Fabrication

* See also Tools
* See also MMORGP_the_Game_Experience
* See also Economics_of_Production
* See also Recycle_and_Repair
* See also Player_Skills
* See also Puzzles / Mini Games
* See also Player_Activities
* See also Trap_Mechanisms_and_Ammo
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In-Game Crafting/Fabrication (The Part the Player Does) -- Should be an Adventure in Itself : 
New 'Formula' actions/operations/tests have to be first carried out by the Player with varying efforts of exploring Skill, cleverness, and Investigation/Research on the new method, and maybe Luck. That is with first finding/obtaining the appropriate Tools/Material/Parts through alot of secondary interactions).
Some may be done through Mini-Games/Puzzles ( originally developed via Player_Created_Assets ). Various Skills of the Player's NPC "Team" can/may be added in to assist.
Formula are mundane repetitive processes -- The now usable production Formulas (vs. ones still being learned/developed/trained) would be done subsequently by the Player's NPC Henchmen/Lackeys - ONCE the Player has achieved effectiveness themselves.
Afterwards there can/may be additional incremental Improvements ( which can be attempted/worked at/developed ) for the Player's known fabrication recipes/Formulas/patents/solutions. Effective production of a product requires many improvements to make a workable/efficient process. 
Generally, production starts and stops dependent on availability of raw materials. Note - for the most part, this is a kind of 'Workshop' crafting ( often just for self consumption - Frequently being cheaper than purchasing things you use alot of ). This generally is not some assembly-line operation mass production ( there just aren't enough customers to justify that ).
Fabrication Aspects :
* Variability of results ( failures including injuries and destruction )
* Unique items based on what goes into them ( most often limited to external appearance variations )
* Substitutions of compatible parts/materials (this often needs to be discovered)
* Workable tools vs Optimal tools (quality/yield/efficiency may suffer)
* ??? Formulas (technology info) can be traded between Players (have to be 'documented' formalized through the game mechanics - probably requiring a minor additional Skill to do it).
* Clues to some other Formula can be discovered ( serendipity - accidents do happen, though usually not ).
* Observation of old production facilities can supply 'ideas' ( Why the Colonels 7 herbs and spices were kept secret ... ). Short-cutting the required 'Research'.
* The old "Bang on it and it starts to work" is possible sometimes (Risky)
* Finding out WHAT can be 'constructed' is only part - Finding out HOW it is constructed is where much of the skill is important. Adapting to what tools/materials are available is often needed.
* Extensive fabrication 'trees' for all kinds of things ( most of Raptures mechanisms are to be detail props and objects in the game, AND are made of standard sub-parts/components ).
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The Stealing of parts from working (city) systems will be handled in interesting ways in the game mechanics.
Fingerprints did not go away when people became Splicers and become ex-Splicers. Security systems still exist. New Rapture isn't Anarchy, and penalties for crimes exist. No doubt there will be a 'security war' between the Players wishing to 'test the system', and the improvements to the programmed game mechanics. Limiting this activity is probably required, as it isn't fun when a Player's efforts are too easily undone by other Players ( and the extensive detail the MMORPG offers alot of avenues ).
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In-game Fabrication That Makes Sense (and Is Fun) :
I would want Players being able to assemble bits of stuff/components they find/make/trade into a variety of game-useful mechanisms/machines - done with sufficiently realistic visual representations of their function for the combined pieces ( and representative of being a 'kludge' ), and of their assembly done in a logical way.
As a '3D' Object, they should look similar to what's seen (WYSIWYG) in the 'fabrication' interface. Gears and tubes and wires and the things they interconnect, etc ... with it being reasonably clear what their function is for the whole, and what those parts do when connected certain ways ( No Fake : stick shit in some arbitrary slot puzzle, but patterns of substitutions and adjustments ).
Programming code making game-mechanics work is esoteric to most people, and understanding it has a steep learning curve to do anything sophisticated. New code has to be made to fit in to interact with the Game World and with other Objects ( in more than a pre-canned/fixed-option way ). So a whole complex/flexible interaction/operation/behavior system would first have to be programmed within the game mechanics to facilitate this whole idea ( extensions may be addable by good programmer-capable Players later ). Physics, inter-operation (and failure) matching up to the Game World's game mechanics would all have to be made to work.
Think a little about such a system being more complex than Minecrafty in detail ( and things don't all look like little cubes ). Irregular looking things/parts/components must have 'fitting' logic to 'hook in' on the game presented interface representation and into the Object interaction system (yep, more Templates ...
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Assemblies :
Creation of mechanisms made from parts which do something when assembled IN the terrain (people can have their apartment/Team base/business filled with weird devices ( or solutions to have their comforts and utility ). Many business manufacturing machines would be kludged together/modified ). Even just for Players making 'animated' artworks/amusements ... This isn't impossible, it just has to be designed and the data/logic built systematically for all the things in the game.
Minimally (for these 'built things') there should be objects/assemblies whose mass physically blocks/deflect shots or movement (IE- you build a barricade). Tying into utility systems would be something to logically have as a game mechanism (lots of activities of that type for the Player). Various realistically operating boobytraps could be cobbled together, and also ad hoc temporary repairs to get through terrain while adventuring.
At some point (to save on Server Processing Resources) these devices get abstracted for their behavior and affects when outside any Players view. Objects get Simplified from what a REAL mechanism would HAVE to be, but still with sufficient detail to represent the logical parts/featured attributes/interactability.
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Standard Sealed Modular Components Used in Machines : 
Keying off the above subject :
This simplifies 'fabrication' specs for all kinds of machines/devices/systems (relay switches, amplifiers, power units, connectors, conduits, activators, transducers, etc ... With UNITIZED function/interaction (yep Templates).
In Rapture's World, 'Sealed' modules of various industrial specifications would be logical for the water hazard potential in Rapture, and as a way to lower Rapture's building costs ( after all, the entire city was being newly "built from scratch", and mass production and use of common/standard parts would greatly lower costs ).
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Imagine - Things ... :
Splicers have lots of time on their hands in a generally unfriendly world ( even if they can find some 'friends' ).
So they spend lots of time creating things to make their lives safer/easier/interesting - Weird exploding doohickeys, traps for the unfriendly, ways of producing sustenance, etc ...
Imagine a game system where you can EASILY create Objects by combining parts made up of ordinary laying-about objects (lots of them) for decorations/devices. This would take sophisticated custom scripting to do interesting actions/effects, and which are cloneable, and allow 'fitted' Auto-Placement in the Game so that a whole lot of other Players can experience your imagination also.
Someday there will be a game like this ( if you think any game really has this now, you aren't using enough imagination yet. )
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Rummage Sale (New Rapture Common Markets) :
Various dealers in New Rapture who sell all the miscellaneous bits and pieces (loot) Players find, and bring back from "The Ruins" ( LITERALLY Tons of the stuff ... ).
Great for spare parts, or odd materials needed for various projects ( Other than shards of Concrete, just about anything might be useful ).
Partially a 'Picker' Game (Mini-Game), with 'clutter pile' game mechanics close enough to real Physics. Probably with a time limit kinda thing there for that, with chances to get 'better stuff' from the choice bins. Various Missions might employ a similar Sift-n-Grab element where the Player has to salvage and then 'get out' with some short hectic activity for excitement.
A 'job' a Player might have is : Sorting stuff for one of these Junk 'Salvage' Dealers - into classified bins. ( "Eh, Its a job ..." - Perhaps that night you can eat Beef-E hamburgers instead of Fishsticks (again) ).
A Mini-Game probably perfect for the smartphone/tablet ( 'Secondary Quick Play' outside of the main PC Adventuring full-ONLINE interface of the game ).
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Quality of Work Results - a Production with Quality of : Materials used, of Skill, and Happenstance
* Skills increase quality/speed
* Proper/better materials required for higher quality items produced
* Things do break/go wrong ( tools, item being produced is ruined... ) - Less likely with higher skill.
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MMORPG has Tools/Weapon/Etc.. That Wear Out :
* Are Found Broken and in Need of Repair - why else would someone discard it ?
* A 'Cut feature' from BS1/BS2 - "Was to have the weapons degrade with use, and so be in regular need of repair." -
* This MMORPG will have Tools wear and need repairs ( same for weapons and other Objects ) and worn items may fail in use (so keep a backup gun).
* Provides more work for NPCs in repair shops and 'Second Hand' stores...
* Enemies weapons and tools can likewise 'wear out' and fail.
* Some Splicers are organized enough to have their own repair abilities/specialists/tools
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In-game Fabrication - What good is it (we are moving well beyond the usual MMORPG lameness/simplicity/tediousness) :
* A more detailed object system, opening up additional activities and complications in playing experience ( when was the last time your BS1/BS2 weapon jammed and you had to switch to another one?? ). Special tools open additional Action options ( don't throw away that grappling hook you found ... )
* Fabrication Skills should be useful in active 'situations' (combat/adventure/on-the-spot use). So Fabrication is worthwhile for the Player to develop ( even if to just a competent awareness/knowledge ) for the game to be something other than the usual MMORPG's grindy money-grubbing fake crafting.
* Ad hoc/quick-fixes/quick-n-dirty to add more imagination-stretching options on ways to handle many situations ( "Hey Im gonna wedge that door shut and we'll be miles away before those creepy goons can get it open"... "I just need a type-3 Fuse and I can get the lights on in here"... Etc ... ) 
* Lets break the current sad-pathetic MMORPG pattern -- Quests/Missions which EVERYONE does and solves the same way and EVERYONE gets exactly the same loot item payoff. Combinatoric Auto-Customizations can be program-driven to scramble Quest loot. That loot might need some 'fixing up'/reconditioning before it is fully useful (continuing the associated activities). Various parts and components can be found ( or specifically searched for ) to make game 'loot' more than just alot of crap you pile up to sell to a generic vendor/shop.
* Fabricated (customized/improved) items should be Enablers, not 'god' weapons (they can help solve situations, but are not to be ruling factor in the Game - instead Player skill/creativity and know-how is to be, ). Ordinary items can still usually get things done ( but maybe requiring a bit more effort/time/repeated attempts/failures/breakage ).
* It should be possible to make items better than the Player's usual 'loot' finds ( improvement in utility should generally be small to prevent the "Gotta Have That +3 Sword so I can kill Dragons" crap ). Many Splicers don't keep their objects in good condition and haven't the skill to improve their possessions much ( larger organized Splicer faction may have more skill specialization, and thus have better quality/kept stuff ... )
* Player should not have to worry about item stats or attributes ( bean-counting game numbers is the realm of unimaginative Players and Developers ). 'This is better than that' differences generally should be discernible.
* Objects with incremental Improvements ( addable customization/alteration attributes ) -- Please let there be no laughable (pathetic) "Legendary" weapon which you soon discard for a newer " +1 Legendary" Weapon ( and then another (+2 Legendary) and another --- So many, that Players should be knee deep in discarded weapons in the Game World - beside being upto their eyeballs in corpses ). Lets avoid more time-wasting Grind-encouraging unimaginative Player activities.
* Some Player's Skills to read/inform/indicate objects to determine if they can be fixed/repaired/modified ( with your current skills/tools ). Evaluate/judge items state - likelihood of breaking during attempted repairs - of possible success/cost/etc ... Object attributes should be a bit more realistic (in complexity) with no easy 'fits all' (over-generalized) stat-equations. The Player still needs to be given an idea of what they can fix, and what/how it is risky to attempt it . 
* Effort and preparation and facilities required to do repairs ( sorry you cant carry a forge/drill-press around with you). A temporary patch (in the field) is the best you will get - You will have to make due or use something else ( Proper Game Design would not have certain game items become an indispensable 'use-all', and thus become a 'Crutch' ... ).
* The Player can always pay to get stuff repaired (NPC/Player involvements) vs. repairing it yourself (or by your NPC Team). This gives reason to interact with NPCs ( you see them living all comfy in the City when YOU are the one who goes out and risks 'life and limb' Adventuring and expanding the New City ).
* Item component/parts/materials from the old days of Rapture - are often of better quality (generally). Recently-made parts/items are more likely to be failure-prone/kludged/uglier-looking. Objects have a 'Quality' system.
* The more complex the machine, the more maintenance it usually will require.
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How Much of the Game is This 'Fabrication' Activity Suppose To Be ?
* For weapons/protective gear it will directly effect Adventuring (Player has to be involved some bit, since they use it).
* Enablers - an activity done once to get by the requirements of a Quest/Mission -- activity is introduced to player using their basic skills -- some Quests should require special skills/tools Players have to manage (in preparation) to get access to. Later, player can decide if developing such skills will be advantage for further Quests/Missions.
* As money-makers in the City ( commerce to support Adventuring ), but it should be streamlined to minimize tedious activities ( Your NPC Team lackeys can moonlight for CASH in their free time, and you can dump 'reconditioned' loot on NPC middlemen ).
* Business operations - Once production infrastructure is set up (more advanced 'Fabrication' for the machinery involved....), each 'run' of production may need some 'fix/tweak/repairs/replacements'. You can get incremental production improvements if you bother to invest the effort. ( Players organizes it, but after that it would be Auto-run (NPCs) to get rid of the need for tedious micromanagement ),
* Smart NPC Team that keeps Player's things running/maintained without Player having to constantly watch everything ( again, less tedium, as Players gametime should NOT be wasted like that if possible ). Player may have to decide/prioritize things, if resources are limited, but repetitive grunt work can largely be done by NPC lackeys.
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Another Asset To Build : WorkBench and ToolKits 
Programmable slots for various in-game tool objects, all laid out (visually) so you can access (grab) them without tedious inventory (interface) searching - and to see what you have, so you know what you can do.
Including selections of various 'expendables' (parts is parts). Probably 'Drawers' for different types.
Tool Kits can be picked up/dropped off as a single item ( again saving on the usual inventory/storage shuffling routine tedium )
Template system allows custom versions for particular crafts, as well as more flexible Interface design for selection/modifiable editing of individual Objects ( Player Created Interfaces ).
The same idea applies to 'Ammo Belts' -- Where all the ammo/tools/options for a specific weapon goes with it as a group Object.
Likely you could have a 'Comment' note slot for the Player to remind themselves of related 'Things to Do'
Such 'kits' can act as a guideline for the "Team" NPCs to keep you supplied (automatically) without micromanaging that activity ( MMORPGs are Known for their tedious activities via bothersome interfaces ).
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U-DONT-INVENT - The Fabrication System :
Every item in the game should be fabricatable (with varying difficulties) and its Asset Attribute data to include a list of materials/parts/components (Formula) from which it might be made ( 'might' because of the skills/tools involved and a possible failure/breakage probability ). Some complex items have sub-assemblies (components) which might be common to many types of items (ie- nuts and bolts), while others have highly customized parts. The part/component Attributes are also used for various damage interactions ( like when something is blown to pieces and the parts fly in different directions ).
Likewise, every item should have a list of materials/parts/components it can be broken down into. Note that the act of being fabricated can greatly decrease the amount of the original material used as it is cut/bent/filed/molded/modified/welded/melted/etc ... Components are treated as units but still have their own quality and damage attributes, but retain a standard configuration ( where they can be reused for another object ), while breaking something down into base materials largely depends on the bulk of the item, and is destructive of any higher form. This requires re-fabrication to build them back up into component form.
SO just about anything you bring back from 'The Ruins' has some value, if not simply for its use as scrap or as something to practice fabrication skills on. With Rapture being cut off from The Surface in 1952, there was alot of recycling and reusing of items and materials.
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IDEA Would be : at the Player's workspot, to have a Chalbaord/Blackboard large enough to see in normal mode 'at a distance' (not just within some Focus'd Interface) to show info about the Current Process at work at a Fabrication 'Workbench'. Visible 'at a glance' to help avoid tedious interface twiddling ( which so many games have ). Image showing components of the recipe/formula, tools required, possibly a checklist showing progress. Flipping through 'Chalkboard' images to select a Fabrication project would likewise be possible.
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Added Amusement for 'Fabrications' : 
Make it a bit of a gambling game to add Player interest (more than #$%^&* tediums repetition)
* Real Repairs (chance of degrading as well as improving an object)
* Fewer 'Work Actions' (low repetition), otherwise it just become a 'numbers' averaging game for similar results. If its too repetitive, it simply becomes 'statistical', so need some 'all in' type effort/material wagering. Risk a lot for chance at exceptional/greater outcomes/breakthroughs.
* Exceptional 'makings' (results) Not done via the automatic 'routine' Underling ('Team') tasks.
* Then the Player has to go collect the materials/components again (formula/recipes)
* Mentioned elsewhere - various Tool/Skill/Material quality modifiers to the actions
* Actual USEFULNESS for the items, not just "Sell to the Vendor" money generating schemes which most MMORPGs 
have ( the landfill in those games - full of useless 'crafted items' which soon would bury all those game's 
huge maps 80 feet deep ).
* You shouldn't do your Fabrication activities when you have a hangover or a mangled(injured) hand (or when sleepy).
* Injuries You or Your Team Lackeys can do to themselves from Fabrication' activities gone wrong ...
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Another area to explore for this game is to have versatile in-game Player Created machines, built up out of simpler functional parts (ie- actually useful loot..). 
Minecraft Players have come up with all kinds of interesting things (beyond the game creator's expectations) to make quite complex things happen in Minecraft by placing and combining block's interactions. The Minecraft developers are expanding the available building blocks/interactions to greatly further this ability (smart).
One difference here (this MMORPG) would be once you put a good assembly of 'Parts' together (and they behave a certain desirable way), you 'unitize' them and create a new 'second-order' (custom) building block 'part' ( in Minecraft terms you would be creating a new Smelting/Enchantment formula, which last I heard they don't do in-game ). This of course requires a much more complex object model ( employing lots of interaction with inter-object game mechanics and physics, and the 'parts' have their own '3D' shapes ). It is breaking out of the simple 'block' system/game mechanics which Minecraft is based on, and into the Object system the MMORPG uses. ( I would expect Minecraft to eventually have some 'machine' blueprint system which will automatically place a Player's pattern of blocks verbatim in the game world - but it will still afterwards be made up of a bunch of individual blocks ). 
A new 'second-order' building block 'part' would programmatically be simplified ( via auto-generated behavior scripting ) to eliminate the overhead of simulating all its sub-block's (inner workings). More and more complicated mechanisms could be built in turn from the new blocks ( WITHOUT placing every tiny block, as you largely tediously and crudely do in Minecraft ). Fully functional 'new' machines could thus be built for the game and tie in to different uses ( held by Players, added to the active scenery, even vehicles ). The game's repair activities are facilitated because whatever is built up from parts can be broken back down into parts ( given proper skill and tools ).
This all is a complex extension of my previously mentioned MMORPGs Object Fabrication system -- my original Object Repair/Fabrication which is more 2D workbench-interface oriented ( more like Minecraft's "smelting" ). This new extension is also related to the in-built terrain and used in the "Repair/Rebuild Rapture" part of the game, which employs systemized interconnects/attributes/features/utilities/portals built into the terrain structure ( which is all made of objects itself and highly modifiable ). 
New is 'Rigging' in real-time situations - objects built up/assembled by Players and their 'Team' NPCs in the terrain -- versus 'Fabrication' which has largely canned formulas/templates for what individual Objects can be created ( the formula creation is a whole separate artificial process ). Even better (gamewise) if Riggings can be done easily/simply 'ad hoc' in-the-field combining Objects to overcome and solve game obstacles.
Example- some jammed door, with all the goodies behind it, resists all manual attempts to force it open -- lLets setup a power-jack rigged to force it open - We got all the parts needed, set this part here and brace it like this, and connect that, and ...). 
The assembly line machines/process I foresaw for some of the MMORPG businesses would have elements of this kind, where placement in the terrain allowed machine sections to be linked/adjusted together to perform the desired overall task, and for one machine to 'feed into' another.
An interesting aspect of this recombining parts is the visual representation in-game when the 'engineered' object is seen. The building blocks have their own shapes ( supposedly related to what they do ) and the combination would be glued/stitched together visually ( possibly quite ugly, as well as a drain on Rendering resources ). So there should be some practical method (programming magic) to melt the assembly of parts together and simplify its shape. An easy default way is to 'Blackbox' it - To have a simple rectangular enclosure ( option shapes like tubes/prisms likewise ) to represent the object with whatever external connections links protruding on its surface and its internals hidden. Rigging doesn't do this, as the parts are meant to remain separate (even temporary) while functioning.
An Inventors Workbench simulation would be a good target for a tablet/smartphone App because of its limited self-contained server-independent nature, and simple drag-n-drop manipulation interface which Players can use to assemble things, and then run 'tests' to see if they do what the Player wants. Interface 'Wizards' of various kinds and a library of existing combination patterns would speed up such work ( to avoid constantly 're-inventing the wheel' - available 'known' patterns the result of 'Research' ).
Again, like many things in the MMORPG, various activities are optional ( a Player need not ever touch the Fabrication system or even the higher level 'Rigging' mechanism ). Instead of making that ad hoc power-jack machine to force the door, you can : ignore it as not-doable, or try to blast it open hoping the roof wont come down on you, or have a Team NPC take a cold chisel to the metal for 10 hours trying to beat your way through it ( or just explore further to see if there is another path in past it ). There are multiple ways of doing the same thing throughout much of the game.
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Techno-gibberish :
Use of various 'fake' techno names for parts/components/devices like the infamous "Gonk-u-lator", for all the little dohickeys and bits that are simplifications of mechanisms ( too real for the game - too real is usually 'boring' ) :
* Acme-plug, a part
* Minstrom Wrench, a tool (used to adjust Acme-plugs)
* Smythe Junction, an electrical component
* Brabazon oil, a material used to heat treat metal
* Menzies Serum, a drug used for treating delusional insanity
* Dilbert Probe, a bio-electronic testing tool
* Kyburz Fuse
Generic names :
* Type-3 magnetic module
* R-34 Wire Cluster ( a low-bid made part )
* Length of #2 wire
* Cleaning Solution
* Triple-A Bearing
* Sheet of Grade 2 Wallboard
* 3 inch L-beam
Other more real named parts/tools can likewise be used :
* 1/2 inch nut & bolt
* Monkey Wrench
* Jewelers Screwdriver (very small)
* Hacksaw
* Red Varnish
* Duct Tape
All those devices and machines we see on the Walls of Rapture will have to be given names ( and even plausible functions ).
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Interior Construction :
* Rigging - how else are you going to move those heavy wall sections and floor tiles all day long for your structural repairs. A-Frames, pulleys, ropes, tiedowns. Assemblies of objects places by Player to manipulate the terrain.
* Likely that many/most of the inner walls/ceiling sections were fairly lightweight ( largely insulation/sound deadening ).
** They aren't load bearing walls, just there to cover up the ugly cement most of the buildings are made of.
* Floor section are sturdier but laid down like tiles.
* Bags of Concrete - high strength for those critical structural repairs - hydraulic cement sets-in-water formula
** There would be a industrial plant somewhere to make this useful material (probably near Hephaestus)
** Stockpiles deployed in various Maintenance centers ( much probably used up by Maintenance Daddies over the years )
* Floor structural components to repair major damage ( those big holes in floors we saw in the games )
** Usually metal - so welding skills useful
* Some floors are heavy reinforced concrete compression struts required to keep those huge flat walls from imploding from the sea's immense water pressure.
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Player-run construction 'Company':
* Registered with city.
* Work done for other parties to rework/repair buildings
* Contract with payment installments
* Organized material supplies (cut out the middleman)
* Appropriate tools for heavy work and utilities
* Required construction skills ( with amount of work needed, lots of opportunity for 'on the job' training ).
* Some City sponsored work - most of the 'Big Projects'
* One or more players form a 'company' to increase the manpower for larger projects.
* Sub-contracting ( NPCs are usually available when players don't want to take part )
* Do work that other Players don't want to do ( when they prefer other game activities ... )
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Crafting/Fabrication Logically Done at Established Bases :
Required Infrastructure ( you carry around way too much already just with 'repair' kits ). Too many varied tools/facilities to be portable.
So IS IT that realistic to have them teleport/gate/fastride to these bases between adventuring way out in The Ruins ?? Instead have NPC "butt-monkeys" ( 'Team' NPCs able to do various 'Tasks' ) who do alot of the mundane stuff for you ( and marshaled 'loads' and efficient transport to minimize trips ). 
Pneumo works some places, doesn't in many others. Transit and Pneumo is expanding to outlying points from New Rapture.
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Useful Fabrication :
MMORPG Fabrication (Crafting) should, first and foremost, give something to the Player which they cannot otherwise easily get from NPC Vendors or as Mission Loot. I've seen too many games where all the Skill/Advancement Ramp effort put into crafting results in items not any better than what every player can get easily from Mission Loot.
I've also seen crafting (in some games) made into boringly repetitive mass production, AND facilitated by 'mass buying' by NPC Vendors who buy all items at below the cost of the plentiful raw materials/components which went into making them ( done to prevent an automatic game Cash generator in the simplistic/effortless(tedious) craft system ).
One early MMORPG Ultima Online ( of more sophisticated design than many today ) had Daily limits and auto-adjusting buy prices to prevent the above mentioned loophole. The BioShock MMORPG would have a more complex resource acquisition mechanism ( No 'Monty Hall' Loot everywhere ).
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Various interactive widgetry-interface thingees would make up part of the Fabrication system in the MMORPG ( analogous 'bits and pieces' you kludge together to get useful things in the game ).
This is some interface which has gears and activators and electrics involved ( The MMORPG would have far more to it ).
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Fabrication Via Bio-Technology :
A great deal of progress was made before the City fell, and even if the Player cannot (easily) discover/develop any new such technologies, there are many still laying out in the ruins, which might be found and used.
Alot of specialized Genetic Engineering Tools are required (often creating the tools is most of the Solution). Advancing 'The Cure' requires finding these things for the Tenenbaum Institute ( a name that some people call the place you got 'Cured' from being a Splicer ).
Biochemical components, reagents, mediums, etc ... are themselves required pre-products ( and many of them are produced using genetic biochemistry. ) Basic Raw Materials are other Biological materials which themselves have to be produced (like fabrication of parts) and require high standards of quality/refinement. ( So expect to see mad-scientist-type chemistry setups around - pretty colored liquids bubbling and bunsen burners boiling fumes, etc ... )
Some Gene patterns can be copied/cloned/cultured, but not modified ( which would require substantial understandings and detailed knowledge of genetic patterns ). Many such 'Plasmid' patterns ( used for Tonics and Plasmids ) were borrowed/isolated from natural genetic material (and not created). 
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Player Fabrication - A Production Line Process :
Some goods production have complex formulas with multiple steps and components.
* Better workers, machines, and better tools can be substituted in order to increase productivity.
* Different worker slots in the process can be filled with workers of appropriate skills and higher skill ability can accelerate that segment of the process.
* Better machines (special tools) can also be substituted to speed up production steps.
* As per the 'eliminate the grind' directive for the MMORPG, once a production process is set up, a player's NPCs can do the work automatically.
* Part of the 'automatic' process could also be selling the product on to buyers ( same for deals for inflow of raw materials ). Many NPC businesses in New Rapture operate this way already ( so something actually goes on in those back rooms ... including 'jobs' that players can take while they re-orient themselves after their 'cure' and can start climbing the business 'food chain' ).
Of course this all is small scale production. Bigger Assembly lines ( like that story-atrocity Fink Mfg Fantasy in Infinite BS ) just cant work : One - Because they are too costly, Two - Because there aren't enough Customers to warrant that scale of Production. 
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Complexity - Tiny Simple Bits That Need Fixing ... :
The MMORPG would have alot more interactive manipulations of functional objects. ( This actually looks like a overly-fancy Water Cooled Computer Motherboard, but would serve adaquately ). Simple enuf : Components can be discerned visually and be replaced. There would be a whole raft of Maintenance Missions which would require looking at some chunk of machinery, and figuring out what failed part is needed, obtaining it, and replacing it. The mission interest would MORE be the semi-hazardous environment to carry out the Repairs.
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Machines Are a Little More Breakable In MMORPG :
It was a limitation of the Solo games that many machines were not breakable (or hackable) and this would be different in the MMORPG. It might have added something to the game to make you try to avoid combat near machines you might need to use ( we saw how combat next to Health Stations wrecked them ). Many machines you now find will already be in that broken state from lack of maintenance, various violence or environmental damage. 
At least in this game, you have a chance to repair them. Supplies for the machines also can be 'run out' ( meaning you have to find some and reload it ). The City pays for such repaired machines to be moved within its boundaries for the use of its Citizens.
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Smash That Glass (NOOOOOOOOO!!!) :
Glass ( after all the smashing .. years of it ) is a rare commodity in Rapture, and you might want to go to the trouble to bring intact objects back to get that premium price for it ( or to impress your acquaintances with the quantity of glass in your Private Residence ). Glass is also a raw material useful for making new objects ( and a with Bounty offered for it for all the expansion going on in New Rapture's City Center. )
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IDEA : Designer Flybot Fabrication (by Players) :
Kludging together various bits and pieces to make a working Flybot ( You get to 'test fly it' to see if it works, with likely limitations and failure depending on skills, parts used, how good you build it, and then fix/improve it )
Splicers used many of these, with repairs, some of quite odd combinations of parts being substituted.
Computerized AI is not likely on most of these now - Remote Radio Control, and even (dragged) wire cable control could be made to work ( with additional limitations ).
Ideas for 'Races' (with or without obstacles) or gladitorial contests are possible.
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Match The Circuit :
Looking at Hack Picture thumbnails, I had the idea that you could make a mini-game out of visually matching one circuit, from a set you are shown, to replace a burned out one for some important device. Possibly for a hacking/repair task or somesuch. Many circuits have obvious differences, while others might have subtle small differences. Many circuits for common systems were modular and with components mass-produced ( for Rapture's doors, environmental systems, communications, lights, devices of various kinds, etc ... ). Combinations/pattern of components to be the equivalent (kludge) of the required 'part' to be substituted ( A simplified game system for this is needed - as real electrical/electronics get a bit too detailed ).
The Player having to do it 'while in a rush' (timed mini-game) with the Door to that Cold-Cold Ocean threatening to open on you, OR to get some lights so you can see the horde of Morlock-likeMorlock : from HG Welles "Time Machine" Splicers coming to get you. OR to activate that friendly Turret, etc ...
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Crafting With Progressive Refinement (Crafting/Fabrication) :
* Specialization of Attributes ( combination and exclusion trees, with varying patterns of effect )
* Skill/Tools/Material/Components (Assistance ?) modifiers ('quality' increases potential success of work)
* Particular Components or Design Specs being required ( which need to be obtained or made, and would be created under similar fabrication mechanisms )
* Progression is usually with a decreasing returns for each additional Attribute advancement
* Higher item refinement entails higher chance of ruining the item ( turning it into scrap ), and allowing fewer retries to correct the botch.
* Repairs of more Specialized/Refined Items are likewise more difficult
* It helps to get rid of the tediously artificial "I manufactured 12000 guns/swords, and could have built an island from them if I piled them up", and "I make less money selling the items I make than the resources required to make them cost", and "The Items I can make, nobody wants them (including me) because the game is swamped with Quest Loot which is almost always better and easy to obtain".
* Estimations given so the Player can judge the risk of their options
* Calls for judgement by the Player of how far to attempt the refinement before the risk cancels out the potential benefits.
* Logical Interactions of Components(if any) - equivalencies of quality required, etc...
* Materials and Components (and Tools) still symbolic ( not every detail of a real process need be present in the games Fabrication system ), but enough to reflect something a bit more real.
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Fabricating Your Electronics :
'Bread Boarding' your electrics - literally a wooden board, from when people actually sliced their own bread, was used and worked on at the kitchen table - nails to hold/connect wires, vacuum tube sockets screwed into the wood, likewise other components laid out/held in position.
No this has nothing to do with 'Water Boarding' ( though if your ceiling leaks ... )
And Players don't have to have taken 'Electronics 101' to make use of this (in the MMORPG). Simplified functional blocks to simulation constructing various useful mechanisms ( use of 'building block' component templates to simplify things ... and some handy pamphlets you can buy down at New Rapture City Hall ).
All part of the extended Fabrication activities in the MMORPG.
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Recycle_and_Repair Would also be some of the Fabrications Processes. 
Tearing things apart for their Parts would be a common activity. Parts would be stockpiled or 'sold on' to others. A (fixed) operating unit thought is usually worth more.
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