(I did reply to thread about this at bug reports, but let's cover it a bit more here.)
Yeah, it can be confusing that the contents are lost, even though that's how it's always been. I think for the next version we'll be adding at least a confirmation dialog to warn about losing contents if emptying is proceeded.
The reason why emptying containers hasn't been featured from the start is because the quantity and unit of the original items is lost when they are put in a container. 14 pinches of seeds come just a pile of seeds, and 7 perches become just a lump of perch when put in a bag. Getting the contents out could be featured so that you'd simply get "pile of salmon" or "pile of blueberries", but further utilization of those ingredients might cause conflicts elsewhere. To have containers remember the original quantity and units would need quite a bit of reworking the container code, and I haven't really found a good way to go about it.
Most units seem to have a set weight, though. (At least as far as those that are stackable-and-containable goes) Might be an option for the game to just look at the filled container's name to determine units of what item are in there, then take total weight, minus the weight of the container itself, and divide by the per-unit weight of whatever you have in it to calculate the number of units.
Dunno if that would be doable code-wise, but I suspect that would be an easier way to go about it than having the game remember the exact number of units stored in each (partially-)filled container.
EDIT: Wouldn't work for items that are always contained (e.g. everything created into a container), of course, like stews and soups and water and flour, since none of those exist outside containers thus lacking a "singular" base unit with a set weight. Salt pretty much falls in the same category although it's never generated/created by the user.
Then again, liquids are not something you
should be able to take out of a container except by pouring it into another or dumping it anyway, and neither flour nor salt could be carried around 'uncontained' except in very small amounts (and even then you'd probably lose half or more of it due to it slipping through your fingers), so not being able to take those out of containers except by putting it into another container/emptying the container is actually sensible and realistic.
Topic: Containers update request (Read 17750 times)