stubbles

Awesome, thanks Cerverus! Glad that people are enjoying the work. Moving on right now, I'm definitely eyeballing Energia. I think I'll make the side rockets first, since they're mainly just the first stage Zenit tanks/engine (RD-170 instead of 171, but close enough). The centerline is a bit more intrusive though. Much larger engine and when compared to the Zenit tanks, looks like it's going to be a 4m part. Energia-2's centerline stage is also telescopic - it extends for launch, then since it's a return vehicle, it contracts for re-entry. Not to mention that the centerline stage also opens a hinged nosecone to decouple it's payload o_O. Lots of work ahead. Also, some engine variants on the centerline stage might be a good idea? I'm not doing the Buran, so don't eyeball that But the 0/3/4 engine centerline setups look awfully slick and would be nice to customize per your payload requirements.

Ah, cool! I'll probably still go ahead and make my own then, at least for the sake of having matching art. I'm also going to be expanding into Energia/Energia-2, so I may as well

Cerverus - niiiiice! I was actually going to be working on Energia stuff but dang, if someone else already has... hah FAR is just really touchy sometimes, boamere. I noticed the same, that I move more than a few degrees at a time, it will flop around. If the payload is 15 tons it should be okay, as long as it's not all top heavy (as in, small base at the decoupler, bulbous on top).

Yeah, the shroud is to improve aerodynamics and decrease drag. Without it, drag on the decoupler goes over 75kN. What is your ascent angle like? I've manually flown it many times now without any issues, you just can't make big fast turns of like 10+º. Tap 1-2º, wait a second, tap a few more, etc. You can also try a low tilt trajectory, similar to how the shuttle operated. Shortly after liftoff, tilt the rocket 10º-15º or so towards your desired inclination. Should still be more than enough thrust to get to geosync and should ease the physics some.

Yeah, sorry about that! (thanks Roxette!). I didn't realize the heavy strut was part of KW. I noticed it in the OP in red text, that it would need to be re-strutted with default struts, if you don't have KW installed. *edit* haha thanks Boamere!

What the? hahaha. That is insane.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I'm glad you're enjoying it! There will be tweaks/updates in the coming days I'm sure. I'll see about getting up another link that has the archive in plain .zip format, for those that don't have 7zip (which you should, it's rad ).

OP has been updated with the download link. Please let me know if you guys have issues! Enjoy!

Thank you, Proot! : ) I just solved the power problem btw. I'm packaging the parts up for release right now

Thanks Boamere, glad you like the visuals so far I've hit a last minute snafu with electric charge consumption being vamped by something. Hopefully won't take much longer to fix here.

Getting ready to release here in about 30min. I want to thank NoMrBond, SkyHook and SippyFrog for donating their time help playtest the parts before release. With their help, we identified a number of issues and mod compatibility problems. Here's a shot in the meantime. Ignore the crappy looking payload, it was a test for top-heavy/uneven loads, to see if FAR misbehaved (it didn't ).

Yeah, simulate world space is on for that one. But if it's off, the smoke moves with the rocket in a very stuff manner. I'd probably be okay using the default FX node setup for the smoke, but that doesn't seem to work correctly if you've also got EFFECTS node setups.

In regards to the particle system, Nazari, have you had luck counter-acting this affect? Where the particles seem to pull apart a LOT, when at higher speed? I've tried pushing insane particles, like 15,000 particles, but it still does that blobby separation, it's aggravating! >_<

Yeah I'm west coast, USA. It's only 2:45pm (14:45 to you) right now. Still waiting on some more feedback, doing some final testing and config tuning! On another note, does anyone know WHY on earth a saved ship does not update when you update a config or mesh? Like I have a 3SL vehicle saved out for loading, but if I change say, a fuel level in a tank, it doesn't update the saved ship. That's ludicrous. I have to rebuild the entire vessel every time I change something :|

Likewise! Hah. I got feedback yesterday, made tons of changes and sent out new builds to the testers. Waiting on the next round of feedback now. Hopefully it's just small stuff that I can fix quickly and get an initial release out today.

That works well enough, Bond. Thanks soo much for helping out (and everyone else as well)! Was a long, frustrating day

Really gorgeous stuff here, Daemoria! Are these the res you're keeping the assets ingame? Or are you going to bake normals from these meshes?

Module decoupler DOES work now, at least. But the fairings fire upwards and then out - how can I get them to fire to the side? Since these are based on an attach now, can I not orient the blast direction?

Yeah, no idea, still doesn't work. Screw it, I'm livid and I'm done with it. I'm just going to make it generic BS and fall right off the sides.

Yeah I don't know, I guess I'm just stupid or something, heh. I can't get this working at all. Here's the config: PART { // GENERAL PARAMETERS name = HA3SLPayloadFairing module = Part author = stubbles // ASSET PARAMETERS mesh = model.mu // NODE DEFINITIONS node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -2.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0 node_stack_top = 1.22, 3.9, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0 // FX DEFINITIONS fx_gasBurst_white = 1.22, 3.9, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, activate sound_vent_small = activate // EDITOR PARAMETERS cost = 75 category = Aero subcategory = 0 title = 2m Payload Fairing manufacturer = Horizon Aeronautics description = Pop the top and let it rock. Attaches to 3SL stage 3 fuel tank // ATTACHMENT RULES: STACK, SrfATTACH, ALLOW STACK, ALLOW SrfATTACH, ALLOW COLLISION attachRules = 1,0,1,1,0 stackSymmetry = 1 // PART PARAMETERS mass = 0.25 dragModelType = default maximum_drag = 0.05 minimum_drag = 0.05 angularDrag = 0.25 crashTolerance = 30 maxTemp = 3200 stageOffset = 1 childStageOffset = 1 stagingIcon = DECOUPLER_HOR MODULE { name = ModuleAnchoredDecoupler anchorName = ejectionForce = 250 explosiveNodeID = top } } This is what it looks like in the VAB: When I try to stage it, the smoke puff goes off and it does absolutely nothing. It just sits there on top of the damn stage. >_<

So we can't set an explicit location for it to explode from? Just the basic attach node locations? That's unfortunate.

So what do you mean by anchors and top nodes? The fairings right now only have the bottom node, which attaches to the BlockDM stage. The "top" nodes I made in Unity I was trying to get to work as explosive nodes, but that didn't work, or I simply don't know how to set those up. I can get the fairings to blow off better now, but not from the top - they blow out from the center of the fairing. How on earth do I control this? I'm going nuts here, haha. This kinda thing drives me mad. MODULE { name = ModuleAnchoredDecoupler anchorName = anchor <--- what in the holy hell is this? Is it node_stack_anchor? node_attach_anchor? node_srf_anchor? No documentation ejectionForce = 100 explosiveNodeID = bottom <--- same as above. What node type is this? Is it directional based and if so, which axis? Again, no documentation }

Yeah I need to try a few things, it's pretty aggravating Documentation is sparse and spread out a lot. The forum search is also insanely awful, haha. On another note, does anyone know why parts wouldn't be able to get activated by action groups or right-click action menus? My fairings for instance, will not detach if I right click on them in space and choose "detach"

The "TOP" nodes aren't attach nodes. The attach node for the fairings is a single node in the center bottom of the mesh. I looked at those KW fairings, Greywind, but just using those settings doesn't work - there's something about how the model itself is setup, which is what I'm getting wrong. I'll have to try using those tiny rocket burns, like Dragon pointed out, I suppose.

Haha yeah not too sure now. I got a good amount of feedback from the testers today, it will probably take all of tomorrow to fix it. Looks like Monday at the earliest. Quick Q for you fellow modders, about fairings. I'm having some issues getting them to eject the way I want. Is there something more to them? My nodes are like this in Unity: And the decoupler script looks like this: // DECOUPLER MODULE { name = ModuleAnchoredDecoupler anchorName = anchor ejectionForce = 1000 explosiveNodeID = top } I've also tried setting them as radial decoupler, stack decoupler, etc but they all don't do what I want, which is to blow their anchors and peel away from the nose. All I get is a puff of smoke in the middle of the mesh (nowhere near those nodes) and the fairings just fall off. Even with an insane ejection force of 1000, nothing seems to happen, so I know I'm doing something wrong here. Do the nodes need Z-directional orientation like thrusttransforms or something? Do they blow +Z or -Z? Kinda lost here.