Glitching to Airbase Island

[Geschosskopf]

Building on the success of his pedal-powered Belly Flopper rovers, Jeb decided to see if he could make a serviceable pedal-powered boat. He'd experimented a lot with boats in the past but had never been able to combine the ability to move at all with any degree of controllability. But recently he'd heard that radial intakes would serve as floats so he determined to give that a try for his pedalboat project.

Jeb: "Hey Bill, wanna help me test my amphibious boat?"

Bill: "Boats are lame. They either don't move or can't steer."

Jeb: "I think I might have the answer to that. If it works, we'll be famous."

Bill: "Will this involve cattle prods?"

Jeb: "No, I've designed it so we'll be out of reach of each other. You just have to pedal to Airbase Island while I steer, then we switch for the trip home."

Bill: "OK."

So they set to work. They encountered many failures just getting aboard the boat and getting it moving. Then, when they finally got it in the water, it didn't move very well due to excessive weight. But by deleting the RCS steering system, which had proved unnecessary, and cutting the radial intakes down to the bare minimum, they finally had something that would work reasonably well. Here it is, after the initial launch step of separating it from the lander cans.

Jeb called it the "War Galley". The push-post for forward motion was styled as a dragon figurehead. Amidships, the probe core set up as a steering wheel for the other Kerbal in the lawn chair. Using nothing but gravity and probe torque, the War Galley eased forward out from under the lander cans, set its parking brake, and extended its ladders. Then Bill and Jeb bailed from the cans and climbed aboard.

Previous testing had shown that the presence of the lander cans on the runway interfered with using the probe core to steer, so at this point the probe core on the cans released the launch clamps and fired the Sepratrons.

Previous tests had shown that firing the cans with SAS on made it go straight up and straight down, which was a bit dangerous, but leaving its SAS off made it go halfway down the runway to explode in in full few of Jeb and Bill. Much better

Then Bill started pedaling, Jeb made a slight turn to slide the separator ring off, and soon the War Galley was moving down the runway at 60m/s. At this point, he just let it coast while Jeb steered and used the brakes as necessary to negotiate the drop and the end of the runway and the slope down to the water.

Once in the water, Jeb retracted the landing gear and Bill started pedaling again. They had 30km to go to Airbase Island, as shown by the distance to a flag previously planted there by Jeb.

The War Galley moved fairly well in the water but had a tendency to drift to the left, probably due to there being 2 figureheads instead of 1 on the centerline. When Jeb used the probe core's torque to get back on course, he'd check the speed and usually it was between 21 and 22m/s.

Along the way, Jeb tried switching on the PhysicsWarp but discovered this was counterproductive. While time passed at the expected multiple, the War Galley's speed fell by an equal amount, so they actually made better progress without it. But it was still a long trip to the island.

But eventually they got close enough for the beach to come above the horizon.

When they got very close to shore, Bill stopped pedaling and Jeb deployed the landing gear.

Then Bill resumed pedaling and the War Galley surged up the slope. Their goal was almost within walking distance.

Unfortunately, when they got to the top of the hill, there was a mishap.

Jeb: "Dammit, Bill, why were you going so fast?"

Bill" "Dammit Jeb, can't you steer a rover without tipping it over?"

Jeb: "Well, at least I don't have to pedal us back home now. Jeb to KSC, 1 to beam up." (BBBBZZZZZZZZZZ>>>>>>........)

Bill: "That bastid! I bet he wrecked us on purpose just to avoid having to do any work! Oh well, at least we got here. Bill to KSC, 1 to beam up." (BBBBZZZZZZZZZZ>>>>>>........)

==============================

So there you have it, an all-stock amphibious rover moved solely by the ladder glitch and floated by the intake glitch. Capable of at least 60m/s on land and at least 22.7m/s in the water, and reaching Airbase Island from KSC in 34 minutes. Sadly, no warping allowed, but there are some gratuitous explosions thrown in.

[Brotoro]

Hahaha. Kerbal physics is kerbal.

[Tw1]

Hahaha. Kerbal physics is kerbal.

Nice touch with the figure head. I also noticed the phys warp issue with my ladder power craft, and to a lesser extent with a regular boat. I wonder if this is a compound effect.

Edited February 22, 2014 by Tw1

[Geschosskopf]

Nice touch with the figure head. I also noticed the phys warp issue with my ladder power craft, and to a lesser extent with a regular boat. I wonder if this is a compound effect.

Re: Figurehead. I was inspired by a commercial for the new season of "Vikings" and jamming to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" while I was doing this.

Anyway, as to the physics warp slow-down, what happens with that is 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 the calculations and motions that you normally get. So the Kerbal only hits the push post 1/2, 1/3, or 1/4 as often, leading to a speed reduction inversely proportional to the warp setting.

I hope Squad never fixes this "feature." At least with rovers and boats, you can justify it as using some sort of bicycle chain mechanism so why not? It's harder to rationalize as space propulsion without invoking UFO technology, but why not leave it alone, too? Give folks a different way of doing things. I'm so using it for Eve