Devlog #021 – "Car Keys" Feedback

If you haven’t seen the latest devlog post yet, go check it out!

With the addition of the latest vehicle revision, it’s time to give our beloved feedback and criticism. :slight_smile:

The latest addition to the game are *car keys*. In order to lock or unlock a car, you need a car key. That is all you need the key for, so here a few things to note:
  • Cars must be manually unlocked before they can be entered.
  • Cars can be exited while the car is locked.
  • You can start the car’s engine without a key.
  • You can drive the car without a key.
  • You cannot lock the car without a key, even if you are inside the vehicle.
  • You cannot unlock the car without a key, even if a windshield is broken.
  • You cannot unlock the car without a key, even if you are inside the vehicle.

I have a few discussion points regarding how keys could work instead, and a few quality-of-life suggestions.

(Suggestion 1), Unlocking cars via broken windshields

Currently, the 7.62x51mm Firing Range Gun can easily break the Hatchback’s windshield. Personally, I think it’d make sense if you could unlock a car door if the windshield is broken, although it would make keys (in their current state) far less useful.



(Quality-of-Life 1), Unlocking cars from interior

I feel like this is more of a quality-of-life addition, rather than anything game-changing about how keys work. If you are inside a vehicle, I feel that you should be able to unlock them (with or without a key).

Perhaps the method of doing so differs per vehicle, but, generally, it should be possible.



(Quality-of-Life 2), Automatic unlocking upon attempted entry

If you have a key to the vehicle, and you are trying to enter the vehicle, you should be able to do so without having to manually unlock the car. This would allow players to more quickly enter vehicles without having to stop and fiddle around right next to the door, even if the time saved is incredibly brief.

If you have other players that are trying to enter the vehicle with you, you would still need to unlock the vehicle for them, however.



(Suggestion 2), Keys required for ignition

Right now, cars can be started without a key. This could be intentional, or it could be an oversight. Regardless, I think keys should be required to start the car. Without keys in your inventory, you cannot start the car’s engine.



(Discussion 1), Individual keys for individual vehicles?

Or, should players only need to obtain one key? Right now, it’s practically just a better Stealy Wheely Automobiley.

However, would it make sense for “fun gameplay” for each key to only work on a specific vehicle, or is that too “hardcore?”

I came up with a few propositions regarding how to implement this, so those will be detailed below. There are two suggestions that are not directly related to them, but can be assumed to be features to improve game quality.

  1. Keys (car keys, door keys, and lock keys) can be stored on key rings, which reduce the overall amount of space keys would take up in your inventory.

  2. Duplicate keys can be crafted (somehow).

Proposition 1: Keys spawn with the car

Keys only work on the car they spawned with.

[PRO] This is immersive, and players would be unable to just take random car keys and unlock someone else’s vehicle.

[CON] One is useless without the other. With individual keys tied to individual vehicles, you will never use that key if you somehow cannot manage to find that vehicle.

[PRO] It is incredibly easy to find the corresponding car to a vehicle.

[CON] Keys would only be found next to actual vehicles, which makes them irrelevant as any sort of progress-gating, and makes it really easy for people to steal and intentionally never use.

Additionally, it would likely make sense for quality-of-life for the key to automatically have a custom description that says the corresponding license plate.

Proposition 2: Keys per vehicle type

There are car keys for each “type” (Hatchback, Van, APC) of vehicle. These keys will work on any vehicle of that “type”, but only for that type of vehicle.

[PRO] This keeps the usefulness of keys tied to a vehicle, but it’s a wider range of applications that might eventually fit you, even if you can’t find that specific vehicle right now.

[CON] Once you collect every type of car keys that exists, you’re basically the king of unlocking anyone’s vehicle. Locking vehicles becomes irrelevant if people can obtain the same key as you.

Proposition 3: Syncing blank keys

Keys only work on one vehicle. However, all keys start off “blank,” and aren’t assigned to any particular vehicle. Upon starting a car’s engine, you can sync your blank key to that vehicle, and from then on that key will be required to use that vehicle.

[PRO] Naturally-spawning “blank keys” will never be “useless,” because you decide when they will start having a use.

[CON] You could accumulate a large number of keys from civilian-grade areas, and then use all of them on military-grade vehicles.

[PRO] Creating duplicate keys is as simple as just plugging a new key into the ignition. It’s difficult to lose keys to a vehicle.

[CON] Stealing cars is as simple as finding a blank key and plugging it into the ignition. If you can unlock car doors via broken windshields, then stealing civilian-grade vehicles is incredibly straightforward.

Additionally, people can still grief other players by just using every car key they find on random vehicles. This would make finding blank keys more annoying, and it can result in the car owner unknowingly using a vehicle that multiple other people can easily unlock and steal.



20 Likes

I think you should be able to hot wire the car if you have the right tools

5 Likes

Meant to mention hotwiring, and completely forgot about it. :’]

EDIT: Quicker poll from the suggestions not directly tied to the main discussion point (individual keys tied to individual cars).

  • I support hot-wiring vehicles.
  • I support unlocking cars through broken windshields.
  • I support key rings.
  • I support needing keys for the car’s ignition.
  • I support unlocking cars from the inside, even without a key.
  • – Null option (accidentally voted) –

0 voters

1 Like

My feedback -

I like the whole car keys idea. I truly hope, however, Nelson finds a much friendlier alternative to locking and unlocking vehicles, it would be annoying for example to be mid-gunfight, run up to your car and have to scroll-wheel perfectly to the “unlock” option (assuming there will be other options in the way to clutter the menu).

Also, can we lock from inside? Is that planned? If not, it will be annoying mid-gunfight and sliding into my car just for the enemy to get inside too.

HOT WIRING

I support some way of hot wiring. I think new vehicles should be impossible to hotwire or take much longer or more skill, otherwise you need the key (or make a copy of the key)

Older or standard civilian cars should be much easier to unlock, and it should be up to the player to fortify their car with barricades to make entry into the inside of the car (and therefore ability to hotwire) or to store their car in a safe place (which gives bases a use again, as I honestly hate the car-locking meta of 3.0 nerfing the need of garages)

KEY RINGS

Key rings sound cool. An easy way to couple all of your keys on one chain. If you have a car and a base door key, the keychain should be able to instantly pick the right one and apply it (The keychain would probably amount a lot of metadata :slight_smile:) also, the keychain should easily hook onto your pants, not requiring inventory space.

So long as you have pants, or pants that have hooks (for instance, pajama’s would not! I think dynamic clothing like this would be super cool)

IGNITION

Keys would be needed for ignition of smarter or military cars. Otherwise they can be hotwired.

UNLOCK FROM OUTSIDE

If we are making a distinction between A) unlocking the doors and B) starting the car and using it, then I think we should obviously be able to bash open the window and get inside - thats obviously how it would be in real life and I think its balanced.

There wouldn’t be much use of being inside, assuming the vehicle’s storage would be in a trunk. Unless this vehicle does not have a trunk (some car models like SUV’s for example) then players should be able to access the vehicles inside. And I think stuff like this would provide for more dynamic cars or car storages.

If you have car keys on you, you can. If you don’t, you currently cannot.

1 Like

OK. Whats the button to lock from inside?

Also, I definitely think once you’re inside you should be able to lock the car.

I assume this will be implemented

down the road :upside_down_face:

You look at the car door and manually scroll down to the “Lock” action, just like how you would manually exit.

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thanks

For my ideas on car keys there are three main points:

  • Blank keys become usable by carving them into the proper shape with the use of something that can cut metal and another key to use as a guide for it.

  • Most vehicles have entirely unique keys (key for one vehicle of type A will not work with another type A vehicle). (Proposition 1 with a few exceptions)

  • Certain vehicles have universal keys (lawnmowers, golf carts, and farm equipment for example). (Proposition 2 for only certain vehicle types)

My ideas here all come from things I’ve experienced before. I once watched a guy go through the process of creating a duplicate key at a store and the second idea is just common with mostly every vehicle you’ll find. The third idea comes from a key I have for John Deere tractors, if I ever need to move a tractor out of the way I can use that key instead of having to hunt someone down that has one for it (I’ve never looked at the smaller ones so I don’t know if those use a different kind of key or not). Combining Propositions 1 and 2 from Discussion 1 just seems to make sense because it’s more realistic than one or the other.

2 Likes

From my testing, it is not impossible for the clay pigeons to break a window or windshield, but they can still kill the player of they fly over the car.

1 Like

I think that one of the options you can scroll through when looking at the door/window should be to roll that window down. Maybe the driver should also have an option to roll all the windows down simultaneously. Maybe all the doors shouldn’t lock and unlock together, but the driver’s door should be able to unlock all the doors. Maybe when the door is unlocked or you are on the inside, you should be able to remove the door with a socket wrench. IMO, when an option needs a particular item to be done, it should show the inventory icon of that item, not just red text.

1 Like

More people support adding hotwiring than requiring the key for ignition. :thinking: Why would anyone choose to hotwire a car if they’re able to turn the ignition switch with their bare hands? Or does someone want to go through a hotwiring animation every time they start any car? Most likely some people weren’t careful enough when selecting options or didn’t think about what those options meant. This thread should be renamed to “Harvest talking to himself”

1 Like

Unlocking/locking should depend of the car. Bigger and simpler military vehicles should need a key for locking/unlocking, but some modern cars should have that “unlock” button that can unlock/lock doors.
this may be usefull to quick change cars with people/friends, as you could leave the key on the car so your friend gets in and does not even touch the key (if the engine is already on).

and the blank keys idea could be fixed by having 3 or 4 types of keys, so you could have blank civilian,military or special keys.

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