Red boxes and ruined items

[ToAsT]

I have a saved game that I've been running through steadily for a few years now (300+ in-game days) and that's gone through several major game updates. I used this particular run to get most of the achievements, and so I've explored almost every nook and cranny, plus I've picked up pretty much all the useful loot I could find. As a result, there are red boxes everywhere - the kind that Hinterland shunts items into when they make a region change - and they're loaded with hundreds of items each.

I was wondering what would happen to those items if, given enough time, they become ruined? Do they disappear from the red boxes the same way they do for other in-game containers? I have a ton of meat and other resources that I'd rather not lose, even if they reach 0% quality. After all, many of the items placed into those boxes weren't in any containers beforehand, and that was on purpose to avoid them disappearing from the game.

[Murpharoo]

You will find that many many items are gone...

All 0% food that was left on the ground that gets transferred in to a red box goes poof ! I lost 100's of Kg of food when the red boxes were implemented.  

Plus any of your carefully prepared caches of food / wood etc in caves will have all been relocated to the red boxes necessitating a laborious need to move it all back to where it once was...

[SpanishMoss]

Items IN THE BOXES still decay as if they are in a container.

Any food items that were already ruined when they were put into the boxes will be instantly deleted.

If a food item that had low condition was put in the box, it will still decay, until when it reaches 0% condition, it will also be deleted.

Regardless of where in the location the item was placed or stored, they will all be transported into the red container, so make sure if you have any known caches of food, to remove them before they become ruined.

This is an unfortunate oversight by the devs 

[UTC-10]

We haven't seen another Lost and Found event since back about Episode 3 when it was implemented. 

The negative consequences to all to trying to spare a few the possibility of losing gear were pretty overwhelming. At least IMO. 

Lost and Found could be tweaked with respect to ruined food but other effects while not so troublesome (like laboriously laid out trail and safe passage makers being swept up and away or materials left at forges and work benches, etc. being moved far away) were likely not welcome either.  

[ToAsT]

Thanks for the feedback. I suppose it might be fun to tromp around through the different regions, if only to get a fresh perspective and refresh my memory of the game world. I haven't found all of the polaroids either, so maybe that will give me some incentive to retrace my steps.

I know it's not "in-line" with the game world and the red lost & found boxes, but it'd be nice if they provided a list on the map of which items were transported to a red box or make it so that the items within, even if ruined, would not be removed from the game world. After all, you aren't able to add items in there anyway, so it's not like it would be abused as some kind of weird tactic for endless loot.

[UTC-10]

I think that the problem with ruined food in a container was more that the devs did not consider that while the act of consolidating all that ruined food in a Lost and Found box did not in itself cause the ruined food to disappear, any action by the player/character that resulted in saving the game subsequently caused the game to update things so - ruined food in a container, away it goes, per the usual rule - a possible oversight that they didn't realize at the time and it was too late to do anything about by the time they realized it.  

I remember entering a save game, stepping outside of the Camp Office and checking the Regional Lost and Found box on the porch.  I was astounded to see that it was full of ruined meat (cooked and uncooked) among other things.  I immediately ran back inside which caused the game to save (I had this idea that maybe the 'mistake' had been stealth fixed) and came out again to find all the ruined meat (and other ruined food) had disappeared.  I was mortified that I did not think of the alternative outcome.  

 

[UTC-10]

Unexpectedly, I made a lost and found box spawn in Blackrock Prison.  Surprised as heck to suddenly see it outside the enclosure that is the Steam Tunnels.  I eventually figured out that I had thrown two stones over the walls of the Prison, basically throwing them out of bounds, and the game put them back in the game inside a box with two stones. At least that is my guess.  

I think I will leave that box alone.  😁  Too bad it couldn't have had  🥞 

 

[UTC-10]

I threw more stones over the walls of the prison and the number of stones in that lost and found box have increased.  I tried throwing stones into the prison from outside of the gate house and have not yet found where the lost and found box that might spawn with those stones was located but I suspect at the transition from Keeper's Pass North into Blackrock.  

Now what about torches? Flares? Maybe a noise-maker (but doesn't that have to be lit to be thrown)?

 

[UTC-10]

No torches appeared in the box.  I could barely get them over the wall.  I need a trebuchet (as seen on Primitive Technology) to fling the torch far enough.  😁

[conanjaguar]

3 hours ago, UTC-10 said:

No torches appeared in the box.  I could barely get them over the wall.  I need a trebuchet (as seen on Primitive Technology) to fling the torch far enough.  😁

Have you tried shooting an arrow over the wall?

[UTC-10]

No, I am just experimenting with it.  I suspect an arrow might go far enough to be out of bounds but I hate losing one if it does not.  I also have started thinking that the box has a limit of twelve items (stones).