In this guide i will try to explain how to build crash landing, a compact and fast vehicle wich moves on thrusters only, by sliding on the ground and vectoring the thrust.
This tank is used best as a (higher than T1) scout and/or glass cannon

some neat features:

- fits in a 5x5x3 box
- requires just 20 structural blocks for its frame
- great straight line acceleration, and faster than wheel speeds
- great agility around max wheel-speeds; drift around enemies and dodge long range fire
- flip (instantly) with thrusters, without waiting for a module to charge up
- climb steep things
- VTO(L); fly/hover without helium (demonstration vids in chapter 3).

some lesser features:

- squishy; getting shot in the thrusters can be very disabling
- doesnt work for t1 (without modifications)
- actually handles more or less like an overpowered hovercraft; babysit stability like in a helicopter

also check out my other guide, about a very unusual type of vehicle with 1 aerofoil and thrusters, in an effort to improve thruster sleds.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=318363451


wow..... such flying

people who are interested in something more T1 compatible can skip to "4. the duck" for another even smaller and cheaper 1-turret frame, wich is actually more easy to handle on the ground than crash landing.



Probably the smallest frame possible, and also the frame that got bob kicked from the small-vehicle purists, though his use of a tetrahedron was very progressive according to some prism supporters, it was a stab in the eye to nearly all the members who were still furiously debating the cube-prism taboo, as tetrahedron is more than double the spelled size of cube or prism.

This enraged and united the community into starting legal procedures against bob, for purposefully discrediting the cube-held small frame record, and geometric community terrorism.
After numerous death threats bob fled the country, with his last known statement being "you won't catch me on my lucky frame, its waaaaay too small" while shimmying away from danger on his last unholy 1-wheeled creation.

I'll be building vertical as in my last guide, saves to-be vertical space for the gun, and makes "flying" and overall sliding more balanced, the blocks on the right of the screenshots represent the block budget, without the turret/seat/special modules.

the gray heavy blocks don't count.... just make them invisible with your mind... or something, to be honest i dont even know why i used them in the first place.

total block budget:
11x t2 thruster
14x cube
6x prism
1x vertical compatible turret
and optional;
1x radar
1x jammer module


start with a simple horizontal bar from 5 cubes



now make the letter H by adding 8 cubes, also add 2 prisms and a cube on what is now the front, like in the picture.
the final cube will be the turret mount, the prisms are minimal protection for your upper thrusters.



add 4 prisms (left picture), add 2 T2 thrusters on the "underside" of the front prisms (right picture), these will enable you to aim your thrust vector for steering.

Pointing these thrusters inwards appears to benefit low speed steering response, and outwards more steering stability at high speeds.



add pitch thrusters, these will enable you to flip your vehicle, stick to a surface/wall, or take off and fly (and maybe crash-land somewere).
You can do without pitch thrusters and just use the steering+main trusters, that might give you better ground response, but can make flying (and climbing walls) a lot harder.

customize pitch response by playing with the up/down thrust configuration, in the case of this picture the response favours upwards (W) pitch response, with 2 thrusters up against one down.



finally add the forward thrusters, they are the main reason this vehicle can climb walls, accelerate like a spooked pig, and fly for a while.

point the turretsided thrusters to what is now up if you want a reverse, or to compensate for the uneven amount of pitch thrusters (since they are slightly above the center of mass).

this is where you place the seat and the turret, note how there are just 2 blocks connecting the turret to the seat, make those blocks your strongest, it might come in handy if someone underestimates the 10% that he might have left of you after a close confrontation.


so far, i found this to be the only relatively balanced way to add radar and stealth capabilities, and unfortunately radar doesn't fit anymore when you want to place a sub-t5 turret in this configuration, you could solve the problem by just adding a cube to make it higher, or placing the radar somewhere else on a less symmetrical point, but it'll mess up air handling and stability because it changes the center of mass.

- vertical building results in an altered control scheme on thruster sleds.

Any horizontal thruster sled will have 6 usable thruster groups: W, A, S, D, LSHIFT and SPACE.
Vertical thruster sleds switch WS for LSHIFT-SPACE, and can have inverted WASD groups depending on thruster placement relative to the pilot seat, though i did not use/need that in crash landing.

on the ground:
Briefly hold W after spawn-falling-time to land with the turret up, use LSHIFT to activate main thrust, vector it with AD thrusters and use less bursts of LSHIFT when you notice a drop in AD thruster response with speed.

handling can become challenging at high speeds, because you can stall your inner thruster in fast and long corners.
This behaviour of vector thrust in robocraft can force you to slow down, or spin around to regain straight-line control, so far that doesn't seem to change for nearly every exclusively vector-thrusted frame i've tried to build.

left: note how i "stalled" in the drift around the big rock, makes you go very fast for some reason.
right: drifting inwards in a spiral is a way to end a long drift, or to do fast corners around enemies in confusing attack patterns

in the air:
Use WS for the pitch, and AD for yaw.
There's no roll control, so you'll have to improvise the flying part with "pitch and yaw", to do more than a planned straight flight.
Landing from straight flight can be very easy and look kinda neat, though landing after a high speed turn in the air usually won't be pretty, crash landing and flipping your vehicle afterwards is usually faster (and harder to hit), than practicing a neat landing like in the video on the right.

Another cool thing this frame can do is float like a helium sniper, to do this you have to fly up as vertical as you can and you'll hit hit the map's ceiling, keep holding main thrust and you'll stay there.

use this to switch between ground and air play when you need it, appear right in front of those pesky 4-thruster enemy helium blocks guarding the base, blast them to pieces from point blank, and afterwards... become them!

Other things to consider

- horizontal weapons won't fit without modding this frame

- this frame with the flight characteristics as they are can only be made with T2 thrusters, because they fit inside the space of a single structural cube.

- the minimum tier for this frame will most likely be T2, because well... 11 T2 thrusters, plus the 5x5x2 frame size nearly prevents practical placing of more than 1 turret above a certain format, forcing you to pick one with a high tier.

- thruster sleds also work when you build them horizontal, though that'll require more balancing in the smaller sleds, because of the pilot seat's influence on the center of mass.

- no reverse/braking thrusters, you could reverse 2 of the 6 forward thrusters but that impacts agility, top speed, and makes it harder to take off vertical or climb a wall.
so in the all 6 forward case, reversing means quickly directing your main thrust 180 degrees to the other side with your AD thrusters.


climbing walls is usually easy, but sometimes you'll find one you just cant ramp onto, use your W thrusters to aim the nose up until you can get on the wall, and ocasionally tap the S thruster to prevent backflipping away from the wall (if needed) while activating main thrust with LSHIFT.

- depending on the tier of your used blocks; try not to get hit (too much or in the thrusters) as you're just 20 structural blocks, try to scout/snipe/defend/be like a ninja for most of the time, dodge snipers with speed bursts, go tokyo drift on your enemies in close combat, and zip across the map with your straight line (air) speed.

- no flip module was used because you can flip yourself with the WS (and alternating AD) thrusters for most of the time, theres still some space on the underside/frontside of the "turret & seat blocks", if you're also planning to not add radar or stealth modules.

- this vehicle is very good news for you, if you know how to steer a 1969 moonlander.

Why, you ask? well.... for the people who want a TRUE T1 ready glass cannon, and for fun!
I just assume you won't be needing a lot of building directions, as the frame is basically the T shaped block from tetris, with thrusters, special modules and a turret slapped on the only sensible places.


I mean, just.....just look at it..... LOOK AT IT!!!1!! if 4 structural blocks is still too much for you, you should join the small-vehicle purists, bob might even have left a gap for you to fill in their community, after he had to resort to terrorism and flee on his own creation


i found that since the last update some top mounted turrets won't fit the 4 block T frame, if you want a top mounted turret just add an extra cube under the driver seat, the gain in weight will make the frame a little bit less responsive, but the extra cube will give you space for the turret

manual for "the duck":
- limited flying capabilities, your only chance of stable flight is when you happen to spin around the length axis, in the direction you just needed after leaving a steep ramp.

- also can flip it self with just thrusters by moving forward and bumping into something, and doesn't even need flipping when its built with a front mounted turret.... though, that does require you to invert your steering logic once its on its back

- harder to stall in fast drifts than "crash landing" because of slower acceleration, and lower thrust. The good thing is that those last two things, also make sub-wheel speed drifting and dodging bursts so much more manageable, the main strength of this frame in my opinion.

- lack of pitch thrusters makes it harder to climb walls and nearly impossible to fly, turn off sticky keys and carefully pulse your forward thrusters to climb steep objects, to prevent taking off in a backflip and having to start over again.

- you can "front mount" the plasma gun! also it is actually possible to equip this letter T with an extra module for stealth, but that will take away the frame's T1 compatibility, even with the lowest tier module.

- if you want, you can further improve balance and "air" behavior by adding flip modules at the right place, they can also give you extra "armor" as they can cover a lot of frame in this tiny design.
I also found that when both your radar modules are destroyed, there's an improvement in handling and stable straight flight!

- the bits of flying characteristics the duck even has, improve with a front mounted turret configuration, when it looks a bit like a flying duck.

- looks a bit like a swimming duck with a top mount turret.

- it's time to take a break, if you think this vehicle may have quacked a few times during battle.

if you fail during a match, relax.... and just picture tim complementing you about your unique creation.