The SRV - Why is it so bad?

[Thalion Solarstorm]

About teh Handling: Try FA Off and 0 Pips to Engines on Low G worlds. Almost never turns you. Also, if your taking a jump with 4 pips - throttle down to about 70% before landing and your fine. If your accelerating full power while landing and not all wheels are down yet a spin is guaranteed.

Cheers!

 

[Quester91]

- shoot a rock on a low-G Planet and measure the time they take to fall down
- lift the SRV to the same height and witness it returning to the ground much quicker

So much for being a sim.

What happens if you take off and then turn the srv upside down while in the air? Does it fall slower?

 

[verminstar]

Regarding 'hang time' the SRV has thrusters in the wheel hubs to compensate for local gravity - in low G you are effectively pulled down to the ground when you are not up-thrusting.

The only part of USSs no affected by local gravity at altitude is the weird immovable asset (a dead ship or whatever) seemingly nailed to the fabric of spacetime

I'm sure there are quirks for the sake of gameplay discoverable in unusual circumstances, but the general experience planetside is believable imo.

Happy days, so my guess was on the money after all...smiles all around

I wonder though... do the passive hub thrusters swivel like a gimbal to compensate on high G planets? To push up and soften the blow when landing from a height...that would actually be a very cool mechanic if it worked as the suspension on the srv isnt even half as good as a modern sand buggy...and Ive driven sand buggies that could literally be driven upside down...if yer stomach and head can take it that is considering its home made in the shed over the summer. Point being, the suspension is massively better than the current game srv.

Would like to see variations on the srv like maybe a tracked version fer high G planets...tracked would make more practical sense as it has way better grip due to more contact with the ground, ergo more grip.

So much for being a sim.

What happens if you take off and then turn the srv upside down while in the air? Does it fall slower?

Yes ^

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Regarding 'hang time' the SRV has thrusters in the wheel hubs to compensate for local gravity - in low G you are effectively pulled down to the ground when you are not up-thrusting.

The only part of USSs no affected by local gravity at altitude is the weird immovable asset (a dead ship or whatever) seemingly nailed to the fabric of spacetime

I take if you have never visited the USS type as I described very near a landable Planet
And yeah, the immobile assets (dead Ship or Private Data Beacons) are still missing their "simulate Gravity" Script.
It's fun to precharge the FSD, point at the immobile asset and then afterburn straight into it activate the FSD

 

[Riverside]

I take if you have never visited the USS type as I described very near a landable Planet
And yeah, the immobile assets (dead Ship or Private Data Beacons) are still missing their "simulate Gravity" Script.
It's fun to precharge the FSD, point at the immobile asset and then afterburn straight into it activate the FSD

I have been to those regular space USSs near planets, and have seen the stuff, both targetable and non-targetable fall at a similar rate. My ship, with FA-off also falls towards the planet, although anecdotally not as quickly.

So there may be some issue with gravity effects being influenced by the mass of the object where it shouldn't be a factor but it's slight and most magic is hidden behind a curtain

I like to charge the FSD thing too, I once managed to hit an immovable T-7 (victim in a pirate mission spawn) as I jumped, I watched it actually get pushed out of the way by my ship during the canned countdown

I'm okay with the magic being there, but it should be better hidden in a lot of cases. One of my pet peeves is watching the ship come in to land and do a canned suspension compress on the landing gear, but the gear itself isn't animated. Maybe stuff like that will get some love in Q2 & Q3 this year. Hope so.

 

[Sylow]

The big flaw with how most people seem to drive the SRV is the application of throttle. Mashing the throttle down to an instant 100 percent is going to cause a lot of oversteer. You've got to apply a more gradual creep up to that upper threshold. Get good at doing that, and you'll find that the SRV is much, much more controllable.

.
Very much this. I also for quite a while hated the SRV. Then i realized two things. First of all, how fast that thing actually is. You don't really get that, the cockpit is too big and gives you a wrong impression. But more important, at some time the area remembered my on the training grounds from my military time, when i learned to drive my tank cross-country. I then tested how the SRV handles when using those lessons to use, and it really made driving the thing much better.
.
So no, the SRV doesn't handle like a tank, it's far from that, but apparently some things which help for cross-country navigation also help a lot on the SRV. Most of the improvement comes from doing more throttle-work.
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Also yes, i also have to agree on what others have said: switch drive assist off. Drive assist takes throttle control away. With it on, the SRV goes "pedal to the metal" whenever you start loosing speed in any turn. Which then of course makes a spin quite likely. Drive assist off makes things much better.
.

 

[Alec Turner]

I don't want to be one of those "in denial / learn how to use it" people so I ain't gonna say that. All I'm gonna say is that personally (as someone who's driven around entire planets) I think the SRV is a truly incredible little machine, and an absolute dream to drive. It can dodge around places like Dav's Hope in 0.09g at nearly 70km/h ..

[video=youtube_share;rO8aMPBbTqI]https://youtu.be/rO8aMPBbTqI[/video]

.. go up the most insane gradients, flive like a bird at well over 500km/h over the bumpiest of terrain ..

[video=youtube_share;NHlGudppvmA]https://youtu.be/NHlGudppvmA[/video]

.. boost itself out of pretty much any awkward situation it finds itself in, and as for its robustness ..

The SRV does have a hull like tissue paper, and a suspension made by Ikea.

.. are you kidding me? the thing's practically indestructible when driven properly (oops, I said it) ..

[video=youtube_share;zHBBQYr1z90]https://youtu.be/zHBBQYr1z90[/video]

.. and can even be repaired in mid-air!

I will however admit that it does seem to have a weak spot somewhere down at the front ..

[video=youtube_share;XtaXcuIZZK4]https://youtu.be/XtaXcuIZZK4[/video]

Personally I suspect a big red self destruct button has foolishly been mounted right in the middle of the front bumper.

 

[Dural]

The SRV is really fun, you can catch almost all the spinouts with opposite lock. It backflips and barrel rolls over jumps in low grav, you can control the orientation it in the air and boost jump over just about anything, what's not to like? It's fragile because it's made of really light weight stuff.

 

[DeathStroke]

but at ~20metres per second, it handles like a wet noodle. which is weird because around 16-18 metres per second, the SRV handles completly fine. but the moment you get to 20, the slightest turn means an insta 180.

This is due to the steering mode (CLS (Curiosity Like Steering)), when you turn right, the front wheels point right and the rear wheels point left. It's wonderful for high precision low speed maneuvering, but utter crap for high speed. I've been trying for months to get FD to disable the rear steering at high speed.

Also, more wheels =/= better. The way FD set up the thing, it has most of it's drag up front, which is unstable. Paraphrasing Scott Manley, think about lawn darts, they have fins all the way at the back, so all the drag is at the back, which makes them very aerodynamically stable. Turns out it applies to wheeled vehicles too.

 

[CMDR-AD]

IMO, the SRV is excellent with my controls. I use a slider for the throttle, not a button. I adjust the throttle frequently, as the terrain or turns need it. I cruise at about 50% throttle and have generally excellent stability, even on undulating terrain. Slowing to 25% throttle helps as terrain becomes more rough. Driving at 100% throttle is a thrill reserved for very flat and open terrain.

Other players I know who have not enjoyed the SRV have mentioned that they are driving at 100% throttle and then steering. Or at least trying to, as in my experience this creates most of the problems related to difficult handling behavior.

If most CMDRs are driving with a controller, where they'll likely have a button or trigger for throttle/gas/go input, perhaps it might be worth while for Frontier to consider simpler or more arcade style handling. Currently, the SRV has a quite nuanced and responsive handling with a joystick and throttle slider, which I don't think can be appreciated on simpler controllers.

 

[LazyCalf]

It's not too bad, but I say that after finding the Xbox controller I bought for another game, makes driving it soooo much better. It's not great and hit the smallest rock and your doing a 180 but I dont use it that much and when I do it's not for that long. I do wish FD would add to the SRV line up though.

i use my mouse at the sensitivity that i'm accustomed to. it's not what i do wrong, i could make slight turns and the thing veers off into a donut, tbh i find it so much easier just thrusting around in the air with full pips on engines,
but impacts take damage directly to SRV hull, and not the shield.
something clearly isnt working,
and unless fdevs confirm this is the way it was intended,
i just want to make them aware that this is really, annoying.
forget about the bad steering mechanics,
why does impacts to surfaces not take directly from the sheild first?

 

[Krash]

I use KBM to operate the SRV. No problems as long as I keep it under 20ms. Why do I need to go faster than 16-19ms? That feels pretty fast. Btw it is so much improved under 3.0, I love it.

I still haven't got used to using boost to avoid boulders. I see one coming up and it looks tiny (I can get over that no problem, no wait, better boost, oops too late, hilarity ensues)

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I might have had some trouble with the SRV for the first 10 minutes or so. After that, it was no big deal. Just drive.
Guessing those who have trouble with the SRV also had a real issue with the GoKart in GTA: San Andreas too.

 

[EUS]

Using a HOTAS here (twist for steering), I've noticed that there's no partial steer, it's either full, or nothing.
Is there a setting to override this? Twist a little for small turns, etc.

 

[Foxiol Eagle]

The SRV is really fun, you can catch almost all the spinouts with opposite lock. It backflips and barrel rolls over jumps in low grav, you can control the orientation it in the air and boost jump over just about anything, what's not to like? It's fragile because it's made of really light weight stuff.

+1. Also driving with a Hotas is quite fun and intuitive. It does what you expect it would do in certain situations, nothing to complain in my opinion.

If some of you are having problems just reduce speed or use a proper device to actual "drive" it. You can't expect something to behave in the way you desire if the actual input of the device you are using is not the one you should be using in the first hand. This is like driving a car in a simulator.
I laugh when some people complain in rFactor 2 because it is hard to drive with a keyboard or a controller...Man you are not supposed to use a keyboard in a racing simulator, or even a controller, the direct input from those devices is what makes the game unplayable since it was designed for a wheel. Same happens with the Scarab here, when I use my pedals to turn it does it way too fast which makes the Scarab to loose control, but if I use the Joystic it is more progressive and therefore more natural to drive. I can't even imagine how it works with the input from a keyboard, or even the motion from the mouse. A controller might work a little bit better but still is not ideal in my opinion.

And then the physics in low gravity, inertia, grip and such for me are great. Same in planets close to 1G, it feels even more natural almost like a real car. It is what it is, not sure what people expect from a car.

The only thing I can complain is how easy is to take damage from rocks and such. But then again drive slow like you should do with common sense and problem solved.


PS: Now what we need is more SRV types and sizes for different tasks. (Combat/heavy/armored, Racing/sharp/light/fast, Cargo/big/heavy, Stealth/cloak device maybe?/infiltration, Mining/drill/heavy/industrial looking, etc).

 

[Alec Turner]

Using a HOTAS here (twist for steering), I've noticed that there's no partial steer, it's either full, or nothing.
Is there a setting to override this? Twist a little for small turns, etc.

I don't know which HOTAS you use but I have the Thrustmaster T.flight (twist for stearing, stick for roll) which is not the most sensitive stick in the world but I use it in conjunction with Joystick Curves and have setup some response curves which mean that at least the first half of my stick movements produce very small outputs. So yeah, I do get stuff in-between full or nothing. Are you sure you've bound analogue inputs to stearing and not simply on/off binary inputs (which you can easily do in bindings by mistake).

 

[EUS]

I don't know which HOTAS you use but I have the Thrustmaster T.flight (twist for stearing, stick for roll) which is not the most sensitive stick in the world but I use it in conjunction with Joystick Curves and have setup some response curves which mean that at least the first half of my stick movements produce very small outputs. So yeah, I do get stuff in-between full or nothing. Are you sure you've bound analogue inputs to stearing and not simply on/off binary inputs (which you can easily do in bindings by mistake).

It's a X55, I'll look for analog settings. I know the physical twist action isn't large, which might be a contributing factor. thx.

 

[Alec Turner]

It's a X55, I'll look for analog settings. I know the physical twist action isn't large, which might be a contributing factor. thx.

Basically make sure you bind the ones shown in green, not the ones show in red.

Note: this screengrab is for flight controls not SRV controls but the same basic thing applies.

 

[CMDR-AD]

Using a HOTAS here (twist for steering), I've noticed that there's no partial steer, it's either full, or nothing.
Is there a setting to override this? Twist a little for small turns, etc.

Yes, as above, double check the bind is to the steering axis, not the button input. I have very refined analog steering on the axis bind.

 

[Maro-Val]

Most planets you can land are small and have low gravity. They are almost all rocky and uneven surfaces (some even icy). You are comparing the experience of driving on a 1 G planet on roads to a .1 G planet on rocks.

I believe that you are comparing the srv experience, with something that actually works. But even if you were right, in your logic, which is flawed cause its a game, in a 1g world the srv driving should remind me driving on earth. Oh i can assure you that it is not the case lol.