discussion The amount of cupboards in Coastal Highway is too damn high

[Eames]

Average kitchen in one of many CH houses has a dozen of cabinets. That's even without counting all the drawers. Going through them is not an escapist game – it's a tedious chore. Why not make most of cabinets "broke open", replace hanging ones with open shelves and use more visible, rendered items instead? Not only it's faster, but aiming and "picking" individual things is more fun than checking endless containers. Occasional one here and there is great for that lottery feeling, but too much and it's a chore since most of them must be empty anyway.

[nicko]

+1

[Dreepa]

Actually, I was feeling the same, but couldn't really pinpoint it. I just had this feeling of "work" instead of "playing"....    But now that you bring it up, yes, that is definately the cause for my reservation towards exploring kitchens. In the end I do it, because I must, but I do it with a feeling of work instead of excitement.

Good catch.

[Patrick Carlson]

On 6/6/2016 at 7:34 AM, Eames said:

Average kitchen in one of many CH houses has a dozen of cabinets. That's even without counting all the drawers. Going through them is not an escapist game – it's a tedious chore. Why not make most of cabinets "broke open", replace hanging ones with open shelves and use more of visible, rendered items instead? Not only it's faster, but aiming and "picking" individual things is more fun than checking endless containers. Occasional one here and there is great for that lottery feeling, but too much – and it's a chore since most of them must be empty anyway.

Thanks for your thoughts here. Do you feel this way about other regions and locations with lots of searchable containers, or just Coastal Highway? One point we always like to emphasize is that the different regions should feel different and offer different challenges and questions for you to answer. Since Coastal Highway has more small buildings and almost a "village" feel compared to the other regions, there are naturally more kitchens (and kitchen cabinets) to open. 

[Dreepa]

4 minutes ago, Patrick Carlson said:

Thanks for your thoughts here. Do you feel this way about other regions and locations with lots of searchable containers, or just Coastal Highway? One point we always like to emphasize is that the different regions should feel different and offer different challenges and questions for you to answer. Since Coastal Highway has more small buildings and almost a "village" feel compared to the other regions, there are naturally more kitchens (and kitchen cabinets) to open. 

For my part, it happened on Coastal Highway where the density is just really high around the garage/gas station area. 

[Eames]

I feel the same way about all locations with lots of drawers to check – Farmhouse in PV or Dam in ML. The more containers there are, the more of them must be empty. They in turn not only take more time, but also are a disappointment. If you changed most of the drawers in CH with open shelves, region's spirit would still be there since CH is about houses, not cupboards. Lake Office or Trapper's Cabin doesn't feel less of a house even though they lack containers. If there's only few of them, they contain loot and THAT is fun.

[Nasdaq401]

I actually enjoy it.  It mixes it up especially when you've been away from any kind of buildings for so long and in remote areas. Mixes it up! 

[hauteecolerider]

I quite like all the cabinets in the kitchens in CH and the PV Farmhouse.

They're great for storage once you've cleared them out.

In my first Pilgrim game, and my first Voyager game (both started on the v. 302 update), I set up base in a house with a kitchen, and use the cabinets to store superfluous supplies. All the first aid stuff goes into one cabinet, all the looted food into another, and the cooked venison, rabbit and wolf in another cabinet. Water, coffee and tea go into a fourth. Crafting materials in a fifth, and so on. 

[SteelFire]

2 hours ago, hauteecolerider said:

I quite like all the cabinets in the kitchens in CH and the PV Farmhouse.

They're great for storage once you've cleared them out.

In my first Pilgrim game, and my first Voyager game (both started on the v. 302 update), I set up base in a house with a kitchen, and use the cabinets to store superfluous supplies. All the first aid stuff goes into one cabinet, all the looted food into another, and the cooked venison, rabbit and wolf in another cabinet. Water, coffee and tea go into a fourth. Crafting materials in a fifth, and so on. 

This. While I can see the OP's point about having a bunch of cabinets to search, giving up those cabinets means giving up organized storage space too. I'd rather have the cabinets since I like to do the same thing as @hauteecolerider and organize all my stored items, it makes managing things much easier, especially perishable foods.

[Canadian Beaver]

On this note, might it be possible to decrease the occurrence of loot in these cupboards? I started a game in CH, was living in the gas station, and by day 3 I had found enough food to sustain me for at least 2 weeks. It took away the urgency that pushes me further afield in the other maps during the early game. Game was on Voyageur, so I don't think it was something inherent to the difficulty.