CobaltWolf

Launch of an LR-87-AJ5K powered rocket, testing out the new kerolox configs <3 Thanks so much to Blowfish for getting these features put into B9PartSwitch, and Zorg for getting them implemented.

BDB is fortunate enough to have a team of people who put a lot of time into its documentation. It's not something Beale can do by himself

And another preview of the next update: Delta E, Delta P, Delta K...

A couple more parts managed to sneak in as well! Somebody asked for 45 degree variants of the MOL RCS... Also I just realized I need to make a version of the one on the far right without the two extra RCS jets... And I don't think I have a picture handy, but a two segment SRMU got added as well.

first

first

I'd just wait until Friday. We are planning on releasing versions for KSP 1.7.3 and KSP 1.8. I know a lot of people haven't/don't want to update yet and... well the update was pretty much entirely built around 1.7.3 anyways.

Speaking of housekeeping... one of the things I have to do is make sure people know about all the stuff in this update! Here's a taste of the release album I'm putting together... if anyone has some really nice high quality screenshots, please feel free to share!

Yeah oops that's a typo there... The Castor 1/2s are the correct size, I think it's about 0.5m diameter. They don't have inline versions so the size doesn't really matter. low key yeah, I'm really happy with how the current update came out but the early rockets are baaaaaaad and I'm glad they're getting replaced. I was going to make a more proper Castor IV, I can try to make the IVB but remember it's inline. Why do you need TVC on such small strapons anyways, out of curiosity? That is a nice LV! I'm glad I added the SOFI variants for the LDC... Very nice! Is that a 23G? I added the shutdown feature because it's supposed to be a game, and we don't have teams of people whose job it is to crunch numbers and plan things out. The intent is that it makes using vacuum solids more forgiving and viable than they would be otherwise. With that said, I agree that it would be nice to have more control over the sliders. Planning to release the update Friday night - there's just a few more housekeeping things I need to do for it.

Castor-1, Castor-2, you can see the Castor radial decoupler there as well Vanguard-Able, Thor-Able, Delta B

I don't suppose the white thingy on the left side of the engine in this image would be the FABU, would it?

Thank you both so much! It's always really great to hear that people are excited for BDB I do try and keep it reasonable; there's still a lot of "sometimes you have to crack a few eggs" but I try to keep things manageable and consistent. And, if all else fails, the mod is prunable. Yes, I was already aiming for the new release to come out next Friday, hopefully everything like dependencies are good to go by then.

Github is preferable. Thank you!

I... Might be able to do that actually, given how well it looked with the other tanks removed. I'm not at that PC anymore so I cant check until tomorrow. But I did actually put the gas generator in so I guess I can just add a little thingy to it. And I guess it used a FABU? I can probably do that. You're probably better off using Nebula. I do plan on remembering to add flag transforms though.

I'm not sure what you mean. I just double checked and the RS-27 is seemingly indistinguishable from an LR-79. We can have switchers combined together - so the performance switch can also add/remove the start tanks, change the shape of the engine bell (I actually intended to do that for the existing RS-27 but I probably just won't bother since it looks like I'm ripping it out of the boattail), etc. And then for practical reasons, a switch for a couple alternate shapes for the exhaust pipe. There is actually already a switch for the RS-27/RS-27A, and the GEMs can switch between ground and air lit versions complete with the different sized nozzle. There's already multiple other LR-101 variants - I'm just making the version for Thor/Delta that I showed. I don't have room for anything more (indeed, there's less there to the model than you might think - just enough to make you think it's all there). So, sorry. If I had all the piping and stuff modeled I might but... idk you'd still have AO bake issues.

Ah, yes... well... if I understood right, the S-3D basically looks identical save for a lack of start tanks. Fortunately, simply hiding them seems to look alright without the AO feeling out of place. I think I'd like to include the RS-27 and RS-27A in this part as well if it's possible, but I'm pretty much out of UV space. Maybe have separate mesh switches for the exhaust pipe (for the different boattails, and then maybe a shorter one for mounting in other locations). I really want to make the boat tails separate from the engines, so that they are engine agnostic. There's also going to be standalone LR-101s. If people are really worried about part count, I'm willing to make a single-part version that also includes the flexible heat skirt covering the hole for the engine. Also, yes, Dragon, note the shape of the boattail. Better? I think what confused me the first time was seeing the silhouette of the raceways on either side. I actually just finished baking the ambient occlusion for the vernier... probably not more than a minute ago. So there's no actual texturing on the engine part itself yet.

Ha! More than hinting - that is indeed the plan for next update. Full revamp+expansion of Thor, Jupiter, Vanguard, Redstone, Agena... Vega... Centaur... most of the existing probe parts... yeah. I've already started working on it on my non-Unity PC and I'd say Thor is a good chunk of the way done, maybe halfway... Vanguard is practically done and it came out REALLY nice... I still have stuff to finish up on my main dev PC for this update but I'm not there very often unfortunately, so I decided to get a head start on the next update. Regarding THIS update, with the Titan and Gemini stuff, I am not sure if I stated it on the forums, so here it is: I am currently planning, fairly firmly, to release BDB v1.6.0 on Friday, October 25th. Probably around like... idk, 6-7 PM Eastern? I believe the final count for new or revamped parts (not counting B9 switches) is something like 180 parts... I'm kind of dreading putting together the release album to show them all off. Afraid I'll miss a bunch My rough plan is to basically take this next dev cycle to do a definitive remake of all the early game parts, since I've long felt that's the worst part of the mod, worse still, the first group of parts many players encounter! Not fun. So, I'm hoping that finishing all this will essentially carry me to the KSP2 release, meaning the next (and this is assuming the timings all work out, assuming that KSP2 is actually good and BDB has a place in it, etc - this is by no means set in stone) release with the early rocket revamp would be the "final" release for KSP1. After that, I assume it will take me MONTHS to port everything over to KSP2, especially since there's going to be PBR meaning I'll have to make new maps for all the parts for the material information that isn't needed with the current shader. Hopefully that's not too hard even if it's a bit tedious. After that, once I've come to grips with the art style, I think it will be time for the definitive revamp+expansion of the Apollo/Saturn parts See the spoiler for some of the images I've shared so far for the early rocket revamp. Think of it as teasers I'm hoping to be able to get Vanguard and... honestly, probably most of Thor/Delta? in game very quickly after 1.6.0 is released.

Yeah it's one of those things where once you think about it the previous setup didn't make much sense

Jso's PFairing patch for BDB. @Zorg should we just include it in the Compatibility folder? I don't know why it's not. Uh how so?

Restock, BDB, and reDIRECT, respectively Mostly textured LR-79 engine sans exhaust (whose fate is still undetermined - will have to explain more tomorrow)

I like the movie, not necessarily because I like any of the adaptational stuff, but because a lot of the original jokes in the movie are a fun addition Hitchhiker's Guide's sense of humor

Not really - there isn't a ton of purpose to them and something like a Hexagon would be pretty RAM intensive just from all the surface area. I forgot to take screenshots last night, but the 5 and 3 way MOL adapters got updated to match the new parts.

More teases for the update-after-the-current-one Vanguard 1, 2 and 3.