Instead of adding skills to 4.0, I’d like to see blueprints.
Similar to Rust, if you had an item you’d want to craft later on, you would need to research it (costs scrap or could be different in Unturned), you learn it, and then you’d craft it.
Also since there won’t be skills, you’d need to craft workbenches (level 1, 2, 3)
(I know this is like Rust but it’s just such a good system imo)
Edit: changed it a bit in the comments, before leaving thread read them first
-1
Personally I wouldn’t find this very enjoyable or balanced in a game like Unturned. In Rust it might work but there’s a few small differences betwren the two that would make this not as good as it sounds.
Would this apply to building a base or just to crafting items like a makeshift car or gun? Could you find blueprints? If so where? In real life not just anyone can create or read blueprint so it would seem reasonable that a player would have to gain or work for something just to understand or generate a blueprint. What enables the use of higher level blueprints? Is that the research you mentioned?
I kind of like the idea but without school systems and colleges ‘buying’ the knowledge seems less self-sufficient or survival oriented. Perhaps you can gain knowledge somehow by gathering and salvaging materials from schools and libraries? You’d actual have to dedicate valuable time to seekout out and ‘study’ the materials you need to learn how to craft a generator, how to make a makeshift gun, etc. THAT could be cool.
Have you ever been to zombie academy Arizona? It’s where you learn to be a zombie. Free admittance.
Um…
L.A.S.E.R.
While blueprints would be a nice step up from the crafting skill barrier, I think there’s easily better ways of doing this.
Returning to my two favorite examples, Terraria and NEO Scavenger do an amazing job with crafting. Very robust systems that I think would fit extremely well in Unturned 4.0.
Terraria (mobile version)
Note the conveniently arranged grid of recipes clearly showing what you can and cannot craft. Recipe list changes with availability of ingredients, just like Unturned. The pane on the right allows for displaying the information, ingredients, and stats of what you’re about to craft, and there’s also space to put in a quantity/bulk craft function. You can discover unknown recipes by obtaining the ingredients needed, and the recipe will reveal itself and stay in your list for future reference.
NEO Scavenger (PC version)
This game is known for a respectable level of depth, as you could probably tell from this image. There’s many ways to make a single item, and you can use the environment around you to actually help you craft. (e.g. using the sun in a recipe to cure meat.) NEO Scavenger also has a skill system, and as you can see in the image the player is using their Tailoring skill to make a utility belt out of some leather and string. This system is super complicated to the point where I can’t explain it simply, but I would like to see smarter crafting like this (e.g. using a glass shard to sharpen a spear, then a campfire to harden it). Another bonus is how NEO Scavenger does inventory - fusing grid space with weight, and also having handy features like auto-sort.
I wouldn’t go full on with blueprints that you can learn once and remember, at that point you’re just totally stealing their system. I’d say reserve blueprints for the more complicated and valuable crafting recipes like generators, charges, and other new machines that might get added. (These would be found at appropriate locations for each item (mostly construction sites for machines). This creates a need and value for blueprints constantly, and also allows for crafting without one for easy things like campfires, bedrolls, etc…
This makes sense realistically since building a generator or explosive charge isn’t something that you could master and memorize after doing it once. You’d need a blueprint to continue building it. This also brings up an interesting gameplay aspect where you’ll probably consider only crafting rare things at your base since that’s where you’d likely securely store your blueprints.
As for the actual crafting system itself, I think a similar approach to NEO Scavenger would be nice (Awesome post @GreatHeroJ). It allows for slot-based crafting as is mentioned in the Trello, and can also work with the different machinery required to craft certain things (Also in the Trello). And that could utilize blueprints which would not only show you how it’s crafted and arranged, but be required in the recipe to craft it. (You should also be able to expand some of your crafting space by kneeling or sitting to utilize the ground instead of just crafting with your hands. Crafting space could occur with standing being the smallest, kneeling being the next best, and then a table that you build could be the highest).
EDIT: This is what I had in mind
I know, I’m not suggesting we do precisely what those games did, I’m just showing how there’s room for improvement.
That said I really like the NEO Scavenger approach, and if Nelson could adapt that to Unturned, that would be amazing. It kicks down a lot of the major current limitations with crafting, for example allowing you to craft with stuff in your vicinity.
I don’t think blueprints are really necessary. Simple things can be manufactured without them, and complex things should just be assembled from components.
components
Rust player detected
I launched that game once, never touched it again. I’m not sure what specific items are called components in Rust, or how exactly they behave, but I’m willing to bet it’s not exactly what I’m thinking of.
Prepare for a little wall of text coming from someone who’s watched Rust grow up as long as Unturned.
Components have several different meanings in Rust depending on the time frame in development we are referring to. Much like Unturned (well, before Rust left Early Access), it updated weekly often with big changes, and over the course of the games history there have been several massive gameplay changes that can be denominated into eras or systems.
With that miniature lecture out of the way, components currently are exactly as you’d think. They’re a category of items that are critical for crafting certain other items, while having little to no use on their own. Back in the old component system, everything needed components but that isn’t the case anymore. Basically things like rope, gears, or tech trash that are integral to certain items. You need a gear to make a crossbow or an armored door, and a salvaged CCTV camera to make an auto turret.
I do not, however, wish to see this in Unturned. Although it kinda exists in 3.0, things like glue already has a ton of uses otherwise. Glue isn’t a crutch item you have to grind for a specific recipe, but rather a somewhat versatile material that doubles as emergency/max immunity nourishment.
One of the main criticisms and eventual pitfalls of the old Rust component system was that you’d need to grind for things like a rifle body, which was not only super niche and forced but also unnecessary.
This wouldn’t apply to base building (it’d be too hard to make a base that way) but it would apply to things like guns, advanced melee weapons, etc… The way you would get a blueprint would be by researching the item. (Sort of like in Rust where you need to put scrap on the research table and put the item, then you get the blueprint but the item is gone, cause you dismantled it to see what it was made of) Also, the way to determine if the item would be made in lvl 1, 2, or 3 workbench would be the rarity and complexity of the item.
I do like your idea of reading books (as an intellect category) but I think it’d just be too time consuming and boring, just sitting there, for minutes getting your intellect up.
Yeah, I agree about reading books and some kind of time based skill building. There’s enough grinding in Unturned as it is. But we could give the grinding some meaning.
I am thinking more along the lines of getting or crafting simpler items based on the learning material you find as a way of ‘learning’ to make the item. For example, you find material on crafting a generator (some assembly instructions from a hardware store). In order to unlock the generator recipe from the material you have to craft a wooden fuel can (to replace the fuel can in the instructions), find a blow torch, gather some scrap. Then (L.A.S.E.R.) you get the recipe to craft a generator by making some plates, wire with the blow torch, using the wooden fuel can, etc.
Doing this stuff individually without the material you find someplace would not unlock the recipe. You need to find the assembly instructions. It can be different depending on the item (blueprint, magazine article, book, etc.) and that would determine where you might find the learning materials.
Interesting, so a true scavenged survivor approach to building that IKEA shelf you always wanted
So you basically find a blueprint, collect the ingredients, and then craft a generator?
That’s actually an amazing idea!
If you went to a hardware store, for example, I was thinking you could find a ‘simple generator’ blueprint or you could find an ‘advanced generator blueprint’ and then you’d be able to craft those.
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