What could be done to make body slot clothing items better?

[Baark0]

I've had this question on my mind a lot lately, as there's a plethora of seasonal clothing items that rarely see any use due to their incompatibility with backpacks. There's the hibearnation vest, the puffy vest, the rain coat, and the floral shirt, to name the good ones. These are all good items, but it's difficult to justify using them when you have to trade a ~54% increase to your inventory size that comes with just a regular backpack. If you use a piggyback or a krampus sack, then it's even harder to justify.

Which brings me to this topic's title: what could be done to make these items better? I have a few ideas, but I'm not exactly sure how I feel about them.

The first idea would be to add a small amount of inventory slots to body slot items, with higher tier items having more inventory slots. A breezy vest might have 2 slots, while a puffy vest might have 4. This option is a little uninteresting, however I could definitely see myself giving up a backpack if it means I don't have to stop and warm up as often. 

My second idea would be to simply increase the insulation of body slot clothes, so something like a puffy vest might give 360 winter insulation. This is a lot of insulation, so much so that you'll actually remain warm longer than a thermal stone would. If 360 is deemed too high then I think a number like 300 insulation could also work, however I don't think it'd be bad for thermal stones to have actual competition for characters who aren't Wilson, Woodie, and Webber. This makes more sense thematically imo, as a winter jacket should keep you much warmer than a beefalo hat that only keeps your head warm. This doesn't do anything to help the slurper belt however, though that item could probably stand to get some kind of buff.

[Mike23Ua]

Nerf the Thermal Stone, make clothes Items NOT replace the Backpack Slot, and make players not rely so heavily on Thermal Stones (seriously I’ve been playing the DS franchise for over 10 years and there’s few times one of these is NOT being lugged around in an Inventory Slot.. that’s just how brokenly good it is)

And on the opposite spectrum: Using Clothing items requires giving up precious backpack or armor, and therefore I have only used clothing items in Emergencies (such as the times when joining someone’s existing world and not being able to find resources to craft thermal stones)

Other then that, they outright suck, and my one and only suggestion to fix that is to allow clothing items to be worn with Backpacks instead of replacing them.

[Baark0]

6 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Nerf the Thermal Stone, make clothes Items NOT replace the Backpack Slot, and make players not rely so heavily on Thermal Stones (seriously I’ve been playing the DS franchise for over 10 years and there’s few times one of these is NOT being lugged around in an Inventory Slot.. that’s just how brokenly good it is)

And on the opposite spectrum: Using Clothing items requires giving up precious backpack or armor, and therefore I have only used clothing items in Emergencies (such as the times when joining someone’s existing world and not being able to find resources to craft thermal stones)

Other then that, they outright suck, and my one and only suggestion to fix that is to allow clothing items to be worn with Backpacks instead of replacing them.

I think the changes I proposed are good enough to warrant giving up your backpack, at least for the winter clothing items. I considered writing another paragraph about adding a new clothing slot, but I decided against it as I'm really not a fan of it. Winter and summer solutions are all about choosing what downside your okay with having to deal with (ie managing thermal stones, giving up equipment slots). If you can just wear a backpack alongside your insulation clothing of choice, then it becomes less of a choice and just the new solution to winter, since why wouldn't you wear a puffy vest during winter if you don't have to give anything up for it.

[hyoton123]

It’s hard to justify them too because it means no armor or light or …well, you get the idea. Rain coat is decent out of all those because thermals dont stop rain. Clothes also break pretty fast and are hard to scale up for multiplayer. Lots of bad things about them, and I’ve been trying to like them.

 

Not sure adding inventory slots by itself would do it. I would say the highest clothing items should actively warm or cool you and set a max or minimum temperature, except the ice cube does all that and that isnt very good either (admittedly because it has a ton of drawbacks). Thought experiment: how bad for the game would it be if hibearnation vest completely stopped freezing damage? Does it get prioritized over the first bearger bin? (i dont think so). 

[logatocassie]

my idea for a slightly improved clothing is simple. Pockets.

for implementation, consider it like the same way the enlightened crown functions, when you can click to 'open' a 5 slot inventory on it. 

clothing could have a few slots of inventory on them, where the items are inside of the item. in the same manner as that crown can store spores.

for the sake of sense, it would most likely only apply to plain cloths and not armor. 

imagine putting on the hibernation vest, and it has 5 or 9 slots of inventory. and maybe it would even keep food fresher? 

just some of my random thoughts on the topic. 

[Well-met]

tweak values and yeah maybe do something about thermals

[Wawchik]

Give everything plain buffs, pockets and some side effects for the weaker clothing items so they'd at least have a few niche uses instead of being completely overshadowed. Maybe nerf thermals but I personally wouldn't like that. You could also just add more late game clothing since most clothing items are tier 1-2 science which is super early game

[Mike23Ua]

5 minutes ago, logatocassie said:

my idea for a slightly improved clothing is simple. Pockets.

for implementation, consider it like the same way the enlightened crown functions, when you can click to 'open' a 5 slot inventory on it. 

clothing could have a few slots of inventory on them, where the items are inside of the item. in the same manner as that crown can store spores.

for the sake of sense, it would most likely only apply to plain cloths and not armor. 

imagine putting on the hibernation vest, and it has 5 or 9 slots of inventory. and maybe it would even keep food fresher? 

just some of my random thoughts on the topic. 

Adding Pockets to clothing items would be the exact same thing as just letting me wear a Backpack with a Clothing Item, only instead of just equipping the shirt to go with my already equipped backpack, I now need to drop my items out of the backpack I was already wearing and place them into the clothing. Which may be fine for PC players and their Drag and Drop controls, but is a Tedious Nightmare for Controller users. It would be far better if Backpacks & Clothing can just be worn together (basic ones only, not piggyback pack etc..)

And the Hibernation vest with 5-9 slots that keep food fresher would defeat the entire purpose of the Insulated Backpack.

[logatocassie]

11 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Adding Pockets to clothing items would be the exact same thing as just letting me wear a Backpack with a Clothing Item, only instead of just equipping the shirt to go with my already equipped backpack, I now need to drop my items out of the backpack I was already wearing and place them into the clothing. Which may be fine for PC players and their Drag and Drop controls, but is a Tedious Nightmare for Controller users. It would be far better if Backpacks & Clothing can just be worn together (basic ones only, not piggyback pack etc..)

And the Hibernation vest with 5-9 slots that keep food fresher would defeat the entire purpose of the Insulated Backpack.

you are correct about the insulated backpack, i forgot it existed. i have been using the bearger-bin so long. 

as for the pockets. moving items has always been a thing. in nearly all games. but its logical. 
i put my phone in my pocket. and when i want, i place it in my backpack. same logic applies. 

i stick to my idea that 'pockets' should exists, and should be added onto clothing. 
I am not declining the idea that they should be able to be used at the same time. HOWEVER, i would like to point out another game, called 'outward' where there is a similar logic. you need to 'ditch' your backpack to be able to fight better.

that logic is also a part of this game. (so far) it about compromise, 'more inventory, or more survivability' . 

ALSO, what if the 'pockets' was a stand alone item? similar to how you socket a gem into a moonstone thingy. 

you can have a 'small' pocket, or a 'larger' pocket (again 5 or 9. don't know why i default to that...) and it can be added onto a piece of clothing as a 'upgrade' sort of thing... 

I'm gonna see how hard that would be to have a AI make a mod of that... i have no coding experience, at all. 

Edited June 13 by logatocassie
added a thought

[Mike23Ua]

4 minutes ago, logatocassie said:

you are correct about the insulated backpack, i forgot it existed. i have been using the bearger-bin so long. 

as for the pockets. moving items has always been a thing. in nearly all games. but its logical. 
i put my phone in my pocket. and when i want, i place it in my backpack. same logic applies. 

i stick to my idea that 'pockets' should exists, and should be added onto clothing. 
I am not declining the idea that they should be able to be used at the same time. HOWEVER, i would like to point out another game, called 'outward' where there is a similar logic. you need to 'ditch' your backpack to be able to fight better.

that logic is also a part of this game. (so far) it about compromise, 'more inventory, or more survivability' . 

ALSO, what if the 'pockets' was a stand alone item? similar to how you socket a gem into a moonstone thingy. 

you can have a 'small' pocket, or a 'larger' pocket (again 5 or 9. don't know why i default to that...) and it can be added onto a piece of clothing as a 'upgrade' sort of thing... 

I'm gonna see how hard that would be to have a AI make a mod of that... i have no coding experience, at all. 

What I’m trying to explain to you is that currently clothing items have no extra storage slots rather that’s 4, or 8 or whatever.. but a Backpack already adds extra slots to the players inventory when they equip it.

If a player were to craft just a clothing it should NOT come with extra storage slots because that defeats the purpose of crafting a Backpack for storage slots, and if the player only crafts a Backpack they shouldn’t get the benefits of wearing clothing.

But if we could drag our backpacks full of Inventory and Combine that with a Clothing Item.. we get the extra storage + the clothes insulation.

Think of it sort of like a Quick Craft Recipe you have saved, to craft a spear you first need rope, but if you scroll to spear in your quick craft tab you can quickly craft the prerequisite rope to THEN craft the Spear.

A clothing with storage slots should require a Backpack as part of the crafting recipe.

[AliceShiki]

Personally speaking, I am fine with playing without backpack, so I like body slot clothes items.

That said, the body slot is more valuable than the head slot for most characters, so it is a bit weird to have the same final insulation body clothes and head clothes... I think the idea of buffing the insulation of the best items to 360 is a good one (and to 240 for the more mid items like the Summer Frest, I'd suggest).

[Mysterious box]

honestly even adding more slots probably wouldn't do much for most players as those who don't value the full inventory boost of a backpack is likely using a mag instead your best bet would likely be to nerf headgear and thermals really as unpopular as that would be.

[Tranoze]

Backpack is overrated. I only carry important items that i actually need, items that i dont need right away i just put them in base chest instead of hoarding them in my backpack.
Without backpack you can actually wear  as casual travel wear. Can use body armor and clothes slot without worry about backpack lost...

I only use backpack stuffs when i need to deliver things to places. Normally 15 inventory slot is enough for Armor + Weapon + Light + (Heat or Cold depend on season) source + food and some consumable. 

Edited June 13 by Tranoze

[BB Marioni]

add a headslot backpack that cannot be stacked with regular backpack?

[Baark0]

3 hours ago, Tranoze said:

Backpack is overrated. I only carry important items that i actually need, items that i dont need right away i just put them in base chest instead of hoarding them in my backpack.
Without backpack you can actually wear  as casual travel wear. Can use body armor and clothes slot without worry about backpack lost...

I only use backpack stuffs when i need to deliver things to places. Normally 15 inventory slot is enough for Armor + Weapon + Light + (Heat or Cold depend on season) source + food and some consumable. 

They really aren't. DST's inventory is very limiting when you factor in the weapons, armour, food, light, resources, seasonal survival gear, plus whatever character specific items you might have. The only characters who can get around this limitation are WX with their shipping drones, and Walter with Woby, but both of these characters can use a piggyback much more freely than other characters, so they have even less incentive to use body slot clothing items. 

To re-iterate what I said above, a backpack gives 8 extra inventory slots. That's over half of your original inventory slots, and it's an item you can get within the first couple minutes of a world. The mag is very good, however I deem it the exception to the rule that most non-body armour equipments are mediocre at best, and even it's fallen off a bit with the prevalence of beefalo.

[GimplyGoose]

On 6/12/2026 at 5:11 PM, hyoton123 said:

Not sure adding inventory slots by itself would do it. I would say the highest clothing items should actively warm or cool you and set a max or minimum temperature, except the ice cube does all that and that isnt very good either (admittedly because it has a ton of drawbacks). Thought experiment: how bad for the game would it be if hibearnation vest completely stopped freezing damage? Does it get prioritized over the first bearger bin? (i dont think so). 

I honestly think that some of the higher tier body slot clothing should just clamp your temperature just outside of the range that you take damage at. Like others in this thread, I don't think pockets would be all that great.

[ZeRoboButler]

This seems like a case by case situation, often times when playing you can see when you needed the back pack and when you didn't.

Most of the clothing items just function as time or resource savers in one way or another, put on full seasonal clothing and you can do what ever you like for a fair amount of time. 

Looking for the klaus sack? Put on full winter gear with a cane or beefalo and focus on finding it or exploring. 

Fishing In the Oasis? Throw on a floral shirt and chill for a while before you got to cool off again.

Doing anything ocean related? Heck, just fill a chest on the ship with seasonal attire or body slot items and you can save on food, fuel for you fire or ways to cool yourself.

I would argue two things, seasonal equipment has always been good, it's just dependent on what the player is focusing on, If a player wants to take it to the extreme to cancel out a season via clothing, that's their choice. Secondly, most players would rather feel more prepared for problems via carrying extra items or don't like returning to base all the time. Most teleport characters can ignore this, since you can just recall back to your camp and grab what you need then zip back so careful planning is less necessary.

I mean I get it totally, especially late game, you get so much useful stuff but also junk to carry around that your inventory just bloats from all the shadow or lunar aligned items and general crud you get from mob drops. It's one of those things that will effect player choice as well, where people will feel compelled to play characters with potentially flexible inventory management like Walter, Winona, Maxwell or even Wx now.

As a final note on the matter, I think that body clothing is great, it's most common use case's being when doing base work, boating or going on carefully planned adventures (or saving Wx's non-water proof butt). I would say a similar case for body armor, I feel like people talk poorly of body armor but I would argue it's some of the best armor we have, Heck the thulecite suit is one of the most durable armors in the game sitting at 1260 Health and 90% damage reduction. Makes a load of difference when you consider how quickly some armor can break.

[Tranoze]

On 6/13/2026 at 1:52 PM, Baark0 said:

 seasonal survival gear, plus whatever character specific items you might have.

You dont have to bring all of them with you at the same time. You dont need summer survival gears in winter. All items can be put in dedicated chest area, especially character specific items.

8 inventory slots is not that much. I have played with mod (functional medal) that have items give 12 inventory slots each, and you can carry multiple of them, and each of them can hold infinite stack of items, and still used all those slots. Compare those 2 play style, even when i have entire base stocked on me, my play style remain unchanged when compare to when i do backpack-less run, just sit in base farming most of the time and then going kill bosses i want when i finished farming.

Having 8~14 extra inventory slot that you dont need to use will become a burden because your body slot is now locked to backpack and you cant use anything else when moving.

Even if you use backpack regularly, you still can drop backpack at base and go backpack-less in a trip if you really dont need the extra slot.

[Uedo]

On 6/13/2026 at 12:35 AM, Baark0 said:

I've had this question on my mind a lot lately, as there's a plethora of seasonal clothing items that rarely see any use due to their incompatibility with backpacks. There's the hibearnation vest, the puffy vest, the rain coat, and the floral shirt, to name the good ones. These are all good items, but it's difficult to justify using them when you have to trade a ~54% increase to your inventory size that comes with just a regular backpack. If you use a piggyback or a krampus sack, then it's even harder to justify.

Which brings me to this topic's title: what could be done to make these items better? I have a few ideas, but I'm not exactly sure how I feel about them.

The first idea would be to add a small amount of inventory slots to body slot items, with higher tier items having more inventory slots. A breezy vest might have 2 slots, while a puffy vest might have 4. This option is a little uninteresting, however I could definitely see myself giving up a backpack if it means I don't have to stop and warm up as often. 

My second idea would be to simply increase the insulation of body slot clothes, so something like a puffy vest might give 360 winter insulation. This is a lot of insulation, so much so that you'll actually remain warm longer than a thermal stone would. If 360 is deemed too high then I think a number like 300 insulation could also work, however I don't think it'd be bad for thermal stones to have actual competition for characters who aren't Wilson, Woodie, and Webber. This makes more sense thematically imo, as a winter jacket should keep you much warmer than a beefalo hat that only keeps your head warm. This doesn't do anything to help the slurper belt however, though that item could probably stand to get some kind of buff.

Yeah I agree with you - they're in a weird place in my opinion.

I can see these items being used if you're using DST as 'chill with your friends and mess about, but mainly it's to catch-up and chat' - i've had a server where we essentially just chilled on discord on one of the lunar islands, set it all up like a little cafe, wildfires were the only thing that was disabled. Like, I know some people sat there in cawnival clothes and stuff from the stage play.

But yeah, I don't know what can be done with them, it's almost like if things were to change too much it'd kinda give too much of a boon at once - in my opinion anyways, I get others might feel different.

Someone I played with asked for the mod with a body slot and backpack slot, and it was ok I guess but even then I wasn't really using the bodyslot for anything other than armour. 
I try and get a lot done at once, so for me, having a bigger inventory is usually better - plus at worst, I can either keep an armour in my bag or just switch before a boss fight.

Obviously, you mean more the items you've mentioned, moreso insulation stuff - yeah i'm not sure what to do either, I like that they're there though, i've played with a lot of new people who get excited when they get stuff to make a new clothing item, the discovery and options seem to motivate people so maybe the function as a easy task that kinda helps a team.  I never craft the rabbit earmuff things, but i've been gifted many by people who are new who are trying to help - which, sure, that is helpful.

The nerfing of thermal doesn't really change things if i'm honest - If it was nerfed into oblivion i'd either just carry a sewing kit, make another when needed or just carry a source for endos/fires or carry star/moon callers - or i'd just go in the caves for summer more, or just always proto a campfire.

Essentially: I don't know what we can do about them without the impacts being too large for the survival element, although - I might be in the minority in this, I know people i've played with would probably really like it if things were changed

 

Edited Sunday at 12:27 PM by Uedo

[Captain_Rage]

2 hours ago, Tranoze said:

You dont have to bring all of them with you at the same time. You dont need summer survival gears in winter. All items can be put in dedicated chest area, especially character specific items.

8 inventory slots is not that much. I have played with mod (functional medal) that have items give 12 inventory slots each, and you can carry multiple of them, and each of them can hold infinite stack of items, and still used all those slots. Compare those 2 play style, even when i have entire base stocked on me, my play style remain unchanged when compare to when i do backpack-less run, just sit in base farming most of the time and then going kill bosses i want when i finished farming.

Having 8~14 extra inventory slot that you dont need to use will become a burden because your body slot is now locked to backpack and you cant use anything else when moving.

Even if you use backpack regularly, you still can drop backpack at base and go backpack-less in a trip if you really dont need the extra slot.

Most players have a fixed idea and compulsions that they have to dig up every sapling they see and move it to their base within the first 10 days, get Glommer the very first full moon, etcetera. These players will never change the way they play or try a new approach. Making many smaller bases across the maps will never even cross their mind because they sincerely believe creating one huge is the way of optimal gameplay, despite all the hazards and and extra overhead running that entails.

You will never convince the hamster crowd that leaving a backpack behind in favor a piece of protective gear is viable using rational arguments (e.g. instead of lugging around healing items for recovery you can avoid getting damaged in the first place using an armor or seasonal protection).

[cropo]

All of this is the Thermal Stone's fault in my opinion. You can carry insulation and cooling in your inventory and not have to dedicate a body slot to it. Don't Starves equipment slots are generally geared towards being solutions to problems, where there are more problems than solutions and it's your job to pick what works. Inventory management, temperature management, lighting, armor. Extra effects like movement speed, sanity aura reversal, etc.

Items that are able to do this job without taking an equipment slot are especially powerful, as they provide an extra solution to a problem and allow you to solve all problems at once. WX not needing to worry about a light source means they don't need to have a lantern and worry about dropping it to fight which allows them to fight freely because all of their problems in the ruins are being solved.

The thermal stone requires very little work to...work, and it solves the problem of temperature while being in your inventory which has spoiled players into learning to not use seasonal gear at all. The only problem the thermal stone doesn't solve is rain and lightning, a big reason the Eyebrella actually sees a lot of use.

I think the thermal stone should be a "bank" for temperature, requiring the player to "use" it for a charge of cooling or heating(orange to yellow to gray then it needs to be warmed up again.) You'll probably see seasonal clothing getting a lot more mileage with a change like this. Something needs to be done with the thermal stone, it has made temperature a minor inconvenience.

[Nikki Darks]

Not all body slots are bad, and they're especially not bad because people refuse to NOT wear a backpack 24/7.

Here are some great body slot items with their stats:

Hibearnation Vest (240 winter insulation, 25% slower hunger drain and 4.4 sanity per minute)
Summer Frest (120 summer insulation, 20% rain protection, 2 sanity per minute)
Puffy Vest (240 winter insulation, 2 sanity per minute)
Log Suit (80% damage reduction)
Floral Shirt (240 summer insulation, 3.33 sanity per minute)

All of these items are great, just because you refuse to drop your backpack when you don't need it doesn't make these items bad.

We really need to cure backpack psychosis, you just don't need to wear a backpack 24/7, you really do not.

Wear a logsuit when fighting, when exploring during winter wear one of the winter clothing items, pretty sure floral shirt lasts the entire summer.

Only times I can see backpacks being better is if you're actively trying to amass a resource that's not in your base, but you don't do that all the time.

Having a backpack all the time might be convenient, but it's never neccessary.

Inventory management is a skill, that's it. You either have it or you do not. I used to wear backpacks all the time, but I've managed to learn that I do NOT need to pick up literally everything and carry it in my inventory all the time... And I play Willow, a character who has 3-4 and sometimes even more inventory slots less than other characters.

[gaymime]

1 hour ago, Nikki Darks said:

-snip-

see, here is the thing; ultimately i agree with you entirely....that being said there is just too much pressure being exerted by the game to pick up things "just in case", even if you are being a bit discreet with what you are grabbing there is just so many useful things to pick up. when i play nomad or when i go for a big-base i just find it so hard to leave something decidedly useful that i know i am going to need a little bit later behind. the game wants you to be prepared and decades of conditioning just make the temptation much to great for a lot of players to ignore. even more than that i rarely meet anyone who refuses that call to collect(and those are almost exclusively veterans) so this is not an uncommon thing either. you being right doesnt really change anything about the problem. the gameplay loop demands collecting, to "save" the most time costs inventory space and gamers are geared towards hoarding

[Baark0]

8 hours ago, Tranoze said:

You dont have to bring all of them with you at the same time. You dont need summer survival gears in winter. All items can be put in dedicated chest area, especially character specific items.

8 inventory slots is not that much. I have played with mod (functional medal) that have items give 12 inventory slots each, and you can carry multiple of them, and each of them can hold infinite stack of items, and still used all those slots. Compare those 2 play style, even when i have entire base stocked on me, my play style remain unchanged when compare to when i do backpack-less run, just sit in base farming most of the time and then going kill bosses i want when i finished farming.

Having 8~14 extra inventory slot that you dont need to use will become a burden because your body slot is now locked to backpack and you cant use anything else when moving.

Even if you use backpack regularly, you still can drop backpack at base and go backpack-less in a trip if you really dont need the extra slot.

This argument makes no sense, why are you mentioning needing summer gear in winter? Obviously you don't need that, it feels like you're just reaching for reasons to disprove my rebuttal. Why are you mentioning a world where you sat in base farming most of the time as an argument about backpacks being overrated? Obviously they're not gonna be that helpful if you're sitting at base, as you can just drop items in a chest or on the floor.

The items I mentioned are all things you should be bringing with you the majority of the time, maybe leave resources you don't actively need but personally I always carry a stack of grass and twigs for emergency torches and whatever random recipes require them. Character items especially should be brought with you everywhere, as a lot of the time it's the main incentive of playing the character. Wanda needs her watches, Maxwell needs his codex, Wendy needs Abigails flower, etc. With every new update, more and more items get added to the game, yet the inventory size doesn't change, making the backpack more and more important over time.

6 hours ago, Captain_Rage said:

Most players have a fixed idea and compulsions that they have to dig up every sapling they see and move it to their base within the first 10 days, get Glommer the very first full moon, etcetera. These players will never change the way they play or try a new approach. Making many smaller bases across the maps will never even cross their mind because they sincerely believe creating one huge is the way of optimal gameplay, despite all the hazards and and extra overhead running that entails.

You will never convince the hamster crowd that leaving a backpack behind in favor a piece of protective gear is viable using rational arguments (e.g. instead of lugging around healing items for recovery you can avoid getting damaged in the first place using an armor or seasonal protection).

Funny that you mention not getting hit as an argument, as if you're doing that in the first place, you might as well carry a backpack around. There's not even any real reason to use body slot clothing with this scenario, as you can get the same effect from headslot items.

That being said, saying "just don't get hit" unironically as an argument isn't great, especially when DST is a game where tanking hits can actually be the smart thing to do. Your health is a resource, you can choose to spend that resource to speed up fights since tanking is generally much faster than kiting.

[Nikki Darks]

1 hour ago, gaymime said:

see, here is the thing; ultimately i agree with you entirely....that being said there is just too much pressure being exerted by the game to pick up things "just in case", even if you are being a bit discreet with what you are grabbing there is just so many useful things to pick up. when i play nomad or when i go for a big-base i just find it so hard to leave something decidedly useful that i know i am going to need a little bit later behind. the game wants you to be prepared and decades of conditioning just make the temptation much to great for a lot of players to ignore. even more than that i rarely meet anyone who refuses that call to collect(and those are almost exclusively veterans) so this is not an uncommon thing either. you being right doesnt really change anything about the problem. the gameplay loop demands collecting, to "save" the most time costs inventory space and gamers are geared towards hoarding

Honestly never had that issue, at least not in vanilla DST. Not even trying to push my point, just genuinely never felt this way. Could also be because I play a character who gets locked out of 3 inventory slots so I kinda just learned how to not pick up everything. (The 3 slots being Lighter, Bernie and Embers)