Biplanes Before Rockets (idea for a new career start mode)

[fourfa]

Lately I've been kicking around an idea for a lightly-modded career start mode: Biplanes Before Rockets.

It originated with the plan of manually recovering crew and science from rocket flights, by flying to them in an airplane with an extra seat, recover the science reports and pilot, and fly back to KSC.  Just hitting the 'recover' button willy-nilly is disallowed.  Problem is, of course, start techs include caveman rocket parts, but no caveman airplane parts, let alone recovery parts like the claw, cargo ramp, etc.  So I started looking at what it would take to start the game with nothing but the simplest possible flying machine, and the first thing that actually worked for me looked like this:

That's OpenCockpit for the pilot's seat, KAX for the simplest stock-alike prop mod I could find, Take Command Continued so you can start in the cockpit (technically it's a command chair).  Some fuel clipped in the bottom of the cockpit. Play with it if you like: https://kerbalx.com/fourfa/Biplanes-Before-Rockets

This was the most hilariously kerbal thing I've done in a long time.  I have not laughed so hard in this game since I first started. I was able to skid along the runway and limp into the air, fly to the island runway, reach 7500m, make coordinated turns, land where I wanted to.  I even landed a couple of times without exploding, and if you get it JUST right it might even be possible to take off again!

What I'm looking to do might start with a Module Manager patch that reorganizes the very early tech tree assignments to make planes like this possible from the start.  So that would include a cockpit, engine, a fuel tank, and a control surface - the girder and basic fin are stock start techs.  Or perhaps you start with just the command chair for a really Wright Brothers-style contraption for your first couple of flights; maybe a radial RCS tank config'd for liquid fuel.  That leads to just enough science data - from flight and nearby biomes - to unlock the caveman rocket parts (Mk1 pod, Flea, parachute get pushed to Basic Rocketry) and slightly nicer plane techs.  Perhaps take some local survey contracts for funds? All the early rocket parts get pushed back a node, so you can develop the plane to rescue your kerbals before flying the rocket.  Then plane techs keep pace with rocket techs, so as you unlock the Hammer and fly farther, you get the fixed-wheel gear and windscreens and aero tailcones, liquid fueled rockets come along with Juno jets and pressurized Mk1 pods, etc.  

Mod parts should be as minimal and stock-alike as possible (I'm not going to be making new parts).  Is there a propeller somewhere that's more low tech and WW1-style than that KAX A7 AeroSport engine? A tiny control surface with more Basic Fin styling rather than the stock spaceplane aesthetic?  Does this make more sense as a tweak to Engineering Tech Tree than stock?  Maybe start with a post on the Challenge board for playtesting?  And I'm sure that many players would find this amount of recovery time and effort to be wasted gameplay - that's fine.  This would be for someone who likes flying, hilarious new plane design challenges, and a bit of head canon and roleplay.

All ideas and feedback welcome!  Thanks.

 

 

Edited March 13, 2017 by fourfa

[fourfa]

relevant thread from 2015: