CobaltWolf

Yes but Skyhawk and the BDB contracts were made at different times, by different people, and I don't know if any thought was ever given to making sure they worked together.

Honestly I'm so disconnected from the actual game at this point, most of the time when people PM me with issues I just have to tell them to ask here since you all have likely encountered the issue far more recently than I have, if at all.

Rescue from what? They're colonists now!

The what? B-but it looks so good with the black! It's on my to-do to look into it but I'm still... uh... playing Battletech every moment I'm not at the office. Honestly I'm not sure what texture sheet it went on or if there's an efficient way to add an all-white switch. The tags can easily be fixed.

The what now?

I made the BDB Surface Telescope in real life.

In a somewhat annoying position, in that I can't make the ablative variants for the rest of the X-15 parts until I finish the second texture sheet. So I had to go back and dust off some ideas I'd had, since it's now or never. Dual-seater cockpit, replacing the space allocated for the experiments with a second (very cramped) seat. More or less based on the X-15B cockpit design, with some compromises to make it fit with the existing mesh. And a drone 'cockpit', for when your high-speed experiments are too unsafe for a meat pilot. This one is entirely my own creation, I've never seen any proposals for an uncrewed X-15.

Yeah I have plans already.

Yeah we're in finishing touches I think, not sure if all the Mariner stuff will make it in or if Invader wants more time with it.

I don't really keep secrets, if I have some progress to share I usually do.

1.14 release?

Here is the doc I used. You're right that there's mention of flying with different fuel loads for different missions, but frankly I never understood that. I believe there is also some mention of just assuming the thrust of the first stage engine could be doubled. Both are patterns I've seen from the stuff coming out of Redstone/Marshall in that era. As for the Baby Sergeants, yeah those shouldn't be there. Just Friznit being Friznit You don't even need Tweakscale, those LRBs are just the Atlas V tankage in white livery.

Definitely still a concern of mine, but I am not in a position to create a new BDB forum or anything like that. Pappy is right, in that if the forums ever do finally go down for good, I'd hopefully have a new pinned post on my Twitter that directs people to a new place for BDB discussion. I, of course, could make a BDB Discord server. I could have done that a long time ago and chose not to. Personally, I don't like the siloing that comes from moving forum-based discussions on to Discord. I'd rather discussion of BDB stay on an open webpage that can be trawled by search engines, etc. My other thought on making a BDB Discord is that it's a solution for BDB, but not for preserving the modded KSP community as a whole. In other news, my plan to play Battletech until I burn out appears to be working. Or at least, I'm starting to be able to think about BDB again. Nothing much to share at the moment, I think my remaining priorities for this update have been discussed / are clear. Finish X-15, finish the Titan rekerjiggering, finish Mariner. I did take the time to finally implement proper endcap textures for the X-15. I also started messing with a stack adapter for X-15, because I am a kind and generous ruler. Someone had asked if I could make it more in this general shape, I'm not sure it looks the best. These adapters also wouldn't work for the XLR-11 or SERJ engine variants, so that stinks.

That's the exact use-case I envisioned it for! So cool to see it used. And it looks like you weren't launched into the sky or anything like that... Really? I could swear the Mariner 71 and Viking propulsion modules ran on LFO. They should, at any rate. Here's something @TruthfulGnome found that I thought was neat and wanted to share. Jupiter with an Agena B on top. I'm kind of a sucker for a nice clean rocket like this.

I did a dev stream yesterday with Rodger clearing out a bunch of outstanding GH issues, but apart from that I've been kind of... busy... I also started on the SRMU variant of the Titan SRB nose, a bit of low-ish hanging fruit that I think was really missing from the part set.

I must apologize on behalf of @Pappystein, who bought me a copy of BATTLETECH and then convinced me to install the BTA:3062 mod. Any delays or lack of progress on my end is solely his fault. Noted, don't know when I'll get to it, would likely require entirely new tops for those parts.

I think it has been literal years since I got a notification from outside the BDB thread... Congrats, @Bellabong! Very happy to see this work continuing.

Not anymore

You think we'd fix bugs?

I woke up to a message from Rodger containing this image:

None of that craft is in the bible

So, first off - I'm sure many people have noticed the... instability of the forums these days. In the event of them fully disappearing, we of course will be saddened at the loss of years of conversation, comradery, and explosions. It will not be the end of BDB though. If the forums ever fully die and do not come back, please check my Twitter or the BDB GitHub for updates on where to find us. Just wanted to put that out there while I can. In any case, work continues. I got the Mariner 6/7 parts in game yesterday on stream, but of course forgot to take some screenshots. I also put some more work into the ablative-coated X-15 texture. Still a lot of work to do, but I feel like I've figured out what kind of effects it needs to get the look I want.

Gonna work on getting Mariner 6/7 in game today. Come hang out! Shown here with Mariner 8/9 on the left, which shares the new scanning platform.

I can't the windows aren't flat planes like IRL

It was actually the color and texture of a pencil eraser, but was painted over with several coats of a white "wear layer". Partially for aesthetics, partially because the MA-25S ablative material exploded on contact with liquid oxygen.