Defining Item Prefixes (Survivor, Makeshift, Primitive Items)

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

Disclaimer: This will mainly serve for as a reference to the Core content mod that aims to rebalance the game. Posted here for the audience and because it might be something the devs might be interested in making part of the core game.

Note: This is not a proposal to change the crafting system but to update recipes instead.

The crafting system is a very robust in this game but it still is just loosely held together set of recipes with very little to do with one another. We have labels for items that frankly are not consistent and there are three in particular I want to focus here: Survivor items, Makeshift items, Primitive items (stone hammer, fire drill, stomach water bag, ect.) Lets start by defining these terms to a standardisation plus a few more for reference.

Standard: Items mass produced before the cataclysm but would be hard (not impossible) or time consuming for a survivor to make. It would always be better to loot for one of these than to make one in terms of time investment and material/skill needed. Items in this category include tools like hammers,saws,screwdrivers,ect or things like clothing, electronics or even some types of food. These items will always be better than what a survivor can make with some exceptions (more on that later.)

Makeshift: Items done in a pinch. Need a hammer to board up that window NOW, don’t have time to find one and precision of the task is not important? Make a low quality version of the item! In this category an item would be made when “something better than nothing” is the reason for it. Items of this quality will be inferior to their standard counterparts in most, if not all ways, but will be easy to make and the components easy to obtain. Examples would be makeshift crowbar, electric fire starter, makeshift welder.

Primitive: For those who have limited resources/play innawoods. These are alternatives to the makeshift items when man made things like nails are not available. These times have the qualities of makeshift items but their components are abundant in the outdoors; the trade of is that these items require a bit of skill and time to make. A primitive (stone) hammer will perform very similarly to a makeshift one but it was made items found in the wild away from the cities. Examples include stone hammer, fire drill, stomach water bag.

Survivor: Mid to late game crafting. You have your basic survival down with lots of resources and now want to engage in some mission of sorts like raiding a lab, making a death mobile or creating a static base. The thing is this things require gear to do like tools and weapons. From the scavenging you have done you have lots of resources as well as the most of the things you need but you will always need something more. You can always you and look for it, sure but you it will take time and you are not guaranteed to find it. You are still enough and have the means to make it so why not do so? Wait? What if I improve the handle design? What if I made it out of metal instead? Why don’t I put spikes on it?! You get my point?
Survivor items are Standard items with slight improvements. They are not meant to outclass them but have a slight edge tailored for the cataclysm rather than prior day-to-day life. For example, a trenchcoat make to be resistant to acid would be something unnecessary to right now but in the context of spitter zombie would make perfect sense. If you have the skill and means to make a standard trenchcoat a little more still and some extra material should yield a Survivor version of it. This items are like their standard versions but with niche improvements like clothing with more storage or weapons that deal more damage rather than rely on pain. This items will be just as hard or sometime harder to make than standard items and the skill to make them will be higher than their standard version as well while requiring extra materials.

What are your thoughts?

2

That seems to mostly match what is apparent in the game already… I assume you are meaning some kind of “formal” categorization system? Maybe fill out some recipes in the “primitive” category that are a bit lacking right now?

Otherwise, what’s the point? What is your goal here?

3

Makeshift items in my opinion are for when you need an item, but you don’t have the knowledge/skill/recipe/materials to make an decent version but for a version good enough for its designated task.

I would also add a “Unique” category for pre-cataclysm items that cannot be made. Besides that, I agree with all the rest.

4

[quote=“deoxy, post:2, topic:13813”]That seems to mostly match what is apparent in the game already… I assume you are meaning some kind of “formal” categorization system? Maybe fill out some recipes in the “primitive” category that are a bit lacking right now?

Otherwise, what’s the point? What is your goal here?[/quote]

They mostly match but are not really reflected in recipes imo. My idea is to compare such items by tier and adjust recipes accordingly.

[quote=“Alec White, post:3, topic:13813”]Makeshift items in my opinion are for when you need an item, but you don’t have the knowledge/skill/recipe/materials to make an decent version but for a version good enough for its designated task.

I would also add a “Unique” category for pre-cataclysm items that cannot be made. Besides that, I agree with all the rest.[/quote]

I also agree with the unique category since a person would not be able to craft super specific chemichal compounds.

5

I very much agree with the categories you’ve broken things into, and the niches their items fill.
While I’m not against you rebalancing things along these lines, it’ll be a lot better if you document a system for doing so first, in doc/CRAFTING_BALANCE.md or something.
The problem with this sort of thing is if you don’t have a system laid out in detail, later adjustments can start to undo your work.
Ideally there’d be some objective rules, like reserving certain levels of qualities, or certain levels of combat ability for some of the categories, then we could even write tests to catch us if we break the rules later.

p.s. The word you’re looking for is taxonomy, a system for categorizing things.

6

Taxonomy of items, yes! The goal here is creating a standard method to for crafting recipes and to adjust current ones accordingly. What was in the OP was a general guideline. What I think will be a major issue in creating such a standard will be inevitable edge cases that will not be discovered until a test is made. Adding the standard as an outline in the DOCs folders seems like a good start.