u/NCBirdman

Been hammering on Mississippi and finishing mission arcs and it's made a huge difference in the number of trophies I'm getting. I was at like 85 or 86 a couple weeks ago and now I'm at 97. Anyone else on a mission/trophy grind?

Just trying to change my loadout; which is hard enough as it is when the clouds are so close you don't have enough open space to pitch a tent, but then meathead has to cause a scene. That's when you get capped in the dome.

Are there any known missions that are currently bugged? Any missions with odd requirements you wouldn't know how to finish without researching? I'm going to try to go down the list so far I have Hirschfelden, Layton Lakes and Medved-Taiga main and side missions done, among others, but I figured I'd try to go in order, since I just bought the map DLC's in random order I wasn't paying attention to an actual order they were released or whatever, but they're listed in an order on the map view when you look at reserves and on the loading screen when it says Select Reserve. I know the map narratives done jump from map to map, but my OCD wants to do them in order.

Thanks for any feedback!

Felt like a moment to reflect...

This game was suggested from a friend so we could hunt together. I'm on a PS4. I've been hunting and shooting guns for over 30 years. I had a ladder fall that potentially disrupted my whole life from injuries, 2 broken ribs, a broken vertebrae, my whole right side was purple and my right elbow was split open. It left me even more diabled than I had been before the accident, which was 3.5 years into fighting for disability benefits since I can no longer work. So; to kill time on the couch, I bought the game and later added the PS pass for multiplayer.

I haven't really heard anything about "CotW" before. Hunting. Well, that's cool! So I hop on the map while I wait for a later day to hunt with my friend. I pick Layton Lakes. I'm not sure exactly what startup tutorial-like features there are to get me into the game and that part; if it existed, was kind of a blur. I'm a little impatient when I don't know if I'm going to get into a game or not, it needs to prove itself pretty quickly. I don't like reading up on everything so I'm gonna just take the hit and jump in. At some point I'm walking up on cabins in the woods. There's lights on inside and out. I'm not sure if there are people in the cabin, or outside. I sneak up cautiously cause I don't know if it's friend or enemy. I crouch in to a window and look inside and it's empty. I literally have no idea if and what I'd see. It'll get your heart racing. I want to get to hunting, whether it was a pop up mission or just trying to do some hunting of my own, all I know is it's very dark and late at night. I'm not sure I know that I can change time in a cabin at this point, I don't think I have a tent yet, and I'm barely familiar with the item wheel or in-game shooting. Even the PS5 remote at this time still feels foreign as up to this point I'm also not a gamer. These wierd white siren looking lines keep popping up around me and I figure out how to inspect the notification before it goes away. Those things are on a short timer IMO. After a few different animals pop off I decide I'll go for this moose. I used to be around moose a lot growing up in Montana, never got to hunt one in real life but have seen a ton of videos and it looks exciting! I have no idea what the description of the moose I was giving a notication icon for is, I don't know if it's a male or female, what size it is or difficulty level or class or what any of that means. None of that means squat at this point, I just want to go find a moose! Walking, in the dark, still wondering if I'm gonna run into people...after a moose. Notifications keep popping up. I ignore most of them figuring this moose has an advantage cause I can't see squat. I need to be paying attention. I kind of figure out that there's some distance information in the pop up, but I'm trying to listen to hear how close it is too. You know, like in real life. I can tell the warning call is getting louder and I start fumbling through the item wheel, which I'm not even sure how to access entirely I'm just rifling through whatever's in the item wheel using the left and right arrow buttons as a large dark body shape moves in behind the item wheel on screen. I know I have a gun...somewhere. I hear running as I'm sitting in a couched position to check my gear. I don't have time for this, I need to prepare for an attack. I'm not going to take this crouched down so as quickly as I can I mash some random controller buttons to see what the other buttons do and fire off a hip shot and man, IT'S LOUD AS HELL!! This sound system really paid off. The moose is standing about 10 yards from me and has what looks like a nice rack, he's standing in the dark which I must have gotten used to since I can see his dark furry large shadow in front of me, he's got his head down in a charging pose, I feel like he must be scraping the ground like Ferdinand, ready to joust with a matador. But, I'm not a matador. I'm a completely unskilled, unequiped, and at this point literally in real life FRIGHTENED man. I pull up the rifle mostly on accident and keep dropping it when letting go of the correct button. I'm not even familiar with the name of the buttons on a PS5 controller yet! I figure out how to keep the gun up to look at the moose for a shot. I'm not adjusting windage, zooming the scope or checking to turn off the safety, the moose is CHARGING me and I literally squint my eyes irl and pull the trigger. I hit it, but it's not going down, it's lunging at me and as I'm dodging the moose I hear another noise behind me which almost sounds like a moose call, but a deep growl. I remember hitting a headlamp button earlier, so a mash "R3" and I spin around to look behind me as the headlamp flickers on with that high-pitched electric whine and in a state of complete shock and hysteria see a bear in the headlamp that I didn't even know existed on this map and it's on it's back legs standing up with a mouthful of teeth as it growls; arms open like the jaws of a giant rock crusher, not 5 yards away. I don't have time to get the gun so I take my man card out of my pocket and throw it in the air and run! The bull moose is still around here somewhere but he now becomes a secondary issue to an attacking bear. I spin to make sure I'm not getting attacked by the moose and bear at the same time and the moose is gone. I turn back to the bear as I'm circling around, running and jumping to avoid getting hit, headlamp light shuffling spastically around the woods at passing trees, bushes and glinting bear eyes as I frantically fire another this-time-purposeful hip shot and the bear runs off. What just HAPPENED?! I wasn't prepared for this. That was a bit sketchy! I find the moose dead some distance away as I just learned that using the headlamp at night makes these tracks show up glowing like little beacons. Long story short, I track and pick up the moose. I regret not doing a taxidermy on him for my 1st moose, maybe even my 1st in-game animal. I didn't even know I could do that and probably didn't have enough money for it anyways. I also thought the in-game "Hold square" camera took real shots and saved them to my console, only to find out nearly 6 or 8 months and thousands of harvested animal pictures later that none of them were saved. To date, I take a photo of every animal I kill using the screen capture console option. I've got a huge library which only myself and my memories currently know.

That's why I'm still playing CotW 1,007 hours and 1.5 years later! It's been nothing but adventure. And, just like in real life I've learned my skillsets, gotten used to gear and how to control it, and bought some sweet add-ons over time that put me on par with the level of hunting I want to achieve. Just like how I got started in real life. I now own every map but Peru. I own every other DLC besides the duck pack, goose pack, some cosmetic packs, the 2 lodges, and 3 gun packs. I've been stuck at a maxed level 60 XP for a year or more now, with no change to my 1st choices for Perks and Skills. My XP shows 293384. I've finished 86/115 in-game trophies with only recently finding there's a list and grinding a few out on purpose. The rest just came from gameplay. I have more favorite maps than I care to keep track of, some having such breathtaking scenery that I take constant screenshots, some maps with wildlife and interactions I'll never forget. I currently don't own only 1 item in the ENTIRE in-game Store, the Martensson 6.5MM "Rayo" rifle. It can only be purchased after unlocking it on the Cuatro Colinas map by finishing the Don Miguel mission arc. I already own the Martensson Thunder and Lightning versions, btw. This is the ONLY reason I've recently been on this map and have since given up on it again...3 times. I don't like this map. I don't like Cuatro Colinas animals, the mission arc, the narrative, the scenery, the landscape, not any of it. You know why there's so many fields of flowers on this map? Cause otherwise it'd be ugly! I wouldn't live here, visit here, or pass through a place like this intentionally irl. But, I NEED that gun!

Here's to your own CotW adventures! May your heart stop racing and your aim be true! If life has been hard on you and you need to fill that hunting urge, you've come to the right place! Trust me.

To go out properly, I'll share a quote from the greatest outdoor mountain-man movie of all time.

"Trouble? What trouble??".

- Jeremiah Johnson

At (-4560, 13203) there is a green question mark icon on the map that when hovered over says "UNDISCOVERED" and "Unknown". When I go towards it I can circle around the spot and nothing pops up.

What is it supposed to be or what was it before it got bugged?

This is the only question mark icon left on my whole map and my OCD wants it gone.