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Kerbfleet: A Jool Odyssey-END OF CHAPTER 21! (and hopefully not so many talking heads in 22!)


Mister Dilsby

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Got a little testing done over the weekend... we're going to call this one a partial success:

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So I have a couple of options from here. Obviously I can make the bay bigger. I don't have to use the Mk3 bays like that, I can build a 'tub' as wide as I want from structural panels and close it with radiators. And regarding using radiators as space doors... yeah :) They do track the sun like solar panels after you extend them, which is not really good for my purposes--I'll try to disable tracking in the config file so they stay in 'door' position when extended, also may increase their impact tolerance and reduce radiative ability to compensate for my shenanigans.

And yeah I know I can use Mk4 parts or tweakscale or other mods to do this more easily, but I'm kind of committed to stock. Granted, if I mod the radiators I'm no longer playing stock, but it feels more right to me to tweak parameters and disable animation on a stock part than to use something entirely new.

The other option is to perform some sort of magic to make all the landers, including the Laythe plane fit inside the Mk3 bays. Bill doesn't have a plan for that... but maybe I do :) 

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Hmmm.  I'm trying to figure out which stock parts have a 'magic' module. :)

Are you perhaps going to try one of the suggestions discussed earlier, such as tweaking the config of the Mk3 bay to have different dimensions?  That sounds fairly magical, but it really shouldn't be outside the capabilities of Wernher's engineering staff.

Nice job piloting that into the bay!  It appears that, despite the scraping and bashing, nothing was damaged until the space door closing incident.

Happy Concerned landings!

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43 minutes ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Kuzzter, mind if I ask why it has to be a float plane? Would be much easier to balance thrust w/o those giant pontoons on the bottom.

Because awesome, that's why! :D

33 minutes ago, Starhawk said:

Are you perhaps going to try one of the suggestions discussed earlier, such as tweaking the config of the Mk3 bay to have different dimensions?  That sounds fairly magical, but it really shouldn't be outside the capabilities of Wernher's engineering staff.

No, no shenanigans like that! I guess by 'magic' I really mean 'engineering', and remember the bay isn't the only degree of freedom I have to work with ;) 

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1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

Got a little testing done over the weekend... we're going to call this one a partial success:

.......

So I have a couple of options from here. Obviously I can make the bay bigger. I don't have to use the Mk3 bays like that, I can build a 'tub' as wide as I want from structural panels and close it with radiators. And regarding using radiators as space doors... yeah :) They do track the sun like solar panels after you extend them, which is not really good for my purposes--I'll try to disable tracking in the config file so they stay in 'door' position when extended, also may increase their impact tolerance and reduce radiative ability to compensate for my shenanigans.

Or you can use the Geschosskopf method of hauling planes to space hanging below a bass-ackwards rocket.  It's got all the grace, artistry, and finesse of a piledriver but it's quick, cheap, and effective.  The only trick is giving the ascent stage enough control authority to overcome whatever the aircraft are trying to do while in Kerbin's atmosphere.  Some large fins on the nose and a handful of vernor engines will handle that, though.  It also sometimes helps to disable the aircraft's control surfaces, especially if the aircraft is being lifted tail-first.

1 hour ago, SpaceplaneAddict said:

Kuzzter, mind if I ask why it has to be a float plane? Would be much easier to balance thrust w/o those giant pontoons on the bottom.

Seaplanes make your life SO MUCH easier on Laythe that it's worth all the hassle of getting them there.  Laythe has very little dry land to begin with and only a small fraction of that is amenable to large, space-capable aircraft.  You can land small scout planes in more places but your choices of runways are still fairly limited, and that limits where you can build bases.  OTOH, the water is ubiquitous and perfectly flat, which means you can land next to any island and taxi up onto the beach.  Plus, if you run out of fuel and come down in the ocean, you can be rescued easily and the aircraft can still be used afterwards.

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44 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

No, no shenanigans like that! I guess by 'magic' I really mean 'engineering', and remember the bay isn't the only degree of freedom I have to work with ;) 

Got it!  You're going to change the length of Dilsby's arms. :D

Happy Concerned landings!

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1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

Because awesome, that's why! :D

No, no shenanigans like that! I guess by 'magic' I really mean 'engineering', and remember the bay isn't the only degree of freedom I have to work with ;) 

  You can get Tweakable Everything, which lets you do things like disable sun tracking for solar panels and radiators. It's not TweakScale.

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4 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

Got a little testing done over the weekend... we're going to call this one a partial success:

So I have a couple of options from here. Obviously I can make the bay bigger. I don't have to use the Mk3 bays like that, I can build a 'tub' as wide as I want from structural panels and close it with radiators. And regarding using radiators as space doors... yeah :) They do track the sun like solar panels after you extend them, which is not really good for my purposes--I'll try to disable tracking in the config file so they stay in 'door' position when extended, also may increase their impact tolerance and reduce radiative ability to compensate for my shenanigans.

And yeah I know I can use Mk4 parts or tweakscale or other mods to do this more easily, but I'm kind of committed to stock. Granted, if I mod the radiators I'm no longer playing stock, but it feels more right to me to tweak parameters and disable animation on a stock part than to use something entirely new.

The other option is to perform some sort of magic to make all the landers, including the Laythe plane fit inside the Mk3 bays. Bill doesn't have a plan for that... but maybe I do :) 

As a partial solution, if you can actually dock your craft in the 'docking bay' with a docking port/claw arrangement of some sort, then since it's one craft it won't hit itself. This will also allow you to time-warp; if you're trying to time-warp with just a craft inside a bay but not actually docked, it'll go flying out of the bay...

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3 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Seaplanes make your life SO MUCH easier on Laythe that it's worth all the hassle of getting them there.  Laythe has very little dry land to begin with and only a small fraction of that is amenable to large, space-capable aircraft.  You can land small scout planes in more places but your choices of runways are still fairly limited, and that limits where you can build bases.  OTOH, the water is ubiquitous and perfectly flat, which means you can land next to any island and taxi up onto the beach.  Plus, if you run out of fuel and come down in the ocean, you can be rescued easily and the aircraft can still be used afterwards.

Exactly. When landing on a water world, be prepared to land in the water.

3 hours ago, Starhawk said:

Got it!  You're going to change the length of Dilsby's arms. :D

LOL. I can do that in Animator, you know :D

34 minutes ago, Deddly said:

Props to you for keeping it stock

Thanks! And I do think I can do it... in fact, had a little time to test and now I KNOW I can :)

9 minutes ago, Trios said:

As a partial solution, if you can actually dock your craft in the 'docking bay' with a docking port/claw arrangement of some sort, then since it's one craft it won't hit itself. This will also allow you to time-warp; if you're trying to time-warp with just a craft inside a bay but not actually docked, it'll go flying out of the bay...

Oh goodness, of course they're going to be docked! Certainly you didn't think I was going to try and carry several landers with a total mass of hundreds of tons unsecured in cargo bays all the way to Jool? Even without timewarp that would be a disaster... a SPECTACULAR disaster... Hm, maybe Bill should sim that just for lulz :)

So since I now know I'm not going to go this way, I'll reveal one of the 'magical' methods I was considering: the "Korigame" folding spaceplane I developed back in April. Not sure if I could have managed to make it a folding SSTO floatplane with full science capability etc, but fortunately I don't think I have to. 

Album reposted here for your amusement:

 

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I had something similar, but it was bigger. I basically made the wings separately, each with two small docking ports. They had probe cores and RCS, so could dock with the plane and even survive reentry on Laythe, but the wings weren't very solid, and tended to flex a lot, especially under physics timewarp.

Edit: Found one picture. It wasn't designed to reach orbit again, though.

ChaVrR1.png

Edited by Parkaboy
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12 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

Got a little testing done over the weekend... we're going to call this one a partial success:

-snip-

So I have a couple of options from here. Obviously I can make the bay bigger. I don't have to use the Mk3 bays like that, I can build a 'tub' as wide as I want from structural panels and close it with radiators. And regarding using radiators as space doors... yeah :) They do track the sun like solar panels after you extend them, which is not really good for my purposes--I'll try to disable tracking in the config file so they stay in 'door' position when extended, also may increase their impact tolerance and reduce radiative ability to compensate for my shenanigans.

And yeah I know I can use Mk4 parts or tweakscale or other mods to do this more easily, but I'm kind of committed to stock. Granted, if I mod the radiators I'm no longer playing stock, but it feels more right to me to tweak parameters and disable animation on a stock part than to use something entirely new.

The other option is to perform some sort of magic to make all the landers, including the Laythe plane fit inside the Mk3 bays. Bill doesn't have a plan for that... but maybe I do :) 

With the TweakableEverything mod, you can disable SunTracking on solar panels and raidators. Hope I helped!

 

Edited by Laythe Dweller
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23 minutes ago, Laythe Dweller said:

With the TweakableEverything mod, you can disable SunTracking on solar panels and raidators. Hope I helped!

Someone already mentioned that and I am choosing not to use it, but thanks!

Also--did you really need to quote my entire post including four pages of comics just to say that? Per the Good Conduct Guide, please "trim your follow-ups! :) 

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1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

Someone already mentioned that and I am choosing not to use it, but thanks!

Also--did you really need to quote my entire post including four pages of comics just to say that? Per the Good Conduct Guide, please "trim your follow-ups! :) 

But it's blasphemous to delete Kerbfleet comics! :sealed: Meh, done anyways. :)

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23 hours ago, Laythe Dweller said:

But it's blasphemous to delete Kerbfleet comics! :sealed: 

Technically, that's sacrilege. Blasphemy would be saying something like, "Why not just hyperedit to Tylo orbit?" But anyway, moving on:

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Edited by Kuzzter
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