[1.12.5] Bluedog Design Bureau - Stockalike Saturn, Apollo, and more! (v1.14.0 "металл" 30/Sep/2024)

[gc1ceo]

Excellent, always wanted an Apollo sub-satellite for the Kane SM.

I've always felt that the Kane SM's empty service bay takes a bit from the immersion. A sub-satellite definitely helps although I'm wondering about a project to build modules that can snap into the service bay with the intended effect to look more like the Apollo's opened service bay. You can already add a number of parts inside the bay itself at the moment such as science parts, additional fuel cells, etc although you can't really replicate the look of the opened Apollo service bay. The Agena Materials Bay looks great so I was thinking that a somewhat similar look to the SM service bay would be a great addition.

[CobaltWolf]

17 hours ago, akron said:

@CobaltWolf That looks very nice, but other than for completion I have to question its size for KSP. How big is it?

17 hours ago, Abrecan said:

Big/Small enough to fit inside the SM cargo bay for sure! Can't wait til tonight to fly that baby!

It works out to being roughly 0.3125m, the size of the other mini probes.

13 hours ago, gc1ceo said:

Excellent, always wanted an Apollo sub-satellite for the Kane SM.

I've always felt that the Kane SM's empty service bay takes a bit from the immersion. A sub-satellite definitely helps although I'm wondering about a project to build modules that can snap into the service bay with the intended effect to look more like the Apollo's opened service bay. You can already add a number of parts inside the bay itself at the moment such as science parts, additional fuel cells, etc although you can't really replicate the look of the opened Apollo service bay. The Agena Materials Bay looks great so I was thinking that a somewhat similar look to the SM service bay would be a great addition.

I feel that way too, but my hangup is that I feel like it would be a lot of work to create those parts, which would then be very single-use. Yeah, maybe there's a case that if I designed them right, they could look decent on station truss segments maybe? Sort of like the unpressurized palettes for the ISS. But then, there probably isn't much that can be done with them without other mods - you could have a life support package, KIS package... a Materials Bay / Mystery Goo combo probably wouldn't go amiss. One that looks like the Apollo 15 experiments with the two boom instruments. Maybe standardize the height and a 'box' that they fit in, make them like 1/3 the height of the service bay each... idk. Probably not something I'm up to doing right now.

I will say, if someone wanted to make a small expansion for BDB, that wouldn't be a bad one. Fairly fixed in scope, nothing crazy from a modeling POV... The UV would have to be pretty intense to make the AO bake work, but it'd be worth it I think. Something for the peanut gallery to think about. The service module bays are being changed somewhat, to have a flat back. I think I'd also like to look into putting some more detail into the inside. I might even try and fill in a little bit of the space on top, throw some boxes in there, I'd like to put a little floodlight similar to the Agena Materials Bay's at the top of the compartment.

[MaverickSawyer]

Any chance you could add an option to the Kane SM so that you could swap the utility bays for added consumables, like LFO/life support/etc, as well, or make a part that can be slotted into that space for that purpose? for now, I'm using some of the 0.625m tanks, tweakscaled down to fit inside as added fuel to support a reusable Leo lander in orbit around Minmus.

[Jimbodiah]

Wow!

[MaverickSawyer]

Fixing a broken comsat high above Minmus before heading back home...

[FiiZzioN]

Would you ever consider organizing this massive project a bit better? As someone that has an already large install, I prune parts that I don't need or want in order to save space. I also have to assume that I'm not alone in doing so. Right now I'm going through hell trying to pick out what's what by file name and crossing my fingers. I want to use this parts of this pack, but the folder structure is almost completely off-putting. I mean, there's an "engine" folder that contains maybe one-eighth of the engines in this pack. The only reason I'm still at it is because the quality of the work that's present.

I'm not even asking for very detailed organization, just a little bit of structure. Maybe something following some form of this example:

To be honest, as the developer, I'm not sure how you deal with it in its current state. I hope this didn't come off as blatant negativity, I absolutely love the work, but this is some constructive criticism I truly hope you can implement in the future.

Thanks for your time.

Edited July 20, 2017 by FiiZzioN

[debaker02]

On 7/16/2017 at 7:49 PM, CobaltWolf said:

On 7/15/2017 at 6:05 PM, Kerbal01 said:

The solar panels are deploying automatically in the VAB, every BDB one. Gamebreaking as you cant retract them in flight. @CobaltWolf @Jso

Dunno what to tell you, doesn't do that on my install. Doesn't sound like BDB's causing it.

I had this issue to, somewhere I had another mod or config that was interfering.  I also had some bdb Apollo parts showing up.... I had to wipe out my mods and start again, then all was well. 

[CobaltWolf]

17 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Any chance you could add an option to the Kane SM so that you could swap the utility bays for added consumables, like LFO/life support/etc, as well, or make a part that can be slotted into that space for that purpose? for now, I'm using some of the 0.625m tanks, tweakscaled down to fit inside as added fuel to support a reusable Leo lander in orbit around Minmus.

See the post above yours.

12 hours ago, Jimbodiah said:

Wow!

Looking good! I need to clean up the Aardvark's textures to bring it in line with the new Apollo stuff.

9 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Fixing a broken comsat high above Minmus before heading back home...

Please tell me the Apollo RCS doesn't have to be that high to be balanced? They're meant to go on the little rectangles on the SM texture. I might have to @Jso might have to adjust the COMs again.

4 hours ago, FiiZzioN said:

Would you ever consider organizing this massive project a bit better? As someone that has an already large install, I prune parts that I don't need or want in order to save space. I also have to assume that I'm not alone in doing so. Right now I'm going through hell trying to pick out what's what by file name and crossing my fingers. I want to use this parts of this pack, but the folder structure is almost completely off-putting. I mean, there's an "engine" folder that contains maybe one-eighth of the engines in this pack. The only reason I'm still at it is because the quality of the work that's present.

I'm not even asking for very detailed organization, just a little bit of structure. Maybe something following some form of this example:

To be honest, as the developer, I'm not sure how you deal with it in its current state. I hope this didn't come off as blatant negativity, I absolutely love the work, but this is some constructive criticism I truly hope you can implement in the future.

Thanks for your time.

Hrmm, I'm not sure what to say. It has always felt 'organized enough'. The organization is dependent on texture sheets - everything in a folder shares texture sheets, so by keeping together I keep it so that people pruning the parts can delete entire folders without having anything break. I don't much see the point in trying to divide those folders more than they already are - the names of the part cfgs are descriptive enough for pruning.

[Jimbodiah]

1 hour ago, CobaltWolf said:

Please tell me the Apollo RCS doesn't have to be that high to be balanced? They're meant to go on the little rectangles on the SM texture. I might have to @Jso might have to adjust the COMs again.

No, it's just under 100% centered on the CoM.

But I a missing the white textures on the pod/nose/chutes, is that correct?

[CobaltWolf]

35 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

No, it's just under 100% centered on the CoM.

But I a missing the white textures on the pod/nose/chutes, is that correct?

Why did you have them offset like that then? Just trying to figure out if it's balanced in the 'canon' configuration.

And yeah, I never made a white version of the texture this time around. The original one was just goofing around after I found out the Skylab CM had a cream coating on one side. The new UV, where the capsule takes up a little more than half of a 2K texture rather than completely filling a 1K texture, is less easy to duplicate. I still have a fair amount of space on that one I need to fill (It's where I stuck the Subsat UVs, for instance). Maybe once I get to finishing the ETS Apollo bits (with the Block IV MM and the Block II AARDV) I'll need the extra space and I'll duplicate the texture, get rid of the non-CM stuff (leaving me ~2048 x 1024 pixels for new stuff) and do a more accurate Skylab CM texture... it was only on the one side of the capsule, the one that faced the sun along with the ATM. Which was why only one side of Skylab was white, BTW.

[Jimbodiah]

LOL, I didn't  I just check to see if they were balanced for you

NP on the white texture, I just thought I was going nuts 

[MaverickSawyer]

2 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

See the post above yours.

I did. That's what prompted the request for the switchable SM type.

2 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Please tell me the Apollo RCS doesn't have to be that high to be balanced? They're meant to go on the little rectangles on the SM texture. I might have to @Jso might have to adjust the COMs again.

... Y'know, I can't recall why I put them that far forward... I used the Block IV/V SM for the mission to my Skylab station, with the orbital module, so it wouldn't have been me reusing the CSM stack for that. (I have to add some microthrusters to the orbital module of the IV/V to make it run balanced, btw... any suggestions?)

Launching KSP now to go take a look. Will report back soon.

[CobaltWolf]

19 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

LOL, I didn't  I just check to see if they were balanced for you

NP on the white texture, I just thought I was going nuts 

Oh whoops.

Yeah. now you've got me wondering what a new one would look like... but I've got bigger, balloon tanked fish to fry today.

Just now, MaverickSawyer said:

I did. That's what prompted the request for the switchable SM type.

... Y'know, I can't recall why I put them that far forward... I used the Block IV/V SM for the mission to my Skylab station, with the orbital module, so it wouldn't have been me reusing the CSM stack for that. (I have to add some microthrusters to the orbital module of the IV/V to make it run balanced, btw... any suggestions?)

Launching KSP now to go take a look. Will report back soon.

Yeah, I don't know. Like I said, it's a fair amount of work but I think it'd be a good first mod for someone that wants to cut their teeth on a fairly limited scope project. For what it's worth, this next update (shaping up to basically be Atlas revamp + Centaur touch ups + Atlas expansion + LDC Titan) will probably be the last non-Saturn LV update for the forseeable future, since I think the mod is fairly saturated with those now. I've also been having more fun with spacecraft parts as of late, so we'll see.

You'll have to blame @e of pi for the bad RCS configuration on the Block IV and Block III+, let alone the AARDV. He says they're 'fine'. ... if you want to 'do the math' to figure out how powerful and where the thrusters need to go for the Block III+ and the AARDV Block I, maybe a single thruster version of the Apollo linear RCS is in order, complete with the plates on the texture like the Block II SM.

On that note, I was super jealous of @Beale when he was making some of those cool little bits for the Soyuz capsule. Apollo doesn't really have a lot of stuff like that I can make off of historical sources, but if anyone finds anything - or thinks of something on their own! - I'd love to know. Like I said, I have a lot of space left on that texture sheet that needs to get filled up. In fact, maybe even sketches? (Don't worry about art ability, it's about getting ideas across). If enough people have ideas maybe I can choose my favorite 3 and make them into parts. I'm thinking little simple greebly bits that people will find useful, like Beale's lights. Maybe it's a new RCS layout to match the Apollo RCS set, or some little antenna, maybe Apollo style ladder bits to match the CM handholds? I wanna know.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Okay, found out why I put the RCS so far forwards...

That's the average CoM, aka where the CoM is with half-empty fuel tanks in the SM. Since most of the critical docking maneuvers I perform are at half-full tanks or pretty close to it, that position minimizes the off-balance torques and allows for steadier docking. Just a personal preference, and a little perfectionism.

 

Oh, and greebles are good.

Edited July 20, 2017 by MaverickSawyer

[Frednoeyes]

You're the MAN now DOG!

Edited August 7, 2017 by Frednoeyes

[Teslamax]

4 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Maybe once I get to finishing the ETS Apollo bits (with the Block IV MM and the Block II AARDV)...

Make sure they have CBM-sized docking ports...

[Beale]

I'm lovin' it™. 

[MaverickSawyer]

2 hours ago, Beale said:

I'm lovin' it™. 

[picsnip]

[Deltac]

Scout and Vanguard launches!  http://imgur.com/a/QwphC

[CobaltWolf]

[MaverickSawyer]

14 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

Oooh, shiny stuff, cap'n.

Edited July 21, 2017 by MaverickSawyer

[Jall]

4 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

-snip-

You. I like you. (and these awesome textures)

[Daishi]

On 7/20/2017 at 8:40 AM, MaverickSawyer said:

Any chance you could add an option to the Kane SM so that you could swap the utility bays for added consumables, like LFO/life support/etc, as well, or make a part that can be slotted into that space for that purpose? for now, I'm using some of the 0.625m tanks, tweakscaled down to fit inside as added fuel to support a reusable Leo lander in orbit around Minmus.

 

On 7/19/2017 at 3:20 PM, gc1ceo said:

Excellent, always wanted an Apollo sub-satellite for the Kane SM.

I've always felt that the Kane SM's empty service bay takes a bit from the immersion. A sub-satellite definitely helps although I'm wondering about a project to build modules that can snap into the service bay with the intended effect to look more like the Apollo's opened service bay. You can already add a number of parts inside the bay itself at the moment such as science parts, additional fuel cells, etc although you can't really replicate the look of the opened Apollo service bay. The Agena Materials Bay looks great so I was thinking that a somewhat similar look to the SM service bay would be a great addition.

That's my (boring) job

If CobaltWolf wants to add my attach nodes to his parts (when I get them finalized), my mod should hopefully tie in nicely with his style. Most of my stuff is now morphing to resemble real life space equipment so they shouldn't look that out of place. It's always been my goal to create a stock-a-like service bay system, and if it can work alongside mods with similar aims, why not! 

Edited July 21, 2017 by Daishi

[CobaltWolf]

2 minutes ago, Daishi said:

That's my (boring) job

If CobaltWolf wants to add my attach nodes to his parts (when I get them finalized), my mod should hopefully tie in nicely with his style. Most of my stuff is now morphing to resemble real life space equipment so they shouldn't look that out of place.

That's hopefully doable! Can you send me some of the assets for the new version so I can make sure they scale correctly?

[Daishi]

2 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

That's hopefully doable! Can you send me some of the assets for the new version so I can make sure they scale correctly?

Can do - just give me a month or so to finish the damn things

I'll see if i can find an old wedge\node reference model, everything should be consistent to those dimensions.