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A "KSP Loading..." Preview: Protective Nose Cone Mk12A & Mk16A


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Coming to update 1.7, we are introducing the extra large Mk12A Protective Nose Cone. A cone designed to fit on the 3.75m in diameter Kerbodyne S3 fuel tank series. Additionally, owners of the Making History Expansion will also get the 5m in diameter Mk16A Protective Nose Cone that will perfectly fit on the huge Kerbodyne S4 fuel tank series. 

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I would like to see more half-sphere node caps like the 1.25m. A variant for each form-factor would be fantastic, because fairings aren't great for making a neat half sphere. Not sure, but I don't think fairings would they be as cost-effective or efficient as nose cones like these...

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I personally don't like that the 3.75m and 5m nose cone have that shape. As some may notice, this smells of just the 2.5m Protective Nose being instanced and upscaled. But I'm not bothered by that. I'm bothered that they are identical (will be hard to distinguish in part selection) and especially that they have that linear curve to them, where they don't taper nicely at all into the tank cylinder they're pairing with, which just seems wrong when you see that it'll be available in all stock size classes. I don't own Making History so I don't know what other shapes of nose cone there are, but I'll go out on a limb and assume that this is the only shape.

These sizes of nose deserve to be shuttle tank and have that smooth tapering curve and pointy tip. They especially deserve to be fuel-baring noses, then Mk3 shuttle STS replicas would be that much more convincing.

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Ideally it would be great if a (possibly fuel-baring) tank butt for these sizes came to exist too. I tend to cap off large tank butts to fight drag but I hate having to do so with any of the existing noses which are all... actually too small... or tall and pointy (forcing me to clip them way up into the tank). Worse yet I hate having to daisy-chain and Tweakscale the flat adapters to the same end, and their combined slopes look even uglier.

Edited by JadeOfMaar
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54 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

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It we had a "half-sphere" cone like @Dark Lion suggested above, that would at least take care of the rear end of the tank.

These new ones look good! But it's true that end caps/nose cones are an area that lacks a little diversity and colour (especially orange...). ;)

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So it ends...

The days of using a 3.75m fairing in place of a nosecone are over.

Fair well. (That's a pun, not a spelling error)

 

(Great new part, by the way! I do agree, however, that some space-shuttle orange would be quite nice. Looking forward to more development news!)

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15 hours ago, Dark Lion said:

I would like to see more half-sphere node caps like the 1.25m. A variant for each form-factor would be fantastic, because fairings aren't great for making a neat half sphere. Not sure, but I don't think fairings would they be as cost-effective or efficient as nose cones like these...

Hemispherical tanks, pointy nosecones.

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In addition to orange variants, I too would love hemisphere tanks, and a more STS-like fueled nosecone.  

In the past, Squad has inexplicably left out alot of parts across all sizes when they easily could be included with rescaling.  Missing History mod is great evidence of that.  While I'll gladly take these seemingly rescaled Protective Rocket Nosecone Mk7's in 3.75m and 5m, I think if Squad were to be interested in really filling out the parts list they should listen to the community here and consider proper STS nosecone and hemispherical tankbutt in both 3.75 for the stock cats and 5m for the Making History crowd.  If not, then we're all used to making the best out of what we have and getting that "close enough" vibe.

Spoiler

5m fairings for both the nose and the tail of an STS main fuel tank for that "close enough" appeal.  :/

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The problem of identical looking parts in the VAB/SPH list... thats going to need to be tackled directly at some point.  It really is a valid concern that I share as well.

 

As an aside, I would like to thank Squad for updating and adding to the Making History parts list nearly a year after release.  It wasn't the most successful DLC, so its great they haven't abandoned the parts pack portion of it at least.   It should also be considered that whatever additions to Making History they do for PC, presumably the console players would receive those parts with their upcoming Parts Pack DLC. Win win.

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20 hours ago, T1mo98 said:

We need Orange varients of all large tanks. 

Well, I don’t feel like every tank needs an orange version. Of course, it is nice and I would even say neccecary for some tanks, except that this are literally the only tanks in the game which don’t have orange.

Also, every tank needs a pure white variant. I cannot say how much it annoys me when the “white” variants of tanks have grey stripes on them.

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