Vehicles (and wheels) – spawn, despawn, persistence

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

Hi gang, I’m trying to figure out a few things about the vehicles:

 

1) Do we know how many of them spawn each time, out of each kind if it works like that?

 

2) I believe that a vehicle which was not manipulated with in a given session, despawns and spawns somewhere else. Is it true? If so, how can we prevented a despawn for sure? Will putting a single random item in the trunk make it stay?

 

3) Apart from the above, what makes a vehicle despawn? I heard that a car ruined in an accident will despawn, but I saw a crashed Volga which was there for a couple of days. On the other hand, a Volga which I hopelessly drove onto a pile of timber despawned. However, a Lada stuck on a rock stayed there for some time. So what’s the rule for despawn due to damage?

 

4) For how long the vehicles are persistent? Is it 7 days?

 

5) I see that all the regular items despawn if manipulated, as usual under CLE. However, wheels persist. My question is: are they persistent like the vehicles/barrels? Or is there any other special rule? If I want a wheel to stay there, is it better to manipulate it or leave it be? Do jerry cans follow any similar special rules?

 

6) I hid a truck among some trees but upon a restart, the truck now faces North. It is not accessible (although the inventory is) and all the double pristine wheels are ruined. If I chop down the nearby trees and replace the wheels, will I retrieve my vehicle? Or is it lost forever and will despawn soon?

 

Thanks guys and have fun cruisin’ around!

[S3V3N 1402]

Grenades are the only way to destroy a vehicle (or mines, but they don't spawn, I think). When it is destroyed, it will respawn. If it is upside down or on its side it will respawn in the same place after restarts (but on its wheels). I'm watching a car that has no fuel (I have another one) and it hasn't despawned in at least 4 days and nobody else found it. It has three wheels on it though (which I put there) and stuff in its inventory. It is well possible that they don't despawn when there is at least one working tire on them (which would also explain why they always spawn with a tire). Theories, nothing else. I wonder myself what counts as damage. It seems there isn't any damage to the body with this patch. What I can say is I've driven a car for over a week now and most of the time returned it to camp. I have ruined the lights, battery and sparkplug and went through at least ten tires on it and it still sticks around. But I was moving it every day. 

 

Wheels seem to be persistent, yes. I find it makes sense to remove them, so other items can (re)spawn in the vacant slot. However, only a certain quantity of tires can spawn in total, so removing a tire at a completely remote and random place is a dick-move, because people won't come looking for tires there. I usually remove them from sheds in cities and leave the other ones be, as the loot will rotate every couple of hours and even though items are persistent, they still switch places this way. 

 

I think 5 of each car spawn each time, not sure about the buses, but supposedly 8 V3S trucks spawn (5 two-seaters + 3 with truck bed for passengers). This might have changed with the last update, as I haven't seen any V3S trucks in the latest updates and either all the cars are taken or completely remote or fewer of them spawn now.

 

The north rotation is really annoying, especially when you start setting up tents for your vehicle. I made sure to keep my tent empty, until the server restarted, in order to set it up facing the right direction again. If your car is stuck in a tree due to this, you can chop down the tree and free it, but it will probably be somewhat damaged and you could get injured or killed yourself. Keep a splint nearby and don't wear anything in your pants, as well as strong boots. (I only did this with a truck once and it slid down an entire mountain and stopped in a pond...) 

Edited January 6, 2016 by S3V3N

[Merc. 37]

Grenades are the only way to destroy a vehicle (or mines, but they don't spawn, I think). 

 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/3z8nuz/we_spent_hours_fixing_the_car_and_then_this/ 

 

Not just nades. Trees too. 

[S3V3N 1402]

https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/3z8nuz/we_spent_hours_fixing_the_car_and_then_this/ 

 

Not just nades. Trees too. 

Heheh, well that's an art to fell a tree and have it land exactly on the car ^^. I bet if you're trying this in the middle of a dense patch of trees, they will fall all around the car ;)

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

Thanks for the info, S3V3N, although this sure is bad news. I myself totalled many cars due to the 4th gear or the mysteriously strong gravitational pull of hill slopes and it's a pity that such vehicles don't return to the pool. I may try to grenade them a bit.

 

I'm not that sure about no damage to body. At first I thought the same, but then I found a Volga badly crashed by somebody else, I replaced the tires but couldn't start her. Granted, I think the battery and plug were ruined but I'm positive that in this patch, the condition of neither matters. So I guess it had something to do with the body.

 

As for the trucks - I believe this is the vehicle claimed the least by players so you were just unlucky finding one. When I'm going to a vehicle hunt, I don't shy from even the most remote spawn points as these are places where you can fix a car in peace. However, once I saw a truck in Topolniki which just stood there for at least four days! People would try to fix it, but with damaged 2wheels it probably wouldn't even move. Eventually, I got around to find four pristine 2wheels and snatched it, only to lose it immediately to the North-direction bug.

 

This reminds me - where do you find your car tents?

 

One more funny thing - for dark green trucks, you can find places in the woods which look like literally planted by the devs in order to serve as some sort of a tree garage. Check it out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[blade glint 0]

I'm new to the game and been running around looking for vehicle's and can only find two buses that are repairable.

 

If all the sedans and off-road cars are taken will any more spawn?

 

I have literally searched over 3/4 of the map and have not found any sedans and off-road cars that are repairable.

 

This cant be right can it?

 

I have geared up been near NWA area for a while and now back to the coast to find a off-road and just cant find any.

 

I have found lots of helo's glow plug's and good gear, so I know my way around just wanted to ask if it is glitching or something else going on.

 

I play on a persistence server.

[emuthreat 2837]

Cars get hoovered up quickly by the people in-the-know.  I've destroyed/lost at least a half-dozen vehicles on stable, and always go looking for a new one right away.  My preference is to have a couple buses well-hidden for special occasions, a sedans for cruisers, two or three Ladas spread about for helicopter hunting or taxi missions, and a couple of workhorse V3Ss for hauling jobs.

 

Interesting side-note that I discovered with Cold Atrophy, while trying to set up a few tire warehouses:  If you don't put your tires in tents, having too many in the same place will do terrible things to the server.  Our network of tire stockpiles is nearly complete.  If anyone has a server in mind that we should test this on, we would be interested to see how many tires in the same place it would require to crash a server or client.  Between the two of us, we have used up dozens of tires this patch; as well as flipped, stuck, run-dry, and all other manner of rendering vehicles inoperable, and then recovered a fair amount them.  I killed myself the other day, just so I could get to the coast quickly without having to worry about keeping a vehicle running the whole trip to the coast and back.  There are still lots of problems with the vehicles.

 

Random vehicle tips:  Use the new UI--it makes things so much easier.  You can sometimes repair pristine tires to maximize your traction.  If all tires are fully pristine condition, and your rig still drives like shit, rotate the tires.  If you flip over, or get stuck on a rock wall, you can use an improvised bow to jostle the car back into a driveable postion;  make sure to remove all the wheels and doors first, and replace and remove one wheel between each shot--the impact often will not register until you interact with the vehicle; so shooting a bunch of arrows at the car, only to see it go up in flames and right itself upon replacing the first tire, is not the recommended course of action.

 

Manual transmission guide: Lots of people have been calling the trucks and bus worthless.  They are flat wrong.  Those vehicles are just more difficult to learn how to drive.

I will provide a recommended amount of time to accelerate through each gear on flat pavement, formatted in ascending order, as follows:

Car name--time spent in each gear, in seconds (1st, 2nd, 3dr, 4th)  

 

Sedan--(1.5,2,2,X)

Offroad--(1,1,1.5,X)

Bus--(2.5,2,5,X)

V3S--(1.5,1.5,6,X)

 

The rule of thumb for each vehicle is to generally get into fourth gear, and stay there for as long as possible, even while decelerating for turns.  The exceptions are on hills, as you will slide if you top out the gear you are in, and failed to downshift at the proper time.  Some slopes and surfaces simply cannot be navigated, and you must learn the individual capabilities of each vehicle.

 

The Offroad has practically useless first and second gears on pavement, but you will mostly need only the second gear for navigating steep, wooded terrain.  The sedan becomes unstable at high speeds, and cannot maintain traction on surfaces that are mottled grassy/dirt-rocks combination fields.  The bus appears to only have one drive wheel, and will quickly lose momentum on undulating uneven surfaces.  Momentum is everything; I take the bus through flat-ish fields and woods to avoid slowing down for corners or roadblocks.  The V3S has ridiculously short first and second gears, given the noises the engine makes.  Try to shift between 1500 and 2000 RPMs, use the tachometer on the dash from 1pp.  There is also two sets of graduated bars along the left edge of the speedometer, which seem to indicate when a gear is at efficient operating speed.  Do not try to start the truck moving up any sort of incline, you need to be going at least 40 kMph in fourth, then smartly shift to third gear to get up hills in the V3S.

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

Random vehicle tips:  Use the new UI--it makes things so much easier.  You can sometimes repair pristine tires to maximize your traction.  If all tires are fully pristine condition, and your rig still drives like shit, rotate the tires.  If you flip over, or get stuck on a rock wall, you can use an improvised bow to jostle the car back into a driveable postion;  make sure to remove all the wheels and doors first, and replace and remove one wheel between each shot--the impact often will not register until you interact with the vehicle; so shooting a bunch of arrows at the car, only to see it go up in flames and right itself upon replacing the first tire, is not the recommended course of action.

 

Manual transmission guide: Lots of people have been calling the trucks and bus worthless.  They are flat wrong.  Those vehicles are just more difficult to learn how to drive.

 

 

One thing about the new UI - can you access the in-game map with it? I couldn't figure it out and if it's not possible, then I'm just saying 'no thanks'.

 

As for the vehicles - I don't think the main beef is that they are worthless worthless. It's just they don't feel like vehicles (I'm talking about the general feel of authenticity, not hardcore realism). If your imaginary object experiences any kind of issues going uphill, then you can't seriously make me pretend to believe that's a motor vehicle.

 

You don't see real drivers boast that they mastered the fourth gear. And I don't care how shitty roads in Chernarus are, they don't work like catapults. The point is not that you can get used to this piss-poor performance, the point is that you shouldn't have to. Which means, you can do like many players and just wait until the cars actually work.

 

Yes, I share your love to vehicles and I got pretty decent at driving them as well, but they're still "overloaded shopping carts on an earthquake-struck ice rink", no matter how good you are with them. This happened to me just a week ago:

 

 

 

 

I swear to God it was no accident, no crash, no mistake or glitch, nothing. I was just driving up that road to the left, in the first gear. And I was doing my best to continue just that. :D Apparently, there is a small black hole in Nagornoe.

 

Yeah, I know it's alpha, I'm just pointing out that you recommended shooting cars with a bow. ;) I understand many people who don't have this kind of patience.

[emuthreat 2837]

One thing about the new UI - can you access the in-game map with it? I couldn't figure it out and if it's not possible, then I'm just saying 'no thanks'.

 

As for the vehicles - I don't think the main beef is that they are worthless worthless. It's just they don't feel like vehicles (I'm talking about the general feel of authenticity, not hardcore realism). If your imaginary object experiences any kind of issues going uphill, then you can't seriously make me pretend to believe that's a motor vehicle.

 

You don't see real drivers boast that they mastered the fourth gear. And I don't care how shitty roads in Chernarus are, they don't work like catapults. The point is not that you can get used to this piss-poor performance, the point is that you shouldn't have to. Which means, you can do like many players and just wait until the cars actually work.

 

Yes, I share your love to vehicles and I got pretty decent at driving them as well, but they're still "overloaded shopping carts on an earthquake-struck ice rink", no matter how good you are with them. This happened to me just a week ago:

 

 

 

 

I swear to God it was no accident, no crash, no mistake or glitch, nothing. I was just driving up that road to the left, in the first gear. And I was doing my best to continue just that. :D Apparently, there is a small black hole in Nagornoe.

Yeah, I know it's alpha, I'm just pointing out that you recommended shooting cars with a bow. ;) I understand many people who don't have this kind of patience.

Some people who play DayZ SA in alpha don't have the patience to deal with broken mechanics?  

 

I haven't tried using the in-game maps with the new UI.  I think you might just be part of the crowd that plays the game as if it weren't in alpha.  I keep driving vehicles because they are broken, not despite their brokenness.  I am very close to understanding the random spin-outs and flipping behaviors well-enough to submit a cogent bug report on the matter.  Last night, we "wore out" a Lada; we could still drive, and use the gears, but it had no purchase.  Eventually it was unable to accelerate beyond 8 or 10 kmph.  It seemed to resemble a clutch failing to fully engage.  Eventually, even I was convinced that the vehicle must be destroyed.  That is an entirely new behavior, and I never would have discovered it if I had given up on using vehicles because it was inconvenient.

 

Edit: I should mention that I am nearly burnt out on submitting bug reports for the time being.  I have done quite a few of them with video documentation the past few weeks, and many of them still have the new status.  I might just go back to playing the game like other people soon.  Putting a lot of work into chasing bugs so we can have working vehicles faster feels kinda stupid when apparently nobody is even looking at the bug reports.

Edited January 8, 2016 by emuthreat

[pilgrim* 3514]

Agathor on 0.59 - vehicles -  youtube

 

1 ) .59 (general new info & vehicles)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA2RfyFh3OM

 

2 ) vehicle spawns in 0.59:

 

5 Ladas
5 Volga Sedans
5 Busses
5 V3Ss
3 Cargo V3Ss

( & map )
 

3 ) .59 vehicle maintenance & how-tos

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf72Pu7etFk

 

xx pilgrim

Edited January 8, 2016 by pilgrim

[ColdAtrophy 1850]

We have destroyed multiple vehicles with bullets by the way. Just throwing that out there. 

[yazar8 584]

Hi gang, I’m trying to figure out a few things about the vehicles:

 

1) Do we know how many of them spawn each time, out of each kind if it works like that?

Covered at a post above

 

2) I believe that a vehicle which was not manipulated with in a given session, despawns and spawns somewhere else. Is it true? If so, how can we prevented a despawn for sure? Will putting a single random item in the trunk make it stay?

They will remain where they are forever.

 

3) Apart from the above, what makes a vehicle despawn? I heard that a car ruined in an accident will despawn, but I saw a crashed Volga which was there for a couple of days. On the other hand, a Volga which I hopelessly drove onto a pile of timber despawned. However, a Lada stuck on a rock stayed there for some time. So what’s the rule for despawn due to damage?

A car will only despawn if it is fully destroyed, if a tree falls over it or you explode it with a grenade and maybe if you shoot at it.

 

4) For how long the vehicles are persistent? Is it 7 days?

Don't know, but It is probably more than 7.

 

5) I see that all the regular items despawn if manipulated, as usual under CLE. However, wheels persist. My question is: are they persistent like the vehicles/barrels? Or is there any other special rule? If I want a wheel to stay there, is it better to manipulate it or leave it be? Do jerry cans follow any similar special rules?

Wheels are persistent for a couple of days, ranged to 3-4 maybe even more, I didn't really experiment. I've seen wheels staying on the floor for atleast 4 days.

Jerry cans are not persistent.

 

6) I hid a truck among some trees but upon a restart, the truck now faces North. It is not accessible (although the inventory is) and all the double pristine wheels are ruined. If I chop down the nearby trees and replace the wheels, will I retrieve my vehicle? Or is it lost forever and will despawn soon?

Hop servers and chop all of the trees down and see which direction they fall towards, if it is actually falling directly on the truck you should not chop them. Trees always fall to the same direction.

 

 

If you destroy a vehicle it will turn in to full black as if it exploded, you might even see flames. After that happens you will need to wait one to two server restarts before the vehicle is completely gone. After that the vehicle will be respawned to the closest spawn point, if not the closest one you should check the other ones nearby. Mostly It's going to be really close, though.

 

There is an unstopabble fuel leak feature which can not be fixed. This happens when you damage your car too much. After every restart the vehicles are refilled however fuel will decrease gradually over time and it will have no fuel after awhile. 

Edited January 9, 2016 by Yazar8

[JohnyBravo 15]

https://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/3z8nuz/we_spent_hours_fixing_the_car_and_then_this/ 

 

Not just nades. Trees too. 

 

 

Wahahaha, im almost crying of these two. xD 

[ColdAtrophy 1850]

Hey I got one too.

 

[pilgrim* 3514]

sorry to interrupt ..

can you really set fire to a bus by shooting pointed wooden sticks at it with a crafted bow?

that's so cool!

[LucidHills 94]

Has anyone confirmed how many of each type of vehicle spawns? I have heard different numbers from different people. 
Also I have noticed that the new vehicles (offroad,sedan,bus) all have static spawns at the moment. And when they despawn they return to their original static spawn. Can't confirm that though as I only experienced it once. A offroad respawned to the spawn I originally picked it up from after it got stuck on a small concrete block on the corner of a road. 

[yazar8 584]

5 Ladas

5 Volga Sedans

5 Busses

5 V3Ss

3 Cargo V3Ss

( & map )

 

Has anyone confirmed how many of each type of vehicle spawns? I have heard different numbers from different people. 

Also I have noticed that the new vehicles (offroad,sedan,bus) all have static spawns at the moment. And when they despawn they return to their original static spawn. Can't confirm that though as I only experienced it once. A offroad respawned to the spawn I originally picked it up from after it got stuck on a small concrete block on the corner of a road. 

[LucidHills 94]

@Yazar8
Yes, I saw that. It's on this very page. That's why I commented. I saw elsewhere in the forums someone saying it was 4 each for the new vehicles. I imagine both of these are estimates. I was wondering if anyone has looked into the game files or something and confirmed it? (I probably should have made that clearer)

 

EDIT: Just realised that Pilgrim's source* is WOBO. That's confirmation enough for me. :P

*woops. Fixed. haha

Edited January 10, 2016 by LucidHills

[yazar8 584]

@Yazar8

Yes, I saw that. It's on this very page. That's why I commented. I saw elsewhere in the forums someone saying it was 4 each for the new vehicles. I imagine both of these are estimates. I was wondering if anyone has looked into the game files or something and confirmed it? (I probably should have made that clearer)

 

EDIT: Just realised that Pilgrim's sauce is WOBO. That's confirmation enough for me. :P

 

WOBO is the one and only sauce.

[yazar8 584]

Also I have noticed that the new vehicles (offroad,sedan,bus) all have static spawns at the moment. And when they despawn they return to their original static spawn. Can't confirm that though as I only experienced it once. A offroad respawned to the spawn I originally picked it up from after it got stuck on a small concrete block on the corner of a road. 

 

Nope. They go to the closest spawn where they got destroyed. If not the closest atleast then It's one of the most close ones.

Edited January 11, 2016 by Yazar8

[emuthreat 2837]

 A offroad respawned to the spawn I originally picked it up from after it got stuck on a small concrete block on the corner of a road. 

Lol, don't hit the stanchions.  Just drive around the areas with that shit.  I'll go off road with a bus to avoid those things, and here you are in a Lada?  Iss okay, I ruin more vehicle than anyone.

 

sorry to interrupt ..

can you really set fire to a bus by shooting pointed wooden sticks at it with a crafted bow?

that's so cool!

I shot a flipped sedan with 15 sharpened sticks, and they appeared to have no effect until I replaced a wheel; at which point it popped and wiggled, belched fire, and shimmied up a tree a couple feet.

 

Thinking of leaving a trap vehicle with one tire put in the trunk.  Apply lots of damage that won't register until some poor sap comes and interacts with the thing; thinking that it was somehow their own fault.

 

Hey I got one too.

 

That bus had such immersion...

Edited January 11, 2016 by emuthreat

[Kirov (DayZ) 585]

Nope. They go to the closest spawn where they got destroyed. If not the closest atleast then It's one of the most close ones.

 

Thanks for the very useful info! :thumbsup:

[ColdAtrophy 1850]

Nope. They go to the closest spawn where they got destroyed. If not the closest atleast then It's one of the most close ones.

 

How sure are you about this? I destroyed a V3S in Novo and it respawned in Novaya Petrovka skipping many spawns in between.

[yazar8 584]

How sure are you about this? I destroyed a V3S in Novo and it respawned in Novaya Petrovka skipping many spawns in between.

 

Never bothered with a V3S but with the offroad and sedan it works.

[LucidHills 94]

In my experience, this was not so. 

Thought I'd add an image to help explain what happened for me. I crashed my first vehicle, an offroad, 20 minutes after getting it working. :rolleyes: 

It was stuck on a concrete block and I had to abandon it. I logged in a couple of days later to see that it had despawned. I returned to where I got it originally and sure enough, it was there. 

 

As you can see, there is at least 3 closer spawn points it should have respawned to if your theory was correct. 

I'm not saying that you are wrong but my experience doesn't seem to support the theory. Where did you hear it from?