Needed: Stock Usable Aircraft Carrier for Contract Pack

[inigma]

I need a low part count stock usable aircraft carrier for

Contract Pack: SSI Aerospace - Giving Aircraft a Purpose: Air Flights, Tours, Coast Guard, STS
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/138997-WIP-Contract-Pack-SSI-Aerospace-%280-0-1a%29-Early-Career-Air-Charters-%28Giving-Aircraft-a-Purpose%29

Essentially I want to create a contract/mission requiring that one land on an aircraft carrier. I'll include it in the pack and of course give you full credit.

 

UPDATE:  Contract Pack: Giving Aircraft a Purpose 1.0 Beta is released!

Giving Aircraft a Purpose (GAP):
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/129208-contract-pack-giving-aircraft-a-purpose-gap-10-beta-air-flights-tours-coast-guard-sts-105jan-4-2016/

Edited January 4, 2016 by inigma

[Majorjim!]

Build one dude. It is a breeze, flat top boaty bottom.

[inigma]

[quote name='Majorjim']Build one dude. It is a breeze, flat top boaty bottom.[/QUOTE]

Too busy. programming is taking up a lot of time. I don't even have time to update my shuttle to add the vectors. I figured some brave soul here might like the opportunity to have one of their creations memorialized. :)

[Majorjim!]

[quote name='inigma']Too busy. programming is taking up a lot of time. I don't even have time to update my shuttle to add the vectors. I figured some brave soul here might like the opportunity to have one of their creations memorialized. :)[/QUOTE]

I am certain there is a fellow, rosy cheeked and full of the joys of spring, who may assist you in your honorable quest. Good day sir.

[andrew123]

:D

I have many aircraft carriers...

Of course...

[video=youtube;UtwqUO_oljI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtwqUO_oljI[/video]

[YargJay9991]

Are there any specific requirements such as part count, VTOL or Horizontal Landing and Takeoff (decides what size the ship needs to be), and does it need to move under it's own power etc? If I knew a few more things I'd be willing (life permitting) to give it a go. When do you need it by?

Happy Flying
YargJay9991

EDIT: Forget I said part count. I missed the low bit in the OP. :P

[inigma]

The carrier doesn't even need to be functional. Just look like a carrier.

The idea is to spawn it using Contract Configurator on the ocean waters some distance from KSC, and have a small airplane land on it. Stock parts only. Just needs to be able to float level. Part count under 300 would be ideal. Under 200 would be amazing. Under 100 and still looking good would be *gasp* perfect. Essentially a floating prop.

[YargJay9991]

[quote name='inigma']The carrier doesn't even need to be functional. Just look like a carrier.

The idea is to spawn it using Contract Configurator on the ocean waters some distance from KSC, and have a small airplane land on it. Stock parts only. Just needs to be able to float level. Part count under 300 would be ideal. Under 200 would be amazing. Under 100 and still looking good would be *gasp* perfect. Essentially a floating prop.[/QUOTE]

Ok, sounds cool.

If I find time this weekend (and possibly the next ;)) I'll give it a go! :)

Happy Flying
YargJay9991

[Bubbadevlin]

Well, I had one sitting around, although it is a bit high with 370 parts
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/jt35NLS.png[/IMG]
What do you think of it?

[RixKillian]

After a few hours of work, here we are: Presenting the Inigma-Class Aircraft Carrier:
 

It currently has 288 parts, so a little on the high side but I haven't noticed any drop in performance when landing on it (I'm playing on a macbook pro).

The deck is over 100 meters long; I was able to land a stock Gull seaplane on it using only about half the deck with a makeshift arrestor hook.

The ship is based loosely off the American Kitty Hawk-Class Carriers, and includes runway and deck lights for night landings.


Hope it's useful for what you need, if the part count is too high, let me know and I'll try to slim it down.

Cheers!
-Rix Killian

Edited December 21, 2015 by RixKillian

[inigma]

[quote name='Bubbadevlin']Well, I had one sitting around, although it is a bit high with 370 parts
[url]http://i.imgur.com/jt35NLS.png[/url]
What do you think of it?[/QUOTE]

Thanks bubba, but a wee too high.

[COLOR="silver"][SIZE=1]- - - Updated - - -[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[quote name='RixKillian']After a few hours of work, here we are: Presenting the [B]Inigma-Class Aircraft Carrier[/B]:

[url]http://imgur.com/a/o2HNW[/url]

It currently has 288 parts, so a little on the high side but I haven't noticed any drop in performance when landing on it (I'm playing on a macbook pro).

The deck is over 100 meters long; I was able to land a stock Gull seaplane on it using only about half the deck with a makeshift arrestor hook.

The ship is based loosely off the American Kitty Hawk-Class Carriers, and includes runway and deck lights for night landings.


Hope it's useful for what you need, if the part count is too high, let me know and I'll try to slim it down.

Cheers!
-Rix Killian[/QUOTE]

Thanks! This is awesome! Perfect actually. Post a download and I'll start testing it when I get to the carrier contract. Feel free to make updates/modifications until then. :)

[YargJay9991]

Ok, I won't bother then :) These look great.
Actually, I'll still try, just for fun! :)

Happy Flying
YargJay9991

[Redshift OTF]

I have played around with carrier designs. Azimech had a great carrier from way back. The main issues I had were they tended to be a bit small for a horizontal landing and VTOL engine wash tended to capsize them. That was with older versions though. I might have an experiment with them though.

Here's a bare minimum carrier design.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/gO0arIM.jpg[/img]

65 parts. About 87 meters long. I've tested it on water and it doesn't explode :). I'm not sure if you need it tarted up. Edited November 21, 2015 by Redshift OTF

[Azimech]

My carrier would need an enormous rework, I built the hull as a generic ship and the carrier was more of a quick solution. If I would redesign I'd give it a flat bottom.

But stock is unsuitable for creating large naval vessels, the strength and part count becomes an enormous problem, not to mention kraken attacks.

My interest is more with developing my own mod, since it uses only 1 custom texture and re-uses standard models, it's got a very low RAM usage and something like creating a 40.000 tons 300 meter aircraft carrier will be in reach for anyone.

[BlueCanary]

[quote name='RixKillian']After a few hours of work, here we are: Presenting the [B]Inigma-Class Aircraft Carrier[/B]:

[URL]http://imgur.com/a/o2HNW[/URL]

It currently has 288 parts, so a little on the high side but I haven't noticed any drop in performance when landing on it (I'm playing on a macbook pro).

The deck is over 100 meters long; I was able to land a stock Gull seaplane on it using only about half the deck with a makeshift arrestor hook.

The ship is based loosely off the American Kitty Hawk-Class Carriers, and includes runway and deck lights for night landings.


Hope it's useful for what you need, if the part count is too high, let me know and I'll try to slim it down.

Cheers!
-Rix Killian[/QUOTE]

This is awesome, any chance you're going to be posting a craft file?

[EladDv]

i had one but it wasnt useable unless you are ok with 400 parts and VTOLs

[imgur]UKOGa[/imgur]

[RixKillian]

[quote name='BlueCanary']This is awesome, any chance you're going to be posting a craft file?[/QUOTE]

Thank you! The carrier in its current state has no engines or means of control - it's just a prop for Inigma's contract pack. I'll be retrofitting it to be usuable as an actual carrier, which will be posted in a separate thread. For now, this version will only be a part of the pack.

[inigma]

On 11/20/2015, 10:19:30, RixKillian said:

After a few hours of work, here we are: Presenting the Inigma-Class Aircraft Carrier:

[imgur]o2HNW[/imgur]

It currently has 288 parts, so a little on the high side but I haven't noticed any drop in performance when landing on it (I'm playing on a macbook pro).

The deck is over 100 meters long; I was able to land a stock Gull seaplane on it using only about half the deck with a makeshift arrestor hook.

The ship is based loosely off the American Kitty Hawk-Class Carriers, and includes runway and deck lights for night landings.


Hope it's useful for what you need, if the part count is too high, let me know and I'll try to slim it down.

Cheers!
-Rix Killian

So do you have a download link?

[selfish_meme]

Do they need to be able to take off again?

I am not submitting this, I am just learning to build one, obviously wing parts don't have a high enough impact speed, 300 parts and it works well as a boat, good speed and it turns without tipping. So the underlying frame is OK, I just need to use mk3 bits for the deck, I had an issue with the wheels sinking in, which is why I was experimenting with wing parts, but you need too many and they break to easy.

Landing on a carrier is crazy hard.

Edited December 17, 2015 by selfish_meme

[selfish_meme]

Update, have not tried to land a plane yet, but it's looking good, am basing it around the HMS Hermes CV 95, the first purpose built carrier. It steams along at about 12ms with smoke stack throwing sparks, what? <- might need another intake. Don't worry about the artifacts on the ocean, a sad fact with scatterer and OpenGL, I think I got two good loads with no artifacts, both times the ship broke. 260 parts, 4 engines, 875 t, length 87m, width 19m. You think it looks long and slim, the real one was another 100m longer but only 2m wider! They had balls of steel to land on that thing. I could add 100s of parts worth of greebles but the basics are there, let me clean a few things up and test it and you can have it if no one else provides a better one.

 

[inigma]

2 hours ago, selfish_meme said:

Update, have not tried to land a plane yet, but it's looking good, am basing it around the HMS Hermes CV 95, the first purpose built carrier. It steams along at about 12ms with smoke stack throwing sparks, what? <- might need another intake. Don't worry about the artifacts on the ocean, a sad fact with scatterer and OpenGL, I think I got two good loads with no artifacts, both times the ship broke. 260 parts, 4 engines, 875 t, length 87m, width 19m. You think it looks long and slim, the real one was another 100m longer but only 2m wider! They had balls of steel to land on that thing. I could add 100s of parts worth of greebles but the basics are there, let me clean a few things up and test it and you can have it if no one else provides a better one.

 

Test a plane and let me know! 

[selfish_meme]

OK I tested and I failed, at flying...I hit it several times but could not quite get the stock Gull onto the deck, it seems to be big enough and it can definitely withstand the landing (it destroyed planes that hit it) but I just was not good enough. Also at 309 parts with all my visual mods it was running at about 13FPS. It is a working boat so moves and steers, can be used for day and night operations, and has an OLS (Optical Landing System), see last shot. I can't do too much more for a while so I thought I will provide it and you can at least use it for testing. Oh the name is the HMS Hermes CV 95

Quote

Call the ball. Maverick: Roger. Maverick has the ball.

Download

Got Scatterer to load properly and took advantage to take some shots.

Do you mind if I release it or do you want to keep it exclusive?

Edited December 18, 2015 by selfish_meme

[selfish_meme]

I landed, I landed! I built an F4-U type of plane that could take off at about 20ms and flew low and slow (30-40ms) with the carrier anchored off the end of the runway, I was so low I touched the wheels on the grass before I got a little height and dived on the deck. I just stopped before the end. Note to self put a tender on the ship to taxi the craft around. No way to take off again. The principle is sound, if I had of landed on the start of the deck I might have had enough room to take off.

Now that ship above is too many parts and strange things happen when it gets within physics range, sometimes it just explodes when you cross the 1km mark, I always hear a big water noise when approaching and I think that the game is loading it and it is dropping in the water, when this happens a few times eventually a strut lets go and then boom.

I have briefly tested a couple of ideas and I think a raft of liquid fuel fuselages with no keel works better than a proper sort of boat, no physics loading issues and I can pack more deck area into the part count, you don't want it to go anywhere anyway do you?

[selfish_meme]

It looks like there is a 1.05 bug that throws vessels in the air when loaded, except it seems, floating platforms from my testing. I will make you a raft with a bit of superstructure and lights, that should work reliably and be fairly low part count.

[Azimech]

I saw my own 350 meter 86000 tons carrier being flung into the air more than a click high due to this bug. Luckily my mod allows such things, it splashed down with incredible force but survived.