Bases that run on the vehicle framework

[ethanwdp]

Why is it that I can’t hook up a solar panel to a fridge in my base, but I can have a 9,000 lbs war rig with power generation, water gathering and purification, tons of storage, lights, welding rigs, etc?

The vehicle system is not broken. It’s good at what it does - modular vehicles that require upkeep and careful maintenance.
It balances itself out, you CAN drive a mobile base, but you run the risk of crashing, running out of fuel, or getting lost.

Bases wouldn’t have the danger of crashing, or attracting a horde, or getting lost (unless if you forget where it is on the map)

Seems good, right? Well no. Bases do not support any form of power at all. I understand that the electric grid is fried, but you can still generate your own power, correct?
I find it a bit silly that we have a working system that could easily be converted to also work for bases. I’ll stop beating around the bush and get to the point - let’s make houses work on the vehicle framework.

The default houses (as in, the ones that generate on mapgen) could be transferred to a modified vehicle system that explicitly handles bases. Old saves would, unfortunately, not work. However, it’s all for the best if it means bases are finally fleshed out.

It is very silly that I have to build a “vehicle” (1 frame 1 light 1 solar panel) just to get a lamp in my base, or build a “fridge” (1 frame 1 minifridge 1 solar panel), or - well, you get the point. So why not streamline it a little?

[pisskop]

Well, the idea that we can mold steel like putty and mix and match vehicles and that frames are ‘formless’ until we apply is broken.

I make a war machine from scratch in like 7 days.

[Coolthulhu]

Vehicle system is quite heavy internally, using it to model entire structures would be an overkill.
Modeling houses with it would be hard to handle, buggy, slow, incredibly inconsistent with the rest of the world and generally untolerable without a major rework.
It would require an unfeasible amount of work just for house appliances to work nicely.

The closest thing to pre-cataclysm electrical installation would be adding the ability to connect stuff with cables.
Some sort of power converter utility that would allow connecting old appliances and a cable item that connects to it and to the appliance.
Then selected items (lamps) could be converted to allow them to draw power through the cable.
Fridges would be harder, as they are furniture, but hacking around a “convert furniture to vehicle” construction recipe would be doable. Then fridges could become one-part vehicles that could draw power through cables.

[TheKobold]

What about allowing power to transfer through building walls? And then connecting it to a generator? Then we could power the consoles, fridges, and ovens because they are adjacent to the walls. I dunno how you would do it but it could also work to power any adjacent frames.

[pisskop]

The most obvious solution is some kind of ‘wire trail’ or the building of a special floor/wall that is capable of tranmitting energy from adjacent wires. They would strain the power source.

Can we haz logic gates in CDDA?

[TheFlame52]

You can already run wiring around between frames with stuff on them in your base. Why not use that?

[KliPeH]

[quote=“TheFlame52, post:6, topic:11313”]You can already run wiring around between frames with stuff on them in your base. Why not use that?[/quote]Because he doesn’t want to have to specifically build another type of “wall” to power furniture designed to be used on vehicles, he wants power running directly through walls and powering regular furniture like fridges and ovens.

I’d like to see this happen as well, it feels like with the right knowledge hooking your house up to solar panels and powering electronic devices inside it makes more sense than “building” makeshift furniture (Frame + minifridge + storage case + storage battery = Fridge) because you simply can’t use the existing ones the way the should be used.

[jcd]

Could we convert ALL static electrical house appliances to a special type of vehicles? (special meaning they utilize a special frame that (1) can only be paired with itself and (2) one cannot install an engine on it - lets avoid large fridges ending up in player vehicles ;))

This would be a great step towards cable-connected home appliances, no?

[Coolthulhu]

Could we convert ALL static electrical house appliances to a special type of vehicles?

You mean just ovens and fridges or also tiny stuff like lamps?
For ovens and fridges it would make sense, as furniture doesn’t have enough per-instance data to adequately represent appliances, but for lamps it would be better to make them items.

[Blaze]

Now there’s an idea:

• Deconstruct fridge: Get large fridge.
• Install fridge on vehicle; works like minifridge except that it has more space, blocks movement, and uses more power.

[jcd]

[quote=“jcd, post:8, topic:11313”]Could we convert ALL static electrical house appliances to a special type of vehicles?

You mean just ovens and fridges or also tiny stuff like lamps?
For ovens and fridges it would make sense, as furniture doesn’t have enough per-instance data to adequately represent appliances, but for lamps it would be better to make them items.[/quote]

Hadn’t though of tiny stuff tbh. But roof-mounted lamps are fixed IRL. Maybe adding a ‘lamp’ furniture (floor lamp) would be a nice compromise? You’d be able to use static lamps (non-vehicular ones) but still we’d avoid having to generate a static lamp in every room.

[quote=“Blaze, post:10, topic:11313”]Now there’s an idea:

• Deconstruct fridge: Get large fridge.
• Install fridge on vehicle; works like minifridge except that it has more space, blocks movement, and uses more power.[/quote]
  That’s what i wanted to avoid
  Won’t it be too tall for a vehicle? (and if you’d also want kitchen appliance, too power hungry?)

[Blaze]

We also shouldn’t be able to install wheels with duct tape.

[Coolthulhu]

[quote=“Blaze, post:10, topic:11313”]- Deconstruct fridge: Get large fridge.

• Install fridge on vehicle; works like minifridge except that it has more space, blocks movement, and uses more power.[/quote]

Minifridge already blocks movement.
So no, not until we have a more restrictive vehicle system that lets you cram a ton of components in one space.

Maybe adding a ‘lamp’ furniture (floor lamp) would be a nice compromise?

You mean furniture furniture or vehicle pseudo-furniture?
Making it an item would work better, though. You could lift it, carry it around, power it with less hackiness etc.

[Azrad]

[quote=“Coolthulhu, post:13, topic:11313”]You mean furniture furniture or vehicle pseudo-furniture?
Making it an item would work better, though. You could lift it, carry it around, power it with less hackiness etc.[/quote]

That would be nice. Something like how you set up turrets. Activate lamp to set it on the floor, and you load it with batteries or something.

[Coolthulhu]

Something like how you set up turrets.

No, totally not like that. Just items, except using power from nearby vehicle through a cable rather than from its own source.

[Wally-kun]

Alternatively, you could use jumper cables and apply them to your appliance of choice. There’d have to be something that keeps track of the distance between the furniture item and whatever is generating the power.

Either way it sounds like something somewhere would need a total re-doing and that it would take a lot of work. Odds are it would be a complete replacement.

[Coolthulhu]

Either way it sounds like something somewhere would need a total re-doing and that it would take a lot of work. Odds are it would be a complete replacement.

Making ovens into a single-part vehicles that require a special jumper cable and work like kitchen units wouldn’t be that hard.
Same for fridges.

Keeping them as furniture and implementing those functions for furniture would be a lot of work, maybe except some minor hacks, like allowing said special jumper cable to act like a hotplate when on an oven tile, with the other end being connected to a vehicle with power.

Adding a “consume from vehicle” power source similar to UPS could be either hard or doable, depending on how much mugling managed to improve the old code.

[Wally-kun]

You could use something like a channel system. Activate jumper cable, apply to vehicle; attaches to the part where the battery is supposed to be. It then prompts you to pull it to the furniture you want to power. Wherever you put it, the game gives it a number (0, 1, 2, whatever) depending on whatever is already in place in the world, so as to avoid double instances or three-way connections. Wherever you connected that thing second, you get a tile that provides whatever the thing actually gives. Like a stove would provide the hotplate quality from that tile, like how a kitchen unit does. When you use it, instead of taking it out of the tool, the game checks the host vehicle’s power amount and decides if you have enough to do that task and takes the power out after.

Fridges would be weird, but it sounds doable. Just need to implement something that can apply a specific tile a temperature, and then a way to keep that particular tile loaded.

With the same logic from stoves, you could create power poles to distribute power if you feel so inclined. The game would just have to go from the buffer, to the vehicle, and calculate power that way.

I have absolutely no idea if any of this is possible from a coding standpoint, I’m just trying to work out the logic, assuming it is possible. It SOUNDS simple enough, but I have no idea.

[kevin.granade]

I think the jumper cable code already does pretty much everything we need for tethered items, because it tracks that distance kind of thing while you’re connecting the jumper cable.

All the appliances would need to be “rewired” to work with an external generator, which would be a pretty easy construction or crafting recipe that would turn the in-game item into a pseudo-vehicle so it could use the existing power distribution code.

This is all sorted out for vehicles, the only point of contention is we’re not turning everything into a vehicle in order to make use of it because one, using existing home wiring is incredibly problematic for a number of reasons, and two it would absolutely destroy game performance due to how vehicles are implemented.

[jcd]

[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:19, topic:11313”]I think the jumper cable code already does pretty much everything we need for tethered items, because it tracks that distance kind of thing while you’re connecting the jumper cable.

All the appliances would need to be “rewired” to work with an external generator, which would be a pretty easy construction or crafting recipe that would turn the in-game item into a pseudo-vehicle so it could use the existing power distribution code.

This is all sorted out for vehicles, the only point of contention is we’re not turning everything into a vehicle in order to make use of it because one, using existing home wiring is incredibly problematic for a number of reasons, and two it would absolutely destroy game performance due to how vehicles are implemented.[/quote]

So it is not needed to even convert appliances to ‘vehicles’, only utilize jumper cable code, add power costs to furniture and it could work?
But power cost to furniture? hmm iirc this aint simple…