Rover & Ship Design

[Alaskan Glitch]

After putting together a couple of rovers with collectors on the end, so I have to back-in in order to make a connection, is probably not the best design. Try as I might, I typically end up damaging my ship, and sometimes my base, with the collectors in that position.

I looked at several popular rovers and ships, and it seems to me the best location for the collector would be the bottom of either the vessel or craft. So that you only need drive or fly over to acquire a lock. The second best location for the connector appears to be either the left or right side. Again, you can just drive or fly by in order to make a lock instead of having direct contact.

I was wondering. Does anyone have any other useful design tips this noob can benefit from?

[Sundance]

From my experience about front/back connectors, it just takes some getting used to how to align them, especially not scraping the sides and trying to force them... if they just produce some sparks it doesn't do actually an damage unless something else went wrong.
The hardest part would be if the height doesnt align and you need to bend down and connect at the right moment.
Oh boy i was suprised the first time to find out how high vehicles can jump in this game, halfway i was thinking if i'd even need thrusters to reach space...

The easy way could be a piston and connector at the bottom, atleast for a rover you'd need a piston unless you build it close enough and never ever drive on uneven terrain.

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by RT:

Put a remote control and camera facing in the direction of the connector directly on top. Then when you want to connect you switch over to the camera then the remote control block. The vehicles controls will now work in the direction the connector is facing as wel las the fact you just have to center the camera's crosshair onto the top of the other connector for the perfect alignment.
I do this with all of my vehicles now since it makes the job so much easier that way.

Thanks, great tip. I was looking for a "rear-view mirror" mod, but a camera works even better.

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by Sundance:

From my experience about front/back connectors, it just takes some getting used to how to align them, especially not scraping the sides and trying to force them... if they just produce some sparks it doesn't do actually an damage unless something else went wrong.
The hardest part would be if the height doesnt align and you need to bend down and connect at the right moment.
Oh boy i was suprised the first time to find out how high vehicles can jump in this game, halfway i was thinking if i'd even need thrusters to reach space...

The easy way could be a piston and connector at the bottom, atleast for a rover you'd need a piston unless you build it close enough and never ever drive on uneven terrain.

I found that they don't need to align perfectly to obtain a lock, thankfully. I have both large-block and small-block rovers and they are off by as much as ~30% from the base connector and still get a lock.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

Seen some nice top mounted connector designs for rovers. Usually a piston on the base brings a connector down to meet the roof one on the car :)

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by Karmaterrorᵁᴷ:

Seen some nice top mounted connector designs for rovers. Usually a piston on the base brings a connector down to meet the roof one on the car :)

That sounds pretty cool, but how do you keep the piston from crushing rovers of varying sizes?

[Alaskan Glitch]

I'm liking the camera idea by RT the best so far, it doesn't matter where you locate the connector (top, bottom, front, back, left, or right), add a camera just above it so you can use it to align with the base connector.

Also, when I build my rovers I lay out the basic framework with heavy armor blocks, and finish with light armor blocks. I don't want the vehicle or ship to be too heavy because I found it becomes difficult to move (even after maximizing the settings of the wheels).

One thing I'm not quite sure about is the production of hydrogen. If filled with ice will an O2/H2 Generator produce sufficient fuel to keep a hydrogen engine running at its maximum output? Or do I need more than a one to one ratio? I haven't reached the maximum output of a hydrogen engine yet, I'm just asking for future reference when building a base.

I currently use a 4 to 1 ratio between Assemblers and Refineries. If I build 3 Refineries in my base, I will also build 12 Assemblers.

The ratio of hydrogen production on ships would vary considerably depending on the number and size of the hydrogen thrusters used. At least one for small-block ships, and a minimum of two for large-block ships I would think.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

Originally posted by Alaskan Glitch:

Originally posted by Karmaterrorᵁᴷ:

Seen some nice top mounted connector designs for rovers. Usually a piston on the base brings a connector down to meet the roof one on the car :)

That sounds pretty cool, but how do you keep the piston from crushing rovers of varying sizes?

Probbably a sensor to stop it when it detects a small grid below. I never actually built this setup myself though.

I always wanted to do it in a ship so the piston could lock on and retract the rover either neatly inder the ship or into its own rover bay :)

[Troubleshooter]

I'm pretty good at docking quickly (its probably my favorite part of the game) but there are some builds that make docking very challenging.

If you are designing a build around docking in a single orientation, I like to put a bit of construction in the exact location where your cockpit/crosshairs line up.

I find that an unfinished spotlight facing the cockpit (or camera) will help you to align your approach. For bonus points, add a sensor and piston so that once your alignment is complete, the seonsor will trigger a light/piston combo and retract the alignment construction or extend the connector from the base to your ship.

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by RT:

I use Hydrogen allot on small ships and as far as i can tell one O2/H2 generator will supply 6 small thrusters or one large thruster, one O2/H2 generator will power a small grid Hydrogen engine. The Hydrogen a O2/H2 generator can produce in those set-ups is actually slight more then what is used but it's a trickle left over.

On large grid you need to double each O2/H2 generator.

That's assuming you're not using any Hydrogen tanks.

Perfect. Thanks, that is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by Karmaterrorᵁᴷ:

Originally posted by Alaskan Glitch:

That sounds pretty cool, but how do you keep the piston from crushing rovers of varying sizes?

Probbably a sensor to stop it when it detects a small grid below. I never actually built this setup myself though.

I always wanted to do it in a ship so the piston could lock on and retract the rover either neatly inder the ship or into its own rover bay :)

I suppose you could also reduce the force of the piston, so that it couldn't cause damage even if it went further than it should. I do like the idea of the connector lowering, or raising, or coming from either side to meet the rover/ship in order to make a connection.

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by Troubleshooter:

I'm pretty good at docking quickly (its probably my favorite part of the game) but there are some builds that make docking very challenging.

If you are designing a build around docking in a single orientation, I like to put a bit of construction in the exact location where your cockpit/crosshairs line up.

I find that an unfinished spotlight facing the cockpit (or camera) will help you to align your approach. For bonus points, add a sensor and piston so that once your alignment is complete, the seonsor will trigger a light/piston combo and retract the alignment construction or extend the connector from the base to your ship.

Wow, that sounds complex. I will definitely be using cameras with my connectors in the future, thanks to RT's excellent advise. I would like to play around with pistons, but I think they would probably work best as part of the base connector and not on the vehicles/vessels.

I'm leaning towards building my connectors on the bottom of my vehicles/vessels, using a piston at my base to raise the base connector to meet the vehicle/vessel. That way if I get the height wrong the worst case scenario is that I lift the craft off the ground or don't make a connection.

I haven't played much with sensors yet. I have created a few piston-driven lifts, but I haven't attempted using them with connectors yet.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

It could actually look really cool letting the piston take it up a couple feet. Be a great chance to get under it for repairs aswell :D

Extra idea, let the piston take you up far enough that you can exit the vehicle on a higher level. Maybe good for bases on stilts :)

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by Karmaterrorᵁᴷ:

It could actually look really cool letting the piston take it up a couple feet. Be a great chance to get under it for repairs aswell :D

Extra idea, let the piston take you up far enough that you can exit the vehicle on a higher level. Maybe good for bases on stilts :)

I put together a little test:

When not connected the connector is flush with the ramp.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1964116741

With a sensor that detects for small and large grids within ~3 meters, a piston automatically moves up 2 meters.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1964117254

I had to use sloping blocks around the base connector because everything else interfered with its movement and pushed the connector slightly out of alignment. Which means that the minimum wheel base is 4 for large grid and 13 for small grid.

The ramp height is 3 large blocks because the piston takes up two and the connector another one.

One idea I had was to use this in my lift. I have a piston driven lift that I use to lower my rovers to the surface of the planet/asteroid from my ship. The floor of that lift is currently only one large block thick, but I could easily make it three and extend the ramp a little further. That way I can use the lift as a connection point between my rovers and my ship.

Currently, I'm using a connection point near one of the landing pads on the ship, and I have to back into it - which I don't like.

I also like your idea of raising the rover slightly off the ground, so you can get underneath to make repairs.

[Jack Schitt]

Originally posted by Alaskan Glitch:

After putting together a couple of rovers with collectors on the end, so I have to back-in in order to make a connection, is probably not the best design. Try as I might, I typically end up damaging my ship, and sometimes my base, with the collectors in that position.

I looked at several popular rovers and ships, and it seems to me the best location for the collector would be the bottom of either the vessel or craft. So that you only need drive or fly over to acquire a lock. The second best location for the collector appears to be either the left or right side. Again, you can just drive or fly by in order to make a lock instead of having direct contact.

I was wondering. Does anyone have any other useful design tips this noob can benefit from?

Collectors? Collectors don't work on planets and they don't connect to anything. They collect.
CoNNectors connect to other coNNectors on other ships and bases. A way to avoid smashing in to things and damaging them is add a straight conveyor tube or 2 to extend the coNNector our further from the ship so things like the wheels, drills, thrusters, etc on the ship(s) don't hit anything while you're lining up to coNNect.

It doesn't matter where the coNNector on the ship is as long as it's placed out of the way of everything else on the ship. In my opinion the best place for a coNNector on a rover is on top of it facing up or bottom facing down so you can either drive under the connector from the station and lift the suspension up to connect it or drive over the station's coNNector and drop the suspension down to connect. Raising or dropping the suspension isn't absolutely necessary. There can be quite a bit of space between both coNNectors and they'll still lock it just looks nicer if they're visually very close.

Another option is putting one of the coNNectors on a piston, putting some kind of marker on the ground or somewhere so you know the coNNectors are lined up (painted blocks) and letting the piston put them together.

[Alaskan Glitch]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

Originally posted by Alaskan Glitch:

After putting together a couple of rovers with collectors on the end, so I have to back-in in order to make a connection, is probably not the best design. Try as I might, I typically end up damaging my ship, and sometimes my base, with the collectors in that position.

I looked at several popular rovers and ships, and it seems to me the best location for the collector would be the bottom of either the vessel or craft. So that you only need drive or fly over to acquire a lock. The second best location for the collector appears to be either the left or right side. Again, you can just drive or fly by in order to make a lock instead of having direct contact.

I was wondering. Does anyone have any other useful design tips this noob can benefit from?

Collectors? Collectors don't work on planets and they don't connect to anything. They collect.
CoNNectors connect to other coNNectors on other ships and bases. A way to avoid smashing in to things and damaging them is add a straight conveyor tube or 2 to extend the coNNector our further from the ship so things like the wheels, drills, thrusters, etc on the ship(s) don't hit anything while you're lining up to coNNect.

It doesn't matter where the coNNector on the ship is as long as it's placed out of the way of everything else on the ship. In my opinion the best place for a coNNector on a rover is on top of it facing up or bottom facing down so you can either drive under the connector from the station and lift the suspension up to connect it or drive over the station's coNNector and drop the suspension down to connect. Raising or dropping the suspension isn't absolutely necessary. There can be quite a bit of space between both coNNectors and they'll still lock it just looks nicer if they're visually very close.

Another option is putting one of the coNNectors on a piston, putting some kind of marker on the ground or somewhere so you know the coNNectors are lined up (painted blocks) and letting the piston put them together.

Sorry, I meant connectors, not collectors.

It does make a difference where it is placed. A connector in front or behind means you are always driving into, or backing into something. Anytime there is a possibility of contact there also is a possibility of damage being caused.

I tend to agree that either the bottom or the top are the best locations for the connectors, with second place coming in with the connector either on the left or right side.

I built a prototype rover as an example:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1964195792
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1964195469
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1964195103