Tips, Tricks, and Newb Questions!

[Coolthulhu]

It needs a battery with a charge to start. I can’t seem to find one.

Car batteries should be relatively common. You only need like 1% charge to start, then keep the engine active for a while for alternator to fill it up.
If you can’t find any car batteries (likely due to the recent car spawn bug), you can refill the battery with the battery item, but that’s wasteful. 100 batteries should be enough - drop the rest or the entire stack will be used.

[Random_dragon]

[quote=“Fishchip, post:12280, topic:42”]Have my longest-running survivor yet by being careful (except for that one night I burned down the Home Depot by accident – so many explosions! So many dead zeds!) and studious. I have an RV parked outside my house. It needs a battery with a charge to start. I can’t seem to find one. What are my options for getting this thing going? I’ve been cram-studying Mechanics so I can make a recharging station but now I’m pretty sure I’m barking up the wrong tree.

I don’t want to just leave it because it’s in nearly perfect shape. =)[/quote]

You can use the “refill” option on its battery if you have regular household batteries in your inventory. If you can keep the battery (and alternator) repaired, you’re good to go once it starts up, assuming you can afford to leave it running for a while.

Failing that, a wrench plus level 1 mechanics means you can remove it and install a less damaged one. Which is most easily obtained by yanking one from another vehicle, unsure what the crafting requirements for a fresh one are.

If you can find a solar car and have the tools/skills needed, you can jack the panels and storage batteries from it to further get your RV up to usable condition, and a few solar panels in particular will make it possible to let the batteries charge without running the engine. Get enough solars and you can eventually afford to replace the original engine with an electric one. X3

[Fishchip]

My neighbourhood is full of cars, electric vehicles, and trucks with dead batteries =/

I guess I could just go take one of the cars and go cruising for trucks and toss batteries into the trunk. Ahh, simpicity. I just blew three days studying =P

The solar and household batteries are also good to know, thanks gents. I’m sorta new at this – can I put a second battery in a vehicle to charge, or can I work on a vehicle while it’s running? (To swap batteries.)

[Random_dragon]

Ouch. Yeah, you can install multiple batteries. A given tile of vehicle space can only hold a single proper storage battery, in addition to one (possibly more) mundane vehicle battery, since the vehicle batteries don’t count as having any particular “slot” whereas storage batteries take up the “fuel tank” slot (and thus compete with gasoline tanks).

[pisskop]

Make sure that you dont install badly damaged ones.

Yellow or less batteries threaten to lose vharge over time, yellow or less fuel tanks might leak to a certain level (or all the way), damaged engines will produce less power, and damaged controls will be less responsive (I think. I feel like at low levels damaged controls are a prob). Missing tires effects mobility and skidding.

[Malkeus]

You can stack a storage battery, car battery, truck battery and motorbike battery all in the same slot. I’ve found cars with busted batteries still running, I think all they need is an alternator and fuel to stay on. Might not need the alternator even.

[deoxy]

A given tile of vehicle space can only hold a single proper storage battery, in addition to one (possibly more) mundane vehicle battery, since the vehicle batteries don’t count as having any particular “slot” whereas storage batteries take up the “fuel tank” slot (and thus compete with gasoline tanks).

You can stack a storage battery, car battery, truck battery and motorbike battery all in the same slot.

The vehicle system is a fairly powerful and nifty thing… that is very poorly documented. A few basic points (most of which I figured out from trial and error, so some of them might be wrong!):

-“slot”/location - some things require a specific layer/location/slot (thus making other things impossible on that square which use that same “slot”), and some don’t (always can be installed, once per square). “slots” that I can figure out are fuel (gas tank of any size, diesel tank of size, water tank of any kind or size, napalm tank, storage battery of any size), engine (any kind - only one per square - this includes foot pedals), roof (things that go ON the roof, whether you have one or not - funnel, solar panel, mounted weapon, etc), armor (all the platings, plus some other odds and ends from parts packs, such as the rebar reinforcement and the shock absorber), and possibly more… it gets a little harder to figure out how some things interact
-storage - in addition to “slots”, you can only have ONE part per square that gives you storage space. Most mounted weapons give you some storage space, so they can’t go on a regular seat (hence the military seat that has no storage). I suspect there are some things that count as giving storage, even though they don’t (trunk door or sliding door, for instance).
-“foldable” - if every part you install on a vehicle is “foldable” (has a folded volume), the vehicle can be folded. In the stable build, it also requires controls. Currently, you must be able to PICK UP the folded vehicle to unfold it, so be careful about the weight!
-“boardable” - spaces that have something “boardable” will not hamper movement when you cross them
-“opaque” - can’t see through them.
-regular vehicle controls have a “dome light” - the light comes from the square with the controls (when you turn it on). Other kinds of controls don’t have that at all. (Yes, you can install multiple sets of controls on the same vehicle.)

Storage batteries are considered “fuel”, but other vehicle batteries (motorbike,car,truck) are in the “free” category, so you can put one of those on every square of the vehicle, if you want to (the outside edges are not recommended).

I’m sure other people around here can tell you some other important things, but that’s what comes to mind right now.

[BeerBeer]

Is there a way to clear rubble faster than with shovels? Like with some vehicle? A bulldozer or something? And would a vehicle destroy the items under the rubble?

I’m considering burning down a bunch of buildings, but I’d also like to get some of the loot, or at the very least clear the rubble.

[pisskop]

Nope. Gotta clear it by shovel.

[deknegt]

You can stack a storage battery, car battery, truck battery and motorbike battery all in the same slot. I’ve found cars with busted batteries still running, I think all they need is an alternator and fuel to stay on. Might not need the alternator even.

You don’t need an alternator if you don’t want to use a minimal amount of fuel to burn into battery charge.

[Arek_PL]

Quick question: How to run cataclysm in ubuntu 14.04? Double click do not do much…

edit: nevermind, opening it with terminal works

[pisskop]

[quote=“pisskop”]pedit: The book I went out for, Robotics and you or w.e. its called, isnt being found in the truck. I also cant find my binoculars, amoung other things. Im suspecting it fell out of the inventory when the wrestler attacked. Which is a shame because I went back for the binoculars and couldn’t find them. Which suggests acid or fire -_-

Acid doesn’t destroy items anymore (in experimental).[/quote]
This seems to be true. How do fix for my own personal use? I dont want acid to not corrode things.

pedit: I also wonder if ‘half_life’ for upgrades isnt refering to days, and the upgrade ratio a multiplier. If so, I would expect the default 4 to mean that after 48 days half of all shriekers are screechers . . . And that after 112 days half of all brutes are wrestlers.

[Jarlaxlejr]

Can we start a petition or something to change the survivor harness back to where it holds a pistol and is actually useful instead of a rifle?

[deoxy]

Can we start a petition or something to change the survivor harness back to where it holds a pistol and is actually useful instead of a rifle?

The survivor harness is currently worse than the survivor belt in almost every way. I don’t know why it was change to waist instead of torso…

But I didn’t realize it would hold a rifle. That might actually make it worth using. With the new (and much needed, I think) penalties for drawing weapons from general storage, we really need some better holster/sheath options, especially for larger weapons.

[deknegt]

[quote=“Jarlaxlejr, post:12293, topic:42”]Can we start a petition or something to change the survivor harness back to where it holds a pistol and is actually useful instead of a rifle?

The survivor harness is currently worse than the survivor belt in almost every way. I don’t know why it was change to waist instead of torso…

But I didn’t realize it would hold a rifle. That might actually make it worth using. With the new (and much needed, I think) penalties for drawing weapons from general storage, we really need some better holster/sheath options, especially for larger weapons.[/quote]

This, and remember that heavily pimped out handguns also get too big for ordinary holsters. So that M1911 with a silencer, laser, double mag, brass catcher, pistol scope, ergo grip, mechanism, match trigger, and diamond bayonet is slightly too big for your ordinary gun holster, so in those cases the survivor harness is pretty much perfect…

Granted, I never use guns unless I’m surrounded by (shocker) brutes and I need to make a messy exit, and by then the idea of stealth is out of the window anyways and I just blast their faces off with a cut-off Saiga.

[Jarlaxlejr]

[quote=“deoxy, post:12294, topic:42”][quote=“Jarlaxlejr, post:12293, topic:42”]Can we start a petition or something to change the survivor harness back to where it holds a pistol and is actually useful instead of a rifle?

The survivor harness is currently worse than the survivor belt in almost every way. I don’t know why it was change to waist instead of torso…

But I didn’t realize it would hold a rifle. That might actually make it worth using. With the new (and much needed, I think) penalties for drawing weapons from general storage, we really need some better holster/sheath options, especially for larger weapons.[/quote]

This, and remember that heavily pimped out handguns also get too big for ordinary holsters. So that M1911 with a silencer, laser, double mag, brass catcher, pistol scope, ergo grip, mechanism, match trigger, and diamond bayonet is slightly too big for your ordinary gun holster, so in those cases the survivor harness is pretty much perfect…

Granted, I never use guns unless I’m surrounded by (shocker) brutes and I need to make a messy exit, and by then the idea of stealth is out of the window anyways and I just blast their faces off with a cut-off Saiga.[/quote]

Dude the stupid vest now only takes “a small rifle” sized weapon which is useless to me. Honestly the only weapon I could find that it would take is LF523 Carbine out of A LOT of rifles I tried, so I’m guessing the volume of the weapon has to be 8 or under.
Again currently it is useless. It even still takes a holster to make even though it should be changed to a shoulder strap. Oh and while I’m bitching I guess they took away the shoulder holster. Lame sauce on this move guys.

[Random_dragon]

So basically, whether it’s useful or not depends on the average size of your preferred sidearm. :V

[pisskop]

Im mad that helmet netting lost its 4 storage >: [

[Jarlaxlejr]

So basically, whether it’s useful or not depends on the average size of your preferred sidearm. :V

Lol, point taken.
It just doesn’t make any sense, and I know this is a zombie game with killer robots and creatures from the nether world, that a vest that requires a pistol holster now doesn’t accept a pistol but rather a rifle. I just don’t get the thought process.
If the game coders want to incorporate tactical slings for rifles, by all means, that makes sense and we should have that. I have seen some plate carriers that have a quick detach for rifles, but ALL tactical/plate carriers have some way of attaching a pistol holster to them.
I say add tac slings for rifles as a separate item and make the survivor harness able to hold pistols again, but that’s just my opinion.

[Azrad]

I’m sad that acid and running things over with a car isn’t a means to destroy junk lying around. Fairly minor, but I get annoyed seeing all those metal pieces lying around in damaged cars. And the splintered woods and rocks in wrecked buildings. It’s untidy.