colmo

For those requesting test terrain for rovers, @InfiniteDice made a Baja tace track: And @Justin Kerbice made a rover proving ground: They were made for Kerbtown so I have no idea of their current functionality.

I believe the issue is that you can't have resources with negative mass, and the simulation doesn't extend to simulating lift adiabatically. This is why boats can't have a resource like DisplacedWater and why airships with very light Hydrogen or Helium wouldn't float.

@EnzoMeertens - The KKS leak system would work well with this, though deformation would have to be turned off. As buoyancy isn't controlled be an onboard resource but a plugin, I'm not entirely sure how it would interact though?

Could procedural envelopes be done as part of Procedural Parts? Restrict to part shapes with curved edges, scale mass with surface area, and apply the airships module to any part with the custom material?

I was thinking how useful it would be if we could actually dig out a crater to drop The Block and similar statics into...and had an idea. @Thomas P.'s Kerbal Terrain System is able to remove terrain all the way to sea level. I don't see any recent progress, but it might be the ticket. Also, 1.1.1 patch has "Added optional PQS shader using all mappings (for modders)." which sounds relevant.

Trying out the prerelease (I have no idea how GitHub works!): Folder names with spaces are a bad idea FS_ClipperEngine_1 stops the game from loading (Linux 64-bit version) 'Clipper Hull Fuel Hull' has a whole 18 units of fuel. That doesn't seem right.

Another approach is to create a true rotor spindle (controlled by throttle) and surface attachable blades, essentially control surfaces with their range of motion (now tweakable in 1.1) determining collective. It'll also introduce torque, so fun to be had cancelling that out. Hard-mode rotors, basically.

There is apparently an unused stock rotor module.

Camera issues gave me another idea - put fixed cameras in elevators, stairs and hangars, and some sort of surveillance room static or pod (there are pros and cons to each, not sure on current state of camera mods or ability to tie them to statics) with screens showing their feed in glorious 60s grainy monochrome.

Finally got to play with it and I love both The Block and the animated hangars. Suggestion - The Block needs access tunnels, perhaps three of them in the centre of the three walls not adjacent to the lift - fit their entrances with the hangar doors, and if they're buried, they're just service tunnels anyway; if they're high above ground, there are other static mods to built roadways and ramps, or build a simple hairpin roadway to the base of the model for each. There's so much space down there, the mind boggles with the potential uses. Perhaps a personnel elevator which only has room for Kerbals and so can move a lot faster than the main lift would also add to the accessibility. The old <REDACTED> base had a staircase, which I presume would add many more colliders than a simple lift. Another variant of The Block would be one with an animated sliding door instead of the lift, splitting open to allow craft below to take to the sky. I noticed the helipads on The Block which weren't launch points - I presume it's not possible to have multiple launch sites on the same part? Perhaps they could be split off as launch sites in their own right?

I believe @allista was waiting for 1.1 to drop before assessing the damage. He's a busy guy with a day job and other mods, so give him time.

I too miss the old <REDACTED>. Not so much for its ability to <REDACTED> small <REDACTED>, but for the ability to explore its interior with a Kerbal. Now we need more Surface Experiments style KAS/KIS props and dehydrated snacks to equip the <REDACTED> with the suitable 60's era consoles, rations and equipment, and once it's done, some contracts to make it more fun. @Eskandare, did you get my tips about a secret submarine base too? Much easier to design for the sea than the land, that pesky terrain makes The Block stand out a bit.

I revisited the prerelease version in 1.1. The AI is doing the suicidal rolls after missile launch again - it takes a bit of effort to build a plane that won't blow itself out of the sky. Something has changed in aero or PID - AI needs more steer damping than before, I think.

Have you tried changing the root part and then removing the original one, using the editor widget? This behaviour with KAS might be worth reporting to the KAS team. They may be able to fix it from their end. Do the 'sockels' extend in height like a launch clamp does? Haven't had a chance to try them yet, and won't for a few days.

Brilliant! Fantastic to see a year+ old figment of my imagination in the...er...flesh? Concrete? Better models than I pictured, too. I had no idea what a sockel was...Google is still my friend Interesting about the KAS interaction bug/feature. If it does get reenabled, a workaround is to make sure there's plenty of empty stages before you get to them. KAS has the ability to use nodes as well as surface attachment (see the Surface Experiment pack) - perhaps a few of those around the edges would provide safe connection points for KAS users? If this idea catches on, perhaps Squad would be kind enough to expose enough of the API to disable launchclamp decoupling or split it from the ground attachment behaviour, which is what we want, entirely.

My current premier design (see avatar) weighs in at under 10 tonnes, I think that's fully loaded, twin Panther engines (I'm waiting on 1.1, want to look at toggling gimbal per axis), and can fly for half an hour, mixing modes. No clipping, no turrets. I'm also working on a single-engine design that I want to get in under the 6 tonne mark. I'm waiting on 1.1 (I have the prerelease but there's a few mods we're in need of) to drop for the massive performance benefits and because I'm snowed under atm - I only have time to visit here when I'm taking a break!

@inigma - it's all good! My own focus was testing craft v craft with the AI as the level playing field. Changing that up into a pilot challenge would also work, not least for bragging rights! Where players are involved, I think it's most interesting as a contract, so that it folds into the career gameplay. e.g. I suggested a contract which air-spawned incoming craft to the KSC. The incremental nature would be the contracts getting harder and harder as the attacks become more deadly. I'm still looking forward to finally running the JSF challenge, as I see that as the constructors' championship for plane designers!

I think you're right. TGAI has more stringent rules, so they could compete in this tourney without alteration. There's a few exploitative designs from TGAI's history which brought these rule restrictions, which would give this challenge a serious run for its money. I've had a look at some of the designs here, and they often look rather heavy and over-gunned. I have an air superiority fighter in the works for TGAI (see my avatar!) which I think would put up a serious challenge here, but for the turrets.

When I conceived Top Gun AI, the different aims (to test craft building skill) meant it evolved rather differently from this challenge (to test BDA AI) - e.g. we quickly banned any turret rotation and wing/engine clipping. I'd be interested to see how winning designs would do in a head to head!

Spawn height - doesn't it behave like normal launchclamps with EPL? Levelness - this might be a job for survey stakes. If anything, you're building an ideal foundation to put a permanent launchpad on top of. I presume you're trying to spawn the part lower than an office block, but it isn't playing ball? I think the visual I have is the concrete base for the tanks near the KSC runway - not rising much above the ground, but enough to keep the parts on top away from the terrain, and the explosions that often causes.

That's correct - it operates like a launch clamp in terms of the way it interacts with the ground and attaches to parts, but creates essentially a nice wide concrete slab, that merges neatly with the ground (bevelled or stepped to make it climbable by Kerbals) and should also be perfectly upright, ideal for building non-mobile craft on. In the VAB or SPH, you'd construct, say, a hut made of metal plates with a probe core or command pod, then attach the concrete foundation like a launchclamp to the bottom. When built using EPL (using survey stakes most likely), the slab would anchor the hut permanently to the ground, precisely level. It could either be available in a number or sizes, or with some kind of Tweakscale functionality. It would be perfect for anchoring the recycler to the ground, for instance. The only way to shift them afterwards might be demolition. And any opportunity to use demolition in KSP can only be a good thing. I'm not sure how launchclamp functionality works, but you could add nodes to it, which might not be affected by it, only the connection via surface attachment. This mod would work very well with it: It could spark interest in parts designed for static us - large command station, research and comms pods with IVAs, KAS pipes designed to pass underground (only the connectors at each end would be visible, ideal for fastening to the concrete slabs), and associated damage mods like Kerbal Krash System, which allows such installations to get rather battered looking without disappearing with a puff or boom.

I never did respond to this, many moons ago. I asked in more detail on the EPL thread. It's on taniwa's TODO list, but doesn't hurt to suggest it elsewhere. Fantastic recycler, btw!

The days of KSP needing a hot single-threaded CPU and a bog-standard GPU are over...beautiful work, @blackrack.

@Eskandare, that is magnificent! That'll make some serious Thunderbirds/Agents of SHIELD underground bases! You might have to model it into its own mountain? An extinct volcano would be a dramatic scenic to build such a base into. Now, a request - how about a similar one, but designed for sea-level, such that the underground hangar is partly submerged and has an exit straight out to sea? It could be designed for subs only (i.e. a secret base) or allow surface craft also. You could even model a secret camouflaged door on it. Optionally, if modelled right, it could be used for surface use either, allowing vehicles to drive out of the lower level. Can this animation fix also be applied to the very old ICBM silo mod?

Vessels on the ground (un)load around 8km away from the craft in focus. In the air, they stay loaded until 22.5km I think. Thus, focusing on a craft in the air, say, 15km from a grounded vessel, won't see the grounded vessel because it is not loaded, but switching to the grounded vessel, you will be able to see the airborne craft.