# Tips, Tricks and Newb Questions: Reborn!

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [October 4, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870 "2018-10-04T17:58:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 95

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**Author:** ![mlangsdorf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mlangsdorf/32/2462_2.png) [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 1:14pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1887 "2020-04-21T13:14:19Z")

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Each wheel type calculates the type of terrain that penalizes traction, and the traction penalty, differently. For instance, rail wheels take a substantial traction penalty when they’re not on rails and treads don’t take any traction penalty for not being on pavement. It’s not doc’d anywhere, nor is it adjustable by JSON because sometimes I am a lazy coder =(

Anyway, road rollers have a fairly good contact area, but larger penalties than most other wheels if they are not on flat or pavement terrain. They’re surprisingly good wheels on pavement - aside from weighing a ton - and are nigh indestructible, but they do force you to go slow on pavement.

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**Author:** ![Segertas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/segertas/32/8757_2.png) [@Segertas](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Segertas)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 1:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1888 "2020-04-21T13:59:32Z")

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Alright, so is it safe to assume that outside of treads, wheels tagged as off-road are some of the best options and the larger they are, the better? How well do armored wheels fare off-road?

And thanks for the help.

EDIT: And how do you even install treads? Can’t find them no matter if I attempt to install them on an otherwise empty frame or on something else.

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**Author:** ![GiggleGrassGatherer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gigglegrassgatherer/32/7743_2.png) [@GiggleGrassGatherer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/GiggleGrassGatherer)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1889 "2020-04-21T15:14:15Z")

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> [@Segertas](#):
>
> How well do armored wheels fare off-road?

Well,13.5 tonnes vehicle with 7 armored wheel pairs have 50% offroad. So kinda ok if you don’t go overboard on weight. With drum rollers, though… I doubt you will get much, however many other wheels you install.

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**Author:** ![Segertas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/segertas/32/8757_2.png) [@Segertas](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Segertas)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:19pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1890 "2020-04-21T15:19:28Z")

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Do the drum rollers negatively impact off-road performance (besides for their weight) even if I have enough other wheels to fully support the vehicle?

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**Author:** ![GiggleGrassGatherer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gigglegrassgatherer/32/7743_2.png) [@GiggleGrassGatherer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/GiggleGrassGatherer)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:24pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1891 "2020-04-21T15:24:42Z")

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As far as I understand, each wheel - including rollers - is adding(maybe not linearly?) its own penalty to offroad coefficient. So yes, they would negatively impact it because how would you even argue for them to NOT impact offroad performance? IRL, I mean.

e: strange, it shows I’m answering to another post for some reason.

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**Author:** ![Segertas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/segertas/32/8757_2.png) [@Segertas](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Segertas)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1892 "2020-04-21T15:46:56Z")

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> [@GiggleGrassGatherer](#):
>
> because how would you even argue for them to NOT impact offroad performance? IRL, I mean.

If all my other wheels are capable of carrying the vehicle without help from the rollers, the rollers should provide neither a bonus nor penalty to off-road capabilities since all the other wheels are doing the actual terrain gripping and even if the rollers are just spinning gaining 0 traction, that should not be an issue.

Ideally the code would use the wheels with best off-road performance, then if there’s an insufficient amount of them, add those with second best off-road performance into the calculation and deduct off-road % accordingly.

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**Author:** ![GiggleGrassGatherer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gigglegrassgatherer/32/7743_2.png) [@GiggleGrassGatherer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/GiggleGrassGatherer)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1893 "2020-04-21T15:53:58Z")

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Yes, ideally. You’d also need to justify it by adding specialized mechanism to each and every wheel mount, or retuning all wheel mounts after adding/removing any wheel if you don’t have such mechanisms.

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**Author:** ![mlangsdorf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mlangsdorf/32/2462_2.png) [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 4:34pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1894 "2020-04-21T16:34:22Z")

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Please submit the code for this calculation, remembering that traction is recalculated for every wheel each time the vehicle moves, which is usually 1-15 times each turn.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mlangsdorf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mlangsdorf/32/2462_2.png) [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1895 "2020-04-21T16:42:54Z")

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Best to worse offroad performance (as I recall):  
Treads  
Off-road wheels  
Standard wheels  
Racing wheels  
Road rollers  
Armored wheels  
Rail wheels

Best to worst on-road performance  
(Rail wheels on rails)  
Racing wheels  
Armored wheels  
Road rollers  
Standard wheels  
Off-road wheels  
Treads  
Rail wheels off rails

It’s fairly hard to have a huge vehicle that goes really fast and gets good off-road performance. You can a heavy vehicle that goes fast with good off-road performance with treads and a powerful engine, but then you consume fuel like a M1 Abrahms tank because that’s basically what your vehicle is.

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**Author:** ![Segertas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/segertas/32/8757_2.png) [@Segertas](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Segertas)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1896 "2020-04-21T17:02:25Z")

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> [@mlangsdorf](#):
>
> traction is recalculated for every wheel each time the vehicle moves, which is usually 1-15 times each turn.

I really did mean _ideally_ when I wrote it, not that it’s necessarily easy or worth the effort. So that means traction must be recalculated that often to determine how many wheels touch road or off-road tiles? Yeah I guess that does make a mess of things.

But can’t you make it simply ignore wheels that impede traction during calculations, unless it is necessary for the vehicle to drive? I guess there are probably some complications I’m not thinking of, not very familiar with coding.

> [@mlangsdorf](#):
>
> Best to worse offroad performance (as I recall):

Thanks a lot for the list. I’ll have to try some different combinations to see what suits me best. Being slow really doesn’t bother me since I treat it as a mobile base and tend to park for many days without moving it, using my exploration vehicle instead.

But it’s hard to beat rollers for street sweeping potential, not even ramming through buildings tends to put much of a dent in them. Shredders on the other hand…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mlangsdorf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mlangsdorf/32/2462_2.png) [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1897 "2020-04-21T19:50:44Z")

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The current code just sums the move costs of all the wheels relative to an ideal move cost and uses that, total contact area, and vehicle weight to get a traction value.

Figuring out which wheels are not needed to maintain the current cruise speed would be really complicated and not entirely realistic.

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**Author:** ![gtgiygus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gtgiygus/32/6096_2.png) [@gtgiygus](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/gtgiygus)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1898 "2020-04-21T21:59:53Z")

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Police and Riot bots. Where are they coming from? Is there a location I can loot and/or shut them off? How can you disassemble them, butcher screen just says I don’t have the right tools. NVM says I need soldering iron

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**Author:** ![BlueKanary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/bluekanary/32/6279_2.png) [@BlueKanary](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/BlueKanary)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:34pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1899 "2020-04-21T22:34:41Z")

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Anybody know where I can get the Mutant NPC mod?

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**Author:** ![Ragno](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ragno/32/5935_2.png) [@Ragno](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Ragno)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 12:33am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1900 "2020-04-22T00:33:01Z")

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i thought it was a main mod, but you can check the link and downoald basically all the currently working mods and check for it there

> [@\[GMC\] Goats Mod Compilation V 0.1.8 now with GMC.exe](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/mods-unleashed-compilation-for-e-v-1-0b-experimental-v-0-05/22725):
>
> [Become a Patron!](https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=49302409)Need help installing the mod pack if your new or need help installing or don’t want to read this post +1love_you_gesture (I will make a new one that isn’t as long) [[Goats Mod Compilation Tutorial] ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCoa7aYKTLM)Join the discord Discuss this on github [https://github.com/GMC-Modding-Team/Community-Mod-Compilation-redux/discussions/205](https://github.com/GMC-Modding-Team/Community-Mod-Compilation-redux/discussions/205)Version Experimental - 0.1.6 Next Release 0.1.7 0.E-3 - Beta 2 Next Release Beta 3/release Goats Mod Compilation …

> [@gtgiygus](#):
>
> Police and Riot bots. Where are they coming from? Is there a location I can loot and/or shut them off? How can you disassemble them, butcher screen just says I don’t have the right tools. NVM says I need soldering iron

the only reason i can think of police bots spawning, is because there is an eye bot around, according to the wiki they “take” a picture of you with a cooldown x turns and they spawn a police bot

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**Author:** ![Segertas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/segertas/32/8757_2.png) [@Segertas](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Segertas)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 10:19am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1901 "2020-04-22T10:19:34Z")

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What has been up with the ‘CDDA Item Browser’ for the past few days? I keep getting 402, 405 and 500 errors. Servers shitting themselves?

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**Author:** ![BlueKanary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/bluekanary/32/6279_2.png) [@BlueKanary](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/BlueKanary)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1902 "2020-04-22T14:22:31Z")

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I thought it was a main mod too, but it isn’t in the 0.E stable release. Thanks, i’ll check that out!

Edit: after poking around I foound out what it was. Mutant NPCs along with a bunch of other mods are in the stable release but they have an Obsolete tag in the mod\_info. Anyways that mod pack has a bunch of other mods I wanna try out.

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**Author:** ![gtgiygus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gtgiygus/32/6096_2.png) [@gtgiygus](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/gtgiygus)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1903 "2020-04-22T19:35:08Z")

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> [@Ragno](#):
>
> the only reason i can think of police bots spawning, is because there is an eye bot around, according to the wiki they “take” a picture of you with a cooldown x turns and they spawn a police bot

I had busted a window to a locked electronics store, which spawned an eyebot, yes. I figured it had to do with breaking and entering, but I thought maybe there was an actual location affiliated with those robots. Maybe they just appeared though.

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**Author:** ![gtgiygus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gtgiygus/32/6096_2.png) [@gtgiygus](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/gtgiygus)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1904 "2020-04-22T19:45:54Z")

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Try clicking on the “version 0.E” link at the top of the page before you search.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Segertas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/segertas/32/8757_2.png) [@Segertas](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Segertas)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 9:29pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1905 "2020-04-22T21:29:41Z")

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Doesn’t help. Searching for stuff and clicking any links (like to other items, or the crafting, recipe tab etc.) tends to lead me to a server error.

I can get to the main page just fine and sometimes I can view items by going through a search engine, but not always.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gtgiygus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/gtgiygus/32/6096_2.png) [@gtgiygus](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/gtgiygus)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/tips-tricks-and-newb-questions-reborn/16870/1906 "2020-04-22T21:59:39Z")

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Sorry I don’t know what to tell you. I get the same errors until I hit either the version 0.E or 0.E experimental link, then it works fine. This is both Firefox and Chrome.

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