U-Drive It: Helpful Tips and Facts on Driving

[ALTX 41]

 

This article will list some Tips and Facts about U-Drive It that will help solve some of those "impossible" Missions. If you find any of this information "incorrect" please send me a Private Message and I will correct the problem ASAP.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Remember you DO NOT have to do any of these U-Drive it missions. All of the Rewards unlocked by UDI can also be unlocked by regular means. UDI just makes getting rewards easier and also help get rewards for cities which don't meet the games requirements, but do meet UDI requirements. For example you can't get a Advanced Research Center by regular means in a all High-Tech Industral City since 2 of the missing requirements is mayor rating and the University, UDI simplifles that by only requiring the Army Base and Industrial Development, (Shown Below in the Chart.) Both the Army Base can be in any city which makes this easier. So UDI is a fun new way of scenarios in SimCity for Rewards and for Fun!

LAND VEHICLES

Ok here are some tips concerning the land vehicles in U-Drive it, for U-Drive it there are 3 different types of land Vehicles, Cars and Vans, Trains, and Tanks. There are a total of 57 Different Land Vehicle Missions and 23 different Land Vehicles. 

In City Driving Here are a few tips: Usually stick to roads is unnecessary due to the fact you may have to reach a target quickly and you probably can't stick to the law anyway. For Missions you should drive recklessly! 

That means driving on the wrong side of the street, running red lights, driving on land and sidewalks, and even driving on medians, and even destroying lesser vehicles!  

And one of the best part of it is that as long you are playing a GOOD mission then the cops do not care whether you drive like a psychopath (like me) or not. But if you are playing a evil mission most chances your mission will end since you are around too much good police supervision. Actually that will mean the better your police force, the harder it is to do evil missions.

You will get caught when a police car manage to stay within a certain range to your vehicle, or when a helicopter has the spotlight on your vehicle for a short period of time. Police always stay on the pavements, they will never leave the pavements to get to you. If there are police cars blocking you, ram them. If they get really close behind you and you can't lose them, try backing into them. When chased by a Police Helicpter, swing side to side so they can't keep the beam on you long enough. Lastly, avoid taking the highways. Your vehicle can't turn on the highway,your vehicle can't go reverse, and sometimes your vehicle can't even change lanes. Very easy to get caught by the police when you are on a highway.

It's even harder when you have a Deluxe Police Station since the police helicopter provides more coverage due to the fact.. that it can go anywhere.

As you can see there are about 7 police Helicopters Chasing me while I am doing the "Steal Secret Rocket Formula" mission Also here are some ways you can possibly avoid traffic on roads. If you are in the red and need a pathway with no cars so that you don't accidentally crash you would have to drive on the sidewalks or the median of a highway 

Be very careful though if you plan to use the siren or going on highway over/underpasses, unfortunately the siren causes vehicles to go park in the sidewalk or the median right? This is bad since cars may actually just park in front of you and you could just automatically slam into a car without knowing it. A similar problem is when cars can materialize out of nowhere and you might accidentally slam into them. But there's a way to make the sirens for the cop, fire engine, and ambulance much more useful. if you rapidly turn the siren on and off while you're driving (keep hitting enter key rapidly), all other vehicles that you come close to will disappear rather than pull over to the side, so that now you'll be able to drive without worrying about hitting other vehicles. this doesn't work on raised sections of road though (such as bridges and el-highways) so you'll still have to dodge other vehicles when you're on them. Also in Highway over/underpasses there is a automatic stick to roads option (SHIFT key) so if you were to dive into a media on a under/overpass you vehicle wail automatically be forced into one side of the road and depending on your traffic it may result in disaster. As you can see in the pic below here is the problem shown for both police sirens and the over/underpass road sticking.

Yep it is a real terror. But another IMPORTANT FACT about this is that DO NOT DRIVE INTO THE MEDIANS OF AVENUES/HIGHWAY INTERSECTIONS OR TOLL BOOTHS! Doing so may result as the immediate ending of your mission because your u-drive it vehicle will fade off if it runs into a Highway or something that has a built in stick to roads option and instead of forcing your vehicle off the wrong side of the road the vehicle simply just fades away.

Another thing to remember about city driving is that TRY TO AVOID HITTING ANY FREIGHT TRUCKS IN INDUSTRIAL AREAS! They are stronger than any basic land vehicle like a cop car or a taxi. If you run into ANY part of the truck your car will explode or it will suffer a lot of hit points taken off. 

What's even worse is that if you drive near any part of your city is being constructed, most likely a cement truck will pop up out of nowhere and crush you right in the middle of the street. This happened to me a few times when I was speeding in a police cruiser.

Hitting the ESC key during any mission before you crash your vehicle will terminatey our current mission without any penalty. If you think your current mission is impossible to complete, or simply too difficult, just hit ESC. Industrial areas and the roads around military bases are the most dangerous areas to drive through, since Army Trucks and Tanks will often materialize right in front of your vehicle without any warning.

Here is a example of what the damage can do, yep its as painful as it sounds

.

And that is only hitting the car in front of the freight. If you were to drive into the freight you're dead meat.

Also another fact is that about some missions that require you to drive to a certain amount of targets will NOT be granted if your targets are too close together. A example of this would be you would not get a ice cream truck delivery mission if your 3 elementary schools are too close together, that would just make the mission too easy. Also for some of the missions where you would have to use the special key like throwing money or spraying the fire hose it is more likely you will succeed if you hold down on the spacebar since I believe the special key must be held down for the effect to really work. That's what I have on u-drive it land vehicles so far...but now its time for the TRAINS.

TRAINS

If you had any problems solving any of the train missions it is most likely due to your train system, Here are some minor transit system adjustments and fixes. To make sure you can go to a certain rail station in either direction create a "loop-around" so that your trains can go in any direction. This can be done for freight rail and monorail but it would hardly be a use for elevated rail since there are no missions associated with elevated rail or subway.Here are 2 examples of loop around's, the first two would be a temporary solution to most uncompleted cities, so that it can be instantly destroyed after completing the mission. The second two pictures would be a different solution to most permanent cities. I created 1 picture for freight rail and monorail each.

Also it is best to make the loop-arounds AFTER a rail as passed by a rail station, because if you have to go to a rail station that is right before the connection there is no turning back. A way to maybe solve this is described below.

There so you can turn right there and not go right into the rail connecting when reaching that rail station.

A Train Fact would be that "trains are meant to be fast". This means that trains CAN go into the red in speedometers without derailments.

 Like in the picture above, you can see that the tip of the point is on the verge to max speed but isn't. Driving at this speed is ok but remember to slow down near targeted rail stations since the train will not considered to have stopped at that station if it goes too fast. Also to detect when derailments are coming check to see if your speedometer is shaking. If it is then slow down and the train will slow and stop and you would have just saved yourself.

Monorail stations sometimes create gaps in the track. You might not see them, but they are there. Sometimes the sims are not affected by these gaps, but they  can be disastrous for your mission. Always repaint monorail over the station after plopping down one.

TANKS

Now tanks are pretty easy to give since they are one of the strongest vehicles in the game. They can drive into a bunch of vehicles and cause many crashes and still not get hurt that much. I think only another pack a tanks can destroy 1 tank.

There are tank missions where you have to leave the city before the cops get you. This is pretty easy to accomplish since you can drive off roads fast and you can crush any cops or opposing force on the roads. But just make sure that you do NOT fun into any police helicopters since they will catch you. The other tank missions require you to destroy a certain target or destroy highlighted cells. For a accurate aim lower your tank's power completely and drive a few steps reverse. 

 A result can end up you getting a 4 in 1 shot.

Oh yeah the reason my tank is greenish is because it is behind a tree.

 Air Vehicles In U-drive It there are a total of 19 air missions with a total of 10 air vehicles. There are 4 helicopters and 5 planes, and there is the UFO, which is kinda like a mix. For Helicopters one of the problems include speed and accuracy. To increase the speed of a Helicopter you must first make the nose of the Helicopter point down. This can be done in mid-air by hitting S, C, and W as a combo on your keyboard. The result should look like this. 

 A result from this will prove to be useful since the Helicopter will become faster and the accuracy of special features will be much easier. Also it would help if your altitude was around 30 since it is easier to aim the special techniques to solve missions for both helicopters and airplanes.  There are facts about the vehicle that are most unlikely known. Like there isn't a special affect on a Medical Helicopter but if you do hit the special key (SPACE BAR) you will hear a weird techno tune. For the Skywriter plane though there isn't a gauge that tells you how much air spray you use it still runs out if you use too much. So I would suggest only using it over the targets while playing missions. Also to tell which way the UFO is going just make sure that you know that there is a little blue screen on the front of the UFO to indicate its front.

Sea Vehicles There are a total of 11 missions and a total of 9 different sea vehicles.  Ok about sea vehicles they are pretty hard to navigate through in tiny portions of water since boats can crash even in shallow water. So to complete sea missions well make sure your city has a broad area of water. Also there is a level of how strong a boat can be. 

NOTE: The Metal Whale may seen strong but actually its strength is equal to a tugboat

Boat Levels

Highest

Seaport Ferry and Cruise Ship

Medium

Tugboat, Fishing Boat, Sailboat, Yacht, Car and Passenger Ferries, Metal Whale

Lowest

Cigar Boat, Speed Boat, Motor Boat Depending on level the boats can ram into a lower level and not get hurt at all. For example a Metal Whale can instantly crush a Cigar Boat but will Capsize along with a Tugboat if it cashes into it.

Some Facts would include that in order to rescue a boat with a tugboat, (SOS Mission) You must first get behind the boat and hit the enter key, then drag it to the marina. Boats can crash into any building that is on the water and also crash if it goes onto too shallow water so WATCH OUT! Also for the Fishing Boat missions you have to use the nets to hit the highlighted cells and you have to use the water skier when playing cigar boat missions.

REWARDS

You will find here that there are some tips on achieving goal missions which have reward buildings. Here are some tips to help ease the process.

 HOW TO GET AREA 51 IN A CITY WITH A AIR FORCE BASE WITH U-DRIVE IT

 

1. plop the air force base then do the 3 missions that unlock area 51,

2. on the pop up of the last mission you have to do click the are 51 hyperlink and you should have a cursor containing area 51

3. plop it in the desired location

if you do choose to demolish it, the area 51 will not be in the menu so you must follow steps 2 and 3 again to reclaim area 51

Here is a Mission Chart that lists all known missions in rush hour with rewards. Evil Missions are in Italic and there are levels associated with each mission, easy, medium, and hard. These statistics are the same of those in the Prima's Official Strategy Guide so I believe, depending on your city, they are accurate.

UDI LAND VEHICLE MISSION CHART

If you have a question on the statistics, please post and I will do my best to help you.

 Well this pretty much covers most of it. But I will continuously update this thread with more tips and pictures of how to do these missions. You could also submit something too if it is reasonable, just pm me first.

--=UPDATE=--

 11/2/02 Finished UDI Land Vehicles Chart

11/10/03 Finished Improved UDI Land Vehicles Chart 

11/22/03 Added Bureaucia's and Jqoc's Tips along with an Important notice

--=CREDITS!=--

 To Dirk and His Great Site, Along with the other Admins and Moderators,

 Dr Vu, who I believe created most of what U-Drive It is,

Bureaucia, for adding more ways to outrun the police,

Jqoc, for adding tips on driving with sirens,

And to any of you who would like to submit tips or tricks here

-ALTX

[Carpman 0]

ALTX, I congratulate you on a descive, informative post. Salute!

Now, give us more! More!

[Equinox 1,218]

EXCELLENT GUIDE!  This will be quite helpful.  I especially like your train loop suggestions.  I really like the ring around the industrial area, I might do that in my cities from now on.  I also like your tips for the sea vehicles, that will help a lot in knowing what to avoid, etc.  Good job, and keep adding tips!

 

P.S. That's the first I've seen of the tank!  Looks real cool amd fun.

 

P.P.S. You should submit this, with a few revisions, to the Omnibus.  It's quite helpful.  You could combine this and the U-Drive-It mission chart.  I would love to have both of these.

 

[salamanda 2]

ALTX, this thread is amazingly helpful. I was able to pass my driving test, without any prior knowledge of what a car was, due to this thread. But I'm worried that I may lose it amongst the barrage of threads that find their way onto this site. I think that this thread needs to be converted into an article, so that it can be instantly accessed and downloaded for all to see and love!!!!

[yoseph 0]

This is extremly helpful, but I need help with turning land velhicles.
I KEEP CRASHING!!!!

[putz_2006 2]

Very nice, ALTX. Hopefully now some of the U-drive it bashing will stop.

[ALTX 41]

I have Updated the thread with a UDI Land Vehicles Chart that took me soooo long to make

[Vatt3 8]

Equinox is right, this is a great guide and you should submit it to the omnibus.

[Bureaucia 0]

Most of you already knew these but for those who still don't, here are some other things to note:

Hitting ESC during any mission (before you crash your vehicle) will terminate the mission without any penalty. If you think your current mission is impossible to complete, or simply too difficult, just hit ESC. I find industrial zone and the area surrounding military bases(including air force base) are the most dangerous areas to drive through, because trucks and tanks(the Air Force has tanks?) will often materialize right in front of your vehicle without any warning.

Sometimes you might want to turn off the siren when driving through an industrial zone. Freight trucks will pull to the side, but they will leave their cargoes in the middle of the road, creating road blocks. They also sometimes swerve into you instead of the other side near intersections.

When driving an emergency vehicle on a street, drive on the other side. The oncoming traffic usually swerve to your side instead of the other side.

You can leave the city by driving to the edge of the city, there doesn't need to be an actual exit. Because of this, unless your mission goal is to leave the city, you need to be extra careful near the edge.

You can drive onto ground highway even when there isn't an on-ramp.

Monorail stations sometimes create gaps in the track. You might not see them, but they are there. Sometimes the sims are not affected by these gaps, but they can be disastrous for your mission. Always repaint monorail over the station after plopping down one.

Attached is a monorail intersection. The sims in my city don't seem to have any problem with this, but when I am driving I have to turn either right or left, can't go straight, because some of the switches disappeared when the rail formed a circle like that.

Lastly, remember you DO NOT have to do these silly missions. Designing a city to make the missions easier could cost you a lot of time, money and real estate, or even worse, ruin the traffic in your city.

[Bureaucia 0]

Some more tips for escaping the police:

You get caught when a police car manage to stay within a certain range to you, or when a helicopter has a beam on you, for a short period of time.

Police always stay on the pavements. They will never leave the pavements to get to you.

If there are police cars blocking you, ram them. If they get really close behind you and you can't lose them, try backing into them.

When chased by a chopper, swing side to side so they can't keep the beam on you long enough.

Avoid taking highways. Can't turn on the highway, can't go reverse, sometimes can't even change lanes. Very easy to get caught by the police when you are on a highway.

[hello_SC4 1]

I can say only one thing: Excelent!!!

[comdude21 6]

What an excellent set of observations! I've never seen a study so deep. Great job.

[simmax 0]

Really excellent. No more comments to make.

[ALTX 41]

Btw if anyone has any questions on U Drive It I please strongly suggest you post questions here instead of posting a new thread

I cannot currently edit my first post but updates would refer as new posts instead

thanks for understanding

[Bureaucia 0]

ALTX, did you manage to complete the mission in the first picture? (the one with 7 helicopters chasing after you)

[RalphaelNinja 244]

Nicely done Altx....

[Auz 0]

WOW! Very very helpfull

[aafuss 0]

What a great and very helpful article about U-Drive It

[Troggle 0]

I agree that this should be a omnibus article, with perhaps an addendum by bureaucia?

[ALTX 41]

----------------

On 11/7/2003 3:01:03 PM Bureaucia wrote:

ALTX, did you manage to complete the mission in the first picture? (the one with 7 helicopters chasing after you)----------------

Actually I did, by going at slmost top speed "shown in the speedometer above in the first post" Axtually only if the helicopters touch you with the spotlight eam then you get caught har har har

[ALTX 41]

HOW TO GET AREA 51 IN A CITY WITH A AIR FORCE BASE WITH U-DRIVE IT

 

1. plop the air force base then do the 3 missions that unlock area 51,

2. on the pop up of the last mission you have to do click the are 51 hyperlink and you should have a cursor containing area 51

3. plop it in the desired location

if you do choose to demolish it, the area 51 will not be in the menu so you must follow steps 2 and 3 again to reclaim area 51

[ALTX 41]

WOOHOO! This thread has become a article on the omnibus, as well as no i get to edit the first post again of this thread! please if you have any questions on u-drive it let me know

[MayorVieira 1]

Congratulations on making it to the Omnibus, ALTX!

[The Evil Octopus Man 25]

Once again ALTX, I am amazed with what you do.  Great job and keep it up!

[Rutilant 0]

Oh wise ALT-X.. Which MySim car is faster.. the SimFerrari or the SimPorsche?

[ALTX 41]

In techincal terms I believe that the LAmborghini and the porsche have equal fast speeds but in my persondal gameplay experience it SOUNDS like the porshe is faster.

[Ikonomi 0]

Maybe this is the place to get help with my rail missions.

Edit: You know, I always seem to post and THEN figure the problem out for myself.

This was the place to get help with my rail missions!

[huskerman007 26]

Nice ALTX this thread really helped me.

[a0z1 3]

thanks for all the advice! lol i learned how to basicly drive a land vehicle! very helpful, the tips on missions also. thanks so much for all this!

 

 

[connfire 0]

OK, I searched the forums and didn't find anything on this, so I'll ask here...

On the SOS tugboat mission - after about a dozen tries, I finally have no problem with securing a tow and pulling the distressed boat. But whenever I approach my marina, which is glowing red, I always wind up raming it and sinking. I've tried approaching it from every direction and angle I can think of, at low speed. I even tried to put the towed boat next to it instead of the tug, which is hard but not impossible. I've only built one marina so far - could it be just a fluke with how I placed this one, or am I missing something? What am I doing wrong?