Can we get rid of the stupid exploding struts and landing gear

[KerikBalm]

Its still just as ridiculous as ever in 1.1.3

I've spent the last 2 hours trying to dock something in space that happens to have wheels on it... it always has a chain reaction of exploding rover wheels at the slightest touch.

Meanwhile my ISRU craft on the surface of Mun has its landing legs explode if you press G to retract them, and then press g a few seconds later to extend them again...

I've never seen the broken animation for landing legs since 1.1... they are just fine or explode.

I've fine with certain stresses and tolerances... but can we go back ot wheels and struts breaking in a repairable fashion, instead of ridiculousing exploding as if they are glass vials of nitro-glycerin?!

 

It was really annoying... I spent a lot of time making sure this system of rovers could be loaded and unloaded on laythe/duna/Mun...

I launch 3 of them, and have 1 craft to shuttle them around. The first was already in the cargobay, and it was time to load the next into the cargobay... in orbit.. it should be easier than driving it up a ramp, no?

 

And the wheels exploded about then

Easy does it:

going gently...

but nope... they exploded

 

This was the closest I came before I went into the files and added a zero to all the tolerances of the wheels:

So close... yet it still had some gear explode shortly after that picture

Edited June 25, 2016 by KerikBalm

[thereaverofdarkness2]

The wheels explode because they read their contact spin velocity as being equal to the craft's surface velocity relative to the ground underneath it. I'm almost certain it would be a simple matter to program in a better method for determining spin speed, but more importantly there's little problem with simply allowing them to turn at infinite RPM like landing gear, and letting their impact velocity determine whether or not they explode.

I'd like to see all parts capable of reaching a broken state before they explode. It could be neat if part of your rocket breaks and becomes inoperable but it's still attached and so you still have to carry the mass. But stabilize it and send your engineer out on a spacewalk and you can fix it.

 

The landing gear is unrelated and I don't have a clue why it's exploding. I've not had problems with landing gear exploding, but you might check to make sure no other parts are clipping through the landing gear.

[KerikBalm]

well, the legs are trying to lift the ISRU up after I let it "drop" to rest directly on the ground... rather than lifting it back up, they overstress and explode...