Wrong Way Down - Part 4

Episode 4 of Wrong Way Down starts with Splitsie introducing today's special guest, W4stedspace (in a white space suit)! The two of them proceed to out-humble each other about who is more knowledgeable.

> "After the woeful progress we made last time, thanks to some overzealous modding by yours truly, it's time to enrol some help with getting us back on track, it's time to bring in the big guns.... w4stedspace is helping (I hope) and Capac's there for our amusement :) If you aren't familiar with w4sted, (...) He's one of the people who taught me how to play Space Engineers and still manages to sometimes :P" -- Splitsie
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Splitsie has switched on Capac's PC and stream and stuck Capac's engineer in a cryopod in the front of the rover. People watching Capac's stream will get audio and see Capac's point of view until he wakes up and joins. On an ice lake, Splitsie explains that he only got 46 km from the north pole and describes the self-imposed rules to w4sted. He's also changed the mod settings to decrease the number of drone attacks. W4sted laughs at Splitsie's "wind powered car" while he inspects the rover. W4sted is suffering from 400 ms ping lag. They reminisce about good old parachute desasters in previous coop streams while building a drill rig. Capac joins late and runs out of hydrogen while trying to loot wrecks. IRL, Capac has a stuffy nose and will infect Splitsie as punishment for being a cheerful morning person. Splitsie and W4sted talk shop about drills as Texfire joins the chat.

(0:30) After the inventory is completely full of ice, Splitsie hurries on across the lake to use the daylight. Splitsie and W4sted recognise the lake from another series. They resolve a desync bug that prevents them from driving because, as Capac diagnoses, too many cockpits spoil the broth. W4sted handles the wheel configuration, Capac is driving, and Splitsie decorates. The rover is too heavy to drive uphill so they build hydrogen tanks and eject some ice. Capac plays chicken with the ice boulders and gets crushed.

(1:00) The terrain is very hard to traverse. They decide against building a tunnel bore because it would be boring for the viewers. Due to his "super power" to see things 1 sec *after* they happen, W4sted can't help drive, but he gives expert advice. Splitsie responds to Chat: "To be fair, Capac has *not* been responsible for this problem." - Capac: "YET." - "?!" IRL, in the background, Kookaburras are laughing at their efforts. W4sted shares a great idea how to build "hydraulic" adjustable front wheels. Capac suggests designing a stair-stepping lift to get uphill, but W4sted and Splitsie have made negative experience with that. A ramp is still an option, as is "tear down and rebuild at the top".

(1:30) Capac finds a cool Harpy wreck. Texfire claims it's a birthday gift. Chat allows them to salvage it without a battle, and Splitsie gives them 5 min to loot. Capac squirrels away salvage by rolling components down the hill. Splitsie blows up the wreck and Capac blows up Splitsie in revenge for not letting him loot. They missed salvaging some valuable blocks and according to Chat, Splitsie is now "more Michael Bay than Med Bay", which inspires Capac to build a Michael Bay style Transformer out of scrap metal. Splitsie finishes a road levelling drill ~~rake~~ aerator, but it's not helping them up the steep hill.

(2:00) After dismantling the front drill rig again, Splitsie and W4sted talk shop about wheels. They want to reposition and end up sliding backwards down the hill. They wish they had a drawing app to show each other the designs they imagine! Capac shows his brilliant design of four magnetic landing gear "feet" in an X shape around a rotor axle. Splitsie and W4sted lament that, due to SE's inflexibility, this otherwise smart construction would flip the rover instead of rolling uphill. W4sted suggests a V shape of three columns of alternating wheels with rotor suspension, and they start drafting a new vehicle on the lake. Capac goes exploring the NPC Scout outpost. They wish BruceLeedleLeedleLee was here to help with the rotors.

(2:30) While W4sted and Splitsie build a mad wheeled demo scaffold (and cut it in half by accident), Capac dies against the NPC Scout Outpost. Splitsie gives up and suggests modifying the current blue rover instead. Capac has eliminated the big turrets of the Scouting Outpost and returns victoriously to suggest building horizontally extendable wheels on pistons.

They give up prototyping for now and Splitsie drives the blue rover up a ridge to get a different point of view of the terrain. IRL, W4stedspace' house suddenly loses power and he's got problems logging back in. Splitsie and W4sted chat about arcing electricity and Uninterruptible Power Supplies while Splitsie drives back across the lake to find another way out. Splitsie notices that the blue rover is struggling with power, similar to w4sted's house. Splitsie finally manages to drive uphill, away from the lake - and runs over Capac, who's given up his attempt to defeat the NPC outpost. W4sted does reconnaissance.

(3:00) The lake is now between them and south and they are trying to drive around the lake on a ridge. They wish the game had zip lines, wing suits, and grappling hooks. They are getting in range of the Scout Outpost but they're precariously parked at a 45 degree angle (helped by SE's artificially low center of gravity in wheeled vehicles). Capac finally takes out the Scout Outpost! They salvage it for parts while talking about breakfast. They drive on south and the only way is downhill. Splitsie finds a missing-texture block That disappears at closer inspection while "Commando Capac" goes explore NPC Outposts again. On very cratery terrain, the rover runs out of power...

(3:30) Meanwhile, Capac has seized and renamed the NPC Outpost to "Fort Capac - Capac's Sweet Bachelor Pad". They park the Blue Rover to recharge slowly using the wind turbines and Splitsie shows off the maps created by Bavada and Remaarn. They are not near water ice and can't use the hydrogen engine to produce power faster. W4sted invites Splitsie to join another SE session later that is modded to resemble Kerbal Space Program. Splitsie regrets that they made hardly any progress today and Capac mistakes the rover's wind turbines for the rising of Cthulhu. W4sted refuses to speak in a Tolkien Dwarf accent.

W4sted and Splitsie decide to build a rickity bridge because "this show is a Top Gear Special". Capac hides under the bridge for a mysterious project. When W4sted jokes they don't need light on the bridge because there are no crocodiles anyway, Splitsie goes check under the bridge and realises Capac has been building... Capacodiles. They fly "like a slightly overweight dog" off the end of the bridge and crash into the first of the two latitudinal World Seams--but they live.

## References

1. ↑ A prototype for what will become the Bird Eater soon.
2. ↑ 3:24:22
3. ↑ World Seams are edges where the 3D cube maps are stitched together. Each polar region is surrounded by a latitudinal World Seam, this means they are now leaving the northern polar region.