What would you WANT to find in ruins?

[MagpieOAO]

I've dug through many but often find its a bit lackluster. I was disappointed to find a bed I'd restored could not be used nor could a chest I'd found be repaired to function. After realizing they just have a few loot pots/chests at best, it got me thinking, what would you actually want to find that would be cool, aside from the occasional treasure and decorative items? 

I'd explore every one I saw if there were lore books scattered throughout, even just a few pages. I've yet to find a bookshelf with a book, if that's where they spawn. 
Perhaps tapestries like the artist sells in tattered condition, telling a bit of story.
Likewise other artisan items perhaps, it's a nice reward in itself sometimes collecting the aged stones. 
I once saw a bin of junk parts, but assumed like most it served no purpose. But it would be cool to find things which have rusted gears that can be extracted. 
Perhaps treasure maps of a sort? Notes of evacuation or shelter orders, or trade being conducted that point you to more significant ruins. 

If ruins are a form of resource, they're finite and relatively rare. But to have anything of significance is rare, and even more rare when what's in it can be non-functional clutter. I guess I'd like to see more functional clutter in ruins?

 

Edited July 10, 2025 by MagpieOAO

[Echo Weaver]

It bugs me to no end that functional-looking objects like beds are not functional. When I brought one home and tried to use it I was shocked. I don't see what the logic was there.

I have found lore in ruins, so it can happen. The one I found most recently was a scroll in a crate.

The most important things I find in ruins are torch holders and ancient firewood. It does seem like there should be more interesting stuff.

[Kyle Rick]

I believe in the Better Ruins mod there is schematics that you can find in ruins that can let you craft new decoration blocks, more efficient ways of crafting items, and alternate ways of crafting items. I think that be neat to find unlockables in ruins as long as it's not game breaking.

[dakko]

I enjoy finding decorator items (paintings, unusual blocks, wallpaper, doors), clothing, pretty containers, jewelry and the odd metal tool. I once found a silver knife which I thought was pretty cool.

Now I play with Better Ruins and am satisfied with the loot. They even have blueprints that allow creation of loot items or vanilla items at a reduced cost.

I'm all about the loot!

[Zane Mordien]

@Echo WeaverI agree I wish the beds were functional once repaired. I also wish that the functional looking tables didnt require glue and broken glassware. Some of the things that require glue don't make sense.

 

What i would like to see:

 

More lore would be nice. Books or scrolls. I like the idea of finding fragments of books you have to piece together.  Maybe mosaics that break if you remove them, but by looking at them you get a lore entry. Sort of like going to Pompeii. 

Edited July 11, 2025 by Zane Mordien

[Facethief]

Please Tyron make more stuff bookshelf placeable, I’m starving to get just one book.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

12 minutes ago, Facethief said:

Please Tyron make more stuff bookshelf placeable, I’m starving to get just one book.

Did you know that there's a story location that has a BUNCH of books in it? I filled two bookshelves with the books I was able to pick up there.

[LadyWYT]

I found a steel scale chestpiece once. Granted, it was very beat up, but it was still an exciting find, because that cut out a lot of work later when crafting steel armor since repair is cheaper than crafting new. That being said, I can understand why there isn't really loot like that, as it would enable players to skip too much progression. 

Otherwise...I dunno, I hadn't really considered the question that much. I like finding little trinkets and other curious pieces of decor, though it would be nice to have soap or something to clean them up. Bits of resources are nice too, but I'd rather be finding bits of halite or borax, or even copper nuggets, instead of dry grass and sticks. Not in every ruin, of course, but perhaps slightly more often than what the current loot tables are.

[Steel General]

Reading this, it occurs to me how cool it would be to find wrecked machinery for which we must hold shift+right-click with a hammer and chisel to open its loot box. Possibly, it should require iron-tier tools. It might be fun (and wonderfully frustrating) if this is how you loot locusts.

Another option, a loot box of mutually exclusive rows. Each column of item slots in the box represent loot options - e.g., you can have two rusty gears or three metal scraps - which is then closed out after you select your preferred option. This represents the need to prioritize salvage: some things are getting destroyed to get other things out.

[LadyWYT]

6 minutes ago, Steel General said:

Reading this, it occurs to me how cool it would be to find wrecked machinery for which we must hold shift+right-click with a hammer and chisel to open its loot box. Possibly, it should require iron-tier tools. It might be fun (and wonderfully frustrating) if this is how you loot locusts.

Another option, a loot box of mutually exclusive rows. Each column of item slots in the box represent loot options - e.g., you can have two rusty gears or three metal scraps - which is then closed out after you select your preferred option. This represents the need to prioritize salvage: some things are getting destroyed to get other things out.

Oh, I really like this idea! Not every ruin needs a puzzlebox or some equivalent, but having small puzzles to solve in order to get some better loot is a lot more interesting than just running in, grabbing what you see, and leaving.

I think as it stands now, some ruins have hidden areas that you need to dig around to find. So I suppose the mechanic exists after a fashion, but this would be a great expansion to the concept.

[Facethief]

15 hours ago, traugdor said:

Did you know that there's a story location that has a BUNCH of books in it? I filled two bookshelves with the books I was able to pick up there.

I play with lore disabled

[Echo Weaver]

11 minutes ago, Facethief said:

I play with lore disabled

If there's no lore, what do you want with books?

[Facethief]

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

If there's no lore, what do you want with books?

“In a hole in the ground, there lived a seraph…”

[FlareUKCS]

I think VS's style is the better part, or we could go the same path as MC, a trove of treasures that make the early game struggle meaningless, as is why look for copper when the ruins offer steel ? Look at MC YT vids, they accept a challenge yet the ruins often give so much the challenge is a joke, this is not a fault in MC but it would be in VS. I think the lack of stuff is a lore related theme, they are starving they are lacking they dont store valuables because they dont care for baubles, they want food and a respite from [lore spoiler content].

The ruins are not from when the world was at its best, most when it was desperate, the loot is often things that were scarce to a people that lived away from the world... not diamond armour or enchanted tools, seeds for planting, cattails for crafting, clay for molding. 

Is it odd we dont get OP items ?

[HalfAxd]

I don't like finding too much loot in ruins... just enough to tease me into digging around the next ruin.  I can understand beds, etc. that are ruined and not usable... you need "something" in ruins to provide a setting...  btw, there are beds, etc. which are usable.   So, less is more...  making that rare find even more exciting.

[Echo Weaver]

I don't see anything that would require that we get OP items. I just think there should be more useful or interesting items. It makes good motivation to explore and look for them.

I think clutter items that look just like usable items should be usable items, though. There's nothing OP about that. It just means that you can decorate your home differently if you can gather neat stuff from around the landscape.

 

[FlareUKCS]

clutter is available, either you gather glue or use the default game to make it that clutter drops always... so you can get all that stuff already, one way or the other so what exactly do you want in the ruins that is not op, yet is fun enough to grab ? 

For me its torch holders and candelabras , or a owl chest I can use to spice up my home... or even cabbage seeds, or even pumpkin seeds.

Yeah sure I do get annoyed when I dig out a ruin and only get dirt and maybe flint tools, but the thought I may get something else in the next ruin keeps me going. I cant see how it would make the game better if ruins had better loot, it would turn into a thing where a ruin is a score, instead of being a option to get stuff.

[Echo Weaver]

2 hours ago, FlareUKCS said:

clutter is available, either you gather glue or use the default game to make it that clutter drops always... so you can get all that stuff already, one way or the other so what exactly do you want in the ruins that is not op, yet is fun enough to grab ? 

I just upgraded from 1.19, but furniture and such found in ruins isn't functional. Beds don't sleep, tables can't be used to make pies. (The last seems particularly silly.) Unmodded wallpaper is destroyed rather than pulled off walls.

Are these things different in 1.20? If so, that'd be welcome.

ETA: Yeah, torch holders. I haven't seen a candelabra but would be happy to get one. I think there are chandeliers? Seeds. Lore documents. Functional items that are currently clutter. Also, I mine up the polished stones when I find them to use as floors in my base.

Edited July 11, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[FlareUKCS]

The unusable beds are usually called short or double, meaning they were for kids... a bit grim, you can claim aged beds / tables but most of the clutter is decorative. Wallpaper is a trader option, and rarely seen in ruins... most pillage the aged wood for accents.

1.20 has the same restrictions, as in you cant just nab stuff, at best if you use glue you can grab clutter, except torch holders, aged beds/chests/crates. and wood, the most is interesting clutter, ie decorations.

My point is that one should not be able to raid ruins and gain a significant advantage, though you can still get copper/bronze tools, its just rare. I rather not have ruins be so beneficial that they can push a player ahead, its like saying I will take this challenge head on but then get op kit and easily beast the challenge... if you really want you can just gift yourself a tonne of stuff with a few commands, then why play a challenging game ?

I get what you are saying, you found a ruin and why are most just dirt and ... dirt ? But I say that is because the ruins are not meant to rush you forward, just a side quest to play with, then you march forward on your own. I mean watch some YT vids of MC....the sheer number of stuff that can be explored, and more odd the stuff you get... hell most of the MC runs I watched didn't even use copper... iron -> diamond only. Wouldn't it be sad if you could bypass the whole struggle to get a copper pickaxe ? I have got to copper loads of times, and each time I get a copper pickaxe is special... maybe I am odd, could be I am a odd player.

[Echo Weaver]

3 hours ago, FlareUKCS said:

The unusable beds are usually called short or double, meaning they were for kids... a bit grim, you can claim aged beds / tables but most of the clutter is decorative. Wallpaper is a trader option, and rarely seen in ruins... most pillage the aged wood for accents.

The first underground ruin I ever found had wallpaper. In fact, that ruin had a unique feel to it -- it had multiple rooms and really felt like someone had lived there. I haven't seen one like that since, so maybe that style really is rare. It's where I discovered that wallpaper was destroyed when the block was broken and got a mod to fix that. I mean, seriously.

If short beds are supposed to be for children, they look exactly like every other kind of bed. And also, most children sleep in full-length beds.  (I did note that "short" was in the item ID. But you get two blocks long for a bed. They're all the same length, so why distinguish?)

3 hours ago, FlareUKCS said:

1.20 has the same restrictions, as in you cant just nab stuff, at best if you use glue you can grab clutter, except torch holders, aged beds/chests/crates. and wood, the most is interesting clutter, ie decorations.

I don't see the point of glue. I'm keeping that option off. If I could use glue to make unusable clutter into a functional item, that would be different. But we're talking about decorations here.

3 hours ago, FlareUKCS said:

My point is that one should not be able to raid ruins and gain a significant advantage, though you can still get copper/bronze tools, its just rare. I rather not have ruins be so beneficial that they can push a player ahead, its like saying I will take this challenge head on but then get op kit and easily beast the challenge... if you really want you can just gift yourself a tonne of stuff with a few commands, then why play a challenging game ?

I get what you are saying, you found a ruin and why are most just dirt and ... dirt ? But I say that is because the ruins are not meant to rush you forward, just a side quest to play with, then you march forward on your own. I mean watch some YT vids of MC....the sheer number of stuff that can be explored, and more odd the stuff you get... hell most of the MC runs I watched didn't even use copper... iron -> diamond only. Wouldn't it be sad if you could bypass the whole struggle to get a copper pickaxe ? I have got to copper loads of times, and each time I get a copper pickaxe is special... maybe I am odd, could be I am a odd player.

I agree with you. I'm not interested in jumping ahead either. If I wanted a quick fix, I wouldn't be here. In fact, I'm hanging out in the iron age building out my base. I'm excited because I now have bees and can make lanterns. Speedy advancement is not my goal 

I don't think ruins should be filled with powerful stuff. They're too common, for one thing. But there's a difference between powerful stuff and interesting stuff.

That said, there are a decent number of good think you can get from them now.

[ifoz]

4 hours ago, FlareUKCS said:

The unusable beds are usually called short or double, meaning they were for kids... a bit grim, you can claim aged beds / tables but most of the clutter is decorative. Wallpaper is a trader option, and rarely seen in ruins... most pillage the aged wood for accents.

They're actually very slightly longer than an aged bed if you compare, I think they're just not yet usable because beds are kind of underdeveloped. We know Saraty wants customisable and woodtyped beds but the team just hasn't gotten around to properly implementing them.

On the subject of usable clutter, allow us to light the very rare pristine braziers, or place books on book stands, etc. That would be so fun!

Edited July 12, 2025 by ifoz

[MagpieOAO]

11 hours ago, FlareUKCS said:

My point is that one should not be able to raid ruins and gain a significant advantage, though you can still get copper/bronze tools, its just rare. I rather not have ruins be so beneficial that they can push a player ahead, its like saying I will take this challenge head on but then get op kit and easily beast the challenge... if you really want you can just gift yourself a tonne of stuff with a few commands, then why play a challenging game ?

Even now though getting a copper/bronze tool is jumping ahead. Someone posted they found beat up steel armor once and torch holders, lanterns some have described are huge advancements from constantly having to replace torches. 

Ruins are a form of resource; Finite and scattered and must be surveyed to be found. Unlike ores, veggies, fruits or other objects though which all have defined uses, Ruins as a resource are of random benefit though most often they are of no benefit, even detriment because you're using time, food and tool durability to dig out a ruin only often to find nothing but dirt.

At a minimum, I'd like to see fragments of lore, and things that can be repaired into proper use than just decoration. I've even found a couple of 'broken' maces with good stats but 15 HP. It would be nice if I could actually repair them.

[Scorpixel]

I'd love more options regarding clutter decorations, as in restoring and having those be functional.

Regarding the "getting ahead" issue, i wonder if it could be gated by progression. Say a chisel being needed to dismantle/pry open various metal objects.

[Thorfinn]

5 minutes ago, Scorpixel said:

i wonder if it could be gated by progression. Say a chisel being needed

That's not really much of a gate. Copper chisels are not difficult to have by the middle of May. If you are not trying to jump straight to bronze, late day 2 or sometime day 3 is not unreasonable. Gating it behind iron, yeah, that would take a lucky start. 

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Scorpixel said:

Regarding the "getting ahead" issue, i wonder if it could be gated by progression. Say a chisel being needed to dismantle/pry open various metal objects.

I would just make the really valuable tools and items very rare, and near the breaking point when you find them. An iron blade might be a super lucky find when you're still in the stone age, but if it breaks after 50 uses or so? Well, then it's good for a temporal storm or a couple of caving expeditions, maybe, but it's not something you'll be able to actually rely on. Same with armor--it might hold up for a fight or two, but it's not something you'll be able to rely on until you have the materials needed for repairs. In the case of armor, if the player found a good piece, it could save them some materials later as it's cheaper to repair than craft new, but that's a fairly big if.