After surviving a bad run-in with a chicken walker, I decided that the best protection from drawing enemies toward me was to stay in the dark, and do night raids. But stumbling around in the dark is difficult and still pretty dangerous.
My solution was to have my cake and eat it too, by creating a vehicle with 180 degree lighting ahead of me. I have the advantages of hiding in the dark, and the advantages of being able to see enemies and cool items far away.
I started my adventures by pushing around a shopping cart for storage. Then I took its casters off, and created the original Scavenger Cart with a frame, cargo space, and casters.
Then, deciding to do night raids, I looked at my options for lighting. I added controls, a charged car battery, and a headlight. I was NOT helped at all by the 45 degree field of vision offered by one headlight, so I almost gave up. Then, I realized I could put two headlights in a space if one is reinforced! So I did, pointing each at 22.5 degrees from front. The new 90 degree view was great, and I was able to become the deadliest thing outside at night.
I added more stuff (wheelchair wheels, engine, etc.), seeing how much I could fit into a 1x1 vehicle. Finally, I added one more space to expand the field of view, and added real tires to the vehicle. What you see above is the result. I hope to add a recharging station, soon (I’ve never had one). I’ve always been a fan of small vehicles, if you can’t tell. 1x3 is as big as it’s going to get.
Having a 70 MPH acceleration is very helpful. I never need to go faster than 70, so the high max speed isn’t important. But the ability to instantly brake from 70 to 0 is a life-saver.
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I also created a foldable version, the Critter, so that I could do quieter raids, and have the same lighting advantages in the subways. Plus, I missed having a push cart, and I also found that I can maintain a peddling speed of 15 MPH indefinitely by peddling without cruise control. Is there a way to set cruise control to an odd speed, like 15 MPH? If not, this would be a helpful feature for low-speed vehicles like bikes and wheelchairs.
I used some tricks to keep it lightweight. I can switch out the car batteries between the Critter and Scavenger Cart to power its lights, so no alternator. And I used pipes to create handles to hang the lights on, which weigh practically nothing.
A note: Enemies can see you in the dark if you carry an activated lightstrip. I don’t believe this was the case when I last played more than a year ago, so it caught me by surprise, and gave me a disadvantage early on.
Does anyone else use headlights or such to give themselves an advantage in ranged combat at night? I have, in the past, also thrown flashlights with 2 charges of battery left at enemies.
