Mechtech

thingsthis mod has done for me: good LORD that thing's so much more stable without ports.

actually, many of my Snowflake designs don't even need the struts to be flyable, but the strut setup is responsible for the line's rock-steady stability. the key here is the lines from the tops of the outer boosters to the payload and the ones just above the wingfins, which keep the vertical torque manageable, while the lines between the outer boosters keep them from 'flopping' during corrective maneuvers with the flaps. this system (albiet with more struts and the use of KW's Medium and Heavy struts) is effective all the way up to 5m formfactor. it's really quite something to stick a complete space station onto one of those things and launch it in one go. I've used these to launch everything from teeny probes with a 1.25 formfactor to single-launch Jool missions stuck on 5m boosters. definitely one of my 'go-to' solutions.

I use these things enough that I felt it was time to sit down and codify 'em for future use... and so other people can use 'em. now this series was first made WAY back in the old days when KW was yet young, and was inspired by some of the historical test rockets from the dawn of rocketry. this is a typical arrangement- for a mediumweight lifter. the wide thrust-base and finwings give the Snowflake series superb stability even at high speed or with awkwardly-shaped payloads. while the above booster is a solid piece due to using engines that all run out of fuel at around the same time, and further is strictly a solid-fuel booster, other variants including lighter lifters, heavy lifters, LF and mixed LF/Solid models, arrangements that jettison the wing-fins or the outer boosters, and so on exist. I most commonly create these as medium-weight lifters for ships with minimal computer support- snowflakes are not easy to do gravity turns with. generally, one should expend the entire booster as a first-stage going straight up, then utilize upper-stage engines to do high-angle circulation burns. the above booster, for example, gave my payload (a Soyez-esk orbiter with a -stays-in-orbit service section/satellite) an apothisis of ~125km, though that dropped to the high nineties during circularization due to Pilot Error (I didn't start the burn soon enough.) typically, one expends the booster and sometimes a second-stage ascent engine, then burns at 80-90° to circularize. craft files (and pretty pictures) will be forthcoming as soon as I figure out this Kerbal-X thing and have a few hours to fiddle with Sandbox. in the meantime, the above image should be sufficient guide for building your own if you don't want to wait on me..

ah. well, while I AM heavily modded, both Cryorockets and this mod's cryo tanks are replacing all LFO tank fuels with just the cryotank settings. I haven't tried them both at once (actually, I should do that at some point for testing reasons) but simply removing the Cryotanks folder solves the problem so clearly something in its configs is buggered.

support for Sandbox and Science experience now that it's actually supported in stock would be nice. but otherwise, other than the naming bit, this is a pretty mature plugin that does exactly what most people DL it for.

that hotfix would not, perchance, relate to how the Cryotanks break every other fuel tank in the game when installed, would it? having all my LFO tanks suddenly stop having fuel in them makes rocketry a tad difficult.

I'd just like to go on record as saying I've always vastly preferred this to the stock system, and that hasn't changed just because I can cheat around it now. thank you for this.

are you updated to 1.1.2? both the 1.1.x updates had bugfixes related to the new wheel system (which is also used by landing legs) and many of the older mods haven't updated to the new system yet (which inevitably causes explosions) so yeah. if you're having that problem even with stock and updates... well then you should grab your output logs and file a bug report.

a little something for you: I really do love that 'space Bus' look.

Jeb's log: mission day 118.5: We set off from Minmus Base early in the morning so as to make the hard climb over Mt. Sundae with full light- a decision made due to the fact that we weren't sure how Intrepid would handle the steep slopes awaiting us. we made good time across the flats, reaching the base of the mountain near mid-morning. there was some debate as to our approach, but Val made a good argument to climb the eastern face of a lesser peak, Neapolitan Ridge, before tackling Sundae itself, so we drove to the base there. We had some initial trouble once we actually hit the slopes that necessitated some use of RCS to control, and poor Bill had to get out and fix a tire that blew out for reasons undetermined- I suspect poor assembly is to blame. However, once the tire was fixed and we set out properly, Intrepid had no difficulty scaling even the steep sides of Neapolitan's eastern face: We stopped for an early lunch at the peak, took the time to plant a flag. Bob took this picture of myself and Val standing next to our marker flag. We'll be heading up the slope in about half an hour, Bill wanted to have a go-round check on the tires and suspension after the climb, just to be on the safe side- a sentiment I happen to agree with. another blown tire could spell disaster on Sundae's unforgiving slopes, especially given the extra weight of the trailer. I'm off to help Bill while Val and Bob run system-checks. should have more log time once we get to the peak.

actually, speaking of the seismic hammer, something I've been having a devil of a time figuring out- how is the Science for that calced? it doesn't seem to be purely distance, and it's not number of sensors (some of my test rigs at the KSC have been... extreme) and frankly I'm getting 40% at best most of the time no matter if I fly a ridiculous hovercrane dropping a pod every three feet or if I just stick four of 'em onto a lander and decouple 'em when I land. so, really, what's the optimal arrangement of sensor pods? in terms of numbers, distribution/distance, and so on.

Day Zero Jeb's log, mission day 118: Well, today's the day. the base is set up, the rover's built, and it looks to be a beautiful day here on Minmus. We'll be setting off up the side of Mt. Sundae to look at Site B in a few hours, and I took the time to take a coupe of vanity pictures before we head out. She's certainly a pretty sight. we've christened her Intrepid in hopes prophetic naming. the others (save Val and myself) are already aboard, running final systems checks. hauling that trailer up the mountain's going to be interesting, wouldn't be surprised if we loose it a few times. oh well. Here's Val with our starter flag- we're about to board for the trip, just doing a quick check on inventory- wouldn't do to forget to pack something, after all. ah well, Val's starting to get that 'get-on-with-it' expression, so I'll just finish this log and saddle up. gonna be a long trip. ~~~~~~~ A/n: please do comment. particularly on the HEER.

*playing Recording....* "Circularization complete! Are you read for this guys?" "Born ready, Jeb. alright, Pathfinder will drop first, followed by Dragonfly one and two. we'll let the warehouse land last, I for one cannot WAIT to be out of microgravity." "Feeling the burn already Val?" "no, I just prefer my drinks to stay in the bottles, not attempt to escape through the straw." "alright you two, cut the chatter. Mind, you ready to land that tin can?" "Yes sir!" "detaching now... good, good... we are clear. panels deployed. inputting final co-ordenates into landing computer..." "go baby go!" "commencing deorbit bur-" *CRRRAAANGKCH* "THE HELL WAS THAT?" "No damage, no damage, dragonfly two, check hull integrity" "gods and deamons that's one hell of a dent! what the hell hit us?" "this is Pathfinder, we've lost panel two. please confirm not a computer failure, over." "loveing hell pathfinder! I found your damn panel, it's floating two feet from my godsdamned window!" "Kriffing- okay, motion to keep Mind from driving anything else ever?" "Seconded." "Thirded!" "yeah, yeah, computer errors are obviously the fault of the shmoe in charge of putting a number into a box..." ~~~ "Pathfinder now commencing final insertion- fuel looks good, target difference only five meters estimate." "Breaking burn steady... fuel consumption within acceptable peramiters." "on final approach now... steady... steady... one hundred meters and falling...." "almost there...." "TOUCHDOWN!" "Pathfinder down. site looks good, nice and level. waiting on you Dragonfly." "Confirm that, Dragonfly one decoupling now..." "Dragonfly-1 away! Deorbit burn in three minutes, hold on to your socks!" "A night landing Jeb? you sure?" "Damn straight! not like it'll be the first time, remember Poineer-7?" "I thought we agreed never to speak about that again?" "Ha! as if-" ~~~ "oh gods, oh gods-" "for Kerm's sake Bob, quit panicking. this thing's a pig, but it does have a lot of toys the old Pioneer rig never did, and you know I've landed those things under far worse conditions than just a lack of light." "DON'T REMIND ME!" "Wuss." ~~~~ "see, wha'd I tell ya. safe and sound. Bob? Bob? oh great, he's passed out again. Dragonfly-1 to Dragonfly-2, come in, you awake up there Val?" "You bet! my turn now?" "you bet. just don't forget to preprogram the warehouse before you leave!" "No sweat. Bill fixed it up while I took a nap to be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for this." "alright then. comeon down, the ice-cream's fine!" ~~~ "on approach, systems look good. Dragonfly-2 is go for breaking burn." "handles like a dream- nice and steady. I'm glad we convinced command to spring for the four-engine model, the triple was a little sluggish for my tastes." "Aaand- DOWN! right, the warehouse should be right behind us. Bill,what's the telemetry feed look like?" "Looks good Val. she's a little lighter on fuel than I'd prefer, but everything seems to be within tolerance. should set down within five-hundred meters." ~~~ "you know, 'within 500 meters' looked so much smaller on paper." "MIND! you're on shlepping duty! have fun!" "Aw man..." ~~~ "Minmus Base to KSC, Minmus Base to KSC, come in. you getting our data feed?" "Copy that, Minmus Base. Break out the beers, you're done for now!" ~Prologue complete~

ditto- I'm annoyed because the spontaneous cloning bug is back, so I'm having to play musical versions every time I want to board something without it fracking up. sounds like you introduced a check of some kind into the latest version that's bugged- suggest rolling back any new features then fixing know bugs from prior version without adding any new systems, then throw us a test build. it sounds like the mass check is hella broken for a lot of people and having issues with something used by lots of people.

actually on that note, can at some point we get options to automatically transmit all science (highly useful for, say, the Dmagic parts, many of which can transmit with no loss, or if you've patched the simple stock experments (the barometer, thermometer, siesometer and gravoli detector) to transmit at 100%) and an option to dump things into a lab automatically? I know I'm fond of building mobile 'Science rovers' that can be landed or built in-situ near 3-4 biomes with a bunch of Science stuff tacked on for relatively hassle-free lab setup. mainly that transmitter though- even with a filter for 'transmit all' and 'transmit only lossless' (IE, do everything, goo, Jr.s, whatever, or only the ones that don't benifit from recovery like the Dmagic Magnetometer or Laser scanner)

~~Sixteen Months Later~~ "KSC to Seeker-1, KSC to Seeker-1, report status, over." "We read you five-by-five Gene. Jeb got the second Dragonfly docked just in time. we are full-fuel and ready to go; over." "Rodger that Seeker. you are T-minus thirty minutes to transfer burn, recommend alignment maneuvers at this time, over." "Copy that. beginning alignment for transfer burn in T-minus thirty. over." ~~~ "KSC to Seeker-1, KSC to Seeker-1, report status, over." "Just finishing the last maneuver here- there we go. we are fully aligned for transfer KSC. estimate burn in T-minus two minutes, confirm that please KSC, over." "Confirm that Seeker. commence burn in T-minus two minutes, over." "Seeker-1 to KSC, Seeker-1 to KSC, we are go for burn. firing main engines now. over." "copy that Seeker. all systems reading green. good luck out there." "Sweet Kerm, don't let me love this up. main engines, full thrust!" "Phew! Seeker-1 to KSC, orbital transfer burn complete, confirm trajectory status, over." "Seeker-1, KSC. trajectory is spot-on, nice work Jeb. you are go for Minmus intercept in T-minus eight days, three hours. You'll pass out of real-time transmission range soon, so you're on your own until you get the ground station set up except for dire emergencies. KSC, out." "Rodger that KSC. See you in a couple weeks. Seeker-1, out."

I just would like to say thank you for your work on this mod so far, and I eagerly await its return for 1.1+. while ShipManifest out of Realism mode can sort-of emulate this mod's functions well enough that I can live without it, doing so is somewhat irritating and definitely not as streamlined and seamless as this mod. thank you again for all your hard work.

well, the fortunate thing about the license on this is, after all, that it's sufficiently permissive as to allow a level of maintenance by the community. it would, however, help if @TurboNisu could drop by the next time he's on the forum and give the okay to update the models that need changing (insofar as I know, only the landing gear needs it,) in order to continue to have this in KSP... or even update himself, I certainly think we've adequately proven we like his work enough to do what we can to keep it running in his absence!

as someone who is also very fond of this mod (those little landing legs are so godsdamn useful for all kind of things, and the trusses and spherical tank (made via two of the X200-6Rs) have been staples of my off-planet design for some time. I'd very much like it if the pack could continue.... perhaps @TurboNisu could enlighten us on his status and/or give his official blessing to update the models as needed? I'd hate to see all that hard work fade into obscurity like several other of my favorite mods over the years.

downloaded instantly for those giant lander legs alone. Finally something I can use for KIS-Cable lightpoles that won't look completely silly! and that teeny ISRU has been something my RCS-equipped rovers have been longing for for ages. resupply RCS in the field without having to drag several tons of 2.5m ISRU with me everywhere? yes please! oh and a better landing gear setup for my gigantohooj Stardragon line I guess. MOAR DRILLS is always good too.

well, you could use KW itself (KW Redux is the current, community-maintained version) and I've heard good things about SpaceY. Lack's stock extension also has a rather nice N-1 replica set as well as a variety of 5m tanks. I'd strongly recommend acquiring Mechjeb if you aren't using it already, even without using its more advanced functions I've found its Smart-ASAS vastly better than stock. as for graphical enhancements, there are several nice mods on that front poking around the forum. I recommend starting Here, though be aware it does not seem to be particularly well-maintained as a significant number of major mods are missing; but it is a good place to start.

Hey @Nils277, reading around on some of the other mods I follow may have revealed the source to the 'can't get in the ship' bug- namely, apparently the recent updates kriffed up the Mesh colliders, so if your airlock doors are using them that's likely the problem. box colliders seem to be causing less problems all around now, so you may want to use those for the airlocks if you aren't already. otherwise, I have no idea.

neat. I've put up a start to things here (no pictures as yet, just a bit of story and the mission proposal, as well as a map of the planned route)

Proposed route of HEER rover (subject to change)

ahh, so that's what the culprit was! I'll hold off on reinstalling then, the exploding was frustrating but solvable (I stuck 'em on KIS pylons and used EPL to build 'em with Survey stakes) but accidentally-ing the Science is a bit of a bigger problem.