I'll probably start with the bow and crossbow mod while I carry on with some open world stuff, leftovers & base-recaps. I tried a few of the latter as one-offs, but they weren't very challenging, like they were undermanned, and the reinforcements were underwhelming. Might do the reset all bases option, that seemed to work better in FC3, at least with the Ziggy's mod on it.

Gotta remember to turn off the tagging and seeing through walls BS.

Still got some weapons and load-out testings ahead of me before I'm ready to tackle hard difficulty.

I might try the "unlock everything" one when I do another play-through (you still have to pay for weapons or 'win' free ones, and earn points for skills). I like the idea of going up North before anything's visible on the map, finding my way to and flying over that bridge in a buzzer when it's still bricked up then establishing a quick-travel beachhead on the other side.

I'll be intrigued to see if it lets you. I've got this feeling I tried (without a mod) and kept being respawned.

Yeah you definitely can't do it in the unmodded game.

Holy Fuck Batman, the Arrows n Bolts mod is totally worth it! It bestows the crossbow the range and accuracy of a sniper rifle (shame it doesn't support a proper scope). One shot kills, Heavies 4-5 shots. The bow is enhanced too, but not the fire arrows (AFAICT, but was trying from a crazy distance). The mod, and resetting bases (vs. the one-off "base commander" recaps) goes a long way to restoring the thrill of the game.

I started the play through again, but the realisation of how under powered you are at the start of the game is hitting home.

Is there a mod you've found to give all the animal skin upgrades from the off and make the weapons available to buy?

Yeah, here (I'll probably use it for my next playthru):

https://www.tehforum.co.uk/forum/index.php?webtag=DEFAULT&msg=42251.179

Although -- the arrows and bolts mod makes the bow so deadly it may get you through the early stages nicely (the bow is one of the first weapons you can acquire, from a pick up IIRC)

Thanks, I vaguely remember you mentioning it before, but didn't want to spend time going back through all the FC threads.

Slightly embarrassing it was only a handful of posts ago.  :-$

Can you mod and continue your current game or is a new game on the cards after applying the files?

you'd have to read up on the specific mod. Didn't have to for arrows and bolts, but I had already finished the FC4 game story and was into reset bases assuming that matters. The one I put on FC3, "Ziggy's Mod" can't remember for sure but I think it was same situation.

Started a new FC4 game on "hard" through the prologue, really noticed more and (I think) enjoyed it more, cleaned out the last enemy outpost near the tower with a leopard assist, killed and skinned the leopard, and looted the outpost too (first go I just sneaked past it all). I stuck with the arrows and bolts mod for this one, we'll see how that plays out.

Fuck me, FC:ND is good! Great, sweeping narrative, action, wit, cruelty. Maybe above all a compelling reason to take on side quests: some main quest set-pieces are so demanding that you have to ramp up before approaching them (they're flagged up, so there's plenty of warning).

Best FC ever, I think.

The over-weighting of bows is surely flagging up a native American focused FC6?

Well that's on my discount bin watch list. As an illustration of the depth of the FC universe, just spent a wonderful hour in FC3 trying unsuccessfully to cap a base while a FC5 update downloads (hours to go on that). Awesome combat sim.

I'm starting to really like the bow for close-in wet work in 5, and I'm getting good enough to do head shots from 15-20 feet out (it helps if the target stands still). My sidekick does awesome long-distance one shot kills, that I suspect are beyond human capability. Fucking AI (my guess is Ubi wouldn't touch an aboriginal-themed game with a 10-foot pole).

Made solid progress on FC:ND over the holidays - about 70% through the main quest.

Some slightly spoilery bits in and amongst:

I'm so impressed with it. The gameplay is beautifully balanced, with (as I said before) good structural reasons for completing sub-quests - you need to up your skills and weaponry to meet increasingly hard challenges. You can 'scavenge' (their word) any base you've liberated by resetting it to enemy occupation, but the NPCs get really tough after the first time.  The rewards, though (ethanol, one of the staples of the game economy), increase correspondingly, so I'm returning to them again and again.  I've been using the guns for hire all the time, especially the wolf, Timber, who scouts out hidden items & NPCs and is useful in a skirmish. The other stalwart is Nana, a septuagenarian sniper who is tough as old boots.  I wonder whether they should have implemented permadeath (or a longish sin-bin time) on the guns for hire, though, as it's all too easy to bring them back to life (even within the period of a skirmish).

The narrative is really strong and the world responds - to an extent - to its arc. They get their metaphysical/stoner bit in, with a slightly Apocalypse Now journey up-river leading to one of the major plot turns.

It's interesting to see features from the first game completely changed by the explosion and repurposed by survivors. There is some great post-apocalyptic-punk engineering, including vehicles. The economy is highly scavenge & craft based and reasonably logical, though to craft the elite weapons you have to have killed some hard-as-nails animals, which is a bit random.  Higher grades of weaponry are locked until you reach main quest milestones (the progress of regeneration of your home base). The grenade launcher is elite, so you can only get your hands on it late in the day. Part-way through the game an additional layer of skills is opened up - I have yet to acquire or play with them.

New to the game are the Expeditions - side quests set outside the main game world into which you're dropped by helicopter to pick up packages from well-guarded bases and escape to rendezvous with the chopper. The first, set on a beached aircraft carrier, is as much fun as I've ever had in FC.

Ubi should put you on free pints for life, for services rendered.

I'm on a two-day, flu-fueled Far Cry binge, actually playing all three in my collection yesterday, even subjecting myself to the uber tedious Faith finale--it's super-hard on "hard", even with the benefit of hindsight. I considered giving up and resetting the game, but stuck it out, don't even remember how many tries it took. Fun fact: when you shoot Faith, she spews rose petals, not blood.

I may as well catalog my FC 5 sins while I'm at it:

- turned Montana into a wildlife-free zone (not guilty for the buffalo and passenger pigeon, other folks done that). The stats are, well, shocking.

- blew off a roaming shop lady's head with a shotgun at close range, just after she bought my skins and sold me ammo. I plead involuntary manslaughter -- I was trying to shoot the wolf that was attacking her dog, your honor.

- carelessly killed several (or many, depending on POV) innocent civilians, mostly by tossing explosives around like confetti. OK a couple of times by deliberately hitting them with a vehicle, after mistaking them for cultists. Just two or three. That I can remember.

- selfishly left my sidekicks to die in battle, when I could have risked my life to save them. In my defense, I have saved the stupid fucks several times (TBF, they saved me many times).

When the wildlife respawns the moment you take your eye off their furry little corpses, there's not much motive to conserve it. 

I do get fits of the guilties when I kill civilians, and in ND there's a really easy way to do it: there are regular trucks with a single prisoner in a cage that you can free for perk points, but you have to be super accurate at taking out the driver or the prisoner gets it too.

Ubi seemed to have ramped down the business where if you took out a civilian, all their compadres turned their guns on you for a while. It's only happened to me once with ND and not at all (that I can remember) with FC5. I quite liked it. Mistakes have consequences.

I managed to get myself shot at by a peddler lady by accidentally pressing the "F" key (punch/kick) instead of "R" (shop). She screamed at me, I proceeded to do my shopping then when I finished she let me have it with her shotgun, backed up and gave another blast for good measure. She calmed down and went back to bitching about Peggies, I purchased a replacement med kit, and we went on our ways.

It's a heartwarming story.

I was expecting a duel to the death. I guess I kicked her pretty hard. Still got pellets lodged in my face and rib cage.

Wait till you meet Nana, ND's pensionable sniper. She's made of boilerplate and chrome leather. Kick her in the stomach and she'll kick your arse to New Eden and back.

...and 10-months later I'm back at it, having possibly wearied of FC5 in all that time (though I continued to sporadically go at FC3, still got ND and the cave man thing on a back burner). After a slow start, the bow [arrows 'n bolts mod] is coming into its own, easily surpassing the firearms I'm able to get my hands on for all but fraught CQB. One shot kills of tigers and badgers, 2-shot kills of Rhinos, yeah I'm already kitted up again pretty good.