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One thing that can add more freedom to the player is the idea of Fuse Boxes + Junctions These are Divided into Regional Junction which powers an entire neighboorhood Local Fuse Box - which powers a large building or complex. A Regional Junction makes it easier for map designers so they don't need to manually add fuse boxes in every single building. So a bunch of small buildings can be powered by 1 - 3 Regional regional junctions. So a player may need to investigate multiple junctions to see which one is broken to fully restore power to the nieghboorhood. For Large buildings - the Fuse box is located outside the building somewhere but usually needs a key to open. The idea behind both are the same. If damaged the area they support loses power Over time these can get randomly damaged - so instead of a fixed time entire state loses power. These boxes instead randomly are broken or not. Allows player to restore power to a neighborhood or building. The "repairing" part can also be a unique minigame which requires placing parts in correct slots The "quality" of parts is dependent on your electrical skill. The quality determines how likely it will break again. In PvP - it means people could disable power to an area.

As someone who once studied for a bachelor in college towards a field based around electrical and mechanical and another time for construction engineering (even though I dropped out on both), I'm kind of surprised at how little the fields of electrical and mechanical seem to be used for crafting and building currently and how construction besides with wood doesn't even currently exist. I genuinely believe that an "engineering overhaul" could seriously greatly benefit the game a LOT. 1- Research and Development The number 1 thing for this suggestion, that can open a HUGE number of possibilities for the future is this. Whenever you have enough skill level at the needed area, any object of the game should be "researchable". When disassembling an object, there should be a % probability of you learning how to make that object that also grows based on your skill level. For example: When disassembling a door, there should be a certain percentage probability for you to learn how to make that door design that grows to 100% when at carpentry level 10. Some door designs would need extra materials &/or tools, like "glass" or "paint" and "paintbrush" in order to build. 2- More than just cars The field of "Mechanics" in the game seems to currently be related exclusively to cars, but in all honesty, mechanics encompasses a lot more than just automotive vehicles, even though they are a HUGE part of it. For example, the "generator" is an entity that belongs equally to the electrical field as it does to the mechanical field. It is a mechanical engine that produces electrical power. I've always wondered, for example, why I can disassemble a digital watch to get "Electrical" xp but I can't disassemble a mechanical watch to get "Mechanics" xp. There are many things you should be able to build using both for your base. As such, instead of "Carpentry", by right-clicking and opening the menu, it should simply be written "Build". Image example: The #1 "R&D" wouldn't be limited to carpentry, but to anything. For example, at Electrical & Mechanical level 10 (because I genuinely believe it takes expertise in both areas) you should have 100% chance to learn how build your own and with as many objects that exist in the world, this would open a lot of possibilities even with interacting with the pre-existing world. For the "Construction" section, new possibilities of materials would be needed and also one new skills... "Construction" skill. This new skill would gain xp by its own VHS or by building walls(with carpentry) or tearing down walls. The "Carpentry" skill would still handle everything it does related to wood, but this new menu organization would open the way to adding metal gates and metal doors that would use the "Metalworking" skill in the same menu besides other things that might use other skills, like adding "flags" to: Build > Construction > Misc > Flags || That would require dyes and tailoring skill. Materials like "Bricks" and "Concrete" would be possible to make thick and strong walls that zombies can't break by simply hitting them. "Brick wall" would require "bricks"[new], "concrete bucket" and a "trowel" while a "Concrete wall" would need "concrete", "metal bars", wires and a Propane torch. There would need to be a new "glass" material, that could be acquired by disassembling windows or made with its own process. Or metal bars, for "metal bar windows"/"cell window". Also, windows would be either in the "Misc" section of the "Construction" menu, be fused with Door for "Doors & Windows" or have a section of its own and put "Doors & Gates" together. Windows would need to be placed on a wall with a "Window Frame", similar to how doors can only be placed on a wall or fence with a "Door Frame". Wall and Fence could also be fused into a single "Walls & Fences" category. This also opens the possibility for remote controlled or motion sensor gates and doors by crafting small motors and remote controllers or motion sensors and installing them on gates and doors that you built, be them of any type or material, as long as powered with electricity. Things like a sofa, armchair or benches and stools with pillows in the "Furniture" category would require "tailoring" skill levels to craft and provide tailoring XP when disassembled. In "Generators", the fuel mechanical generator that currently we can only find would need several engine parts, metal pipes, Electronics Scrap and both Mechanics and Electrical skill levels. But also, there would be the possibility of wind generators and solar panels (which the modern solar panel exists since around 1950, so is within the timeline)l, each with their own required materials and challenges for maintenance and limitations for energy production. In "Distribution" would be things like: "Utility poles": Would work to extend the power radius of any generator that it is range of. Since the current "Fuel-powered Mechanical Generator" has a 20 tiles 5 floor cylinder radius, as long as this would be within that range, it would extend that power distribution 20 more tiles and also 5 floors, 2 above, 2 below. Limited in distance from the source of electrical power. "Fuse box": Exactly the same as the "Utility poles", but small and intended to be built on walls inside a base, can be useful for bases with many floors, sending the power up the floors or to power multiple houses in a base for players and NPCs alike that are farther from the generator. "Power Substation": Same as above, but distributes the power over a wider area (50 tiles and 11 floors, 5 above, 5 below) and resets the "distance from the source" for the utility poles and fuse boxes. "Battery": Stores power for when the power providers stops working, then it takes over as a new power provider until its charge reaches 0. In "Lighting", would be things like the currently existing Flashlight on a pillar, but also a new more definitive "Light post", that would need a propane torch, metal pipes, wire and Electronics Scrap and a wire cutting tool, but also lamps any other light provider that you can find in the game, such as ceiling lights. These could also have the option of adding "Motion sensors" to them so that they only work when there is a player, NPC or zombie nearby. "Light switch", which would need a way to choose which light sources it is connected to. In "Surveilance", there could be "camera" and those "surveilance stations" that you can find with wall screens inside police stations and a few other areas of the game. By pressing E on them, you would change from character view to the view of the camera, allowing you to see outside your base without needing to go out. Each time you press E it would change camera to another camera within the same electrical grid and pressing any WASD key you would cancel and get back to controlling your character. Also, this would open the possibility of seeing through the security stations already existing in the game which we can only disassemble for now and create a new danger of being attacked by a zombie while paying attention to the cameras. In "Communication" would be the radios and telephones that could become useful with the NPCs update, for talking with NPCs from other bases. In "Industrial" would be any sort of production machines, such as a machine to make nails out of metal plates and/or wires, to make "electronics scraps" and other possibilities, like a machine to make ammunition out of "Lead"[new] and "gunpowder" (which could also have its own crafting recipe, tbh). In "Appliances" would be anything related to home appliances, like fridges, TVs, microwaves and so on. most would require only electrical skill levels, but things like washing machine would require also mechanics skill level and provide both electrical and mechanics XP when disassembling. In "Misc" would be anything that doesn't fit any of these categories, such as alarms(can be used for traps if made to be battery powered and added a timer or used against "raider" enemy NPCs, sending a horde on them), sprinklers (very useful for farming), sewing machine (I'll make a suggestion specific about it and its usefulness soon), wall clocks, fliperama machines and anything else that might fit this category. 3- Very useful professions. As both of its fields of work become more useful, the "Engineer" profession should grow in cost, but also provide more skill points. Instead +1 Electrical and +1 Carpentry, I would suggest that the "Engineer" profession should give: +2 Electrical, +1 Construction, +1 Mechanic, +1 Metalworking & +1 Carpentry || Cost 6 "Can make traps, explosives and operate generators." Similarly, the "Construction Worker" would also have to change. Instead of +1 Carpentry & +3 Short Blunt, it would give: +2 Short Blunt, +2 Construction, +1 Electrical, +1 Carpentry, +1 Strength || Cost 4 "Can build brick walls and knows how to assemble some furniture." These would raise the value of the skills "mechanics" and "electrical", create a very valuable "construction" skill, create huge possibilities for base building and also increase the amount of possible interactions with objects that already exist in the game while exploring.

I usually use smoking character. There for it's logical that a character could light a cigarette from camp fire right? Farming for medical, spice or tabacco plants in higher levels of farming could be an interesting option. Noise maker is totally useless even though it requires 3 Electrical skill to build. I suggest to add a battery or couple of batteries in to the recipe and make it more powerful (extended range, extended period of sound generation). Otherwise it just more practical to use simple alarm clock instead... Electrical skill could be improved by adding relays and building basic automation.

As I was patiently spamming "Remove Grass" from a large field, I thought, wouldn't a lot of these nice homes have lawnmowers to do this job? Maybe just a cheap push job (that is tiring to use but makes little noise) or a gas-driven model (that makes a ton of noise). Maybe a big house might have one of those fancy ride-on mowers, which might be a bit quieter than the push model - but I'd need to know a lot about mechanics to keep it going. While I'm thinking about the grass, I'm wondering if putting up barbed fences will slow down the zombies [still not implemented??]. If I had a spare mower and a decent level of skill in making traps and wiring stuff up, I could use the blades to create a zombie trap - with a motor, maybe even a nasty spinning blades job I could install in my base in that bottleneck... Now if I was a real expert, maybe we could get all Mad Max on this town and stick some spinning blades on my truck's front bumper... EDIT: oh yeah, the ride-on mowers are rare, but the best bit is, you can't lift them into the back of your truck... you have to drive them home

The closest thing at the moment is a motion-sensor-rigged bomb, and motion sensors are rare. Couldn't you jury-rig a pressure plate with a shotgun cartridge and some duct tape? The downside is that it'll probably just blow their legs off and turn them into crawlers

If this is already a suggestion by another name, my apologies. Smoke detectors!! I just read this in another section. Something to alert you that the stove is about to destroy your base. Also (of course) another risk for giant hordes. Depending on implementation, maybe a smoke detector is near an open window and you start a fire outside... smoke alarm! Horde! Also could be a new random building state similar to burnt or boarded houses: fire in progress, alarm triggered, zombies en route. Also gives more content for electrical maybe.

As of build 33 you can pick up and dismantle television. It would be nice if you could dismantle microwaves too - that would make another source of electrical experience, which is hard enough to get as it is