Considering the significantly scaled down size of the region, I do believe I can. As I said, I've never been, but I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch to say that I could travel off the beaten path now, pre-apocalypse, and not run into so much as a fart of another human presence.
And I don't believe you can say that Lake Tahoe is some mystical oasis what drew survivors from all over the country. How did they get through the mist? Gas masks? I'd like to know where we stockpiled them because there's some lovely filth just on the edge of the mist that I'm dying to get to.
What's more likely is that this is a product of an advanced homeless relocation program. All the states sent their homeless population to Lake Tahoe and told them the apocalypse was underway and to stay put until someone came and got them. Don't try to leave, they said, because the scary green mist will asphyxiate you within seconds. Why do you think you're able to magically ghost-walk yourself out of the mist? It's all delusion.
This explains why we have so many people with Napoleon complexes here.
Are you mad?
Someone get this one some medication.
Okay, back on topic. You guys know there will be a great and mournful howl of grief from the pvp crowd (and by then probably some who are currently living as carebears) if the new areas open up with safe zones around totems. So telling solo players and small tribes to get the hell away from the junk presently scattered around the lake and leave it for the tribes, and then telling us to stop crying about how there isn't enough in the mountains, and then justifying that by saying soon new, junk filled lands will open up is...let's be charitable and say it's ignorant, rather than just saying it's malicious.
See, this is where you and I differ. If I was going to play solo in a game that was difficult and hostile toward soloers (which fits in the setting and lore of the game, by the way), then I would log on during hours when few people were on, and I would shop other tribes junk piles until I puked junk. There will be plenty of time when people will not be on this game. Furthermore, I might get to know the tribes around me to see exactly what their normal hours of play are, or I might just hide up in the woods and wait for them to leave so I could search their land. I might also get really damn good at combat before I even bothered to settle so that if I wanted shop tribe's junk piles and I don't care if they know it, I would be able to kill whoever tries to stop me.
If I wanted junk, but didn't want to piss of my local tribes, I would travel half way across the map on expeditions, and steal stuff from tribes I won't see very often.
I think you are expecting things to be handed to you when it isn't necessary. In fact, having it NOT handed to you creates some very fun game play ideas. The more I talk to you about playing solo, the more I want to try it. Sounds like a blast exactly how the game plays today, IMO.
This too, but more important as far as I'm concerned is that relying on the /unstuck exploit to go over fences that any tribe with any sense will quickly build around their precious junk is first of all, cheesy, and second of all, bound not to work for long.
And third, that whole rant of yours, mindtrigger, was a strawman.
I wasn't making a point about ease or difficulty, I was pointing out the obvious logic failure in telling solo players and small groups of players to be patient, to stay off the lake junk, and to not ask for more junk anywhere else SOLELY BECAUSE NEW AREAS WILL OPEN UP WITH JUNK IN THEM. Since many of those who are saying this would scream the house down if the new areas allowed solo players and small groups to place a totem with any protection at all around it, they are ignorant and malicious for trying to reassure us in this manner, since obviously this won't solve our problems, and either they should know it, or they do know it but they're hoping we're stupid.
How easy or difficult the entire thing is or will be had nothing to do with my point.
Junk piles are required for just about every craft etc maybe basketry. So junk can not be a rare item, it is a basic need, same as water and food.