Vehicles and the Modular Overhaul: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Transportation in SCUM has gone through a tumultuous journey of its own. If you played the game in the early days (around 2018–2020), you’ll remember that vehicles were plentiful and straightforward: you could find a variety of rides – SUVs, pickup trucks, motorbikes, even bicycles and boats – scattered around the island, often in working condition or needing just a bit of fuel or car battery to run. By the time of version 0.7, life on the island could be pretty luxurious; you and your friends could each have a car or bike, making long-distance travel and supply runs much easier (and more fun).
Then came the big Modular Vehicle Overhaul in late 2022 (version 0.8). The developers decided to revamp vehicles completely, introducing a system where you have to find and assemble parts to build a working car. The concept sounded cool – a bit of Mad Max flair where you could customize a car with additional armor and storage containers. Indeed, the first modular car, the Laika (a reference to Lada Niva), was teased and people were excited at the prospect of piecing together vehicles from parts. The catch 22: to make room for this system, the devs removed all the old fully-functional vehicles. Overnight, the island’s garages became graveyards of broken cars needing rescue. We lost our SUVs, our dirt bikes, our motorboats and airplanes – everything was wiped in favor of two basic car models (the Laika 4×4 and the Wolfswagen) that we now had to painstakingly rebuild.
Fast forward to today: SCUM 1.0 has some good news on this front, as it reintroduced a few vehicles that were removed. The patch notes boast of “new vehicles, including a seaplane, sports bike, and tractor”. Long-time players will recognize these not as brand-new, but as returning classics: the Kinglet Seaplane (an awesome ultralight seaplane that was in the game before, capable of landing both on water and land) and the Tractor (the old noisy IMT 539 farm tractor that became a bit of a meme among players). It is genuinely great to have planes back in the game – flying over the island’s turquoise coastline in the seaplane is an experience that very few other survival games can offer. However, I must emphasize that these are vehicles that already existed in the game. Their return is welcome but also underscores how much content was taken away during the modular overhaul. Even now, notable omissions remain – for example, the once-beloved police SUV hasn’t made a comeback, and the inflatable RIB boat is still absent from the roster.
The modular vehicle system itself also continues to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it brings realism and depth: any car you find in SCUM now might be missing critical parts such as wheels, battery, seats, etc. You can’t just hop into a random car and drive off; you’ll likely need to scavenge parts to get it running. On the other hand, the balance of this system heavily favors groups over solo players. In single-player (or private PvE servers), it’s somewhat feasible to gradually collect parts and build your dream ride. In a busy multiplayer server, good luck with that. There are only so many garages and sheds in the world that spawn car parts, and now those spawns have to accommodate dozens of different items (various items such as batteries, tires, doors, seats and bumpers and carlights for each vehicle type). Finding a specific part like a Laika wheel or a pickup truck seat can be very frustrating. You might trek through half the map’s towns just to find that missing driver’s seat. And while you’re doing that, someone else might stumble on the half-assembled car you left and claim it. In practice, solo players almost never manage to fully repair a vehicle before a larger team either snatches the parts or the vehicle itself. It’s an exercise in frustration and wasted time for many.
Even if you do complete a vehicle, the return on investment is questionable in a PvP environment. You could spend days fixing up a car, fortifying it with armor plates, customizing it, only to have it destroyed or stolen the next time you encounter an enemy squad. Major clans on official servers notoriously hoard vehicles; they have the manpower, other vehicles and spare parts to fix them quickly and the firepower to steal them from others. At one point at the beginning of Scum early access, a large clan swept through all the official EU servers, stealing literally every vehicle they could find and stockpiling them. For a lone wolf or small group, vehicles became an impossible luxury. That situation might improve now that more vehicles (like bikes and the tractor) are reintroduced – there will be more to go around – but the fundamental imbalance remains.
Let’s talk specifically about the two “new” vehicles in 1.0:
- The Tractor: This slow, loud farm tractor is back in the game, and it’s as goofy as ever. It’s actually a Serbian IMT 539 model, a nod from the Croatian developers to this iconic regional farm equipment. Back in the day, we used to joke about the tractor being the most useless vehicle – it has terrible speed and handling, making you an easy target if you drive one. On our private server, we’d even destroy tractors when they spawned, just so a real vehicle could take its spot! In its favor, the tractor has storage space and can haul a lot of weight, so it’s okay for lugging building materials short distances. But in practice, hardly anyone keeps a tractor for long – it’s more of a meme-car or a role-play vehicle. The trader price for a tractor is accordingly low, reflecting its limited utility. Bringing it back was more of an acknowledgment to the player base rather than a “real new feature” worthy of 1.0 version release, since some players have a soft spot for it.
- The Kinglet Seaplane: In contrast, the seaplane is a fantastic vehicle and I’m thrilled it’s back! This ultralight plane, capable of ladning both on land and water, was one of the last vehicles added before the overhaul ripped it away from us. It allows for quick island-wide travel and the freedom to land on any coastline or lake. Because SCUM’s map is surrounded by water and dotted with lakes, the seaplane is incredibly versatile – you’re not limited to finding an airstrip. I have many fond memories of flying over the island, taking in the gorgeous views from above. The plane’s comeback in 1.0 is a rare case where I can wholeheartedly applaud the devs. It fills a niche (fast travel and scouting) that nothing else can, and it’s just plain fun. That being said, it’s not “new” content, it is content finally restored. We’re happy to have it back, but it’s hard to give full credit for reintroducing something that was in the game two years ago.
To sum up the vehicles situation: the 1.0 update partially redeems the controversial modular overhaul by bringing back the beloved seaplane and other options. However, up to this day, I don’t think that the ROI (Return on Investment) in terms of time and effort invested into assembling cars into functional units is worth the limited time you get to enjoy them before you, as a solo player or a part of a small group, lose them to a large guild either through an ambush or a raid.
