For the first couple of days this week I was working on something that I then decided against. I’ve got other work done but it’s not really ready to show, it’s mostly just code that doesn’t visibly do anything yet. So let’s talk about the other thing I was working on because I’m interested in what people think as well. I do apologise that this isn’t much of an interesting “preview.”

Part Wreckage

Ever since I started working on the scrap wreckage system for Scraps, I intended there to be two types of drops. When you destroyed parts, you’d be able to collect general wreckage that was like cash you could spend on parts during a game, after using an Evac Pad. That part’s in the game now. But there was also meant to be a chance that a whole part would drop when you destroyed one on an enemy. They’d have some amount of damage already applied like say 0-50%.

This got left out initially just so I could get the game out a bit sooner, but I wanted it for the new game mode. Some code was there, and I started adding the rest to get it all working. I got as far as having the part wreckage spawn, but not as far as making the interface for you to spend it, before I changed my mind.

My original idea was that if you picked up a part, it’d now be a free part to use on the Build screen (if you used an Evac Pad – if you died you’d lose it like with wreckage scrap). And so you could end up with a conglomerative scrap creation built of all sorts of scavenged parts, and I figured that’d be cool. But I weighed up the pros and cons again as I was restarting work on it, and I came up with:

Pros:

Interstate ’76 did it and it was cool. At the end of each mission you’d get salvage parts you could use to slowly upgrade your car. They’d have damage to repair as well. And it was fun.

It’d make enemy drops basically like a loot system in an RPG, which is a time-tested effective system. General scrap drops are like coins and part drops are like gear/items.

It’d encourage interesting builds and often it is limitations that end up inspiring real creativity. Plus it’d provide more variation to the game in general. Work with what you’ve got, try new things, and building ridiculous vehicles out of a bunch of scavenged parts is well within the Scraps philosophy.

Cons:

Interstate ’76 is a different game to Scraps, and while it worked well there, you couldn’t buy parts at all – it was all salvage. So the parallel doesn’t quite apply.

It could prevent interesting designs as much as it might encourage them, forcing people to use certain parts rather than follow their ideas. I’ve seen that Robocraft (a game with a similar concept to Scraps) recently switched from a money system to a loot drop system, and everyone hates it, because they can’t build what they want. Part drops would similarly stop people from building what they want.

Ultimately I’m thinking it’s actually a better idea to leave things as-is. If I did do it, I’d certainly make it optional in melee mode (the current game mode). If I really want some special weapon to drop from some special vehicle, it could instead drop a “token” that simply unlocks that special part as available to build normally (i.e. buy it with scrap).

Edit: Someone reminded me about selling parts. Selling parts is another complication. If you put a part on your vehicle and then delete it, you get its current value back. But if you can sell salvaged parts for full value then the feature is almost pointless! – the only benefit vs. just getting scrap directly would be that you can’t buy damaged parts so maybe you could use something that you couldn’t afford new. If you can’t sell scavenged parts for their full value, that’s gonna be confusing if you’re removing things from the vehicle to get scrap back. Not to mention complicating the code. I think this feature was a dumb idea from the start.