vehicles.json overhaul and new obstacle parts (Ready for review)

[NaturesWitness]

Typed up by Mechanoid on the forums, here is an overhaul of vehicles.json, fixing in a massive amount of (literal) holes in Cata's fleet of vehicles. Also, I replaced the last of the underbody wide wheels with the correct normal wheels, as they were no longer needed.

Original forum thread:
http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=3739.0

EDIT - This has grown from a small patch job to a thorough rebuild of nearly every vehicle with an interior in Cataclysm. Tested and everything works fine, so this is ready for review.

[i2amroy]

While I certainly appreciate the work, I'd really like to see some of these new windshields/boards be replaced by a new part, "moulding", which would function similar to a low hp board that allows you to see through it.

[NaturesWitness]

Hmm that's a good thought I'll take a look at it.

[ianestrachan]

Is "moulding" the right term? It brings images of art classes to me, but I don't know what specific car parts are called (which doesn't help when it's traditional to explain programming concepts by giving car analogies).

Would "panel" be more accurate for a transparent obstacle part, or is that not quite right?

[NaturesWitness]

I was thinking "fender" might be a possibility, as these are probably going to be over wheels most of the time. A "quarter panel" is a vehicle part, that could be a good name. I'll try and put together a quick proof-of-concept for this, so we can see how it looks.

[NaturesWitness]

okay here is a quick concept thing I typed up. Added quarterpanels that are obstacles but don't block vision. Name, durability, and item used are placeholder for now, this is mostly just to get input on concept, so changed title to WIP.
Also, tried a quick redesign on the "car". All boards are now quarterpanels, wheels and front have quarterpanels on them, and headlights are moved to top two corners of vehicle, more like an actual car. Fired it up in game and I think the end result looks pretty nice. Please post your thoughts on these changes, especially on what the name and stats of the quarterpanels should be.

[ianestrachan]

I think 'quarter panel' might be too long to fit in the vehicle interaction window. There's not a lot of space there, but I'm not sure. "Panel" might be better if that is the case.

Otherwise, I like the sounds of it, particularly moving the headlights up.

[NaturesWitness]

Good catch on the name too long thing, I'll be sure to double-check that in-game. There's actually two other things I'd like your thoughts on:

One, what do you think of having the panels over the wheels? When I was doing this, it occurred to me that practically every modern car has body panels over the wheels, so it was kinda strange cars in Cata all had exposed wheels like a 50's hot rod. Adding the panels on the corners gives the car a much sleeker look I think, although it could be viewed as a little uninteresting.

Two, what are your thoughts on the durability values? I've been thinking a little about it, and 250 may be too low. Maybe 500 would be better?

I'll try to work on this more later tonight, I have to go over to a buddy's house today and fix an interior door and try to get a recalcitrant circuit breaker to work.

[ianestrachan]

Unless we add a Formula One car to the game, every wheel should have a quarter panel over it. The z-level is currently rigged so that the tire's glyph shows up above frames but below the 'center' layer, so it'd cover up the wheel, which is fine if the panels are angled properly.

I have no idea what good durability values are. I always just look at similar parts and ballpark 'em. Boards are 1000, so a quarter panel should be in the 250-500 range.

[NaturesWitness]

Okay I have another question for everybody; Should windshields extend the entire width of the vehicle, or should the outermost edges be quarterpanels?

[kevingranade]

Probably the forward corners should have windshield all the way across. I don't think the little pillars justify blocking an entire tile. Boards should be for fairly large areas of blocked off vision.

[NaturesWitness]

Whew, okay that's everything except the armored car and the military truck. I didn't do those because they use armor plating for walls, and there's another PR up that's tweaking armor plates. I'd rather not get into it right now and have these changes possibly conflict with the other PR, so I'll wait until that one lands and do a new PR with the last two vehicles. Just to summarize, here's what we've added:

1 - Quarter panels added, essentially a half-board that prevents movement but doesn't block vision. Has variations to match every frame tile shape except cross.

2 - Quarter panels added to edges of almost every vehicle, including over wheels. Gives vehicles a more defined shape and mass, you can't just walk over the hood of a car.

3 - Headlights moved from on the windshields of vehicles to the front, usually over the front wheels (I mean c'mon, who sticks headlights on a windshield??)

4 - Underbody wide wheels removed from all vehicles and replaced with normal wheels (with the new vehicle design system, they're no longer necessary, and in fact can be removed altogether).

5 - Back wheels on RV moved to edges of vehicle to match front ones (now that wheels can go under boards, there's no reason for them to be in the middle of the frame)

6 - Windshields now span the entire width of vehicles.

I think that's everything, feel free to comment if anything looks like it should be changed.