So I could use some help on my project. Last year (when I had time to spare), I was working on an economy mod to create an economy focused on the game world and not on the player. In the process, I got stuck with alchemical effects on items. Since these effects had direct correlation to the value of items, I had to addresss them, but it is a fairly player-centric system. When trying to find ways to make the effects on items more game-world centric (while still being useful to the player), I gut stumped. At that point, my work got really busy and I haven't had time to mod until recently. Now I'm looking to start up on that mod again (as well as a few others), I thought I'd ask for some assistance on this topic.

What I thought of doing was creating categories that items fell under, with each category have certain effects to choose from. Here are a few:

1) Edible / Non Edible

Edible items will have a restore X as one of the effects (restore health/fatigue/magicka) as a benefit for naturally eating these items. Inedible does not get those effects.

2) for edible: typical form of consumption

Drinks (such as teas or alcohol) and Desserts: Restore Fatigue

Stew/soup (such as muck soup): restore magicka

Cooked/raw: Restore health

3) location-based. An item found mostly in a certain area must have characteristics that made it well-adapted for that place (example: creature in the Ashlands might have a resistance to blight)

http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo351/Spiffyman777/NaturalAffinities_zps452eb04e.png
*note added to other non-location categories on there for Undead creatures and one for just holding the various resist effects.

edit: fixed linked picture so it wasn't so small

My original logic was that items would get 1 effect from its consumption type, 1 positive effect from its location, and 1 negative effect for its location. Quest-related and lore-related effects on items would remain untouched (if a book mentions an item has feather then feather remains regardless of other changes). And each effect would only be used a certain number of times(so you don't end up with a million levitation items or something. the restore X is the only exception to that).

I'd love input on the above as well as ideas for new ways to structure the effects. I'm thinking structured, because that makes it easier to plug into my pricing equation. But maybe your suggestions aren't for an overall structure-type change, but for specific lore or game-logic effect on a couple item- I'm okay with that as well. I don't want to limit my thinking to a rigid structure; if something makes sense (from an NPCs perspective I guess....), the I don't mind implementing that.I hope to receive some feedback to try and remove this roadblock I'm having so I can continue with my mod. Any input is appreciated!