Idea: Panning for Seashells

[Rendrassa]

Having been obsessed with the game for a few weeks now, I've discovered a major issue with advancing into better armor and backpacks is getting lime for leatherworking. Traveling around for ages trying to find any sources of it are starting to really hamper the fun, and seashells are fairly rare where I've looked. So, I'd love to see a rare chance of getting them through panning sand.

I know it would be very simple to do, but I have no modding skills, so I'm hoping this will reach the devs or a bored modder.

[Maxwell Ellington]

This does sound cool. I also like all the seashells for decoration, so it's not a bad find for people that already have leather.

[Rendrassa]

13 minutes ago, Maxwell Ellington said:

This does sound cool. I also like all the seashells for decoration, so it's not a bad find for people that already have leather.

I hadn't even thought about decoration, I'm that strapped for lime! XD

[Maxwell Ellington]

I honestly regretted grinding up all my shells when I realized how little leather I actually would get, so it seems fun and balanced to be able to pan for more. Plus part of the fun in panning is not knowing what you'll get, so having a bigger loot list is always better to me.

[Satras]

I thought about the same thing after playing a game for 70 hours in a basalt-heavy area without finding lime or chalk. Very frustating. Luckily my new game map has spawn in a limestone area.
The problem I see though is storage space. There are like 40 different types of sea shells which would clog up storage quite fast. My suggestion would be to add an item called "crushed sea shells" which can ONLY be obtained by panning sand/gravel. That would solve the lime issues many players have pretty well.

[l33tmaan]

There's a mod that lets you turn sandy gravel into limestone via dumping it in a barrel with some water.
That mod is a godsend and any sort of similar functionality in the base game would be a similar godsend.

[Allen]

4 hours ago, Satras said:

The problem I see though is storage space. There are like 40 different types of sea shells which would clog up storage quite fast. My suggestion would be to add an item called "crushed sea shells" which can ONLY be obtained by panning sand/gravel. That would solve the lime issues many players have pretty well.

Agreed. Actually trying to gather enough seashells to do any reasonable lime stuff is super annoying as the amount of type and color combinations means you're probably going to have one seashell per slot when you're trying to gather them, so you can only gather very few at a time, and since each shell gives a pitiful amount of lime it takes way too many trips to get enough lime to do.. well, anything worthwhile really.

Personally, I think it'll be very nice of all seashells drop a genetric seashell item that gives a random shell when you place it(you can choose the color/type when placing it like knapping recipies or something), so you can keep all the shells in one slot.

[Satras]

22 minutes ago, Allen said:

Personally, I think it'll be very nice of all seashells drop a genetric seashell item that gives a random shell when you place it(you can choose the color/type when placing it like knapping recipies or something), so you can keep all the shells in one slot.

Interesting idea. But personally I would keep the world generated sea shells the way they are. I think it would be annoying to have to re-place a decorative sea shell 25 times just to get the design you want. The knapping-option is better but not very immersive.

[Streetwind]

Getting seashells from panning makes perfect sense IMHO. In fact, I'm surprised this isn't already a thing.

And to be honest, storage space is only an issue while out exploring, not at home where you can just make one or two storage vessels for your shells. And since you'll be panning at home (there's no advantage to doing it anywhere else), those vessels will always be nearby. Heck, just put them right next to your favorite panning spot. It's not like fired ceramics cares about being rained on.