Cataclysm Suggest
Just a few suggestions that come to mind.
A system requiring axles and the like, more specifically needing a link between a the car’s engine and it’s tires to allow them to run. Dwarf fortress’ axle system comes to mind? It would make use of increasing resistances of longer length’s of axles, and perhaps give a slightly less “easily thrown togethermobile”, even with mechanics skill plus.
-If there are plans to go the extra mile, there could be the necessity of a storage battery for using the standard combustion engine, as well as the vehicles peripherals (headlights, turrets, etc). Also including wire connections, between the batteries and the engines/peripherals, and also introducing an Alternator component, that attaches to the axles of the vehicle, reducing efficiency ever so slightly but recharging the storage battery.
–This could extend on the Using “vehicles” as stationary machines bit, such that currently we can make light fixtures out of one tile ‘vehicles’ with only a set of controls and a flashlight. what I’m referring to could be an alternator, an engine, and a storage battery being used as a stationary homemade generator to recharge a rarely findable lithium battery or to power certain electrical systems? The idea could use work.
A vehicle Floor component, namely for things like avoiding the character melting to death in pools of acid, and if feasible, allowing disengagement with the vehicle controls but allowing certain degrees of movement within the vehicle without be crushed to death by it? Though, you’d expect your character to continue moving if the vehicle crashes, much like being unbelted, so pain abounds. Would have use to allow NPCs to board and for vehicles where it’d make sense to move around at flat-ground speed (trucks with large storage, roving superarmored megatanks, etc.) I’d expect such a thing should prevent you from picking up things ran over by the vehicle, but that’s a coding project on it’s own I’d assume.
A hybrid type/combination limit on tiles, allowing a limit on how much of certain things you can cram in a single space. For instance, on one tile you might be allowed one seat, floor, roof, controls, axle, set of wires and a seatbelt, though on a tile with an engine, you might not be able to introduce a trunk or a seat upon, same with tanks. To promote balance as well as flavor.
Horizontal and varieties of vehicle structural bits, such as
-Slightly heavier crossbarred frames that act as transparent boards that are quite a bit tougher than windshields as well as notably tougher than normal frames,
but may allow smaller/flying mobs through easily, does not stop weather alone, and can’t support seats. Could be crafted back and forth between normal frames using a welder+rebar/hacksaw?
-Smaller (carrying volume), and much lighter (for vehicle dynamics and carrying), floor only frames, which would not support a roof or metal plating, but mostly everything else needed. Good for go-carts. Again for crafting between normal frames with welder+rebar/hacksaw?
-Tow rope. Possible suggested over a thousand times but I’m suggesting again, could perhaps a simple part that when interacted with like a trunk would ask you to specifify an object or vehicle to tow by it’s immediate direction, which would then either place the vehicle a tile away from yours from said tow component, or put the specified item (which would ussually be something too heavy to lift) on the tow-tile, factoring in the weight dynamics of the load to that point, and sort of dragging the vehicle behind it if that’s what you’re doing.
–As a non vehicle installation, perhaps a Hauling Set bionic could be of use? In which that you would drag around objects much like the tow rope would except with the player acting as the tow, and affecting movement speed only to a really small extent, at the expense of power, much like the hydraulic muscles would but with a much lower expidenture.
Further elaboration on the idea of using the vehicles system for more than just vehicles is great, like the previously afformentioned stationary floodlight trick that is already available. Some ideas would be:
-Dispensary vehicle tiles, in which can be 'e’xamined to draw from whatever liquid is stored in it’s tanks, much like gas stations. You could use this to build/use tankers to draw large quantities of gasoline or water (or whatever new liquids might make their way into the game) and mobilize them long distances or back to your home. Bonus points if you could fill vehicles (including ones using dispensaries, which would include stationary ones) directly from other your dispensaries (mobile or not) without needing some jerrycan nonsense, which could essentially allow you to have your own more limited gas station at home (In the form of a stationary “vehicle” with a dispensary, and quite a lot of tanks attached)! If you could spend the time tanking a few hundred liters over that is.
-Installable CCTV or short wave broadcasted monitors and cameras, allowing you to see through a 1 tile vehicle installed monitor to 1 tile vehicle installed cameras with the same frequency if you’re doing wireless, much like the recently added Peek command, but longer range. If it’s not wireless, then cables connecting the two on the same vehicle would be sufficient enough. Both would be a draw on power, but also be slow to use it and on/off togglable, yes? Perhaps even togglable using a remote if you can install the electronics for that as well. An option to use one of these as a viewport WHILE driving a vehicle could be pretty nice though, especially for fans of the map-tile scale supertanks. Other security features such as thermal readers, motion detectors, and audible alarms could be very nice for stationary installations as well. All installed wherever the player sees fit that is.
-Being able to use rebar to secure a ‘vehicle’ to the ground, which could greatly reduce it’s resistance to damage while sacrificing all mobility? This could properly establish the existence of imobile ‘vehicle’ systems, which we could call machines and structures, and increase the effectiveness and longetivity of such machines. Would be nice if it caused mobs to take it into consideration when pathing, though I’m not sure if it’ll stop zombies from vainly trying to punch their way through your superalloy board structures that are being used to reinforce your house. I’d expect the reinforcing process should be reversible if you really want to though.
And finally, how about multitile vehicle components? It would need a bit of work on the code I’d bet, but here is a few ideas if anyone is willing to take it up. I’d expect that multi-tile items would be stored on the ground as a pseudo item, that can’t be picked up, but definitely be towed and installed on to vehicles from the ground. An afformentioned Hauling Set bionic would help greatly with these.
-Multitile frames. A baseline requirement, consisting of both floor and roof variants like earlier spoken of, they could be more weight efficient that larger frames (something like a 2x2 frame being 3 times the weight of a single frame), toughness being somewhat the same as the amount of frames it would consist of, if slightly less, and compromised all at once if it is damage to being broken.
-Full tile and multitile fluid tanks, which would obstruct, and store gasoline or other liquids like standard tanks in particularly huge quantities, the multitile ones would need either a full multitile frame of equal to or greater than it’s size, or several Floor frames that gain full coverage of underside to support it (note, not “floors”, I mean the previously mentioned floor frames). This would have great unity with the stationary dispensary styled gas stations I mentioned earlier, and would likely be seen on tanker trucks and the like.
-Multitile engines being multitile, such as 6L to recquire 2x1 or 1x2 space, with all but the largest being easily fittable into standard 1x1 frames, but having the same restrictions in the earlier mentioned type/combination limit.
-Multitile floors, that only recquire one or two frames to support it. The vehicle will still need the tires arranged to balance out according to dynamics, but this would still allow nicer room-like areas in a vehicle without too much painstaking frame effort. Multitile roofs would also be welcome.
–Multitile items could be put together from or split apart into it’s smaller components using the welder and hacksaw with crafting, though, except where it would make no sense, like the engines.
What do you all think? Should I split this off into several threads or is it all relevant enough to eachother to keep together?
Srsly, can we have tracks? Please… 