What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Caerfinon]

5 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

You've gotten a lot of air miles from that Latitude, Captain...

This got me to thinking... that I needed even MOAR Latitude! Voila! Latitude Mk2! 

Moar Passengers! Moar Engines! Now available on KerbalX: Latitude Mk2

 

[N_Danger]

3 of the KSS-1 crew were sent home.

3 more were sent up to the KSS-1.

The Duna rover arrives at Duna. I have continued a fine tradition of forgetting that regular parachutes are useless on Duna. I can propulsively   slow down though.

After dropping off the rover, the sky crane moves off to crash down range.

We set up shop. And we are not too far from another biome.

(And I also contemplate how the next version of the rover will have  the bandwidth and/or battery power to transmit all of the science collected.) 

[Caerfinon]

Getting Field Scientists to remote locations with all their gear... 

 

[planeticegaming]

17 hours ago, Caerfinon said:

Flying to all the old familiar places... I love Uberdam. 

what adds that dam?

looks really nice that plane tho!

Edited August 29, 2022 by planeticegaming

[BadOaks]

On 8/27/2022 at 4:12 PM, Robin Patenall said:

 

You're a masochist and a madman. 10 km is as far as I get before I start reconsidering my life choices. That's seriously impressive.

Also, my own tip to contribute is that rovers at speed are way easier to steer using trim controls (ALT + A/D) for gradual turns. 

[darthvader15001]

Spoiler

Where are those graphics from?

[Caerfinon]

5 hours ago, planeticegaming said:

what adds that dam?

The dam is part of a mod called Kerbin Side Remastered, is uses the mod Kerbal Konstructs to create building and other surface features. It adds about 20 odd Airports to Kerbin as well as a few undiscovered anomalies. 

5 hours ago, planeticegaming said:

looks really nice that plane tho!

Thanks! It's may favourite.... You can find it on KerbalX at https://kerbalx.com/Caerfinon/Latitude 

[Caerfinon]

Today's activity has a nautical flair... With the crew safe below decks the Coast Guard oversees securing the capsized vessel for tow into harbour. 

g

[Kerbals_of_Steel]

Spoilers in Spoilers, you've been warned...

Geoscience and Kerbin planetary exploration today:

Trialed a new compact drone helicopter as part of development for a Duna mission:

Val tried out the new MK-55 high altitude science and survey plane:

At some point the science instruments started to pick up anomalous readings leading to a [REDACTED]

Spoiler

Swooping in low for a look:

Val took advantage of the landing flaps to investigate on the ground:

And immediately cussed Gus and Werhner for not including a crew ladder on the design!!! Oh well, time to head back:

 

 

By the time she would get back to KSC, it would be after dark (and more importantly, the cafeteria would be closed), so she decided to recover at the Dessert airfield and fly back in the morning:

Meanwhile, another crew took off in the Kargosy STOL transport to deliver a science expedition to another continent:

Choosing a landing field:

The science rover has all the instruments of Bill and Bob's Science Winnebago, in an air transportable package:

Rover tiedown:

Seanpen and Thomwise unloading the rover:

Wow, another [REDACTED]

Spoiler

This monolith gave me one of the 2250 science nodes on the CTT, so worth it!

Meanwhile, Bob and Bills monumental cruise in the Science Winnebago continued finding even more [REDACTED], a [REDACTED], and even the [REDACTED]!

Spoiler

Setting up camp in the mountains:

Checking in on the competing space programs:

 

 

[panzer1b]

On 8/24/2022 at 3:23 PM, Akagi said:

What are your "guns"?

Basically fireworks are the so called guns, either set to 100m/s (50-75m/s on some of the smallest weakest fighters), or using the KAL overclocked to ~250-300m/s velocity.  Any more and they are too overpowered with no chance of surviving an impact provided it registers, any less and its unable to damage armored parts like girders which it wont touch at 100m/s (this is desireable for cinematics as it shreds the interior and any wing armor without splitting the ship apart leading to longer drawn out slugging fests).  As for the other weapons, i use ibeams+2 sepatrons as prolly my most common short ranged weapon, comparable damage to overclocked firework without the accuracy issues, but heavier and part count is an issue on larger craft so generally I dont bother with those on 400+ part ships.  Also use a variety of guided weapons, pretty much a probe core, 1 reaction wheel, a few engines, and some structural crap in there to make it do some damage.  Engines i generally prefer the 909s and thuds for 1.2m, and the 48-7s and cub for the 0.6m weps.

As for turrets, its really simple, just a servo for 360 deg rotator, and a hinge for pitch control (and a variety of things added on to make it look the part like the above example pic).  This gives you 360 degree field of fire, set all the turrets to aim forward, and set them all to aim in same direction using wheel controls if its on a space thing, and rcs controls if its a tank/apc/ground turret.  Turrets on one side of the ship will always be unuseable (or risk destroying your own vessel), but its not like it matters since i set up 2-4 firing groups depending on the ship layout.  Either go with dorsal/ventral turrets bound to 1 key each, port/starboard, or just 4 firing groups that let me fire any given side of teh ship as needed.  Just need to be aware where each turret is aimed to not destroy my own ship with it (dont fire ventral guns when aiming upwards.  90% of the ships ive made can have their turrets be easily and intuitively controlled with this control scheme. 

You can even do a little trick to make the AI self target for you, hide a dummy turret inside the ship with a single docking port, set to control from here, and you have a aiming recticle that roughly fires in the direction the turrets are aimed at (fireworks spread like crazy so its not a big deal if you arent spot on aim wise).  Then set each of your 2 ships to aim at each other and they will do so without the need to face directly forwards at the ship (you can do broadside fights this way).  Ofc the KAL is used to auomate the firing sequence so you dont have to right click launch every single time.

really the reason i do this instead of using BDA is cause its actually more fun (and challenging to do 100% stock combat), and BDA is super buggy and unreliably, especially in space...  that and its just as easy to "automate", just vaguely aim turrets at each other, set the ship to aim at enemy one, engage firing sequence, they quickly swap and do the same on the other ship (or manually aim it if you prefer to, the 1st ship will retain its last command to aim at you solong as the ship retains reaction control and the KAL isnt destroyed.

Only thing i miss is the 0 spread fireworks from 1.12.1, you could actually make something akin to a particle beam weapon just using the correct FX (the standard trail) and firing them from a single weapon often enough.  there outta be a setting to adjust how much spread you want...

Edited August 29, 2022 by panzer1b

[Robin Patenall]

6 hours ago, darthvader15001 said:

  Hide contents

Where are those graphics from?

The West side of the East Farside Crater 

Part textures / overhaul is ReStock and ReStock+. The terrain is, I believe, Parallax and Parallax Stock Planet Textures, with most of the graphics setting turned right up. But I also have the following visual stuff:

• Community Terrain Texture Pack (A dependency of something)
• Environmental Visual Enhancements Redux
• Scatterer + Scatterer Default Config + Scatterer Sunflare
• Astronomer's Visual Pack (2k textures)
• TUFX

It's been a time since I set up all the mods, so I'm not exactly sure which does what without research.

[Angelo Kerman]

Today I retired a workhorse in my save game, the Mk33 Skyranger. Skyranger has flown dozens of missions without recovery by utilizing the docking ports in its cargo bay to accept new payloads, the ports in its tail that let it dock to the launchpad for rotation, and of course the payload crane that it used to load new payloads into its bay. It was bittersweet to retire Skyranger, but after all the missions, part drift has set in and there are noticeable gaps in the airframe. While I could recover the vessel for an Orbiter Maintenance Down Period, I felt that Skyranger was unique in my game given how many missions it flew without the need for recovering the spacecraft.

Here's how it worked: I used the Mk33 Payload Crane, along with Kerbal Attachment System, to lift payloads off of their transport trucks and load them into the payload bay. Docking ports connected payload and spacecraft together:

Skyranger (and her sister ships) was then rolled out to the pad, where it docked with the Strongback and rotated vertically (cutesy of DockRotate) for launch:

She was then refueled at the pad and launched:

When Skyranger delivered the payload into orbit, she'd land and repeat the process. My Mk33 mod comes with the custom launchpad, payload crane, and Kerbal Konstructs static for those interested in having their own adventures with the Mk33 and the joys (and frustrations) of launching vehicles in this fashion. But enough of the sales pitch, Skyranger is retiring!

Skyranger is lining up on the runway. It's a tradition in my game for active spacecraft to roll out of their hangars out of respect for the retiring spacecraft. From left to right, Ascension (Mk33-02), Dauntless (Mk33-03) and Resolute (Mk33-04) pay their respects to the Mk33 that started it all:

Here, she's taking off from Welcome Back Island, one of the islands in JNSQ. You can see the wear and tear part drift that has happened over her many missions:

Skyranger flies over Kerbal Space Center. The Fixed Service Structure used by the old Shuttle Launch System can be seen in the background on Pad C:

At the Boneyard, my retirement home/spaceflight museum, Skyranger takes her place amongst history:

More pics from the museum:

[Caerfinon]

And now for some space stuff...

What an oddly shaped Rocket

 

Destination the Munar surface. 

A little technology reveal party

 

And it's off on our merry way in search of adventure and science!

 

[Kerb24]

The real SLS didn't fly today, but my poorly made replica did! 

And it landed on the Mun!

[Rutabaga22]

I launched the "Motorcycle" ended up a hoverbike 

I swear, the kraken is mad. I forgor about this, but I was testing my krane and it launched the cargointo ablivion. Then, the other day, my orion shook itself to a million pieces. WHyyyyy 

[ColdJ]

SkyDiver is getting closer to completion. Usually I would roll it to the water in the wheeled cradle I made for it but wanted to see what I could do with the Kerbal Attachment System. I use an older version that came out around 1.9.1, so can only assume it still can do the same things in the latest, It really is something that should be included in KSP. Anyhow , the pod for Thunderbird 2 is around 40 tonnes while Skydiver all together is roughly 14 T, so as long as the KAS cables would hold I reckoned it would work. So 4 cables and it worked great, sadly I was a bit rough on landing in the water so it wasn't an elegant release but everything survived so was ok. The internals are coming along ok too.

Spoiler

Spoiler

[Kerbalistic1]

Sent my LS-1 Probe to the Jool system. It is currently on route for Laythe.

Spoiler

 

Edited August 30, 2022 by Kerbalistic1

[Kerbalistic1]

After over 2 1/2 Years, LS-1 Reaches Jool. Its course will now be corrected to get a Laythe Intercept, where it will circularize and spend the rest of its life.

Spoiler

 

Edited August 30, 2022 by Kerbalistic1

[panzer1b]

Made some minor edit to the fireworks settings and i think the explosions look way better now, more of a shrapnel flak effect rather then just an intense explosion as the round expires.

Also redid the firing pattern for my turrets to be more burst fire then single shot stream fire, not really more effective or anything, but just looks more cinematic then a continuous steady bombardment.

That screenshot was just perfect timing, even spamming F2 its rare to get the screenie timed to the explosion so well, especially since you can sorta see some of the detonating airburst behind the explosion.  Anyways, finalized dagger class light corvette is quite solid, it still maintains control, propulsion, and weapons after 4 full burts from the Nebula (a burst from 1 set of turrets is 8 rounds, usually 1-2 of them direct hit every burst as the spread is horrendous even at point blank against such a small target).

Also rearmed my LRM battery with the new medium sized drones i developed for some of the smaller AKS warships that needed a small, compact, and 0.6m sized weapon that at least had the ability to deal critical damage to frigate sized ships like the Broadsword (it can semi reliably tear the front off of one if i get the angle of impact just right and actually aim properly, wont split it though with any reliability as its just too small a warhead).  Armed with the extended range variant with that stack of tanks on the front (that gets jettisioned before impact as it tends to act like a shock absorber which isnt what you want when you are trying to evicerate things).  Not my best shot either but one of those drones tore half the ammo off the weapons platform., the 2nd one tore the entire front off the platform.

And the 3rd drone hit what was left of the launcher so hard it actually ended up flying at over 100m/s across the surface...  I know its a minor detail, but i really really like how the hysics in this game works, you smack something at 600m/s and a good chunk of that kinetic energy gets trasfered to the unfortunate victim...

[Kerb24]

Finally finished my Gilly Mission, 

Spoiler

Quick Mid-course correction. 

Final course correction.

Command module separation. 

I was worried about the heat shield melting, so I used the service module as a heat shield. 

 

Re-entry was nominal 

Parachutes deployed. 

I forgot to take more screenshots.

And also: 

Spoiler

 

[darthvader15001]

@Angel-125 I am sorry for your loss

[JadeOfMaar]

16 hours ago, ColdJ said:

-snip-

The internals are coming along ok too.

-snip-

You're seriously making IVAs already? Dude?!

[Caerfinon]

Turned my hand towards some Kerbin Cartography...  All the airports, airstrips and harbours from my contract packs.   

[Open image in new tab to see full size]

Edited August 31, 2022 by Caerfinon

[ColdJ]

14 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

You're seriously making IVAs already? Dude?!

I worked out how to make internals a while back. Mine are pretty basic, mostly through lazyiness as I mostly drive/fly craft from the outside. Mostly I just give them enough functioning props to get the job done but I am getting a little more artistic as my experience improves.

[Beamer]

No less than 10 new recruits made their way to KSC today. 9 of them left a few weeks ago for their Mun and Minmus flag plantings and one additional soul joined them at Mun Station. After their trip they made it safely back to LKO to transfer to a SSTO Crew Mk-2rev, the Kerbin system shuttle found its way back to Kerbin Station by remote control.

The mighty Space Plane made its approach to runway 09 during sunrise over KSC, generating some nice views for the new recruits.

Approach to KSC was by the book.

The landing was a little bouncy but nothing the landing gear couldn't handle, although the ship needed about 75% of the runway to come to a full stop.

After debriefing the new recruits were quickly ushered into the quarantine area where they will remain for 2 weeks before joining the active crews of the Kerbal Space Program.

The current crew count is now up to 128:

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Beamer
Added crew count