MisterBennock

Really nice, I dig the 50s scifi look.

Eh, I was afraid that was the case. If I have to write a .dll I'm out, I don't have the skills or time to acquire to the skills needed for that. Maybe someone more talented than me will see this and come up with something.

While playing around with the EAS-1 external command seat I realized I didn't like how "ejection force" is implemented. The way it works is that it will generally apply the force when leaving the seat no matter the situation. Of course an emergency exit in 9 km height is different from simply disembarking a small plane. IRL you also don't eject by seat every time you leave your machine. Now what I was wondering is if there is any way to make this distinction. I assume checking whether the plane has landed or is still moving etc. is rather complicated, so I thought about simply adding another button and have a "regular" LEAVE SEAT option where ejection force is always set to 0, and an "emergency exit" option with ejection force using the actual set value. However, I have no idea how to do on about this. Can anybody comment if this is doable at all and if yes, how I could approach it?

I hope they never fix this... I am currently experimenting with hovercrafts and """"repulsor"""" technology.

Cheers people, thanks for the suggestions, but neither AFTER:[Squad], nor AFTER:[SquadExpansion] nor AFTER:[SquadExpansion/Serenity] (also with \) did work. In fact, with the slashes, it tells me it didn't apply any patches at all. Could it have something to do with the fact that those are some different type of part? Like, not a "build-part", but rather some kind of prop?

So, I was annoyed by the default suit color being orange. I prefer white. So I wrote the following MM patch: @PART[kerbalEVAfemaleFuture,kerbalEVAFuture] { @MODULE[ModuleColorChanger] { @greenColor = 1.0 @blueColor = 1.0 } } However, it doesn't seem to work. I get no error during patch loading, but not a single Kerbal so far has had white light right away. I tried in Sandbox with new hires, also doesn't work. Is there a weird typo or something like that I am just not seeing or am I missing something essential?

Quick update, in case anyone is interested: I managed to get my dudes back home, after four years or so. Although after entering Kerbin's SOI I noticed something: I didn't have enough dV even for aerobraking, so I built a refill drone and sent it on its 60 day journey to the outer rim in order to refill the return ship. Then, when I wanted to land I noticed that the return craft didn't have any parachutes! Since I have regretted cheating ever since, I wanted to do this the Kerbal way, so I built a small drone with some parachutes that could dock with the top of the return craft. It took pretty long because I only had a few small solar panels and no battery on the craft, so in the Kerbin shadow it died a few times, but eventually I managed to bring them home. That was really exhausting. Now I put the ascent stage for the EVE II mission in orbit, which I tested more thoroughly and the return craft now also has parachutes. I hope this time it'll work out. P.S.: Could some mod move this to the "Mission Reports" forum, please?

Might be, I wouldn't surprised if anything like that could happen. Maybe 1.9 will fix some of it. Thanks anyways.

Oh, so then that's probably. No connection until it had reached 100 %. Well excrements. Yeah, could be my memory. I did that whole mission basically half-asleep. Wasn't the smartest thing to do. I only use BetterTimeWarp.

Wait, so you mean that the transmission is set to specific intervals and if there is no connection when it tries to transmit the data is simply lost? I can't remember any science messages. I also had the ion detector on Minmus sitting at 56 % transmitted science for quite some time until I had enough and picked it up.

Okay, that's good to know. So many antennae set up without need Sorry, that was written in a confusing way, here is the current situation: - Science was deployed, but without deployed antenna - I noticed that and sent a rover on its way - The rover will still take a few months to arrive at Eve, but in the meantime I noticed I DO have a connection to the KSC Since I had a satellite in Eve orbit even before I landed there, I assume the connection has always been there, but I didn't notice because I thought I needed the extra antenna on the ground. And that is the point where I wonder why no data has been transmitted. But if it is, as you said, a bug, I might force the game to give me these contracts. I really have no problem cheating my way around bugs and glitches that wouldn't be there if people had put a bit more effort in it.

Okay, so I set up my deployed science on Eve. After reaching orbit I noticed I had no communication device set up. Okay, sending a rover with a relay and regular antenna to get some distance. Then I noticed that the basic module has a first hop distance of something like 33 Mm. It just directly communicates with a satellite in Eve orbit. Now my question is: Why is the science not transmitted? Weather analyzer and Mystery Goo station have 100% science generated, but still at 0% transmitted data. I have two RTGs with a total of 6 power set up. The modules are powered, but not "enabled". I really don't understand how that stuff works and I am a bit bummed out because I have contracts open for those things. I am on 1.8.1, if that's important.

Hello friends and fellow Eve enthusiasts, today I want to present to you the (still ongoing) mission "Adam to Eve", as it was for me the very first time I have ever seriously tackled Eve (although I didn't get any children out of that). I have been playing this game since 2013, but I have rarely left Kerbin's SOI except for establishing a small colony on Duna or visiting the Jool area. This time, in a career save, I thought "eh love it", mainly because the game wants me to visit Eve before Duna. Glad I am not a newb who would probably be shaken deeply by the realization of a proper there-and-back Eve mission. Anyhow, I have rambled enough, let's go right in medias res and see what's going on. This is the Eve lander/ascender. It has almost 200 parts (mainly lots of auxilliary stuff like the landing struts, science stuff, separatrons etc.) and weighs 144 tons. And that's EMPTY! Correct, this is to be hauled to Eve completely empty and then refuel itself by mining lots of ore. Sadly I never did much testing besides "yeah it survives the descent and makes it into orbit", because it is missing a crucial component which I only realized when it was already too late. But more to that later. The thing is this big because I always send three dudes at once for the world record stuff and I don't like abusing service bays with command seats - also then it wouldn't have been possible to build these nice elevators - Kerbal goes in at the bottom and then simply transfers to the capsule on the very top. This is the transfer stage, the "pusher". Only 77 tons, also empty. It has RCS to maneuver for docking to the lander and eight Wolfhounds that yield something along 2700 dV iirc. I originally had planned to use only nuclears, but with the mass of the vehicle I was expecting horrible burn times. This one managed the Kerbin escape/Eve encounter burn in just over five minutes. Note also the Mk1-3 command pod and the nuclear engine in the middle. Those are for the return stage. After assembly in orbit I had to do a few refueling flights. IGNITION! Let's go have a rendezvous with Eve! After a journey of almost a year (I don't care for transfer windows or any of that nerd excrements) finally in an orbit around Eve in about 195 km height. Here, the return stage was jettisoned and the Command pod put in the front. The original idea was that it would be more stable, but I could just have used more struts. Also since I had to do adjustments before descent, but not knowing how much dV I would have ACTUALLY left after ascent, I didn't want it to park in a higher orbit, so I transferred some of the fuel in the big stage between the return and lander to the lander and fired up the Vectors - which of course yielded much less dV than it would have otherwise. That was my first big oversight that became apparent to me. But it gets worse. Descent went as smooth as a criminal. NOTHING in this mission has worked as well as the descent and landing. After landing I set up the ground science, did experiments and set up flags. This was where I cheated for the first time: Because walking up a hill apparently makes Kerbals walk into the hill and eventually die. Glad I could quicksave Jeb. After that I was a bit mad and just hacked gravity and used the jetpack. TAKE THAT GAME! Next I realized my second, much, much worse mistake: NOT BRINGING RADIATORS. Especially on Eve, mining crawled to almost a halt. That way it would take DECADES to fill up. I fought my dark side, but in the end it won. Infinite fuel and ISRU filled up the lander in only a few days (or even hours? Doesn't matter). I am still feeling a bit bad about it, but I would probably feel bad too. You can make or make not a mistake and still fail, that's Kerbal life. Eventually I was ready for liftoff. Mining equipment and science stuff under the lander was jettisoned and I was ready to go. Nine Vectors pushing the thing upwards, one for each side tank and a cluster of 7 in the center stage. And that's totally the exhaust plume and not the sun, I swear! After separation of the side tanks. After losing the second stage, we're on the edge (of the atmosphere, that is). Third stage also has a vector. For the insertion burn, the last stage used a Cheetah. And here is the last stage ready for docking with the return vehicle. Done! After transferring science and crew, the ascent stage was left in orbit. Now the return stage is awaiting the transfer window to finally bring them home (Now I have to wait because Eve is in such a excrementsty place right now that I would need like 6000 dV to get back and I only have around 2800). The transfer is scheduled for a point in time about 370 days ahead. Now I just have to wait for the Eve science to roll in! I have taken more pictures, but this post is already long enough as it is. If you are interested, you can check out the whole album: https://imgur.com/a/hBk05el

Wow, it seems like I got a totally wrong impression... But yeah, transfers SUCK, especially when you're like me a lazy, but impatient bum and don't want to wait a whole year for a transfer window.

I just built a vessel for six (6) Kerbals to take them on a quick interplanetary trip. Launched the vessel, got it into orbit, on a solar trajectory. Suddenly I noticed there were no crew portrays. I also couldn't revert or anything because I seem to have done something else (I did something on the side and was distracted). I go into the astronaut complex just to discover they had all died. Why? For some reason, when I launch in a command seat they will die instantly of oxygen deprivation, even on Kerbin. And I just missed that and launched an empty rocket. And I had been so proud of never losing anybody...

So, reading the forums, I noticed that many people say they suck at docking. For me, it's one of the easiest things (provided I constructed the docker properly), but I just can't land where I want, either with lander or plane, especially with landers. I don't even know why, I can do excellent ascents, rendezvous is no problem and I prefer doing it by myself, starting and flying a plane is also not hard, but for landing I usually let the Mechanical Jebediah handle it. But what do YOU suck at and why?

I am currently not even finished with first year in Career (have only come back a month or so ago, so I didn't remember how long a Kerbal year is and was a bit confused why I am still at year 1 on day 366), but from not warping much and doing lots of stuff inbetween I'm almost done with the tech tree; I have a probe on its way to Eve and I plan on establishing a Duna colony next. Do you people with decades ingame do one mission after another or do you do SO MUCH STUFF?

@Frank_G Very cute plane, looks awesome! @Zeiss Ikon I just googled the Bumblebee... holy excrements I can't believe it actually flies. And I definitely believe that it's not easy to fly.

Inspired by @Frank_G's suggestion I tried making an even smaller plane (at the expense of aesthetics, though). This one is just called Micro 1. It weighs a bit more than the Flyer 1 because it's now on a push-pull system with an RTG in order to eliminate any kind of torque-induced roll and be able to operate in the dark. With each motor using only 0.08 EC/s at full output, the RTG is even a bit overkill. At least now it can fit in a Mk3 cargo bay without problems. Note that the back propeller doesn't have a nosecone. That way one can add e.g. coupling devices. I know this is not the one from the top, but the dimensions haven't changed. And in flight! 1000 m ASL. Not visible on the pictures: The constant jittering of the autopilot. Since all controls surfaces are so close to each other, the plane is not easy to control. BUT IT'S FLYING!

Holy excrements, I've been playing KSP since 2013 and I have never once looked into the brake action group. I feel like a dumbass. Thank you, you did really help me. That other stuff - setting torque to main throttle - is exactly what I did right after I made that post (I was too lazy to edit). And pitch on translate is what I have been doing for the other planes like the P-38; the idea here was to have a slow fixed pitch plane so I only had to monitor one parameter. Haha, I think depending on what kind of carrier you are building you could just strap it somewhere on top/side. Foldable was something I experimented with, but even with KJR all the hinges and rotors are way too flimsy to be usable for stuff like that. So, no easily made folding wing/swing wing stuff.

Hello people, after getting the Breaking Ground update I was thrilled to finally be able to build stock propeller planes! Well, the hype quickly died because it's pretty roundabout flying that stuff. So after making larger propeller planes and a P-38 replica that was actually flying pretty well (but with constant pitch adjustment), I decided to go simple and make very small planes that don't need THAT much input. So I started by trying to replicate the Wright Flyers. Didn't work out as planned, I had to kerbalize it a lot. Also it still had too many parts (over 40!). Then I discovered an older jet design and just adapted that for propellers. And this is what happened: It doesn't even have a name besides "Flyer 1". It is a fully functional plane, reduced to the essential parts (and one extra). As you can see, it weighs only 622 kg and most of it are the wings/control surfaces. That is when I realized wings on Kerbin are made of rebar steel. Anyhow, I don't think I can go lighter without sacrificing aesthetics too much, (of course if someone has already made an even lighter craft, please tell me!). It has only 22 parts and all of them are necessary, except for maybe the solar panel on the top (visible in the picture below), because even without it the plane can fly around 1000 s, as the motor at 5 % output only uses up 80 mEC/s. And that is still enough to accelerate to around 54 m/s in level flight at 100-300 m. I haven't tried going higher yet, this thing is just for quickly jumping around. The other part that some might or might not consider necessary is the antenna, but I feel one belongs on every plane. What I haven't solved yet is the motor braking when I hit the brakes. I tried setting it to 0, but it still locks. Anybody know of a way to decouple it from the regular brake? I already have to kill the motor in flight and then brake so I don't get hit by the momentum when I have touched down. Also, it would be great to be able to set the torque/rpm in an action group without having to use the controller. Maybe it's a bug, but when I am using "absolute" in the custom field, it starts at 50 % and then pushing buttons makes it either 100 or 0. And here it is in flight! I haven't made a picture from a landed one because with keyboard landing is extremely difficult and I still don't manage to nail it every time. I have to work on my skills.... and maybe connect a joystick again. Still flies like a charm (as much as the game allows). Of course the torque of the motor is still enough to give it a slight right roll, but I can trim it out mostly. And by default it's climbing under acceleration, so I even have to trim the pitch down. And landed! Also, feel free to talk about your microplanes!

On imgur? I already got a comment there. And here I pasted the album code into the form. Anyways, here's the link: https://imgur.com/a/R02qP9s

I just want to post an imgur album. I used the album post function, but it doesn't seem to work.

Good day. Since there is an official VTOL thread, but no dedicated STOL thread (or at least not a more recent one, or me not looking hard enough), I thought it would be nice to discuss small, cute planes that can take off and land at low speeds. Mainly because in the last days, I tinkered a bit with these kind of planes. Some of you might know the Fieseler "Storch", a plane used by the Luftwaffe in WW2 as recon machine and by many other organizations since then because it can take off at around 50 km/h (which is like 16-17 m/s) and land at zero with wind blowing against it. I tried building a similar small and light plane and got this "glider" from it. It takes off by itself at almost exactly 30 m/s, has a range of around 270 km (triple that with drop tanks), a top speed of around 135 m/s if you go all out at a height of around 7 km (didn't try going higher) and has very calm and forgiving flight characteristics. It is basically 100% "stock", I just used the struts from Ven's Stock Part Revamp to lower part count (I once made a similar ultralight SSTO with around 40 of the cubic struts). Also, I realized how ugly the stock wings are and how lacking they are in every regard. The second one is basically just a turbine with canards. It can take off at around 12 m/s, but flying it requires a steady hand. https://imgur.com/a/R02qP9s Feel free to post and discuss your creations.

Okay, well, love me, I found the mistake. Check the comment in the faulty patch $PART[dockingPort1] { %name = stageshield %node_stack_top = 0.0, 0.2828832, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1 %title = SSDP %description = Invented after a peaceful protest against the lack of spacecraft attachment systems turned violent, the Clamp-O-Tron Docking Port allows for the firm attachment of two separate vessels. After docking, vessels can be just as easily undocked. The Shielded version has deployable fins to protect the port during ascent. This one is also stageable. %attachRules = 1,1,1,1,0 %MODULE[ModuleDockingNode] { %referenceAttachNode = top !staged = False { //WHY IS THIS OPEN?!?!??! } Yeah, so it was just an open bracket instead of a closed one. With a closed one it works as it should. I really hate programming of any kind. Anyways, for the other problem, I was thinking of maybe having the shielded docking port open by default. Don't how how I will do this now, though.