(DRbiG's) Powered Vehicle Design Primer

Hello fellow engineers! In this document we'll explore, elaborate and exemplify powered vehicle design concerns.

A fair amount of vehicle construction knowledge is assumed, but hopefully not necessary to gain insight by reading this document. We will be basing our discussion on the latest experimental available, along with the vehicle additions mod. We are doing cutting-edge science here.

(version: 0.C-3741-gdd393ca)

Introduction

Building an awesome vehicle is a balancing act. You can't have everything, and nothing will fit all roles (but with enough luck and persistence you can have a vehicle for every occasion).

The first question you have to answer yourself before you think about design is "what will be the role of my vehicle?". The answer to that question is crucial to making good trade-offs during the design. Having answered that you need to decide how much are you committed to the design - vehicle parts don't grow on trees, and ad-hoc vehicles, while better than nothing, are usually far from optimal.

We can easily distinguish three main roles:

1. Looters/Explorers

   These vehicles focus on mobility. Usually no larger than 3x3 and limited in range, but with decent cargo space and very low maintenance costs they are perfect for all the city exploration and looting needs.

2. General purpose/Deathmobiles

   These vehicles fall in the middle of the scale. They are too big for great mobility, but too small to hold a proper mobile base. Most vehicles you can find in the world will fall into this category. They serve as a very good basis of going either way on this scale, and are the most customizable role.

3. Mobile bases

   The largest vehicles that can be make you completely self-sustainable, at the expense of mobility and fuel efficiency. The RV, Mobile Meth Lab and the coveted Military Cargo Truck serve as the best base vehicles for this role.

Being a soft-scale there are no hard definitions except on the ends: a vehicle wider than 1 will get stuck somewhere sooner or later, and a vehicle that doesn't make you completely self-sustainable is not a mobile base.

In terms of materials always consider the looting vs. crafting angle. You might be better off making a vehicle forge and hand-making that FOODCO Kitchen Buddy form scratch than scavenging for that one last component you are missing.

Design concerns

The real business. We will go over the concerns in general order of importance.

Size

Size is the width and height of your vehicle in tiles. It will influence everything else and as such is not a thing you can easily change mid-way (without starting the design from scratch).

1. Mobility

   As already indicated a big vehicle will inevitably have problems moving on. This means not only getting stuck in a middle of a Z filled city centre, but also traversing a forested area. You can offset this with "hard parts" such as roller drums for wheels and rams, but don't relay on it too much (trees are incredibly sturdy, and so are reinforced walls/tonnes of wreckage).

2. Cargo space

   To get the same cargo volume as any ground tile you'll need 4 cargo carriers. Empirical data shows that around 9 cargo carriers (9000 volume) is perfectly fine for a mobile base. Be aware that if you install more you'll just hoard more - without any real increase in utility.

3. Solid walls

   Solid walls offer you protection from the outside world but severely limit what else you can put on a tile. Remember that vehicle mounted tools are impassable (but still let light through). You'd most likely like to have the section you plan to sleep in walled off. Walls make much less sense for smaller vehicles.

4. Mounted tools

   Important for mobile bases - also limit what else you can put. The arrangement is also crucial for utility (more on that later).

5. Speed and fuel efficiency

   Not that important if you can get the right engine(s).

Utility

The second most important factor overall and the most factor important for your happiness.

Utility means everything working together smoothly. It means crafting anything anytime. It means no hauling stuff around. It means knowing exactly what is going on all the time. It means having stuff right where and when you needed. It means your vehicle not coming apart at the worst time possible. It means never having to thing about electricity reserves. It means... Yes, it's hard to describe in single sentence, but you'll feel it instantly.

1. Structural design

   That's the 'not falling apart' bit. Remember: the front of your vehicle will be the first thing to hit stuff and be damaged. Also remember about the sides: when you're not aligned 'straight up' the outer tiles 'at angle' will be hitting stuff just as if they were at front. Putting solar panels at the outer edges of your vehicle is therefore not the best idea, same as not having some 'crumple zone' in front of your driver's seat.

2. Item access

   Keep the stuff you need most close to you. A Reclining Seat might look great as "bed and seat in one", but it won't hold much. Having to go that 3 tiles further into your vehicle for that First Aid Kit will make the difference one day (and that'll be your last day).

3. Crafting

   To craft you'll need: tools, proper lighting, raw materials and perhaps books. A high-utility design will have all these placed in a way that'll enable you to craft anything you want, anytime, without ever having to manually haul anything. You can use anything within 6 tiles radius from you for crafting. Remember Aisle Lights. Think about it, it will pay of tremendously.