Some books fit inside plastic Bottles

[AcidAntOnAMinefield]

Describe the bug

Doing some reading, I noticed that my character would pick up and store the books inside empty bottles that I happened to have in my inventory.
This apparently works with any container. Might it be related to the fact books don't seem to have length?

Steps to reproduce

1. Start a new world in a library/bookstore.
2. Debug yourself something hilarious like a 60L metal tank or a 200L Metal Drum.
3. Drag all the books into one tile.
4. [w]ield the container.
5. Go to your [i]nventory, choose the container and choose the [i]nsert option.
6. Grab all of the books.
7. Watch as your liquid tank becomes L-Space.

Expected behavior

I wouldn't expect books to get into a liquids storage unit, or at least, not all books.

Screenshots

Versions and configuration

• Windows 7
• Experimental 0.F 2022-02-06-0843 d08dddd
• Tiles
• English
• Mods loaded: Dark Days Ahead [dda]

Additional context

No response

[martosss]

Bottles can store liquids, that's an extra additional bonus, not a constraint. You can also put non-liquid stuff in them.
The problem is that bottles are rigid - they keep their volume the same even if they're empty.
So your character, given the smart survivor he is, is using every possible free volume to store stuff when free volume is low.
That means, when you have no free space left in your bag, because it's full of empty bottles, you start putting stuff inside the bottles, where possible.

Think about a smart way to pack a travelling bag - you put socks inside your shoes and cutlery inside cups just because shoes and cups are rigid and there's empty space in them usually.

A potential problem in-game is that items stored inside bottles will take more time to take out of the bottle when you need them, because the bottle has "access cost" in addition to the access cost of the pocket that is storing the bottle. You can prevent that by not carrying empty bottles. Try to replace them with something non-rigid, like a plastic bag or condom - things that change their volume as you put more things in them. They should ALWAYS stay empty unless you decide to put something in them.
Condoms have the added bonus that they can also store liquids, so they're basically the perfect containers - squishy and can hold your hot ... tea.

tl;dr;
Inventory management is smart and tries to fill every possible free pocket of your character.

[AcidAntOnAMinefield]

Bottles can store liquids.

That is their whole purpose.

However, the point is: Books. A 0.50L bottle is small. As in, 8cm in length according to the game. That's the size of your average computer mouse, give or take. There is no feasible way you would stick a Manual that outlines construction guidelines or gun maintenance techniques (going by those that are in the screenshot I posted) inside one, as one would assume said manuals, may be a little bit "longer" than the bottle itself including the ceiling on the cap.

A pamphlet? Sure. A small instructions leaflet? Why not?
A book with several recipes and detailed instructions on things that will most likely require several pages worth of text to properly outline? Nah, don't think so.

EDIT: formatting

[chrispikula]

I could see a few of the smaller, non-recipe containing manuals fitting inside a water bottle, but, yeah, stuff with recipes? Not really.

And the manuals that would, would be the ones that raise your skill to 1 or, maybe, 2 in a category. 'How to change a tire', or the tiny booklets inside medkits things. Pamphlets, in other words, like you said.

[a-chancey]

Actually, it looks like it's ignoring the max item volume tag on the bottle.

The bottle shouldn't hold any individual item over 17ml, based on the json.

Meanwhile both books are 250ml

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the container pocket being open.

[a-chancey]

Looking further: it's because paper is soft as a material, "True for pliable materials, whose length doesn't prevent fitting into a container, or through the opening of a container. Default is false."

one, the book sizes are just too small. They should be at least 10" (25cm) in length. Welding and metallurgy is only 12cm (less than 5").

Two, hardcover books should be mixed material, likely cardboard and paper. I didn't test this yet, but that should fix the issue.

This should be an easy first issue

[martosss]

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the container pocket being open.

What do you mean, the container is open?
And you're right, it does have a message about "maximum volume"... interesting...

I just tested this on the stable 0.F-3 version, I could insert a rag in a plastic bottle despite the 0.017L volume limitation. However, other items, such as an X-Acto knife, don't fit.

Fun fact - a rag fits in a bottle, an empty plastic bag fits, but a plastic bag that contains a rag doesn't fit - it violates the volume rule since it has length!

I also saw that clothes generally fit(if they're under 0.5L), so it seems that when the item has no length specified it's treated as a liquid, kind of, and bypasses volume check as well.

And I have to admit before writing my first post I didn't check the bottle description and didn't notice the volume limit for bottles. The bottle has an upper limit on volume.

However, that volume limit is set to filter rigid items, so if an item doesn't have length, I guess it's considered non-rigid and it goes in, because it already passed the length/volume test as being "lengthless".

[a-chancey]

See my second comment. Open pockets are a feature in current experimental, but the reason rags fit is the same reason books do - they're made of a material that's flagged as being soft, so their length isn't taken into account for storage, just overall volume.

Since an X-acto is steel and plastic, neither of which are soft, the length is used in the "will it fit" calculation.

Relevant flag details are in docs\JSON_INFO.md