Enhancing Immersion and Convenience: 4 Wishes

[Oywin]

1. Proximity Item Use:
   - Implement an interactive system that checks both the player's inventory and immediate surroundings, including searched containers, for required items.
   - Enable crafting and using objects like fireplaces, stoves, ovens, crafting tables, etc., without the need to transfer items into the inventory first. This would also remove the need to replace them on surfaces afterwards.
2. Backpack Placement:
   - Enable players to place their backpack on the ground.
   - Add a prompt upon entering indoor locations to decide whether to put down the backpack or not.
   - Improved movement when not carrying it to make it obvious, unless the audiovisual cue is enough (so we don't constantly forget it).
3. Clothing Management and Saved Wardrobes:
   - Implement a clothing management system for transitions between warm and cold places (remind us to strip off some clothing when getting comfortable and vice versa).
   - Create saved wardrobes for quick clothing changes and easy management.
4. Reminder for Unequipped Gear:
   - Add a simple reminder to warn players when they are about to go outside without equipping available essential clothing and gear.
   - This reminder could prevent unintentional oversights when players are immersed in roleplay. I have multiple times wandered around for hours without realising I wasn't wearing shoes. At the very least the character should immediately complain about it.

Apologises if some of these are already implemented or planned. I haven't played for a while, and these wishes weren't a thing when I last played. I started thinking of them again as I read the June Dev Diary and saw pictures of the various cooking items placed on a table. It reminded me of what a hassle it was to interact with items after placement and that I wanted to improve that.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Oywin

[hozz1235]

Great ideas!

[Bolt]

I like all those ideas apart from the last one the clothing reminder, I feel that could break the Immersion of the game 

[xanna]

These are some really different wishlist ideas and I've had a lot of fun thinking them through. Thank you so much for them!

These are my thoughts, which are mostly party-pooping. Sorry about that, it doesn't mean these are not great and interesting ideas.

I'm not so convinced by wishlist items that just automate things that the player-character needs to do. So I'm not so on board with Proximity Item Use; it is frustrating to get to the workbench and realise you don't have the things you need, but going and getting the items from containers feels like a natural and immersive part of the game, consistent with the roleplay - it's a chore the PC has to do, not just the player. And no, IRL I wouldn't get them from a container and put them in my backpack before going to the workbench, but that's more about how we have conceptualised all inventory as being in a backpack. The inventory is not just the backpack, it's everything we 'have': the backpack and the satchel and the clothes we're wearing and even a held item like a gun or lantern is still listed as being in the inventory.

Some practical questions with Proximity Item Use:

• How extensive is the area that is checked for necessary items? In a building it could be the whole building and its containers. But for outside, what's the range?
• If there's more than one container that has a needed item, I won't know which one was taken. Not a big deal, it doesn't matter, but it feels weird to not know where my items are.
• If there's more than one item in range, how does the game choose which one to take? I'd probably want it to grab the lowest condition item for me, but where the game already does this sort of thing - choosing a bow or torch from the radial menu - not everyone agrees about whether choosing high condition or low condition is better.

I love the idea of Backpack Placement! I've often thought of this especially when doing the 'naked meat mile' - stripping off to go and fetch meat bags from a quartered animal. However, I'm not sure it's practical: Would it drop literally everything apart from clothes we're wearing? What happens if I want to take an item of clothing off, since I now have no bag, where does it go? Maybe the system could allow for a held item like a weapon or torch too, but I couldn't holster the weapon or pick up a burned out torch. And I couldn't pick up the meat bags either anyway...? If it's only for indoor locations, being overburdened is less of a problem indoors anyway, IMO. It would be good for immersion, though. I dont like the idea of going to bed with my boots and backpack on!


Clothing Management System: a saved wardrobe is not something I would use much. A bit like getting crafting items from containers, I feel more immersed changing my clothes manually than automatically.
I don't like the idea of being reminded when I go from a warm place to a colder one - we have a temperature meter already. Transitions happen a lot and most of mine don't require a clothing change. A reminder every time I nip in and out of cabins would be too much. I feel like this wish is bumping up on a little unreality about the game - that we can be too cold, but we can never be too hot, even at +40° in bed. Is that the thing you're trying to address?


The Reminder for Unequipped Gear is tricky. I totally understand wishlist items that address problems of "the player can forget but the player-character never would", like being naked or bleeding. My survivor is forgetful because I am forgetful - they go into a building and forget what they came for, they hike halfway to the forge without a hammer. If this were really me, then I might very well forget to put on my crampons before a rope climb like I do when I'm playing!
I am not sure of the scope of this, though. What counts as essential gear? If you're wandering around for hours without shoes, are they really essential? IRL, the survivor would complain because it would be uncomfortable, but the game doesn't have a concept of uncomfortable, only cold, tired, thirsty and hungry. Unless forgetting affects one of those meters, we can do without it, and if it does, then we already have a reminder. I'm also wary that any reminder might tip off a new player to information about items that they would otherwise learn by playing.