Guppycur's Vehicle Madness Overhaul

[Guppycur]

Guppycur's Vehicle Madness

 

Adds 25 new vehicles, and counting.

 

 

I'm separating this from my Modlets thread because this is more of an overhaul. Many thanks to Mumpfy for helping me out with some textures.

 

THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS, so only download and install if you don't mind daily changes

 

The following features may or may not be implemented:

 

Completely changing vehicles and how they work, this mod will NOT let you build cars in the vanilla style... you will come across a variety of vehicles in the world, from firetrucks to humvee's to police cars to sedans, and even a monster truck, you can only HOPE they are running. If not, you'll be forced to loot them to find salvageable parts, such as:

 

Chassis (and broken version)

Transmission (and broken version)

Engine (and broken version)

Seats (and broken version)

Carburetor (and broken version)

Battery (and broken version)

Wheels (and broken version)

Alternator (and broken version)

 

...you can then, after learning how, assemble these using a custom auto-workshop bench, to finally learn how to assemble BASIC car types. A Sedan, a Truck, and a Motorcycle. You can only use the cool stuff like firetrucks, police cars and 5ton military trucks by finding driveable versions!

 

Books will be required to learn how to make the assemblies, and it'll be more like "real life" so to speak.

 

Gas will be at a premium.

 

Tires that you find on the ground? They can be picked up! But, they are NOT WHEELS. You must find a broken wheel (rim), and with the help of the air compressor in the auto-workshop bench, create a functional wheel that you can use to build your cars.

 

More to come. No reservations necessary.

 

THIS MOD IS ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE MOD LAUNCHER (unless you know how to install SDX mods manually). This is important, because the launcher will compile the custom script for you *and be transparent to you*.

 

I have included a beta version of my Guppycur World, which is completely void of prefabs, so is there just to check out how it's coming. =)

[Necrodemus]

Hey Guppy, I've been watching your work evolve with keen interest and I would love to try it out please. I don't use the Mod Launcher, but I do install all my SDX mods manually and compile them with SDX 0.7.3 Do you think you could release a version for SDX 0.7.3?

 

Some questions as well please, just to clarify a few things for my ageing brain; will your mod change the way vanilla vehicles are built, and can I still mindlessly wave my magic wrench at vanilla cars to evoke them to cough up their innards? Or is your system completly seperate as yet?

 

Just to add, I love manux's work, and DUST2DEATH has some awesome additions also, however, I have waited a long time for a system to build vehicles such as the one you are working on. The more complex the better.

[Guppycur]

They're on my github, so yeh you can manually fiddle and set it up to compile using the SDX launcher; it sounds like you're familiar with that, so you should be fine.

 

It will REPLACE the vanilla aspects of making vehicles and harvesting; right now I'm using the Loot system to get your car parts, although that may change back to Harvest. I dunno. =)

 

I reached out to both Dust and Manux for permission to use their vehicles in my pack, Dust responded favorably but Manux hasn't been online yet.

 

At this point it's changing quite rapidly, so prepare for changes after you download.

 

My git should be github.com/guppycur

[Necrodemus]

Thank you for clarifying man. I run both manux and DUST2DEATH's mods... obviously ; ) there should be no incompatibility right? I mean, because their mods are seperate from your new system, can I still build them like the old system with the vanilla vehicle parts you have now set up as loot? I would hate to part with them, but I suppose I could for science... with tear filled eyes.

 

Sorry for all the questions.

[Guppycur]

Yeh I ran a test game using both of their mods and there was no conflict whatsoever.

 

In fact, I ran a few mods with no conflict. =) Well, there was a quest conflict but nothing to do with vehicles.

 

[Necrodemus]

Thank you sir. I wish you all the best with this Guppy.

[Blackrook]

I was only thinking the other day that it would be nice to "find" very rare cars etc in the world without building them.

 

Good luck, will watch with interest.

[Guppycur]

Yeh I was doing another test run and came across my monster truck (my favorite vehicle) and had a good old time crushing (well, driving over) other cars. =)

 

...I did a 4+ hour stream last night, and found NO vehicle. I go downstairs on the laptop to start a new game to find one, found 3. Geesh, bad luck. =)

 

But yeh, you can build (really, it's just fix) basic stuff but not the specialized stuff like military or ems vehicles.

[Necrodemus]

Hey Guppy, I loaded this into an existing game and found these spawned on the roads all around the desert region where I'm currently at. They quickly became apparent as soon as I moved to a new part of the road. Lots of Ambulances and Firetrucks; sometimes, two of the same next to each other. Military vehicles are a little more rare, however I have found them.

 

I once found a white truck with your avatar on the side. It was a little janky, in that it was vibrating slightly. So too the wheels, which were wiggling from side to side. It was also slowly moving forward. I was able to enter it and drive it, but when I left it and went back to retrieve my motorcycle, the truck had disappeared by the time I got back. Maybe a minute tops.

 

Maybe it was a ghost truck...

 

I found loot in these new vehicles and the old ones. When these are opened again after looting, they disappear with a crash. Also, I was able to pick up a working Ambulance, but when I went to check my inventory it was gone. I don't know if this is as you intended it. It would make sense though, since you seem to be striving to remove some of the more "gamey" elements of vehicles in general.

 

Tires can be picked up and overall, the loot seems varied. Well, at least in my game. Humble suggestion, make them a bit more rare when closer to full release. I would think that the position of the player is somehow indexed by the mod and these are spawned in on the fly just out of view?

 

Anyways, good work so far. I will give it a much more thorough play test, focusing on the deeper mechanics and try to get back to you with some useful feedback if I can. Right now, I get an overall feeling of fragility from the vehicles, in that, I'm afraid to store anything in them in case the one I'm using disappears. Maybe the white pickup truck was just an odd spawn and fell through the world?

[Guppycur]

Thanks; yeh don't stress on finding balance issues yet, stuff is set high because I want to make sure it works first, and then I'll start to balance.

 

I'm in fact doing so now. =)

 

Likely one of the LAST things I'll be doing is vehicle physics... it's a whole new world for me (it has maths! No one said there'd be maths!) so I'm going to tackle it nearer to the end.

 

I pushed an updated Guppy Pickup truck late last night, is that the one you drove? I'm hoping not, because I did not have those bad experiences in it last night.

[Necrodemus]

I believe I picked this up this morning. I've rolled a new map so I'll keep my eye open for issues. And no sweat man, I understand about it's current stage of development. I'd rather come across as pedantic about stuff because that's what I believe will benifit you most. Anything odd I find, you will know about it. Testing a custom biom.xml I made at the moment as well.

 

Best of luck

[Guppycur]

Biggest update yet.

 

Went back to harvesting, added icons, tweaked recipes, improved vehicle models, changed loot...

[Necrodemus]

Great, going to snag it now! Cheers Guppy

[Guppycur]

Looking for a server to play on by chance, necro? I'm running one with this and about 20 other mods. =)

[Necrodemus]

Hey Guppy, I thank you dearly for the invite. However, I usually play solo, with my wife beside me telling me what to do, and scolding me if I miss a nest or trash heap lol. I'll tell you what though, if you would like to pm me with the server name I might pop in, in the future sometime Again, thank you Guppy

 

Ok on to the mod, I found a police car that had a running engine sound coming from it. It's the only drivable vehicle I found thus far in this new playthrough. Seed is Afterlife (not mine, I got it from the Alpha 17 seed thread. Lots of big cities) on a 16k map with the latest version of your mod from Github. So, I can't tell if you have it set up that way, or it's a bug. Letting you know anyways. The car felt like it had way more torque than it's previous iteration, and was quite responsive in steering. It also felt weighty, in physical drivability terms. More on that below. In general, I felt that it moved fairly realistically.

 

One odd thing I found about it, that sort of contradicts what I just said above, is that it seems to have very little actual weight to it with regards to entities. A fat tourist jumped on top of it not long after I parked it on a nice clean stretch of road (you know those rare things in random gen?) After that he jumped down and almost flipped the damn thing. It righted it self like a top... thankfully.

 

And to add insult to injury, I tried to run over a pig after I had the bright idea to go through a thick forest to my base... when I hit the pig, the car flipped as if the pig was a ramp and spun around until the tail was up against a tree and the nose pointed at the ground. I had to cut the tree down to free it. The wife loved that one lol.

 

Ambulances are a lot more rare. Perhaps it's just random number stuff. But I certainly did not find them side by side as in the first release I tried. I like that you have gone back to wrenching for this build. I liked the way you had it setup with just the loot, but I found that my scrap iron stack suffered greatly. And to be honest, even though I made fun of the wrenching mechanic above, it is welcome to have it back. Perhaps we will find some middle ground in the future.

 

One last thing. In the previous loot version, I absolutely loved the fact that gas was so scarce. I cannot think of a time in recent memory that Gas was at the forefront of my mind, all the time. I think we need more of that, but, I'm just one voice.

 

Do you think you could set up a way to siphon gas from cars? Let's say you set it up as if the broken car acted like a sink mod that would give the player water in jars in exchange for an empty jar. The player would need to find say, a rubber hose and a bucket, then combine the hose with some duct tape and the bucket in a simple on person recipe and gets... lets say for now, a siphoning system.

 

When used on a non drivable car, (or gas pump) that car may or may not have anything to give. If it does, the player get a semi filled bucket that is then turned into gas in a simple recipe like the large metal gas barrel to gas recipe. On return, the player also gets back the bucket and the hose so that they have the means to try again.

 

The player would need to feel like it is a viable option; just give them enough to subsist until they get on their feet.. Having said that, we wouldn't want to be too stringent because the game is grindy enough at the start anyways. Challenge the player, not punish them. Give them enough, so that the player feels rewarded for their efforts and not cheated. Think of the psychology that is used on a one armed bandit machine. The player may occasionally smile, but the house always wins .

 

We would of course, have to make gas very scarce in the world to balance things. When the player gets the chem station, gas is no longer an issue.

 

Anyways Guppy, I've had far too much caffeine today. Just throwing you some feedback and insight based on your work. Best of luck to you

[belfegor]

Where in mod launcher can i find this mod ?

[Necrodemus]

I don't use the mod launcher, but it may be under the name Guppy Mobiles.

[belfegor]

thank you in found it

[Guppycur]

@necro

 

Gas should be removed from recipes. Entirely.

 

Yeh the vehicles all need a balance pass... So far the only one to receive one is the pickup truck.

 

3 of us started a new world and have been discussing changes (why I wanted you on); siphoning is a definite yes. Repair kits fixing cars is a definite no.

 

...so changes still to come.

[Necrodemus]

You are very welcome belfagor:smile-new:

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

@necro

 

Gas should be removed from recipes. Entirely.

 

Yeh the vehicles all need a balance pass... So far the only one to receive one is the pickup truck.

 

3 of us started a new world and have been discussing changes (why I wanted you on); siphoning is a definite yes. Repair kits fixing cars is a definite no.

 

...so changes still to come.

 

Guppy check your inbox please when you get a chance.

[Ragsy 2145]

I had an idea on making gas more scarce and forcing player to make thier own gas , when you raid a gas pump to loot thats it no more loot respawn for that loot id or better still it explodes 5 seconds after you loot it lol

[Necrodemus]

Hey Guppy, playing some more with this. I see you already have a compressor and ratchet set in the mod. Very cool. Unbroken engines are extremely rare. Day 4 now and I've probably gone through 30 cars or more; no engine in sight. I think this is great. To be honest, I'd have nothing but broken engines in the mod.

 

What I thought was an engine sound, coming from the cop car I mentioned the other day, was just the car vibrating on the terrain. I thought it was some auditory feature at first to alert the player that a working car was in the vicinity. I parked it outside a trader and it started doing it shortly after. This may not be your mod, because the vanilla terrain likes to get funky with vehicles.

 

I also found Two badly beaten up white cars with fire coming from each hood. They were pretty much next to each other. I have no idea if they spawn in like this or they got damaged somehow and had caught fire.

 

The motorcycle recipe is asking for 4 wheels. Unless Two are training wheels you may need to address that ; )

 

@Ragsy I agree gas should be very scarce. I don't use the loot respawn feature, haven't done so for years playing this game. I like great big random maps which offer a great incentive to go out and explore. So, I'm not really bothered about respawns personally. I like your idea of disabling the pump though. Just as an aside, I'm currently going to rip all weapon recipes from my game also. I want to find stuff organically. Be it gas or loot. I have yet to master xpath so it's going to be a messy edit.

 

Peace out.

[DUST2DEATH]

This may not be your mod, because the vanilla terrain likes to get funky with vehicles.

 

 

Its the way Gup is doing the cars. I cant get him to do it properly. Maybe you can

[Guppycur]

Vehicles are slowly getting their physics pass. The motorcycle recipe is funny because I've fixed it, but I'm thinking I lost some versions between the two computers and my git.

 

Happens to me a lot. I'll fix it again.

 

We are day 24 or so and not a single compressor, which is a HUGE gate, but we are managing. I drive out far to get new cars to bring back (that's a chore in itself, since I refuse to put one in my backpack, and in fact will be eliminating that soon).

 

I've everything else except the two compressors, so it seems making our own cars is naturally gated.

 

Once I add the siphoning system I'll make the rachet set required to repair cars.

 

...best to carry rachet and mechanical parts with you at all times, because vehicles are going to break down a lot more soon.

[Necrodemus]

Vehicles are slowly getting their physics pass. The motorcycle recipe is funny because I've fixed it, but I'm thinking I lost some versions between the two computers and my git.

 

Happens to me a lot. I'll fix it again.

 

We are day 24 or so and not a single compressor, which is a HUGE gate, but we are managing. I drive out far to get new cars to bring back (that's a chore in itself, since I refuse to put one in my backpack, and in fact will be eliminating that soon).

 

I've everything else except the two compressors, so it seems making our own cars is naturally gated.

 

Once I add the siphoning system I'll make the rachet set required to repair cars.

 

...best to carry rachet and mechanical parts with you at all times, because vehicles are going to break down a lot more soon.

 

I've no problem with gates, as long as they are as you describe. Not a fan of perks.

 

The possibility of vehicle breakdowns is welcomed. However, I wouldn't like to see them too fragile either. If a player wants to drive across the desert in a sedan, then they deserve trouble. If another brings a jeep, they should be given more leniency with regards to vehicle robustness. You could perhaps balance this out, by making those types of all terrain vehicles needing more fuel in general, and giving cars more speed and fuel efficiency.

 

Ok, I have some questions and more feedback. Can damaged engines be repaired? When I click on one, it just gives me the option to drop, or scrap. I want to make a cement mixer, but I need an engine for that *tears*. All other parts that I have found, take me to a recipe when clicked; even if I can't make anything with them. I do not have any of your workstations yet. It's telling me this in my inventory.

 

If working engines are rare, I've no problem with it, as long as I know they are in the game somewhere. I play on 240 minute days with 18 hours of daylight. Plenty of scavenging time. Love it.

 

The cement mixer would only need the small vanilla rudimentary engine. Unless I'm doing something else wrong?

 

I found two ratchet sets in the same place. Not sure where I found them. Might have been car loot, or a working stiff crate. Wheels are overly abundant in my opinion Guppy. I mean, it's great that they can be scrapped for 37 iron, but it just seems a little much. If it was me, I'd cut the amount down drastically unless you have a reason for it that I am oblivious to.

 

I've found six wheels in one car. I think the most it should be is five. Yes, I know you are still balancing:peep:

 

Coming along a back road, fresh from the kmart store, where the trader spent five minutes giving me abuse, one of your small military jeeps spawned on the road just ahead. Not too close, but close enough to be a little jarring... a tad. It bounced gently on it's suspension, then slowly rolled back a bit and stopped. It was a beautiful sight.

 

I ran up to it, frothing at the mouth with excitement, but for the life of me, I could not enter it. Having moved the mouse all over it for about a minute, something flashed briefly around the bottom part of the front driver door. Tried again. Many times over. I thought it was a dud and went to turn away from it when some text flashed again. I had to turn down the dpi on the mouse and step back away from it at a precise distance ( too close it disappeared, too far, it disappeared ) for the text to show. Sweet spot was maybe about 3 blocks. I finally got to enter it and drove it around for a while, but had to leave it because of the bug.

 

If you eliminate the possibility of picking these up, you will have already improved the mod drastically.

 

@DUST he he.