Island challenge stories

[Brygun]

Quite the swim!

Started in spring? Oh wait... I think I combined the two challenges for a naked winter island start and died a lot for it.

[Buoidda]

No you did it right... I just tried the spring for a change and see if it would spawn less animals than winter like I've read somewhere. It did. Less I mean. But staying warm was less of a problem than I expected.

EDIT: Áillon had to swim north and then back west. Found a bigger island than the original (10-20 tiles), but swimming distances are too big even for a grandmaster. Can't see new islands anymore. Seems like he's properly stranded until outside help arrives on the island. But he's hopeful: birds greeted his arrival on the spruce-thick shores.
Áillon is not qualified for the punitive island challenge: spring+mods (though I do not get/take essential survival benefits from my mod)

[Brygun]

But he's hopeful: birds greeted his arrival on the spruce-thick shores.

"Welcoming spirits in the form of birds"

[Buoidda]

Update:

Áillon wintered on the big island. There were elks and seals, but no people visited the island. It was a long year. He developed several seal-hunting tactics and made an enclosure for elks. To keep them alive longer. When summer sun finally warmed the waters, he set out to swim to north-east, even when not seeing land in the horizon.

It very nearly cost him his life.

Spoiler: show

(I had no save. Last bits of this swim were nerve-wrecking.)

Unable to see properly among the waves, he only could get a glimpse of what lay ahead.
(I was using the map to navigate, since zooming out doesn't work when swimming.)

Spoiler: show

The waters went cold again in fallow month. Áillon had to wait for what felt like weeks for the sea to be warm enough to swim such long distances again.

Finally some bigger islands. This must be archipelago!

Spoiler: show

A village! Saved!

Spoiler: show

Áillon hauled some sauna stones in exchange for a board and some food. Then he fashioned a paddle, made a raft and set out to get his stash of furs and half-cottage worth of logs.

[Brygun]

Did Aillon swim from island to island? 

[Buoidda]

Sure. After a year of waiting for travellers I got fed up waiting and decided to swim even if don't see islands to the east. There are rare spots to wade and rest out at sea I was hoping to hit one but didn't.

Spoiler: show

Good fishing skill shields from starving but it is more important to just go and starve if the water is warm enough. Water might get chilly again and then you're stuck. It must say "you feel comfortably warm" after you enter the water. If you misjudge water temperature, it is an sure way to die of hypothermia way off shore.

Here's a link to the main challenge topic. It contains a link to the swimming guide I learnt from. Not sure if its 100% accurate on the "return when moderately fatigued", though. Might be outdated info. Fatigue seems to rise more quickly when you are already fatigued, might be successful skill check based. I just don't know for sure how it works.

Punitive island winter challenge
Swimming_(Skill)

[Brygun]

I applaud your swimming.

Have you considered swimming to Angleand?

[JP_Finn]

That’s some swimming Buoidda!
Do you swim diagonals for wider ‘view’ or straight lines? Is either one more/less fatiguing?

[Buoidda]

Thx. I try to align the very center pixel of (the massive red dot showing) my position in line with my target green island dot as precisely as possible. Nearing it, the red dot will cover the target and usually I don't have to zigzag too much if I took care to aim right. But when I think I should be meeting land at any time, I start to zigzag.

Resembles a bit like aeroplane landing simulation: steady approach from far away helps a lot.

I have no idea if diagonals differ in fatiguing. Turning takes time though.

[Buoidda]

In celebration of my latest and laborious new mod release, I generated this new character, Lemet. I actually managed to get reasonably low speed and eyesight (for a seal-triber) without rerolls. Using @Night's magnificent start location selector, I'm trying a completely different place than usual.

I'm using my craft mod (2.3) and therefore I can start making a stone axe pretty soon, but let's see... The best new trees grow on the other side of the world. Also swimming to the mainland shouldn't prove a problem, should I survive to the summer. I think I've done enough swimming for a while anyway.

Spoiler: show

The skills are modded in ini_skills.txt. I didn't like the zero skill types because some skills are just horrible to try to raise later in game (especially carpentry).

[TheyCallMeSibs]

My Wilson is stranded on a 3 tile island in the very south west, further than anything I've ever been on. I've got the self sufficiency mod I might play around with once I survive the winter. So far he's 21 days into the experience, put up roughly 40 light traps and hasn't seen a single living thing, which worries me greatly. Injuries stayed steadily above my fishing skill until starvation took over, so that hasnt worked out either. What if there just arent any spawns on my little corner?

[Buoidda]

Lemet also didn't see any spawns for the first month or so. Then a couple of birds and seals started spawning. But now he's deceased of boredom. I wanted to play on the mainland for a change, also to better test my mod.

For Wilson, I would definitely expect at least seals at some point.

Note also that each readying of a trap upsets the spirits a bit. With so large number of traps, this needs to be balanced out with (daily?) sacrifice.

Animal populations' spawn mechanic is quite refined: here's a excerpt from the changelog.

- overhauled: animal populations

        Creation of animal populations has been thoroughly checked, adjusted and balanced.
        These adjustments concern not only the commonness and relative number of animals, but
        also their natural habitats. Frequency of big game remains quite the same as it was,
        and most notable changes are seen in populations of small animals and birds.

        In general you can now expect more varied and greater number of wildlife to exist in
        the world, but natural habitat of animals has a much greater role than before. You
        can't expect to find any forest animals in any type of forest.

        Few examples:
        Gluttons and ravens prefer large intact coniferous woodland areas.
        And so do pine-martens - but they also like cliffs and caverns nearby their home
        forests. Badgers mostly occupy mixed or leaf tree forests - preferably with some
        wetlands nearby. Weasels aren't too picky about their habitat as long as there's enough
        trees and vegetation to provide coverage - but they tend to avoid too open areas.
        etc. etc. etc.

        With balanced and overhauled animal populations in use you are bound to find more
        animals and more different species within smaller area than before.  It's possible
        that an area of 5x5 wilderness tiles (500x500 meters) can have a dozen of different
        forest birds, three hares, two squirrels, a fox and a badger around. It's possible -
        but naturally not always the case. And despite of more wildlife existing it's not
        evident that you'll get to spot it from a close (or hunting) distance.
       
        To learn more about changes in habitat and population adjustments see updated
        game encyclopedia [F1] pages for:

[TheyCallMeSibs]

Yeah, I saw that part. I've now gotten exactly one bird and one pike for my struggles, and Winter has set in properly. I hope I survive the starvation to the first seal :C

[Modest Grouse]

I did a variant of this. Essentially I did Nekot's challenge; got to a mountain, saw that I was outside a cultural region and on a peninsula with no villages; and shortly thereafter decided that staying zoomed-in all the time was excessively tedious, so I just decided to not explore and see if I could survive the winter without villages. The story I had in mind was that I was exiled for a year. More of a peninsula challenge, but that's not so different from a large island. I just made it to midwinter, but this character is now well-equipped enough that, absent doing something stupid, there's no reason he won't survive winter. The main turning points were:

Spoiler: show

First, I caught a lynx in a big (non-bear) deadfall.

A lynx fur by itself wasn't enough to make an article of clothing, so I was carrying it around when a foreign trader turned up, with a fine handaxe, that he would trade for a rough lynx fur! Having a sharp iron object greatly increase the amount of meat you get from animals.

And finally, the point where it was clear he would survive winter, this catch at 44% starved; this is probably my favorite scene yet playing this game:  a starving man, and a moose caught in a trap, looking at each other just before dawn.