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[1.1] RLA Stockalike 13.4 [25 Apr]


hoojiwana

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v11.2 released, fixed up some issues with the tiny MP engines, reduced the small radial decouplers force by roughly 50%, and increased the big MP aerospikes ISP to make it a little more competitive.

Yep! So far there is square and round probe cores in both gold foil and stock(ish) grey in the same style as the HECS and OKTO, and I'm open to suggestions for more, as well as any probe-ish parts you might want.

looking very spiffy indeed ;)

Probe shape suggestions: discovery reentry capsule styled core? big heavy repurposed mainframe dinosaure as an earlier 1.25 inline probe core? dalek head? a kerbals space suit like what they did with an old eva suit on the iss?

Probe-ish suggestions: .625 diameter science jr.? radial versions of the ion engines? .625 rapier equivalent for probe sized ssto's (alternately a oxidizer and solid fuel sipping hybrid rocket, and probe sized jet)? some form of .625 command pod(inflatable?)? those mid range solar panels that were talked about before? probe sized claw? low tech probe sized docking port(the stock tech tree is very cruel to docking fans making this unable to be surface attached and only have one attachment node forcing its use as an end piece ought to be inconvenient enough to justify early placement just like how the stayputnik is inconvenient)?

Edited by passinglurker
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Idea: Octagonal truss docking port, more or less just what it sounds like, a docking port for trusses like that, maybe cheaper and in earlier tech.

More solar panels are always good, though kinda a pain to make. I'd like to see a stockalike em drive, it should have a twr better then an ion drive, but use way more power, so much so it's hard to use well.

Other then that, balance the .5 meter engines better, ether buff the bigger one(s) or include a config to nerf the 48-7S to be on par with them, and not just like it is now.

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Other then that, balance the .5 meter engines better, ether buff the bigger one(s) or include a config to nerf the 48-7S to be on par with them, and not just like it is now.
I don't really see that as being necessary the spinnaker is basically a 48-7s but with a built in alternator and available sooner, the kingfisher is basically a 48-7s that trades thrust for isp, and the lv5 is honestly already an amazing engine with its lightweight and high isp. not to mention they are all cheaper than a 48-7s
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I like the spinnaker, i just think it should be given a bit more thrust (at least 40kn) seeing as the 48-7s has the same thrust, better isp, and is lighter. I say make the spinnaker more powerful so it's a better engine for first stages. Also, i mostly just think it looks like it needs more thrust.

WQc0hGQ.png

Look at it, it looks like a powerful first stage engine, i say give it 40 to 50kn so it's a better engine for first stages of .5 meter rockets, or at least good in clusters for bigger things.

Edit: Also, all the .5 meter engines should be balanced against the 24-77 in clusters, 4 of them can fit in the footprint of a .5m tank, look mostly good, and have a thrust of 80kn, far more then any .5m engine and not bad for a 1m engine.

OKnhEQT.png

Edited by bs1110101
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The Spinnaker is cheaper, lower tech, and includes an alternator at a point before you get batteries or solar panels. As a result I think its stats are justified. Also the 48-7s is so "lolbalance" its best just to ignore it. So basically the spinnaker if it isn't balanced is close enough that its honestly hard to tell.

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Just some inspiration for new parts:

Upperstage 1.25m SRB:

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The fairing has the height of 0.375m (in 3dsMax units), the same as the upper half of the part in smallest variant. For double and quadruple size, the net height would be 1.125m or 1.875m.

This part was inspired by the SR rocket motors utilized in the Minotaur rockets.

For a 0.625m version I could imagine a design based on the STAR upper-stages.

As you may see, I have little to no experience in part modelling, but I just wanted to show you my ideas.

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Thanks for all the suggestions, keep them coming. Obviously I'm not going to be making them all but those that pop up often, are repeatedly requested by different people, and those that match up what I was considering are going to go ahead and be made. I'll be taking my usual stance of balancing everything for use in Sandbox, with tech tree assignment coming after.

The Spinnaker is cheaper, lower tech, and includes an alternator at a point before you get batteries or solar panels. As a result I think its stats are justified. Also the 48-7s is so "lolbalance" its best just to ignore it. So basically the spinnaker if it isn't balanced is close enough that its honestly hard to tell.

The Spinnaker and Kingfisher were both made after an update where they buffed the already borderline OP 48-7S to where it is now. I wanted some balanced alternatives to use, and so I made them! When I moved the parts in the tech tree for v10 I could make a nice niche in terms of progression for the little engines, but that doesn't stop the 48-7S still being too good. I'm reluctant to include an MM config to fix a few OP things or tweak the a few tech tree placements because that just adds to complexity for installing, keeping things up-to-date with MM itself, and conflicts with other MM patches that change the same parts.

Just some inspiration for new parts:

Upperstage 1.25m SRB:

This part was inspired by the SR rocket motors utilized in the Minotaur rockets.

For a 0.625m version I could imagine a design based on the STAR upper-stages.

As you may see, I have little to no experience in part modelling, but I just wanted to show you my ideas.

Do people want upper stage SRBs? It's something I've considered doing for a while but held off on because I wasn't sure if people would use them.

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Do people want upper stage SRBs? It's something I've considered doing for a while but held off on because I wasn't sure if people would use them.

Absolutely! That's actually what I wanted to suggest, but you guys are already talking about it. SRBs that you've made now are really cool, but they are too tall to use them as upper stages. Smaller, flat SRBs with better vaccum ISP would be awesome.

As far as probe parts go, I'd love to see some atmosferic probes like Galileo probe (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Galileo_Probe_diagram.jpeg), and maybe some aeroshields to go with it.

More parts to build probes with would also be really good. Maybe look at some soviet probes for inspiration? Most western satellites seem to be more blocky(like stock parts), and soviet ones have these really interesting shapes. It would be cool if you could somehow transform these shapes into stickalike parts.

Another thing would be stronger linear RCS thrusters(like these small engines on orion SM or ATV engines).

Some better looking rover bodies would also be nice.

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The Spinnaker and Kingfisher were both made after an update where they buffed the already borderline OP 48-7S to where it is now. I wanted some balanced alternatives to use, and so I made them! When I moved the parts in the tech tree for v10 I could make a nice niche in terms of progression for the little engines, but that doesn't stop the 48-7S still being too good. I'm reluctant to include an MM config to fix a few OP things or tweak the a few tech tree placements because that just adds to complexity for installing, keeping things up-to-date with MM itself, and conflicts with other MM patches that change the same parts.
I'd prefer it if mods didn't fiddle to much with stock parts personally nerfing parts closes different viable styles of play and the purpose of mods is to expand on the different possible styles of play.
Do people want upper stage SRBs? It's something I've considered doing for a while but held off on because I wasn't sure if people would use them.

I don't see a point in SRB's outside of the atmosphere unless they are either used for deorbiting or there is a way to shut them down mid burn. otherwise the amount of planning involved for maneuvers gets a bit unfun I'm not nasa I don't plot out everything that will happen during a launch down to the second I just wing it and srb's that can't at least be shut down are not conducive to that play style. that being said novelties like hybrid rockets would be interesting.

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Absolutely! That's actually what I wanted to suggest, but you guys are already talking about it. SRBs that you've made now are really cool, but they are too tall to use them as upper stages. Smaller, flat SRBs with better vaccum ISP would be awesome.
I don't see a point in SRB's outside of the atmosphere unless they are either used for deorbiting or there is a way to shut them down mid burn. otherwise the amount of planning involved for maneuvers gets a bit unfun I'm not nasa I don't plot out everything that will happen during a launch down to the second I just wing it and srb's that can't at least be shut down are not conducive to that play style. that being said novelties like hybrid rockets would be interesting.
I don't know that I'd use upper stage SRBs. Not sure what the use of them would be, except for maybe saving money.

They would be just an alternative to sticking on LFO/MP tanks and engines, but with a little more planning involved. Not the sort of thing you'd be using without an information plugin like KER to help. Another thing the balance would need to be very close to work, but doable. I think I got the Boostertrons about right for alternatives to using a Spinnaker and some tanks.

I don't know any mod featuring upperstage SRB's, so it would be a novelty and not only be used for realism purposes.

I've not used it myself but I think NovaPunch might have some.

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I've loved this mod since I found it ages ago and I've always grandfathered it from save to save, so it's great seeing it getting some love again. I was also wonderfully pleased to find that it didn't break all my crafts using the RTG in the old 'RLA_PowerGeneration' folder when I deleted that. And while I might not have tons of uses for them, I love having the .625m SRBs just because tiny parts are awesome.

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I think I might make a habit of posting one WIP pic a day when I'm actively working on something, so here's todays:

Image not available

Still working on the gold foil, trying to get the same look as the foil on the LV909 rather than something more detailed. Each of these is only using a couple of 256x256 textures, and the different versions of the two TETs currently share a normal map. If things with the current textures don't work out I'll probably have to re-map them all onto a 1024x1024 that they'll all share.

with the low cost and early availability of RLA probe engines there probably isn't a big niche for SRB's in space

That may be true but I was going for a 1.25m engine, rather than a 0.625m. Maybe both.

I feel like besides being realistic and cheaper than LFO engines, upper stage SRBs would be simply... fun? Nothing better than launching a probe to duna on small unstoppable engine with no throttle :D

Pretty much this. Some people might enjoy the challenge of using a less controllable engine, some people might use it because it's different. In the end it would be kinda like the MP engines, just another alternative to using the same old LFO engines again.

I've loved this mod since I found it ages ago and I've always grandfathered it from save to save, so it's great seeing it getting some love again. I was also wonderfully pleased to find that it didn't break all my crafts using the RTG in the old 'RLA_PowerGeneration' folder when I deleted that. And while I might not have tons of uses for them, I love having the .625m SRBs just because tiny parts are awesome.

The MMRTG is my first part, and it's always been so well liked by those that used it I just couldn't let that particular part break any craft.

Edited by hoojiwana
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Pretty much this. Some people might enjoy the challenge of using a less controllable engine, some people might use it because it's different. In the end it would be kinda like the MP engines, just another alternative to using the same old LFO engines again.

I would enjoy having an alternative in less controllable but more powerful and/or more efficient engine. That would require more planning and less room for mistake while you have increased efficiency. BUT in that case stock SRBs fail miserably because they're all one-piece parts making you carry (sometimes little, sometimes a lot) but still dead weight if you opt to not fill them 100% because that's not the dV fitting your plans. For that to work custom sized SRBs would be needed - or simply KSP-SRB style engines (hello old Cutter :)). That could work much better IMO.

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I would enjoy having an alternative in less controllable but more powerful and/or more efficient engine. That would require more planning and less room for mistake while you have increased efficiency. BUT in that case stock SRBs fail miserably because they're all one-piece parts making you carry (sometimes little, sometimes a lot) but still dead weight if you opt to not fill them 100% because that's not the dV fitting your plans. For that to work custom sized SRBs would be needed - or simply KSP-SRB style engines (hello old Cutter :)). That could work much better IMO.

how about a solid fuel/oxidizer hybrid rocket that only has two modes either all on full throttle or off? still powerful and still a challenge since its not cut out for fine adjustment but it seems less wasteful. in fact if you use the fire spitter fuel swap module you can have it switch between having enough oxidizer for itself or being all solid fuel and uses the leftover oxidizer from stock fuel tanks on space planes (since jets only sip liquid fuel there is always some oxidizer left over if you use LFO engines) so there. less wasteful and with extra uses and niches.

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I think binary throttle rocket wouldn't be much more limiting than stock rocket. It would be just taptap-taptap until you get what you want cause you can still turn around between taptaps if you overshoot. When you can't stop and miscalculate, you either undershoot or dump engines running (collision risk, lost dV in fuel, lost dV cause of dead weight before).

I would be very excited to see and test new more complex systems (sipping leftover ox somehow is a great idea), hovewer talking about SRBs, IIRC they are usually made of "fuel grain" which is simply solid mixture of whatever-you-need-to-burn. I think doing "lets put some excess oxygen here and see how it burns" wouldn't end very well :D Still, that's realism issue and neither stock KSP nor I am too much into realism. Just thought it did sound funny :P

So yeah, there is a lot of room for creativity (which I lack) in this area, I sign in for any experimental testing!

Edited by dzikakulka
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I think binary throttle rocket wouldn't be much more limiting than stock rocket. It would be just taptap-taptap until you get what you want cause you can still turn around between taptaps if you overshoot. When you can't stop and miscalculate, you either undershoot or dump engines running (collision risk, lost dV in fuel, lost dV cause of dead weight before).

I would be very excited to see and test new more complex systems (sipping leftover ox somehow is a great idea), hovewer talking about SRBs, IIRC they are usually made of "fuel grain" which is simply solid mixture of whatever-you-need-to-burn. I think doing "lets put some excess oxygen here and see how it burns" wouldn't end very well :D Still, that realism issue and neither stock KSP nor I am too much into realism. Just thought it did sound funny :P

So yeah, there is a lot of room for creativity (which I lack) in this area, I sign in for any experimental testing!

there is also the possibility of a control delay like what you get with jet engines

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