Cars

[Beanie]

I know. A bit of an odd request, since none of them would be working, but it struck me, as I was wandering around the coastal town, that there were none at all.

Doesn't the scenario call for a sudden geomagnetic event? If so there should be vehicles abandoned in drives and so on. But there are none, which I find puzzling.

From a practical point of view, an abandoned car would offer emergency shelter from bad weather/wolves etc. as well as being a potential source of fuel (for fires and so forth). You might even use one as an emergency bed in a pinch. And, of course, there might be some small supplies in them that could make the difference between life and death.

Just finding it a little odd that there are none at all, that's all.

[EternityTide]

I like this idea. I have mentioned before as well that diesel cars can be started regardless of whether electronics work or not, since a diesel engine's stroke/burn sequence is powered by compression ignition rather than spark plugs, making them mechanical rather than electronic, so you can push start them.

[Beanie]

That is certainly true with older diesel vehicles. Not so sure about modern ones. I think they use electronic fuel injection to help with the fuel economy.

Also, diesel does tend to become very thick at low temperatures. I guess there must be some sort of additive put in it for use in very cold climates, though I have heard anecdotal evidence that people have resorted to lighting fires under the engine block to warm things up!

Not that I'd really want a car to drive around in. Just as an additional source of supplies and as emergency shelter use mainly.

[EternityTide]

well, unless they are oil executives or holiday makers who own a home up in the North, I would guess most of the trucks/cars would be diesel, but also they would be older models because they'd be easier to repair, which is a must in a remote place. needing specialist parts for your vehicle in such a remote place is a bad idea.

[JErosion]

Yeah thats one of those things I kept wondering about with the Mystery Lake Map, were are the trucks at? since these lumberjacks ain't gonna be hauling those logs by hand, speaking of which how did they get those logs on the train cars? I dont see no cranes to lift those logs up. But cars could be interesting as both a place to loot or a place to seek shelter and they could have the added bonus of spawning in random locations, like the Preppers Bunker does. Also im a little surprised that there isn't a Bar at the Coastal Village

[elloco999]

I agree that there should be cars and trucks around. The people living in the Coastal Town would have had cars, the lumber company would have trucks. But the cars should not be functioning, even if they are diesel cars. Unless you have a very old diesel car, the fuel pump will be an electric model so that wouldn't work anymore. Without a fuel pump, the engine can't do anything.

Also, how would you push start a car that's in deep snow? It's hard enough to get a car out of the snow if you dig it out and then have a working engine to get it all the way out. Pushing it out would not be possible for one person to do. And even if you got a car to function, the only place you could drive it would be on the coastal highway, since everything else is cover in snow and you would constantly get stuck.

Not to mention if would completely change the gameplay and it is a lot of work to implement working cars and driving mechanics etc. So I don't think working cars should be implemented even if it were feasible. But there should be broken vehicles on the map that you could loot, maybe use as temporary shelter.

[EternityTide]

I suppose another major flaw is that at low temperatures like that, the Diesel would gel in the fuel tank. It wouldn't be feasible to heat it up to start it. I would like it to be possible to siphon cars for their fuel (use in lanterns and whatnot) but you'd need a siphon for that. The tanks would contain kerosene this far up north, since they use kerosene as winter fuel in the northern states and canada, as far as I am aware.

[elloco999]

That seems to be true. But if we get more sources of kerosene, there should also be more uses for it. One use in particular I'd like to see is making torches.

[RedNanaki]

Actually, when looking at the layout of the maps, it looks like the railroad in Mystery Lake is used specifically to transport the lumber to the Coastal Highway. Then there's that logging place at the coast with all the lumber frozen in the ice. So it's probably transported by ship. But they would need a way to transport it down to the waterside from the railroad, I suppose...

Anyway, cars would be neat.

[elloco999]

They actually make the logs into large rafts and float (push) them to where they need to go. This is done IRL.

They would also need a way to get the logs from where they were cut to the railroad and a way to load them (although the train could have a crane).

[RedNanaki]

Oh, I knew about log rafting, I just didn't know it was done anymore.

There's a river near my family's cabin that was used for that purpose, but all I really know about it is that the guys standing ontop of the logs with the hooky-things tended to die rather often.

But, yeah, there should be a few industrial vehicles up at the logging site for preparing and moving the logs up to the tracks.

[ark1of712]

I may have misunderstood, but we definitely do not use kerosene to fill up our cars. Period. Haha. Did you mean tanks for home heating? And most people don't drive old-fashioned diesels, maybe enough to not even make it feasible to see one in an area of this size. I find that most people who live in rural areas tend to drive very modern vehicles, because they store and maintain them properly so that the advantages of technology outweigh the cons. This is just my anecdotal evidence however, and for from empirical.

Also I think while it's still done on occasion, big logging depots don't use log floating because they can afford the machinery to transport them much more efficiently by truck and often even by helicopter (sounds far-fetched but it's true, a helicopter pays it's cost in several weeks of logging, and the price of renting in one day!)

I agree we should see some abandoned cars however, and using one as shelter would be totally BA.

[elloco999]

Well I don't know much about what use Canadians to fuel cars their, but according to my sources in North America No. 1 fuel is used as a winter fuel for cars. And No. 1 fuel = kerosene. No. 2 fuel is diesel with additives to prevent it from gelling in cold temperatures.

Although gasoline and diesel (with or without additives) may not be usable for the lantern, they can still be used as accelerant for firestarting or for making torches and probably a lot of other things. So it would still be usable to find cars (old or new, I don't care as long as they don't work) that can be harvested for whatever fuel they have in their tanks.

[Burning Bridges]

I think car wrecks are not in because the 3d models have not been made. Same with boats which were visible in some concepts. Simple as that.

[EternityTide]

Yeah, I don't think they would be a good addition to TLD. It's fun to theorize about them though.

[Burning Bridges]

Why? They would be a nice addition. It's just that most of the houses right now have to be reused 5-8 times, so I can understand that they have other priorities. The game has developed at a crazy speed, so I understand there is a limit what a few people can do.