Rigs of Rods is a free, open-source and cross-platform vehicle simulation with no actual objectives except for the races that some maps allow for. The game makes use of "advanced soft body physics" which means a use of so called beams and nodes to make up a vehicle which can bend, deform and break from collisions. Originally, the game was an off-road truck simulator (hence why cars and other non-trucks are still referred as a "truck" vehicle in the game files, not to mention the abundance of off-road vehicles) until it hosted regular cars, buses, even cranes, soon followed by aircraft, rail vehicles and boats.
The game can be downloaded here
while a repository of usermade vehicles, maps and props can be found here.
Several developers have moved on from Rigs of Rods to create a Spiritual Successor, the non-free, closed-source, Windows-only payware game BeamNG.drive. But since Rigs of Rods is open-source and licensed under the GPL, its development is continued by its community.
Rigs of Rods provides:
- The Alleged Car: Sometimes a car can survive a minor crash and keep going (albeit with affected steering).
- These crashes sometimes even force your wheel to turn in a certain direction, affecting the steering even more.
- Amphibious Automobile:
- The MeanMachine Monster 200's wheels are large enough that the air in them can keep it afloat, so it's more close to Amphibious Monster Truck.
- There are also models of real-life amphibious vehicles like the Coot or the Attex 500 Superchief.
- Art Evolution:
- Look at early maps like North St. Helens. Now look at more recent ones such as Auriga Proving Grounds or NeoQueretano.
- The same applies to vehicles. Some earlier ones have rather boxy low-poly bodies and visible beams to support the mechanics. None of this holds true for newer ones. There are two different models of the Tatra 813 truck, one in each of these art styles.
- Big Badass Rig: Trucks can go way beyond your standard tractor-trailer configurations. Nowadays, the Rigs of Rods repository offers vehicles for oversized Scandinavian trucks or actual Australian road trains as well as military vehicles such as the ZIL-135, especially in the "Uragan" missile launcher configuration (defied by the Hello Kitty-themed version, though). And if all that isn't enough, checkout the Bigboss vehicles.
- Car Skiing: Just like in Real Life, this is technically possible. And just as difficult.
- Cool Car: Lots, especially the Gavril cars by Gabester.
- Driving Stick: Can be simulated if a Logitech G25/27 is properly hooked up, the clutch pedal can also be simulated using the shift key by default (as well as the clutch pedal on the afformentioned G25/27).
- Expy:
- The Gavril Bandit is blatantly like a late 60s/early 70s muscle car.
- The Burnside cars have been designed to look like typical boxy 70s/80s US cars of the kind that were thrashed in many a Chase Scene.
- The DI Sportster 390C is clearly inspired by the Ferrari 308 GTS.
- That said, there are even more models of Real Life vehicles available for the game.
- Guide Dang It!: There is no built in configurator, all keymapping has to be done by editing the config file.
- Had the Silly Thing in Reverse: Earlier versions of Rigs of Rods didn't have "easy" switching modes that put the car in reverse when the player hit the backwards control. So after backing up, the vehicle had to be put into a forward gear with the according controls. Nowadays, however, the automatic and auto-clutch shifting modes let you play Rigs of Rods like any other race game.
- Invincible Classic Car: Some vehicles based on older Real Life models don't have softbodies yet.
- No One Could Survive That!: The very severe crashes. As in: The ones where you tossed your vehicle off of a cliff-face and watched it tumble downwards, being reduced to a pile of scrap that resembled the car in question.
- Pop the Tires: There are also spike strips available for Rigs of Rods which can actually destroy vehicles' tires (if they have tires, that is). Not that that's the only way tires can be destroyed in this game. Sometimes, careless off-roading is enough.
- Ragdoll Physics: Not the people, the cars have this. Many Rigs of Rods cars are a lot softer than BeamNG cars.
- Rigs of Rods actually has a human player character that can walk around whereas BeamNG has only got crash test dummies. While these dummies can be thrown out of the vehicle, the Rigs of Rods player character stays firmly seated during even the most severe crashes.
- Ramp Jump: Taking these usually results in a heap of metal that was once your car or truck or at least mangled suspensions, unless you're in one of the tough crawlers, a monster truck, one of the Meanmachine vehicles or the like (and even then, smacking the wheels against the ground too hard can break them).
- Slo-Mo Big Air: Do an epic Ramp Jump and slow down the replay (or the game itself), and you get this.
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Spiritual Successor: BeamNG.drive, Wreckfest. - Technically a Transport:
- Vehicles like the Unimog or the Tatra 813. You can use them to haul stuff, but most players use them for off-roading or even truck trial.
- There's a monster truck version of a GM Futurliner.
- Theme Park Landscape: Typical for many maps, especially those of the proving grounds/test area kind. But then again, they're purpose-built.
- Universal Driver's License: It's easy to use any other car or truck, despite that they may have different pedal positions, transmission speed, or possibly being a paddle shifter (Such as the Gavril MZ2, MV4 or GR) since commands are always in the same spot on your keyboard, wheel, or gamepad.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: Some maps are quite big with lots of streets or paths to explore.
- Wreaking Havok: This game is this trope, there are loads of cars that can break, trailers that can break, containers that you can drop on cars to break using cranes (Which those can break too)...
