Idea: Dead end items that don't have to be

[TullyMars]

I try to utilize everything I can to the fullest, thus one of my pet peeves are what I call dead-end items. Stuff that won't sell on a players vendor, won't sell to NPC vendors, has little or no use elsewhere, etc. Here are two items and what I think could be a good remedy. Remedy 1 is a quick fix that I would imagine doesn't take too much effort in coding or such. Remedy 2 is a longer more complex coding if the devs wanted to add something new along with it.

Metal Chests - everywhere you look, there they are, you get them from paragons, fishing, etc. Most players have a vendor filled with them. Not sure why no one is going to buy them.
Remedy 1 - make them smeltable. 10 to 20 iron ingots from each chest (amount negotiable)
Remedy 2 - make them smeltable into colored iron ingots that can be used to craft and retain color.

Fish Bones - yep forgot to put on my vacation wafer on the aquarium so had a bunch of these fish bones around.
Remedy 1 - cut them into regular bones. 5 bones per dead fish
Remedy 2 - let the unusual colored dead fish bones create colored bones that could be used to craft colored bone suits and retain the color.

Now I am fine with just a quick add of the easy remedy...just brainstorming with the other possibilities.

Well there is my idea? What do you think?

 

[Mapper]

Most players have a vendor filled with them. Not sure why no one is going to buy them.

?? I sell metal and wooden chests rather well.

I like the dead fish to bones idea though.

 

[aarons6]

i like the metal chest idea.. you get them in all ingot colors. why not make them break down into ingots..

 

[five oclock]

Both of these are good ideas....I have always wondered what could be done with the fish bones...

 

[Jhym]

You notice there are no recyclable containers -- they would have too many issues to do so and they tend not to add resource code to older things in the system because of testing issues. So that's not going to happen. I do think they should be tradable or saleable perhaps, though I agree with mapper that they are useful enough that they normally don't stay on a vendor long if you price them right. I might like some etchers that could clear all text from any chest -- I may just want a pretty blue chest, not "A CHEST FROM A PARAGON GOOGOO DOLL".

Cutting up the dead fishies would be good, but just getting regular bones would be enough. I doubt, however, many folks would bother with it -- as a consequence it wouldn't be worth implementing. If they take care of their tanks they will have few dead fish, and I can't see many owners killing fish just to get bones that they could get from zombies and skeletons with much less effort and money.

 

[TullyMars]

I must be pricing the metal chests wrong. I don't think one has sold ever off my containers vendor.

I didn't think of the consequences of making a container recyclable. Good point! They would have to code to make sure nothing is in it and all. So if they make an npc want to buy them that would be enough for me.

You see I hate throwing things out...I, like many of us, tend to hoard or use every last item I can. Instead of throwing away items, if I can't find any other use for them, I fill a bag with all of them and hand the bag to a cobbler with one of my mule characters with low karma and/or fame.

With the fish bones, I was thinking the coding would be as easy as adding the item to a db table that lists the items that unravel with scissors and what the result is. I probably over-simplified the process in my mind. I wasn't suggesting that people would kill off their fish tanks for bone. Especially since bone can be bought from the mystics at termur real cheap now and no one even has to hunt for it.

Thanks all for the constructive feedback.
Maybe if I keep saving my fish bones they will put them in a quest or spring clean up. hehe. (I am horrible at keeping up my aquarium)

 

[sayler04]

Like you, I hate dead-end items, though given the immersive realism of UO I accept that they're a part of the game. Also, there are somvery many others that finding a use for them and implementing the coding would be daunting.

So how about a recycling bin? Fertile dirt is more useful than it has ever been , for gardening, as a reagent, and I think it is used by alchemists as well (though I could be wrong). Maybe we could have a modified trash can that, instead of deleting items or sending them to the cavern of the discarded, it "mulches" them down into fertile dirt.

Just an idea...