to get both slightly fatigued, but then i lose the track.
I find it again, but mixed with old tracks...

But after a while, can distinct old tracksm from fresh, catching up. I focus on the calf because it should exhaust sooner.
And one thing I have learned in that game comes to my mind: Dont be greedy, or you are going to lose it all. I can almost hear the spririts whisper that into my thoughts, as i stalk after the animals. 
As it seems, i was able to seperate them, and they try to join each other. i exploit that, by not going straight at them, but walking in a way that i am keeping in between.

I am getting awarded for my patience, with the mother doe running on pond-terrain and getting stuck on a swamp peninsula. I dont chase her right on, but make sure she cannot get to her calf, which is observing the situation from further away. The doe is becoming breathless, i close in. First, some knives, then a javelin from point blank-range.
Perhaps i could have killed her in melee only to preserve the hide, but i dont know if i would have been able to catch up, because still i am very slow. So i make absolutely sure my first hunt will be successfull.
The doe drops, i wield the staff and kill her.



I am tanning it right on the killing site. Of course, the spirits get some meat, although i only got 22 cuts from of the deer.

At my shelter, prepare the second-last step of rinsing in a small pond, while i search and pull a log to my camp and craft a club.
I am a very proud owner of 9 f***ing lmbs of rough forest reindeer-fur...

I am able to make an almost complete(but of course torn!) set of clothing:
First, fur leggings.
Then i craft the shirt, selecting the 3 remaining lmbs of fur and take the rest of the leggings.
Then i sew the mittens from the leggings, as they are overlapping anyway with the boots.
I make boots from the shirt... and the hood out of the boots...

Call me Rag-Man, but i feel great
This is is actually stone-age-feeling...

Two weeks in, (mid of dead month)
I am gonna die.



tbc

[Rhaikh]

I tried this challenge twice, and I think I'm giving up.

First try I had severe arm injuries, but I managed to pull through.  Caught some birds and even actively hunted one down, but eventually I ran out of berries to pick within freezing distance of my traps and I was forced to make a second camp.  Despite nearly a dozen traps my luck ran out and I died simultaneously starving, freezing and being ready to drop.

My second try I realized the only way to make it past treading water in this way was to actually take down a game animal.  I tread water for a bit until I was relatively satiated, then I ran around until I found an elk.  I guess my character's speed was too low to really catch up with the elk.  I managed to get close enough for a few plausible javelin throws but they all missed, and being hopelessly lost from my camp and freezing I let the cold take me.

I'm convinced that the only way to win this challenge is with an abundance of luck & time... Too many avenues for subsistence are closed due to the lack of cord.  If I missed some obvious solution, please nudge me back to it

I'm going to try my own variant:  The same hurt & naked start in winter.  You can zoom out, but you're required to be hostile to all people - so no settlement help.  I think the zooming out is enough of a benefit to actually have a chance at active hunting

[Tinker]

I find this a very interesting way to play, and difficult, I can see why some people might give up after a couple of tries.

My first attempt caused a dilemma I started with a masterwork knife and several pieces of clothing that were masterwork, I was very tempted not to discard them all. My injuries were quite bad, lots of small cuts and bruises and a deep wound on my hip, I role played this by not climbing, running or even walking to far without resting. Just to my north there was a hill which would give me a chance to get some bearings, to the north were mountains and everywhere else was thick forest.

Water was going to be my problem, I needed to find some fast. I headed south as that seemed more downhill, I collected several sorts of berries and other plants as I went and some rocks and fallen branches. Around midday I stopped to rest my hip, lit a fire and ate some of the berries that I recognised. The berries filled my stomach and decreased some of my thirst but I was sure I could not live on berries all winter. I eventually found my way around a steep cliff, through a narrow gap in the trees, there was an ideal spot to spend the night, it looked as if should have a pond but it did not.

At the bottom of the cliff there was a trunk, nearby were several trees to collect more firewood from. I decided to rest there for the night, I dropped all my goods in a pile, pushed some branches onto the trunk, that might keep me warm all night. While waiting for night to fall I could make myself a stone knife, examine the plants I had collected and collect some branches to keep the fire going.

At this point RL got in the way and I had to do other things for an hour or so, when I got back I decided to save the game until the next day. When I loaded the game again I was back at the place where I had started, not at my camp, all my goods were probably at the campsite, including my food. It was however evening, I was cold and hungry and all the plants near me had been picked. I tried to find my camp but died before I got there.

My second attempt went better, I lasted almost a week but died of a stupid mistake. I had found some water after travelling a few Km, I set some traps, collected firewood and started building a shelter. This was where my stupid mistake came in, rather than light a fire to keep warm while working I persisted in building the shelter until I was to cold and weak to light a fire.

I now play this using BAC mod as there is more choice of actions while not being easier, you can spend most of the day making birch shoes which do very little to keep you warm.

[Rhaikh]

I'm convinced that the only way to win this challenge is with an abundance of luck & time... Too many avenues for subsistence are closed due to the lack of cord.  If I missed some obvious solution, please nudge me back to it

Okay, I've got some advice for my past self to get over the first couple weeks:

- Start by finding cloudberries & water.  This is essentially impossible without cloudberries, I think, which means if you randomize your way into the wrong region you're doomed from the start.  I tried living off cranberries ...
- You can allow yourself to starve a bit to give yourself time to do other important things (firewood, setting traps)
- Learn how cords work now and don't use more than you need!  Cut off a length, otherwise, you'll waste the remainder
- Only a few (about 4, 1.0lb) bird leathers are needed to make a 15 ft length of cord
- Primitive bow & arrows are feasible with a single length of cord

Once I got bow & arrows, I finally took down an elk, but several choices made it easier:
- Chose culture (Reemi) & allowed some reroll.  I think this is justifiable, the random start could eventually get you what you want anyway, just takes the endless death out of the loop
- Used overland map, definitely a large benefit for active hunting.  Maybe someday I'll try it without the map.

And I limited myself further with: No help from villages (If you make it to a village in the normal "challenge" you've pretty much won anyway).  Makes for a nice story too: you got beat up, stripped naked and exiled

You still need luck heavily on your side, especially with the weather.  Since you are living so close to starvation, a cold spell at the wrong moment can mean doom