Logan.Darklighter

I don't have access to KSP at the moment, but I need to ask a question while I'm thinking about it, in case I forget later. Does the radar screen work in IVA mode with Raster Prop Monitor? If so, that'd be quite awesome.

I really like the landing gear tripod launcher you came up with for this instead of depending on a launch clamp! Looking at the staging, it looks like it launches via a decoupler and some separatrons as the main engine comes up to speed. It also means a vehicle with some kind of clamp or winch could pick the whole thing up and carry it somewhere and set it down for later use, rather than depend on launching it from a runway or launchpad. Ingenious!

Actually, Faye's Red Tail is not that mystifying. You just have to watch in the show carefully and then take some notes from a source like the plan view above. The main thing is that you are almost certainly NOT going to be able to do this properly in stock mode. You're going to need IR Robotics at bare minimum. I also recommend Bahamuto's parts pack - the ones with the pop-out engines and such. Lackluster Labs will also have some form shapes that'll help. Lastly - tweakscale, because you're going to have to adjust some things for closest result. Take a look at the "arms". There are at least 3 large thrusters on the white "shoulder" sections. The big thruster right behind the "elbow" of the assembly is the main VTOL thruster. (EDIT: Right where you've got the big landing gear, in fact) But there are stabilizing thrusters pointing forward and to the sides relative to that. Plus what appear to be Linear RCS Thruster ports towards the rear facing outwards, and at the very tip of the rear part of the shoulder facing backwards. If it were me, I'd build the arms first as an IR Robotics sub-assembly first if possible. You'll need a rototron at the main connecting point between the "shoulder" and the main body. And a powered hinge (possibly also a small sliding piston) at the "elbow". In the show, when the Red Tail comes in to land, it bends the "Elbows" up and folds the guns near vertical, and rotates the "Shoulders" so that the main VTOL thruster is pointing down. The other thrusters probably gimble to provide stabilization. Plus the RCS is helping. Bahamuto's parts pack would be invaluable, because it's got at least one rocket thruster that's a rectangular unit, that looks like a vent when not operating, but when active, pops out the bells of the rocket thrusters. It'd make a good match for that VTOL vent above. (Rockets also make better VTOL thrusters than Jets anyway - more responsive.) As for the other thrusters - well I think for the power you need and the response time, you'll need to use Vernor thrusters like you used with the Swordfish. They may have to be spaced differently because they'll be static rather than gimble mounts. But that's the sort of compromise you have to make when doing a recreation that's also intended to fly. I'm not sure HOW to really do the bubble cockpit justice. I can't recall a single "pod" like that in all the mods I've seen - except an Oblivion Mod from Wayland that is now sadly out of date and not compatible with 1.04. What you've done in the screens above is about the best compromise possible for both size and functionality I'd bet. Lastly - if going the mod route, I think you should obviously use the GAU 30MM cannon from BD Armory, cause the lower arms are ALL GUN. Heh. (Actually in the show, she had missiles there too, but you can only do so much with the space restrictions! Maybe an unguided rocket pod would fit there as well?) (Which, BTW - reminds me of a little tinkering I attempted with the Swordfish. Unfortunately the Howitzer, despite being huge, is actually NOT LONG ENOUGH to make a credible replacement for the girders on the front in terms of appearance! I think it COULD be done, but you'd have to fit it to something like a tailboom or some other long structural element. Even stuck on the end of one section of the girders, it looks kinda strange. On the other hand, the smaller guns that the Swordfish uses are good matches for the BD Armory fixed 20mm Vulcans.)

LOLOL!!! That is freakin' AWESOME!! And I was even going to do the Ace Ventura Quote myself! Before I saw you'd already done so! HA HA HA HA!!!! I've seen - and even done - some nice pinpoint landings before, but THAT, my good sir, is rep-worthy!! Well done! EDIT: Bugger!!! "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Red Dwarf again." Can someone else rep him for me?

Really can't see a thing in those pics other than outlines, Vax. Might want to take shots from the OTHER side so we can see em proper. Just sayin'.

I should note that I was going to post some images of the newest version of the Viper - the one that has the latest BD Armory mods etc and the docking port connector for the drop tank. But IMGUR is being a complete cockblock this evening - AGAIN. And won't let me upload anything. I'll see if I can get some uploads of the new pics later tonight when Imgur is actually WORKING... *grumble* Oh well - there really isn't all that much different to the Viper. Just wanted to point out the Flare and separate Chaff dispensers as well as the docking port connector for the drop tank. On that note - I'm thinking of creating a re-supply craft with a bunch of drop tanks in a "clip". Basically the reload version of the drop-tanks would have the port connectors on both top and bottom so that you could dock a bunch of them together - or just put them in a standard cargo hold. But you'd need to make sure they would be accessible. Perhaps fold them out of the cargo bay on an IR Robotics arm so that the Viper could dock to the one on the end, then decouple it? Also - good news in terms of being able to resupply the armaments! It was always possible to reload the BD Armory ammo boxes from a docked craft that had the same ammo. But I've since discovered that the Kerbal Inventory System Mod can actually store BD Armory Missiles - if you have a large enough volume box for them! That means that a Kerbal can actually place a missile (or bomb) on an unoccupied armament rail (or anywhere else, really - but the rails are safer). Of course - amusingly, I THINK that also means that a Kerbal - carrying a missile "strapped" to their back, could actually FIRE the missile themselves! "Say hello to MY LITTLE FRIEND!!!"

Glad to help out! And... "Tell you what. Throw a little hotrod red in there." "Yes, that should help you keep a low profile..."

This is a replica of a Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica. Though I call it a Viper II, I really did not attempt to make any specific version. It’s not fully a Mk 1 from the 1978 version or the Mk II from NuBSG. (Though I did get more of my inspiration from the latter) Mods Adjustable Landing Gear (So incredibly useful they should be stock!) B9 Aerospace Pack (just the Landing Light on the bottom of the ship) Bahamuto Dynamics (Parts pack) (The Pop-Out RCS thrusters - less drag in atmo) BahamutoD’s Armory (Weapons and countermeasures of course) Firespitter (buried deep inside the ship is a small fuel tank that I used as a common point for fuel lines) Kerbal Aircraft Expansion (KAX) (I'm not actually sure what part of this mod I used, though Kerbal X says I did *shrug*) Mark IV Spaceplane System (SCIMITAR Engines instead of Stock Rapiers - they're a bit more powerful. Though Standard Rapiers would likely work okay) OPT Space Plane Parts (The wings) TweakScale - Rescale Everything! (Lots of little tweaks here and there) In terms of performance, it’s not the greatest turner in atmosphere. Any atmospheric fighter will likely wax it’s tail. These are the compromises you’ll always see when trying to make a space fighter like this with no cheats (like infinite fuel). Either performance in atmosphere or space is going to suffer by comparison. And the form dictated which was going to come in second. Anyway, as said above, it's not the best atmospheric fighter, but in space, it’s VERY snappy and maneuverable! And I believe I’ve actually made a craft that’s both a good replica of an icon AND a decent - and operational - aerospace fighter as well! So I’m fairly pleased with it! WEAPONS: (All BD Armory) x2 Vulcan Cannons 4 Space Maneuvering Missiles 2 Flare Dispensers 2 Chaff Dispensers Craft was created to be compatible with the latest release from BD Armory. It has a Weapons Manager, and... I was GOING to put an AI Flight box on it too, but then I had a moment of Lore Clarity. Heh. If you want to put an AI controller on your craft to test a fight, go right ahead. But NO self-respecting Colonial would have ANY "Toaster" running a ship! PRE-FLIGHT CHECKS: Though not absolutely required for download or operation, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND TAC Fuel Balancer - hey - if you've downloaded the mods so that this craft is compatible and will load in your game, what's one more that's not even a parts mod, eh? If you're using TAC Fuel Balancer, then before take off, pull up the Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer sections. Note that one of the tanks in the oxidizer section has no fuel in it. That's the center tank of the drop tank (the drop tank consists of 6 parts - a center small FL-T200 tank, two conical NCS Adapter tanks, two nose-cones and a docking port). You want to set that to "Transfer Out". I also recommend dumping Oxidizer from one of the small FL-T100 Tanks, and then setting the Oxidizer section to "Balance All". On the Liquid Fuel section in TAC, Set the FL-T200 and the two NCS Adapter Tanks to "Transfer Out" and then "Balance All". If you're not using TAC Balancer, then you'll have to do your best to just manually transfer the fuel from the drop tank section to one of the other fuel tanks. I recommend transferring from the Drop Tank(s) to the Liquid Fuel Tank that the top engine is connected to. In any case, now you're set for take-off. Recommended ascent Profile: The Viper II is capable of getting to low orbit from the runway - though it needs the help of a little extra fuel tankage in the form of the drop tank to do so. In regards to that drop tank, there's enough clearance for it to pitch without collision with the runway, but you have to be CAREFUL with it. Wait until you're going at least 110-120 Meters per second, then start the pitch gently, just enough to get the front gear up and then the rear gear. As soon as you're clear of the runway, pull the gear up and start the first major pitch up. I recommend 45 degree ascent until just after 10,000 meters, when you’ll have drained the drop tank and released it. Note that this is not done with a decoupler, but with a small docking port arrangement. Hit "9" on the action groups to release it. (Why not use a decoupler? Because I wanted the option to attach a new drop tank to this craft in orbit!) Then slowly drop the nose to between 20-25 degrees until about 15,000 meters, then further to 10-15 degrees between 15,000 and 20,000 meters altitude. Then keep flying until around 25,000 meters altitude. Watch the speed carefully at that point. As soon as the speed levels off and begins dropping, angle the nose up to between 20-25 degrees pitch and switch the engines to rocket mode. (If you're using Kerbal Engineer, then your speed should be around Mach 3.7-3.8 when your speed starts to drop off.) At between 65-67,000 Apoapsis, throttle the engines down to zero with the X key (you’ll go over the 70,000 meter level before they shut off completely), pitch the vehicle to pure pro-grade attitude, turn on the RCS thrusters and thrust forward with those to keep your apoapsis from dropping. Yes - you heard me right - you've got plenty of RCS that you haven't used by this point and you'll need almost all your remaining fuel to get a stable orbit and you may as well burn off some extra weight that’s NOT your main fuel supply... Circularize at apoapsis and you should have a small amount of fuel remaining to rendezvous with a tanker or carrier in orbit to top off the tanks (you DID plan to rendezvous with a larger craft didn’t you? ) If not, you should have enough fuel/oxidizer left to de-orbit and land. Landing is rather like a space shuttle in terms of glide path if you're not using your engines, you're basically going to drop down (hopefully onto a runway - though the Viper is more than capable of wilderness landings) at about a 20-40 degree angle to maintain speed, then flare right before landing and use the airbrakes to help slow you down. (The airbrakes can also be used in re-entry to slow down faster, though this craft is actually very good at bleeding off heat for some reason! The only parts that tend to get hot are the RTGs on ascent, and if you're shallow in re-entry, you can keep the Viper from pinging any temp sensor bars at all!) And lastly - If all else fails and you find yourself stuck in a decaying orbit or out of fuel in deep space, there is a failsafe in the form of an Ion Engine tucked between the three main engines and solar panels on the bottom of the craft! If you’re truly confident in your abilities, then you may want to pull those to save a little weight. But hey - you never know when you might need it… Anyway - you can download the craftfile from Kerbal X. Give me some upvotes while you're at it if you like this little ship!

Gotta say - this beast is a bit tricky to fly. Mainly on take-offs and landings,. The tail-dragger config wouldn't be as much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that the main gear is so angled! This craft really needs Bahamuto's Adjustable Landing Gear! (which should be STOCK, DANGIT!!!) Other than that, the balance, as you say, is legit, no matter how wonky it was to get there! If anything, I'd suggest trying to place the center of lift even closer to the center of mass if possible - this is a fighter craft, after all. And right now, though it flies pretty damn good (once you get it off the ground), I'd say at least as much control authority comes from the vernier thrusters as from the wings and control surfaces. You really HAVE to have those operating to get the maneuverability. And they are REQUIRED to get off the runway without crashing! I did manage to land the thing mostly in one piece, but I lost the tip of the gun and the lower bits on the wings. Then again - it was a first landing, so I'll call it a win and if a guy like me - not the best pilot in the world - can get this thing down successfully, then I know it's more than possible to do it without any bits flying off on subsequent flights. Nevertheless it's fun to fly around. Not much range on it, sadly, and it's certainly not going to space in it's current state. But as a flyable replica, it's first rate! EDIT: I have discovered some easily fixable problems that don't require even adding/removing parts from the craft. This Swordfish was having problems even keeping it's nose up without resorting to the vernier jets, must less any actual maneuverability. And there was almost NO Roll control without them and very little pitch control. Yaw was also a problem. So I messed around in flight and discovered some things. First off - the leading edge control surfaces on the front part of the wings were FIGHTING the ones on the back end. In other words, any pitch or roll you tried to input pretty much was negated by having the front leading edges almost entirely cancelling out whatever the trailing edges were doing. Once I turned off Pitch and Roll control on the leading edges, the Swordfish responded MUCH better than before. It could maneuver reliably without needing the vernier jets to be on all the time. They still come in VERY handy in short on/off bursts. But the craft no longer NEEDED them constantly on to fly true! Second - I re-angled the rear "circle tail" so that the center of mass and center of lift were DEAD ON each other. This REALLY helped! Third, I turned on the Yaw on the vertical stabilizers at the tips of the wings. Now - when the vernier jets are off, you have a pretty stable, yet maneuverable flying machine. With the verniers ON, you get SUPER-MANEUVERABILITY on the order of an SU-27 Flanker! This thing can reverse itself in mid-air, STOP with its thrust and go the other way! EDIT EDIT: Oh - and those vernier thrusters really help out in take-offs and landings. This Swordfish isn't a VTOL. But it's most definitely an STOL extraordinaire! With upward thrust from the verniers, i can practically stand this thing on it's tailwheel 50 meters into take-off and lift off!! And in landing, you can get down to some ridiculously slow speeds for a nice soft touchdown. Therefore I retract my comment about the landing gear above. It's rather a moot point! Heh. Hope these test-flight observations help out!

Bit of an update on the WIP. I downloaded the new BD Armory and in the process broke a LOT of my ship designs, including the parts of the battlestar I had already put together. Actually that's my own fault for not completely stripping the old BD Armory folder out and trusting CKAN to update it properly. USUALLY it does! But not this time for some reason. So I'm having to go back and redo a lot of work. But frankly that's okay, because it gives me the chance to re-think a few things along the way. Particularly things based on what I learned with the Pocket Battlestar test article. But one thing I know for sure. I'm going to be making unarmed versions of each module in the future so I don't have to completely redo the work I've accomplished if an update changes things too much. I may also consider stock options (other than the B9 HX parts) for as many things as possible. Something else I did some research on. I was designing the latest version of the Viper. I know that the Vipers in NuBSG can carry missiles, so I added some BD Armory space maneuvering missiles to the design. Then it occurred to me - how do you resupply/reload these things back in the hanger? (It's the one area where I figured the old stock/homebuilt missiles had an advantage over a mod like BD Armory) I was looking into the possibility of making swappable racks that used small docking ports to attach them, but that was making the part count go up and weight as well. Then I discovered something about the new Kerbal Inventory system (KIS) - you can actually store MISSILES in those boxes! And the Kerbals themselves can place them properly on the launch rails for attachment! So that's one logistical problem solved. And another thing I must consider adding to the hanger design. But for now I've got to go back and do a re-build on some Battlestar modules.

Just so you know, CKAN no longer recognizes your parts pack in it's list. You may want to fix that.

I'm not sure what's going on, but when I downloaded the update via CKAN, my Malware detector lit up. Said that the new turret file had a Trojan in it. You might want to check that.

My take on a Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica. No specific version emulated here, though I think more of the design cues came from the Mk II from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. The prototype was capable of reaching orbit on its own. But the armed version, being heavier, needed a little help in the form of a drop tank. And that only JUST. It takes some careful ascent profile to reach orbit with enough fuel left to maneuver. But operationally I think that would be okay in theory, since you'd want to link up with a larger vehicle for re-fueling/transport anyway. (I'm working on a Battlestar myself. ) A couple of thirsty Vipers top off from my "Zepheranthes" supply ship. One thing that just occurred to me, though, and I'll see if I can address it. I realized that being able to reload a drop-tank via docking port would be a good idea. So I'm looking at the possibility of replacing the decoupler that attaches the drop tank with a small docking port released via action group. And that sparked another thought - The one major advantage that home-built stock weapons have over BD Armory - and something I've seen in video series such as Macey Dean's - is the capability of re-loading weaponry to an existing craft. You can reload the ammo of a BD Armory set of guns, but not the missiles. So I'm looking to address that as well. And I think I've got an idea or two.

Got it right in one. Yes - those are LLL Parts. I highly recommend them.

I would love to show you some of the awesome things I've done recently. But I can't, because Imgur is being a male body part that rhymes with "Richard" and won't let me upload anything at all today... *sigh* So instead, have this lovely set of images of a large rover mysteriously floating out of the cargo bay of my SSTO back in .25. "wat..." "I must go, my planet needs me!" "Go home KSP physics! You're DRUNK!" (seriously - that's about the weirdest bug I've ever seen in this game. I was gobsmacked... )

Not as many as you might think. The test "Pocket Battlestar" came in at 248 parts. I think that's likely going to be the overall average of the 5 separate modules of the full size Battlestar, though I really want to cut that down to about 150-200 average if possible. That would make the full-size version about 750-1000 parts when it's all assembled in orbit. Which is - amazingly enough - not NEARLY as bad as it sounds! Considering that if it works correctly, this will be about a quarter-scale of the "real" Battlestar Galactica!

Missiles, eh? Let me ponder that. Obviously I'd have to use the space maneuvering missiles. Might need a slight re-design of the existing frame. There's currently nowhere to put them. At least not on what I've got so far. I have to consider the balance and all. Maybe it's something I can add to the front or rear sections. I could maybe see using a hollow LLL box mounted vertically right ahead of the docking ring of the forward section. One of the new parts LLL has is a hull section with a ramp that opens. I could maybe use that and open it when it's time to launch the missiles. I'd have to move some stuff around. I'm sure something can be managed. Nothing is set in stone yet. If all else fails, I can just mount some missiles on rails on the outside of the hull somewhere. I was considering doing just that mounted in the "mouth" of the front end section along with some howitzer cannons.

It may be just a small "cosmetic" detail, but I'm REALLY liking the new dust effects!

That right there is VERY interesting. Are all those interior space shots inside the hanger blocks or inside the main body? I see that the limitations of .90 limited the way you could place the various large sections. (I don't think we had the re-positioning and fine rotation tools back then, did we? I kinda skipped .90 and up through 1.03 and kept playing my .25 saves. Didn't really start with the up-to-date game again until 1.04) I've learned some interesting things the last couple of days in regards to size tweaking and sliding parts around. It makes balancing things a lot more do-able in terms of tweaking the center of gravity and thrust. Plus it can make things look closer to what you really intend. For example - I realized that unless I got a hanger extend mod or went with extra-planetary ship-building (which I may still do) that it's difficult to impossible to balance test the entire full sized ship. And by extension, that meant that despite getting the shapes of the middle block, the hangers, the nose, and the engines right, I couldn't test the whole thing. And THAT meant I was getting WAY ahead of myself in terms of design. I could be going down a path that led to a design dead-end, get frustrated, and give up prematurely. So I decided to ramp things back a bit. And go with something smaller, less accurate to scale and form, but easier to manage in terms of learning how to balance the COG and thrust factors of a form like a Battlestar. Behold - the pocket Battlestar test article! It's almost cute isn't it? Heh. The hangers are just there for looks and balance, not really meant to be anything full-scale to hold things (though they could handle some smaller designs). My Viper II design would just BARELY... not fit. The wings would scrape. So they're just there as place holders. The main point here was to LEARN. Learn how to balance the COG and thrust lines. A Battlestar - with the way it's engines sit high - does not appear to thrust through the center of gravity. This is less of an issue with the Nu BSG designs, as they appear more balanced. So they are where I'm drawing the majority of my inspiration from. Also the intent was to learn more about pulling the various blocks around on a fully realized B9 HX ship, as well as size-tweaking of parts and such, etc, etc. You may notice in the above version that I did what you did, Azimech. I wound up with a vertically aligned engine block. This... turned out to have issues. As I will get to momentarily. Anyway - I managed to keep the part count relatively low on this design. RELATIVELY, I say. For any ship this size made out of normal parts, I'm sure it would be around 5-600 parts. But that's the great thing about the B9 HX blocks. You can build things at a huge scale with lower part counts. This design overall varied between 230 and 280 parts as I did various tweaks. But it never went over 300. And a lot of the part count was actually struts! I think I might've been over-doing it on the struts actually. I could probably afford to cut back by almost 50% on the amount of struts I was using. But I wanted something that would hold together under some rough treatment. Such as this - I fully intended to use a gravity hack to get the thing into the air long enough to get up some speed on the main engines. But I forgot a main lesson that sometimes even afflicts Scott Manley - to hilarious results! CHECK YO STAGING!!!! At least it's a TOUGH little big ship! It survived falling and destroying the runway and only lost one engine and some RCS blocks! Anyway - I did the gravity hack to get off the runway and then discovered the problems with the engine layout. I THOUGHT I'd balanced it properly in the SPH, or at least came close. But close isn't good enough. Particularly with something this size that takes so long to turn. It has to be RIGHT on the perfect line. Or you'll be left with a set of engines you can barely use! I was frantically messing around with the thrust limiters on the top row of engines ramping them up and down trying to balance the control. After a while I realized I wasn't really getting anywhere with this design version and reverted back to the hanger - but on the positive side I'd learned a few more things! 1) With something this large and with a shape like this you've got to be PERFECT in your thrust/COG balance from the start. 2) Something this big needs a LOT of control authority. I hadn't given it enough reaction wheels. I ran out of RCS very early on and had to hack infinite RCS fuel. 3) Related - more RCS Fuel tankage. ALSO - a weird bug kept dogging me. Random launch clamps spawning and sometimes following me through the sky! Not sure if this is a problem with the B9 HX parts or just an artifact of trying to launch something this big and the game going wonky. So - back to the hanger, for the next version of the Pocket Battlestar. This time I did a lot more with tweakscale. Plus using the off-center and rotation controls to refine the design. And this was the latest result: Immediately you'll notice that the engine block design is a LOT closer to the show. I downscaled the engines and many of the connecting parts so that I could get the double-4 engine rows. Also much of the ship up to the midline has various bits tweaked and moved around if you look closely. More fuel and RCS tanks etc. Also - to sidestep the clamp bug I decided to dispense with the launch clamps and use the large B9 Landing Gear. This time I managed to get the thrust line perfectly balanced through the center of gravity. And the COG itself right through the main connecting block (the root part) in the center of the ship. I had placed a VTOL thruster right under it - though I knew it would never lift without a gravity hack. That was okay - again, all I wanted to do was hack gravity long enough to stand the thing on it's tail and use the main thrusters without having to go to the trouble of designing a set of disposable launch boosters. Also - note that each of the 8 main thruster blocks also has an associated pair of reaction wheels. There's also a LOT of RCS blocks back there. More control authority! (Also - the middle 2 top engines are thrust limited to 50% - which was the final tweak that finally got the thrust line perfectly lined up with the COG) So - I spawned the thing onto the runway, and actually managed NOT to break it! At least until I fired the VTOL thruster... What follows next isn't actually all that consequential to the process, but it was too cool to NOT share! Now THAT'S lifting off WITH STYLE!!! Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes! Anyway - as stated, I hacked gravity only long enough to stand the Pocket Battlestar on it's tail and then let loose with full throttle on the main engines. Go baby GO!!! Eventually I did have to hack infinite fuel and RCS again. But not because I didn't have enough! It was the balance problem showing up again. With the fuel at a lower level, the COG had shifted and I needed to leave the fuel where it was for balance. I'll have to go back again to the hanger and remove all the fuel and try to balance it again between fully fueled and not. ALSO - a design like this is almost going to REQUIRE TAC fuel balancer. And maybe the dynamic balanced thrust mod too. I have the former. I used to have the latter on my .25 save. Need to add it again. It might help in automatically balancing the engine thrust properly. I was using MecJeb's automated liftoff control, but then I noticed that I wasn't gaining altitude anymore. In fact I was starting to fall in front of the apoapsis and start on a slow downslope sub-orbital trajectory. But continuing to gain speed. So I decided - to hell with it - lets just see if we can gain enough speed - and if the ship can hold together through the heat while it does it. And... DAMN if it isn't impressive watching something on the scale of this ship getting up to Mach 6-7 at about 35-30,000 meters... and HOLDING TOGETHER. (I was listening to the BSG soundtrack and you better DAMN well believe I had "Storming New Caprica" on during this part! All I needed was an FTL drive to leap out of the atmosphere direct with! Eventually I took over manual control and angled the nose up to gain altitude and get on the right side of the apoapsis curve. At this point I had all hacks turned back off, and circularized with the engines in plasma mode. MUCH more fuel efficient. And WHOA what a light show! And here we are in stable orbit. Which I immediately reverted back to the hanger to after taking the screens. This was after all, just a theoretical test after all. So - what I learned, in summary: 1) Thrust line through the center of gravity IS in fact possible to do with a shape like the Galactica. But you have to be PERFECT with it. Something that big does not react quickly, even at the smaller scale of the Pocket Battlestar test vehicle. The real thing will be a BEAST to turn, even in space. So the balance better be as perfect as it can get in both fueled and near empty fuel tankage set ups. 2) Control authority, Control Authority, CONTROL AUTHORITY!!! LOTS of reaction wheels everywhere they can be fit in! RCS can only do so much! 3) Struts are important, but you can go too far with them. Especially for something that's ONLY supposed to maneuver in orbit. I can afford to cut back to bare minimum and reduce part count on the final design I think. 3) I've GOT to find some way to build/view the entire package assembled. I'll have to install hanger extender if it will work. But now I know it IS possible to get the shape and the balance right. 4) Tweakscale will be a must-have. It was essential even on the "small" test article in getting the thrust balance close to right. (And I still messed up because I didn't do a balance pass with empty fuel tanks. I'll correct that on my next design pass.) 4) I want the various pieces to be launch-able for people who don't have extra-planetary launch pads or hanger extender mods. But it's going to be DAMN difficult getting even the individual sections off the ground if my experiences here are any indication. I DON'T like hacking/cheats except for specific purposes such as testing specific things like the above. I don't want to force it on other people either. I will do my best to get launch packages set up for lofting the sections into orbit. But no guarantees. I'll make sure this thing can fly when assembled in orbit. But I'm still not sure how that's going to work. I may add further thoughts later. But that's all I can think of for now. Oh - one last thing - Nertea's Mk 4 Spaceplane cockpit makes a great combined "Bridge/CIC" if you clip it into the nose at the right angle. Can you see the windows just barely peaking through in the shots above? Heh.

That's thinking outside the cube!

That'd be awesome! I'd love to see your take on the design. Might give me some ideas.

I think you'll like this. I put together a small album of screens I took during a weapons test of the Spine.

That's still good news! Just have to make sure I've got a variety of weapons to use. As to the discussion earlier about making the hanger pod into it's own ship, here's something I whipped up relatively quickly. And I even retained the fly-through hanger! It still needs a bit of work before I launch it. I suspect I'll need to do some strutting just to make sure I don't get wobbly parts. But once I get that done, I'm tempted to just turn the thing on it's end and see if it'll blast off on its own power from the runway. I expect I'll have to repair the runway after that lift-off even if it does work. I foresee many glorious explosions in my immediate future.

I can already tell that I'll be able to easily fit in the Vipers. I'm almost certain I can fit two side-by-side in this space. If there's some wingtip scraping, I can always stagger the docking ports slightly (this design of Viper has a standard docking port on the ventral side) or even dock them to the ceiling in places. It hardly matters since it's space and 0-G.

Must file that trick for future reference. Nice!