Kommitz

As well it should because it's just a parts set. Was planning on uploading tonight, but got distracted when finishing textures. I'll polish this up and upload an update tomorrow. New set will make use of custom sounds implemented with the new FX modules, and I will look to uploading another update as soon as I get the new particle effects working. Here's the new FTmN 40 work in progress. Also as something else I'm thinking about, a vaguely European/British styled bunch of parts that are designed to look more advanced further up the tech tree. Something I miss in the likes of NP and KW is a bit of variety in the engine styles. Buuut this is for another thread eventually, and I'll probably find a way to tie it in with another pet project of mine...

Any information on what the requirements are for using something in the new particle setup? I've been trying a few things with no luck yet.

I made this a while back but never finished the part, and I don't regularly use 3.5m parts though so forgive the very basic setup: http://youtu.be/NjvDYWdtIUM Basically it's an interstage part that has attach points for multiple engines, and uses the fairing module to build a shroud. The fairing has its own attach point at the bottom. Fixed height because I'm not a plugin dev, but I think it might be useful and I'll see about tidying it up and putting it up for download because I think it should help with the problem. It was originally going to be part of my own small collection of rocket parts which may or may not materialise eventually.

Thanks, I like to think they've improved markedly since the first versions. I'll consider a 3.75m part, but for 5m diameter craft I'd just suggest using multiple engines. Currently deciding how to texture the fueltanks I made, they should be included in the next update. I'm going to do a few strut bits to go with them, as currently most of the strut sets seem to be dead and I really like strutty looking interplanetary craft.

Will the arms fold up? Maybe you've already thought abut it, but the point of inflatable modules is mostly to be able to fit spacious living or storage quarters in smaller launch vehicles., along with some weight benefits I assume.

It was mostly finished, but then I changed my mind a bit as I think it would be more useful if it could fit under the small landing legs. Reworking it a bit to see if I can keep the looks and make that work, and because it takes me ages to finish things I thought it'd make sense to release what's done so far. Oh, I'm not sure when I actually released that but I can easily put it back when I add in the new fuel tanks. Also is the FTmN 280 attached properly to peoples old ships? The origin point/CoM changed but the attach points are the same as always, not sure if I'll need to fix it.

Hmm, I'll have to spend some time to look in to that. I'm meaning to config all the engines for realfuels too eventually. Also I've just updated with the FTmN 160 and retextured, reworked FTmN280: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/fatman-series-atomic-rockets/ Feedback is appreciated I've just put the engines into the Atomic Rockets node on the tech tree for now, I'll wait and see how research develops before I worry about making the unlocks a bit more in depth.

I'm thinking about where to place them atm, but they'll probably be in the same tier. Ideally though there would be a few different levels of nuclear engines to unlock. We'll see how open the tech trees get for modding later (or I'll find a good modded tree to use). Also I'm texturing this guy up and when I'm done the engines should be ready for launch (￣▽￣)

I like the central column but I think the floors should be aligned to the long axis. If the module was part of an interplanetary ship they could experience some degree of artificial gravity during the acceleration/deceleration phases of the mission and having the floors aligned to take advantage of that would be nice.

It's just a middle sized & 0.625m engine, so they'll not overwrite anything. Just wanted to add more visual variety.

I'll release them when (or a bit after) I upload the next engine update. Should be fairly soon! Currently texturing and revising my colour scheme a bit:

Awww yiss, while the current implementation is nice from orbital/map views, this is really what the gameplay view needs. Piercing through flat clouds doesn't really give the same feeling as going through actual, volumetric ones. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

GIMP isn't great at generating normalmaps, but there is a plugin for it. https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Normal_Map_Creation_in_The_GIMP covers it and has a link to the plugin. Alternatively You could download the trial for Crazybump or something similar, it's much more in depth and controllable. How are you planning on using the normals though? They're very memory intensive.

Hmm, maybe, but I figure the tanks would use a more reflective coating if they were to keep fuel long term in space. They'll likely be white, although I'm tempted to go with a bit of a stripey pattern too for marking the contents and because it'd look nice. Kind of like this, but less of the big, fat scifi ship design.

This is a bit contradictory. There should definitely be fairings on them, although they shouldn't be visible in the parts list if you've downloaded the latest version. For reference: I'm planning on adding things to the tech tree when I finish texturing up the new parts, but I'm working fairly slowly as I also have other work to attend to. Should be releasing them all soon (I'm retexturing the large engine for reasons): In addition to engines, I've settled on a design for some lightweight fuel tanks to make some properly spacey looking ships: I will be looking to expand the set with tanks up to 5m to facilitate liquid hydrogen propellant.

Forget about locking it for a minute, I had no idea that this plugin existed. Has anyone an up-to-date version?

Can Nuclear Engines have configurable fuels before launch now? Also nice to see work on this project again.

Good texture work can do loads to add the illusion of depth to something, and often the illusion is enough to fool you. Bac9 is brilliant at this with most of his textures (and KOSMOS is good too and personally I like some of my work tbh ). You don't necessarily even need to use a normal map. As it is I think people might be glad that detail is done in geometry rather than textures for KSP though, due to the damn memory limitations. And really there's hardly ever that much on screen that would worry anyone about polycounts.

I've been thinking... I'd personally like to see more utility for the different areas of KSC, or growth of the KSC over time. If teaching people to build rockets is the goal of the tech tree then starting off small would seem sensible. Involving the Kerbals from the beginning not as Astronauts, but as scientists observing their first model rockets, then sounding rockets working up to manned test flights and the like. I can understand the appeal of wanting Kerbals to be the first thing to orbit though, but getting a Kerbal to space as the initial goal doesn't have to be the only way to include them from the beginning. Going along that train of thought seeing the likes of Jebediah, Bill and Bob work their way up from supersonic test pilot to first kerbal in orbit would be neat. Regardless of my own idea, I'm interested to see how far career mode is taken. I don't like to speculate too much as I've been playing the game since it was in very early stages of development (and it still is, compared to most games, essentially in a pre-release state and probably not even Alpha testing levels yet). Difficult to judge where things are going with a game that's open to players so early on.

I rebalanced all the .configs for the next release, I think a bit of a buff in TWR for the larger engines seems fair. Also got started on the colours for the middle engine (but currently I'm trimming a few more polygons off it):

You can just rotate the node that represents the thrust transform.

They're polygonal, although the shading might be odd because they're triangular prisms so there're some extreme angles at play.

Hate to break the illusion, but it's balanced almost identically to a bunch of LV-Ns working together

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/stockalikestruts/ There you go. The pack currently contains a single, small truss hub thing.

Technically you should be able to stop pumping the propellant instantly, but the results of that are where a plugin would come in handy. The propellant in a nuclear rocket is also the coolant and the engine can operate at the temperature that it does because the waste heat is dumped out the back. If you cut off the propellant flow before the reactor had cooled down I'd imagine the results would not be good. I was on wikipedia last night looking at the relevant page about the power output of these things. The FTmN 280 should have a reactor core that can put out around 1200MW of thermal energy, which isn't something you just want to stop the coolant flow to imo But anyway I'll revert the .cfgs back to how they were before when I finish the last engine & upload the pack again. I've taken the acceleration/deceleration thing out for animation reasons now.