Planning a rover parts pack. Need some opinions and such!

[Kenobi McCormick]

Ever since the addition of stock rover wheels I've been longing for a set of structural and power parts oriented towards making rovers easier to build and more practical. Better than slapping wheels/tank tracks/whatever to aircraft fuselages and steel plates, basically. It's simple enough to make such items, within...if only just...my skillset. So I'm going to attempt it.

 

 

What I want to know before I get Blender and Unity set up is:

 

1: What sort of parts does the community want in such a pack? My personal wishlist:

 

• Chassis plates in varying sizes
• Geometric panels of varying sizes and shapes to make bodywork out of(Very lightweight, not very substantial)
• Headlights
• Taillights
• Powerplants
• Fuel tanks
• Solar panels
• Science modules
• KIS/KAS storage modules
• A MJ unit
• Crash structures to keep kerbals safe and sound
• Cabins with a useable IVA, perhaps also open topped ones designed around the command seat
• Decouplers and docking ports

 

2: Should I attempt to include matching wheels for it? My idea is not to make a pre-fabbed rover like so many other mods along this line, more something that you can use to make your rover. That being said it might not be a bad idea to toss some wheels into the mix as well.

 

3: Tech tree integration. Given that we figured out how to put four wheels, a power system and basic forward-back-left-right controls on something before we figured out how to make a working liquid fuelled rocket engine, I'm thinking they should be VERY early in the tech tree. One of the first nodes unlocked, in fact, at least for enough parts to build cars with. Ya'll's thoughts?

4: I'm thinking they should get their own tab in the editor. Agree y/n?

 

If there's anything I didn't mention that you feel should be, feel free to add it in!

[artwhaley]

This sounds like a GREAT idea!  I'd add to your list - rover delivery systems!  Some of the dumbest things I've built in KSP were contraptions to land a rover safely!   That could mean skycranes, petal lander enclosures, some sort of 'garage' with a deployable ramp...  lots of options... but ways to get rovers places that don't involve landing a 2 legged rocket and letting it fall over, or building a structure twice as big as your rover just to set it down.

[Angelo Kerman]

I did something similar with the Buffalo. One suggestion would be to have a trailer hitch, like a docking port. Wheels that turn 90 degrees would be cool too, so you can do something like NASA's MMSEV (I am waiting for 1.1 to do that). Perhaps combined functions such as crew modules with solar panels, chassis with batteries, that sort of thing.

[Randazzo]

12 hours ago, artwhaley said:

This sounds like a GREAT idea!  I'd add to your list - rover delivery systems!  Some of the dumbest things I've built in KSP were contraptions to land a rover safely!   That could mean skycranes, petal lander enclosures, some sort of 'garage' with a deployable ramp...  lots of options... but ways to get rovers places that don't involve landing a 2 legged rocket and letting it fall over, or building a structure twice as big as your rover just to set it down.

I second the delivery systems suggestion.

But I would also suggest waiting until 1.1 drops before you start working on the wheels.

[Angelo Kerman]

1 minute ago, Randazzo said:

I second the delivery systems suggestion.

But I would also suggest waiting until 1.1 drops before you start working on the wheels.

I second that. Making wheels is the current KSP has been... challenging.

[CobaltWolf]

A frame based on the one from the ExoMars rover would be cool.

Edited January 8, 2016 by CobaltWolf

[monstah]

It's most likely more complicated than what you indend to make, but keep in your head for future: parts to enable a rocker-bogie suspension to be built.

[eddiew]

Rover science modules for sure. Either that track range from last use and require multiple runs at n metres apart, or just demand the prescence of wheels. Option one is far cooler, two is assuredly easier. Both would be ideal to avoid hoppers  

[swjr-swis]

1. Parts

• Some sort of tracks, instead of wheels. We seem to have enough wheels already (did I really just say that?), but I am definitely missing tracks as an option. Should offer better traction and more resistant to breakage than wheels, maybe at the cost of speed (but some tanks can outrun cars, so...)
• Rollbars, or a rollcage. I can fake them with stock parts, but something lean and specific for the job with a nice model and fitting crash tolerance would be good.
• Some small low-profile, low-thrust surface attachable units that can be pointed up to keep rovers pinned to the ground on low gravity moons. Should use monoprop at a low steady rate, and automatically toggle on when the rover starts moving and off when at standstill. Probably needs some way to ensure they don't get abused as OP vtol type constructs (like only thrust when pointing to space).

1. Wheels - Wait for 1.1, Unity 5 will change these a lot.
2. Tech tree should start off at the first tier, agreed. but you could add more powerful or more form factors as more advanced options later in the tree.
3. Agreed with a separate tab in the editor.

 

Other than that: I know you're talking rovers as in the space exploration type, but since some of us also like to goof off in unrealistic but fun ways, having things like big showy side exhausts or bonnet-top intakes, or V16 blocks... would certainly add to the fun.

[Kenobi McCormick]

6 hours ago, eddiew said:

Rover science modules for sure. Either that track range from last use and require multiple runs at n metres apart, or just demand the prescence of wheels. Option one is far cooler, two is assuredly easier. Both would be ideal to avoid hoppers  

Mmm, maybe. If it needs a plugin I don't know when, or even if, I'll get around to it. Part.cfg is easymode, making a mesh that KSP accepts is something I can do. I did dabble with this once, back in the twighlight hours of 0.17, and got something working ingame:

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/nk2EI.jpg

 

8 hours ago, monstah said:

It's most likely more complicated than what you indend to make, but keep in your head for future: parts to enable a rocker-bogie suspension to be built.

I'm honestly not a fan of rocker-bogie suspension. I might dabble with it but it's pretty low on the list. First priority is torsion bar tracks, below that double wishbone independent suspension.

8 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

One suggestion would be to have a trailer hitch, like a docking port.

Second wave of parts, possibly. I don't want to give myself too steep a learning curve and end up killing the project before it gets off the ground, so the first release is gonna be pretty basic in all. Chassis parts and other such things that really only need a mesh, texture and part.cfg at first. Once I've gotten a hang of making parts with those I'll tackle things like hitches. FWIW I would dearly love to have a few hitches myself, bumper and fifth wheel alike, so it is something I will explore as I learn more.

 

 

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Wheels that turn 90 degrees would be cool too, so you can do something like NASA's MMSEV (I am waiting for 1.1 to do that).

 

 

Definitely down the road. Post 1.1 for sure, possibly 1.2 depending on how long it takes me to learn how to make such parts/work the Unity editor.

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Perhaps combined functions such as crew modules with solar panels, chassis with batteries, that sort of thing.

 

This is easily enough done in part.cfg and I was planning on including basic functionality in parts beyond just being structural. Might not put solar panels on crew modules, instead embed them in the body panels. Batteries in chassis, yes, very good idea there and something I'll probably do.

 

 

1 hour ago, swjr-swis said:

1. Parts

• Some sort of tracks, instead of wheels. We seem to have enough wheels already (did I really just say that?), but I am definitely missing tracks as an option. Should offer better traction and more resistant to breakage than wheels, maybe at the cost of speed (but some tanks can outrun cars, so...)

I am a huge fan of tracked vehicles, actually, so I was planning on at least one tank hull designed for the long tracks from the Kerbal Foundries mod. Making my own would likely require the KF plugin at minimum, is something I've considered. Wouldn't mind just ripping the tracks off a T-34/85 and equalizing the diameters of the drive and idler sprockets to remove handedness(The drive is much larger than the idler, would look funky with mirror symmetry on). But those are gonna be in the future, and likely break in 1.1 as they do rely on the wheel module that's going to drastically change.

 

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• Rollbars, or a rollcage. I can fake them with stock parts, but something lean and specific for the job with a nice model and fitting crash tolerance would be good.

Yes, yes. Not sure if I should design them to be the actual bodywork, like you'd find on a side-by-side ATV, or for them to be embedded within a shell made of those flimsy geometric panels.

 

 

Quote

 

• Some small low-profile, low-thrust surface attachable units that can be pointed up to keep rovers pinned to the ground on low gravity moons. Should use monoprop at a low steady rate, and automatically toggle on when the rover starts moving and off when at standstill. Probably needs some way to ensure they don't get abused as OP vtol type constructs (like only thrust when pointing to space).

Maybe. A plugin would be required, I think...and, hell, I may not worry about trying to ensure they're only used to keep rovers pinned down. I like seeing the creative ways people abuse parts to do things they were never intended to do.

 

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1. Wheels - Wait for 1.1, Unity 5 will change these a lot.

I eagerly await 1.1 mostly for this. This, and 64bit Windows.

 

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Tech tree should start off at the first tier, agreed. but you could add more powerful or more form factors as more advanced options later in the tree.

 

 

Mmhm. I was thinking you'd only really be able to build a basic little manned runabout that could drive around on the surface of Kerbin. I'm not overly concerned with making it too easy to do rover science offworld because the parts necessary to get a car onto another orbital body come late enough in the tree to negate the issue.

 

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Agreed with a separate tab in the editor.

 

Haha, yeah, my editor is cluttered to hell and back with all the mods I've got in. Dumping these parts into the vanilla categories would be easy on my end and a nightmare on the player's. I wonder if I could do sub-tabs...

 

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Other than that: I know you're talking rovers as in the space exploration type, but since some of us also like to goof off in unrealistic but fun ways, having things like big showy side exhausts or bonnet-top intakes, or V16 blocks... would certainly add to the fun.

 

 

I didn't send anything into space pretty much since the game skipped to 0.90. By then most of my playtime was spent bombing around KSC in rovers. Or sometimes building tanks to shoot at things with. KV-2 turret is fun :3

 

Dress up parts are certainly a possibility. Part of the goal of this project is to make it possible to make cars. I'm tired of aircraft fuselages with wheels strapped on. I want to send Jeb a muscle car, and I want to make that muscle car easy to build and give it a practical purpose(hence the science stuff in the trunk). Suffice it to say the powerplants aren't gonna look very NASA-esque. More 'Smallblock chevy with a generator on the back'. Functionally they'll be fuel cells but they'll look...and perhaps sound if I can wrap my head around plugins...like engines.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2016 by Kenobi McCormick

[legoclone09]

These are great, but maybe a camera compatible with that camera mod? (forget what it is called)

[swjr-swis]

10 hours ago, legoclone09 said:

These are great, but maybe a camera compatible with that camera mod? (forget what it is called)

Hullcam VDS perhaps?

[legoclone09]

3 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

Hullcam VDS perhaps?

Yes, that's what I was thinking of, thank you.

[John FX]

A part with a large amount of torque but which will only use that torque to flip the vehicle back the right way up on command...