Personally I’d love the ability to make your own settlement, Terraria style, complete with representatives from the other 3 big factions. It’d be great to be able to sell all my cornmeal without making such a long trip…
Honestly, I thought this game needed more reasons to stay in one place, not vice versa. I find myself going all over the place to scavenge so I can get more stuff, usually.
As for reasons you should travel, why not to scavenge?
Maybe make it so we had another “Broker” type NPC in the Refugee Center? This one, instead of taking non-perishables or general trading, takes valuable salvage and gives you cash money for it. Got 1,000 Copper? I’ll give you $50 dollars for that.
We could also give Russ Reynolds more money. That way, he can buy more items that’d be valuable but players might have more use for. I probably won’t use all those extra Rivtech guns I’m getting, but that built-to-last piece of military hardware might just serve Mr. Guard long enough to get a factory up and running again.
As for materials that a “Scrap Broker” could accept, I’d probably suggest:
- Copper
- Lead
- Silver
- Gold (best element for making currency)
- Bullets (Metro 2033 currency)
- Rebar (isn’t this why Arsonist NPCs exist? Or is that just another fabrication by TV Tropes?)
- Fertilizer (super valuable)
- CBMs (because I have so many god damn CBMs I can’t use that are just going to waste)
- Batteries