Quickbutton for Drinking Safe Water

[TWM]

Since the lovely miss Williams seems to be taking in requests for hotkeys right now, I'll offer another suggestion straight away:

I'd like to have a hotkey that would enable me to drink from my canteen of safe drinking water without me having to having to dig it up from my backpack every time I need to rehydrate.

Thing is: I'm going through liters of water each day. I like to have plenty of safe water at the ready at all times, so I'm usually hauling around with at least half a gallon of water (if not more), I check my stats regularly, and I drink regularly (if only to bring the weight down).

But that gets tedious after a while: 'How are my stats? Hm, that thirst bar has gone up quite a bit again' (opens backpack, click 'food' label, locates freshwater, drink, close backpack).

Same thing at night: you sleep for four or five hours, check your stats, open your backpack, click 'food' label, eat, drink (but usually, you only need to drink some water), go back to sleep for a couple of hours; repeat until dawn. It becomes somewhat rote after a hundred days or more...

Now, I'm aware that having a hotkey for drinking clean water could potentially change the dynamics of the (drinking) game somewhat: I imagine that once a player gets accustomed to using the hotkey, it would be quite probable one might lose sight of how much water one actually has left... But this might add a challenge to the game: keeping check on how much safe water one still has available.

[Shanti]

+1

[AmericanSteel]

What about if we "auto drank" as long as we had water? They did this with Fallout: New Vegas. You would fill a canteen up with water and as long as it had something in it, the player would drink from it. To make this simple, let the player "equip" water if it was on their person. Equipping it would basically tell the game that "Auto Drinking" was on. Unequipped would take you through the usual route. As soon as the thirst bar climbs to say 15% there is a gulping noise and maybe an "Ahhh!" to let the player know they drank. This could also be a way of not dehydrating while sleeping. It would be like the player waking up, taking a drink from jug on the bedside table and going back to sleep. I am not going to go so far as to say a player can "auto eat" unless we can chaw on jerky awhile.

However, a player could not auto drink if they had a rifle "scoped" in their hand.

[elloco999]

+1 for a drink hotkey

Not so sure how I feel about auto-drinking...

[octavian]

Until bad habits take over and it turns into a constant reload fest, but with drinking water -1 for me.

[Shadrach]

I don't think this is the way to do it. The time it takes to open the inventory, select food and click drink, is in a way an approximation of the time it takes to actually do it.

Consider you are carrying the water container in a rope hanging from your backback, or even in your backback (bad idea!) - you would need time to set the backpack down, get the container and unscrew the cap, drink the water and then put it back, put on the backpack and lift it. So yeah, it should realistically take even more time, perhaps even opening the inventory should trigger a longer pause with sounds of taking off the backpack and opening it.

But for now, the approximation is good enough and I don't think it should be made any faster just for convenience. After all being stuck trying to survive in a freezing wilderness is not 'convenient' :lol:

[elloco999]

I'm not against it taking a long time to drink the water, just against the amount of clicking I need to do. Open the inventory, locate the water, click the water, click the drink button... Having a shortcut key to drink would eliminate all that unnecessary clicking. The time required to drink using this key could still be a representation of the time required to get the container out, drink some and put it back.

And yes, I realize that takes some actions IRL so having 1 key to press might not be very realistic, but IRL I can't drink something by clicking with a mouse... I've never gotten RSI from drinking something, I have from using a mouse.

[Majales]

I've never gotten RSI from drinking something, I have from using a mouse.

If you have problem with RSI, then this function doesn't change a thing. Just delay it. You need to check ergonomics of your work (posture and arm usage).

[elloco999]

I've never gotten RSI from drinking something, I have from using a mouse.

If you have problem with RSI, then this function doesn't change a thing. Just delay it. You need to check ergonomics of your work (posture and arm usage).

And I have. But none of those things eliminate RSI, they also only delay it. Every little bit helps. And I simply don't like unnecessary clicking.

[TWM]

I'm not against it taking a long time to drink the water, just against the amount of clicking I need to do. Open the inventory, locate the water, click the water, click the drink button... Having a shortcut key to drink would eliminate all that unnecessary clicking.

Great minds think alike.

The less moving through menu-options I have to do to get to the intended action, the better. All the more so when it comes to actions one has to repeat a lot.

(Like selecting your sowing kit to repair some clothes - boy has that become fun when you carry around a lot of fishing tackle: scrolling, scrolling, scrolling...; Next item: scrolling, scrolling, scrolling; Next item; gr#$@@#$% this used to be easy!).

[TWM]

I'm not against it taking a long time to drink the water, just against the amount of clicking I need to do. Open the inventory, locate the water, click the water, click the drink button... Having a shortcut key to drink would eliminate all that unnecessary clicking.

Great minds think alike.

The less moving through menu-options I have to do to get to the intended action, the better. All the more so when it comes to actions one has to repeat a lot.

(Like selecting your sowing kit to repair some clothes - boy has that become fun when you carry around a lot of fishing tackle: scrolling, scrolling, scrolling...; Next item: scrolling, scrolling, scrolling; Next item: scrolling, scrolling, scro.. gr#$@@#$%, this used to be easy!).

[Le_Survivant]

I'm updating this because I think a shortcut for drinking water would be more immersive, and this wish is more relevant than ever.

+1

[Aduron]

I think this would work IF they implemented a container system for water that you have to manage. You can hold this particular 1L bottle of water on the outside of your backpack, the rest is inside (in containers), the hotkey drinks from the outside one and you may need to stop and "equip" a new bottle to the outside. Another challenge this presents (which is a real "challenge" when backpacking) is the sanitation of your containers. If you just boiled water that came from a water bottle, then add it back to that bottle, you probably shouldn't drink that water. It only takes one drop, and you left plenty in that bottle...

This would also stop the "dropping endless magical water bottles" phenomenon. At least all the other things you can drop are either finite or a bit more work to acquire (firewood).

While we're at it, people seem want the same kind of system for the jerry can (real containers that we have to manage).

I'm interested to see if people like or hate this idea. I imagine most may not, since this is a forum post on making water less micro-managey, not more. Personally, the current system feels right to me, or at least not cumbersome enough. Maybe if you're lucky enough to loot a camelback this becomes an option for you.

[Ikaris]

Hotkey for drinking water would be very nice,

Hotkey to strip to preserve your now rapidly declining clothing would be nice too.

Hotkey to go "bathroom/loo/facilities/hygiene stop/bio break" would fit nicely too.

[Capi]

I can't see the point of it? In that case, there shall be a hotkey for all you can eat/do, and that feels just pointless. There is a reason for having separated water and soda cans - water extinguishes only the thirst and soda cans also provides calories.