Need help with rover design!

[IriathZhul]

I need help with designing a good rover for the Mun. Every time I think I have a good grasp on the mechanics of it, the weirdness of driving in low gravity gets me.

So this is my rover in its current incarnation.

I'd love some stern critique of the design, since it handles like a unicycle on a skating rink. It is impossible to achieve a speed beyond 12-14 m/s because even at about 2-4 m/s, it starts to lean heavily to one side, and if I somehow keep it straight long enough to accelerate for a while, the back wheels begin to float off the ground. The rover will completely flip over if I don't lay up on the throttle. ...oddly enough, the rover is also capable of flipping itself upright even when upside-down.

Anyways, I'd love your input on wheel placement, mass distribution, basic rover principles, etc. Thanks!

[OdinYggd]

What you're seeing is the effects of your pod's torque.

Change your control mappings so that your driving controls are not the same as your maneuvering controls, that way using the rover wheels doesn't cause the whole craft to flip over.

I recently wrecked one of my rovers the same way.

[Tex_NL]

I have to agree with Odin. Re-map your rover keys from the standard WASD to something like IJKL. And disable steering on the rear wheels to make it steer more like a car.

[duncan1297]

I've noticed that if the gravity is to low and your rover isn't heavy enough it wont really grip the ground.

[ROFLCopter64bit]

You could just add some SAS (and ASAS?) and that would reduce the effects by some.

[Torham234]

First of all, as suggested remap your rover keys. After that, I highly recommend including ASAS and some RCS in the design. Even without the RCS, the ASAS will make your rover much stable, since it will try to keep it up with the command pod torque. When It trouble you can just hit RCS and with that the ASAS will keep it level short of total loss of control (like if you roll your rover at 50 m/s in microgravity). The RCS can also be helpful if you want extra friction for acceleration (you can "push" the rover downward) and as a effective emergency break when rolling downhill.

Here is one of my stablest rovers. It has 2 probe cores (for extra torque) and is build around the ASAS unit. It has quite a good store of RCS, but since I hardly ever switch it on, it can last for VERY long time. It is prefectly stable driving at 40 m/s over mountains on Mün.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Torham234

[Mastodon]

as others have said, go to the main menu, go to settings, and remap your controls. I went a different direction and made J and L my turn left and turn right and then made left shift and left ctrl my forwards and backwards. I like the fact that it forces me to use both hands on the keyboard at times as I too often get distracted panning the camera around with my mouse and end up wrecking. so this forces me to concentrate.

[TooManyErrors]

You guys do know that you can use docking mode.

Edited April 20, 2013 by TooManyErrors