Rezolution

And we have a winner! Say hello to the "Horned Viper" (and all other nicknames thus derived). Fellow314 will have a six-pack of his choice waiting in the hanger for him after his next flight. Thanks to everyone else who offered suggestions, as well. Maybe I'll try this again in the future ;).

Wow, now I can't look at my spaceplane without thinking of the Statute of Liberty! Thanks for that . Believe it or not, that's not what is was based on . Some nice ideas guys. I did want a name that makes a nod to its unique (read goofy), shape. Still, not quite what I'm looking for, though. As always, I appreciate your suggestions. If there's more, feel free to post 'em.

Here's another SSTO I made after taking a little hiatus from KSP. Right now, the best I can do for a name is "Star Wave," which I'm not extremely happy with. I'd love some suggestions for a better ship name, though. Winner get's a...um...we'll I'll buy you a beer if you're in town. How about that ? This ship is capable of obtaining a 160,000 K plus orbit with full station docking capability. It's a bit tricky to land if you're not willing to balance your fuel, but flies just fine for an SSTO. Thanks for the look! As alway, appreciate any comments you might have.

I just uploaded the .craft file and added a few flying tips for anyone who wants to fly it. If you do, please let me know how it went . Thank you all for the positive comments. She's not perfect, but I did enjoy working on the project and still have fun using her for fairy flights.

Thanks, Sequinox. It is certainly an SSTO. I won't lie, though, the fuel load is just enough to make it to the station with a tad left over. As long as you hit your marks, however, it can make the trip to 120K and back. Worst case, I refuel at the station before heading home.

Been a while since I posted an SSTO, so I thought I'd share my latest design; the Wildfire Small Crew Transport. It may be tough to see, but the Wildfire has a Mk1 Crew Cabin between the main tanks and is capable of carrying three Kerbals to a 120K orbiting space station (just not with a great view ), and return. My goal was to see how small I could make an SSTO that could transport at least three crew members to orbit, doc with a station, and make it back to Kerbin. Please let me know what you think. Thanks for the look! Edit: Here's the .craft file for those interested. Wildfire.craft If you fly it, here's a few tips: Pitch for 30 degrees on takeoff and hold it there at full throttle all the way up. That's pretty much it for reaching orbit. Group 1 switches engine modes, but it's easier just to let them auto switch. At this point your Apoapsis should be around 67k. It becomes a bit nose heavy after all fuel is exhausted. With empty tanks it is still controllable, but requires a lot of lead time to get the pitch angle up for landing. Best to keep a bit of fuel in the rearmost center tank. If docking at a refueling station, I'd top off enough to make sure that that tank has fuel during landing just to make things easy. Comments and concerns always welcome! Have fun.

You and me both! ...And a tad few others ;).... Yay fame!

[quote name='cantab']Writing the words or actions of a character or organisation that is not you, and that is interacting with other people's characters - that's what's considered "roleplaying". As mentioned, it's banned on the KSP forums because many years ago some people caused trouble with it. Whether that ban is 'right' or 'wrong' is off-topic for this thread.[/QUOTE] Roger that, thanks for the clarification. I suppose technically what I was doing wasn't considered roleplaying then (being a part of a fictional company and only representing myself as myself). However, I'll have to disagree with the part about that discussion being off topic, considering that role playing drama is being offered as one the reasons for the removal of a popular thread (which is why a few folks are upset and offering their opinions). At any rate, since being a part of a community organization, by itself, isn't considered roleplaying, should that be banned as well? Is concerted activity frowned upon, completely? Now, anecdotal evidence should general be ignored, and, considering I'm an N of 1, you would probably be well served to just pay this next sentence no mind. However, to offer up a personal example, I'm really only asking for clarification because I had such a positive experience with the rocket builders forum back when I first started that I would be disappointed to see that support removed entirely. Either way, I'll go with the changes in whatever form they take. At the end of the day, it's still a great game. Cheers.

Wow, page, what, 46? Guess I'm a bit late to the party on this one. Ah, well, here are some more thoughts anyway: I'm sure there are reasons for this move beyond what any of us truly know, outside of the developers and moderators themselves, so I am trying to approach this issue with an appropriate amount of deference to those in charge. With that said, I suppose I didn't realize that the roleplaying was such an issue. Personally, I was a member of a company (and perhaps still am for now). I actually really enjoyed that membership because it challenged me to build ships and think about Kerbal in ways that would never have occurred to me by myself. My building acumen improved exponentially because of the unique challenges inherent in working and competing with others who shared and provided specific goals. Perhaps some took it too far, I suppose (I don't have any personal experience with that). However, this does make me ask, where is the line drawn with roleplaying? I guess I just saw it as another exercise in imagination, which is really what this whole game is all about. Honestly, isn't there a little bit of roleplaying in the challenges thread, as well? How many challenges present you with a fictitious mission or background story that requires you, as a designer, to put yourself in a certain role in order to achieve that goal? It all takes imagination. Just my thoughts. I'm not speaking about the drama aspects of the decision, so please keep that in mind. I usually keep to myself enough that I'm oblivious to any of that occurring (at least as much as I can). However, I just hope that this will not stifle fun and interesting designs in any meaningful way and will still allow the players to form communities centered on shared goals. Cheers.

Thanks, Majorjim. I definitely enjoyed working on this one.

Well done! That must have taken quite a bit of R and D.

Here's the latest addition to my Terrestrial Defense Force, the Night Ember light VTOL attack aircraft. The ship is relatively stable, as long as you stay ahead of the craft. It actually flies very well when an advanced inline stabilizer is placed between the rear fuselage and the tail-boom, but for aesthetic reasons and because I believe that a craft isn't truly airworthy if it can't fly without the advanced stabilizers, I left it off for the final build. In standard ground attack role, it comes loaded with two Fishfinder Dumberfire Mk. II missiles... That actually do fire... And are relatively accurate at close range. Just make sure to aim low. Here's the link to the ship if anyone's interested: https://www.dropbox.com/s/txr04ju65dccggg/Night%20Ember.craft?dl=0. Flying it can be a bit sporty at times if you don't stay on the ball. However, as long as you keep ahead of it, fly coordinated, and don't fly backwards at more than 10 m/s (it hates that), it is very controllable. Moving the engines closer to the fuse of course helps with lateral/longitudinal inertia changes, but I just don't like the way it looks in that configuration. At any rate, hope you all like it. Thanks for looking!

Quite well done. Simply amazing. This must have taken you quite a bit of time to finish.

Great idea for a thread! It's nice to see some of the old designs getting a little love. I made quite a few VTOL SSTOs back in the old days, before the more realistic thrust ratios came to be. Now they won't make it off the ground. However, that's just the way it goes. I still had fun making them. Here's two of my old favorites:

Here's my latest fighter design, the F-300 Flame Bandit. Currently, the plane is equipped for the ground attack role, loaded with six Fishfinder Dumberfire missiles. In case anyone was wondering, I used the T800 fuel tanks as part of the fuselage in order to keep the option open of turning it into an SSTO one day. In atmo configuration, I remove the oxidizer to save wait. The missiles do actually fire... And have decent accuracy at close range. The missiles are powered by solid fuel septrons. The small tanks are only meant to house liquid fuel in order to modify missile trajectories/change the explosiveness of the unit. It's a fun ship to fly and can haul a decent amount of payload/fuel as needed. Thanks for looking!

Here's an old one:

Another good one. Nice job on the long legs.

Sure they're not needed but they're much easier than making heading changes and much more fun to look at than control surfaces (though in a sense I suppose they are a type of control surface, but you get what I mean). Trying to keep the Kerbal spirit in my designs, after all . It's not a bad tip, though, if you don't go that route.

Sorry, guys, I have one more here I want to post. I've actually been working on it for a bit and finally put the finishing touches-ish on her earlier this morning. Still might expand the design to do more, but for now it can make a pretty high orbit and, despite its looks, remain stable (again-ish when full of fuel) through most of the flight envelope. I call it "Fireball," because, well, let's just it was a fun testing process. It also represents the reason why there is currently a maximum landing weight restriction. Cheers!

How crazy, gmiddlemass! Excellent work I must say. Great minds must indeed think alike . I like the low profile tail. Less drag than mine, I would think. The speed brakes on mine do help to combat the extra lift from those thick wings during landing. Also helps slow reentry, if you ever have a need .

First SSTO using the new aero! I call it the "Pike." Had to balance out the oxidizer due to the extra fuel in the wings. Even though it's certainly not the most efficient design, it will indeed make orbit. Thanks for looking and good luck!

Ugliest SSTO I've ever made (whew, it's pretty bad), but it actually flies very well, stays balanced throughout the fuel burn envelope, and can make it to a 500K plus orbit with only four intakes. Calling it the "Slipstream." I thought it sounded better than "Pregnant Heifer." Enjoy .

Nice bases all! I posted this on the main forum before I realized there was a base showcase thread (that's what happens when you've been gone from the forums for a bit). Moving it here for obvious reasons. Thanks for the look! As on overview, the base is built around a tower of mono-propellent containers. All support craft are powered by mono-propellent and therefore can be refueled from the base by docking at any one of the many docking ports located on the peripheral platforms. My main goal when designing the base was to make it expandable. The larger docking ports are meant to hold new modules as they become available at a later date. As such, the whole concept is still a work in progress. The smaller ports are primarily meant to hold the landing/excursion craft for refueling and storage purposes. As for the craft, here is my primary Minmus Lander design, tasked with long range Minmus exploration/crew transport. Here is the Minmus Skimmer, meant for short treks across the green landscape or for whenever the Kerbals are feeling a bit more "sporty." The return module consists of four, self contained escape capsules. They each have just enough fuel to reach Kerbin, should anyone become prohibitively homesick. Additionally, in the background you can see a general purpose "crane" design that is meant be used for moving modules from one side of the base to another, should the need arise. Currently, it doesn't have much use, but it can least transport multiple Kerbins around at a time. All new craft/modules that arrive will have their descent stages powered by mono-propllent so that any remaining propellent left over after docking will be used to replenish the main storage tanks at the base for future refueling. As I said before, it's still a work in progress, but I've enjoyed the challenge of building a module centered base on Minmus. There are still plenty of craft/modules I would like to add at a later date when I get more time. In the interim, however, please let me know what you think and feel free to post any base designs that you might have! Thanks for looking!

After what seems like ages since posting any new designs on the forums, I've finally decided to start back in again. I looked through a few of the showcase threads for a spot to put this, but I couldn't quite decide where it would fit. Finally, I settled on just creating a new post (hope you don't mind:)). At any rate, to kick things off, here are some images of my Minmus Base that I've been meaning to upload for quite some time. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave comments/suggestions. Thank you! As on overview, the base is built around a tower of mono-propellent containers. All support craft are powered by mono-propellent and therefore can be refueled from the base by docking at any one of the many docking ports located on the peripheral platforms. My main goal when designing the base was to make it expandable. The larger docking ports are meant to hold new modules as they become available at a later date. As such, the whole concept is still a work in progress. The smaller ports are primarily meant to hold the landing/excursion craft for refueling and storage purposes. As for the craft, here is my primary Minmus Lander design, tasked with long range Minmus exploration/crew transport. Here is the Minmus Skimmer, meant for short treks across the green landscape or for whenever the Kerbals are feeling a bit more "sporty." The return module consists of four, self contained escape capsules. They each have just enough fuel to reach Kerbin, should anyone become prohibitively homesick. Additionally, in the background you can see a general purpose "crane" design that is meant be used for moving modules from one side of the base to another, should the need arise. Currently, it doesn't have much use, but it can least transport multiple Kerbins around at a time. All new craft/modules that arrive will have their descent stages powered by mono-propllent so that any remaining propellent left over after docking will be used to replenish the main storage tanks at the base for future refueling. As I said before, it's still a work in progress, but I've enjoyed the challenge of building a module centered base on Minmus. There are still plenty of craft/modules I would like to add at a later date when I get more time. In the interim, however, please let me know what you think and feel free to post any base designs that you might have! Thanks for looking!

I didn't realize until I read this post that hardcore mode was possible. Thanks for the insight! I'm starting a new career mode as we speak with these new settings.