lo-fi

Cool, I'll check that out later I'm afraid the oscillating suspension is something we cant do currently. Any type of swing arm with two wheels on either end either needs physics joints in the middle or some very clever plugin trickery which currently doesn't exist. A range of Kerbal style construction type wheels would be kinda cool, though.

Ah, my bad. I've twiddled too many configs!

Ah, got ya, Zodius. Yeah, it's entirely possible to make multi wheel gear, there's a set in development. Basically, the only limitation with the KF plugin is that you can't make a single part that has wheels each side that need independent control: A 4 wheel buggy as a single part, for example. Other than that, it's designed to give complete freedom of design. The same modules run the tracks, wheels, screw and skid - even the bulldozer blade I was playing around with. The same would be true for landing gear and landing legs. The only limit is time and imagination did you have a design in mind?

Awesome. I can set the etf style wheels up very easily, with the exception of the oscillating axle. The swing arm, steering and the rest will work right out the box with fairly little effort. I will get round to tackling the mecanum challenge one day soon, I promise.

IIRC, the ASET wheels use the stock wheel module, so no. Though OrbitusII did release a plugin a while back that gives tweakable torque and brakes that you could config bash in - I just can't remember the name. Might have been Tweakable Wheels, and ought be be compatible with .90 even if it's not been specifically updated. I do have a version of the wheels set up using the Kerbal Foundries plugin, so you get automatic direction setup, smoothed proportional steering and adjustable suspension and torque, though I've not really thought how to release it yet. I was going to ask alexustas if he's interested, but I don't think he's been seen for a while? I'll go check out the license..

Thanks, and thanks for the heads up. Now fixed

Sage advice, I'll wait for the dust to settle. Are more people really going to download if posted to the release forum though??? A big, big thank you to all of you who've been involved so far. Testing, suggesting, inspiring, configuring, texturing... Its an absolute pleasure!

Yeah, I was afraid of that... I'll leave it here, I think.

Cheers, been a long time coming! For most people, yes. Not if you've already been using the dev parts.

Yeah, the meccanum no worky yet btw, I may have just released 1.8 beta... At what point does one post a release thread in the general add-ons forum?

All aboard the hype tank....

I'll think you'll find scaling it like that (or at all) won't work without some some funny stuff happening. I've never tried running wheels on anything but EC, but I think that looks OK. What happens when you try the part in game?

If you'd like to model and texture something I can certainly rig it up and configure for you, it doesn't take me long Only caveat is that the model needs to be symmetrical left to right for that kind of mounting, but that shouldn't be too much of a hardship with that design. The KF plugin does the steering like that as standard, so it'll be a good choice.

Thanks guys, I run out of inspiration sometimes

Certainly lots of options and the repulsors definitely deserve some love having been a bit overlooked while I've been messing with tracks and wheels. Effects tied to how hard they're working would be really cool. Also, anyone got any ideas for texture to put in the marked places on the rover body? Hint: This is the last thing on my list before hitting the RELEASE button. EDIT: sebi.zzr , you will be able to use a transform called Grid, but I believe this was changed since 1.7, so do hang fire for the moment, I think it's changed since 1.7. It may have been called Mesh001 previously, but I can't confirm without spending a lot of time digging around.

Ah, I see. Koosmonaut is right, they're not engines and have no thrust transform. I'll have a look in the model though, there may be a conveniently placed transform you can use to play around.

Not really sure what you mean?

Wow, that's an essay even by your standards, Gaalidas! I'll need a big mug if coffee before tackling that one. The vernor engine uses one resource, so I wonder if I things have changed now to make things easier without phantom resources... I'll have a quick look in the config. I did look at procedural tracks briefly, but due to the nature of how the skinned mesh works to simulate movement with the suspension and the texture is rotated to give the idea that its actually rotating, its pretty much impossible. There's a small chance the width might be configurable, but that's about as far as it would ever go. And before anyone says "yeah, but can't you just...": you try rigging up even a standard track, then tell me how that's going to work out The good news is we have tweakscale working, so that will open up lots of design possibilities for you with the next release, and there are more designs to choose from.

I guess ion engines are about as close as it gets to electric propulsion. Not really my field, and would need a far different mechanism than the repulsors which actually do work against gravity. I think the standard engine modules can be converted to run on electriccharge easily enough with some config bashing (though I could be wrong). If that's the case, it would be easy enough to produce something whether you deem it atmospheric only (fans) or otherwise. I've been trying to find some scientific papers on grip vs ground pressure, but not a lot is easily forthcoming. I can't really see where low ground contact pressure gives any advantage to low gravity traction beyond what it does in normal gravity situations, though. It's sort of modelled with the use of multiple colliders, and last time I checked a tracked vehicle was able to climb some decent slopes. It's hard to gauge, and I'd hate to up it to stock flippy-crashy-boom-boom levels

It's a bit of a balancing act with all of these things. Settings that work on one world are useless on another; the TR-2L's are a great example of this. They have enough grip to work in low gravity (though still arguably too much), but put them anywhere near a normal gravity world and they're useless and flip craft quicker than even Jeb can manage. Tracks tend to be a bit more stable due to the negative feedback the steering method gives. In reality, I think, tracks would be rather useless in low grav because of their inherent low ground pressure, where actually skinny bike wheels would be a much better option for traction... But it's a game with reckless little green aliens with the body conformation of a fig roll & an impossibly big skull, it's supposed to be fun and tracks look cool, so I've tried to hit something in the middle.

Great, thanks for that. Always been a bit reluctant to add magic forces, I have to admit, but an inverse repulsor might not be a bad idea; it would sit well with the advanced sci-fi tech of the repulsors.

Yes please, that'd be handy

Cheers Yep, smaller tracks and wheels in next update. Very cool, I've been following your progress for a while now! Keep up the good work

I have an idea for a new APU model, but nothing solid yet. A nicer sound than the annoying stock jet would be great too!

Cheers dude, won't be long now