[1.0.2] NovaPunch 2.09. - May 6th - 1.0 Compatibility Update

[Feragorn]

I find it hard to believe the Saturn tanks weren\'t insulated. Anyways, having two of each tank in different skins seems a bit redundant. Not to mention the system clogging.

[Tiberion]

Here are some planned changed:

1. Tank size changes

Replace HH-77 orange tank with a 5m tank (see above)

Trim HH-78ab from 1.75m to 1.5m tall (same diameter)

Trim FL-R1000 (the orange 3m tank) from 3.5m tall to 2.5m tall

This makes the tanks scale directly (doubling length, because well.. it makes more sense.)

2. Depreciating one part: The HH-78 Long alternate, since it was only a different skin.

3. Texturing all tanks in a Saturn-style

4. Creating an entire alternate texture pack for all tanks (including the orange ones) --like the Ares series in the wiki image from before

Thus you can mix and match styles to your heart\'s content, and part bloat is reduced by a few parts.

It might invalidate some Craft files if you used the HH78 alt tank, but if you load it and swap to the regular one before updating it should be fine. You might need to re-snap some tanks after they get shortened too, but that is no big deal.

Getting some work done on the saturn-based textures now, and I think Omnivore is gonna edit the tank meshes for me.

I really am only hacking textures though, so if an actual artist wants to tackle these, feel free.

[3Trip]

Here are some planned changed:

1. Tank size changes

Replace HH-77 orange tank with a 5m tank (see above)

Trim HH-78ab from 1.75m to 1.5m tall (same diameter)

Trim FL-R1000 (the orange 3m tank) from 3.5m tall to 2.5m tall

This makes the tanks scale directly (doubling length, because well.. it makes more sense.)

2. Depreciating one part: The HH-78 Long alternate, since it was only a different skin.

3. Texturing all tanks in a Saturn-style

4. Creating an entire alternate texture pack for all tanks (including the orange ones) --like the Ares series in the wiki image from before

Thus you can mix and match styles to your heart\'s content, and part bloat is reduced by a few parts.

It might invalidate some Craft files if you used the HH78 alt tank, but if you load it and swap to the regular one before updating it should be fine. You might need to re-snap some tanks after they get shortened too, but that is no big deal.

Getting some work done on the saturn-based textures now, and I think Omnivore is gonna edit the tank meshes for me.

I really am only hacking textures though, so if an actual artist wants to tackle these, feel free.

You might want to scale up some of the 3m adapters (the ones with the multiple 1m mounts) for the 5 meter tanks as well.

[Tiberion]

They aren\'t 5meter diameter, they\'re 5meters tall - right now no diameter changes are planned.

[NovaSilisko]

I thought you were just going to change values, not the parts themselves...

[Tiberion]

Eh the only planned changes was the tank heights because the 'half tanks' being odd sizes annoys me greatly. I\'ll probably just leave the HH78a as it is for now, since your model is build from secret sauce

[Festivefire]

Thanks to the great and powerful Omnivore, we have our first new part, a double length (5meter) 1m tank, the S100L.

Old tank on top of new tank

Also fiddling with the textures today. Here is a shot of all of the current tanks and their skins. Its a bit of a mess. But each one of them has a fan out there, so I am not sure which direction to go.

I am thinking - make a B&W Saturn-style pattern, and then perhaps release a separate orange-centric texture pack that you could overwrite the other one with. Thoughts?

Here\'s the origin of most of these textures, for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saturn_V-Shuttle-Ares_I-Ares_V-Ares_IV_comparison.jpg

maybe if you 1-2 meter tanks in saturn V and the 3-meter tanks in orange cause the big tank reminds me of the space-shuttle tank with no cone.

(and despite popular belief, you can make that tank feed from it to the main craft from a side mount like this:http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=4232.0)

[White Owl]

Thank you for this project! This is exactly what I wanted. 8)

[Kairu]

My suggestions.

Make the SAS-2 vernier pod th? true maneuvering liquid fuel engine with thrust vectoring. Add thrust vectoring to the Omnipotent Bertha - as it was with its real prototype, which actually consisted of many independent engines, and the deviation of the thrust vector was achieved by the difference in thrusts of opposite engines. Interchange characteristics of the Twin Bertha and the Large Bertha - just because the Twin Bertha looks more powerful. Remove thrust vectoring from the RMA-3 - it only interferes with the orbital maneuvering. Make the longer versions of the TK-421 decoupler, so they can cover engines above them.

[EmperorJon]

Am I the only person experiencing this:

Sunday Punch medium orange tank is 1.75, therefore doesn\'t fit with any SP decoupler shrouds.

Decoupler shrouds in general don\'t fit much or work. Always detaching.

[Tiberion]

the HH78 is a SIDR part, all of the 1.75m parts are. There are adapters for going between 1.75 and 2 as well.

The shrouds need a pass on their attachment nodes, some are too shallow, some too deep. Some intersect collision meshes with certain parts, making the game explode.

Its going to be a big job.. haven\'t started yet. If anyone just loves attachment nodes... go for it

I am almost done with the Saturn skin. We also have a new Yawmaster, broken up into several parts - submitted by Straight Chillen.

More later.

[EmperorJon]

Unfortunately I\'m not good with models or textures. I have a reasonable sense of balancing, and writing mildly amusing descriptions. PM me if I\'m needed.

[Tiberion]

Okay I think I have the Saturn-ish textures done, for now anyway.

So I decided against shorting the other 2 tanks, so the only major tank change is the double-length 1m tank.

I am removing 2 tanks for the next version, because they\'re duplicates. The small orange 1m tank and the 'Alt' 1.75m long tank are gone (but the 'normal' long tank, which was orange, is B&W now) - so if you used those in a saved ship you might want to load them up and swap tanks before upgrading next. In the end, its less clutter and load times, so its important.

I also darkened some textures on the big 3M engine in the screenie there, it always seemed a little washed out.

I do plan on making the orange 'Ares style' skin pack after I get this version ready and released.

[NovaSilisko]

Just a note, I want to handle the N1 remake. Keep your grubby mitts of it!

[Tiberion]

*I* wasn\'t gonna mess with it, I just took it out.

the Bertha is still in though, since we only have one 3m engine. If we had another model for the Omni Bertha, wouldn\'t need it either *hint hint*

[Tiberion]

Okay, getting close to an update here, probably some time tomorrow. Just waiting on some model tweaks (for some new stuff).

Changes so far:

1. Upon reflection, I reworked the HH-77 1meter tank again with a new texture, so its not being removed.

1a. Still removing the 2nd 1.75m 'long tank' - update your ships to use the currently orange one before upgrading!

2. Decided to just use new long tank as the S100. If you were using the old, shorter S100 from Wobbly, your rocket will still load, it will just have a longer tank and possibly require you to re-attach stuff properly (since the nodes moved)

3. New Saturn-ish textures for all tanks.

4. Tweaked 3m engine texture

5. Added new Yawmaster CSM parts; RCS Tank | ASAS Module | CSM Fuel Tank -- the RCS thrusters are also trimmed off the model and added as a heavy RCS thruster part (Thanks to Straight Chillen!)

6. Adjusted which engines are gimballed (to add some variety)

Gimballed:

SPS-10 Orbital maneuvering engine

GG-M4 1m Quad engine

K2-X 1m engine

Twin Light Bertha

Medium Bertha

Omni Bertha

Not Gimballed:

RMA-3 lander engine

M-50 1m heavy lifter engine

NERVA

Large Bertha

4X-800 3m engine

Pending/Underway:

NEW 1.75m and 3m RCS tanks

New 'Orange' Ares-style textures

Landing leg (maybe)

Todo:

Fixing pass on shrouds and decouplers

Matching textures on Shrouds

Other stuff I am forgetting.

[NovaSilisko]

Think you could fix the smoothing groups on some of sunday\'s objects? Several of them are all one smoothing group, and it looks really bad to have 90 degree corners with smoothing groups like that.

[Tiberion]

So I got a little sidetracked today learning some stuff in Blender, so no release today.

I do have the 2 RCS tanks mostly done, short of some texture tweaking, and hopefully once I clean up the yawmaster parts a little, the new version will be ready.

Bonus: as something to experiment on, I actually made a longer 2m tank mesh, so if I can get some UVMap issues resolved I\'ll have that to add too.

[Andras]

Could you do up a 1.75m SRB based on the double length tank? Keep the flat top and just a minimal nozzle please?

[Tiberion]

New version released, with new tank textures and gimbal tweaks. Yawmaster and other stuff didn\'t get finished, having some Blender issues.

Download/changelog on 1st page

Stackable 1.75m booster? My modeling skills are rudimentary, so I don\'t know if I can pull it off yet. I\'ll try, but if someone wants to whip out a model I can do the rest.

[Technical Ben]

Think you could fix the smoothing groups on some of sunday\'s objects? Several of them are all one smoothing group, and it looks really bad to have 90 degree corners with smoothing groups like that.

We\'re working on getting Blender to submit to our punishment...

[Straight Chillen]

I think I may have figured out how to get the smoothing from lightwave to carry over to blender, the parts look smoother in the parts lab, checking in game now, Will update shortly

Update: Well I got em smoothed, but now the lighting on them is totally F\'d up

[Andras]

Found a problem, the wrong png is in the 1m S100L tank folder. It has the medium tank, not a long tank texture.

[Tiberion]

Straight Chillen: I actually got C7 to help me smooth them out, I was having issues with them in Blender, but he performed some Wizardry on them and they are perfect now. Almost got the new texture done too:

Andras: That\'s the right texture, there is just an issue with the shading on it. The 2 new RCS tanks have it too, where the shadows are all wrong.

This is the new skins for the 3 1m tanks - note how the long one is all dark and mysterious

I\'m working on it. Yawmaster will definitely be in for next version.

[Andras]

I beg to differ, this isn\'t a shading issue. See attached. It looks right in the VAB, but when you take it to the launch site, it changes.