Although a burst water main wreaked saturating terror on the offices of The Repopulation dev Idea Fabrik last month, that hasn’t stopped the team from continuing to work on the game’s upcoming crafting update, which is discussed in depth in the latest dev update. “Our goal with the revamp of systems including crafting is to build a community,” the devs say, and to that end, the crafting system updates will focus on giving players “a multitude of options when planning gameplay” by providing crafters with “the ability to be flexible and gain the knowledge and skills that best support their goals.”
The updates will be extensive and far-reaching, IF says, affecting everything from harvesting raw materials to manufacturing finished products. For starters, crafting recipes will be reorganized into three categories: blueprints, which are “hard science creatable items” such as firearms and armor; schematics, which comprise “high-end technology” like electronics and robotics; and recipes, which create “soft science, consumable” products such as plants and food. The update will also introduce multiple different types of crafting machines, which will replace the current all-purpose machine.
Perhaps the most expansive part of the update will be the addition of “shells,” which effectively seem to be base crafting recipes that can produce unique items based on the crafter’s use of different materials, fittings, lacquers, stains, paints, and so forth. And of course, with the near-complete overhaul of such a central system, the devs will be making various adjustments to other abilities and systems, which the devs discuss — along with all the other aspects of the crafting revamp — in detail in the full dev blog over on the game’s official site.
