Something about the industrial zone of Koboldsk

 Koboldsk industrial zone is an area outside the city limits. Several transportation routes lead to the industrial zone: highways and tram tracks, as well as the railroad, which passes through several industrial loading zones and is an important transportation artery of the whole country.

The industrial zone has many interesting places of light industry, heavy industry, oil and gas industry and agricultural industry: a weaving factory, a bearing factory, an oil and gas storage facility, a pipe factory, greenhouses and of course many small and not so small private enterprises. All this makes Koboldsk a very important place on the map, but in this post I will not fully describe the life of the city and its industrial zone. I'd rather talk about a small sub-location that is available for the player to explore. It covers a piece of an oil depot (which is not available for exploration and serves a purely decorative function) and a large section of the backyard of a small factory specializing in metalworking. What does this mean? That's right, lots of barrels of grease and hydraulic fluid for the machines, lots of cylinders of oxygen and gas mixture for welding and laser cutting, and pallets of steel or bronze billets for further machining on the machines, sealed crates, tools, and so on and so forth. A key element of the plot is a small crane, which will be malfunctioning by the time the player arrives and will need to be fixed, of course.

It is here that Faeena Shay, the main protagonist of the game, meets Gadget, a mechanic-self-taught dryad from the Blue Wood, which not so long ago became home to the young Shay clan. Gadget is not part of the Shay clan and does not have a clan surname, nor did she even know until the last moment that her home happens to have been taken over by Matriarch Violetta Moray. However, when Gadget recognizes that she's facing the Clan Mother herself (which is the title Faeena holds as the clan leader), she won't show any dislike. She could even be persuaded to move into the clan's territory and become part of it. More importantly, the conversations with Gadget will form the plot of the next mission, which I will tell you about in the future.

Gadget will play one of the key roles in the plot of the first mission. She will give the protagonist the necessary item to fix Robin's candy cart, but in return you, as a player, will have to make some alchemical potion for her (since Gadget obviously doesn't know anything about alchemy and potions). She will also give her a little tour of the sub-location and advise Faeena to rummage through the trash, where you can often find a lot of interesting things (but this suggestion will disgust the clean Faeena). Gadget herself will do just that at the first meeting, rummaging through a container of metal scraps in search of materials for her inventive gizmos. Gadget is a regular in the industrial zone of Koboldsk and is even allowed into some factories and enterprises, where she works part-time as a mechanic, electrician, plumber, and other professions so dear to her heart.

I will give more details about this dryad in the future, as it is a very colorful and interesting character. It's also worth noting that her name may change in the release version of the game. Other options also considered include Gaika, Nozzle, and Gage.

The back facade of the hangar where the metalworking factory is located. Based in part on my former place of employment! Here you can see a piece of the building, windows with ventilation system, a piece of fence, cleaning equipment, hydraulic carts and of course a crane with an electric motor and a pallet hanging on a hook.

The small temporary outdoor warehouse. You can see another hydraulic cart, as well as a cargo cart, containers, barrels, pieces of broken pallets, a pallet with steel billets and a couple of tables, one of which is used to check parts for compliance with the blueprints. Fortunately, the weather will be clear during the mission, so there's no need to fear an all-soaking rain.

The junkyard with dumpsters, empty barrels, junk and emptied gas cylinders that will soon go to fill up again. On the left, you can see the container of metal scraps that Gadget will be rummaging through, and you can also see her cart with the battery inside. No matter how much Faeena resists, she will have to explore the trash cans for the necessary ingredients for Gadget's alchemical potion (which will surprise and even anger her, because the potion will have to be drunk).

Gadget's place and the control panel of the crane, which Faeena (with Gadget's help) will have to fix in order to lower the pallet and get the right thing.

Gadget's cart is her invariable attribute, which will accompany the owner throughout all her appearances in the game (and there will be a lot of them, believe me).

The crane that so inadvertently decided to break down, and even with a useful pallet on the hook. The crane is equipped with a winch and an electric motor and moves back and forth on long beams by means of a remote control. It's used to load pallets of finished goods into cars (and unload them, which makes sense). Faeena has to help Gadget find the missing parts to fix the crane and lower the pallet with the necessary parts to fix the candy cart.