Alsius' tale - and some permadeath ramblings

[Vilu]

I'm a rather new player, and I re-discovered H&H some weeks ago after having originally played a bit about 6 years ago. Back then I found the game intriguing, being a die-hard survival game fanatic. I didn't put in very many hours into it, but rather quickly grew tired of the trolls and newbie stalkers. Mischievous people seemed awfully abundant at that time, or I was just unlucky. It seems better this time around, or I'm being just lucky.

Re-discovery was going smoothly. I created a character, Alsius, who quickly settled in, made some friends who were nice and helpful to a newbie. Alsius claimed an area, built a cabin, started farming, hunting, fishing and all that jazz. I put dozens of hours into the character and got him developing nicely, running away from all hostile wildlife and carefully choosing my hunting targets. When I discovered you can actually hunt off the rowboat with bow and arrows, I made a foolish move and started chasing a wounded, fleeing bear on foot.

Big mistake. Rest in peace, Mr. Alsius the Foolhardy, which is the nickname I gave him few seconds prior to his death. Live and learn, although "die and learn" would be more appropriate in this case. I didn't know fleeing animals can suddenly turn on you. Now I do.

As I watched the soul of my poor Alsius reach for the skies, I wasn't upset. Died for the first time, and I realized that I loved it! Permadeath is the way wilderness survival games are meant to be played, or else they would lack the most important aspect of the genre. Losing everything, including the names and locations of my newly made and kinned friends, is something I've never ever seen in any game. I've have a nearly 15-year experience of Unreal World which has been a permadeath survival game from the beginning, albeit single player. Having so brutal permadeath mechanics in a multiplayer game is simply fantastic.

So, instead of rage quitting, I created a new character even before rigor mortis had set into Alsius's cooling body. I decided to name him Alsis out of respect for his ancestor, and started the quest to find Alsius's corpse and give him a proper burial. Before I got going, I went to the H&H website and decided to pay for the verified account of the game. Yay. Dying was such a powerful experience that it gave me the final incentive to support the devs. "Dying is fun", I muttered to myself as I remember the catchphrase of another excellent permadeath game, Dwarf Fortress. It is indeed.

Alsis had a good start. He decided to settle down for a while in order to map out the surroundings and get his skills up to par for the long trek to Alsius's homestead. Alsis hunted a bit, researched low end curios and kept his eye peeled for a rowboat which he could *ahem* borrow for his quest. He gathered a lot of useful materials around his small settlement, and made a good set of tools and equipment. He also stumbled upon a rowboat (I didn't see the owner, I swear, officer!), figured out the route to his grandfather (50 square distance by Pythagoras) and started rowing along the rivers. I did not take note of the distance he travelled, but I definitely took a note of what happened to him next.

While gathering berries near the river bank, he got too close to a boar who of course got a bit upset. Ctrl+R, bunny slippers ready and a quick dash for the boat. One wrong turn resulted in a dead end between the boar and the shoreline. Alsis was quickly knocked unconscious before he managed to wade through water. The boar finally calmed down and walked away. Alsis regained consciousness and decided to return to his hearthfire to lick his wounds.

Safe? Not by a long shot.

I already knew the game was harsh, but this is getting ridiculous. Alsis teleported right on top of a lynx who camped next to his hearth fire! According to Wiki they shouln't be aggro unless attacked upon, but this one surely was or it wasn't a lynx. I didn't have enough time to get a positive ID of the creature who clawed Alsis to death. Rest in peace, Alsis the Unlucky. "Dying is fun", I said to myself, not entirely sure if I meant it.

Now I was a bit upset, but strangely enough I still enjoyed the experience. Permadeath is fine when dying is not random but it always results from a series of bad decisions. I'm not sure if a fence around my hearth fire would've spared me from this, but next time I'll build it.

I logged into the website and bought a 30-day subscription.

"Never give up", I said to my new character Alsi as he rose from the ashes of his hearth fire. I intend to get Alsius buried, one way or another, preferably before I run out of letters with the character's name.

So, if you happen to stumble upon Alsi, Als or Al along your travels, he'd appreciate if you'd sit down with him for a chat and maybe offered him a spare rowboat.

[Amanda44]

"Never give up", I said to my new character Alsi as he rose from the ashes of his hearth fire. I intend to get Alsius buried, one way or another, preferably before I run out of letters with the character's name.

Lol, nice story ... better luck for this reincarnation!

[slipper]

Lynxes will definitely attack you, my forager died after getting aggroed from across the map. Horse speed 4 wasn't enough to survive.

[Beezer12Washingbeard]

I haven't been aggro'd by one yet, but I'll be more careful.

Their run animation is hilarious. It got me to look up if there were dogs in the game, because it looked like an excited dog and suddenly I really wanted dogs in the game.

[VDZ]

I'm not sure if a fence around my hearth fire would've spared me from this, but next time I'll build it.

Animals will not spawned on claimed terrain. If the area is not claimed, animals will even spawn inside fences and you're not safe no matter what. Animals can walk from unclaimed terrain onto claimed terrain (as long as there are or recently have been active players in the general area), so a fence or other obstacle would be required to keep them out with 100% certainty. (Make sure the animals can't get into aggro range. Certain animals can break certain objects, but only if they've aggroed someone and the object blocks their path.)

[Vilu]

Animals will not spawned on claimed terrain. If the area is not claimed, animals will even spawn inside fences and you're not safe no matter what.

Ok, thanks. I guess building a 2-by-2 fence perimeter around the unclaimed hearth fire should prevent animals from spawning inside the fence (unless having some really crappy luck!), and maybe enough time to flee through the gate before the nearby animal gnaws through your face.

Maybe I should give yeomanry the top priority in research, even if I'm not about to settle down for now.

[chocolaterain]

Just a tip, yeomanry should always be your first priority. Try to get some points of intelligence so you can study more stuff. Dragonflies are a pretty amazing curio early on. So is mirkwood offering and seer's bones, though you probably don't have any bones to spare on seer's bones.

Try to look around for abandoned settlements to see if you can loot useful stuffs. This helped me a lot in my newbie times.

A final tip, it's generally so that the more paranoid and careful you are, the longer you will survive. Settling far away from water helps aswell.

[Vilu]

Their run animation is hilarious.

I'll have to take your word for it. The lynx didn't have to take a step to catch me, also all I could focus on was not to crap myself. Paying attention to the animation was secondary.

Some day I'll take my revenge, though. I promise to laugh at the animation while I drive arrows through its heart.

[Vilu]

Just a tip, yeomanry should always be your first priority. Try to get some points of intelligence so you can study more stuff. Dragonflies are a pretty amazing curio early on. So is mirkwood offering and seer's bones, though you probably don't have any bones to spare on seer's bones.

I feel I also need to have some points in exploration, to be able to spot anything in the wilderness. Finding the proper balance to max out LP progress is rather hard.

Thanks for the tips, though!

[sMartins]

Explo and survival to max out your LP progress.
Check out this if you haven't done it already: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=40714