[READY] Activation and Reload of specific items without picking them up

[Robik81]

Closes #24686

What it does

This PR is mainly meant to save the player unnecessary tool shuffling inside of his base / crafting area.

Why I did it

There are various crafting tools that are necessary for crafting and which require batteries or charcoal to properly function. Under normal circumstances, player does not want to move such tools, just interact with them, but current implementation always picked the tool into player inventory, before any interaction could take place. Player then had to drop the tool back on the original tile. In some cases, as some of these tools are quite bulky, player had to first make more space in his or her inventory or manually wield the tool, which is even more unnecessary steps that needlessly break the flow of the game.

Similar problem is with light sources, which player place in his crafting area, to allow crafting in the evening hours... or sometimes even in the night shift. Player does not usually want to pick the lantern up, just to lit it up.

How it works

Crafting tools and light sources can be flagged to allow interaction from adjacent tile, without picking them up.

I added the flag to following tools:

Light sources

• atomic lamp
• atomic nightlight
• gasoline_lantern
• oil lamp
• electric lantern

Tools

• brick kiln
• electric kiln
• electric forge
• charcoal forge
• charcoal smoker
• filled charcoal kiln (to lit it)
• lit charcoal kiln (to check, if it is finished)
• water purifier
• charcoal water purifier
• food dehydrator
• food processor
• welder
• makeshift welder
• vacuum sealer
• makeshift vacuum sealer

Testing Area 51

[cainiaowu]

With this one implemented, will the player clever enough to auto active the lighting during a long crafting session to avoid speed penalty/interupt?

[Robik81]

With this one implemented, will the player clever enough to auto active the lighting during a long crafting session to avoid speed penalty/interupt?

No, the craft will still get interrupted. It's up to the player whether he then starts a fire or lit a lantern.

[cainiaowu]

Well that is bad, most player dont even know that they can resume crafting without losing progress by "repeat last craft".

[Robik81]

Well that is bad, most player dont even know that they can resume crafting without losing progress by "repeat last craft".

Could probably be better solved by expanding the "You can no longer see well enough to keep crafting." message to "You can no longer see well enough to keep crafting. Once you obtain a source of lighting, you can resume crafting by pressing x key." or something like that.

[Lorith]

How about activating folded vehicles to unfold them so you no longer have an issue of being able to fold vehicles you can never unfold since they are too heavy to pick up?

[Robik81]

How about activating folded vehicles to unfold them so you no longer have an issue of being able to fold vehicles you can never unfold since they are too heavy to pick up?

This issue is mentioned in #22771

I agree that unfolding makes more sense while folded vehicle lies on the ground. But it is out of the scope for this PR.

[Robik81]

I expanded the list of tools that can be used remotely with following tools and updated the OP:

• charcoal water purifier
• food dehydrator
• food processor
• welder
• makeshift welder
• vacuum sealer
• makeshift vacuum sealer

[Break-Off]

Does this fix #24413?

[Robik81]

Does this fix #24413?

I would guess so, but only for tools mentioned here, not for every tool.

[KurzedMetal]

I really appreciate this PR

I really like being able to active stuff from the floor.
Sometimes fixing stuff like Storage Battery + Welder with Battery Compartment Mod that has a Car Battery because obnoxiously heavy and I don't see a reason why the player character needs to have both in their hands/inventory to make them work (could fix the battery directly on the floor only grabbing the welder gun)

[KurzedMetal]

I was just checking the list of items that can be used to make a "meat pie" (just a random food I picked), and saw that several of the tools listed there don't have this flag but they arguably deserve it.

Like:

• hotplate
• mess kit
• stove kit
• multi cooker

There's probably a lot more tools that could include this new flag.
Are there any plans to expand this to other tools?
Or any guideline one what tools should receive it? Maybe I can submit a PR for other tools that follow that guideline.

[Robik81]

Only 'guidelines' are

1. has to make sense for given tool
2. tool must work correctly with the new flag

Adding the flag might not be enough for some tools and additional changes in C++ might be necessary.

I do not plan to add the flag to other tools right now, but anyone can make such PR. Just make sure the tool works.

[Theundyingcode]

With this one implemented, will the player clever enough to auto active the lighting during a long crafting session to avoid speed penalty/interupt?

No, the craft will still get interrupted. It's up to the player whether he then starts a fire or lit a lantern.

How difficult would it be to change the interrupt to a prompt to turn on a light in a subsequent PR?

[Robik81]

I am not sure, such change has more to do with crafting code which I am not familiar with.