Well, I can say for a fact to answer a few of your general questions and give you a bit of information from my time working and building my perfect creation which I call the Builder Bike (Started from a peddle bike to a god-like creation)
I’ll answer your questions first and see if there is room to add other information that you should know. I have gotten into a very deep depth in my pursuit to create a Bike to Take the Land Speed record from the current Record Holder and I am more then willing to share.
- What are the absolute minimum number of components you need to have a vehicle?
For starters i would have to tell you that when you are first starting off, you should get your skill level to 3, that will allow you to play around with an existing vehicle and get your personal and character experience going. You will need an engine and 2 wheels, as well as a seat and controls, seat belt optional but if your going to make a city crusher like the one i have, you need that little rope BADLY.
- What tools do you need in order to create a custom vehicle?
To start editing your vehicle you will need a wrench and a powered welder (Toolset) for the very basics, that includes expanding your steel frame to add boxes or trunks ( o / H ) which hold a space A-Z, which is the maximum storage space for one tile. Adding items to your vehicle will cost you 50 charges, which can be reloaded into your welder by equipping it and having batteries in your inventory. To remove items you will need a hack saw to remove items. While not using charges, it all takes time. Time is a very important factor to watch out for, as you can go from normal to Exhausted in one building run with 6-8 pieces, and you will find that you need to stock up on supplies before you start working on your (Starting to call it your ride from now on…) ride. Water is easy enough, just smash a door in and spread out the 2x4’s with one empty space between and have a pot or frying pan with you to boil toilet water (YUM). As for food, it will come to you, wolves and cougars will spawn randomly for you to cook over a fire with a wooden spear made from a door. Just make a note that you cannot store that meat for very long, it will rot within a few hours so eat to your max. Food and sleep are crucial, i have lost many a mechanic to disregard for the basics when doing larger upgrades and found that you must give up on upgrading if you get tired, if you let it get to dead tired, your will expend large amounts of supplies after a near day long rest.
- How high does you mechanics skill need to be and what advantages does a higher mechanics skill give you?
3 is the basics. You will be able to start putting on extra storage and basic things of that nature, while walls and reinforcement comes later on in your to-do list. You should focus on storage as you are a traveling person that will get board if you stick around one place for too long without anything to do. Trust me, it gets annoying when your stuck in a town rummaging for food and boiling water for 4 irl hours in a town you cleared out. After awhile your cooking skill will get to mutagen level and purifier levels, so you can play with the dead zombies flesh and mutate to your hearts content, but we’re talking about your ride here not the late game play time. like i was saying before you distracted me, you want storage, AND LOTS OF IT, my bike has 35 storage on her right now, and each space has its purpose and is nearly full with crap that i need to survive, lots of ammo and fuel and car parts for my Land Speed record attempts. You will find the storage useful in surviving mid to late game and will thank me for making you build them, but make sure to keep them behind some steel frames so if you smash into anything they wont get damaged, if you smash into a zombie at 30+ with a Trunk or box, you will damage the storage by 1-2 durability which will cost you 50 charges if you want to get it in the green again. 4-6 means that you can repair just about anything on your bike now, so you don’t have to keep replacing your tires and bla bla bla, you know what i mean if you get about 20 minutes with a car in a city, things get nicked and scratched. Your levels will come quickly, just repair your scratches with XP and you will be leveling up crazily, it doesn’t matter if the part is light green or red, same XP, and i believe the same amount of time to fix it. BUT NEVER LET A PART BREAK, it is a sad day when a part of your bike breaks, because then you cant add the replacement part somewhere else, meaning 1 less storage or completing your new wall. Also, 6 means you can install solar power, you will want to install 1 or 2 panels into the back of your ride and a storage battery as well, once you get to level 12 you can install a electric motor which will decrease your need to refill jerry cans to satisfy your needs for fuel
(mine only uses 1 fuel and has 15 gas tanks XD)
Turrets in my opinion are kind of silly as they use up ammo and don’t really do much more then to make you go
"NOW MY RIDE IS TOTALY B-A"
When you get a few levels and have customized your bike a bit, spend some time to decide how big your going to make your bike, generally you can get away with a behemoth as the smallest engine in the game can satisfy a 30-40 mile car with a ton of items on it. once you decide how big, then you need to get yourself some Steel plating and make a defensive ring around your car so if you nick something you don’t hurt your soft insides. then look into installing roofing and a bed.
note that you need a 3x3 roof to not get the wet moral modifier and you will have a hard time sleeping if your getting rained on
- Should I use a premade vehicle as a starting platform and just modify it? If yes, then what is a good vehicle to use as a base?
When your skill is low, use a shell, i wanted to get the full experience of building so i chose a peddle bike to start off with, get the right tools, find a car, and have fun with it.
I find that a semi or a bubble car is a useful start since they both can take a hit before they break and offer you possibilities to go off of, but i suggest smaller ones until you get some jerry cans to refuel your ride, the bigger they are, the more fuel goes down the drain to move those big boys, so install extra metal tanks when you find the, and fuel them up, each adds extra longevity to your travels.
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Can a vehicle have a maximum size or can you create a monstrosity that takes up and entire road?
TO YOUR HEARTS CONTENT, THE MAP IS YOUR LIMIT, if you build an item on the farthest extent of your ride, the screen will move over one tile to allow you to extend it further, i have used this to my advantage, trust me, my baby is long, but not too wide, you bump into to much when your to wide, length is better.
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I’ve heard of RV units, what are they exactly? Can you use them to cook?
Well, sorry to say that i have only just found my unit to play with, you will need water storage and the storage battery that i told you all about before to charge up your cooking heat elements, while i would love the implementation of a charging station, OH MOMA THAT WOULD BE DEVINE. He hem… These units are somewhat rare in any case and i only just found one on day 175, while others will find it easier to find one i am sure. These RV units overall are very useful and i would suggest making a small space in your car with walls and a door around it to set up your little shop so that when you park to cook and work that you don’t get surprised by someone next to you.
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What is your ultimate vehicle? Something that you build towards and what does it contain as components?
Mine, Is the Builder Bike, a massive 20 long 15 wide monster beast that i derived from a little peddle bike. It has the smallest gas engine in the game and uses only 1 fuel or 3 energy as i have installed a large electric motor with 2 solar panels and a storage battery, in sunny weather i never use any fuel and can in essence drive forever until i need to eat. The total storage is 20 boxes and 15 trunks organized in a quaint pattern that wont aggravate a OCD person while the idea was tempting if i ever want to post it here. It has a full shell of Steel plating with an extra layer of defense on the front with a layer of Hard Plating before a layer of Steel Plate. I am currently harvesting windows to make a full cover around me of glass to make a easily replaced wall. This is behind the Steel plates so that they don’t get rammed into anything OC. I have installed a Flamethrower on the front of the Bike to burn down annoying buildings. This bike has been my pride and joy since the day i ran up and grabbed it next to a portal with 15 greks and 3 flaming eyes that chased me for 2 entire days before i lost them and was left in a decrepit state only to blow the doors off of a science lab and develop my second most powerful character i have ever had.
Hope all my knowledge of vehicle construction will come of use, this is the culmination of over a month of on and off playing with the mechanics of this great game, so with that i leave you with my personal saying.
LIVE LONG, DRIVE FAST, RAM HARD AND PROSPER. -The Driver Moto
