On a phone so will edit post more later…
Basically I think we should use materials when repairing damaged vehicle components. Scrap metals, plastic, etc… The materials aren’t hard to find by but fully repairing a rotting vehicle would take a lot more effort.
Criticals. Damage to a component that does not destroy it entirely but does affect operation of the device. A punctured tire or gas tank. Rotten seals.
We might make criticals hidden at first and need diagnosis or we could just make them plain as day.
What do you think?
I’m a car guy and I once had to use ducktape, a pocket knife, and a straw from a Burger King’s kids meal to fix a carburetor on my grandmother’s old Nissan.
So yes, we should be able to use scrap to fix our cars and stuff.
I’m against any hidden damage.
I support the need for scrap the way you need rags for some clothing. It may be plentiful, but its useful. And it keeps most vehicle users dependent on some kind of city.
Rather than purely hidden, it could plainly have a message about something being wrong (“you hear a strange noise from the engine, might want to look into that”, “Your isn’t riding as well as used to”), but require examining the vehicle (no player time spent, but a long action of a few minutes to give the vehicle a once-over) to get a diagnosis and way to repair it, such as a patch for a tire or radiator, or a replacement engine component, or in extreme cases replacement of the entire part to make the problem stop.
What I’m thinking of is attaching a list of things that can go wrong to specific vehicle parts, along with what causes them, messages to print about them, and something resembling crafting recipes to repair them.
So something like “You look at the 's engine and find that one of the pistons are acting up. Would you like to repair it Y/N?” And you replace the piston with a new one or just repair the existing piston with scrap.
Is that a good example?
Exactly like that, and the effects would be extra noise, extra fuel use, and danger of further damage if ignired.
I can see this being interesting.
On the other hand, I can see it getting very !!FUN!! if the problem is, say, a failure of the serpentine belt, or worse yet a problem with one of the parts linked to the belt causing the belt to wear out.
I would make it so that if you do have to repair any type of problem in the engine, that once one part needs to be replaced. Make it so that other parts start wearing faster too. And when the said part breaks. Make it damage the whole engine badly. Because hell, if a piston is acting up in real life. That entire engine block is no good.
But make engines and parts more reliable. Not to balance out the problem, but because engines and cars can take on hell of a beating before they break.
Cool ideal, both the problems affecting certain parts and actually using scrap for repairs. On another but similar note, moonshine or ethanol could probably work as alternative fuels(if they don’t already) but damage the engine for the duration of the time using them.