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Originally Posted by swordtart
I'd say the mini-mechanic is more like a leatherman than a swiss army knife (probably with a universal socket). As it is 1 GE it can be a bit chunkier and probably comes wrapped with some epoxy, crimp connectors and maybe some low temperature solder (the type you melt with a match) within the 1 GE bundle.
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"Low-temp solder" is a new on on me -- shall have to add it to the list.
Quote:
Originally Posted by swordtart
I would also suggest that as even someone with no mechanic skill can salvage tyres and ammo with little difficulty and no tools, there is probably a 2 ton jack of some sort and a tyre iron stowed within the basic chassis of all vehicles. That tool can also be used to open up the ammo ports.
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[nod] Some sort of wrench will be necessary to remove nuts, esp. ones covered in road grime and rust (BTDT). This is also where that can of Penetrating Fluid comes into play (pardon the pun).
Quote:
Originally Posted by swordtart
Of course unless you flesh out the mechanic and repair system this is all fluff. There is no basis in reality as you have no baseline to work from. For example, in real life we have a plethora of bolt sizes (metric, and a whole aft of different imperial ones). In CW they may have been reduced down to a few standard ones (like these days all wheel nuts are of a standard size). Or there may be even greater variety as the the vehicle manufacturers try to build in dependency with propriety fixings. Panels may be fixed with bolts, single use rivets, or the rubber latches custom cars often use. Indeed the cheaper the car, the more single use fixtures may be used (to drive the service price up).
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That is part of the idea of this thread -- think of it as "Chekhov's Gun" for Repairs: In order for the Player to be able to use an Item in the game, the Writer has to show the item being able to perform the task in the instructions. From there, one can more-firmly define other aspects of the game, and avoid some of the problems depicted in Finer Gaming Comics. :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by swordtart
In my experience you can tell a lot about a man from his toolbox and we all have our own "must-haves" generally driven by the last time we spent an entire weekend unable to make progress because we didn't have the vehicle specific left-handed flange bolt extractor that our vehicles manufacturer decided to make essential to discourage "unauthorised" maintenance activity. For years my tool kit carried a specially bent screwdriver that I only needed for my old VW.
These days, Torx is fairly common, but back in the day to service an Apple Mac classic you needed an 18" long T15 driver to undo the screws under the carrying handle. RS didn't carry one and the only way to get one at the time was to take a maintenance course run by Apple. I ended up having a 6" driver cut in half and an extension bar welded in. Even then many of the electronic components inside the Mac were non-preferred values. I spent many hours jury-rigging near fit components to get them back on line.
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I can so attest -- and the people I knew growing up had "tools to make tools", as they tended to drive cars which Weren't Common Over Here (Triumphs; Morgans; Austin-Healeys; Lotuses; Citroens; Peugeots; you get the idea :) ), and so ordering tools from overseas was Expensive and Difficult; easier to find one example (or even a drawing), and make one's own. These guys put humans on the Moon.... >;)