Moving broken vehicles out of the road

[socom55]

melting car

[Theundyingcode]

mininuke would be faster…

[TheZoneWizard]

Is there any way to move wreckage? Besides demolition. Dismantle I think and pushing everything is the only method right?

[socom55]

Happy Halloween

[mlangsdorf]

It’s not a bad approach, but there’s still two obstacles:

1. Figuring the approximate location of the carried vehicle on the flatbed
2. Taking damage to the flatbed and carried vehicle.

I think they’re solvable but they’re not trivial.

[nameless_survivor]

It’s not a bad approach, but there’s still two obstacles:

1. Figuring the approximate location of the carried vehicle on the flatbed
2. Taking damage to the flatbed and carried vehicle.

I think they’re solvable but they’re not trivial.

If you use the item approach, I’m not really sure how you would do either of those things. However, if you use the approach where you approximate the vehicle as a liquid, the vehicle is everywhere in the flatbed that contains the theoretical liquid.

Here is how I think it would work (limited programming expertise, so bear with me here):
Starting Assumptions:
1.) The volume of a vehicle tile is the same regardless of what kind of part it is, or how many parts are in that tile.
2.) Each flatbed tile has a storage volume equal to the volume of a vehicle tile. Items stored within the vehicle being loaded will be ignored for purposes of vehicle volume.

Operation:
1.) A dimensional comparison check will be done to confirm that the width/length of the flatbed is greater than or equal to that of the vehicle being loaded. Additionally, the program will check the inverse of the vehicle dimension vs the flatbed (to simulate loading the vehicle sideways). Inverse loading configuration will always take priority, to allow more vehicles to be crammed into a flatbed truck where possible (no point in a 1x3 motorbike that can be arranged sideways preventing a car from being loaded due to insufficient length).
2.) If true, the flatbed tiles will then be “filled” from left to right, starting at the top left corner.
3.) After each flatbed tile is filled, there should be a check to see if the width of the flatbed that has been filled “X” equals the width of the vehicle being loaded. If true, go to next row.
4.) If any of the flatbed tiles take damage above a certain amount, you could “spill” a bit of your liquefied vehicle stored in that area, and when it gets spawned during unloading, that tile will take a proportional amount of damage. If the flatbed is damaged beyond repair but not outright destroyed (greyed out), the vehicle tile its holding would be too.
5.) If a flatbed tile is outright destroyed, the items and materials from that tile on the stored vehicle could be dropped onto the ground at the time of destruction (this might be difficult to implement, I’m not sure).

[socom55]

i just though of a vehicle compactor or grinder that when it make contact with an object til break it down to resources and collects them in a storage or something like that

[nameless_survivor]

i just though of a vehicle compactor or grinder that when it make contact with an object til break it down to resources and collects them in a storage or something like that

There should already be code for a collector item. The scoop on the robot street sweeper vehicles you can find. Would just need a grinder style component.

Might try using the roller drums from a steamroller for the grinder. I’ll have to get my hands on some scoops and find an intact steamroller to soup up and try it out on.

[Mantar]

At the moment? Yeah. But if you smash it partways, the weight drops quickly and it gets easier to push, and it collapses into scrap more readily when you push it.

[DrakeDragon8]

Jackhammer it. Its how I moved a bus… in pieces.

[kevin.granade]

unless both vehicles have the exact same facing.

If that’s the primary problem, can you just have it fail if facing isn’t similar (same quadrant or so), and if it is similar, just adjust it to have the exact same facing?

[nameless_survivor]

Another reason to be able to move vehicles around easily: Car Forts. No post apocalyptic base is truly complete until you have a wall built out of destroyed vehicles.

Being able to drag large broken vehicles and arrange them into a wall around your base is way faster than gathering untold thousands of planks and tree trunks, or making/scavenging tons of concrete.

[kevin.granade]

i just though of a vehicle compactor or grinder that when it make contact with an object til break it down

Setting aside the “turn it into resources” thing, the problem with this kind of vehicle is that it’s pretty ludicrously expensive to operate, it has to be insanely heavy, and on top of that it needs torque-focused power to operate that kind of grinding tool, which makes it even more heavy and inefficient.

Summary for the thread:

Winching

Doable, I don’t think it solves the problem as directly as you think since you can only pull vehicles toward your own vehicle, so things like clearing bridges are going to be miserable.

Vehicle-mounted crane

Also very doable, it has a few issues that winching doesn’t have, but if we treat it as omni-directional dragging (assuming we only lift the other vehicle a foot or so), so it still collides with things on the ground and that makes it pretty similar again. The down side to this is it requires a stupendous amount of hardware for a large crane, and a small one is not going to be able to lift a lot of vehicles.

Flatbed

Doable with a lot of work, but it’s pretty complicated and far off compared to the other options.

Towing

This one is interesting, it’s either similar to trailer hauling, in which case it’s even further off than flatbedding, or it’s similar to winching (i.e. towing with a tow rope), in which case it’s pretty doable.

[nameless_survivor]

Towing

This one is interesting, it’s either similar to trailer hauling, in which case it’s even further off than flatbedding, or it’s similar to winching (i.e. towing with a tow rope), in which case it’s pretty doable.

I’d go with tow rope. But it should probably be chains and a hook or electromagnetic clamp. Not sure how you would back up with that arrangement though. For simplicity’s sake you might just ignore that and code everything to move like the towed vehicle is an extension of your own. Maybe require the chains or cables be attached to a steel boom or something on the exterior, to simulate the front end of the towed vehicle being lifted.

Bit of scope creep, but:
If winches or tow cables make it into the game, being able to use a truck or tank to rip off metal doors, pull down trees, etc with them might also be useful as well.

[Mantar]

Not sure how you would back up with that arrangement though.

Move slowly and push it. It’s not a good idea, but backing up with a vehicle on a tow rope (or even an attached trailer) is not generally a good idea IRL either because you can’t keep it going straight.

[nameless_survivor]

That is exactly my point. The physics mechanics in game would cause damage to both vehicles, defeating the purpose of towing rather than just pushing things out of the way, and you wouldn’t be able to control where it went. It might just be a limitation you have to live with, if whoever does the programming doesn’t simply ignore it and code the towed vehicle to act like an extension of yours.

Another problem with just a tow cable or chain is coming to a stop. Inertia will keep the towed vehicle moving, and it could bump into yours.

[Trigon]

I remember once upon a time I had a survivor with high strength, augmented strength, the mutations, and hydraulic muscles. I just tore vehicles in half and dragged the big bit out of the way. Probably not an applicable method for every survivor though.

[TheZoneWizard]

But for purpose of practical coding over practical function. Isn’t Towing a solution that would be a balance?

You can move your wreck out of the way(albeit slow and clunky). But you can. You COULD do damage to your own vehicle, but in game…should it? Maybe if it gets hung up sure. But for just getting it done in the game. We gain more than ham fisting another method right?

We can always add more to the game after. Options as I comment often = more is better

[Mantar]

If you move slowly, you tend to get only minor damage, I go no more than 10mph when pushing vehicles out of the way all the time. But my point is that you don’t back up when pulling a vehicle with a tow rope/chain in the first place. If you have to go the other way, you circle around instead.

[TheZoneWizard]

Tow cable + reinforced undercarriage could stand a better chance though. Thoughts?