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Buffalo 2 Modular Space Exploration Vehicle


Angelo Kerman

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19 hours ago, SkyFall2489 said:

Also, will there be an option for rooftop solar panels? If not, can there be a part meant to connect to the top node of the B2 parts that is a solar panel?

Currently the plan is to have a rooftop solar panel that is sized for the full-sized and half-sized modules. It'll be the equivalent of the stock OX-STAT-XL panel, so 2.8 EC/sec for the full-sized version, and 1.4 for the half-sized version.

8 hours ago, SkyFall2489 said:

If you were going with that, why not just use SimpleLogistics? It lets you use the BG solar panels to power nearby landed craft. Sort of like in The Martian.

 

 

From the looks of it, SimpleLogistics would indeed be handy for Buffalo 2, and I like the idea of using the BG solar array and RTG to help power the Buffalo when you're parked somewhere.

3 hours ago, RedParadize said:

I like it, its seems to be quite modular and have utility beside its rover use.  Do you plan on making smaller frame/cabin as well? What I liked about the buffalo was that it was the smallest of the enclosed rover around here. 

I always have wished to have a super lightweight rover that can easily be deployed. That part always have been the bottleneck.

Thanks! :) I'm trying to make Buffalo 2 so that it its parts can be used as a rover, a station, a submarine, and a base. At this point I'm not intending to make a smaller body size given how much effort is required just to make the current part set. I want to be done with Buffalo 2 by summer, so I have to stick with my current parts list to achieve that goal.

I chose to go with 1.875m diameter/width instead of the older 1.6m width because that enables Buffalo 2 to be compatible with the wide number of 1.875m parts that other mods provide. That also expands how it can be used.

1 hour ago, namreK haidebeJ said:

Will it have some sort of jump jets or wings like the original Buffalo?

Currently, no plans for wings. Oddly enough I got complaints about that... But B2 will definitely integrate with SunkWorks. I have a rough "sketch" of that:

fxSeOrh.png

The front and back ends will be custom parts with the flat topside and rounded bottom side. A custom conning tower and some kind of hatch provides access. This is a ways off though, I need to make the rover components first.

Anyway, yesterday I finished up the B2 Habitat Module:

27xf3CP.png

s4vuXxX.png

Today I've got the basic shell for the B2 Gym Module done:

GvMzX90.png

Thanks to my 3D model templates, I put the external and internal 3D models together pretty quickly. It won't be long before I populate the IVA and snap together the IVA mask. With Snacks's Stress addon, the gym lets you reduce Stress via the exercise equipment. Once again, Snacks is not a requirement, but B2 supports it. If you don't have Snacks installed, then you can still add the gym to your craft- it just won't do anything other than look nice.

One thing I'm considering: Should the roof windows be an option? Given the modular nature of the meshes, I can make a solid roof option with now windows, and the IVA would reflect that too. I'm thinking in terms of submarines for that.

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3 hours ago, RedParadize said:

I always have wished to have a super lightweight rover that can easily be deployed. That part always have been the bottleneck.

Can you detail this? Seating, if any, and how?  Dimensions? I'm curious to how this takes shape in your mind.

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1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Can you detail this? Seating, if any, and how?  Dimensions? I'm curious to how this takes shape in your mind.

I have two design in mind, one small with external seats and another slightly bigger with a cockpit:

The smaller one could be like the Apollo lunar rover, with foldable wheels/frame and transported on the sides of a lander.  I am convinced it could be done as some other mods have part that do the needed operations to make this happen. For example, Aset portable rover has folding seats, wheels and frame. However it was conceived as a on the spot KIS assembly, which is not always easy to perform. Seats fold to almost nothing, but wheels do not fold in a fashion that make it more compact. Also the connection on the frame do not move when folding, I however have seen parts that have that feature.

Part wise I think it would require a minimum of 1 part per wheels, as they need to be independent object, same with external seats I think. Say it only has 3 wheels, two front and one rear. It might be possible to merge one seat with each of the front wheels. Rear wheel assembly would include battery, solar panel and some space for science instrument,  one or two wheel and a custom made connector to attach it to the lander.

The Bigger one would be a more customizable design. Imagine a two seater side by side, a bit like Buffalo original cockpit, if you look at the internal of the buffalo it could be quite allot smaller. That cockpit would be right in the middle of the vehicle, wheels would be on arms that fold upward and then rotate to form a circle around the cockpit. Ideally it would fit within a 1.8 tube once folded. I imagine that a longer 4 seater cockpit that reuse the same wheels could also be made, that one may fit within a 2.5 tube.

Is it something that you would be interested in doing? If so I can offer my modest contribution.
 

Edited by RedParadize
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26 minutes ago, SkyFall2489 said:

For USI, maybe have it increase the Habitation timer?

In past mods, I've been saddled with maintaining mod support for mods that I don't use, and that ended up being a real chore. I'm avoiding that as much as possible for the mods that I make nowadays. Out of the box, Buffalo 2 will support Snacks. Other life support systems are up to others to make.

9 minutes ago, SkyFall2489 said:

Yeah, cargo bays, would be great!

Maybe have roof opening, sliding side door, gullwing and ramp options?

I do have cargo bays planned including gull wing and shuttle-style. The cargo ramp will be a separate part.

Meanwhile, I got the B2 Gym Module done:

t5rkF8F.png

xx2S4c1.png

Also, the parts have a new option to remove the roof windows on the rover body and superstructure.

23PcVGm.png

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10 hours ago, RedParadize said:

I have two design in mind, one small with external seats and another slightly bigger with a cockpit:

The smaller one could be like the Apollo lunar rover, with foldable wheels/frame and transported on the sides of a lander.  I am convinced it could be done as some other mods have part that do the needed operations to make this happen. For example, Aset portable rover has folding seats, wheels and frame. However it was conceived as a on the spot KIS assembly, which is not always easy to perform. Seats fold to almost nothing, but wheels do not fold in a fashion that make it more compact. Also the connection on the frame do not move when folding, I however have seen parts that have that feature.

Part wise I think it would require a minimum of 1 part per wheels, as they need to be independent object, same with external seats I think. Say it only has 3 wheels, two front and one rear. It might be possible to merge one seat with each of the front wheels. Rear wheel assembly would include battery, solar panel and some space for science instrument,  one or two wheel and a custom made connector to attach it to the lander.

The Bigger one would be a more customizable design. Imagine a two seater side by side, a bit like Buffalo original cockpit, if you look at the internal of the buffalo it could be quite allot smaller. That cockpit would be right in the middle of the vehicle, wheels would be on arms that fold upward and then rotate to form a circle around the cockpit. Ideally it would fit within a 1.8 tube once folded. I imagine that a longer 4 seater cockpit that reuse the same wheels could also be made, that one may fit within a 2.5 tube.

Is it something that you would be interested in doing? If so I can offer my modest contribution.
 

Quote

Also the connection on the frame do not move when folding, I however have seen parts that have that feature.

There is a plugin mod "Animated Attachment" which allows stack nodes and child parts to move when the parent part animates.

Quote

Part wise I think it would require a minimum of 1 part per wheels, as they need to be independent object, same with external seats I think. 

Yep. This is for certain with wheels. It's likely with seats. I too have hoped in advanced that one part can have multiple seat points but I have just as much doubt.

Quote

Say it only has 3 wheels, two front and one rear. It might be possible to merge one seat with each of the front wheels. Rear wheel assembly would include battery, solar panel and some space for science instrument,  one or two wheel and a custom made connector to attach it to the lander.

The Dark Knight's Tumbler. Change my mind.

Quote

The Bigger one would be a more customizable design. Imagine a two seater side by side, a bit like Buffalo original cockpit, if you look at the internal of the buffalo it could be quite allot smaller. That cockpit would be right in the middle of the vehicle, wheels would be on arms that fold upward and then rotate to form a circle around the cockpit. Ideally it would fit within a 1.8 tube once folded. I imagine that a longer 4 seater cockpit that reuse the same wheels could also be made, that one may fit within a 2.5 tube.

Is it something that you would be interested in doing? If so I can offer my modest contribution.

I would love to have a small rover body of my own, actually, especially with sporting capacities. I haven't made a working wheel yet so I can't promise or even show teaser model pictures. Also I'm not one who can make IVAs so I'd put the placeholder thing for crewed parts when I make them. I'd rather avoid animating rover parts but if I had to (and this is coming from just guessing, as I hardly play with rovers) I'd make it just so the ground clearance due to the suspension is minimized. Say the 2 front wheels are on a forward stretching arm. The arm would rotate (from its elbow) such that the wheels' ground contact is upward, not downward, and the arm wouldn't angle down as much. The rear wheel(s) would simply slide up or rotate at their mount point. Aside from the arm rotating, the rover would become as though a formula racer. It could still operate as-is but would have zero tolerance for potholes and speedbumps.

...Just a few hours ago I was trying to draft (rather, sculpt) an idea for a 2-seat, 4-part shuttle (2 command chairs + shuttle body + engine) with built-in docking ports and hatches on its sides, and that its canopy could pop open and also provide cargo shielding while closed.

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10 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Other life support systems are up to others to make.

I'm a reasonable MM patcher, but I don't have a github account. Should I just send you the text through the KSP forums and then you slap it into a CFG file and put it in?

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3 hours ago, SkyFall2489 said:

I'm a reasonable MM patcher, but I don't have a github account. Should I just send you the text through the KSP forums and then you slap it into a CFG file and put it in?

Thanks for the offer, but the thing is, the moment I include someone else’s patch for a mod, I’m responsible for it. It is actually very easy to create a github account, and you don’t need special tools to use it. If you do want to create patches for others to use, I would definitely recommend creating a github account. Thanks again for your offer. :)

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3 hours ago, SkyFall2489 said:

I'm a reasonable MM patcher, but I don't have a github account. Should I just send you the text through the KSP forums and then you slap it into a CFG file and put it in?

Release it as your own mod and put it on CKAN (with the hard requirement of Buffalo 2 itself, of course) so players can get to it more easily. The responsibility of maintaining it stays where it belongs (on you) and the ease of updating it stays high (you can update it anytime you want/need and your download will be tiny and not complicated). Once players notice and try it, you'll get lots of feedback and surely there will be a phase where you have to update pretty regularly, then you'll eventually settle and be stable.

Try to plan ahead with your patches to avoid complications with the mod name later on. Example: You might want just to provide for Buffalo 2 now, but later you may want that mod to provide USI configs for other part mods you really like. It'll be weird if the mod name was just "USI for Buffalo 2" but it also covers benjee10's Planetside, bcink's "The Martian" series parts and so on.

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That galley IVA looks very clean and industrial. I'd expect a kerbal galley to have food stains everywhere, and maybe a pancake stuck to one of the walls.

A great example of this would be Tokamak Industries - it has an IVA with a dart-board.... in an inflatable habitat... with duct tape all around the wall with the board.

Edited by SkyFall2489
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18 hours ago, namreK haidebeJ said:

Ok. Sounds a bit small for a station but I like building huge, laggy, Kraken-enticing  structures :P 

1.875m indeed. Same diameter as the Making History DLC tanks and two-kerbal command pods. It is more akin to MOL than Skylab or ISS.

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Today I had time to quickly build out the B2 Greenhouse Module. With Snacks installed, it can produce Snacks from Ore. If you have Snacks' Fresh Air enabled, then it takes in Stale Air and puts out Fresh Air. Add Classic Stock Resources to the mix, and you'll need Water and Compost instead of Ore. If you have Snacks' Stress enabled, then kerbals can go Gardening to relieve Stress. And if you have Wild Blue Tools installed, then you get an extra omni converter. All that is done through patches, so without Snacks, Classic Stock Resources, and Wild Blue Tools, it's just a nice module to look at.

Ideally, someone with an interest in mods like Community Resource Pack or TAC Life Support can create patches to use those resources and then post them somewhere for others to use. If you do, let me know and I can post a link on the OP.

Anyway, here are some preview images:

0ekUfte.png

CvqZ6LL.png

9cAFO9X.png

 

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5 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Today I had time to quickly build out the B2 Greenhouse Module.

Anyway, here are some preview images:

0ekUfte.png

CvqZ6LL.png

 

 

could you do like a mk2 greenhouse but expands like the wagons modules in the original buffalo?

Edited by planeticegaming
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10 hours ago, planeticegaming said:

could you do like a mk2 greenhouse but expands like the wagons modules in the original buffalo?

I don't have plans for making any mk2 parts for Buffalo 2. Currently, I don't have plans to make expandable modules like the old Wagon either- that was an art direction that never really went anywhere.

Today I was able to build out the B2 Briefing Module:

30Sag68.png

9KiUHsq.png

Ov4Bpe5.png

HuWOYfw.png

This module seats 6 in tight quarters- and you have to put away the card tables to get out! Functionality-wise, it doesn't do anything but hold a few life support resources like Snacks. But if you have Snacks' Stress enabled, then you can start the Meeting. As with other activities like Cooking, Relaxing and Exercising, your kerbals will temporarily lose their skills while the activity is ongoing. But in a first for one of my parts, running the Meeting will increase Stress! Because let's face it, meetings are no fun. ;)

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15 hours ago, SkyFall2489 said:

Then, from a gameplay perspective, what is the point? It just seems to cost things with no gain.

Well, if you want to know an inconvenient truth, it started a long time ago, in support of a struggling fan-fic author... ;) 

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