I've played far too much fallout/tes in my time and there's always been one thing that's always slightly annoyed me.

I think it would be nice if containers had a small icon or something simply to tell me if the container respawns its loot and isn't safe to store my own stuff in. I like to use the non-standard bases and currently, I need to stop playing and go google/check the geck to check if a container is available for my loot.

I know we can build our own stuff this time around, but I'm not sure that every time I play the game, I'll want that. Sometimes I'll just want to be a lone wanderer.

Seems like a simple thing, so here's hoping, thanks

I would assume, that containers outwith your home will respawn probably.

Many containers outside of the traditional homes don't respawn. There are several shacks around new vegas, for example, that don't respawn at all. I'm just asking for a visual representation of this. Perhaps an icon in the corner of the containers UI so I can easily know if it's going to respawn or not, rather than having to rely on luck/out of game research

The best way for the devs to get around this would be to have smart containers. Let's say we find some interesting loot spread across three containers in an unoccupied building. Something like the Abandoned Tent in Fallout 3. Firstly, we take some or all of the contents from these containers. We then put back one or two 'junk' items. If we return a few days later, we could expect the contents to be slightly different, signifying that somebody else may have been there.

Now let's go back, and instead of just taking the contents for ourselves, we add something that is of obvious value. Let's say we put some ammo, a few weapons, and a load of crafting items into only one of these containers. When we return, the contents would all be the same, because all three containers have been temporarily marked as 'owned' by the player, and would therefore not respawn.

I don't know that this would actually be in the game, but it would certainly be a very useful addition.

It has not been stated that you have to go full scale house/settlement to be able to place items. Would being able to put down a mattress and a metal box in any existing (enterable) building be a sufficient work-around?

This works too, I was simply trying to find an easy way around the issue that doesn't require quite as much work, as this just simply displays an icon (or something)

But what if I want to move into that abandoned shack that already has 5 containers in it? I don't neccessarily want to have to become a builder just so I can claim a place as my own

Honestly, it doesn't seem like such a big issue to implement

I think that placing items would be limited to certain sites only due to the requirement of having a workbench. Otherwise people would end up using 'stacked metal boxes' as cover, which would be more than a little bit 'cheaty!'

This is also a possibility which would make such a system highly useful