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[Kagus]

While I'm not currently talking about a vulture sim where you fly around and look for roadkill to munch on, I do think that such a program could have its merits...


No, what I'm wondering about is some kind of game where a hefty portion of the game is based off of picking up the leavings, the leftovers, and the scrap components that result from someone more powerful and more numerous having tussled there before you.  Like wandering around a junkyard and finding a pointy stick to poke someone with, or shuffling through an old battlefield to make a suit of armor for yourself out of shredded tank bits. 

In most RPGs, the character will perform a certain amount of "packratting", gathering up vast amounts of inferior equipment in order to pawn it off for a few handfuls of gold.  Of course, the character will generally just do this so they can afford some gear from the smithy, and will disregard anything they find in the field unless it happens to be really, really awesome and cool.  Or a health potion.

I'd like to see something where you're the skulking, filthy scum that subsists off of whatever's left behind by someone more powerful and better looking than you.  Someone who doesn't smell like wet dog mixed with rotting squid and french fries.  Someone who fought something just as big, well-equipped and handsome as themselves, and either died or had some pretty nasty losses.

I see stuff like crawling through some old war zone, with tank carcasses and mud-clogged rifles lying everywhere.  Then a bunch of nutters come through, picking up the guns that still have some shells in them (and even work half the time), and stripping the "good bits" off of ruined vehicles in order to add armor, cannons, or an extra bedroom to their own half-assed rig, which serves as both a weapons platform to hold off the other looter packs and as a Home Sweet Home for the layabouts who pledge allegiance to the slag.

Company of Heroes had something that wanted to be like this, with Axis pioneers being able to salvage resources off of scrapped vehicles in the field.  But that was just to send resources back home to make something big and shiny.

I don't really regard most FPS games as being "salvage" games either.  Sure, you're picking up shells and cells and spells from the vanquished villains, but it's all to power the perfect-quality weapons you've been dragging around since you found one.  Call of Juarez at least made your guns wear out and break down, but it was still kinda missing something...  Like the ability to wear a trash can as improvised defense.


Much as I'd really like to see a whole bunch of undesirables pooling scrap metal to make a great honkin' big rig to serve as a mobile HQ, I figure that it's probably not gonna happen.  Even collecting junk from trash pits in order to build a castle made out of old TV sets is most likely not too high on many developers' wish lists.  And I haven't even mentioned the soda-powered lightning wheel.


So are there any games that you can think of as being anywhere along these lines?  "One man's trash is another man's particle cannon"?  Just some sort of junkyard wars-style game would be nice, to get a bit of the flavor...  Although having the actual gameplay aspects would be pretty dang cool.


...or am I the only one who finds this idea even remotely entertaining?

[Shadowgandor]

Notrium might scratch an itch there, but it's not entirely what you're looking for sadly

[Rakonas]

I like the idea, personally. Men of War had a nice aspect like that, you could have your squad equip itself with fallen enemy equipment, even take over the occasional tank and repair it.

[Kagus]

I actually thought about Men of War partly through writing this thing...  And, given the right circumstances (or, preferably, a specially designed map/scenario) I think it would come pretty dang close.  Unfortunately I don't have Men of War, and the demo struck me as a micromanagement frenzy...  I'd get absolutely slaughtered if I attempted anything like that.

But yeah...  Find a tank with the tracks blown off, and hop inside to use the turret for a while.  Once you've scared off some other ne'er-do-wells, you can smuggle the shells out of there and use them for something else, like party hats.

...alright, so maybe not.  Still though, Men of War would come pretty close to the ideas mentioned.  Still not quite the style or interactivity I might hope for, but a good mod might be able to change that.  I don't really know what the modding scene is like for MoW.


EDIT:  Just remembered something.  Overlord would also be in the same vein, as your minions would pick up and use various items as weapons and armor, improving their combat effectiveness.  It also made them even more adorable than before.

[Tilla]

When I play Fallout 3 it's with Real Time Settler and a few CRAFT and CALIBR related mobs, so I can pick up just about anything in the world and find a use for it, whether it be repairing my guns, smithing ammo, or building new buildings at my village

[sluissa]

Hardwar was pretty scavenger friendly. Not so much crafting wise, but there would be battles and such taking place in the world around you. If you caught a pirate attacking a cargo hauler, you could sometimes swoop down and grab the cargo (jettisoned, or from the wreckage) before the pirate could. On the other hand, you'd then have to get away from the angry pirate. Following police ships around was another good way to get wreckage. Police ships were really powerful, they'd attack pirates and other criminals. The wreckage would be full of goodies, but they wouldn't care and it was first come first served. In the end, there were more exciting and more reliable ways to make money in the game, but it was always worth it to keep an eye out if a good scavenging opportunity came up.

Someone already mentioned Notrium. The UnReal World has some scavenging opportunities occasionally. Mostly only from things you kill though. It's a good bet you'll tear up some of your enemy's clothes to make bandages after you fight.

Wish I could think of more. I'd like this path to be explored more in games. Fallout 3 could have done a lot with it(although I'll check out those mods.)

[Koliup]

I know one, it's kinda what you're looking for, maybe not.
It's http://messhof.com/scrap-collector/
In the game, the story line is thus: Something happened....lost alot of scrap...
EDIT: I can vouch for Hardwar being awesome, played it myself, I suggest you play it. It's all kinds of abandonware.

[HideousBeing]

In EvE online you can salvage other peoples wrecks (ships they killed; they still get regular loot). It's more of a mini-profession and is generally frowned upon, but is also the best moneymaker for a new character.

[Akura]

Hardwar was pretty scavenger friendly. Not so much crafting wise, but there would be battles and such taking place in the world around you. If you caught a pirate attacking a cargo hauler, you could sometimes swoop down and grab the cargo (jettisoned, or from the wreckage) before the pirate could. On the other hand, you'd then have to get away from the angry pirate. Following police ships around was another good way to get wreckage. Police ships were really powerful, they'd attack pirates and other criminals. The wreckage would be full of goodies, but they wouldn't care and it was first come first served. In the end, there were more exciting and more reliable ways to make money in the game, but it was always worth it to keep an eye out if a good scavenging opportunity came up.

More funny is when you ram their collection drone until it gets destroyed. Stealing kills from the police is great too(they only attack people with criminal bounties, so the cops don't mind at all) Also, whenever you attack someone, the first shot doesn't count as far as irritating anyone. Devastators are legitimate homicide.

I'm trying to think of something with a scavenging-style element to it, but Notrium is the only one I can think of. And Deus Ex, in a way.
What about Burntime? I never played it deeply, so I'm not sure.

[Graven]

I believe Pathologic, if the damn studio (GMX Media, or possibly Ice-Pick Lodge) has already released the normal translation, will be exactly what you're looking for. It's an fps/thriller, mainly based on survival through scavenging It's quite hard, has an interesting setting, nice cast of three playable characters, and possibly a nice story, if the original translation wasn't mind-manglingly abhorrent. Sadly, I can't tell you much more, as I only played a version, translated into my own native language, and, well... it didn't go over so well, too. So I was forced to quit before my brain did, but you should definitely give it a try.

[Sowelu]

Here's a reason why it might not have been explored very far:  So you've scavenged this loot; now what do you do with it?  You've been picking up the leavings of other peoples' fights, so what are you fighting on your own?  And what happens when you run into the people who left that scrap in the first place?  Does the game just stay low-powered for the whole game, or do you fight people who don't leave any loot at all?

It's a staple of any games with inventory that when you kill someone, you take their stuff, and raise your power level to theirs if you were weaker.  Hell, even Doom let you take shotguns and chainguns off the zombies who were using them, and they also gave you tons of ammo.  On the other hand, when Doom set you against imps and stuff that didn't drop weapons, the game changed a lot.  So I guess the combat would be fighting against people who did NOT use scavengable components, and maybe the people you're scavenging from are long, long dead, technology having been reduced considerably.

This is the sort of setting that would work great in, like, an anime or something; something where a rare and extremely valuable find would be a plot device instead of a balance-breaker.

[kulik]

Although Brink will not let you do any of this gameplay-wise, you can play resistance member which are practically living as scavengers. ...just for the feel of it.

[Il Palazzo]

Arcanum had some literal shuffling through trashcans for parts to make a gun.

What about Burntime? I never played it deeply, so I'm not sure.

Yeah, in Burntime you were picking up all sorts of trash, tires, rags, planks of wood and broken radios, just for an odd chance that your technician will manage to make something useful out of it.

[sluissa]

That reminds me, definitely not what you're looking for, but still a great game. Pikmin and Pikmin 2. You're basically scavenging trash to either repair your spaceship or pay off your loan. Twist is, you're the size of a bug.

[Akura]

I just remembered that Jagged Alliance has you scavenging a lot.
Hey, a piece steel, upgrade a gun! Oh, superglue for my body armor! Look, Brenda's bra! Let's make a molotov with it! (probably less akward a scene than, say, handing it back to her)