Streamlining the presentation and handling of liquid amounts

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1
  • For liquids everywhere: Do away with units and start displaying all amounts in milliliters.
  • Alternatively, when presenting units, also display how much that is in liters or gallons. (It’s 250ml per unit but calculate and display the amount just for convenience)
  • When siphoning liquids, ask the player how much he would like to siphon (milliliters). Request numerical input but set maximum amount as default. Similar to gas station pump behavior.
  • Alternatively ask “Siphon for how long?” Then request time in seconds (rounded up to nearest 6 seconds).
  • When siphoning liquids, inform about the rate of siphoning over time, such as “2L per minute” or “150 seconds per gallon”.
  • Display vehicle tank contents in milliliters, instead of percentages, or give the option to have it so.
  • Display vehicle battery power in charges, instead of percentages, or give the option to have it so.
  • For the above, consider hotkeys for cycling between percentages and ‘exact amount left’ / ‘max amount’.

[The prompt at gas station pumps]

How much, or for how long would you like to pump?
Transfer rate: 2L per minute
Enter milliliters or time in seconds (time is rounded up to nearest 6 seconds).
For example: 20000ml or 60s
24658ml

[The prompt at siphoning]

How much, or for how long would you like to siphon?
Transfer rate: 2L per minute
Enter milliliters or time in seconds (time is rounded up to nearest 6 seconds).
For example: 20000ml or 60s
59468ml

The underlined numbers are the maximums available, set by default, ready for you to edit, chief.
Possibly ponder if there is a decent verb to replace ‘pump’ and ‘siphon’. Transfer? Then we can get away with a single universal prompt.
And naturally (the filthy pleb) imperials should have their ounces and gallons displayed should they so choose to wallow in their decadent inferior measurements. :stuck_out_tongue:

2

I don’t like that part about asking for amount.
In vast majority of cases, the player wants to move everything. Asking would be just another menu to confirm.

3

Yeah, you’re right. Or rather, I’d say that the player always wants to fill the intended receptacle, be it a bottle or a vehicle tank.

The reason that got me writing this is that I noticed that vehicle siphoning is now interrupted constantly. I take that siphoning and fuel pumping now happen in 2000 or 2500 unit batches, after which it is interrupted? So I find myself siphoning a target vehicle over and over again. I think that was a bad move, and I didn’t particularly understand why it was changed to that. Zombie safety concerns perhaps, or an attempt to avoid unintended and excessive time lapse?

Edit:
Another idea: When examining the vehicle menu, there’s the ‘siphon’ command. What if a commanded is added: ‘siphon an amount’. So the good old ‘siphon’ drains as much as possible, and with ‘siphon amount’ one could have exact control over the, uhh, amount. That should cater the control freaks enthusiasts.

4

No longer happens, that was a bug.

As for the amount config thing:
The sanest way to realize it would be adding another menu option: “pour specified amount to container”.