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Cars and machines

Players spend half their time behind the wheel. About 60 car models by release, plus planes, helicopters, boats, heavy and military vehicles. Makes and models are fictional, based on the vehicles of today.

Cars

Based on American, European, Japanese and Korean cars from the 2000s to 2026. Old cars from the 1960s to the 1990s stay as retro: with ranchers, in scrapyards, at the derby and with collectors. Sedans, crossovers and SUVs, muscle cars, pickups, vans, semis with trailers, buses, motorcycles, police, ambulances, fire trucks, tractors and haul trucks. Electric cars are quiet and quick off the line, and their battery burns long and hard after a crash.

Physics and character

Every car has its own mass, centre of gravity and suspension on each wheel. Asphalt, gravel, sand and mud grip differently, and wet asphalt after a storm is slippery. The muscle car slides under throttle, the semi takes ages to stop, the loaded pickup leans over in a turn. Driving aids (stability control, ABS) can be switched off.

Damage

The body dents where it is hit, bumpers, doors and hood come off, glass and lights break. Tyres, the tank and the radiator can be punctured; steering, suspension and gearbox can fail. Bullets go through thin metal, so a driver can be hit through the door. A car can be lost: towed, impounded, burned.

Garage and combat cars

A tribute to Vigilante 8, where the game began. Over the story, your brother's garage is rebuilt: a lift, welding, a paint booth. A car takes a ram in front, a turret on the roof or in the bed, armour plates over the windows and a rear drop: oil, spikes, mines. The number of slots depends on the body.

Weight decides: every plate and every gun change the mass and how the suspension works, and an overloaded car accelerates worse and breaks its springs. Parts come from scrapyards, the aircraft boneyard, the army depot and Cobalt's cars. A machine gun on a roof in the middle of the highway means an instant wanted level, so a combat car travels on a trailer under a tarp or at night on dirt roads.

Aviation

Flight follows physics: lift, stalls, wind and desert heat (a plane holds worse in hot air). Damage by parts: a holed tank, a dead engine, a shot-off tail rotor. You learn at the flight school by the airport, and you need a pilot's licence. Flying low over a town or a highway gets you a wanted level.

Boats

Fishing boats, speedboats, houseboats, jet skis and the sheriff's patrol boat. Buoyancy, waves and the Colorado's current are real: a car that rolls into the water sinks, and a boat can be holed and sunk. You lose the river patrol in side channels and under bridges.

Heavy and military machines

Bulldozers, excavators, graders, mobile cranes, haul trucks and tankers work the mines and building sites. Military machines (jeeps, trucks, armoured carriers, tanks) are never sold: they can only be captured, and they need fuel, ammunition and repairs. A tank breaks through walls but bogs down in sand and falls through wooden bridges. Stealing a military vehicle brings the top wanted level at once.

Every strong machine has a cheap answer. A helicopter goes down to a rifle aimed at the pilot and the tail rotor. A tank is stopped with dynamite under the tracks and gasoline in the engine bay. A plane is vulnerable at takeoff and landing.

Machines online

So that machines don't break a game for 5000 people, the server has quotas: roughly up to 40 planes and 30 helicopters owned by players, while tanks and attack helicopters are counted in single digits and come only as event trophies. Military machines stop after a few hours without fuel and repairs, and the radio reports every outing. Light planes fly up to 300 km/h online, and there are no jets. Numbers are set by tests.

Source: design document, sections «Cars», «Garage and building a combat car», «Aviation, water and heavy machinery». The game is in development: what is described here comes from the design document and may change before release.