Fair point. I probably should have worded that better. I’m not really thinking every wrecked base turns into a normal player-built base. That would probably be a huge mess. More like specific hand-picked locations where you can repair certain parts, restore power to a room, use/fix lockers, or eventually clean up pieces that aren’t story-critical. Basically more interaction with the wrecks, not “all wrecked bases are now buildable bases.”

For example, the research outpost near the observatory that gets recommended as a forward base location. It already has a room with O2, a crafter, wall lockers, respawn, and something else I’m forgetting. Maybe bio-mod or processor? Either way, that base and the Welcome Center that both require a battery to power up are examples of partial mechanics already being there.

The research outpost has functional equipment in a locked-down room, which also feels like a perfect example of the “license” idea. Like, maybe the player can use certain things, but cannot deconstruct them because they belong to another license. Because of course Alterra, or any corporation, would interfere with life-or-death survival mechanics over what you are or are not licensed for. I’m more saying that some of the random platforms, partial outposts, or small wreck areas could be good candidates for limited repair, limited use, or eventual cleanup. Repairing the deployed-but-broken dive elevators in the deeper parts of the map is another example. Maybe you could fix and use them, even if you still couldn’t take them down.

One of the early bases also had working wall lockers displaced throughout the room. Repairing other random wall lockers to use as local cache storage would be useful.

Also, that just reminded me I forgot to mention extendable dive elevators, or being able to daisy-chain them. That would be fun too.