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

[CobaltWolf]

Dev stream going up on Twitch!

[CobaltWolf]

Stream is done... new parts are on Github!

[TameFroggy]

7 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

Stream is done... new parts are on Github!

Looking good!

[AlphaMensae]

Athena II, pole dancer!

[LoadingTimeExpert]

23 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Going to be a busy day tomorrow, looking to stream starting at around 9 AM Eastern. Working on the Minotaur GCA and short 1.5m interstage - the last two parts for the Peacekeeper-derived series!

(Click the below for full size)



 

Peacekeeper derived? Cool, I can't wait to nuke some Krussians

[Well]

Thanks for these new parts @CobaltWolf and thanks for the stream !

Awesome work again ! 

[Pappystein]

10 hours ago, [email protected] said:

Peacekeeper derived? Cool, I can't wait to nuke some Krussians

Err um no they are Minotaur III/IV/V/VI+ derived....  

There are no warheads nor warhead bus....  so can't call em Peacekeepers.  

Still tweaking my SR-118 mod file for the first stage.   It is somewhat complicated because the Minotaur VI uses TWO of them and the 2nd one has to have a different thrust profile than the first stage.   I am hoping at some point in the near future the work on updating B9Partswitch will be complete allowing engine swapping so you can just select "1st stage profile / 2nd Stage profile"

 

[LoadingTimeExpert]

58 minutes ago, Pappystein said:

Err um no they are Minotaur III/IV/V/VI+ derived....  

There are no warheads nor warhead bus....  so can't call em Peacekeepers.  

 Still tweaking my SR-118 mod file for the first stage.   It is somewhat complicated because the Minotaur VI uses TWO of them and the 2nd one has to have a different thrust profile than the first stage.   I am hoping at some point in the near future the work on updating B9Partswitch will be complete allowing engine swapping so you can just select "1st stage profile / 2nd Stage profile"

  

all I heard was warhead sooooooo. to me its a peacekeeper lol, and it always will be.

[CobaltWolf]

Some awesome test footage, thanks a ton to @damonvv and @AlphaMensae for some unreleased stuff for me to use in these shots!

Going to be streaming more tonight, look out for another dev stream starting around 5 PM Eastern!

 

 

Edited November 25, 2018 by CobaltWolf

[CobaltWolf]

Alrighty, booting the dev stream back up for a couple hours!

 

[redmonddkgamer]

What part do I attach the RD-180 to?

[CobaltWolf]

37 minutes ago, redmonddkgamer said:

What part do I attach the RD-180 to?

Whatever part you want to!

(I am not sure I understand the question - it has a B9 Part Switch to enable the Atlas V boat tail, and then attaches to the aft tank of the Atlas V)

[redmonddkgamer]

55 minutes ago, CobaltWolf said:

Whatever part you want to!

(I am not sure I understand the question - it has a B9 Part Switch to enable the Atlas V boat tail, and then attaches to the aft tank of the Atlas V)

I know, I didn't notice that. It's an interesting system, I'd assumed the boat tail was a separate part.

[CobaltWolf]

2 minutes ago, redmonddkgamer said:

I know, I didn't notice that. It's an interesting system, I'd assumed the boat tail was a separate part.

B9 Part Switch has been giving us a lot of new capabilities that let us make much more flexible parts. It's a very exciting time for me!

[LoadingTimeExpert]

something is horribly wrong with my Atlas Agena rocket. Every time I launch it, at about T+2 seconds, it starts spinning uncontrollably, which then causes oscillations, which then leads to a failed mission and a dead rocket, with a payload that will never reach its destination... but yea, is there something wrong with the rocket? Did I built it wrong? is the Lunar Orbiter 4 build wrong?  

Edit: okay, nvm, I'm just an idiot. the put the orbiter on upside down, this displeased the rocket.... and don't ask how I put the orbiter upside down, just don't

Edited November 28, 2018 by [email protected]

[Gordon Dry]

@[email protected] Don't worry, the whole Apollo thing was upside down at some point.

[CobaltWolf]

14 hours ago, [email protected] said:

something is horribly wrong with my Atlas Agena rocket. Every time I launch it, at about T+2 seconds, it starts spinning uncontrollably, which then causes oscillations, which then leads to a failed mission and a dead rocket, with a payload that will never reach its destination... but yea, is there something wrong with the rocket? Did I built it wrong? is the Lunar Orbiter 4 build wrong?  

Edit: okay, nvm, I'm just an idiot. the put the orbiter on upside down, this displeased the rocket.... and don't ask how I put the orbiter upside down, just don't

Yup, sorry! The Lunar Orbiters in real life were launched upside down. Gives you reason to use the Agena avionics core for launch, I suppose?  

 

Also, since I forgot to share anything after Sunday's stream, here's the new Centaur truss interstage! I think my artist's block is gone and we can move forward on this stuf.

[LoadingTimeExpert]

oh, and one more thing. there is one part, the vixen(or vexin, or whatever you meant) has two different names. in the part's title, it says vexin or something similar to that, while in the part description, it says vixen. probably just a minor spelling mistake. or maybe you did it on purpose, I don't know. just thought I should mention it

[dbandy13]

10 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Yup, sorry! The Lunar Orbiters in real life were launched upside down. Gives you reason to use the Agena avionics core for launch, I suppose?  

 

Also, since I forgot to share anything after Sunday's stream, here's the new Centaur truss interstage! I think my artist's block is gone and we can move forward on this stuf.

Is that a working RL-10B I see there?  

[CobaltWolf]

8 minutes ago, dbandy13 said:

Is that a working RL-10B I see there?  

Oh, two types of RL10 (no hyphen! ) got made back innnn... february I think?

[Drakenex]

2 hours ago, CobaltWolf said:

Oh, two types of RL10 (no hyphen! ) got made back innnn... february I think? 

 

 

can't check right now but last time they were marked as "don't use - incomplete"

[CobaltWolf]

12 hours ago, Drakenex said:

can't check right now but last time they were marked as "don't use - incomplete"

Hmmph, I'll have to fix that then. Could have sworn I did.

 

Anyways, I stumbled across a thread on a forum called Sturgeon's House run by forum user @Gremillion where there was a thread of people posting KSP screenshots, mostly using BDB. I spent a while typing out a reply there just now (probably approaching two hours...) since once I started writing I kind of couldn't stop. Starting to realize how much I can write when I'm trying to get my thoughts together... anyways, I felt it would be good to share a good chunk of the post here, since it concerns the future of the mod, as well as a fairly decent list of the upcoming content in the new release. Please bear with any references to previous comments in the post that I forgot to leave in, the full post is linked above. Out of curiosity I put it into word and (including quotes, of course) it was 3 1/2 thousand words...

Quote

As for what's next, perhaps best to start with a (non-exhaustive!!) list of what is due to be pushed out in the upcoming release:

• Atlas V refresh, with all the variants (ie 4xx and 5xx versions are possible, the AJ-60 boosters are included, etc)
• The RD-180 has mesh switching between a bare variant, Atlas V variant, and Atlas III variant - the last two with and without the external pipe.
• Delta II refresh, including the upper stage and all the GEMs including a couple new ones. I quite like the detail on the first stage engine.
• No Delta III upper stage, but there is a 1.5m > 2.5m adapter tank to replace the upper half of the first stage. I can't find a pic of it in isolation but here's a user's build using old Delta II parts, it's the white adapter.
• Centaur V, to go with the Atlas V
• RL10-A4 (short extending nozzle) and RL10-B2 (long extending nozzle like on Delta IV)
• LDC Titan / Titan Barbarian parts - two first stage tanks, a second stage tank, interstage, second stage engine mount, first stage engine mount (in 4x and 5x mounting flavors) - I don't feel done with this rocket yet so there might be more parts!
• Scout rocket revamp, with some new variants like a short vacuum optimized Algol to replace the Castor second stage and stuff like that.
• Revamp of the upper stage solids, including the Star-37 and Star-48. There's also a Star-37B which is the cutest thing IMO.
• The Atlas rocket got a slight refresh, basically some added white paint to more closely match the LV variants.
• Revamp of the Peacekeeper-derived parts (see above), which previously only really included the Castor-120 and Castor-30. Now it includes everything to build a Minotaur III/IV/V, pretty much any Athena variant, and the Peacekeeper itself, and a Castor-30XL.
• The Atlas II roll control module (seen mounted on the interstage here)
• A new variant of the LR-101 vernier that points straight down
• A part similar to the stock BZ-52 Radial Attachment Point, which is intended to convert a Skylab MDA from 4 nodes to 6, or really anything.
• A new docking spotlight for the Apollo - the one on the little arm is actually the EVA spotlight as it turns out. Second pic just cus
• Burner 2 upper stage kit - basically gives full attitude control and velocity trimming to a Star-37B or Star-37FM upper stage.
• A probe core that's meant to represent the OGO series of scientific satellites - I also made solar panels and some of the instruments but I think I'm going to hold off on releasing them for a couple reasons.

Again, that is non-exhaustive but I think I got pretty much all of it. That's in addition to a ton of tweaks and bug fixes mostly pushed through by my co-author, who you can thank for the overall good balance of the mod (except for tech tree placement, which we both keep forgetting...). Unfortunately I doubt as many bugs got squished as got added, but neither of us have a lot of time for playtesting so we rely on users reporting issues on the thread or Github. It's a pretty big update though like I said I feel like I could have gotten a lot more done in the time that has passed since the last one. I struggle a lot with ADHD and artist's block, so finishing things can be difficult. There was/is a ton of stuff that was half done and uploaded to Github earlier this year that I'm scrambling to get finished and polished so I can make a release.

 

Now, for what's next... so, so much! Probably the biggest issue I have with the mod is that there's so much I want to do and only so much time I can put into it! It's actually a pretty big source of stress for me, moreso now that I've been graduated and employed full time in the animation field for the last year. Not only does that take a lot of my energy, but it can be hard to boot up modelling software after you've been looking at it all day. So, I'm pretty consistently frustrated with the pace of progress on the mod, because believe me there's a lot I want to do.

 

I think the first priority for me once this update is pushed out, is fixing the Titan solids - and by fixing, I mean redoing. I actually managed to make the textures significantly worse during this development cycle (I'm probably going to strip them and revert them to the previous release for now) and I want to redo them. Prior to... well, about this last year, not only was my art a lot more primitive, I also didn't do nearly as much research on what I did so the parts are a bit thrown together. I had touched up those parts last year so the textures aren't awful (those are the ones in your D-2 screenshot) but I'm really at the limit of what can be done with those old models/UV maps.

 

After that, I think my next priority might be the engines - like I said I already have a new model for the LR-87 made up. I still need to do the LR-91, and then all the variants (single-mount, vacuum optimized, etc) and sort of make sure they're flexible and can easily be made switchable like the current parts kind-of-are. Then they'd all have to be UV unwrapped and textured... I also really want to redo the Saturn engines (F-1, J-2, H-1) and their variants because they haven't aged well (the biggest improvement in quality over the last year or two is definitely how I make engines) and I know I can do them much more justice. The Titan tanks and all the remaining parts (Transtage, for instance) aren't quite as bad following the texture touchups they got last summer, but the proportions are all wrong (poor research on my part) and there are some more bits I'd like to add like a flared fairing base for Titan III/IV similar to the one I made recently for Atlas V, so it feels somewhat justified. I also want to redo the Thor, Redstone, Vanguard, Juno, Able, and Ablestar stuff even though they also got texture touchups last year, since again they were poorly researched, not very accurate, and I know I can do a lot better. I hate the thought of there being old/subpar stuff in the mod. Last year I wasted a lot of time trying to just fix up the textures on all these old parts (basically, everything that got made in 2015/2016) and I really should have just modeled them from scratch. Similarly, the MOL parts need to be redone and fixed up still - I started to touch up their textures earlier this year but part of me thinks a lot of them need to have newer models. I like a lot of the stylistic decisions I made but I also want parts more accurate to the real thing, so I might add new stuff (like a proper KH-10 inline lab instead of the weird flared one) as well as remaking the old parts (since I really like the overall design of the current lab, for example). Then there's the aforementioned Saturn revamp, a lot of the probe parts like the experiments haven't aged well, it goes on and on...

 

And that's just the stuff I want to revamp! For new stuff... well, I think we're probably good on LVs for a while. One exception is I know that the Saturn parts aren't as flexible and there are a lot of things people want like S-1D (stage-and-a-half Saturn first stage) but I don't want to put work into new parts if they're supposed to work with existing stuff that I want to redo, so I'm hesitant to add more parts - for instance we want to make Saturn's first two stages a more accurate 6.25m instead of whatever weird size they are now, so I don't want to model anything now that would need to be redone at a different diameter. Similarly, I want to make LEM variants like a hab, lab, etc but part of my wants to redo the LEM first because it has a lot of model, UV, and texture issues - especially because those issues would make it harder to create those variants and have them work! It's really frustrating...

 

I suppose with all that said, what is on the table for new stuff? Well there's enough half-finished stuff to last me a while. Things like the Big G service modules (only the conical one is shown, there is a cylindrical one I also want to do), finally finishing the Gemini Lander (whose updated cockpit I've been sitting on for YEARS now because I keep running into issues every time I try to make the rest of it...), more Skylab-station type parts like the EOSS design which makes use of the S-II interstage volume, some special kinds of docking ports for making interplanetary departure stuff from Saturn stages like in Ares (as well as some special... idk, radiators or something to keep the fuel from boiling), the LEM variants I mentioned, I'd love to make an Olympus type station that launches folded into an S-II diameter though I don't know how to do it, what with needing the parts to animate and stuff, maybe some parts based on the early LEM designs, maybe something like a Direct Ascent Apollo part set... Really just AAP and Apollo what-ifs.

 

That's mostly big manned stuff, but the majority of the mod is smaller LVs! Myself and my co-author were talking recently about needing a lot more probe/satellite parts. Some stuff on the table is Voyager '67/'73 (Saturn-class Mars probe with a lander!), parts based on Nimbus/Landsat, shoot there's just so many probes and satellites with cool designs that most people have never even heard of! I am trying to avoid overlap with Akron's Coatl Aerospace Probes+, so no Mariner 4, Viking, Surveyor, Cassini, Voyager, Pioneer 10, etc. I had written a bunch of stuff down on a notepad that I can't seem to find...

 

Perhaps a better way to put it would be to clarify what I'm NOT interested in doing. Despite including Delta II and Atlas V, I'm really not interested in anything modern, or really post-Apollo for that matter: So no SpaceX, Delta IV, Shuttle, etc. I'm also not really interested (nor do I have time) in creating non-American stuff (my work on Commonwealth Rockets aside, but that's on hiatus and I have no idea what the future of that mod is). I don't have a big interest in making something like Saturn C-8 or X-20 either, even though they're somewhat often requested. So, that kind of nicely constrains us to basically 60s and early 70s era NASA stuff, specifically Apollo follow-on stuff, and believe me I'm nowhere close to running out of things to do. The killer is really just that getting to that point somewhat requires all those revamps which could easily take another year or more.

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by CobaltWolf

[Drakenex]

long but tasty, thanks for taking the time

[Gapone]

Localization.

[CobaltWolf]

I... spent 3 hours working over the Peacekeeper parts and have this to show...