Immobilizers aka wheel locks aka car clamps

[dev0 19]

Heads up I want to state that I am aware that there was a thread on this topic before. In my eyes the idea was not fleshed out well enough and the general presentation of the suggestion was less than mediocre. For this reason I am posting my own thread on this topic.

Cars and other Vehicles are a valuable asset in DayZ. They are rather hard to get hands on, and even harder to keep your hands on. In the last couple of days me and my squad fixed repaired about 4 vehicles and stole another 2 or 3 from their stash. All of them where stolen from various locations around the map from us again by now. This is the reality for thousands of players every day. And I believe in it's core this is a good thing. However, since obviously every character in DayZ knows how to hot-wire a car (or keys are always kept behind the sunblind), there is only one way of securing your vehicle while you are offline: hide it, as good as you can, as far away from any spot a person could randomly pass by.

And here I believe DayZ could do better. Randomly stumbling across a car and stealing it should be possible, but also I think it would be nice to be able to secure a car against random stealing, at least to some degree. If you head out, well prepared, to look for a car and then steal it, you should absolutely be able to, and no game mechanic should prevent you from doing that. But if you just stroll around the landscape and come across a car you should not be able to easily steal it, if it's owner has applied some security measures.

Such security measures could come in the form of wheel clamps (aka wheel locks or immobilizers). Wheel clamps can be applied to any car, making the wheel which they are applied to unusable. Wheel clamps can be removed in two fashions: either regularly by unlocking it or forcibly by using a crowbar. Removing it forcibly however, would render the wheel it was attached to unusable, making it harder to relocate the vehicle after removing the wheel clamp.

Finding a wheel clamp

Wheel clamps would be very rare industrial or farm loot spawns. Making them only farm loot spawns would balance them out gameplay wise a bit better, since you wouldn't be able to find them easily while looking for the other parts to fixup your car, requiring you to search for them separately and thus actually invest additional resources to improve the security of your vehicle.

Wheel clamps would take up three inventory slots (they are heavy and bulky after all).

Applying a wheel clamp

To apply a wheel clamp to a vehicle, you need to have the wheel clamp in your inventory and be adjacent to a car while looking at it. The action menu of the car will then show a "Clamp <wheel>" option for each wheel on the vehicle. E.g. a motorcycle would show a "Clamp front wheel" and "Clamp rear wheel" option. Clamping an already clamped wheel is not possible. After selecting the clamp wheel option, your character would perform an action animation, just as it does when you fix a part of a vehicle. As it finishes the wheel clamp is removed from your inventory and a wheel clamp appears on the wheel. The wheel of the car is now clamped and rendered useless for as long as the clamp remains attached.

Driving with a wheel clamp

A vehicle with an attached wheel clamp will behave as if the clamped wheel was broke down. Also, driving with an attached wheel clamp will actually break the wheel it is attached to, rendering it useless even after the clamp was removed regularly. Lastly, it is not possible to replace or remove a clamped wheel at any time.

Removing a wheel clamp regularly

To remove a wheel clamp regularly the character who has applied the wheel clamp will have to approach the vehicle again and select the "Unclamp <wheel>" option from the action menu. Note that only the character who has applied the clamp is able to remove it again regularly (as if only he had the keys to the clamp). If the character dies, it won't be possible to remove the clamps regularly anymore. After choosing to remove the clamp regularly the player will perform the typical action animation, remove the clamp from the car and place it in his inventory, given he has 3 slots available. If the player does not have 3 slots free in his inventory, the unclamping will fail with the message "Not enough inventory slots".

Removing a wheel clamp forcibly

If you are not the player who applied a wheel clamp or your character who applied it died, you will have to remove the wheel clamp forcibly. Removing a wheel clamp forcibly requires you to have the crowbar tool on you. You will not be able to remove a wheel clamp forcibly without a crowbar. Approach the car you want to remove the wheel clamp from and select "Forcibly unclamp <wheel>", where <wheel> is the clamped wheel. Your character performs the action animation and removes the clamp from the wheel. However, removing a clamp forcibly will always break the wheel clamp as well as the wheel it was attached to. You will need to replace the wheel with a fresh one, before you will be able to use the vehicle normally again.

Although this mechanic is pretty fleshed out with only a couple of loose ends, details are subject to change (e.g. rarity, spawn locations, duration of animations for applying, removing regularly and removing forcibly, etc).

Please provide me with feedback and your opinions. If you like it, please tell me how you like it and how you would use such an item. If you don't like it, please let me know what your concerns are or what you would change, to like it more.

Thank you,

Daniel

Edited September 25, 2012 by dev0

[birdman 108]

Where would you find a wheel clamp besides a towing service?

Do you need a car that badly?

If I saw a clamped car I would grenade the shit out of it out of principle.

Edited September 25, 2012 by thebirdolux

[dev0 19]

Where would you find a wheel clamp besides a towing service?

Do you need a car that badly?

If I saw a clamped car I would grenade the shit out of it out of principle.

You would probably not find wheel clamps in most locations available in DayZ. But then again it is highly unlikely to have historical Enfields just lying around in residential areas, rotor assemblies in random factories or DMRs in Deer Stands.

Does it really make any difference if I need a car so badly? I don't think so. But if it really makes a difference to you: personally I don't need a car. I don't think driving around in them is much fun, I don't think investing the time fixing them and keeping them running is worth the effort, due to their sound level and visibility they are death traps and most of the time you will hardly enjoy them longer than your current session, since they will be stolen. No, I really don't need a vehicle in DayZ that much.

You are absolutely right to grenade the shit out of a car you cannot take. In fact, when I find tents, I will take anything I want and then remove anything else of considerable value (mostly endgame weapons) and explicitly save the tent, to prevent the stuff from reappearing after the next restart for the same reason. Nevertheless people setup tents and place their stuff in them. People will want to clamp their cars for exact the same reason as well: if I can't have it, you shouldn't have it either.

Edited September 25, 2012 by dev0

[Blu0 0]

i guess it would be a great idea, ofc it needs some modifications but at least it would change the whole fear of getting your car stealed even if your vehicel might be blown away. it wouldnt make your car this vulnerable for people who are serious about this game even if this point isnt easy to reach.

i hope you are getting my point right, not a native ;)

[birdman 108]

I don't want to come off as a ass but if someone finds your car they can:

1. Blow it up

2. Use a crowbar to get it anyway.

3. Steal parts off of it and make it useless.

4. Take your gas.

5. Take all of your gear out of it.

Why bother?

[zackthazman 23]

Doesn't stop you from stealing his stuff though

[major.skrewup@gmail.com 177]

wheel clamps.....

so the only people who can steal your car are people who are actually out looking to steal a car, so basically this idea is on par with hiding the car in a decent spot.... as someone who doesn't use vehicles himself (they tend to make me to silly stuff like driving up and down cherno/nw airfield tootin the horn and flashing the lights like a fool I'd happily throw a grenade at any clamped car for lulz.

wheel clamps would only prevent the people who arent interested in stealing cars from getting yours...

[sheriffhd 61]

I don't like the idea myself.

I can see why people like it or want it, but I don't think its something that should be added, as it doesn't add anything to the game play.

Putting it into the game only adds security to the player who secured it in place, but the point of the game is that nothing is safe.

Although what it would add is people going out their way to blow it up, me for one would.

[Blu0 0]

i get your objection but if there would be something between the old system and the wheel clamp,perhaps it wouldnt make this idea useless. ofc its very difficult to think about something different but maybe it would work in some parts of the game

[dev0 19]

You're missing my point, maybe I did not make this clear enough. Currently repairing a car and keeping it up and running is a huge investment. You have to find a car wreck, search and find all the parts to repair it, get the fuel for it and finally find a decent hiding spot. Stealing a car on the other hand requires absolutely no investment on the part of the thief. In the simplest case he simply stumbles across the vehicle and takes it. No investment at all. In the most expensive case he travels around the well known spots for car hiding and takes the next best car he finds. The resources invested are still very low. By forcing a thief to actually break the car to steal it, you force him to make an actual investment in stealing the car. Either he has to be carrying around a crowbar and a car wheel all the time, or he has to pick up those items, after he found the vehicle he is going to hijack. This greatly increases the resource investment for the potential thief. Stealing a clamped car, is not simply something you can do by chance. You will have to invest time in it.

Yes, he can still steal the gear, gas, whatever. But he won't be easily able to just grab the car and drive off with it. He will actually have to invest ressources himself to be able to gain control of the car. This will greatly change the value of vehicles for the positive. Most of you probably don't give a f*ck about vehicles, just as I usually do. I did explain why I don't give a shit about vehicles. The investments required far outweigh the benefits you reap - if you haven't simply stolen the vehicle by chance from someone else. Wheel clamps can shift this balance sheet a bit towards the positive.

Wheel clamps would add to the game, and not remove from it. It has a positive effect on the value of vehicles, it adds a reason to the game to actually ever go back to a barn later than 30 minutes after spawning, it adds choices for the players owning the vehicle ("should I get out and look a long time for a wheel clamp, or should I simply find a very good hiding spot?"), it adds choices to players finding vehicles by chance ("shall I simply leave the car, blow it up if I have the resources to do so, or shall I venture out to find a crowbar, if I haven't got one yet, and pick up a replacement tire and actually steal the car?") and it makes venturing out to steal a car an entire small game scenario for itself.

I don't see any reason to not add it. I see a couple of good reasons to do so.

Edited September 25, 2012 by dev0

[sheriffhd 61]

Maybe if you could use a tool box to either remove the clamp, or Take the whole wheel off and replace it with a new one.

its the only thing i can think of that would balance the item out.

[Blu0 0]

the idea with the tool box combined with a car wheel would make perfect sense to me!

[dev0 19]

Maybe if you could use a tool box to either remove the clamp, or Take the whole wheel off and replace it with a new one.

its the only thing i can think of that would balance the item out.

The whole point is in forcing the thief to break the car before he is able to steal it. Giving it a "workaround" by allowing it to be removed without breaking the wheel would stifle the sought after effect. Also, requiring the crowbar the to remove the wheel clamp would give the crowbar an actual use in the game. In the end though it does not matter if a crowbar or a toolbox is the item required to remove a wheel clamp, as long as the tire breaks while removing it forcibly.

Edited September 25, 2012 by dev0

[birdman 108]

Removing a wheel clamp forcibly

If you are not the player who applied a wheel clamp or your character who applied it died, you will have to remove the wheel clamp forcibly. Removing a wheel clamp forcibly requires you to have the crowbar tool on you. You will not be able to remove a wheel clamp forcibly without a crowbar. Approach the car you want to remove the wheel clamp from and select "Forcibly unclamp <wheel>", where <wheel> is the clamped wheel. Your character performs the action animation and removes the clamp from the wheel. However, removing a clamp forcibly will always break the wheel clamp as well as the wheel it was attached to. You will need to replace the wheel with a fresh one, before you will be able to use the vehicle normally again.

All he needs is a crowbar and your "investment" is gone.

And you are missing the point, if someone finds it it will either be stolen (easily with a crowbar), stripped or destroyed. So what is the point in securing something that can't be "secured".

[birdman 108]

The whole point is in forcing the thief to break the car before he is able to steal it. Giving it a "workaround" by allowing it to be removed without breaking the wheel would stifle the sought after effect. Also, requiring the crowbar the to remove the wheel clamp would give the crowbar an actual use in the game. In the end though it does not matter if a crowbar or a toolbox is the item required to remove a wheel clamp, as long as the tire breaks while removing it forcibly.

The whole point is if someone finds your car it's broken or destroyed. Better to hide the car.

[dev0 19]

All he needs is a crowbar and your "investment" is gone.

And you are missing the point, if someone finds it it will either be stolen (easily with a crowbar), stripped or destroyed. So what is the point in securing something that can't be "secured".

Please reread my paragraph. By removing the wheel clamp forcibly he will break the wheel that was clamped. If he does not repair the broken wheel he will not be able to easily take the car. Repairing this wheel is the investment the thief has to make, to be able to steal the car. That's what this suggestion is about: raising the cost on the part of the thief in stealing the vehicle.

[Mos1ey 6301]

Anything that makes hoarding vehicles easier gets a categorical 'no' from me...

You were probably hiding all those vehicles on the edge of the map and only getting in them often enough to stop them respawning anyway.

[apache25 133]

i dont like this idea it would be such a troll fest for hackers to spawn wheel clamps on every car in a server..........................AND what if a new player just found a car and a guy just runs along and clamps it its unfair

[Gordon Axeman 191]

i dont like this idea it would be such a troll fest for hackers to spawn wheel clamps on every car in a server..........................AND what if a new player just found a car and a guy just runs along and clamps it its unfair

Why should we think about hackers? They are like bugs, they aren't part of the game.

[Mos1ey 6301]

Why should we think about hackers? They are like bugs, they aren't part of the game.

Because not thinking about hackers was how ARMA II (and as a result - DayZ) ended up in this state in the first place.

Edited September 25, 2012 by mZLY

[Riem 164]

i dont like this idea it would be such a troll fest for hackers to spawn wheel clamps on every car in a server..........................AND what if a new player just found a car and a guy just runs along and clamps it its unfair

Since when is this game about being fair or even about being nice to other players?

[Gordon Axeman 191]

Because not thinking about hackers was how ARMA II (and as a result - DayZ) ended up in this state in the first place.

You didn't understand. When discussing features hackers are not our care. Devs are to secure the game.

[Faceman Peck 93]

Heads up I want to state that I am aware that there was a thread on this topic before. In my eyes the idea was not fleshed out well enough and the general presentation of the suggestion was less than mediocre. For this reason I am posting my own thread on this topic.

Cars and other Vehicles are a valuable asset in DayZ. They are rather hard to get hands on, and even harder to keep your hands on. In the last couple of days me and my squad fixed repaired about 4 vehicles and stole another 2 or 3 from their stash. All of them where stolen from various locations around the map from us again by now. This is the reality for thousands of players every day. And I believe in it's core this is a good thing. However, since obviously every character in DayZ knows how to hot-wire a car (or keys are always kept behind the sunblind), there is only one way of securing your vehicle while you are offline: hide it, as good as you can, as far away from any spot a person could randomly pass by.

And here I believe DayZ could do better. Randomly stumbling across a car and stealing it should be possible, but also I think it would be nice to be able to secure a car against random stealing, at least to some degree. If you head out, well prepared, to look for a car and then steal it, you should absolutely be able to, and no game mechanic should prevent you from doing that. But if you just stroll around the landscape and come across a car you should not be able to easily steal it, if it's owner has applied some security measures.

Such security measures could come in the form of wheel clamps (aka wheel locks or immobilizers). Wheel clamps can be applied to any car, making the wheel which they are applied to unusable. Wheel clamps can be removed in two fashions: either regularly by unlocking it or forcibly by using a crowbar. Removing it forcibly however, would render the wheel it was attached to unusable, making it harder to relocate the vehicle after removing the wheel clamp.

Finding a wheel clamp

Wheel clamps would be very rare industrial or farm loot spawns. Making them only farm loot spawns would balance them out gameplay wise a bit better, since you wouldn't be able to find them easily while looking for the other parts to fixup your car, requiring you to search for them separately and thus actually invest additional resources to improve the security of your vehicle.

Wheel clamps would take up three inventory slots (they are heavy and bulky after all).

Applying a wheel clamp

To apply a wheel clamp to a vehicle, you need to have the wheel clamp in your inventory and be adjacent to a car while looking at it. The action menu of the car will then show a "Clamp <wheel>" option for each wheel on the vehicle. E.g. a motorcycle would show a "Clamp front wheel" and "Clamp rear wheel" option. Clamping an already clamped wheel is not possible. After selecting the clamp wheel option, your character would perform an action animation, just as it does when you fix a part of a vehicle. As it finishes the wheel clamp is removed from your inventory and a wheel clamp appears on the wheel. The wheel of the car is now clamped and rendered useless for as long as the clamp remains attached.

Driving with a wheel clamp

A vehicle with an attached wheel clamp will behave as if the clamped wheel was broke down. Also, driving with an attached wheel clamp will actually break the wheel it is attached to, rendering it useless even after the clamp was removed regularly. Lastly, it is not possible to replace or remove a clamped wheel at any time.

Removing a wheel clamp regularly

To remove a wheel clamp regularly the character who has applied the wheel clamp will have to approach the vehicle again and select the "Unclamp <wheel>" option from the action menu. Note that only the character who has applied the clamp is able to remove it again regularly (as if only he had the keys to the clamp). If the character dies, it won't be possible to remove the clamps regularly anymore. After choosing to remove the clamp regularly the player will perform the typical action animation, remove the clamp from the car and place it in his inventory, given he has 3 slots available. If the player does not have 3 slots free in his inventory, the unclamping will fail with the message "Not enough inventory slots".

Removing a wheel clamp forcibly

If you are not the player who applied a wheel clamp or your character who applied it died, you will have to remove the wheel clamp forcibly. Removing a wheel clamp forcibly requires you to have the crowbar tool on you. You will not be able to remove a wheel clamp forcibly without a crowbar. Approach the car you want to remove the wheel clamp from and select "Forcibly unclamp <wheel>", where <wheel> is the clamped wheel. Your character performs the action animation and removes the clamp from the wheel. However, removing a clamp forcibly will always break the wheel clamp as well as the wheel it was attached to. You will need to replace the wheel with a fresh one, before you will be able to use the vehicle normally again.

Although this mechanic is pretty fleshed out with only a couple of loose ends, details are subject to change (e.g. rarity, spawn locations, duration of animations for applying, removing regularly and removing forcibly, etc).

Please provide me with feedback and your opinions. If you like it, please tell me how you like it and how you would use such an item. If you don't like it, please let me know what your concerns are or what you would change, to like it more.

Thank you,

Daniel

I like the thoroughness but I really not see how it will enhance gameplay. So people have a tough time keeping vehicles, boohoo and who cares

Edited September 25, 2012 by Faceman Peck

[disorder 344]

Since when is this game about being fair or even about being nice to other players?

When you run a private hive that is invite only. Like me.

But as for the OP I think having a wheel lock or something being broken is ok. I also think cars decaying over time regardless of activity would be good too, so thieves wont always find a perfect car and owners need to keep it maintained. Where are you going to get brand new parts in the apocalypse anyway, anything should just be a band-aid until the next mandatory repairs.

To be realistic though, people have to think like they do in real life. Make an enclosure, stand guard on it and eventually have some dogs around.

Edited September 25, 2012 by disorder

[Riem 164]

When you run a private hive that is invite only. Like me.

You have fun with that.