Change vehicle damage model

[Stevie]

Brief Summary: Give vehicles more durability 

Description: Cars break down after one good hit or a collection of small hits that should never affect the engine's performance. It makes various scenarios very short and boring since the car escapes are usually short because of the damage model. With crazy amount of repair kits on the market, people drive how they please as they know they can just repair the car and go again.

Like I said, many scenarios are cut short because the car breaks down easily and that's the end of it. Person gets chased down by police or is out of the loop if doing a different activity within minutes of it starting. If someone is in the car with you, if you don't hit and object but you do on the other persons screen the vehicles loses durability. It is what it is with the server de-sync but I believe that giving them a little bit more durability would enhance various RP scenarios all across.

Just to add, no matter how good you drive, you are more likely to crash than not. It's impossible to avoid some bullshit like cars spawning out of the wazoo or de-sync.

More durable cars would allow:

• Longer police chases. (Something police isn't getting enough of)
  
• Closer racing as people wouldn't have to repair their cars after stupid crashes losing a lot of time.
  
• Allow better drivers to get away in the long run while promoting consistent driving. This gets rid of the one unfortunate moment including cars spawning or de-sync.
  
• Longer RP scenarios when escaping or chasing. 
  

With the idea being introduced, amount of repair should be lowered too as we currently have way too much of them. 

Like stated before, people drive crazy because the repair-kit stock is high. Wrecking cars doesn't matter as people carry +5 repair kits. There should be a punishment for driving this way but there isn't. Lowering the damage model even more won't change anything.

 

[Makenzie]

I do agree with this however, i feel once your car does break down and use a repair kit, the durability of your car should be lowered each time after a repair kit is used, and the only way of restoring it to full "health" is by taking it to a mechanic, or calling out a mechanic

 

[Tokjat]

or calling out a mechanic

The only issue I see with this is that people will clock in as a mechanic to get the benefits of repairing the car fully you should call a mechanic to tow you car to the closest work shop to get it repaired 

 

[Stevie]

Its good you boys brought up the mechanic because I forgot about it. I remember the time when the new shop system came out and we had a small stock of repair-kits at the time. Within those 4 days I called the mechanic more than I did with my 4 months playing on the server. Sometimes even 3 mechanics would show up and it made up for a very fun experience. 

I also agree with towing vehicles back to the depot to get them fully repaired. 

Maybe someday we could have a lead mechanic that takes people in 1 by 1 so the place doesn't get overcrowded, and down the road a roster of "available mechanics" that everyone can check. That's a whole different story though.

 

[_Darren]

Perhaps it would be possible for repair kits to get cars on their way again - without any cosmetic changes and with 50% health. And then if it needs repairing again, 25% health etc.

Then you would need to RP taking it to a garage for a full repair (Just head there, activate the bench, wait a certain amount of time). Explaining to the police why/how your car is so beat up. A mechanic could also tow you there if called out - which is what should happen, rather than everyone using repair kits.

This would promote better driving throughout the city. Yet, with the increased 'health' of a vehicle, would allow for the extended chases etc too.

Thoughts?