Moving items downstairs

[Miloch]

How hard would it be to let the advanced item movement menu be able to move stuff down stairs? Add a <> options to the menu?
Right now in order to move a full vehicle of loot into my LMOE shelter it takes me a VERY long time. So much so that I have saved and walked away from the game two or three times now because it’s monotonous. Thanks before hand.

[Noctifer]

I second this. even an elevator of sorts would be nice.

[pisskop]

We have elevators in the form of mine elevators. How do they work? It would seem to me like stairs, tbh, but I dont know for sure.

[Etherdreamer]

They are a lot of little things like this than bugges me, but for now you need to choose just dump that upside in big cargo carriers.

There is something for dump stuff like a caterpillar? for sure no, but I wish.

[Noctifer]

[quote=“Etherdreamer, post:4, topic:11190”]They are a lot of little things like this than bugges me, but for now you need to choose just dump that upside in big cargo carriers.

There is something for dump stuff like a caterpillar? for sure no, but I wish.

There are forklifts but I am not sure if they carry massive loads of items.

[Etherdreamer]

I see the forklift, but they don´t have much space also, I don´t think they “catch” items on ground when you run over. Or they do?

[Malkeus]

I see the forklift items but they don´t have much space also, I don´t thing they “catch” items on ground when you run over. Or they do?

No, they don’t. They are more handy as death spikes to impale zombies than as containers.

[Miloch]

This more about specifically being able to move stuff down a set of stairs using the / menu. As this would at least let us place wheelbarrows and shopping carts in a useful manner.

[Coolthulhu]

There are 2 problems with moving items up/downstairs:

First one is that in 2D mode, we don’t have a quick, “clean” access to other z-levels. The solution to that would be to either ignore 2D mode or add some hacks to make it work.

The second one is misaligned stairs. Currently stairs aren’t aligned across z-levels, which means that it has to be hacked around. And those hacks would make the whole deal confusing: try going up and down stairs in the shelter - you may end up on different stairs than you took.
As a result, you’d have to first figure out which stairs are the “proper” ones and put items on those specific stairs. The idea to check all stairs would be too hacky.

Those aren’t huge problems and it’s all doable, but it’s not really doable “nicely” yet.

[Noctifer]

[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:9, topic:11190”]There are 2 problems with moving items up/downstairs:

First one is that in 2D mode, we don’t have a quick, “clean” access to other z-levels. The solution to that would be to either ignore 2D mode or add some hacks to make it work.

The second one is misaligned stairs. Currently stairs aren’t aligned across z-levels, which means that it has to be hacked around. And those hacks would make the whole deal confusing: try going up and down stairs in the shelter - you may end up on different stairs than you took.
As a result, you’d have to first figure out which stairs are the “proper” ones and put items on those specific stairs. The idea to check all stairs would be too hacky.

Those aren’t huge problems and it’s all doable, but it’s not really doable “nicely” yet.[/quote]
2D mode can be disregarded since it won’t be an option eventually and reworking z-level interactions to allow this would be a first step.

[kevin.granade]

What’s the scenario that needs this? I’m wondering if there’s another solution to your problem.
We aren’t to the point where we can disregard 2D mode just yet, and as coolthulu points out the main issue is mapgen not placing stairs properly.

[Noctifer]

It seems the scenario proposed here is moving items in bulk by not carring them all at once, but it can be extended to moving furniture, one tile vehicles(shopping carts), ect.

[KliPeH]

[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:9, topic:11190”]The second one is misaligned stairs. Currently stairs aren’t aligned across z-levels, which means that it has to be hacked around. And those hacks would make the whole deal confusing: try going up and down stairs in the shelter - you may end up on different stairs than you took.
As a result, you’d have to first figure out which stairs are the “proper” ones and put items on those specific stairs. The idea to check all stairs would be too hacky.[/quote]Can the game not be forced to allign those stairs properly? Either manually changing each building or writing auto-generation code for it - for example, stairs are at coordinates 1’2. Force the game to spawn the stairs in the same coordinates one Z-level below the existing one and build the rest of the basement around it. Same with buildings like the EVAC Shelter which have multiple stairs; remove the extra >'s and force the game to allign them properly on both levels. You then add the option to “teleport” items to those stairs below/above-ground if the player is standing on them and using the AIM.

[Azrad]

It’s probably not the answer you’re exactly looking for, but if you can blow up the floor above the place you’re storing stuff, there’s a chance that the destruction will create open space tiles. You can dump items down from there and it’ll show up on the floor below… but glass items aren’t safe.

[TheKobold]

It would be nice to be able to put a bed or something down there to make em land softly.

[Coolthulhu]

Can the game not be forced to allign those stairs properly? Either manually changing each building or writing auto-generation code for it - for example, stairs are at coordinates 1’2. Force the game to spawn the stairs in the same coordinates one Z-level below the existing one and build the rest of the basement around it.

It isn’t that simple.
Mapgen works in overmap tile sized blocks that have to be aligned to the grid. This means that the 24x24 block that contains the entire house on z-level 0 has to contain the entire basement on z-level -1.

This will probably require a rewrite of basement generation code to generate new basements with arbitrarily placed stairs.

[BeerBeer]

The way I’d have the game handle it is to have the game make a list of the movable items downstairs. The items would then be deleted and recreated again upstairs when the player climbs up. So there would be two ways to move stuff between stairs:

1. You place all the items on the staircase tile and give the command to “Transport items at your feet upstairs”. This could be a y/n prompt when climbing stairs normally if there are items at the player’s feet.
2. Or if you’re dragging a cargo container, delete and copy that, with contents. Spawn the container or the cart on the same tile as the player, or to an adjacent tile, depending if the cart can be walked on. If the destination stairway is too tight (stairway tile surrounded by 8 untraversable blocks) and there is no room, then don’t spawn it just yet but wait for the first chance, either when a block is dug out or the player traverses stairs again in either direction.

The duration of the transportation could be

1. Solid 5 minutes per level.
2. or calculated dynamically based on the total volume of the items, with no duration cap (but you’d have to prevent starving to death somehow)
3. or calculated dynamically WITH a duration cap, like max 1 hour, during which all items would be moved, no matter how much stuff
4. or transport at a steady rate of 4000 volume per 1 hour, allowing to move one 4000 vol batch at a time