Economy & crafting

Main and Premium Currencies

1. Main Currency: Scraps

• Description: Scraps are the remnants of the old world: metal parts, electronic components, tools, and other salvaged materials. In a world ravaged by The Signal, traditional money has lost all value, and what’s left are these essential resources.
• Uses: Scraps are used for everyday transactions such as:
  • Purchasing basic gear, consumables, and ammo.
  • Paying for repairs on equipment and vehicles.
  • Trading with NPC merchants or other players.
  • Unlocking certain in-game features like fast travel between regions.
• How to Obtain:
  • Loot: Found in scavenging missions, dungeons, and enemy drops.
  • Quests: Completing missions or story quests often rewards Scraps.
  • Trading: Players can sell items and materials they’ve collected to NPCs or trade with other players.
  • PvP: Some modes of PvP allow players to wager Scraps, with the winner claiming the pool.

2. Premium Currency: Tech Credits

• Description: Tech Credits are a rare, premium currency that represents advanced technology or ancient relics from before the apocalypse. These are used for high-value transactions.
• Uses: Tech Credits are used for premium items, such as:
  • Cosmetic upgrades for characters, vehicles, and bases.
  • Purchasing exclusive weapons, armor, and vehicles that are unavailable through Scraps.
  • Accessing special crafting blueprints or upgrading facilities to craft rare items.
  • Fast-track progression for certain in-game services, like instant vehicle upgrades or crafting boosts.
• How to Obtain:
  • In-Game Purchases: Players can buy Tech Credits with real-world money.
  • Special Events: Certain in-game events or limited-time offers may reward Tech Credits.
  • End-Game Rewards: Completing difficult raids, PvP tournaments, or achievements could reward small amounts of Tech Credits.
  • Daily/Weekly Rewards: Logging in or completing weekly objectives may grant players a small bonus of Tech Credits as an incentive for continued play.

Upgrades

1. Equipment Upgrades

Players can upgrade their weapons, armor, and vehicles through various methods to improve their stats, giving them an edge in combat. These upgrades cost Scraps or Tech Credits, depending on the item's rarity and power.

• Weapon Upgrades:
  • Tiers: Weapons are upgraded through multiple tiers, each improving attributes like damage, rate of fire, and critical hit chance.
  • Mod Slots: Weapons can also be fitted with mods like scopes, silencers, extended magazines, or elemental effects (fire, shock, etc.).
  • Resource Cost: Players will need specific crafting materials along with Scraps or Tech Credits to upgrade weapons.
• Armor Upgrades:
  • Tiers: Armor is upgraded to enhance defense, resistance to specific damage types (ballistic, energy, radiation), and provide additional abilities like increased movement speed or regeneration.
  • Attachments: Players can add armor plates, environmental resistances, or tech-based augments for additional effects.
  • Resource Cost: Upgrades require rare materials scavenged from dungeons or PvP zones.
• Vehicle Upgrades:
  • Customization: Players can upgrade and customize their vehicles, improving speed, handling, armor, and mounted weaponry. Vehicle skins and decals can be purchased with Tech Credits.
  • Modules: Install modules like a turret, cloaking device, or repair unit to enhance functionality.
  • Resource Cost: Upgrading vehicles is a major investment, requiring large amounts of Scraps and materials, and sometimes Tech Credits for advanced modules.

2. Player Base Upgrades

Each player can construct a customizable base that serves as a personal hub. Upgrading the base provides various benefits, such as increased storage space, crafting stations, defensive turrets, or even teleportation devices.

• Upgrade Features:
  • Crafting Stations: Different types of stations (weaponsmith, armor shop, tech lab) allow crafting of more advanced gear.
  • Defenses: Install traps, turrets, and barriers to protect your base in PvP or PvE raids.
  • Luxury Upgrades: Cosmetics and customization of the base's appearance (requires Tech Credits).

Item Types

1. Weapons

Weapons are the primary tools of survival, divided into several categories:

• Melee Weapons: Axes, swords, clubs, crafted from scrap metal or bone. Melee weapons often have higher durability.
• Firearms: Pistols, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns scavenged or crafted from parts. Firearms rely on ammo, which is often in short supply.
• Energy Weapons: Rare, high-tech weapons that deal massive damage but require energy cells (a premium resource). These may include plasma rifles or EMP grenades.
• Thrown Weapons: Grenades, molotovs, and throwing knives that can be crafted or found in the world.

2. Armor

Armor protects against various damage types and offers bonuses:

• Light Armor: Offers agility and stealth bonuses but low protection.
• Heavy Armor: Offers high protection but reduces mobility.
• Tech Armor: Provides special resistances (e.g., energy or radiation) and often has slots for tech upgrades.

3. Consumables

These are items used in combat or exploration to heal, boost stats, or provide temporary effects:

• Health Kits: Restore health immediately or over time.
• Stims: Boost speed, strength, or stamina temporarily.
• Ammo Packs: Refills weapon ammo, especially crucial for high-damage guns.
• Signal Dampeners: Prevents Signalist or environmental debuffs in unstable zones.

4. Crafting Materials

Players will collect various crafting materials from the world, essential for making new items or upgrading existing ones:

• Metals: Iron, steel, and titanium scraps used for crafting weapons and armor.
• Energy Cells: Power source for tech-based items and energy weapons.
• Rare Components: High-value items needed for crafting advanced weapons, such as magnetic coils, AI cores, or mutated plant fibers.

How to Obtain Items

1. Looting and Exploration

Players find most items through exploring the world, looting fallen enemies, raiding dungeons, or completing quests. The rarer the location (e.g., ruins of old cities, Signalist strongholds), the better the loot.

2. Quests and Raids

Completing quests or participating in raid-like events yields valuable items. Certain high-tier weapons and crafting materials are exclusively found through end-game content, making these a major draw for cooperative or PvP gameplay.

3. PvP Rewards

Participating in PvP activities can earn players rare items or crafting materials, often tied to competitive events or territories controlled by factions.

4. Crafting

Crafting plays a significant role in the economy, allowing players to create powerful weapons, armor, consumables, and even vehicles.

Crafting System

Crafting in this MMO is designed to give players full control over their progression and the items they use. It requires materials, blueprints, and sometimes even facilities for more advanced creations.

1. Crafting Materials

• Common Materials: Easily found through scavenging (metal scraps, cloth, wood).
• Rare Materials: Found in more dangerous areas or from boss-level enemies (energy cores, rare alloys, mutated plant fibers).
• Tech Components: Only found through PvP or high-tier PvE zones. Needed for crafting or upgrading advanced items like energy weapons or high-tech armor.

2. Blueprints

Players need blueprints to craft specific items. Blueprints are obtained from quests, high-level enemies, PvP rewards, or trading with NPCs. These blueprints determine what items a player can craft and often require gathering rare materials.

3. Crafting Stations

Advanced items can only be crafted at specific stations, like a weaponsmith’s bench or an energy lab, which players can build and upgrade in their bases. Higher-level crafting stations allow for more powerful items or higher-tier upgrades.

4. Crafting Mechanics

Players combine materials at a crafting station to create an item. The quality of the item is determined by the rarity of the materials and the player’s crafting skill. Over time, players can specialize in different types of crafting, allowing them to become master weaponsmiths, armorers, or tech specialists.

Faction markets

1. The Survivors

Faction Focus: General Utility, Medical Supplies, and Basic Crafting

Description: The Survivors are the remnants of modern humanity, struggling to maintain their way of life. While they don't specialize in high-tech gear or advanced weapons, they offer reliable and essential supplies for those just starting out or focused on survival.

Item Expertise

• Medical Supplies: The Survivors have strong expertise in field medicine, making them the go-to faction for first aid kits, stims, antidotes, and other healing items. Their items focus on keeping players alive in harsh environments.
  • Unique Items: Advanced health kits that heal over time, herbal antidotes, and bio-regeneration stims.
• Basic Armor and Tools: Survivors excel at crafting functional, durable armor and tools from scavenged materials. These items aren’t flashy but get the job done.
  • Unique Items: Lightweight armor with moderate resistances, multipurpose survival tools (hunting knives, grappling hooks).
• Affordable Crafting Materials: They offer common materials like scrap metal, wood, and basic electronics at more affordable rates, making them ideal for new players or those looking to craft without breaking the bank.

Advantages:

• More Affordable: Common items like basic healing kits and beginner weapons are cheaper with the Survivors.
• Crafting Starter Kits: They provide early-game crafting blueprints and materials, perfect for players just learning the ropes.

2. The Deserters

Faction Focus: Black Market Gear, Ammunition, and Melee Weapons

Description: Deserters are ruthless smugglers and scavengers who exploit the lawless nature of the world for profit. They focus on obtaining hard-to-find, illegal, or dangerous items through less-than-honest means. Their items may be expensive but are high-quality and often specialized for offensive combat.

Item Expertise

• Ammunition and Firearms: Deserters have access to a wide variety of firearms and ammunition types, including black-market modifications that increase damage output, accuracy, or add explosive rounds. They focus on combat-heavy equipment.
  • Unique Items: Armor-piercing rounds, incendiary bullets, silenced weapons, and high-damage explosives.
• Melee Weapons: Many of their crafted melee weapons are brutal, designed for maximum lethality in close combat. These weapons might be crude, but they are highly effective and often come with vicious modifications.
  • Unique Items: Spiked clubs, electrified blades, and serrated axes.
• Illegal Tech and Mods: Deserters have a knack for acquiring illegal or experimental tech, allowing players to modify their gear in ways that other factions might not approve of.
  • Unique Items: Hacked energy weapons, shield-breaking mods, and stealth enhancements.

Advantages:

• Specialized Ammunition: Players can buy rare and powerful types of ammo (like explosive rounds or EMP slugs) more cheaply from the Deserters.
• Underground Market: They offer rare, black-market gear (like silenced weapons or hacked drones) at high prices but with devastating potential.

3. The Miners

Faction Focus: Traps, Crafting Materials, and Heavy Armor

Description: The Miners are masters of the land and crafting. Living in underground settlements, they specialize in gathering rare materials and creating high-quality tools, traps, and durable equipment. They are known for their ability to combine technology with rugged, natural resources to create highly effective items.

Item Expertise

• Traps and Defenses: The Miners are experts at crafting and selling traps, both for PvP defense and PvE scenarios. They create everything from simple snares to complex, tech-enhanced explosives.
  • Unique Items: EMP traps, tripwire explosives, flame turrets, and pressure-activated mines.
• Heavy Armor: They are the go-to faction for crafting durable, high-protection armor that can withstand intense combat and environmental hazards. Their gear often comes with added resistances (radiation, energy, ballistic).
  • Unique Items: Reinforced armor with integrated energy shields, exo-suits that boost strength.
• Rare Crafting Materials: The Miners have access to rare and underground resources, such as precious metals, radioactive elements, and energy crystals used for high-tier crafting.
  • Unique Items: Titanium alloys, rare-earth elements, and advanced polymers for crafting tech armor and weapons.

Advantages:

• Discounted Heavy Gear: Players seeking high-tier protection or durable weapons will find more affordable options through the Miners.
• Advanced Crafting Materials: Miners provide rare crafting materials more frequently, allowing players to craft top-tier gear without relying on scavenging or raids.

4. The Imperials

Faction Focus: Luxury Items, Advanced Tech, and Elite Weapons

Description: The Imperials are the remnants of the wealthy elite from the old world, and they maintain a high standard of living despite the apocalypse. They deal in the most advanced and luxurious items, from high-tech weapons to rare materials and custom-crafted gear.

Item Expertise

• High-Tech Armor and Weapons: The Imperials have access to cutting-edge technology from before the fall. Their weapons and armor often feature AI-assisted targeting systems, integrated shields, and self-repair mechanisms.
  • Unique Items: Energy rifles with pinpoint accuracy, personal energy shields, self-healing armor.
• Luxury Vehicles and Enhancements: Imperials sell the best vehicles, often with enhanced speed, armor, and weapon systems. These are expensive but unparalleled in quality.
  • Unique Items: Hovercrafts with stealth capabilities, heavily-armored tanks, jet-assisted bikes.
• Luxury Cosmetics: In addition to combat gear, they offer luxury cosmetic items, such as gilded armor sets, rare mounts, and unique crafting materials that are purely for style but highly sought after.
  • Unique Items: Gold-plated armor, holographic pets, regal base decorations.

Advantages:

• Exclusive High-Tier Gear: The most advanced weapons, armor, and vehicles can only be purchased or obtained through favor with the Imperials.
• Advanced AI Mods: They offer unique AI-driven mods for weapons and vehicles that significantly improve their performance, such as automatic targeting systems or energy efficiency boosts.

5. The Signalists

Faction Focus: Cursed Artifacts, Psionic Gear, and Dark Tech

Description: The Signalists are a cult-like faction devoted to the mysterious power known as "The Signal." They are the only faction capable of harnessing its energies, and while their items are powerful, they come with significant risks. Using Signalist gear often involves psionic abilities and dark technology that can affect both mind and body.

Item Expertise

• Psionic Weapons: Signalists offer weapons powered by the enigmatic Signal energy, granting unique abilities such as mind control, energy siphoning, and telekinetic force.
  • Unique Items: Signal-infused staffs, psychic blades, and energy siphoning rifles.
• Dark Armor: Their armor grants psionic boosts but comes with risks, like reducing the player's resistance to mental attacks or causing debuffs in certain areas.
  • Unique Items: Mind-enhancing helmets, psionic shields, and energy-siphoning exosuits.
• Cursed Artifacts: These ancient relics hold great power but can be dangerous to use. They offer massive boosts in strength, agility, or intelligence, but come with significant drawbacks (e.g., slowly draining health or reducing sanity).
  • Unique Items: Signal crystals, ancient totems, and psychic amplifiers.

Advantages:

• Access to Psionic Gear: Signalists offer rare and dangerous psionic gear that no other faction can provide, making them essential for players looking to experiment with dark abilities.
• Cursed Power: While risky, the items from this faction are often the most powerful in the game, especially for players specializing in magic or hybrid builds.