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Keiya posted:... Yknow, installing a helicopter mod would probably have been a saner way to get on top of a mountain than the parachute-induced intentional crash of an airplane I did. I don't have the .craft file for this anymore, but it's pretty reasonable to make a VTOL spaceplane and use MechJeb to keep it steady.  The trick is making sure the center of balance won't shift, and then getting the thrusters placed just right, but reaction wheels give you a little bit of wiggle room.
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Apr 14, 2014 15:59
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Silver Alicorn posted:The trick is making sure the center of balance won't shift TAC can do intelligent things like manage CoM by taking both fuel weight and the rest of the parts into account and things like that. Goodspeed in contrast is "dumb", it moves fuel by two simple rules (move high->low or balance). But simplicity is nice and it's also persistently saved -- you can set it up in construction and never need to mess with it during flight.
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Apr 14, 2014 16:27
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Silver Alicorn posted:I don't have the .craft file for this anymore, but it's pretty reasonable to make a VTOL spaceplane and use MechJeb to keep it steady. I'm explicitly running my campaign without mechjeb. Occasionally I'll have it fly a new design for me in a separate install, if I'm wanting things like watching its limit-to-terminal-velocity behavior, but my main install doesn't have it because when I install it, I end up relying on it so much that I get bored.
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Apr 14, 2014 16:32
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUBhn3_P3hU This is cool as hell, and I'm now doing a Duna mission in similar style.
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Apr 14, 2014 16:34
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haveblue posted:The main thing Kerbal Engineer will do that Mechjeb won't is give you TWRs for planets other than Kerbin. In the assembly building. Mechjeb does display local TWR in other spheres of influence.
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Apr 14, 2014 16:41
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I didn't know that had been added to Mechjeb, but the VAB is really where TWRs are the most useful. Not like you can meaningfully change them once you get there.
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Apr 14, 2014 16:43
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Falken posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUBhn3_P3hU The Red, White and Blue parachutes are a nice touch 
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Apr 14, 2014 16:56
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Maybe it's because I'm not from the USA, but I just saw that as a way to easily visual ID the parachutes upon landing on the Martian surface.
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Apr 14, 2014 17:07
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OMGVBFLOL posted:I want a Kubble Space Telescope. gives you way too much science but it's a pretty cool mod. there's also a bug with it and KAS when replacing burnt out cpus but some dude made a fix here
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Apr 14, 2014 17:22
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Klyith posted:A fuel balancing plugin is pretty essential for those kinds of shenanigans. TAC fuel balancer is the the classic one, but I saw this plugin a little while ago which does some of the same things but is waaaay easier to use. That sounds really cool, TAC didn't have that feature when I last tried it. You can design your craft to keep its center of mass from shifting, though - you just have to make sure the CoM ends up in the center of the main fuel tank, and then make sure additional fuel only gets mounted to port and starboard. Kinda limits the design, of course. Keiya posted:I'm explicitly running my campaign without mechjeb. Occasionally I'll have it fly a new design for me in a separate install, if I'm wanting things like watching its limit-to-terminal-velocity behavior, but my main install doesn't have it because when I install it, I end up relying on it so much that I get bored. It's probably possible to fly a VTOL just using the inbuilt SAS, I just used MechJeb to guarantee straight and level flight. Also I hate landing manually more than anything else, I'm lazy.
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Apr 14, 2014 17:37
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Well, my first asteroid capture mission isn't going well. The giant decoupler worked fine, but the camera stayed stuck to the discarded giant stage as my rocket shot off into the distance to be consumed by the kraken.
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Apr 14, 2014 17:39
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Klyith posted:A fuel balancing plugin is pretty essential for those kinds of shenanigans. TAC fuel balancer is the the classic one, but I saw this plugin a little while ago which does some of the same things but is waaaay easier to use. Since I am too lazy to install mods (except for Protractor, that poo poo should be stock), I go to a whole lot of extra effort every time I design a plane making sure the CoG is right in the middle of my fuel tank. If I need more than one, I stack them sideways with the CoG in the middle of the center one.
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Apr 14, 2014 17:44
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I used to have a large station parts mod that gave you access to 2.5m joints and stuff for stations, but the guy stopped updating it. Specifically I wanted it for the 2.5m 6-way junction as well as bends that it had, is there anything similar someone could suggest?
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Apr 14, 2014 17:49
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Asteroids make physics warp very angry. This is unfortunate, because asteroid redirects can involve very long burns.
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Apr 14, 2014 17:53
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This sounds familiar:quote:NASA's LADEE spacecraft, now orbiting the Moon on a mission to study the lunar atmosphere, might not survive the lunar eclipse. "LADEE wasn't designed to go through a long eclipse and keep things running," says Richard Elphic, the project scientist for LADEE at NASA Ames. RIP probe Science Nerd I, because I didn't include enough batteries to last through the darkness 
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Apr 14, 2014 17:55
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Falken posted:This is cool as hell, and I'm now doing a Duna mission in similar style. This one is a little old but still cool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp6yj2k0Fpc&hd=1
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Apr 14, 2014 18:05
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ArchangeI posted:The Red, White and Blue parachutes are a nice touch Typical American.
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Apr 14, 2014 19:00
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Little known fact the Constellation Space Program was run by the Haitian Space Agency.
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Apr 14, 2014 19:44
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Zaran posted:This one is a little old but still cool: This is my first time seeing that and 
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Apr 14, 2014 19:56
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haveblue posted:I didn't know that had been added to Mechjeb, but the VAB is really where TWRs are the most useful. Not like you can meaningfully change them once you get there. It always amuses me how short the threads memory is  This came up in the old thread weeks ago when it had been added to MJs dev build.Zaran posted:This one is a little old but still cool: Excellent video, this sort of dedication is what makes KSP so bloody good.
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Apr 14, 2014 20:09
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Did you seriously only come here to post this? Thanks for your contribution to the thread, you've been great. Now get out.
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Apr 14, 2014 20:20
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Is there any speed/angle that is unsafe to enter the atmosphere at with vanilla or FAR? I know there would be with Deadly Reentry but I'm not using that. Yesterday I dragged most of a lander-full of fuel back to Kerbin from my first Minmus mission, and I get the sense that I could have just done a burn that put my periapsis in the atmosphere rather than re-park myself in LKO. I have typically done that returning from the Mun but I thought I would be carrying a lot more velocity falling in from Minmus and I didn't want to risk it.
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Apr 14, 2014 20:20
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Since it is at least tangentially relevant, SpaceX is launching their mission to the ISS today in an hour-ish. Webcast on their website: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/
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Apr 14, 2014 20:24
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Zhent posted:Since it is at least tangentially relevant, SpaceX is launching their mission to the ISS today in an hour-ish. Webcast on their website: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/ We have a load of info and chat going on about this launch in the Spaceflight Thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3580990&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=104#post428279652 Also worth noting, this rocket has landing legs. Yup, the first stage will try to soft land (on water for testing purposes) with landing legs!
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Apr 14, 2014 20:26
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Without DRE, you should be able to put your Pe into Kerbin atmosphere without worrying about breaking up. Coming in from a super high angle, though, or anything faster than 2500 m/s, I would definitely make sure your ship had a drogue chute or two on it to slow you down before your main chutes pop open. FAR can rip your ships apart, but I think this is something that only happens with planes mainly. The forces you experience during re-entry are a bit different.
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Apr 14, 2014 20:28
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is there a mod that makes it possible to set when chutes partially deploy? My probes keep getting their chutes wrecked by Deadly Re-Entry. I was trying to automate the descent since I wouldn't have a signal relay working when they entered the atmosphere.
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Apr 14, 2014 20:33
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OMGVBFLOL posted:is there a mod that makes it possible to set when chutes partially deploy? My probes keep getting their chutes wrecked by Deadly Re-Entry. I was trying to automate the descent since I wouldn't have a signal relay working when they entered the atmosphere. Isn't that a VAB tweakable?
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Apr 14, 2014 20:37
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OMGVBFLOL posted:is there a mod that makes it possible to set when chutes partially deploy? My probes keep getting their chutes wrecked by Deadly Re-Entry. I was trying to automate the descent since I wouldn't have a signal relay working when they entered the atmosphere. Pretty sure you can set the minimum pressure before (partial) deployment on the parachute tweakables. EFB
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Apr 14, 2014 20:40
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RealChute let's you tweak all that stuff in the action group manager. It also makes your chutes work more like real parachutes, meaning they slow you down a bit more gradually, as opposed to you hitting that g-force wall when your chutes pop like normal. edit: didn't realize that stuff was stock now, awesome! RealChute is still a cool mod, though. nvm no cake fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Apr 14, 2014 |
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Apr 14, 2014 20:42
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Samsquamsch posted:I don't know why I thought my pathetically under-engineered ship would work for my first ever asteroid encounter with a Class E. UPDATE! Thanks for your thoughts, eth0.n, it turns out 3m/s dV was actually enough to capture the Class E! I detached from the asteroid, pointed my ship retrograde, maneuvered to where I was facing the asteroid in a retrograde direction, then targeted CoM and attached; I wasn't precisely pointed retrograde, but with the meager dV I figured maintaining an accurate burn by being as close to CoM as possible was more important. The orbit actually wobbled a bit, showing escape, then orbit, then escape, but after burning the rest of my fuel it's locked in and I can now send up a proper mission (you know, with batteries and maybe even more than a single engine, let's get crazy) to bring it down to Kerbin. Woohoo! I was actually about to give up entirely, and in detaching from the asteroid and going to map view, it actually showed it as captured and orbiting Kerbin. That part didn't really make sense to me, since before it clearly on an exit trajectory and I really, really doubt the force of my ship releasing the claw would turn that into a captured orbit. Maybe just a glitch, but it gave me the confidence to put forth effort and now I've got my very first (massive) asteroid! Mounting another mission now!
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Apr 14, 2014 20:55
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So, super-buff ion engines. What are they good for? As you are of course aware, you have been able to go to Minmus and back with less than two tons of rocket for a very long time.  Since before there were non-radial orange engines, even Minmus has been taunting the Mun about that ever since, but no more. With jets and ion engines, sub-two Mun is downright easy.  Being able to drain the unnecessary oxidizer from the launch stage helps too Sure, if you really wanted to go for the mass record you could partially drain the xenon tank and replace the moving solar panels with a bare minimum of fixed ones. But honestly, I'm getting too old for that poo poo. I will replace the parachute with a Javelin Landing Device, though.  I'm old, not dead  Warning: Javelin Landing Device may result in perpetual motion What's that? With a bit of rejiggering you can add another full tank of xenon? You could probably use that to go lots of interesting places.  Well, go on then. I'm busy. What else did the patch bring? Oh yes. As you are of course also aware, no matter where you go in the solar system you never have to spend more than 3000 dV on a single burn. This means you can make a grand tour (except for the "back from Eve" part) with a four-part rocket (and twenty-ish pre-placed refuelling stations).  I explained this during KerbalKon, but I don't think anyone heard me Did I say four? I meant three, since the magic fuel-transferring claw removes the need for a docking port. Did I say three? I meant two, since the liquid booster combines tank and engine in a single part. As a bonus, it has significantly more dV than the old version.  You don't even have to perform a suborbital refuelling rendezvous to reach LKO anymore? How decadent! Now at first glance it looks like you would only be able to visit low-gravity bodies, because how would you get back to the pod without ladders?  Pictured: Low gravity The answer being, of course  Strategic falling over  RCS-assisted jumping  Extreme uphill sledding
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Apr 14, 2014 21:07
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THRILLMASTER
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Abyssal Lurker posted:
 Your shenanigans never fail to impress.
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Apr 14, 2014 22:13
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A day may come when the parts are too overpowered, when Abyssal Lurker forsakes our thread and stops doing crazy things with KSP. But it is not this day.The Green Calx posted:RealChute let's you tweak all that stuff in the action group manager. It also makes your chutes work more like real parachutes, meaning they slow you down a bit more gradually, as opposed to you hitting that g-force wall when your chutes pop like normal.
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Apr 14, 2014 22:22
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This is a conversation from a couple pages ago, but I'd just like to say something about Space Shuttle style craft in KSP, which most of you likely already know, but for anybody who doesn't already know this: If your spaceplane isn't an SSTO, you're basically just making a lovely rocket. Even if you'd go absolutely hog wild with reusability and set up a spaceplane refueling facility near KSP, if it's not SSTO then all you're left with is an overlarge re-entry vehicle. Literally the only reason to attempt a shuttle-style launch is for its own sake, there are 0 advantages in the game right now to doing it.
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Apr 14, 2014 22:24
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Some of you might remember this:Geemer posted:The new giant parts have defective decouplers. If I kill thrust and decouple a stage before it runs dry (so it'll fall back to Kerbin instead of promoting Kessler syndrome), the stage physically detaches from the ship and the decoupler disappears. Of course this left many people with important questions. Such as "but what happened to the part that was in attachment limbo?" Now the exciting conclusion! During cleaning up some debris that was landed on Kerbin, I noticed a piece of debris was listed as on an escape trajectory from the Sun. Surface velocity of 14% of the speed of light and rising!  Map view doesn't even know what the gently caress!  Now the question is whether I should leave it and see what happens to it, maybe it'll break lightspeed! Or if I should terminate it because it might cause my game to crash whenever I enter map view/the tracking station when it gets too crazy. And no, I have no idea where the engine that was on that thing went. 
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Apr 14, 2014 22:45
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DStecks posted:This is a conversation from a couple pages ago, but I'd just like to say something about Space Shuttle style craft in KSP, which most of you likely already know, but for anybody who doesn't already know this: This is the only reason to do things ever. I have put interstellar atmospheric gliders into a meticulously designed hangar bay even though the entire thing was basically boiled down to being the worlds heaviest docking port. KSP is only really rewarding if you do things for their own sake, science is cool and all but it really has very little variety and certain things like rovers are completely impractical since you really have no motive to hit different biomes with one trip, just bring spare fuel and a lander capable of multiple re-entries. Everything that we make that is more than a basic rocket with a science thing attached to it is for the sake of it. Its really the whole point  Geemer posted:And no, I have no idea where the engine that was on that thing went. If you find that thing mysteriously orbiting a planet in a future mission for fucks sake leave it alone.
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Apr 14, 2014 22:46
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And besides, anyone who's played for more than a few weeks maxed out the tech tree long ago and has been more or less back in sandbox mode since then.
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Apr 14, 2014 22:48
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Geemer posted:Now the question is whether I should leave it and see what happens to it, maybe it'll break lightspeed! That thing is red flag Kraken bait and you know it! Delete! Purge!
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Apr 14, 2014 22:51
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Been away for a week. Lots of pages to plough through still. Thought I'd just post an inspirational shot.  No matter what parts are unlocked, or what your damage is there is always a way. Yes that's a variant of my current main lifter.
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Apr 14, 2014 22:57
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General_Failure posted:Been away for a week. Lots of pages to plough through still. Main lifter to where, Eeloo!?
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Apr 14, 2014 23:01
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