Rover steering - how to get to your destination?

[Jean Deaux]

I've been at KSP a quite a while now and space navigation I've got down pat, navigating on my rover has always eluded me and I really need help here.

There's a heading indicator on the navball, but that thing bounces all over the place with the changing angles of the terrain, I could be going in a straight line but the heading indicator changes well over 180 degrees as the angles in the terrain change. I'm expecting it to work like a compass, but following that heading is like following a puppy chasing it's tail. Even so, it's hard to get your own bearing with which way is North since there is no navigational reference within the game, all you get is a "you are here" on the map.

I have been using MechJeb for most of my rover navigation but I'm finding the Jool system and MJ do not work well together and I'm having to do all the piloting and navigation myself. While I don't mind that so much and I'm capable of doing so, I don't appear to have the tools to be able to navigate, I'm just wandering around aimlessly when I'm trying to get to a particular spot on the planet I've landed on.

Anybody have an useful tips (video's preferred) on how to navigate your way across surfaces?

Edited February 28, 2014 by Jean Deaux
Changed status to Answered!

[Tidus Klein]

North on the nav ball is always that orange line running up one side, that never changes find that and you know where north is.

also look at the heading idicator 90 degrees is south, 270 is west, and I think 180 is north, and 360 is south.? hope that helps

[Streetwind]

also look at the heading idicator 90 degrees is south, 270 is west, and I think 180 is north, and 360 is south.? hope that helps

0° = north = 360°

90° = east

180° = south

270° = west

[enki]

What direction is the pod you are controlling from facing? If it points straight up and you go up and down hills, the heading will change based on what side of the rover is lowest. Your best bet is to put a probe body aligned so that it faces the forward and points at the horizon. Your heading will more properly reflect the direction you are traveling this way. Also, Streetwind has it correct for compass heading and degrees.

[Kasuha]

Your control piece on the rover should be oriented so when you have the rover deployed on horizontal surface and moving forward, you see the prograde indicator in the center of the navball with top half of the navball blue and bottom half brown. This is what you should see if you steer the rover from a normally placed command seat, too.

Your prograde indicator and numbers along the horizon tell you the heading. As long as you're moving at some reasonable speed your prograde indicator should be stable enough to read it.

[Geschosskopf]

Don't forget that at the bottom of the border surrounding the navball, there's a digital readout of your heading. This always functions as a compass, showing which way you're really going, even if the navball itself is totally confusing due to the controlling part of the rover not being aligned with the direction of travel.

I only just noticed this digital heading readout myself, despite months of playing KSP . And it solves the whole control part orientation problem. Sometimes, it's very inconvenient to build a rover so the controlling part is oriented for the direction of travel. But since I discovered the digital readout, I no longer worry about that.

[capi3101]

If you've got an automated rover built in the VAB and the main control piece (a probe core, obviously) is pointed straight up when you get on the launchpad, it'll be pointed straight up on the navball when you're trying to drive it around.

Shortened form: Streetwind, enki and Kasuha are 100% correct.

KER's Surface readout includes Latitude and Longitude readings; that may be of some use to you if you're trying to control a rover that's already deployed. If you can't use your navball, you can use the readout to get a general sense of which direction you're headed (e.g. if your latitude reading is increasing and your longitude is staying relatively steady, chances are you're headed north).

[Pecan]

If there is something at your destination you can 'set as target' this will let you see the target indicator on the navball, so you know which way to steer. If there isn't, then one trick with MechJeb is to using 'landing guidance' and 'enter target co-ordinates' or 'pick target on map', which will do the same thing.

[Jean Deaux]

So it appears my design flaw is that my control module is horizontal to the planet surface and not turned upright. Man, that's going to be a pain to design around. Yes, I have always had my command module in line with my rocket as I'm also using it as rocket guidance and turning that command module messes up the rocket flight. So new design will need to incorporate at least two command module orientations.

Thanks Pecan, I'm very versed in that trick, but like I said, MJ just isn't working correctly in the Jool system for some reason and is all but worthless to me here. Time to go play in the VAB again for yet another rover design. Thanks for the input guys, I'll be back with good news or bad news.

[Jean Deaux]

Will kiss my grits, that was the missing link. Couldn't figure that out for myself for almost a year now, not sure if I should be embarrassed by that or not. Thanks for the assist guys, one less thing to complain about.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Jean Deaux

[Kasuha]

Best way to design rovers IMO is to make them in SPH, save as a subassembly, then stick to the rocket from the subassembly folder. And for that, it's a good idea to start with a mock-up attachment in SPH simulating how it will be attached to the rocket in the end. That can save you some embarassment with making a subassembly from it.