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[Min KSP 1.12.2] Buffalo: NASA Inspired Modular Space Exploration Vehicle


Angelo Kerman

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1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

Wow, it fits? Way cool to see that hangar! :)

Actually not really, I had to offset a little bit, here is how it looks like., I would love to have a set of wheels that store up a bit, kind of what the use in some trucks to make it fit through tunnels.

XIElsRC.png

CUdveo3.png

By the way it does fit with medium tracks herbal foundries, but i wanted to keep the buffalo as pure as possible

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18 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Interesting. So it's basically possible, just need to create a free rotation joint. I wonder if that is possible with the joint on the docking port..

I believe @RoverDude was using two separate parts to connect the trailers. The camera follows the pulling truck, which means that the center of mass didn't shift, each trailer is a separate vessel. You can also notice the realistic interaction between the two loops. Doing this with docking ports... do you think bending the connection between parts will be safe for save loading? We'll need a word from RoverDude himself on the trick behind this magic.

Edited by Enceos
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20 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

I think technically they'd work but they might be a big big on the Buffalo. The cabin size is 1.5m wide by 12.5m tall...

Tried it last night didn't like end product, it looks awkward, if karibu would allow tweaks ale it might be slightly different

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Just a heads up, I'm in the process of converting the wheels over to KSP 1.1 and am sorting through the new changes. Getting closer to a pre-release, but if nothing else I'll have the Buffalo ready for the official 1.1 release. :)

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After lots of frustration, I finally have working wheels for the Buffalo. :) Some bad news and good news. Bad news is that the new wheel system means I can no longer animate the M1A1 wheels so that they have a narrow and wide wheelbase. But, I found a workaround:

wpP1PWu.jpg

I should be able to put the finishing touches on the pre-release and have something either later tonight or tomorrow.

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0.2.8 (KSP 1.1 pre-release)

Get the latest here!

- Recompiled for KSP 1.1. Many thanks and big shout out to nil2work for helping me understand the new wheel system. :)
NOTE: The M1-A1 is no longer able to animate changing from wide to narrow wheelbase due to KSP 1.1. But it still has use for creating rovers that get in and out of the Mk3 cargo bay. To do so, take the Buffalo Half-Chassis and rotate it to become the length of a standard 1u chassis and then attach the M1-A1 to the sides. This might change in the future, we'll see. :)

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19 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

0.2.8 (KSP 1.1 pre-release)

Yay!

The wheels appear to need some work, though.  Here are some things I observed.  All this done on Kerbin in v1183 Win x64.  I left all wheel settings at default.

Spoiler

 

First off, some general observations that appear applicable to all 3 wheels (Cub, Goat, Griz):

  • Very Tough.  I was never able to break any of them despite running into obstacles at high speed, jumping off the launchpad, and doing high-speed donuts.  Which is good because I thought they broke a bit too easily in 1.0.5 and the stock wheels break WAY too easily in 1.1.
  • Trip on Terrain Irregularities:  Any time the front surface (instead of what is normally the bottom) comes in contact with the ground, the wheel doesn't roll.  It's like a fixed part hit the ground, so the wheel's forward momentum largely stops and the whole vehicle tends to somersault.  This is most pronounced with the Griz, less so with the Goat, and only a slight problem with the Cub.
  • Don't Climb Steep Slopes:  The steepest hill a Griz could climb was about 20^, about 15^ for the Goat, and about 10^ for the Cub.  All rovers had fuel cells producing more power than the wheels needed.
  • Leaping Rovers:  If you return to the space center and then select the rover to fly again, it will immediately leap into the air.  This happens with all 3 types of wheels.  Warping while still driving the rover doesn't seem to have a problem.  If you launch another rover and drive over to the previous rover, sometimes the old rover will leap when you get close to it, sometimes not.  This doesn't happen at physics range but when you;re only about 500m away.  Regardless of cause, the rover leap high and tumble, usually landing upside down or on their sides.

06 Flipping on Return To

 

Here are some examples of the sort of terrain irregularities that trip a Griz:

07 Griz Tripping

In the left pic, the vehicle came down a step off the edge of a concrete slab (a base in KerbinSide).  The drop was only about 8" and the rover was only moving about 3m/s.

In the right pic, the rover had been climbing a long, gentle slope at about 20m/s.  The Kerbal is standing on the crest of this slope.  The terrain then has a very slight dip with the lowest point about halfway between the Kerbal and the Rover.  The rover's front wheels hit on the down slope before the bottom of the dip, dug in, and flipped the vehicle.

Now to some more wheel-specific issues:

Griz and Goat:  Rear Wheels Steer More than Front Wheels
With both these wheels, those mounted at the rear of the vehicle get greater steering angles than identical wheels on the front.  This happens even if you Alt-copy the front wheel to the rear of the vehicle.  The result is that rovers with these wheels steer more like boats than cars.  The Cub wheel does not have this issue.

03 Goat Rear Steering05 Griz Reer Steer More

 

Goat Destroys the Launchpad
I made identical rovers except 1 had Goat and the other Griz wheels.  The one with the Griz wheels could run up the launchpad no problem and survive jumping off the edge with no damage.  The one with the Goat wheels always destroyed the launchpad when it was only about 1/3 of the way up the ramp.

04 Goat Destroys Launchpad

 

Setting Cub Brakes Freezes Suspension.
If you have a Cub rover going at its top speed of about 10m/s then apply the parking brake, the suspension flexes so the rover's nose goes down while it's decelerating.  This is perfectly fine and realistic.  The issue is that once the vehicle stops so there's no longer any momentum pushing the nose down, the suspension stays flexed nose-down.  To level the vehicle, you have to release the brakes.

01 Cub Brakes Freeze Suspension

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

This is all I've managed to test so far.  In general, I think the wheels are good except for the 2 big problems of tripping on terrain irregularities and leaping into the air when you return to them.  It would also be nice if they had more traction to climb steeper hills.

Thanks for the quick update.  And also the tiny Jetwing engines that make wonderful RCS for VTOLs when using TCA :)


 

 

 

 

Edited by Geschosskopf
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This mod is so awesome in everything and I love it's so smart design. 

I wanna report on some stange bugs I have here when you combine "M1-A1 Grizzly" wheels and any kind of Wide Flatbeds on top of it (in version 0.2.8, KSP 1.1.0.1172/64Bit, Win7/64 )

Spoiler

Here, if I using this setup:

002130.jpg

Then this happens right after the spawn (or any time you touch the ground by wheels):

002132.jpg

The Wide Flatbed just gets ripped off :lol: (and everything becomes normal again)

002133.jpg

If you don't attach any wide platform above them - everything works perfectly:

002139.jpg

And if you manually lower the wheels position, then this happens:

002136.jpg

 

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Thanks for the reports folks! :) I'll probably hold off fixing them until Squad stabilizes KSP since I don't know how much is my stuff versus general issues with wheels in the game. Meantime I'll try making an interim wheel for you to use and have that in the next pre-release. :)

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56 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

 Meantime I'll try making an interim wheel for you to use and have that in the next pre-release. :)

Take your time.  At least I can use the little Jaguar engines on my new passion for VTOLs.   You really need to market them for that purpose.  Observe:

Scoot 01

This plane uses 6 of them, 2 each side and 1 each fore and aft, as RCS via the magic of Throttle Controlled Avionics.  Pinpoint vertical landings are no problem.  What, that's a ruined building, not a helipad?

I did notice 1 slight annoyance with them, however.  Toggling the mode from mono to jetfuel in the SPH during construction doesn't mirror with symmetry so you have to change each engine individually.  All the other options do mirror, however.

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19 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Thanks. :) I need more information though, how are they bugged?

I can't enter the cockpit and the platforms are bugged too. I can't really explain it though. Better just to play it to see for yourself.

Also, are the ladders so long?

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2 minutes ago, davidy12 said:

I can't enter the cockpit and the platforms are bugged too. I can't really explain it though. Better just to play it to see for yourself.

Also, are the ladders so long?

I just checked the mod too...With similar results...also I had found a very similar issue with the ARES Rover and Ascnt Vehicle from Phoenix Industries. I explained it as best as i could there.

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