colmo

It would be nice to have a big, noisy, vibrating V8 engine part which can fairly chug through the fuel but also generate power. I was trying to mod the KSOS configs into the Rollkage RTG, but I couldn't get it to produce power, though everything else worked. The downside of using electricity is that the throttle becomes fairly meaningless. To rectify this, we could vastly increase the consumption of the wheels, or reduce the output of the engine, such that the limiting factor is not the wheel top speed, but the rate at which the engine can produce electricity. The wheels would be limited in speed by constant electrical starvation. It may play havoc with control, lights and other things that rely on electricity though. It would mean pressing the W key would be equivalent to letting go of the clutch :-) (I've just realised this is pretty much how ion engines work.) I know Infinite dice has been working on proper combustion engines with his ICE mod, I must check it out.

I just added this to the Rollkage parts.cfg, it should work fine for yours too. It avoids editing a config elsewhere in the GameData folder - the snippet I enclosed above was in the IR TweakScale configuration. MODULE { name = TweakScale type = surface }

Probably just the standard surface attached parameters, as used for standard wheels. I just used it on Rollkage wheels, and they work very well. I look forward to new toys. Ages ago, I used Damned Robotics parts to create a torsion bar suspension for a helicopter which could survive a 100 meter drop; the way you've done the beam axle is similar - it could be applied to e.g. a trailing axle to give a little more suspension for jumps. I was wondering if you could create a damper that attached like a strut, but can compress and rebound? It would allow the beginnings of real suspension geometry.

Thanks for the wheel response. As always, I need to RTFM...

With all the side pieces the carrier needs, it wouldn't save much on the strutting. We'd also need variable length hull pieces to go with the deck.

One tiny request, could you increase the TweakScale options for the beam axle? There's a massive gap between Large and Medium. I was trying to use them on the new KSOS lorry (instead of the chassis and currently broken for me wheels), which is in between the two sizes, though closer to medium. I'd like to see more options for powering axles - Infinite dice and others have made various moves to separate motor from axle. This means the axle could run off a resource called Torque, and a separate engine module generates Torque using electricity, LiquidFuel and IntakeAir, a nuclear reactor or whatever. You could even have driveshafts which 'cross-feed' the Torque. I've been messing with various cart mods this morning (including the old UAZ and military truck - they work well!), and they're all over the map in terms of how they do things. It actually used to be simpler when everyone used Cart.dll, back in 0.15 days! Perhaps the various rover modders could get their heads together and share resources, a little like how prop engines have defaulted to Firespitter? Edit: I've had a look at how the KSOS wheels work, and they're actually Firespitter electric wheels powered by a generator in the main vehicle body - never mind Torque, electric charge is a handy enough substitute. The beam axle works the same way ultimately, so all we need is some cool 4x4 cabs with generators and proper throaty engine noises :-) Edit: I'm tweaking the TweakScale setup - currently the beam axle uses the rotatron scaling profile; note the massive gap between Medium and Large: SCALETYPE { name = IR_RoboticRotatron freeScale = false scaleFactors = 0.25, 0.5, 1.25 scaleNames = Small, Medium, Large defaultScale = 1.25 } I replaced it with this and pointed the axles at it, with extra masses to cover 5, not 3, options (I note setting freeScale to True makes this redundant!): SCALETYPE { name = IR_RoboticAxles freeScale = true scaleFactors = 0.25, 0.5, 7.5, 1, 1.25 scaleNames = Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, XL defaultScale = 1.25 } The result looks well: http://steamcommunity.com/id/colmoni/screenshot/25088485465242678 Currently trying to slow them down a little and tone down the steering at speed. (torqueCurve and steeringCurve settings respectively I think?)

Just playing with the new KSOS Kerbostar using the Firespitter hover toggle (v6.3.4). How is altitude determined, over terrain or sea level? Whenever I fly over the VAB or other buildings at KSC, it immediately ascends, suggesting altitude is relative to terrain. It's probably worth introducing a toggle to allow altitude to be calculated from terrain height, for long distance trips in warp, and from sea level, for precision landing. I find I prefer doing it old school anyway :-)

Good grief, the Kerbostar landing skids are...skiddy. I can't land on the VAB without sliding off. They're Teflon coated! Edit: Never mind, they've got brakes! Edit2: The KMW Heavy Duty tyres fall through the runway on launch. Collider issue? Edit3: This happens with all the wheels. The rover wheels on the right side tried to 'steer' up and down!

P.S. About using autostruts for carrier parts - I had a look through FairingBase.cs in the Procedural Fairing source, and there's not much to it. It seems (I think!) to iterate through each node checking for a connection, and struts the ones that aren't. If this was put on the side pieces and maybe the deck of the carrier (not the hull, it has way too many nodes), it would really reduce or eliminate strut usage. I'm not sure if there'd be a performance saving, as the autostruts would add to computational load if not part count, but it would massively simplify the build. It would also be more efficient than manual strutting because it's never quite clear where nodes are attached until you gun the engines in warp. I was also thinking of the need to ruggedise carrier plane parts - perhaps using larger node sizes than would be normal for parts of those sizes would stiffen things up without strutting.

I haven't used it yet - even if it moves on the tree, it'll not remove parts from active flights. It's an alpha mod, we know the risks! Might I suggest something else for those two adapter pieces? There are ways to have multiple variants of the same part - these could be variants of the original piece. See Firespitter, B12 Aerotech etc. Furthermore, variants can be restricted by unlocking other nodes - e.g. Procedural Parts require certain nodes unlocked to use larger sizes of parts you already have. Finally, it's two less items in the part catalogue to scroll through.

Maybe bump the solar panel cone piece into the node with solar panels instead? I ended up getting it before deployable solar panels. which felt wrong. The lights piece is perfect for asteroid grabbers. Still haven't got to the beam axle - looking forward to a lorry axle for heavy haulage.

I got a very annoying problem on a wet workshop I was sending to the Mün. At launch, the CoM shifted rather far down, and the problem became more apparent as I staged. It ended up (according to the persistence file) some 670 metres away from the root of the vessel. This meant it was difficult to accurately manoeuvre (like it was on the long end of a bendy stick, with wild perturbation in orbit if I rotated) presumably due to rounding errors on what KSP though was a very long ship, couldn't land because I couldn't get a camera angle, and had a devil of a time getting a rendezvous because the navball was lying to me! I can recentre the camera by warping or returning from the tracking station, but it shoots off centre again when physics kicks in (as I had Joint Reinforcement installed, it would do it in stages thanks to physics easing). I abandoned it in Münar orbit after a several hour long rendezvous session, stripping it of fuel and KAS parts (also bugged!), added a probe core in the process, and will drain it of fuel to determine if converting it to living space fixes the problem. I do like the concept - making supplies KAS grabbable (a direct fit for the storage rack perhaps?) fits the ethos of the mod. Making the hatch grabbable and attachable would be awesome - allowing retrofitting of debris with later missions. VESSEL { pid = 83c34ccc3e1a40f9a1b971f0742038ff name = Munbase Beta - Wet Workshop type = Ship sit = ORBITING landed = False landedAt = splashed = False met = 222408.745390184 lct = 1194955.9571678 root = 0 lat = -1.42170126641326 lon = -41.010047419978 alt = 115490.072458925 hgt = -1 nrm = 0.08771238,0.08134384,-0.9928191 rot = 0.04101156,0.3732034,0.03644849,-0.9261257 CoM = -470.8539,110.7243,-54.97674 stg = 1 prst = False ref = 0 ctrl = True cPch = cHdg = cMod = 0

Problems using the latest fix in Linux 64 bit: - Containers now work, but to use items removed from them (I.e. make the right click menu come up), you sometimes have to enter a vessel then get out and grab it again. I think it worked fine on Minmus, but I had to do this in Munar orbit. Will check today and edit. - G shortcut for grab doesn't work. I just RTFMed how to rotate on attach! Will test that and get back.

The problem with containers was fixed by replacing a dll modified on 31st July, with one modified on the 8th August, from KAS_64bit_24_3.zip

Congrats! Fully deserved for work of the highest quality. Hope those preview tailpieces get in, and that Squad consider adding future Porkjet items if they fit as well as these do in stock. Here's also hoping that we get a fourth option on control surfaces called 'airbrake' alongside pitch/yaw/roll. Pleased we're getting cargo bays in stock, at long, long last!

How wrong I was!

I'm 90% confident it's with Ferram. He's a coder and an aeronautics wizard, such work is not easily replicated, unlike a resource or part mod, and multiplayer mods aren't good enough to pay for yet. NEAR may have been the nudge they needed to pull the trigger. It also means we'll finally get fairings, reentry heat, and it fits in with space planes recently getting some love in dev notes after long neglect.

This is relevant, concerns DMP development: DarkMultiPlayer Announcement: http://youtu.be/b7Px5YObsA4

You might want to put a explanation of what this pack is in the OP, because it's not at all clear. Some sort of metapack of other mods, or a refined selection modified into one cohesive pack?

The Buran landed within feet of its target on its one, unmanned flight. No one said it had to be a manned vessel, right?

You may want to check out allista's Hangar mod. Making the station a giant spaceport would allow a practical solution to storing craft and Kerbals inside the station and keep things playable.

This definitely encourages using your Kerbals instead of having them sitting around eating your profits. The high pay could be thought of as the costs of training and support crew, not just the Kerbal's wage. You could implement an overdraft facility to allow negative funds, but you pay charges, just like the real thing. Once you max out your overdraft and can't pay the charges, then it's game over.

I LOLed at the landing and parking fails! Great to see, and the tunable suspension is just gravy - perfect for widely varying craft masses. The fiddliness is unavoidable. It's stuff only Squad can change. Bundled with ICE is cool - three major mod packs is enough for anyone to keep track of. The part savings from this might just give us breathing room for some funky carrier projects. I must put allista's Ground Hangar on a carrier to see how those interact. I'm wondering about docking helicopters with fixed landing rails - it's possible it may end explosively given there's no gear to drop, and this would also be true of a sticky helipad. Intrigued by the Boat Parts updates. Have you considered getting some modellers to help, freeing your hands to concentrate on code and just smooth out a few rough edges, especially with textures?

Just to report I'm having issues with containers. Without the fix, I couldn't remove items from them. With Jefferson's fix, I removed a battery - which then slid off the Kerbal's back and fell through the base he was standing on and the surface of Minmus. It appears to have remained attached to the Kerbal, as the camera for him ended up inside Minmus. Linux 64 bit.

Love these parts, very high quality textures. Could I request the swept wing also gets the SP+ treatment? The originals are so ugly with stock control surfaces attached.