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Known issue, I'm trying to get it fixed at the source (https://github.com/SuicidalInsanity/Mk2Expansion/pull/69). If it causes problems just delete either the fix in FreeIVA or Mk2Rebalance for now. If I don't get a response from Mk2 expansion for longer I'll deal with it properly.

Probably. I haven't played with it yet. The Mk3 tanks do suffer from the same issue, although it's much less severe than the Mk2 parts (WDrg on top/bottom faces of 0.83 compared to 0.90). I might work on that in the future, haven't played much with Mk3 expansion myself yet. I was also thinking of finding a way to fix the problem in general (modding the actual drag mixing curves KSP uses to reduce the ridiculous drag side faces generate at small angles of attack in general), but that's a bit more advanced modding than I'm experienced with.

Just to double check as I couldn't find anything about this in the docs, and nothing specific in the code: There is no way to hardcode drag cubes for parts with B9PartSwitch variants using "affectDragCubes=true" currently, right?

v0.0.3 is out, with the fixed mk2 expansion shock cone, and stock Mk3 support! Unless significant bugs are found I don't expect to significantly update this in the coming weeks now, so feel free to give it a (relatively stable) spin.

I think you ran into a known bug in 0.0.1 (I typo'd the drag cube name, causing KSP to ignore it. It's fixed already in 0.0.2).

Aight, thanks for taking them time. As for the next update, I'm working on the stock Mk3 spaceplane parts now. Clocked them at Mach 3, generating about 3 times as much drag as the equivalent 3.75m tanks With only half the fuel of course. Probably going to aim for 1.6 times more fuel again (so it's more like 80% of a rocket fuel tank), and drag similar to the 3.75m tanks (because well, they're literally shaped like them with a tiny piece cut way. Which for some reason makes them produce three times the drag).

I ran into, and managed to fix the issue with the tricouplers occasionally forgetting their centre node exists. Here's the pull request https://github.com/SuicidalInsanity/Mk2Expansion/pull/69 for anyone interested. Seems KSP doesn't like mixing bare stack_bottom and stack_bottom[number] nodes in the same part.

just a warning: a mistake slipped into the M2X shock cone drag cube making it really draggy. Should be fixed next update.

Honestly, it's just the drag system being very simplistic. It works kinda, but don't expect it to do anything intelligent or semi-realistic. There's some funny edge cases like a sphere moving in the XY direction of its model having about 40% more drag than a sphere moving directly in the X direction. An aligned flat plate having basically no drag, but a flat plate at a 30 degree angle having about 50% the drag of a flat plate that is perpendicular to the flow direction. Anything that's slightly pointier than a cylinder has basically no drag, anything less pointy than a cylinder having significantly more drag. The latter effect being so strong that if you were to take a sphere, and only keep like the flattest part facing the flow in the centre while removing the rest, it'd still have more drag than the full sphere, even though you just only removed geometry. Attaching things via nodes does remove some drag, but this doesn't actually check for the attached area, just the projected area of the entire part attached. I.e. you can mount 10 1.25 to 2.5m adapters in a row, all facing the same direction, and all but the first and last of them will cause no drag if prograde. It'd be nice to adjust the full system so things like this mod wouldn't be necessary, but such changes would mess with the balance of the game so much it'd be hard to oversee. It's also just hard to create a performant solution that still offers predictable behaviour for gameplay. Real aerodynamics are hard.

Interesting. Just checking, with "It still went nose down but managed to land fine. " you mean it wanted to point straight prograde during reentry right? In the now published 0.0.2 I have tweaked the numbers slightly as I did find that at reentry mach numbers the effect was a bit too strong. This might impact some of the issues you found. That said, one major problem I see with this craft is that it just doesn't have enough control authority in pitch to get it to do high-AoA manoeuvres. You've got about 0.6 relative wing area that can deflect to 30 degrees trying to control it, and about 31 relative wing area in total out of which High-AoA maneuvres in this mod will require a bit more control surface than you're used to for pitch. These could be easier without this mod, as the extra drag resulting from the usually forward-located Mk2 components would push them upwards. Of course, this came at the expense of this drag effect getting significantly stronger with Mach number compared to the rest of the parts, which would often cause Mk2 spaceplanes which are stable at like 2000m/s during reentry to become utterly unstable at a 3000m/s reentry at the same angles of attack.

That is very interesting. I am curious how you encountered less lift. Each component should be generating exactly the same amount of lift as it did previously, so maybe you got caught off guard by the fuel tanks having gotten significantly heavier? It shouldn't be harder than stock stats wise, but aircraft will need ~40% less fuel tanks for the same amount of fuel storage. Stability in flight at angles of attack near prograde shouldn't be impacted by the changes really as well. Could you post some pictures of the craft or craft files so I can confirm your observations? Unrelatedly, there's a 0.0.2 update on spacedock that adds preliminary support for Mk2 expansion. It contains some hacks for now, but should be usable enough for people to try.

Mk2 Rebalance v0.0.2 This mod attempts to tweak the part config for Mk2 spaceplane parts to be a little more in line with the rest of the stock game. Downloads: SpaceDock GitHub License: CC-BY-SA-4.0 Explanation: So after the nth time of getting annoyed by how draggy Mk2 spaceplane parts are, I decided to study how bad the problem actually is. Turns out that from the bottom or the top, Mk2 spaceplane parts are almost three times draggier than 5m tanks of equivalent length in the same orientation (tested at Mach 2.3), despite having less than half the exposed area. Even stranger, in this orientation Mk2 cargo bays actually become significantly less draggy when opened, even though their exposed area increases. It turns out that the default drag cube calculation is extraordinarily bad at providing reasonable drag coefficients for flat, wing-shaped parts. This causes the supposedly aerodynamic stock Mk2 parts to be some of the worst parts you could ever use for spaceplane building, as any pitch away from prograde will destroy their aerodynamic performance. They're also just extremely hollow, with fuel capacity akin to 1.25m parts, while having a volume more than twice as large. But this problem could also easily be resolved. With some changes, these parts can be given drag that is much more appropriate for their size and shape. And we're not talking huge changes here, just making their top/bottom face drag coefficient comparable to those of the cylindrical tanks. Their fuel contents and mass can also be tweaked to be somewhat closer to the rest of the available parts. In total, this mod tries to give them body drag comparable to that of 1.875m tanks, and fuel contents of about 160% that of same length 1.25 tanks, while maintaining the same mass fraction that they already had. This makes them not strictly superior to any of the already existing parts, while giving them their own niche as a high-temperature tolerant fuselage part that sacrifices a small amount of space and mass for this. The difference these small tweaks make to aircraft handling is staggering. Glide slopes are much improved, and spaceplanes become much less flip happy during re-entry. Mk2-based spaceplanes become much more comparable in size and performance to basic fuel tank based space planes. You can finally design pretty Mk2 based spaceplanes without compromising on performance. Usage: Simply copy the contents of the GameData folder of the mod into your GameData folder, or install it via CKAN. This mod is purely config-file based. Dependencies: This mod requires ModuleManager Compatibility: Right now this only tweaks stock Mk2 spaceplane parts. It purely alters their base parameters and drag cubes, so it should be broadly compatible. Future plans: I am working on improving Mk2 Stockalike Expansion support right now. I have plans for doing basic tweaks to the Mk3 parts as well, as these suffer from the same drag cube issue (although not as bad as the Mk2 parts). Changelog: v0.0.1: initial release v0.0.2: tweaked numbers slightly. Bugfix long cargo bay drag cube. Added initial support for Mk2 Stockalike Expansion. Most components are implemented, support for components with variants is preliminary. v0.0.3: Initial stock Mk3 part support. Bugfix of mk2 expansion shock cone. Final notes: This is my first KSP mod, please be kind if I did something stupid Feel free to give this a spin and give some feedback on how balanced it is!