Things about vehicles

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

Do you plan to add any of these in the future:

[ol][li]rear view mirrors: let you see behind your car where boards wouldn’t let you, they are fragile[/li]
[li]battery: it gets charged from the generator while the engine is going, it can run out if you leave the lights (and heating) on and you need to charge it up to be able to use your car again, and you can charge your portable batteries through the cigar lighter[/li]
[li]heating[/li]
[li]leaving food wrapped in tinfoil on the engine while you are driving, letting it cook[/li]
[li]be able to attach cars to each other via rope or towing rod (not sure if that’s the proper English term for it)[/li]
[li]leave stuff on the floor, without placing them in trunks, so we could have proper trunks and flatbed trucks[/li]
[li]diesel engines: can run on cooking oil too, can be started without a battery if you can push the vehicle[/li]
[li]alcohol engine, that you can build yourself[/li]
[li]jet engine: could be scavenged from helicopter wrecks and built at high level of mechanics[/li]
[li]tire- and engine wear, realistic, faster is optional[/li]
[li]the state of wheels and tires affect driving[/li]
[li]simulated gear box[/li]
[li]fuel consumption is affected by the engine, mass, tires, terrain and rpm[/li][/ol]

2

I’d add a couple others to the list.

Radiators. The bigger the engine, the more of them the vehicle needs and maximum safe speed will drop if they are destroyed or damaged or inadequate. They should be relatively fragile and if possible, required to be on the outside area of the vehicle, best results if they are in the front.

Also, borehole drilling rigs! So you can dig a well or hole into the Z level below the ground. Since this isn’t Dwarf Fortress and it’s not trivally easy to dig around IRL, This would be the way to build the entrance down to a future underground bunker, or take an unconventional route into a hostile underground strucuture.

3

I’d like it if setting off dozens of mininukes, grenades, and C4 within a small area that the ground actually take damage, I occasionally unload a huge arsenal of explosives in the middle of town, and having a road collapse into the sewers right under a horde of zombies would be both awesome and hilarious.

4

cars should also have the option of sounding the horn. i like the idea of sitting at the end of the road, revving my deathmobile whilst leaning on the horn, calling the hoard, waiting for them to get closer before i slam it into gear and paint the town red with blood.

5

[quote=“DWC, post:2, topic:1515”]I’d add a couple others to the list.

Radiators. The bigger the engine, the more of them the vehicle needs and maximum safe speed will drop if they are destroyed or damaged or inadequate. They should be relatively fragile and if possible, required to be on the outside area of the vehicle, best results if they are in the front.

Also, borehole drilling rigs! So you can dig a well or hole into the Z level below the ground. Since this isn’t Dwarf Fortress and it’s not trivally easy to dig around IRL, This would be the way to build the entrance down to a future underground bunker, or take an unconventional route into a hostile underground strucuture.[/quote]
That’s a good idea too. If they get damaged/break the engine should be overheating, also if the engine gets really damaged. It could be deeper in the chassis, but you’d need a grill on the front frame. Also, air intakes would be great.

6

Coud someone add (to mapgen maybe) a car with a random parts?
Maybe they could be symetric. With random length.

And we need more broken parts in all the cars…

...simulated gear box...battery:...Radiators...
I think it all is included in [i]engine[/i] part.

All additions should be functional, no need to overload cars with too many details.

But the things about attaching cars and trunks are important though.

7

Well, simulated gearbox could help with saving fuel, or make you give up fuel efficiency for speed, a battery would prevent infinite light sources and a radiator would make you look out for your engine’s condition.

8

Erm, well, without something to heat up the cylinders and stuff this will be VERY difficult. Or it takes a VERY VERY long time. Since, too much heat will be absorbed by the engine itself if it’s cold. May be working in a very very hot summer, but a pain in the ass in the cold winter or cold weather in general. Sure, you can always use a small fire to heat it up ;).

Short: pushing a COLD diesel to start it → no way.

9

Mirrors: yes (soonish) It’s a pain and will be a bit hacky, but it’s needed. Also cameras.
Battery: yes (eventually) I’m all for it, especially as car batteries are a great source of scavenged power.
heating: prbably not. There’s no problem with it per se, but I don’t see working on it any time soon. Possibly have the engine block count as a heat source after driving for a while, that’d be easier to implement.
Tow cables/rods: probably not. It’d be kinda cool, but the vehicle system is already super complicated. If it’s easier to implement that I’m thinking it is, we might get around to vehicle trailers and hauling eventually.
Stuff on floor: not as such, but yea. Specifically you can already throw stuff on seats and aisle locations, and we could add a flatbed tile to do the same thing, or possibly just make a truck with aisle tiles for the truck bed. Actually I thought aisle tiles had the cargo tag, but they don’t, will fix that.
diesel: probably not. Doesn’t add anything to the game, but we might have diesel-like gasoline engines.
alchohol engine: actually this is doable, though probably not practical unless you can distill alchohol in bulk. Posibly also flexfuel.
jet engine: hah, yea we should do this just for the awesome factor.
better wear: probably not much for normal road conditions, but planning on making offroading harsh on regular vehicles. The redlining behavior of engines could probably use some work though.
tire wear affecting performance: Not sure, it hasn’t really come up.
gearbox: sort of, right now engines just have power, but I want to give them a simulated power/RPM envelope, and probably some kind of adjustment to this with a transmission item. This would just be a upgrad option for vehicles though, we wouldn’t have you hitting a button to shift gears.
fuel consumption: done. The game calculates mass, air friction, and rolling resistance values for the vehicle (rolling resistance incorporates difficult terrain, but it needs improvement), uses these to decelerate the vehicle, and uses thrust from the engine(s) to accelerate back to the target speed (if cruise control is on), fuel used by engines is based on engine parameters and vehicle mass.
Radiators: maybe, this would really make a difference if we have any good reasons for you to drive a ong distance.

10

Have you considered any of:
Alternative engine sources. Example; Gasifier (wood powered) engine, or Sails (which usually suck for land vehicles, but not when we get WATER CARS!)
Windshield wipers
Rolling of vehicles in high speed accidents (and roll cages!)
Paint jobs

11

Oh god, rolling, the code is hard enough in 2D, and now you want to rotate the vehicles in 3D ;_;
You can paint your car, but there’s only one color you can use… red.

12

[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:9, topic:1515”]Mirrors: yes (soonish) It’s a pain and will be a bit hacky, but it’s needed. Also cameras.
Battery: yes (eventually) I’m all for it, especially as car batteries are a great source of scavenged power.
heating: prbably not. There’s no problem with it per se, but I don’t see working on it any time soon. Possibly have the engine block count as a heat source after driving for a while, that’d be easier to implement.
Tow cables/rods: probably not. It’d be kinda cool, but the vehicle system is already super complicated. If it’s easier to implement that I’m thinking it is, we might get around to vehicle trailers and hauling eventually.
Stuff on floor: not as such, but yea. Specifically you can already throw stuff on seats and aisle locations, and we could add a flatbed tile to do the same thing, or possibly just make a truck with aisle tiles for the truck bed. Actually I thought aisle tiles had the cargo tag, but they don’t, will fix that.
diesel: probably not. Doesn’t add anything to the game, but we might have diesel-like gasoline engines.
alchohol engine: actually this is doable, though probably not practical unless you can distill alchohol in bulk. Posibly also flexfuel.
jet engine: hah, yea we should do this just for the awesome factor.
better wear: probably not much for normal road conditions, but planning on making offroading harsh on regular vehicles. The redlining behavior of engines could probably use some work though.
tire wear affecting performance: Not sure, it hasn’t really come up.
gearbox: sort of, right now engines just have power, but I want to give them a simulated power/RPM envelope, and probably some kind of adjustment to this with a transmission item. This would just be a upgrad option for vehicles though, we wouldn’t have you hitting a button to shift gears.
fuel consumption: done. The game calculates mass, air friction, and rolling resistance values for the vehicle (rolling resistance incorporates difficult terrain, but it needs improvement), uses these to decelerate the vehicle, and uses thrust from the engine(s) to accelerate back to the target speed (if cruise control is on), fuel used by engines is based on engine parameters and vehicle mass.
Radiators: maybe, this would really make a difference if we have any good reasons for you to drive a ong distance.[/quote]
Thanks for the answer. By tire wear affecting performance I mean you’d have a chance of skidding with smooth tires in hard turns and when accelerating quickly. And I think diesel could make a difference, if you add farming and craftable vegetable oil.

Erm, well, without something to heat up the cylinders and stuff this will be VERY difficult. Or it takes a VERY VERY long time. Since, too much heat will be absorbed by the engine itself if it’s cold. May be working in a very very hot summer, but a pain in the ass in the cold winter or cold weather in general. Sure, you can always use a small fire to heat it up ;).

Short: pushing a COLD diesel to start it → no way.[/quote]
You could roll it downhill, or maybe push it with an other vehicle, get in it while it’s rolling and start it.