Standard cost alternative to steel in quantity producing crafting recipes

[punkinguy]

as the game progresses, low-quality, cheap steel becomes harder to come by and, as a result, quantity producing crafting recipes such as caltrops, bullets, throwing knives, and bear traps increasingly lose cost savings until it's cheaper to just buy said bullets and utilities (unless you want a specific ammo type and/or poisoned utility), this has the effect that these recipies are almost not used at all.

lets say you want to craft 6p shotgun shells from your spent casings to save money, and have the prerequisite chemistry and mechanical skill, Q_steel steel plates on sale, that is for a base value of (250+7*Q_steel), a large shotgun mold has a static value of 80, a unit of TNT has a value of 50, and each empty shell has a value of 1, so 15. this produces 15 6p shells, in total equaling 600 base value. for any cost to be saved, Q_steel must < 56. If the initial cost of buying the blueprint is included, over crafting for the first five times, then Q_steel must be < 42. Even in post-beast foundry, you will struggle to find steel in quality under these numbers. leading you not to use this recipe in most cases past Depot A

Now, compare this with crafting adrenaline injectors. A syringe is 10 value, an adrenaline vial is 250 value, a crafted adrenaline injector is 300 value, and a constant saving of 40 (base) value is made when crafting. Both of these materials are widely available from any medical vendor.

My proposition to solve this problem is to introduce an item with a static cost, like adrenaline or syringes. Perhaps steel billets, aluminum, lead, or cast iron, or whatever, can be used as substitutes for high-quality steel in recipes that produce items that do not depend on the quality of the steel used. Maybe set it to the cost of 30q-35q (~450-500 value) steel, but make it use a higher mechanical skill to justify its saving (30-40 mech skill?). Of course, this substitute cannot be used in (melee) weapons or armor. This item should be sold by armorers and general venders much like how TNT and hexogen are sold.

[Vagabond]

Go to Leonie, Foundry entrance merchant, she should have an option to smelt Metal Scraps that you get from recycling metal items. They will give you low quality steel.

[Eidein]

doesheknow

[punkinguy]

Go to Leonie, Foundry entrance merchant, she should have an option to smelt Metal Scraps that you get from recycling metal items. They will give you low quality steel.

a back and forth trip to foundry (in most cases) is 50 charons flat (1500 static value), the cost of processing 100 metal scrap (assuming they were all gained through loot instead of recycling more valuable items, which would make it at a loss) is 30 charons (900 value) and including a 30 minute wait time, it is next to impossible to save in these circumstances unless you looted all the metal scrap, walked to foundry, and have a very low mercantile skill. returning to the example of adrenaline, every medical vendor has the resources needed to craft it while standing in front of him while saving money; I think something as common as ammo or other combat utilities' crafting components should share the same characteristics.

[Vagabond]

Go to Leonie, Foundry entrance merchant, she should have an option to smelt Metal Scraps that you get from recycling metal items. They will give you low quality steel.

a back and forth trip to foundry (in most cases) is 50 charons flat (1500 static value), the cost of processing 100 metal scrap (assuming they were all gained through loot instead of recycling more valuable items, which would make it at a loss) is 30 charons (900 value) and including a 30 minute wait time, it is next to impossible to save in these circumstances unless you looted all the metal scrap, walked to foundry, and have a very low mercantile skill. returning to the example of adrenaline, every medical vendor has the resources needed to craft it while standing in front of him while saving money; I think something as common as ammo or other combat utilities' crafting components should share the same characteristics.

How is spending 50 charons relevant to the topic? Especially when you can get to Foundry for free, and fast travel with Expedition for super cheap.

Aside from that, your OP stated:

as the game progresses, low-quality, cheap steel becomes harder to come by and, as a result, quantity producing crafting recipes such as caltrops, bullets, throwing knives, and bear traps increasingly lose cost savings until it's cheaper to just buy said bullets and utilities (unless you want a specific ammo type and/or poisoned utility), this has the effect that these recipies are almost not used at all.

For 30 charons you get low quality steel. If 30 charons is so much that it's impossible to save, then I have some bad news for you. You mentioned for some reason mercantile, well here is the math:

Since 30 charons = 900 value, we use x2 and x1.15 price values from mercantile, in this case we divide (because 900 is the final value).

450-250/7=28Q
&
782-250/7=76Q

This means for 30 charons at 0 Mercantile you can buy 28Q and lower. With discount cap Mercantile you can buy 76Q and lower.

Crafting ammo isn't meant as a substitute to buying, it's meant to give you additional resources, and even ammo hungry ARs and LMGs aren't gonna run out of either ammo or money with half-decent usage. You sell expensive loot, you recycle inexpensive, and with crafting get an additional stream of fuel for committing warcrimes on pipeworkers.

If you were able to save money and continue fighting just by crafting ammo alone, then there would be no point in the economy and skill system as it is. It doesn't take into account metal quality, which means you have to look at it under a different angle. For 30 charons and abundant Metal Scrap you can get MORE metal for crafting, not how much you are spending/saving. Mercantile just increases the amount you can buy for the same price raw.

This is ever more evident on DOM, where you sell items at 25% value, so you can't compensate dumping mags with one Tungsten Armor set sold and resupply at your local gun store.