macdjord

Ah, neat. I just updated and I hadn't realized this had been changed.

You know, I'm sure there's a 'flares and chaff' mod somewhere~

Part Request: Smaller surface-mount monopropellant engine Could we get a version of the MPR-1 that loses the superstructure and lies flat on the surface like the linear RCS port does? I tried making my own by using the .mu file from the linear RCS and the .cfg from the MPR-1, but the model file has no thrustVectorTransform and I can't use the thrusterTransform since, for some reason, RCS fires down the Y axis while engines fire down the Z.

Feature Request: 'Focus' Button Would it be possible to get a 3rd button next to 'target' and 'control' that focuses the map view on the craft in question?

Feature Request: Toggle to disable the Sentar achievements It's annoying having my achievements window cluttered with scores of achievements I can't do because I the planets in question don't exist in my game. I'd like a toggle to hide them - or, better yet, auto-detect if the Planet Factory plugin is installed, and hide them if its not. Bug: Science rewards not independent between saves The bonus science for completing an a achievement should either be removed, or be given separately for every savefile. Separate games should be orthogonal in terms of gameplay; I should not be penalized in one game because I had already done something in another game. Feature Request: Subcategories Many of the achievements are repeated 19 times: one for doing the thing, 17 (+/-1) for doing it on/around each celestial body, and one for doing it around all 17 (+/-1). Plus another batch for the Sentar worlds, but that's another issue. That makes it hard to quickly take in all the distinct achievements available. I'd like to see each such batch of achievements consolidated into a single subcategory. Feature Request: Revert achievements when reverting flights It's a grand feeling when you finally get your big Duna mission down to the surface and see the "It's a Small Step - Duna" pop up. It's considerably less grand when you don't get that message, because it was triggered days ago when you hyperedited your lander into orbit to test it. It would be nice if undoing a mission (by revert or by quickload) also undid all the achievements you gained from it. (Exceptions: The get-to-orbit-without-launching achievement, since it's designed to be done by cheating, and the Kerbal-killing achievements, since most people will undo after a major crash.) Alternately, just disable achievements after hyperedit is used; I don't mind getting achievements for something I do legitimately, even if I then undo it, but I don't like missing my chance because I cheated for testing purposes. Feature Request: Track achievements per save-file as well as overall It's one thing to get to Jool in stock sandbox; it's quite another to do it in career with Remotetech, TAC Lifesupport, and Deadly Reentry. The fact that I have done the first in one savefile should not mean I don't get recognition for doing the second. I'd like to see each achievement tracked two ways: one if you've ever done it anywhere, the other if you've done it in the current save. Thus you don't have to wipe out your old records in order to be rewarded for doing things again under different conditions. (This would also solve the bonus science issue I mentioned above; just make science rewards a property of per-save completion.)

In the 'snacks intended for kerbals' sense, or in the green mush sense~?

Honestly, I'm mostly curious to see if my design is flyable by someone who is not me. As you pointed out, fuel is the cheapest thing on a rocket. And given the system you've got going, that's all you really lose. Even the ability to add struts wouldn't fix everything - such as the ones that have a dozen now-useless probes on them for torque. I know, but there's a difference between enough silk to bring the nacelles down without cracking core containment and enough to land the whole ship intact.

Neat update! Still no VTOLs, though? Also, have you considered retiring some of those old tugs? Just send up some parachute packs and bring the tugs down safely off the shore from the KSC. You can then assume that the new tugs you send up are the old ones refurbished.

So, apparently you can no longer retarget or deploy antennae on a craft that is uncontrolled? This is a problem for me, because I have probes that are supposed to aerobrake - I have to retract all their long-range antennae, and I need to be able to redeploy it again. Also, is there documentation anywhere for the config file? There are several options in there that I'm not sure the effects of, such as 'RangeModelType'.

The same update that made it compatible with 0.22, IIRC.

Ironic that someone who is unwilling to quicksave away his mistakes is so exceptionally diligent about keeping them~

But are you? Are you truly? Have you faced the Test of Loyalty?

I'd expect that, since he's commander of the Laythe mission and she is now on Laythe, she's under his command for now, even if they are of equal rank.

Why are you using that dish for Duna, anyway? The little stock dish has more than enough range, weighs about 1% as much, and requires far less space. That monster is only needed for missions to Jool or beyond.

Say, Brotoro, a few pages back, when the topic of water rescue first came up, several people (including me) offered you designs for water-landing VTOL aircraft, and you said you'd try them out and maybe send one to Laythe. Any news there?

No. Brotoro remotely cracked your machine to insert his character in your game for his own nefarious purposes.

See, this is why I slap at least one RTG on practically everything I launch... (I love the mini-RTG from RLA's Powergen pack. Just enough juice to run a probe, with minimum weight.)

@Romfarer: Can we get a version of the docking cam that has the same high-def, full-colour display as the camera module? The grainy, low-contrast grey-scale image we currently get certainly looks authentic, but it's bloody hard to see your target in anything but ideal lighting conditions.

Here we go: BirdDog Mk 3 (VTOL) Vertical Landing Procedure: Come in over target, low speed, altitude < 500m Kill jet engine (action group 2) Allow speed to drop, pitching up to maintain altitude When speed is as low as possible (i.e. a stall is imminent), pop the rear bottom chute (action group 3) Once airspeed has been reduced to terminal velocity (~2s after chute fully deploys), pop remaining chutes (action group 4) Deploy gear SAS off. If MechJeb is available, switch ASAS to SURF, settings: HDG: Desired takeoff direction PIT: 0 ROL: 0 [*]Wait for landing. Impact speed should be 5-6 m/s when fully fueled, at or near sea level. Vertical Takeoff Procedure: All engines off Brakes on Throttle to max SAS on. If MechJeb is available, switch ASAS to SURF, settings: HDG: Current heading PIT: 0 ROL: 0 [*]Activate jet engine (action group 2). Allow ~2s to spool up [*]Activate vertical rockets (action group 1) [*]Wait ~5s for plane to gain altitude and jet to gain thrust [*]Pitch up ~15 degrees. If MechJeb is available, switch ASAS to SURF, settings: HDG: Current heading PIT: 15 ROL: 0 [*]Once proper pitch is achieved, kill vertical rockets (action group 1) [*]Stabilize altitude and heading [*]Gear up [*]You should now be in normal flight Design Notes and Caveats: The plane has fuel for ~30s of full thrust on its vertical rockets, which is enough for 3-4 liftoffs, depending on how frugal you are The vertical rockets have just barely enough thrust to lift the plane, fully fueled, on Kerbin. On Laythe, with its 20% lower gravity, they have plenty of thrust. If you wish to test the craft on Kerbin, try dumping ~1/3rd of one of the fuel tanks. When descending vertically on chutes, the plane is sensitive to the location of the COG to keep it level. If it lands too far off level, particularly in water, parts may break when the craft flattens out. Before doing a vertical landing, try to balance fuel between the tanks; the COG should be directly below the girder the chutes are mounted to. (You can find the COG in-flight by zooming in; the camera always centers on the COG.) In a pinch, cut away one of the bottom chutes - you should still be able to land safely on 7 chutes, especially if you have less than a full load of fuel Vertical ascent is also sensitive to COG changes, though not as much, since it can correct with vectored thrust. Also, a moderate tendency to pitch up is not a problem, as the rockets are only on for a short period. Pitch down, however, should be strenuously avoided; the jet has more than enough thrust overcome the rockets' lift and force the craft into the ground given even a slight downward pitch. [*]If you run out of oxidizer, be sure to shut off the vertical jets. They will happily waste jet fuel at full speed while producing no flame or thrust. [*]As an alternative method of deploying the chutes, you can pop one or more of them above 500m, allowing you to use their semi-deployed drag to reduce airspeed even more before they deploy fully. However, this is far more complicated, since you have to synchronize things so you pass through 500m just as your speed hits minimum, as opposed to the method described above, where you can just watch your airspeed and pop the chute whenever you feel it is optimal. Actually, the best method would be to get as low and slow as possible, pitch up hard into a strait vertical climb, then pop all the chutes just after you hit peak and start falling backward. But you'd have to pull a perfect vertical climb while gliding, make sure that you hit peak under 500m, and that you pop the chutes just after peak so they don't cut away when your speed zeroes. Very fancy flying. [*]I had to move the docking port forward, since the COG-centered location is now taken up by the chute girder. However, it is at the same height, so it should still work with the standard Gas Station. I haven't tested that, though. Of course, the standard Gas Station doesn't have much in the way of oxidizer for the vertical rockets - one and one third full refills, less any used in landing. Might want to send out one that swaps a couple of Mk I Fuselages for FL-T200s. That would give you enough juice to use the VTOL for exploration as well as rescue. [*]There is no need for a separate retro-pack, since the vertical jets have more than enough delta-v for a deorbit burn. Just use the docking port as your control point; it's facing the right way. [*]I've programmed the abort button; it kills all engines and pops all chutes. [*]There are two additional mods I'd suggest, but which I didn't implement since I wanted to change the design as little as possible: Add a RTG somewhere, as a reliable source of power in darkness. Add one more radial chute, attached directly to the cockpit. Don't add it to the vertical landing groups, but do add it to the abort group. Then, even if the plane breaks up (e.g. because you popped all the chutes while traveling at top speed), you can pop that one and land the pilot survivably for later rescue. [*]You can repack all the chutes while standing on the cockpit ladder.

The solution for landing is to slap one of those 3m girders on your plane, sticking strait up directly over the COM, with a chute or three on top. Then get come in slow over your target and pop the cute. You'll drop down slow and dead level. (If you want to be realistic, put a couple chutes at the rear of the plane, too. Pop the rear chutes, wait for them to fully deploy, pop the top chute, then cut the rear chute. That way, your plane isn't subjected to huge G-forces as it snaps instantly from forward flight to vertical decent.) Not sure how you'd do takeoff, though. Maybe slap a pontoon on a truss at those nose? If you've got a high enough TWR, that would be enough to get you off the ground. Of course, it would also make it impossible to land on the ground unless you either ejected that bit, or use a hinge to fold it up. Or maybe just slap on a few radial engines an make it a true VTOL... I've got the BirdDog Mk 3 from last page; I'll see if I can build something suitable.

@Brotoro: You know, you put so much effort into safety equipment, but I can't help noticing you don't have anything that can rescue a Kerbal who ends up in the drink. I was thinking maybe you should send a water-launch-capable rocket out there - it needn't be an SSTO; since it's emergency-only equipment, it needn't be reusable. Or you could just ship out an other Dogfish, then leave it in orbit - if somebody gets wet, the Dogfish can splash down nearby and transport them to dry land to be picked up by one of the existing rescue options.

@Romfarer: Can we get a version of the docking cam that has the same high-def, full-colour display as the camera module? The grainy, low-contrast grey-scale image we currently get certainly looks authentic, but it's bloody hard to see your target in anything but ideal lighting conditions.

@Romfarer: Can we get a version of the docking cam that has the same high-def, full-colour display as the camera module? The grainy, low-res, low-contrast greyscale image we current;y get certainly looks authentic, but it's bloody hard to see your target in anything but ideal lighting conditions.

Magnitude 10? Are they still going to have a planet to go back to?

@Romfarer: Can we get a version of the docking cam that gives a full-colour, full-contrast picture like the Lazor cam does? The washed-out, noisy grayscale makes it hard to see what I'm doing in anything but perfect lighting conditions (and I do mean perfect - darkness is obviously always going to be a problem, but if there's too much light the view gets so washed out that it's just as bad, so just giving everything a forward-pointing docking light doesn't solve the problem either.)