LaytheDragon

Now that the wonderful Soundtrack Editor mod has been updated with glitches fixed (I heavily recommend the mod, even if you don't plan to add any more music yourself, as it comes default with more nice Kevin MacLeod tracks), I am back at KSP. The first thing to do when you have a queue of tasks in sandbox and career is of course to ignore them and instead build something micro. So I did just that, and built a mini ionic one-kerballed thing. But every payload needs a launcher, so I then proceeded to slap together an SSTO. To my surprise, it worked on the first* try on the runway, no reverting to SPH required. It made orbit on the first attempt with almost no liquid fuel left and slightly more oxidizer, because it spent too much time at 20 km after it climbed too steeply and slowly and had to descend back to that altitude. A kerbal entered and brought the payload to a nice elliptical Minmus orbit. However, it was discovered that to fit into the narrow section in the front behind the docking port, the helmet (but not the head) had to be punctured by the radioactive baseboard heaters, so an extension to the front with a dedicated non-solar generation compartment will be needed for the next launch. The spaceplane was reentered, going subsonic near the island airfield. With no fuel to run the RAPIERs and with the resulting altered center of mass, the plane went into a slow stall, at speeds varying from 30-50 m/s. With some craft damage, the occupants survived, but due to the liquid surface upon which the plane landed, the landing couldn't be 'walked' away from and thus was a bad landing. *Excluding a revert to launch after an 'accident' where the landing gear were 'accidentally' raised before it had left the runway

Laythe's ocean reaches about 2740 meters deep, and likely deeper. Source: have reached a depth of 2739 m on Laythe. I recommend using ore tanks balanced to around neutral buoyancy for submarines, as they very much help in maintaining depth, useful for when travelling a distance near the surface or seafloor.

Thanks . I ought to make a tutorial at some point. As a bonus, for an excuse to create more atmospheres, I just now quickly made some more variants of the atmospheric planet/moon, and threw them into the first animation. The animation speed has been lowered and the green version removed to allow easier comparison between them all. As before, open the image link to view a GIF backup if the animation doesn't work. The image is in APNG format because it is a newer animated format that has (or at least should) image visual quality improvements compared to GIF, but the format isn't supported by all browsers and applications (Chrome, Firefox, and Safari now all support it, though)

Played around with non-gas-giant planet atmospheres. Awhile back I tried making Earth with drawn-on low-detail continents, but it produced a cartoon-ish style (Not complaining. That drawing with Earth is incomplete at the moment). Instead, this time I made my own homemade texture before adding an atmosphere, and it worked. Above are multiple different configurations of the planet/moon I made, showing one reason why I enjoy crafting digital planet art (if the animation isn't working due to the APNG format, click on it for a backup in GIF format). With an atmospheric moon on hand, I went to a gas giant I had started to create earlier this year, seen here in a cartoon-ish style with minimal work done to it. With proper changes for reusability and aesthetic purposes, the result (though not necessarily final, as something seems off, besides the terminator on the gas giant being too large and visible) of the above two drawings combined is the below APNG (with a GIF backup linked, accessible via clicking it). I also forged a similar, mirrored version for my signature. (if the animations are lagging the page, tell me, and I'll put them in spoilers)

I've been playing some Hyperspace Dogfights, an under-development sci-fi fighter jet rogue-like, where one fights waves of military vehicles, with a large assortment of acquirable-from-chests passive items, active items, and weapons.

I have some FTL (the game FTL: Faster Than Light) stuff too, if you're interested. I might as well post it here. Here's a 3-part Ion Stunner Artillery. Here's another weapon. And here's some large enemy ships for a certain faction. Like some stock-alike FTL ship art, almost all the individual parts are borrowed from the stock FTL art, but they are arranged much differently, and they have additions and subtractions, thus that the ship graphics as a whole are uniquely different. In the spoiler, one of the ships and the ion cannons can be seen modded in-game. Finally, below is the export of a ship creation GIMP file, mainly for a certain FTL faction. The ships use heavy amounts of splicing, and some are just sitting there as visual art until I bother to make them unique enough to be worth adding to the game. Many of the variants I won't use, as most of them are very small and extremely similar, so I might as well display them all here. In addition, I found this older drawing in my files. The probe's shadows were only partially done when I found it.

I haven't been on this thread in awhile, so I might as well post some stuffs, some from today, some from a today in the past. I launched another set of Minmus base modules. The three-stage asparagus malfunctioned somehow, and the tanks had to be dumped off-center manually, one-at-a-time, but everything survived it (on the second still-messed-up-staging launch attempt). The payload: some sleek 1.25 m to 0.625 m pipe adapter base parts with mini-drills, and a landing pad section. With the new 1.25 m to 0.625 m adapter and mining tubes, the EC-stocked mini-tubes can be and are docked to the ISRU module and the communications/2.5 m to 1.25 m adapter tubes (the inline port on the side of one of the new tubes is docked to an open shielded port on one of the large adapter tubes). The base can produce fuel now as a result, though I need a claw refueling truck, or an adapter module, to connect with the VTOL ships' ports, so those ones can leave and bring in more parts. The new pad at the moment is basically a cosmetic base part and a fun ramp, until I both expand it and add an adapter between it and the base parts. It does have a multi-port in the center for any landing ships with bottom ports. I may also expand it to have a docking tower for side ports, or maybe if I want to get fancy, a hanger for standard nose-mounted ports. The base isn't complete yet, but it was complete enough to launch one of the Z. desjardinii SSTOs off to Duna, along with the Aieaoa Relay that was orbiting Minmus. The Z. desjardinii took a refueling stop at Infinity Minmus (by docking without RCS, which it doesn't have. It required the failure VTOL design already docked there (which also docked without RCS) to be ejected forever, with its kerbal pilot put in the station). After refueling (the first time I ever used the station for its purpose), both the SSTO and the relay took a dive to Kerbin, where they each did the burn to Duna. ' (this post is long enough, so no burn pics) After awhile, each arrived at Duna, with the SSTO having gotten there purposely-first. The spaceplane unfortunately barely had enough fuel to slow down for aerobraking and landing, and it took multiple quickloads before the aerobrake maneuver was successful. The SSTO went straight for Duna's canyon, which was entirely a coincidence, and landed vertically (there wasn't enough lift to land as an aircraft normally would) on the slope, where it started mining with its drill. (Just before dawn on Duna. The blue terminator can be seen on the horizon partially occluded by dust.) The relay arrived at Minmus using its two ion engines and settled into a polar orbit. The relay can only reach Kerbin when the two planets are near each other in their orbits (I fixed Duna's color, too). Lastly, Kopernicus Expansion is finally updated, meaning I had to toy around with footprints and (it appears buggy) comet tails.

@Thomas P. Something appears to be wrong with the comet tails (this is in 1.2.2). They do load at least, but their shader doesn't seem to be working the same as it did in the old KopernicusExpansion from the images. This is what I saw for a pair of comet tails set around Gilly (and I saw similar when I placed comet tails around different bodies). . Edit: Also, I just noticed that the dust tail (not the ion one) I set on Gilly rotates with the moon. I'll have to see if it does that with other celestial objects, more specifically, any orbiting the Sun. Edit2: I shall see if moving to 1.3 and its associated Kopernicus release fixes the issue or not Edit3: The issue occurs in 1.3 too Edit4: The dust tail did rotate with the comet for an object orbiting the Sun, too Edit5: Log file, obviously (from 1.2.2)

Created a VTOL ship and sent it to Minmus with a base parts payload in my sandbox save. After I decided not to attempt an SSTO design, I strapped my new VTOL ship to the biggest rocket in my launcher sub-assemblies, and said go for launch. Thanks to @panzer1b's beautiful low-lag dust effects(I modified the dust color, but the default color is generally just as good, with just a more alien feel), the scenery of this landing amazed me (it looked better in full 1920 x 1080, without Imgur's size reductions).. (open below image in new tab for a view of the inside cargo space!) After landing with plenty of spare fuel, I opened the bay doors, and rolled out the payloads: two 2.5m-1.25m adapters for the Minmus base, with fuel storage capacity, comms, and docking ports, and two sets of two 2-wheeled 1.25m tubes (each tube can un-dock via 0.625m ports, and to be honest, the tubes' only purposes are as test/structural pieces with some batteries and RCS systems). Now, I am preparing a second delivery run, with a new version of the VTOL (the one seen here has no inside docking ports and no EC generation) and with a new, interesting payload.

The new version of this mod is decent[edit: -ly great], but there are one or two main problems that aggravate me. First of all, it skips to the next track every time the game pauses or un-pauses, so that when I make a named quicksave, or pause the game several times to try and get a good screenshot without messing up what I'm doing, it switches the song, twice. Secondly, it changes the song every time the situation changes, which is a pain when using rovers [edit: on low-gravity moons], and is unbearable when using a kerbal on EVA on a body's surface. Both of these problems need to be fixed for me to be satisfied completely with this mod (which is great already compared to the alternatives).

Finally, Elon Musk previews us the meal he is preparing in the SpaceX parking lot. A month can't go by without a new announcement relating to an Elon company, can it? Making it a boring one doesn't change that. First thoughts on the video, what a great excuse to increase the use of electric vehicles. At least there won't be many fumes that can combust in the tunnels (though how will it be required to completely turn off a traditionally-fueled car that enters?). There are still problem, though. How would you choose your destination or know where a tunnel leads? for example. Using only busses is an inconvenience and limits potential. When stuck in traffic in a city as bad as LA, what are you to do with your car if you want to save time via the tunnels? Why over-complicate it by finding a parking spot, taking the subterra-bus, and having to do the same thing again to get back to your car, when you can bring your car with you? Allowing cars into the system will make it a more efficient, useful undertaking to construct. The bigger question is how it will be funded, and as an extension, how a toll system would be built into it.

Laythe's sandy dunes, with Jool in the background, and very light wisps throughout the sky, I've had this one for awhile as my avatar. Also, I am not good at texturing land.

Possibly 5-meter parts? How convenient shall it be if those beautiful pieces arrive, and thus, now I have a choice to make once the expansion comes out. Should I rebuild my 30,000 ton HexaHauler with less part count (it is unbearably laggy, so I have taken a temporary break from KSP partially, among other true excuses, to think of what to put in it with good part count and exciting function)? Or shall I make it larger using the upcoming size increase, for the most monstrous, and still laggard, only-official-part-containing (nothing is wrong with mod parts, just a self limitation) mothership? We shall wait and see, for this expansion shall make history, leaving a legacy of the most kerbal creations yet. And don't get me thinking of how to use the ≈ 1.8 m parts. Once I see the full store of them, and or am given a bit of time to think on uses, I will find ways to creatively use them. I will. (I am thinking cool-looking subs, missiles, and sleek SSTO fuselages for starters). Also, farewell to sal_vager. We will miss him.

You are: Sales on this will be through the roof, which could have very exciting implications. I for one shall most-likely be getting this expansion when it arrives. It is clear that it is likely (but not certain, since we haven't seen the features yet) some of this expansion's features (likely, but not certainly, the new parts) should be stock and non-paid, especially the kerbal parachute (and maybe the new astronaut suit, if it is a new kerbal model?), but Squad needs money somehow, or else new feature-adding will grind to a halt, and the game will become abandoned. Luckily for Squad and us, with the magic of expansions, KSP still is profitable, so new features can still arrive. Let's hope that Squad decides to use the money from the expansion (and from KSP's soon-to-come multi-language compatibility) to pay their staff for some needed or commonly-requested stock features, such as better visuals, a Gas Planet 2, or a Ringed Gas Planet 2 With Moons (though these features can all be easily achieved with excellent mods, having them in stock would be even better (considering many don't like or bother with downloading mods, but love playing KSP)). One has to wonder if new stock features would lure more KSP-players back to KSP, so they would get addicted again and thereafter buy Squad's expansion pack.

A gas giant. Now it has not-high-quality-at-all rings, and visible is the surface of a moonlet! Another moon of the gas giant, farther out, and Pol-like (minus any spikes or slices of invisible terrain). No, I didn't recolor the same ground as from the other moon! Vertical phone wallpaper-compatible sideways versions of the ringed-with-a-moon gas giant are in the below spoiler, because they look nice as wallpapers on phones (such as my own).

Saying they are developing a big feature in their KSP Weekly (with the art department involved), but then stating it is not yet time/too early to release images of promise, is clearly teasing/hyping us. They could have just not told us they are developing a big feature in general in KSP Weekly (the new Devnotes), and if they actually are, they wouldn't be hyping us up over it by not telling us. There is always a chance from our outside perspective that this feature is Gas Planet 2.

I am really hoping that Squad's "secret feature" they are hyping is a Gas Planet 2, which was planned to be blue in the original Gas Planet 2 plans, but hoping does nothing, only do lucky guesses exist, and Squad hasn't revealed it yet, so there is no way to tell for certain. Assuming it isn't Gas Planet 2, the Outer Planets Mod, as mentioned above, is the best stock-alike planet pack out there, but there are other great ones too, that mix up or replace the entire system.

I've been playing a lot of FTL: Faster Than Light lately, and have run into interesting situations. Pictures are supposedly worth a thousand words, so pictures are located in a certain spoiler located nearby.

Coincidentally, around now I have been experimenting with a Laythe typhoon, though it is non-stationary and goes all around the moon, unlike Poodmund's Kerbin hurricane (by the way, thanks @Poodmund for the stationary tutorial). Its settings are still not necessarily final, as I intend to bring a/some ship(s) over to investigate how good it looks/whether its settings need tweaking (I will be looking from, without orbit line or camera aim limit obstructions, high and low atmosphere, from low orbit, many altitudes found on an elliptical orbit, as seen out of Laythe's SOI but closer than Tylo, etc.). I could always use another texture or reuse the current one, to make a Kerbin hurricane either stationary or moving, and I could always release the Laythe typhoon, and or a Kerbin hurricane if I were to make one. It just uses a NASA hurricane picture I cropped and saved as .dds via GIMP, if you are wondering of where I got the texture (I may or may not have enlarged the eye for visibility reasons). (click for larger version)

This better be a GasPlanet2 and moons (Or Better Planet Visuals In Stock (or Rocket Parts Overhaul)). As long as this actually exists, I am very much hyped (though with doubts on whether it is something grand or not). Edit: Look in the .gif at the widgets. The game now tells you whether it is set to local or absolute rotation or translation mode!

I created Jool. Alternate version: They both use the same homemade texture. Feel free to inquire of my methods or give suggestions.

I have a Jool texture, and two-layer cloud variant, that I made the other day in GIMP, as an experiment and to try to create my own Jool cloud. In the testing, I found how much simpler and how good it looked to map the texture to a sphere. Using this and more recent techniques I have learned for creating atmospheres, I decided to form a drawing. I retrieved two different angles, and made one into a Jool. But the reason I am not posting this in the Fan Art topic, besides that this is still incomplete from its full potential, is that I decided to use the first angle look to create another gas planet. A little tweaking of settings can net cool, also unique results, too.

Laythe is looking nice today. ' I need a ship closer to investigate, but not too close (as with the PocketSub MkII on Laythe at the moment). I also need to send an ore tank to the HexaHauler. Why not do both? (extra pictures in spoilers) The ore tank is let go, this time with a fuel tank to help boost it down to Minmus. This state-of-the-art ion probe just so-happens to be very asymmetrical in layout. It will be bound for at least Duna, and if it has the antenna range, Laythe (the intended target). Now, back to the ore tank, where it (almost) lands very near the HexaHauler (see spoiler for extra images on the landing). The bay is opened as the ore tank prepares to enter. It docks on one of the 6 bottom triple ports. Mining begins. Timewarp took many in-game years, but the tanks are now full, and it is time to download a certain RasterPropMonitor, so I can see the not-as-detailed delta vee display (to allow people on the forums to know the vacuum delta vee, of course).

Is 30,000 tons1 and 99 meters of height2, all in an SSTO package, too much to land on Minmus? It is a mothership, because it has a working, open-able and close-able bay. It is my current project in sandbox, so more landings may be to come, hopefully with payloads. I didn't bother/forgot to add vernors (which the next version will have), and landing in a ship that needs to land with virtually zero vertical velocity is hard with only gimbal and hardy landing panel legs at your side. 1: 30000 tons when fuel reserves are full on the RunwayPad3, but it has ISRU and drills, and I am about to dock the ore tank I forget to add. 2: With aerospike antenna extended. It is about 98 meters tall with the aerospike antenna retracted 3: The launchpad is too small, but the runway isn't

Look very closely at Laythe. You will see what I did in KSP today (hint: It rotates). Edit: I really need a Laythe probe or at least ship on Vall, so I can showcase this at a reasonable distance. Maybe I should launch one of my Z. veliferum spaceplanes off of Minmus, and drop off another PocketSub MkII in the process. Even better would be a HexaHauler...