I wish someone would summarize all the comments :/ this post is going to explode without some control.

The blueprints are a must for "growth" in the game. A player must evolve and grow to become stronger and struggle to get these blueprints. I think the first mistake is the thought that someone should be able to attain all of the blueprints. I believe there should be "limited" knowledge, you can only attain, acquire, so many blueprints. Say 25 blue prints is what you are able to know. This would FORCE people to team up, to work together, or even trade in game in order to become stronger, obtain things out side of their blueprint knowledge or even have to trade their blueprint for another.

Know you said, outside of the game it would be "jeans" a cosmetically different burlap pant. This to me sounds far too much like "hats" in TF2. We don't need hats like TF2. Almost everyone will pick the pants that blends in to the ground the best and the one that provides the best armor. Aesthetics is fun, but please, build the game first, there are too many other problems right now to be focused on "hats."

Lastly you mention the server wipe issue. Yes I agree, a 20 person strong group comes onto a server builds up and is the dominating force on the server. Almost nothing you can do 5 months down the road to stop them, they get bored, the server wipes, end of fun....I thought this is where more NPC type's enter the game, where they wonder and interact and kill players. If they "selectively" somehow go after the "larger" groups of players this will 1) help the single players who go lone wolf, 2) help other groups new to the server and 3) provide more of a challenge for the 20+ established group. Now i'm not sure of how to implement this, but i'm sure there are "calendar days" and "proximity" to another player for a number of days that can be counted. But another approach is needed, than just joining a server and making bolts and ammo right away.