I am full of grief and coffee

[Whackjob]

Sweet. I can give you the craft file later tonight if you'd like.

Actually, I've been considering a craft file pack of all the various oddities I've built. But I'm going to have to redo everything with a lower part count in mind.

[aftershockzap]

Yeah that would be awesome to get the craft file! I can get some design ideas...

And also because this morning I, once again, built a rover for my kethane mission to minmus. Rover worked perfectly, so I then built a heavy launcher for it. First test went well, launcher almost made it into orbit. Needed a small amount more fuel and some additional torque at high alt. Went back, made final adjustments...saved

Duplication bug. Whole craft file useless... hahaha my luck!

[Whackjob]

Your wish is my suggestion!

Kethane Rover

Enjoy with vigor. Quick disclaimer, though... I accidentally overwrote the one you saw. So I redid it. It might be every so slightly different.

Just thought I'd post a little update. Still needs some fine tuning, but when it's done, it's getting crewed and launched.

Planning on yet again reviving the Arkingthaad project. Though this time I think I will enlist the aid of a mod to assist in its design. This is where I ask for help.

There's a mod, I believe, that tells you the TWR of each stage you make, as well as its Delta-V. There's another that allows you to save collections of parts as a macro and allows you to add those en masse. What are these two mods called, and where may I find them?

Edited August 9, 2013 by Aphox

[Bunsen]

Planning on yet again reviving the Arkingthaad project. Though this time I think I will enlist the aid of a mod to assist in its design. This is where I ask for help.

There's a mod, I believe, that tells you the TWR of each stage you make, as well as its Delta-V. There's another that allows you to save collections of parts as a macro and allows you to add those en masse. What are these two mods called, and where may I find them?

The first one is Kerbal Engineer, which I know and love despite the fact that it can get confused about staging once in a while. The second is apparently called the Subassembly Manager, which I have not used yet (though I probably should).

[Whackjob]

Much appreciated. Going to load those when I get home tonight. Until then, I turn up the brain-pan wood-burner up to 11, throw a few mesquite logs into the fire, and see what I can cook up for tonight. The look I'm going for is "Overly elaborate and suspiciously functional"

One final dumb question and then I'll stop pseudo-bumping my own thread until I have some actual content. I need a good video edit software. Not necessarily a freebie, for quality, but nothing professional level that costs three figures.

#EDIT: I figure some of you might appreciate me taking out the old-man cackling.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Aphox

[Immashift]

One final dumb question and then I'll stop pseudo-bumping my own thread until I have some actual content. I need a good video edit software. Not necessarily a freebie, for quality, but nothing professional level that costs three figures.

Sony Vegas is a good option. There's versions available for $45 all the way up to $900.

Unfortunately for anything decent, you're looking at money.

I will say that things like Movie Maker (lol) CAN do okay stuff, with good settings and source video. You need to set your recording and game resolution to the same thing, preferably something 16:9, so you don't get the bars on the sides, and possibly get a better mic. Built in mics don't have much space to work with, and so they tend to crack and sound tinny.

I'm actually using Open Broadcaster to record my gameplay. Records in 1080p (or more), from virtually any source, and you can set all your recording options, including things like bitrate. It's also freeware. Only downside to it is you need a decent CPU to use it at any good framerate, so if your computer isn't all that, you may have issues.

Also, welcome to the game If you need ideas for ships and missions, there's piles of stuff here on the forums.

Edited August 3, 2013 by Immashift

[Whackjob]

Been quite a while since I posted something interesting. Allow me to remedy that right now. Flip through and read all the captions!

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I think this is the largest lander I've successfully landed. I tell yas, I been in such a rut of stuff that didn't work, I was beginning to think maybe I couldn't hack the big toys anymore.

#EDIT: Quick youtube look at it.

Yeah, baby! The Arkingthaad lite (after help from a kethane scanner on a probe) finally found a place to land and fuel up on Duna.

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That last picture is my favorite so far. Easily.

Well now that's purdy! Lots of extra parts for cosmetic effect, but it looks very cool, especially the way you did the struts.

Made it to Minmus, refueled, then went home. And this time I filmed the landing. Should be interesting to see... a big bloody lander more than two orange tanks high, landing back on Kerbin without the benefit of parachutes or a way to separate the crew compartment from the lander. Enjoy!

#EDIT: Trip totalled liftoff from Kerbin, landed on Mun, landed on Duna, landed on Ike, landed on Minmus, landed on Kerbin. Easily my most successful build. And as you can see by the greysuits, this was a test run that was fully expected to fail in the usual lethal manner.

It's awesome to be wrong.

Not sure what you mean about cosmetic. The tanks at the top hold kethane, the two core tanks store fuel for the skipper engines, and all the solar power allows me to constantly drill kethane with 8 drills at once and refine it simultaneously. The only thing I think that turned out to be cosmetic were the docking ports on top I never made use of.

Already working on a slightly bigger version that'll land horizontally and has an alternate atomic transplanetary drive for more efficiency. And it has more legs. Sproingy legs.

Sproing?! Sproing.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Aphox

[Spyritdragon]

Um... just a question.... how many parts exactly were in that mission on launch?

[Whackjob]

The Arkingthaad lite? You caught me just before I go to work... I'll check now.

Turns out 941 parts.

#EDIT: If you meant the lander I was sproingtesting, that's 406 currently. It's still missing some parts which will have to wait until after the office.

I took much delight in this video.

Warning: Mic on, old man cackling enabled. View discretion is advised. And I think I curse once. Sorry.

Edited August 10, 2013 by Aphox

[Whackjob]

Ok. So I succeeded in getting the lander exoatmospheric. I even landed it on the Mun. With that success in hand, I'm considering an interesting alternative.

If I were to create a smaller, low part count variant of the Arkingthaad lander, would anyone be interested? It would be capable of landing and refueling on all but the heaviest and atmospheric thick bodies. And it'd have that awesome landing gear as well.

Any interest?

[Aragosnat]

The only thing I could say is. Post in Space Craft Exchange if you have not done so yet. And ask if anyone is intrested in it as is as well as a lower part count one that you would be willing to work on.

[Spyritdragon]

What happened to this thread? I enjoyed looking at all your creations :-)

[Diche Bach]

I would suggest you try to put the lander and crew sections inline with the takeoff boosters. The connectors probably calculate if the force being applied is perpendicular or not.

[Whackjob]

Eh... I kind of let the thread go away a while ago. I started to notice that I was really the only one ever posting in it, so I assumed any interest was gone.

That and the admins started to get a wee bit cross with me, since technically I was self-bumping my old thread over and over again. But I suppose I can put a few newer pictures in here for the benefit of anyone digging through this old beast of a thread. So... yeah. Incoming pics.

[Whackjob]

My only major project since the Arkingthaad Lite was the actual Arkingthaad Lander. As follows:

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I just wanted an all-in-one unit that could take off like a rocket, land like a lander, and be more stable than a beanpole with legs. It worked, but was a major pain in the arse to get into orbit. Resonant stress calving was quite a problem.

#EDIT: Can't see it too well, but there's two sets of engines. One set behind with the atomics, that's the transplanetary drive. Then there's four skipper engines slung under it, for landing on things with more gravity. It had a pair of cores I'd use to reorient the nav ball when I switched drives so it didn't look weird.

[Pyromaniacal]

By the Kraken, that was the Arkingthaad Lite!?

I read your thread from the beginning, but damn! That is big.

[Whackjob]

By the Kraken, that was the Arkingthaad Lite!?

Say hello to the big brother.

[arq]

I missed this thread.

[FlamedSteak]

By lucifers beard, now there's a reason to be running mechjeb. The lag must make manual control impossible.

[Whackjob]

By lucifers beard, now there's a reason to be running mechjeb. The lag must make manual control impossible.

I did do a shakedown run with the "landing" engines.

That, and I wanted to ensure the legs I built could actually handle the weight, even in Kerbin's gravity.

Turns out yes.

[loknar]

Yeah.

But can it TWERK???

[Tw1]

Give it a week, you'll be making stuff that makes this look like a firecracker. Have fun, -snip- and don't forget: If all else fails, MOAR STRUTS.

Re-reading this thread, It's kind of uncanny when you compare this post with Wackjob's entire kerbal career....

[astropapi1]

I did do a shakedown run with the "landing" engines.

-snip-

That, and I wanted to ensure the legs I built could actually handle the weight, even in Kerbin's gravity.

-snip-

Turns out yes.

Now take it to Moho.

[katateochi]

*large_snip*

Lol, That's insane!! What amused me (now that I've got somewhat used to your monster creations) is that with all that size you went with the small kethane drills!

Is that for onland re-fuelling, or will that whole thing lift off and become and orbiting fuel station?

(how many people tried to close the nav ball in the last pic from that post? , loling@self)

[Vonblack]

best Sig. I've seen in a while