What to do with early game trash weapons from raiders?

[phlux]

Is there anything useful i can do with all the weapons and clothes all those primitive raiders drop?
At the moment i just let them rot so they don't waste space in my storage room.
And barely anyone seems to want to buy them and it looks like i can't dismantle them for ressources so just burning them would take time...

[MortVent]

I smelt down any metal ones, any that can't be smelted get tossed into a trade pile (some extra silver never hurts) or sent as gifts to other groups (even given to traders as gifts for faction boosts)

[gimmethegepgun]

If they're metal, smelt them. If they aren't, sell them. If you don't want to deal with that hassle for a small amount of silver, burn them.

[Morkonan]

Smelting suitable weapons is the best choice if one has an Electric Smelter in the "Early Game." (Not likely, but different playstyles do happen.)

For clothing, burn it in a campfire or sell it to a trader. The same goes for anything else you don't want to use, yet can't reclaim materials from.

Note: Keep a light surplus of some weapons to equip newly recruited pawns with while they're waiting for you to craft or acquire something better.

[MortVent]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

Smelting suitable weapons is the best choice if one has an Electric Smelter in the "Early Game." (Not likely, but different playstyles do happen.)

For clothing, burn it in a campfire or sell it to a trader. The same goes for anything else you don't want to use, yet can't reclaim materials from.

Note: Keep a light surplus of some weapons to equip newly recruited pawns with while they're waiting for you to craft or acquire something better.

Yeah I have a default setting on my smelters: all armor/weapons under 51%, all tainted armor, and I do biocoded as needed (aka dead raider/praetorian gear)

Everything else I either have a mod (one of the recycling ones) or give it to traders as gifts (or send on caravans or drop pods to other factions)

[Makeithappen]

Take any weapons you might need that you don't have that would be an upgrade from what you currently have. Weapons still work with the damage and accuracy even when the condition is a bit low.

Like everyone else said, smelt anything you don't plan on using. Anything metal, so maces, metal melee weapons, guns and turn it into precious steel.

You can burn them if you feel like getting rid of all those spears and bows. Anything that can't be smelted.

You can wait for a trader to arrive at your settlement to trade them for silver. You don't even have to move the weapons. Just put a stockpile zone over the area to claim it.
Or if you don't want to wait for a trader that will buy the weapons you can create your own caravan and take a trip to a friendly base and sell them that way.

Or a quick and easy way to get rid of them, make a caravan with just one pawn, have them gather all the crap you don't want, go to the world map and in the caravan menu of gear/items just drop them all there. You can avoid a lot of labor time this way.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by MortVent:

all armor/weapons under 51%

Weapon durability has no impact on anything except trade value. Destroying them in favor of a higher-durability one is pointless.

[MortVent]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by MortVent:

all armor/weapons under 51%

Weapon durability has no impact on anything except trade value. Destroying them in favor of a higher-durability one is pointless.

I get rid of them because by the time they get that level, my colonists can craft replacements of better quality.

A 51% normal gladus does the same as a 1% one, but not as much as new excellent or better one that my pawns can craft (and the mats can be used vs selling the low grade junk)

[brian_va]

reclaim fabrics mod lets you break the clothes to their base fabrics if youre into mods. dubs bad hygine has a washing machine that should clear the tainted flag (never used it myself).

if you have a mass of bows and clubs and such, make a caravan to someone close by and you can get a couple bucks or some meds or something for them.

[gimmethegepgun]

Originally posted by MortVent:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Weapon durability has no impact on anything except trade value. Destroying them in favor of a higher-durability one is pointless.

I get rid of them because by the time they get that level, my colonists can craft replacements of better quality.

A 51% normal gladus does the same as a 1% one, but not as much as new excellent or better one that my pawns can craft (and the mats can be used vs selling the low grade junk)

Which has nothing to do with the durability and everything to do with the quality. So your <51% setting is still illogical.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Which has nothing to do with the durability and everything to do with the quality. So your <51% setting is still illogical.

I generally agree with that, but if a pawn picks them up and starts using them, then it's "logical." :) I'd certainly go with a quality level restriction, though, and sell the decent ones.


Handling junk isn't too terrible, I just hate handling all the clothes and other quality-related "unstackables" that I may feel I need to have in reserve. I haven't found a great solution to that issue, but I also shy away from mods that alter stack square limit mechanics and it's difficult to find a suitable one that doesn't do that. (Or, rather, I haven't looked in ages. I know Wardrobe was one, but we've got an Outfit thing now, so... /shrug There's a weapon rack that I haven't checked, though.)

[BurlsoL]

Build a 4x8ish wood room somewhere away from the colony. Place it somewhere that is somewhat near your base, but accessible from outside any protected area. For the door, toggle it as "leave open" so that anyone can just walk in and out but it is still treated as an enclosed space. Setup a stockpile there for any equipment below 50% durability. 32 space should be good enough early on, but can always make another dump room further away from the colony.

The idea is this... It is storage space you don't need to really manage for all your random junk, and which isn't interfering with normal colony operation. When a trader comes by, you can just sell it all. But the important part about having these away from your colony, containing some items of value and with doors open, is that it will be counted as a target destination for raids. This means that attacking raiders will occasionally go inside, grab some random junk, and just leave the map without any fight, and breaking up the attacking force from being a large cluster of pawns at your door. They may also go in there grabbing weapons to use, but since it's mostly junk and it makes them divert away from the main force, this usually works out to your benefit (just ban any explosive weapons).

[Winter]

There is a mod called Mend & Recycle. Allows you to repair clothing/armor & also recycle them for materials.

[MortVent]

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Originally posted by MortVent:

I get rid of them because by the time they get that level, my colonists can craft replacements of better quality.

A 51% normal gladus does the same as a 1% one, but not as much as new excellent or better one that my pawns can craft (and the mats can be used vs selling the low grade junk)

Which has nothing to do with the durability and everything to do with the quality. So your <51% setting is still illogical.

think of it like this:
Why would I give my pawns low quality gear, when I can recycle it into better quality stuff?

Would you rather have a steel longsword off a raider that is of normal or less quality or melt it down because around 50% it's not worth selling vs recycling it for materials (the weapon sale value become less than the value of the recycled materials.)

Or would you rather scrap the cheap junk that has less value than the recycled materials to make better quality stuff that will benefit the colony better?

Do you want to lose silver selling the item, or turn it into materials towards a better item?

[BurlsoL]

Originally posted by MortVent:

Do you want to lose silver selling the item, or turn it into materials towards a better item?

Two points really.

Silver is actually pretty easy to get if your colony isn't in a death spiral. But, the more wealth you have, the more dangerous events tend to be. The weapons you get from loot tend to be of low value so neither sell well, or contribute much to your wealth.

The weapon may be worth steel, but as long as it is a weapon it actually contributes less to your wealth if it is of lower quality or durability. This means that keeping them stockpiled in a trash heap means you can save some emergency steel without as much wealth effect. All you would need to do is un-suspend the job to melt them down.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by MortVent:

Originally posted by gimmethegepgun:

Which has nothing to do with the durability and everything to do with the quality. So your <51% setting is still illogical.

think of it like this:
Why would I give my pawns low quality gear, when I can recycle it into better quality stuff?

Would you rather have a steel longsword off a raider that is of normal or less quality or melt it down because around 50% it's not worth selling vs recycling it for materials (the weapon sale value become less than the value of the recycled materials.)

Or would you rather scrap the cheap junk that has less value than the recycled materials to make better quality stuff that will benefit the colony better?

Do you want to lose silver selling the item, or turn it into materials towards a better item?

The sell value of a normal steel longsword is 51, the smelted steel value is 47,5. You will lose silver a long time before it hits 50% durability if you are plan on selling the steel. If you plan on buying steel to make a new weapon, you will be losing money at 100% durability. Just set a filter for quality on smelting. Durability does not have anything to do this with.

It's different for some of the high work time ranged weapons. Those can be worth a lot more at 100% durability than their measly scrap metal. I pretty much just smelt longswords and warhammer and that just early game, because the other stuff nets so little steel for all the work of carrying it and smelting it. Everything else get sold or rained away. Glad it's forbidden when it gets dropped. My colonists have better things to do than smelting a sniper rifle for 15 steel with half a minute of work + the hauling time. A steel slag grants the same steel in 7 seconds + hauling. It's likely different with killboxes, because then you got all the trash in one place.


@op: the value drops of raiders are silver, jade, drugs and pemmican. The rest is just trash and should be handled like other trash. Burn it, leave it out in the rain. It depends how high your value the time of your pawns. A highly skilled crafter can do better than things with their time than carrying in trash and working on it. You got the right idea about this already except that combat/war merchants will buy them. They are just there to clean up for your though and as said will buy the stuff if you just make a temporary storage/home zone outside painted over the trash.

Originally posted by BurlsoL:

The weapon may be worth steel, but as long as it is a weapon it actually contributes less to your wealth if it is of lower quality or durability.

The durability thing got removed a while ago. Items now always contribute their full health value.