Yes, I have tried to trade for nails. I try to buy nails and people say, "I have some, but I might need them". Not as lucky as some people with scavenging either. I wholeheartedly agree that any solutions that malfurion posted are sorely needed. I am reminded of the poem "The Kingdom was lost for lack of a nail." Thank you for your time to read this post.

Oldtimer (Josaph in game)

The problem is how to get nails. Scav is the only way and you can't choose to find nails. You can goto areas where nails are common but you find random stuff 80% of the time and not nails. You can spend a day in the nail area and only find about 1000 nails. Which is not enough to supply yourself or the server for trade. Nails have always been a hot item and used to be currency of choice with most of the server.

A change needs to be looked at with scav on how to find items you want and not items you don't. I understand items should be rare but common items like nails shouldn't be this big of an issue.

FYI if you are on the WAR server and need nails let me know I will trade.

Likewise ^. If you see Mookie on either server i will trade nails. Oasis will be in need of granite/mortar and have sources nearby

Mookie

Yeh this I why I proposed changes to the scav system. While initially the system is good because it's different from other games, over the long term is too random to the point where you are forced to scav for too long taking you away from what u actually want to be doing.
The current system may be ok with a large playerbase where trade would be thriving ,however the game isn't at that point.
I think this is one reason why people leave the game, not that it's hard or difficult it's just boring for the majority .

Already posted in favor of scav revamp for better selection. Another addition that would help with this particular complaint is a blacksmithing skill complete with forge building, clay molds and smelting. All those metal pieces you scav and delete or toss in your rubbish bins could be melted down and made into nails (blots, scrap armor, deer shoes, etc. etc.) Problem solved.

Not really even if the pop were much higher (like it was) the scav system does not account for items like nails. Nails are used based on the number of people playing. So as players go up the # of nails go up. Which forces people to scav more only to lower the price on ALL other items (because they are less needed) and people get frustrated because they do not have a way to do basic things like building.

If people could spend time getting only nails, then it wouldn't be a problem whatsoever, but I do not really like that option. As I said before I think the scav system should change and everything you scav you pull up a list based on your skill of what is in that small 9x9 area and it has a 24 hour timer of respawn. If someone pulls all the items from that list, then when someone else scavs there the list would be empty. Or if someone pulled 1 of the 10 items from the list, the list would only have 9 items.
This way people can still look for what they want. Items would need to be balanced on rare even more than now, but I look at it like this it would give a reason for someone to run around the map checking what's on these lists. It would also make scav option off scav piles a lot better option for areas with little junk piles.
I think junk piles should be areas to pull junk, and everywhere should be areas to scav, just with smaller lists or longer respawn timers.

I really wish i could melt down all this scrap metal and make a simple basic nail.

Nails wouldn't be as bad if they were all just Nails, get rid of the material. 10 aluminum nails aren't worth anything when i have 49 iron ones and need 50 to craft something.

Xyberviri, that's a new player problem. Later on that isn't an issue. I do agree that I would love to see a smelting option. I hate when I get a metal board that weighs 1000000lbs but can't make anything light or small out of it like nails haha.
Smelting, Blacksmithing, Mining etc would be awesome!

lol yeh the heavy stuff that you auto pick up f***s me right off :)

Simply Upping the chance of nails would not be a difficult fix I don't believe.

There are alot of items that we get that are completely useless, and if some of those were lowered greatly and nails upped by 10% it would help

Im for this change, since it would alos help new players have a commodity to trade

Upping it by 10% or so would be a patch fix for nails but it's not just nails it's other items also.

There are any number of ways to narrow down results and focus better on scaving for items you want/need. Your suggestion is one. I think it's as good as any and probably easier to code than mine but I strongly disagree with a 24 hour or any re-spawn time. With a re-spawn timer you could very well end up cancelling out any improvements you were trying to make.

Also, allowing someone to increase there odds for nails doesn't necessarily mean that they see only results that allow them nails. My suggestion, also posted previously,would group items into existing player skill pools and allow a player who is, say a master architect, to look for only materials that he would use for that skill (nails, bolts, metal sheets, arch. blue prints, etc.) and the higher the scav skill the better he could narrow his odds to find what he's looking for while still not getting only nails, or one item, as a result. Each milestone skill lvl reached in a skill would allow a second scav button option that could be used to find scav items from that skill group.

As well, to say 'items would need to balanced on rare even more that now' in my opinion would be an error. Scaving now is total randomness. A new selective scav system should be tested first without changing any rarity then balanced from there only IF items came up to frequently within a certain averaged criteria -vs- scav skill level bonus.

I like your system also Wastelandstoic.

Also I agree things need to be tested before changing it majorly like that. I was just inputting my predictions and precautions. Maybe even make it a bonus linked to your other skill. So say if you are a tailor you "pull" up 3x more cloth when you randomly get cloth. It could be done with all skills. So say if you are a tailor, mason, and architect all 3 of those table items would yield more when you got them. So it wouldn't change the chance to get x item but when you do get an item in your skill set (or a multiple of) you gain more per pull/action. Of course this would be a major bonus to vets like me who have 100 in all skills, but I also hope one day he nerfs the players who who have 100 in all skills and get people to focus more.

I agree also about the 24 hour timer maybe that is too long or too short. Testing would be needed there also, or maybe it wouldn't work at all. The timer is to allow people to "deplete" and area for a short time stopping some macroing and also making people explore other scav areas. Even non traditional ones.

Fair enough. I agree we should be able to get some kind of results from scaving in areas other than scav piles especially say in areas where tribes previously existed. The game already keeps up with this since this is where revs spawn. It would be nice to be able to kill off the revs and scav in these areas to find construction mats, tools, baskets, and rarely schemes/bps, human bone, etc. --items consistent with a previous tribe's occupation of the area.

BTW, I voted for this as I feel the new players pain. With an increased pop. and very few decaying tribes nails are very scarce. Another possible small relief could be when/if there is a guide event the guides could stop giving amounts of screws as one of the basket contents. Screws are virtually worthless now that they are not used in bonecrafting. Give nails instead!

You bring up another great point. Since the change to Bonecrafting where you go from needing 120 screws per bone set to needing about 0 to 3, and that was really the only thing that used screws you tanked the market for screws. It also greatly affected the use of high QL screws and rare metal screws.
I think Bonecrafting needs to have a change a little to screws but that is a side note. But maybe we can change some of the recipes in Architecture to use screws instead of nails. This would solve the nail issue. I still think scav needs a revamp.

out of one of those god awfully heavy metal boards i should be able to craft 5000 nails......

Yes on a revamp. And, that's a great idea to use screws in arch. If nails and screws were interchangeable where construction projects are concerned that would help a lot (you could choose to use all screws or all nails where nails are needed now).

Increasing the chance of finding nails would be a quick solution.

I like the other suggestions and will revisit this when I'm ready for a scavenging revamp (which I mentioned in another thread I'd like to make into a mini game).

Thanks!

I was putting up quests asking to scav nails for $, food or tools on the quest totem, nails are almost useless to many people leveling other skills it was also the best way i find of getting rid of the moderate and older tools :)