Angelo Kerman

Actually it is already established that it costs Graviolium to warp or to use a jumpgate, so I can see the Whipcrack doing the same.

If you have Sandcastle, all the Buffalo 2 body modules can be placed in cargo storage and be manipulated via EVA Construction.

Going in a straight line is precisely what the Whipcrack does when you jump at the right time. If you don't, you'll travel in a random direction based on how badly you miss-timed the jump.

Just grabbing the gravity plane...

I did testing with Galaxies Unlimited and didn't have problems with my game locking up. I also used GU to test the jumpgates, also without issues. Your ship will keep whatever velocity vector that it had at the time of the jump. You can simulate this now by using warp tech: just point your ship in the desired direction, fly forward at top speed, count to- oh, 20- and then stop warping. Your ship will be in some kind of orbit at that point. Technically, in the game, the Whipcrack will move just like a warp engine, except that the distance traveled is done in one big jump instead of several small ones like the warp engine does. There won't be any "look ahead" except for telling you how far away a selected target is (warp engines do this already). To make it easier, it might be helpful to have a window that lets you select a star from a list of stars so you don't have to go out to the map view and do a lot of scrolling. Then you could use the SAS to point your ship at the star before making the jump.

That's actually my plan. Whipcrack is a concept at present and not one I'm positive I'll make. As I mentioned in the Blueshift thread, the Blueshift mod already has alternatives such as building jumpgates or discovering alien ones (if you have Space Anomalies and alien jumpgates turned on). That might be enough, actually.

Thanks! I have a few more parts to make before I can put together a pre-release that'll let you make the chopper. When KSP 2 is released, I'm not sure what will carryover from KSP 1. It's possible that I'll have to start over from scratch in order to make parts that meet the new game's standards. At any rate, the mods that I make will depend on what KSP 2 comes with. I know that I'll start over with Kerbal Flying Saucers, and possibly make submarine parts too. Meanwhile, I got a bonus part made tonight: The B2 Inline Ballast Tank. This was slated for Phase 3 but I realized that I had what I needed to complete it. It has no part variants, this is the form factor for Buffalo 2's submarine parts. Here's a look:

Today I finished up refactoring the OG Buffalo's wings for Buffalo 2. If you have both mods installed then you'll be able to use them side by side, but the new B2 wings have a few extras. Unlike the old wings, the new wings hold Liquid Fuel and you can put them in cargo holds. I also redid the saddle tanks, though I need to make a conformal variant that won't clip into the cargo bays that I have planned. And as before, the wing root can pivot if you have DockRotate installed. I might have to take on a version of it as @peteletroll hasn't been around in awhile... Anyway, here is a preview:

The Whipcrack was actually inspired by watching YouTube videos on whip cracking, and realizing that the whip could be an analogy to a wormhole with one fixed end and one flailing end. As I started thinking about it, having some kind of sinewave graph that is displayed on screen, whose goal is to be at zero in order to get an accurate jump, was the perfect way to involve the player with making the jump. @JadeOfMaar is right, the Space Battleship Yamato 2199's warp jump would be the closest example, though nowhere near as dramatic. It's more like you'd see something like this in a window on screen: with a dot traveling along the wave, and you, the player, must hit the jump button as close to 0 as possible in order to leap as close to forward as possible. If you don't your ship will leap in some other direction. From a special effects perspective, think like this: A slider control lets the player control the jump distance- up to the Whipcrack’s maximum jump distance- and thus, the sine wave’s frequency. The amplitude of the wave is affected by how close the ship is to the solar system’s star as well as the distance to the nearest celestial body- if any- that the vessel orbits. The angular frequency is affected by the star’s mass and the mass of a celestial body- if any- that the ship currently orbits. Pilots, engineers, and scientists can all affect the sinewave, but not by a lot. To really improve it, you need a whipping post. Think of the whipping post as a jump beacon or an anchor point for a wormhole; it isn't as good as having a jumpgate at the other end, but it does make it easier to jump towards a target star. Hopefully the above makes sense. If players think the Whipcrack is too cumbersome to use then it won't be worth my time to make it. When I built Blueshift's Space Anomalies, I did so with the intention that players can discover the pre-populated mass relays alien jumpgates already circling distant stars. Players could then build warpships, fly through interstellar space once, discover the jumpgate and add it to the network. Then it's just a matter of warping around the star system, head to the gate, and jump to another distant star's jumpgate. Traveling interstellar with warp tech can be a bit tedius but you'd only have to do it once if you have Space Anomalies turned on, or you research the current version of Blueshift's jump tech and build your own gates.

The alarm buttons are part of Wild Blue Core. Buffalo 2 doesn't require MAS.

Buffalo2 supports MAS exclusively. For the alarm buttons you need to download Wild Blue Core.

If you only have Buffalo 2, you ONLY need Wild Blue Core. Wild Blue Tools is for those who install DSEV. For the aircraft parts that I'm working on, you'll need Kerbal Actuators. It is listed as the first mod in the recommended mods section of the original post. Anyway, here is Buffalo 1.0.1. It fixes some IVA issues and restores the missing B2 Laboratory Module.

Ouch. Yeah, looks like the science lab got deleted by mistake. I will fix that tomorrow.

Random doodling before dinner:

No idea what could be causing it. I've re-verified that the windows look normal for me. Is anybody else experiencing this issue? Today I slightly remodeled and re-textured the tilt-rotor for Buffalo 2. It won't be available unless you have Kerbal Actuators installed since it needs plugin functionality from that mod. As mentioned earlier, given all the troubles with electrically powered tilt-rotors, the new iteration runs on Intake Air and Liquid Fuel. I need to redo the engine sound, which I'll get to tomorrow. Anyway, here's a preview:

I'm not seeing that issue in my install. Is anybody else seeing that?

Nice to see that you've been keeping busy with your writing, @JustJim!

I hadn't considered that, actually. It depends upon my workload and how far I can get with the existing parts before my hard deadline to finish KSP 1 modding. Today I finished the interior of the Chopper part variant: I've bumped up the release to 1.0, because Phase 1 is now officially complete! There are still many parts to create, but Buffalo 2 is now in a minimum playable state. You can find the release here, and CKAN is pending. Buffalo 1 will NOT be discontinued until Phase 4 is completed.

The Mineshaft will have a Buffalo 2 equivalent for sure. It's slated for Phase 2. I do have some additional chassis components in Phase 2, the end cap can be one of them. I'll look at adding the decoupler as well.

Well, bear in mind that Phase 1 is just the chassis and crewed rover body parts. Other parts are slated for Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. CKAN pulls all my mods from my Githup Repositories. All my threads have github links in the first post of the thread. You can also find them here.

DSEV is already on CKAN.

Today I got the exterior of the Chopper part variant done: I also started on the IVA variant, but it'll be done tomorrow. After that, Buffalo 2 Phase 1 is done! At that point, I'll put Buffalo 2 and its dependencies onto CKAN. The mod won't be done, but it'll be in a minimum playable state.

Today I retired a workhorse in my save game, the Mk33 Skyranger. Skyranger has flown dozens of missions without recovery by utilizing the docking ports in its cargo bay to accept new payloads, the ports in its tail that let it dock to the launchpad for rotation, and of course the payload crane that it used to load new payloads into its bay. It was bittersweet to retire Skyranger, but after all the missions, part drift has set in and there are noticeable gaps in the airframe. While I could recover the vessel for an Orbiter Maintenance Down Period, I felt that Skyranger was unique in my game given how many missions it flew without the need for recovering the spacecraft. Here's how it worked: I used the Mk33 Payload Crane, along with Kerbal Attachment System, to lift payloads off of their transport trucks and load them into the payload bay. Docking ports connected payload and spacecraft together: Skyranger (and her sister ships) was then rolled out to the pad, where it docked with the Strongback and rotated vertically (cutesy of DockRotate) for launch: She was then refueled at the pad and launched: When Skyranger delivered the payload into orbit, she'd land and repeat the process. My Mk33 mod comes with the custom launchpad, payload crane, and Kerbal Konstructs static for those interested in having their own adventures with the Mk33 and the joys (and frustrations) of launching vehicles in this fashion. But enough of the sales pitch, Skyranger is retiring! Skyranger is lining up on the runway. It's a tradition in my game for active spacecraft to roll out of their hangars out of respect for the retiring spacecraft. From left to right, Ascension (Mk33-02), Dauntless (Mk33-03) and Resolute (Mk33-04) pay their respects to the Mk33 that started it all: Here, she's taking off from Welcome Back Island, one of the islands in JNSQ. You can see the wear and tear part drift that has happened over her many missions: Skyranger flies over Kerbal Space Center. The Fixed Service Structure used by the old Shuttle Launch System can be seen in the background on Pad C: At the Boneyard, my retirement home/spaceflight museum, Skyranger takes her place amongst history: More pics from the museum:

Yeah, as I mentioned, they'll have integrated gas turbines. They'll run on liquid fuel and intake air.

Is there a new spaceplane waiting in the wings? Fun to see your progress, I like that you bring hardware back home as opposed to just deorbiting it.