Cars on a Project Zomboid Server: How Many, Gas and Keys

How many cars there are and what state they're in

With the game's names and, in brackets, the key in the SandboxVars file:

“Vehicles” (EnableVehicles): whether cars spawn. It's on by default; turned off, none appear.

“Vehicle Spawn Rate” (CarSpawnRate): from “None” to “High”. By default, “Low” (3): in a town you'll find cars, but not one per house. With “Normal” (4) or “High” (5) there are enough for the whole group.

“General Condition” (CarGeneralCondition): how broken down they are, from “Very Low” to “Very High”. By default, “Normal”.

“Recent Survivor Vehicles” (RecentlySurvivorVehicles): cars someone looked after following the infection, in better condition and sometimes with stuff inside. By default, “Low”.

“Car Wreck Congestion” (TrafficJam): jams of wrecked cars on the main roads. They're on by default; removing them makes travel easier, but also removes loot.

“Randomized Road Stories Chance” (VehicleStoryChance): scenes such as police roadblocks or crashes. By default, “Rare” (3).

Gas: the tank and the gas stations

“Initial Gas” (InitialGas): how full the tank is on the cars you find, from “Very Low” to “Full”. By default, “Low” (2).

“Chance Has Gas” (ChanceHasGas): the chance that a car has some gas in it: “Low”, “Normal” (the default) or “High”.

“Gas Consumption” (CarGasConsumption): how much they burn. It's a multiplier: 1.0 is normal and 0.5, half.

Gas stations: “Infinite Gas Pumps” (FuelStationGasInfinite) makes them never run dry. Otherwise, each pump starts with a random amount between “Initial Minimum Gas Pump Amount” and “Initial Maximum Gas Pump Amount” (by default, between 0 and 0.8 of its capacity), and 20% start empty (“Initial Gas Pump Empty Chance”, FuelStationGasEmptyChance).

Watch out for “Electricity Shutoff” (ElecShut): pumps need power. Once the power goes, getting gas from a station needs a generator nearby. If the group lives off its cars, pushing the shutoff back gives you some leeway (what power and water do).

Keys, locked cars and hotwiring

“Locked Vehicle Frequency” (LockedCar): how often a car is locked, from “Never” to “Very Often”. By default, “Sometimes”.

“Keys” (KeyLootNew): how many car and house keys, key rings and locks there are in the loot. It's a multiplier from 0 to 4; by default, 0.4.

“Easy Use” (VehicleEasyUse): with it on, cars aren't locked and don't need a key to start. It's off by default. It's the setting for a group that wants to drive without hassle; it removes part of the game, so better decide it together.

Without a key, you can hotwire from the driver's seat: you need Electrical 1 and Mechanics 2 (or the Burglar trait), no tools, and it doesn't always work first time. Even if it does, the car won't start if the battery, the engine or the gas fail.

Alarms, crashes and running people over

“Vehicle Alarms Frequency” (CarAlarm): how many cars have the alarm set. By default, “Rare”. An alarm draws in every zombie around: for a group that's just starting, it's one of the scares that causes the most deaths.

“Car Damage on Impact” (CarDamageOnImpact): how much a car gets damaged when it crashes. By default, “Normal”.

“Player Damage From Vehicle Impact” (DamageToPlayerFromHitByACar): what a car does to a player it runs over. By default, “None”: on a server among friends, a teammate in a hurry won't kill you. If you play with PvP or want more realism, raise it.

The file also has CrawlUnderVehicle: how often zombies crawl under parked cars (by default, 5, “Often”). Look carefully before crouching next to a car.

Three worlds that work

These are our advice, not the game's. The classic one: everything at default. Finding a car that works is a goal in the game, and gas is a resource to look after.

For friends who don't play much: “Vehicle Spawn Rate” on “Normal”, “Initial Gas” on “Normal” or “High” and “Locked Vehicle Frequency” on “Rare”. You still have to look for them, but without losing a whole afternoon.

For travelling the map (for example, with big Workshop maps): “Easy Use” on, “Infinite Gas Pumps” on and “Car Wreck Congestion” off. Cars stop being a problem and the game becomes about exploring.

Changing it once the game has started

You can, but spawn settings only count for what gets generated from then on: streets you've already visited keep their cars (or lack of them). Raising “Vehicle Spawn Rate” halfway through will show when you go to new areas. If you want the whole map to change, you need a new world.

Driving fast forces the server to load map non-stop. If it's tight, better go together in one car than four in different directions (lag in Zomboid).

To give someone a car or replace a lost one, an admin can use /addvehicle with the vehicle's name and the player's, for example /addvehicle "Base.VanAmbulance" "Bob" (the admin commands).

On NapNodes

The panel's “Settings” has all these settings with the same names as in the game. Type “vehicle”, “gas” or “alarm” in the search box. They save automatically and apply when you press “Restart”.

If you'd rather prepare them without touching the server, the Project Zomboid settings editor changes them in your browser and gives you the SandboxVars file ready to upload.

Frequently asked questions