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How long have you kept a vehicle design?


DunaRocketeer

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I tend to create launcher families that are useful throughout a game, then create a new design family in the next game. Nevertheless, there are a few vehicles that survive from game to game. I love flying a design using a BACC srb and Reliant upper stage early in the game. For some reason, I get a real 'The Right Stuff' vibe from it.

What vehicles do you use over and over?
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[quote name='DunaRocketeer']I tend to create launcher families that are useful throughout a game, then create a new design family in the next game. Nevertheless, there are a few vehicles that survive from game to game. I love flying a design using a BACC srb and Reliant upper stage early in the game. For some reason, I get a real 'The Right Stuff' vibe from it.

What vehicles do you use over and over?[/QUOTE]


I have kept the same design for SSTO fighter craft for about a year now.

My F-119C Akula is my oldest stock fighter design.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/ynZSnIr.jpg[/img]
[video=youtube;qKcM2UNj8Ms]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKcM2UNj8Ms[/video]
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0.17.1 - Apokee I, the first version of my general purpose manned spacecraft. Back then docking didn't exist, I had to hack together two different mods for this docking to work.
[img]http://i64.tinypic.com/2yvs8rc.jpg[/img]

0.18 - Apokee II with Mun lander, stock docking now introduced, allowing me to now easily conduct Apollo style Mun landings
[img]http://i63.tinypic.com/erh1jm.jpg[/img]

0.18.1 - Apokee III, first major redesign using the previous version's Mun lander service module, producing a smaller, cheaper yet almost as capable spacecraft.
[img]http://i65.tinypic.com/24fgwwn.jpg[/img]

0.18.4 - Apokee IIIB, now includes a homemade LES tower for better crew safety.
[img]http://i64.tinypic.com/2yzbw5c.jpg[/img]

0.19.1 - still using Apokee IIIB
[img]http://i65.tinypic.com/28t9p36.jpg[/img]

0.23 - Apokee IIIC, now only uses 4 RCS block instead of eight, monoprop capacity reduced by 50% as I find I didn't need that much. Also solar panels are now four 1x6 with a gap in between ala Automated Transfer Vehicle, so that RCS block's gas can shoot through the gap
[img]http://i64.tinypic.com/2niz05u.jpg[/img]

And after a long break from KSP I came back recently just as 1.0.5 came around to start playing again:
1.0.5 - Apokee IV, now has heatshield that can survive steep reentry from anywhere within Kerbin SOI. Solar panels now retractable. LES tower change to use the stock one.
[img]http://i67.tinypic.com/2111no0.jpg[/img]
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While I return to similar design principals, I in almost every single instance design every single rocket from the top down from scratch.

Sometimes for similar missions I'll edit an old ship instead of making a new one but that's rare. In career, the older the ship the older the tech.
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The design I use consistantly more than any other would have to be my KSC science rover. This is what I use to bebop around the space center and collect science.
I've revised and altered it from career to career, and when 1.0.5 came out I switched to the MK1 two seat passenger section. But the overall design and function has stayed the same.


Earliest version:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/xq0Mgzn.jpg[/IMG]

Newest Version:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/e0RCwJ2.jpg[/IMG]
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One of my Apollo style rockets has been carried over through several games now. I tend to refine the design as new parts become available that improve or reduce the number of parts used previously, but the basic overall design and flight parameters haven't changed.
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I redesign every single mission. Not necessarily out of the need to have the exact delta-V meet mission requirements, but more so because my favourite part of the game is the building of stuff. So, in other words, I never keep a vehicle design, I redesign every time.
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I have my good old' KUV (Kerbal Utility Vehicle). Basic design hasn't changed much (Though it did recently shed a few parts to better fit the new cargo ramp), and I have various models for various jobs, which basically involve replacing the back seats with whatever I need at the time (Fuel tanks, science stuff, etc.).

It's just my basic workhorse of a vehicle, refuels planes, used as lunar rovers (There is one on Duna, but thats more because I underestimated fuel for the trip, and jettisoned everything but the crew capsule to abort the mission and head home, but the KUV is still there... fully operation and ready to go... just waiting.)
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its systems for me.. The way I modify a jet pod to output no thrust but use it alternator to pump out electricity converted from fuel

The diesel electrics have been in use over a year now
As its the only viable way to control wheel speed and torque with the engine throttle..

Mediums might have changed..from electric traction motors to monoprop drinking hydaulic motor styled wheels.. But it all starts with sam hall's jetpod and 0.25 configuration file

That and the 44 class.. The class might have been rebuilt..hammered around..experimented with and reverted.. But under all the changes including swapping the wheelbase around from back to front...eg 6 wheels doesnt steer as well as 4 up front

Shes the same locomotive in spirit from over a year ago... As much as i.try new things.. Shes got a place in my heart and KSC just isnt the same without an active '44 on the roster

4408 - April 2015
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/BTe53eX.jpg[/IMG]

4427 - November 2015
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/agt9u1n.png[/IMG] Edited by Overland
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I almost never keep a design; however, since 0.18 I've used an orange tank and a Mainsail with SRBs strapped on as my 1st stage and a 2nd stage with either a Poodle or a Skipper for light to medium payloads. Nowadays, I use my KTS (a space shuttle analogue - avaliable for DL at the spacecraft exchange!) for most payloads though, mainly because I'm constructing a station and an interplanetary ship (to Duna).
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I will try to reuse general designs within a single career mode game in order to keep refining them. When I start a new game, I'll take what I consider to be the most useful/successful aspects of my favorite past designs and incorporate them into the new game, while still trying to do new things. It's neat to see how my designs have evolved over time.
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All of my designs go through changes from time to time, even the steadfast Interstellotron probe lander transfer vehicle had to get tweaked due to changes in thermal and nuke engine functions.

About the only one that doesn't is the Jebrocket - the first rocket flown in each career save. It's all the available parts at the beginning, with the exception of the girders. One chute, one pod, one flea, some fins and (iirc) a few goo capsules.
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I have a orbiter-lander thing called the Orbital Activity Vehicle. It has 1793.97m/s of delta-v in it and carries 4 kerbals. Its launch vehicle has varied over the times, but the main thing has stayed basically the same since 0.90. I've been using it since [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/114786-how-do-i-transfer-fuel-between-tanks"]this[/URL] and I last used it for [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/138221-Boreas-1-Landed-on-Minmus"]this[/URL].
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I used to build all new launchers each KSP version, because of new parts packs coming out...But been doing much less of my own lifter designing since 1.0, due to spending more time making unique launchers, and stuff to launch on them, than actually PLAYING the game...

So, I've been using these off and on since various versions first came out, even before being consolidated into this pack for 0.23, but since 1.0 have been using them almost exclusively for lifters (certainly NOT my design):

[url]http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/63050[/url]
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