Think of a double decker tourist bus, then imagine adding armor plating and reinforcing the windows. Then add a mounted machine gun on top. This would provide an elevated firing position and, in the case of human enemies, make it more difficult to fire at you. It could also add more storage/living space for mobile bases.
Potential area for vehicle mounted farms too.
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Itâs actually not quite as tricky as a lot of the Z-level stuff, because vehicles are already a weird exception to normal map handling code.
then you drive the 5z level tower of doom under a walkway that is 2z levelâs high and smash the top off.
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then you drive the 5z level tower of doom under a walkway that is 2z levelâs high and smash the top off.[/quote]
Tactical vertical building insertion.
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XD
Skycrane insertion day 5: I ran out of ammo back on day 3, but more zombies have come. looks like today will be the day boots hit the roof however, a good thing because I ran out of âmachine washableâ tags to write on on day 1. I didnât want to resort to tearing pieces of parachute for logs, but am quickly running out of arm to write on. Note to self: next time bring paper, shorten the skycrane, or wait longer before opening the chute.
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Imagine airplanes.
Or actual trains in subways.
subway trains have little to do with z-level mechanics, unless they start traveling between levels along with subway entrances and such. Airplanes I canât even imagine how might work without overhauling to a totally different game engine. Or making them basically teleportfast travel-(halo style oracle mode) / orbital bombardment stations.
Wow. Dropping things on zombie heads from z level 50 sounds immensely gratifying.
I hope to high hell that if they ever make it into the game theyâre abstracted rather than simulated. Thousands of characters will die as players try to wrap their head around v speeds, critical angle of attack, aircraft weight and balance, etc. And thats not even getting into the mechanical side of things.
Three words triple decker supercar
Subways are little more than dry sewers, which is a little disappointing. I guess you could have airplanes act like cars, just on a different z-level and it has the ability to freely travel (i.e. teleport, deconstruct, reconstruct) So youâll press the vehicle menu, go up or down a certain amount of levels, etc.
If thatâs not probable (Which now thinking about it wonât have much utility) I think itâll act like pressing M and viewing the map, allowing you to fast travel, drop bombs, scout, etc. would be much better than just pressing the drive key and staring at blue tiles for 15 minutes while you travel in one direction.
(Not enough fuel to reach destination, land as close as you can? Y/N)
âDrop bombs where?â (Shows blinking letter)
Adding the potential to drop atom bombs from airplanes would be the cherry on top.
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I canât see an apocalypse survivor finding enough of a risk/reward ratio to consider doing anything with airplanesâŚunless they were top secret UFOâs with VTOL capabilities, which would allow the explaining away basically anything thats not convenient/conducive to enjoyable play. Allow for âhover bombingâ and âfast travelâ in an excusable late game fashion.
Imagine this combined with boats (such as a truly massive ship like an aircraft carrier) combined with the ability to have vehicles be able to sit on other vehicles!!! like you have your massive aircraft carrier with a farm on it and like 50 rooms for your private army and a flipping tank parked on the deck that you can drive off onto land (thereâd have to be some way of getting the tank on and off which would probably just be like a drawbridge type deal) to go and hit POIs and do quests and drive back on when your quest is over! and when planes are finally added in it is an aircraft carrier 
so bam. youâre a serious power house in your gameworld. with a floating city that you take anywhere with water deep and wide enough to fit you!
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And then Cthulhu rises from the deep and eats your carrier with everything invested in it 
Noooo. I know what Iâll do, stationed npcs all across the deck armed with flamethrowers and several nuclear bombs I can self detonate if they fail. If the ship goes down then the ocean itself is coming with me!
I find this concept relatively overkill. Itâs a lot of work to implement for something that wouldnât receive much use.
Actually, about the only reasonable usage I can think of is maybe helicopters. But even still, a lot of work for something that doesnât significantly affect gameplay. Helicopters would be nice, but it would be a late game project. And subways as well. But I canât imagine it being a priority, more like a pet project.
I really have to disagree on it not affecting gameplay. Mainly due to the fact that when you get your deathmobile set up and transition to a permanent vehicle based lifestyle the dimensions of the vehicle get excessive. Iâd love to be able to have a vehicle that can grow taller rather than a vehicle that is too wide for highways and is too long to turn around on said highways as well lol. also you do get a vision bonus from being up z-levels now so that also affects this, I can def see some of my late game characters building a massive mast in the center of my vehicle that I can use for mapping.
I do concede that this is mostly a luxury addition but I really think that a lot of the late game future of CDDA is tied up in expanding the vehicle mechanics. for me personally Multi z-level vehicles, vehicles being able to drive onto other vehicles (like using a ârampâ item to get a motorcycle or 4wheeler onto your truck or the same for getting a larger vehicle onto a water based ferry/super base), flying vehicles mainly helicopters but planes eventually too, and an expansion on the water based vehicles systems and the oceans themselves. I need mah nuclear powered Submarine with target-able nukes! lmao
All of this is heavy late game stuff but that heavy late game stuff is absolutely what cdda lacks right now. There is a definite point of critical mass in most playthroughs where your characters simply transcend anything the game world has to throw at you and you run out of things to do. This isnât a cure for that problem but itâs one of the steps I feel in necessary for cdda to continue growing.
Iâm honestly really confused as to why more people arenât pushing for multi-z vehicles it just seems so necessary. Not being rude but it just feels like the natural next step in cdda vehicles. I think allowing zombie hordes to walk up z levels by climbing on top of each other is a good companion feature for this.
On top of my earlier points the vehicle autopilot ai is getting some serious love right now. if youâre going to have a caravan of ai driven tanks you need somewhere to store them right? lol man going from gameworld to gameworld tearing the map apart for resources to fuel your military might haha! once the npcâs get more love and can have their own vehicles and bases and stuff it just feels natural. besides itâs canon right now that there are a few I think destroyers in one of the factions. we need an implementation for those! lol I need to stop being a lazy ass and learn how to code.
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Iâd be cautiously open to multi level vehicles with the caveat that the have the chance to crash from turning too quickly. Think about a double decker bus and how much more top heavy it is. Any sudden turns could realistically roll it over if either too sharp or too fast a turn.
The solution would be to widen its base to make it more stable, but then that sort of negates the main reason to build higher in this case.