[WIP] KSS Asimov - A spaceship pack - Update 0.1.2 (11/17/2016) [KSP 1.2.1]

[nebuchadnezzar]

Excited to see these parts are being developed again! Looking forward to using them in 1.1!

[mrmcp1]

Great to see this being worked on again. 

[Vrana]

Its really good to see mod worked on again. Thank you for that, v1per.

 

To celebrate the revival i finally uploaded and decided to share an old mission based on the Asimov spaceship chassis.

 

This Asimov was a long term science vessel. Its originally had three missions. First to fully explore Duna and Ike by traveling there, doing experiments in orbit  and then launching two probes, one for each body to gather surface readings. Asimov was then to return to Kerbin to refuel and rotate crew. Second mission was to capture and bring into Kerbin orbit a small class A asteriod. Finally Asimov was to requip (cargo bay has docking ports) two new probes and travel to Eve to preform another mission similar to the Duna/ike one.

Sadly only first mission and refuel/recrew operation  was ever completed. This was back in .90 i think and i dont remeber why i never completed the two remaining missions.

The following album follows the first mission and refuel operation (i dont have launch screenshots, Asimov got to orbit on top of a huge launch craft).

 

Obviously, a lot more mods then just the Asimov parts were involved in building this ship but Asimov certainly takes the spotlight on this one.

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Vrana

[v1per]

Oh wow! That's awesome @Vrana! Glad you shared that  Looking at your ship, I think you'll like some of my future plans 

As a quick update, I have basically finished the solar panels textures and the model is finished as well. I'm not ultra fond of the base that holds everything together, but I've already spent way too much time on that part and I need to work on other things if I want to have the update ready for 1.1. I worked yesterday on a new engine concept which I think is better than the old one. And with the way I'm designing it, it'll have 1.25 and 2.5 versions for different types of payloads. After this is done, I'll move to the old parts as they are in a much needed refresh. The Command Pod requires new hatch and ladder detectors and I want to adjust some things in the texture as well. The living module needs new hatch detectors as well, and I'm planning on substituting one of the windows for an actual hatch so that it makes more sense. The other parts require only a conversion to DDS format. After all that, I'll have 1.1 update ready for you guys to download

Later on, I have some new parts that I want to work on and this is in no particular order:

• Habitation ring (I have the concept ready for this, but I'm concerned with the viability to put it in orbit. It'll not be a simple inflatable module as I want it to fit with the aesthetic of the ship)
• Greenhouse (For life support mods of course)
• A larger fuel tank (It'll be a bit more raw looking than the current one. But I want something for eventual missions to Jool)
• Maybe a docking module to free up the nose of the ship for other things.
• Cargo bay

In addition I have plans for other crafts all together, but I'll tease that later

No screen shots today, but I hope to have some soon^TM.

[hieywiey]

Kudos to you for bringing back a mod I loved, but unfortunately forgot about! I always like it when a mod comes back that I used in the past, but have since forgotten about; the surprise for me shows the dedication of the KSP community. This caught my eye when I was scrolling through the Add-On Dev. section, I immediately recognized it and thought: "OH!!! That mod, I completely forgot about It!". 

[v1per]

So, maybe I went a little overboard with details on this. But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Before anyone asks, I have no idea what any of the pieces might actually do. This is a clear cut case of "if it looks good, it fits". Hope you guys like it  Now I'll work on UV mapping this and preparing the bases for the two engines. The 1.25 meter version will just be this attached to a base. The 2.5 meter version will be a cluster of 4 of these guys. They are actually quite small at about 1.4m in Length and 85 cm in diameter for the bell. Without further ado, here's an image

[v1per]

I thought I was going to have one more week to do this. Apparently not  I don't want to rush it though. So I need a couple more days to sort everything out for an update. Just as a heads up.

[Vrana]

There is no rush.

 

I am going to hazard a guess that most Asimov users also use many other mods. Its going to be a while before everything gets updated and we can start proper games again.

 

Engine looks awesome. What kind of machine will it be? Im thinking some kind of NERVA or cryogenic engine would fit the ship best - high tech but not over top seems like a good description.

[v1per]

@Vrana, I'm still thinking on how to approach that. I'd like the pack to remain dependency free, but I'll do some research on what's possible. I'd like to shy away from Nuclear engines though, partially because I think there are many options already between Near Future Technologies and Umbra Space, and also partially because I don't think the design fits it. I'd rather do a whole other engine design later to support Nuclear Propulsion.

Edited April 20, 2016 by v1per

[v1per]

Not a lot of news. I've spent the past few days unwrapping the model and doing a few adjustments. I might still have to do another pass on somethings before settling on a final mesh. I also built the 1.25m base today. Now I have to do the 2.5m one, which should be quick, I hope. Just to give you guys something to look forward to, here's a screen shot of the 1.25 one:

My hope is to have this done soon. I've already done some texturing tests, and it should be pretty quick.

[v1per]

Took me a while, but I'm happy with how the 2.5m base is now. There's some detailing that I want to do still, but very minor stuff. Now I can focus on texturing everything. Getting closer to a release now

[Vrana]

Looking really good!

 

So i gather its a chemical first stage engine then?

[v1per]

That was not my idea actually. My idea is that for a 2.5m ship, you'd need more punch to move everything so 4 engines instead of one. I could make everything hidden I guess, but we'd lose a lot of cool details there. I'll make a mockup of what I mean later. If you guys think it doesn't look nice for a last stage engine, I can try designing something else

Edit: Here's what I mean:

Edited April 24, 2016 by v1per

[Tangle]

I dunno, it looks pretty nice to me! Are you planning on 2-chamber and 1-chamber lower TWR versions for more efficiency but lower speed? 

[Vrana]

On 24.04.2016. at 7:48 PM, v1per said:

 If you guys think it doesn't look nice for a last stage engine, I can try designing something else

 

Nope. Looks awesome. My comment was in regard to the engine not being a NERVA or a cryo and not aesthetics. I guess i am not used to using any other type as a final stage on what i consider to be a reusable ship (the Asimov chassis just screams to me: "I am not a single mission ship!").

 

By all means do what you had in mind. You have not failed to impress us so far.

[v1per]

When you suggested it being a cryo engine, I thought it was a great idea. The only problem is really a technical one. Looking at Nertea's engines, he has three dependencies to make them cryo which would become a hassle to maintain going forward. I'm not at the stage yet to start configuring this to get into the game so I'll worry about it later. Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on everything in order to start the texturing process. I'll do my best to make the engine interesting though, don't worry

@Tangle, not at the moment. For now, I'll supply the two engines, and an adapter plate from 2.5 to 1.25 so that you can choose which variant to use. The single engine should provide you with more delta-v at the expense of longer burn times. What I'm toying with is the idea of supplying a 2.5m two engine plate as a nice in between. The next engines I have in mind are a NERVA engine and a small engine similar to the Space X Draco engines.

Edited April 25, 2016 by v1per

[v1per]

Hey guys, I'm still doing work. I've just been very busy the past couple of weeks. The engine is mostly unwrapped, but I'm just not sold on the part that receives the tubes in the middle. I'll probably fiddle with that some more.

I've been looking at the old parts as well and I'm re texturing the command pod. There are some things I'm not very happy with. I hope to have some actual progress on the weekend. Here's another image of the engine though. I've decided to go with an open look for the base plate. Will be cool to have the fuel tank or reaction wheels showing up

Edited May 6, 2016 by v1per

[Vrana]

Thanks for the update. I think the adapter plate looks good but cant really judge without normal and color map. One thing to consider with open adapters(no engine butt) is that some fuel tanks dont fill up all the space up to their connection node. Might be a good idea to protrude some pipes or the whole "inner base" a bit below the connection node(collider?) to avoid getting empty space when using with such tanks.

 

Just in time too. About to start manned interplanetary.

[v1per]

Hey folks. I wanted to give some sort of update on this project. I've had a pretty difficult time the past few months both with health and financial issues so unfortunately this was left on the back burner. To top it all off, when I finally started working on it again, my PC died and my notebook is rubbish to work with textures. I have new parts coming in hopefully before the end of the week. In the meantime, here's what I'm working on:

• New textures for all parts - I got a few new tools a few months ago and decided to test them with my parts. i think it's going to be a big improvement, and it also really speeds up the work flow for future parts. I'll post more details about it when I can show things.
• Updated Fuel Tank - I wasn't satisfied with how the end caps of the tank were. I used the wrong texture and it makes no sense. So I'm updating it.
• 2.5m Engine (Finally!) - After 4 designs, I finally have something that I'm happy with. The last one I did looks cool, but I was having trouble building a base for it, and the texturing wasn't working for me so I started to get frustrated with it...argh. Anyway, the new engine fixes all of the problems: Single nozzle, cryogenic, 4 turbo pumps, big bell and you can either used it with a protective shell or exposed.

These will be released as soon as I have my PC working again. I can at least model pretty decently on my notebook, so that's chugging along. I'll post screenshots later. After this here's what I'm thinking:

• I want to create a configurable service module. I'm a big fan of the Universal Storage mod, so I don't want to just repeat that. I'm thinking more along the lines of creating a service bay that you can fit both the stock batteries and parts, as well as some parts that I'll make like food bags and things like that. Still planning. Suggestions welcome.
• With the advent of the stock relay system, I think I need to provide an antenna now as well.
• And of course, the other things I've been talking about: Nuclear Engine, larger fuel tank, and so on.

Sorry for no screenshots. I just wanted to post this, both to give an update and to push me to finish this thing. I'll have more updates soon

[Kosmonaut]

On 4/18/2016 at 2:20 PM, v1per said:

Later on, I have some new parts that I want to work on and this is in no particular order:

• Habitation ring (I have the concept ready for this, but I'm concerned with the viability to put it in orbit. It'll not be a simple inflatable module as I want it to fit with the aesthetic of the ship)
• Greenhouse (For life support mods of course)
• A larger fuel tank (It'll be a bit more raw looking than the current one. But I want something for eventual missions to Jool)
• Maybe a docking module to free up the nose of the ship for other things.
• Cargo bay

In addition I have plans for other crafts all together, but I'll tease that later

 

I personally think that the ring should be small, or not there. What I like about the Asimov is that it looks sleek but still viable, and a ring would remove that. Maybe you could have something like the hab module but thinner, and that spins much faster. Make a hub, and put two of those on the side. It would look something like these two: http://imgur.com/a/ywYPR

They are different and sleeker, and may look cool. I apoligize for the artwork, I did these in two minutes on ms paint

[v1per]

Yeah, I'm not sure about that anymore. I have an idea, but it wouldn't work in the game, or it would need something like extraplanetary launchpads, but I want to shy away from complex dependencies. You idea is actually interesting though. I'll try to sketch something tomorrow and see if it would work. Another idea is to make the habitat like the one in Mission to Mars. But that's a bit ahead. Right now I want to focus on those 3 items I mentioned.

[nebuchadnezzar]

@v1per Glad to see your working on these parts again. Looking forward to what you come up with!

[StarStreak2109]

I just noticed this mod. I'd love to see this developed further. It looks sleek - very good for some kind of late game ship. Of course then it'd need some kind late game, highly efficient engine!

[Kosmonaut]

On 10/11/2016 at 10:42 PM, v1per said:

Yeah, I'm not sure about that anymore. I have an idea, but it wouldn't work in the game, or it would need something like extraplanetary launchpads, but I want to shy away from complex dependencies. You idea is actually interesting though. I'll try to sketch something tomorrow and see if it would work. Another idea is to make the habitat like the one in Mission to Mars. But that's a bit ahead. Right now I want to focus on those 3 items I mentioned.

Although I like my first drawing the best, another alternative (Sort of like the Mission to Mars craft) would be to have something the same size as the regular Hab, but with a different IVA (I know those aren't implemented yet but still), and that is spinnable

[Vrana]

Really nice to see the Asimov in development again.

 

New parts sound awesome!