Madrias

Lo-Fi, I have to thank you for pointing me toward Sketchup, too. It takes a bit of getting used to, but after a few experimental bits of fiddling around, I managed to make it work. It's a good, simple way to make 3D stuff when 3D is needed for showing a thought. And yes, the hexagonal design to the canopy glass was done on purpose. High-visibility, yet designed to look more aesthetically pleasing, at least to me, than a big glass dome.

Now THAT is what I've been lookin' for! That's a certain thing of beauty, resting on those tracks, looking ready to carry several tons of science gear across Eve at blinding speed.

That was impressive, Darren!

Out of curiosity, what's going on with your repulsor-craft? They're very power hungry things, so you'll need a lot of RTG's (or a KSP Interstellar Reactor) to give 'em plenty of power.

You put a pod on a rocket. You put a cockpit on a plane. The planes have the visibility of pods, and it bugs me. I'd love to fly in IVA view more often, but sadly, the current IVA's are all usually pretty crap for visibility. The MK1 is great for a view of the sky, but forget looking left or right, and you won't see anything you're about to hit. The default MK1 Inline is a pod, and even with a mod installed, ends up being good for side visibility, but you can't see where you're going. The SP+ MK2 parts are good for shuttles, but again have a major lack of visibility. B9's cockpits, with exception to the HL one that looks like it came off an airliner, and the one that looks like a truck cab, have reasonably poor visibility. It seems to be a theme, and it's not one I'm fond of. I'd love to have an ability to actually fly from IVA view, complete with a nice runway landing that doesn't end in explosions. Edit: I understand what you mean, though. Granted, it'd take a LOT of effort to make this rig sweat. I'll make the GPU's puke, or run out of 12GB of RAM first before I'd manage to hit the CPU limit. I've never had anything push it to 100% load. Gaming in general doesn't break 10%.

Gaalidas, RPM can do that with some external cameras mounted on the ship. Pick some strategic locations and you'll be able to see most of what you're likely to hit. I just hate how most pods have near-zero visibility around you, so you might as well be flying a tin can strapped to a booster.

It is incredibly rough, but it should get the basic idea across of my shell design. No internal design, just the shell. Notice the large amount of window material used to give as large a field of view as possible (yes, I know you can only look 180 degrees as a Kerbal, but still, I think glass looks better when dealing with multi-monitor play, where you see a little more), as well as a reasonable amount of "toward the ground view" from the perspective. I figure, the Kerbal sits with his head (in helmet) almost touching the roof glass, if it gives an idea of just how much visibility there is in that design. As for instruments, front-and-center should be the Compass on top, Navball, then Atmosphere. To the left, Altimeter next to the Compass, and under the Altimeter should be the Radar Altimeter. To the right of the Compass should be three lights: Gear, RCS, SAS. Below those, the Velocity gauge. This leaves plenty of room underneath for things like RPM screens. The idea is to not clutter up the visible space in front of the pilot: I would rather look down to see my gauges and be able to see down the nose of the airplane than to have my gauges in my face and barely a view of where I'm flying. Crashed too many MK1 planes because I couldn't see I was about to skim the mountain peaks.

Three donuts and your favorite caffeinated beverage should, perhaps, be enough to jumpstart your creativity drive? As for me, I just dumped Infernal Robotics into my KSP file, so I'll see if I can create some chaos in the Dev Box later. Should be fairly amusing to see if I can use that to do anything amazing. I've used it before to fold gliders into cargo bays. Always a fun way to explore other planets. A ship powered by a probe core, a cargo bay, and your either probe-glider or piloted exploration craft stuffed in the cargo bay. The trick with those, for me, was to find the perfect deployment altitude. You want to unfold everything (as I don't, and refuse to, use Deadly Reentry) so that your wings and control surfaces are in their standard position before you meet the atmosphere. That way you can be more than ready to glide. The other half of the battle was keeping the thing so small and light that it could sit in the cargo bay without taking up much room, yet also having an ability to control the thing once it was unleashed. Always wished there to be a pilot seat that was small, light, and simple. I figure, why not mention my thoughts here, where there's a lot of creative talent flying around (pun fully intended) and see what people think. The idea, basically, was to have a probe-sized connection both front and rear, a high-visibility canopy with reasonable instrumentation, built with minimal onboard resources. No reaction wheels, a probe core (just so that the annoyance of the whole "I forgot to apply the brakes" scenario can be eliminated), a small amount of battery power, and, say, 3 units of Monopropellant onboard. Essentially an inline cockpit, but made to be just barely bigger than the Kerbal inside it. As for instrumentation... A real seat of the pants feeling here. Altimeter, Radar Altimeter, Compass, Navball, Velocity, and Atmosphere. Oh, and if it's possible, a nice "gear warning" light for when you've got the gear up. I know, it's a lot to mention, and I'd have better luck mentioning it elsewhere, but I figured it can't hurt to mention the idea here. If nothing else, maybe it spins off a few cool ideas that can be used. If I had any knowledge at all in 3D modeling, Unity, and texturing, I'd give it a go myself, but I don't have the aptitude for learning Blender. Last time I tried was about a year ago, and I got so lost trying to figure anything out that I gave up on it. I know from the tutorial I'd been trying to follow that this stuff is hard to do, and few appreciate the work that goes into it. Just for that alone, I thank everyone involved in the whole modding project, just because it is hard, and so few people show gratitude toward the modders. So I'll leave the idea here and see what people think, but other than that, there's not much I can do. I can't honestly contribute to the project any more than ideas and bug testing, which are the two end-points of the spectrum. On another note, I'm somewhat liking the DSR3. I like the DSR2 better, but that may just be personal bias going on. The DSR3's body shell is easy to work with, and I was having fun a while ago sticking various parts from the Lack Luster Labs part pack on it. Sure, the white clashes with the grey, but the angular shapes and design kinda went with it, and that startled me, in a good way. I usually find myself annoyed that I use so little of the LLL pack, just because there's so little that goes with it but itself. And yet, the DSR Rover Hulls match at least in the rough, angular design. I like it. Sure, at this point, my mind screams "I want a white one!" but that'd only be depriving myself of the beauty of the current design. That, and the fact that the DSR Hulls look good on Wheels, or on Tracks, I find it awesome. It's hard to find a vehicle that looks good regardless of what it's sitting on, but the DSR is that vehicle. Heck, it even looked good as a plane. Wouldn't tend to use it like that on missions to other worlds, but I could see an upscaled Firespitter Bomb Bay being the release mechanism for one of those sometime soon. Might try landing one on Eve. Ack! Note to self, Mad: When making a post, do not, I repeat, do NOT go out to get lunch in the middle of it.

Hmm... I'm not so sure on what type of hitch would work best, but I'll surely enjoy hooking a trailer to a DSR unit and carrying some science and a micro rover.

Modular components are always good. I suppose that means the box on the roof, those bottles, and any other things can move around. As for the idea of a trailer, major kudos if you manage that! I'd love to have a trailer. Wouldn't mind a themed science lab and maybe, just maybe, a cargo bay. I can do wicked things with cargo bays (like hiding my KSP Interstellar Fusion Reactors), and I love having a portable science lab. It's just something I do, I carry a porta-lab on any long-distance, long duration mission where I know either the Kerbals aren't coming home (for a long time) or where transmitting the science is necessary due to distance constraints. I do love the DSR2, though, as it's a very beautiful piece of moving machinery. I love the fact that, while it doesn't fit with any hardware I have in KSP (in either color or design), it looks visually stunning. Combine that with an industry leading crash tolerance and you have a rover that becomes useful on any world, any terrain. The onboard generator is sufficient for running wheels, though is just underpowered enough that running repulsors requires an additional power supply, which I like.

Gaalidas, that's the easy way. I want the science lab behind the machine, yet not jamming up my EVA hatch... After all, I really don't like tippy rovers on places like Eve where it's next to impossible for me to get my kerbals back.

Still messing around with the DSR2, and about the only thing I can really think of that would be really nice to have is a matching design of science lab. Well, that, and some method to mount it that doesn't block up the rear door. I know, I know, you're not supposed to drag science labs with you while using a rover, but I always want to do things like that.

Jeb was the pilot for the first flight where I didn't have any struts. The thing shook apart and collapsed the VAB when the pod hit it. Without parachutes.

One can air-drop the rover, too. Very useful in a pinch. Sure, it can't get off-world, but it was designed to drop the rover on Kerbin. I've used similar planes to explore Eve in the past, after getting them there. It's just how I am. I have no problems landing when there's atmosphere to exploit, but you yank that out from under me and I struggle to do anything.

Ah. I went the easy way instead of trying to put it on a rocket and send it screaming into the sky that way. Jeb decided to space-tape his remote control glider to the roof. Well, after they put the batteries in the shrink ray backwards and made it bigger, then glued some engines on.

Not so much that I prefer them over the repulsor wheels, but I have a lot of crafts on other saves that use the Alpha wheels instead. It's just one of those things. With the new functionality built into the Rep. wheels (split modes that actually allow independant suspension/repulsor control), I'll be using them more often. Otherwise, it's a preference for a cleaner, sleeker looking craft. As for what I'm up to... Making that new rover pod fly.

Added another to the album, as simple as it gets. Two RTG's, two batteries, the flat-wide I-beams, and four wheels. Still not behaving.

That same body works just fine with the Repulsor Conversion wheels. Still, I'll try throwing a few other craft at it, including one of my simple testing designs.

Now that I've grabbed the latest dev build, I'll see if those wheels are still broken, or whether I just had a minor quirk at my end. That, and I'm trying to come up with something just outright crazy to pull off... Edit: Alpha Medium Wheel is still broken. Doesn't drive, doesn't steer. I'll upload screencaps when Imgur stops being a butt. Edit 2: Should shed some light on the subject. One taken from under the vehicle, showing that it's floating, despite not installing repulsors. One taken from above the vehicle, showing me inputting full steering and getting nothing in return (other than reaction wheel torque) and one from 3/4 view.

Out of curiosity, seeing as it'd been mentioned NOT to do earlier (regarding multiple pods and their views), what exactly is the issue with running multiples? I've coupled a pair of DSR2's back-to-back and other than not being able to EVA (cause I've blocked up the hatches in doing so), things seem to still work okay. Other than, of course, massive loading lag. Yes, I do sometimes wonder why, exactly, I do these kind of things. Tell me not to do something and what do I go and do? Exactly what someone said not to do. Still, I'll keep trying to break things. Or find broken things. Oh, the Alpha Wheels aren't working right now. Looks like an elephant sat on the suspension and crushed it into the wheel.

I like the DSR2, actually. And, yeah, I caught that repulsor bug, too, shortly after running a while. With the repulsor wheels, it'll also jam them in the repulsor position. Not sure if they function as wheels or not, though, when jammed (8 wheeled craft, stable on 6. Rear wheels and fronts steer, fronts jammed (action groups 1-4 controlled individual wheel sets) as I was powering down due to a lack of sufficient power). The DSR2 is actually a nice rover pod, containing nearly everything one could need. It's stable, has a chunky amount of reaction torque for use with repulsorcraft (or unrolling yourself), and actually looks good. Just wishing I had more parts to match it so that I could go cruising around with it and not worry about the fact that anything I put on it looks out of place.

Only got two new ones in this album, but I was having fun. Jeb's hot-rod and pulling one heck of a wheelie.

Ouch. Just found out the hard way that the Repulsor Wheels are NOT water repulsors. Thankfully, the new rover chassis is very sturdy and I didn't lose my 9 man expeditionary crew who was going toward the south pole. Also thankfully the jet engines I used were mounted high on the chassis and so they didn't go smash, even though I'm sure the Kerbal equivalent of the EPA is going to be screaming because I smashed a fission reactor into the ocean. Still, I'm having fun with the new parts. As for that new code for a re-done stock wheel, I haven't yet tried it.

0.24 x64 wasn't too bad for me. Very stable, in fact, more stable than x86 mode. 0.25 x64 has pushed me back to x86 mode. Too many crashes just after reaching the SPH and thinking of picking a command pod.

I like that! Agreed on the modular panniers, though. Needs at least some form of customization, even if it's limited. Still, I could see dropping one of those on Eve with some variety of either tracks or wheels and going on a nice little cruise.