The Car

[Chthon]

Is it me, or does your character drive the car like he's a driving student or something. Every time I press forward or backwards, he slams on the gas, only to slam on the brake if I let go.

This along with collision damage to everything, and the fact that it's often hard to tell where a tree is, or if that bush is even a tree, makes it very hard to drive anywhere without costing you far more than the fuel to get there. I've even nicked one of my own science labs, causing it to explode despite the fact that the models of the car and lab never touched and I was moving by carefully.

Could we get some refinement in how the vehicles move, as well as more accurate collision modeling for buildings/trees here? It would make them far more useful. As it is, I don't use the car unless I clear a path first, then double check that it is clear. Except for transporting resources, this makes the car worthless as transportation as you've already walked the distance AND taken the time to clear it.

[Zourin]

The car is only functionally useful in areas almost fully devoid of trees. Since the recent updates, this has limited car usefulness to desert regions only. The steering is 'bad', so you're going to run into just about everything unless you slow to a crawl or keep a ten-square channel clear. Trees will wreck you faster than biters, so if you're on green turf, you just as well forget the car completely and opt for rails instead.

I've suggested a long while ago for some kind of placeable 'soft rail' (aka road) so that cars can safely navigate industrial layouts or through passes in trees without rolling along train tracks (which is simple suicide), but so far, attention has been elsewhere.

[CobraA1]

I agree, the car needs some tweaking. And I agree, something akin to roads would be useful.

[Chthon]

Being of the mind that complaining about something without offering solutions is a bad thing here are a list of problems and possible solution ideas:

Car accelerates/brakes too abruptly:
Single tap forward offers gradual acceleration at about 25% max
Double tap forward offers immediate full acceleration
Single tap backwards offers gradual braking at about 25% max
Double tap backwards attempts to use full braking to come to an immediate halt
Reverse always occurs at 25% max and full braking

Collision boxes are too large:
Collision box size to at least as large as the object, not the size it's footprint is.
Preferably collision box slightly smaller than actual size of object to allow the player some leeway with the poor steering

Steering is too twitchy, it is all or nothing when turning:
Game should look out about 5 tiles ahead. If an object is there that can be dodged one or two blocks to the right or left, car should auto-adjust course to avoid it. This shows that the character isn't limited by the player's poor ability to control the vehicle.
Allow player to set destination via map and have car pick a safe fast route there. Allow player to take control at any moment in case of attack.

Making a route via car requires clearing a vast swath of land:
Include the ability to build roadways. Roads can degrade with frequent use based on weight transported (optional) Stone rock(refined stone) roads degrade faster under heavy loads. Tar+stone gravel (petroleum product + unrefined stone) asphalt degrade the same for even heavier loads.
Cars close to being parallel to a road (30%) will attempt to join road and follow it. Road will give a speed boost due to level terrain.
Cars attempting to turn at a crossroads at medium speed will attempt to take the turn off.
Cars attempting to turn not at a crossroads at any speed, or at a crossroads at higher speed will turn off the road entirely.

Allow for automated trucking for resource transport, car has an inventory after all, why not large trucks too?:
Trucking is not limited by roads, although road connections will allow you to prevent truck from passing through problem areas.
Trucks are more vulnerable than trains and slower. However Trucks do not need the infrastructure investment trains do, and are more flexible.
Trucks can be ordered to move in convoys with armored trucks carrying weapons.
Trucks are grouped into convoys, however like Roboports, convoys are not directly ordered. Instead Depots are placed where goods are gathered, and destinations are set.
Convoys attempt to move to nearest depot with the most full trailers up to convoy capacity. It picks up the trailers and attempts to move to destination depot to drop off trailers, and then move on.
If multiple depots with trailers equaling max convoy size are nearby, it picks the one which hasn't had a shipment in the longest.
Depots are able to be set to request X empty trailers. If other depots have these trailers, but no use for them a Convoy may make a trip with said trailers as if they were full.
Likewise if destination depot is full of empty trailers, preference to that depot will be given for next transport as it cannot receive any more goods.

[Phy]

Being able to ride the train would be one way of adding more transport options.

[Chthon]

Being able to ride the train would be one way of adding more transport options.

Umm... you can. Press enter when near the engine.

[Phy]

Being able to ride the train would be one way of adding more transport options.

Umm... you can. Press enter when near the engine.

[NosajDraw]

How do you even get in the car? The wiki says nothing about it, I've look through all the control keys and nothing appears to be "in/out", "mount/dismount", walking into the car does nothing, there appears to be no jump function (I'd love to be able to climb/jump over pipes).

[Chthon]

How do you even get in the car? The wiki says nothing about it, I've look through all the control keys and nothing appears to be "in/out", "mount/dismount", walking into the car does nothing, there appears to be no jump function (I'd love to be able to climb/jump over pipes).

Pressing <Enter> (Also known as <Return>) will get in any nearby vehicle. Careful if it's moving as you have to get quite close.

[NosajDraw]

lol, thanks for that, boy what a quick way to die.

[Okami]

Mh, I had some problems with the Car, the Forest, the Enemies...mostly the Forest at start. Always drove this thing to dust

But I got used to it and now find it is very good to control, even in Forest. Sure it reacts fast and I mow over 1 or 2 trees or buildings sometimes. But Im much more limited in movement by the lots of bitter bases . You cant go on a long tour with your car coz there is always a hundred bitters on your tail, and 20 bases around. This kills exploring more than the driving behaviour.

[GewaltSam]

Mh, I had some problems with the Car, the Forest, the Enemies...mostly the Forest at start. Always drove this thing to dust

But I got used to it and now find it is very good to control, even in Forest. Sure it reacts fast and I mow over 1 or 2 trees or buildings sometimes. But Im much more limited in movement by the lots of bitter bases . You cant go on a long tour with your car coz there is always a hundred bitters on your tail, and 20 bases around. This kills exploring more than the driving behaviour.

Yeah, initially, i drove the car against stuff pretty often, but after a while, i got better. Also, don't be too afraid to mow down a few trees on the way, just take some repair packs with you.

For the biter bases, i am not embarrassed to say that i set the biter base frequency to very low. I think that only adds to gameplay, because there are still many of nests around, but the world isn't clustered as much with them, and it gives room for exploring. If you like, you can also set down the frequency of ores, so you got reason to build some trains and expand to far regions.

[cube]

We softened the controls for the car a little bit for 0.10.0

[murillokb]

We softened the controls for the car a little bit for 0.10.0

Nice!

I remember when i was playing the last mission of the demo and every time bitters attacked the mining base I would hop on the car and go for the rescue... and crash into a big electric pole and disable all the turrets for a while. Good times

[obuw]

I think it would be awesome to have a modular car, that you can put upgrades into;

First, the basic upgrades:
+ Acceleration
+Top speed
+Turn speed
+ Reverse speed
+ Brake speed
+ Health / Armor
(bundle these into upgrades that give bonuses in two or more areas)

And then some advanced upgrades:
Alternative Power Source (solar, fusion, oil?)
Turbo (gives a short speed boost)
Collision Resistance (reduces collision damage you take)
Scythed wheels (use a bunch of these and you can cut through forests or aliens like butter)
Collision Dampeners (reduces collision damage you AND the target take - use these to make sure you don't destroy electric poles while driving around )
Mobile Roboport (carry a few robots with you, to repair the car or anything you bump into)
Mounted Weapons (stronger versions of player weapons, and possibly some laser weapons - you fire these manually instead of your own weapons)
Mounted Turrets (gun turrets / laser turrets that automatically fire on nearby enemies, like personal laser defense)
Mobile Smelter (use car as smelter - not sure if this'd be useful in any way but hey we need some useless upgrades as well )

Hmm I wonder if it's possible to mod this stuff? I think I'm gonna take a look.

[Sedado77]

If anyone says the car is "uncontrolable", just watch Malkasphia's videos. Even if I don't agree with his base setup, he REALLY IS A GREAT DRIVER, and shows excepcionally how you're supposed to use the car

Being able to ride the train would be one way of adding more transport options.

Umm... you can. Press enter when near the engine.

I LOLED MY ASS OFF!!!! JAAJJAJAJAJJAJAJAJA

[Teurlinx]

I admit I'm not a great driver, but I don't see how anyone is driving around anywhere. All of my worlds seem to be endless dense forests. Can't even run without chucking grenades to clear the way

If I have to get out of the car constantly, then what is the point? Even 'shotgun railroading' seems to be a more reliable way to get to places fast.

[GewaltSam]

I admit I'm not a great driver, but I don't see how anyone is driving around anywhere. All of my worlds seem to be endless dense forests. Can't even run without chucking grenades to clear the way

If I have to get out of the car constantly, then what is the point? Even 'shotgun railroading' seems to be a more reliable way to get to places fast.

Shotgun buggying works fine, too

[RMJ]

Yeah something needs to change. i suggest lowering damage from raming stuff, but in term you cant actually mow tree's and stuff down anymore.

Its suicide driving anywhere near tree's atm lol

[murillokb]

Pro tip: go play Rock n' roll racing and you will become a great driver.