What I want is something where I can make weapons/vehicles/ammo to my specs. I don't mean "+1 accuracy -1 damage", but as something emergent.
This is my current project, actually. Steampunk setting revolving around adventuring, engineering and town management. Though, due to not being a mad scientist myself, item creation will boil down to something less advanced than that. Basically, after making something it runs a one time physics simulation, and records what happened. Things like stopping power, weight, exhaust, oil spilling (yay flammables!) and such will be abstracted from that. Hopefully you'll like the finished product.
Wow, that sounds cool! I kinda gathered that anything other than ocasional (once?) simulation would be neccessary in any non-lagtastic game.
Eagerly awaiting progress!
One (early) image I had in my mind (I think from dreams I had after pondering what my "dream game" would be too much) involved Hammerfight-like vehicle cores (though I'm not sure gravity would be a good idea, maybe top-down like Bubble Tanks?) with stuff right out of Powder Game strapped to them. Weapons ranging from Hammerfight-style bayonets and maces through single-shot cannons all the way to automatic weapons and minelayers. Making magazines for a rotating weapon in 2D would be difficult however...
Other images I had were of a somewhat different (and I think, much more exciting) game:
An ingame shop of sorts, carrying a variety of "devices":
Each device on sale had a name, a picture, a description, tags (for example, "Weapon, [manufacturer name], 28Ux63U smooth cased[amunition reccomended], cannon, gun, semi" etc. on a semi-auto cannon), instructions, and a comments/review system.
Creators of a new item can use old items (modular components) and... other ways... I think I glossed over that in my dream. Anything emergent/physics-ey is good. A device can be crafted and worked on custom in the field, or scanned to a blueprint at a suitably advanced factory.
Factories containing a blueprint (or using one from the operator) can return items, or a portion thereof, to their last scanned state for a cost of the difference in material and an amount of time/energy. They can also create a new one from the parts used in the design (with the option to build the subcomponents, sub-subcomponents, etc. instead of pulling them from inventory) for a lot of time/energy.
Factories of a given player/group will specialize. One group may have invested in factories that can cast C4 into dazzlingly complex shapes without error because they use a lot of shaped charges; another may not care about accuracy of explosives shaping. One group may have tech that allows the manufacture of very fine electronics because they manufacture autonomous or semi-autonomous devices; another may develop the ability to shape highly temperature resistant alloys into usable parts for use in rocket engines, flamethrowers, etc.
A simple factory can combine advanced tech and place it in a rough metal hull, but actually manufacturing the components may take expensive, uncommon technology.
With this design, anyone can capture, use, design vehicles around (supplies permitting!) and even kitbash together foreign tech, but proper (magic "repair/reload" buttons instead of welding/etc.) maintainance of advanced technology is limited to factories, who's owners may even charge for the use...
A starting player would probably get a simple, handmade craft made in a tutorial of some sort. Their first upgrade proves a choice: buy a mass-produced "newbie ship" from a faction/established player; or keep grafting things (bought, found, won in combat...) to their existing vehicle and patching holes with solder?
A player later on in the game would invest in having their vehicle of choice scanned and keeping the blueprint handy, taking the expense of updating it if they add to it.
A player or group would then find a hideout and start to develop their own industry. Small, basic factories could turn out spare parts for modular repairs, though probably of deteriorated quality (cheap X-rayed and 3D-printed clones lose some resolution)
Later on, a custom, modular craft may be designed, capable of being reliably and cheaply assembled by hand from off-the-shelf and custom-fabricated components. This craft can become the new "faction standard newbie ship" for players joining the growing group.
Eventually, mines/factories/etc. evolve to the point where the group can mass-produce vehicles/building parts/etc. entirely in factories, possibly developing simple drone craft to bring materials from facility A to facility B in their growing industrial base and allowing supply chains to function even when the players are offline.
Eventually the faction goes out and finds worlds of opportunity and hardship. Markets to peddle their technology, and trade for that of others. Hordes of NPC enemies to beat back. Other factions to wage war on. !!FUN!! for all involved.
Discuss the wall of text?