Cars and their salvage potential

[shadragon]

List of ideas for looting encountered vehicles. 

- rubber hose to siphon gasoline into a container. The gas cap flaps open already, so this is logical. 

- seat \ roof material = cloth

- engine compartment = wire for fishing / snares

- trunk lid + mountaineering rope or wire = sled. Used for towing bulk materials. Especially useful when changing home base. Wouldn't work going over the ravine tree or shattered rail bridge. Everything would need to be hand carried from one side to the other in those circumstances. Sleds cannot be brought indoors and would reduce walking speed a little. 

- tire inner tubes used to make slingshots. Lug nuts used as slingshot ammo (or thrown) to take down rabbits.

- headlight glass - crude magnifying glass to start fires. 

[cekivi]

Vehicles could definitely have more interactions. For your specific list I like everything except the sled, tire harvesting and siphoning gas. I like the sled but I don't know if the game can support it. It's been requested for a while but not yet implemented. Gas goes bad over time (volatile components evaporate, water content increases) and gas doesn't burn the same as kerosene. I at least wouldn't want to try it in a lantern

Lastly, automobile tires do not have inner tubes and how are you going to get the wheels off? Now, tire rubber can be used for other things (makeshift boots for instance) but it's not elastic enough for slingshots.

[shadragon]

Solid points. However, with you being in a plane when the geomagnetic storm hits, the tragic events are fairly recent. Gas should remain reasonably fresh and last for months. Good fire starter, if nothing else. Bottle + cloth + gasoline = Molotov cocktail to scare off wolves / bears or just light one to illuminate your path as a makeshift lantern?  I've had a jerrycan of gas in my unheated New Brunswick garage for a year and I was still able to use it to run the lawnmower after a harsh winter.  

The inner tube thing - it's a game, they can put tubes in the tires.   A slingshot would be great for taking down small game. If no tubes, then supply surgical tubing in First Aid kits. I have a Lionfish spear with surgical tubing and it packs a wallop. Every car I have ever owned had a tire iron to remove lug nuts in the trunk. No need to carry one as each vehicle should have a jack and tire iron. 

The sled is a suggestion. Just trying to get a good discussion going.  Hooking up a few tame wolves to the sled would decrease your travel time significantly.

 

 

[cekivi]

Wolf taming. Now there would be a controversial forum topic!

As for removing tires, a frozen wheel stuck to the ground partially buried in snow would be far too much work for me to want to remove

 

[Wasteland Watcher]

Wolf taming... The Long Dark simply is not that type of game.

Salvaging car parts is though

[SteveP]

salvage the car battery to make sparks to light a fire. Salvage the headlight reflector to make a parabolic reflector to start fire using sunlight.

Many a hood has been turned into a sleigh for towing or tobogganing. Seems reasonable. It is the simplest type of construction. Toboggans and sleds take quite some time to McGyver.

New cars and trucks comes with radial tires without tubes. Old cars with tubes, the rubber is not very elastic and is marginal for slingshots at the best of times. Surgical tubing works good though. You need steel or lead shot to make a slingshot effective. Stone pebbles don't have the weight and sling shots aren't very accurate to start with. The sling bow & arrow however has more potential.

[Ysidro]

I'd like the option of a gas canister + car horn to make a device that could scare away wildlife in an area around you. As with guns and such, if the animal is already busy charging you there is a high possibility that it will continue the charge. But it can be used to clear the way. Since it can only be used a few times and then becomes useless it is pretty much something you want to use when you know you are surrounded or when you don't want to take a risk but want to clear houses in the area before moving on.

Oh, and (but that might be the pyromaniac in me talking) I'd also like to be able to set fire to cars to scare away wolves. And houses with those big gas canisters next to them, would really like to see those explode

[SteveP]

On 2016-02-26 at 2:59 PM, cekivi said:

Wolf taming. Now there would be a controversial forum topic!

As for removing tires, a frozen wheel stuck to the ground partially buried in snow would be far too much work for me to want to remove

 

You could always set the car tires ablaze to create black smoke for signalling without actually removing the wheels. +

[cekivi]

I think that would also turn your car into a BBQ at the same time though

Still, if you needed to signal someone in a hurry you do what you gotta do.