Harvesting potable water

[Maddog543]

Currently, there appears to be only one option for producing clean water. While the water still is not very expensive to build, having that as the only method to capture water constrains exploration focused players. In previous builds, I recall the ability to boil sea water in a pot over a fire - why was that option removed entirely?

Having played multiple survival games, there are a few options which I think could be implemented in Stranded Deep with relative ease and would improve the overall quality of the survival experience.

1. Rainwater collection - splitting a coconut into halves enables the player to eat the coconut...but you don't eat the outer shell. Saving the shell would enable the player to collect rainwater (or seawater). Another option would be to build a contraption using a barrel, lashing, and tarp...maybe even throw in sticks as well, where rainwater would be captured by the tarp and deposited into the barrel, clay jug, coconut jug or some other container.

2. Boiling - Find a metal pot in a shipwreck, fill with sea water, place on fire, in the time it would take to cook large meat, a player should be able to obtain some fresh water by capturing the steam (desalination). maybe even require the player to build a hobo firepit or spit to hang the bucket from to encourage the player to build something other than the smoker). The aircraft in which the player was flying probably had a coffee pot...I imagine most commercial and naval ships (fishing vessels to larger container vessels to warships) also come stocked with similar ammeneties...don't tell me you can't find one in this ficticous scenario with a large number of wrecked ships. Better yet (but probably makes the game too easy) a floating solar still <https://water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawater.html>. It even mentions "If you were stranded on a life raft in the ocean, this device could provide you with invaluable fresh water to sustain youself."

3. Filtering - The current water still is a method of this approach...but not comprehensive nor do I think the most realistic example of how fresh water would be produced in this scenario (why do the palm fronds go at the bottom of the still?). The extraction from palm fronds (fuel source) is a challenge as it is not sustainable. I understand the point of the game is to move from island to island...but if my whole purpose is to gather rocks to make tools and chop down all the palm trees purely for their palm bunches just so I can return to home base to water my crops and sustain myself, that doesn't seem too realistic. You could also implement charcoal and make a gravity filter using charcoal, clay, palm fronds, and several sticks (realistically it should be sand, gravel, and charcoal...but hey, that's a lot of assets to implement). You already burn wood...there should be some charcoal left over from that process which could be used to support this.

These are potential solutions, and I am sure there are more I haven't mentioned, which could enable players to remain mobile in a world that promotes nomadic behavior since one island will not sustain you. Stranded Deep remains arguably a well thought out water-centric survival game but could benefit from inspiration of other games of this genre (all of these techniques are known to mankind). I do not think these examples add more complexity - most of the assets already are or were in the game. This would just add flexibility to the player experience.

[Gladi8er65]

Originally posted by Maddog543:

Currently, there appears to be only one option for producing clean water. While the water still is not very expensive to build, having that as the only method to capture water constrains exploration focused players. In previous builds, I recall the ability to boil sea water in a pot over a fire - why was that option removed entirely?

Having played multiple survival games, there are a few options which I think could be implemented in Stranded Deep with relative ease and would improve the overall quality of the survival experience.

1. Rainwater collection - splitting a coconut into halves enables the player to eat the coconut...but you don't eat the outer shell. Saving the shell would enable the player to collect rainwater (or seawater). Another option would be to build a contraption using a barrel, lashing, and tarp...maybe even throw in sticks as well, where rainwater would be captured by the tarp and deposited into the barrel, clay jug, coconut jug or some other container.

2. Boiling - Find a metal pot in a shipwreck, fill with sea water, place on fire, in the time it would take to cook large meat, a player should be able to obtain some fresh water by capturing the steam (desalination). maybe even require the player to build a hobo firepit or spit to hang the bucket from to encourage the player to build something other than the smoker). The aircraft in which the player was flying probably had a coffee pot...I imagine most commercial and naval ships (fishing vessels to larger container vessels to warships) also come stocked with similar ammeneties...don't tell me you can't find one in this ficticous scenario with a large number of wrecked ships. Better yet (but probably makes the game too easy) a floating solar still <https://water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawater.html>. It even mentions "If you were stranded on a life raft in the ocean, this device could provide you with invaluable fresh water to sustain youself."

3. Filtering - The current water still is a method of this approach...but not comprehensive nor do I think the most realistic example of how fresh water would be produced in this scenario (why do the palm fronds go at the bottom of the still?). The extraction from palm fronds (fuel source) is a challenge as it is not sustainable. I understand the point of the game is to move from island to island...but if my whole purpose is to gather rocks to make tools and chop down all the palm trees purely for their palm bunches just so I can return to home base to water my crops and sustain myself, that doesn't seem too realistic. You could also implement charcoal and make a gravity filter using charcoal, clay, palm fronds, and several sticks (realistically it should be sand, gravel, and charcoal...but hey, that's a lot of assets to implement). You already burn wood...there should be some charcoal left over from that process which could be used to support this.

These are potential solutions, and I am sure there are more I haven't mentioned, which could enable players to remain mobile in a world that promotes nomadic behavior since one island will not sustain you. Stranded Deep remains arguably a well thought out water-centric survival game but could benefit from inspiration of other games of this genre (all of these techniques are known to mankind). I do not think these examples add more complexity - most of the assets already are or were in the game. This would just add flexibility to the player experience.

1. When it rains, the current water still does collect rain water if there is space available.

2. The game used to have metal buckets and water was made by scooping up sea water and boiling... SUPER unrealistic... you can't simply boil the sea water and make it potable... Later they changed it to a de-salinization similar to what you are explaining... Boil water, capture steam, collects into second bucket....
All of that was removed and replaced with the current water still.
The "model" they chose for the still is not very realistic and , in real life you would probably be thirsty.... a REAL solar still is made by digging a hole, placing leaves in the bottom, placing a small container in the center of the hole and placing a CLEAR sheet of plastic over the hole and completely sealed up around the edges with dirt / sand. Placing a stone on top, in the center, creates the "cone" shape that allows the condensed water vapors to gather and drip down toward the center and drip into the container. The water vapors are caused when the sun shines through and dehydrates the leaves.

The model they use would not capture the water vapors nor "collect" them in the top like a resevoir, so theres a certain amount of imagination required.

3. Since, what we have is the water still, we have to play along and make the best of it.
That being said, using palm fronds is NOT the most efficient way to keep your water still stocked... Use Fibrous leaves instead... Small palms and yucca grows back over time, whereas the palm trees do not.
I personally do not cut down trees on my base island and certainly NOT for the sole purpose of collecting palm fronds...
If i need to cut down palm trees for wood, I travel to another island and ,of course will use those palm fronds in the water stills,or burn them in firepit in place of wood (so they aren't wasted) but mainly I use the fibrous leaves for stocking the water stills.

As for traveling, you can craft a couple of clay jars, which hold 5 units of water each, and should be plenty enough water to keep you hydrated enough to explore a couple islands before returning home.

If you are away longer, you can get small amounts of hydration from coconuts and fruit trees to keep you alive until you get home.

With a few water stills and some planning, there's really no reasson to have more sources of water and possible to survive indefinitely with the current system.

[Maddog543]

I get the points you make. I knew the Yucca regrew, but I didn't realize they also work in the still, so that's helpful. As you point out, there is not much depth to the current system (and still fallable because its not as simple as they make it seem). I hope the dev's are considering to tweak the current system to add more options because it's somewhat odd to just build 6+ stills. Other games provide options which increases a players flexibility when moving around. I do store water in the clay jars and waterskins, but early on it seems I will just explore many islands setting up one or so stills in each place to keep me sustained while I find a "main base" island.

The game is still pretty good in its current state, but I do question why they removed certain features because it seemed they were still salvagable. Since it seems the plane crashes in the Pacific...there is no shortage of plastic floating around to solve some of the fallacies with the other approaches or just make more sense.

EDIT - and I just learned they fill the same amount on the still fuel meter...which makes me question even more the efficacy of the system; nonetheless, useful to know.