Mechtech

or at least 'close enough' that only minor tilting is needed to get things lined up right- I did a Harrier-alike using KAX's inline VTOL engines that (due to also being a 'traditional' flyer, need to not be super flip-happy) that had to nose up about 15° to take off properly (read: without flopping over onto its back) but a helicopter type thing would need its CoT on the CoM (though in that case having the CoL above the CoM is a necessity for actually flying like a helicopter, IE 'tilt rotor in desired travel direction') .... quadcopters are fun. launching Soyuz upper stages from Quadcopter platforms are more fun.

heh nah. I spend too much time using Timewarp for EL to add that management headache, unless I'm doing so deliberately. also I'm running pretty close to the limit of my hardware with the number of scripts and widgets I've got loaded in. hmm, I'll have to try a 55000km Salyut just for testing reasons- it's no good if it deorbits too quickly after all.

honestly I have to laugh at people putting ISS and MIR replicas in 100km orbits or similar. if you wanted to be really accurate, you'd set its orbit to ~55000KM, so you actually have to do regular missions to it and boost to keep it from falling out of the sky.

honestly my suggestion is to use Davion Supply or something like it and just add materialkits and specilizedparts to its Big List of Shippable Stuff, which is what I did for Kerbin SoI stuff, or build a ground colony first and use in-situ production and a reusable freighter. I, for example, used Karibou bits and NFT Trusses to build an Eagle-alike one time, and another I built automated lifters based around 2.5m shipping containers with some engines, RCS and a docking port stuck to one end. but then, I also used MM configs to give myself a couple alternate production chains for a handful of key resources, one based around a clone of Nertea's Itenerant container (which is about the same size as a hitchhiker but only seats two) as a 'fabrication module' that can whip up some basic stuff from Karbonite, ore and a good bit of power, and another based on Metalore=>Metals=>Materailkits+specilizedparts using Nils' KPBS stuff. though I did balance them as rather less efficient than the more complicated MKS chains so as not to be overpowered. on that note: a seed base using a Hitchiker drill pod (right), a Fabrication module (center, with large radiator) and an EL survey station (right.) also shown in the foreground is a utility truck for transporting KIS stuff. I'll be adding more variants later.

that seems to have fixed the issue, thanks. not sure WHAT was out of sync, since I literally just pulled the latest releases off their respective Github pages today, but whatever. sometimes things just break for no reason lol.

latest release off the github- I literally just spent the last four hours re-downloading and reinstalling all my mods after I borked my saves trying to do something clever, and went 'well as long as excrements's loveed I might as well do those updates I've been putting off so AVC will stop pestering me' and I'd strictly been using TSP-hire before that. I never even saw the double-layering behavior reported upthread, nor did I really care since I was still mostly messing with sandbox stuff. however I have been thinking about a career save and wanted to get my current setup (reasonably) stable and Working As Intended before I start adding contract packs.

yeah, that's both not impossible and somewhat unlikely. while I do run a lot of mods, most of them are parts stuff like Fuel Tanks Plus or Planetay Base systems, immersion widgets like chatterer, or QoL tools like Precicenode or the aforementioned TRP-hire. I also have seen this behavior with just USI installed for testing purposes, which is why I've been confused.

so question! this supposedly ships with a TRP-hire fork, but I have yet to actually see it- using the normal TRP hire mod works, perfectly (though without the UKS classes) while removing it gives me the stock hiring system with UKS classes... which, generally, means it's friggin' impossible to actually staff a mission as the stock system only generates Kerbals in batches of 10, so good luck getting a Pilot or Engineer instead of, say, a botanist. it's a wee bit irritating since I do like the idea of more classes to play with (especially Kolonists, since I can stuff them into things with lower EPL values in place of Pilots or Scientists) for RP reasons. any ideas?

It's a silly reference to RA3's Geneva mission as one of the capture lines for the banks is something like "Attention capitalist pig-dogs, this bank is now property of glorious soviet army!" (though my favorite is still " Such riches! Aah, all the borscht we could buy! ") and yeah, she's a Hydrogen-burner- the plan is to stop at Duna (or, more specifically, it's handy low-gravity moons) to build some initial (largely automated) infastructure (as well as refueling its supply of Hydrogen and Oxidizer, those big Yucatan motors are pretty hungry for a cryonic rocket, and it's pushing a lot of mass in Materialkits and Specializedparts to do initial construction on top of that) then tour the outer planets doing much the same thing. meanwhile, the United Kerbal states are still trying to get that ridiculous Jool heavy lift rocket off the ground, I ligit launched that whole thing with Proton or Soyuz lifters. mostly Soyuz- all the solar modules AND the science module launched on a Soyuz rocket, only the core and shipyard/engine module launched on Protons. the tank and engine were then assembled in-situ via multiple Progress-alikes shipping parts (also Soyuz launches) docked using a CLAAAW-equipped tug, and then welded because Konstruction ports are awesome. I may post the UKS's exploits with the Jool lifter elsewhere (TLDR version: RUD happens. a LOT. usually as soon as the gravity turns on. because the Jool lifter doesn't ever go smaller than 3.5m. because launching a space-station all in one go amuses me. even-no, especially when it fails in some hilarious manner. this is likely why I don't play career mode much.)

final solar array docks....

those curved ones on the core module? if so, those are NFT Curved Solar Arrays, and so each separate 'array' is all a single piece. construction continues: the science module arrives... an engineering crew EVAs to assemble the module's high-bandwith dish. hey, we can get Nickelodeon on this thing! the science module decouples its cargo/service module, which then deorbits, leaving the docking port clear for later expansion. hmmm what's this? another Solar module! gonna need that to power all that shiny new lab equipment! the second solar module docks and deploys its three-panel array. Looking good!

me, putting new parts (especially antennas, can never have too man options for those!) to use:

try using the Hanger Grid mod (here) which lets you force alignment and adjust things very precisely. you might also just be having Pilot Error problems, because landing perfectly flat is a cast-iron poodle. but then, I've basically never been able to actually LAND a plane in KSP even WITH autopilot help, so I may not be the best advise-giver in this case.

and maybe pink for lulz, and a nice white to blend with stock stuff. ... I may be fiddling with both of those things.

black void seems the best interim solution- you'd have to define the part shapes and kerbal positions either way, right? it'd be a step up from the 'majjikal black cube grid' look at least.

yeah, I haven't really noticed any less modularity- the old N1 engine disks were pretty pointless to stick on anything (other than the 5m one) and I do like engines-with-tanks-on for my larger booster rockets- really cuts down on the partcount. the N-1 second stage motor, for example, is a perfect one-stop-shop midrange lifter for Mun and Minmus launch sites, and the whole stack is perfect for lobbing big chunks of station or larger Munar missions off of Kerbin.

the thing I miss the most from old!Tantares is definitely how the probe-based ports don't soft-dock anymore. the probe keeping the things from hard-docking until retracted really simplified getting things aligned properly, since one could simply roll the ship to the correct alignment prior to retracting the probe and docking properly. well that and the deployable docking light. that thing is insanely useful.

more Kovidr pornpictures: on the pad Liftoff! smooth as hell gravity turn The crew module and ZAVA-II orbital tug detach from the booster The module deploys its solar array after successful docking maneuvers. ZAVA-II undocks from the module and moves to the core module's ventral docking port.

thanks! I hit on that look pretty early as a way to round out the module without looking bad, suffering Krakens, or other oddness- and it's useful, since I use OPM and having a lab that I can stick a Nuke Reactor on top of for outsystem work is hilariously useful. ... it also looks like the sort of thing the soviet and later Russian space program would whip up, they've always had something of a habit of just making minor alterations to existing stuff wherever possible. honestly, at some point someone needs to do a heat realism mod so that stuff like space stations need at least SOME radiators to shed waste heat. unless there's already one out there? I may not use LS mods (with how many mods I have finding one that is both useable and co-operative with all my other mods is... problematic.) but I do like some realism widgets. I'd been using FAR until the stock areo model got updated, as an example- just little things, that add to the 'feel' without massively upping the difficulty. anyhow, I think it's time to move Kovidr into Phase II. Kovidr is essentially serving as my Kerbal's 'proof-of-concept' testing station. phase II involves getting an expanded crew quarters, a prototype nuke reactor, and the 'cooperation' module, which mounts a number of regular docking ports. I envisioned Kovidr as being 'The ISS, only based on MIR instead of built whole-cloth.' or, perhaps, 'the ISS as built in a world where the USSR continued to dominate the space-race rather than flagging near the finish line.' though I generally prefer higher orbits- Kovidr sits at about 250km, though its orbit is slightly eccentric, thanks to docking errors ('oops I forgot to turn the engine off') and the loss of communication with the core module when the included antenna broke- since it was completely unmanned at the time, I had to complete its final circularization manually, and, well, there's a reason I tend to leave piloting to the computer. I'm a decent enough hand to not crash (much) but precise I am not. it didn't help that ZAVA (the automated orbital tug used for initially positioning Kovidr's core module) didn't exactly have a huge margin for error. honestly, for all that it's in Munar orbit, the KMLS station was far simpler to construct. if only because I had decent computer guidance and larger lifters. Kovidr had to make do with a mostly 1.5m launcher since I didn't have fairings or engines in 2.5m when it launched, while all of KMLS launched with Koyuz-IILs on an N-1 stack for Munar insertion. even KORVIS had a 2.5m launch vehicle thanks to a ground test of the SEP finally paying off. honestly, I'm gearing up to start a permanent ground base on Minmus- my plan is to eventually build a station there locally as a sort of 'test case' for a manned base on Duna. using OPM without OPM's antenna configs and with the KSC antennas set up to barely cover Kerbin's SoI is a whole new kind of challenge, honestly. I've taken to making any automated probes capable of acting as relays. I had a very amusing moment when KMLS did a data-dump and actually bounced it to the Sabercat lander I had parked at the Mun's highest point (near the south pole, on this save) since it had one of Akron's big Torekka dishes on it.

single-kerbal pod for Early Fun. also, remember that Munar station I mentioned a few posts ago? core module- basically just a can with docking-ports, and some basic systems. Now we're getting somewhere! a Koyuz-IIL (Longranged variant with droptanks) delivers the station's lab module and a second scientist. finally, a second Koyuz-IIL delivers a Science module and an Engineer to man the station's core module, completing Phase I.

oh, uh, I forgot to mention it earlier, and don't know if you've since fixed it, but the second LIBRA antenna (the one with the star on) has no ModuleDataTransmitter, which means it doesn't actually work as an antenna. just though you ought to know. (I fixed it in my own game, but don't know what you'd do for power.)

well, speaking as someone who likes finding creative uses for parts;

oh, I'm aware. it's there since the fairing and decoupler and headshield are still lighter than a full-up service compartment and provide a good spot for coputer doohickeys, extra RCS tanks and even small fuel tanks. as far as the Spektr, I think the 'fake' one fits better with KSP's style.

I BELIEVE I PROMISED YOU PICTURES. part one: GRAB YER SOCKS BOB WE'RE GOING TO THE MUN! part 2: Kovidr Station (up to now) the core of the station- note: was supposed to have a dish on it, but the fairing scraped it off. thus precipitating the need for its first module: The KORVIS Communications Module, with and without Blok-I Koyuz delivery vehicle. next, it was time to get that lab running with an initial blast of Science... enter the CADRAV Science Module (with accompanying Blok-II Koyuz delivery vehicle .) (I have another, smaller station-to-be orbiting the Mun, but right now it's just the tiny core module. It'll be getting its own scientists and a CADRAV later)

looking forward to more stuffs (and those PSDs so I don't have to hassle with converting the current textures) so I can have my nice green Soyuz. maybe throw together one in red-and-white rescue stripes later? *ponders* anyway, one tiny compliant I have (though this may be due to using the CTT) is that I'm getting lots of tanks before I get their corresponding engines.while not really a super huge deal (most don't look too bad with normal engines in clusters) it is sorta silly to get 1.88 tanks but have all the 1.88 engines in the next tier up, especially when the 'stock' is so good at having tanks and engines in about the same tiers. watch this space, I have a WIP space station (an early-tech one) going up ATM. just need to shuttle some Kosmonauts up to it. ... I also need to add a module with a working antenna, since the one I had on the core module apparently got scraped off by the fairing. on that note, any idea when we're getting some of the bitz like antennas or the deployable docking light (good god that thing's SO useful) back? edit: I'm also seconding the idea of the 3-man Kleb being a separate part... maybe fiddle with the outside a little (an integrated deployable antenna maybe? slightly different panel/seam layout?) and put it up a tier as an upgrade. I may have already started hacking this in myself, but yeah.