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

[Tiberion]

engines don\'t like it when their thrust is blocked by another part, which they are on the LES towers.

I\'m not exactly sure when it changed or why they ever worked.

Probably gonna take a re-design to get em working again. Will probably try what Cephus suggested.

[Guest Flixxbeatz]

Flixx: Yeah... I don\'t think NP needs any more bloat - there\'s really not room for weapon mods in here, especially since they don\'t fit with the theme at all. I am afraid I\'ll have to leave that one to someone else.

Ok then... I understand.

How about 1.75m aero decouplers? Sure they can be used for something awesome...

[Commander Zoom]

I\'d been using SP\'s big 3 meter tank as a first stage on my Mun rocket (as seen here, among other places), but with the rebalance, it\'s just too heavy and hard to handle. More fuel than I really need, and most of it seems to go into lifting its own weight. So I swapped it out for the short 3 meter (the one with the pipe along the side) and that seems to work better.

My attempt to build a 'scale model' Saturn V ( long 3m tank, short 3m tank, 2m tank, CSM & LEM, with engines in between) was so heavy it just kept falling apart on the pad.

[nlancaster]

I\'d been using SP\'s big 3 meter tank as a first stage on my Mun rocket (as seen here, among other places), but with the rebalance, it\'s just too heavy and hard to handle. More fuel than I really need, and most of it seems to go into lifting its own weight. So I swapped it out for the short 3 meter (the one with the pipe along the side) and that seems to work better.

My attempt to build a 'scale model' Saturn V ( long 3m tank, short 3m tank, 2m tank, CSM & LEM, with engines in between) was so heavy it just kept falling apart on the pad.

MAOR STRUTS!!

[Andras]

Works for me

I think these are all base or NP parts except for the escape tower.

I modded the Escape tower to be an extra SAS unit, for more stability during Mun landings, the Service module is modded to be a fuel tank, and the wings up top are simple fixed fins for use as landing gear.

And no struts.

[Commander Zoom]

Huh. Okay. Nice job.

(The points of failure for mine were the engine cluster at the base - instead of the big engine, I used five stock LFEs on a 3x5 plate - and the mid-stage decoupler.)

Starting to think I should start over fresh, rather than trying to adapt what I had before with the original SIDR + Wobbly parts.

[nlancaster]

why the decouple between the engines and the tank?

[Spoot Knight]

The shroud decoupler? To hide the engine when that stage isn\'t being used.

[Tiberion]

Huh. Okay. Nice job.

(The points of failure for mine were the engine cluster at the base - instead of the big engine, I used five stock LFEs on a 3x5 plate - and the mid-stage decoupler.)

Starting to think I should start over fresh, rather than trying to adapt what I had before with the original SIDR + Wobbly parts.

It could be the stock LFEs failing - they don\'t have tuned connection tolerances, so on the bottom of a heavy stack they could break. Replace them with some M-50s or K2-X engines and see if they still break.

[nlancaster]

It could be the stock LFEs failing - they don\'t have tuned connection tolerances, so on the bottom of a heavy stack they could break. Replace them with some M-50s or K2-X engines and see if they still break.

Tomarrow I will post a picture of my new monster launcher. Dont have it here at work. 7 long 3m tanks with 6 LT-30 and 1 LTV45 each!

Have to time the sway of the rocket so that it doesnt impact the tower on launch.

[Tiberion]

Tomarrow I will post a picture of my new monster launcher. Dont have it here at work. 7 long 3m tanks with 6 LT-30 and 1 LTV45 each!

Have to time the sway of the rocket so that it doesnt impact the tower on launch.

truly frightening

[Commander Zoom]

Tomarrow I will post a picture of my new monster launcher. Dont have it here at work. 7 long 3m tanks with 6 LT-30 and 1 LTV45 each!

Have to time the sway of the rocket so that it doesnt impact the tower on launch.

You\'re mad. That\'s awesome.

(and yes, Tiberion, that\'s probably the issue. ... along with the fact that I\'m a writer as much as a gamer, and trying to construct a narrative of a space program, with a progression of designs like we had in our real space race, doesn\'t work so well in a silly sandbox game where parts specs and/or the laws of physics keep changing and half the rockets blow up on the pad, fall into the ocean, or crash into the Mun. :\'( )

[Vinniem]

Couldn\'t see it but the symmetry is off by about 10 degrees with the FL-S100 tank when attaching it radially. It will never line up with the stock alignments in other stages, always off to the right by a brain-itching offset.

To illustrate, make a first top stage with the stock tank with 6 stock tanks radially aligned with your #1 (starter) tank on 0 degrees (lined up between the two pod windows).

Throw a decoupler on the center tank and put a FL-S100 on and then try to radially attach additional tanks at 0 degrees - you\'ll see you\'re forced to shift it over to the right.

It\'s probably a cfg setting, I couldn\'t figure it out - but being unable to match symmetry on 0 degrees is really messing me up. Could you look into it?

[comradephil]

engines don\'t like it when their thrust is blocked by another part, which they are on the LES towers.

I\'m not exactly sure when it changed or why they ever worked.

Probably gonna take a re-design to get em working again. Will probably try what Cephus suggested.

Change the thrust vector so they fire 45 degrees outwards

[Herpderpsslerps]

Change the thrust vector so they fire 45 degrees outwards

They\'d need four different boosters for that to work.

[comradephil]

Just two really

[Herpderpsslerps]

Still you\'ll be making a one part thing into at least two. But this would allow for use of liquids instead.

[Tiberion]

it can be one part, you just place it in 2x radial symmetry.

I\'ll try to work out it - dont think I wanna make it liquid though, I\'d rather the base be a decouple

[Volt]

I love this mod. I\'ve made a very capable 2 stage to Mun 2m spacecraft with it and KW PLF mod. Five M-50s, 4 small 2m tanks, 3 large 2m tanks and 1 of my Centaur Command and Utility modules can easily do orbital exploration anywhere in Kerbin/Mun\'s SoI. I could launch a Centaur into an orbit synchronised with the Mun if I wanted to.

I did a little bit of calculating on the FWR of the 2m tanks and found it was more efficient than that of the stock tanks - 1:300 as opposed to 1:200. I suppose there\'s a good reason for this, but it made me wonder if the pack was balanced considering just how easily I designed a Munar rocket (2nd design with the 0.8a version worked out fine with some Decoupler tweaking.)

In fact, the decoupler story is interesting. I spent about an hour launching my Skypiercer 1C (then SP-x01) rocket and wondering why I lost control of the engines on the core stage at drop tank decoupling. To give you an idea of the context, the Stage I of SP-x01 was a small 2m tank with a large one below it and two M-50 engines on a 2m-2x1 plate. Radially attached on the decoupler struts were two identical setups except with one M-50. Fuel lines meant that the core stage drained the outer stages and was still full at drop tank burnout @~50km. However despite this seemingly huge success, I found myself pulling my hair out when the engines seemed to stop listening to my input when the drop tanks were gone.

After I had gone to the barber\'s to get my hair sorted out, I noticed the drop tanks, which were considerably heavier than your conventional boostars (and a LOT more efficient), were bumping the large fuel tank on their way out. Eventually after much Kerbal testing (doing it again to see if it fails again) I checked the logs and found the large tank was being smashed off the rocket by the dropping stages and locking the engines on their current throttle: 100% in this launch profile. That glued the rocket together and gave me no control over it. I tried retro boosters on the drop tanks but they still listed into the rocket. Some time later I gave up grafting. I modded the Decoupler Strut to have ejectionForce = 1 and now SP-1C is my favourite launcher of all time.

Although frustrating, the described episode was rather entertaining, a true Kerbal trial-and-error job at 50km. (Sorry for writing a lot as usual! I can\'t help being a writer. D:)

[nlancaster]

As promised new and improved super heavy lift rocket with 3m Mun base lander, and lander/return vehicle.

Unfortnatly something went wrong when the lander/return stage landed again on the mun, and all 3 kerbals were permantly stuck on the Mun. Good news is they had a HUGE 3m tank to use as a shelter, and a rescue mission is on the way!

I will post the craft file, and required mods up later tonight. Dinner time!

[Tiberion]

Heck ya, convert that tank into the very first Munar hotel.

Nice rocket!

Volt: I haven\'t quite got your rocket right in my head, can you post a screen of it so I can see how the jettisoned tanks are positioned?

By the way, if anyone is wondering, I haven\'t stopped updating, I just decided to let things sit for a while - hopefully see how the 13.1 version affects things and see what bugfixes are forthcoming. I was releasing pretty often for a while, and it got a bit too much to track for everyone.

[Commander Zoom]

So I went and replaced my first-stage LV-T30s with M-50s, as suggested, and ... dang. Are you sure these things are legal?

[Volt]

The M-50s could certainly give you the world\'s best chargrilled launch pad ;P Two of them is more than sufficient to lift a pretty big payload. I\'ll post some screenshots soon of my two rockets, including the one with the problem.

As I said I pinned down the problem, but I was wondering if it was intended; the decoupler strut puts a significant amount of torque on the stage it\'s decoupling, which can lead to it smashing into the rocket, with disastrous effects. Turning down the ejectionForce seemed to do the trick but, if possible, tweaking the direction the decoupler fires would be good.

[Tiberion]

well those are heavy decouplers, meant for BIG things to be decoupled, so if you are ejecting smallish things it can be pretty powerful. I didnt think it was suppose to apply any force to the main ship, just what is being decoupled.

I\'ll note it and see if it can be tweaked, but I don\'t wanna break their usefulness on big stages.

[Volt]

True, I suppose, but my problem wasn\'t really with the force of decoupling. More the massive amount of torque it puts on my drop tanks, which aren\'t really that small either.

I won\'t be able to get screenshots up right now, because I have no spare time for KSP this week. Exams and essays due in, loving life.

I am the procrastinating wizard. Here\'s a shot of it, it\'s a pathetic attempt at an Isometric angle, but ... yeah. Those two side stages are banging into around the joint between the two core tanks, with pretty crappy results.