JadeOfMaar

Nostalgia. I did the exact same in KSP 1.3.1 sometime ago. But mine was a spaceplane and the rover had he tiniest wheels and rockets for jumping far.

I made a 200 ton SSTO (45 tons payload) to balance test the biggest of my new engines. They were rather underpowered but not anymore. The WarpJets compensate for fuel wastage due to the usual high drag of spaceplane parts but with LF Mk2 engines instead it can just barely make orbit. The tyranny of the rocket equation (and KSP's aero model) strikes. Different engine configuration. Operation NOX (no Oxidizer). The intercoolers' IntakeAir buffer is extremely effective for the OPT Shcramjet. This may work quite nicely in 2.5x if I ever need it. I developed this SSTO (Codneame "Hyperkerb C5" aka "Thicc Skylon") little more. It weighs 162 tons (30 tons payload) but drag is much less of a problem. It can escape Kerbin and clip Duna's SMA without OPT engines. ~ _~ And without using the aerospikes which are highly buffed by Thor Tech. It has clipped tanks for extra much-needed LF capacity but I replaced them with a Mk3 short LF tank and added some stock wing panels up front for some lift surface there. This is wonderful for 2.5x and maybe 3.2x scale, which I'm aiming for. Eat it, BFR lovers. Skylon rises!

Skylon™ Again™ (probably). Weighs about 100t including 15t payload. It steers very well and can possibly haul more to up to 150km... I finally thought to put airbrakes on its sides to help deal with the tweakscaled nose (actually a tail cone) and its low heat tolerance and therefore the need for a very shallow and rather long reentry slope. The propulsion system is an all-new mod, designed to fill the gaps left by the stock RAPIER and to vanquish the demon that is the "RAPIER Cluster."

Zoomed out, your glowing engines resemble a Thargoid from Elite: Dangerous. Well done, man. And the Thargoid pic I just looked up becomes my new wallpaper after maybe 2 years! I spent the better parts of the last two days making, tuning and merely enjoying some all-new engines and supplementary parts. This Skylon plane is quite fun.

Huge progress. I'm going to be so burnt out now... The component engines are in now, plus Tweakscale plus CryoEngine support (blue flames reserved for that). The component engines allow for much greater modularity such as: Activating Closed Cycle without ending Air-Breathing mode Attaching a fuselage or other rocket engine through the cavity of the ramjet ring Using the rocket bell by itself as an upper stage engine There's still a long way to go before being release ready.

Daaaaaaaamn! I'm hyped.

You're allowed to use Graviolium in the SPH to measure mass difference and dV. But for gameplay reasons you absolutely have to find it, mine it, and bring it back. It's one of those resources that are near-impossible to synthesize and is therefore very expensive. Once you have it stored in the KSC (like depositing money) you can withdraw it and fill up at launch. Having it freely available will break gameplay things like career funding and sandbox adventure.

@AmpCat That's a pretty big blunder there. Thanks for noticing! Release 1.2.1 is up. Includes the removal of the smoke FX from the HAE-02 engine. I was pretty sure I released that already.

The Precedent series and all basic functionality are in. The short form (5m) of the nacelle pictured here is for use with stock Mk3 SSTOs meanwhile the longer forms (6.5m and 8m) are for larger and probably modded spaceplanes that need the extra capacity that comes with those lengths.

Skip 1.4.4. You're not missing anything at all. At this point I think Kopernicus is actually doing this. *crickets chirping* ...Crap

This project hasn't died. But it's been a while and I've made progress on it. The SABR2 "Advent" series have been setup except for textures and are playable. The SABR3 "Precedent" series aren't in yet. I may be in need of some serious justification in order to finish them.

@Tyko Evidently, some parts of SD still work without Kopernicus. But yes, afaik Kopernicus is not available for 1.4.4.

New MOLE station. Toward the top is a service module delivering Equipment for reconfiguring the MOLE Lab, some resources for the Botany experiment, and lots of tank space to receive all the excess Soil/poop from its occupants. The service module is able to deorbit and land upright. Towards the bottom is the MOLE Greenhouse and a beefy tug. Towards the left with the spaceplane (Designed between X-20 and classic shuttle. One does not simply SSTO in 2.5x) is the first addon Hab with a docking hub. Towards the right + center is the station core: the MOLE Hab and Lab.

This science plane wasn't meant to be a spaceplane and couldn't go half as far as I wanted it to (in 2.5x science mode) but now it can SSTO, after releasing a config to reduce some drag stats on all OPT parts. It was intentionally disabled from being an SSTO by using the J-61 Starwaster which unlocks somewhat early but is the least efficient of OPT engines. Now that it can put its Apoapsis in space I'm rethinking its design, but on the plus side, that's plenty dV for getting around on Gael/Kerbin. With the weight and positions of these drop tanks, it's very slow to turn. After they go, the plane is pretty responsive.

OPT Reconfig (If you don't already know or have it) has introduced Kerbalism support and some reduction in the drag factors of all OPT parts (without needing FAR). Any feedback would be appreciated. :: DOWNLOAD ::

Hah! Yeah it works in 1.4.3. Actually no, I haven't considered Tweakscale. I've only tested ascent and cruising with OPT Legacy fuselage parts (which can be incredibly draggy). I'm not greatly expecting a negative reaction from it, honestly. But I'm as eager as ever for feedback from anyone about it-- people with sharper eyes about these little things that personally I don't have to bother with very much or at all.

It works fine as is (as far as I know). Just not in 1.4.4. Apparently it breaks fairly badly there.

Thanks. The first and third make sense to me. How do you get the data for the first spoiler?

Release 1.2 Added NON-FAR aero patch. Makes parts a little less Draggy™ (My OPT not-spaceplane can spaceplane : D I haven't tested much other than the ascent) :: DOWNLOAD :: This craft couldn't pass Mach 9 or do 1/4 lap around Gael/Kerbin (in 2.5x scale, using the Legacy J-61 engine with 3200s Isp under Mach 5, 2000s Isp over Mach 6) but now it can SSTO. I think the fuel savings alone says a lot.... I hope it's enough that needs to be said. Before (nearly out of fuel, Periapsis still underground) After (Apoapsis is way out there, and still got a way to go!)

Oh really? Sample craft. I'd never notice those. :p

@Mekan1k You need these things in order to get going: The A51 gravitic engine; Some Gravimetric Displacement Generators (UFO slices) to generate GravityWaves to feed the gravitic engine; A supply of Graviolium (the WBI refinery empties your tanks on launch and you need to buy it back (I hope you have some stored up, otherwise you need to cheat it in)); Some Plasma Contactors to deal with the Static Charge buildup.

yep

Banned for not banning MDZhB for their wrongfully banning KerbolExplorer for not having an X in their name when clearly they do have an X.

@Apaseall Now this I can troubleshoot. What are the installed versions of the WBI mods? By chance you're not using "the latest" (the 1.4.4) versions? The top of your log says 1.4.3 so I know to be cautious by that far.

I've considered for a long time now, making my WarpJets (some in OPT Legacy) optionally use Xenon and overcome this issue. The OPT WarpJets are single-mode engines right now and were meant to have an option for effective vacuum operation but I declined it as at the time, using raw atmosphere from the launchpad to interplanetary transfer seemed quite OP no matter how I look at it. What's DCNT? (Well, just the N)