Oblate Prince

Yes! Any help is appreciated. But I'm certainly not ready to put stuff in the game at this stage. I need help with configs, playtesting, and balance. Also Unity. ------------------------------------------- This is the carbon TPS. It has the great virtues of being really easy to apply to curved objects and not taking up much space on a texture sheet. I'm still undecided between this and the HSRI tiles. The latter is more attractive but less versatile (and also annoying).

Texture work begins: I'm not entirely sure about the HSRI tiles (and welcome peoples' inputs). Most images of the XS-1 show carbon-grey heat shielding. On the other hand, I'm quite taken with the texture.

Blocked out the silhouette for the hull and scaled up to accommodate a slightly bigger cargo bay. Looks like most of the work is going to be in textures, at least for now. I'm not really seeing the need for greeblies on a hypersonic hull (but if anyone has better XS-1 reference images than the ones that show up on google that may change yet). A normal map will probably work just fine. Expect a flat surface-attachable wing mount with nodes to attach the wings without messing with surface attach. That's roughed out here. I'm dreading the prospect of doing landing gear. Any thoughts on the best dependency to use would be appreciated. Or I might just retexture and rescale the stock gear. Animated cargo bays are going to be hard enough for me as it is. https://imgur.com/OMqJuK5 https://imgur.com/tgamYMT

This is the beginnings of a 'harder' sort of spaceplane mod designed to play nicely with rescaled systems and the more realistic art styles of BDB, Tantares, and KNES (hopefully). Don't expect any wacky magical airbreathing engines here. I'm very new to Unity and don't have very much free time. Expect models and textures to come well before any in-game parts (unless somebody holds my hand through the process). Expect various part mod dependencies/synergies throughout the development process. The goal is to make spaceplanes for the rocket crowd. Some fudging on tank mass may be required; I don't expect or intend to make this mod compatible with stock spaceplane parts. Roadmap: 1. ROO (Reusable Orbit Option): an ~2.5m set of spaceplane parts based on concept art for the Boeing XS1. The ROO is designed to function as marginal SSTO, transporting about 1.5 tons to LKO in JNSQ (target DV ~5200 m/s but subject to player input) using methalox engines. It is better suited to carrying a dedicated 1.5m upper stage on a suborbital trajectory Batch 1: [Expected soft dependencies: BDB, Provenance Aerospace] 2m tank 4m tank 6m tank long 2.5 > .625 nose short 2.5 > .625 nose Engine plate ROO > 2.5m adapter ROO drone core ROO delta wing ROO stabilizer Batch 2: ROO wing flaps 2m cargo bay 4m cargo bay 6m cargo bay 1.875m cargo bay crew module/airlock 1.875m cargo bay command module 1.875 >1.25m cargo bay module adapter ROO methalox engine (targeting half a BE-4 engine) ROO kerolox engine (target TBD, subject to player input) Joey upper stage tank S Joey upper stage tank L Joey engine Joey fairing base/avionics package 2. TO BE DETERMINED And now, pictures https://imgur.com/jC3tcTX https://imgur.com/cVfjn6J https://imgur.com/b0Necm7

Does the Grannus primary config work when combined with the JNSQ rescale config?

The Seasat texture is my absolute favorite thing! Would you happen to have the RGB values you use for the white, black, red, and grey color variants? I'm looking to make a few parts and match BDB's color scheme.

I'm contemplating making a few spaceplane parts with an eye to a more conservative (and easier to texture ) style than Porkjet's parts and properly balanced for a 2.5x-3.2x scaled game. Also, jets are a hard no. The goal is to make parts that are clean enough to blend in with BDB, Tantares, or ReStock but simple enough to be within my very limited texturing abilities. To this end, I'm looking for suggestions from the community as to what fuselage profiles would be the most useful to people without overlapping with other mods (in particular, Moroz). Reference images and documentation of serious orbital spaceplane proposals would be a great help in deciding on the exact size and shape of the fuselage parts. I'm not interested in airbreathing designs or far-fetched proposals. I'm also not likely to do any reach-y requests. Don't expect IVAs, RO configs, etc. ----------------- Tentatively, I'm shooting at least one set of parts: something substantially larger than the Moroz spaceplane but smaller than the Mk3 fuselage. This might hopefully cover the Boeing XS-1, MAKS, the upper stage of various Saenger concepts, and (with the help of tweakscale) the X-37. Definitely looking for good reference and thoughts on what people think is best in terms of size and shape. I'm also considering a larger fuselage but at this point, I'm unsure what I want to use as my template. Suggestions and references are particularly welcome here.

Figured. If anyone's whipped something up let me know. If not, I may take a crack at learning MM so I can set up at least a few configs for stuff I use regularly.

Is that set of community-made Tantares tweakscale configs from ages ago still around (and not broken)?

Is the Earth Orbital Escape Device (http://nassp.sourceforge.net/wiki/Future_Expansion#Orbital_Escape_Device) too far out of scope? It's a neat tie in between the updated Agena and a Saturn update. Also, I'm all about unusual command pods!

My Therapist: Beige Atlas isn't real, it can't hurt you. Beige Atlas: . . . (I'm so sorry -- I've only just downloaded the dev release and I'm having far too much fun.)

Therapist: Flat Leo isn't real, he can't hurt you. Flat Leo: . . . In any case, I just scaled down the Giotto and added an extra seat in the 1.875m pod. That actually works better than the structural piece. Just covered the window :p I hope I can sell other people on this setup -- it's a really nice way to get a flatter, more modern silhouette without compromising on aesthetics. The revamped Gemini is the most attractive spacecraft out there!

Yeah, I stuck with your general idea (i.e. trapped on Mesbin with no real way to do space travel) but also wanted to explain how four kerbals magically rolled out three rockets to the pad in one in-game day :p Particle Man will show up as well, I imagine. Just wait until I unlock some more BDB science experiments!

No, there was also a plain structural adapter with the exact same proportions as the Giotto. It's still in the release version (and I could add it back into my dev version save but the texture doesn't match anymore). It's "bluedog_Gemini_Structure_A", I think. Also, were there plans for a white texture for the pressurized an unpressurized 1.875 cargo parts?

One thing I'm really, really missing from the latest dev version is the 1.5m > 1.875m adapter with the Leo texture. That part was tremendously useful (possibly only to me though). I love tweakscaling it and putting it on top of the Botticelli to make a FlatLeo. You can either do a Fuji style pod that way or mount a bigger docking port on the nose for Big-G-type spacecraft. Also, has anybody made an MM config that allows two kerbals to fit in the Botticelli? There are two seats, after all! Behold: EuroLeo! (The Agena -- except the RL81 -- the is tweakscaled. Thanks to @Well's parts and more tweakscale, we have a rather neat service module too.

It's really strange. I can usually load one command seat. But load two and one or both kerbals explode on launch no matter how far apart I space the seats. I'll find a way to integrate my sandbox play-through (either as a prequel or as Jeb and Val's brainstorming sessions). The LMO bug is documented at least. The solution is to build bigger rockets -- as much as I'm enjoying using kick stages as SRBs it's not really viable.

I've been a bit distracted by my sandbox save -- the next few missions were rendezvous and crew returns but I've been having some nasty bugs involving command seats and spontaneous kerbal explosions and objects in LMO spontaneously disappearing. So no mission reports.

CHAPTER THREE Bob sleepily paced the pressurized tent they had pitched in the autofac dome, hot mug of energy drink in hand. While they had done their best to patch up all the holes, everybody agreed that a backup pressurized volume was a good idea. Everything hurt. His fingertips were rubbed raw by the glove of his spacesuit. Yesterday, they had wheeled Triangle Man I and II out onto a flat stretch of sintered regolith road with a pushcart and erected the rockets using a winch. EVAs were hard enough in microgravity. Val, on the other hand, had stayed up all night staring down the autofac and she had a brand new hypergolic upper stage to show for it. Triangle Man III was already attached. This one was bulbous and contained its own hypergolic engine. It carried three pods of purple cave fungus, jokingly referred to by the first astronauts as "mystery goo." In addition to being a delicious, bioluminescent snack, "mystery goo" responded strongly to vacuum, vibrations, and radiation. These pods would serve as a cheap substitute for very expensive electronic sensors for monitoring vehicle health. Their secondary goal was a Statmun flyby. Triangle Man III didn't have the sophisticated instruments to study Statmun, but it was evident from the surface of Mesbin that it was a useless hunk of iron. There really wasn't much to study. Still, it was a new world and the flyby would validate the new hypergolic engines. Jebediah's new rocket was also much larger than the first two. Bob wasn't looking forward to pushing it out to the pad.

CHAPTER TWO A bit hypervelocity shrapnel on Mesbin wasn't going to make any difference. In fact, Jedediah suspected that their first launch had gone completely unnoticed. Triangle Man I had been a modest success. Although it was little more than a large model rocket covered in thermometers and antennae, it was the highest any kerbal had ever sent anything since the KCAS Longshot crashed on Mesbin (at least on Mesbin, anyway; the KCA was no doubt launching all manner of things into interstellar space from the comfort of Kerbin). The 3d printer happily chirped, informing Jedediah that the last of four more casings had been completed; mere hours after Triangle Man I collided with Mesbin at several times the speed of sound. Val and Bob were putting the finishing touches on Triangle Man II. No clean rooms here. Also, no electronics more complicated than a pocket calculator; just a general purpose micro-controller simple enough to make in a crude circuit printer. Bill was cheerfully stirring a cauldron of highly explosive resin -- they'd all have to work quickly to fill all four boosters before it set. If their calculations were correct, Triangle Man II would reach orbit and begin mapping Mesbin's magnetosphere. Briefly. They hadn't made provisions to de-orbit it, but luckily, Low Mesbin Orbit was rather unstable; the satellite might survive a few weeks before its orbit decayed. Or it might be obliterated by space debris. Either way, the onboard batteries only had a few hours of juice.

[O: Images have been added.] ---------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER ONE "A space program? Absolutely not, Mr. Kerman! We will not approve this frivolous request. As you are no doubt aware, it is hard enough to maintain a pressurized atmosphere and technological society on Mesbin. We have already mounted your telescopes on the Pioneer prospecting crawlers and granted you far more supercomputer time than you deserve. This is all we can do. Perhaps one day we will return to space. But not today. *** "I propose we start our own Space Program," said Valentina, staring thoughtfully over a microwaved potato "with grain alcohol and exotic dancers. Really though. We both flew crew shuttles on Tylo, William knows how to operate a KCA autofac, and Robert can provide the grain alcohol. We've got a blueprint for every piece of aerospace technology ever flown." "But we haven't got an Autofac. Also, I really wish that you would stop calling me William," said Bill. "Actually, I think we might," said Jeb. "I was speaking to Councilman Mortimer after my . . . eh . . . speech yesterday. He said that there's a working autofac near the abandoned crawler depot near Mount Boom." "That Mortimer? The general counsel of the KSA? I always thought he was evil. And I definitely didn't think he'd ever dream of doing something illegal." "Neither did I -- gotta wonder why he agreed to get frozen and shipped out by the KCA. Anyway, who's up for a five-day drive through hard vacuum, lava, and deadly debris showers?" "Shotgun!" Yelled Val. *** After a good deal of fiddling, fussing, and taping, Mesbin's four-kerbal space agency sat around the humming autofac, sipping vile, syrupy energy drinks; the only source of caffeine on Mesbin (fusion power is easy for the KCA but hydroponically grown coffee plants are hard). The 3d printer chirped happily as it extruded the composite SRB cases; kick stages from the earliest days of the Space Program. The rocket was a simple, two-stage thing designed to throw a lightweight probe on a suborbital trajectory. "What do we call it?" "The probe?" "Yeah" "Dumpster one?" "Probey McProbeface?" "Roger?" "Like Roger the Range Safety Robot? Nah. We don't do range safety here." "Triangle Man I." "Yes." Absolutely." "Fourthed."