New Vehicle Fun

Game Talk The Bunker
1

Wow, so Ill start with my story. Hungry for knowledge and also bored, I was scouring the forums for, well whatever. And I came across the Welding rig after reading through about 30 or 40 pages in the Newbs, Tips, Tricks section.
This sounded amazing. I’d never used a solar powered car and this was supposedly really effective with solar power. So I gave it a try.

In game I had 5 Mechanics, 2 Fabrication and 3 electronics.
So, with my Tanto I drove my flatbed through 3 cities searching 7 libraries and smashing my flatbed far too many times. All just for a Fabrications and Electronics book. I totalled my flatbed which has most of my loot, back at a bar in a 4 building town far away, is my other loot which compromises of Wood, scrap and electronic parts as well as a lot of MRE meals. But everything else was in that flatbed stuck in the middle of town. This was the 3rd time I lost my engine, but I lost my 2 front wheels too.

I got swarmed by maybe about 50 Z’s or so, and somehow managed to melee through them all. It was after then I checked my stats. Wow, 8 melee… I started the game with 0. Never noticed it had risen so much.
Now I managed to hang around, and survive in the center of town around my flatbed for a few days. Kept being woken in the night as I slept. (A week later I realised it was because of that lightstrip on the seat I sleep in attracting Z’s)
So I managed to get the my skills up. Fabs to 3, Electronics to 5 and Mechanics to 5. By what I had read on the forums, this should have been enough. Nope.
I needed the Recipe from a book. Curse the day this update was out. Turns out I had the book. Got my mechanics to 6. Still got all recipes I could at this level. I got my mechanics to 8. Then got every recipe I could out of the book.
It was a mechanics book so I assumed I needed mechanics to learn the recipe. This was all while surviving hordes in the middle of the city.

So I read books to raise my electronics, then after another couple of days, I got my Fabs skill to 5. Finally, it let me learn the Welding Rig from the book. So I lived in the middle of town for well over a week in game just to learn how to make a Welding Rig.
Then, I stole a car battery and some different sized wheels and fixed up my car, driving my car back to the bar that was so far away but I remembered had everything I needed to make this rig. And I put it on my car, then later I totalled my car AGAIN! outside a hotel area. I did a similar thing (this was where I realised the lightstrip was showing enemies where I slept.

During the week and a half I lived here, hunting for food and water, I got attacked by Z dogs and Zombears at least 5 times a day.
Every time they would damage my vehicle. I had 2 solar panels from a broken vehicle on my flatbed and it was sufficent to never need batteries again. Wow. It was always raining and acid raining too. So I made an RV kitchen for my Flatbed after burning down three houses during my time there just to boil water and cook meat.

This made everything so much easier. Anyway, with the Welding Rig, I heavily changed my flatbed a lot. Over the week and I half I let it stay totalled. (This was also due to the battery staying on 0%)

Eventually I had it to 6 solar panels, and now it recharges a lot better. So I added another car battery and a lot of steel frames and sheet metal to adjust to the heavy modding of extending it and moving all the trunks. And then moved it to my bar. Then I repaired it so all parts are on perfect. Now I have changed the vehicle completely and from all this… (Sorry about the long story) I have a few questions.

Question 1) What is with the excessive amounts of Zombears and Zombie Dogs? They are a nuisance and kept damaging my vehicles. I no at least 4 dogs a day attacked me. (Yes I pulped every corpse) And 1 to 3 Zombears would attack me.

Question 2) How exactly does Solar powered cars work? What vehicle parts do I need? Also why cant I have now put a car alternator on my vehicle? It never shows up anymore.

Question 3) What can I do to avoid Zombies smashing my car so easily? They have taken out my battery twice. (As in fully destroyed it) The 3rd and 4th time was my fail driving. Now the battery is in the middle of the car along with an Electrical motor.

Question 4) Does the order I place things on a single tile of my car matter?
Thanks people, and sorry about that long story. It’s been the highlight of all my games.

2

1: The telepathic zombears and dogs are just a fact of life. It happens.
2: They charge best when it’s Sunny out, second best when clear. They charge VERY poorly at other times (…night included because apparently in the future solar powers don’t require sunlight…) Also you can’t install alternators on electric vehicles, it doesn’t work like that.
3: Swerve. You can also put the fragile bits in the back or install a plow. (Or armor)
4: Sort of. “armor” should always, always, always be the last part installed, but beyond that it’s just taste. And whatever flavor of frame you want to use should be first.

3

Thanks Ekarus
Can you name all the simple things I should have for the Solar vehicle. Is it just the Electric Motor and the Solar Panels and the Storage Battery. What else? Also, what are Solar Cells for?

Edit, How do I use a Cordless Drill? I wanna dig out the walls of the building next to the bar to make a garage for my vehicle.

4

You don’t, cordless drills are completely useless.

5

Ahh, guess I’m on the watch for a nice Jackhammer then.

6

You don’t, cordless drills are completely useless.[/quote]

You can’t even get the damn batteries out of them :confused:

Also for a solar car you need At least one storage battery, at least four solar panels (more=faster charge) and a large electric engine. That said gasoline is much better IMO, yes you have to find gas but for the most part once you’ve got it, it’s fairly simple to keep it topped off while driving around.

7

But the Benefits of the Welder, RV kitchen and other things I am gonna put into it is too good to ignore. Should I just keep adding Solar Panels then?

8

I often prefer to put all the utilities in together with a solar collector inside my home base. So you don’t risk them being destroyed in an unfortunate crash. That way, you first pack your RV with all the water/jerky you’ll need for the expedition and go off to explore the world. Only return when you need to craft complex stuff/feel like it.

9

I just raided a Hospital and then found a Humvee. So I’ve taken off all the Military Composite Armour off and am now putting it onto my Vehicle. : )

10

If I made a vehicle using duct tape would it break more easily than if I used a welder. I already ride on a bicycle held together only by tape and it seems fine.

11

It makes no difference AFAIK

12

Is it posibel to Put turrets on a car?

13

Yes, you need either a m2 browing or m249 (each shooting their respective bullets); a Nx-17 rifle (shooting explosive energy from your car’s batteries), a flamethrower (shoots 3*3 squares of fire and uses gasoline from your tanks) or a fusion gun (using extremely damaging fusion cells).

14

Hah, I don’t have any advice but great story-seems like you have one hell of a time with your truck-really good read.

15

Solar cells are for making solar panels.

It sounds to me like you’re having a hard time controlling your vehicle. Some driving tips would be:

  1. Drive very slowly until your driving skill reaches at least 4, at which point you should very rarely “fumble with the controls”.
  2. Drive very slowly in the city no matter what your driving skill is. Keep it at or below 30 mph.
  3. Check your parts regularly for damage, don’t just wait until you vehicle stops working to do vehicles maintenance.
  4. If you can find/make a vehicle tracking device and find a PDA you can install it on your vehicle, activate it in the vehicle controls menu, and as long as the PDA is in your inventory your vehicle will show up on the world map. This allows you to park a safe distance away from where you’re looting/reading/sleeping etc. so it doesn’t get smashed up by zombears.
16

A thing I’ve noticed while looting this town for supplies to build my vehicle, Zombears don’t seem to spawn in “city” tiles, just Fields and Forests.

17

Thanks AlphaHunter. Will keep all that advice in mind.
Also building a garage for my car sucks, just gonna look around for a small city of a few buildings and hope for a house and garage or a vehicle garage. Then clear it out.

18

Trucks are also a bit of a hard vehicle to be driving about town, they are just a bit big, I usually go for a solar car upgraded to 5 cargo carriers, 6 storage batteries (place them in the middle to minimize damage to them) composite armor just on the front and upgraded solar panels on everything else but 1 tile which has the floodlight. In terms of upping your skills more efficiently, cut up cars for mechanics, make piles of arrow parts and throw them away for fabrication and pull apart and remake piles of electronic crap while using mp3 and drugs to keep your focus right up for elec. It will cut down on your fail rate for crafting and up your chance of learning recipes when reading books as well.

19

I have the series of books to bring my Fabs to 9 and my mechanics is hugely high from repairing my vehicle. Haha

20

Yah, once you get your mechanics to 2 or 3 then repairing your car will put you off the charts without much effort.