Cars. . and all that jazz.

[Espa 711]

So, before this comes off as a tirade of hate against the game, I wish to express my genuine love for DayZ and its' developments! It's my favorite game and I honestly love to hermit the hell out of it for hours on end. But there is something I think I need to say, something that needs to be addressed at some point in terms of Cars (In general). Also, before I press on, I UNDERSTAND WE'RE IN ALPHA haha.

 

This will be a mix of discussion as well as a suggestion as to how to proceed on these things, so just bear with me!

 

I'll put it in list style to point out my concerns.

 

• There are way too FEW cars to fix up in the game.

 

• I believe it ridiculous that a player is capable of finding a car with absolutely NO parts on it, at all. What is this? This never happens in real life. . Not even in the hood. It is as if they have been to chopshops and then helicoptered to their location and left in utter dilapidated state. It irritates me.

 

• Why can we not take a lugwrench or some similar tool and TAKE parts from existing broken down cars? This simply makes no sense.

 

• Furthermore, why can we not just fix the broken down cars that are around as well? The models are all there, and more.

 

• Finally, I know that there would be a lot of parts and balance issues to work out in trying to fix up the things that I am concerned about, but I believe it to be for the betterment of the game. The map is humongous as hell as running for hours on end is not in line at all for any type of casual playing style. Overall, the current population, fixation, and element of cars is only reserved for those who either have an enormous amount of time to kill, are lucky to find the pieces, have extreme help from others.

 

Thoughts/Criticisms/ShootmewithaSKS?

[preacherlr 614]

 

• I believe it ridiculous that a player is capable of finding a car with absolutely NO parts on it, at all. What is this? This never happens in real life. . Not even in the hood. It is as if they have been to chopshops and then helicoptered to their location and left in utter dilapidated state. It irritates me.

 

• Why can we not take a lugwrench or some similar tool and TAKE parts from existing broken down cars? This simply makes no sense.

 

 

1. They do as far as I know. I purchased a server, First person on it after it provisioned, Spawned in elektro, Was a car with a spark plug and 2 wheels outside the fire station.

2. You can. Put the lug wrench in your hands, Look at the wheel and click remove. ( Assuming that you're not talking about the static cars that spawn loot. Only actual vehicles. )

I haven't really had any issues fixing up cars and such. We had a fuel issue after driving for hours, But it seems the servers auto-restart fixed that.

[Espa 711]

Snip

 

I come across barren cars with absolutely no goods in them all the time. . If they are being stripped, that is one thing, but to completely find every single type of vehicle and it be a mere shell of what it needs to be is just crazy to me. I tested this multiple times today after server restarts on one that delivers high loot and vehicles.

 

And yes, I do mean the static vehicles. I don't understand why these would be so trashed that every single part of them, in every single one, would be totaled to the point of ruination. It begs the question, How long have normal humans been outside of Chernarous to see this kind of rust and destruction of vehicles that should remain at least semi-viable for a few years.

[yazar8 584]

Vehicles don't spawn with nothing, they do spawn with parts. However as a bundle, server hoppers which steal carparts spawn alongside :)

[Espa 711]

Vehicles don't spawn with nothing, they do spawn with parts. However as a bundle, server hoppers which steal carparts spawn alongside :)

 

Interesting. . I wonder why on a Private server that I am seeing this occur so often. . Could it really be that they're all being stripped, even if a vehicle has clearly spawned within the last restart and I happen upon it within minutes of my arrival? That seems far fetched.

[yazar8 584]

Interesting. . I wonder why on a Private server that I am seeing this occur so often. . Could it really be that they're all being stripped, even if a vehicle has clearly spawned within the last restart and I happen upon it within minutes of my arrival? That seems far fetched.

 

At that case, you're just unlucky with those vehicles or yes, someone stripped them off already.

[Espa 711]

Wow. Well then. The more you know :) I appreciate that information, guys.

 

I still believe points 1, 3, 4, and 5 are still valid and need to be addressed at some point.

[pillock 850]

It would utterly change the dynamics of the whole game if cars and parts were available everywhere. Not saying for the worse, necessarily, but I think the devs have always had in mind for working vehicles to be relatively rare, for the gameplay balance they want. There are also performance issues that come with spawning large numbers of usable vehicles, probably.

 

I've never found a car with more than one door/panel on it. I agree that this is a bit weird. I can understand why you'd find cars without wheels or engine parts in the DayZ scenario, but why have people in the apocalypse taken to nicking doors and boot lids? My guess is that this is just an early implementation, rather than the planned end-product.

[Whyherro123 2283]

While this opinion on Reddit is a little more than a year old, it sums up exactly how I feel about vehicles

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/2iax7g/hicks_opinion_no_more_than_10_vehicles_on_an/

 

Day Z takes place between several months and two years after society "shat the bed" as it were. As soon as international trade stopped, South Zagoria would have had a limited supply of gasoline, lubricant, coolant, and literally every other thing vehicles need to function ( as well as other things, like bullets, medication, certain foods, etc, but that is for another thread). Couple that with usage, the previous hardcore civil war, as well as normal wear-n-tear, and vehicles would get broken very quickly.

 

You aren't "supposed" to have vehicles. Finding a vehicle that could be made to work should be an " OH MY GOD" moment, and actually getting it to work should be a "crowning moment of awesome", as well as a major timesink.

 

Of course, this is coming from the person that believes 1) the majority of the gasoline in-game should pretty much be unusable (http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/31/does-gas-go-bad/), as well as 2) the players should be focusing on rebuilding aspects of society. Want fuel for your vehicles? Make it yourself. Want electricity for your base? Go and find a generator, or make a wind turbine from easily-available parts, etc

Edited December 22, 2015 by Whyherro123

[BeefBacon 1185]

I come across barren cars with absolutely no goods in them all the time. . If they are being stripped, that is one thing, but to completely find every single type of vehicle and it be a mere shell of what it needs to be is just crazy to me. I tested this multiple times today after server restarts on one that delivers high loot and vehicles.

 

'High loot' servers are lies. They call themselves high loot so people will join. Server owners have no control over how much stuff spawns.

 

I've never found a vehicle with literally no parts in it. I have, however, found a bus in Cherno that was only missing a few wheels. I nicked the glow plug. Seems to me that people are probably just stealing parts for their own vehicles.

 

Being able to scavenge wrecks for parts would be nice. It'd have to be balanced, of course. Food is already infinite because you can forage for berries. Infinite car parts would be equally silly.

[pillock 850]

I think it should be like this:

 

My Summer Car

[LucidHills 94]

It would utterly change the dynamics of the whole game if cars and parts were available everywhere. Not saying for the worse, necessarily, but I think the devs have always had in mind for working vehicles to be relatively rare, for the gameplay balance they want.  -snip-

True. At least that's the case for the types of vehicles that we have at the moment. There is also plans for smaller and easier to maintain vehicles like motorbikes and bicycles. I believe the plan is to make these sort, particularly the bicycle, relatively common.

[Espa 711]

Hm. Thanks for the comments guys, it has enlightened me to a few things. I did not know the exact setting and I can understand why Devs would like to keep them rare so that it really is an achievement to have fixed up a car. I suppose I was venting a little anger before because of the many times that I've set up a car, or almost to it, it's almost always robbed before I can finish it. I wished to know how in the hell could this be so difficult when I feel like I've learned a lot else from the game.

 

Either way, it's Alpha, and we'll see what happens! But I won't press the issue any further if this is how it's meant to be :)

[emuthreat 2837]

I come across barren cars with absolutely no goods in them all the time. . If they are being stripped, that is one thing, but to completely find every single type of vehicle and it be a mere shell of what it needs to be is just crazy to me. I tested this multiple times today after server restarts on one that delivers high loot and vehicles.

 

And yes, I do mean the static vehicles. I don't understand why these would be so trashed that every single part of them, in every single one, would be totaled to the point of ruination. It begs the question, How long have normal humans been outside of Chernarous to see this kind of rust and destruction of vehicles that should remain at least semi-viable for a few years.

They are, indeed being stripped.  Last night on experimental, I had the misfortune of putting a couple wheels on a car, only to have them whisked away by an inter-dimensional scrapper.  I of course took this as a sign from the vehicle gods that I should transcend my earthbound state, and started hopping to other servers and stripping their cars for parts.

 

It is a thing.  I blame the hive, and human nature.  If it can be exploited for easy gain, people will exploit it.

 

Edit: even on a private server, when I'm building a car, the first place to look for parts is where I know other cars spawn.

Edited December 22, 2015 by emuthreat

[xalienax 621]

While this opinion on Reddit is a little more than a year old, it sums up exactly how I feel about vehicles

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/2iax7g/hicks_opinion_no_more_than_10_vehicles_on_an/

 

Day Z takes place between several months and two years after society "shat the bed" as it were. As soon as international trade stopped, South Zagoria would have had a limited supply of gasoline, lubricant, coolant, and literally every other thing vehicles need to function ( as well as other things, like bullets, medication, certain foods, etc, but that is for another thread). Couple that with usage, the previous hardcore civil war, as well as normal wear-n-tear, and vehicles would get broken very quickly.

 

You aren't "supposed" to have vehicles. Finding a vehicle that could be made to work should be an " OH MY GOD" moment, and actually getting it to work should be a "crowning moment of awesome", as well as a major timesink.

 

Of course, this is coming from the person that believes 1) the majority of the gasoline in-game should pretty much be unusable (http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/31/does-gas-go-bad/), as well as 2) the players should be focusing on rebuilding aspects of society. Want fuel for your vehicles? Make it yourself. Want electricity for your base? Go and find a generator, or make a wind turbine from easily-available parts, etc

+1 

I really wish for dayZ to stay as close to the simulation side of the street as possible. Getting to the point that you (and if you have friends along your crew) are looking at long term projects and not simply making it for the next 24hrs should be a major achievement in it's self. i already think the amount of reliance on the 'magic loot fairy' the game grants us is far too steep. a slim sprinkling of items from before the collapse should be all thats left, and much more heavy reliance on improvised tools/gear and bushcrafting.

[pillock 850]

 when I'm building a car, the first place to look for parts is where I know other cars spawn.

 

Hmm. Spark plugs are the only thing that I've found to be rare enough to warrant travelling any distance or checking known vehicle spawns for - everything else seems to be gettable just from looking in towns and barns in the vicinity of the vehicle, from my experience. And I've never found a vehicle that's had any engine parts already in it, anyway.

 

(Plus I don't know where the possible spawn points are because I refuse to use the internet to look that shit up - it'd totally ruin the excitement of stumbling across something like a vehicle or a crash site.)

[emuthreat 2837]

Hmm. Spark plugs are the only thing that I've found to be rare enough to warrant travelling any distance or checking known vehicle spawns for - everything else seems to be gettable just from looking in towns and barns in the vicinity of the vehicle, from my experience. And I've never found a vehicle that's had any engine parts already in it, anyway.

 

(Plus I don't know where the possible spawn points are because I refuse to use the internet to look that shit up - it'd totally ruin the excitement of stumbling across something like a vehicle or a crash site.)

I cover a lot of ground.

[jayfkay (DayZ) 185]

When I fixed up my car, tires were the biggest issues.. spent like 4 hours searching for 4 tires.

[pillock 850]

When I fixed up my car, tires were the biggest issues.. spent like 4 hours searching for 4 tires.

 

I spent more than 4 hours looking for 1 sedan wheel. Found about 200 million bus, truck and off-roader wheels in that time, obviously. No sedan wheels anywhere. None.

 

But, I think it's good that it takes a long time. The wheels themselves are not rare, but it's because you need 4 of them that it takes the time. I think this should extend to spark/glow plugs, really - 1 plug should not make the engine work. How many cylinders does a V3S engine have, for example? Maybe eight? That would be a challenge, and would make it much more viable to spawn more part-less vehicles per server. I also assume that further down the line we will need more engine parts, such as fan belts, oil filters, etc. Maybe even gearboxes.

 

What I'd really like is if you could get 4 wheels on your car, you'd be able to move it by towing/shunting with another vehicle or pushing by hand and making use of downhill. That would be awesome, though I don't know how feasible it is to implement.

[jayfkay (DayZ) 185]

I spent more than 4 hours looking for 1 sedan wheel. Found about 200 million bus, truck and off-roader wheels in that time, obviously. No sedan wheels anywhere. None.

 

But, I think it's good that it takes a long time. The wheels themselves are not rare, but it's because you need 4 of them that it takes the time. I think this should extend to spark/glow plugs, really - 1 plug should not make the engine work. How many cylinders does a V3S engine have, for example? Maybe eight? That would be a challenge, and would make it much more viable to spawn more part-less vehicles per server. I also assume that further down the line we will need more engine parts, such as fan belts, oil filters, etc. Maybe even gearboxes.

 

What I'd really like is if you could get 4 wheels on your car, you'd be able to move it by towing/shunting with another vehicle or pushing by hand and making use of downhill. That would be awesome, though I don't know how feasible it is to implement.

Well I think its too muich of a grind.. vehicles should take between 1-3h to fix up, not an entire day. Am not really looking forward to all these additions and stuff like "filling up your mag bullet by bullet manually" that was talked about long ago and super realism things like that.. its too much imo. There is a fine line between realism and fun and balance.

Dont wanna spend most of the time doing stupid things that require nothing but watching tedious animations and pressing F, its not a fun gameplay element at all.

[pillock 850]

Well I think its too muich of a grind.. vehicles should take between 1-3h to fix up, not an entire day. Am not really looking forward to all these additions and stuff like "filling up your mag bullet by bullet manually" that was talked about long ago and super realism things like that.. its too much imo. There is a fine line between realism and fun and balance.

Dont wanna spend most of the time doing stupid things that require nothing but watching tedious animations and pressing F, its not a fun gameplay element at all.

 

There's a big difference between tediously pressing F over and over to reload your magazine, and spending a long time looking around the map for certain loot items. Like I said, if you could move the vehicle once it has 4 wheels on it, then you could get it away from the spawn location and hidden - but the engine should take quite a while to fix up, I think. Maybe even several play-sessions.

 

I've been working on the same sedan for 3 nights in a row now. Every time I've been back to it after a day, it's been fiddled with by someone else - stuff's gone out of the inventory, or it's slid sideways a bit when someone's added or removed a wheel. But it's still been there (touch wood). I like that - I don't see why players should expect to go from zero to fully kitted, including a vehicle, in a single session.