Shyanmar

@Tiron: Yeah. I think the ideal solution would be to keep the new SAS module and reintroduce the old one as well. I don't even mind if it uses electrical charge now, but with a rocket it's simply necessary, especially with the larger variety.

I have absolutely no problems with the new SAS. Where pretty much all of my planes pre-0.21 were a bitch to fly unless I used ASAS to cement the heading to a spot (which didn't always work and if it did always nearly tore the plane in half), which is definitely not the way it should have to be - it's a goddamn plane, after all - now almost every plane I build handles very nicely. Even if I oversteer and get into a spin the recovery speed is amazing. The only thing where it currently annoys me is rockets. The large ASAS supposedly works as usual, at least if one goes by its description, but even with reaction wheels added and additional decoupler stabilization my larger rockets usually wobble like hell, especially on takeoff it's extremely hard to keep it pointed upwards. Once I get to sufficient altitudes for a gravity turn the problem minimizes, but until then it's hell. I can still get 100t payloads into a very low orbit, but it's a huge hassle every time. Same goes for smaller rockets, but they're usually easier to keep under control. I think we basically need two versions of SAS - one for planes and one for rockets.

... Oh, right. I haven't even thought of EVE to be honest (haven't played in a while, but even so, as a dedicated minmatar player I should've remembered ^^). Makes sense though, that kind of ship perfectly fits the "Loki" character ^^

Modular System? Why, yes, actually that's what I was working on the whole day ... I give you the MC-690-01 "Loki" Modular cruiser system! So, the basic idea with this design is to have a cruiser that works perfectly well by itself but has the capability to be modified with various modules. The Loki has a main module port in the back of the central fuselage that can basically take up anything you can dock to it via a Senior Clamp-o-Tron. Be that an extended Missile rack, additional fuel tanks (and engines), colonization gear (landers and whatnot) or, as in this case, a kind of space laboratory with a highly sophisticated sensor suite and room for 9 kerbals (plus the pilot, who unfortunately, thanks to a design oversight with the pod, is unable to EVA, but whatever. Jeb doesn't seem to mind.). The two secondary module ports are located on the sides on the wing-thingymajiggers and can also be used as regular docking ports (yes, I know, since they are receded into the hull armor for protection it won't be able to dock with everything, the corresponding docking mechanism needs to be 1 m in diameter for at least 1 m or so.). Of course, if you can get it into orbit you can also cut the docking parts and slap the modules onto the ship directly in the spaceplane hangar (or use a tri-coupler docking design for fixed orientation, it's all a matter of preference). The outer hull also has more than enough room for additional weapon hardpoints if needed. RCS will need to be rebalanced for each loadout, of course, in the event that it's necessary for precise maneuvering. Contrary to my last design I built this ship more with protection of the pod in mind. It's only attackable from certain angles now (which can be closed to the enemy in advance if needed, simply by rotating the ship) and features some flimsy wing panels at the top and bottom. It's not perfect, but at least a lot more defensible than the widely open bridge window of the HC-128-01. Anyway. It's still a little hard on your computer with modules, probably, since it comes in at just over 350 parts. I'll see if I can create a small version of it to enable larger modules and less lag (it runs fine on my computer, but that's no indication since my machine is quite powerful). So, have a look. If anyone is interested in the .craft file, let me know. EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I did use a mod for this one, obviously: Aviation Lights is just awesome.

Quite well, actually. Should have included a belly shot, it looks asymmetrical on the screenshots above, but if you look closely at the first one you'll see that the bridge structure, for example, is balanced by that nifty flat 2m fuel tank on the bottom (that thing's incredibly handy, since it has exactly the same mass as the pod). The only thing affecting balance a wee little bit is the front, actually, but luckily since wing panels are so light, it doesn't influence the flight behavior much (and certainly not with SAS on). The only thing still bugging me is the rather low turn speed when purely on RCS, haven't quite figured out the right configuration there yet ... with the engines engaged it's decent enough for its size, but that just ain't good enough ^^ And yeah, I guess the bridge isn't too smart a choice in that position from a tactical viewpoint. But the view it offers is indeed awesome. Thinking about it some more, it would actually be an interesting challenge to devise some sort of shielding for this pod. Maybe using girders ... they wouldn't impact the view too much and they do have decent impact tolerance ... Ah well. Since there is no way I'll ever get this into space the legit way, I'm not sure how much I'll refine the design. Got some other things in development right now that should actually work ... *rubs hands*

I may have gone overbord with the part count again ... Anyway. This is the HC-128-01 Heavy Cruiser. It's one of my first all-out military designs. Currently, it sports 15 nuclear engines and 22 junior docking ports/weapon hardpoints (thinking about adding some more later, we'll see). The front armored section features the ship's main supply of monopropellant, batteries and generators. And I just HAD to use the new pod for the bridge ... even though it's annoying to place because you need too much space for it -.- With no weapon loadout it comes in at just over 500 parts, so it does lag a bit on my machine. Plus, I have no idea how on earth I'll get it into orbit, so it may just have been designed for the sake of designing it, but whatever. I'll probably hyperedit it into orbit at one point just to give it a spin. I actually had a smaller ship in mind, but it somehow grew quite big. Must've had something to do with that peculiar "MOAR ENGINES!!!11"-mood I sometimes get.