I'm past the part where it was suggested that I bring food when I go out, yet there seems to be no way to actually eat it. There is an inventory button mentioned in the controls but it doesn't do anything if pushed or held. If I push start button, go to the inventory, and push A then it has an effect like it should be doing something but nothing happens. Is there any way to eat food while out?

That is my main question but also:

Is there a way to slow movement speed a bit (other than gliding)? One of the characters even mentioned slowing down a bit but I'm not seeing any way to do that.

U-turn controls seem wonky and trigger accidently quite a bit while being hard to trigger when I want to use them (although because they are so fast they are approximately useless to me and I'd be happy to be able to turn them off entirely). But it don't seem to be listed under controls. Any way to turn off u-turns?

I am seriously considering returning it. Any help with these issues or other anti-frustruations advice would be appreciated.

Edit: Ok, it turns out that there are camp sites and you can only eat there. There is a hint to this effect in the help text of the medical kit. You can also cook there, but not everything you can cook at the nest. Another thing that I had trouble with is that leveling up is done at a new location in the kitchen. I was able to use it twice by the time I figured it out :/.

I'm thinking that for some reason u-turns are in the game entirely to annoy the player :(.

I know I'm late to the party, but... just going to add a comment here based on my experience so far.

If you keep the default behaviour of camera control being disabled while gliding, it's a more "stiff" feeling experience in terms of movement and flow, *BUT* it makes u turns very much a player-controlled interaction that's hard to trigger by accident. Obviously I don't like playing that way because it doesn't feel as fluid, but it takes a lot of practice to get comfortable avoiding u-turn triggers. It took me a couple of hours to get used to the controls enough to feel like I'm not pulling u-turns by mistake very often and I've found they can be useful in navigation and following flow paths. And I still do it occasionally but a LOT less than I did at first.

I had the same early issue with food that you did, though, not knowing why it wouldn't let me eat. It was a little worrying, because I had gotten into several fights and derped a bit in one and both characters were low on health, so I NEEDED to patch us up. Ended up turning around and going back to the nest, and I'm glad I did because when I went back out, I ran into 2 more fights - enough to be sure I would have died with my (lack of) skill at the time - before I found the first campsite I could use.

I also can't empty the backpack to pack other items or stronger healing potions. For example, I would like to have several packets of roasted rock candy berries to attract Birble. I can only clear an item space if I choose "eat" on the camping spot instead of "cook". But even after a free space was created, it took several attempts before I could insert roasted rock candy berries there, prepared in the nest. I'm afraid the backpack is not much help....

It is the same with fights. I can only leave fully leveled because no food is possible in random battles.

You can manage the backpack only when you exit the ship, after that what is in there stays there.

Yes, only at the nest's door.
If I have a free space in my backpack, I would like to put something specific in there, e.g. a selected food or a healing package. But it is not taken over when I select it from the fundus / assortment. Sometimes something else is invited when I stand at the door and open the backpack.
It's a hassle to get something OUT of the bag because you have to use it up at the campsite first.
So I don't really understand how it works.

No, in that screen you can also remove the stuff, but I don't remember how... maybe the middle mouse button, or the right one... or a double click... anyway when you exit the nest you can choose both what to remove and what to add to the backpack.

The things you remove from it will stay at the nest.

If it works, that's good news. I'll try it out. Thank you very much.

Yes it works - with MOUSE. I haven't try it with mouse clicks. I play with PS3-Controller.
Thanks!

Quote:
U-turn controls seem wonky and trigger accidently quite a bit while being hard to trigger when I want to use them (although because they are so fast they are approximately useless to me and I'd be happy to be able to turn them off entirely). But it don't seem to be listed under controls. Any way to turn off u-turns?

Answer:
It took me a long time to get the glide right. Normally the character follows the floodway automatically, even upwards. I use a PS3 controller. The glide is on the right shoulder button (in my setting). you have to follow approximately with the left stick. When the flow stream makes a sharp bend, a short (!) press of the left shoulder button is enough to "drift" and a simultaneous tracking with the left stick. The game is very tolerant here, you can leave the course very far and you will still get back. Exact tracking of the stream is not necessary at all.

I haven't figured out yet what the 180° turn is for. So far I haven't needed it. Perhaps the flow streams become more and more complicated during the game?

I did eventually get much better with the controls as well. The streams do get more complex later on with very sharp turns (I didn't finish the game but made it at least 2/3 of the way I think). Some of them took me a number of tries to get right. I remember wanting the u-turn on occasion, although I don't remember if I ever wanted it for following a stream or just when I noticed I was going the wrong way :/. I tried again but I couldn't u-turn reliably when I wanted to so I would still appreciate a setting to disable it entirely (I haven't played the last couple of updates yet, not sure if they changed anything related to controls).

As soon as I realised that I had caught the wrong flow stream, I jumped off. You need all the flows only to clean each island because rust is often on high plateaus. But to finish the game, you don't - I think - have to clean everything. Sometimes, however, some flow bridges to other islands are only accessible via flow streams.

So far I've been able to get to the island via detours from the other side. Sometimes only after unlocking for a long time. But of course, it could be that I actually need 180° turns to get further in the game?

As for food: both whine when they are hungry and the bar is empty, but you can still keep playing, even fighting.

There is an option for some food: you can eat at the camping site, in the nest and in quiet places. But I could never test the last one. What is a "quiet place"?

PS I didn't install the updates because I assume the exe file is already the current one?

New location in the kitchen: Do you mean the option to celebrate / make party?

There wasn't anything that required the u-turns as far as I got. It isn't just clearing islands that require using the flow streams but also reaching other islands (you can't always go a different way) and some game events. So it is necessary in many cases to be able to follow them. Clearing an island is not usually necessary, in fact after getting better at the controls I enjoyed flying around and clearing islands and the characters would often say to move on more quickly and that clearing isn't necessary :/. There are things that are unlocked at some point in the nest that use rust so it is handy to have a fair amount of rust.

If you mean the patch files, yes those should never be necessary in addition to the full game, they are there for convenience if you already have an older version downloaded. Except that I've found they very often don't work correctly (on GOG in general) so I personally ignore them entirely and always download the full game. I just mean that I played a while ago before the last couple of updates were available. And yes I missed the celebrate thing somehow at first but it is important :/.

I don't remember the "quiet place" mention (my memory is not so good :/) but there are two things I could think of that might mean. One is a cleared area, however I'm fairly sure I tried that and it didn't work (unless they changed something since I played). The other is a particular location that is somewhat hidden and distinct from the usual islands. I'm guessing that is what they mean. I only found one such location but it is possible there are more.

A lot of fun can be taken a bit ironically. Kay plays complicated SF board games with a million rules and with garage kits, Yu plays guitar and collects all kinds of junk...

Yes, you need rust a lot to make the flood weapons out of it. For the hornets, they can be helpful. At the moment the enemies are manageable by now, but there may be more and more bosses coming. I don't know - but you should be prepared. I clean each island as much as I can.

Playing the board game (SPOILER picture):
https://abload.de/image.php?img=haven2022-03-1221-21-57j3b.jpg

I must correct myself: the quiet space is available only for healing tools from the backpack, not for food.

https://abload.de/image.php?img=haven2022-03-1319-39-emke2.jpg

Ah, that could be the cleared areas then.

I think you should remove or edit the first two sentences of message 13 since that could be considered a spoiler. Unfortunately, the GOG forums don't have a convenient spoiler hiding method like Steam does.