Ah well, sure, that's pretty easy to do. I didn't add one since real monster trucks don't usually come with a parking brake. They're usually held in place with wheel chocs. Anyway, there. The attached file includes a parking brake at the rear wheels. Had to set the braking torque to 25.000Nm to get any noticeable effect...
Is there ever going to be a point when the shells can deform? Also, am I just a bad driver or do the wheels pop off really easy?
I'm making a jbeam for the shell, but it's taking quite some time, since I'm an übernoob and I'm doing it manually in Notepad - with embarassing results so far... Anyway, it's going to be pretty simple, since the body is nothing but a semi-rigid fiberglass shell that doesn't really deform elastically like sheetmetal, but rather cracks and snaps (and gets scratched). Yep, wheels pop off quite easily on direct impact, but that's by design (kinda... ). When monster trucks crash - like, say, due to a failed jump - they often lose one or two wheels in the process...
Stiffer suspensions would only make it worse. Beams going from the wheelhub to the center of the wheel, on the other hand, could be made stronger so that they don't break as easily. I didn't do that since I found the current behaviour to be more realistic. Mind you that wheels tend to fall off that easily only when hitting an obstacle directly - be it a sharp rock or a wall ahead.
An ignition node and some thermals are in the plans. I'm reworking the engine to be closer to a real monster truck engine in specs, but there's a few problems that need to be fixed first, such as... ... this. Suspensions used to suffer damage from wheeltorque at high speed (usually only on one side, causing the chassis to lean like that), which stopped me from increasing the power output any further. I could make a 1200-1700HP engine, but the truck became uncontrollable because of this. Trying to fix it for good, but I'm yet to find a definitive solution. As for the picture... Guess this was after a rough landing on two wheels. Well... I like reckless jumps to have consequences on my vehicle, just like they would in real life. Either we aim for a realistic behaviour (which is what I'm trying to achieve), or we make this vehicle indistructible. Check the video above for a reference: breaking a monster truck is way easier than it seems. Anyway, stiffer suspensions could solve this, at the expense of maneuverability and off-road capability. Also, stiffer suspensions would be significantly more rigid, hence they would transfer more impact force directly to the chassis, making the whole vehicle a lot more prone to damage than it is now.
Well, maybe we can strike a perfect balance: further fine-tuning to make it more robust, withouth compromising realism. Noted in my (evergrowing) "to do" list!
I would love to help with it but really, modding is hard for me.. one time i tried to put thermals in it got unstable. I think its because I copy and pasted the values for the semi, and the code doesn't match the engine? (don't mind the other stuff in the background)
Maybe. Activating thermals is actually easier when starting from scratch, since most variables are quite self-explainatory. The Merlin engine of this truck lacks proper grouping, doesn't have dedicated radiator code (the rear-facing radiator is just a prop and is not functional) and an exhaust tree, so simply enabling thermals ("thermalsEnabled": true) currently doesn't do anything.
(I know, it's me again asking questions ) http://i.imgur.com/6xFDza9.jpg two things in the picture: Why when wheels fall off, do they loose the back part of the texture? And Why does the trucks back half disappear when it breaks?
That's how tire deflation simulation works in this game, some parts of the mesh are "broken" in the process (and because of mesh breaking, they simply disappear, together with their texture). In this specific case, only the internal section breaks because I had to make the thread and sidewall very strong to prevent wheel deformation/tire stretching under load. I will probably rework the tire system again - I've had rare occurrencies of physics engine instabilities when tires explode, and they also tend to spike a lot. Another case of Mesh breaking, most definitely. I probably forgot to disable it for the rear axle (or, possibly, both).
if you can figure out how to stop power getting to the wheels when they break off and get the suspension (4 links not keeping the axle from doing it) stiff enough to where it won't wobble back and forth when you slide the truck, it'd make it better and my only 2 complaints would be dealt with
That was supposed to happen already. I must have messed something up with breakgroups... EDIT - Fixed!
Fixed the breakgroups and pretty much remade the wheels again. Now they don't fall off THAT easily and won't eat your rear axle anymore. As a plus, the reworked parameters allow tires to deflate correctly without causing a nuclear fallout. Also, tweaked both suspensions a bit. Now they're a little less bouncy and prone to damage. Wobbling is still an issue (one I'm afraid I'll never be able to iron out completely), but it's been reduced a bit more. Then, I've been working on this: You asked for it... It's pretty much impossible to get a ruptured fuel tank, let alone to cause an engine failure, but hey, it's nice to have, I guess...
