So I'm relatively new to this game, so perhaps all of this has been covered somewhere. If so, my apologies, and I'd love to be pointed to it.

The number one thing that struck me about the game, once I got over learning the basics, is that the game has no challenge or risk of failure. While watching people restore antique and classic cars, it sure seem like there's ALWAYS going to be missing a part and half the time they spent on their vehicles was tracking down rare parts or finding ways to get them fabricated.

With parts always available, I honestly don't see any point to fabrication. It's not faster and, when you factor in the cost of the plans, doesn't isn't really any cheaper. Likewise, salvaging tanks seems pretty pointless if you already have that chassis. And perhaps even more, if there's no chance of not having parts, I can't think of any chance that you'll actually fail a contract.

Another thing I'm a bit confused about is the purpose of the hammer/alternate grinder mode. The amount of time it saves you seems to be fairly minor, especially when you consider that it adds time either repairing them, or being limited to fully rusted items. Which also ties back to my previous issue, in that without necessity for part salvaging, I can't think of much reason to remove parts.

Also, it seems like the grinder is supposed to replace the de-rusting tool (is that supposed to be a laser?), but once you get the toolbelt upgrade, the order the tools are placed in a matter a lot for convenience. Even if the grinder works better, it's far easier to use base de-ruster, scroll up once on the mouse wheel, go to work with the sandblaster, scroll up for primer, etc. Having to either use the number keys or scroll to up several times and then back is inconvenient. If the grinder does everything the de-ruster and hammer do, can we just have it replace them as tool 1?

So here's my suggestion to fix a lot of this: make a challenge mode.

The difference would be that
1) Contracts fail after a certain amount of time passes.
2) Not every part is available always.
3) Some parts that come on existing tanks are just stuck and can only be removed by the hammer/grinder to give them more of a point.
4) Stored parts would occupy space in the warehouse, limiting how many could be banked.
5) There's a chance the hammer will outright destroy the part, to give a reason to upgrade to the grinder.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts.