Be on the lookout for...

[WarMongerian]

Hi folks, just had a thought about book runz, and thought this might be an idea.

Say you can advance to unlock a skill/ability, that allows a short list of things your character is looking for. For book/magazines, say you are looking for a specific volume, and you have this ability, and you just goto your tab that has the series, and click on the one (or more, if you have advanced enough to have more than one slot for this kinda thing), the specific volume you want your digital dude to "...Be on the lookout for...", and that book shows up in colorized text. This would be a great help for me, especially with my eyesight, but even folks with normal eyesight could make their hunts for that last/important volume much less likely to miss it when it comes by.

This could work well with any items in the game, not just books, and how could it help you in your adventures?

What does everyone think?

 

[MaxTunnerX]

I think its a logical advancement in the development of this game. I imagine it working like in Falliut 4 where you tag the things you want and they get highlighted in the environment.

 

[WarMongerian]

I think it's a logical advancement in the development of this game. I imagine it working like in Fallout 4 where you tag the things you want and they get highlighted in the environment.

Thanks. Would you think this would best be used on all items in the game, or just for books? I'm curious, because I could see being on the lookout for many things, but colorising other things might be a problem.

 

[MaxTunnerX]

Thanks. Would you think this would best be used on all items in the game, or just for books? I'm curious, because I could see being on the lookout for many things, but colorising other things might be a problem.

It wouldnt make sense to have this system only for 1 item, it needs to be usable for everything else too. And the way isnt really that hard. We literally get tagged small stones and wood during the tutorial quest and those arent even container things. Even the containers themselves can be tagged (like the birds nest in tutorial again). Really no problem to have it that way, just a matter of will. Maybe you can already mod it now for all I know.

 

[Riamus]

If you want something to indicate an item in your inventory or a loot container as being something you are searching for, that might be a good accessibility feature. Since they are looking into color blindness accessibility now, perhaps they will look into other accessibility features.

Ifyou just want to be able to remember which book you are looking for, I think you have the option to track that, but you can only track one thing at a time, unfortunately. So that would mean not tracking quests or crafting. And I'm not 100% that you can track the book.

They really should update the tracker to allow tracking more than one thing at a time.

 

[WarMongerian]

Since they are looking into color blindness accessibility now, perhaps they will look into other accessibility features.

I saw that too, hopefully it will happen soon. (Crossing fingers)

If you just want to be able to remember which book you are looking for, I think you have the option to track that, but you can only track one thing at a time, unfortunately.

I have not seen that option, but it could be that I just haven't seen it, but I'm thinking not.

I do like that some things are tracked between some workstations now, when before you had had to constantly keep redoing what kinda job you were wanting to do, now you can just grab the whole mass of "Smirkey Water" from your water storage, and now you can go campfire to campfire, and it remembers what you were doing, so if you had several stacks of it, you can set the first campfire to purify just 60 of them, and then the second campfire will remember that task/quantity, and it greatly reduces the time and pain of boiling mass quantities.

It works with other things as well, but not everything, (Yet) but very hopeful for the future! The game is getting better and better now that v2.+ has hit the shelves, keep up the good works guys and gals at TFP!

So that would mean not tracking quests or crafting. And I'm not 100% that you can track the book.

I haven't tried to finagle a way to make that happen, so no idea.

They really should update the tracker to allow tracking more than one thing at a time.

I'm not visualizing the tracking feature and the "Be on the lookout for" as the same kind of game mechanic, but yea, having a list of things to scroll through, if you wanted to, and could just toggle on/off having multiple things, that are being tracked in the background (on your list, but not on your screen), that also would be a very nice feature. Maybe something like:

1) Primary tracking task is on screen, just like now
2) A quick and easy way to look what is on your list. (what buttons are not commonly in use, and could be retasked for this functionality)
3) A menu that pops up and allows adding/deleting/sorting a tracked item.

Can you picture not having to replace your quest tracking, because you want to track a recipe, and then vice versa? Having the ability to have an off-screen list, but one that you can scroll through, with each item just a button/mouse wheel movement away from being the one that gets to be displayed on screen, at a given time, and not having to manually reset each time?

On a related note, I just started playing solo, as my friend that plays everyday is having computer issues (He somethines game crashes when trying to share screen on discord), but now, if I try to join his game while he is streaming, the game (on both of our computers) freezes up, and when I {Alt-F4} out, my computer crashes/game files get corrupted.

Anyway, long story short, I just unlocked the Burnt Forest, got all four Trader Jenn's to give me a quest, and low and behold, three of them were in the same area! Tow of them were literally side by side, a third was just around the back of that block, and the 4th quest was just down the street. Imagine having these two on a scrollable list!

I nickname my Traders. On my current map/game, I call my girls (the trader Jenn's) things like Jenn-East, or Jenn-Central, with the others Jenn-North and Jenn-South.

What if we could do that in the game menu, somehow, and then, have the ability to toggle on/off, the Trader info (Whose quest it is), while in the 'Map' window, and show all your active quests, and just arrow key/mouse wheel your way through them?

 

[Riamus]

I do like that some things are tracked between some workstations now, when before you had had to constantly keep redoing what kinda job you were wanting to do, now you can just grab the whole mass of "Smirkey Water" from your water storage, and now you can go campfire to campfire, and it remembers what you were doing, so if you had several stacks of it, you can set the first campfire to purify just 60 of them, and then the second campfire will remember that task/quantity, and it greatly reduces the time and pain of boiling mass quantities.

I noticed that, too. It's a big help when cooking. I tend to never perk into cooking, so it takes time to cook a lot of something. Because of that, I'll split it between my 3 campfires equally. Since it keeps the quantity, that's a time saver. Now, if only you could split wood by entering a quantity or to automatically get the right amount based on what you're cooking. It's a little time consuming to split stacks repeatedly until you have the right amount, or close to it. And I hate wasting fuel, even if it's not exactly hard to get more wood.

I'm not visualizing the tracking feature and the "Be on the lookout for" as the same kind of game mechanic, but yea, having a list of things to scroll through, if you wanted to, and could just toggle on/off having multiple things, that are being tracked in the background (on your list, but not on your screen), that also would be a very nice feature.

I've seen a variety of options for this kind of thing. Many are some form of a RPG quest tracker idea, where you see a certain number of active quests (usually around 5) at a time, and as you complete one, any additional ones you have tracked will appear as space allows. That's not a bad option, but it does take extra screen space and you can't really prioritize one over another. Another method I've seen is in the game Idle Champions (it's free if you want to look at it). In that game, you can track a lot of different things. The tracker can be hidden off the screen when you don't want to see it. You can also have it set to show the item that is closest to completion. So if you're tracking something like Forge Ahead magazines and Sharp Sticks magazines, if one had 90% of the total and one had 80% of the total, you'd see the 90% one only and then if you got more of the other, it would switch. This lets you see what you're closest to completing and focus on that, which is useful. They could do something like a tabbed list, where you have crafting, challenges, and quests (or some other breakdown) and you'd see 1 or more on each of the tabs so that you could easily access different kinds of tracked items without having a huge list of things all mixed together. There are other methods as well. The goal would be to find out what works best here. I'd be happy with just having a quest and one other item tracked at the same time, though more is better.

 

[WarMongerian]

I noticed that, too. It's a big help when cooking.

I keep hearing folks bashing parts of the game, but not enough folks praising the parts that are (quietly) getting worked on and improved. Nice (and refreshing) to see these parts getting discussed and "Praise for the Pimps" starting to get recognition for all the hard work.

I tend to never perk into cooking, so it takes time to cook a lot of something. Because of that, I'll split it between my 3 campfires equally. Since it keeps the quantity, that's a time saver. Now, if only you could split wood by entering a quantity or to automatically get the right amount based on what you're cooking. It's a little time consuming to split stacks repeatedly until you have the right amount, or close to it. And I hate wasting fuel, even if it's not exactly hard to get more wood.

Perhaps that new stove will also have an internal cache of fuel, that just automatically takes the right amount, and no more, to cook any/all tasks assigned to the stove/campfire. Then you just have to place fuel in the reserve, and presto, no more fussing with "fuel-by-the-job", but rather, just fuel for the fire, and it automatically draws the proper amount, and when the cooking is done, it returns any unused fuel to the fuel reserve/storage.

 

[Riamus]

Perhaps that new stove will also have an internal cache of fuel, that just automatically takes the right amount, and no more, to cook any/all tasks assigned to the stove/campfire. Then you just have to place fuel in the reserve, and presto, no more fussing with "fuel-by-the-job", but rather, just fuel for the fire, and it automatically draws the proper amount, and when the cooking is done, it returns any unused fuel to the fuel reserve/storage.

Well, it's supposed to be electric, so fuel shouldn't be an issue with it.

 

[WarMongerian]

Well, it's supposed to be electric, so fuel shouldn't be an issue with it.

True, but upgrads of one kind might indicate upgrades to whole game mechanics. Imagine an upgraded forge, that doesn't just burn through all your fuel, but shuts off automatically.

I don't miss not being able to brush my teeth, take a leak, or take a dump in game, as these things don't really need to be taking up our playtime, and having to take our (real) time up, manually adding/removing fuel from a workstation is no more thrilling. Just saying.

OTOH, electric appliances could be like power tools are to hand tools. I could stand to have Power workstations, that just make the current (Primitive) workstations obsolete. Cannot wait to see what the future holds for all the crafting stations within the game!