Bird Eater

The Bird Eater is a large-grid rover built during the multiplayer live stream Wrong Way Down - Part 6 in September 2019. The rover was the protagonists' main mobile base for the subsequent seven episodes of Wrong Way Down, carrying the Medical Room, Cryo Pods, Assembler, Refinery, defence turrets, power production, custom map LCDs, most of the cargo, and sometimes drill rigs. It was piloted by Splitsie who, being localhost, had the best ping. 
It's unique spider-like design was devised by w4stedspace based on a similar small-grid design whose goal it was to maximise the wheel surface touching the ground at all times. The large-grid rover has two rigid double columns of wheel suspensions along the bottom. It's additionally propelled by four flexible outriggers, two on each side. Each outrigger has a column of four wheel suspensions and is held in place by one of four orthogonal arms on rotors. The outrigger subgrids rely on the subgrid control script. 
The cockpit is in the back (because the front kept getting destroyed) and the rover could only be driven in third person view. The pilot (Splitsie) could increase or decrease the rotor strength and velocity as needed to pull the outrigger arms up if they were in the way, or gently push them down to increase the vehicle's overall grip on uneven ground. 
The main power source was hydrogen engines. The wind turbines on the roof were intended to work only when parked, a situation for which they turned the grid static by locking onto the ground temporarily with landing gear. To use the available space, they added solar panels to the topsides of the outriggers. The rover was also equipped with enough parachute hatches and proved to survive jumps off cliffs. 
The Bird Eater went through several redesigns: Sometimes because the protagonists needed one-off drill rigs or extra refineries added, or simply because the front and the outriggers corners kept getting destroyed by accidents with the terrain or NPC drone attacks. Capac also once added temporary mandibles (gatling turrets), and Texfire added temporary fangs (non-functional Grinders). The armour colour scheme started out grey with red highlights, and slowly became patchwork, depending on who last repaired what. One design constant was a gold metallic stripe from back to front. In the last few episodes, they dismantle the outriggers completely. 
Overall, w4stedspace came to the conclusion that this (originally small-grid only) design did not translate well to large-grid wheel suspensions. Also the extreme width of the Bird Eater caused issues in uneven terrain that the faster and more reliable small-grid variants never had. 
The rover was named the Bird Eater by Capac, after an Australian tarantula that is, according to Splitsie, so big you feel its weight when holding it in your hand. 
Category:Creations