[1.0.2] NovaPunch 2.09. - May 6th - 1.0 Compatibility Update

[NathanKell]

Nice!

Whatever you do, do please release the small-nozzles themselves. We're desperately short of probe engines (probe anything, really).

Personally I like the four-small, especially if radially attached as separate engine. Much more control authority gimballing, too, if they ever fix the no-gimballed-roll bug.

I can't do IVAs (well, I could, it's just not really how I should be budgeting my time now, I think...) but I'm happy to give it the config of a real CST-100.

[HoneyFox]

Nice!

Whatever you do, do please release the small-nozzles themselves. We're desperately short of probe engines (probe anything, really).

Personally I like the four-small, especially if radially attached as separate engine. Much more control authority gimballing, too, if they ever fix the no-gimballed-roll bug.

I can't do IVAs (well, I could, it's just not really how I should be budgeting my time now, I think...) but I'm happy to give it the config of a real CST-100.

Not intended to offend, but AIES has provided several good small engines that are suitable for surf-attaching 4x onto the bottom of fuel tanks.

[Guest]

Nice. I also prefer the 4x small nozzle arrangement. Though maybe you could include both options, with 4 side mounting points and 1 central one, and appropriate engines for each. That would increase the flexibility greatly.

[NathanKell]

Yep, know and use. Same with RLA-Stockalikes, although those are mostly small-rocket-stage engines, not probe engines. We're still in desperate need though--think how many regular-sized engines we have, compared to the 8 or so between AIES and RLA.

[Tiberion]

Yeah the center node will be there to attach the transfer stage. I could do 4 outer nodes too for the small engines, or let them be surface attaching in 4x mode so people can place them where they want. I'll try it out.

I think I'll forgo built-in chutes for now, since there is room for radial chutes and having 4x of them would look pretty cool.

[wasmic]

Looks great, Tiberion. Actually, I've found that the Odin pod, in the configuration used in the mun lander, can be used as an orion-style vehicle for profit. Just launch it into orbit, use the engine pack to rendezvous, dock to station, deorbit, drop engine pack, reenter, deploy mega chute that almost rips the pod apart, and land safely. Sadly, it can carry only three Kerbals, but I assume that that's why you're making a new pod. Looks good so far!

[Tiberion]

I actually plan on making another 2.5m pod to replace Odin too. But not at the same time. heh.

[TheYear2525]

Hello,

I'm wrinting in response to a topic that popped up in the comments at the mod's download site recently. I don't wan't to provoke any hard feelings, your mod is great and good enough that I can live with the following. I'm just giving you some examples you requested.

Great mod, things work awesome. I have to use a texture reduction pack though.

Only real problem is the parts are REALLY OP in career mode.

Things need to be moved up and maybe have their own tech nodes.

Chain_algorithm November 28, 2013

Please come to the forum and describe what specific parts you actually find overpowered in career mode. blanket statements are not useful.

Tiberion November 28, 2013

While due to the amount of affected parts, it does not make sense to list every single one, I'll give a few examples. In general let's say the price is too low and the impact tolerance is way too high. I've started a new game an will give examples only from the second tech tier, but from what I have seen, it's not different in the other tiers. However, I do not think they need their own tech node and I think they are only "not" to "moderately" overpowered (not taking impact tolerance into account), as far as I can see having not unlocked everything yet.

Example 1: fuel tanks

Vanilla FL-T400 vs. HH-125-A and B. First of all the extremeyl high impact tolerance popped into my eye. The unit fot this is m/s so the HHs have 160 m/s wich means that they yould still function after they had been thrown againt the ground with 576 kph or 358 mph if you prefer that unit. The Vanilla tank a a realisic 6 m/s . Imagine a car or bicicle rider that hits a wall with 6 m/s, it's already not that slow.

As for the princing, the vanilla tank costs 850 credits an the HH-125-A costs 800 which is actually a bit worse, when you take into account that the latter one has about 22% less fuel, so that's totally ok. But the HH-125-B has twice the amount of fuel an costs...well, the same 800.

Example 2: (upper stage) engines

RMA-3 vs. vanilla LV-909. Again, the RMA has a whopping 60 m/s impact tolerance, again the LV has a realistic 7 m/s. The specs of the RMA are actually totally ok. It's a bit heavier than the LV but more effective and a quite a bit stronger. If it'd cost a tad more, it'd be just right, but actually it costs less than half of the LV (300 vs. 750). However, the lower stage engines do not show such a pricing discrepance, the are well in sync with the vanilla lower stage engines (if you don't take the impact tolerance into account ).

Cheers o/

[Tiberion]

Not too much done due to Thanksgiving, but I did get everything unwrapped, materials set up in Unity, so its time to texture.

[wasmic]

Now that there's talk about balancing, a rebalance of the Orbital Bertha would be in order. It has a high amount of thrust, very high Isp and weighs only slightly more than a poodle. It doesn't have any gimballing, but that doesn't really matter in space anyway. I think that its thrust should be reduced to about half of what it is now.

EDIT: Oh, and that pod looks great so far.

Edited December 1, 2013 by wasmic

[Tiberion]

Alright so:

The "cost =" line in configs is nonfunctional, there is no purchasing or parts yet. The new career mode uses entryCost and technode only, which are based off of the stock costs per node (so parts in the same node are the same entrycost) - when they do add part purchasing I'll re-balance the actual costs, but you can safely ignore those for now.

There are probably a few of those parts with the weird crashtolerances - I generally keep them slightly higher for 2 reasons: Its not realistic that each and every part explodes itself into oblivion when it crashes, there should be some debris. And due to the massive larger parts in NP, some parts which might be weight bearing need to have higher tolerances or they'll be crushed when it spawns on the pad (the breakingForce and Torque is related, but for joint strength, this is just managing when a part explodes due to impact.

That said, there are some that are too high still, hold-overs from older versions or typos. I'll do a balance pass on them. I don't consider it a factor in something being overpowered though, since even is they are on a lander, where crash tolerance is a balance factor, other parts like landing legs, engines, pods, and such are balanced around that, so an entire craft won't survive a hard landing and you're just left with useless debris.

I was actually expecting you to discuss node placement or entryCosts related to career mode - do you find those mostly balanced?

Actually the Poodle itself has a weird balance setup, its TWR is 88, whereas the other stock engines range from 130 to 250. Back a few pages in this thread you'll find another discussion of engine weights, which resulted in the changes in the last release, and we made sure the NP engines fell between 150 and 250 TWR (that's maxthrust divided by mass) - though I may be wrong on the numbers.

I'll actually turn down the thrust on the Orb. Bertha once we finish the engines, its serving double duty as an upper stage and an orbital engine right now, so it has a pretty broad balance. I'll add it to the list to make sure it's done.

[ultrasquid]

I've been having some thoughts on how to balance the cost and tech tree node positions of parts, but I haven't quite figured out how to clearly express it.

It involves charting out various attributes on a web/star graph, and the area of the resulting star would at least suggest how far out on the tech tree the part would go. For it to work, though, some things would have to go on inverted scales, such as part weight, such that the lighter the part is, the larger that point. I'll have to delve into the manual to make sense of it.

[Guest]

Would that be possible to add some sort of J-2 equivalent upper stage engine to NP? One that would look good both attached on a quad mount on a 5m tank, and on a single mount on a 3m tank. Since we have an F-1 equivalent already, a J-2 would complement it nicely.

[Tiberion]

Dragon1: something like that, probably.

Didn't have much time today, but I worked on the capsule texture some;

Not done yet, and not sure if I'll like how it'll turn out yet.

[wasmic]

Looks even better. Maybe we'll get a christmas present?

[Big_Ron]

WOW!!!!! is that the Orion?

[wasmic]

WOW!!!!! is that the Orion?

Nope. It's a pod that's NOT a real pod, but is inspired EXTREMELY HEAVILY by the CST-100. Google Image it, it looks quite nice. If you want an Orion, use Bobcat's, and rescale it for yourself if necessary. If you want a stockalike Orion, use SUm Dum Heavy Inustries Service Module System by Sumghai. You can also make a quite nice Ares I with the orange tanks from Space Shuttle Engines, a skipper, and the SRB from TiberDyne.

[Tiberion]

Alright, I think I have the crew module mostly done now.

Spoiler alert on the name of the vessel

[wasmic]

Alright, I think I have the crew module mostly done now.

Spoiler alert on the name of the vessel

Oh well... at least noone else have used the name Freyja before. I still don't understand why norse mythology is so popular for naming spacestuff, though. Looks great, especially with that heat shield. It's not exactly what I usually see on these things.

[DasBananenbrot]

That looks really good Can't wait anymore, hope it will be released soon

[wasmic]

That looks really good Can't wait anymore, hope it will be released soon

He still has to do the docking port and the service module. My guess is that Tiberion will give us a christmas present.

[frizzank]

Hay looking good, I would add some panels and seams to the outside. Also I would add some slight variation to the texture so its not pure white. Then I would add some small details like fuel ports and random connector holes. Kind of like I did some of the fuel tanks.

I kind of get what your going for with the heat shield but I'm not to sure about that panel texture. I do like this heat shield look from Orion.

[Tiberion]

Well I tried to do some detailing.. and ended up needing to unwrap some of it again. This is probably about as good as I can get it for now, without completely starting over on the UVmapping.

I had seen that pic of the heatshield before, and was sort of heading in that direction (thus the color)

Funnily enough, this came across the twitterwire today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasaorion/sets/72157633930626112/

Certainly isn't very photogenic

[ultrasquid]

…

Funnily enough, this came across the twitterwire today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasaorion/sets/72157633930626112/

Certainly isn't very photogenic

That reminds me a lot of what I saw on the bottom of an Apollo capsule at the National Air and Space museum. The heat shield looked to be a metal honeycomb mesh with a sort of clay embedded in the holes. Of course the one on display had completed its mission. It may have had a segmented layer like in frizzank's photo above that had ablated off during reentry or splashdown.

[mbvanities]

I’m having an issue with where the Odin trunk separates from the Odin capsule on the pad. It remains attached but is no longer selectable.