Vehicles

[Teoman2]

So today I decided to build a ute and it took about an hour...

(Drove it around for 5mins, got bored)

Anyone else got any cool vehicles, list below.

Also, I want to know about what you think of vehicles, Vote on the poll!

Note-I was going to put a picture, but it failed and you wouldnt be able to see it, sorry...

Note on note-Instead, have this pic

(Makes you think twice about jeb...)

EDIT-On second thoughts, I shouldnt have put the photo there...

Edited July 15, 2014 by Teoman2
Scary

[Umlüx]

they are not hard to build, but useless. it's fun to send a rover to another planet, maybe to get two adjacent biomes. but there is no point in driving around for miles since there is nothing to be gained.

[Oafman]

Yeah I quickly get bored driving rovers. But what I do enjoy is the engineering challenge of getting them to places, so I tend to land them then barely use them.

[magnemoe]

they are not hard to build, but useless. it's fun to send a rover to another planet, maybe to get two adjacent biomes. but there is no point in driving around for miles since there is nothing to be gained.

I like them,

driving downhill on Eve, objective was to collect science from a probe dropped at sea level while lander was at highest point on Eve, it was an interesting drive, down the

Same mission on Laythe, it was a bit simpler.

Driving on Mun, officialy to check out landing conditions at kethane deposits, crew objectives was to get as much airtime as possible.

Redockable Munar science rover back in 0.22, it could dock with lander and land in other biomes.

Test of heavy fuel transporter for refueling SSTO rockets.

[KerbMav]

Cannot vote ...

They are relatively easy to build but serve not many uses.

[Voculus]

I mostly built wheeled vehicles for Kethane mining. The bigger the better!

[Teoman2]

Wow, I look like a noob to all of you

Dammit.

- - - Updated - - -

Btw, methane mining vehicle looks insane!

Whats up with the glow?

[Teoman2]

Also, I'm surprised that none of you have complained about the pic...

LOL

[IPsoFreely]

Ah vehicles.... how about this little beasty?

[Levelord]

[federicoaa]

I would like to see Whackjob building a rover...

[Coyote_ar]

I mostly avoid rovers, at least in the moons and dune, since low gravity makes it a pain to drive anywhere. Flying is usually easier ... except for mining kethane.

My Munar base is near the equator, for ease of access. So i have to drive some distance to the nearest kethane deposit. And since i prefer not to do this drive too many times, bigger is better.

There is a single "tweak" of one of the parts. I increased the output of the electrical engine (and the energy consumption to keep it fair). I guess you could still build this, by the book without changing that, but the part count would skyrocket since you would need tons of those small electric engines. It uses the TT modular wheels, and the rest is mostly stock + kethane (except the command module that is B9, but its just because i think it looks cool )

Its slow, but its extremely reliable, it can go over really steep hills and craters. and it wont flip over no matter what you try. when fully loaded its extremely heavy (~510.000t), but somehow it still moves.

I built it on site with the extraplanetary mod, but i guess you could launch it into orbit and drop it in the moon with some effort.

[Schmonzo]

they are not hard to build, but useless. it's fun to send a rover to another planet, maybe to get two adjacent biomes. but there is no point in driving around for miles since there is nothing to be gained.

I disagree, it's not fun to send them to other planets. I think rover need a major overhaul so they can be better transported (end especially dropped off) on other planets.

Once every planet has biomes, they will become more and more usefull though, so I am locking forward to that, espicially if get to set waypoints for them so they can drive on their own while we do other stuff.

[Sky_walker]

they are not hard to build, but useless. it's fun to send a rover to another planet, maybe to get two adjacent biomes. but there is no point in driving around for miles since there is nothing to be gained.

This.

It's much easier and cheaper to just add a bit more fuel and fly between biomes than drive in a rover/vehicle.

There's one exception from that: biomes around KSP. But it still takes more time than it's worth - tiny, basic airplane can give you the same that vehicle can in less than half the amount of time (and effort in dodging high-speed krakens).

[prophet_01]

I dont think they are that hard to transport. Just put it on the side of ur lander and balance it out with a droptank on the other side.

Although I prefer to use rcs propelled mini "hoppers" they arent that much heavier and offer higher speeds. I once did a really far rover mission on the mun while searching the memorial... It was fun but not something I wanna do on a simple - land, plant flag, collect sience, look for an easter egg -type of mission

[Frank_G]

Rovers rock!

I like to build, test and drive them. Rovers serve many purposes in my Spaceprogram, from simple exploration and science rovers to complex all terrain crawlers, haulers, refueling vehicles and mobile reactors... Rovers keep your bases running!

[LordFjord]

I disagree, it's not fun to send them to other planets. I think rover need a major overhaul so they can be better transported (end especially dropped off) on other planets.

Once every planet has biomes, they will become more and more usefull though, so I am locking forward to that, espicially if get to set waypoints for them so they can drive on their own while we do other stuff.

Awww, comeon! OF COURSE rovers are fun to deploy

Preparing to hit Eve:

But I agree on the waypoint/autopilot thing. Maybe there are some mods that can do that kind of stuff (driving a rover while it is not controlled).

Moving that biest in the pic on Eve takes ages.

[Torquemadus]

This album shows my Kestrel space plane visiting six Mun biomes in one mission. If you land on a part of the Mun that has varied terrain, go can visit a lot of biomes without having to drive very far.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Monger]

As long as the planet / moon surfaces have such strange friction properties, rovers or other vehicles are insanely dangerous. Even under low-gravity conditions sliding over a stony surface should stop you immediately. On the Mun, tripping over your own legs can send you along the Mun surface for minutes. It's kind of crazy that you have enough friction to build up momentum, but not enough friction to slow down in the same time.

I tried to build a few rovers /tankers that can handle tipping over, but it is really complicated.

There are cases where vehicles are still extremely useful. If you have limited resources, a rover is the most efficient way to visit all biomes on a planet or moon in one trip. Also, vehicles are the only proper way to rearrange heavy structures once they have landed (e.g. for building a moon base).

For me, vehicles are currently in the same category as SSTOs: an interesting challenge, but you need to put a insanely amont of work into it. Without a resource limit, it feels rather self-limiting (and self-punishing). And it feels like the current physics engine is punishing you for even trying it.

[Melcom]

Only in a rover you understand the scale of the body you landed on!

http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/597039465558820193/5BC267FA0D6BED47AC864821ECD0E91B5C5A13BB/

[magnemoe]

This.

It's much easier and cheaper to just add a bit more fuel and fly between biomes than drive in a rover/vehicle.

There's one exception from that: biomes around KSP. But it still takes more time than it's worth - tiny, basic airplane can give you the same that vehicle can in less than half the amount of time (and effort in dodging high-speed krakens).

On Minmus yes, on Mun even small hops are expensive and the primary sample area with the canyon east of the crater is pretty rugged making landing hard, you will also have to send a kerbal first to find the biomes unless you have a list of coordinates.

[Caelib]

The idea of rovers/vehicles is good, but until there are micro-biomes, I don't see much use for them because of how it long it takes to travel between the existing ones ... its easier and faster to just fly there.

[bsalis]

Hmm, yeah....

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/38382-So-I-have-been-Rovering

[Voculus]

Who says launching rovers isn't fun? It's the journey, not the destination!

Landing them can be equally "fun".

[Kerano]

Rovers are awesome, particularly if they're big. My over-engineered Monstrosity class rovers from back in 0.23 have almost 7000 m/s of delta-v when flown in pure LV-N mode, and can easily takeoff/land multiple times from most bodies depending on the gravity. All stock parts, apart from one MechJeb unit.

I've taken slight variants to the Mun, Minmus, Moho, Gilly, Ike, Dres, Pol, Bop, Vall, and Eeloo. Fully loaded with fuel it's actually quite drivable even on Minmus and Pol... only one it struggles to grip on is Gilly.