Mixed ideas (too long to summarise in title)

[EternityTide]

Too-long, Didn't-Read summary

• glass bottles and use for leftover cans
• thermite and blasting caps
• bird's nests
• interactable infrastructure
• additional tools

Full explanation
Containers

• In game, containers are viewable, but not actually interactable, and sit there as simple game art. my idea is to them a purpose by allowing players to actually use the discarded cans as rudimentary cooking implements. Cooking meat and similar over an open fire is difficult and easy to burn, losing some of its calorific value. Hence, cans can be used to cook meat even after they have been emptied, however they will degrade over time, so need to be replaced after perhaps every 4 uses.
  
• Glass bottles are every where in the real world, so where are they in game? the antiseptic bottles appear to disappear once the antiseptic is used up, therefore I think we can re-purpose the containers to be used as either rudimentary magnifying glasses (but with a decreased chance of lighting a fire), to be smashed and used to make fishing lures (reflective objects attract fish) or can be partially smashed to make a weapon almost on par with a hunting knife.

Explosives

• Thermite charges should be available for melting locks which cannot be opened via prybar. additionally they can be lit and dropped as a quick fire starter and/or wolf scarer (but cannot be wielded like a flare, only lit and thrown) can be found at the derailment (train maintenance uses thermite charges to weld broken tracks)
  
• Sticks of dynamite/ blasting caps, which can be lit and have a 20 second fuse. These can be left out on ice OR dropped down a fishing hole. doing so will kill about 5-6 fish which float to the surface in the large hole now broken in the ice (which you CAN fall into and die) additionally they can one-shot kill a bear, but with losses to the hide and meat quality and quantity. Relatively rare and can only be found in certain areas (such as the mine).

Bird's nests

• I believe we should be able to find abandoned nests containing down and feathers, the down can be used to repair coats and vests (down jackets etc) and the feathers can be used to craft lures for fishing
• Eggs should also be found in nests, which can be cooked to provide some calories, as well as a warming meal, in the cold temperatures eggs should preserve well, lasting for several days without significant loss of condition. They should also break and become unusable if the player gets involved in a wolf or bear struggle when eggs are in their inventory

Infrastructure

• The gas station has pumps outside, hence we should be able to cut the fuel hoses with our knife/axe/ to provide a tube to siphon out water tanks and petrol tanks from cars.
  
• Transformers, although now inoperative, should be salvageable from downed power poles to give several lengths of wire (usable in snares) and scrap metal. In real life, coolant oil could be salvaged from them as well, but this would serve no purpose as it is not flammable, so cannot be used as an accelerant
  
• loose rebar/drainpipe are lengths of metal which can be used as weapons in the same way as prybars can, but cannot jimmy open locks. They are heavier, but as such yield more scrap metal when harvested

Additional tools

• Sledgehammers - exactly what you would find at a train line, to hammer in pins and realign sleepers, these can be used to break open locks (with a 20% chance of damaging the contents) and can also be used in combat. Can be harvested for 2 fir wood and a metal block (dunno what you would do with it) it can also smash open ice holes within 2 minutes but with a 1% chance of shattering the ice and dropping you in the water (like the thin ice mechanic)
  
• billhooks, can be used like a hatchet and also as a knife, they bridge the transition between hunting knife and hatchet, but are heavier than knives and take slightly longer to carve meat.
  
• tire iron, similar to the prybar, but lighter, and can also be used to open locked objects, but with a decreased lifespan of the prybar. It's also relatively ineffective as a weapon

just had a splurge of creativity, so I thought I would write these out before I forgot them. Critique and add to the list as much as you like

[toebar]

Some fun ideas I like the containers suggestion especially.

Bird's nests-- you'll find feathers, but not likely to find eggs in winter. It *could* happen, but eggs are generally laid in early summer-- any leftover eggs would be A) eaten by crows, B) too rotten to be eaten by crows. :mrgreen:

A sledgehammer would be pretty hard to break through anything but rather thin ice with in RL (e.g. < 10 cm). For gameplay it could work I guess though.. keeping it in perspective I still think finding an actual ice auger to drill holes wherever you want would be fun (and realistic! much easier than a hatchet or hammer)

[bethany]

Good list! I'm not sure about thermite explosives, but I can *potentially* see some dynamite being left somewhere with the mines nearby. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

[EternityTide]

Good list! I'm not sure about thermite explosives, but I can *potentially* see some dynamite being left somewhere with the mines nearby. Thanks for sharing your ideas!

well technically Thermite isn't an explosive really. It's used in explosives (like grenades) but it produces extremely high temperatures and a lot of molten metal (The default mixture is aluminium powder and iron oxide, the aluminium displaces the less reactive iron, and releases a huge amount of energy in an exothermic reaction). Railway Maintenance workers use it to weld tracks together:

I thought since a railway was already present, thermite wouldn't be a stretch

[bethany]

Right, it's a byproduct - An explosive made with thermite = "thermite explosive"

I forgot about railroads though! Not in-game, just...in life. Fair enough!

[Aelaera]

+1 on all counts.

If dynamite is integrated I would rather see any animal that is hit by the blast the meat would become unusable due to the intestines and bladder being highly likely to take some form of damage and immediately making the meat inedible. Or at the very least any meat you harvest is at a low percentage.

Birds nests would be awesome. I mean a dedicated soul could collect a ton of crow or ptarmigan feathers to potentially add to a jacket. Fashionable and warm!