Idea to make rovers usefull

[marcello639]

So as i believe really good way to make rovers really useful are to add caves. To explore them and gather science must use rovers. Also that adds another good reason to use lights and fuel cells, because there are permanent darkness.

 

To make caves nice and interesting for exploring, they should be new mini biomes. Inside caves could be crystals or other objects of interests, maybe eastern eggs.   Since each cave are new biome should bring all science equipment on rover. No real reason to fly in using EVA mono propellant  or trying to hover in with rocket (very hard thing to do).

Also they shouldn't be a lot maybe 10 per planet, but there have to be a way to easy find them. For that i have 2 ideas how to implement that :

• Discover with orbital scanner as anomaly and then add marker in map view
  OR
• To receive as Mission - Explore cave located on planet X at location Y (also marker in map view), to complete are needed to take surface sample (or crystal sample or whatever can be found only in caves) and do A,B,C experiments and recover them at Kerbin.

Edited January 31, 2016 by marcello639

[mattssheep4]

I like the idea a lot, but based on my understanding of how planets are generated, that might not be possible. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the surface is created by adjusting values that correspond to the distance from either the center of the planet or the surface of the sphere that is the basis for the planet. Either way, making caves might not be possible because of the difficulties in having more than one point on the line from the center to the surface.

[MKI]

I doubt the current engine would support caves where the "ground" curves to be basically on top of each other.

 

Aren't rovers already useful for Specialized contracts where you need to gather information in a small area all on land? They don't need to come back, don't need to fly, and need to move. So Kerbals, planes/rockets and landers are out of the question. 

Edited February 1, 2016 by MKI

[AbacusWizard]

If I understand planet generation correctly, caves could be done, but they'd have to be hand-crafted add-ons (like the buildings at the Space Center or the arch on Mun) rather than part of the "ground." Might be fun to drive around in.

[tater]

Why would you explore caves in a vehicle? There are caves on earth, and people generally don't intentionally drive into them.

Not that rilles, and uncollapsed lave tubes would not be cool. They don't add much reason for rovers though.

I think honestly a better reason would be to have kernels that could do stuff on their own.  Then, instead of merely clicking to collect a sample, you'd turn them loose on EVA, and they'd walk around doing stuff near the lander. Add a rover, and they drive it around. Science gains would then be based on the crew type (scientists gather more), and the area they EVA around (perhaps at this point you place a time limit on EVA time, so you can go farther with a rover in the same time, or indefinitely with a rover with a cabin).

The player could always chose to drive, obviously.

[Andem]

The current system doesn't allow for that kind of generation, but it would be nice to have. I would assume more people would be spelunking rather than rovering through caves, but it is a nice idea to add to the list of [MAKE ROVERS USEFUL ALREADY!]

[Hannu2]

Caves and other 3D terrain would be very great. However, it would need a massive and expensive graphical overhaul to implement them in the game. Practically totally new and much more complicated surface model for planets and procedural terrain generator. It has been suggested many times and Squad knows that (I thought it is in do not suggest -list). We will see if they decide to try after migration, but I would not hold my breath during waiting.