CDDA (let talk about tanks)

what do you guys think about adding tanks from history to the game. such as t34s shermans tigers or modern tanks. also having the ability to recruit other survivors to do task such as shooting the main gun other varius task. or adding other armored transport vehicles such as halftracks or ATC light assaults

Historical tanks I think wouldn’t make much sense in the main game. WW2 era vehicles would be around 100 years old by cataclysm time. They would be hard to find and probably in poor working order. Also, modern tanks would probably be hard to find as well except in an armory or something like that, because I doubt they would be useful against zombies. I’d think things like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stryker and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar_(vehicle) would be more likely.

for your first point ww2 tanks and cold war tank are numerous and many are in working order in large surrplus depot or in towns such as mine"my town has a working m4a3e8 sherman" also ther are mass tank graveyards were decomissiond tanks are dumped but not fully incompacitated as in the will damage the engine then leave it or cripple it some other way but the vehicle can still be repaired. now you said the modern tanks would be hard to find but combat tanks would provide support to convoys and troops or create road blocks which judging from my experience of the game there are plenty of those around with humves and armored trucks. not to mention if you play with other mods then they could be a big help. now about it not being effective against zombies take my other posted topic on improved npcs add them to the crew mount mgs and boom zombies would be destroyed also the gun would be usefull on bunkers or labs. not to mention its a moving fortress. now those vehicles you mentioned i sort of add them to this allready when i said “or adding other armored transport vehicles such as halftracks or ATC(Armored Troop Carrier) light assaults” such as the bradley or as you put it the styker or couger. its all the same basic concept to me. to put it in a very simplistic way “very fun to be in giant armored monster” now for gameplay yes it could make the game easy in some ways but also make it extremly hard in others such as the constant need for fuel and ammo, or the basic invulnerability.

This game really, really does not need more tanks than it already has. The automated ones are enough of a handful, thanks.

That and people can practically construct their own tanks from scrap and spare parts anyway. Getting proper armor in the game would be overkill IMO.

I want proper tanks.
Don’t care much about the tank gun, though. Tracked vehicles to flatten zombies with, that’d be nice.

No problem with having for-real tanks, it’s just that they present several difficult coding problems and aren’t a particularly high priority. mostly its tank treads that are a problem

  1. a system for installing tracks is problematic with our vehicle system since it’s based around checking that each part installation is valid, installing a set of tracks isn’t going to be valid until it’s finished.
  2. there’s no benefit right now since we aren’t tracking traction, tracks would be no better than wheels.
  3. no idea how to handle tracked vehicle steering.

I’m hoping to start working on a generic multi part vehicle system soon, but I’ve been a bit busy with real life this recently(I live in Baltimore). It may take a few iterations to get it all right though.

As for traction, it’d be really nice to have that and torque vs rpm for tanks, bulldozers, and other large vehicles.

Tracked vehicles would have one boon in that they can turn in place instead of steering.

This should be the first part of handling anything like tracked vehicles: adding traction to the game.
Without it the whole point becomes moot as tracks would be useless.

Besides, traction may have quite an impact on its own.