Useless Items (and why they suck)

[Gold Handles]

Hello all,

No, this isn't a hate/flame thread, despite what the title may suggest to some. This is a thread about an issue that's been present in the game since Alpha 1, although I feel it's become a greater problem in recent updates. Also, WARNING: Long read inbound! TLDR at bottom.

So, there are a lot of items in this game that I have never used, despite having nearly 60 hours of playtime in it.

What do I do with these useless items? I sell them. And boy do I sell a LOT of them!

Some of these items include:

Dog Meat -- I really have never had an encounter where I felt like bait would help me. I mean, maybe if I was running from some chompers, but you reach a point in the game where you learn how to avoid putting yourself in situations like this.

Batteries/Flashlights -- What's the point in using these when the lantern (which doesn't have to be equipped in you hands) is far more efficient? Furthermore, the times when I do need light are so rare that I can't imagine actually needing to recharge any of the flashlights I do run across.

Pills (not the health ones) -- Again, pretty similar to dog meat. They give little boost to stamina that might help if you're getting chased by chompers. Except that, again, that's not a very common occurance. On top of that, you'd have to keep them in your hotbar to be able to use them quickly enough (like bait), and I don't think I'd ever want to put pills in my hotbar over healing items, weapons, and molotovs.

There are several more generally worthless items that I won't go into, for the sake of brevity.

Now, here's the issue: these items are essentially "auto-sells". As soon as I get them, I stuff them into a chest full of other junk that I'll be selling off on my next merchant visit. I no longer see a battery as a utility item, I simply see it as 25$.

Many of these items are very easy to acquire. I've actually developed a habit of farming the dogs in the Meadow for their meat, which I can sell for a profit.

Farming mobs is a mechanic that belongs in MMO's, not survival horror games.

The merchants themselves carry a lot of valuable, necessary items. This is one of my favorite aspects of the game -- the tough decisions you have to make when spending your rep. Do I want to upgrade my workbench or build a better weapon? Decisions such as these are what make survival horror games.

However, I never have to make tough decisions when choosing what items to sell. It's simple -- I keep my flares, alcohol, gas, etc while selling off my dog meat, batteries, pills, etc.

Because of this, I never feel like I'm sacrficing anything to get the items I need. I'm simply turning worthless garbage into treasure.

My solution for this issue:

Vendors will only buy a certain amount of an item in a given period of time. For example, if you sell Wolf several pieces of dog meat, he will refuse to buy any more for the next week. You can eventually sell him meat again, but in the meantime you'll actually have to sell off your own valuable items in order to get what you want, adding a strategic element to the game. Now you can no longer drop off stupid amounts of meat, pills, batteries, and whatnot on vendors.

TLDR:

Certain items (such as Dog Meat, Batteries/Flashlights, and Speed Pills) are rather useless and are more useful as currency to be traded to vendors. By trading only your worthless items away, you get to keep all of your good items without having to sacrifice anything that would help you.

Solution: Make vendors only accept a certain amount of one item over a period of time: if you sell Wolf several pieces of dog meat, he will no longer buy any more dog meat for the next week. This will force players to make interesting scarifices to get what they want, rather than just selling off their useless crap.

[ZDENDA]

Originally posted by icarus the improviser:

@lulu

reagarding the meat.

you are confusing "meat" and "odd meat".
first one is throwable item that drops from dogs. second one is consumable that provides armor buff and drops from chompers.

the armor buff is way too short to be actually useful.

[icarus the improviser]

oh my bad, i never even knew you could eat odd meat :l, other than that i consume pills to travel as well, use bread for that to, i don't sell many of the items, because the itens i don't need, i don't pick up in my expeditions, i usually ignore them.

so i don't really know what i lot of them do...hmmmm

[Shrooms]

I agree except on the flashlight vs lantern, I've never wasted resources on a lantern when batteries are so common and the flashlight much more maneuverable. I also use the pills if I need to travel a lot in one day, though I do occasionally find myself selling them for the last bit of rep that I need to buy something.

[Griffith]

i use all of those items. used bait to get things into traps, then set them on fire.
used pills to run from hideout 1 to far away, or vice versa.
used flashlight bug so that I dont need lantern.
nothing wrong with selling them, but why bother farming?
you could have used that time to get farther ahead and finish the game faster.
wasting time is silly considering there are no benefits.