# New messages, skill decay grace period, refits, items

**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/new-messages-skill-decay-grace-period-refits-items/1109
**Category:** The Drawing Board
**Created:** [May 4, 2013, 9:41am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/new-messages-skill-decay-grace-period-refits-items/1109 "2013-05-04T09:41:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Nappist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nappist](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Nappist)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2013, 9:41am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/new-messages-skill-decay-grace-period-refits-items/1109/1 "2013-05-04T09:41:26Z")

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Cannibals shouldn’t feel depressed when killing zombie children and instead get the message “You feel hungry for a moment, but it passes.”

Add a “grace period” pool to skill decay after a usage of the skill (regardless of whether or not you use XP to raise it). Using a skill adds time units to the pool. Grace periods pools are smallest when skills are at their lowest and highest, peaking somewhere in the middle. I am of the opinion skill decay should be the same way, where the least amount of decay occurs somewhere in the middle (at 3-4) and the greatest at both ends of the spectrum.

You should be able to read Playboy magazines even while Illiterate.

Add leatherworking kit and tinkering kit, allowing people to do repairs/refits so long as they have the ammunition (leather and scrap metal, or in certain cases, chitin). Power armor should still be unalterable, barring facilities that you could also make cybernetics on-not terribly likely.

Stockpiling items on the ground is very annoying when they appear as stacks in your inventory and then explode into a 4x4 square when you drop the item. On-ground stacking would be nice, as would the capacity to drop and pickup X# of one item easily (there may be a command for that and I missed it?).

Wool allergy should give the message “Your hands itch unbearably” and immediately fail to pick up any wool item unless wearing some hand covering.

Add stunning. Add restraints so you can chain your subdued “pet” zombies to posts.

Make it so items stored underground don’t rot as quickly, ditto items stuffed in refrigerators. Some sort of threshold for temperatures?

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### Author: ![Austupaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Austupaio](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Austupaio)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2013, 9:43am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/new-messages-skill-decay-grace-period-refits-items/1109/2 "2013-05-04T09:43:05Z")

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> You should be able to read Playboy magazines even while Illiterate.

Good point.

> Add stunning. Add restraints so you can chain your subdued "pet" zombies to posts.

Tazing and cuffing zombies sounds highly amusing.

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### Author: ![Soron](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/soron/32/885_2.png) [@Soron](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Soron)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2013, 9:56am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/new-messages-skill-decay-grace-period-refits-items/1109/3 "2013-05-04T09:56:54Z")

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> [@Nappist](#):
>
> Add a “grace period” pool to skill decay after a usage of the skill (regardless of whether or not you use XP to raise it). Using a skill adds time units to the pool.

We’ve got something like that in current dev version. Practicing a skill resets the timer for skill decay.

> [@Nappist](#):
>
> You should be able to read Playboy magazines even while Illiterate.

You should be able to already.

> [@Nappist](#):
>
> Add leatherworking kit and tinkering kit, allowing people to do repairs/refits so long as they have the ammunition (leather and scrap metal, or in certain cases, chitin). Power armor should still be unalterable, barring facilities that you could also make cybernetics on-not terribly likely.

Yeah, I agree that it would be nice to be able to repair (some) items other than cloth-based clothing.

> [@Nappist](#):
>
> Stockpiling items on the ground is very annoying when they appear as stacks in your inventory and then explode into a 4x4 square when you drop the item. On-ground stacking would be nice, as would the capacity to drop and pickup X# of one item easily (there may be a command for that and I missed it?).

Yeah, agreed. There is something in the dev version that lets you more easily interact with immediately-adjacent squares, and UI improvements are something we’re always after.

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### Author: ![Austupaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5ac83/32.png) [@Austupaio](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Austupaio)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2013, 10:06am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/new-messages-skill-decay-grace-period-refits-items/1109/4 "2013-05-04T10:06:03Z")

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> You should be able to read Playboy magazines even while Illiterate.
> 
> You should be able to already.

  
As of 0.4, that’s not the case.

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### Author: ![Nappist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nappist](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Nappist)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/new-messages-skill-decay-grace-period-refits-items/1109/5 "2013-05-04T14:59:24Z")

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> Tazing and cuffing zombies sounds highly amusing.

Gets even better if you use them to push your cart. Just sit in the vehicle and look at them go!

Comically sized hamster wheels for power generation.

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### Author: ![pingpong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4bbf92/32.png) [@pingpong](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/pingpong)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/new-messages-skill-decay-grace-period-refits-items/1109/6 "2013-05-04T15:16:07Z")

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On a side note, I lolled when I picked up my first book, was unable to read it, then realized it was a Playboy. My guy is a fine moral citizen.
