[WIP] KerbinRover Off-road vehicles

[thomash]

Thank you.  Looks like the wheels were blocked after the stack nodes were introduced.  I repositioned them and everything works fine. 

[Eskandare]

I didn't  have a problem at all with the wheel nodes or blocked wheels.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

9 hours ago, thomash said:

Thank you.  Looks like the wheels were blocked after the stack nodes were introduced.  I repositioned them and everything works fine. 

The stack nodes were introduced about the same time as I added colliders around the wheel arches.  And they're the main cause of wheel blockings.  The extra colliders mean more sensible surface attachments for all the science widgets, and (fairly obviously) more accurate collisions.  Before I adjusted, kerbals could walk into the front of the rover, and attaching lights meant weird overlappings etc.  But it seems they interact with wheel colliders if said wheel colliders are too close.  It's easy enough to move the wheels down a bit (in the direction of more ground clearance) to avoid, but the stack nodes are where my KSP stopped blocking the wheels for the rear wheel.  The front wheel can go up 10cm and still be fine, but I thought most people would prefer if it didn't nose down all the time.  :-)

I've been watching @lo-fi and @Shadowmage discuss things in the Kerbal Foundries thread with interest as they're basically rewriting the wheel modules.  When they have a releasable product (they've done some really good work diagnosing the existing issues and building replacement friction models already) I'll probably convert this over to using their modules.  Not just to have better wheels (which, judging by Lo-Fi's example video they will definitely have) but also because tracks.  Tracks would mean I could do the Haglund BV206, which is just asking for space travel. 

[lo-fi]

Hey cool. I have made some BV202/206 tracks but never finished or released them. The biggest problem is that they're an asymmetric design, which of course doesn't play well with rotational symmetry. Luckily I have solution for that, but it's kinda complicated. You're very welcome to take what I've done and mess about with/finish it, if you like? Another challenge is the way the Haglunds things steer with the joint in the middle, of course.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

25 minutes ago, lo-fi said:

Hey cool. I have made some BV202/206 tracks but never finished or released them. The biggest problem is that they're an asymmetric design, which of course doesn't play well with rotational symmetry. Luckily I have solution for that, but it's kinda complicated. You're very welcome to take what I've done and mess about with/finish it, if you like? Another challenge is the way the Haglunds things steer with the joint in the middle, of course.

Yeah, the articulation would be the other issue looking for a solution.  :-)

[lo-fi]

Making a plugin to do that is simple, and I've actually done so. What I found isn't simple is dealing with the jump between "on rails" and otherwise, and persistence issues on reload :/

[Tunny33]

just wanna say, love this mod use the land rover for most kerbin based ground missions, lookin forward to havin more vehicles to choose from :).i have made my own version of this http://gtaforums.com/topic/716444-benefactor-dubsta-6x6-appreciation-thread/page-5 using your mod. so 4 wheels in normal attachment places then addin 2 wheels jus behind the front one, on to the door then lowered with offset tool to line up, and then i put 2 infront of and 2 behind the rear wheels then again lowered with offset. it works like a charm because the extra 6 wheels are attached to the doors (even thou they are ofset close to the wheel arches) and stick out it makes for great stability even with the heavier science experiments on top. i try nt to use it on eva missions as the doors are blocked ( but can still get in and out).

however i have noticed jus one issue, this may be down to unity and ksp wheel bug ( which is apparently been worked on for next update) but if a kerbal is walkin near the vehicle and touches a wheel he and the car go flyin, normally endin in the car been upside down and unusable 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

7 hours ago, Tunny33 said:

just wanna say, love this mod use the land rover for most kerbin based ground missions, lookin forward to havin more vehicles to choose from :).i have made my own version of this http://gtaforums.com/topic/716444-benefactor-dubsta-6x6-appreciation-thread/page-5 using your mod. so 4 wheels in normal attachment places then addin 2 wheels jus behind the front one, on to the door then lowered with offset tool to line up, and then i put 2 infront of and 2 behind the rear wheels then again lowered with offset. it works like a charm because the extra 6 wheels are attached to the doors (even thou they are ofset close to the wheel arches) and stick out it makes for great stability even with the heavier science experiments on top. i try nt to use it on eva missions as the doors are blocked ( but can still get in and out).

however i have noticed jus one issue, this may be down to unity and ksp wheel bug ( which is apparently been worked on for next update) but if a kerbal is walkin near the vehicle and touches a wheel he and the car go flyin, normally endin in the car been upside down and unusable 

When you're plonking wheels all over the place, remember that the back door is also a hatch.  :-)

Yeah, touching wheels in EVA has been a no-no since 1.1.  And that includes the wheel-free wheels commonly called landing legs.  If the rover isn't overly loaded up, and the brakes are enabled, you can take your EVA'd kerbal and run at the side, and depending on terrain, often get it flipped the right way up again.

[TiktaalikDreaming]

Updated.  0.8 is out, still waiting to see the update propagate through to CKAN, but it's on Spacedock now.  Includes resizing (so it'll break existing craft, the parts will all be attached to each other wrong) to 64%, and 100% if using RSS.  Also includes config to switch the liquid fuel and oxidizer to liquid methane and FLOX88 if you have real fuels installed.

There's also the beginning of my redesign of the IVAs, which are VERY early stages.

[Tunny33]

On 29/06/2016 at 9:50 PM, TiktaalikDreaming said:

When you're plonking wheels all over the place, remember that the back door is also a hatch.  :-)

Yeah, touching wheels in EVA has been a no-no since 1.1.  And that includes the wheel-free wheels commonly called landing legs.  If the rover isn't overly loaded up, and the brakes are enabled, you can take your EVA'd kerbal and run at the side, and depending on terrain, often get it flipped the right way up again.

this is what i make, and the back is covered. and well i guess i can jus keep using it for exploration and science.

[blu3wolf]

On 27/04/2016 at 8:14 PM, TiktaalikDreaming said:

I'll probably add the Hilux pickup, but not the Land Cruiser.  LC is too close to the landrover, and there's not a lot of point in just making one of everyone's favourite 4x4.  I'll definitely be looking at a AWD vehicle with a lower centre of mass as well, for doing that going round corners trick without flipping as easily.  Still not sure if I should go to the Impreza RX or GTR ends of the spectrum, but leaning towards the GTR, for extra silliness.

And, I should have mentioned in the OP, the rover body with M1 rover wheels is an awesomely fun monster truck.  Although it may need batteries/RTG/cheats since I nerfed the power.  All the other stock wheels just look stupid.

The HJ47 ute would be nice, and not so similar to the rover...

[TiktaalikDreaming]

20 hours ago, blu3wolf said:

The HJ47 ute would be nice, and not so similar to the rover...

Maybe after 1.2 if wheels get fixed.  Until then, I'll mostly only be looking at vehicles without enclosed wheels. AKA, wheel arches in 1.1 are pure evil.

I've sunk a bit of time into an early F1 open wheel racer, just for silliness, and because it was the only car type I could think of, off the top of my head, that has nothing near the wheels.  But I keep going back over the ideas and the 3d models.  So there's nothing in KSP yet.

[felcas]

Me and my scientific team doing science over KSC with our proud KerbinRover

 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

I keep meaning to get around to some renders.  Finally did.  This is the same model and texture maps as the mod, but rendered in Blender Cycles engine.  Scenery provided with some very quicko sculpting with randomized textures.

[Iso-Polaris]

So the electric energy in KSPI-E is 1kJ = 1EC . will there be a confilict

[TiktaalikDreaming]

4 hours ago, Iso-Polaris said:

So the electric energy in KSPI-E is 1kJ = 1EC . will there be a confilict

My assumptions fueled choosing values for this mod's parts.  I can't see them magically cascading through to other mods.  The mod uses Liquid Fuel (plus atmosphere via air intake or oxidizer via tank) to create EC.  EC drives the wheels.  The only part where the conversion from kW to EC took effect was on some note paper so I could decide how much EC the motor should generate.

[JPL1980]

I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but in my game the main chassis starts to heat up after a little while. Activating the radiator doesn't seem to have an effect. Is this normal? A bug? Or could it be a interaction with some other mods? I don't have any mods that mess with the thermal physics. I do have Dang It! And at first I thought maybe it was a random fault cause by that mod (busted radiator?) but it happens every time I launch the rover. 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

1 hour ago, JPL1980 said:

I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but in my game the main chassis starts to heat up after a little while. Activating the radiator doesn't seem to have an effect. Is this normal? A bug? Or could it be a interaction with some other mods? I don't have any mods that mess with the thermal physics. I do have Dang It! And at first I thought maybe it was a random fault cause by that mod (busted radiator?) but it happens every time I launch the rover. 

Do the events involve time warp? I've noticed other resource converted heating issues with time warp. And I haven't actually done extensive 1.3 testing with the rover.

[JPL1980]

No... but it takes the timewarp quite some time to cool-off the Defender after I shut everything down. I've uninstalled and reinstalled it several times, with different mods. Doesn't seem to matter. About 5 mins into any mission the Defender starts heating up. It will continue to heat up until the "overheating, shutting-down core" warning. When I installed Hot Spot to see what was warming up, it is indeed the Core of the Defender. Out skin warms via conduction, and it takes over 30 mins in time warp for the thing to start to cool down. 

 

It's technically not game breaking, but it does mean the Defender has a very limited range once it starts up. And the cool down afterwords takes even longer. 

[TiktaalikDreaming]

8 hours ago, JPL1980 said:

No... but it takes the timewarp quite some time to cool-off the Defender after I shut everything down. I've uninstalled and reinstalled it several times, with different mods. Doesn't seem to matter. About 5 mins into any mission the Defender starts heating up. It will continue to heat up until the "overheating, shutting-down core" warning. When I installed Hot Spot to see what was warming up, it is indeed the Core of the Defender. Out skin warms via conduction, and it takes over 30 mins in time warp for the thing to start to cool down. 

 

It's technically not game breaking, but it does mean the Defender has a very limited range once it starts up. And the cool down afterwords takes even longer. 

Finally got to looking at this.  There's definitely an issue.  It's kinda backwards to the other one I had with resource converters.  The Rover seems to cool off at high warp. So the rougher approximations used for high warp are in being nice to it.  I'll have another look at the numbers.  I suspect the radiator module is doing nothing for instance, unless you need to use the rover to draw heat out of other parts.  I think that was just me not knowing what the radiator module did.

[tater]

I used to have a 1963 Series IIA 109... Maybe I need this mod... mine was raw aluminum, however. Course my current vehicle is a Discovery, lol (needed the 3d row seats for kids and grandparents).

[TiktaalikDreaming]

Just now, tater said:

I used to have a 1963 Series IIA 109... Maybe I need this mod... mine was raw aluminum, however. Course my current vehicle is a Discovery, lol (needed the 3d row seats for kids and grandparents).

The '63 looked quite a bit different.  I can add a raw Al (I refuse to use the American spelling), but I'm a bit horrified by the idea of making all the different shapes.

On the topic of "do I need this mod?", if you're doing a campaign that isn't sandpit, it's very handy early on.  You can drive around collecting SCIENCE! at ease.

[tater]

Yeah, I'll have to tool around with it, looks like fun.

 

(a friend has a 1994 Defender, actually, she just bought it (that's the last year imported to the US))

[TiktaalikDreaming]

I've updated the mod to remove the ModuleCoreHeat from the Rover body.  This *seems* to fix the issue @JPL1980 spotted with run-away temperature silliness.

[UnanimousCoward]

Sorry for the thread necro, but just wanted to say this appears to work OK as-is in 1.4.1, except that the ability to change the paint job is missing.

This mod's such a boon for early-game science collection round KSP for Field Research contracts.