About rovers...

[Algiark]

Rovers are cool, and if budget is to be implemented in career mode, rovers can be a mean to explore more biomes on a planet while saving fuel costs. But using them to get anywhere is a tedious process of pressing a button to accelerate and making sure you stay in the right direction. Is some sort of fast travel while using a rover possible? The fast travel should to be limited so you don't just travel from pole to pole, but shortening a one-hour drive into a few seconds could be nice.

[Sirrobert]

Holding alt while you hit the time accelerate buttons makes you go into physical timewarp. You could drive it with phys timewarp. Would have to be carefull about the increased risk of flipping over though.

I don't think a fast travel system would work here. Don't forget the driving itself is the challange, not what you do when you arive

[Algiark]

I know about the physical timewarp, but at times it still feels really slow... Even Mechjeb isn't helping much.

Don't forget the driving itself is the challange, not what you do when you arive

Regarding this, what exactly DO you do when you arrive? Could there be points of interest in a biome that's too far for walking, but too short or difficult for rockets? Maybe you can take another sample of the same biome but far away from where you took the first sample for extra science?

[SilverWarior]

Using rovers to do exploring on kerbin is "not practical". As you noted yourself they are awfull slow to get anywhere far.

So I would suggest to use rockets or even beter planes instead.

In my current gameplay I have just discovered aerodynamics so I'm flying my rocket powered planes around. I'm doing vertical takeoff from the "planes" tail since I still havent researched wheels. And for landing I use three nose mounted radial parachutes which I repack later for another use. And for wings I use controll surfaces.

Current setup alows me rather poorly controled jumps. I got to desert, old KSP, mountains to the North, and highlands to NorthEast.

Yesterday I just discovered earodynamics so I have made myself a nice plane which should alow me to circumwhent Kerbin if needed (still taking of from my tail and landing with parachutes).

I'll do more eploring today.

As for rovers they will come in handy for exploring moons and planets wtihout athmosphere where flying lanes is not posible.

[Epthelyn]

Regarding this, what exactly DO you do when you arrive? Could there be points of interest in a biome that's too far for walking, but too short or difficult for rockets? Maybe you can take another sample of the same biome but far away from where you took the first sample for extra science?

That would be the 'practical' use of rovers, although to be honest it's much easier just to land in the (massive) area occupied by each biome instead of driving a rover around a planet. The benefit of rovers is that they can run forever with no additional cost, but they are very slow and prone to flipping over if they're are badly built or the player decides to up the speed.

The best you can do is to make a rover capable of crossing all/most terrain during physics warp and speed up the journey. MechJeb's 'point in the right direction forever' option is VERY useful, although it sometimes gets completely messed up by hills and you might walk away and return only to find that the 100km you just covered were lost because the rover is now upside down with 2 wheels missing.

[Sathurn]

I would be happy with a cruise control. Mech jeb has it but it should be standard.

[Leatherneck]

That would be the 'practical' use of rovers, although to be honest it's much easier just to land in the (massive) area occupied by each biome instead of driving a rover around a planet.

Try landing on the Badlands on Kerbin then.

On Kerbin, I can get to a lot of places via a rocket car. For stuff like the caps and badlands, a rocket delivery works semi-decently. Haven't tried it on Mun yet, but I need to tweak the wheels for Mun.

[Skyrunner27]

The problem with flipping can be easily fixed with a SAS module.