OrbitusII

Note: The Marathon is played in a sandbox world. That said, I am doing things on a harder difficulty level than straight sandbox. Kerbals die forever, rockets and planes take time to build, and I will revert as little as I can when I play and make progress. This is a prologue, explaining some of the history of my time with KSP, which is assumed to be one continuous timeline. It transcends game versions, going as far back as 0.16, I think. 137 days ago, a space station began construction. It used new techniques and parts not used before by the global space programs. The station, now known as ILKOS, was a small thing consisting of a power module, docking, and a tug as of the first mission to expand it with the KSO Resolute, one of two smaller shuttles in use at the time. However, the space program had been going on for decades. Kerbals have been on Mun many times, exploring and visiting probes that had already landed, as well as developing some rudimentary bases. The Maiden-series rockets, famed around Kerbin for their reliability and simplicity, have been in use for around 50 years with a track record unmatched by anything before or since. Space stations were built, expanded, deorbited, and built again. Concept rockets and planes galore have been built, trying to get the coolest and most effective systems around. Things have gone wrong, but never so wrong that Kerbals were lost. It's a miracle that the world went as long as it did without any major accidents. There were certainly wars in which Kerbals were killed, but somehow there were almost never any accidents that posed harm to the Kerbals flying planes and spacecraft in the name of science... It was as if something was protecting the ones who dedicated their lives to exploring and learning. It was messy work at times, but the Kerbals involved would always survive. This brings us to the present day, a time when space exploration was hitting its peak for the first time in decades. Mun had been colonized once again... ILKOS was a beacon of scientific exploration flying high above Kerbin... and the first-ever manned mission to Duna was being prepared. It seemed like the space program had never been better, interest in space among young Kerbals was skyrocketing, funding to the program was the highest it had been since its creation, and safety for the brave astronauts was barely a concern. Naturally, that's when things decided to go wrong. A new rover was scheduled to go to the Munar colony to allow for exploration of the beautiful terrain around it. Bartemone Kerman, a relatively new recruit to the space program, was piloting and would join the colony as the head of exploration. Either through the carelessness of the engineers, the age of the rocket used to launch the rover, or some unknown factor, the launch went terribly, horribly awry. The rocket cleared the tower as it normally did, it flew up to 5km and began its gravity turn as it normally would, but the turn didn't stop. The rocket carrying Bartemone Kerman and his shiny new rover for the Mun base began to spin out of control and Bartemone bailed, but he couldn't escape. The design of the launcher involved in the crash omitted any sort of LES. While manned missions in the past normally used a LES in case something went wrong, but the Maiden series had an unmatched safety record and so it was considered unnecessary. Being destined for Mun, the rover didn't carry any parachutes, so Bartemone bailed and jumped out of the rover, hoping to be able to exploit his own durability. Let it be known that Kerbals, while durable, are not invincible. Bartemone's best bet would have been to stay in the rover, but as with any tragic accident, nothing would have saved him. The space program came to a screeching, obnoxious, terrifying halt. The Maiden series was immediately declared "unsafe" and all future missions to orbit or beyond were put on hold until a solution could be found. The Kerbals on Mun would remain until it was necessary for them to leave and those on ILKOS would stay until they could be retrieved. The station, of course, lacked return capsules because space was previously seen as nothing if not safer than the ground. The Duna Rocket was docked to ILKOS so it could be monitored along with extending the supplies of both vessels, which were manned. New spacecraft under development by the nation of Kerus would not be able to transport Kerbals for at least a year, not that program administrators would tolerate using another nation's resources to continue their progress in space (oh, the irony of this). Fortunately, there was one thing that could allow the space program to achieve orbit again: spaceplanes. The Vortex 1, a fighter jet developed by Marathon Aeronautics, was one of the most famous aircraft built by the company. Its flight capabilities made it second to none in both low-speed and supersonic categories, making it ideal for adaptation into an orbit-capable plane. Multiple prototypes of a spaceplane based on the Vortex 1 were constructed and given the titles of V2X-1 through V2X-4. Sadly, none of them were capable of achieving the speeds necessary to achieving orbit. Then, suddenly, Marathon engineers presented a crazy idea to their superiors. It looked nothing like the Vortex 1, which was intended to be the inspiration for the new spaceplane. The new design would have been scrapped, if not for the decision makers at the top of the space program. That design was chosen as the next prototype for the SSTO and given the name "V2X-5." This is the story of the Kerbals in the space program: test pilots, engineers, administrators, astronauts, and colonists. They may not all appear, but they are all important. Thus ends the prologue and history lesson and begins a call to arms or whatever. What I need from readers is names! There are currently two unnamed entities in this world: the nation in charge of this space program and the space program itself. Post any ideas you have, I'm open to anything at this point. Next Chapter: The First Flight of V2X-5 (With Dialogue!) Introduction to the Cast Mod List

Oh, it's far from useless, but it seems useless at first glance. In short it's a part of the inventory and customization systems. What you're seeing is the primary script mapping where its attachment nodes are. That's all I'm going to say, but it's cool stuff.

I was looking into developing some sort of Kerbal model replacer so that we could use Helldiver's female Kerbal concepts as actual in-game Kerbals, but I didn't even start development of that. It's possible to change out rigged and animated models, it's just very tricky to do without screwing up the operation of the thing itself. Please don't ask me to try and do it now because I have an 18 credit-hour semester with 15 hours of work-study on the side, not to mention the fact that I'm working on a standalone game and multiple mods for KSP... I would die if I had to do something else.

The new version of PhysX should be multithreaded. I don't know enough about it to say for sure but it sounds like that's the gist of it.

Still need to work on that. Honestly it's slipped my mind recently because I've been developing my first SSTO in KSP and programming the game I'm working on with Helldiver. (more on that in a blog post sometime in the far(?) future) You can really tell I've been making progress there by looking at this: Basically, unless you know what we're doing with the game this image means nothing. We're keeping under lock and key until we have a tech demo (and even when we do this is not the place for it).

The KSO Resolute was pulled out of storage to perform the rescue operation for Dudfield Kerman and also equip the V2X-5 with a way to land itself. Approach Docking with the V2X-5, via the newly-equipped ASRU (Automated Spacecraft Retrieval Unit). Two generations of spacecraft: the KSOS Block 8 and the Vortex 2 Experimental. The Resolute will be landing first. It would be unfortunate to have to deny them landing on account of the experimental plane crashing and making a mess. Dudfield (the one taking the picture) is quite happy to be returning, although Hannie Kerman, the ASRU Technician, doesn't seem to share his sympathies... Hannie, you're in space. I know your stomach isn't happy but just hold on for 20 more minutes and you'll be back on solid ground. The Resolute landed successfully! From left to right: Shelford, Henfrod, and Hannie executed the mission successfully, and Dudfield (far right) is now ready to perform more tests flights... after his debrief and some counseling, of course. Now to try and land the V2X-5. It will require a pretty hefty design edit, the inline docking port colliders are messing with the air intakes on intolerable levels. You can see the starboard intake being pushed into the central fuselage. Update: The V2X-5 has landed! Using the engines to get extra speed as it would have landed far from the runway with too much vertical velocity otherwise. Landed. This is a fortunate outcome, even without any kerbals piloting it. The V2X-5 can now move forward in development. Space Program Priorities: - Bring Munar colonists home within a couple of months. They'll stay up there and do science (despite my being in Sandbox mode ) for a while longer and then return. - Finalize the Vortex 2 spaceplane. It won't replace the payload of the Maiden-series launchers but it's a good step towards 20-ton payloads on SSTOs. - Start development of a larger spaceplane with at least a 5 ton payload capacity. The Vortex 2 is a good proof-of-concept but will only be used for small satellites. - Expand the ILKOS (International Low Kerbin Orbit Station) and rotate crew. Maybe not totally feasible at this point but it needs to be done.

And of course I'll keep working on my part pack. Good luck with your remakes!

Finally started texturing the crew capsule and oh my dayum does it look sick. The magic of bumped textures, folks! Naturally I'd like feedback on the texture. I like the Soyuz-esque texture but the capsule is originally based off of Vostok, which was a smooth ball of metal. There's a lot of things I can do to the texture so don't worry if something seems out of reach. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't know at least some of what I was doing. A little extension for Toolbar that shows engine data like thrust output and loss. Designed for helping people who fly multi-jet SSTOs like the Aeris 4A a lot. Download (Dropbox) As with all my mods, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0

I think that not using Mechjeb is, at least in some cases, a sign of a more mature player. I used it a lot when I was less skilled, but now I only ever use it for attitude control on space stations and while docking if I even have it installed. That's not to say that people who use it aren't capable. Maybe they are less skilled, but this game isn't about who is better at space, it's about doing what you want with your space program and if that involves using a flight computer like MJ to get things done, so be it. There's a lot of cool stuff that can be done and using MechJeb or not does not change that fact, it just changes how stuff gets done. I remember when MJ used to be an incredibly hot topic, with threads getting locked left and right and there being two effective factions on either side of the argument. My standing then and now remains indifferent: you can use MJ or not and I won't care, all that matters to me is that you're doing something. Seeing the community being much more civil is very nice.

Yeah, I can fix that real quick.

Is your issue that the engines have the shroud even when there's no part connected to its bottom node? I know KW has some configs that mess with engine fairings so that might be a potential source.

Did some exploring because I was bored (actually testing a plugin that should help reduce spinning out while launching multi-jet SSTOs). Turns out the Vortex 1 can achieve an AP of 50+ km and speeds of 2000+ m/s, not that it matters since the V2X-5 will be the version used in the end.

That shuttle is from the Kerbin Shuttle Orbiter System. It's awesome.

The last version for 0.23.5 is 3.09. You may be able to get 4.09 working with 0.23.5 by getting older versions of the plugins, just know that it isn't really supported now.

And the science payout per day would be minuscule. It would be a good constant supply but not fantastic return on investment except in the long run.

I'm not sure how you would trigger the built-in splash effects, but I'm sure you could put together some particles in Unity and have the plugin spawn those when you need it to. I would do the latter since you can also optimize the particles more than the stock ones.

My station's first module was power and a tug. That tug is hella useful. Docked my massive Duna Transport to my station with the tug's help.

Yes, it is for people who don't want KSPI. It would therefore be safe to make the KSPI-free version not use resources from other mods (e.g. Karbonite/Kethane) so that you don't need KSPI, Karbonite, or Kethane to use the warp ship from the get-go, which is my understanding of the original intent behind asking for a KSPI-free version. That is, make the ship run on Xenon or something so that you can use it in Sandbox mode as soon as you start your save (that's what I'd want to do, anyway).

I would put them in the General Addon Affairs forum since no other locations make much sense for that.

Screenshots would definitely help, and a craft file would help even more. You'll need to upload screenshots to a service like imgur to be able to post them on the forums and craft files will need to be hosted on a site like dropbox or mediafire for other people to access them. Welcome to the forums!

I think the reasoning for having a version that doesn't use KSPI is to have a version of the warp ship that doesn't depend on anything besides maybe Firespitter for animations. Shifting the dependencies from KSPI to Karbonite or Kethane is very similar to not removing the KSPI dependency at all.

A quick tip for your imgur album in the OP, remove the "#0" from inside the tags. Having it there makes the album show up weird on the forums. I wish you luck! It's cool to be able to say "I make mods for KSP" in real life, so work hard and do your best and you'll do just fine.

I can see how this would be useful, but I can also see how it would be really dangerous. Balancing aircraft is an incredibly tricky business. Take, for example, my passenger jet: All of the engines are on the underside of the main wings. Without the tailplanes providing as much lift as they do, it would be unflyable. Even something as simple as giving the plane a 747-style hump messed up the CoM-CoL-CoT relationship pretty severely, which for a plane as complex as this one makes it impractical to use without pretty significant redesigns. Having tailplanes with less lift could be a good solution to KerrMu's problem, so it might be nice to get more wings parts rather than tweakable wings. As Ferram4 said, changing physics is not a sensible solution. Oh yes, it would certainly be useful, but it wouldn't make a lot of sense to be able to change the flight characteristics of crafts on a whim.

This seems like a really bad omen considering my post just above yours... I'm gonna hold off on landing the V2X-5 for a little while. Edit: my fears were well-founded: Lodvey Kerman performed some landing tests with the sibling of the V2X-5 currently in orbit and is now hospitalized. Dudfield will not be returning home in the V2X-5 that he took into orbit but will remain there until an updated version with improved landing stability can be sent up to rescue him.

Lodvey performed a test flight of the V2X-3 and V2X-4 today. Those prototypes were basically modified Vortex 1s, but neither could get to orbit. Got a nice picture though. Next up is the V2X-5, a plane designed from scratch with stats similar to the Aeris 4A (in theory). Dudfield Kerman will be flying this prototype since Gusmin and Lodvey have finished their two test flights for now. Edit: Dudfield and the V2X-5 took off just before dawn, successfully achieving orbit about 17 minutes into the flight. I went fullscreen for this mission so now I have a bunch of potential wallpapers. The V2X-5 successfully achieved orbit with around 32.8% of its takeoff LFO remaining, so it's going to be able to do a fair amount of orbital maneuvers if it gets selected for active service. The boys back home are slightly concerned about the stability of the rear landing gear, but they are much more secure than those on the Vortex 1 even though they aren't presently strutted.