etmoonshade

Slick plugin - I love it. There's one thing I'd like to see, though - a pod of some sort that gives you access to the map and all its functions, but doesn't do any mapping itself. This is really useful for sticking on spaceplanes, for instance, but it's kinda silly to have a giant dish sticking off it. Thanks!

I'd like to make a pair of suggestions. First, it'd be nice to have independent "hold heading" and "hold altitude" buttons in the ILS. Sometimes, you want to be on a specific heading while changing pitch (e.g. when landing, especially since Auto Land seems to be borky...) and sometimes you want to stick to a specific altitude while changing heading (e.g. when doing fine alignments with the runway.) Second, I'd like to see an airspeed hold. This is just because it'd be useful. Edit: I see there's apparently a "surface speed hold" - that might be something to twiddle with. ;p

I didn't use MechJeb on it, and it isn't an exact representation, but... I got bored and made an X-Wing. Vessel file is attached - it uses stock parts. It's a bit shaky on takeoff, but once it's in the air, it's not too terrible. The "lasers" are actually landing legs that move into place when you raise the landing gear. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22571912/Pics/Spaceflight/KSP%20Screens/screenshot3.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22571912/Pics/Spaceflight/KSP%20Screens/screenshot4.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22571912/Pics/Spaceflight/KSP%20Screens/screenshot5.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22571912/Pics/Spaceflight/KSP%20Screens/screenshot6.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22571912/Pics/Spaceflight/KSP%20Screens/screenshot7.png

Keeping in mind that I don\'t know exactly what this part is, why not try upping the drag on the part? That should make it land more 'softly'.

Thank you for this - much appreciated. I can work with this.

Indeed, and I don't expect things to be terribly complex. Winglets -do- seem to generate lift of some description, though - all I'm wondering is how and where those forces are applied currently, since it could help in designing an effective wing.

Reading over this, it's obvious I wasn't thinking well when writing this. Two clarifications: For A: Is the lifting force applied at the center of mass of the 3D model as calculated by the program, or is it applied at the origin of the model (i.e. 0, 0, 0?) For B: Area. Not length, area. Does the 3D model affect performance, or is the area static?

I'm quite fond of spaceplanes, and I'd love to make one - problem is, the SDK isn't of too much help when it comes to wings. I've got a few questions for anyone in general, but probably one of the coders: A: Where is the lifting force applied on a wing as far as KSP's code goes? B: Does the 3D model affect the wing's performance at all, or is it calculated based on a static length? If the latter, is there a way to change the length? I figure with these two answers, I could make a far better attempt at making or modifiying a wing.

I guess the big question here is, what are the rules of the challenge? Do the wings actually need to look like wings, or can it just be a rocket? Also, is there a requirement for the ability to do unpowered flight?

*ahem*

Beats me. I was flyin' to the last moment, so all I saw was a bunch of 'KIA' screens. ... and then I forgot to save the -stable- design, and now I can't recreate it.

In a manner of speaking. G-forces happen when you hit the ground, right? My flight path was actually a loop a few km out, over the lake, and then back. I tried pitching up and launching the parachute to land in that area, but it didn't work. >_>

This is fun o.o This ship was just a pair of wings, tailfin, capsule, parachute, and liquid rocket with one fuel tank. The wings are just a simple modification of the R8 fin - that's attached below. The problem seems to be that the assorted fins don't give lift worth a damn, so anything resembling flight/gliding once your engines are off... good luck. With the tweaks to these wings, on the other hand... well. I've had better flying in FSX with a glider in a hurricane, but it'll keep you off the ground if you position 'em right. It's hard to strike a balance between 'lift' and 'spinning around in circles' (for the attached part.cfg, just copy the winglet2 directory in KSP/Parts/ and overwrite the file.)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22571912/Sunrise%20over%20Kerbal.jpg A beautiful sunrise as seen from space. ... I'm pretty sure this orbit is stable. Kinda hard to tell with such primitive instrumentation. >_> (after looking back, it is! 122x80km orbit. Not too shabby.) edited: Had to fix the orbit numbers. =p I'll be so glad to get an MFD that tells us where we are in an orbit.

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Nice model. Remember though, if you attach something directly below the capsule, when you land it'll go boom. See if you can figure out a way to make it a combined stage/deorbit engine so you don't need a decoupler. ... and we'll be talking about your cheating and defection. >:|