Horizons SRV instability

Splosives

Splosives
Has anyone else noticed how the SRV often tends to flip 180° while driving, and then stay on that position?

It seems to me that the SRV drives in an unstable equilibrium, and when deviating from this equilibrium too much, it will flip around to 180° backwards, meaning this position is a stable equilibrium.

If you drive backwards in the SRV, you will notice that it will rarely want to flip over, because in this position it is at a stable equilibrium, and any deviation will tend to go back towards the equilibrium.

I don't know why this is, but usually such problems tend to occur due to bad center of mass or poor wheel placement.

I guess the Scarab is just poorly designed in this way.

Edit: Still doing tests to confirm this, but it seems like the backwards driving position is still slightly more stable.
 
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EzeThieL

EzeThieL
I tell you, it's from those magic rocks that you break with a little hammer inside the SRV and you synthesis the dust for the fuel. Beside that, it might be the gravity of a planet and if it's too low and you drive too fast and there is a bumb you might flit/fly away. Just my 2 cents...
 

thebullfrog

thebullfrog
I tried driving the SRV for the first time last night. This is exactly what kept happening to me and I ragequit. Perfectly flat land going dead straight. BARELY nudge the stick and I'm suddenly facing the other way.
 

m1dane24

m1dane24
The SRV is a little tricky to control, took me a while before i got used to it.

And yes, the SRV flipping happens a lot to me too. Especially when im driving thru almost vertical cliffs and some really harsh terrain (i am actually amazed how tough that thing is, if FD makes real life SRVs like that ill be the first to line up). When this happens, i usually just press space and the directional buttons to get myself right side up.

And oh, whenever i go exploring and land on planets, i always make sure i carry 2 or 3 or 4 SRVs! It's really fun to drive, haha :cool:
 

Glastinghouse

Glastinghouse
It happens to me as well. I jump a bit, don't land absolutely straight and it turns my SRV around. That is not the annoying thing for me. What I don't like is that you can't steer against it. No matter in which direction you drive, it continues to turn around and stops eventually when facing the opposite direction.
 

smartroad

smartroad
Chatting to my other half (a physicist) about why the SRV would do that. Went into a long explanation, but the nub of it is that given how big the rear end of the SRV is, once it starts to turn (at speed) then its rear will have a tendency to swing the back end around (effectively oversteer). If the rear had enough mass then it could 'stop' the spin once mass is in line with the moment of momentum - i.e. when the SRC has done a 180. I plan to run some experiments to see :D

Was asked the question, if it has 6 wheels and all of them have a motor, why do the front ones steer? Why not have it so that the wheels work more like a tank, slowing down one side to turn. Would also allow you to spin on a sixpence. And I couldn't answer, but it is a valid point and could make more sense then having to have the extra mechanics (to go wrong/cost) by having the front wheels steer.
 

Pville_Piper

Pville_Piper
Cmdr Ultra said:
The key to the SRV is to turn off Drive Assist. It's like a whole new vehicle after that.
Click to expand...

Another thing is to assign an analog axis to the steering, the longer, the better. Rudder pedals have a long axis and will go a very long way to making the steering less twitchy. Then it becomes fun to drift and boost away like some kind of spaced out Dukes of Hazzard!
 

Col Blair

Col Blair
Using logitech extreme 3d joystick. No problem with stick left right for steering stick back and forth for pitch, twist for roll, throttle for forward.
 
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