chickenplucker

I dont think there is currently any lightwave tutorials kicking about for ksp, although that would be really cool Currently I bounce between creating things in LW and zmodeler and export everything out as .3ds to blender for final assembly and exporting to ksp.

Neat [--img width=500 height=313]http://www.somethingthatdoesntsuck.com/Downloads/hawk.jpg Its a fairly simple model really, could use a lot of poly reduction though. With most of these stock models its sometimes faster just to create something from scratch then spend the time converting them. Plus something from scratch gives you more control to better match the atmosphere of the game. Edit: Image issue

Thanks tadeass, yup its the default landing leg plugin. Getting the rotation spots setup on that thing was a major pain in the butt

Most everything I make I try to construct as flexible as possible, this is a sand box game so parts should not lock you into a specific designs. The worst thing about the lander is the proprietary size it needed to be in order to hold the Bigtrak. The beams are just there for looks, if you want to leave them off then you have 3 connection nodes inside the nose fairing/payload bay. Then you could use it for launching ships, satellites, etc. Once this is wrapped up I really want to try to use the nose cone on an orbital meet up to capture a satellite or shuttle. Here\'s a pic that shows the Ausplane mounted inside without the strut towers.

You guys rock, a hex base is a brilliantly simple solution. I will work on one next time I get some free time. I did try the flaps but it created weird collision problems when the arms ran into them. The whole cone part would instantly snap down and explode or rip off. I\'m really looking forward to Nova\'s airbag lander thing he was previewing a while back that was styled after the mars lander, looks like fun.

lol, you could try throwing two de-couplers under the rover. It seemed to help some when I was playing around with it yesterday, at the very least it will give you more things to watch explode

@Toast Spiral is your friend, embrace it , just make sure you keep the nose pointed up. Getting MechJeb and set the SAS set to SURF will generally keep the explodey bits away from ground. @SmiteZero Wait until the first time something goes horribly wrong, it may look shiny but its still very much Kerbal at heart.

I was thinking that it sucks looking at screenshots and not being able mess around with new stuff, and its been like two weeks since I released something, so here: http://www.rustedjunk.com/crap/Landertest.zip Here\'s the rule though, do not complain about anything in that zip , its still very very fragile and lacking finish at this point, none of the parts are balanced for weight/fuel amounts, descriptions are incorrect, etc. Play with it at your own risk and hold back comments until I release the finished version. The legs snap off like toothpicks because the collision file on the tank is round, gives them as much surface area to hang onto as a shoelace is wide. But anyways, have fun and go smash some Bigtraks.

What your seeing is a funky bug that happens when the wheels on the rover start start dropping frames. Try spacing the cart one more decoupler away from the rocket or lowering the overall thrust of the rocket, or anything that keeps the wheels from touching something solid on the rocket. @falken That top cross member/strut has an upper attachment node, but if you were to use the full 8 part nose cone/ramp setup I think the ramps would just rip off or damage the rockets as they unfold. At least they did on the version I\'m still playing with Starting to come together Still have a bunch to do yet, the ramps are not wide enough so the Bigtrak ends up sliding on its belly down the ramp and they also really like to snap off or get misaligned after one landing. As a whole it really needs to be less crappy and prone to snapping parts off. Also Tosh\'s two smaller carts fit in there nice and snug as well and I imagine smaller Katerpiller rovers will have no prolbem hitching a ride in there.

I guess I will need to look into side fairings eventually then Tonights progress, The lander is just missing the nose cone/ramp parts and lights now. Should be able to tackle those tommarow at some point. Then need to go over all the parts and balance the fuel amount and weight of the parts. While trying to bail and drive off the lander while it was underway I ran into the wheel clipping issue so once its all together I need to test it to make sure I dont need to create a taller decoupler for the pack which may or may not help, I\'ll worry about that tommarow. So heres the break down on the parts and assembly if your curious, 2M decoupler/adapter: lower stage fairing/decoupler Engine: Choice of 1M engine, was designed for the two stock liquids but any will work with possible part clipping Crew pod: Will be a cart module with working lights Lander deck: Fuel tank, that hexagon looking thing Lower brace:Clips to the two outer nodes on the top of the tank Upper brace: Clips to a higher center node on the tank Legs/Nose faring: Based on the landing gear module, clips around the fuel hexagon fuel tank. I may release a 1M adapter/decoupler if I have time as well.

The goal is to have the nose cone fold down like flower petals which will create a ramp/landing gear for the lander. At this point you will be able to drive the bigtrak down the ramp, hopefully smoothly. It should work but is all untested right now

Side fairings could be funky, I\'m not ruling them out but I\'m not sure how you safely unload a cart from the side of a moving rocket. Although maybe thats what half the fun . Plus there would need to be counterweight on the other side to keep everything even, which if your rover had different attachments on it could also throw the center of mass off. Just to give you an idea of what parts are currently on the to do list in my head, in somewhat order of possible release it changes depending on my mood and what I feel like working on: Landing craft, Normals update, down facing lights for the lander Better wheel textures Specialized command pod and backpack jumpjet setup for the back of the Bigtrak Project Cricket, really fast set of landing legs that make the Bigtrak 'hop' or break/explode. Early test show a 90% breaking or exploding. Smalltrak, and tiny lander Rocket launcher Off the radar but not ignored: Side fairings Maybe a Bigbigtrak like when I was first getting this in game and fighting scaling issues. Mobile space center

Making good progress on the lander so far, still need to finish the nose cone parts and then add an engine.

It is on the list, but I haven\'t touched it yet because if I do make one I want it to be able to actually shoot and not just be a big chunky decoration. I was thinking about making the darts just stage decouplers but with that equal force thing now I\'m not sure how it would work out. It would be hilarious to fire that off and have your rover flung backwards doing somersaults off across the moon. Let me finish the lander first and get that out of the way and then we can get back to fun stuff.

I could definitely make a part that captured and held a command pod, but without a way to lock it down firmly the physics engine would not enjoy it. I see it causing random explosions and other general weirdness. When .15 comes out with docking then hopefully there will be an actual secure way to attach and lift a command pod without it flailing all around.

Putting the pancake lander on hold for a bit since its just to clunky and big in its current form, the aerodynamics of shoving a dinner plate through the atmosphere really bugs me. Heres the new smaller version that will fit a 2m tank. You can see how the forks are fighting me on this. This design is based around that sketch above where the nose cone will actually fold out and become landing gear and the ramps. Which I could make a special extended fairing/gear set that would just create some room for the forks if you had them attached.

Not a bad idea, back in the wip thread I remember Tiberion asking for a small version that fit on a 2m tank. It ended up getting larger just because the majority of parts are 1m so it seemed like the size to scale too. I\'ll finish some type of lander for the Bigtrak yet, but a Minitrak may be coming sooner then later

I have no idea what that 12 wheel contraption was in the video, or what a practical use for it would be, but I\'m fairly certain I need it

Its actually the same as the one thats currently on it madmat, only the color layer changed to grey maltesh, I\'ll make sure to throw a craft file with the Mk1 pod stuck in it for you in the next update. Well after more playing around with the giant pancake landers/pods on a stick I think its time to re-think this. I was trying to make something universal so you could load up all the Cart\'s or Bigtrak, but it just seems way to large and cumbersome. Maybe it just needs to be reworked more. Right now the setup is: top layer/fueltank, bottom layer/lander engine. The pancake lander motor likes to explode when it touches ground for some reason. I have another idea that I\'m thinking about after watching a Nova episode on the Mars landers which would use the nose cone fairings as landing legs/ramps. I like this idea better then the pancake lander but it will have to fight the same problems of not being large/tall. The landers can\'t be tall because then the ramps to get off wind up really steep which will break off the Bigtraks front attachments if it strikes the ground coming down the ramp. The other issue is because the fork attachments hang off the front making everything longer, the landing craft needs to be wide enough to allow the forks to fit which makes everything really big. I\'ll keep messing around with diffrent configurations but at the moment it looks like the crane lander may be the winner for now.

I like the overhead crane delivery method you guys are using, thats pretty cool. I just slap mine ontop of a 1m tank and then roll the whole mess over after its landed I\'ve been testing some really rough experimental giant nose cones/fairings. They are freaking ridiculous but its all for science! Pile O\' Ship, some assembly required. And the main thing I have been working on tonight... Corrected normals! Now the Bigtrak and its parts don\'t look so funky when the shadows are being drawn on them. Also corrected some texture issues that you prolly won\'t notice. The downloads not updated yet, but soon

But what if you don\'t want the Bigtrak? What if you just want some awesome lights? I\'ll be giving these a go on my next mun lander, they look really cool.

They should be in there, I just double checked the zip and the part folder seems to be listing everything correctly. It should show up under the Utility tab with the Bigtrak and the rest of the accessory\'s. They face backwards in the part menu and look like the hatch texture when you see them. I\'ll try to dl the zip and test it to make sure its working soon, tied up atm.

Yes, and yes. May be the weekend before I find time to make the tiny light though.

Fold out lights would be really cool, but I\'m not the best with code so it may be a while before anything like that gets made. New floodlights and floodlight pod out now. The pod is just a stand for the lights that matches the digital camera add on for the Bigtrak Jr. that I don\'t think was ever sold. The floodlights are seprate parts that you can stick on anything as long as you have the Cart plugin installed. Fun to stick on rockets Lights stuck on the pod. They light up a fairly large area Remember that none of this would be possible without Tosh\'s Cart plugin and all the hard work he put into that, so if you like the lights and the Bigtrak make sure to let him know

Haha, thanks for sharing that video falken. I liked how the crew kept going from happy to terrified as stuff blew up. Next attachment is going to be a floodlight pod thingy I think, then onto project cricket which will be some type of gear addon that will *hopefully* attach to the underside and have legs that swing down extremely fast making the whole rover jump like a cricket. Or explode like a cricket, we will see