In Vehicle Invulnerability: Difference between revisions

# '''Attack-proof:''' Where the vehicle absorbs all damage done by weapons, environmental hazards and so on, and no damage is done to the driver as long as it remains intact.

 

 

It arrived with the very first racing games, making it [[Older Than the NES]].

* ''[[Big Rigs Over the Road Racing]]'' has a different example. Although there's nothing to collide with the player's vehicle, the driver is still perfectly fine when a car is spinning around backward several times the speed of light.

* ''[[Rigs of Rods]]'' takes this to the extreme, a hatchback can be flattened by a tractor, crash headlong into a wall, or be dropped from a crane and the driver can still get out without harm, even if the cab were the driver sits is decimated

** There exists a mod for the game that among other things has a new car garage on the ''top floor of the city's tallest skyscraper'', at a height where even a helicopter struggles. You can take the elevator on foot, summon a car up there, but the only way out with your car is through the window. Assuming your car is properly armored, it will have only cosmetic damage and you will have nothing.

* ''[[Gran Trak 10]]'' is one of the oldest examples in here, dating back into 1974.

* ''[[Night Driver]]'', released in 1976, brought that kind of invulnerability into first-person perspective.

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' in its earlier incarnations, unless you were on a motorcycle. In ''[[Grand Theft Auto IV]]'', this gets [[Averted Trope|averted]] with cars as well; you can get thrown from the car if you crash hard enough, and enemies can shoot you through the windows.

** If you delay driving away for a second or two after entering a car, Nico does an in-car animation of putting on a seatbelt. If you let him do this, [[Truth in Television|he won't be thrown from]] [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|the vehicle in a crash]]; if you take off too fast, he skips this part, and he's free to ragdoll over the hood in a head-on. Likewise, if you delay after mounting a bike, he'll pull a helmet from Hammerspace, which lessens the damage taken when he's thrown from a bike.

* Likewise, cars in ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause 2]]'' seem to be made of Swiss cheese for all the protection it does you (read, almost none). That is, until you get to an APC-grade vehicles. Then again, why bother driving a vehicle when your primary means of getaway involves [[Crazy Awesome|infinitely respawning parachutes and a grappling hook?]]

* ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' on the NES is an unusual example: if bullets or other cars touch Tracy's car while he's inside, he takes damage. When he's out of the car, it still intercepts bullets but neither it nor Tracy suffers lasting damage. Essentially the car is an extension of Tracy's body when he's inside of it.

* The same applies to the ''[[Halo]]'' series, although the second game onwards lets people clearly damage and outright destroy vehicles. However, vehicles NEVER explode and become unusable unless the occupants die first.

* Most, but not all vehicles in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' make anyone riding in them invulnerable, although they still take damage from debuffs active on them while they entered. This is particularly odd with the Demolisher, as both the driver and his two passengers are completely exposed (and the passengers can even use their normal attacks and spells). The few vehicles that avert this trope are not used in [[PvP]] and monsters will generally only attack the vehicle, which does the damage.

** Mounts, on the other hand, offer no protection whatsoever. Even though they will shriek in pain when attacked, they have no health by themselves and all damage goes to the rider. Some classes are even more vulnerable while mounted, for various reasons. Druids can't make advantage of the armor boni most of their forms grant, and some protective hunter and warlock talents are only in effect with their pet active, which disappears when they mount (and returns when they dismount). A few mounts initially were effectively vehicles, offering some of these benefits, but had rather low health and some drawbacks of their own.

* Almost all RTS games follow this rule, for both vehicle crews and units in a transport. ''[[Company of Heroes]]'' is a semi-exception, as the various crew members are treated like vehicle subsystems, and if they die the vehicle ability they were responsible for stops working.

* In ''[[Battlefield (series)|Battlefield]]'' series, this holds true if your model is not visible from the outside, as with tanks or ships. However, if your character can be seen, either through the hatch on a tank or in an exposed driving position, you are vulnerable to being headshot by snipers (or anyone else, if they get close enough). Helicopter pilots in ''Battlefield 2'' are immune to ordinary small arms, thanks to their armored canopies, but the unlockable .50 anti-materiel sniper rifle can punch right through.

* In the ''[[Mercenaries]]'' games, you take no damage while in a vehicle, so if you're badly wounded it's usually a good idea to hop into the nearest car and let it soak damage while your character slowly heals. Of course, when the car hits about 20% health, it catches fire and starts "bleeding" health until it [[Stuff Blowing Up|blows up]] when it hits 0%, so don't sit in there ''too'' long...

* Played straight in ''[[All Points Bulletin]]''. The only exception happens when you lean out to fire as a passenger - then, you're fair game. Especially to [[Firendly Fire]] from other passengers.

* ''[[Track Mania]] Nations'' is a bad, bad offender. This is the game where cars can go Mach 5, crash into the pavement, ''remain airborne for half a minute after the crash'', land on four wheels, and move on as if nothing has happened.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]

[[Category:Older Than the NES]]