curiousepic

I was sad after seeing a number of good looking RSS/RO Skylon replicas without craft files. And Cpt. Kipard's Skylon mod looks amazing, but distant. So I bit the hypersonic bullet and started making my own derivative to share. But, it's a WIP; urrently, I can only get up to ~5.8km/s. I'd love to get some help tweaking this thing into orbit. Here is version 0.14. It includes a mmcfg for a couple necessary part tweaks (adds new parts so it doesn't resize stuff you already have); be sure to move that to GameData. Required mods: Procedural Dynamics/Wings, B9 (with RO fixes, firespitter.dll, etc.), AIES, KW, FAR (I've been using 0.13x1), DRE, KJR, Real Fuels, and of course RO/RSS (Check out the RSS Mod Bundler if you're new to it) This thing is a finicky beast. It's basically unflyable without FAR Flight Assist. I usually have all assist modes active and change these values from the default: Wing Level: k0.05/kd0.01, Pitch: k0.15 Take off gently at 2/3 throttle, and a speed of Mach 0.6 SAS seems to play nicely with everything on this craft so I usually use it, making fine adjustments and hitting F to re-center. Watch the temp of the forward fuselage - if at ~1k and increasing, lower your throttle. You may get a HARD roll seemingly randomly. Usually you can carefully correct it, lowering throttle helps. I make sure I'm at a low throttle before switching to Rocket Mode (Action Group 1). I have no idea why, but RCS does not want to roll. Potential tweaks: - Control surface control values (currently 20) - Control surface axis toggles (currently all) - Flap deflection value (doesn't seem to make much difference) - Max temp for parts, especially procedural wings (I've upped the KW side tank/fuselage from 1450 to 1700) - DRE directional heat deflection for parts - All sorts of CoM/CoL/CoT tweaks, but it's tough fitting it to the Skylon schematic - Engine angle (Real Skylon's engines are angled down ~10 degrees) - Part masses to represent the advanced lighter structure of the Skylon. But the limiting factor right now seems to be the amount of LOX I can carry without the thing snapping in two (or three) while maneuvering. Unfortunately with the SABREs, KER and MJ dV stats aren't calculated correctly, so I'm having to determine the necessary amount of fuel by trial and error. FYI, the SABREs also break FAR's Analysis and make the COM indicator disappear I may move to remaking the whole thing with Procedural Parts so I can get it to 1:1 (currently it's about 65 meters while the real thing is 83m) and more easily customize CoM and fuel balancing.

It looks like the SABREs are causing a bunch of exceptions when running the FAR analysis AND causing the COM to disappear. Hmph. Well, now my issue is that as I increase the amount of LOX, it drastically weighs the whole thing down and causes stability and fragility issues.

Of course there's Cpt. Kipard's Skylon project. Maybe we should be rallying on helping him with the landing gear with the time we're using trying to hack our own stuff together

Yeah, basically I'd like to use the KerbX engine models for the Laztek engine parts.

Yay! Maybe we can all just get along. We're all super nerds and SpaceX fans here, and if we want people to get into RO/RSS stuff, it's best to have a consensus we can point to instead of bifurcating. Along those lines, I realize it might be against licenses to distribute, but what's the best way to go about integrating KerbX models with Laztek and RedAV8R/Scripto23's cfgs? Also, Woot!!!

Are there any issues integrating KerbX parts with Laztek (on user's end)?

Speaking of SABREs, I'm working on a Skylon replica and it looks like there are no RO changes to the SABRE B9 M to make it closer to an actual (projected) Skylon SABRE? Could we get closer numbers to the actual engine (B9 has lower ISP, Thrust, and I think they are too light but I can't find weight stats, only extrapolating from known TWR)? Note I haven't tried AJE yet and don't know if it changes performance closer to the real engine. I'd also request a HGR Soyjuice -> Real Soyuz rescale/adapatation (unless you're waiting for a final release) and the Porkworks Habs.

Well, holding stable at 20-25k, I still top out at ~1750m/s and begin overheating. Check the new screen in the album in my post above. Any ideas? And Scripto, nice Big Falcon' Rocket EDIT: I see now that I should actually be switching over to rocket mode at about the speed I'm stalling at. I thought I'd get a lot more velocity out of the air breathing mode, but I'll try it - I'll probably have to change fuel ratios since I only get a 1-2k dV with my current oxygen level (which I thought was proportional to the real thing).

That's why I'm making it (since no one has shared a similar craft). I'd like to get some input on my current problems and then I'll release a WIP craft file even if I can't get it to orbit so you guys can help me tweak it into space Hodo, thanks - I'll try that profile with my current craft and see how it goes. I'll keep an eye out for unusual flameouts or power losses as well.

Welp, I've spent the last few days attempting a Skylon replica. I've finally got something promising, but now I'm stuck. I can get into a stable cruise at 30-40k altitude, but acceleration with the SABREs seems to flatline and I can't get above ~1800 m/s. I assume it's because I can't get enough intake air, but much lower and I'll overheat. Hodo, you're using 2 SABREs on that first spaceplane, right? What's the optimal flight plan? Also, with the normal suite of RO mods, the FAR analyzer in SPH is not working. Also my COM is not appearing. Are there any known compatibility issues? (Procedural Wings, Real Fuels, RCS Build Aid are the only things I could think of).

I'd also love the slant/offset variable suggested previously, to make a more accurate Skylon replica, where the rear hull slants upward.

How about a layman's description, and whether these features are added on their own to all animated parts, or if it's just for modders?

So, about a month ago, NeonEagle (not sure who they are on KSP forums) posted a great looking RSS Skylon on Reddit. He implied he'd share the craft after making some final tweaks, but I haven't seen it anywhere, or any other Skylon replicas as close as his. I asked in a reply comment in that thread, so hopefully we'll get it soon, but for now, have there been any good Skylon craft files available (besides the B9 ones)?

Oh I hope this is possible! Just disallow a part module for a failing part until it's fixed. Some suggestions: - Engines failing to cut off or change throttle (due to overheating or otherwise) - Individual RCS block failures similar to engine ones - Any deployable part failing to deply/retract

This plugin doesn't seem to detect the drain of probes from BTSM (Better Than Starting Manned). It would be great to get support for it because energy management is a huge part of that mod.

I was super confused about this too, starting to get frustrated that it didn't seem like you were trying to integrate them. Might be a good idea to explain compatibility in the OP

Yeah, though I really enjoy engineering payloads to fit inside fairings of set size. Welp, I unlocked the node with AIES fairings and I was hoping they would work better, but the "sepratron" part was not in this node! I guess I'll try to find it and unlock it manually. EDIT: Umm, well the AIES SEP1-A1-UR5 should have unlocked with Advanced Construction along with the AIES fairings, but I can't find it in the part list... EDIT EDIT: In fact, the tree.cfg has the AIES SEP1-A1-UR5 in "Auxilliary SRBs". Um. I vote to move this to the node with the AIES fairings.

Is there any way, or plans to add the ability to use references to other values in a part as an overriding value? For example "cost = mass * number of part modules"?

No action groups, just normal staging. I've done many launches with many different vehicles and I always get this.

Ah right. So is the time only based on the square root of cost? Oh this was just because their orbits weren't perfect and a lot of time passed It is kind of cool! Though not with the engines running, and lying sideways. And I guess it should really be in/near the VAB? It happened while warping with a normal vessel in focus as well, so don't waste any time messing with flags specifically. BUT, I do have other warping mods, most notably TimeControl. KAC and Fusebox also have features to bring you out of warp, but I don't know if those would be likely culprits. Also, sorry if it's been requested before or is in planning, but at some point I hope we can build sub-assemblies separately, so we can stock up on launchers

Impressive ship! Has anyone else had an issue with KW fairings only half-ejecting (one shell ejecting fine and the other only decoupling?) This is killing me, since they are the only decent payload fairings available initially.

Is it a known issue that planets/vessel flares "tear" a bit or lag in position relative to the skybox when zooming quickly with the mouse wheel?

The ship appearing in the KSC scene might be an effect of the RSS rescale? But I wouldn't think the KSC scene itself is rescaled, just Kerbin. Not sure. It doesn't appear at first when I load the game, but is there after I enter another scene and return. I did go to that KSC flag to warp, and that's when it didn't bring me out of warp when the ship finished, but nothing else strange happened. I've been playing mostly without issue since then (though my Geosync sats were flung out of sync ) The X button on the build list doesn't seem to do anything. I was going to test out part reuse, but realized that the radial parachutes are just expensive as the boosters I was going to reuse, and I'd have to use two of them! Well, I'll see how it goes anyway.

Awesome! Testing it out now. I haven't used it until now, and I'm currently trying it in my RSS/RO install. - The Build List won't open in the Tracking Station. The new TimeControl mod allows warp in the Tracking Station, so I'd like to be able to see my build times in that view so I can warp manually. - Ability to Warp to Complete in the KSC and Tracking Center views would be nice too. Actually, just testing this now in flight view, it kept warping after the desired time and ridiculous speed and now I'm 120 days after completion... Output Log - Wait... wat. Has there always been a copy of the craft being built hovering horizontally over the R&D Lab and firing its engines!? (I also smoke particles when switching/loading scenes)

Hmm, I found some nice Homeworld backgrounds... is there a way to convert from a single panoramic image to the cubic skybox needed?