Surefoot

Thanks, you are the best.

Got some problems with decouplers in space too... got a small throw-away tug that brings fuel tanks to my haulers, it's linked to the tank by a decoupler, when i'm docked and decouple something strange happens: the decoupler itself stays half stuck to the tank (i can see it's got a bit loose), while the tug body moves away and starts spinning really fast. SAS or SmartASS seem to notice nothing at all (cannot "kill rot" or stabilize). My only option is to kill the tug from tracking station, instead of de-orbiting it properly. Otherwise 1.1 is working nice for me, managed to launch that 200t payload finally with a monster of a launcher, with FAR it's a real challenge Struts are still needed at these scales. My normal rockets are now stiff and i save some more deltaV due to less wobble during ascent..

A reaction wheel is enough to control a lander. Just remember to turn SAS off !

That leads me to thinking, are the mods like yours able to make use of multi cores / multi threads, and work asynchronously (thus giving results on a best effort basis, depending on total CPU power) ? I'm not familiar with the game engine..

@Tiberion: i just tried with a 3.75m + 5m multi stage monster (with a nuclear hauler on top of it - used to launch using its own fuel, now trying to launch it "wet" with a long 5m monster). Little Mother on upper stage, quad bronco on middle stage, 5x bearcat on bottom stage. The 3.75m tanks look like they're still very slippery, my rocket just flexed and fell apart on the launch pad. The load is balanced and using quantum struts to hold it in place (just to make sure). I think none of the NP parts are "patched" through that plugin (apart from the engines, see below), as it seems i still need those "super heavy struts" to hold parts together even if they are in a vertical stack. (edit) the load is about 200t itself though, maybe i'm way above the common acceptable limits ? Also i noticed the engines now stay put, so at least this part works ok. Used one of my refuel launchers with a quad bronco as main engine, this one used to dance around a lot and even dislodge itself, now it's tame as a kitten.

I guess you still have to be careful with AoA on ascent with a long rocket / top heavy load and sideways forces, which makes sense.

Just looked at the log again: the warning i quoted above is happening before i see this: "ground contact!", "Unpacking (plane name)", "[Proceduralwing2]: Activated", etc. Are the procedural parts meshes loaded only upon activation maybe ?

I get an error in the logs too (with my planes, using the B9 landing gears): "WheelCollider requires an attached Rigidbody to function." Not sure if it's related to B9 itself or that new plugin.. I suppose your plugin log entries are all prefixed with "JointWobbleRemover:" right ?

@ferram: just tested another, simpler (atmospheric) design, the pwing roots are moving "freely" around, like they are just attached with an elastic (they dont break out though). I'll take a look at the logs if i see anything suspect.. (edit) i only see a warning: "JointWobbleRemover: extents could not be properly built for part Mark2 - PWing" when i load my plane, no NullReferenceExpection (and no error).

Okay played a bit with it, my HyperJet X model (that i posted on FAR thread, there's the .craft file to try it out) has got a problem with this mod: wings become incredibly wobbly. Also i still have to use the heavy struts across the fuselage otherwise it will flex like crazy. - Do this plugin affects B9 fuselage sections ? - How does it affect horizontal "stacks" (SPH designs, basically) - PWings get borked pretty hard, try my hyperjet to understand.. Screen caps coming in a few (edit) there: See the weird geometry, wings attachments go crazy WHOA NELLIE

Very nice, cannot wait to test it with my flying noodles aka long rockets... Using FAR means having long, thin launchers, and that was really a pain to stiffen up.

No the only other mod that would alter the game itself is Mechjeb (i use the latest 2.1). Otherwise i only use part collections (KAS, B9, Novapunch..), i dont think any of these would alter the stock clamps. And it's not so much the clamps but more like a violent jitter when i change scenes, like the positions of all objects are updated AFTER the physics engine is turned on, resulting in huge G's on everything (and tearing the clamps apart).

Launch clamp stability got worse with the latest version of FAR (or is it FAR ? i think that's the only mod i have that modifies physics, i dont use the earth size stuff). Rockets that used to be stable on launch pad now get a kick of over 4G when loading up and get loose of their clamps. Not sure what's the exact reason, only it just got worse (as i had to add more clamps to my previously stable designs).

Go back up to page 171, top post, he explains what simulations are done.

@sarbian: very nice catch on the takeoff roll (i got some weird instances of it recently). As for the RCS docking, i just moved around my space station tug (a very small, light vessel, basically a battery, control drone and RCS tank between 2 dock ports) and wasted incredible amounts of RCS with a lot of unnecessary wobble. Not sure if the PID parameters are fixed, if they are they are indeed tuned for a much heavier ship, are they ?

@Ciber: Since the amount of aerobraking depends on a huge lot of parameters, i dont think so - just your AoA during approach will totally change the outcome (as i learned recently trying to aerobrake on a direct entry on Laythe). You can run the AoA simulation with FAR in the VAB/SPH to know your aerodynamic parameters, then i guess you could compute the aerobraking amount from the derived Cd for a given AoA, and then try to hold that (with SAS) during actual aerobraking.. Of course you need to know your entry speed (e.g. like mach 216 for Jool). Good luck

If you have roll coupling (from what i understand) i may hazard a guess that your control surface relative area is big enough that you lose significant lift upon roll inputs - in other terms you are using these canards for lift, and they represent a large part of your total lift. Its only a guess :-) you could try using smaller canards, and/or larger wings. In any case this will always happen to some degree, just like yaw-roll coupling, you can only mitigate it only.

Procedural wings are a must have with FAR, imho. More flexibility, without the flex (heh).

- If i have a composite wing (with overlapping joints) does it count as one wing, as in there is only one leading edge ? - Are leading edge mobile surfaces accounted for ? (i guess it counts in the wing camber does it) - Wingtips have exposed nodes (always, even with pwings), how do they count in your drag model ? - Do you model flow separation at transonic speeds ? (that would explain some weird behaviours i have seen at these speeds) - Are the hypersonic plasma effects any indication of what is happening in FAR ? Or are they totally unrelated

Inline RTG's (maybe with deployable radiators, a bit on the same principle as solar panels maybe) would be very welcome. I love Novapunch, it's the first part mod i usually install along with B9 (combining them is like a marriage in heaven). I dont have much more to say, the NP engines are my usual work horses, everything works fine. Keep up the good job

That's a lot of mods there. Try and start a clean new save, remove all of them save B9, see if you can repeat the problem by adding them back one by one.

Link to my Hyperjet craft file: http://www./?u7co7rfj5ie4r7d mods needed: FAR - B9 - Novapunch - IonHybridElec - PWings - Mechjeb 2 Enjoy I have been flying stick and it was quite enjoyable. It needs trimming though, maybe i'll see if i can add some pre-camber on some control surfaces maybe...

HA ! wait, there are B9 canards ? (didnt spot them somehow) I will tomorrow - now is time to get some sleep (did a lot of flying around with that plane, with a stick it really shines)

Hey mate Thanks for the compliments. I use B9 and FAR (obviously), Novapunch (on this plane: using the "even heavier strut" for middle chassis), IonHybridElec pack (for the inline generators, could use RTG's actually.. i just like the blue glow from them ), procedural wings (obviously too ) and that's it. To make the same plane you can replace NP struts with the quantum struts i guess (couldnt get them to show up in my SPH..), and normal RTG's tucked behind the landing gears instead of the IonElec generators, this reduces the mods to B9, PWings, QStruts and FAR. If you want i can post my latest craft file. On it there's a Mechjeb2 attached too (i can remove it if you want it mechjeb-free). Making it yourself can be time consuming (but FUN !) as some design details such as strut placement and wing angles are critical. Also you have to assign control surfaces to specific inputs in FAR - canards and stabilators for pitch, wing control surfaces for roll, and tail control surfaces for yaw. I am not using DRE yet as i'm at the stability limit of KSP at the moment, although i'm quite sure this design can survive, apart from the cockpit side ladders maybe (unfortunately, no retractable / shielded parts are available for this) - but i'm considering it maybe later, at the moment FAR provides me with tens of hours of fun and engineering Here are the results my latest aerodynamic improvements, after hours and hours of flight tests and fine tuning: The HyperJet MK4 Thanks to B9 i now have more reasonably sized stabilators. Went for a more radical wing sweep. As a result of both i lost the stall recovery of the previous design: this one is very resistant to excessive input, but stupidity can still make it go into a spin (which is quite hard to recover). To avoid problems, as usual fuel balance is needed (the 3 tanks help here) - transfer from back to front before re-entry or aerocapture. The airbrakes help aerocapture performance, and of course landing. I LOVE THE NEW B9 LANDING GEAR it's a lot more aerodynamic than the stock one. Blends perfectly with the underside of this jet... Also it's capable of mach 5.4 around 27km max after which the SABRE's run out of air (truly i went a bit above and didnt get any flameout from either engine: FAR was reporting 97% air, weird). Handling is improved at subsonic and supersonic speeds, although transonic is a bit crappy somehow ? (but who wants to stay there). Mach 5+ flight, view of the belly with the nicely integrated landing gear Hard turn at mach 4+ ! Top speed at top altitude, look at the wing configuration I am now really pleased, it's a great fun to pilot it, landing is easy as low speed control is good (but keep AoA low, the SABRE's dont give much clearance), hypersonic flight is stable and i can point it the way i want, it's got enough fuel to go to Laythe and land there (which was my main goal for this design), atmospheric entry is stable and controlled (can even give a bit of AoA for that increased aerobraking effect). Handling without SAS has a tendency to dutch roll and otherwise wiggle around a bit especially at transonic speeds, but at mach 2+ if you just trim it, it flies straight, and for landings it's behaving nicely by itself. SAS tends to spaz with roll inputs sometimes (esp. at 0° AoA, perfect straight flight, weird stuff here), for no good reason, it goes into a "shake". Just give some pitch (up or down, doesnt matter) and it comes back to reason.. My previous design could do a "cobra" and still have control during the stall, i'll have to explore that a bit more with a lighter design (without SABRE's and all that fuel to go to Laythe). Total weight is 33.8T fuelled up, 76 parts, so it's nice and light (for a Jool capable SSTO spaceplane..). Total work on this is about 30 hours including flight tests ! I tried a LOT of aerodynamic setups. The new B9 stuff with the fixed trailing edges open some new possibilities (mhhh elevons..). Maybe the next step would be leading edge elevons/slabs: this is needed for tailless designs (cannot wait for procedural control surfaces for this !). Variable geometry would be fantastic too, i'll try to look at what i can do with the Magic Smoke pack, but that wont be a small jet-fighter-esque design like this one and more like a big cargo (due to size of mobile parts..). I'll also give another shot to the diamond-shape wings (a la F-22), not sure if FAR actually accounts for the effects of this kind of shape ? Now going to work on my S2Wide cargo, another FAR challenge: delivering big stuff safely to the surface (with atmosphere, of course).

@Taverius: works like a charm with the reduced texture pack and other mods. Posting updates to my experimental flights in FAR thread (since it's more related to FAR actually..)