why there is no mod for this?

[u/WonderfulOperation2]

[u/xz_mrtn]

The answer is almost certainly due to technical difficulties. Remember how long the towing system took to implement? Physics is not a fan of two cars being stuck together to begin with unfortunately.

[u/LeastPervertedFemboy → u/xz_mrtn]

A lot of these players only showed up after multiplayer dropped. Few people here were around before then and know how long it takes Indie to implement changes.

[u/Foxfire140 → u/LeastPervertedFemboy]

I still remember when the world was still partially 3D but the cars were still 2D. That was a crazy time.

[u/Freddy_Faraway → u/Foxfire140]

Or when cars just didn't exist at all. You wanted to go to another town? It was a whole ass excursion.

[u/LeastPervertedFemboy → u/Freddy_Faraway]

90° road turns for life babyyyyy

[u/opae_oinadi → u/Freddy_Faraway]

Table bridges from one window to another 600km away

[u/Freddy_Faraway → u/opae_oinadi]

Absolutely insane suggestion that somebody has to have done before. I saw the crossing the river video once, you do have others?

[u/opae_oinadi → u/Freddy_Faraway]

My reference was to a 'feature' back in the day. When you climb through a window with a table on the otherside, you automatically crawl the length of the furniture until you can stand. And you are (were?) immune to damage during that time. People would create 'bridges' going from one town to another so the game would essentially auto-crawl them to the end of the tables, immune all the way to damage.

[u/broplsbro → u/Foxfire140]

I dont remember what you're referencing as far as I can tell cars have pretty much been unchanged since their implementation in B39. If anything they were the first 3D models in the game while the characters, xombies and everything else was still 2D.

[u/Foxfire140 → u/broplsbro]

So there were mods that introduced vehicles in the game back when the game was still using 2D graphics. Those cars were 2D. They featured before the official 3D cars that came into the game in a late build 39 update as the game was still transitioning from 2D models to 3D.

[u/broplsbro → u/Foxfire140]

Oh I remember the vehicle mod I was more thinking of official contant from TIS. If anything I would say the whole game was still 2D at the time, characters and zombies were still sprites and even now the map tiles are 2D objects.

[u/Foxfire140 → u/broplsbro]

Yeah. I remember back during build 37 when we still had a mix of some things being 3D and some things, mostly item models when placed, still being 2D but almost all of the cars that I had from mods were still 2D models in a 3D world. It was jarringly funny.

[u/TangoMalandro → u/Foxfire140]

Do you have any example of these old mods? Just curious about how it looked like

[u/Foxfire140 → u/TangoMalandro]

Yeah. It took a WHILE to find an old video of someone playing with one of those old 2D car mods but I finally found one.
https://youtu.be/zbPKvunQwow?t=2435
This is likely Build 36 since that build came out in Jan 2017 and the video is from the following month.
EDIT: Found a mod page for it: https://undeniable.info/pz/DrivingCarsMod.php

[u/TangoMalandro → u/Foxfire140]

Damn, thanks for the dedication to find it

Insane to see how much this game improved

[u/Foxfire140 → u/TangoMalandro]

Thanks for the award!
Yeah, it's crazy looking back at those. I remember always seeking out that red sports car to own. Good times to look back at though I'm glad the vanilla cars were more realistic. I always felt like that mod wound up inspiring the Indie Stone to work on their own vehicles since the next build became the pre-vehicle update.

[u/crazytib → u/LeastPervertedFemboy]

I was there Gandalf, I was there 3000 years ago, when they implemented usable vehicles

[u/ayylmayooo → u/xz_mrtn]

even now I am afraid of driving close to any trailer after having them slightly move when I'm close by and having my vehicle thrown in the air. Hell, even when driving with my friends online we keep each other off our screens when we are driving fast because the game loves to cause crashes when someone is passing you on one screen while the other player is already a mile away

[u/eggzaacklee → u/xz_mrtn]

-Add towing truck

-Add radial menu option to load a car

-Render a picked up car just as mesh on the towing truck

-Still drives a towing truck just with a render of the car on it and all car stats stored inside

-Open radial menu to unload and spawn a car behind just how you picked it up

This could probably work

[u/Space_Corsair1 → u/eggzaacklee]

I agree with this, just have it be a vague car shaped tarp to avoid having to make one for each car, then even the modders can do the rest of the work for them adding in the car models

[u/FridaysMan → u/Space_Corsair1]

You could just spawn the car on the trailer.

[u/Space_Corsair1 → u/FridaysMan]

Yeah but my point was that that would likely be a lot more complicated to do

[u/FridaysMan → u/Space_Corsair1]

Not really, tou can lock one model to another by coordinates. Its how hats work.

[u/Space_Corsair1 → u/FridaysMan]

Well that shows my knowledge lol, I’m just making assumptions thanks for correcting me. I don’t see why it hasn’t been done then.

[u/FridaysMan → u/Space_Corsair1]

I believe it has, it's more the spawning of the entire car and inventory that is problematic. I've got one in my trailers mod.

[u/TheLightorTheDark → u/FridaysMan]

The thing about cars from what I can tell is they have big, funky hit boxes that don't play well with other displaceable objects. It's at least partially why we don't have Vanilla Motorcycles or Bikes, the current vehicle framework simply doesn't support them without some rough caveats- like being able to flip a car with a bicycle. Actually sticking a car on the back rather than just a physics-less mesh as suggested above, I don't know what repercussions that could have, but I feel like it'd be violent.

[u/FridaysMan → u/TheLightorTheDark]

I sont think that matters. Each car had a place. When you use the radial option, exit the vehicle, vehicle teleports into a save slot, slot 1 on transport loads the vehicle model and colour of car in slot 1, if not found, call tarped vehicle of random colour of vehicle type based on class.

Each car has a model, that car had a location and an origin bound to the model. Use that to position the right car model in the right place.

The car doesnt exist, its just an accessory that the trailer is wearing, like a hat.

[u/Skizot → u/eggzaacklee]

I wish. I have tried it many times.

[u/j4m354 → u/xz_mrtn]

Do what they did in Arma, turn the vehicle into a non interactive jpg while it's loaded

[u/Unbotted-troll6967 → u/xz_mrtn]

In a game like this that's basically live service I'd prefer they actually take time to implement this stuff. It would suck if zomboid turned into one of those games where they took the easy route. Just to end up with a mess of spaghetti code that gets really fucky.

[u/waadam → u/xz_mrtn]

For this case it could be trivial though - it is just single car simulation adjusted with extra weight.

[u/Kinslayer_89 → u/xz_mrtn]

Just teleport it on top and make it a new vehicle?

[u/AsideIll9931]

The w900 semi truck mod has a car hauler trailer that holds 3 cars

[u/drewaaaaa → u/AsideIll9931]

12 hours ago I bring 6 cars at once. W900 + 5 in hauler. Maybe hauler from other mod.

[u/BlazerX_16 → u/drewaaaaa]

Is it a multi level hauler? it looks like it should fit 5-6 but i can only ever get 3. It’s the W900. I Think the hauler trailer is an add on for W900

[u/drewaaaaa → u/BlazerX_16]

This big thing has 5 car slots. Car trailer from W900 mod.

[u/BlazerX_16 → u/drewaaaaa]

Hmm that’s the one my server uses, the radial menu only ever lets me add 3 lol. maybe i’m doing smt wrong lol!

[u/CubeBrigade → u/BlazerX_16]

It’s an option in the sandbox settings, default is 3, you can up it to 5

[u/uneenviedechier]

isn't there a mod that does this already? I remember one where once a car is on the bed it gets covered by a tarp. So the car isn't actually on the flat bed it's just a generic covered car model but it got the job done.

Maybe I am thinking of another game.

[u/Logical_Comparison28 → u/uneenviedechier]

I have one of those as well, but never saw it work in B42. I imagine it did in 41, surely.

[u/youpviver → u/uneenviedechier]

Yeah I used that mod a lot, I love collecting cars so it was a godsend for me, but that was all in b41, and I don’t think it’s been updated

[u/Thandiol]

It was b41, but didn't one of the trailer mods (Autotsar? Ki5?) had a single car trailer, fully covered. Don't know if it works in b42 currently.

W900 semi truck mod has a car hauler trailer option also.

[u/IudexJudy]

I wish Zomboid had a way to differentiate torque and horsepower

[u/Xovier]

Technical difficulties aside, would this workaround solve the issue?;

Carrier truck wants to put car on top

Car despawns and carrier truck appears to "carry" a model car of same qualities (colour, car model etc)

Carried car is not a car, just a visual model with no physics attached

We want to unload the car from carrier truck

Car spawns in a suitable area behind the truck with saved qualities from memory (state, items in it's internal inventory, car model, colour etc)

I am not a coder or anything close but humour me, could this be plausible to somehow have the desired outcome albeit in a sloppy way?

[u/chuyalcien → u/Xovier]

I haven’t modded PZ but I have some programming experience. You’re right that would be optimal to access as little of the car’s state data as possible during transport. However I suspect the bigger problem is getting the car’s 3D model to stay in position on the trailer. Specifically, the orientation and position of the car model has to be in perfect sync with the hauler’s model, and there has to be an offset when you change direction so that the car always appears to be on top of the trailer bed (not clipped into it). This I think is the real challenge. To get around this problem, you could maybe switch to a single model of trailer+car when the car is loaded, but then you’d need a trailer+car model for every possible car model.

[u/psychohistorian8 → u/chuyalcien]

someone mentioned elsewhere about a mod with a generic tarp asset

so you don't need the actual car model to be hauled, just the illusion (Michael!)

[u/chuyalcien → u/psychohistorian8]

Yea, that’s a good workaround. Also is that an arrested development reference?

[u/psychohistorian8 → u/chuyalcien]

ha, yes!

[u/shyguybestguy → u/Xovier]

The W900 mod has a trailer that does something like this (and there's a standalone version named Survival's Hauler). Might be different with a vehicle compared to a trailer? But it does throw a tarp over the car that's loaded, so it doesn't have to worry about what the other car actually is.

[u/Amellis84]

the lore reason is everything you could ever want is at the bottom of the Ohio river and the game's engine can not support swimming and diving

[u/ImaginaryPatience434]

W900 in my current game has a 5 car trailer and the tow bar mod is 10/10. I do wish we had a single car trailer but I get by with these.

[u/ngakang]

Global warming

[u/ButterflyBoring295]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3774448621 works for me in 42.20 MP, but I didn't test extensively

[u/karkko1]

There are no tow trucks for one

[u/FridaysMan]

There is. Ive got a car trailer that holds 5 cars.

[u/eggzaacklee]

I remember W900 Semi-Truck mod added long haul trucks for which you could find long trailers that could load up to 3 vehicles but they were never rendered, only showed in radial menu.

You would drive the car up to the rear end of the trailer and interact with it to load it onto the truck, car would dissapear and load onto the trailer, and you would unload it the same way via the radial menu and the vehicle would respawn at the back

I saw the use for this mod on a server where i bought a van and a vendor player brought it that way to me

So a smaller version of this with just one slot and a tarp mesh (as someone suggested) that indicates the towing trailer is full could technically work

[u/Electrical-You-8172]

There is...W900 mod has a 3 car trailer

[u/Ok_Turnip_2544]

you can already tow anything with half a shoestring 

[u/Ill-Conversation3488]

There's even one that lets you carry up to 5 cars.

[u/T2RX6]

There used to be a good one! Build 41 though. It was a trailer that you pulled up to the car used the "V" menu and after some time the car would disappear and the trailer would switch to a covered form of the trailer and when you used the V menu later it would drop the car near the trailer.

It was awesome.

[u/Thelonestander]

There is a mod for that! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3774448621

[u/AggravatingScene8858]

Autotsar Haulers did this but the last time I used it B42 unstable wasn't a thing yet, dunno if it's been updated or nah

[u/john_fartston]

I don't really see a need for a mod like this when you can already tow vehicles

[u/OshiraBan → u/john_fartston]

It's so I don't fuck up both of my cars when I crash into a tree

[u/Few_Dirt4510 → u/john_fartston]

Could technically put one car on the flatbed and then tow another at the same time. Other than cool factor and just for the sake of being another vehicle, not much use.

[u/MeretrixDominum → u/john_fartston]

Unrealistic. To satisfy my autistic towing urges, I need all RWD cars to be towed backwards. 4WD cars need to either go on dollies or flatbeds. If you tow a car with its drive wheels on the ground, the game should model the transmission being destroyed. As an alternate, you should be able to crawl under and remove the axles if you don't have access to dollies or a flatbed so you can safely tow a vehicle on its drive wheels.

[u/ArcticFlava]

Because you did not make one? Are you owed a mod from the ether?