Libraries spawn in schools and are advantageously located-- if you can hop the fence of the playground, you can run in, grab the books, and get out.
Also, any large building such as an office tower, hotel, or apartment building is highly useful as a base and source of supplies.
Also also, quick explanation of vehicle system for Arcvasti.
To get started, you need a wrench and either duct tape or a welder & goggles. Duct tape is great if you need to make a repair or something on the fly, but welders are more dependable (especially once you get a welding rig-- you get FREE WELDING!) It's really difficult to get started with making a full-on car from scrap, so I suggest getting hold of a handy vehicle that's mostly intact; this means one with only missing wheels (if you have a jack,) a missing engine (if you have a spare and sufficient skills,) or a missing seat or controls (if you have level 2 or 3 mechanics and a hacksaw). My suggestions:
-Cube van: Easy to convert into a mobile command center. Trunk makes reasonably safe sleeping area and provides plenty of storage. Low-end vans are cool too.
-Hippie van: Free storage, nice size, similar conversion capabilities as the van.
-Sports car: DAT ENGINE.
-Semi truck: Powerhouse. Can smash past stuff (huge plus when crossing bridges) and has built-in beds and storage space. If you have way too much time on your hands, you could build a trailer or something later.
-RV (luxury, if applicable): Excellent base. Free fridge, free beds, mild storage space, kitchen.
-Mobile meth lab: Basically, it's a bus with storage space and a chemo lab in back. Easy to outfit into mobile command center.
-Bus/APC/other long and skinny vehicle: Rare, but brilliant vehicles. If you get your mitts on an APC, modify the gas tanks into internal ones ASAP, because external ones are bugged and explode with the force of a nuke when they are bumped into/bump into things with sufficient speed.
-Hummer/humvee/other fat truck or van-type thing: Built to last and work brilliantly.
Other vehicles, like vanilla cars, are acceptable, but the above vehicles are preferable. Anyway, once you have it fixed up, you want to start ripping out the unsatisfactory parts and replacing them with satisfactory ones. Easy tips:
-Rip out all the seats but the driver's and replace them with trunks (unless you're playing with NPCs.) Never use boxes.
-Replace all the aisles with floor trunks.
-If your vehicle has windows but no curtains, add them for increased privacy.
-Remove all the windshields and headlights at the first opportunity and replace them with the reinforced versions.
-If possible, upgrade your engine, battery, and/or alternator.
-If your vehicle is an odd number of tiles wide, it could be advantageous to move the driver's seat and controls to the center of the vehicle.
-Add solar panels in strategic spots when you can.
-Once you can, add an RV kitchen unit, onboard chemistry lab, and welding/forge rigs to your vehicle. Remember that these block movement, but can also store things. FOODCO Kitchen Buddy is also handy to have, but cannot replace the kitchen itself.
-Add a bed for long trips.
-Stockpile nonperishable food items somewhere in the vehicle. I suggest a keg or jerrycan of clean water (or, if you're feeling lucky, fill it with sports drink or soda) and around 100 units of hardtack.
Your vehicle is satisfactory by now. However, for maximum efficiency, you'll want to do this when possible:
-Once possible, replace all aisles and dedicated storage spaces with cargo carriers. They don't block or slow movement and can carry more than trunks, maximizing storage space.
-Armor your vehicle, all over. Start with the outsides and work inward. Military composite and superalloy sound cool, but are too rare to be reliable. Steel plating is what you should shoot for as a minimum, and with a field day with your forge or welder, you can make boatloads of it. If you have a very large source of metal, you could go for hard plating, which is even better. If you want maximum badassery and increased splatterage when running over shit, you should use spiked plating.
-It's late game stuff, but it pays to upgrade solar panels to quantum.
-Charging stations and rechargable battery mods are ridiculously handy, because they basically mean that you can use your vehicle's power supply on everything and not just your welder and forge, which is extremely useful when you have things like UPSes to power ferromagnetic railguns or laser pistols and not enough batteries.
There you have it! Now, it might seem like a chore to amass metal, but it's actually really easy. Steps to get theoretically infinite free metal:
1. Obtain a metal weapon with high bashing damage, like an ironshod quarterstaff, fire axe, or sledgehammer.
2. Find a pileup or large bit of wreckage.
3. SURVIVOR SMAAAASH!
4. Bring in welding/forge rigs and go to town.
You'll occasionally rip off intact stuff like windshields or quarterpanels, which comes in handy.
Hope this helped!
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Topic: Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - A roaming horde appears on the horizon! (Read 1860149 times)