Losing/Organizing Car Keys

[Made in-Human]

This is a little bit of an annoyance. At first I thought that, because the game groups the same key types for the same model of car, that 1 single key would work for all vehicles of its type. I know it doesn't make sense realistically speaking, but the grouping of the keys made me doubt it for a bit. Turns out it's not the case, but because I can't choose which key I pick up from the stack then it becomes a problem because I have to carry the enitre stack of the same keys just to drive one car. This wouldn't be that big of a problem if the inherent risk of dying with any given character, sometimes in manners that make the recovery of items impossible, wouldn't risk losing the entire stack of keys for all your vehicles of the same type. This is unfortunately what happened to me when one of my characters burned to literal ash holding the 3 keys for all the vehicles I had collected so far.

This brings me to my questions; is there a recommended way to manage my car keys without having them group together and painstakingly try each one? And is there a way to make new keys? In case the original was lost in said fire...

[Izzy]

I don't really understand your problem, but if you just need your car keys sorted, put them all in a container, and try each one until you find the one that matches your car/cars, then mark it/them as favorite. There's no other way. And no, you can't make duplicates afaik. Maybe there's a mod for that, but i doubt it.

[Made in-Human]

Originally posted by Izzy:

put them all in a container and try each one until you find the one that matches your car/cars.

Yeah, see call me lazy af lol, but that is exactly the problem I wish to avoid. It's a pain in the arsch to have to take out a key, go try it, fail, come back, put first key I grabbed in a separate container or floor, grab another, go try it, fail again, rinse and repeat. I guess marking as favorite could work, either that or putting one in each separate container.

Or maybe leaving the key in the ignition? Does that drain the battery if the car hasn't been started? If it's like irl it shouldn't, but video game logic sometimes isn't logical at all.

[Larus]

I think you take the key automtically with you if you turn the car off. But you could make it a habit to leave the keys in the glovebox. This way you don't accumlate tons of keys in the first place and always know which one fits.

Alternative can you always spawn new keys in debug mode.

[Fitcher]

Well i understand the frustration and you want to avoid that but you could speed it up just by taking half the keys with you and see if one of them is the one you are looking for and if not you already cleared 50% of the keys as not the one you look for and just keep repeating this untill you get down to a small number.

Also renaming car keys as you find them is a good way to keep track of them.

[martindirt]

Maybe it's only my habit, since I'm used to play Mp many times, and sharing cars with the community/faction was a common thing, but
I'm always name my keys. Beside keys are colored (to help you find the matching car), I'm renamed them like this:
Red D6
Black personal van
Etc etc

Le edit:
To help you the one fitting key:
Put the key in ignition. Drop all the others to the passenger seat, take out the key. There will be only THAT ONE key on your keyring.

[Maitroyer]

What I do with keys and annotated maps is check them as soon as I safely can and rename them immediately as I go.
Sorry, not a groundbreaking tip but it's the only one I have lol

[[BRTD]Luewen]

Originally posted by Made in-Human:

This is a little bit of an annoyance. At first I thought that, because the game groups the same key types for the same model of car, that 1 single key would work for all vehicles of its type. I know it doesn't make sense realistically speaking, but the grouping of the keys made me doubt it for a bit. Turns out it's not the case, but because I can't choose which key I pick up from the stack then it becomes a problem because I have to carry the enitre stack of the same keys just to drive one car. This wouldn't be that big of a problem if the inherent risk of dying with any given character, sometimes in manners that make the recovery of items impossible, wouldn't risk losing the entire stack of keys for all your vehicles of the same type. This is unfortunately what happened to me when one of my characters burned to literal ash holding the 3 keys for all the vehicles I had collected so far.

This brings me to my questions; is there a recommended way to manage my car keys without having them group together and painstakingly try each one? And is there a way to make new keys? In case the original was lost in said fire...

How many cars you actually need to have tbh? Having 10 cars outside is not a big deal to switch keys even if they all are same model. If they are different model, the jobs gets much easier. And you get key icon, if you have that cars key. Then you can rename that key. Its not as big of a hassle as you make it. :D

[Greb]

I usually just leave the key in the ignition of the car as my form of "organisation" - I think there's an Accessibility option in the options menu that you can toggle to take or leave keys in cars when you exit them. If I find car keys around in the game world I.E on the floor, I'll always seek the car out that it belongs to (should be nearby) and then stick it in the ignition, even if it's a literal pile of junk with like every mechanical item below 50% condition.

That's my form of key organisation anyway. In a multiplayer game where your with people you can't trust I guess that'd be a bad method though.

[eyeliner smear]

Originally posted by Greb:

I usually just leave the key in the ignition of the car as my form of "organisation" - I think there's an Accessibility option in the options menu that you can toggle to take or leave keys in cars when you exit them. If I find car keys around in the game world I.E on the floor, I'll always seek the car out that it belongs to (should be nearby) and then stick it in the ignition, even if it's a literal pile of junk with like every mechanical item below 50% condition.

That's my form of key organisation anyway. In a multiplayer game where your with people you can't trust I guess that'd be a bad method though.

something similar he can do is put the key in the ignition, dump every other key in a container, and then go put the key on his keyring.

[Telfram]

Originally posted by Greb:

- I think there's an Accessibility option in the options menu that you can toggle to take or leave keys in cars when you exit them..

Yes there is.

[grogcito]

Enable the damn option to leave the key on ignition. For some ungodly reason it's not on by default

[Retro]

Originally posted by Grogcito:

Enable the damn option to leave the key on ignition. For some ungodly reason it's not on by default

Probably because this game leans towards realism, and I don't know anyone that leaves keys in the ignition when not using their car.
It's really simple to just leave the key in the ignition by using the radial menu. You don't need to click an option to do it.

[[BRTD]Luewen]

Originally posted by Retro:

Originally posted by Grogcito:

Enable the damn option to leave the key on ignition. For some ungodly reason it's not on by default

Probably because this game leans towards realism, and I don't know anyone that leaves keys in the ignition when not using their car.
It's really simple to just leave the key in the ignition by using the radial menu. You don't need to click an option to do it.

Also multiplayer thing. If you leave it in ignition, anyone can take the car.

[Death]

I just keep all car keys in my keyring. No need to try multiple keys, because I have them on me at all times.

[Made in-Human]

Thanks for all your replies and advice everybody!

Originally posted by Larus:

Alternative can you always spawn new keys in debug mode.

Hmm, I may try this just to replace my lost key for my awesome truck, tho I'm hesitant because I don't want to cheat :(

Originally posted by Fitcher:

Also renaming car keys as you find them is a good way to keep track of them.

Wait, I can do that? omg, I feel so dumb... This sounds like a very viable solution! I imagine it would stop stacking the same key type together, which would be a great help!

Originally posted by martindirt:

Le edit:
To help you the one fitting key:
Put the key in ignition. Drop all the others to the passenger seat, take out the key. There will be only THAT ONE key on your keyring.

I like this tip! I will do this to more effectively rename the keys that I have of the same models :D

Originally posted by BRTDLuewen:

If they are different model, the jobs gets much easier. And you get key icon, if you have that cars key. Then you can rename that key. Its not as big of a hassle as you make it. :D

I didn't know I can rename them, haha! I feel dumb...

Originally posted by Death:

I just keep all car keys in my keyring. No need to try multiple keys, because I have them on me at all times.

Well after burning to literal cinder right outside my doorstep (because I'm as dumb as I look and I accidentally stepped over a lit bonfire) I would NEVER carry all of my keys with me in the off chance I'm shortsighted enough to do it again

Again thank you all!