Bowls Can Stack! (Balanced Item Stacking) – 【Kenshi】

Have you ever found it weird that research books stack up to four in your inventory but things like bowls, iron plates, and food don’t?

[noparse]…no?[/noparse]

Well, I’ve got just the mod for you! Now many other items in the game stack as well! Or at least the ones that made sense to me.

I’ve tried to keep things both balanced and logical. Here’s a list that should include everything currently changed:

Food:
Dried, Raw, & Foul Meat x2
Dried Fish, Grand Fish, & Thinfish x2
Ancient Nutri-Rations & Ration Pack x2
Bread x2
Chewsticks x4
Dustwich x4
Foodcube x4
Meatwrap x4

Consumables:
First Aid, Splint, & Skeleton Repair Kits (all) x2
Bolts (Long, Regular, Toothpick) x4
Bolts (Heavy) x2
Tools x2
Hacksaw x2

Raw Products:
Raw Copper & Iron x2
Cactus x4
Cotton x4
Greenfruit x4
Hemp x4
Riceweed x4
Wheatstraw & Strawflour x4

Other:
Animal Claws, Horns, Skins, & Teeth x4
Unique Animal Parts x4(mostly)
Copper Alloy & Iron Plates x4
Chainmail Sheets x4
Crossbow Parts x4
Electrical Components x4
Fabric x4
Steel Bars x4
The Holy Flame x4

Junk & Decor:
Ceramic Bowl x4
Cup x4
Fancy & Simple Rug x4
Gears x4
Hinge x4
Parchment x4
Wrench x4
Pearl Cup, Urn, Vase, & Sword Holder x2
Wooden Bowl x4

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Q&A;

Why x2 and x4?
I’m hoping to strike a balance that provides some good QoL while not fundamentally changing the game too much. Vanilla makes books and armor plating stack to 4 already, but for some items in the game x4 just felt like too much. Even x2 can effectively double the amount of inventory space you have, depending on what you’re carrying! For instance, early game has you relying a lot on dried meat, which has the best nutrition/cats value in the game! It is, however very space inefficient (3.75 nutition/square in vanilla, compared to foodcubes at 12.50.) This means that late game, when you have a lot more money to throw around and potentially a base making things for you, items like foodcubes and dustwiches become more valuable. This mod tries to keep that balance by not letting you stack dried meats super high and letting you stack the former even more! (Which imo, makes up at least a little for their much higher cost.)

Why isn’t X stackable?
It’s possible I may have missed it! Or it may be from another mod, as this mod currently only adjusts vanilla items. However, a number of vanilla items were intentionally left alone. Gohan, for example doesn’t stack, since it’s in a bowl and didn’t make sense to. (Though it does still stack as normal in a Wooden Backpack.) This leaves gohan still at a just slightly better value than the stacked dried meat in terms of nutrition/square space in your inventory (8.33 vs 7.50) and an even higher value for gohan in wooden backpacks (75 vs 34 nutrition/square.) Given that gohan is about half the price of a foodcube with the same nutrition, this keeps it as something great to buy for nutrition, but not nearly as good as something like the foodcube in terms of space efficiency! (I hope that made some amount of sense. I’ve maybe thought about this too much…)

Gohan isn’t the only item to be left out however, and people may notice that a number of very high value items in particular (most notably trade goods like hashish, sake, or AI cores) don’t stack. I didn’t want to accidentally make wooden backpacks near-useless, especially not for one of the main things they’re meant to be used for – trading. Imo, if you’re doing some trading, you should be using something like a trader backpack for it.

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This mod doesn’t change any prices, and only affects the stackability of certain vanilla items. It also doesn’t adjust the sizes of anything (such as foodcubes,) so you’ll need a different mod for that. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any suggested adjustments or find anything I may have missed! I also may be willing to make patches to some other mods so that their items stack similarly.