Hooligan Labs Mod Development

[Zaeo]

Hey, just discovered this little piece of work.

I must say, I am impressed!

Some ideas could follow: Dynamic inflation*animation of the cylinder inflating from a flat surface to full blown* with difference in lift.

Also, different shapes! as much as an oblong cylinder is cool, its kind of limiting for my purposes.

A rectangle landing platform that is longer than it is tall would serve useful.

Rotate the cylinder, cut in half, that's one way to do that

Thanks! and good job for making this mod

[The Destroyer]

Hey hooligan, thanks for the +rep, and I will try this out tommorow! Already dled, now just gotta get the time

[Nukesnipe]

May I answer your question in the form of video?

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-E04DEJwapA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Should upload in a few minutes.

Oh my god.

I love you.

If the laws o-nature would allow it, I would bear this man's children.

With stock parts, I would assume having a full landing strip would be extremely hard, but if you use maybe DA or DR, you could have a STOL/VTOL craft that could land on a short strip, or just use Erkle's docking clamp with a longer-than-default clamp range.

Although that would still be hard... but I have a mission! Use one of these to fuel a trans-oceanic trip and land at the runway!

[Ketoth]

gonna start working on a jool floater base right now

[Hooligan Labs]

Some ideas could follow: Dynamic inflation*animation of the cylinder inflating from a flat surface to full blown* with difference in lift.

I agree! Now I need to learn how to do animation in KSP / Unity. Yesterday was my first time programming in either. Thankfully, I got a lot of help from another Hooligan member.

Also, different shapes! as much as an oblong cylinder is cool, its kind of limiting for my purposes.

A rectangle landing platform that is longer than it is tall would serve useful.

Rotate the cylinder, cut in half, that's one way to do that

K!

Thanks! and good job for making this mod

Thank you!

Hey hooligan, thanks for the +rep, and I will try this out tommorow! Already dled, now just gotta get the time

Can't wait to see!

If the laws o-nature would allow it, I would bear this man's children.

The Hooligan Labs team actually has a 50% female population. Still, more interested in science than babies at the moment.

gonna start working on a jool floater base right now

Awesome!

So it looks like I should model some more shapes and maybe a runway. I'm shocked no-one has made a runway part yet!

[Xen Zer0]

The BACE kit has an inflatable hab module that could inspire the animation. It uses a plugin to change the size of the object (see the part file.) A "deployable" balloon really would be best way to explore Eve. Especially if there were an electrical propeller to push it around. RL Science has suggested this very thing for Venus, which has Earth-like atmospheric pressure at 50km. Too bad about the rain.....

[Nukesnipe]

After faffing about with this for an hour or so, I've decided on some things that I think will be required for these airships to be really effective:

1. Something that tells how much weight a single balloon could carry: This is simple, just say like, 15 tons for the smallest one, and bigger and bigger for the bigger balloons

2. Altitude control: I've see that they go straight up, hit their ceiling, the go down and "bounce" for a while until they come to a stop. I think that this could be made a little more user-and-Kerbal friendly by including a MechJeb-style computer where you say "hold at 10 klicks" and it adjusts your specific volume to hold at 10 kilometers

3. Horizontal control: Where it automatically adjusts the volumes of the various tanks to keep it horizontal, I don't see it being easy to land on a blimp that's at a 10 degree tilt.

4. Easier to manually control the tanks: I for one find it a bit difficult to change the volumes around, as some of the controllers seem to do different things.

[Hooligan Labs]

Along with vertical stability, I have been working on adding runways and landing pads to the mod as well. Here are some pictures of what is in development.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34873[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34874[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34875[/ATTACH]

That's a 1992m long runway being held in the air by 6 Octo envelopes. There have been several issues with structural failures, especially with the larger balloons, which I may not be able to resolve for this upcoming release...

Regardless, I'm aiming to have this up, with new code and source code, by this Friday.

[Matokage]

Now i can do the Stratos Jump!

[Tommygun]

You can now build an Avenger's flying Helicarrier!

[Nukesnipe]

Along with vertical stability, I have been working on adding runways and landing pads to the mod as well. Here are some pictures of what is in development.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34873[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34874[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]34875[/ATTACH]

That's a 1992m long runway being held in the air by 6 Octo envelopes. There have been several issues with structural failures, especially with the larger balloons, which I may not be able to resolve for this upcoming release...

Regardless, I'm aiming to have this up, with new code and source code, by this Friday.

Um, that's quite large. Any possibility of making a much shorter one? Most of my planes are capable of very short landings-because I abuse the airbrakes meant for atmospheric rocket landings-and something that is barely short of the render distance would be a bit taxing for most computers, I would think. Especially considering that a balloon at 10 kilometers wouldn't really need any long runway, hell, you have 10 klicks to fall! Better pull up before you get intimate with Poseiden!

[colmo]

You should put a challenge up to see who's first to install that runway at KSC2! And maybe Duna, Laythe and Eve....

[Hooligan Labs]

You can now build an Avenger's flying Helicarrier!

Naturally!

Um, that's quite large. Any possibility of making a much shorter one? Most of my planes are capable of very short landings-because I abuse the airbrakes meant for atmospheric rocket landings-and something that is barely short of the render distance would be a bit taxing for most computers, I would think. Especially considering that a balloon at 10 kilometers wouldn't really need any long runway, hell, you have 10 klicks to fall! Better pull up before you get intimate with Poseiden!

Sure, I was mostly setting out to recreate the runway at the Space Center. Ironically enough, due to its simplistic shape this has less polygons than the Condenser.

[Tommygun]

It just keeps getting bigger!

Has anyone calculate the delta V for escaping that runway?

Edited October 19, 2012 by Tommygun

[Hooligan Labs]

It just keeps getting bigger!

Has anyone calculate the delta V for escape that runway?

I would have to double check the part file, but the full-sized runway has a mass of about 37.

I based the weight off of that of an empty Mk3 Fuselage, flattened out over about the same area.

[eran100]

Does Squid work in 19.1?

[ahappydude]

Yes, and you will love it

[Hooligan Labs]

Yep! I'll update the release thread to say so.

[brienne]

Just saw this mods, sounds great! Thanks to the devs.

I d like to use it on Mun to carry Kethane drilling stuff. Is it possible?

PS: I ll use it with KAS/

Edited April 30, 2013 by brienne

[Hooligan Labs]

Just saw this mods, sounds great! Thanks to the devs.

I d like to use it on Mun to carry Kethane drilling stuff. Is it possible?

PS: I ll use it with KAS/

Hm, are you talking about the airship? Probably would not work, airships only provide lift in an atmosphere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy

Check the table on the front page of the release page to see how much you can lift on what planets.

[Mlah]

Every time I try to load the prebuild ships it complains that I am missing parts even though I installed all the mods listed on the page. Is there one missing?

[Hooligan Labs]

I just did an update yesterday with new ships. Are you still having an issue after downloading the new update?

If so, what parts does it say that it is missing?

[Mlah]

Seems to be working great now.

[Riley Evan]

I'm currently trying to make an atmospheric minor to stay floating on Jool. The problem I'm having is that the game won't let me save there. I have that grappling hook mod, can't remember its name. Still won't let me save. Am I doing something wrong or is this a limit of the game?

[Hooligan Labs]

Is your grappling hook touching the "ground" of Jool? Have you clicked "Keep Stationary"? If so, you may have to wiggle the hook a bit more, maybe disengage and drag it a bit. Otherwise you would have to show a screen shot. Good luck!