The ability to melt snow in a container on your body

[Magnuzn]

The idea:

When I was in the army we learned to use our body-heat to melt snow into water in our canteens. I think this would be a great feature for TLD as there are no ponds or wells to fill water in and would therefore give a second option to melting snow at fires.

The problem/solution

The main problem is that bottles appear magically, so can never get an empty one. Options around this would be to maybe have a special container, like a canteen, that can be totally empty or full. This would make it a valuable item to find, as you could get water without the need of fires.

How it works

I see it being as simple as clicking on the container in the inventory and clicking "fill". Then it would be filled with snow and slowly melt over time. With snow being a lot less dense than water you'd have to fill it up often.

Balancing

I don't see this being a total replacement of melting water at a fire, but it would be a useful item on long travels, when you don't have firewood/matches and for when going through bad weather. It could be a rare/semi-rare item making it something long time survivors would hunt for to make life easier. With you using your body heat it could lower the temperature of maybe 1-2 degrees celcius, making it something you'd have to choose to use if you can or need it. This way it won't be "overused".

[elloco999]

+1 for the ability to melt water using your body heat.

[DarkUncleBoh]

+1

I'd like to see it be slow to melt much, and drop your temp by a little while in the process - but having the ability would be great.

As for working in game, IMO it could be as simple as just having the ability to "pick up snow" (on the assumption that there is a container involved) which rapidly decays - each time it decays to zero percent it certain weight of snow for some non-potable water, and the remaining snow resets to 100% durability. In the meantime the amount of "cold" you get from carrying the snow is based on the total amount of unmelted snow you are carrying (so it is in your best interest to carry a small amount and grab some more periodically, but if you can handle both the weight and the cold you have the option of carrying more snow - which won't melt faster, it will just allow you to go longer without having to worry about gathering more).

[alunasmoon]

+1 for an actual container and second options to melt water, i think we can find containers or make ones out of guts and hides (another use for rabbit hides perhaps...)