TerraTech Designer, Kris Skellorn offers tips on how to get the most out of the vehicles you build in our free demo.
We’ve taken TerraTech to lots of trade shows & exhibitions this year, so we’ve watched hundreds of people experiencing game for the first time. It’s great to see the fun people are having, but it also gives us opportunities to spot things that can trip some new players up.
The current version of TerraTech is an early Demo, so there are lots of bits to clean up, make smoother and explain to the player. Here are a few of the common snags I’ve spotted, and some tips on how to build better vehicles that don’t suffer from these flaws.
Turning Circles
A fairly regular early problem is that players tend to add lots of blocks to the front and back of vehicles, with wheels down the sides. This creates a long, thin vehicle with a narrow wheel base and a slow turning speed.
This often makes it harder to fight with smaller, more nimble enemies. Here are a few ways to stay mobile.
- Have fewer wheels and place them in central positions.
- Widen your wheel base by removing wheels, building out sideways with blocks, then re-attaching wheels.
There are some more tips and tricks for agile vehicles in this video:
Blocked Guns
Another little hiccup that we’ve seen, is that some people wonder why some of their guns will not fire. This is almost always due to the gun’s line of fire being blocked by another part of the vehicle.
In TerraTech, your weapons will not fire if doing so would hit and cause damage to your own vehicle. This is because it’s tricky to build a huge mammoth tank with loads of weapons aiming in all directions and still make sure that those guns will not hit and destroy your own vehicle.
To get around this, just ensure that all of your weapons have a clear view to fire, especially fixed lasers which will not rotate.
Check out the video below to see this in action.
Flying Machines
The third area that some players find difficult, is getting a flying machine to take off successfully.
Building flying machines is a delicate operation and lots of different factors must be considered to build something effective. Some things to bear in mind are:
- Attach wings and boosters the right way around. When placing parts, before you release your left mouse button, use the mouse wheel or right click to rotate the piece you are about to place.
- Build light vehicles. Every block and fuel tank you add to your plane increases its weight. It’s much easier to get something off the ground if it is light.
- Build symmetrically. Once in the air, a vehicle will fly poorly if it has more weight on one side than the other. Try to keep it balanced for a better plane.
- Boosters need fuel. If you attach lots of booster rockets, you’ll also need to attach lots of fuel tanks to supply them.
- Fans are a smart choice. The large fan piece is useful for flying vehicles as it provides propulsion in the air and does not need fuel. Use these for beginner planes.
- Don’t forget landing gear. To aim for the best takeoff you’ll want some wheels to let you point yourself in the right direction and reduce friction during take off. Hover plates or horizontal fans are also good for advanced builders.
- Balance the wings. If your plane is not getting enough lift or gaining too much, putting it into a loop, try moving the wings to a more central position on the fuselage, ideally with the main methods of propulsion below and behind them.
- Build things that look like real world planes. It may seem obvious, but real planes are those shapes for very good reasons. TerraTech attempts to approximate real-world physics, so more often than not, if you make it with similar layout to a real plane it will work.
- Don’t forget tail rudders for turning. Once in the air, it is really tricky to turn without a vertically placed tail rudder wing or two. They really work wonders.
- Hold Shift during takeoff. When trying to gain speed for takeoff, hold shift down to fire your boosters and spin all of your fans. If your boosters run out, be sure to let off and let your fuel tanks fill again for a short time before trying again.
- If in doubt add more wings and fans! If you’re still struggling to get your plane flying, keep adding wings and fans! You’ll probably get there in the end… probably.
Here is a video showing these aviation tips in action.
The TerraTech Kickstarter is in its final days. If you’re enjoying it please be sure to back us and help to spread the word for the final push! Please support us on IndieDB as well by downloading our Demo!
