What’s the point of rovers?

[Calster804]

So I’ve landed kerbals on the mun and I’ve decided that the best “next step” for my space program would be to send a rover to the muns poles or somewhere else but then I realised. What’s the point? Will it give me more science or money or what. Apart from being realistic what is the point of rovers on ksp if you arnt using them for base building/maintenance. Please tell me what you think rovers are good for. 

 

Also mods if if this isn’t in the right place,then please move it to the right forum.

[Matrix Aran]

Rovers are great for covering several biomes in a single mission. You can collect science from several different sites and return it for the cost of one launch. The mun's gravity does make hopping a lander around viable but for other locales like Duna they really do come into their own.

That and theres the fun of solving a whole new set of engineering challenges.

[_stilgar_]

1. It's fun to drive on other planets and moons. 

2. Sometimes when you land in an area when there are many biomes, it's easier to drive to them than to fly to them (and it doesn't use that much fuel)

3. Sometimes on rescue missions it may not be easy or possible to land near the survivors, so land when it's flat and send a bus for kerbals

4. Some new contracts require you to go to one location and when you get there you get "now get to that other location". Very easy with a rover, hard with a rocket. 

[Renegrade]

Just now, Matrix Aran said:

Rovers are great for covering several biomes in a single mission. You can collect science from several different sites and return it for the cost of one launch. The mun's gravity does make hopping a lander around viable but for other locales like Duna they really do come into their own.

 

If it's in drive-able range, it's in hop-able range.  Plus you can be completely done with the science tree before the first Duna window opens.  The only real solid use I've ever gotten out of rovers is as little fuel trucks for mining operations.  Easier to trundle a load of fuel back and forth between a landed craft and the miner than land the landing craft ON the miner.   Getting the docking ports to the right level is a bit fiddly in stock, but doable.  KAS/KIS makes it very easy (and quite cool) for fuel rovers to do their jobs, of course.

(NB: I don't use claws for fuel trucks as I try to avoid unlocking them, as they change the rescue missions)

[katateochi]

I like using rovers to aid in construction. Admittedly that tends to imply using robotics mods, but there are some stock examples. But a rover with a movable arm with a grapple/magnet on one end is useful for base construction.

[Calster804]

Ok thank you guys for lol yeh responses. Dose anyone know the best place to land as in closest to the most biomes 

[TheKSPBeginner]

Explore easter eggs?

[_stilgar_]

23 minutes ago, Renegrade said:

Plus you can be completely done with the science tree before the first Duna window opens.

Science still has use even after tech tree is completed. You can convert it to money or, more importantly, reputation. And reputation is always nice. 

 

3 minutes ago, Calster804 said:

Dose anyone know the best place to land as in closest to the most biomes 

Just use Kerbnet in Biome mode, you can see all the places when many biomes meet. 

[hms_warrior]

just a quick note :

https://spacedock.info/mod/950/BonVoyage

makes your rovers drive on their own.

[Renegrade]

34 minutes ago, _stilgar_ said:

Science still has use even after tech tree is completed. You can convert it to money or, more importantly, reputation. And reputation is always nice.

Meh I have plenty of money and reputation.  It's usually 80% / 20M by the time I launch for the Duna window.  More if I have KAC installed.   And if I did need moar science, it's easier to just send a second Minmus science station up, transfer the lander and two scientists to it, hop all the equatorial biomes, and science-lab it to death.  Orbital rendezvous is both faster and more fun than long boring glitchy-wheel rover drives.  Especially as the current (expansion has yet to be released at the time of this writing) rover wheels being rather obnoxious to pack into a craft.

By the way, to put it in perspective, my usual Minmus science hopper has less than a half-ton of fuel, so a 4T fuel tank can easily provide significantly more than 8 landings.

Now if that mod that was mentioned above was stock, I might re-consider.

[_stilgar_]

8 minutes ago, Renegrade said:

Meh I have plenty of money and reputation

Have you considered playing with reduced money/science/rep rewards? 

[Renegrade]

Just now, _stilgar_ said:

Have you considered playing with reduced money/science/rep rewards? 

Yes, I have, but the sliders only go down to ten percent, and it still becomes sciencepalooza once the Science Lab is unlocked.  And I'm not doing that just to make rovers practical.  And they still wouldn't be, outside of aforementioned fuel trucks.

 

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Since when does driving a buggy on the Moon have to be practical?

If you guys think us Americans brought a car to the Moon for purely business and not pleasure; you don't know Americans very well lol. (We also brought a corned beef sandwich and golf clubs so...lol.)

Sometimes I think we get lost in all the science and math...and we forget KSP is a game. The point is to have fun! If someone traveled back in time and found young you; playing Super Mario 64 on your Nintendo and told you that there was a secret level where you could ride a Kart on the moon in low G, would your first response be "Yeah...but what does it get me? Are there any coins or stars to collect..? Cause other wise what's even the point?" No! You'd just want to go do it because it sounds like a lot of fun!

(That said, I'm all for giving Rover's more in game purpose, I just don't think that "fun" should be completely disregarded as a purpose.)

Edited March 13, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[nascarlaser1]

I use rovers for bouncing around the KSP to get all that science, along with hunting down the various easter eggs .

[Overfloater]

- In case your Eve ascent ship only works on a high mountain, but you stink at pixel-precise landing (especially on uneven terrain), a little chassis can really prove its own practicality.

P.s. MaxwellsDemon beat me to it 

Edited March 13, 2018 by Overfloater

[MaxwellsDemon]

I can tell you one important thing rovers do (for me, anyway):  when I'm trying to reach a specific point on a surface, and my landing accuracy is somewhat less than "pinpoint," a Kerballed rover is a massive time-saver.   Otherwise it's "wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww............."

(Also, if you include a pod in the design, you get apparently unlimited flags for marking locations.)

Edited March 13, 2018 by MaxwellsDemon

[Calster804]

Also can they be used to get you money somehow (probe rovers not maned)

[Renegrade]

5 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

If you guys think us Americans brought a car to the Moon for purely business and not pleasure; you don't know Americans very well lol. (We also brought a corned beef sandwich and golf clubs so...lol.)

Meh!  I'm only half American (mom's side).   So I stay at home whenever I can, and take the transit when I can't.  Parking is a bee-with-an-itch anyways in Toronto.

The corned beef antenna was delicious, I imagine.  I love me a corned beef sammich.

Anyhow, I'd probably have more fun with rovers if KSP was more like Space Engineers (first person build-weld-drive)... as it stands, they're less fun than orbital stuff, at least for me. (also, glitchy wheels are not cool)

(disclaimer: I'm not saying Space Engineers has good rovers either.  They have a bunch of glitchy issues, but when they aren't randomly exploding they're quite fun)

[Atkara]

I've driven on Moho, Duna, Ike, Dres, Eve & Eeloo. By that, I mean I got all the science I could from wherever a car could get to. That was back in 1.05. It was fun for a good while and I did learn a lot about driving these things on uneven terrain, under a variety of gravitational pulls. But it became a boring process in the end and that's not to say it would've been a lot more different, if I just hopped between biomes on a vehicle with ISRU capabilities. Everything becomes boring eventually, if this is all you do for entire playing sessions.

Anyway, this time around I used Bon Voyage for the said bodies. I may drive manually again on Vall & Tylo. We'll see.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I like to leave rovers with scientific instruments behind on whichever planets I visit so that I can continue to collect data even after I send my Kerbals home. The only exception being Laythe, where I have a jet (capable of refuelling at my surface outpost) instead.

[Calster804]

But can they be us full to make money as I need to upgrade r&d

[Matrix Aran]

Plenty of contracts only want you to send back data. No kerbals are required to get that data, so yes rovers can be used to make funds.

[Calster804]

Ok tanks 

[_stilgar_]

9 minutes ago, Calster804 said:

Ok tanks 

Yes, you can make tanks as well  

[Calster804]

Well I do spend most of my time in KSP making tanks because of a series I do