BahamutoD

I just wanna express my appreciation for this pack. I was getting so frustrated with KSP because it was taking up 3.5gb ram on startup so it would crash after a few minutes of playing. I didn't want to get rid of KW or B9 because I use them on almost every craft I make. After getting the new version of KW and using your Squad and B9 texture reductions, it brought the ram usage down to 2.5gb on startup and the game doesn't crash anymore! Thank you!

I'm glad you we're inspired haha . Despite how much I hate mosquitos, they do make sinister looking kethane drills huh. I like how you captured the hunched back type of thing. Don't know what to say about the crashing.. The fairings were shaped by just putting tanks in until they were the right length, and then I adjusted the diameter, then locked the shape. Then I attached them to the servo motors using cubic octagonal struts.

Bahamuto Dynamics' "Beetle" Duna Lander From the maker of the "Mosquito Kethane Drone", this bug inspired craft features a hard shell that covers folding wings and retracted aerospike engines. It was designed to land on Duna and look cool. Kethane parts were added as an afterthought in case somehow it would be able to return home. Unfortunately, the list of required addons is long and possibly incomplete: Kethane B9 aerospace pWings Proc. Fairings Stretchy Tanks Infernal Robotics + MagicSmokeIndustries parts mechjeb Spherical Tanks possibly KW rocketry Download Video: (skip to 2:00 for just the Beetle)

Sorry for the lack of updates. Since the forum was down, I was continuing to learn how to use Blender, and trying to make a worthy video using the hollow docking rings and the service module. I was trying to make a single or double launch land and return mission to eve, but since I play with FAR in my modded game version, it was really difficult.. heh I may have to disable it for this mission. Anyways; I have tinkered with the service module's collision mesh to make it so the framerate doesn't get cut in half. I'll upload that soon. @Bouncingbunny, that might be beyond my current ability, but the folks responsible for KerbolQuest have made a winged jetpack thing which is kinda cool like that. You should check it out. I'll probably jump back into working on KSP stuff this week.

I want to try this! I've never tried an Eve return mission, so this will be fun. BTW, rules on stock/mods?

Actually now that I had Fraps running, it dropped me from ~80fps to ~40. Yikes.. I'll look into it =( Basically for docking things with engines hidden. Also works great as a place to mount engine clusters in upper stages, or as a compartment to throw a bunch of batteries, RTGs, misbehaving Kerbals (watch out, they can open the fairing from the inside!), whatever you can think of. Here you go! Lemme know if there are any big problems. Attaching stuff to the correct node can be tricky. But I'm pretty sure it works as intended.

A preview of what I decided to work on now. (Inspired by katateochi's Constellation video.) You can mount engines and stuff inside a fairing that can dock! I've made 1.25, 2.5, and 3.75m versions but theres still a few things I need to polish.

I haven't had this problem. Is it only in the VAB? Anyone else getting a framerate drop?

Hmm interesting.. I didn't notice. I just used mbm since most other packs use it. I'll experiment with other formats I guess.

I took your balance thoughts into consideration and lowered thrust, ISP, and capacity slightly. Updated main post with v0.3 which includes the .625m engine mounts, and a new .625m engine. Thrust angle can be toggled with action groups. I think that the SM is pretty stable now and I can start working on new parts.

Yes, making the engines separate parts from the landing module was the solution.

Maybe.. I'd rather not make parts that can _only_ work on my SM though. For now, an update on what I've done today/yesterday: Angled attachment nodes aren't allowed so I had to widen the body a little bit to allow flat surfaces for engines. Made custom engines with an experimental angle switching animation.

I figured that the landing gear will be built in since there will really only be one landing gear that would fit in the compartments. Replacing the engines with standard .625m slots, so you can put any engines on them! How's that?

I haven't asked him directly, but from looking at the parts I think the solution was to have the engine be a separate part from the landing gear. If I put a bunch of small radial engines on my SM, it takes off just fine with the 4 separate colliders on the legs. As much as I wanted to have this be an all inclusive module, I may have to replace the engines with flat hardpoints where you can attach separate engines.

While I was watching the video, I was thinking "I'm going to suggest that he keeps the bass frequencies so its not completely silent." Then I watched for a few more seconds and now I have nothing to helpful to say. Looking forward to release

Thanks.. I'll look into this. Good idea, but it looks like you're already halfway done. Why don't you finish it?

Not with my knowledge, but it wouldn't matter because the collider for the legs is out of the way when retracted anyways. The problem only arises when they are extended.

I tried out CoMOffset, and it helped with translation, but caused the RCS to fire in the wrong direction for rotation. The easiest solution is just to use the pod's SAS to keep it straight for translation. I fixed the balance though; the rcs transforms weren't symmetrical. As for the legs... It is sticking and glitching up when you put the large docking port under it because the large box that's used for the leg collider is going through it -__-. It seems Unity hates me and doesn't want this part to work properly. Either I have separate colliders for each leg that don't interfere with parts attached underneath the SM, which stick to the ground, or one big collider that doesn't stick, but screws up parts attached underneath when extended. If there was a way to make it so the collider only interacts with terrain and not other parts, it might work. *grr

I'll do more research into the legs and the monoprop capacity. If possible, I'll work on the RCS balance too. Not too much I can do about it though.

The bottom isn't 3.75m. The sides stick out, but the circle at the bottom is still 2.5m. I do think that KW's 3.75m parts are great though. Its my favorite rocket parts addon. Not updated but it still works with .21. Some other guy made a mod that optimizes memory usage for it too.. forgot the name. As the other guy mentioned, procedural tanks is great too (anything procedural is great, except for procedural craters which makes the transfer to planets' SOI take ages... ) You only notice the flaws in the illusion if you look for it. I made it so the corners of the box are what extend out to the 4 legs so it theoretically is the same effect. And yes, DisarmingBaton5 that would be a non-convex collider which tend to not collide with the terrain. Also I agree that parachutes wouldn't be good since those should be at the top so it doesn't flip over. Not anymore . I spent all this time fixing the sticking problem so that I don't have to use ModuleLandingGear anymore, which made it weightless. Although before, I did notice that without SAS the part made the ship rotate randomly. I haven't checked yet if that persists. If it does, I'll fix it soon. At least you had some interesting adventures with it . Thanks for following, I hope future updates will keep you interested. That does indeed look interesting. I'm not inclined to make the heatshield part since it is basically useless in KSP (I wish it wasn't useless!) but the idea of having parts run through another part and stick through the bottom is cool. I wanna try that! The only problem is that it would be a bunch of parts that really only work when used with each other, rather than being parts that can be used in a number of different scenarios. I don't really like those, but hell, I might make it anyways. That's the plan! Not sure yet. Make a suggestion

I used your solution for now. It works! But does have a funny wobble when it lands. This will have to do for now; all attempts with multiple colliders have amounted to nothing but frustration. Original post updated.

-it still stuck with a bunch of I beams radially mounted. -it stuck to a platform made of stock plates -it overheated and blew up. lol I also made a new part to test if that would stick. Just a basic leg that slides down. Didn't stick. Then added thrusters to it. Still didn't stick. So that rules out thrusters in conjunction with animated colliders being the problem. I don't know why its just this specific part... stumped edit: wait did you mean have it hoisted up by a bunch of solids radially mounted? not sure how you're testing for mass.

I have to warn you that in every walking robot i've made, the servos eventually fall apart after a certain distance. I posted a hexapod that fell apart before, and heres a bipod: nudge nudge sirkut. when it falls apart, the pieces are technically still connected, so even the parts flying away rotate when you press the button.

Yep, once it is in the air, it thrusts normally even with legs down.

Thanks, I have sent him a PM. It looks like his Dragonrider is not using multiple models.