Vehicle Stereos

Justice · 2013-06-11T07:23:34.000Z

Ideally, it would function identical to the mp3 player already in the game. However, it wouldn’t require batteries. Of course, it would be controlled via the vehicle controls menu:

Enable cruise control
Turn on headlights
Turn on the radio
Exit vehicle
Do nothing

Anyhow, I’ll be adding this feature to my fork and submitting a pull request to the main branch in the next couple of days. I just wanted to get some feedback on the idea, first.

Williham · 2013-06-11T07:44:22.000Z

In addition to acting as an MP3 player, it should probably act as a radio.

Rivet · 2013-06-11T07:51:13.000Z

But if everybody’s dead, how are you going to pick up radio stations for your tunes?
Or are you going with the idea that the car stereo contains a HDD full of music?

Williham · 2013-06-11T07:56:30.000Z

Some radio towers are still operating, included automated weather radio, fema camps, escape beacons, and other things.

Justice · 2013-06-11T08:00:01.000Z

Williham:

In addition to acting as an MP3 player, it should probably act as a radio.

Well, I meant that it would act as both. That’s why the part in bold reads “Turn on the radio.”

[quote=“Rivet, post:3, topic:1717”]But if everybody’s dead, how are you going to pick up radio stations for your tunes?
Or are you going with the idea that the car stereo contains a HDD full of music?[/quote]

Well, many vehicles today come equipped with built in mp3 players, and Cataclysm is set at some point in the future. Also, it’s not uncommon for radio stations to loop prerecorded programming on certain days of the week.

Rivet · 2013-06-11T08:04:16.000Z

The only hole I see in the automated radio station thing is that there’s no real indication anywhere else that the power is still on.
Though there’s a lot of self-powered stuff in Cataclysm world that isn’t self-powered in real life, so I guess it would be as simple as handwaving it away with ‘the radio stations all have their own automated power supplies too’ or something of that nature.

This also makes me think that it could give those useless radio towers a use: locate one and flip a switch on the breaker box to reset the generator and you can listen to music on your radio as long as you’re within a certain range. It’s hardly a big fancy endgame quest, but it would be fun to give them a purpose, and it would make you want to seek them out.

system · 2013-06-11T08:06:48.000Z

Or there could be a faction of DJ’s constantly playing music over the radio 24/7.

Rivet · 2013-06-11T08:08:37.000Z

DJ survivors?
Fetch quests to acquire more music/fuel for their generators/things to repair the towers!
I like the cut of your jib.

system · 2013-06-11T08:31:54.000Z

Yes that is exactly what I was thinking. These DJ’s have managed to build a “Town” that houses all sorts of musical talent knowing, that keeping up the morale of whatever is left of humankind will help in the long run. So these Dj’s want to be heard all across the wasteland so they ask you to repair and/or set up radio towers so that their music can be heard from everywhere. Then the Dj’s want more music to keep things fresh so you go raid music stores or private music collections that provide more boosts besides morale. Like listening to a heavy metal song will give you a melee boost, while a fast paced techno song helps you run faster. I know this feature is already in-game with the ipod that tells you what your listening to but doesn’t provide much else besides details.

Williham · 2013-06-11T09:12:49.000Z

Woof! This is Three-Dog, coming to you live in post-apocalyptia!

system · 2013-06-11T09:15:36.000Z

They should add him but rename him 4 wolfs or tres dog.

Williham · 2013-06-11T09:23:50.000Z

Radio Bear.

system · 2013-06-11T09:25:37.000Z

The faction could be call The Jockey’s of the apocalypse.

Slax · 2013-06-11T09:38:10.000Z

You do find the occasional USB drive. (USB… 8? 20 Terabytes!) Maybe people stash their music on them. Cataclysmic piracy! Stick them in your car dash or radio tower console, get music.
(Actually, I’ve been considering internal vehicle systems lately. I think cars could do with some… guts. Weight and complexity versus versatility. Or having something like different vehicle controls. Everything from entire dashboards to just a wheel and an ignition button.)

Bladerock · 2013-06-11T10:30:46.000Z

Rivet:

But if everybody’s dead, how are you going to pick up radio stations for your tunes?

Everybody is not dead. They are just not implemented.

Williham · 2013-06-11T10:43:02.000Z

Bladerock:

[quote=“Rivet, post:3, topic:1717”]But if everybody’s dead, how are you going to pick up radio stations for your tunes?

Everybody is not dead. They are just not implemented.[/quote]

Some people could also possibly be abstracted away, going forwards.

Jack_Slinger · 2013-06-11T11:00:09.000Z

Williham:

Radio Bear.

+1

Alistaire · 2013-06-11T13:14:43.000Z

Radios should actually never work in Cataclysm. Why? Because of radiation, you won’t pick up any radio waves (and radioactive waves instead), and all you’d hear would be crackling noises and the like.

Williham · 2013-06-11T13:40:41.000Z

Alistaire:

Radios should actually never work in Cataclysm. Why? Because of radiation, you won’t pick up any radio waves (and radioactive waves instead), and all you’d hear would be crackling noises and the like.

Well, that’s just completely wrong.

First of all, there really isn’t all that much radiation.

Second, radiation doesn’t interfere strongly with radio, because they are on completely different wavelengths.

While it’s true that a nuclear bomb can create radio interference, this is not because of the radiation as such, but because of a single huge blast of radiation covering all frequencies at high energy, and it’s a relatively short-lived phenomenon.

For reference, FM radio is in the range of 87.5 to 108.0 MHz; AM radio is 150 KHz to 26 MHz, roughly, and gamma radiation (“nuclear radiation”) is in the neighbourhood of 10 EHz, or 10[sup]19[/sup] Hz.

For the same reason that radio channels don’t interfere with one another, gamma radiation does not interfere with radio signals.

Of course, all of that is rendered moot by the first point: There’s not really a lot of radiation around in Cataclysm.

system · 2013-06-11T17:05:37.000Z

Speaking of technology that isn’t implemented in cataclysm yet. Where the hell are the portable DVD players. It could show up on the text like this [glow=yellow,2,300] you watch a zombie movie you find it ironic[/glow]. Then similar to books you can find helpful DVD’s that level up a skill faster than books aka: Cooking DVD’s, Medical training CD’s, and maybe a season of some kind of Man vs. Wild DVD’s. Also they would have to be super rare and finding a portable DVD player in mint condition is hard to come by.