Personally i think similar to minecraft i would enjoy npc’s you can find them almost right after the explosion and the droids dont like them. So then you can friend or even take stuff but they anger then attack you whenever they see you and you can trade and have a friend bar or similar to i liking bar would be better, also you can have them do deals or diologe and they can help you take out cogs but you must pay them a certain amount of that resource in the area your in for weaker or stronger drills
Unfortunatly this doesent fit too well with the current/planned lore of the game.