Thinking of starting a new project: Tweakable engine clusters

[Gryphorim]

So I'm looking for feedback on the concept, with the general idea (from a player's perspective) going as follows:

Step one grab your engine, let's say an LV-T45, for example. This is a 1.25m mounting (tank-but) normally, and has what looks like a general-purpose nozzle.

Step two, tweak it's mounting size. Mounting plate can be scaled up to a 2.5m or a 3.75m base, each with differing options stemming from those. Note, this doesn't scale the engine itself.

Step three, tweak no. of engines in cluster. In our example, going up to 2.5m would allow, say, a cluster of 4 engines with bottom node (and interstage fairings) retained, or up to 9 engines with no bottom node.

Final step, tweak nozzles. So long as you don't go for maximum number of engines for size of base, it may be possible to select "balanced performance" or "vacuum tuned" nozzles for your cluster, which adjust the base engine isp values in atmo and vacuum. Note, maximised engine numbers for a mounting size default to "booster tuned" nozzles, which a physically the smallest. As these typically don't have a bottom node, they are typically 1st stage anyway.

The focus in this mod would be to replace the 1.25m and 2.5m engines (excluding the KR-1x2) with modular engine assemblies with the above tweakable parameters.

I could use some feedback from modders here, particularly those with plugin experience.

[SpaceLaunchSystem]

Procedural Fairings already has something like this, but you have to place the engines.

[Gryphorim]

Unless I missed an update, procedural fairings allows for custom interstage fairings, but does not offer adjustable engine performance, part count reduction, or the inherent stability of a single-part engine. I've also found that stock now does acceptable interstage fairings as well.

[SmallFatFetus]

It has a thrust plate, which allows you to add/remove nodes for engine clusters, but I think it's ugly and looks bad. I want to see what you come up with.

SmallFatFetus

[Jarin]

So basically, you're suggesting a "procedural engines" mod, where you can specialize as you like? I'm intrigued.

[Gryphorim]

I was thinking of using the firespitter mesh switching, so if selecting from a fixed range of prefabbed options to make your cluster or optimised single engine fits your definition of "procedural" than, yeah, procedural engines.

Caveats:- I do NOT plan on making a "make-your-own engine nozzle", options will be constrained to pure vacuum optimised, atmo optimised and a mid-range bell.

- I plan on sticking to the stock aesthetic, so core engine elements are going to strongly resemble stock engines, nozzle bells are going to resemble stock bells, and so on. If successful, I may expand the concept to a "Ven-alike" version later

- I have never done plugin work before, so this project may take time to get underway.