i believe people who use the suspension blocks as actual suspension for trucks and cars would appreciate this a lot. This would also help with trying to replicate more complex real life vehicles, also if the suspension spring tension could be lowered a bit that would help as well. Still experimenting with tank tracks and trying to get track guiding with suspension, similar to how the tracks on an M4 Sherman work. That's the only thing on my end that's giving me trouble but I'm sure other people would find this helpful for tension tightening things that need to flex. While a little hard to explain, im trying to compact my design and make it so that it can climb hills better.
Suspension Compression
- Thread starter rotty
- Start date
I would say we need to extend the maximum spring rate on the shock absorbers up to 4 (it's currently 3), and either a) introduce a 'travel' parameter or b) add a longer travel (large) shock absorber that has 2 blocks' worth of travel. Chaining two shocks in parallel makes a machine unnecessarily large, and also introduces a weak spot that you can't brace up to reinforce - meaning that you're always limited to 1 block of travel, which often just isn't enough.
I'm with AxeSlash in that we need a travel parameter so set the initial length on start but allow it to travel farther once there is some room for further expansion, or another alternative is have a weight counter and have the suspension react to that in build mode then just hoping it will be fine once finished building and try the machine for the first time. That feature would help with a lot of things for the sake of stability, perhaps highlight it yellow for when something is unstable and you can hover your mouse over it to see what the problem is. Similar to Medieval Engineers and their building mode.
I don't think we particularly need an automatic parameter adjuster...that would mean that the game has to 'predict' how hard or soft you want your suspension (which will inevitably result in annoyance when you want something other than what the game decides is correct), not to mention having to calculate the weight distribution between the different shocks. There's some reasonably serious maths involved (look up the suspension bible on the Pirate4x4 website to see what I mean - it's a minefield).
A bit of experience building quickly tells you how hard you need your springs. If you really want to go into it there are Excel spreadsheets on the internot that tell you what spring rate you need (albeit they are probably a little beyond what the average Besiege player cares about).
I think an automatic feature would add considerable dev time for very little gain. There are far bigger fish to fry IMO. Your opinion may be different, and you're entitled to it, of course.
A bit of experience building quickly tells you how hard you need your springs. If you really want to go into it there are Excel spreadsheets on the internot that tell you what spring rate you need (albeit they are probably a little beyond what the average Besiege player cares about).
I think an automatic feature would add considerable dev time for very little gain. There are far bigger fish to fry IMO. Your opinion may be different, and you're entitled to it, of course.
Once more, just a suggestion. I understand what you mean by complicated math(s) (oh you silly Brits and maths =P), it was just something i thought of just then as i was writing the reply. I still like the travel adjustment idea, though i would like to see some other blocks integrated to make different kinds of suspensions, such as Leaf and Christie suspension. Even a block that acted like a wood block but had a ball barring axle kind of thing in it would be helpful. Maybe we just need some different kinds of suspensions then just the one block, makes it pretty limiting when trying to make more complicated designs.