Hinterland: Rock Cache needs an Item Description.

[Gun Tech.]

Nowhere in the game is there information about what it does for the player, unlike other crafted items like the Moose-Hide Satchel.

Nor have I seen information in the update notes.

We're all assuming it's for something, such as preserving condition of the items inside, and then it's unfair to have players build one and pass at least 100 days to find out its properties.

The only property I've discerned by playing so far is that it takes 50 stones weighing 7.5kg, and fits 30kg of items.

The most important item is flare shells, since they decay fast, there are very few in the world, and the only way to preserve them now is to put them in a spare flare gun to slow the decay.

So: Information about decay rates of raw meat, cooked meat, clothing, bedrolls, and flare shells is unavailable until a response from Hinterland. We can't be expected to check on these things manually. I see this as your job.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Gun Tech.

[Khaki]

Flare shells decay fast? I feel silly now, I hadn't noticed at all.

By the way I think I saw Atheenon testing the decay rate of meat inside it. It doesn't appear to decay, which I doubt is intentional. Sadly if it is unintentional, and it gets patched, it doesn't make the caches particularly useful. Unless they help slow decay rate on a multitude of items, they are without a real use.

[UTC-10]

Raw and cooked meat does not decay so far.  I expect that to change.  Now if Hinterland were to change the rule about food items going to ruined inside containers (so they then disappear) that would be fine to have the food decay.  Whether we should be able to consume ruined food is a topic for another discussion. 

I plan on putting in a cache to hold coal for me - in Ravine which would be close enough to Coastal Highway Cinder Hills to be manageable - so it stays where I put it.  I would probably put one or more near the Old Spence forge to expand the storage out there.  Maybe not quite what they intended, but this is the first container that we can make and place at will.  Be judicious in how you use them and you can get some utility value out of them. 

I kind of expect the caches to behave like ordinary containers but, now that I think about it, I should check to see if they are weather proof for clothing.  Probably not, since they would be outside, but worth checking which would be easy enough.

[Gun Tech.]

Well, it doesn't really matter what function we wish of the caches. I think my only point is Hinterland added a new craftable item, and it would be courteous to inform players what function they intend.

[MrWolf]

3 hours ago, Khaki said:

Flare shells decay fast? I feel silly now, I hadn't noticed at all.

By the way I think I saw Atheenon testing the decay rate of meat inside it. It doesn't appear to decay, which I doubt is intentional. Sadly if it is unintentional, and it gets patched, it doesn't make the caches particularly useful. Unless they help slow decay rate on a multitude of items, they are without a real use.

I think the rock caches are tremendously useful for storing things where there are no containers.  I'm thinking specifically of when I spend weeks at a time in Hushed River Valley.  Sometimes there is a container in the form of a box, backpack, or corpse in a cave that I use as a base, but often there isn't or it doesn't have much capacity.  Now I can build some rock caches to store my things instead of scattering them all over the cave floor.

Regarding flares, I've been testing them recently.  It looks like flares lose 1% every 6-8 days, give or take, so it will take a while before they're useless (unless the rate of decay increases over time).  As @Gun Tech. said, the flare inside a flare pistol does not seem to lose condition.

Edited May 27, 2020 by MrWolf

[Khaki]

29 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I think the rock caches are tremendously useful for storing things where there are no containers.  I'm thinking specifically of when I spend weeks at a time in Hushed River Valley.  Sometimes there is a container in the form of a box, backpack, or corpse in a cave that I use as a base, but often there isn't or it doesn't have much capacity.  Now I can build some rock caches to store my things instead of scattering them all over the cave floor.

Regarding flares, I've been testing them recently.  It looks like flares lose 1% every 6-8 days, give or take, so it will take a while before they're useless (unless the rate of decay increases over time).  As @Gun Tech. said, the flare inside a flare pistol does not seem to lose condition.

Mm, I didn't think about that, it's nice to have a place where there's no containers where I can store things. I just want there to be more utility tied to it, not just aesthetic and organization.

[past caring]

13 hours ago, UTC-10 said:

I plan on putting in a cache to hold coal for me - in Ravine which would be close enough to Coastal Highway Cinder Hills to be manageable - so it stays where I put it.  I would probably put one or more near the Old Spence forge to expand the storage out there.

Being a newish and not very good casual player, I've yet to survive long enough to use the forge (nearly managed it in my last run through, but the save got corrupted) - but it looks like I might in my current game. So - are you saying that if I lug a load of coal to a spot and simply drop it instead of placing it in some form of container, it then scatters or disappears?

[UTC-10]

When Lost and Found is run generally in conjunction with substantial landscape changes - which I expect to occur, at least, whenever episode 4 comes out - anything out in the open would get swept up into a regional lost and found box.  For Forlorn Muskeg that would be at the tunnel mouth on the Mystery Lake side of the region. After that happened, moving gear, coal, scrap, etc., back to the Old Spence forge site can be a bit of trouble.  In my older games, I have been making use of every container at Old Spence so I don't have to take stuff back.  

If not for Lost and Found I would not have to worry about things being moved.  As it is, the regional lost and found box for Ravine I believe is near or will be near where I actually placed the cache so it was not particularly necessary but I do like to keep things organized up to a point. 

Somebody once posted about all his stuff being moved from Old Spence, which he had made his base, to the tunnel mouth. By his posting, he sounded pretty mad about that since he had to move it all back. 

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, past caring said:

Being a newish and not very good casual player, I've yet to survive long enough to use the forge (nearly managed it in my last run through, but the save got corrupted) - but it looks like I might in my current game. So - are you saying that if I lug a load of coal to a spot and simply drop it instead of placing it in some form of container, it then scatters or disappears?

No, that's ok, too.  Things dropped on the ground will remain there indefinitely (in the past, bugs have caused things to fall through the ground and disappear but that is rare, and the new-ish "lost and found" boxes will generally help with that).  

Containers are easier for many items because you can move all of the items as a group, assuming all items have the same condition and stack into one inventory slot.  If in separate inventory slots, the items can still be moved with one click.  Dropping everything on the ground is ok, but can be tedious to click each item twice to pick them back up later.

Edited May 28, 2020 by MrWolf

[past caring]

OK - thanks. I just ended up freezing to death anyway.....😁