Dafni

A joystick definitely made KSP more fun for me. I cannot commend on the model you have in mind, but if you find one that works it will be awesome. Especially for docking, EVA and landing maneuvers. Ever since I got a joystick I got heavily into landers dropships and VTOLs and I fell in love with KSP all over again. I could never go back to keyboard, just because of the throttle alone.

I can relate to this.

What did it for me was getting a joystick and then getting into landers, VTOLs, dropships etc... practicing precise flying, exploring planets (including Kerbin) in sandbox, building simple motherships for those lovely landers you find here and then finally building my own more serious stuff again, landers of course but yeah, really the trigger was the joystick.

I live in a rural area and this is one of the reasons. Sometimes I long for even less light pollution, like in the dessert. But I guess I can call myself lucky. The nightsky has always fascinated me, I could not imagine living in a city for more than a couple weeks.

Yes, that. Cupcake never ceases to amaze me. Plus the amazing flying skills too. Grab a Mork, take it to the mountains somewhere, and try to reproduce some of Cupcakes flying... it really is not as easy as it looks. Personally I feel my flying skills improved a lot over the last couple months, ever since I took up the Cupcake way of playing KSP. But then he releases a new video, maybe featuring some fancy docking or something, I go and try to reproduce it and it puts me right back in my place. And then of course the designs in itself. I said it before, if I hadn't met Cupcake and his creations on here I am sure I would have lost interest in KSP by now. He and his designs taught me a lot about this game and made it really really fun for me. Stock dropships all the way!

The first wise king brings us an upgraded Von Braun Station

MechJeb. That's just a custom MJ window. Very handy

Today I did some high speed VTOLing at Tylo, my first time at that place. Check the numbers Gotta love Tylos 0.8g and lack of atmosphere. It´s also my first fully refined Cupcake tribute craft, approved by the man himself Daf

My first time in this neighborhood BTW, the link to the retired ships seems to be broken

Nice video. That docking was textbook, eh?!

oh, its just a hidden part... man, why haven´t I thought of that. Thank you, many things make sense now. I´m using the no offset mod and the editor extensions since a few weeks now, great stuff.

do you have a tutorial for this trick? I seem to remember talk about this. thanks

Some more "replicas" ... or a homage even. that design layout is a classic and should never die, right? I call them PanCake 1 and 2 , somehow I like the one with one center tank a bit better. all that is missing now are the dop docking ports for the control option and maybe an additional RCS tank each. those aerospikes are nice for some KSC flying, but I´m sure for vacuum flying there are better options. cheers -Daf

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Ram_Air_Intake it's still there, it just looks and acts different, like so many KSP stock parts.

Below 10m and above 100m/s is where the fun starts

I love KSP and ever since I joined the forum I love it even more. It is an awesome game and a great community here. Happy holidays each and all, and many thanks to the dev team for making this game and keeping working on it too.

You are right, of course. It becomes a problem towards the end of the fuel. This was just the best design I could come up with that doesn't look completely silly and maintains a "balance" for as long as possible. The smaller tank at the back was initially meant for transferring fuel around, but it's hard to see the COM in mid flight. Too much hassle to bother really. All the symmetrical designs I did looked somehow wrong with the command seat etc Now that I look at it again I am thinking maybe re-center the outrigger tanks, replace the reaction wheel with a small tank and put the seat on that. Balance it with the reaction wheel clipped away somewhere. Like I said, a mockery at best, but I'm working on those design skills and those little PuffPuff imitations taught me a lot about dropship characteristics already.

I hear you. It is indeed quite refreshing when you can talk the space talk without having to explain very basic stuff first.

Another mockery in the face of the original. Its basically a boiled down PuffPuff, no structural parts at all. I´m pretty happy with it, almost perfectly balanced right now, just the RCS is giving me a hard time to get perfect.

Thank you! Yeah, dropships are cool indeed. I never posted a craft file, but I could indeed release the Crusader on here. It needs some more polishing though. Some minor things I want to change. BTW, make that 4 launches (not all were pictured, but I mentioned them at the beginning) and 10 kerbals (8 scientists plus Val and Bill). cheers Daf

That is very true indeed, and something I appreciate a lot.

Let me guess, and then it expolded?

it goes on (maybe somebody can merge the posts?) The base completed in munar orbit! Now enter Valentina and hear heavy duty dropship, the Crusader Crusader docking to the base assembly Docked! And looking good. Now the crew can get some snacks and some well deserved rest in munar orbit After a quick nap Bill has to jump out to go scouting for a landing site. The orbit is adjusted, some fuel transfer and the insertion stage is decoupled. Bill is descending towards the surface, looking for a convenient landing site. After doing his job he goes for a bit of a joyride. He enjoys cruising around close to the surface at a lazy 100m/s, what great fun this little dropship is. Meanwhile Valentina is descending the base, mindful of the fuel she goes for the conservative approach. Landed! With his last few drops of fuel, Bill returns to the landing site for the big meet-up at the crusaders base There they are, crusading Now they get to work, taking samples, checking the base. Bill removes all the docking ports and strut connectors and suchlike The finished crusaders base, in all its glory The scientists are hard at work now, and I wish I could say Bill and Val are on their trip home, but alas, they are waiting for a rescue mission to bring them fuel for their dropships, or better yet a ISRU unit... but that is another story. Hope you enjoyed reading my little mission

Okay then, here´s my entry for the Munar Crusade. The mission plan was simple enough, assemble a surface base in munar orbit and land it in one piece. We assigned Bill for the enigneering work and Valentina to pilot the heavy lander. Plus 8 scientists to crew the base. All the orbital tug work as well as some scouting was done by Bill in his somewhat aged version of the PuffPuff, originally by @Cupcake... The heavy dropship I built for this mission was obviously also inspired by him. I used the Kerbal Planetary Base mod, KIS/KAS to remove some docking ports, and MechJeb. I use MJ strictly for the numbers, no autopiloting at all. All maneuvers are done manually. The mission consisted of four launches: 1) two habitat elements and some crew 2) a lab and a greenhouse 3) the center section of the base and some crew, as well as Bill and his trusty old PuffPuff dropship 4) Valentina and her heavy-duty dropship. In the VAB the payloads look like this Strapped on top of the insanely overpowered Herkules III lifter. Why save on fuel, right? A typical launch, nothing special This is Bill and his cargo getting to orbit Here we have Valentina and her dropship on the pad Bill and his cargo arriving at the Mun. The lifter was indeed so overpowered, the orbital insertion stage lasted all the way to the Mun The 2 hab modules arrive at the meeting point in munar orbit Bill EVAs into his PuffPuff (sorry no pics) and immediately gets to work, ferrying the modules over and docking them to the center piece. My favorite part of the mission. The PuffPuff makes it so easy and fun, thank you @Cupcake... The lab and the greenhouse arrived, this time the meeting was in lower orbit. Bill gets to work again, assembling the base. to be continued