Psycho_zs

I've updated my RCS classification. Now it is based on two box variants for spaceships and 'collapsed' box for spaceplanes. 5-way goes to spaceplane category and has double punch along the collapsed plane. There may be some overlaps, this depends on whether block base model is direction-agnostic, or realistic (with pronounced attachment details).

Yep

Yep, using FAR.

That's for solar powered ship. They are enough for drills and ISRU.

Another idea: passable inline RCS modules - like those already in the pack, but with hatch in place of tank.

A ship with 10 drills, ISRU, 4 Jumbos, 4 Poodles, 1 Garnet and 9 XR-300 radiators or 8 Gigantors and 4 medium stock radiators. I have a slight suspicion that putting drills and ISRU in actual use may have some part in provoking the problem. Land on Mun or Minmus, deploy everything, start reactor, drill, fill up the tanks, retract everything, shutdown reactor, fly into orbit, forget about the ship for a day, return.

I too used to make a 3-way block out of 2-way corner + 1-way nozzle. In the end I just stuck them on small cubic girder and made a subassembly.

+1

@Nertea, would you please recheck offline reactor's behavior in analytic mode? I have two more or less similar mining crafts, one with Garnet reactor, the other is on solar power. Even if the reactor is offline, I still find the craft overheating when returning to it. And this does not happen with the other craft. Same goes for offline reactor producing power on high warp.

Auto changing reference is also very annoying! You're launching into orbit to rendezvous with a station, holding prograde, everything is going smooth, and BAM! Navball switches to target mode and rocket decides not to go to space today.

+1 on this. It should be relatively simple to just decrease the speed of the craft at some point(s) when it zips through the atmosphere. I.e. at Pe and maybe at a couple of points between Pe and atmospheric boundary. The amount of speed change could depend on the altitude and 'drag' value which could be precalculated and saved while the ship is still in focus.

Another suggestion is to make docking angle snap actually snap, straighten the angle when docking occurs. It makes sense since docking ports have clamps that can not lock in arbitrary position, but can turn the ship into correct position while locking. You just need to hit reasonably close to correct angle.

IMHO, the best way ever to handle sounds is this: Make external sounds realistic, fade from normal at 1Atm to The Silence of Space (In Space!) + have muffled sounds for IVA + switchable to hear IVA sounds in external view. You would be able to enjoy the silence or hear what is going on on the ship from IVA perspective (without actually going IVA). ...or enjoy suspenseful sound of kerbal breath on EVA... ...heavy compressed sound on Eve's surface, like a bit underwater-y?

As I suggested in Persistent Rotation thread, I'll copy it here. Controls for Global, Sun and Planetary reference rotation could nicely fit with other pilot assistance modes controls: If PR would be made stock, this is how it can be presented in UI.

Side note: I hope you know that the power of RCS thrusters in KSP is calculated per nozzle, so 2-way blocks with 4 nozzles have 2x actual power.

I'll nag a bit, sorry. IMHO, Lander Cans are intended to be ugly, bulky, but lightweight contraptions. The fact that they do not fit well into stack presents a fun challenge. Also please do not forget that they do not have a bottom hatch by design as indicated by both part model an IVA model. Pretty nice textures, though! Hatch area could be stretched sideways a bit.

Would you consider putting rotation mode control as buttons near navball? Something like these:

I have an idea about heat shields... This shape could fit a lot of parts thanks to conical upper skirt. It would fit with capsules, it could properly cover bases of cylindrical parts (with their protruding handles like on storage can). It allows some margin of error, both in vertical placement and in part diameter.

Great mod! I really like the design of Mk1-2 capsule, although hatch placement contradicts RPM IVA props. Sharp edge at the bottom may be questionable, can break stuff and does not look very capsule-ish Stock capsule could fit well with some 1.25m parts attached below. Maybe this capsule could use a bottom shroud. Regarding Heat Shields: IMHO, shape change is too invasive. They are too and slim and shallow, barely cover anything and too detached. Stock shroud sucks and deserves to be replaced with something much more streamlined, but stock shields are perfectly OK and other stuff is made to fit with their shape.

It's just an application of prefabricated Hydrogen-NTR and Hydrogen-NTR-HighTemp plumes from RealPlume set. Perhaps, the set should be extended.

I do not have any data on IRL RCS mass. Anyway, it should probably be derived from stock values. Maybe something can be digged out of this doc, but it isn't searchable.

Some Real Plume experiments, just for LH2 mode, I do not know what to use for augmented: @PART[ntr-sc-125-1]:FOR[RealPlume]:NEEDS[SmokeScreen] // Neptune { PLUME { name = Hydrogen-NTR transformName = thrustTransform localRotation = 0,0,0 localPosition = 0,0,-1.3 fixedScale = 1.2 energy = 2 speed = 3 } @MODULE[ModuleEngines*]:HAS[#engineID[LH2]] { @name = ModuleEnginesFX %powerEffectName = Hydrogen-NTR !fxOffset = del } } @PART[ntr-sc-125-2]:FOR[RealPlume]:NEEDS[SmokeScreen] // Stubber { PLUME { name = Hydrogen-NTR transformName = thrustTransform localRotation = 0,0,0 localPosition = 0,0,-1.1 fixedScale = 0.95 energy = 1.5 speed = 2 } @MODULE[ModuleEngines*]:HAS[#engineID[LH2]] { @name = ModuleEnginesFX %powerEffectName = Hydrogen-NTR !fxOffset = del } } @PART[ntr-gc-25-1]:FOR[RealPlume]:NEEDS[SmokeScreen] // Liberator { PLUME { name = Hydrogen-NTR-HighTemp transformName = thrustTransform localRotation = 0,0,0 localPosition = 0,0,-2 fixedScale = 2.5 energy = 2.5 speed = 3 } @MODULE[ModuleEngines*] { @name = ModuleEnginesFX %powerEffectName = Hydrogen-NTR-HighTemp !fxOffset = del } } @PART[ntr-sc-25-1]:FOR[RealPlume]:NEEDS[SmokeScreen] // Poseidon { PLUME { name = Hydrogen-NTR transformName = thrustTransform localRotation = 0,0,0 localPosition = 0,0,-2.5 fixedScale = 2.5 energy = 2.5 speed = 2.5 } @MODULE[ModuleEngines*]:HAS[#engineID[LH2]] { @name = ModuleEnginesFX %powerEffectName = Hydrogen-NTR !fxOffset = del } }

IMHO, large RCS modules are too heavy. 400kg for something quite slim and about less than half a meter across is too much. It is comparable in size with stock 4-way which weights 50kg. Bigger nozzles could account for +100% mass. So lets assume, large module could weight 100kg, Medium module 100/(2^3)=12.5, round to 15. Small module 15/(2^3)=1.875, round to 2. That is for 3-nozzle blocks, you could add 25% for 4-nozzle (and subtract 25% for 2-nozzle if you add these). Compared to stock it could be called "efficient" and placed further in the tech tree.

I do not remember specifics now, it's something about 3.7Km/s dV and TWR 0.25 or 0.2. But it is currently hauling a small science station bound for near-Kerbin solar orbit. Maiden voyage. With this design it is possible to dock additional tanks at front, or change the whole propulsion modules. With Neptunes it is possible to dock oxidizer tanks and have a departure boost. It is also possible to dock one Liberator on a harness between rear ports, both TWR and dV would boost... I should have made those Neptunes detatchable...

Hell Yeah! Although not with the latest version, but here is my modular space-assembled Nova craft: http://imgur.com/a/5pcon Angle restrictions for OctoGirder ports, although not perfect, helped a lot! 'captureMinRollDot = 0.99995' should do fine for now. In one of the tests I was able to dock Liberator structural assembly to the back of two fuel modules. I'm planning to experiment with RealPlume for NTRs soon. KerbalEngineer is in test pack, is that intentional?