More ways to trash stuff

Have a new general feature to suggest, or think one should be tweaked? Share your ideas here.
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ironcross
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:54 am

More ways to trash stuff

Post by ironcross »

I'd like to see a way to get rid of unwanted stuff that doesn't involve huffing it back to town and stuffing it in a bin or trash barrel. I think it would help cut down on keeping useless stuff. I think either a discard command would be nice, or add more things that can be buried.
jerc
Posts: 80
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2022 3:26 pm

Re: More ways to trash stuff

Post by jerc »

:+1:

I was surprised by how few items are actually able to be buried. I'm not sure I've ever buried anything that wasn't a corpse in fact. I'd love to see that expanded to encompass any non-structure/furniture item. One can always just leave them for the janitor to clean up, but it would be nice if being a good citizen was equally convenient.
ironcross
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:54 am

Re: More ways to trash stuff

Post by ironcross »

I have things I don't need, and I haven't thrown them away because I just keep forgetting, but if I could have just trashed on the spot, I would have done so. I don't need like 5-7 terrible spoiled meats.
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Irylia
Posts: 274
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2019 5:20 pm

Re: More ways to trash stuff

Post by Irylia »

Last time I checked you can already bury spoiled food - unless something changed. I'm sure there are many issues with making most items instantly trashable. It can lead to mechanics abuse, trolling, accidents, and regret which then eats up GM time trying to recover things or code more fixes. Maybe you can come up with a list of generally low-cost/un-abusable items that might qualify to be added to the buryable items list, but I think the best option here would probably be to just try and remember to check your bags whenever you're near a trash receptacle. However, having trash bins/barrels more readily available would be nice and could help with this. They seem to be offered in very few rooms.
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Taliaferro
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Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:47 pm

Re: More ways to trash stuff

Post by Taliaferro »

I've brought this up before, I think, but I would be absolutely delighted if a "trash" or "discard" verb would be added. I played another game, very similar to COGG, that had a "discard" verb. As I recall, you'd type DISCARD THINGY and a prompt would come up asking you you really and truly wanted to discard your thingy. And if you did, your action would simply be, "You set your thingy aside." And it would go poof. So one might set aside a glass or a mug or something, without adding more junk to the game.

There was a catch, though -- if the thingy was worth more than a certain amount of money, you couldn't discard your thingy. I don't know if the game's code allows for that to be easily implemented, but it would be a good thing, if so.And of course registered items would remain registered.

Sometimes you just want to get rid of a worthless item, and you're nowhere near a trash barrel. I get that there's a potential for abuse, here, but would that really be much of an actual problem, in our little community?
ironcross
Posts: 36
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:54 am

Re: More ways to trash stuff

Post by ironcross »

I would tend to think the potential for abuse is low. It's a pretty common thing among all the MUDs I've played. I'd estimate between 50 and 60% of them have ability to instantly trash stuff.

I don't think we'd see a bunch of characters running around and trashing other people's things, at least, not without a credible reason IC. Cogg has one of the best communities I've ever seen, and a lot of the trappings of other RPE's and RPI's simply don't exist here. They are too numerous to create an exhaustive list, and I don't want to seem classless, but those who have played a wide variety of MUDs will probably know what I mean.
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Lexx416
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Re: More ways to trash stuff

Post by Lexx416 »

I don't personally have a lot of stake in this suggestion - I'd prefer it if the ability to wipe an item from the grid was limited in general, but I can see the value in wanting to be able to trash things without having to make your way back to a janitored barrel.

I think a good middle ground would be having a way to set up a small midden/compost pile that anyone can interact with (add things to or remove things from). Limit it so that there's a (low) amount of skill requisite for this (Animal Handling, Farming, or Bushcraft - similar to Small Game Snares), and that someone can only ever have 1 midden/pile constructed in the world (and that a midden that hasn't had items removed or added by a player get wiped after a few days).

I'd have any items in a midden "virtualized" to keep down on clutter, and have it take 0 RT to add an item to a midden, but have it take scaling RT to dig through a midden as the item count increases. Over time, the virtualized items (starting with the oldest) should get "janitored" away (deleted from the list) and if the deleted item is of the correct type (food, paper, things that would break down in compost) add to a little hidden progress bar. Each time that hidden progress bar is filled, you get a bit of fertilizer that can be removed from the midden (or left to rot away if you don't want to faff about with it).

If the item inside isn't of the correct type and is deleted, it's effectively buried under too much gross stuff to be found anymore (thus removing it from the game).

I think this would be a neat way to create some amount of value out of items that would normally just be junk while also letting folks manage their inventories a little more easily without needing a town (and also open the door a bit for things like keeping insects and fungus on farms). Plus, the minor effort of setting up a midden (it should probably be similar to Trailblazing, and require certain environmental conditions plus take time + energy + a shovel) would help deter any kind of nasty behavior without having to expressly code around it.
"You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods... Remnants of an older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as beasts."
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