RocketSquid
-
Posts
1,319 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Developer Articles
KSP2 Release Notes
Bug Reports
Posts posted by RocketSquid
-
-
Okay, I've got the latest updates of KSP and pathfinder, and have confirmed that I have the latest WildBlueTools. However, I am getting the same problem someone reported a bit ago: No dialogue to change modes, and no ability to reconfigure parts. Is it just a matter of 1.12.3 versus 1.12.2, or does it indicate a mod incompatibility?
-
I'm excited to use this mod, but is it possible to disable death by old age?
-
Interlude: After-action report:
"Okay, wait, why am I in here again?" asked Malong Kerman
"We have reason to believe your most recent mission may have had something to do with the Event," replied the black-suited kerbal across the table from her.
"Oh, okay, well, it all started on the old airfield."
"We were all scheduled to test the new Buffalo Polar Explorer, and what better way to do that than by exploring the polar ice caps!"
"I kept saying a normal plane would probably be fine for this, but the other guy, uh, Sheldon? said the thing we were looking for was on unexplored terrain and we needed to be ready for anything."
"I didn't think we were looking for anything, but you know how those KPF guys can be sometimes."
"Anyways, the Buffalo Polar Explorer was this cool VTOL plane rover, uh, thingy, and it was my job to fly it."
"Oh! I just remembered! There was this weird orb!"
"Weird orb, you say?"
"Yeah, it followed us the whole time. Kinda creepy. Anyways, I did a great job of taking us off, and then I flipped one pair of engines to forward mode so we could get going."
"Then eventually we got enough speed to put them all in forward, and we were off!"
"Zoom!"
"Now, this was when, uh, Shelbert? started getting really weird. He insisted we shut down all communications except navigation."
"That was really confusing, but I did it anyways since he was technically in charge and all that junk."
"Pretty soon we were over land, and the fuel light began to blink after that, so I started to land the plane."
"But, uh, Shelder? got mad at that and tried to wrestle the controls away from me!"
"And when I say tried to I mean did, pretty immediately. I'm not very good at wrestling."
"He said something about refueling jets, and landing being bad, and probably some other things too, but I was trying to spot the orb. It probably went underneath of us or something."
"Hey, the refueling jet pilots probably saw the orb!"
"We'll be sure to bring them in next. Please continue."
"Oh, well, anyways, blah blah blah, flying stuff, and then suddenly, BAM, north pole!"
"Well, technically not the north pole, just the ice cap, and it looked really zigzaggy and fake. Just between you and me..."
"What?"
"I think it probably wasn't rendering in right."
"Oh god, not another one."
"What was that?"
"Nothing. Please just continue with the story."
"Oh, okay. After we got there, we swerved east. Magdun, our scientist, said the scans showed two anomalies on the ice cap."
"We were supposed to go look closer with the fancy scanner. There was also some weird science stuff in the back, but I didn't know what any of that was for."
"Lemme tell ya, the ice cap is not very interesting to fly over. Anyways, once we were almost there, she told us to turn around. Something about 'just a randolith' and 'waste of time'"
"It was really boring, but we got to where the other one was supposed to be, and wouldn't you know it, there's some hills in the way!"
"Obviously we needed to land, which is lame, because flying is the coolest way to travel."
"But I did it anyways, and before you knew it we were all on the ground."
"Then, uh, Shellim? started driving, on account of I don't actually have a driver's license because cars suck and aren't as cool as planes or rockets or even boats."
"When we finally got to the hills, I saw something extraordinary! There was some sort of weird shiny thing in the ice!"
"Oh, that was also when I got food poisoning. I think. Technically it takes like, days for it to develop, so really it was probably the pre-flight snacks or something."
"Anyways, as we got closer to the weird thing, I saw that it was a crashed alien UFO! Except it was clearly a flying saucer, and it wasn't flying. So I guess just a crashed alien O? The mechanic guy, Dudnie, was thrilled, since he'd been talking about aliens the whole time. Said he got abducted and taken out past minmus, which I thought was very silly, but he seemed to know what he was talking about so I just went with it."
"Now, we couldn't actually get up to it because the wheels were too weak, but then I had the genius idea to turn on the compressed air thrusters!"
"We shoved ourselves valiantly towards it, and managed to set our wing down on top of it for support!"
"Then Magdun turned on all the weird science stuff, and also I had to go out to barf because we ran out of bags."
"I decided to climb on the flying saucer, just for fun, but Magdun yelled at me for it so I got off. And that's when rescue came?"
"Rescue?"
"Oh, yeah, apparently when I'd started looking sick earlier the engineer guy, uh, Samnard? called for rescue. He expected like, a drone with some tummy meds, but instead we got a dashingly handsome kerbal coming in on a snowmobile to carry me home, and it's not like you can say no to a free snowmobile ride, can you?"
"Now, back up, when you say 'weird science stuff', does that include the K2 "Kray-Kray" supercomputer? It would look like three black boxes in a white metal frame."
"Hmm, I definitely saw something like that on the plane, and come to think of it, it did have a lot of blinky lights on it, so it sure looked on."
"Thank you. You're free to leave. Please, try to keep quiet about all this."
As she left, the black-suited kerman turned, and pulled out a radio. A clunky old model, it was more than capable of surviving the Event, even as most others on Kerbin had been fried.
"It's as we've feared. When we reached out, something answered. Probably multiple somethings."
A muffled voice came through the earpiece.
"Yes, sir, I understand. I'll put my best agents on the task."
-
Against all odds, I've managed to get the save up to the latest version. I have no idea how well it will work in the long term, and I already had to shut off the commnet because it stopped working, but it's functioning again and I should have a chapter up sometime next week, and possibly one or two more later in the month.
-
The problem seems to be capitalization. The ones in the files were capitalized, and if I substituted it for the new one but didn't change the capitalization it didn't work. If I change it to lowercase, it works fine.
-
8 hours ago, Beale said:
Sorry this part was meant to be "soft deprecated", meaning old craft files would still work, but it seems something went wrong.
Which craft file is guilty? I will delete it from the Dropbox.
There was a patch until very recently, in the past few versions - but it is somewhat out of date.
Err, sorry, not the craft files. Craft in the save act like the part doesn't exist. Specifically they say that they're missing "Castor.Control.1.P". If there's a new equivalent I can probably just edit it in.
-
For whatever reason old vessels with the Castor 1P core don't properly load, even though the part is kept in as a legacy part. Is there any way to fix this?
-
I'm so hyped I'm having a hard time breathing.
-
40 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:
Log file?
Here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uRfyGKYn3CRkkx0iBDdifmMliIa8aqld/view?usp=sharing
-
I updated my heavily modded install to 1.7, and rockets have notably started buckling. Additionally, large rockets seem to sink into launch clamps. This happens in spite of autostruts, physical struts, and rigid attachments being on. The buckling seems limited to certain parts (I've observed it most prominently with the 3.75m docking ports from DSEV, but can't tell if it's just them, just docking ports, or would happen with any similarly-shaped part. I have a screenshot of my mods folder below:
-
A while back, I realized that the structural tubes from Making History were the perfect size to serve as ducts for electric props. While this does not seem to confer the huge thrust increase it does in real life, it does provide a durability increase, as well as making propellers much easier to construct: slap one rotor onto the top internal node, another on the bottom internal node, add some blades, and you have an instant counter-rotating propeller which, as a bonus, can be easily mounted on a servo or have things mounted on it. I immediately made some standardized ones and went to work. I'm going to list these by vehicle type, though some don't fit evenly.
Coleopters:
SpoilerA coleopter is propelled by a single ducted fan, which makes up a significant portion of the craft's body. In real life, most prototypes have had serious stability problems, but in KSP I've found them to be fairly stable.
Control summary:
- Staging will toggle the rotor's torque. The rotors have fairly small motors in them, so if you want to use these on eve it might be a good idea to adjust that.
- The RPM limit of the rotor is linked to the main throttle, but I've found that it's best to just leave it at max.
- Translate up/down (by default I/K) is linked to the blade pitch.
Flight instructions:
- To take off, activate the rotors, activate stability assist, and push the throttle all the way up. You can fiddle around with the blade pitch but both versions should be able to take off with the pitch at the default.
- To fly, just point it in the direction you want to go.
- To land, push the blade pitch all the way to 150 and point the craft retrograde. If the coleopter is pointed upwards and the blades are at max pitch, it will descend at a safe speed, and the solar panels will most likely generate more power than the rotors are using. Activating the brakes will halt the rotors and allow it into freefall.
Download links, with pictures:
Coleoplanes
SpoilerWhile the coleopters proved easy to control, they were not very fast. I attempted to solve this by creating a hybrid between a coleopter and an airplane, which can take off and land like a coleopter and fly like a plane. The resulting vehicle was faster than a coleopter, and far easier to land than an airplane (and for that matter, a rocket), but had a few peculiarities. The most notable of these is that there's an odd gap where it's moving too slowly to fly as an airplane and too quickly to move into vertical configuration immediately, so it will go into a spin (or rarely a tumble) for a few seconds until it slows down enough for the reaction wheel torque to overpower the aerodynamic forces.
Nevertheless, I successfully flew it to the island airfield and back, and later flew it a few hundred kilometers overland on Eve.
Island: https://imgur.com/a/aiORxS0
Eve: [coming when I can get the imgur album in the proper order]
The controls are the same as for the Coleopters: Stage toggles the rotor, Main throttle regulates RPM, and Translate up/down controls blade pitch.
At takeoff, a blade pitch of around 120 is ideal. At max speed, it should be in the 70-80 range.
To land, push the blade pitch to 150, and switch the SAS to retrograde. Depending on the craft's current speed, it may flip or spin, but will eventually right itself, and unless you are very close to the ground when you do this, it will always land safely.
While it does fly on eve, it is rather slower, and a bit harder to control. I'm working on a second prototype that will work a bit better. Until then, my advice is to get to a high altitude in coleopter mode, and then level out.
https://kerbalx.com/RocketSquid/Coleoplane
Tiltrotor Airplanes
[Coming Soon]
-
23 minutes ago, mystifeid said:
I see. Unfortunately autostruts will only pass through robotic parts (and be effective) when they are locked. Is there nothimg you can do to stop the movement before locking? Perhaps toggling prop deployment off, then locking, then toggling prop deployment back on?
I’ll give it a shot.
-
Just now, mystifeid said:
Why is this difficult? Are you using an action group key to toggle locking? Have you tried grandparent autostruts for the nacelles?
When I try to use an action group, I get told the part cannot be locked because it's moving. If I try to do it manually, I have to click it multiple times to get it to work, and even then it isn't fully secure and will start flailing at higher speeds. I have not tried autostrutting, but unless that can be done through an action group it may be difficult to properly toggle during flight.
-
I’ve tried to make a tiltrotor plane, but inevitably the rotors end up tilting mid-flight, which sends the craft into an inescapable spin. Locking the servos helps somewhat, but is very difficult to do while the craft is flying. The only solution I’ve found is to use same-vessel docking, but that means it can’t switch back into VTOL to land. Is there any good way to solve this problem?
-
On 7/21/2019 at 3:38 AM, Foxster said:
Well apart from having to manually adjust prop pitch for airspeed.
Oh, right, I should probably be adjusting my prop pitch and not just leaving it at a constant value.
-
6 hours ago, THX1138 said:
Thanks but imagine if you had to set rocket thrust manually in the part menu whilst flying? As if landing a plane isn't hard enough. Literally unplayable!
You don't have to set the thrust manually. Just bind the RPM limit to the main throttle axis group, and the "activate rotor" action to the stage action group, and it will behave like any other engine.
-
In trying to reinforce the engine connections on a tiltrotor plane (the engines kept flailing themselves into VTOL mode during normal flight) I came to the idea of using docking ports. It works perfectly except for one problem: neither action groups nor the KAL-1000 controller can make the ports undock. The only way to do so is through the PAW. I'm wondering whether this is a bug with the game, or something I'm doing wrong.
-
This thing is beautiful
-
I wanted to see what the smallest helicopter I could make was. As it turns out, you can make some pretty dang small helicopters.
Jeb here has graciously agreed to test it. Power comes from a single RTG. Control is wholly provided by two reaction wheels, and while there is some clipping involved, it was mostly to avoid having to redo the frame. I'll probably release a clipping-free version later.
The first, most important question: can it take off?
Yes
Next, less important question: Can it land?
Indeed it can! Jeb has survived every test with it, and I can assure you that the helicopter blades did eventually come down.
Final, most important question: Where can I get me one of these bad boys?
Right here: https://kerbalx.com/RocketSquid/Kerbocopter
-
1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:
This usually means Deep Sky Core and/or Airline Kuisine are not in the same play mode as WBI. (Re)installing mods that are in Classic Stock mode should require a moment at the play mode switcher at the KSC view (and maybe an extra restart of KSP) to ensure everything remains in Classic Stock mode since my mods don't ship in that mode.
If that's not the case, I'd like to see your KSP.log and maybe the contents of KSP/Logs/ModuleManager/
I'm fairly sure that was the case, but the problem was that I couldn't access the play mode selector because the game wouldn't let me to the title screen.
-
For some reason, this mod is making B9 part switch throw a fatal exception while loading, claiming it can't find water tanks. I've checked and verified that there is a water tank template.
-
So, after realizing that struts can have their angular and linear strengths adjusted independently, I realized that a strut with linear but no angular strength could be useful for piston engines, robotic linkages, and the like. I then realized that a strut with angular strength but no linear strength would pair exceptionally well with a piston. I threw together some quick module manager patches to create both, then opened the game and began testing. Note: all robotic parts were operating with ten times their normal force, simply because I forgot to remove an earlier patch.
0 angular, 150 linear (like the tie rods in a car or train):
Remarkably difficult to use. Unless you're extremely good at eyeballing the relative positions of the strut endpoints, you're probably going to end up with some unwanted linear force, causing your mechanism to grind to a halt. The offset tool can help, but in all likelihood you'd need some sort of alignment indicator addon to figure out precisely where the thing is free to rotate and where it isn't. I might try lowering the linear strength a bit, but sooner or later there's no real point.0 linear, 150 angular (Like a telescoping piston):
This one turned out somewhat better, although this might just have to do with the robotic parts rather than the actual struts. When tested with a piston, it could extend, albeit with some resistance. When tested with a hinge, it could barely even wiggle. Have a few screenshots here. This one is a bit more niche than the other one, but would be good to cut down on wobbliness in a piston. Again, alignment is an issue. If there was a way to get both ends of the strut to angle snap it would be a lot less of an issue for this part.Next steps:
- Try to find the ideal linear strength for the tie rod part, so as to get more freedom of motion without compromising function too much.
- Try to create a shock absorber part
- See if there's a use for these in legs
- See what happens if I extend one beyond its maximum length
- See if it's possible to create some sort of fancy end bit that will give them limits to their range of motion
- See if it's possible to use an extremely short version of the tie rod as a weird hinge
-
Trying to make a nice giant spider mech, and it's going... fine... yes, perfectly fine. Has not exploded or anything.
I might want to change up the hinges, they're the cause of most of the problems. I've heard servos are a bit stronger.
-
On 6/3/2019 at 3:41 PM, Jestersage said:
Isn't that what they were planning to use for lunar gateway?
I believe they're planning on using one for the gateway. They're currently using one on the ISS. The difference, of course, is that their designs use specialized fixtures on the station, and mine uses giant robotic claws that would almost certainly poke holes in all the important bits of the spacecraft.
[1.5 - 1.10] Kerbalism 3.11
in KSP1 Mod Releases
Posted
Would it be possible to allow repairing failed (as in, red, completely unusable) engines using the EVA repair kits and a sufficiently trained (say, maybe level 3?) engineer? It would help make them less of a mission-ending issue and reward preparation.