Medium Rover

Description
Rovers are the first tier of land Vehicles in Astroneer. All players have this innate schematic as soon as they add a vehicle bay to their camp.

Though they have a built-in battery, rovers need power to be driven and function as an unlimited supply of air when you're in or connected to it. Provided you have excess power to spare at a base camp, connecting to the rover will also replenish the power in your backpack. Because the rover is much smaller than the truck, careful consideration of attachments is advised. See the attachments section for details.

Power and Storage
Compared to the truck, the rover has extremely limited storage space. The storage space also can be used to hold extra power in its raw form or you can equip the rover with another source of power, like a solar panel or a generator.

A rover consumes 0.5 units/sec, or 1 bar of power in 8 seconds. Without an external power source or batteries, under continual use, the 8 bars of its internal battery is emptied in 64 seconds. (Note: Recheck needed, it may be 60 seconds, not 64.)

Power Options:

 * The rover can be connected to a base platform to recharge its power. To recharge it in this manner, drive close to a platform until a clear blue visual of a hose appears. Exit the rover (Tab) and place the mouse cursor over the hose visual and click. The hose will become solid and the rover will recharge if the base camp has adequate power being generated by sources like solar panels or wind turbines.
 * It can have power sources (e.g. generator, solar panels, etc.) directly attached, which can provide a constant source of power to the rover. If using a generator, materials are used to refuel, and you will only benefit from some sources in ideal conditions (e.g. daylight to use solar), so it can be helpful to have the gathered power materials.

Storage Options:

 * A rover base starts with four small attachment slots on its top (which can also hold items that require the use of two slots) and a large attachment slot on either end. The end attachment slot can be used to link the vehicle to other vehicles to tow them and form a "train".
 * Additional storage units can be crafted at the printer. These will use up two slots and stand on end, offering 8 slots, and freeing the other base attachment slots to be used for other purposes, like hauling scavenged Artifacts back to Research. If your main objective is to gather materials, it is recommended fill as many of the slots as you can with storage.

Crafting a Rover
The rover base can be crafted at the cost of four compound at the Vehicle Bay modules.

Use
To drive a rover at least one seat needs to be attached to it. You can add a seat by any of the following means: A 3-seat can also be crafted exclusively from the vehicle bay.
 * Connect the rover to and use a Vehicle Bay to select the seat type you want to add (Warning: [as of alpha testing] seats attached at the vehicle bay are permanently attached and can not be removed to reconfigure the vehicle.)
 * Craft a seat using a printer
 * Find one while scavenging in or near a crashed ship

Adding Attachments
Attachments vary in size, and so far (in alpha testing), those added by the using the Vehicle Bay cannot be removed, which means that rovers with attachments added in this manner will not be able to be reconfigured for different uses later on.
 * All attachments (as of alpha testing) use either one or two attachment slots, and because the rover has fewer slots than the truck, thinking about how the rover will be used is vital to choosing and configuring its attachments.
 * The weight of a vehicle can be affected by attachments, additions, and how loaded up it is. The rover's weight determines how fast it can move or how/if it can be used in a train.

From the Vehicle Bay
The Vehicle Bay additions that have been discovered so far that can be built onto the rover are:
 * 1-Seat (uses 1 slot)
 * 3-Seat (uses 2 slots)
 * Crane (uses 4 slots) - Used with a Drill Head for bulk material collection)
 * Large Storage (Extra large - Each of these doubles attachment points of half the top of the rover)

From the Printer
Printer Parts that can be attached include:
 * Tier 2 Battery
 * Solar Panel
 * Wind Turbine
 * Storage
 * Winch
 * Seat (at least one is required to drive the rover or the first rover in when towing a second vehicle.)

From the Backpack
Though these attachments are smaller, they offer an efficient way to refuel, while maintaining maximum storage space for materials and any Artifacts you find to research. In addition, these can be shuffled into the storage slots in the backpack if you need to place larger items on the rover.
 * Solar (the small, single panel)
 * Generator - the small version uses organic materials, making it easy to refuel almost anywhere
 * Wind Vane

Hauling and Trains
Like trucks, rovers can be tethered together to form "trains".

There are limitations how big a train can be based on the number of vehicles and/or how full they are. The more vehicles or the more stuff is loaded onto them, the slower they go, up to the point where they can no longer climb small rises or even move at all.

Currently (during alpha testing):
 * A Rover can pull one lightly loaded Truck

Other Uses

 * s can link the power grids of base camps. As of alpha testing this is confirmed as two grids, but with adequate power sources in each base camp's grid, more may be possible.
 * s have their own in-built beacon which can be used to mark locations that don't justify establishing a new Habitat. This can be useful if normal beacons are being used for something else like marking roads or other points of interest.
 * s can supply unlimited air and have attachment slots for supplies, so they can be use as general storage and function like temporary camps while exploring.
 * If you're in a drivers seat, storms can't hurt you so long as the rover does not roll. If you partially bury a rover, so storms can't blow them away, they make ideal outposts/sanctuaries since they also have their own in-built beacons to mark where they are.

Tips

 * Use a printed or scavenged modular seat instead of using the Vehicle Bay to add a seat or seats; by doing so, you can remove it later if you need to break up or reconfigure the rover or a "train." Attaching the seat this way frees you to use valuable space to carry a more items.
 * Regularly check anything added to the front or rear end points as sometimes they fall off in a crash or on rough terrain.
 * Include some compound in your toolkit; if the rover is already full, then having compound allows you to quickly make a beacon to mark where materials or scavenged items are left behind to be collected later.
 * A Wind Vane, Generator and/or Solar are ideal basic power sources for a "train" because they can be packed away in an attachment slot on your Backpack. This frees additional space to carry more loot (e.g. materials, scavenged items) home.

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