Possible Mechanic craft skill

[Packbat]

I think there's a definite place for a non-carpentry crafting skill, representing one's ability to make or repair mechanical items - firearms, generators, cars, etc. (I would probably have "Car Mechanic" or "Automotive Technician" or whatever you call it as a profession which gets a boost to that skill.) There's overlap with the Trapping skill as well - I don't know if it would be better to have this replace that, parallel to that, or to start work on some new skill-tree system which might have Trapping as a separate node.

 

That said, thinking about various survival books, games, television shows, etc., there are a lot of possible applications besides traps that could be brought in, here:

• Lockmaking and lockpicking - the latter much earlier (level 1?) than the former;
• Simple mechanical power generation - foot pedals, stationary bicycles, water wheels, windmills;
• Basic engines or engine modifications - wood/coal gas adaption for Otto-cycle motors (e.g. standard generators, cars), low-pressure steam engines, modification of standard engines for improvised fuel sources like cooking oil to replace diesel;
• Transmission and application of power from the above to various applications, from tabletop appliances like sewing machines to industrial appliances like lathes and grain mills to electricity;
• Simple crafting tools - spinning wheels, looms, grinders, forges, mills, &c;
• Furnaces for making charcoal, firing clay, smelting ores, forging metals, melting metals, etc.;
• Basic boilers, stills, fractional stills, etc.;
• Hard personal armor - easy would be things like greaves and skull caps, intermediate would be chainmail from chicken wire, hard would be something like Gothic plate armor;
• Primitive or improvised ranged weaponry - crossbows, air-pressure guns, bombards, etc. - and basic gunsmithing for existing firearms;
• Simple transportation tools - rollers, wheelbarrows, carts, hand trucks, etc.;

...the list goes on and on. A number of these suggest other skills, like blacksmithing - I remember being told that one of the best first-time-smith projects is making a knife blade out of an old metal file - and fiber arts - there are sheep raised in Kentucky if you can manage to keep them alive and healthy - but I think from a game-design perspective a skill specifically about making, remaking, and repairing devices would be grand, and specific things to build can be chosen based on what you have or want in the game.

[King jjwpenguin]

I like some of your ideas but again this would probably be after alpha or what ever it is right now... Anyway yea.

[Strains]

I like this Alot, except for the gothic plate mail, thats just too weird/out of the scope of this game imo

 

But these ideas combined with roaming hordes and multiplayer would only add to the epic of this game.

 

+1

[Suomiboi]

A couple of quotes on the subject:

 

http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/3-mondoid-reposts/?p=148450

Vehicles – Finally make the long trip between West  Point and Muldraugh in comfort, mow down zombies en route. Siphon gas, and make sure you have a mechanic within your group!

Would definitely hint that there's going to be such a skill and/or profession...

 

Mondoid, 21 Oct, 2013

Lemmy: Well I’m very excited about a lot, But one thing in particular that we’ve chatted about a lot yet said relatively little about publicly is the electronic / trap system we have planned, which is a natural extension of the current crafting system. We’ve talked a lot about creating a kinda UI circuit board system, where you could drag and drop components from your inventory, and connect them together with wires. Inventory items could be de-constructed into base objects that could be used on these boards.

The best example would be, for example, grabbing an automatic security light and dismantling it to get some wires, a battery, a light and a movement sensor. You could then dismantle a fire alarm to get wires, a battery and a alarm speaker. You could then connect these components up to create a movement based alarm system. With the existing base crafting we would like to allow for wires to be placed along walls, and connected to various systems, to allow for players to create all manner of traps and gizmos to help secure their safehouse. Or imagine just getting a fire alarm, getting rid of the fire sensor and replacing it with a radio receiver, to make a remote noise maker you could trigger with a walkie talkie to help lead zombies away from your safehouse. Once this system is in place we could build and build upon it, adding more and more components to allow for a lot of creativity.

This would be Zomboid’s redstone, and we don’t need to tell anyone how many exciting doors this kinda thing opens up to players.

Naturally this quote was before the 1.0 publications so I wouldn't necessarily trust it being in that version.

 

It's something the devs would definitely want to do but again, resources and time.

[King jjwpenguin]

May be used after all. I am for it still but feel it should just have 1 general use.