I decided to just grab a video of me driving the scarab on a 0.1g slippery ice planet with relatively rough terrain, playing with an Xbox One controller. And it's not like I trained for this video, or captured many videos and chose the best one of the bunch. I just hopped on the SRV drove it a bit away, exited, and started recording. This is how I normally drive the SRV, and I very rarely experience any problems. I really can't understand what problems others are experiencing. Maybe one of those people could share a video clip to demonstrate?
For the love of god please fix Scarab Maneuverability
- Thread starter ZZZ0mbieSSS
- Start date
Lots of issues, here is an obvious one.
Issue Tracker
At 10% throttle (minimum) input it sometimes jumps to 100% speed with massive acceleration zooming off uncontrollably (K&M, Mouse Scroll for throttle, DA on). So much for drive assist. This particular issue will continue untill togling DA off/on or relogging. This is not normal behaviour.
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I had used the SRV extensively in Horizons. M&K, scroll for throttle same as my ship controls. I was pretty good and enjoyed it.
Oddesey changed how SRV behaves. And I suspect FDev's co-op intern student has been playing with the controls because over the last 12 months sometimes the behaviour is wildly awfull and sometimes pretty good. There have been times where there has been approx 3-sec delay between applying throttle and seeing wheels move. Same with setting throttle to zero and waiting for the decel. Accel way to high, decel too unresponsive making handbrake required for any kind of accurate positioning.
I have always assumed the SRV is All-Wheel Drive*. So looking out the SRV windows I expect to see the front wheels react in immediate response to the throttle. This has nothing to do with gravity or icey surface. If the wheels spin because of traction issues: fine... thats okay. But they should react to the throttle. Immediately
*The front wheels spin when I am stuck and SRV not actually moving. This suggests they are indeed drive wheels.
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SRV also can do way steeper climbs while you reverse it, making front wheels kind of having more traction, so likely it is front wheel drive, instead of AWD....
this looks like a bug, one that has little chances to get fixed (unless some big gaming outlets make some big fuss about it)
so IMO the choice is either learn how to live with the bug or learn how to play DA Off (like the rest of the cool kids)
I play kb/m too, my ships are flown mostly FA On (which weird enough is the equivalent of DA Off) with throttle on scroll*, but i still find driving the srv with wasd and da off, much more enjoyable.
(with minimum possible stepping since the continuous mode does not work with the scroll wheel, key bindings for +50%, +75%, mmo mouse bindings for forward and reverse thrusters - pretty much the equivalent for SRV accelerate decelerate binds)
I was responding to @DjVortex request for evidence about SRV issues. Answer:
- There are bugs with DA on, which did not exist in Horizons.
- Why doesn't mouse scroll work? Is this a bug? As per OP.... fix it!
- It behaves differently than Horizons. Why?
- There is a feature literally called "Drive Assist". Its the default mode. And in the last 12 months it has worked like crap.
- The apparent linkage between throttle & wheel is wonky. weird. ... fix it!
- The behaviour of the SRV appears to have been modified a few times over 12 months. This does make examples being sited difficult.
Its great that a work-around is fine for you. IMO it should be fixed such that it works properly.
Is that night vision?
Nah, for me is not an workaround - DA Off was the only way i was able to drive it.
I could never drive the SRV with DA ON, not on XB with the controller, not on PC with kb/m
Edit: when i said workaround, i meant for the cmdrs used to play DA On, whom are having their experience affected by this bug
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I get what you are saying.
If Fdev wants to remove the Drive Assist from the game: fine. Especially if FDev has zero intent on ever fixing it. Whatever. But currently there is a core game feature with a default mode that does not work properly and has bugs and players must either: (a) live with (b) "work around".
Yup, or Odyssey's version thereof. I think how it works in Odyssey is that they run an antialiasing algorithm (one that actually works) but instead of taking the jaggies and removing (or blending) them what it does is to highlight them in luminous green. Ghastly isn't it.
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It seems to me this is not "please fix Scarab maneverability", but "please fix Scarage drive assist".
For me, the Drive Assist is always off by default, and I haven't even bothered figuring out how to turn it on. I don't even know what it's supposed to do. The vehicle works perfectly fine with it off, at least when playing with a controller. In fact, it works pretty much like any other car game. I'm assuming the drive assist would only mess things up and make driving harder and less intuitive than it working "normally" like the hundreds of other car games out there. Why would anybody even use drive assist? (Although, as said, I don't even know what it does.)
For me, the Drive Assist is always off by default, and I haven't even bothered figuring out how to turn it on. I don't even know what it's supposed to do. The vehicle works perfectly fine with it off, at least when playing with a controller. In fact, it works pretty much like any other car game. I'm assuming the drive assist would only mess things up and make driving harder and less intuitive than it working "normally" like the hundreds of other car games out there. Why would anybody even use drive assist? (Although, as said, I don't even know what it does.)
Scarab weights 4t.....at earth gravity.....many bodies we land on have way less than that, so even doubling the "mass" of the scarab by adding 4t of cargo is probably not going to make that much difference, but as with the actual model of the scarab where they don't actually show cargo anywhere at all, I think they also ignore the cargo mass when calculating the physics.
Something wrong with your foot? It didn't seem to be pressing down on the go pedal very hard
I am usually flat out, jump, jump, flat out again, yes jump...here's a hint land nicely on all wheels with throttle zero'd just before you touch down, you will keep going in a straight line and won't lose much speed, then hit full throttle, ice of course change acceleration etc, I actually like a nice wheel spinning launch of the start.
I'm a fan of ye olde vector gfx. It looks like a homage to it a bit.
I can't stand constantly pressing (holding down) the forward button...Switch drive assists off and git gud. I absolutely love driving/flyving my SRV on the planets. Even if I'm still a flyving n00b.
To recap ...
The Scarab SRV is a difficult vehicle to control and takes skill and practice to master. General consensus is that it behaves better with Drive Assist turned off although personal experience can vary, especially if you're using digital throttle inputs and like the idea of setting the SRV's forward speed rather than having direct input to the wheel speed. The vehicle's speed (which is displayed in m/s) can be misleading (i.e. 30m/s is actually over 100km/h) so it's not entirely surprising that it's difficult to control at full throttle, especially since we're typically driving on low-g worlds with icy surfaces. One simple solution to control problems is to just slow down until your skills have improved.
There's currently a bug applicable to driving with Drive Assist turned on where mousewheel and/or digital input(?) can cause the SRV's speed to suddenly leap uncontrollably to maximum. You can find further forum threads about that here, here and here and also a bug tracker issue that you can contribute to here.
There's a certain amount of resentment towards the SRV racing community who campaigned quite hard to keep the Scarab's handling as it had been in Horizons after pre-launch testing in the Odyssey beta revealed it had been messed with considerably. There's no evidence to suggest that Frontier ever intended for it to release in that state but regardless, when it finally launched handling had been "largely" restored (although it still has an unnecsssary self righting mechanism which means, for example, that it's now difficult if not impossible to pop the SRV onto its rear in the "praying" position). There's also the possibility that the handling changes we discovered prematurely pre-launch (via the challenge scenario) had been left in as a way for FD to try out characteristics we'd eventually see in the Scorpion. Some commanders still feel that the Scarab should be thought of primarily as a ground hugging ATV but, whether by accident or design, it's proven to excel at bounding across the landscape using its boosters in a style known colloquially as "flyving" and I personally think it's unwise to try and denounce that.
Many players actively engaged in these discussions feel that the current Drive Assist option isn't that useful and that it would be better repurposed so that Drive Assist off leaves the SRV with the Horizons handling model while turning Drive Assist on employs the RL equivalent of things like active differentials, ABS and a more active rear wheel steering mechanism to give the Scarab a more refined and less sporty performance model.
Loading up the SRV with cargo does not affect its weight or handling, nor does having the cargo scoop deployed. The SRV's shields do not protect the vehicle against ground collisions and, unless engaged in combat scenarios, it's therefore pointless putting any pips to SYS and drivers are advised to keep 4 pips in ENG at all times (unless actively attempting to restrict the vehicle's performance, either in an attempt to keep the beast under control or to abide by the regulations of specifc, more ground-born, race variants).
The Scarab SRV is a difficult vehicle to control and takes skill and practice to master. General consensus is that it behaves better with Drive Assist turned off although personal experience can vary, especially if you're using digital throttle inputs and like the idea of setting the SRV's forward speed rather than having direct input to the wheel speed. The vehicle's speed (which is displayed in m/s) can be misleading (i.e. 30m/s is actually over 100km/h) so it's not entirely surprising that it's difficult to control at full throttle, especially since we're typically driving on low-g worlds with icy surfaces. One simple solution to control problems is to just slow down until your skills have improved.
There's currently a bug applicable to driving with Drive Assist turned on where mousewheel and/or digital input(?) can cause the SRV's speed to suddenly leap uncontrollably to maximum. You can find further forum threads about that here, here and here and also a bug tracker issue that you can contribute to here.
There's a certain amount of resentment towards the SRV racing community who campaigned quite hard to keep the Scarab's handling as it had been in Horizons after pre-launch testing in the Odyssey beta revealed it had been messed with considerably. There's no evidence to suggest that Frontier ever intended for it to release in that state but regardless, when it finally launched handling had been "largely" restored (although it still has an unnecsssary self righting mechanism which means, for example, that it's now difficult if not impossible to pop the SRV onto its rear in the "praying" position). There's also the possibility that the handling changes we discovered prematurely pre-launch (via the challenge scenario) had been left in as a way for FD to try out characteristics we'd eventually see in the Scorpion. Some commanders still feel that the Scarab should be thought of primarily as a ground hugging ATV but, whether by accident or design, it's proven to excel at bounding across the landscape using its boosters in a style known colloquially as "flyving" and I personally think it's unwise to try and denounce that.
Many players actively engaged in these discussions feel that the current Drive Assist option isn't that useful and that it would be better repurposed so that Drive Assist off leaves the SRV with the Horizons handling model while turning Drive Assist on employs the RL equivalent of things like active differentials, ABS and a more active rear wheel steering mechanism to give the Scarab a more refined and less sporty performance model.
Loading up the SRV with cargo does not affect its weight or handling, nor does having the cargo scoop deployed. The SRV's shields do not protect the vehicle against ground collisions and, unless engaged in combat scenarios, it's therefore pointless putting any pips to SYS and drivers are advised to keep 4 pips in ENG at all times (unless actively attempting to restrict the vehicle's performance, either in an attempt to keep the beast under control or to abide by the regulations of specifc, more ground-born, race variants).
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that's how we used to play racing games back in the days (in my case on ZX Spectrum compatibles, then on PC XT, PC AT, etc)
Weight = Mass * Gravity
Doubling the mass doubles the weight. Which also has a direct relationship on a vehicle accel, decel, and the forces of both static and kinetic friction.
Doubling the mass of an object on a planet with 0.5g gives it the same weight as the original object on a 1g planet.
As my post above said, adding cargo to an SRV appears to make no difference to handling. Which seems like a very large oversimplification for a game that once prided itself in being a scientifically fairly realistic quasi space sim. The weight of the SRV is currently modeled based on the gravity of the planet. Using a variable instead of a fixed number for the mass of the SRV would be an intuitive thing for most programmers trying to model something like this.
I wonder if Frontier simply decided not to take account of cargo weight in the SRV's handling model because it initially only carried 2t and they decided it wasn't worth incorporating? I might try to ask Tom Kewell as I'd be really curious to know for sure.
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