Electrocution

[Baezon]

So I was doing very well for myself a week or two into my first game, when in the dam I got what appeared to be an aurora (all the electronics were flickering). As I passed by a whitish flicker on the ground which I didn't pay much more heed to than all the other flickerings, when of course it burned me. About 7 or 8 times within a second or so leaving me at ~30% condition. So that was definitely a bug of some kind but I wasn't too worried, even at 30% there's very little that could kill me without me being able to do something about it. I continue on in the dam, when I am electrocuted in the dam again, this time there is no flicker or anything nearby, being quite careful to avoid them now. And it of course it burns through 30% far quicker than I can react and I die.

So ignoring the fact that burns should probably just happen once rather than multiple times a second, and ignoring the fact that I was nowhere near any electricity when I was burned the second time, and ignoring the fact that it's absurd your character could get electrocuted when so thickly covered in insulating clothing, and ignoring the fact that my death is 100% irrevocable and can't be reloaded despite it being through no fault of my own, it seems somewhat out of character for the game to introduce a new danger that is so incredibly deadly and also incredibly inconsistent and difficult to gauge where is safe and where isn't.

[IFIYGD]

And now you have learned to not go into the lower dam at night. In case of Aurora.

I'll remcommend you stay out of the garage area in the Railroad Maintinence building at night as well. Hunker down elsewhere, and go through during the day, when no Aurorae are possible.

[Mavrah]

Oh, the maintenance shed? It's a nightmare during an aurora. Everything is trying to kill you.
You have to cross the dam during the aurora in Wintermute, so surely it's possible...

[IFIYGD]

I have no clue if the OP is talking about Survival Mode or Wintermute. They did not specify.
Just saying... Wintermute is scripted. Survival Mode is not.

[Bumbling Bea]

Originally posted by Baezon:

I continue on in the dam, when I am electrocuted in the dam again, this time there is no flicker or anything nearby, being quite careful to avoid them now. And it of course it burns through 30% far quicker than I can react and I die.

Did you step on some wires? Perhaps I am overly cautious, but I have always treated wires in the dam as a potential electrocution risk during an aurora. Part of the reason is that (real life) live wires only spark when certain conditions are met so the wires themselves serve as the visual cue for a potential risk.

and ignoring the fact that it's absurd your character could get electrocuted when so thickly covered in insulating clothing

Fair point. Dry clothing should be a good-enough electrical insulator.

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by katpear:

Fair point. Dry clothing should be a good-enough electrical insulator.

Clothing does not protect you from electricity unless it is pure rubber, with no holes or tears. Regular clothing does not do squat. (The only insulation value your cothes have in-game is to isulate you against cold and wind, not high voltage electricity...)

https://www.indianaec.org/2015/01/21/busting-electrical-safety-myths/

[Baezon]

Originally posted by katpear:

Did you step on some wires? Perhaps I am overly cautious, but I have always treated wires in the dam as a potential electrocution risk during an aurora. Part of the reason is that (real life) live wires only spark when certain conditions are met so the wires themselves serve as the visual cue for a potential risk.

I'm fairly sure I walked over a wire, which was sparking... at its end, about 10 feet away. I don't think it's strange to say that the entire length of the wire should not electrocute you, even if its bare at one end.

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

I have no clue if the OP is talking about Survival Mode or Wintermute. They did not specify.
Just saying... Wintermute is scripted. Survival Mode is not.

Survival

[IFIYGD]

Read the article I linked again... here is a reason the electric company tells you to stay far away from any fallen or broken wire. You may not see a puddle or any other conductive surfaces you are on or near. You are in a hydro dam, with water on both sides, and a structure that is full of holes with snow, and rain coming in, maening you are surrounded by a damp, conductive environement. If you are close enough, even concrete can conduct, especially if it is even just slightly wet. It s not a great conductor, but if the voltage is high n enough, it is not an aboslute ground either.

[Baezon]

Yeah sure that's great, but this is still a game, and so far the game is pretty good about informing you about dangers. Wolves howl and bark when they're nearby, is that realistic? Probably not (as they even themselves note wolves attacking humans to begin with isn't all that realistic), but it's good design because it informs the player well ahead of time that danger is nearby.

An entire wire being dangerous despite only its end sparking, is not good design, because the wire can easily be lost among all the other details on the ground.

[IFIYGD]

So, what you ae arguing here, inthe course iof this thread, is that it is a game, and the electrocution should be more realisitc, then when you are shown that it is more realistic than you claim, you argue that it should be realisitc, but only in an unrealistic way, but only if it pleases you, specifically, in an unrealistic realistic way?

Did I get that right?

(Read the article I linked from a power comapny on electrical safety again... nowhee do they say wires will never be hidden, or that these things apply only to the visible ends of wires... they say to stay away from any area where you see or hear a wire sparkeing or fallen down...
Or go Google "fallen electrical wire safety" yourself?)

You seem to be arguing because you died in a way you did not expect, and are salty, as a rsult. You now know it can happen, and does happen in the game, and know not to make the same mistake of going to that part of the dam at anight, or trying to cross any area with wires dui ring an Aurora. It's a learning experience. Learn from it. You'll have many more over the course of time, if you keep playing the game.

[Baezon]

That it was "unrealistic" was a single, minor point of the much larger issue; That it deals way too much damage way too quickly, and doesn't announce its presence well enough (assuming of course that that second spot wasn't a bug, and is indicative of other places that can electrocute you). I'm not quite sure why you keep hammering the point of realism when it's completely irrelevant to the point at hand, and the game is happy to toss away realism when convienient for the sake of gameplay (as I'm glad it does).

Would you prefer to me to link you to wikipedia's article on auroras to demonstrate that they can't magically power electronics and thus make your whole point moot since the wires shouldn't be powered anyway?

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by Baezon:

Yeah sure that's great, but this is still a game

Originally posted by Baezon:

Would you prefer to me to link you to wikipedia's article on auroras to demonstrate that they can't magically power electronics and thus make your whole point moot since the wires shouldn't be powered anyway?

See your own comment made above...

Sure, link me to the Wikipedia, the Internet's "most reliable source of user-generated information". That's great. But this is still a game, with fictional gameplay elements to balance out more realsitic elements, to make for good gameplay.

Again, I get you are salty over dying in a way you did not expect. Either you will get over it eventually, and learn from it, an add it to your mental list of game rules, and continue on, happily down the road in this game, or you will just continue on down the road and find another game, that is more unrealistic, thus setting no expectations of partial "realsim" mixed in to a fictional game setting.

TL;DR: Take a breath or two. Learn a lesson from what happened, and do things differently next time.

[Baezon]

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

See your own comment made above...

...I was clearly being sarcastic.

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Learn a lesson from what happened

This is my entire point, if you don't know why you died there's nothing to learn from. Which is why I'm posting here in the first place, I've already moved on, but I'm not just going to ignore an issue I think should be changed, I'm going to try to bring it to their attention, which is part of the reason for this board to begin with.

[Mavrah]

I stepped over a sparking wire and Will got burns... on his hand.
You aren't dealing with normal electricity or normal people. This is aurora electricity, and you have to keep the character from trying to lick the shiny.

[Nil Desperandum]

Originally posted by Baezon:

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

See your own comment made above...

...I was clearly being sarcastic.

Originally posted by IFIYGD:

Learn a lesson from what happened

This is my entire point, if you don't know why you died there's nothing to learn from. Which is why I'm posting here in the first place, I've already moved on, but I'm not just going to ignore an issue I think should be changed, I'm going to try to bring it to their attention, which is part of the reason for this board to begin with.

This is how the game is scripted, when we play we have to learn the rules, the first time you got electrocuted during an aurora should be your last - you will hopefully have learnt now that during an aurora - in the game (not real life) - electric wires that are normally innate become 'live', so avoid them at all costs. Though it seems 'unfair' to you and that the game is cheating in some way, it really isnt, getting electrocuted during an aurora is in the game script, as you move through the game you will learn how it is scripted. Getting electrocuted in TLD is much the same as wolves don't usually attack humans in real-life - unless threatened - but they do in TLD - unless you are playing Pilgrim difficulty of course.

Let's put it another way. I have played over 700 hours in Skyrim. In Skyrim they have spiders - spiders that are big as horses, which you don't get in RL. Now I hate spiders with a vengence/horror in RL, but I still played Skyrim as I enjoyed everything else about it immensely. I didn't expect or even ask Skyrim devs to eliminate spiders from the game, they were in the game so I accepted it. If you can do the same with the aurora electrocution hazard in TLD I'm sure, really sure you will enjoy TLD as much as I enjoyed Skyrim regardless of the spiders.

Plus, the devs in their inifinite wisdom gave us the ability to make/play the game we want and gave us Custom Mode. In Custom mode you can customise the game to just what you want - from a pre-selected list of choices - so if you hate the Aurora you can choose to omit it from your game altogether.

I have over 2500 hours playing TLD, which I hold in high regard, besides that fact there are no spiders in TLD - ahh bliss!

[IvantheFormidable]

Yep, Aurora electricity can end a run pretty quickly, even for experienced folks, and even more so for those brave enough to try to navigate the dam during the aurora night! Live (or die) and learn is the motto here. Lots of my first hours were learning and experimenting to see how things worked (I got electrocuted a few times myself). Given my experiences, I'd probably say that you getting so many burns that quickly probably wasn't a bug, but how it's designed to work.

The death was avoidable, don't hang out in the dam during the aurora! A lesson I'm sure that you'll remember for your future runs. Best of luck in the future!