Reasonably short Rover Racing Challenge

[Ekku Zakku]

It's all stock, so yeah, brute force with a lot of wheels and wings, with ASAS to control the wings XD gotta keep it going straight, or else it'll catch and flip out. I can max out around 180 m/s, but then that gets REALLY iffy lol.

[Nao]

Ah ok i drive stock too . I kept improving my car and just managed to get through the first 25km towards mountains at 160m/s with terrain detail set to high.

One of my biggest problems was that at that speeds the gear would clip through ground if I was falling to cquicly .But just now I managed to perfect my gear to be able to survive higher jumps (and even provide a "second life" if i mess up), i use no wings thou, everything revolves around the most fun part in KSP, the Structural Pylon

On what terrain settings do you drive Ekku ?

Edit: KSP started crashing on me. And I had such nice runs, maybe it's the buggy pylon that causes memory leaks, as i saw some glitches while driving, but still Idk when will be the next time ill have time to play ... chikusho!

It feels I'm spending 1/2 of time flying rather than driving

<- one of the standard "air times"

Edited May 2, 2013 by Nao

[Ekku Zakku]

I've been doing 170 up to the mountains now, I figured since that's the shortest stint, I might as well go full throttle, doesn't matter if I crash and burn. It's only past the mountains where I need to be careful =P it's odd though, it seems like after a certain amount of time, my whole rover just decides to crash on the smallest bumps. Also decides to crash my game as well XD

I'm playing on max settings for everything btw.

Edited May 2, 2013 by Ekku Zakku

[Nao]

Haha yeah it feels like there is a part fatigue system. Things get bent and become prone to braking after some hard driving

180m/s on the mountains ... I'm looking forward to seeing your craft

Cheers!

[localSol]

Oh, these new posts are good news to me. I didnt realize there was difference between the terrain detail settings, and assumed they were all the same at close distance but not far, due to LOD.. - but it isnt that way, you say, so i've got to try high detail again. I was using default, never got game crashes but a rare suspension snapping, normal, but noticed it happened slightly more often at 2x time acceleration , and much more at 3x and 4x..yeah the physics inaccuracies. Except for the first trip toward the mountains I couldn't really use time compression and liked it that way..

170, 180? At some point you get the 'is it a car, or is it a rolling projectile feeling.

[Ekku Zakku]

170, 180? At some point you get the 'is it a car, or is it a rolling projectile feeling.

It's a self-propulsed projectile with wheels, for the most part XD

Also Nao, I slow down when I get to the mountains, but I get to them at 170 m/s lol. It only goes 180 on flat ground, I should probably edit my last post there lol.

[1096bimu]

This should be a record, I did it in 11 minutes and 20 seconds with moded vehicle. But since I went above 2000 meters, I get a 15 minutes reduction. Which means my final time is:

NEGATIVE 3 Minutes and 40 Seconds. Or 0 Minutes and 0 Seconds

So I arrived before I left the runway, What medal should I get?

This vehicle is 400m/s capable on flat ground. I'm using MechJeb so I can limit it to 250 because the slops sometimes screw up my down force and can cause serious accidents.

Edited May 18, 2013 by 1096bimu

[Darren9]

This should be a record, I did it in 11 minutes and 20 seconds with moded vehicle. But since I went above 2000 meters, I get a 15 minutes reduction. Which means my final time is:

NEGATIVE 3 Minutes and 40 Seconds. Or 0 Minutes and 0 Seconds

So I arrived before I left the runway, What medal should I get?

~snip~

This vehicle is 400m/s capable on flat ground. I'm using MechJeb so I can limit it to 250 because the slops sometimes screw up my down force and can cause serious accidents.

Can I see horizontal lift parts there? I need to quote the OP

It's a rover race so no horizontal lift parts please, vertical only for steering/stability

It's a bit easier with up/down force from wing parts, that's a very fast time but I can't allow it under the original rules. We're not breaking the universe with negative time just yet

[1096bimu]

Can I see horizontal lift parts there? I need to quote the OP

It's a bit easier with up/down force from wing parts, that's a very fast time but I can't allow it under the original rules. We're not breaking the universe with negative time just yet

I don't think that's the correct way to interpret OP's post. The idea is that you need to be DRIVING and not flying. With the down force I have, I think I totally qualify as driving because the slightest bit of flying will send my vehicle into a fatal accident.

If you really want to stick to the letters, well OP never said you can't make a flying VTOL so if that's what you want I'll just do that instead?

There, no horizontal lift parts. And yes, this is a rover, it does have two tiny wheels on the command pod.

Edited May 18, 2013 by 1096bimu

[Darren9]

I don't think that's the correct way to interpret OP's post. The idea is that you need to be DRIVING and not flying. With the down force I have, I think I totally qualify as driving because the slightest bit of flying will send my vehicle into a fatal accident.

If you really want to stick to the letters, well OP never said you can't make a flying VTOL so if that's what you want I'll just do that instead?

There, no horizontal lift parts. And yes, this is a rover, it does have two tiny wheels on the command pod.

~snip~

Umm, I made the OP - can I have my interpretation please

This discussion about up and down force Lift parts happened already on page one/two, there was already an accepted decision that they weren't allowed, and a craft was changed. I don't think I should back down now. If you really think a rover two wheels that flies should qualify, well, I don't! It can be a problem that I didn't cover every possible loophole in the text, or we can go with the "spirit of a rover race" as I intended it.

[Splode]

Op just looks dumb now, doesn't understand how cars work and is too stubborn to fix the challenge. Nice entries though, everybody! I'm amazed at how quickly you can move asking the heroine ends not snag yourself to pieces.

[1096bimu]

Umm, I made the OP - can I have my interpretation please

This discussion about up and down force Lift parts happened already on page one/two, there was already an accepted decision that they weren't allowed, and a craft was changed. I don't think I should back down now. If you really think a rover two wheels that flies should qualify, well, I don't! It can be a problem that I didn't cover every possible loophole in the text, or we can go with the "spirit of a rover race" as I intended it.

It is no longer up to you once you have written the challenge. If the OP says I qualify then I qualify. The only possible debate would be over interpretation. You can argue that spoilers count as horizontal lift parts but you never said the rover can't fly with VTOL.

Now if VTOL doesn't count, fine, I have another one that isn't VTOL and doesn't have wings. now do I qualify?

[Darren9]

It is no longer up to you once you have written the challenge. If the OP says I qualify then I qualify. The only possible debate would be over interpretation. You can argue that spoilers count as horizontal lift parts but you never said the rover can't fly with VTOL.

Now if VTOL doesn't count, fine, I have another one that isn't VTOL and doesn't have wings. now do I qualify?

~snip~

I'm sorry mate but you can't get onto the scoreboard if you fly, the same as it's already been decided (without such a fuss from anyone, or randoms appearing in the thread telling me what I don't understand) that you also can't boat the course or have horizontal lift parts. I do understand it's harder to make a rover go as fast with no up or down horizontal lift parts - That's why it's there.

It's just a challenge, if you believe you've completed it satisfactorily then award yourself the appropriate medal. If you believe it's a bad challenge or I'm unfair then don't enter and find/make a better one. If you want to go on the scoreboard drive the whole course with no horizontal lift parts.

Is there really a rule that says I can't judge my own challenge, or change it if I want (even though I haven't), or must have a precise legally binding description? I didn't realize this bit of fun was so serious.

[1096bimu]

I'm sorry mate but you can't get onto the scoreboard if you fly, the same as it's already been decided (without such a fuss from anyone, or randoms appearing in the thread telling me what I don't understand) that you also can't boat the course or have horizontal lift parts. I do understand it's harder to make a rover go as fast with no up or down horizontal lift parts - That's why it's there.

It's just a challenge, if you believe you've completed it satisfactorily then award yourself the appropriate medal. If you believe it's a bad challenge or I'm unfair then don't enter and find/make a better one. If you want to go on the scoreboard drive the whole course with no horizontal lift parts.

Is there really a rule that says I can't judge my own challenge, or change it if I want (even though I haven't), or must have a precise legally binding description? I didn't realize this bit of fun was so serious.

spoilers don't generate lift. Besides, is it still horizontal if it is more than 45 degrees vertical? What counts as flying and what counts as driving? I'm sure all of the previous entries had at least some air time. you really nee to fix your challenge, cuz that's why it was all the way down to 5th page.

[Ekku Zakku]

Do you really have to argue with the OP? What he has set out to say in the rules makes sense, and while downforce does make this challenge easier, it was the OP's intentions to ban it as to make it harder for people to get negative times. Also I would like to correct you and say that spoilers do in fact generate lift, just in the opposite direction from planes. Ever heard how F1 cars can drive upside-down in a tunnel because of downforce?

Also yes, air-time is definitely there in everybody's entries, that's just the nature of travelling over hilly terrain at high speeds. The challenge comes from not destroying the rover when landing from a jump. However, FLYING is not in the nature of a ROVER challenge. Intentionally flying for any distance is not allowed, air time from jumps is ok. The Baja 1000 has plenty of jumps, would that make it ok for competitors in that race to strap wings and an engine to their cars and fly to the finish line?

The degree to which some people can be dense is remarkable. Just learn when to give in, you can't win every fight.