XLjedi

Do you still need help with this? I know a few helo design tricks.

LOL!! ...loved this part! Kerbals are like... Apollo, Shmollo! We'll show you how it's supposed to be done!

I've been wanting a feature in career mode for a long time. Is anyone aware of a mod that would let me do the following: In the standard career mode, where you have to earn credits by doing missions, and unlock parts via the science tree... We occasionally get missions to test parts that are still locked in our science tree. The part is made temporarily available in the SPH or VAB for your testing purposes. Once you launch the craft, the parts are no longer available for the next craft. So theoretically, in the current unmodded game, if the part was really cool (like test Rapier engines) you could build a reusable SSTO and just never recall it. Maybe just leave it parked outside the SPH as your goto craft for kerbal rescue missions. If you can then create support craft for it to refuel/reload... You could continue using the craft for missions! The challenge of this sort of gameplay is what I find to be the most fun; building craft that can work together in different ways to accomplish varied goals and objectives. So I'd like to have a mod that adds a dialog window in the SPH or VAB that would let me select the parts I need to have flagged as "experimental" to assemble my experimental skunkworks craft. Naturally, there would need to be a punitive fee applied to my credit balance for the temporary part unlock. Most of us probably already have support craft that can manage refueling ops. Now with the inclusion of the robotic parts in 1.7.3, I'm really excited by the idea of creating mobile gantry cranes that can be used for loading/unloading of heavy equipment and satellites! Particularly, storage bay top-loaders for use at the KSC. I may finally have a good use for those gi-normous rover wheels.

Today I found out the top of the control tower at the Dessert Base is glitched if you try to walk on it... I also found out the tops of these ruins are a lot larger than I thought they were...

Well that's pretty cool. I was thinking it just pitches your nose up/down. The QBE solution actually did work perfectly. Since I didn't install any antenna, I don't even have the problem of taking off without a kerbal. The helo is a lot of fun for me. I've been landing on all the mountains within 100km and planting "nav beacon" flags on various things. I put one on top of the pyramid ruins last night.

Did you fly it? SAS is just fine... as are my other craft with slanted cockpits. I don't add another control point, cuz look at the craft. Edit: actually a QBE core on the cabin would probably be fine. I think I might like that. Of course now the negative side is I takeoff too hastily and forget a kerbal!

You haven't seen it because you don't build craft with sloping cockpits. I've seen it on several jets, and now a helo. Here, you can try one... https://kerbalx.com/XLjedi/AH-11-Dragonfly

You can build coaxial helos and planes with the parts as they are.

Hmmm... that might work! Maybe a dry-erase marker line where horizon should be? Genius! As it is now, I just have to watch my VSI to figure out if I'm flying S&L. Not that big of a deal I s'pose.

Not worth it then; but thanks...

That's what I'm looking for... I may interrogate a craft file that consists of nothing but a cockpit for a bit and see if there is any way to adjust that navball gyro. I suspect probably not, but who knows. It's coming more into play now that rotors and props might inspire folks to create things that may want to have a tilted cockpit for better ground visibility.

@Geonovast Edit: Oh, I actually read what that mod does, and it's not what I want. I have no problem controlling the pitch attitude and engineering the craft to fly straight and level. The problem is, I'm flying straight and level and the gyro navball instrument says I'm in a 20° dive. That's what I want to fix!

Anyone know if there's a simple way that I could maybe tweak a craft file so that the navball has the correct orientation for level flight? Not looking for a full blown mod or anything... Only need it for maybe 3 or 4 of my craft where the design includes a tilted cockpit for better ground visibility. In which case the craft itself is flying straight & level but the navball gyro incorrectly reports that I'm in a 20° dive. Wonder if there's a way the devs could fix that so the gyro orientation is in reference to the lateral line of the overall craft, as opposed to how the cockpit might be attached?

I was actually thinking of creating a badge/challenge for becoming a certified Kerbo-Kopter pilot! Maybe this weekend? The challenge would be simple enough. Create a rotor craft design to: depart from runway, land on the top of 4 or 5 key structures. There are at least 3 true challenges to overcome when designing rotorcraft. Fine control during hover/landing Flying and horizontal speed Altitude! That second and third one can bite you! ...easy to hover, but if the landing targets include the island base and the tops of mountains to the west of the KSC, it can be a little tricky. If this seems interesting or if you have additional ideas for the challenge, let me know!

I do everything with GIMP. It's free, it's powerful, and it's my one-stop-shop for all things related to graphic image processing and artwork. I can even completely repaint kerbal parts with it for my own aircraft liveries. The Green Cherubs Precarious Flight Team Badge is another favorite: erm.. I mean precision flight team?

With regard to complexity and so forth... I'd maybe point to where some of the new sandbox games are going. "Stormworks: Build and Rescue" for instance has both an "Advanced" and "Simple" career mode. I much prefer advanced, which doesn't just require that you add a motor... you have to add an engine and then connect it with fuel lines, electrical systems, gearboxes, alternators and so forth... and then hook it up to a prop/rotor/or jet. In this particular game, the jets are more difficult to construct than rotor/propeller craft. They took the approach of treating the rotor/propeller as a single unit and magically managing the blade pitch. ...but setting up the engines in advanced mode is also far more challenging. Additionally, building jets is more difficult in that game because you have to assemble the parts of the jet: intake/compressor/combustion chamber etc. Interesting design options there because it lets you construct a jet for a plane or a turboshaft for a helo with the same set of parts, just arranged a bit differently. Stormworks is a bit of a different type of game though. You get to build your craft from the inside out, which is pretty cool. There isn't any need for part clipping cuz the building blocks are just that... little blocks. So as for the sandbox designer player base, I would definitely not say the majority are in the camp of basic is better. I mean in this game there are PID and logic controllers, you can make circuit boards for an autopilot system... Did I mention you even have to create your control dashboards and hook up the dials to engines and sensors (pitot tubes for speed detection, pressure gauges, heat sensors, gyros, you name it). I saw someone posted a little Asteroids video game cabinet to the correct scale that you could plop it down in the game room of your ship. ...then I realized, not only was it to proper scale to your boat and avatar captain, when I walked over to the thing... It was a working Asteroids arcade game! There was a monitor on the thing and they used the freakin LUA language (which the game natively supports) to actually code a playable arcade asteroids game! You can build your own radar display screens in this thing. So no, I don't really buy any argument that says the overall sandbox player base is looking for KISS building options. I do however appreciate that in that game they also have the "Easy Mode" that just lets engines work without having to link em up. Of course when people build and post stuff like that, first question is always "Hey do you have a version that works in Advanced Mode?" For me, I like how they implemented the blades in KSP and since I play other games like Stormworks, it feels like it struck a balance for KSP players, maybe even erring a bit on the side of being simpler since we don't have such minute parts to construct craft interiors and properly scaled and functional engines.

I believe the intent was "optional" in the sense that they would like to have the option of a snap-on, fully configured, auto-pitch propeller. ...in addition to the blades and engines that we can assemble now. As opposed to "optional" in the sense that they have the option to not buy the DLC or ignore the propellers/rotors.

Now that we have rotors... I can do something that I've always wanted to do. Play career missions without recovery options for any surface location on Kerbin. So that seems a pretty minimalist request; I just want a career mode option to only allow recovery if you make it back to a base location or runway. For me, I'm gonna do some simple kerbin orbit missions with capsule splashdown, send out an aircraft carrier with a helo and recover the capsule and kerbals. Granted, I can already self-impose these rules. Another option I'd like regarding career mode is... We have a sandbox mode for: "infinite funds, open science tree" We have career mode with: "earn funds, and unlock science tree" I'm more interested in "earn funds, open science tree" In this mode, you have Mission Control spawning various missions to complete, but you have full access to all parts to create things to earn money to keep your program going. The other mode/feature I'd be interested in is: the standard career mode "earn funds, and unlock science tree" BUT... If I get a mission that requires tech that I don't have, I would have the option to buy a completed craft from my sandbox hangar at inflated prices (3x, 5x, 10x part cost?) and use these expensive "skunkworks" creations to complete some missions. Cool thing about this is, I'd have to be very careful with that skunkworks craft because if it breaks, I still would not have access to the locked parts. So I might have an experimental SSTO (with voodoo RAPIER tech) that I have to leave parked at the KSC after a mission instead of recovering it. The challenge would be to see if I could do enough missions with it (without destroying it) to justify the cost. If you think about it, they already have that sort of functionality when they give you those missions to test parts and you don't have those parts unlocked on your skill tree. Now if you recover the craft with the voodoo tech... too bad, so sad, you don't get access to the special parts. ...and if you wreck it, well... you cry a bit.

it's a kerbo-kopter… little fellas prefer reaction wheels to swashplates... what can I say?

I flew my first actual helo mission!

@Boris-Barboris Here ya go flyer/pilot... It's the video you wanted without pesky UI or screens blocked by ugly tweekable panels and aero debug overlays... You're right, enjoyable flight needs no UI. Maybe give this helo a shot? You might even find this one in some minute way enjoyable.

Well it applies to me, I shoulda known better... and since the vast VAST majority of aircraft, particularly single engine props, have rotors that actually turn CCW when looked at from the front, it is a bit curious (particularly with those inverse values) that CW is the default for a rotor and engine! If anything we should be scolding @SQUAD for a default that doesn't mesh up with reality. They claim they've modelled P-factor and folks are looking for a roll to the left and countering with right rudder, and we get the opposite by default. Although... I have to say, that does seem to be a pretty kerbal-ish design issue! I will just ALWAYS be changing my motor and prop rotation to CCW as a default for all of my single engine craft. Good thing to get that sorted now before I build a bunch of stuffs.

@Bartybum ya know what someone just pointed out to me in the comments on my flight video? ...you're gonna laugh at me and yourself! The engine and blade CW/CCW rotation is from the European perspective! ...apparently (and I did not know this). Europeans refer to a CW turning motor/rotor when viewed from the front. Americans refer to the rotation as if viewed from the pilot's seat! This means I've actually been thinking exactly backwards regarding the P-factor and it probably explains why I see roll in the opposite direction of what I was expecting when I have the engine/rotor set to CW rotation. My new default will now be to always set the engine to CCW for a single prop plane as that is actually CW for us backwards Americans. LOL!!! ...and guess what, your default thrust vector values are now positive for your standard American CW-spinning-when-viewed-from-pilot-seat engine rotor setup.

Should we post the current RL world record holder for propeller driven aircraft? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_propeller-driven_aircraft ...just as a point of reference.

Have to say thanks again, for adding rotors and props. I had stepped away there for awhile and with the 1.7.3 update you've brought me back into the kerbal design fold! Very happy with these and the way you went about implementing them is brilliant.