flying saucers [Min KSP 1.12.2] Kerbal Flying Saucers - Build Flying Saucers in KSP!

[Angelo Kerman]

Since some folks were curious about my design process, I thought I'd show you some of the things that work and some that don't. I go through several iterations on parts until I find a look that works well. Here's one that didn't:

There's a bit too much Death Star going on there, and too much detail for a section that you're not likely to see. Here's a cleaner version:

The two depressions up top are for the elevator shafts. I can take the revised model and add textures to the blank spaces, something like the isogrid on the Orion:

To do all that in 3D polygons would add more detail, but again, you won't be looking at it too often, and it would slow down rendering too.

 

[Lisias]

7 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

To do all that in 3D polygons would add more detail, but again, you won't be looking at it too often, and it would slow down rendering too.

I used to do that using bump maps, but I have no idea (yet) if Unity support this.

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, Lisias said:

I used to do that using bump maps, but I have no idea (yet) if Unity support this.

In Unity you use normal maps. Same idea, but the bumpiness is in 3D. I've used that in a number of areas.

[Angelo Kerman]

Just a heads up that I should have some bug fixes in the next day or two. Been busy so not progressing as fast as I’d like but at least things are progressing.

[Catatau_27]

On 15/07/2018 at 22:19, Angel-125 said:

Aproximando-se do layout geral:

Inspração:

I'm kicking, but if there's going to be a central gravity generator on the ship, would it be possible to stabilize gravity in EVA mode to work as if it were on the ground inside the ship? Something like that would change the whole game forever! Using the hangar in EVA mode without being in zero gravity is the first step for ships built to work in EVA mode, applications are diverse, stations, bases and cockpits, nothing else will be what it was xD

[Angelo Kerman]

12 hours ago, Catatau_27 said:

I'm kicking, but if there's going to be a central gravity generator on the ship, would it be possible to stabilize gravity in EVA mode to work as if it were on the ground inside the ship? Something like that would change the whole game forever! Using the hangar in EVA mode without being in zero gravity is the first step for ships built to work in EVA mode, applications are diverse, stations, bases and cockpits, nothing else will be what it was xD

It is a nice idea, but to make it work would require serious hacking of KSP to accomplish. I’m not even sure if the game would let me do that.

[shdwlrd]

13 hours ago, Catatau_27 said:

I'm kicking, but if there's going to be a central gravity generator on the ship, would it be possible to stabilize gravity in EVA mode to work as if it were on the ground inside the ship? Something like that would change the whole game forever! Using the hangar in EVA mode without being in zero gravity is the first step for ships built to work in EVA mode, applications are diverse, stations, bases and cockpits, nothing else will be what it was xD

 

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

It is a nice idea, but to make it work would require serious hacking of KSP to accomplish. I’m not even sure if the game would let me do that.

Saw this last night but want to see what Angel-125 had to say first before throwing another suggestion out there.

Maybe some KIS props that allow the Kerbals to stick to the basic or collision meshes? I'm thinking much like the magnetic boots that are shown in The Expanse. There are already parts that do magnetic attraction, maybe it can be done with the Kerbals too.

[Angelo Kerman]

58 minutes ago, shdwlrd said:

 

Saw this last night but want to see what Angel-125 had to say first before throwing another suggestion out there.

Maybe some KIS props that allow the Kerbals to stick to the basic or collision meshes? I'm thinking much like the magnetic boots that are shown in The Expanse. There are already parts that do magnetic attraction, maybe it can be done with the Kerbals too.

Problem is convincing the game to engage the walk animation. Not easy to do in space, and might be impossible 

[shdwlrd]

18 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Problem is convincing the game to engage the walk animation. Not easy to do in space, and might be impossible 

Possibly mark the Kerbal as landed when in contact with the part? I think I will post this idea in the add-on discussion section, see if someone is willing to run with the idea.

[Catatau_27]

37 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

Problem is convincing the game to engage the walk animation. Not easy to do in space, and might be impossible 

 

11 minutes ago, shdwlrd said:

Possibly mark the Kerbal as landed when in contact with the part? I think I will post this idea in the add-on discussion section, see if someone is willing to run with the idea.

I believe the problem could be solved, if instead of looking at the problem we could directly look outside it, it's a matter of difference of environments, there are only two environments in the game, the pattern we already know and the EVA mode, we can look at this gravitational issue as contrasting distinct environments. Inside the ship the gravity would be equal to that of Kerbin, but outside of it the gravity is the emptiness or the gravitational effect of the x star being orbited, the possible problems that come in mind are:

- Conflict between the shock of zero external gravity and the simulated gravity inside the ship. It is necessary to take into account the effect of decompression. such a mod or upgrade would make the game much more realistic, yet much more difficult.

- Security distance, just like the mod ESLD Drives only work effectively out of the orbit of any planet or star, for obvious reasons, after distort the space too near a planet would be a problem, being that the own planet already has gravity the sufficient to distort the light around itself, which was observed and proved by Albert Einstein during a solar eclipse. (OBS- I believe that from 400Km of the orbit of Kerbin should already be enough, for a simulated gravity to function)

- The simulated gravity can only serve the internal environment of the ship, unless there is a third environment and the same applies to the outer surface of the same, however it seems strange and indeed impracticable, since our friend made reference to a supposed magnetic boot which could solve the ship's external issue.

- Gravitational field, simulated gravity can not attract things to the craft, unless there is a specific part to perform this function in conjunction with the hangar part. (OBS- Of course in the void there is nothing that can be attracted, like small rocks, and anything like that which can be removed from their orbits or their stationary positions, in an environment close to the planets the simulated gravity must be automatically disconnected with sound on the HUD, the on and off function of the gravity generator also needs to appear on the HUD)

- Massive stars with extreme gravity, the sun for example in regions near him would be impossible to maintain a simulated gravity, here where the such magnetic boots would be more useful, I am of the time of the game in which the interestellar mod was super famous and I think it is still one of my favorite mods, to consider the severity that a black hole can generate is the known maximum limit. (OBS- I confess that it would be great fun to use a black hole as a portal to regions further away from the Kerbim planetary system.

 

 

[Angelo Kerman]

@Catatau_27 Good luck with that.  I am focused on getting the mothership parts done and fixing existing issues. Making a kerbal walk on the hull while in orbit or sub orbit isn’t as easy as you think.

[Catatau_27]

21 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

@Catatau_27 Good luck with that.  I am focused on getting the mothership parts done and fixing existing issues. Making a kerbal walk on the hull while in orbit or sub orbit isn’t as easy as you think.

Yes I know, I'm just quoting the counter-times for the full functionality of a gravitational generator or the generator part you developed. The implications for 100% effective use create new problems, now if it's just one more piece it's going to be a very cool piece different from everything in the game.

[Angelo Kerman]

6 minutes ago, Catatau_27 said:

Yes I know, I'm just quoting the counter-times for the full functionality of a gravitational generator or the generator part you developed. The implications for 100% effective use create new problems, now if it's just one more piece it's going to be a very cool piece different from everything in the game.

It isn’t worth the time to create such a feature when most won’t use it. It’s like IVAs: they are a lot of work for very little return. I avoid taska that require a lot of effort for little return as much as possible. Unless someone else wants to make kerbals walk on the hull, it’s not something that I will pursue.

[Catatau_27]

30 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

It isn’t worth the time to create such a feature when most won’t use it. It’s like IVAs: they are a lot of work for very little return. I avoid taska that require a lot of effort for little return as much as possible. Unless someone else wants to make kerbals walk on the hull, it’s not something that I will pursue.

I think the issue is lack of knowledge, if people know the effect and the implications of what this would change in the game would certainly be a joint effort, but of two one, or the goal of the game is for a children's audience in the form of simplifying physics to lay or innovate and make the KSP a Star Citzen with green aliens that works and delivers what it promises. That is with good publicity and creators of content with good will everything is possible, even if I as a user of this forum have to pay for these mods, it is still better and solves the problem of return.

SQUAD has already won and MUCH with the DLC and it has not done anything as innovative as any other creator could not have done, in fact the KSP is just what it is thanks to creators like you. So I think a bad official DLC, I wanted a better KSP universe to shelter all our ideas. The difference is that SQUAD pays the developers only that the independent developers deserve much more credit and do not receive any $$$$.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Catatau_27

[Angelo Kerman]

1 hour ago, Catatau_27 said:

<snip>

If you want to pursue this further, here you go:

Good luck, I’m focused on making more parts for the mothership. Walking on the hull is outside the scope of this mod.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Angel-125

[Catatau_27]

Any news for the mother ship? =)

[Angelo Kerman]

Kerbal Flying Saucers 0.3.1 is now available:

- Updated part symmetry axis. Thanks for the investigation, Vardicd & shdwlrd!
- You can now set the gravitic engine's forward, reverse, and VTOL thrust modes through action groups.
- You can now toggle Crazy Mode on and off through action groups. NOTE: this only works in the forward direction.
- Added new sounds to the Excalibur Engineering Core's generators.
- The Excalibur Inner Section now has node toggles to make it easier to switch between adding two standard-sized outer sections, or one standard outer section and two half-sections.
- Made a better sound loop for the gravitic engine.
- More infrastructure work done on KerbalActuators for kOS support.
- Updated a couple of part tool tips for clarity.
- Re-added IVA props that I missed during latest MAS integration.
- Fixed mesh gaps as best as possible for Excalibur's template parts and adjusted the shape to better fit 2.5m tall payloads.
- Fixed top node placement on the fusion reactor.
- Fix for multiple part tool tips appearing when you attach new parts. Hopefully this will solve it once and for all!

[PyjackMeat]

Will this work for 1.4.3?

[shdwlrd]

1 hour ago, PyjackMeat said:

Will this work for 1.4.3?

Yes it does. 

[Scorpiodude]

Just an idea for a part, a Flapjack shaped jet engine like the aerospike already in the mod but it is a jet engine.

[Neil Kerman]

On 7/22/2018 at 9:22 PM, shdwlrd said:

Yes it does. 

I tried it, the gravatic engine doesn't work. Here are the logs.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CwrJmW7QO50yFHrl-Lab6h8dOodpPc4X

[Angelo Kerman]

4 minutes ago, Neil Kerman said:

I tried it, the gravatic engine doesn't work. Here are the logs.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CwrJmW7QO50yFHrl-Lab6h8dOodpPc4X

Engine works fine.

[Neil Kerman]

13 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Engine works fine.

I've fixed it, it turns out i just needed to update Pathfinder and Buffalo. It's really awesome! Thanks for making this!

[shdwlrd]

I was thinking of using the buzzard collectors mod to collect graviolium. Since they are much larger than the stardust collectors, they should collect more. My question is how much more graviolium should they collect? I do want to speed up the process, but I don't want to break the graviolium is a very rare element feel. Any thoughts?

If you watch the Kottabos review and skip to where he demonstrates the parts (~5:16), you should get the feel of how large these things are. My rough guesstimate is 25m, 40m, and 70m in diameter compared to the approximate 14m for the stardust collector. 

 

[Angelo Kerman]

21 hours ago, shdwlrd said:

I was thinking of using the buzzard collectors mod to collect graviolium. Since they are much larger than the stardust collectors, they should collect more. My question is how much more graviolium should they collect? I do want to speed up the process, but I don't want to break the graviolium is a very rare element feel. Any thoughts?

If you watch the Kottabos review and skip to where he demonstrates the parts (~5:16), you should get the feel of how large these things are. My rough guesstimate is 25m, 40m, and 70m in diameter compared to the approximate 14m for the stardust collector. 

 

I'd say fast enough to not be annoying.