Brainstorming reasons to take skids rather then wheels:
1) You could have plenty of sharp or pointy stomes. Skids will be cheaper,
so if your ground connection wears out fast, you will often have to buy
replacements. I also suppose it is easier and cheaper to put armour at
skids, realistically it will most likely be cheap ablative armour. You
will have to add replacement skids and/or skid repair kits to the vehicle.
Such a setup also has some gameplay advantages. There are tactical
decisions, like do we replace our skids now, while the pirates that chase
us do too, or do we try to get to the fort with the skids as they are,
risking an even longer repair sessions. Alternativly the ground might
contain corrosive substances*
2) Brittle stones might be smashed by skids, while wheels attempt to drive
over them. Propably one can find values for the size and brittleness of
stones, where the smashing is preferrable to rolling over them.
3) Low gravity or some oily substance on the ground should reduce the
advantages of wheels.
1+2 means that a plain of glass shards would be ideal. Is there a way to
get something like that as natrual phenomenon? Even better a plain of
glass shards, covered in corrosive oil.
1 could also work as explaination, why beasts of burden are not used.
An other idea for spherical pebbles: What form do meteorites usually have?
I would suppose that everything that makes much surface is burned away
first, which would mean that they tend to be roughly spherical.
* I think skids will also will lead to less stuff being thrown onto the
hull, so even if the wheels are cost efficient themselfs, you then will be
required to repair the hull more often. I am not 100% sure if that is
correct in all cases though.
One mans groundfloor is an other mans earthmissle
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Johannes Trimmel
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