I thought vehicles already had a pretty solid off-road stat?
I’m thinking bandits with a stationary base, maybe some concrete half walls and/or vehicles and mines. they have a radio of some sort, and can radio ahead, to their ‘main fleet’ of cars or guns. It affects everyone who passes the area, just travelers more.
Bandits of the non-looty kind, who ambush prey, will tend to stick to one area at a time, making them less likely to see/hear players who are stationary. Especially if the players are already being stealthy because of zeds.
And, if we eventually did add in functional bandits (instead of rando npcs), a ‘visibility stat’ for constructions and bases would enable you to crank up the ability of any intelligent life to find mega-tanks that leave 20 meter wide treadmarks, run a main battle tank’s engine, and expend enough heat to be seen from space.
Actually, it would tickle me pink to have the endgame actually be the US Army coming around and attempting to quell opposition and restore order . . .
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Can we join the Bandits and potentially become their leader? I want this conversation to happen.
OG Soldier: [dragging himself into the Old Guard base, his uniform scorched and in tatters]
OG Lt: My god, what the hell happened?!
OG Soldier: The new Bandit General…he’s…unstoppable…
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I think I have it now, we just need to tweak traction to make sticking to roads a meaningful option, and/or have them set up chokepoints that matter, like in roads through forests or bridges. Either way it buffs (or avoids nerfing) walking because you can just go around.
I like the toll road concept too, it’s clearly something that survivors are going to do.
Nope, you can drive a bicycle or a low-powered car or whatever through the worst terrain around and it’ll be fine.
That part of it is really compelling, they’ll be able to see/hear most vehicles from a long way off, and set up an ambush or something, whereas a player on foot is just not going to be noticed.
In general I agree, we want some kinds of threats that remain stationalry so you only deal with them if/when you go looking for trouble, but other kinds of threats that come find you no mater what you do. Ideally you’d even have threats thatif you DID encounter them in a vehicle, the best option would be to retreat to a base and deal wit them defensively.
Feel free to have this discussion, but in another thread 
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I doubt that this will be added in the near (one/two years) future. Pretty sure game was coded with no support for NPCs car driving AI. And it is sounds kinda complicated (at least, if do want them to be able to drive offroad chasing moving target and doging/smashing obstacles).
I’m pretty sure going off-road reduces your speed though, which makes sense. Even a bicycle can still manage some grass or dirt.
I guess the whole road block thing could also be a slight buff to boats provided we give them the ability to drive either under or over bridges.
A field is not only dirt and grass, it’s mostly the bumps that are the problem. Try driving your beautiful Toyota through a field and then straight to the dealer’s for some serious suspension repairs.
What’s troubling me, though, is that I can’t build a road myself. I’m not talking about paved road, but at least gravel would be nice. Stone, if there are extra hands avaliable. Or years to spend. Concrete blocks, also. A crane + some blocks = a nice road.
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Surprisingly enough, this has come up before. Between clear-cutting and accumulating all the gravel, making even a single-lane road would be a massive undertaking for a single person or a small group, we’re talking months for a road that even crosses half an overmap.
If you just do the clear-cutting and push the trunks to the side to rot, you could probably get a single-lane dirt path done pretty fast, but you’re still essentially offroading at that point.
Mountain bikes can manage some pretty imoressive stuff if they have high end suspension. It might be worth adding a set of offroad bike wheels to the game.
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I think that’s what he’s saying. Once they implement things that make a noticeable difference between offroad and onroad driving, I’m sure they’ll add different vehicle parts that affect performance.
I’m pretty excited at that prospect. Most of my driving is spent off-road, and though I weave in and out of the bushes and such, I’d rather have to deal with the realism of constantly struggling to maintain control/avoid things that can seriously damage the car.
Some suggestions here are very interesting. The limitation to the every vehicle is (almost) equaly off-road capable nonsense would be a great addition and a great step towards making vehicles less overpowered.
But then when I read about managing bases and NPCs in there - I instantly get the image of DF (fortress mode). Is that a direction really worth pursuing with CataclysmDDA ? Complex base & NPCs management ?
I had similar thoughts, though I didn’t voice them. Base management with NPCs, research options, etc, don’t feel like Cataclysm to me.
To me the game currently feels like ‘Scavenge explore scavenge explore murder murder murder’ which is what I always imagined the apocalypse would be like.
I rather like things the way they are. Then again, it isn’t my game, and I don’t even know if that opinion is the majority.
Well that’s certainly what the early game is like, but you’re fairly limited in where you can go with endgame. Being an epic god-tier badass is great! Having a bunch of friends to be epic badasses with is cool too though.
Well, I’m not talking about building a 6-lane interstate. Not even half of an overmap. My house, for instance, is about 6-7 map squares away from the nearest road. Wouldn’t be too hard to make a nice connector between my frontyard and that road, since the needed gravel could easily be stolen elsewhere.
Also, railroads! Why do we not have them? Only subway, but there are no trains…
Also, why are all the roads in CDDA 2 lanes wide?
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Less like df and more like Suikoden or FO4. You can “establish a settlement” and then drop off or attract NPCs to it, and you might need to do maintenance, or at least supervise the maintenance, but I’m not interested in adding a mode where you switch to a settlement management interface.
My point is it seems like a really niche thing to spend effort on, since its almost always going to be prohibitively expensive resource and time wise.
a mod can make pavement constructions now…
After seeing some pictures from New England in winter heavy snowfall should make driving most vehicles impossible I would think , road or offroad.
heavy snow would require a heavier plow.
snowmobiles or other small craft too.
a hoverboat, while not really available commercially, would work rain or shine, provided you not run over every rock you see.
yeah, gotta go big and steam rollery or small and atv ish
THIS.
No need to reinvent the wheel.
Damn it. Some nice video featuring these in action has been deleted from youtube. Such a shame.