Item Piling

[Razum]

Ok, I've got a quality of life idea. You can't place items above each other (without for example 'placing anywhere' mod). But when dropping them from inventory they just cascade into each other. But then it's difficult to grab the right item. Say, you've got 50 stick laying there and a torch. How are you gonna get the torch?

So my idea is a system change. When there are say 3 items on each other, they become a pile. Clicking on it will open an inventory, just like with other containers. You can put more items there (on the ground in the pile) and take them away. Maybe you can move the whole pile with right click. But you can't directly click on one item.

Maybe the interface shouldn't be a normal inventory, but slightly different. So when you click on the pile, all items that are part of the pile are shown and when you click on them, the behavior is the same as when they were a single item laying on the ground.

[Ghurcb]

Something like this?

[Serenity]

There is also the Item Pile mod that adds new bundled items. You can craft a stick bundle out of 10 sticks for example. And throw that into a fire as is.

[Razum]

15 hours ago, Ghurcb said:

Something like this?

Yes, pretty much. Is this better stacking mod (the same Serenity talks about)?

I didn't test this mod, but I saw it. It only stacks some items. But maybe this could also be the solution. What this doesn't cover however (maybe I'm wrong) is the case with the torch between the 100 sticks. You have to collect them or put them away before the torch becoming clickable. Then there's the point, you have to manually convert everything and it doesn't cover every item.

What I'm envisioning is a more dynamic system, where items placed near each other (or dropped in the same place) automatically become a 'pile' and change their behavior like I described above. Pretty much like in the photo above, where you can select which items to take. Also, you should be able to put more items into the pile. And it should cover different item types, like a flashlight, a torch and some sticks can be part of the same 'pile'.

What do you think?

[Serenity]

Quote

 Is this better stacking mod (the same Serenity talks about)?

"Better Stacking" and "Item Piles" are two different things. Seems like you want the first approach.

The downside is that it averages durability. That's why I can see this working as a mod, but not really in vanilla.

Quote

It only stacks some items

It's a matter of preference, but personally I really only need it for sticks and maybe coal

Edited February 23, 2023 by Serenity

[Ghurcb]

4 hours ago, Razum said:

Yes, pretty much. Is this better stacking mod (the same Serenity talks about)?

Nope, I just edited this picture in Photoshop for one of my "How would you improve The Long Dark's UI?" suggestions. I think that's about how it should look when you want to take an item out of a pile of the same items.

[Razum]

30 minutes ago, Ghurcb said:

Nope, I just edited this picture in Photoshop for one of my "How would you improve The Long Dark's UI?" suggestions. I think that's about how it should look when you want to take an item out of a pile of the same items.

Ah yes, ok. You got it pretty much. Very nice. Not quite, what I envisioned, but it seems like, we agree, that there is potential.

2 hours ago, Serenity said:

"Better Stacking" and "Item Piles" are two different things.

Sry, messed up. Didn't finde Item Pile mod in xpazemen Repository, so I thought it would be better stacking mod.

 

2 hours ago, Serenity said:

It's a matter of preference, but personally I really only need it for sticks and maybe coal

I used Better the placing anywhere mod. I stacked about everything that I didn't put in containers. Including logs, torches, recycled cans, tools and so on. The Placing anyhwhere mod really allows you to put it how you want it. But like vanilla it doesn't handle big numbers of items very well. Maybe there are other solutions to this, but I found this one.

Another solution could be to be able to craft boxes for items and being able to move them around.

[Serenity]

It's here: https://github.com/stmSantana/ItemPiles (hasn't been updated unfortunately 😢)

It actually requires Placing Anywhere as a dependency. You can make the pile items and stack them on top of each other.

And looking at the pictures, this reminds me of another pile I use: cat tails. A pile of 5 cat tails is exactly one meal that can be eaten in a single action.

The whole thing clutters up the crafting menu a bit, but I'd really love the stick piles in vanilla. Makes life so much easier.

Edited February 23, 2023 by Serenity

[Stuffed Plush Chainsaw]

The interesting thing about this is that such a mechanic already exists in the game. Certain items like ammunition, matches or coffee tins already "collapse" into a singularly rendered item in the real world when dropped together. It should be conceivable that this is used for other things like sticks, feathers, arrow heads, cat tails, etc.