Charging the flashlight

[Dinocanid]

From what I've seen, the flashlight is completely useless outside of the auroras. At first when I found the flashlight I was like "Oh cool! A light source!" But...nope. Can't use it. You need it in episode 2 because reasons, and that's about the only time I used it. In survival mode I'd never need it unless I was exploring indoors during the lights because I wouldn't be hanging out with glowing wolves and bears anyway, unless I happen to be miles away from a shelter at that rare moment.

More weird than that, the flashlight just dies after the auroras are over, even if the power was full. Shouldn't the batteries be charged? Batteries store power right? There's even a battery meter in the UI!
Maybe you could let the auroras charge your battery and use it as needed, but if you run out then you can't charge it again until the next one.

Since finding and stockpiling batteries would be OP because you could just charge and store them and never need any other light source again, I think just having the flashlight not instantly die when the auroras are over would be enough. Then you could save it for a more important time if you need to, or waste it all and be out of luck until the auroras come to charge it again.

[pavelsu]

First of all, I don't understand how an aurora can recharge an electro-chemical cell.

Secondly, by the same token, how can a geo-magnetic storm discharge every battery on earth?

If not, then thirdly, why don't we find cells and batteries lying around in stores, garages, and houses?

[Dinocanid]

Originally posted by pavelsu:

First of all, I don't understand how an aurora can recharge an electro-chemical cell.

Secondly, by the same token, how can a geo-magnetic storm discharge every battery on earth?

If not, then thirdly, why don't we find cells and batteries lying around in stores, garages, and houses?

Idk how either, but apparently it does in the game. The power is most certainly there in the battery during the auroras, unless it's all unintentional and the devs intend it to power the bulb instead. The wiki even says it's battery-powered. But for some reason, the flashlight is usable when those lights show up and loses all power when they're gone. Doesn't really make sense to me...

Another suggestion would be to skip charging altogether, along with the flashlight only being useful in that one moment. Just spawn non-reusable batteries around the maps (stores, houses, etc.) like you would with bullets or matches. Then just use the flashlight whenever.

[Reishii]

The whole lore is that all power is out, except when the aurora is out. The flashlight is useful for scaring off wolves, and can be handy during night wanderings when the aurora is out. Right click to make it brighter. Adding charged batteries would go against the entire lore.

[Tanny]

+1

[RamboTurkey]

Originally posted by meow meow uwu:

The whole lore is that all power is out, except when the aurora is out. The flashlight is useful for scaring off wolves, and can be handy during night wanderings when the aurora is out. Right click to make it brighter. Adding charged batteries would go against the entire lore.

the lore doesnt exactly make sense though

[iwasa]

For a more consistent mechanic (obviously not completely consistent), the flashlight should be powered as long as the aurora is active. None of this exhausting its "capacity" from use. It would be nice if it got a 'put it down' capacity similar to the storm lantern. That would mean possibly using work benches in mines and similar places while the aurora was active.

The control over use would be damage to the flashlight which reduces its condition - maybe like 2% per hour of use in normal and 5% per use in high mode. It can be repaired with a tool kit and a scrap metal.

An alternative to this might be to have the flashlight rundown quickly if it is on (and even if it is off) when the aurora ends. Maybe just 1-5 game minutes. That might be more consistent with this "capacity" thing currently in the game for flashlights. Anyway, at least, the player gets warning that the light is going to die real soon. It is really jarring to have the flashlight abruptly die (without warning). Having it dim over 10-15 realtime seconds might help.

ETA: [An observation] I happen to realize an aurora was going to happen so I had my flashlight in hand and waited for the aurora. When it happened, abruptly the lights in Carter came to life and the flashlight was ready to go (full up). So it was not like the flashlight had to charge before use.

[SeniLiX]

While the idea of the flashlight only working during the aurora is nice, I tend to never use it.
I'm not going to haul around an item (extra weight) to only be able to use it once every 5 - 10 nights. Therefore, the flashlight i found is just gathering dust at my base and when I finally get an oppertunity to use it, I'm too far away from base for it to matter anyway. :(

[MockingjayRising]

+1

[SilverDiamond]

2023. Flashlight is still freaking USELESS. Would be nice if devs got ON it, hint-hint!!!

[TexMexChexMix]

There is a mod that makes the flashlight better. shouldnt be hard to find

[iwasa]

One thing that I noticed was that before the aurora actually starts to manifests itself, the flashlight will become energized (helpful if in an interior location like a mine). This also applied to the milling machines which surprised me. It was not yet dusk when I heard the Blackrock milling machine turn on.

I also have seen the buffer memory computer become inert active but not fully active until the aurora was fully realized and become inert active as the aurora fades.

I don't know if this was just happening because the game was getting a bit cockeyed but hope it doesn't get "fixed".