Apologies for any grammer mistakes.. this is going to take awhile and I'm going to ramble incoherently for a bit about diffeent topics randomly.
Sewing kit + hat = pocketed hat.
Larger hats could hold more items only restrict the items to plastic survival cards you see these days in outdoor stores, pocketknifes (small blade), ect.. things you can fit in a hat that are basically flat and light.
Cards could have recipe/guides for starting fire, food, water, clay, cordage from grass, basic shelter guide or tent.
Meat smoker tripod with 1 upper body clothing or 2 pants, 5 short sticks, rope, 3 long sticks.
Sharp rocks spawning by jagged rocks that roll down rocks Cliffsides, rocky drop offs from erosion at river bends could spawn sharp rocks, obsidian sharp rock which could be more durable then a sharp stone. 1 sharp stone + obsidian = knife/arrowhead/fats scraper/eat
Just under the water on coasts in shallow spots could be a stone texture; it could be interacted with to get stones, infinite, grass can be harvested with shovel to make dirt, after 1 plant cycle diffrent plant has to go into that plot with 1 more dirt and go through its cycle to be able to make effective edible crop. Fertilizer isn't necessarily needed when farming if soil is good for it.. crop rotation.
Side note, most of the ideas I'd have would be implementing primitive survival/survival/prepper knowledge and mix of other topics into working game mechanic to improve survival odds. There's quite a bit a person could do outdoors to get a leg up in the world, cordage from grass. Railroad pebble texture, players could search any spot of the texture with a chance to get a sharp stone but it wears smooth quickly compared to obsidian, obsidian being stronger then cheap pocket knifes in some cases. Smooth stone could be shaped again with any flat rock in range of water, because stone can be ground down with water, flat rock, and pebbles. It's very energy consuming. Axes and spear heads can be made also but are primitive.
Some trees can have a hole drilled into on the bottom with a knife; small stick with a groove cut into it and a water bottle to catch any water running from the tree, sap for torches and glue, what ever its good for.
More realistic timescale
Hope someday buildings look more traditional to what we see these days in modern cities, even a transition to large cities with skyscrapers or 6 story buildings, atmosphere like "I am legend/Ring of fire/28days later. The suspense, dark gritty environment, overgrown cities in a world with bit more detail of random items throughout homes.. dream for that. At server restart seeing homes with more random items like silverware, dishes, furniture(that would be burned for fire wood)option to craft also with woodworking tool)). Initial launch of a server could populate the map with items you'd find at the beginning of collapse and npc living in those structures you can take to who are barricaded in.. these npc could have routines like finding water and food, be hostile, offer speech challeng etc players and act like city states from civilization 6. Npc could join players with most trust and setup a base where players decides, have any building be able to be a base for npc. Players could be mayor of a npc town that is producing food and water.. end game content for solo guys who want to start a faction. Cities have jobs, roles, guards, scouts. This is sounding impossible.
Geography, rocks are plentiful on the riverbed and shoreline, at the bends of rivers where erosion changed the shape, other rock and soil. Mountain springs, above treeline there's better water and there can be contaminated water upriver flowing downstream from dead animal.. or hazard zone.
Hazard zone could make animals rabid, zombie rabid bear... +40 damage + 250Hp, better hearing, faster, circles behind bushes far away from players. Bears fight this contaminated Bear or animals.
Ocean seaweed, clams, large crab.
Reverse osmosis from clay pot over campfire plus lid, attach clay tube or pipe from home to make spout, fresh water. Source: youtube
Plants, lush foliage that stretches for miles, slows movement, scratches, grows in forest sometimes, otherwise forest floor can be packed with large plants that are not ededible.
Argonne forest amazing trees.. empty tall forest with a bed of leaves can make for a tense moment when there's fog and it's fairly flat. Forest path carved through small hills; around mountain sides, through stinging nettles and 6ft tall grass.. game trail crossings.. small game, deer. Paths have junk off the road like glass bottles, rags, clothing, broken tools and knifes.
Caves.. cave system to a spring of clean underground water, bats.. boots to go through poop or build a bridge. Quicksand.
Bogs and peat soil iirc. Like quicksand, earth that appears to be solid only you keep sinking..
Plant a tree that is larger and close to a rock wall, build menu option for planting trees seeds or cuttings from tree that have grown in a 5 gallon bucket for a month. That's the technique for saplings, some plants you can't do that.
Mechanics.. cars could be in decent shape based off of settings for servers, separate option. Cars could be stripped of wire, engine parts like an alternator, starter, water cooling pump, power steering, brake pads or drums, hoses, carb. (Not a mechanic) thermostat and then the heater doesn't work and on low temp nights with high winds. Wind chill makes temperature drop to negative quickly. Being wet, in high winds on cold night would be gameover quick. Broken window or thermostat. cold wind in vehicle could be death.
If each home could be themed in editor to have items related to hobbies, residential, commercial and industrial produce vehicle parts, farming parts like old school tractors. Find one of those next to a barn under vines.. go a few acres over get tools from a residential farm. Residential building like homes have mechanics, farming, gun cabinets, alcohol or fermenting station, gardener. Shelfs could have more items amd food pantry could be the main source for food, duck tape and random small tools in drawers. Small pots or cast iron in the cupboards. Cast iron pans could produce more AOE heat and make food taste better. Provide iron even to the body, from what I hear.
More berries, large pat he's of mushrooms that new player would think is food.. it's poisonous.
Beneath tree bark is a fresh layer of bark that can be chewed on but keep in mind trees are poisonous in the real world.
Wild oats, wild wheat, wild peanut.. wild variety. Real life variety of look alike plants if there is. Knock grains off of the wheat tops when ready for more seeds, mash in mortal and pestle for oil? Bread?
Buildable structures that are made from studs, rough cut lumber. It leave the mill to the yard on trucks that drop off at stores and lumber yards.
Instead of planks it's 7 studs.. wall, top and bottom, double up top. Sheeting is what covers the studs and is pre cut to be the height of walls, usually. This is on modern homes these days.. log cabin, offices and hospitals. All that is concrete rebarb, steel.. welded.
Harvest large stones to make really bad cover for fighting, add wood roof and net and plants fibers for cover. Trench running around base with plank upgrade to keep try or roofs, plants, soil for hill/tunnel base. Light amd table and squad is planing a raid. Ambiance as a storm is going. Dark, deer off in the forest.
Rope tension trap. step on and caught hanging in the air by the foot, faints after 2 minutes and can cut free with knife.
Small tree kept under tension, animal as large as deer step here and it catches by rope or steel link.
Trappingamnd fishing.. or hooks baited and tied off to a log, illegal irl.
fish basket for trapping. Cage for small game,, birds, rabbits, fowl, squirls. Cats and dogs, birds, ostrage, chickens that act more like chickens!
Dakota fireplace, hole in the ground with air tube leading 2 feet away. Reduces light and smoke is visible, greener the fuel source the darker the smoke. Dry trees and stuff makes lighter smoke. Low smoke means low pressure system like rain. Wind in game could affect hunting, you could be upwind and startle a deer laying in tall grass. Raccoons.. and wolverines..
Bears going to fish by the shore, they catch a fish and drop it on shore, player can pick up fish.. maybe gunshot could scare the bear away.. or player yells into microphone. Some animals have higher chance to fight player. Deer kicks with front legs.
Power station players could fire up if they find the text books from libraries, text books about complex stuff like vehicles and books show recipes to fix em or build water table pump, welding, mechanics, medicine.
Edit: Let players of dayz and vigor recruit npc that try to survive in homes around the map.. npc has some knowledge of map already an could guide players around if thier new like the terraria guide or be hostile based on players previous speech questions. Recruit npc have them set up base around player shelter an guard while away but npc has to be decent enough to fight players and not die needlessly, know when to not grab certain items in chest so players don't login to see food gone. Teach a.i. npc to farm with books and where the water is with map. Crates marked food a.i. could place that there and not eat an amount under a certain number. Npc could have roles and be sent out on missions to control points on the map setting up regions of control.
Rework of fresh player spawns to occur after short times reset (4hours) at an event taking place. Npc supply trucks drive onto the map fresh spawns are fully geared but being chased by a horde of zombies. Anybody choosing not to join spawn event at the event arrival spot can join up. Faster timed events; boat crashes, helicopter crashes of diffrent types, attack and support. Storms with hail stones that do damage, zombie animals, more animals and zombies that can be more frequent. The way it is now loot drops would have to be reworked... or npc occupying buildings randomly have loot spawn in thier stash every so often players could buy or take.
Have environment be so hostile players have to join together or have npc recruits to even survive.
Imagine being in a pitch black forest with an npc follower you met a few hours ago.. fishing, looking for forest food knowing each other position because of glow stick lights.. npc stays withing range to see your light and will return if you whistle. A zombie horde that moves really fast and in packs through the Forest or silently walking under trees and all you can here is leaves rustling.
Edit: Semi trailers and trailers. Semi can be fixed up but trailers can be dismantled into flatbed and buildings could snap in place. Figure flatbed could be 3 rooms.. machine-gun on the back or up top, motorcycles, quad bike or bicycles for scouting.
If I can think of more I'll certainly leave it here and if you know any survival knowledge, see issues let me know I'll think around it.
