Craft that survived across KSP versions to present day - your own favorite craft?

[Overland]

 

Do you have a craft that in concept and use basically survived from say 2014 to present day in KSP? A design that matured but stayed the same and became your signature craft for doing what you do in KSP? 

I thought about this looking at my old KSP screenshots to present day . how the 44 class land train matured from a barebones white clad stick with wagons, to a fully fledged capable locomotive and submarine.. I cant be the only one with a love for a specific craft thats survived through the ages, updates in KSP and been remade in spirit upto present day?

Anyone got one?

 

Mines the "44 class" Diesel Electric Land train.. from early 2015 till 2017 

The drive remains the same - but capabilities have changed greatly.. still though under all these changes.. its still the same kind of locomotive I drive with pride

 

2015 (FEB)

Late 2015 (One Before Elcano 4408)

2017 (MAY) 

 

Show your beloved craft that you make and remake every KSP version.. the ones that make KSP for you over the years

Edited June 2, 2017 by Overland

[katateochi]

I've got a couple that have stayed in the fleet since 2014.

Orion

2014	2017

This has been a great little workhorse, good for quick crew transfers, rescues and shunting things around the local system. It's also served as an interplanetary return craft (constellation mission)...so actually it's been around since 2013.
The rough idea has stayed the same; basically 4 sets of tanks radially mounted and then offset inwards to be narrower than the command pod (doing that offset has become much easier in recent builds with the offset tool!) Mostly I keep it stock, but then kit it out with mod parts as needed (usually a couple KAS containers and some winches).  The command pod separates from the fuel/engine section for reentry but retains 4 rcs thrusters for making re-entry tweaks. Probably the biggest change it's had to it was the addition of a heat shield.  It gets launched on a range of LVs but usually an Ares-I and Ares-IV style LV (those have changed more over the years than the main craft).
I don't have a current one on KerbalX, really should remedy that.

 

Knat

2014	2017

Sometime back in 2014 I got obsessed with trying to make mini SSTOs and a small fleet of 'Knat' craft happened. The most fun one (the Knat Executive, left) has stayed in the fleet since then but gradually morphed into the Knat Delta (right).  It's only capable of reaching a 100km orbit and returning, but it's fast, handles reentry very nicely and is designed to land at insane speeds (like touch down at ~150-200ms). It's become my traditional first craft to fly in any new version of KSP.  It's had quite a few changes; twin jets + an LV-T30 replaced with a single rapier and the cockpit changed to the inline one (I still mourn the loss of the old Mark1Cockpit, really don't like the current one).  The current one is more minimal (and lacks an ejecting cockpit, who needs that anyway), but it's kept the wing design with a pronged front and forward angled profile when on the ground (makes for easier landings, but harder takeoff, but mostly cos it looks cool).
https://kerbalx.com/katateochi/KnatExecutive | https://kerbalx.com/katateochi/Knat-Delta

 

EVA Pack

2017

Can't seem to find an old pic of this, but it's been around about as long as the Orion.  It's a really handy little tool that's been standard issue on most of my stations. With lots of SAS torque, RCS and both standard and small docking ports (and emergency reserve power) it's great for moving modules around stations. It's also equipped with chutes, shield and legs so it can be used as an emergency decent pack (current version now has Vernor engines for faster deorbit). 
https://kerbalx.com/katateochi/EVA-PackMkIV

While they're not particularly impressive craft, I've grown quite attached to all 3 of these and made sure they survived KSP updates. The Orion and EVA pack are really useful, and the Knat is just fun!

Edited June 3, 2017 by katateochi
forgot to add link to EVA pack

[regex]

3 hours ago, Overland said:

Do you have a craft that in concept and use basically survived from say 2014 to present day in KSP? A design that matured but stayed the same and became your signature craft for doing what you do in KSP? 

God no, I've played around with too many different mods and ways of building things to have a design older than a single version. About the only thing I consistently do is put ventral solar panels on interplanetary tugs because they get the best exposure there.

[Overland]

Thats some really impressive stuff katateochi  That EVA pack.. its beautifully functional and logical.. like that joke meme with the what designers thought, what the customer wanted etc... its got everything  did it start out as a simple EVA pack and grow at all? certainly looks that way.. something so functional and successful would be hard to give up.. I see why its lived a long life  

Orion and Knat are a perfect example why I started this thread, a design thats survived across versions.. grown more functional (or less thanks to cockpit changes) grown with KSP.. its a credit to both ourselves as players and squad's handywork, with wheels and reentry physics getting harder across versions youve done well to preserve the knat so long, for myself and the 44 class, her wheels are modified endlessly.. they might look the same but configuration wise theyre very different

their all really great craft and a pleasure to see, thankyou  

Regex : with so many parts and styles to choose from, so many mods.. its the old startrekian IDIC of kerballian craft for some that alone is true to kerbal style.. might not be any craft carried over from version to version .. do you have a popular craft thats been reused for say more than a few missions? even been refueled and reused vs being recovered?

 

[Scarecrow]

 

Voodoo

Originally built in KSP v0.90 in April 2015, and still being used in the latest version.  The reason I have kept it is because I think it looks quite good, and it flies really well.  It's not particularly fast and nor does it serve any particular purpose, but it's just nice to fly.

Still available as a download here if anyone is interested.  https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3ir9sr9v5548iq/Voodoo.craft?dl=0

Action group keys are easy.  1 toggles the engine mode, and 2 toggles the flaps.

 

Edited June 3, 2017 by Scarecrow

[KerikBalm]

I've got almost no craft that survived from the early days, just a generic style of twin boom SSTOs for carrying heavy payloads, and a generic lander for low grav atmosphere-less worlds.

It was overbuilt for stock, allowing for multiple hops or plane changes to reach polar locations. As a result, that same basic lander design remains viable in my 3x rescale gameplay.

I've had this re-usable booster, or something similar since 0.25 or whenever the KR-2L came out.

For the 3x rescale game, I just increased the LV-N stacks to 4 instead of 2 and made some other minor changes (rcs and reaction wheel related)

I have a feeling this sort of craft will stick around with me for a long time, I'm using a variant of it (or a recreation... I didn't start with that craft and modify it) in my 3x rescale gameplay, but it doesn't date back to pre-1.0

 

For my cargo SSTOs that I was making since .2 something...

I had a few variations pre- 1.0. I had a 0.25 varation when I was trying FAR. I had a 0.24 variation with NEAR.

I had a few variations when 1.0 came out before settling on one basic design (but kept tweaking it).

Recently I've moved up to a 3x rescale of the KSP system (which I then made additional changes to) and that required trashing all my old designs and starting over.

 

You wouldn't consider these the same, would you?

this

Spoiler

and variations thereof:

 

 

 

 

vs this:

 

[Alshain]

It depends on what you call survived.  I've had nothing that lasted on it's own without updating, but I have this one craft (that's it in my signature) that I designed after seeing concept art of the Dream Chaser docking to the ISS in reverse.  I wanted to design a dual engine SSTO that would do the same thing.  It definitely didn't last, it requires several updates, but with sufficient work it has survived.

Shrike

2014	2017

 

[klesh]

I throw out every craft I have ever made with each new version of the game.  Throw out old saves too.

[LordFerret]

I have a picture but I'm too tired to go hunt for it now...

My Mun / Minmus rover. It's matured since the first build (v0.23.5), but it's basically the same design and pretty much all stock parts - except for the BTDT scanner from the SCANsat mod, and cameras from the Hullcam VDS Continued mod. The design was inspired by (literally) half a dozen different rovers developed by others, pictures of which I saw right here on the forums.

 

Edit...

Edited June 4, 2017 by LordFerret
picture found

[Jett_Quasar]

 

My Millennium Falcon was originally designed in V0.23.5 (the ARM expansion), and I was able to turn it into an SSTO in V0.90.  It's still going today (although no longer an SSTO) - here are two videos, one done in V0.90 (posted in July 2015), one done in V1.2.2 (posted in January 2017)

Visit My STAR WARS Hanger to find my entire collection of stock Star Wars replicas

 - Jett

Edited July 5, 2017 by Jett_Quasar

[DeltaDizzy]

station core design

near future construction is a necessity

[katateochi]

On 2017-6-3 at 9:36 AM, Overland said:

 did it start out as a simple EVA pack and grow at all?

The core of it has remained pretty much the same (rovemate frame with 2 large RCS tanks, thrusters command chair and both types of docking port). Landing legs and chutes came later, then better power with oscarB tank stuffed inside and a fuel cell and when reentry heating was added it got a heatshield (also stuffed inside the frame) .  The most recent thing added was the verner engines for quicker deorbiting. 

[regex]

On 6/3/2017 at 1:36 AM, Overland said:

might not be any craft carried over from version to version .. do you have a popular craft thats been reused for say more than a few missions? even been refueled and reused vs being recovered?

I try to do this all the time, make reusable interplanetary tugs and crew taxis. Often times though, they end up being more of a hassle to my plans, like I'm trying to refuel an early tug but it takes two refueling missions because I forgot I used an SSTU tank what runs afoul of the LFO multiplication inherent in the conversion from more realistic fuels when using MFS (so like, five times more LFO than in a comparable tank, makes for compact tugs with lots of delta-V, but man they're a pain in other ways), plus the cargo placement mission, so I'm basically like "what am I doing with my life" because this story has literally played out over and over during my thousands of hours in KSP and I just end up launching another tug with cargo.

Edited June 5, 2017 by regex

[HafCoJoe]

Ah... this is a good post

I usually mention the Volta as my prized craft, but in this case I think it's my Mk2 Orbiter that's really survived the test of time. I built it back in v0.21 and it still runs to this day; granted with tweaks and changes made after heat-shields and fairings were added.

It's the craft in the final moments of this video:

EDIT: Ugh... the audio quality in that video is really bad...

Edited June 5, 2017 by Avera9eJoe

[PKing Zombie Spy]

On 6/3/2017 at 10:57 AM, KerikBalm said:

I've got almost no craft that survived from the early days, just a generic style of twin boom SSTOs for carrying heavy payloads, and a generic lander for low grav atmosphere-less worlds.

 

I design more or less the same basic lander as you, except I reversed the position of the lander can and the materials bay. (At least, I'm assuming the thing below the can in your picture is a materials bay.) Lander can is 0.6 tons (no mono-propellant of course), materials bay is 0.2 tons, so I figured I'd put the can on the bottom so the lander wasn't "top heavy." I've used this since my first career play in 0.23.5. It has a touch over 2300 m/s dv, which makes it plenty versatile: hops from biome to biome on Minmus are how I unlock the majority of the tech tree. I think the hardest place it's seen service is Moho, and even with that I could afford to be really careless.

I typically make two per playthrough: one once I exhaust much of the science in and around Kerbin and need a Mun lander, and one when, from the fruits of that, I have enough science to acquire every (non-atmospheric) science instrument and an OKTO2.

This is the only design I consciously reuse across multiple playthroughs. So simple, easy to fly, dock, and land, and at only 180/220 l/ox it really sips the fuel. I call it a runabout. I don't know why but I really have a soft spot for this little guy: so useful. Even when, in some year, I stop playing KSP I think I'll remember him for quite some time.

I don't reproduce anything else from playthrough to playthrough, at least, consciously.

[KerikBalm]

Yep, tha'ts a mat bay.

Well, I do add in mini prop, you can see RCS thruster blocks. I used to dock small craft with no RCS, but it just makes it easier.

It also provides some amount of dV, I think its enough to offset the loss in dV from the LFO engine - just be willing to use mono prop for propulsion (I've done some ascent and rendevous and ran out of LF and finished the rendevous and docking with just the monoprop)

I think I have the can on top because mounting fuel tanks to the side before part off set made them clip (sicne the can is wider than 1.25m?) or maybe it was something with running fuel lines... I forget. Also I think the kerbals can reach and reset the lab while walking around on the ground as well.

Interestingly, your ox stat placement is about the same as what I use before unlocking the foldable panels in career. You can barely see, but I have ox stats on the sides of the tanks, so I still get some power when the foldable panels are edge on to the sun.

The reaction wheel you have I wouldn't have because the can provides plenty of torque (can torque works even with no kerbal in it). I change the probe core to the one you have as soon as I unlock it. Also, now no fuel lines are needed. Also note those two fixed ladder segments have twice the mass of one extendable ladder (its stupid, and it used to be that they were massless)

Some variants of it have lights on it as you have as well.

In my 3x rescale game though, low Mun orbit is abou 950 m/s, factoring in gravity losses, the lander is just barely up to the task. I did remove parts for extra dV. - either only ox stats, or only a pair of lighter non-retractable extendable panels - no fuel lines - no lights -no ladder

[JoeNapalm]

 

The same ship? Across all those versions?

No...too many lost saves, too many variations of installed mods.

Looking back at my earliest vessels, I see how much I had to learn...yet, there's a certain similarity, I suppose, now isn't there?:

 

Variations on a theme?

 

(I do love that little rover, though! Mun Dog I was designed to have the exact same mass as a monoprop tank (later designs balanced it with one tank...what do you want, it was 2013, I was a noob. :P)

 

-Jn-

 

PS -- The more I look at those two pictures, the more I realize they're really the same ship, after all...

PPS -- Man, I didn't know how to land right, yet, either!!

Edited June 5, 2017 by JoeNapalm

[AR3S_TGL]

A poorly modified Kerbal X which could land on Duna and Ike and return safely by docking to a small Kerbal 2 Modified, as parachutes are dead weight.

[Vanamonde]

This exchange of spacecraft has been moved to Spacecraft Exchange. 

[Azimech]

I created the first version of the my Dodge Charger in 2015. I'm still updating it and I still love to drive it.

[MiffedStarfish]

For me, it would have to be the M-7 Phoenix. I built it waaay back in .22 or .23, and it was the culmination of my VTOL building skills. 

M-7 145559 conducts a lethal ground strike on a hostile VTOL, piloted by Jebediah Kerman

Since I built it 3 years ago, it's gone through countless rebuilds, upgrades and refits, at one point the design was nearly abandoned when I downloaded 1.0 and it ruined its aesthetics and functionality, but after swapping the old texture model wheaslelys to shiny new panthers, and adding a Mk2 short adapter near the engine pod it was ready to go better than before.

M-7 287511 Extracting two scientists from hostile territory

 It's been serving as a light utility ground attack and civilian transport for my entire ksp career, and I have no plans of replacing it any time soon. 

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by MiffedStarfish

[septemberWaves]

My Tano-series launch vehicles are a recurring concept. They're all based around a common core (except the smallest, which lacks the upper tank above the orange tank) and about 1000kN worth of engine at the bottom (achieved either with one Vx Series II engine for modded variants, or a Skipper and two Terriers for stock variants). It's a good, versatile setup that's useful even in stock, and although I don't use these rockets in every save I do keep coming back to them every so often.

[kapteenipirk]

Unfortynetly, all my pre "Porkjet parts" crafts had to be deleted cause they all used parts that where heavily altered.

And from the ones that where built after that, i have three in mind.

One of them was a B9 parts built Heavylifter/bomber. It was one of the earliest modded crafts that i made once the newly styled parts arrived.

Spoiler

It used to be my all time favorite for a long time, until an update to the B9 parts pack broke it completely .

It was able to lift 2 orange tanks no problem, or in the case of this pick, a single large Nasa tank.

But i do have to admit that the B9 heavylift wings used in this where quite OP .

 

 

Since i loved the design so much, i brought it back in a new form.

So, in a way, it still lives on .

I think it deserves the mention even if it is not the same Russian styled bomber with incredibly OP wings.

 

But, as for the other two, they still live on to this day.

It is the Fouglas FC-8 and the Orbiter Columbia. Yes, it was an SCA (shuttle carrier aircraft) that i used for piggypacking the orbiter. Tough that wasn't it's original purpose.

An fact is, The Fouglas was actually the first EVER craft that i built with the new Porkjet parts. That was even before the MK-1 parts reseved their overhaul, and before the rest of the shuttle parts and the new landing gears even existed. Even the FAT line of parts didn't exist at the time the Fouglas and the Columbia where built.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/55499207049998267/47ED8D4E2CA273725E349A54378248F160EBC842/

(I didn't know at the time that you could take screenshots by pressing F1, so this Steam screenshot of it is the only memory of the very original version).

The orbiter itself has remained unaltered, but the Fouglas has been upgraded thrice.

Firstly i upgraded it to fit the new standards when the new landing-gears arrived.

(the version in these picks is of the second upgrade).

 

The third upgrade though.

That was for a little bit of a different purpouse.

I fixed all the nasty seams, did some offsetting, some rotating, added some new parts and added the old fixed landing gears that i did on the original (seemed like a better idea than having some i-beams with tiny landing-gears on the end of them).

And you may be wondering "why the fixed landing gears". I wanted to remake them cause of nostalgia, and because a little something special i have in store (some may already know about it).

It truly is a survivor. And i absolutely love it .

 

[Just Jim]

Yes... Raptors. 

I've been on the forum a little over 2 years now, and the raptors were one of the first really successful non-atmosphere ships.

This is the oldest I have a screenshot of, done 2 years ago and designed for rescue missions.

Later I built an explorer version that made it to Pol and Bop and back:

Since then I've built all sorts of variations, but with the same general design... and they're still one of my most reliable small transport and explorer ships:

Edited July 4, 2017 by Just Jim

[Ultimate Steve]

If only I could go back in time...

Short story: No.

Long story:

(NOTE: After writing this, I realized that I sort of went off on a tangent that didn't really follow the thread that much. Read at your own risk.)

I first started playing KSP in version 0.19, which was the update when rover wheels were first released. In my mind, anything after 0.18-ish is when you'd generally have extremely iterative craft, as before that there weren't many parts to play with... but I'm getting off track. So, why don't I have very old iterative craft? Well, back in 0.19, I played KSP on a potato that would fly a four part craft at 4FPS, and didn't have a graphics card strong enough to do anything - when re-entry or mach effects came into play, it would just go "NOOOOOOOPE!!!!!" and turn the entire craft hot pink.

Eventually, the potato's memory filled up (it was the only computer in the house at the time) and I ended up deleting KSP except for the screenshots. I really wish I hadn't done that. I would love to go through some of my old crafts (Baby Steps, DA ROVAH, Toddler steps 1-4, a Minmus base I don't remember the names of, the Gemini series, etc.).

So, I have no surviving craft from 2013. In late 2014, my grandpa gave our family his old computer. Now, today, I can't stand playing KSP on it, as it runs abysmally slowly. However, compared to the potato, it was an exponential improvement and I began getting somewhere. On the potato, I had only managed one probe Mun landing.

On the NewPotato^tm, I went from 0.22-ish to 1.0. I managed my first and second manned Duna landings (Ahh, back in the day of the Dunarian IVB. I still remember how I skipped Dunarian III) as well as a probe that landed on Laythe, almost a manned Gilly landing (I had two vehicles and one pilot. Both were torqueing, so one always tumbled out of control. Now I know it was from trim, but I didn't know how to alt+x back then), several space stations, several SSTO's, and a Jool Entry Probe.

I did not iterate my crafts back then either. My SSTO's tended to be one-off designs, and I didn't do enough interplanetary trips to mandate using iterative crafts, I simply built a new one each time. Also, after each update, I would usually start a new save. For the first half of my time on the NewPotato, I did not know how to copy over my saves, because I was eleven(?) at the time. Maybe twelve. And I didn't actually have that much experience with computers.

So, no saves transferred between versions = no craft between versions.

Behold! The age of this wonderful WINDOWS 10 64 BIT DELL LAPTOP WITH 8 GIGABYTES OF RAM AND AN I5 PROCESSOR has BEGUN!!!!!!

It may not be the greatest computer, but it gets the job done, and can actually run a multi-hundred part craft at a decent speed. This computer has run KSP since 1.0-ish and it is FANTASTIC! However, I still do not have iterative crafts! GRR! And why, you ask? Because I start a new career every five minutes (slight exaggeration). Most of them never go interplanetary.

My attempt to change that was the glorious PROJECT INTREPID, a save in which I would explore every planet and moon with giant motherships. However, the reason that hasn't gone as far as I'd like it too is that I decided to make PI into a mission report (good idea, huge amount of time taken away). It is literally about 10% gameplay and 90% writing. This meant that I'd get super far in-game and then spend a month catching the mission report up, by which time I would have gotten out of "the zone" and not wanted to play for a bit. I played on and off, feeling an obligation to continue PI rather than start a new career. You would think that PI would allow for iterative mothership and lander designs. Sadly, that is not really the case. So far, in that save, I think only Dres has had more than one ship land on it. The landers are each so unique that I can't really have a common design.

I could, theoretically, use iterative design on the motherships. My original intention was to keep the same rear strut and twin-arm configuration seen on the ITV-009 Intrepid.

To be fair, one other identical ship did make orbit, then I launched two identical ships that only shared the profile in common with the first two.

After that I made a four armed version. Then two long spindles with rings at the back. Then a flying skyscraper that could take 916 Kerbals to Minmus.

So, the iterative design did not work out. I mean, it left me with a very cool flying skyscraper...

...But no craft designs evolving.

I then burnt out on Project Intrepid again, and started a backstory Jool-Sarnus 10 mission. I finished that, and then made a few more chapters of PI, then burnt out again. I started my best story yet, VOYAGE. Then I went on vacation and burned out. I made one or to more chapters, then went to scout camp, where I vowed to attempt a SRB grand tour.

So, the list of things I currently have to do is as follows:

• VOYAGE
• PI
• Finish my new KSP Music Video
• Finish a cover of a song I'm doing.
• Edit the dozen model rocket videos I have sitting on my older computer.
• Finish drawing that picture I started.
• Hand up the technical drawings for that spaceship I designed months ago...
• Practice Trombone and Piano.
• GET A JOB to pay for a trip to Europe.
• And who knows what else? I bet you a million dollars that that's not even half of the list.

 

And what do I do all day? I sit around and browse the forums.

 

*Reads title of thread again*

*Reads my rant*

 

Oh - sorry. Let's see if I can't turn this into something relevant.

 

As far as iterative design goes, I change stuff up to often to have any old designs still active.

As far as actual active craft that were designed in 0.22-ish and still work in 1.2.2, I recently loaded up my old saves from the NewPotato in 1.2 and found out that even the oldest ones are not old enough to break. They would still work. I mean, the nuclear powered ones are carrying around extra oxidizer, but aside from that (and the lack of heat shields), nothing is broken.

But, if I could go back in time, I'd tell myself back in 2012 that I should get KSP (at around 0.18, when major iterative design becomes possible IMO) and get a new computer ASAP (or just give him this one). Then I would tell him to immediately install KAC and KER. I would tell him to start by watching as much Scott Manley as possible. Then I would say, "Hey, me. Start one sandbox savefile. NEVER, EVER DELETE IT OR LOSE IT! Keep backups. Go to all of the planets. Think of the most insanely crazy things to do. And, launch a bunch of stuff to orbit right away. Start a graveyard orbiting the Mun for old, unused ships. Leave every outdated ship in that orbit. Then, leave it alone until July 4, 2017. Then, go into that orbit and try to do a grand tour with only the stuff in that orbit. See what still works!

And don't forget to enjoy yourself!

 

 

 

 

 

(Sorry for slightly derailing the thread.)