Bubbadevlin

"re-balanced all rotors" Are there numbers for this somewhere, or am I going to have to look in game? Either way, great patch! So many QoL additions and cool new mechanics!

Today in KSP i managed to get the first semi-successful flight of my stock 1:1 Saturn V replica. After 3 rebuilds and way too much auto-strut fiddling i managed to get the S1-C to NOT blow up mid way through its flight, and staging to the S-II was a success, but due to piloting error the craft spun out of control after that. I have a feeling testing is going to go quite slowly considering the 2.2k part count and my less top of the line computer..

that has to be the one reason i wish i had KSP on steam... then again, i tend to leave the game running overnight so often im not sure how accurate the number would actually be...

Ooo.. so many new possibilities are opened through this... Not to mention it should be even able to help structural rigidity for lots of stuff

Looks like some great additions, bit dissapointed that there was no change to the limits, target angle, target extension, etc in the PAW. It can be so hard to get proper numbers with those small sliders

Thanks! Weird how it requires MH though, i do have the DLC installed but i cant think of any parts from it that I used on the craft It works for both ways, though when flying I tend to turn off the rotors once the craft reaches about 45 m/s, and from there out I just let them act as autogyros

As i mostly-stock player myself, i would have to agree. KSP is a great game that can be made fantastic through mods, but mods still change the game. I myself like KSP the most for the craft building aspect, and when i do make crafts that i share i want them to be available to as many people as possible, hence a stock game. The only mods i do use are simple ones, with 3 being my must have for a KSP install at this point. The first is collide-o-scope, a neat mod that allows you to view the exact hitbox of a part and is INCREDIBLY useful for creating stock mechanisms. Its also the type of mod that is very stable, and im pretty sure i am using the same download from about 1.3... The second is vessel mover. In the same fashion it is a stable and reliable mod that is very useful for moving things such as boats. The third is EEX. While not quite as simple, it is the mod i usually wait for to update. The enhancements to building are fantastic, and provide so much better control when creating craft that i cant stand to not have it anymore. In the past I used mods like KER, but with the update I have found that pretty unneeded now (all i really used it for anyhow was the TWR and DeltaV)

Today in KSP i finally figured out why my launch escape tower kept blowing up my entire rocket when i decoupled it. After much testing and troubleshooting, i realized that the landing strut i had used as an aesthetic part was extended, and so when i decoupled the tower the strut would act as a landing leg cannon, catapulting the command pod into the rest of the rocket. This is something that i have had trouble with for the past week, and has lead to the rebuild of the command pod fairing twice. Needless to say, it was a quick fix once i figured it out...

Today in KSP i finished my BG helicopter, the Aldebaran Class. Capable of lifting 400 tons of cargo, it is a beast.

Bubbadevlin Presents The Aldebaran-Class KerbalX Link Development Process My first craft using the new Breaking Ground components, the Aldebaran is a large scale helicopter, and to my knowledge the largest stock KSP helicopter. With a dry weight of 200 tons, and a cargo capacity of 400 tons (or 5 of the large 3m tanks) it is capable of hauling all but the most behemoth of loads. For its propulsion the craft uses 2 sets of counter rotating props powered by x4 of the large robotic rotors. When i was testing out the robotics parts I realized that much greater power could be achieved if both sides of a rotor were used for the propeller, rather than one. These engines were created by mounting a rotor to freely swiveling servo and then having two counter rotating props attached to each half of the rotor. Using this method one rotor (with properly optimized propellers) can lift up to 75 TONS. To combine multiple rotors into one engine, I used struts as a method of bypassing the part tree structure. In the case of these engines, each 3m decoupler (used as a propeller ring) has two rotors snapped to it and then strutted to the opposing decoupler. The other innovation that this craft has is the forward flight engines. Using the BG parts and axis groups was able to give each of the 4 Goliath engines individual gimbaling. This enables much greater stability in forward flight as well as gives the craft unmatched maneuverability for its size. The main problem I had with this design was that I was unable to properly use the engines in symmetry, and when inversed the rotors seemed to provide less torque. As a result when flying forward the uneven lift would make the craft very hard to control. This is a reason why the two propellers are clipped into each other on either side, as a way of minimizing the torque from uneven lift. Flight Guide Flying this craft is surprisingly simple, with only a few action groups. 1 - Toggle Main Rotors (On/Off) 2 - Reverse Forward Thrusters (No AG to activate, just stage them) H/N - Control Rotor Torque, acts as throttle for the main propellers Liftoff is press of a button easy, and landing is achieved just as simply by lowering the rotor torque (~40% is a good landing torque with no cargo) In forward flight the max speed is ~70 m/s with no cargo. When going high speeds it is actually beneficial to turn off the main rotor. This allows the rotors to become an auto-gyro relieves the main propellers of uneven lift. Be careful in forward flight however, as the SAS does not utilize the engine gimbal to stay steady, leading to drifting. I did not provide any mount for cargo, but it can simply be radially attached to the underside of the main fuselage. For stability make sure that the cargo is set to auto strutting the root part.

after spending a few hours updating old craft (one in particular that will be released soon) decided to make a a helicopter system. After a bit of tweaking i ended up with this : that is 200 TONS being lifted by only 4 of the large electric rotors (80 E/C a sec)

the HYPE! I honestly dont even know what i am going to build with this stuff, but I just cant wait

With all of the hype leading up to the Breaking Ground DLC, a significant part of it is the idea of walkers. I have seen many people hyped to try and build one, and Squad even made a teaser of one. With that in mind, I thought it might be interesting to make a challenge for them. Walkers are COOL. It is a method of transportation that is found almost everywhere in nature, but is rarely seen in technology. They are a staple of science fiction, and the idea of a robotic walker has only been realized within the past decade. However, any type of walking mechanism has a flaw. In most situations - KSP or otherwise - walkers are just impractical, being; slower, more complicated, and often times less stable than simple wheels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The goal for this challenge is to create a practical walker. To do so, there are 3 criteria; Speed, Strength, and Agility. To make the challenge more interesting, it will be a tournament-style challenge and each walker will get points based on how well it fulfills the criteria Speed: The faster a walker can go, the better. If your walker can only go 5 m/s it is almost completely impractical for transportation. (I say this as someone who has actually tried to cover a fairly large distance in a slow walker) The speed of a walker is the fastest it can RELIABLY travel over flat terrain. Speed will be judged based on the fastest speed in the F3 screen, or a screenshot of the nav ball. Strength: A walker is similarly impractical if it can barely lift itself. The strength of a walker will be classified by how many tons of cargo it can lift - the more cargo it can haul around, the more practical a mode of transportation it becomes. Cargo does not have to be in a cargo bay or anything else, it will simply be counted as the weight of a walker "fully loaded" minus the weight of the walker "empty". A walker should have proof of it working both "fully loaded" and "empty". *Note* A walker's agility and speed will be based on when it is "fully loaded" Agility: Any mode of transportation is again useless if it only works in perfect conditions. If a walker falls over or cannot get up a simple hill, it is impractical. Agility is a difficult property to quantify, especially in KSP, so it will be measured by the steepest slope the walker can travel up. This will be measured by using the degrees on the nav ball, with 0 being no slope and 90 being vertical. Proof must be provided that the control point is parallel to the horizontal. The score of each walker will be calculated using a formula so that no one aspect of the challenge is more important than another. (Speed in M/s)*(Angle in Degrees)* ( ( Weight in tons)/5) = Total Score ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like any good challenge, the unfortunately must be rules, but I am trying to keep the challenge as rule-free and open as possible Rules 1) All submissions must be walkers (no making hinged wheels and calling it a walker) 2) Mods are allowed, but no part mods that may effect the walkers (like IR) 3) All submissions must be through screenshots or video. 4) No cheating/Debug menu 5) All propulsion for your walker must come from its legs, no booster engines or rover wheels, etc. I made this challenge before the DLC came out as a way for people to start thinking about walker designs and what they are going to do with the new possibilities that the DLC presents. Once the DLC is released, I will add a leader board and my own submissions. To that end, in the spoiler are the completely impractical stock walkers I have made in the past.

Today in KSP i finally finished the top stages of my 1:1 stock Saturn V replica... The Command Module , Service Module, Lunar Module, and stage IVB are now basically done (except for a few articulation instances that i am going to use the upcoming DLC for) All totaled, those parts are about ~1200 parts.... thankfully I can do most of the work without the ~600 part LM. Next up is the second stage, and then the first. The big challenges for those is going to be figuring out the engines and engine details, getting a good paint scheme design.. and making sure the darn thing actually flies

Oh cool, I honestly would have thought that aero surfaces that size would just be crapped on by KSP physics.. I personally have had so many hitboxes phase through each other from high torques with small parts

@Kronus_Aerospace looks amazing! have you tried the control surfaces when actually flying? the drag from when the surface deflects may rip out of your bearing/control surface housing with something that large

more available action groups and the ability to set the new robotics parts to set rotation amounts OR push-to-turn, count me IN! Only thing left that would give us more control is the already mentioned sequencer... if that is able to have multiple actions after one another and adds the ability to toggle a loop of sequences... very excited for this DLC

Holy crap! those new robotics parts look amazing, and combined with a sequencer tool i cant imagine the number of things that will be possible

Hmm.. I tend to focus on the building aspect, as opposed to missions but probably my most ambitious mission was my kerbin eclano mission. I went for an ATV style mission, basically going strait across the equator. The difficulty came from the fact that back then the only reliable boat part was radial air intakes.. Lots of quick saving and loading on that mission. It was also before the ISRU, so I ended up having to air drop resupply rovers for the stupid thing too.

Today in KSP i was able to get more work done! up to about 2.7 parts done out of 6 Got the escape tower done for my Apollo, as well as the basic structure for the service module stage. The next step is to add the embellishments/make the stage actually functional

Today in KSP i got part 2.1 done of my project... now just about 3.9 more parts of this replica to go.. my stock 1:1 Apollo command module is just about done, but the part count of ~100 and the lander part count of ~600 does not bode well for this craft

Reminds me of the Super SSTOs of old, the ones with airhogging and the old aero model, where people would make wing cargo bays. Cool design

Today in KSP i basically finished my stock, 1:1 Apollo Lunar Module update that has been in progress for around 1.5 years... Now time to build the rest of a certain planned project...

Basically finished the update to my stock 1:1 Apollo Lunar Module. With all of the new parts the update ended up being a complete redesign. The only part left on it is that I am waiting for the new DLC so that i can articulate the landing legs (I didnt want to try and build custom hinges when the robotics parts are so soon). The craft ended up having still a stupidly high part count of ~600, despite the entire redesign and newer parts/building methods. This is also the first step of my planned update to a certain past project that I hopefully can get done.

Super hyped for the robotics parts! They look like they will open up some great possibilities in terms of building. I don't know how the new parts will interact with auto strut, but I really hope that if they interact how i would imagine they do based on current craft movement stuff (ie it will prevent movement if the strut runs between the two parts of movement) Squad changes the current wheels/landing legs. Right now they are for some reason forcefully auto strutted to the heaviest part. If this stays and the robotics parts interact with auto struts in the usual way, it would prevent the building of articulated landing legs and wheels, something that would be very disappointing to me (and I would imagine others)