Okay, so I have played just over an hour on XERA, and I can already think of a few suggestions from someone who LOVES survival / Crafting. All suggestions below are open for discussion and the more feedback the better, let me know what you like / dislike and we can work together to refine the idea's.
1.0 :- Crafting
1.1 :- Weapons
1.2 :- Miscellaneous
1.0 Crafting is a huge part of survival games, it allows the salvaging of areas for items that allow you to combine to create other items. Here are a few components that could be introduced to aid the crafting system. By finding these items and combining them you will then create finished products.
1.1 Weapons
Pistol Trigger
Pistol Barrel
Rifle Stock
Rifle Body
Auto- Stock
Auto- Body
Hunting Bow Stabilizer
Bow String
Vision-
So the vision of being able to find components in towns, players , AI is giving a purpose to personalizing your gaming experience. The crafting of weapons / gear gives you motivation to come online to get that one step closer to being the biggest badass on the server.
1.2 Miscellaneous
Duct tape
Screw
Flash Light
Bulb
Battery
2.0 Experimenting Table
Experimental tables are used to combine the Components listed in 1.1 and 1.2. The tables would be situated somewhere confined such as a town that provides high risk for high rewards. You would have to risk going into a high populated area in order to create your items. Having the high risk high rewards in place would encourage players to fight over the turn whilst still being cautious of the AI robots patrolling the areas.
I will be adding more information as I go along. Having two kids limits the amount of time I get to concentrate on typing out detailed idea's (: