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Working Cars should be a RARE Commodity


Eblanc

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I know cars are already confirmed and in progress, I just wanted to add a few ideas, in case the developers want to hear suggestions before finalizing the project.

 

 

There should only be a limitied amount of cars in the map. Maybe 32-42. 

Out of that number, only 15-20% should be usable, 

you should need a set of keys, or something else, to make it difficult to acquire. 

 

And the rest of the cars should be useful only to suck gasoline and perhaps scrap parts.

 

I don't know if keys would work, because if they are lost due to glitch deaths and invetory loss, then the car may not ever be recuperable anymore..?

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The easiest way to limit use would be to only be able to drive the ones in which you found keys. I could see maybe only having a handful of cars on the map that had the keys in them, thus keeping the number under control.

 

inb4 hotwiring:

 

Someone will inevitably show up in this thread and say "lolno you could just hotwire a car! It's easy! I've seen it on TV! I could do it easily!"

 

No. Hot wiring modern cars does not involve popping the key mechanism open and touching two wires together. You have to actually bypass the car's electrical system, including actually changing some of the wiring in the car to have a snowcone's shot in hell of hot wiring even the most basic of modern cars.

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your spoiler is true Rath, but have we ever narrowed it down to the possible decade the game takes place in? the recent inclusion of Laserdisc as loot kind of takes us back in time several years. i know the cars still had the OBD computers (25 years in auto dealership experience) but the odds may actually slightly improve of finding an older car you could hotwire.

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I don't think cars should be limited. I don't think it would be hard to find a car with keys in it after the zombcapolypse.

Artificial limitations like that don't really make sense. What benefit would the player have if there are 2000 instead of 20 cars on the map. If he wants to be sure that the car works, has gas etc., he'll need to limit himself to only a couple of them anyway.

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I think the best way to limit car usefulness would be to have more of them, not less - that way the roads would be clogged up and it would be difficult to manouvre with any speed, at least without a concerted effort to clear routes through the more travelled areas.

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I think cars should be abundant, the limiting factor will be the zombie attraction and open roadspace.

 

Also not all cars are modern so the spoiler Rathlord made is not fully true. Even things like a Freightliner truck can be relatively easily hotwired. I would just make it a skill that can advance rather than bluntly cut it short.

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Gas won't be a problem. Just hook up a generator to the gas station and you'll be able to pump all you want. And all the cars abandoned on the highway will have gas in them, too. You think a bunch of gridlocked cars just happened to run out of gas as soon as the traffic jam started?

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Gas won't be a problem. Just hook up a generator to the gas station and you'll be able to pump all you want. And all the cars abandoned on the highway will have gas in them, too. You think a bunch of gridlocked cars just happened to run out of gas as soon as the traffic jam started?

No, but do you think, you'd be the only survivor with this genious idea? ;)

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Gas won't be a problem. Just hook up a generator to the gas station and you'll be able to pump all you want. And all the cars abandoned on the highway will have gas in them, too. You think a bunch of gridlocked cars just happened to run out of gas as soon as the traffic jam started?

No, but do you think, you'd be the only survivor with this genious idea? ;)
Honestly? Yes, actually. I mean, how many people are actually going to NEED the gas, right off the bat? Early game, most groups won't have anything that would require gas. A working car? Probably not. A generator? Electricity is almost certainly still running and even then they probably ate all the perishable goods in anticipation of electrical failure so no need for refrigeration. At least not until after the group has started raising meat and milk producing animals, which might not be for a while. Then electricity might be needed.

Gas isn't going to be a rare commodity. Not for a long while.

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your spoiler is true Rath, but have we ever narrowed it down to the possible decade the game takes place in? the recent inclusion of Laserdisc as loot kind of takes us back in time several years. i know the cars still had the OBD computers (25 years in auto dealership experience) but the odds may actually slightly improve of finding an older car you could hotwire.

 

Fair enough about the time frame, I'm not sure exactly when the swap was made to full electrical systems. Still, it's not something that most people actually have a damn clue about doing and I'm highly opposed to it being a "skill" in a game that's about average people. It's another one of a long line of things Hollywood has blasphemed that every internet kid thinks they could totally do (see also guns, lock picking) and I admittedly have a bit of a crusade against these things.

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disagree on the number. there should be enough for it to be believable that the people in these real life towns were actually trying to escape the zombies.

 

Maldorough is a small Town, a lot of this towns don't have 1 vehicle per househould. perhaps number is small, but I think keeping it low is somewhat realistic. 

 

your spoiler is true Rath, but have we ever narrowed it down to the possible decade the game takes place in? the recent inclusion of Laserdisc as loot kind of takes us back in time several years. i know the cars still had the OBD computers (25 years in auto dealership experience) but the odds may actually slightly improve of finding an older car you could hotwire.

 

Maybe older cars "Could" be hot wired. But then again, Realistically how many of us, actually KNOW and done a car Hotwire? Also, if it's older vehicles, and its a specific car, We're all going to know pretty soon, what cars to look for. 

 

I don't think cars should be limited. I don't think it would be hard to find a car with keys in it after the zombcapolypse.

Artificial limitations like that don't really make sense. What benefit would the player have if there are 2000 instead of 20 cars on the map. If he wants to be sure that the car works, has gas etc., he'll need to limit himself to only a couple of them anyway.

 

Probably not hard to find car keys at all realistically, but I think a system with keys, could be very, very complicated. 

 

How would you limit which ones are usable? Also, if there's Glitch death (Which now happens semi frequently on MP) that item is lost. Forever. Also on coding, each key would have a UNIQUE Id to match a UNIQUE Id with a vehicle, it seems like a complicated coding maneuver 

 

I think cars should be abundant, the limiting factor will be the zombie attraction and open roadspace.

 

Also not all cars are modern so the spoiler Rathlord made is not fully true. Even things like a Freightliner truck can be relatively easily hotwired. I would just make it a skill that can advance rather than bluntly cut it short.

 

Yeah, maybe a skill, or skill set tree.?

 

Cars should be scattered about in logical places. Gas and keys are the ones that should be rare. Once the electricity turns off I'm pretty sure pumps do, too.

 

Agree with the scattering cars in logical places. There's not always going to be a traffic collission on every corner. I picture it in reality, that there really wouldnt be any colission on residential areas, maybe rarily. Highwas and DT areas probably will have a lot more cars and collissions. 

 

 

your spoiler is true Rath, but have we ever narrowed it down to the possible decade the game takes place in? the recent inclusion of Laserdisc as loot kind of takes us back in time several years. i know the cars still had the OBD computers (25 years in auto dealership experience) but the odds may actually slightly improve of finding an older car you could hotwire.

 

Fair enough about the time frame, I'm not sure exactly when the swap was made to full electrical systems. Still, it's not something that most people actually have a damn clue about doing and I'm highly opposed to it being a "skill" in a game that's about average people. It's another one of a long line of things Hollywood has blasphemed that every internet kid thinks they could totally do (see also guns, lock picking) and I admittedly have a bit of a crusade against these things.

 

I Totally agree with this, the more "Average" the character can be, the more realistic. I've tried lockpicking, it's hard! and now days is not that easy. Only a small amount of older buildings can be picked. for anything newer, you need a special set. Can't do it with a bobby pin no more. guns can also be just as complicated, everybody thinks is just aim and pull the trigger, but they really don't know what it feels to carry a gun. I assume hotwiring would be the same.

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Please stop typing every word in bold. It hurts the eyes T.T

 

Just because Muldraugh is a small town doesn't mean it'll have less than one car per house. A car is damn near essential for everyday living, so it stands to reason most households will have a car or two, even if it's an incredibly old, beat up one.

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I'm thinking a few options that could maybe solve the availability of working vehicles.

 

 

#1, perhaps adding a skill tree: Mechanics.

 

There would be a lot of cars. But they would be "Damaged" or totaled. (Most of not all of them)

 

Skill two of mechanics, would give you more info, Example:

 

"Damaged, needs parts"

"totaled/broken. Unusable"

 

Level 3 or 4 could give you more information, Maybe health of the vehicle along with what exact part(s) it needs to be running.

 

Level 5 could maybe enhance the health on vehicles.

 

 

Maybe the lower the level, if you mess with a car it would have a chance of triggering the alarm.

 

 

Other ideas:

 

Some cars would be stuck between broken cars, to render them useless.

I.e., Highway Emergency Roadblock, A lot of cars, most (or all) of them trapped.

 

 

Perhaps there could be another skill implented. "electronics" that would be used to make power generators, Maybe that along with the mechanic skill, could unlock newer cars.

 

 

I still don't see how KEYS would be implemented successfully, without being too much extra work.

Comments, ideas?

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Ammount of cars should be finite/limited, but not rare.

 

The game takes place in the U.S, where most households have cars, so it's a common object.

 

Engines/Batteries/Gas however should be limited/rare.

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"Maldorough is a small Town, a lot of this towns don't have 1 vehicle per househould. perhaps number is small, but I think keeping it low is somewhat realistic."

 

- False. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Muldraugh,+KY/@37.9338663,-85.9913935,146m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x886920e97d5031c9:0x70e1eb33a4c46c0?hl=en

 

"How would you limit which ones are usable? Also, if there's Glitch death (Which now happens semi frequently on MP) that item is lost. Forever. Also on coding, each key would have a UNIQUE Id to match a UNIQUE Id with a vehicle, it seems like a complicated coding maneuver "

 

- I would probably recommend only coding 3-6 "usable" cars depending on the loot rarity. Each car has a "car number" value. If you have a key with the same "car number" value, then it starts. If not, nothing happens. Then you could spawn in junk keys and cars that have no corresponding values. This would be the broken down "useless" cars. Just my idea of how it could work.

 

"guns can also be just as complicated, everybody thinks is just aim and pull the trigger, but they really don't know what it feels to carry a gun."

 

- I've been using guns since before I was ten, so I might be overlooking something very obvious, but how are guns complicated? I would think everyone knows which way to load a bullet in a gun, how to work the safety mechanism, and how to pull the trigger. As I said before, I could be missing something!

 

"Only a small amount of older buildings can be picked."

 

- Bump keys and an O-ring. Scary how well you can get these things to work. Here is a good video and explanation (not that I want this added, just knowledge is fun).

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*Scrolls around Google Maps link* Lookin' pretty true depending on the area you're viewing, not that Google Maps is going to give you a very clear idea. Random googling doesn't seem to provide any relevant statistics.

How do you make working cars are? Smash 'em. Limit fuel, make their locomotion pointless with barriers (including other cars). It doesn't have to be very complex, nor a great deviation from the story line.

*Gets Weiser deadbolt from box. Inserts key from same model (but not same key-alike setting). Gives key smack*

Try again, Youtube. :(

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"Maldorough is a small Town, a lot of this towns don't have 1 vehicle per househould. perhaps number is small, but I think keeping it low is somewhat realistic."

 

- False. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Muldraugh,+KY/@37.9338663,-85.9913935,146m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x886920e97d5031c9:0x70e1eb33a4c46c0?hl=en

 

"How would you limit which ones are usable? Also, if there's Glitch death (Which now happens semi frequently on MP) that item is lost. Forever. Also on coding, each key would have a UNIQUE Id to match a UNIQUE Id with a vehicle, it seems like a complicated coding maneuver "

 

- I would probably recommend only coding 3-6 "usable" cars depending on the loot rarity. Each car has a "car number" value. If you have a key with the same "car number" value, then it starts. If not, nothing happens. Then you could spawn in junk keys and cars that have no corresponding values. This would be the broken down "useless" cars. Just my idea of how it could work.

 

"guns can also be just as complicated, everybody thinks is just aim and pull the trigger, but they really don't know what it feels to carry a gun."

 

- I've been using guns since before I was ten, so I might be overlooking something very obvious, but how are guns complicated? I would think everyone knows which way to load a bullet in a gun, how to work the safety mechanism, and how to pull the trigger. As I said before, I could be missing something!

 

"Only a small amount of older buildings can be picked."

 

- Bump keys and an O-ring. Scary how well you can get these things to work. Here is a good video and explanation (not that I want this added, just knowledge is fun).

 

The idea thing I didn't completely understand but it sounds like it makes somewhat sense, so It might be a good idea.

 

Also, please quote me exactly. I said we all know how to pull the trigger. (I didn't say we all know how to shoot guns) I've never actually shot a gun (I've seen a lot, but never really cared to shoot) I feel like i could figure out all the basics, except for cleaning. I would just not mess with it. What if you lose a piece, or break a sensitive piece.

 

Also, this proves what I said. 

Sure Bump keys and lockpicking guns are very cool and are made to break standard locks fast. Keyword. "Standard" if you notice that is the same lock they use over and over. They didn't mention anything about security pins, or security tumblers. And that is pretty much the standard nowdays, unless its an old building. (I've done lockpicking, here I do have experience) The only thing that is mostly universal is the basic lockpicking, that does take A LOT OF PRACTICE.

 

 

i also agree with less than 1 car per househould. From my experience of small canadian towns.

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