BSC: Aeris 4a - AND THE WINNER IS:

[Andrew Hansen]

Hooray! I've finished Level 1 testing. I'm really going to have to hurry if I want to get Level 2 and 3 done. I will get it done in time though. I've recorded my flights for all the crafts, and after I finish video editing I'll post my thoughts in the form of a video.

[briansun1]

So guys what do you think I my craft?

[Rune]

Only 10 more to go! And then it's time to order them, good grief. An extension on the voting time would be nice... if not I am only going to be able to make round two of detailed testing with a limited number of crafts, so I'll only feel comfortable grading those (i.e: I would vote for example the best ten crafts 1 to 10, then place the rest at 53rd), because otherwise I won't do justice to the others. But it's cool, because there is a lot of variation between the crafts, from the downright abysmal to some few works of art, with some very ingenious original designs that don't make the cut but give you nice ideas. It's also weird how very good-looking ships handle horribly and others surprise...

So guys what do you think I my craft?

Haven't gotten around to it yet, I'm going in alphabetical order and yours starts with X... I can only tell you that I already have more than five crafts that I judge as at least equals to my own... and IMO, that is saying a lot, so expect no mercy in pointing out flaws!

Rune. I might be too much of a self-confident guy.

Edited March 19, 2014 by Rune

[LordFjord]

So guys what do you think I my craft?

my notes say: clipped intakes, no docking port, asymetric wings (this you can actually see in the screenshot, 1st post of this thread)

You'll see the rating soon enough, I'm finally through with all craft. Just need to sort the top ~15 and take closer looks.

[briansun1]

what do you mean by asymetric wings?

[mhoram]

what do you mean by asymetric wings?

Had the same problem with your plane. One wing is lower than the respective should-be symmetrical placed wing. This also results in a strut not connecting on one side.

I am also unable to attach the four intakes after disassembling them.

The RCS-block placement is however near perfect.

[Silverchain]

I'm finished my testing. I've flown a complete takeoff-orbital rendezvous-landing cycle with (almost) all the planes and an extended practical flight test (~30 minutes) on the top ten or so. I've got a winner and runner-up chosen but haven't ordered the whole list yet.

[KissSh0t]

When will the voting be complete?

[mhoram]

My second round of testing with the top crafts of the first round is finished.

Details are availabe here.

The second round candidates are sorted by their lack of flaws with the exception of Mako II, that showed a serious flaw which I did not see during the first round.

Although I did not test all entries in the second round, I consider this ranking fair, because all planes beyond rank 10 contain at least one flaw in an important test category while the first 9 don't contain such a flaw.

The second round test consisted of a testflight to a station in a 300x300 km orbit with a return to the spaceport and a more detailed evaluation of the construction.

My ranking is:

1. Heagar - HOTOL II c4

2. derpenwolf - kerbos_2a

3. oo0Filthy0oo - Wholfine Hybrid

4. andrew hansen - Starlon

5. Giggleplex - R-2

6. Rune - White Dart

7. O-Doc - Gecko

8. barrenwaste - Aeris 4A-1

9. mrmcp1 - Aeris 4B

10-22:

sploden - Aeris 4a Improved 08, ssTALONps - ARX-6E Volley, Cruzan - BSC Bolt, Silverchain - Ceremonial Go, prophecy - Icarus I, Kasuha - Kaeris I v2, minimatt - Mallard SSTO, Batz_10K - Mako II, tarmenius - Rasvelg, mareczex333 - Shade, ravenchant - Strela IV, ABalasz - X-901-AR, BlazeFallow - Y Wing

23-36:

saplingpick - Aeris 4A RedoNE v2, Xeldrak - CR Atalanta, blspblackdeath - Dubble-V11, sirine - Leisure, wari - Peregrino, Rhomphaia - Phoenixhammer Mk1-R, UpsilonAerospace - Plover v2, breakthrough - Project A4C, kisshot - Rapid Mk1, LordFjord - Spacegull 5, Spartwo - Spearhead, Exothermos - Speedy Box, JABUSCUS - SSTO 1, NeatCrown - Wingspan

37-38:

Mesklin - Spike, aarno - UFB T

39-42:

Pds314 - Aereon 4B, regex - CSS-4A Cormorant, Blaster - KR100 Kodachi v2, Pauly - Lynx

43-51:

astecarmyman - Aeris-Jumbo-Blitz, capi3101 - Auk Ia, xoknight - Buffalo, ThePseudoMonkey - Dionysus, kenbob - Firebee, 1revenger1 - Reacher, fallingintoblack - X-1 Gremlin, woopert - Xeno, briansun - XV-5V

52-53:

mhoram - Airial Mk 2 (my own)

Tigik - space plane (disqualified for usage of non stock parts)

Thanks to Xeldrak for hosting again a great challenge with the help of Silverchain and Cruzan, the contestants for these excellent planes and all the work you put into reviewing the crafts!

Good luck to the finalists.

Edited March 20, 2014 by mhoram

[briansun1]

Had the same problem with your plane. One wing is lower than the respective should-be symmetrical placed wing. This also results in a strut not connecting on one side.

I am also unable to attach the four intakes after disassembling them.

The RCS-block placement is however near perfect.

that's wired I works on my save...

[oo0Filthy0oo]

Yay 3rd place!

If you have any suggestions for improving the Wholphin Hybrid please let me know.

and well done for the hours of judging it must have taken!

[HazelPine]

My god... that must've taken days... but i'm glad to get up to the 23 ranking in your ranking system! Only 1 question though: what does "> 3 choice" mean?

[mhoram]

If you have any suggestions for improving the Wholphin Hybrid please let me know.

Have a look at the detailed results.

My god... that must've taken days... but i'm glad to get up to the 23 ranking in your ranking system! Only 1 question though: what does "> 3 choice" mean?

It took 3-4 evenings, about half of the time for each round.

">" is only a sign that in this line my ranking is written, in this case third choice.

[Cruzan]

If there is still room The Wholphin volunteers!

Awesome! It was actually next up on my list to test so I'll choose yours to do a video on since it's next in line

I'll post the video tomorrow along with my final results for all the designs. Thanks to everyone else who volunteered! If you guys want a detailed rundown on any your crafts after I'm finished I'd be happy to do it.

Some interesting results from the other judges. My weighting system values simplicity in design and ease to orbit as the most important things so my final results will probably be slightly different than others (I'm looking at you Mesklin ). I'm impressed that you guys were able to get through them all though! Good job to everyone who was able to test out the submissions! Hopefully wrapping up these last ones doesn't take me too long!

[oo0Filthy0oo]

Thanks mhoram, some good notes there. Should be able to fix most of them, but does anyone know how to improve stall rate on empty tanks? I am guessing i need less lift?

and thanks Cruzan, looking forward to seeing it!

[Cruzan]

Thanks mhoram, some good notes there. Should be able to fix most of them, but does anyone know how to improve stall rate on empty tanks? I am guessing i need less lift?

and thanks Cruzan, looking forward to seeing it!

The Wolphine scored very well (top 10 so far) so it should be a good review

[LordFjord]

Time to get down to facts and results I guess

A few words to my voting principles:

- the craft should be easy to take apart and put together again. New players must be able to look "under the hood". -> minimize clipping. And with clipping I dont mean the debug menu but "putting parts inside each other" - even if its only an inside clipped octogonal stut to add a connection node to a part. The editor limitations and how to overcome them are hard to grasp for new players.

- good handling in atmospheric flight - I think this is important for stock craft as mostly new players will try these. Always with SAS enabled. Good stability is always a sign for less spins on flameouts and less loss of control on reentry. If you pull up and the craft loses control, it is bad.

- my probably very subjective view on the design (like/dislike?)

- dV from orbit was irrelevant for me, I trust you folks that all can at least get up there

- the craft should have RCS and a docking port of any kind

I did some basic tests with each craft, takeoff, some harsh manovering around KSC, land again. Some I landed on the island runway (but it became too much lag for all).

I flew a few to LKO.

In general I preferred the bit more complex Aeris-like designs over the very simplified ones or the wing-only designs. That's just my taste.

I did not have nearly as much time as I hoped for, the sheer amount of entries was overwhelming, so please forgive accidental oversights or some off-ratings.

I had to downvote some craft - even when they were awesome - due to their advanced complexity or in my view unsuited design for a stock craft. Some of those would have rated a lot lot better when the challenge would have been a different one.

Here are my (rather simple) notes on the challenge, feel free to take a look where your plane ended up: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jdnfrgj747dlvgy/BSC.txt

Here's my top 13:

1: Giggleplex777 - R-2 SSTO

2: Batz_10K - Mako II

3: ssTALONps - ARX-6E Volley

4: Rune - White Dart

5: MiniMatt - Mallard

6: Heagar - HOTOL II c 4

7: Cruzan - BSC Bolt

8: mrmcp1 - Aeris 4B

9: Exothermos - Speedy Box

10: oo0Filthy0oo - Wholphine Hybrid

11: sploden - Aeris 4a Improved 08

12: WaRi - Peregrino

13: O-Doc - Gecko

Grats giggleplex, that is one awesome machine - I just love the design.

I woud have put my own plane somewhere between rank 20 and 30 (currently voted as 53rd).

*hides now under a reentry-shield*

Fjord

edit: just took a look at the file, dropbox's display makes it look weird, best download it and open in notepad++ or something...

Edited March 20, 2014 by LordFjord

[NeatCrown]

So, What are the ups and downs of my "Wingspan SSTO"? I saw I got 36th. Still relatively good for out of 53

But I'm kind of bummed about a comment I got on Kerbal Space Port, but I'm keeping my hopes up for nicer, less rude comments.

[Cruzan]

So, What are the ups and downs of my "Wingspan SSTO"? I saw I got 36th. Still relatively good for out of 53

But I'm kind of bummed about a comment I got on Kerbal Space Port, but I'm keeping my hopes up for nicer, less rude comments.

My notes for the Wingspan:

"The Wingspan lives up to its name! Pretty cool design and it has a ton of range. It's a little on the advanced side as far as construction goes. The intake stacking isn't something a beginner should be shown in a stock design, but it's pretty useful for advanced SSTO designs. In low altitude flight the Wingspan has a ton of pitch control and very little yaw authority. Balancing that would make it a little smoother to fly. The “Nose†also seems loose as it wobbles with any input."

Your design is currently ranked 24th for me, but that's subject to change as I finish testing the last of the designs.

From what i remember it felt like it had a ton of torque any time I made a pitch adjustment. That gave it a fairly "rough" feel when flying. Nothing detrimental, but it could use some tweaking. It still worked great for getting to orbit though

[oo0Filthy0oo]

Time to get down to facts and results I guess

oo0Filthy0oo - Wholphine Hybrid - Aeris-like, very stable, easy design

Will be teaching this to all my salesmen at the Wholphine Hybrid dealership!

Well done for all the hours put into judging!

[Blaster]

KermaJet is looking into a way to resolve the narrow landing gear stance on the KR100. While too late for competition, the production model will not have these flaws.

[Mesklin]

After some feedbacks here is corrected version of resulting table (with correct submisson from mhoram and corrected mistake in ranking for LordFjord). I am sorry for messages from MediaFire about macroses in table, I do not now why it is happened, there is no any macroses inside.

Top of 10 crafts:

1100 Kaeris I v2 (kasuha)

960 Peregrino (wari)

920 R-2 (Giggleplex)

920 Spike (mesklin)

900 KR100 Kodachi v2 (Blaster)

900 Wholfine Hybrid (oo0Filthy0oo)

880 Aeris 4a Improved 08 (sploden)

880 Airial Mk 2 (mhoram)

880 Mallard SSTO (minimatt)

860 Shade (mareczex333)

860 Spearhead (Spartwo)

[Xeldrak]

Allright guys - the first round of voting will stop in about 24 hours. So if you are still testing I sugggest you come to a close

[Cruzan]

Allright guys - the first round of voting will stop in about 24 hours. So if you are still testing I sugggest you come to a close

Never!!

[Andrew Hansen]

Could the first round of testing be extended perhaps 2 or 3 days? I have some friends over at my house today, and while my reviews and video are nearly ready to go, having a few extra days would really make things less hectic for me (I'm not going to be ignoring my friends and testing crafts obviously). I'm not even sure I can finish all my reviews in time. Also... what's the point of posting a video reviewing all the crafts after the first round of testing is over?

I'm sure everyone would appreciate having just a few more days for testing. There's just so many crafts this time....