Broco

Thanks for the compliment :-) Don't give up. I already spent more than 200 hours on KSP and that is just since the Steam version (I was with KSP since 2011) is out. Making good SSTO spaceplanes is like a masterpiece and I have thrown away like 30 designs before I knew what I have to do to make a good one (e.g. I needed like 15 hours to build the first version of this craft). That's what I love about this game, it always gives you a new challenge :-P The problem is: I can just give you the standard hints: try to keep the center of lift on the center of mass, don't use too heavy engines (at least not for the start). Try to test your fueltank-engine-combination alone. That's what I did for this ship, too: one nuclear engine has not enough thrust to lift one tank, but two engines can do it and so you see a tank with a bi-coupler fired by two nuclear engines. You are welcome to download my other (and smaller) spaceplane and play around with it, it may give you some hints (I used some tricks on it ): http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/42498-Apophis-SSTO-with-VTOL-capabilities

You can put 2 engines into one, that works out pretty well, too. But I would rather put more intakes into each other to have a higher amount of intake air in a smaller space...

Since the old Design, the Anubis (mk1) had some serious issues (bad lag due to high part count) and HOC wanted me to make a playable design for his channel I got back to the SPH and started from scratch. The outcome: The Anubis mk2 (well actually it's mk3 but the 2nd one doesn't count). Improvements: + much smaller part count (298 compared to >500), which makes it actually flyable without or at least with less lag compared to the extreme framerate-drop on the mk1 + 8 nuclear engines instead of just 2 and those are more balanced, thus MUCH more efficient once in space + more stability (doesn't break on restart flight anymore - you had to go to launch the old version from SPH always, dunno why) + less fuel tanks (to make refueling less of a pain in the a$$) + easier to take off (you'll still need the whole runway because the wheels are not that close to the center of mass) + inline clamp-o-tron instead of a normal one Cons: - smaller (and thus much less epic) :-( - fewer engines (the engine set of 28 engines looked way cooler, now there are just 20) But make your own decision: After takeoff: Full throttle: Going for circular orbit just with nuclear engines: Rear view with smaller engine set Proof: stable orbit I'm not really sure if I like it as much as the old one. I mean, before building mk1 I was like "How big can a spaceplane which is able to get into space become?" and it should look epic. This one is much more practical (you could even use it as some kind of good looking long range tanker), but as I said: doesn't look that cool. Craft file: Anubis-mk2.craft

Sorry haven't been online recently due to some ****load of work to do, but I'll do my very best and would be honoured if you try it out on your channel :-) Can't guarantee it, though because it will be very hard to reach the size with a lesser part count (I even tried not to waste too many parts). Will be a bit smaller then. Edit: Done! http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/42573-Anubis-mk2-SSTO?p=546161#post546161

So after my last spaceplane I posted here I wanted to go a little bit smaller and more practical. It is capable to get into orbit on its own and to land on mun and return to orbit (with refueling in orbit of course). Testing return capabilities soon on Laythe. Tested with the new SAS (works fine) I present to you the Apophis (click images for full size): In Space: Front View: Rear View: Craft-file: http://www.file-upload.net/download-7886769/Apophis.craft.html Action groups: 1: Toggle Aerospikes 2: Toggle Jet engines 3: Toggle intakes 4: Toggle vertical engines Flight instructions to get into orbit: - activate SAS and toggle jet engines (full throttle) - pull up to a 45 degree climb - once you reach 15,000 metres slowly flatten the ascent to about 5-10 degrees to gain speed and keep the air intake going - try to reach ~23,000 metres with at least 1200 m/s - activate aerospikes (1) but don't shutdown jet engines until you go below 0.18 intake air - shut down jet engines (2) when intake air is below 0.18 (~0.16 will give you a flameout), don't forget to close intakes (3) - once your speed is around 2200 m/s you can throttle down or kill the engines (1) and wait until you reach the apoapsis which should be around 100,000 metres, then throttle towards prograde marker to create a circular orbit

Simple solution: Keep the new SAS, give us back the old one, too (including the old avionics package). Flying spaceplanes with the new SAS is possible but it's a freaking horror. I mean seriously guys, I built a spaceplane with the old system in it and it worked like a charm, could easily get into orbit. Now from 6000 meters up, the new SAS ****s it up because it slightly turns the plane. If I try to correct the course it completely kills the SAS and the nose goes down. If I try to correct that it steers sideways. And so on. Completely desastrous. Going back to 0.20. Screw the new parts, they don't even slightly compensate for the broken SAS.

Hey HOC, would like to see your judgement on my big spaceplane, the Anubis: More info (craft file, images) here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26768-Anubis-Spaceplane-%28SSTO%29 You can use the edited version by Scoundrel (can be found on page 4), aswell. Just remember, if you crash, don't press restart flight but go back to the hangar and launch again (restart will make it explode instantly). Let's see if you get it into orbit :-P

Looks absolutely gorgeous. I like it alot.

...then I realized it's not the hardware's fault. I mean seriously, is Microsoft joking with this Windows 8 thing? Wiped the Hard drives, setting up Win7 and Ubuntu 12.04 in dual-boot. Nothing more to add than this:

Indeed, it doesn't help. Being a noob is not the problem, I was one too. KSP is a game that has a very high learning curve for those willing and able to learn and it's a big playground for people with a decent astronimical/physical knowledge. All people who don't fall into this category will soon lose the will to play this game and stop and thus only very few of those will join the community. And just a part of those few are annoying. But it's easy to describe: The more brains you need for a game the better the community. Small example statistic of annoying to awesome communities: Call of Duty --> Battlefield --> Borderlands --> Fallout 3 --> Oblivion/Skyrim --> Warcraft / Starcraft (stategy games, not WoW (this is near Borderlands)) --> Supreme Commander --> Anno series --> KSP. Minecraft is somewhere in all categories, because this game changes so much depending on how you play it. I saw people building 8 bit CPU's in it but I also saw idiots just running around just killing zombies. But I always believed that there is at least a small connection between logic intelligence and social intelligence.

If you want you can add my ship Anubis as light cruiser. Only thing I want is that you keep the name (you'll see why when you look at the design). It's a stock only SSTO-Spaceplane, needs refueling in Kerbin orbit after launch but is capable of traveling to Laythe on its own. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26768-Anubis-Spaceplane-%28SSTO%29

Thanks for the work and the effort you put in this, but I personally will stay with the old version for now. With the >50 extra parts you added my PC is near death when trying to fly it. I get the old one into orbit everytime I fly it (after a lot of training though). Hope they fix this glitch in future versions, then I'll definitely switch to yours (especially when my new laptop arrives which hopefully will be able to master this craft) because after all its more stable and easier to take off. Very nice implemention of your parts, you did a great job there. I start liking this community evern more Does someone know if there is a key binding to cycle through the tanks because trying to click a tank inside the chassis of this craft is quite annoying.

I just searched for it. Hell that ship looks awesome. But you said it's unflyable, how did you get it into space? oO

Well you won't believe it, but getting it off the runway is actually harder than getting it into orbit. It's relatively stable it's just hard to take off due to its lenght.

Yes, you are right... it kinda sucked. This has really good flight abilities for its size. Try it out, craft file posted (but take the mk2, the first one is a little bit more unstable and got no nuclear engines).

Will build another SSTO Battleship soon (well at least I hope it will work)...

Madness? This is KSP!

You lost a wing ^^

Sign me up: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26768-Anubis-Spaceplane-%28SSTO%29

In case it doesn't work, I zipped the pictures for you and uploaded them to the same hoster which hosts the craft file. http://www.file-upload.net/download-7534713/anubis-pictures.zip.html

Image links are fine, maybe a firewall or a proxy?

Do you mean because you are scared or because of the framerate-drop? :-D Thanks, but with half the engines being jet engines I had problems taking off before. Will try again though, maybe I did it wrong, would be cool if I could land this ship and take off again. Thank you, will try that out later, I'm at work right now. Have you tried it? I always had to put wheels in the back because the rear tended to crash into the ground without wheels on a ship in this size (because it's a little bit wobbly). But it seems logic, indeed :-D I will experiment with the design, maybe remove the outter aerospikes and replace them with jet-engines. Maybe VTOL capabilities. My first goal was to get this baby into space and that was quiet hard on its own.

That buggy is sooo awesome. Gotta practice to build little things more, that's an art of its own. Nicely done.

Looks pretty cool, will try that setup myself, didn't had the idea yet :-D

Once it's off the runway it performs really good, I was suprised myself (though I tried to balance it as good as possible in this size & design). The takeoff is by far the hardest part. Full throttle, all engines on, take off with RCS on, slightly pull up, not that much that the wings touch the ground but not too less or you will crash immediately. Made a new version by now which performs a little bit better, still hard takeoff though, nuclear engines on board, more RCS-thrusters and more RCS-fuel. P.S.: I got it into orbit befor I postet it of course :-D My Computer sucks too, new laptop on its way. I play on the lowest settings, just switched to higher ones for the pictures but even if the ship is just orbiting without any command I got like 4 fps max. It's really not that hard to get it into orbit once (and that's a big once) you made it off the runway.