Much as the title says, I just learned that I can refill toilets by (u)nloading bottles of water into them. But if I try to do the same with clean water (or presumably, other liquids), they just end up a useless mess on the floor.
Bathtubs and sinks do not have this same functionality (though arguably, they should!) I like the element it adds to the game to be able to use pre-existing furniture for survival needs. However, it seems like it’s just a coding slip that makes it possible in the first place. Could functionality be added to these furnitures to contain any kind of liquid, like standing tanks? Would it be unbalancing, or technically challenging to do so?
I’ve always snarked at the toilet thing by saying it’s clear you’re drinking from the bowl, not the tank. Reason being last I checked, the toilet water is set to have the highest chance of sickness, even moreso than river water or stagnant swamp puddle.
There may be bits of rubber from degraded o-rings or the flapper, maybe rust if the fill valve shaft or lift arm is made of metal, but it’s still impossible to take the discussion seriously when my character can chug river water and be LESS likely to puke their guts out.
But yeah, you should definitely be able to store water in the bathtub. I remember seeing this in some zombie movie and thinking how great an idea that is and I would surely use it if the real apocalypse ever occurred.
Is it really that good of an Idea? Filling a Bathtub with water means that the water has a big surface area, which means that the water can evaporate quicker. It’s also quite useless if you don’t have enough water and want to fill anything, because you couldn’t scoop enough water out.
Even worse, the water would be filled in one single, big ‘container’ - one mistake, one fight or one accident and the tub might be broken or something very dirty or even poisonous falls into the water and your whole, formerly clean, water is basically a puddle of (mild to medium, depending on the circumstances) poison.
Bottles, Tupperware, even plastic bags would be a better alternative. Nealry every household should have some bottles, plastic boxes and bags, and you can easily use those for storing water. There is also barely any chance of loosing all your water in one go if something happens, and it’s divided into more…usable portions.
Another problem with the Baththub is the distribution of liquid. Most Bathtubs I’m seeing are 2, sometimes more tiles big. Putting a liquid into one part of the bathtub would automatically put a percent of it into the other parts as well, and this can become quite ugly, if the game has to manage half potions, or even worse, thirds of a portion.
To the topic: As RD says, the values seem to indicate that you’re drinking from the bowl, not the water tank - Pretty sure that this was never changed. Any liquid you would put into there would become unpure, and therefore usually unusuable. Clean water however should most likely convert into dirty water and be stored, I’ll give you that.
I was under the impression that the water in the tank is no good not because you are drinking from the bowl, but because without the toilet being flushed and recycled with fresh water every day the water becomes stagnant and unsafe to drink. Explaining why deep river water, presumed to be flowing, is the safest water source available.
That kinda falls apart when I think about water bottles though.
What we need is for any characters with int >7 to drink from the tank and <7 to drink from the bowl. It should also allow you to store clean water in the tank with int >7.
Storing water in the bathtub is actually standard disaster survival advice. Generally it’s assumed relief will arrive soon enough that evaporation isn’t a major problem, but if needed you can lay the shower curtain on the water to prevent that. Survival supply companies also sell large vinyl bags complete with siphons designed to be placed in a tub and filled up, usually around 50-60 gallon capacity.
As for toilet tank water, being stagnant shouldn’t increase the risk significantly. Stagnant water outside is bad because it can contain parasites deposited there by animal waste, and air/water/soil borne microorganisms. A toilet tank is covered and indoors so the only source of contamination would be from the municipal water supply, so mostly you’re just going to get mineral deposits. And maybe bleach if the person kept a cleaning puck in the tank…