Rebuild 3: The Tech Tree

My first pass at a research tree in Google Docs
My first pass at a research tree in Google Docs
In Rebuild 3, engineers won’t be the silly white-lab-coated scientists of earlier games. They’re gonna have to get out there and get dirty.

“Tech” isn’t even the right word for what they get up to in those labs. Most of the things you’ll research in Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville are pretty mundane… Irrigation, for example, is a matter of digging ditches to bring water to your farms, because city water and sprinklers no longer work reliably.

They’ll be designing medical training programs, rigging up generators to power electric fences, organizing more efficient night watch routines… and of course pulling zombies apart to see what makes them tick. Come to think of it, that may still require white lab coats and safety goggles.

techtree_v2  techtree_v3  techtree_v4
Earlier versions of the tech tree in development.

In Rebuild 2, research was in three linear paths: getting more food, defending against zombies or recruiting and keeping survivors happy (also towers in the mobile version). The Rebuild 3 tree is 3x the size and more meandering. You’ll be hard pressed to research everything in a single game, so choose your path wisely.

I decided to tie more lategame abilities into the research tree so you could unlock things gradually as you play, for example the ability to craft traps, medkits and fireworks. Policies, building upgrades and workshop missions all need to be unlocked via research now before they’ll appear in the game.

Other research projects improve your fort defense or reduce your casualties in one way or another. You’ll definitely want a few of those as the zombie hordes start to build up outside your walls.

Research tree as it appears in alpha version 0.53 (temp art)
Research tree as it appears in alpha version 0.53 (temp art)

Getting your first lab will be harder now because you can’t build them initially (you need to research that of course!), but you’ll usually start near one you can reclaim. Events in the game also give you a chance to build labs, and even to get research for free.

One of the problems in Rebuild 1 and 2 was that you’d run out of thing for scientists (now called engineers) to do. With this much larger research tree, plus a new mission to craft items in workshops, they’ll have plenty to occupy their time inside the fort. Hopefully enough that nobody will send them out to shoot zombies or scavenge or any of that dangerous stuff.

God forbid they get their white lab coats all dirty!

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10 thoughts on “Rebuild 3: The Tech Tree

  1. For tech
    ☆add agricultureas a fourth category
    ☆farms dont produce unless someone tends them and u cant tend untill u research it
    Anyother ideas are welcome
    p.s. only a suggestionits your game I just thought this would give a more realistic feel to the game

    1. Ohand sorry for placing this late but
      if you have a survivor who was a farmer before the apocalyose then he can tend with no need to research

  2. Agriculture as*
    Oh and yeah “scientists” sounds cooler but doesnt fit them if they will be crafting as well

  3. i bought the deluxe, played though the game and when i was about half way through taking the map map on the biggest map setting my biggest hassle was having to go into every new character to talk to them about there life to get the perk, i think it would be easier if it came up when the survivor was ready and you choose on the spot because at one point in time i had more then ten people wanting to talk to me about there lives

    after completely taking over the map i then started a new game and put in all the factions and after claiming about 20 squares it started to get cramped
    so i went to war and it was fine but not being able to scavenge was bad because when the other factions take a place they remove any resources that were there so i quickly ran out of resources like building material. so i couldn’t reclaim anything with out destroying a building for material.

    but in all i would give the game a 10/10 its great already and its not even finished. I had to have played for more then 5 hr. i cant wait for the new updates!

  4. If you ever go back and add weather/seasons create a upgrade tech for green house on farms so they produce in the winter but make it so you can only upgrade the farm with defense that already exists in game or greenhouse for year round production. In winter months the greenhouse could consume fuel at some rate a day (might need balancing with concern with electric plant consumption) i.e. one fuel a day powers entire city greenhouse, stove for farm would make sence then to consume way less per day on second hand nerf my fuel use idea, now fixing a refinery to work there would be a cool event series….

  5. The game is great, but few mistakes in tech tree make gameplay imbalance.
    First of all I told about traps. When you can create 10-20 basic traps all game lost interest, because not necessary defence the fort it doing traps. You do not need soldiers and defensive buildings. And this kill survival atmosphere.
    I think all traps need to be in the end of tech tree, but defensive buildings at start.
    Will be thankful, if somebody tell how to mod tech tree

  6. All in all i would give the game a 10/10 its great already and its not even finished. I had to have played for more then 5 hr. i cant wait for the new updates!

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