Wheel of Death speed challenge

[ultra86]

WHEEL OF DEATH SPEED CHALLENGE!!

CURRENT LEADER BOARD

LAND

Darren 44.4 m/s

Pantbash 41.5 (all stock, bonus points for miraculous mostly-intact vertical stopping position)

NavalLacrosse 33.1 m/s (all stock)

Kaleb 28.4 m/s

Deejay 25.4 m/s

WATER

Darren 30.7 m/s

32 PROPELLER ENGINE'D TWIN AXLE QUAD DEATH WHEEL

Darren 70 m/s (impressive!!!)

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Build a wheel of death and take it to speeds unknown over land or water. Fastest speed overall wins. Despite the name of the challenge, your Kerbal must live!

Rules!

1. Ship must be in the shape of a wheel, and it must be propelled by spinning across the ground/water to gain traction.

2. To keep things fair (and your Kerbal alive) the entire run must be across a flat surface. Rolling down a mountain doesn't count.

3. All mods allowed. I haven't seen anything out there that would give someone an unfair advantage in this challenge. If it turns out I'm missing something we can adjust the rules.

4. It's ok if parts of your ship fly off or explode along the way (which they will), so long as your ship maintains a circular shape and keeps on trucking it counts (see 4th image, parts missing but ship still intact and functional). Screenshots that show high speeds and entire sections of your ship exploding will not count.

My max so far was 31.8 over land and 27.9 over water, making 31.8 the number to beat. I have to think someone will ultimately hit a faster speed over water. The land really starts to murder your ship at higher speeds, but who knows?!

This is my first time posting on this forum so please let me know if I left anything out. I hope you guys like the challenge and I hope to see some crazy screenshots/videos that make me laugh or step back in awe.

Last but not least.. the pics to prove it's possible!

Edited October 16, 2013 by ultra86

[Whackjob]

I win.

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

He said it must be on ground or water to have traction.

[Temeriki]

I win.

Craft file?

[ultra86]

Crazy looking ship Whackjob... but what Brody said is accurate.... The challenging part of the challenge is getting your ship up to speed across land or water without it falling to pieces

[deker13]

...and that monstrosity is definitely not on the ground.

[The Lone Wolfling]

Does it have to be on Kerbin?

[Chrisd857]

Does the vehicle need to be manned? If unmanned is allowed, I have the following submission.

Unmanned, on land, on Kerbin, stock: 18.5 m/s

Imgur Album

This is a screenshot at what I think was its fastest while still being a wheel. It appears to have gone faster while destroying itself, but that may have been flight and not a wheel.

[info600]

I win.

I hope that was from the stock 30 second altitude challenge...

[ultra86]

Yes, let's keep it on Kerbin to keep the playing field more level for players with different experience levels.

[ultra86]

That's a rad wheel shaped ship man, almost within the rules.... but it's only a wheel of death if there is a kerbal inside.... On a side note, I'd be curious to see how your ship does over water

[Kaleb]

Not sure if this counts, since technically it's in the shape of two wheels. But Jebediah sure had a blast going round and round on the axle. I call it the Conestoga, naturally. Anyway, my top speed so far is 28.4 m/s over flat land.

It got up to 30.6 m/s rolling down the shore towards the water, but then it, um, tears Jebediah apart in the water; for obvious reasons.

The wheel is strutted with KW's Heavy strut -- its my first time using it, and wow is it strong! It didn't even lose a panel while rolling off the launch pad. It has a nasty habit of losing traction at high speed, and spinning uncontrollably on one end, but it still holds together (most of the time) much to Jeb's delight.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Kaleb
Fixed IMG URL

[ultra86]

Oh man... I had a good time thinking about Jebediah's uneven trip around that axle... I would say this def counts... It is 2 wheels, but still technically one giant wheel that achieves forward motion by spinning across the ground... Bravo!!.. I'll put your time in... once I figure out how to do that

Edited July 10, 2013 by ultra86

[Accelerando]

With 5 posts now, you should be able to edit your previous posts without them disappearing. Maybe make another post somewhere relevant to be sure.

[NoMrBond]

Everything I tried last night just wouldn't grip on one side of the wheel, no idea what was going on but it would start rolling then just continuously pull to the right until it would eventually be reduced to spinning on the spot losing all forward momentum

[ultra86]

My guess is your thrust is being deflected or your ship isn't balanced. I went through the same thing when optimizing my wheel. I was able to address the issue by adjusting the position of the rockets. Thx for the tip Accelerando. I noticed my posts no longer require moderator approval so I edited the post.

[NoMrBond]

Hrm, I tried making the side part on one side, then alt-click copying the entire assembly over, then just doing it using symmetry (and again in the SPH instead) but had the same thing happen each time.

Oh well, try again tomorrow night since I won't be at home this evening until late.

[Darren9]

A small push forward, I made a 32.7m/s on land and a 30.7m/s on water. The water wheel had 3 x 500 thrust jet engines and span the wheel far beyond the 30.7 it made - maybe there's a limit? I'm gonna try at the north pole, I think any slight gradient could be making me spin out because it goes dead straight on water.

[Zaeo]

Darren...What mod is that vert speed and rad alt? I am Highly interested!

[Darren9]

Darren...What mod is that vert speed and rad alt? I am Highly interested!

It's Bucky-s-Instruments-v0-0-4-RAD-ALT-and-VSI-update, very useful.

[Darren9]

I got up to 44.4m/s before it went too sideways and slowed down. There are some mods that give an advantage, Editor Tools allows up to 99x symmetry.

[ultra86]

Nice work Darren...!! That's a pretty impressive speed across land... And a mighty fine looking wheel of death if I do say so myself

As for your comment about there being a limit across the water.. I was thinking the same thing myself.. One idea I had that I haven't tried yet was to put some parts sticking out of my wheel top help dig into the water (like you would see on a giant steamboat wheel).. I don't know how this would play out in the in-game physics engine

If I understand correctly I'm not too worried about a mod that provides increased symmetry. My ship seemed to be perfectly balanced without using any editor tools.. My final version never tipped over or had a tendency to pull to one side.

Edited July 10, 2013 by ultra86

[Tidus Klein]

Hmmm would having rover wheels on the out side of a giant wheel be legit? I just got an idea using the crazy fast wheels of the freelancer rover mod

[ultra86]

I tried several designs with wheels... They all spun really fast but none of them moved forward... If I turned on the brakes they would start to move but the wheels would explode before I got up to speed.. I would say wheels are fair so long as forward motion is achieved by the giant wheel spinning and gaining traction (and not the little wheels acting as the means of propulsion)... On a side note, one of my wheeled designs was rather interesting.. I attempted to use the small wheels to drive the ship off the platform and because of the circular design 2 of the 4 wheels on the ground went forward and the other 2 went backwards, ripping my ship in half

And I just realized I may have totally missed your point (just waking up here in Los Angeles).. In the event you're talking about training wheels to keep the ship balanced.. I'll allow it

Edited July 10, 2013 by ultra86

[Deejayy2k]

might give this a try later it reminds me of an episode of dads army

EDIT: is there a width limit ?

Edited July 11, 2013 by Deejayy2k