Any one disappointed with rover parts?

[MennoLente]

It could be useful if the rovers could be simulated in the background. I always get so tired of sitting for half an hour so see it trip over some air and explode just when I am about to quicksave. Or just to be safe, I let it drive 5 m/s whole night, to see the next morning it flipped upside down five minutes after I went so sleep.

[Pontiac]

I've not done long drives yet with my Rover, however, the low gravity thing should make for interesting when I do get there. That said, the only disappointment I have with the stock wheels is there aren't enough for different purposes, and, what exists seems really fragile. I suppose it IS expected considering I never take the weight I wanted the wheels to take on, but, even when I started doubling up the wheels, they'd still pop regardless. So I had to go with a mod to get beefier tires. I'm not about the speed, just HAVING tires is nice.

.. although, now that I've figured out my landing procedures I should try to revert back to stock and see what happens?

[joppiesaus]

is there any way to keep a rover accelerating without mashing the W key?

map the keys! I have my rover controls at 8456 at the numberpad, it is just like my arrow keys!

[DMagic]

You're complaining that your space-rover, thousands of miles from home and with little chance of rescue if it should break, can only go fifty miles per hour? Y'know, if KSP were realistic we'd be lucky to get rovers that go 2m/s.

Actually, I think more like 2 m/hour is more realistic, at least for unmanned rovers. The Mars rovers crawl along, stopping to check and make adjustments constantly. Opportunity has been on Mars for over 9 years and has only moved about 35km, which is about 10 meters per day.

That said, if you want to keep from tipping over or veering off course make sure to do everything in docking mode, that way you aren't pitching to the sides when you accelerate or turn.

And for low gravity situations, like Minmus, you just have to accelerate slowly, just tap 'w' until your speed gets up. And be careful slowing down and turning, too, if you don't have a wide wheel base it can really be easy to tip over if you're not careful.

[segaprophet]

I wish there was an easier way to get symmetrical rover wheels - other than that, the new rover parts are great.

[Tw1]

I'm not about the speed, just HAVING tires is nice.

A tip: Use the aircraft gear as reinforcements to rover wheels. They can take a lot more impact, and hold the vehicle up while your kerbs go and fix the tires.

[Felsmak]

Oh yeah, and is it me or is that rover giving us the finger?

Oh, no. Rover ruined!

[Innuce]

Agreed. 20m/s in a rover is pretty fast!

[AmpsterMan]

Um... Rover wheels are awesome

/thread.

. In all seriousness I thought I was going pretty slow as I was cruising on the dunes of Mun at 20 m/s. Then I realized I was going 45 miles per hour, on a moon, off-road. If anything they are OP. It's kind of like the Ion engines; They seem weak until you compare them to RL. Then you realize it's just a matter of perspective.

[spikeyhat09]

What dissapoints me is the lack of cruise control and how easily they break. The modular wheels were just more useable for me since with a stable rover design i could just leave it on cruise control for hours.

they DO have cruise control. hold ALT + whatever button you have set to foward until the desired acceleration is achieved

edit: and if they break its because of poor design. reinforce them with struts and stuff. if they pop its because theres too much weight and not enough wheels.

Edited May 14, 2013 by spikeyhat09

[SkyHook]

Yep rover wheels are really cool, actually. Add many possibilities to the game.

[Tw1]

-Snip-

Something I also wondered about is, does the location of the probe control box thing affect how the rover drives? Not just from a weight perspective but also I want to saw "the way the probe's torque affects how the rover moves / rotates", maybe like the probe box acts as the pivot point for the rover so having it low and central provides better control than having it on the noise / tail (even if it's balanced right).

The probe core will affect the way the rover drives. This is why it is often recommended you remap the rover controls to something other than WASD.

Then, the center of mass is more important, unless you need to use the core's torque to help keep the rover stable.

[Caelib]

I think the parts that are there work fine -- I would just prefer more options ... like smaller LIGHTS and more options for assembling smaller rovers (smaller dish/antenna, wheels, panels, thrusters/fuel tanks, etc) and landing them. I would also like to see more science-related parts ... robotic arm, camera, oven, mining equipment, etc.

As far as travel speed -- rovers aren't meant to move quickly! You're supposed to land in close proximity to your exploration area.

[Anglave]

Also it is next to imposable to stay straight. on the mun my rover allways skids one direction or another even if i am going at a snailes pace.

You may have something aligned wrong. I've been experimenting with rover designs recently, and have a simple, stock 6-wheel rover (using two of the standard rover bodies) that drives and coasts straight and true. It's not particularly fast; I haven't tested a max speed, but the max safe speed is around 15m/s. However, I recently made a 2km trip on the surface of Mun, in just a few minutes.

[NeoMorph]

I wish there was an easier way to get symmetrical rover wheels - other than that, the new rover parts are great.

Get EdTools http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26233-Editor-Tools?highlight=edtools - You can hit the tab button and it switches to mirror mode like in the SPH. then hit X to align your symmetrical rover wheels.

[Mishkin_007]

I am. I find them very slow. the fastest rover I made can get up to about 20m/s. Using ion engnes and landing gears i could get up to 40m/s. Also it is next to imposable to stay straight. on the mun my rover allways skids one direction or another even if i am going at a snailes pace. in closing i dont like the rover parts because i could make better rovers before the update.

Negative comments in this forum about anything KSP related are very frowned upon. It's all sunshine and rainbows here.

/eyeroll

[RoboRay]

I wish there was an easier way to get symmetrical rover wheels - other than that, the new rover parts are great.

It's really easy, if you build your rovers in the SPH using the mirror symmetry.

[andysim212]

using Docking mode and Liner thrust mode can help with stability I found.

[SecondGuessing]

Negative comments in this forum about anything KSP related are very frowned upon. It's all sunshine and rainbows here.

/eyeroll

Complaining about issues is fine; saying that 20m/s is slow is just objectively dumb.

[allmappedout]

I love them and I don't mind their slowness either. Rovers aren't exactly made to impress the ladies with their speed.

Ladies are rarely impressed by men getting to their destination quickly...

[RoboRay]

Negative comments in this forum about anything KSP related are very frowned upon. It's all sunshine and rainbows here.

/eyeroll

You must not actually read the forum very much.

[Nuke]

i like em. they are more stable than the carts and modular wheel mods. they stick to the ground better and rovers dont fail catastrophically at high speed. also its a moon buggy, not a ferrari.

[AlternNocturn]

....Nnnnnno. Why would I be disappointed? They work exactly as they showed them in the dev streams. And you do realize 40 m/s is 90 miles an hour right? That's faster than highway speeds. There's no reason wheels designed for interplanetary roving should even need to go that fast.

I really don't see the point of this thread. If this were a legitimate complaint I'd understand, but this just seems like senseless whining.

[SmallChange]

Lol.. Kermmy Hagar can't rove 45.