Jump to content

What’s the point of rovers?


Calster804

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, Calster804 said:

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. 

I used a huge "Chariot" rover to circumnavigate the Mun about a year or so ago.

ZA3vhKM.png

Why? Quite simply, to prove to myself that I could actually do it. And it turned out to be an amazing, and often scary, adventure in itself!  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One landing, many biomes :)  Dropped onto the Mohole, drove to the equator.

Apf1u2H.jpg

hSckR6a.jpg

Yes it was a slow process. I recommend looking at the Bon Voyage mod to provide some level of autopilot to avoid the many hours of driving.

Unless you just plain enjoy the driving, which many people do :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, eddiew said:

Unless you just plain enjoy the driving, which many people do :)

I like driving... The Mun is so treacherous, I don't trust auto-pilot. One second everything is fine, next thing you know, you've driven over the side of a deep crater! Plus the scenery is amazing!

I'm almost done circumnavigating Kerbin in this...

MS8sSDL.png

And I'm doing it the slow way for the same reason, the scenery is too gorgeous to miss.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Renegrade said:

 

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.

From that point of view, I'd say 90% of the game is useless. All the other planets? Useless. Sending Kerbals anywhere beyond LKO? Probably useless. Science lab? Probably not needed on lower difficulties at least. Aircraft? Useless. Ion engines? Useless. Spaceplanes? Really useless.

Once you can land a probe on either of the moons, you can get enough science from them to fill out the rest of the tech tree easily enough. So the only real reason to do much of anything beyond that is because it's fun and/or challenging. It might be nice if there was more to explore and to give reasons for doing all of those other things, but beyond a certain point, you just have to be happy with doing them because you can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Calster804 said:

Ok thanks. Also how do you get all the photos under your msg

They're badges from completing various challenges in the challenge section of the forum. Once you earn them, you just need to edit your signature under your profile and include the appropriate image links.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, katateochi said:

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.

With KAS an rover is nice to move parts to large to put in kerbal inventory or even the carry container.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use DMagic Orbital Science and changed the 4 stock sensors experiments to give full science on transmission, so probes and unmanned rovers are very useful (and it make more sense, realistically and in gameplay). Also use RoverScience Continued and BonVoyage.

I think I'll use them to transport resources in my future missions, now that I added OSE Workshop.

All my rovers are from Feline Utility Rovers. Simple love doing rovers with appropriate and modular parts, without ugly adaptations.

And I think rovers are very fun, one of the things I most like in KSP :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I mostly use rovers when i need to defend a ground facility (mostly either a habitation area or orbital defense cannon) from enemy rovers.  Unlike gunships, rovers can carry way more ammo before needing a reload, can carry very heavy ordinance, and they dont require fuel (or at least not much fuel, some heavier rovers use fuel cells because i cant make em work any other way, but even then compared to anything airborne its a huge difference in terms of being able to remain operational over a long period of time (even with IRSU you have limits on what a flying craft can do combat wise).

 

Then again, i almost exclusively play KSP by making stock weapons and fighting between factions i have set up, so i dont think my use of rovers tanks is what id call the norm.  For most people i guess you can make bases mobile (which is a good thing if you want to go to multiple biomes without requiring fuel), and you can do suprisingly fast movement on smaller diameter planets (i can drive a tank halfway across minmus in like half an hour of game time, most of it alt-tabbed after setting a safe speed to move at and pointing it roughly where i want it to go).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, panzer1b said:

Then again, i almost exclusively play KSP by making stock weapons and fighting between factions i have set up, so i dont think my use of rovers tanks is what id call the norm

Ohh do yiu do stick stuff I mainly play with BDA and stuff.

 

37 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

OK, this is a rough map of my Kerbin route:

Ki2Oat4.png

I don't have a map of the Mun route, sorry, but I have a couple screenshots of all the flags I laid out:

1CJSK8D.png

PLumKVx.png

5oXJauQ.png

also thanks for the map that’s really cool. How did,yiu cross the sea though 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Calster804 said:

Ohh do yiu do stick stuff I mainly play with BDA and stuff.

I do still play with BDA on occasion, but there is just something that really appeals to me when it comes to figuring out ways to both destroy something and keep something from being destroyed without using a single mod in the process.  Aside from a separate install where i have BDA on it, i actually dont use any mods besides visuals like my own mod SciFiVE, scatterer, planetshine, distant object, KS3P, ect.  Even the occasional moving mech i make is still 100% stock in weapons and leg actuators.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Hodari said:

From that point of view, I'd say 90% of the game is useless. All the other planets? Useless. Sending Kerbals anywhere beyond LKO? Probably useless. Science lab? Probably not needed on lower difficulties at least. Aircraft? Useless. Ion engines? Useless. Spaceplanes? Really useless.

Pretty much, yeah.  The "game" has some serious balance and progression issues.  Sandbox is basically fine in that respect (it's sandbox, it's supposed to be entirely user-driven goals, that's the whole point of a sandbox), but the career mode should be bringing challenge and progression to the table.  And it's not.   The rover thing is just a tiny piece of that issue.

I'm hoping the DLC can change that, as I imagine the more skilled of the forum people are better at this than Squad ever was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because Rovers!

That's pretty much the whole point (although an automated crawler up an Eve mountain is another story).  I can't recommend trying to use a rover to get to different biomes even on KSP's 1/10th toy scale.  This doesn't include landing near Easter eggs and driving over to them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, wumpus said:

I can't recommend trying to use a rover to get to different biomes even on KSP's 1/10th toy scale.

Depends on where you go. I collected five biomes on a 20 km drive from Eve's highlands to the sea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...