Hauling equipement slot

[Trickster]

I'm pretty new to Kenshi... (ok... played 120 hours... But only like a month! ) So maybe the point I'm bringing is a non-issue, or just beating a dead horse.

There seems to be quite a few problems with base automation. One of those I encountered was with hauling in general. First, blacksmith having to discard their main weapon to carry those they craft. Then, my medic crafting medkits always dropping his own. You get the idea...

Being a computer programmer, I started thinking how this could be improved/fixed. My first idea was that, when picking items for hauling, they would receive a "Hauling" tag. They wouldn't stack with other item of the same type in the inventory (Unless those have the "Hauling" tag... which shouldn't happen). Said tag would cleared if the hauling job was interrupted. I thought it was a valid solution... But still, it didn't fix the problem with the blacksmith.

Then I thought about a 2nd idea. How about we get a dedicated "Hauling" equipment slot? One that would be only usable by the AI for hauling job. (if you need role play reason, think wheelbarrow). Said slot could be large enough to accommodate just about anything (Including large weapons). Since it would be usable only by the AI, the limit on items wouldn't be decided by the size of the slot, but by the game itself. Upon reaching a container, the game would know what is to drop and what is to keep.

And if hauling job is cancelled midway? Send everything to inventory and what doesn't fit on the ground.

I think it would also contribute to reduce the squad micromanagement. As I often find myself having to remove a lot of "exploring" equipment from my character's inventory when I come back to base, only to have to reequip everything when I want to walk out.

Now, could that be abused... Not sure. But if someone wants to go way out of their way to abuse something like that, they could as well mod the game?

So, what do you guys think about it?

[Vandala]

Meh, I see it as a non-issue, sure it's an annoyance, but not really a problem.

It won't solve the real problems with keeping a base running, which is characters getting stuck, not being able to combine all jobs, weird item pickup/drop loops, weird workstation being used/not used loops.

But its not a bad idea, might be useful if you could also add a special hauling animation to go with it, as in, any item put into this "hauling" slot would cause a character to show a hauling animation along with showing the item that's in the slot. That way characters actually show what they are carrying, its a nice bit of fluff for the game.

[Berzerker Jay]

As far as an animation goes, we could simply substitute the item for a ragdoll with the way one hauls other characters.

I do see some potential issues in implementing this, however. I would fill Garru backpacks and haul them around with one of my stronger characters, probably. So it can definitely carry the potential of disrupting the current balance. I might end up not even needing pack-animals.

[Trickster]

I guess you didn't read my proposition properly...

What I suggest is a slot reserved for AI's use... in other word, you couldn't manually put something in there. So unless there is a command to order the AI to haul a garru's backpack (Which I didn't encounter...) this would be a non issue. And as soon as the hauling command would be cancel, that slot would be cleared. (transferred to inventory or dropped on the ground). Not saying there isn't potential for abuses... But right now, there is a lot of potential for functionality failure.