Nerf Parked Cars

[Zombra]

Parked Car damage (in Bank/Safeguard missions) is idiotically high.  I hate it.

 

1) (Most importantly) Jailbreaks are ruined by the existence of parked cars.  Jailbreaks are supposed to be a fun opportunity to break an ally out of jail and have them help you with the bank mission.  Instead your partner in crime runs up to a giant bomb and punches it until it explodes and nearly kills them, then runs up to another giant bomb and punches it until it explodes and does kill them.  This is very obviously not intended behavior.

 

2) Vandals are also ruined by the existence of parked cars.  Although not as big a loss, it still sucks to have mobs committing suicide in such an obviously unintended way.

 

3) It looks very stupid for Parked Cars to be FAR more dangerous than getting shot in the face with an assault rifle, burned with a flamethrower, or being attacked a million other ways that are SUPPOSED to hurt people.  As things stand, citizens should not be afraid of supervillains, monsters, etc.; they should be MUCH more afraid of Parked Cars.  Superheroes should be on the streets driving tow trucks instead of fighting crime.  Supervillains shouldn't be building death rays and recruiting armies, or even planting actual bombs; they should go around Parking Cars.

 

4) Real cars just don't blow up like that.  OK, the importance of realism is debatable in a "comic book action" environment, but it bears mentioning.

 

5) Changes to mob AI (STAY AWAY FROM PARKED CARS!! AAAAAHHHH!!) might be preferable to a simple damage nerf, but would probably be a lot more work.  With luck Parked Cars might be fixed by simply tweaking a single variable.

 

Thanks for reading.

Edited December 11 by Zombra

[Ghost]

Sadly, criminals just never learn.

 

Now give up that life of crime and come join us in doing things the smart way

 

 

[srmalloy]

I occasionally see the same thing in Kings Row where a group of Skulls will be beating on a car until it explodes, wiping out the entire group. Morons.

[Jiro Ito]

More than a million people die in car wrecks every year.  While I don't have the figures, I will suggest worldwide deaths by superpowered villains, monsters, death rays, and nazi armies is a much lower number.  I think the danger is accurately represented.    

[Arbegla]

Isn't this only an issue in the lower level (Atlas Park, Kings Row, maybe Steel?) mayhem/safeguards? I know the PPD vans scale up to level 15, but after that they con grey to you, and don't hit much when they do explode.

[Rudra]

2 hours ago, srmalloy said:

I occasionally see the same thing in Kings Row where a group of Skulls will be beating on a car until it explodes, wiping out the entire group. Morons.

I love that. If I'm not in a rush and the car is damaged enough, I'll stop and watch the show. (And then be disappointed when somehow they live, because sometimes they do.)

 

@Zombra, if you have a character that can grant defense buffs, you can use that to keep the freed villain alive. The higher you get their defense, the more likely the explosion will miss them. Or if you have Teleport Other and are willing to pay enough attention to them, you can yank them away from the car/truck/van and finish it off with a ranged attack to keep them alive. (Otherwise, just free the villain later or let the villain drop.) And as @Arbegla said, that should stop being a consideration as you get higher level.

[Zombra]

10 hours ago, Arbegla said:

Isn't this only an issue in the lower level (Atlas Park, Kings Row, maybe Steel?) mayhem/safeguards?

 

I'm confused.  Are you saying problems shouldn't be fixed if they're "only" at low levels, because f**k those dumb low levels?

---------

 

@Rudra I appreciate your helpful spirit - I am aware that there are workarounds, and that some character builds can alleviate this broken situation.  This does not change my mind about whether an obviously broken, annoying, and unintended situation should be fixed.