Managing weight

[e11]

I can't seem to keep from getting overloaded. Between carrying a knife, hatchet, rifle, ammo, first aid supplies, firewood, clothes, the sewing kit, the rifle cleaning kit, fuel, and food in case I don't find any at my next location, I always seem to hit at least the maximum weight. Am I doing something wrong here?

[IFIYGD]

Lol! Carrying too much. :p

You are relatively newish, from what your playtime shows. I think most f us, when we started playing, thought we needed to carry everything we found, and carry it everywhere we went. You will learn as you play more, what is actually essential. Carrying firewood is generally not. You have a hatchet or hacksaw? Cut wood as you go or when you get there. Or pick up sticks, they cost no kcal or fatigue to harvest. Don;t need to carry all of your unused clothing or all of your food either. As long as you aren't playing Inteloper mode, there is plenty of supplies and resources to be gathered all over the place, and on each map.

You'll get the hang of it as you go, and you will die often as you learn and go. Lie I saidm I think most longtime players have been there, done that. Just takes some time to learn what is truly needed according to your playstyle, once you get a feel for the game's steep learning curve. And *chuckles* I still have a tendancy to be greedy and try to carry too much, or stop and gather and harvest too much. And it usually ends up hurting or killing my character. :D

[Apple_geek101]

I honestly always carry over the limit. I try not too but it happens. The main reason why is because I am moving around a ton. If I had a base of sorts, I would never be over the limit. As long as you are under 35kg you should be good. Never have over 35kg cause you will get exhausted a lot faster and your walking spped will slow down.

[markwars]

A few things to remember...

If you are playing on Pilgrim you need almost nothing. You can wear less due to warmer temps and there's always going to be food wherever you go. You don't need the rifle since the animals won't attack either.

If you are relatively new I would assume you aren't playing Interloper so I will give some advice for typical Voyageur/Stalker sandboxes.

First and foremost think about what you are planning to do. If you are going out to harvest wood close to your camp you only really need the items necessary for that. You won't need a lot of food and water. You won't need a bedroll or a rifle. If you need food carry that rifle, but don't worry so much about having that hatchet and/or hacksaw. What you are setting out to do on a given day should cause you to evaluate what's in your pack.

Second you need to make sure you always have what you need to keep you alive in case of disaster. From a medical standpoint I always make sure I am carrying a couple of bandages and some antiseptic - just enough for two applications, a dose or two of painkillers (or rose tea), and a stimpak for survival after a bear mauling. From a weather standpoint if I am going for a long exploration or hunting a bit out from base I always make sure to bring 15 sticks and 5 cloth. If you have to survive a blizzard that springs up while you were harvesting an animal that snow shelter is game saving.

Finally you can begin to evolve your carry weight as your mastery of the game increases. If you can master the bow you will never carry that rifle again. If you learn your maps you may not need to worry about having the warmest (and often heaviest) clothes and/or a bedroll. Don't be afraid to change up how you do things and know that dieing a lot is just part of this game.

Happy surviving!

[Selfless]

Biggest thing to realize is that there is no time crunch; no goal; no end game.

Backtracking a full day for a crowbar just because you finally found a lock is not wasteful, it's good weight management.

So is stopping to spend time chopping wood and/or boiling water where you need it instead of carrying either. Hunting/gathering for vittles, same.

Don't try to conquer the game in a few days time. A) You can't "win" B) The experience of daily chores is the game. Might as well play it.

You've got all the time in the world. Use it. Don't even try to do everything all at once...

[pandorra]

I still can't strip my weight down to where I want it .. seems like as soon as I leave something behind thats when I need it most lol but yea your list of items you want to carry is wayy over the top lol.. store some of it in a house or building you use as a base until you need it then move it when you switch regions.

[JiffyPopKids]

You're carying WAY too much. for exporing I usually carry: clothes, about 5 OMBB, 10 painkillers, a 12 pack of matches, (no firewood, carrying firewood when you leave base is a big 'no'!) Tinder, (unless I have level 4+ firestarting) hunting knife incase of wolf struggles, 1 flare, bedroll, and about half a gal of water. that's usually 28ish pounds. (10ish KG? not sure :/)

Just think about what you're doing, where you're going, and where you'll be in 5 hours. if you're going to explore outdoors, take medium to heavy clothing. if you don't want to stop for water, take about half a gal of water, hunting knife, bedroll, 12 matches, Tinder, 5 or so OMBB, 10 or so painkillers, and maybe a MRE or so.

for exploring places like coastal highway with ALOT of houses, I woudln't take more than a light jacket, jeans, mittens, a hat, socks, and boots. because you're going to be in alot of indoor locations, you won't need such heavy coats.

if you're hunting, take light-medium clothes, rifle/bow, (Which ever one you want to use.) bandages and antiseptic, painkillers, hunting knife, hatchet, a flare if you need one, a bedroll incase you get stuck outside, and that's about it.

Try and pack as light as you can. think "Do I really need 4 logs of firewood when I'm just going down the road a little while?" if you're worried a storm or something bad'll come, pickup sticks along the way. (sticks burn for about 7-10 minutes?) all the items add up. 10 packs of matches is close to a pound. all that extra water you got is another 4 pounds, that extra mag lens you picked up is another half a pound. It's the little things that add up mainly, also the clothes is really heavy, so try and pick an outfit that is light, warm, and water resistant. you don't need the extra resistance if you can avoid wolves/bears.

[PBR]

Be mindful of your medicinal and crafting items. It's easy to wind up with .5k bandages or Reishi mushrooms without realizing it. I bet most newer players have 1.5kg or more wasted carrying scrap metal, cloth, reishi and rose hips, pills, hides, branches etc.

[JiffyPopKids]

Originally posted by JeebusChrist:

Be mindful of your medicinal and crafting items. It's easy to wind up with .5k bandages or Reishi mushrooms without realizing it. I bet most newer players have 1.5kg or more wasted carrying scrap metal, cloth, reishi and rose hips, pills, hides, branches etc.

Yup, I always facepalm when youtubers keep like 24 antobiotics, 20 packs of matches, 50 mushrooms, and like 2842734728172571273 newsprints. (not exact numbers, just roughly joking around :)

[spatulaodoom]

Unless I'm going on a real excursion or moving zones I usually wander around with about 15kg, everything included.
EDIT: Make that less than 15kg.

Only need the hatchet for saplings since I've got four desk drawers crammed full of sticks. I do occasionally grab the hatchet if I know I'm going to run into a frozen animal carcass that needs meat harvested.
Just did my forge run so the hacksaw's useless for a long while.
Crowbar's just dead weight 99% of the time. I can always go back for it.
Lantern's nice and all, but a burning brand does well in a pinch if there's a cave or late evening cabin to explore.
I generally only keep the bow and two arrows for weaponry, so no rifle.
I know the area well enough and know where I'll wind up at the end of the day, so I don't need a bedroll.
My clothes are a good enough balance of weight and warmth that they don't bog me down (Windbreaker actually supplies a pretty good benefit for only 0.5kg).
I don't travel with food and only keep about a litre of water on me.

Knife, bit of meds, bow and arrow, a couple of sticks, some matches and magnifying glass, scrap of rotten meat for a lure, and bit of water. Yea, it's easy to keep the weight down once you get to a certain point.

[JiffyPopKids]

Originally posted by spatulaodoom:

Unless I'm going on a real excursion or moving zones I usually wander around with about 15kg, everything included.
EDIT: Make that less than 15kg.

Only need the hatchet for saplings since I've got four desk drawers crammed full of sticks. I do occasionally grab the hatchet if I know I'm going to run into a frozen animal carcass that needs meat harvested.
Just did my forge run so the hacksaw's useless for a long while.
Crowbar's just dead weight 99% of the time. I can always go back for it.
Lantern's nice and all, but a burning brand does well in a pinch if there's a cave or late evening cabin to explore.
I generally only keep the bow and two arrows for weaponry, so no rifle.
I know the area well enough and know where I'll wind up at the end of the day, so I don't need a bedroll.
My clothes are a good enough balance of weight and warmth that they don't bog me down (Windbreaker actually supplies a pretty good benefit for only 0.5kg).
I don't travel with food and only keep about a litre of water on me.

Knife, bit of meds, bow and arrow, a couple of sticks, some matches and magnifying glass, scrap of rotten meat for a lure, and bit of water. Yea, it's easy to keep the weight down once you get to a certain point.

Yep, I wear the expadition parka under the windbreaker.

[PBR]

I'm a wimp, I never go out without a bedroll after a long, long night stuck in a cave on Pleasant Valley. Poor condition, desperately chugging coffee and unable to sleep or kill time. So I boiled water for 8 hours.

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by e11:

carrying a rifle, ammo, firewood, the rifle cleaning kit, fuel, and food in case I don't find any at my next location, Am I doing something wrong here?

Yep, there you go. I find the rifle is super situational to the point where you shouldn't take it out with you unless you are intending to shoot a bear or wolf. For more broadly useful defensive weaponry, I find the bow and a half dozen arrows are waaaaaaay more weight-efficient. I also wouldn't carry firewood around with you. That's what your hatchet is for, yeah? If you do ind firewood, either don't pick it up or do so only long enough to stash it in a central loot drop or secondary base location.

I'd also like to give you points for not phrasing your post as "glhgraglrhgrah inventory system is broken FIX NAO."

[Lieutenant Columbo]

in the beginning of the game i find my self over weighted because all the stupid things you need to carry, but once you get a base, you are never encumbered again. (unless its one spring cleaning 2 moving day or three time to head to timber wolf mountain)

[Ms O'Horné]

I have the same problem mate :) probably like every other newbie out there. My clothes alone are close to or at 10kg. I guess I'll have to learn to balance them out for warmth, wind shield and water resistance.

just out of curiousity, how much clothing weight do all of you interlopers play with on average?

[markwars]

Just stick to the cat tails and tomato soup and your weight shouldn't be a problem.