Automated Vehicles

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ruskyandrei
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Automated Vehicles

Post by ruskyandrei »

The car and the tank are awesome vehicles in the game and it's a lot of fun to use them.

However, they both have a very short (if any) lifespan of usefulness in my games. This is because I tend to play with above average numbers of biters so outside of small early skirmishes, the car and the tank both quickly become less good than power armour or turret creep (as you can just get swarmed and the vehicles quickly destroyed).

I would love to see two additions that would really make vehicles a bigger part of the game (like trains!):

1) Logistics vehicles (aka Trucks)

These would work similarly to trains, but no need for tracks. You could build 2 (or more) stops and have them move between the stops loading and unloading just like trains, using basic pathfinding (the existing biter pathfinding would probably be just fine + something to let them go through gates).
Compared to trains, using trucks would have some pros and cons:

Pro:

- Easier and cheaper to set up, only need 2 stops and a truck to get stuff moving.

Con:

- Slower than trains.
- Can't carry as much as a train (maybe 1 truck can carry as much as 1 wagon ?).
- More vulnerable to biter attacks.

I think trucks would definitely have their niche in the game, as a form of logistics suitable for short to medium distances with minimal setup requirements. They would still not be as good as trains for long range or high volume transport.

You could create a central rail station far away from your base and use trucks to bring ores from nearby deposits to the station before shipping it back to your main factory by train!


2) Combat

Combine a car or tank with a basic AI and let them do some basic tasks like: defend/patrol area or escort player.

This would mean the car and tank would continue to be useful even in the late game and on high biter settings.
Perhaps the AI could be inserted in the vehicles via some sort of "vehicle module". This way we could have some basic behaviour available earlier in the tech tree (so you could get 1 or 2 cars/tanks to follow you early in the game) and some of the more advanced, like independent patrols or attack AI locked behind later game research.

I think vehicles are a part of the game that has great potential but is currently fairly shallow and changes like these could help make them more interesting and more likely to see use in a greater variety of situations.

Mauslag PIngman
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Re: Automated Vehicles

Post by Mauslag PIngman »

How about a road train with space for mounting turrets and inserter on top?

Aussie road trains have one tractor pulling as many as six trailers. Could use the tank to pull the same load instead of the usual tractor cab.

Also, I'd like to be able to surround myself with rolling robotic flame thrower turrets late in the game for taking out big nests. The turrets might be limited to two and be smart enough not to hit you with a direct hit of flame. They could be powered by the portable fusion device or batteries earlier.

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