Squadcast Summary (2015-04-11) - Arrangement Of S.H.I.E.L.Ds Edition!

[Yukon0009]

Mhm......I don't completly trust the new fairings, I'll continue to build my own.

[Randazzo]

Heat shields are not required if you come in shallow enough. You just can't re-enter at a 90 degree angle to Kerbin.

I never do. I play DRE.

That's also a flimsy justification.

[Eric S]

That's also a flimsy justification.

The more realistic justification would be that a reentry from LKO is about a third the velocity as one from LEO, so they're just not as necessary. Not sure if you were using DRE back when they adjusted it to be realistic, but everyone complained that DRE had forgotten the D part.

[GusTurbo]

Mhm......I don't completly trust the new fairings, I'll continue to build my own.

The new fairings will be just fine. Certainly better than anything created from wings. I've been trying to make fairings ever since we got structural panels, and it has really been time consuming and part-inefficient. Plus, consider the possibilities for aesthetics outside of the intended use.

[LABHOUSE]

I hope there's some sort of snapping when building the fairings. If it's literally you click and the exact pixel is used to define the fairing shape then they will basically be non-reproducible. I don't think that would be great.

It will probably be like the gizmos, angle snapping affected.

[katateochi]

Thanks Owksp!!

New fairings look interesting, but as other have said, need some egg shapes going on and I totally agree with cantab about the need for snapping. Maybe that will be controlled with the current Toggle Angle Snap function so you can have total free form and snapping.

Can we save set shapes once made so they can be reused in other craft?

Little worried about the way they open when you mouse over them. Yes good idea, but does that limit control over them? For example if I have a 3x set of fairing panels round a payload, can I put 2 of the panels into one stage and 1 into another? Or are they very much a single part? I do that a lot with horizontal landers on plants with atmos; pop off the top 1 panel and deploy chutes while keeping the underside panels still on (like this https://youtu.be/Tp6yj2k0Fpc?t=5m28s)

anyway, looks interesting. can't wait to see what weird things folk are going to create with them!

[Renegrade]

The more realistic justification would be that a reentry from LKO is about a third the velocity as one from LEO, so they're just not as necessary. Not sure if you were using DRE back when they adjusted it to be realistic, but everyone complained that DRE had forgotten the D part.

Precisely. You don't need blunt-shaped ablative heat shield for Mach 6-7, you just have to use something that's a bit more heat resistant than plywood.

Normally that shouldn't be a problem, but I suspect Jeb's Junkyard builds primarily out of plywood and duct tape..

[Brotoro]

No big inflatable heat shield? I am disappoint.

[Randazzo]

The more realistic justification would be that a reentry from LKO is about a third the velocity as one from LEO, so they're just not as necessary. Not sure if you were using DRE back when they adjusted it to be realistic, but everyone complained that DRE had forgotten the D part.

Entry from LKO is only a small part of the picture.

I'm not going to engage the "your complaint is invalid" crowd beyond this point, but if you stretch your mind for a moment, you may think of other atmospheric encounters that require heat shielding.

[SpacedCowboy]

Cool! I'm still not sure I understand how fairings will work, but I'm excited to see something about them!

Gus, I hear you, I was excited to learn about the new fairings but, came away a little confused

[Sandworm]

The fairing system does look cool. Squad it now catching up to the modders in terms of aesthetics. More important is their functionality. We know things inside them are to be basically removed from the drag calculation, but how are the fairings themselves going to interact with the aero model? Is the overall shape going to play? Or will each fairing part have an assigned drag value much as standard parts do today? I worry that without a proper drag model, nesting fairings for each stage might become the new OP technique, akin to asparagus staging.

(Nesting fairings would involve each and every stage using a separate fairing to hide all above it from the drag model, creating almost drag-free rockets.)

[Robotengineer]

No big inflatable heat shield? I am disappoint.

There (will be) a mod for that.

[ImJake]

I would like to see the fairings being built before I make any real judgments about them. It would be cool though if the way you make them is similar to the pen tool in photoshop, where you can easily make points and curves and adjust them afterwards.

[HafCoJoe]

The fairing textures look amazing! I'm already picturing them mounted around my ships .

NO BARN?!?! But what about #bringbackthebarn! I wanna see a barn... lol lemme call up Ronin Pawn...

[dryer_lint]

NO BARN?!?! But what about #bringbackthebarn! I wanna see a barn...

It's apparently no longer a barn, because it's now a NUKE LAUNCH FACILITY

-ahem

More of a military/industrial thing.

[Bill Phil]

They should have the Tier 0 Space Center. Delay release if you must, Squad, that Tier is pretty important.

(Also, I recommend an art-pass for the intermediate Tiers, you know.... 1 and 2. Unless it's being done...)

[Brotoro]

There (will be) a mod for that.

Yeah. There already is. Or was. I played with an inflatable heatshield part quite a while ago, and I think they would not only be very useful, but also very cool.

I am very disappointed that Squad isn't going to give us something like this.

[Eric S]

I'm not going to engage the "your complaint is invalid" crowd beyond this point, but if you stretch your mind for a moment, you may think of other atmospheric encounters that require heat shielding.

I'm not quite in that particular crowd myself at this time. Without seeing how it's balanced, we don't know how big an issue it will be. As someone that always aerobrakes when an atmosphere is available and frequently plays with DRE, I know that LKO reentries are only half the story.

[CalculusWarrior]

They should have the Tier 0 Space Center. Delay release if you must, Squad, that Tier is pretty important.

(Also, I recommend an art-pass for the intermediate Tiers, you know.... 1 and 2. Unless it's being done...)

Max did mention that all the Tiers are receiving an art pass, and it was due to this that the barn might not make it in.

[matts73]

Really?

No heatshields?

Building tiers left out?

I know that squad does not care that much about details but - this time didn't they said the game will be complete?

I don't know but either they are very brave or they don't care about ratings from gaming sites. I don't think they will achieve this rating 4Players Link When they publish in an incomplete state on the other hand why really care? They sold many copies and should have made their profit.

And not to forget there is a mod

[Yukon0009]

The new fairings will be just fine. Certainly better than anything created from wings. I've been trying to make fairings ever since we got structural panels, and it has really been time consuming and part-inefficient. Plus, consider the possibilities for aesthetics outside of the intended use.

It's just that I'm not sure how they would work, and besides, I actually enjoy building custom fairings anyways.

[Renegrade]

One thing I forgot to point out before: There's no such thing as rounded fairings in KSP at all. They're all using triangle-based meshes, as that's what your video card renders~

You'll be able to make round-looking fairings with the new system by using a lot of data points. Will be a little more click-intensive than pfairings or KW, but least you won't have to take the durned rocket apart just to add an antenna afterward (something that's always irritated me with the mod-fairings)...

[Majorjim!]

Thanks Owksp!!

New fairings look interesting, but as other have said, need some egg shapes going on and I totally agree with cantab about the need for snapping. Maybe that will be controlled with the current Toggle Angle Snap function so you can have total free form and snapping.

Can we save set shapes once made so they can be reused in other craft?

Little worried about the way they open when you mouse over them. Yes good idea, but does that limit control over them? For example if I have a 3x set of fairing panels round a payload, can I put 2 of the panels into one stage and 1 into another? Or are they very much a single part? I do that a lot with horizontal landers on plants with atmos; pop off the top 1 panel and deploy chutes while keeping the underside panels still on (like this https://youtu.be/Tp6yj2k0Fpc?t=5m28s)

anyway, looks interesting. can't wait to see what weird things folk are going to create with them!

Oh god... Say it aint' so. If the fairings are limited to both separating at the same time then that would suck big time!

So, I'm not a fan of the texture on the fairing. It looks cheap to me. I cannot wait to play with them though. I am very concerned about my above statement. It really does look like the fairings release from a single point and therfore will not be able to seperate one at a time.. This is a MAJOR shortcoming. Considering we can do this with stock already..

Edited April 11, 2015 by Majorjim

[worir4]

Do you sit watching SQUAD cast with a note pad and pen? Do you have to watch it several times before you make the final post?

[BudgetHedgehog]

Do you sit watching SQUAD cast with a note pad and pen? Do you have to watch it several times before you make the final post?

I type (faster than writing) and it's incomplete sentences like 'probe for science and ore, cursor, airflow would break things apart if launch, fairings, inefficient, expensive, build with clicks, move, click'. Thankfully, there's a fair amount of not a lot going on during Cast, so there's plenty of time to flesh them out then. I've never needed to rewatch a Squadcast before I post a summary.