Deadweasel

Holy CRAP that looks epic! You did this at night to keep them from panicking? Man, if I were groundside when that came overhead at night, I would immediately find religion and start praying for salvation from the impending apocalypse.

So the time had come to put a supplier's airframe to the test, commissioned as HSTAC WhiteRaven. Pilot Bill Kerman was assigned as primary pilot for the program, and was behind the stick for every stage of testing. After having signed off on the frame's V/STOL capabilities, Bill pushed for an accelerated testing schedule, and found himself airless in the new high speed trans-atmospheric courier by the next week. According to Bill, the purpose-built engine harness was exceptionally easy to mount, and found no faults with WhiteRaven's on-board computer links after docking. In fact, the systems were so stable that he requested immediate clearance to proceed with the grand finale of the HSTAC testing series: a round-trip to Duna. Naturally, Control wasn't going to approve short-cutting the procedures, but Bill decided to go anyway. Fifteen hours after establishing his Duna transfer orbit, Bill ran the systems through various simulations, and found the engine capabilities of the harness a bit short of expectations, though they were more than capable of shuttling the HSTAC to any major point of interest in the Kerbol system. Three months later, Duna was greeted by the roar of WhiteRaven's engines, braking for a parking orbit along the equator. Bill spent the better part of four hours plastered to the canopy, staring in awe at the spectacle beyond. Bill then made a decision he would later look back upon with severe regret: he de-coupled from the engine harness and decided to make an attempt to land on the surface His mistake became clear a mere few thousand meters from the planet's surface: WhiteRaven's V/STOL engines are air-breathing, NOT ROCKETS! Warning buzzers and angry red lights assaulted Bill's senses as he punched the HSTAC's main drives back into action, and clawed desperately back into the sky, avoiding an explosive end to his trip by little more than a hundred meters. Happily, Bill realized he'd risen from Duna's paltry atmosphere to find himself on an almost perfect intercept course with the engine harness again, and had WhiteRaven snuggled back in place in short-order, charging the systems for departure. The return leg of the trip was completely uneventful, save for some finagling and picky maneuvering at the end to evade the computers' constant nagging about intercepts with the Mun. Nearly 3.5 Kerbin years (365 Earth days) later, WhiteRaven was on a capture trajectory home. Tuning back into the KSC's control frequency, Bill endured his friend Jeb's screaming after announcing his safe return. Back on the testing profile once again, Bill left the engine harness in its designated parking orbit and fired for home. The Mun taunted at Bill's conscience as he made his long, careful descent into Kerbin's atmosphere. "I wonder if- NAH," the flight recorders heard him say to himself. The telemetry recorders also noticed a momentary jump in the throttle and back pressure on the stick, which immediately prompted another round of Jeb's angry screaming in Bill's headset. Descending gracefully over the Kerbala mountain range, Bill homed in on the KSC runway beacon. As he had done countless (two) times before, Bill triggered the hover engines in preparation for landing. He was almost home again! Then, at the very last moment before touchdown, DISASTER! Bill Kerman (unrelated to another KSP test pilot of the same name) was killed in a tragic and apparent sudden increase in the local gravity. In the blink of an eye, HSTAC WhiteRaven was reduced to a shower of burning metal, plastic and karbon fibre. RIP, Bill Kerman. You were an impulsive clown, but you will be missed.

Meh, even then you shouldn't have too much problem, assuming you've got even a tiny bit of power.

Final update: So the problem came back, AFTER I attempted to copy over my persistence file. Apparently there was a bug in there somewhere. I tried cancelling flights in-progress to see if there might be a conflict with an action group or part on an already-deployed flight, but the aviation lights simply would not go back to working the way I had already seen they were supposed to. Start a new save, and oh look! Everything's back to normal. :/ I was loathe to start a new save because I had a goal for the new plane (shown in the video clip I submitted earlier) to rendezvous with a stranded crewed rover at Duna to rescue them. Sadly, with the transition, the crew of the rover seems to have disappeared, though the rover remains controllable. Go figure. So: bad persistence file, looks like. Since the rover mission was screwed up somehow, there's no reason to worry so much about maintaining the other flights that had been in-progress either. New save for me.

Well, okay, it's not the runway that's different, but the taxiway: Original (0.19.1.54) install: Fresh (same version) install: If you're perhaps assembling a list of known-compatible mods, here's what I'm running: Modular MultiWheels: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/modular-multiwheels-and-omniwheels/ Lazor Docking Cam: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/lazor-docking-cam/ B9 Aerospace pack: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-19-1-b9-aerospace-pack-release-2/ H.O.M.E. Start Kit: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-18-1-h-o-m-e-start-kit/ KW Rocketry: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-18-1-kw-rocketry-overhauled/ Fueltastic: (link unavailable since the Kraken Krash of '13) Quantum Struts: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/quantum-strut/ Kerbal Crew Manifest: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/18-1-kerbal-crew-manifest/ Subassembly Saver/Loader: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/subassembly-saver-loader/ And of course (now ecstatically) AviationLights 3.0! : http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/aviation-lights-v1-2/ Thank you thank you THANK YOU!

Well, it's confirmed: something was screwed up with my original game install. All the plugins and parts were transferred to the new install, and the AviationLights are still working perfectly fine. :/ A couple of differences I've seen in the game's behavior between original install and the fresh one: The runway is black in the "old" install, grey in the fresh one If out of focus when parts finish loading (xenontank being the last one), the game will not continue to the main menu until it's brought back into focus. The fresh install continues to main menu even if out of focus I'm thinking something got broken when I attempted to run MechJeb a week ago, at which point Kerbin started disappearing randomly until the game was reloaded, and the behavior continued until MJ was removed entirely from the install. Either way, all seems to be working perfectly and as-intended under the fresh install, so I'm just going to start using that. Thanks for your tolerance while I'm busy over here crying wolf, apparently.

Yeah I've just verified that there's something else conflicting with the mod on my installation. It works perfectly on a new install without other plugins going. I've also noticed that the runway in the overview scene is full black in my original install, and grey in the fresh install. Hmmm... Something's messing with the natural order of things....

Well there's a portion of that video clip I posted that was left out, where I cycled the modes through Interval where it flashed like a freak because Interval is set to .4. Also, I cycled from Off to be certain I was looking at the right mode before I started recording in the first place.

Nope. Removing the mod parts from the plane didn't change the lights behavior. I'm going to do another fresh game install with ONLY this mod to see if it could be a conflict with something else that's loaded, even if it's not on the .craft itself.

Thanks for the reply. I did reset the configs to 0.1, and it made no difference. I double-checked the action group to be sure it was triggering properly, (I was expecting it to cycle modes, which does seem to be working fine) I'm going to yank the other mod parts from the craft to see if they might be interfering somehow, and will post results.

There's a reference to converting an "old controller part" to a debugger at the project's Github. Not sure what to do with it, but maybe a place to start to get what you need? https://github.com/Majiir/Kethane/tree/master/Parts

So here's what I'm seeing: The settings I'm using in the configs: MODULE { //Energy consumption rate EnergyReq = 0.01 // color changes the colour and intensity (0.1-3 recommended) // Intervals can be changed by modifying below name = ModuleNavLight Color = 1.00, 0.95, 0.91 IntervalFlashMode = 0 //used only for reference - leave at 0 Flash = 0.05 //Used to define the length of time the light is ON during Flash Mode IntervalToStayOff = 2.0 //Used to define the length of time the light is OFF during Flash mode Interval = 0.4 //Used by standard Interval mode } I'm starting to wonder if another plugin could be causing a conflict and making this one ignore the timing settings...

That can't be right. It's using vanilla parts, and loaded just fine for me in my install of 0.19. Could you have somehow deleted any vanilla parts from your parts inventory? Do you get an error stating what part is missing? I haven't yet seen a general error saying an entire craft is incompatible; only errors indicating a missing part.

I too like how they light up the wingtips! Makes for a nice effect in orbit.

I did not do a full delete and reinstall of the parts and plugin. I just replaced the files with the new stuff, including the plugin .dll. Everything seemed to be affected by this update method, so I didn't think twice about it, but I'll try wiping them out and reinstalling completely to see if that makes a difference.

I recognize B9 Aerospace parts in there (http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-19-1-b9-aerospace-pack-release-2/). The cupola is coming in .20, but there's another mod pack that has it as well. Don't know about the girders, but they sure look sweet!

Hmm... I can't seem to get them to flash quickly any longer. Regardless of the .cfg settings, I still only get a roughly 1s on/1s off cycle for the flash mode on the new version. I was able to get them to flash at the rate I was looking for previously using OnState: 0.15 and OffState: 2.00 before, but now those settings seem to make no difference. I really like the quick and sharp strobe effect over a slow steady blink rate. Any ideas? Had a look at the source, but I am a complete n00b with C#. I didn't see any references to the .cfg file in there; does that happen based on the game engine itself, or am I just not recognizing the point at which it's called in the code?

The Orion drive concept involved detonating nuclear bombs outside of the vessel and riding the shockwaves. A pulsejet is a real thing, requiring no moving parts to operate (though I like the spinning forced-air intake on this model!) Instead of compressing fuel through pumps or turbines before detonation, a pulsejet relies on the shape of the exhaust nozzle to create a backblast into the combustion chamber, setting up the compression necessary for the next pulse to initiate. That's why they make such a head-rending racket: they are literally "fwoomp"-ing with each detonation, again and again at high speed.

I made some further small modifications, adding quantum struts to give the plane rigidity while docked to the drive ring, as well as some nav and general visibility lighting. Also added are a pair of retractable solar panels to feed the extremely power-hungry fuel generator, which allows the vessel a measure of self-sufficiency (at the cost of a great deal of time waiting on-orbit to top off) until more permanent fuel facilities are built and deployed to the major points of interest about the Kerbol system. Here is HSTAC WhiteRaven, about to embark on its rushed shakedown flight to Duna to retrieve Dragonfly-X's crew, who have become stranded after successfully proving the theory that the huge rover could return to orbit using its descent flight pack. Following a (hopefully) successful rescue, future WhiteRaven flights will not carry the experimental fuel generator, as its addition has made the ship difficult to control reliably (and adds enough weight to require its activation just getting into LKO in the first place!)

That's an odd problem there. I did not see that the couple of times I used the latest release, and I tested the automation features from launch to rendezvous to landing. I ended up having to pull MJ completely from my install because it (or a conflict between it and another mod) was causing Kerbin to vanish into bright rings of nothingness repeatedly. Other than that, I never had any control freeze like you mention.

High speed trans-atmospheric courier (HSTAC) Silverhawk prepares to begin a transit to Duna to deliver the mail to the crew stationed there

Probably not all that well, since you'd have to get the ship into Kerbin orbit first, and the props won't get your initial velocity up high enough. Does make me wonder how those props would actually behave on Duna anyway. After all, its atmosphere is thinner, right? I wonder if the way the props behave would be any different there.

It's a Google Chrome plugin called Checker Plus. If the browser is open, it'll keep an eye on your GMail account and pop notices when new mails come in.

I'm sitting here playing with the game, and I've got a mail notifier that pops responses to threads I'm subscribed to. I'm on this like white on rice!!

This. Is. EPIC! Thank you so much!