Rover brakes?

[jnbspace]

How are rovers supposed to _stop_ moving?

I just built a craft to carry a rover to the Mun. So far so good, Landing was a bit iffy but it got there. I unload the rover and disconnect it. Before I can get a kerbal into the rover it then starts rolling spontaneously. That seems fair enough I probably should have brakes locked on or something but its OK because friction and a dip in the ground will then bring it to a natural halt. Except that it then accelerated wildly across the Mun surface before finally reaching about 30 m/s (about 110 kph!) and rolling 20 km travelling so fast that depressions in the ground didn't even slow it down. Eventually of course it tore itself apart. This was around the midland craters to the ground was pretty flat. In that 20km it fell maybe 200m in height so this is a barely perceptible slope!

So what's up here?

How should I make this thing actually stop? and, perhaps more interestingly, can a rover be made to have more realistic friction?

[Scarecrow71]

There are two ways to get the rover to stop, but both require you to have control of it AND you need a Kerbal or probe on it.  You can either:

1. Hold B until it stops, or
2. Click on the parking brake (to the left of the altimeter).

Alternatively, you could use retractable wheels and keep them retracted until you get a Kerbal seated.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Scarecrow71

[Stone Blue]

maybe? vOv
 

 

 

[king of nowhere]

19 hours ago, jnbspace said:

How are rovers supposed to _stop_ moving?

I just built a craft to carry a rover to the Mun. So far so good, Landing was a bit iffy but it got there. I unload the rover and disconnect it. Before I can get a kerbal into the rover it then starts rolling spontaneously. That seems fair enough I probably should have brakes locked on or something but its OK because friction and a dip in the ground will then bring it to a natural halt. Except that it then accelerated wildly across the Mun surface before finally reaching about 30 m/s (about 110 kph!) and rolling 20 km travelling so fast that depressions in the ground didn't even slow it down. Eventually of course it tore itself apart. This was around the midland craters to the ground was pretty flat. In that 20km it fell maybe 200m in height so this is a barely perceptible slope!

So what's up here?

How should I make this thing actually stop? and, perhaps more interestingly, can a rover be made to have more realistic friction?

the key for brake is B. s (as in, move backwards) also helps.

it may interest you that ksp does not model wheel drag. on a perfectly flat surface, you keep moving across a whole planet. so, you don't slow down spontaneously unless you are in an atmosphere, or unless you go uphill.

also notice that driving in low gravity is a different experience than driving an a terrestrial planet.

[jnbspace]

12 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

...

it may interest you that ksp does not model wheel drag. on a perfectly flat surface, you keep moving across a whole planet. so, you don't slow down spontaneously unless you are in an atmosphere, or unless you go uphill.

So the bottom line is no friction in KSP? Any mods to fix that? not to help apply brakes but to add friction into the system.

[Nazalassa]

8 hours ago, jnbspace said:

So the bottom line is no friction in KSP? Any mods to fix that? not to help apply brakes but to add friction into the system.

Right-click all wheels, toggle "Friction Control: auto" (it should become "override"), you should see a new bar ("friction control"), set it to 10 (or some high value) on (at least) the wheels after the CoM all the wheels. It should work better.

[king of nowhere]

9 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

Right-click all wheels, toggle "Friction Control: auto" (it should become "override"), you should see a new bar ("friction control"), set it to 10 (or some high value) on (at least) the wheels after the CoM all the wheels. It should work better.

it has downsides, though. wheel friction is not modeled well - not surprising, since this is a game about spacecraft. A vehicle with wheel drag may still roll indefinitely on a flat surface, but it may be prone to headtailing. it's a common advice for planes turning around on the runway to reduce drag on the front wheel, because that can mess up with the launch.

[jnbspace]

9 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

it has downsides, though. wheel friction is not modeled well - not surprising, since this is a game about spacecraft. A vehicle with wheel drag may still roll indefinitely on a flat surface, but it may be prone to headtailing. it's a common advice for planes turning around on the runway to reduce drag on the front wheel, because that can mess up with the launch.

Indefinitely rolling on a flat surface would be a problem but "headtailing" shouldn't be too much of a problem because this is for a rover that will probably be doing at most 10 ms-1. The aim is to (hopefully) not have the thing spontaneously reach takeoff speeds.

 

[king of nowhere]

8 hours ago, jnbspace said:

Indefinitely rolling on a flat surface would be a problem but "headtailing" shouldn't be too much of a problem because this is for a rover that will probably be doing at most 10 ms-1. The aim is to (hopefully) not have the thing spontaneously reach takeoff speeds.

 

if that is your goal, braking is the best - and simplest - option.

Edited May 1, 2023 by king of nowhere