The idea is that destroyed in-game objects leave some waste items behind that can be salvaged and put to further uses. I think this primarily just makes sense but also lifts some of the strain on our forests and other resources. I have a number of ideas that relate to this but there is likely much I haven't considered so please speak up
.There is currently only one method through which a player can actively destroy an object in the game world namely the Destroy action. When an object is destroyed it would yield a low percentage of the items that were required to construct it, low because many of the items would be damaged in the destruction and rendered unusable. Low also because in the construction of the object many items would be custom tailored to fill certain roles, you wont be reusing the planks used to make the carts wheels for your cabins walls. Each object would yield a fixed maximum rate of each usable item which could be adjusted to make sense, a cabin would likely yield more usable planks than a winepress for example.
While the above suggestion is nice and simple it could be made more realistic. It doesn't make much sense that destroying something leaves behind only a number of 100% usable items and nothing else no rubble, odd shaped planks, half bricks etc. I think it would be nice to see such waste items, however I don't suggest that lots of redundant new objects get added into the game, all the other salvageable waste should have uses (unique or not). One possible item that springs to mind is odd shaped/damaged bits of wood which are almost completely useless except for burning into charcoal.
This is just related speculation but when objects weather they seem to be losing the items they were built from as you need to replace those items when repairing. The same applies when destroying objects as a player. Rather than it keeping track of what parts are damaged it likely just simulates this when you go to repair an object (Loftar?).
I have already mentioned that there is currently only one method to actively destroy objects and I seek to remedy this. I propose a new action called Deconstruct, when used on an object its health would drop and it would yield the items used to construct it. The reason I speculated above is that I'd suggest that when deconstructing an object the objects health should be taken into consideration, a building shouldn't yield lots of whole planks when its glowing red from damage and a similar calculation to the one used when deciding what items are needed to repair could be used to decide what items you'll get out. Even at full health you'd never get back all the starting materials so some less useful damaged parts could be gained.
Deconstruction is only really meant to be used by those deconstructing their own things so as to build new things and to avoid it completely replacing the destroy action it would need to be thought about and balanced. One way to get around it would be to make it only usable on claims your allowed on and when not in a claim but I don't like this much as a claim shouldn't realistically stop you taking something down carefully. A preferred way around this problem is to make it take the same time or more time than destroying and have that time based on all the same stats. Alternatively you could make it so you needed to use a set of different tools for removing different materials and rely on completely different stats and even add a new skill, intelligence and perception both being useful in such a situation, this way it would be a highly skilled act. Deconstruction shouldn't be easier than destruction in my opinion.
I apologise for the wall of text, congratulations if you read it all the way through, most likely time for some tea to boost your stamina back up.
don't worry though, J&L are far more patient than me
