Optimal Drill Placement for Tunneling w/Rovers

Small grid drill blocks have an area of effect larger than their block size; whereas large grid drill blocks have an area of effect roughly equal to their block size.

The problem is that the small grid drill's AOE is spherical rather than cubic. And the diameter is not equal to an exact number of small armor blocks. Thus, you won't be able to position the drills such that the bottom pole of the sphere will exactly line up with the base of your wheels.

To solve this, you can attach your drill assembly to a hinge or piston to achieve more micro adjustments to the drills' angle or height of attack.

One thing to be aware of with this approach: If you use hinges or pistons (or rotors for that matter), you're effectively relegating your drills to a subgrid. In fact, anything on the other side of the hinge or piston will be on a subgrid. And this has two potential consequences:

1. You won't be able to effectively blueprint your vehicle in survival mode. Projectors cannot project subgrids in survival. If you're in creative this is a nonissue.
2. Each subgrid has their own center of mass, and so your drill assembly will have a center of mass distinct from your vehicle's main body. This may cause your vehicle to be off balance and bounce or rock as you drill especially as your drills' internal containers fill. As a result, you may see irregular terrain modification (like small ridges) as you drive and your vehicle bounces slightly due to multiple centers of mass being calculated against acceleration/deceleration and friction.