Boat is better.
Reasons:
- can use less gas = less resources
- can hold more items
- can travel farther ( in theory you could cross continents)
- for basic use, requires little to no training
- crashes are likely not fatal
- you can drop anchor and sleep/eat/cook/read/relax
- can use oars/sails and be “silent”, especially if wanting to travel at night. Mostly probably to move without needing seen by people.
- you can tie boats together and have floating islands. Multiple escape boats, etc
- boats will likely be everywhere for the taking once a lot of people have died. You can likely get to an abandoned boat and pull it out into the water to loot/reclaim/siphon fuel/etc.
- you can fish from a boat, generate food.
- “anyone” can afford a boat, at least for “escape” purposes of “drive the boat from the house/city to the water”. But not for “long term living”
of course, this is a rosy boat outlook. If you’re “in the sea” vs “freshwater lake” you’ll have more challenges. But, the benefits from a chopper are:
- can cover a lot of land/ground area, to scout for food/supplies.
- less likely to be attacked by pirates (but you can be shot at from the ground).
- can rescue people easier on land.
Given the above, a chopper is great if you need to get to a nice big abandoned boat you can then live on.
Edit: I’ve been on small boats, never owned one. I’m not part of Big Boat trying to keep Big Chopper down or anything.
secondary edit:
- boat is cheaper to store and maintain to prep for zed end times. Boat can be wintered and “ready” by someone with little boat knowledge.
- repair/parts for boats are more likely to exist/be found/available. If parts cannot be found, you can possibly cobble something together or go without.
- if you see other survivors, you can likely shout to them and communicate whilst on your boat.
- if bandits are shooting at you from land, you’re likely to be able to repair your boat.
tertiary edit:
- if you have a family, and pets . you’re more likely to fit them all on a boat.
- if you have family, and they need to go to the bathroom, they can just do this over the side of the boat, even while you are driving.
- there are likely to be more opportunities to charge handheld devices while on a boat, so your family is more likely to shut up and stop complaining about boat life. Additionally, you might be able to get a PC on board and play 7D2D while on the boat (multiplayer co-op with family).