Tidying up

[Kaisentlaia]

The new, detailed interiors are absolutely lovely and a much appreciated addition to the game. Although when I play survival mode I like to hunker down and make my base more homely. The breaking down mechanic helped immensely with that but the new interiors are full of litter that you can't remove.

Allowing for each single litter item to be picked up (maybe with 0% condition to avoid the excess of materials) would take a long time and be a waste of dev energies imo, but grouping all those items in a "litter area" that the player could interact with would give the same end result with less dev effort:

• some interiors could have one or more "litter areas" that would pop up a "tidy up" hint when hovered. The amount of interactive litter areas would depend on the interior's size.
• clicking on the litter area would popup a window similar to carcass harvesting, allowing the player to choose the amount of time to spend on it and remembering how much time was already spent tidying up that particular area
• when the required amount of time has been spent, the clickable area disappears and gets replaced with a cleaner piece of interior, similar to how limbs disappear once harvested

So for example camp office could have three litter areas: one on the upper floor and two on the lower floor (stair half and workbench half), and tidying the whole place up could take several hours but once done there would be no papers on the floors, no cans on the shelves, books neatly arranged if present and so on. This of course would give nothing in return and could be implemented only if the added litter could exist on a separate layer, like logs and already harvestable pieces of furniture. Implementing different litter areas in the same interior could be a nice way to show the progress without having to develop too many assets.

I know many here don't really care about how the interiors look like, but many others like myself love breaking down those ugly chairs lying on the ground in the PV homestead, or neatly arranging supplies on the shelves. It would be something to pass the time while a blizzard rages outside, although it would be only a slight cosmetic improvement that would of course have a low priority when compared to many other possible additions (real time cooking and moose, I'm looking at you!). But wouldn't it be so satisfying to finally pick up that darn cabinet door from the floor in PV? 

 

[Prestermatt]

3 hours ago, Kaisentlaia said:

But wouldn't it be so satisfying to finally pick up that darn cabinet door from the floor in PV? 

I just want to be able to pick up those blocks at the top of the stairs.  I'm always thinking I'm going to trip over those things.  I'm a parent, so I speak from experience.

[CitrinePeridot]

Thank you, by the way, for starting this thread. I kind of got off track in another area "Hunter's Cabin vs. Camp Office" with the clutter subject. So, I appreciate this being put out there to be explored without the other thread being off track.

I like the detail of your feedback. I don't know all the mechanics of the game or how to make a game. So, I admire the detail into which you've gone to remedy this. I would also like this to be an option within the game. Thank you.

[Fuarian]

I definetly agree here. But instead of the cleaning up I think every single "litter item" should be interactable. From each little piece of paper and plastic to the bigger things like laptops and pots and pans. Moveable and/or pickupable.

[The_Materialist]

I totally agree with that! At first the immersion effect of the trash lying around is great, but I want a tidy place as my base. I used to love the tidyness of the camp office now there is this trash on the counters and my compulsive neurosis strikes!

[Mroz4k]

22 hours ago, Kaisentlaia said:

I know many here don't really care about how the interiors look like

On a contrary, I think a lot of us do. I have seen many people using their items to decorate the place, and I would bet lot of people are pretty upset with the amount of mess that keeps showing up indoors, more and more with every location it seems. 

Like @CitrinePeridot already mentioned, there was a sub-topic on this subject in a different thread, and some ideas on how to fix this were dropped there:

I think it happened because one of the arguments why not to use Camp Office was because it was such a messy place.
I sort of agree with your litter ideas, but not entirely - doing so would mean the designers for this game would have to design several interiors for each indoor location that can be "cleaned up". Instead, I would like to have just 1 option - first would be the dirty location which you find during your exploration, and the second one would be "cleaned" version of that same interior - where all the furniture is pushed up, the cupboards are fixed and now useable, and there is no more mess on the ground. Basically, all the "major" locations would have an option to be "cleaned up", process which would take many hours, but eventually would result in a cleaned location, and some basic items like tinder, stacks of paper, reclaimed wood, that sort of thing.

I understand that cleaning up is no something most people would do in survival situation, but when we talk long-term survival, it is neccesary, as "order" is neccesary to be able to find your tools when you need them.