Rough story plot
Collapse happened just under 2 years ago.
Survivors, who had been sheltered in underground bunkers, start returning to surface.
Lots of factions - eg. some military factions from mountain bunkers, some civilian factions from private or city bunkers.
Initial focus is about getting food and water and basic protection from the radiation.
Power = supplies of food + water. Run out of power = die.
Each person out of bunker costs some power (their personal food & water supply for surface expedition).
Find way to de-radiate water supply. Research tech to get new building. Then research tech to find power source for that building.
Initial electricity (solar panels or wind farms?) is used for de-radiating water.
Scavenge for food - possibly focus on diet products that are basically just chemicals + vitamins, just add water for a tasty nutritious milkshake!
As local food becomes scarce, need way to travel longer distances without effects of radiation killing them.
People outside initially die of radiation if outside too long. First vehicles are about being able to travel further + protection from rad.
Perhaps have junk yard building that acts like vehicle factory? So it's like they're building vehicles from old junk.
Dog food factories, etc., are found containing large amounts of edible high calorie food. Wars break out amongst scav factions trying to take control of the food stockpiles.
Most tinned food still surprisingly edible due to radiation killing off most bacteria.
Eventually your faction takes control over the stockpiles. Other local factions join you because you have food + water.
Disease breaks out due to growing surface population and germs in some of the food (some food not fully irradiated).
Focus turns to medical supplies.
Wars break out with other factions over med supplies.
Possible missions around hospitals, research labs, etc.
More wars - scav factions blaming each other for the collapse. Military element to factions knows it was something to do with military systems, thus assumes other parts of military were behind collapse.
Food stockpiles start to run low.
Decision to move away from city - too many radiation problems, not enough food.
Move to countryside where farms can be made.
Power = farm plots + water supply.
Ongoing wars with other factions that had same idea to move out of city.
Discovery of strange terrain featurs (nexus cliffs with red animated surface). No actual mention of nexus though - nexus doesn't get discovered until much later.
Scav factions realise they had nothing to do with collapse. The nexus cliffs are nothing the military folk have ever seen before.
More scavs merge with your faction. The project is born.
Project goals:
- Build new civilisation
- Be prepared to fight whatever caused the collapse
Project start heading towards military base in the rockies. Low population area, thus not a nuke target = low rad.
Wars along the way with marauders. Mad max road warrior stuff.
Attention starts turning more towards needing oil, vehicles and basic weapons.
Power now = Oil.
Need to research oil derrick, scav powergen, scav factory.
Project set up bases between the seattle farmlands and the rockies. Bases made around oil resources, or capturing bases of marauders to get their oil. Basically setting up supply chain so food / water can be send to military base once they get there.
Each base meets local resistance. Need to research scav MG towers. Vehicles start getting weaponised.
During this, maybe have first encounter with embryonic new paradigm / collective factions? So get attacked with flamers, cannons. Not sure if those weapons are suitable for this cam though - project only gets them later in cam1...?
Scavs find an airfield and start making helicopters to help them get to military base faster. Also use them for basic defence against marauders. Unfortunately early helicopters are weak and easily shot down.
Eventually arrive at the military base in Rockies. Secure it. Start bringing systems online.
Start researching some of the tech that's available at the start of cam1. HQ, tank factory, viper body, wheels, etc. Structures and units start making the transition from Scav to more recognisable Project stuff.
Locations of other military bases found. Many choices as to what artefacts to search for.
Three transports discovered, but all damaged. Need to repair them. Or maybe just discover blueprints, research and then build new transports?
Explanation of why team alpha will look for neural synapse link. Explanation about what beta and gamma will go looking for.
Some missions to strengthen supply route between rockies and seattle - eg. marauders taken over some parts of the route to steal food/water supplies. Your faction has to go in and kick them out, also finding some tech in the process. Maybe this could be how the airfield is found?
News arrives that new paradigm and collective factions (although not called by those names yet) are also planning to seek out artefacts, etc. The race is on. Last mission is a race against time (with increasing marauder attacks) to get the transports airborne.