Slam_Jones

I got a similar idea yesterday, as well. After crashing the D-3Contructor, Mission Control on Kerbin decided to make some changes. Now, it's VTOL for all! The first contender was the D-4 Skimmer transport plane, which can now take-off and land with incredible precision. No more "finally coming to a stop 2km past the base," no sir! Uses two Infernal Robotics rototron, for the two propellors, and can acheive much higher speed than the last model. Here it is, hanging out in front of Duna City.

Working on trying to make more impressive-looking Duna cities. Can't go too big, or the lag gets really real.

My first attempt at a religious institution. I call it, the Temple to Kerpollo. Looks smaller than I'd hoped :\ Might need a re-do.

Absolutely. It makes everything so much simpler and less bug-prone than using the claw, and much, MUCH simpler than docking ports (for surface bases, at least).

Awesome! Just wanna say, I was here way before it was cool. Not that I'm cool, just... never mind. Anyways, grats to Fengist!

Is it possible to reverse the magnetic values of docking ports, and arrange them to launch another docking port at high speed? Closest to a railgun that I can think of, sans mods.

Indeed, I could have easily gone smaller. I actually Tweakscaled the one you see to make it bigger It just looks silly with tiny little blades. Basically trying to find a good compromise between "looks good" and "actually works." The one you see above falls much further into the second category, in that it works on Duna and Kerbin, but looks like... well you can see it. The one below is only in the first (it looks awesome, and works on Kerbin... it just fails to produce ANY thrust on Duna :\ ), so I may have to edit the cfgs a bit.

Lol, at first the Kerbals were very, very careful around the rotors. But after being on Duna for nearly 6 years, they've gotten a little careless It's like they think they're immortal! I think that prop is low enough that when it's off, one of the blades clips thru the pilot's helmet Used this one because the pretty one doesn't work on Duna... yet.

Built my first truly successful Duna Chopper:

A couple bases built on Duna: KSC3 (This was actually the only one launched from Kerbin. It contains modules that allow it to build and launch new vessels from wherever it is. Pics show it in orbit, just after landing, and after setting up camp. I should also point out that everything you see besides the original craft was built in-situ on Duna, using locally-mined resources) Polar Research Station Outposts 1-1A && 2-1A Duna City

Ha! I do this all the time. Going on a smoke break? Taking my clipboard and pen with me. PC is down? Clipboard and pen. At this point, I've probably got 100+ pages scattered about with different drawings of spaceships, bases, lists of modules, plans, etc etc etc I find it really great way to get ideas a little more fleshed out, and it's always nice to review a few times, and think of improvements and such.

Personally, I've been really enjoying colonizing Duna. I'm using (among others) the Extraplanetary Launchpad mod, so I can use this to build using on-site resources. It makes expansion much, much quicker than sending every new vessel/building from Kerbin. Duna City Polar Research Station KSC3 Outpost 1-1A Outpost 2-1A

Broke ground on the largest project we've done on Duna yet: Duna City. It was intended to be the largest city on Duna, but we ran into some structural problems when testing it on Kerbin, and as such we had to reduce its size a bit. Since it was such a big project, we had to design a new workshop (to be built on-site, like the tanks) to speed up build time significantly. With the workshop, building the Farm dome and the Hab Arm (with all attached houses) only took about 3 days. Without, it would have taken months. Since it wasn't big enough yet, we next built a Biodome with a couple houses inside it. Once it was built, we sent Nelly in to walk around and make sure all was well. It was. Once we had the new Biodome in place, we started installing another little "neighborhood," which involves a large central stack of apartments, surrounded by smaller apartment buildings. At 200+ parts, the lag is starting to get a little much, so this may be the size limit for my current PC. I'm still thinking of other ways to have a city that can be described as both "sprawling" and "low-part-count." Maybe one day... Edit: Come to think of it, I think the 200+ part count also includes the D-3 Constructor plane (which accounts for likely almost half of that), so there may be hope after all! Another edit: I was so excited about Duna City, I forgot to post the Polar Research station: And one last pic, because I like biome transitions:

The kolonization of Duna is underway. So far, I'm up to 6 bases, all built from one original landing. (No MechJeb, HyperEdit, etc.) Still need names for two of the outposts... any ideas?

To be honest, I thought the thread title was "Thugs are beautiful", and expected some amusing pics of gangsters wearing sundresses or something. But this works too.

I might incorporate some VTOL-style props to at least help it get up quicker. It's already a little unfriendly towards part count, so I'm still thinking how to do it best... Might need another part pack for more props. Currently my KSP addiction is fighting my WoW addiction. And winning!

Ty! Devoid of Rocket Parts and Ore (as I usually aim to be before taking off), it's just under 30 tons. Take-off and landing are very tricky, since I've yet to find a perfectly flat area. It's usually able to get off the ground once it hits 60m/s, which can be accomplished in... idk 400 meters? It's honestly not very quick to lift off, which makes it kinda scary to work with :| Landing is worse... trying to stick it while the terrain is constantly going up and down is a little unnerving, but I've only messed up once or twice. A chute can help a lot. Theoretically, I could try to build a runway to land it on, but it's really designed to land in a random field, and then turn that field into a town. If I were a Kerbal on Duna, I'd probably rather not sign up to crew that plane, to be honest

I purposefully try to cull the numbers whenever possible. When I first started playing, I would let it get up to 20+, but nowadays I try to keep it less than 10. My biggest save (Duna Kolony) is currently at 6. Without KAS to connect bases together, it'd be more like... well 20 or so.

Continuing with my Duna "Kolonization" (sort of). My first D-3 Cobnstructor ended up developing issues with building new vessels, possibly due to the incredibly abrasive Duna sand. We ended up modifying the design to reduce or eliminate the issues that had been bothering us so far. With a larger wing area, more solar panels, and more structurally sound design, the new D-3 should be able to get the job done as well as (if not better than) the model it's replacing. Once it was built at KSC3, Jeb hopped in and flew it to the landing site of the (soon-to-be) former D-3. Also, we performed a few tests to see the maximum operable ceiling for the D-3, it we were able to run smoothly up to 14km. The atmosphere starts to dissipate quickly beyond 10km, and while we may be able to get it higher, there seems to be no practical reason, other than incredibly long journeys. Original on the right, new version on the left Despite being newer, the D-3 still take considerably longer than KSC3 to build new vessels. While KSC3 can turn a pile of dirt into a plane within a few hours, it will take the crew of the D-3 about a week to accomplish the same task. Building a multi-vessel base often takes upwards of a month on-site. With the new Constructor built and tested, we set about building a few new outposts. The first was a simple civilian base with a relay station attached, about 70km from Burgstein (another outpost). After that, another outpost was built, again about 70km from the previous one. This outpost included a newly designed observation tower. Following in this vein, we are looking into other tall, asymmetric buildings in order to make everything look a little less boring. Finally, we turned northward and headed towards to polar ice caps, where we plan to build a massive research station. We're still going through logistics, but it will likely require the crew of the D-3 to build three(!) large tanks for Rocket Part storage at the site, before finally building the base itself. (For reference, every other base I've built so far needed no more than 1 tank). While the tower (above) looks tall, the main spire of the science base should be at least 2 - 3 times as tall. Also, while flying northwards, we realized several of the large wing-bound solar panels were broken. Apparently, they're not really designed to be walked on, or they crack like... like something that cracks far too easily. Another design feature to consider for future versions.

Just make sure you're not aerocapturing on Laythe going the wrong direction... you'll be going about 7km/s, which is basically instant explosion (if coming directly from Kerbin, at least).

Basically, only so many contracts can exist at once. Whether this is an adjustable value or not, I don't know. The amount of contracts you can accept is unlimited, but that doesn't mean there will be unlimited contracts generated. You will still have to complete at least one to have another appear. I think the number available is based off reputation... or is that just contract level?

The hut is, I believe, the Large House from Civilian Population mod. Most of my bases look boring, so I figure a few of those buildings will make it look nicer. Only thing I added was the dome on top, using Procedural Parts with a (sort of) matching texture. Also going to build a few biodomes (the best looking of all, IMO, for off-world bases) when I get the chance.

^^ On that note, here's a short little tutorial I put together to post pictures (once your account is set up): Log in and hover over your name. When the box drops down, click Images If you haven't uploaded any pics yet, you can drag and drop them onto the page itself to upload, or click the Upload button at the top Once it's uploaded, click on it, then copy and paste the appropriate code. Most forums (including this one) use BBCode. Hope that helps!

A site many of us on the forums use is Imgur. Easy to make an account, easy to upload, easy to post