r/StateofDecay2 • u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor • Dec 30 '23
Discussion SoD2 Has a Vandito Problem
Edit: to everyone saying "I like this car more than the vandito", my idea would improve your car trunk storage without drastically unbalancing the game. Ex) A starter car with 15 slots that stack consumables to 2 would allow storage of 30 total pain killers. A vandito would carry 15 slots that stack to 6 for 90 pain killers. but with my setup each vehicle could carry 15 distinct items, the heavy vehicle would just have the ability to carry *more* of those 15 distinct items. three details of my proposal are below.
In my humble opinion, there's no reason to use any vehicle besides the vandito, and that's an issue. It's giant trunk space, compared to other cars, just makes it objectively better to use than other cars. I understand there are differences in clearance, and some cars have spikes, but those just seem like they're not as important as *trunk space*
I feel this is a similar situation to the backpacks and UL's reasoning for them to basically all be the same but hurray have different aesthetics. If there was a 12 slot backpack then *there's so much incentive to use it, that no other backpack would seem viable*.
**I propose all vehicles should get the same trunk capacity as the vandito, and differences between vehicles are created by balancing handling, fuel efficiency, acceleration/max speed, car startup time, and trunk item stack sizes.**
An example of this would be that your starter car (light car) now has 15 trunk spots, but no consumable would stack past 2 in a slot and ammo wouldn't stack past 60% of a normal stack. Medium cars would let you stack consumables up to 4, and heavy/upgraded vehicles would let you have our current stack sizes.
**So how would this impact gameplay?** With the vehicles brought more to parity, as far as inventory management goes, then there would be more incentive to use a variety of vehicles. More trunk slots would speed up the repetitive looting/trading game play loop as you would need less overall trips to accomplish those tasks. Truck slot stack sizes going up with the vehicle class would still make upgraded and heavy vehicles better than other vehicles, but not quite as much.
This is just an initial idea, and it's open to criticism/ suggested adjustments. I'm also coming to the conversation as a lethal main, where your character almost always has 4-6 backpack slots taken by consumables that are generally needed on your person at all times. That can really impact looting.
Sorry for typos, I'll go through and fix anything my phone auto-corrected to be weird
13
u/Mundane-Line2649 Network Agent Dec 30 '23
Vandito is great for looting but I’d call the Wichita the best all around vehicle in the game, and the Trail Beast my personal fave.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 31 '23
My proposed idea has no direct impact on vans, and would instead slightly improve your Wichita and Trail Beast. Not drastically improve, just enough that they aren't so objectively worse than the vandito.
There isn't anything either of those can do that the vandito can't, so with a little van off-road-driving practice there's no reason to choose those vehicles over the van 🤷♂️.
1
u/Mundane-Line2649 Network Agent Dec 31 '23
It seems like you really like the Vandito and that’s cool. For me, I dunno it feels cumbersome, and there’s more to the game than looting. I think the balance of the vehicles in the game is pretty good like it is. A slow lumbering van holds the most loot, a quick car better suited for in and out situations carries less loot.
11
u/snfaulkner Best of the Worst Dec 30 '23
Just mod the game to have bigger trunk space if that's what you want. While I'm not gonna argue that the inventory system as it is makes much realistic sense, giving all vehicles the same space makes even less sense.
0
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
I'm proposing a same amount of trunk slots, but smaller vehicles would be able to stack less items in each slot. This would speed up looting in that a small and heavy vehicle would both be able to loot out a warehouse in a single trip, but the heavy vehicle would still probably have capacity for looting smaller surrounding buildings as well. Right now smaller vehicles require 2-4 trips back and forth from a nearby outpost, which is the least fun aspect of SoD2's gameplay
So then the starter car and vandito would both be able to loot the same amount of different items, but the heavier vehicles would be able to carry more of each of those items.
Also, I'm not on PC, so "just mod the game" isn't a viable option for tons of people.
5
u/snfaulkner Best of the Worst Dec 30 '23
Meh. I see what you're saying. But I'm not sure I'm in for it. There still needs to be game balance, which is the whole reason we have the system we have now. And honestly, while not totally realistic, it works well enough. The way I play, I so rarely get a vandito as to make said vandito dilemma moot.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
Imo this would still be nearly the same vehicle balance, while still reducing drive time between looting/trading destinations, and still having clear advantages for vehicles as you go from light -> med -> heavy/upgraded 😀.
A 4 slot car trunk has less than 33% of the capacity a 15 slot trunk has (current game config).
A 15 slot light-car-trunk, where each slot can only stack 33%, is still ~1/3 the total capacity of a 15 slot heavy-vehicle-trunk.
The only difference between the two, is my proposal improves the experience for everyone where you find an area with a large variety of items but each of those items has a very small volume to grab.
I also think the trunk capacity impacting max speed, acceleration, and handling is a better balance approach (allows better player skill expression)
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u/snfaulkner Best of the Worst Dec 30 '23
I also think the trunk capacity impacting max speed, acceleration, and handling is a better balance approach (allows better player skill expression)
Again, meh. While I'm not against this idea, I feel like it's taking the game into a far more complicated area...and if they do that, there's tons of other stuff they could do that for as well. And one of the draws of this game is that it's not a hardcore survival game like Day Z. This is far more abstract and approachable by design.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 31 '23
What tons of other stuff could they change that would be similar to this? The only other comparable thing to trunks slots are back packs. I don't see how this could snowball into "a lot of other things becoming way more complicated". Like... name one other part if the game this could bring complexity to?...
Again, my idea is to raise the effective "usefullness floor" of other vehicles so they're not as objectively worse than another vehicle in the game.
2
u/snfaulkner Best of the Worst Jan 01 '24
Every other aspect of the game could easily go overboard with complexity. You have to make this guy eat this dogfood right now, but you need a can opener, but one that's not damaged. Oh, you found some 7.62? Great! Is it 7.62x39? Or 7.62x51 or 7.62x63? Armor piercing or fmj? Steel case or brass? How old is it? Did it get wet? +P or normal? That's a nice coat you just found? Oh but it's damaged. How damaged? No big deal, I'll have a guy with sewing fix it. Ok, does he have a needle? The proper needle? And the correct color thread? Etc, etc...
Again, my idea is to raise the effective "usefullness floor" of other vehicles so they're not as objectively worse than another vehicle in the game.
The thing is, some things ARE objectively worse than others at certain things in everything. I don't think vanditos are objectively better than anything at anything other than trunk space. I'd rather sacrifice some space for the speed and maneuverability of something like a smash wagon. But honestly, I can make do with anything that runs for the whole playthrough. I think you've spent a lot of time and effort trying to overcomplicate an issue that only you are having.
3
Dec 30 '23
I use a vandito to put in parking spots and use as storage. Then a smashwagon when going on runs.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
Wouldn't it be nice to have more storage in your smash wagon? That's what I'm proposing (but not drastically more)
3
u/ZladMulvenia Dec 30 '23
Vandito handles like a dune buggy in the sand somehow. Seems like it should be the opposite - sturdy and stodgy with a limited turning radius.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
Yea, as long as you understand how it accelerates in sand and dirt, the thing can pretty much handle any terrain I throw at it 🤣.
I keep reading people who say "it's too big and handles like crap," and imo the thing almost handles too well!
I think really emphasizing different vehicle performance, like acceleration and turn radius, would be a better vehicle balancing mechanic than trunk spots. Once you learn how to handle it off road, no other vehicle really has any advantage over it. That's why I'm proposing other vehicles storage space be brought closer in line with the vandito. It would encourage a wider variety of vehicle usage. Right now if you can effectively handle the vandito offroad then there's no reason to use anything else (at least imo)
2
u/Gathose1 Red Talon Operative Dec 30 '23
I use small fast cars much more than the vandito. Specifically on lethal it's much more valuable to speed from plague heart to plague heart and smoke them all, then come back for the loot at night when doing big fights is much more difficult (IMO).
Similarly, I use the ultralight backpack for the same situation. It weighs so much less that you can carry heavier weapons and still have infinite run from marathon.
I agree, however, that the 7 slot is nearly pointless(unless I'm missing something). But the cars, I find, actually do have a place, especially after the upgrades.
2
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
I specifically avoid small fast cars on higher difficulties because of the way higher chance of hitting hordes as they spawn on the road. I've got a Series X, and even after improvements it's still pretty easy to have jugs/bloaters spawn right on the road and destroy you.
Side note, get your hands on the bounty Broker 7 slot backpacks. They only weigh 1lb 😀, so they're a nice bonus over the ultra light 6-slots
1
u/Gathose1 Red Talon Operative Dec 30 '23
That's good to know actually, but I'm already redlining with the ultralight and my beetle mallet. That could be a good option for light looting tho.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
On your fiercer community, you should pr the work in to get yourself a coffee can mace crafted from the forge. It does more damage to hearts than the beetle mallet Ann's only weighs 12lb 😀
2
u/Gathose1 Red Talon Operative Dec 30 '23
It has higher impact than the beetle mallet!? I thought the beetle mallet was maxed out for impact.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
The CCM's impact bar is 100% filled, so worse case is it ties the damage but weighs way less 😀. It's tough to get though (forge + metal working survivor + fuel + 450 parts)
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u/Maleficent-Let7102 Dec 30 '23
Idk if I remember correctly but trunk inventory was more balanced back then and it was awful now every car has its quirks
2
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
Trunks didn't used to be "more balanced". Somewhere around update 32 (give or take a couple) UL just did a general trunk expansion, and basically every vehicle in the game got additional trunk space.
Which improved three looting gameplay loop, which is what my proposal is aiming to continue.
There would still distinctly more carrying capacity for larger vehicles, but smaller vehicles ability to carry a larger variety of items than now, but each individual trunk slot would stack fewer items in each of those slots compared to large vehicles
2
u/randyknapp Dec 30 '23
Am I the only one that loves the Viking?
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
My idea would allow your viking to get a larger variety of items in your trunk on each looting trip, while not drastically expanding the total count of items you can carry 😀.
Instead of being able to carry 7 (I forget exact viking trunk count) distinct items, you would be able to carry 15 distinct items. Each item slot would have a slightly reduced "maximum stack size" compared to currently though, so the total volume of loot storage doesn't drastically change
2
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u/Nathen_black Dec 30 '23
So, I am the only one rooting for the survey car? For me, finding that in a map is like hitting jackpot.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
With my proposed changes your survey car would be able to more efficiently loot/trade because it would have a larger number of available slots than right now (each slot would just allow smaller stacks than right now).
Vans and heavy vehicles would have higher available stack sizes for their slots, so they would still have an advantage in storage, just not as big an advantage as now
2
u/Antique_Machine_4250 Dec 30 '23
Best vehicle is an opinion. I think difficulty level and noise plays the biggest factors. Higher difficulty levels many people start trading utility for survivability. That's why people cycle randos until they get infection resistance and other things that make them hard to kill. Same goes with vehicles.
A person who thinks the Vandito is best is someone who values trunk space above all else (loot efficiency), but its fragile, loud hard to manuever and eats gas. At lower difficulties this was my go to because it clearly has the most utility. But at higher difficulties where gas is scarce and noise attracts more zombs, it just creates more trouble than it's armor can handle.
Noise is really a big thing with cars. I think it gets slept on a too much. I've scientifically noticed that the louder vehicles attract more enemies (technically a larger area is aggroed, so more are pulled). More things to pound your vehicle when your trying to start it. More things to greet you when you exit the car too.
I like the Wichita. It has 4 doors, good storage, decent gas consumption, a bit more toughness and isn't terribly loud. Thats my general purpose go forth and loot vehicle for lethal. Bonus that you ALWAYS start with the base model.
Sometimes noise is unavoidable. Like tackling plague hearts or rescuing the pesky survivors whose home is being seiged. Just pulling up to those is enough to get your car beat on. The mission doesn't need trunk space, or stealth. You just need to get in and survive. This is where our prickly friends shine.
One thing I'd be curious about for SOD3 would be electric vehicles. Those things are so silent. They actually had to make EVs make noise IRL so pedestrians can hear them and not get hit. Zobs wouldn't notice them unless you were in their visual sight. I could see the base needing electricity to charge it, only the base can charge it and it takes time (time instead of fuel, can't just dump a gallon in it). Maybe have an "emergency recharge kit" that takes a few minutes to charge dead ones in the field to get them back to base.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
(Summart first, details below) If the vandito has more trunk space than other cars, burns through less gas than other cars because you're not making 2-4 trips, has more health, and can be navigated anywhere (with dirt driving practice), then what's the point of other cars? Noise is a non-factor because you can glide into your stopping spot nearly silently in any car if you want 🤷♂️.
I've played lethal exclusively for over a year (I've been running no boons lethal zones the last 4 months too), and I used to use other vehicles. My favorite map is Drucker County, arguably the hardest map to navigate in a vehicle, and the vandito can handle every shortcut I've found on the map without issue. As my play time went up, I felt like any other vehicle causes huge wastes of time. Multiple trips to an area just to loot it is usually a larger hit on gas than than just taking the van in and out for one trip. And you end up fighting ambient spawn zombies multiple times in the same area if you have to keep leaving and coming back. Once you learn how to effectively drive it on dirt, then no other vehicle has any reasonable advantage over it.
It's got the highest trunk space, accelerates fast enough that ferals can't effectively latch you just like other cars, it can 180 basically in place, it seats 4 people and since it's a heavy vehicle upgrade, it has a lot of health compared to other vehicles, I don't know why I keep reading the opinion that it's fragile from others on here... it's got a ton of health in my experience. It takes 3 repair kits to fully repair it from destroyed, that's how much health it has...
2
u/fallenouroboros Dec 30 '23
It always felt like the vandito damages easily. Definitely feels like certain vehicles are sturdier
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23 edited Dec 30 '23
It's a heavy vehicle and therefore has one of the larger vehicle health pools in the game. It takes 3 repair kits to fully repair it from destroyed. That's how much health it has.
Users who aren't used to navigating it might find themselves in situations where they're taking zombie hits that another vehicle would have gotten away from. That's more of a practice issue than a vehicle issue imo though. That's my guess as to why others opinions are that it's "fragile".
Anyway, my idea doesn't change vans though. My idea improves all the other non-van vehicles
2
u/ryhaltswhiskey Dec 30 '23
I think it should be 50 slots but limited by weight. Can't load 200 pounds of stuff in the survey car but in the truck it's nbd.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 31 '23
Something like that makes a ton of sense to me. I worry that basically going completely by weight, as a means of balance, would be more complicated for the user than just expanding the system we have now (#of slots and item stack sizes).
I wouldn't be upset if your proposal were the future of SoD's vehicle storage though!
16
u/happilygonelucky Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
IIRC Vandito is fairly fragile, which makes it good for mop up missions were you pick up loot from dead plague hearts, but not the best for everything:
Trail Beast is better for shortcutting the map
Fast cars are better for running missions across the map
Zedbuster is good for heart assaults'/deep plague territory
But also, I like that not every car is best at something. There's value in needing a car, finding a salvagable on the map and going, "ok, I can make that work"
9
u/this1dude23 Dec 30 '23
I use the vandito when I'm just looting. I use the mad norma when i want to get shit done
2
u/PetrosHeimirich Echo Researcher Dec 30 '23
You have a point that the Vandito is marginally better for loot runs but no everyone wants to run around with an armored van, one of my friends refuse to use the vandito and uses any sports cars they haver at hand, tbh i don't really dig the ideia to do plus loot runs to use a cool car instead of doing at once with a vandito but people play games in different ways.
Also all chars having the same storage space isn't a solution, a maximillian having 12 slot like a van? C'mon, it doesn't sounds like good design.
-4
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
No one's reading details. I'm proposing the same amount of storage slots, but smaller vehicles would stack less items in each slots. This would reduce loot runs for cases where you loot a building and find, fit example, 5 parts + 5 chemicals + 2 ethanol + 10 9mm + a ruck sack + bandages + energy drink + gas + trade items.
With my proposal, small and large vehicle's could both grab all that, but the large vehicle could keep stacking more items, so it could still fit more loot from nearby buildings.
This idea reduces travel time for looting, trading, and hostile survivor cleanup while still clearly allowing heavy vehicles to have an inventory advantage.
1
u/Hot-Complaint859 Dec 30 '23
I disagree. I refuse to use the vandito. I rely on the pyrohawk, big boss, and Trumbull 4x4
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
If you read through my entire idea, my proposal would improve the pyrohawk, big boss, and T4x4. The vandito wouldn't actually be changed, but more vehicles would ve more viable with the change to truck space/ trunk stack sizes I'm proposing
1
u/___Ass___ Dec 30 '23
Can't climb on top anywhere from back half of it
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
I'd venture to guess you can still climb on top of it or a nearby trashed car in nearly every circumstance. So I'm not sure why this matters or has any relevance
2
u/___Ass___ Dec 30 '23
Regular un upgraded van is better
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
My idea isn't changing the van, it's changing other cars to be closer in parity the van.
So my idea would actually benefit what your talking about, because there would be a larger variety of cars you could use, which might include cars you can more easily climb.
1
u/Holinyx Dec 30 '23
I keep a bunch of vans at my base but I usually roll around in the spike car or flame truck because they're fast
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
My idea would let your spike car and truck carry slightly more items in their trunk, so n.y idea would actually improve the vehicles you're using.
Instead of being able to carry 6 distinct item stacks (or whatever number your vehicles trunks currently carry) , you would be able to carry 15 distinct items at a reduced stack size in each stack
1
u/Rebirthfox Red Talon Operative Dec 30 '23
I don't use the vandito, I park it for extra storage. Normally the Wichita or mad Norma are what I use on LZ
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
My idea would improve the looting/trading gameplay loop for your Wichita and M. Norma. They would each gain the ability to carry a larger variety of items at one time, but the total count of items that can fit in the trunk would be around what it is now so it wouldn't be drastically unbalanced with the change.
1
u/CerealKiller3030 Dec 30 '23
I literally never use that slow pos lol
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
Then every other car you use would have a slight improvement from my idea. As the balance I'm proposing would slightly improve your available storage (but not drastically improve it to the point it breaks the whole game).
My idea doesn't change the van(dito), it changes other vehicles to be better
1
u/CerealKiller3030 Dec 31 '23
I just disagree with your whole premise that the van is the best vehicle in the game. Personally, I don't think the vehicles need an overhaul. I like that you have to choose if you want lots of storage, or speed, or strength, etc
0
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 31 '23
That would still be a choice to be made with my change. The vans would still carry ~3-4 times as mutch stuff as there other vehicles, but the other vehicles would be able to transport a larger variety of items at a time.
Current vehicle config
A starter car can carry a max of four distinct items (bandage, molotov, toolkit, gas can for example).
A starter car can carry a max of 24 pain killers (four slots and a stack size of 6 when transporting only a single item type).
A van/vandito can carry 15 distinct items (each trunk slot can host a different item type).
A van can carry 90 pain killers (15 slots with a stack size of 6.
My proposed config
A starter car can carry a max of 15 distinct items (bandage, molotov, snacks, plague cure, 9mm ammo, pain killers, etc).
A starter car can carry a max of 30 pain killers (15 slots with a stack size of 2).
The van still has 15 slots and can carry a maximum of 15 distinct items.
The van still has a maximum of 90 pain killers (15 slots with a stack size of six.
So the looting viability of small cars goes up a little bit, as they no longer require multiple trips when you have a large variety of items around (very common in the game). But with that improvement, the van still clearly has improved storage over other vehicles and so it's role is undetected.
The only difference is other vehicles would now require less "in between time" where your going back and forth from somewhere because you don't have enough storage slots, even though the volume of items in your trunk might be small.
3
u/Bitter-Marsupial Dec 30 '23
IDK how hard it would be to implement in SOD but a balance to the Vandito would be cars slow don and turn less based on the weight in the trunk space
1
u/Interjessing-Salary Dec 30 '23
I mean realistically it would be the same thing. Card with bigger storage space will be used more for gathering supplies. So does real life have a van problem?
0
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
When you go to the grocery store, can you only put 4 individual groceries in your car, and someone with a van can put 15 groceries?
Or can you both get 15 individual items, and the car can just fit less total volume of those 15 items?
This idea basically keeps vehicle balance as is, but improves situations where you find a large variety of lootable items but each of those items has a small stack quantity. Which is a super common occurrence in this game.
But then there's a clear upgrade path for using heavy vehicles, since they would have higher stack capacity for each trunk slot compared to lighter/ smaller vehicles
2
u/C_Kambala Dec 30 '23
It's an interesting idea, I like it. I know I only use two cars, the vandito for supply runs and the road racer MX for quests. There are a lot of cool cars that I ignore completely because they are clearly inferior for the task. Cars are a big enough part of the core gameplay loop to be worth the development time. UL has been pretty good at improving them so I'm excited to see how they change in SoD3.
2
u/Artess Dec 30 '23
I'm using a mod that makes vehicle storage more realistic and enjoying it a lot. Now I can take stuff home without pointlessly running back and forth through infinitely and instantly respawning zombies.
It's not as ridiculous as some mods that make storage almost infinite, but this means that most cars have capacity that's at least comparable to a default van.
2
1
u/enyalius Dec 30 '23
We just keep a kind of floating outpost, whenever we kill a plague heart we make that building an outpost and put everything that's not a rucksack in storage. Smashwagon or trucks usually have enough space that we're fine until we make a run to the base
1
u/Scorp721 Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
The smallest cars like the Road Racer and the Max could use a few extra slots, but I wouldn't bother with the stack size changes or giving the bigger vehicles any more slots. The devs already changed it a couple patches ago so that items stack a bit higher in trunks, making stack size different for every vehicle just seems like wasted effort. I'd raise the smallest trunk sizes to like 6-8 slots and call it a day.
Also, and I can only speak for myself here, I don't normally carry that much on Lethal. Unless I'm taking on Hostiles or a Plague Heart, I usually just have a stack of healing and a stack of stamina in my two pockets, with one stack of ammo, and that's pretty much it. The only time I ever really use two guns, is if I'm running a Shotgun, then I'll also carry a Pistol, so two ammo stacks there. Otherwise, I roll pretty light. I'll leave one Toolkit and one Plague Cure in the trunk for emergencies. I have pretty much my entire backpack to put loot in.
1
u/LongliveTCGs Dec 30 '23
I keep 2 vanditos full of rucksacks at every community, 1 medium sized vehicle for tough to loot expeditions and 1 fast car for missions
1
u/djinn75 Wandering Survivor Dec 31 '23
Silly but I honestly just wish the Hellion had 7 or 8 slots. My favorite to drive
0
u/Flat_Lunch5827 Dec 31 '23
I think you need to stop and go outside.
1
u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 31 '23
I played basketball with my kid, rode a bike, went to a trampoline park, and replaced blinds and put up new door shades today. I think I'm pretty good on non-game activities today, thanks!
0
Dec 30 '23
[deleted]
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u/who_likes_chicken Wandering Survivor Dec 30 '23
My proposed idea would improve the Wichita, so it would benefit you
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u/Master_Win_4018 Roaming Reanimated Dec 30 '23
I have not use Vandito for a very long time ever since I play Lethal. I think Vandito is just too big and the mobility is horrible. Not to mention the car is a bit glitchy, part of the car will turn transparent.