I read the description of military composite armor. It says it can partially block damage to other components at the same grid.
How much is partially? Is the coverage same for all kinds of armor?
I dont know answers to all your questions, but from my experience it works kinda like you would expect from it in real life.
My first ever attempt to create deathmobile was a giant, electric long truck, all made from extra light frames except for two-row heavyduty frames bumper reinforced with two rows of military ceramic armour. Then i tried to ram some heavier enemies or move a motorbike out of the way.
Well, all the interiors were crushed badly, while bumper took little damage.
And i strongly sugest, screw the light frames. Sure, they weight less, but that only affects fuel/energy consumption. Power of engines in this game is strong enough that it isnt a problem to drive anything about 100 km/h, and you dont need more.
After about 200h put into the game, and many experiments, i belive all heavyduty frames vehicles are the best, and every outer piece reinforced with compund armour, double at the front.
My current most succesfull character has a 19t Mothership, 12 military wheels divided to 3 rows, 2 big electric engines, and 25 upgraded reinforced solarpanels. With 10 big storage batteries i can drive arround 2 days in a row and i takes about 5 sunny days to replenish. But you can allways add 3rd engine with generator and spend like 10l of disel to quickly power up if really need to.
PS. But remember it takes ton of time to weld, and even deconstruct heavy frames from other vehicles. It can take more than 60 full days of work, even more if youre unprepared (need to go hunt for food, cook water, dont have welding rig powered by big batterry etc. To not have problems with food early, i suggest going to swamp and collecting watercanes, with a little cooking skills you can make them into flour in few steps. One day and you can have like 300-400 flour. Then take one 200l barell, fill it with water, and cook it, or use water puryfining stuff. You should be set for building your dreammobile).
I did a collision test with the current experimental build.
I repaired the first row of a security van with steel plates and heavy duty frame.
After that, I ram the rv with no armor to the van at high speed (6 steps of acceleration).
Only first row of rv shattered. One block of the security van also broke.
Interior light frames still have green health.
Is that because the mass of the frame and extra-light frames are not too different?
I am trying find a few books now. I usually park a car with blades at a clear road. Get off the car and kill zombies one by one with a long bow. When I see a hulk or predator, I run to the car, back up, accelerate, and use the car to kill it.
I might build another car with heavy duty frames at the exterior if I have to ram into hordes of zombies.
I’ve got a Deluxe RV heavily modified in one of my saves, and it’s been my experience that damage mostly goes near the collision point. I’ve got a heavy duty frame/composite armor ram up front, and it takes the brunt of impact with a little damage travelling up to the neighboring frames.
My experience with solar only is that you need quite a lot, and you’ll probably be parking for a couple of months in the rainy season. (That was early on, I now have dual diesel/electric, and a reactor to rapidly recharge my batteries) A quantum solar panel or two is a godsend.
