[1.3.1; 1.4.4] Pre-release, WheelReductionDrive

[whale_2]

This very simple mod adds a reduction gear to wheels, motorized by stock ModuleWheelMotor. 

If you tweakscale your wheels, motor torque is scaled proportionally to scale factor cubed, so making wheels smaller also makes them significantly underpowered. This mod keeps TweakScale's changes, but allows to trade max speed for torque in both directions - reductor currently has hardcoded ratio limit between 0.3 to 3.0.

It also adds possibility to trade wheel endurance for mass and cost.

I would be grateful if you check it out and provide feedback and suggestions. 

License: MIT

Source and pre-release on GitHub: https://github.com/whale2/WheelReductionDrive

 

 

[RandomKerbal]

Common question: Does this work for KSP 1.10?

[Stone Blue]

Does this *ONLY* work with TweakScale?

[whale_2]

On 8/29/2020 at 7:54 AM, RandomKerbal said:

Common question: Does this work for KSP 1.10?

No idea, sorry. I didn't touch this mod for quite a while - it seems it didn't get any significant interest. However, it has a chance to work even in 1.10 - just try it. 

On 8/29/2020 at 1:34 PM, Stone Blue said:

Does this *ONLY* work with TweakScale?

No, should be fine without TweakScale too.

[wasml]

I missed this when it came out. I had tried to do implement this with a variant at one point but something didn't work (think it was the float curves that didn't change - not a big surprise).

Just tried this in 1.10.1 and don't see anything in the PAW to change gear ratios - I'll take a closer look later tonight or tomorrow.

Edit: Just realized that install doesn't have ModuleManager - retying...

Still no luck - looked through the save file and the wheels don't have the WheelReductionDrive added. I don't have Tweakscale installed - might the "AFTER" in the MM patch not install without Tweakscale?

Edit 2: Installed Tweakscale (still KSP 1.10.1) and didn't see anything in the PAW but the WheelReductionDrive did appear in the save file. Revived a copy of KSP 1.4.4, installed Tweakscale and MM - I see some sliders in the PAW!

Set the reduction to 0.3 and started up the side of the runway from a dead stop - 3.3 m/s at the top. Did the same with a reduction of 3.0 - 12.7 m/s.

Suggestions if you chose to develop this further -

      Change the max speed along with the torque - 3x the torque, 1/3 the top speed.

      Allow the reduction to be set in flight - use case would be putting a rover in granny gear to get up a steep hill.

 

Thanks for sharing this!

Edited August 30, 2020 by wasml

[Stone Blue]

1 hour ago, wasml said:

Still no luck - looked through the save file and the wheels don't have the WheelReductionDrive added. I don't have Tweakscale installed - might the "AFTER" in the MM patch not install without Tweakscale?

yeah...IIRC, AFTER implies NEEDS