[WIP] The Martian Ares Rover

[Mecripp]

7 hours ago, -ctn- said:

Fixed the solar panels not producing energy, but because there can only be one transform for the suncatcher, you have to be in the "exact" right spot for the panels to work. I may just remove the texture and intend for folks to layer the stock, flat solar panels on the part. I'm not "that" keen on using the module from Near-Future to get around it. 

 

 

But, I did drive around 5km during a Kerbin night, to test it out. Still haven't gotten my own wheels in or worked out the trailer/hitch thing, but hey! Progress.

Why can't you have the top solar on the part which would be good and couldn't you have the side panels people could put on by nodes ?

[-ctn-]

That may work. I'm going to see if I can get NFS's curved solar panel module to work with it first. 

I also had the idea that it might have not worked because of part clipping, the way I attached the trailer part in that screenshot is by putting it on the Flatbed and using the offset tool. I suspect that may or may not have messed with the panel/solar module. I'll check it out when I get home from work. I want to avoid any "super specific" instructions for it to work. I'd much rather it works "out of the box," if you know what I mean.

 

Edit: if you compare the blender pictures with the in-game pictures,  you'll notice the model in game is flat shaded / more angled than it should be. Is there a reason for this? Am I overlooking something? 

Edited February 2, 2016 by -ctn-

[selfish_meme]

1 hour ago, -ctn- said:

That may work. I'm going to see if I can get NFS's curved solar panel module to work with it first. 

I also had the idea that it might have not worked because of part clipping, the way I attached the trailer part in that screenshot is by putting it on the Flatbed and using the offset tool. I suspect that may or may not have messed with the panel/solar module. I'll check it out when I get home from work. I want to avoid any "super specific" instructions for it to work. I'd much rather it works "out of the box," if you know what I mean.

 

Edit: if you compare the blender pictures with the in-game pictures,  you'll notice the model in game is flat shaded / more angled than it should be. Is there a reason for this? Am I overlooking something? 

I have built a lot of Rovers to work on Duna. The stock wheels suspension are too stiff for Duna's surface, making it very easy to roll. In stock you can get around this by adding on weak part between the wheel and the frame, like Spider engines, the more Spider engines, the more supple the suspension. You could make your wheel part with much more supple suspension. Another trick I use is to add a Jet engine pointed upwards, this lowers the CG of the rover making it much less likely to tip, you could add this to the bottom frame of yours. Long rover trips on Duna are very likely to induce a roll, somewhere as you just trim the w key to keep the rover moving.

[-ctn-]

If I can get the suspension working correctly, it will have more "give" than the stock wheels. The heavy flatbed will also help with center of gravity, I plan to tweak all that to create an easy rover to drive once I get the main parts and functions in game. (Read; wheels and hatch for the cabin)

The idea is that the entire thing can be shipped to Duna in an adequately sized KIS storage container and then assembled on-site easily. Then driven around Duna fairly easily, unless of course you drive down the rim of Schiaparelli crater. 

[ComatoseJedi]

1 hour ago, -ctn- said:

If I can get the suspension working correctly, it will have more "give" than the stock wheels. The heavy flatbed will also help with center of gravity, I plan to tweak all that to create an easy rover to drive once I get the main parts and functions in game. (Read; wheels and hatch for the cabin)

The idea is that the entire thing can be shipped to Duna in an adequately sized KIS storage container and then assembled on-site easily. Then driven around Duna fairly easily, unless of course you drive down the rim of Schiaparelli crater. 

[-ctn-]

Yes, absolutely. And then you spend a good fifteen minutes mashing all the SAS keys to try to right yourself somehow, and the resign to reverting to the last save or hyper editing yourself back to all fours. 

[-ctn-]

UPDATE:

Worked on getting the ugly triangles/faces on the cabin to display properly, looks better in-game now. There's some weird texture stuff going on, I'll address that later. Took some shots on Duna just for funsies. Solar panel/battery works, but is very finnicky. Doesn't charge at it's full rate, but it does charge, however.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping I can get to work on the new suspension model for the wheels, rework the attachment nodes for the flatbed/trailer, and maybe get the hatch/airlock module working on the cabin, so Kerbals and climb in/out.

 

[The_Doctor_John_Smith]

How many pirate ninjas is this thing gonna consume? How far can it go?

[-ctn-]

Uh, twelve? As much as I'd love to give an answer, KSP doesn't handle electricity like the real world. So unfortunately, it's capable of as many pirate-ninjas as you want.

A full battery will drive you about five kilometers over flat ground, as I said earlier. That might change, though.

[ComatoseJedi]

Flat ground? On Duna? That would break the game!

[-ctn-]

Actually I did roll it going down a hill, and I haven't set the crash tolerance to an acceptable level, so the three kerbals inside blew up with the cabin. 

Not sure how much charge to put in the battery. It's just set to 1000 right now. 

[ComatoseJedi]

Never really states in anything how many pirate ninjas are in those rovers. Only that it takes 12 hours with all the solar panels he had. But, he did, however, shove more batteries into the rover's back seat and used the NTG to help with recharge. Obviously, you aren't running an atmospheric regulator, oxygenator or water reclaimer along with this. So 1000 is a good round number. 

Probably be a nice addition to have a place to put a "crane" on this too, by using one of the canadarm mods. 

Edited February 3, 2016 by ComatoseJedi

[-ctn-]

The movie states that one of the rovers can last 35 kilometers before needing to be recharged at the Hab.

In other news, I still suck at wheels, and I'm having trouble getting the hatch module to work. It'd be nice if any of this went well the first couple of times.

[amankd]

the stock wheels system will work well once 1.1 comes out, so i wouldnt dev in KF for risk of it not being compatable

 

[ComatoseJedi]

I don't envy your frustration. At least you don't have to listen to disco the entire time you're making this thing. 

[-ctn-]

Actually, after buying the soundtracks for The Martian and getting the missing songs from Harry Gregson-Williams, every time "Love Train" comes on my playlist, I have to listen to it at least once.

[amankd]

as for the hatches there is somthig REALLY wrong with them, 3 other modders i kow are having the issue where addign a hatch prevents the game from loading, its killing me

[-ctn-]

Well, the game loaded just fine - but it acted as if I never put a hatch there. The kerbal inside could not come out and the kerbal standing outside could not "board" the rover. 

[njmksr]

Nice! Glad to see that the rover's coming along  

Will gull-wing doors be included?

[-ctn-]

No, I plan to make it work like every other hatch in the game. 

[njmksr]

1 minute ago, -ctn- said:

No, I plan to make it work like every other hatch in the game. 

Ok. I was just wondering.

BTW, have you talked to whoever's in charge of Kerbal Foundries these days about your wheel problem?

Edited February 5, 2016 by njmksr

[-ctn-]

I have not yet.

And sorry, but I was just thinking that an animation of the door opening wouldn't really fit in-game. If there were animations of Kerbals getting in/out of other craft, then maybe, but it's just unnecessary work and I think it would make entering / exiting the vehicle a little too tedious. 

I'm more worried about getting the hatch to actually work first, than about the wheels or any "extra features" like animations or light modules. 

 

I'm not too clear on what the wheel issue is, I just know that if I try it from scratch, the wheels are sideways upon loading and immediately flip the rover if you try to move. 

If if I use an example wheel project in Unity and replace the mesh with my own, it tends to work properly (although still unbalanced) but it seems to be scaled up a certain factor, which I cannot figure out. 

Edited February 5, 2016 by -ctn-

[V8jester]

54 minutes ago, -ctn- said:

I have not yet.

And sorry, but I was just thinking that an animation of the door opening wouldn't really fit in-game. If there were animations of Kerbals getting in/out of other craft, then maybe, but it's just unnecessary work and I think it would make entering / exiting the vehicle a little too tedious. 

I'm more worried about getting the hatch to actually work first, than about the wheels or any "extra features" like animations or light modules. 

 

I'm not too clear on what the wheel issue is, I just know that if I try it from scratch, the wheels are sideways upon loading and immediately flip the rover if you try to move. 

If if I use an example wheel project in Unity and replace the mesh with my own, it tends to work properly (although still unbalanced) but it seems to be scaled up a certain factor, which I cannot figure out. 

Hey ctn, an old dev just popped back up in the KF thread. Spanner. He has build several wheels as well as made a tutorial a while back. He is also a great resource.

[Virtualgenius]

@-ctn-To be honest I would hold off for the release of 1.1 they have done a major wheel rework and it may fix alot off the issues your having maybe even the hatch work your doing unity 5 is a lot better than what we have now and by the rumors getting around the upgrade is likely to break everything.

[njmksr]

4 hours ago, V8jester said:

Hey ctn, an old dev just popped back up in the KF thread. Spanner. He has build several wheels as well as made a tutorial a while back. He is also a great resource.

Spanner's back?

Yeah!