FIX SRV Physics PLEASE!

[JetJaguar]

If you want it to drive sensibly, resist the urge to put all pips to engine, leave it "balanced" across all three. I know, I know it's tempting to just put full pips to engine and go "Poweeeerrrrrrrrrr!!!" a al monsieur Clarkson and then swear at it when it goes all squirrely. I am guilty of this myself!

Spoiler

 

[Zeeman]

While I agree the physics of the SRV are hilariously broken (seriously, I tend to spend more time laughing at my SRV than driving it), you have to remember that you're driving on a barren planet. It's covered in particulate finer than sand. It's not a question of downward thrust or drive distribution, there's simply a complete lack of friction and therefore traction.

Would it be a nicer experience if the SRV handling was better? Absolutely. Would it be more realistic? No.

If you're having trouble getting around planets, I recommend accepting that the SRV is a better ship than car. Find a direction on the scanner, throttle up, and launch off an incline. Then use your vertical thrusters to stay airborne. I spend about 1/3 of my time on planets driving the SRV, rest is spent flying the thing.

Yes, but it should result in sliding/drifting (which would actually be kinda cool and fun - like FA off), rather than constant spinning, which just gets annoying.

Z...

 

[JohnnyDangerous]

While I agree the physics of the SRV are hilariously broken. It's not a question of downward thrust or drive distribution, there's simply a complete lack of friction and therefore traction.

Would it be a nicer experience if the SRV handling was better? Absolutely. Would it be more realistic? No.

I have to disagree with you here, having driven all terrain vehicles in places like sand (Iraq) and ice (Northern Canada) and if every wheel on a vehicle has a drive train (like a HUMMR) they don't spin out, they can bog down and get stuck in very fine sand or even on ice, but they don't wipe out in a circle. And no, it's not exactly "hard" to drive the SRV, but I'm always annoyed at the way this game goes between simulator (gravity wells of planets adjusting your supercruise speed, first person perspective, Newtonian physics) to just goofy Mario Cart (SRV bouncy physics). Is it a simulator or an Atari game? Should I be looking for Luigi out here?

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I think if the rear wheels slowly stopped steering between 10-15m/s, it'd eliminate a lot of problems.

I think someone mentioned that earlier.

I find the random spin outs annoying, especially seems as it doesn't drift like I'd imagine. Counter steering and throttle do nothing when it decides to spin.

Of course, it doesn't help that it can be quite hard to tell the difference between the "ignore me" rocks and the "hit me, and I will kill you" rocks. Lol
Which tend to cause more damage than the skimmers. Seriously. They may as well throw rocks.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[MBaldelli]

It actually behaves like it should. All Wheel Drive doesn't determine the physics. The reason cars on Earth don't spin out is because of traction control and their weight.

Low Gravity + Sandy surface = Poor traction

Unless the SRV drives the same on high G planets, it's fine.

You are aware that the average weight of a US automobile is 2 tons and the average weight of an SRV is double that? You might want to approach this a bit more scientifically than casually. Particularly when you're working with low gravity and poor traction. Here's a brief refresher on the subject:

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traction_(engineering)

Traction, or tractive force, is the force used to generate motion between a body and a tangential surface, through the use of dry friction, though the use of shear force of the surface is also commonly used.[1][2][3]

Traction can also refer to the maximum tractive force between a body and a surface, as limited by available friction; when this is the case, traction is often expressed as the ratio of the maximum tractive force to the normal force and is termed the coefficient of traction (similar to coefficient of friction).

With the coefficient of traction being: usable traction = coefficient of traction x normal force

Never mind that the Scarab has jets to assist with downward force, which while novel in its approach does not operate under normal operations. They only seem to provide upward thrust for jumping and that's based on trigger.

I know, I know... Too much real life in this answer. But your submission of knowledge however, deemed an appropriate response.