Survival Guide - Dust Settles: Vehicles

Table of Contents:

Purpose:

Vehicles are a means of added transportation for your explorers and recruiters as well as extra power in battle. All of your vehicles will have to be constructed through the Garage page. Once they are constructed, though, you will be able to use them for whatever purpose they serve.

To explain a few of the stats found for each vehicle:

• Production Costs: This shows you how much a single one of that vehicle will cost you in building supplies and CEPs.
• Research Needed: This shows you how much research you need in what areas to be able to produce that vehicle type in your garages.
• Crew: This shows you how many people are needed in each vehicle for it to be most effective. Buses are the only vehicle that do not require exactly crew * # of vehicles being sent.
• Max. Produced / Garage / Day: This number shows you how many of that vehicle can be produced in a single garage in one day.
• Min. Range: This is the minimum effective firing range for the vehicle. Once the vehicle comes closer to its target than this distance it drops down to 1/4 normal power.
• Max. Range: This is the maximum distance that a vehicle can be from its target in order to hit.
• Damage / Armor: This lists first the damage that a vehicle will do to its preferred target(s) and second the armor rating the vehicle has.
• Reload Time: This shows how long it takes to reload the weapon after firing. A round is the amount of time needed to move from the current position after firing to the next position.
• Run Speed: This is an average of how far your vehicle can move in a round.
• Accuracy: This is a percentage showing how likely each shot will hit a target.
• Fuel Required: This is how much fuel is required for each vehicle of that type.
• Vehicle Type: This tells you what kind of vehicle you're looking at. This stat is useful when determining preferred targets.
• Alternate Damage: This is how much damage the vehicle will do to any non-preferred targets.
• Preferred Target Types: This lists the types of vehicles and weapons that the vehicle is most effective against.

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Buses:

Uses:

Buses are a great way to help your people return with more resources and survivors after a day of exploring or recruiting. These vehicles will travel alongside your people allowing them to stow away more survivors and resources than they could carry or lead themselves. You can send out up to 1 bus for every 50 people assigned as long as you have enough buses, staffed garages for fueling, and gas to cover the assignment. 4 buses for exploring and 4 for recruiting can be fueled at each staffed garage. You will also be limited by your total circumference and Vehicles Transport research. When you send out buses, you may lose one or two while they are out because of a break down. This will not decrease returns, just your total number of buses. Remember, Daily Standing Orders will NOT assign buses for either exploration or recruiting. If you want to get the bonus provided by buses, you must assign the exploration or recruiting manually.

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Construction:

You will construct buses through the Garage page. You must have a fully staffed and manned garage in order to use it for construction and you can only choose one thing for production at a time. If you have a manned garage, you can produce 2 buses each day per garage if you have enough building supplies to cover the costs.

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Improvements:

As you research Vehicle Transport, the fuel efficiency of your buses will increase, thus costing you less gas as your camp expands. Extra research in this topic will also allow you to send out more buses for the same circumference. Mastering this topic will allow your buses to take no gasoline at all as they are switched to an alternate fuel.

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Limitations:

Your primary limitation with buses will be the fact that you can only build buses from fully manned garages. This means that unless you have 50 workers for each garage that you own, you will not be able to produce buses at max efficiency. You can assign as little as 50 workers, though, and get some return.

Since you also must choose a vehicle for your garages to focus on, you will only be able to build buses at the expense of other vehicles and aircraft.

Finally you can only send out one bus for every ten people set to recruit or explore. Though this may lead to a number of buses, you must be able to fuel them all.

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Armored Assault Vehicles:

AAV
Armored Assault Vehicles mean a chassiswith a driver and two gunners. Great against troops.
	Production Costs	Research Level Needed	Crew Required:
	50 BS / 15 CEP	Mechanical Engineering (40), Weapon Design (20)	3
	Max. Produced/Garage/Day	Min. Range	Max. Range
	1	25 m	250 m
	Damage / Armor	Reload Time	Run Speed
	10 / 20	1 round	50 m/round
	Accuracy	Fuel Required	Weapon Type
	60%	40	Ground Vehicle
	Alternate Damage	Preferred Target Types
	2	- Short Range - Long Range - Heavy Weapons - Ground Vehicles - Light Aircraft - Battle Mechs -

Uses:

AAVs are simple armored jeeps used to plow into battle and provide some extra fire for your troops. You will assign these for either offense or defense on the Attack and Defense pages. In battle, these vehicles will drive forward matching whatever your formation orders are, firing upon the advancing troops. It will take more than a rifle shot to take out these, but a round from an anti-tank cannon or a recoilless rifle will make short work of it if it hits. Hairpins will also be an annoyance since getting around them is fairly difficult. They're fast, have decent accuracy, and deal a decent amount of damage. Make sure you have enough army units to act as crew and enough gas to run them or they will be useless.

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Construction:

AAVs must be produced through the Garage page. These vehicles take quite a bit of research to open, 40 in Mechanical Engineering and 20 in Weapon Design, and will not be available for construction until you have reached this point. Once opened, though, you can begin setting your garages to produce one of the vehicles each day for every manned garage. It will cost you 50 building supplies and 15 CEPs for each AAV that you want to build. If you do not have enough supplies or CEPs to cover the costs that turn, you will not build them.

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Improvements:

You can eliminate the need to fuel your AAVs with gasoline by mastering Vehicle Transport. Also, your AAVs will probably not start with a run speed of 50 m/round unless you have already done sufficient Vehicle Transport research. Depending on your level your AAV's may move faster or slower than this speed.

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Limitations:

One of the biggest limitations that you will have regarding this vehicle is the fact that you cannot build AAVs unless you have at least 1 fully manned garage. As long as you have this, you can set your garages to produce AAVs.

The next hurdle you will have to leap is the fact that each AAV is going to cost you 50 building supplies and 15 CEPs to construct. If you do not have the resources required to build them, they will not be constructed that turn.

Finally, though you can set your garages to produce them, you will not be able to build AAVs if you have a minting license. These are considered offensive weaponry and thus not allowed by the terms of the license agreement.

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Tanks:

Tank
No need to describe these. Built in a garage or not, these are mean, damage dealin' machines. Lousy aim though.
	Production Costs	Research Level Needed	Crew Required:
	75 BS / 25 CEP	Mechanical Engineering (40), Weapon Design (20)	4
	Max. Produced/Garage/Day	Min. Range	Max. Range
	1	100 m	400 m
	Damage / Armor	Reload Time	Run Speed
	40 / 40	2 rounds	20 m/round
	Accuracy	Fuel Required	Weapon Type
	40%	50	Ground Vehicle
	Alternate Damage	Preferred Target Types
	10	- Ground Vehicles - Battle Mechs -

Uses:

Tanks are the big, hulking hunks of metal that are used to fire upon large groups of troops, other vehicles, and even wall or buildings when needed. They tend to roll right over everything in their path. Only hairpins are ever really effective at stopping them without destroying them, though a shot from a recoilless rifle or an antitank cannon will stop a tank in its tracks. You can assign tanks for both an offensive or defensive attack through the Attack and Defense pages. You will have to have enough gas to fuel them and people to run them in order to actually send them into battle.

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Construction:

As long as you have at least 1 garage fully manned, you can assign them to construct tanks. Of course, you have to have enough Mechanical Engineering and Weapon Design research before this option will become available, but once there you can churn out 1 tank for every manned garage. Tanks are expensive to construct, though. It will take 75 BS and 25 CEPs to build a single one.

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Improvements:

You can eliminate the gasoline requirement for tanks being sent into battle by mastering Vehicle Transport. Also, your tanks will probably not start with a run speed of 20 m/round unless you have already done sufficient Vehicle Transport research. Depending on your level your tanks may move faster or slower than this speed.

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Limitations:

One of the biggest limitations that you will have regarding this vehicle is the research required to open them for construction. You will have to reach 40 in Mechanical Engineering and 20 in Weapon Design to begin constructing tanks from your garages.

You must also have fully manned garages in order to construct tanks. If you have some, you can construct one tank each day for every manned garage. If you do not have enough supplies or CEPs to cover the costs, you will not be able to construct them.

Finally, if you have a minting license, you will not be able to construct your own tanks. You can buy them off the Trade Market or receive them through alliance aid, but you will have to sell your minting license if you want to make your own.

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