CatastrophicFailure
-
Posts
7,163 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Developer Articles
KSP2 Release Notes
Posts posted by CatastrophicFailure
-
-
I was mucking about with this:
It's 5500 tonnes, 100 meters high, 1.5 million funds to build, has nearly bankrupted me just SIMULATING it...
... is taller than the VAB...
... and still needs lots of work. I can see why Nasa went with the LOR profile instead of direct ascent & Saturn 8.
-
I blew up Laythe with my new Death Star:
Wait what? What mod is that?
-
creepything.gif
Ah yes, I was just having a nightmare about that. Won't be sleeping tonight either.
-
Send Max to Space. Max and Jinx friends
?!? I posted that a month & a half ago and people are just now getting the joke? LOL
http://i.imgur.com/RNjGIAk.gif
Approximately thirty seven seconds later it became apparent to me that the probe had about nine hundred meters per second of delta-v on board, and you need about fourteen hundred to reach low Duna orbit.
This came as something of a disappointment.
What'd you use to record that gif?
-
A flurry of activity as my station nears completion. A second Tenacity cargo ship brings fresh supplies for the expansion crew scheduled to launch in a few days.
Followed by the secondary lab module. This shot just came out really cool.
Once the lab was delivered, a SciPod brings up a Station Science experiment. Not real happy with this design, since I can't seem to replicate it for the other experiments. Something clipping wrong somewhere.
The S7a screw was scheduled to launch shortly after this, but there was a significant launch anomaly. The crew aborted safely, but everything was put on hold for a few weeks until the problem could be identified and resolved. This was the second launch failure of a MUL/Colossus to date. After some more refinements, the S7b crew of Gregzer, Shelvis, and Billy-Bobford made an uneventful launch to orbit.
Their cargo is a second docking adapter with KAS containers.
This was also the first manned flight of the updated MUL+ design. Rendezvous was nominal, the crew docked their adapter to the forward nadir port and got used to their new home for the next six months. This brings the station to its intended crew of 6 Kerbals.
Shortly after that, the final module arrives, the zoology lab.
This marks station completion. But this is also when the wobble monster decided to rear its ugly head. I always fly my stations with positive attitude control relative to the ground, not just randomly floating around. Unfortunately, having a 70 ton segment only connected by a standard docking port doesn't work well. With attitude control on the station will wobble around like a bunch of noodles until it comes apart. I'd managed to avoid it up till now, but a real solution was needed.
I also needed a more reliable experiment return ship, and what came out was the Wyvern-class mini cargo ship. It has enclosed storage for a small 1.25 meter payload that can be returned to Kerbin, two KAS racks, and plenty of fuel and power.
I was quite happy to find that the Quantum Struts mod had been adopted and was now properly updated. Wyvern-1 brought up 20 of them to fix this limp biscuit. Here, Gregzer is negotiating the drifting (currently upside-down) station placing the Qstruts.
After that, there was time for testing a new safety tether system from Active Struts.
And this is the final product. Over 200 tons on orbit, standard crew compliment of six with life support recycling for up to 9 if needed. Between lag and wobble I've bout hit the limit of what I can do with it for now, but I'm damn proud of how it turned out. The lag is annoying but still playable. Every previous multimodule station I've made I've had to abandon because the lag either became to much or they noodled themselves into oblivion. I've about maxed the tech tree at this point, but the Station Science contracts are lucrative enough this station should be able to fund anything else, until I decide to jump into .90.
Some glamour shots:
MacBrrrrrrrrrrree Kerman from S6 mugging for the hullcam:
Now that I've hit this milestone, I think maybe it's time I developed a proper heavy-lift LV and retuned to the Mün or Minmus. I think a 10-meter base should be a good starting point.
-
ou can try this old version.
I remove them as I release new version because otherwise I have to deal with bugs caused by old versions. Just saying "no support for everything but the latest version" is not enough, so I purge the old ones
Hey do you by chance have a Windows version of the .25 build?
-
Used mechjeb to rendezvous with a shuttle. I tried rendezvous a bunch and failed so I'll leave that to the expert(s). So, I did my first docking today docking snacks storage and more kerbals inside the MK3 plane parts and refueled the spaceplane.
Theres a bit of a trick to efficient rendezvous with MechJeb. First, you want to be in a higher or lower orbit than your target, 25-50km difference is usually sufficient. First set up a Hohmann transfer, do that burn, then do a "fine tune closest approach," and finally "match velocities" at closest approach. Should get you within a couple hundred meters.
-
Made some gigantic probe cores.
They need to light up & make the "dum dum dum DUMMMMMMMMMMM" sound!
-
Also, what the HECK is a 'brazillian km'? How many 'brazillian' kilometers to a metric kilometer?Donald Rumsfeld briefed the President this morning. He told Bush that three Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq. To everyone’s amazement, all of the colour drained from Bush’s face, then he collapsed onto his desk, head in hands, visibly shaken, almost whimpering. Finally, he composed himself and nervously asked Rumsfeld to explain “How many is a brazillion?â€Â….Like a normal kilometer but trimmed I suppose.
Actually I like this answer better.
-
Thanks for that information. I'll go hunt for the log and then through the log... dying to know what the heck happened. Does this weird stuff happen just with Moho, or am I to expect maybe the same with other low-gravity bodies - say, around Dres? I don't suppose baby-sitting the next one I put up at Moho would make a difference? Anyway... thanks again.
For me, it only seems to pop up around Moho. I think maybe because it's so close to the sun. Something going way out to Jool only ever needs minor corrections. Personally, I think it's just cuz Moho is cursed and should be avoided at all costs, but hey. Baby-sitting does seem to work better, it's something in the accuracy you loose when a vessel is unfocused & "on rails."
Oh and if you've already started a new game session after closing the last one, your log will have been reset. But if not, just search thru it for the ship name. It'll say something about colliding or hitting the surface, if that is so.
-
Took a break from station building to work with a couple of side projects, still haven't taken the plunge into .90 yet.
First up was a man-rating (Kerbal-rating?) proof flight for my medium-lift LV. With a new high-thrust upper stage, it no longer shares any components with the smaller Colossus, so I've renamed it Oracle.
Put a MUL stack on top and filled the tapered interstage with the biggest fuel tank it could lift, just to see how far it could get. Turns out it's just enough for a Münar intercept, with the MUL completing the burn. So I could get one into Münar orbit, but it couldn't get back without refuling. Hmm.
Being experimental, this flight was an unmanned, free-return. The MUL its self has also been upgraded, now fully capable of unmanned flight and featuring a new OGLE docking indicator that increases aesthetic efficiency by at least 23%.
The flight was a complete success, although the pod came down way off course in the middle of a storm in the Genn desert.
Now it was time to send Kerbals somewhere on the newly certified rocket.
The target was a large asteroid on an eccentric, slightly retrograde-polar orbit that's been stable there since the start of this save. Launching into a 138* inclined orbit used an absolutely ridiculous amount of fuel, and by the time the crew made rendezvous they were down to RCS only. But the encounter was a success, much science was collected, and at 200k km's up only a tiny deorbit burn was needed.
The real interesting part here was playing around some more with lifting re-entrys. Here, the components separate in the upper atmosphere at around 8km/s.
I was aiming for a skip reentry from the outset here, and this was my initial trajectory, thanks to the Trajectories visualizer mod:
Figured out how to use it better, so by changing the pod's roll attitude I'm able to control the final landing spot. Kinda.
My target was Pogagalas island off the coast of Eduacor, and I even surprised my self by ending up within sight of it.
That much attitude change takes alot of battery power, however, and the pod's batteries actually ran out after it skipped out of the atmosphere, but by that time the course was set. It meant the two Kerbals were in for a rough ballistic (non-lifting very spinny) entry, and while the chute was already armed, the braking rockets malfunctioned making for a hard landing as well.
The pod survived just fine, now it's back to my station and the growing lag-monster its becoming.
-
I put a SCANsat up around Moho the other day (see picture below). I left it orbiting, scanning, mapping. I was working on (and just finished) putting another in Dres polar orbit. When I went back to check on the progress on Moho... the satellite was gone, no sign of it what-so-ever, not even debris. Kraken? Don't know. A bit disappointed because it was quite a task getting there. :/
Things in the vicinity of Moho tend to go...weird. Orbits get tweaked. What started as a perfect intercept can miss by a brazilian km's while you're off doing other stuff. Seems likely a stable orbit could end up "decaying" and hitting the planet, but you'd have to scan thru your log to be sure. Something to do with FLOP errors IIRC.
-
A rookie crew on the first flight of a new revision of my workhorse launch vehicle. Something went wrong, I'm still not sure what, probably related to FAR, but the rocket suddenly started to veer off course:
Fortunately, I've learned well my lessons on launch escape systems and practicing abort procedures. The crew initiated the abort sequence with only moments to spare.
As it was now completely perpendicular to the air flow and still moving at about mach 2, aerodynamic forces began tearing the rocket apart barely a second later.
But the pod and escape system were still tumbling, the abort engine actually pulled it right back through the middle of the debris field:
It caught me so off guard I couldn't even get the really good screenshot. The escape tower assembly is usually extremely stable, especially at this lower altitude. Amazingly, it passed through the exploding booster unscathed, and the crew parachuted safely to the water.
-
Still messing about in .25 while some mods get sorted out. Continuing space station stuff. In the mean time here's a hullcam vid from a MUL launch:
-
Hey can anyone point me to a HotRockets config for the M50?
-
The crew survived. The VAB, not so much.
-
Hey since this is going to require an extensive rewrite anyway, would there be any way to incorporate reduced part cost via economy of scale? Like the same way parts build quicker the more you build them?
-
Hey quick question. Is there any way to disable the timer texts in the lower right corner other than nixing the relevant contracts? I'm playing with making cinematics and its a bit fistrwctijg
-
Having finally unlocked the full tech tree on my 0.25 save I designed a new launcher for hauling stuff into LKO and specifically to my station. Nothing exceptional, it can lift up to 30 tons to the station (150km altitude) without issues, and could probably lift 40 tons into a 75km orbit. What's nice about it is it doesn't have too many parts and stages, making it convenient to use. I use it to bring the second power module up to my station here (procedural fairings, realchutes):
It was mostly to practise direct launch-to-station rendezvous. Oh, and I also put a rover on Duna, but I landed it kilometres away from where I wanted to and accidentally flipped it over while roving, so, big fail
FYI: Procedural Fairings has a built-in payload strut system (no, they're not visible). It's in one of the right-click menus but defaults to on. Attaching regular struts to fairings rather than the base can cause weirdness. If your fairings aren't going anywhere when you jettison them, this is why.
That's NICE! Really well done. But I got two questions, if I may:
Did you set an autopilot pointing always prograde?
What's that UFO at the very end? Is that an asteroid?
Keep up the great work!
-Edit-
I just noticed the second quote was you again, CatastrophicFailure. Woo.
Yeah, I always use MechJeb to keep my low-orbit stations oriented, just like the real thing. Me, personally, I don't like things drifting about willy-nilly without a reason. I like an identifiable "top, bottom, front, & back." LOL that "UFO" is the Mün. I'm using the Better Atmospheres pack and it makes all the bodies much brighter, but is a bit wonkie in 6.4x
-
I made a video!
Quick (HOURS!!!!) attempt at doing time lapse. This has potential.
-
An auspicious day on my 6.4x station as I try to decide whether to upgrade my save to .90 or just start over like I usually do. Anyways, started the day by blowing up the launchpad (again) before I actually *did* anything.
This Colossus is fitted with an experimental high-thrust upper stage/tug, and under that huge (AND HEAVY!) fairing, the best part of building a new station...
Rather involved staging....
This new upperstage is slightly wider and packs significantly more thrust thanks to four NovaPunch engines. In the center is a (very warm) docking port.
Had a very challenging time with this, first my fuel ran after making orbit. Had to do most of the rendezvous with only RCS. Was running on fumes getting the stack docked to the apex port, then actually DID run out of monoprop! The magnets managed to grab it and wobble it into position. Then a battery dies.
Then speaking of wobbling, the wobbly tug detaches and wobbles its way to the top of the stack to pickup a reaction wheel package and docking adapter for the smaller ports...
The (still wobbly) tug proceeds down to pick up the first truss segment, and a monoprop tank somewhere starts leaking. Have to chase it down later. Everything is packed very tight here. The truss decouples, nothing explodes, and it slowly backs away...
With a load on the front and extra RCS ports, the tug handles much better. It's a slow, delicate maneuver over to Cyclotron #2. Have to trust the docking indicator and not my eyes, the alignment must be exact and it's all sideways.
..but eventually locks into place.
The tug returns for truss 2. This time it gets hung up on something and has to be gingerly wobbled free. It's the same tricky maneuver but the station is passing over the terminator. Have to hurry before I loose the light.
Was in such a rush didn't even remember to screenie. Half an hour later, as the station moves back into sunlight, the tug heads to the top of the new mast...
This one was even trickier. Realized too late I neglected to put thrusters at the base. Now the only RCS ports are at the back of the wobbly tug. It's a long, slow, careful maneuver to nudge the mast over to Hub3
Success!
Almost time for the good stuff... First, the transfer tug gets a glug of fuel and is detached. Since it's out of monprop, the STATION backs away instead... and the crew quickly decides to never ever do that again to the massive amount of wobbling that ensues.
They remember at this point the tug is still on the mast and the docking adapter needs to be disposed of. It quickly chases down the transfer stage, deposits the now-unnecessary adapter, and takes back some of that fuel cuz it had way too much.
The tug returns to its place at the apex port and the transfer stage is sent on its merry way to reentry...
And finally, the big reveal, the most space-y bit of any proper space station...
SOLAR PANELS! With power to actually run the cyclotrons now, the station can soon progress to doing some real science.
Atop the new mast are cosmetically important really long antennas, as well as multiple hull cam mounts for some upcoming experiments.
-
Made my first ksp part mod (really just a cube I made in blender)
http://i.imgur.com/kc8TRPq.png
It took me hours, and the texture isn't showing up, and for some reason it isn't treating it as a fuel tank like it should, but I actually made it so I can click and drag it, as, y'know, a part. Took me a while to figure out it was because I did the mesh collider wrong.
Best. Mod. Ever. (it needs a name, is useless small cube that weighs a ton taken?)
Ballastâ„¢ 1.0!
I could use some ballast right now actually....
-
Well, after another redesign of the entire process, I finally managed to close my ring. I got all the segments in place including the last one. What I found, however, is that it is not possible to close the system - at least I couldn't do it. When placing the final segment, I got the one end connected correctly, but the last remaining connection would not quite line up properly. In fact, the docking ports were actually technically docked since I could right-click them and choose to undock, but visually they were not close together.
So, I thought, no problem, I will send up a little tug and push the two ends together. And it wasn't a problem, I did just that. The two keyed ports lined up and connected together, and I could again right-click and choose to undock if I wished. Obviously I did not do that but to me this proved that the keyed ports were docked. Excitement and pride abounded.
But… After going to the tracking centre then back, this final connection was NOT docked!
http://jscript.ca/ksp-images/ring/Screen%20Shot%202014-12-13%20at%204.06.58%20PM.png
Does anyone have previous experience using closed systems like this? Can you actually dock a ship to itself - since that is in effect what is going on?
Sensitivity to initial conditions, or something like that. You've got some tiny, tiny, minuscule misalignment, maybe even beyond what can be corrected in the game, that amplifies with each segment, so by the time you get to the end it's off by those few meters. The bigger you go, the bigger the final error, and brother that thing is BIG! Wish I could give you more constructive advice on how to fix it other than, since you've already accomplished the actual hard part, rebuild the whole thing in the VAB and hyper-edit it into orbit (since it's (most likely) the game's error and not yours, it's not cheating). Other than that, MOAR BOOSTERS and spin that thing! YeeHaw!
@Theoderich, @Holyvision, @Martin0, @CatastrophicFailure:One DOES simply love this community. You guys are awesome, even when posting already-known info!
Active Struts: My eyes flew by that mod thread several times, but I never thought they'd be any different than KAS' on-the-fly struts. Thanks for the tip, I'll look into that; as well as at Kerbal Joint Reinforcement and NovaPunch.
About pre-struting the ship: Yeah, I completely forgot about that until I launched the top science lab. And then, I completely forgot that I was gonna add the cyclotrons until the time has come.
Keep us posted. I would also say, don't give up the ship yet (no pun intended). It'd be a shame to loose all that work. See if maybe you can reconfigure it with the engines in the FRONT. I once sent 900 tons of SS parts to Moho that way (did not end well, docking ports all bugged). If you've got the engies PULLING instead of PUSHING, you usually won't have wobble problems. Scott Manley did a thing on going "space train" like that. Whether you roleplay about the possible unpleasantness of irradiating your Kerbals is entirely up to you.
-
He IS using KAS struts!! Jiminy Cricket people, have you even read his posts?!?
:sticktongue:@Kowgan:
those KAS struts are notoriously useless in my experience. Take a look @ a mod called Active Struts (Google it). Haven't tired it myself yet, my cyclotrons are staying put in orbit lol, but it may work better for you.
ETA: looking at your design close, you may have better luck pre-strutting the docking ports to the cyclotrons in the VAB, and on that note check out NovaPunch. It contains some ridiculously strong struts. Just four can hold the boosters rock solid on my 525-ton launcher.
:sticktongue:
[PART, 1.0.2] Anatid Robotics / MuMech - MechJeb - Autopilot - Historical thread
in KSP1 Mod Releases
Posted
By chance, would that build still work in .25?