Holy cow building a car from scratch takes a lot of this stuff. This is the first game i’ve ever tried to build a car. I’m scrounging every house for light disposable batteries to craft the rods. Fortunately most houses have at least one in a flashlight. Is there another good reliable source for welding rods or wire?
Brazing rods are currently the easiest to make, just melt down every piece of copper you can find from homes (pots, washing machine internals, sinks, toilets, baths), alloy it with aluminum from rooftop gutters, and sprinkle in some detergent. EZ
With fences being transformed into mild steel, welding wires are tougher to make, but you can bleed acidic zombies and distill their blood into more usable acids for making these. It’s also a good way to use lead-acid batteries you otherwise weren’t going to use.
I would recommend looking at trying to find the refugee center and cover most if not all your welding needs from Smokes.
If you cannot do that, look for places like auto-centers or car garages should have some stuff there. Can also find interesting stuff in basements some times as well -like a hobbyist’s den.
Been awhile since I played, but remember dissembling stuff to figure out what it breaks down into helped keep me stocked to make my own in a pinch and usually just picked the recipe that suited my needs as I recall one can use 1 of 3 types of welding types for material. Solder, I admit, is a bit of a pain to constantly make so I usually only settle down once I am near a refugee center as it can a bit of a chore having to make the stuff all the time
Oh, I didn’t realize that the refugee center had useful things! I’m not a very experienced player and have never ventured there. Is Smokes simply a vendor? I just found the wiki page on the refugee center missions. Guess I need to go there! It’s not too far from my starting location. I’ve been too focused on my car build.
Managed to have the right parts to craft a wire draw machine, so have also been supplementing my welding rods from batteries with welding wire from all the scrap copper that is easy to obtain/craft. With the welding wires, I am limited by hydrochloric acid.
I know the refugee center is a great place to get to know most of the factions, last time I played I ran into a bugged quests in regards to the quartermaster dude ( can’t remember the name but he is across the room from Smokes though)
Yes, Smokes is a vendor and acts like the general trader that sells a lot of basic stuff like general raw material and basic ammo that makes things a lot easier to play the game. He also gives you quests that you can “cash in” for vendor credit too
I feel like the refugee center is like the gateway through which the game gets you to explore its content.
You get your best trades with preserved foods, or you can follow a questline, I think Smokes eventually gives, where you can put your NPC companions to work for currency too and use that to purchase stuff.
Cars are a fun side activity to get into, but can be a challenge getting all the right stuff to make it how you like it, becomes like a game in of itself looking for the right stuff to get the vehicle the way one wants it.
I know looking at general cars in the world can help be a reference and from there you can tweek it to your preferences.
Perfect condition electric motors are great finds, doubly so if you can find advanced electric motors as they don’t make noise last I played. I think there is also an enhanced electric motor but those are from the really fancy electric sports cars.
Alternatively you could try use a diesel engine and try find a way to make biodiesel and work with that or go for a hybrid build once your mechanics skills are good enough to put two engines in a vehicle
I would mention to never underestimate a seat beat, besides the obvious reason, they can be a life saver if an enemy tries to pull you out of your car.
I know there is a fairly complex way to chemically make the acid from scratch, but you can also take a car battery, if I recall, and make sure you have the right type of containers and disessemble the car battery and if you are lucky you could get hydrochloric acid that way.
Thanks for the tips! I fortunately stumbled upon a vehicle welding rig and a near pristine working solar car so drove it to the evacuee shelter and installed the welding rig. Building another big solar car to be a mobile base since i’ve never done vehicle construction before. The large electric motor seems up to the task. I’ll have to be on the lookout for the advanced motor for the noise issue.
Sounds good, just be careful with the solar panels, they are made of paper, reinforcing them makes it hardier for a bit of a hit in its effeciency or you could build a foldable solar panel set or carry the parts to build a generator with a fuel stash in your vehicle and connect it with cables in a safe place to get you out of trouble before you get into trouble.
When building your vehicle sort of have an idea what you want it to do, so more tires gives you better off-road performance, try to account for any extra weight if you want to make it amphibious as it can sink if it is too heavy, if you can get your electronics skill up you can install cameras ( although it needs tweeking to work out the angles and isn’t perfect) and hook up some electronics for retractable screens on windows so you can avoid enemies spotting you while still seeing where you can go
Getting your mechical up high enough for 2 engines can help with the battery drain as you could use the gas/diesel engine to charge your batteries with an alternator. I feel like solar panels feel on the weaker side to power a heavy vehicle for reliable long distance travel so it is good to plan for moments when you might run out of power. I know with advanced motor can still be a bit of a energy guzzler, but I like build my vehicles somewhat boring.
An older picture with I am not sure if it still included, Blazes Industry mod. The enhanced electric engine with just one engine still leaves me moments where I had to explore a bit while I let the batteries charge and that is almost 8 tonnes minimum it dragging around
According to the HHG, welding rods and wires can be looted with high confidence from megastores, steel mills and some garages, with low confidence from light industry, parking lots, malls, pump stations, farm supply stores and other garages.
Light industry also sometimes has brazing rods, AFAIK, they can be used too.
