[WIP]D12 Aerotech - A B9 Aerospace Expansion (Beta1)

[Adyx]

Okay I can confirm they work when FAR is removed. I really like them but I can't play without FAR. Something to look forward to though. Thanks!

[PolecatEZ]

I think I can tweak it to work with FAR, but the issue would be that some of the features wouldn't work. FAR, from what I understand, ignores Firespitter's leading edge and flap control. They would just turn into regular control surfaces.

[Adyx]

I see, well FAR can assign it's own flaps and spoilers and personally I'm unlikely to use leading edges anyway (not that it's all about me!) but that deviates away from your plans for the mod. I would say even having FAR compatibility as an optional download would be great.

[PolecatEZ]

I just put it in, but I haven't actually tested it yet...need to DL FAR. Give it a whirl.

----

Holy crap, is it normal for your jets to go about 3x or 4x faster?

Edited May 12, 2014 by PolecatEZ

[Adyx]

At altitudes above 10,000m the plane in the pic I posted would easily reach Mach 3 maybe even Mach 4 around 20,000m. But that jet engine is extremely powerful. Thrust drops off rapidly at speeds above Mach 3 too. The air gauge in Steam Gauges is very handy for those kinds of speeds and heights, especially for maximising use of jet engines on spaceplanes.

[PolecatEZ]

I took my standard test jet out for a spin at a level 400m altitude. It just kept accelerating until I hit about 700m/s before I backed off the throttle. On the second flight I got to the same speed and tried a slight climb...and my plane promptly disintegrated.

Anyways, build 3 is up. Now that I have FAR installed it will slow down development a bit, but at least no more "hey it doesn't work cuz I have other mods installed."

Tonight is folding and swing wings, maybe canards and articulated winglets. I think I might also do some intake variants and make a clean sweep of the Squad/Parts/Aero folder.

FAR users will, unfortunately, never be able to swing or fold. I'll try to export the models in a usable static position for FAR users.

[Taki117]

as far as FAR is concered PolecatEZ, that is normal behavior. if you arent in a climb before about 200m/s don't climb. (or do anything else for that matter) it is also normal for thrust to drop off rapidly beyond Mach 3, but not uncommon to reach Mach 4. (my spaceplane hits Mach 4 at about 25km before switching over to rockets)

[PolecatEZ]

Having fun with nosecone stock replacements and alternates...get your requests in for color schemes/matching now.

Not much I can do about the shape of the adapters, but the actual cones I can play around with a bit.

[Gryphorim]

Really just hanging out for the rest of the cockpit parts.

[lttito]

Hi polecatEZ, some questions / comments on your awesome pack:

- in action groups of shoutyCraft rotor Wing the option to deply rotor dont appear (don't know if it's the same option as deploy wings, working as a toggle).

- for the swept wings, the roll values must be negative? if so, it's ok, just asking if you plan to "reverse" them to be positive, as pitch values.

- I don't know sure, but after installing your parts, the options to activate pitch/roll/yaw in editors, for B9 control surfaces appears twice (pic related):

I will test it again in a fresh installation with only B9 parts and yours, to ensure it's a little bug caused for your parts or is completelly unrelated.

Besides that, your parts kick ass. Keep your good work!

[PolecatEZ]

Hi polecatEZ, some questions / comments on your awesome pack:

- in action groups of shoutyCraft rotor Wing the option to deply rotor dont appear (don't know if it's the same option as deploy wings, working as a toggle).

- for the swept wings, the roll values must be negative? if so, it's ok, just asking if you plan to "reverse" them to be positive, as pitch values.

- I don't know sure, but after installing your parts, the options to activate pitch/roll/yaw in editors, for B9 control surfaces appears twice (pic related):

http://i.imgur.com/lskz7lC.png

I will test it again in a fresh installation with only B9 parts and yours, to ensure it's a little bug caused for your parts or is completelly unrelated.

Besides that, your parts kick ass. Keep your good work!

- It was done as an animation, so it should. I believe its using FS animate, so not having latest FS *might* be the issue.

- Yes, its one of the quirks of using code meant to slide stuff forward unilaterally and tricking it into rotating it outwards bilaterally instead. I tried a few things, but just setting roll negative works.

- You have multiple "fix" patches installed. I think there's 3 or 4 people (including myself) that have compiled the fixes and bundled them somewhere. -OR- you have multiple ModManager.dlls in your GameData. Find duplicates and squish them.

Edited May 13, 2014 by PolecatEZ

[Taki117]

As an avid mod user (read mod-a-holic) im a little concerned with the number of parts you are beginning to introduce. It was ok when it was just the cockpits (much needed) and helicopter parts (much wanted) but i think it has now morphed into something more, and im alittle concerned.

[wasmic]

As an avid mod user (read mod-a-holic) im a little concerned with the number of parts you are beginning to introduce. It was ok when it was just the cockpits (much needed) and helicopter parts (much wanted) but i think it has now morphed into something more, and im alittle concerned.

Well, you can always delete the parts that you don't want. And actually, these use the B9 textures, so there'll be very little additional memory overhead. Even better, most of them use Firespitter Texture Switcher, meaning that they won't even cause parts list bloat!

[PolecatEZ]

Mesh switcher is the real revolution.

Zero bloat...see this pic?

That's 5 total parts in your catalog, which cleanly replace Squad stock parts. Net increase is zero parts to your catalog, with a net decrease of 45mb of memory usage by knocking out the Aero folder completely.

Sufficiently advanced Firespitter technology...indistinguishable from magic.

Patience on the cockpits too, ladies...honing my blendering skills on the easy stuff so cockpits are going to get similar treatment. Mk1 standard cockpit, for example, will have about 5-7 different "looks" to match any style. Basically I just have to keep the windows (and a few other anchor points so internals and colliders make sense) locked in one place but I can morph the outer shells any which way. That's why I'm serious about getting in your wishlist, because if its reasonable to do it will make it in...no need to pick and choose just the most iconic ideas, it all fits now.

Edited May 13, 2014 by PolecatEZ

[Raven.]

Hi polecatEZ, some questions / comments on your awesome pack:

- in action groups of shoutyCraft rotor Wing the option to deply rotor dont appear (don't know if it's the same option as deploy wings, working as a toggle).

- for the swept wings, the roll values must be negative? if so, it's ok, just asking if you plan to "reverse" them to be positive, as pitch values.

- I don't know sure, but after installing your parts, the options to activate pitch/roll/yaw in editors, for B9 control surfaces appears twice (pic related):

http://i.imgur.com/lskz7lC.png

I will test it again in a fresh installation with only B9 parts and yours, to ensure it's a little bug caused for your parts or is completelly unrelated.

Besides that, your parts kick ass. Keep your good work!

Yup, that's caused by multiple copies of Module Manager in the Game Data folder. Another possibility is that you have multiple copies of the cfg file that adds the tweakables to the control surfaces (called B9CtrlSurfaceFix.cfg in the 0.23.5 patch), which would mean that you have conflicting patches installed.

[Deadweasel]

Mesh switcher is the real revolution.

Zero bloat...see this pic?

http://s16.postimg.org/6gwrwfg2t/nosecones.png

That's 5 total parts in your catalog, which cleanly replace Squad stock parts. Net increase is zero parts to your catalog, with a net decrease of 45mb of memory usage by knocking out the Aero folder completely.

Sufficiently advanced Firespitter technology...indistinguishable from magic.

Patience on the cockpits too, ladies...honing my blendering skills on the easy stuff so cockpits are going to get similar treatment. Mk1 standard cockpit, for example, will have about 5-7 different "looks" to match any style. Basically I just have to keep the windows (and a few other anchor points so internals and colliders make sense) locked in one place but I can morph the outer shells any which way.

The results of which make you, I believe, a KSP god among men. Bless you for taking on the task of expanding on those efficiency aspects that B9 started but (so far) hasn't progressed with otherwise.

So I'm just going to sit here, bouncing with mild impatience in my chair while you do your thing.

[PolecatEZ]

Patience with Mr. Bac9 also. Snjo isn't completely finished with his adventures in MeshSwitching programming, and I think Bac9 is waiting for a few other features to get implemented before jumping on the train. He's also made statements about a new update which will include massive space parts, so I'm scratching that off my own list for an expansion until it comes out...more modeling clay for me!

[LORDPrometheus]

Patience with Mr. Bac9 also. Snjo isn't completely finished with his adventures in MeshSwitching programming, and I think Bac9 is waiting for a few other features to get implemented before jumping on the train. He's also made statements about a new update which will include massive space parts, so I'm scratching that off my own list for an expansion until it comes out...more modeling clay for me!

I wouldn't scratch it off just move it to the bottom even if he makes a large part expansions here is always room for you to throw in a little more awesome!

[Taki117]

Mesh switcher is the real revolution.

SNIP

That's 5 total parts in your catalog, which cleanly replace Squad stock parts. Net increase is zero parts to your catalog, with a net decrease of 45mb of memory usage by knocking out the Aero folder completely.

Sufficiently advanced Firespitter technology...indistinguishable from magic.

Patience on the cockpits too, ladies...honing my blendering skills on the easy stuff so cockpits are going to get similar treatment. SNIP

I wasn't aware that you were doing that with the nose cones, I'm still a little leery about how it works, but I can put it in my stock install to try it out. Are you including the Firespitter dll in the download?

[Deadweasel]

Patience with Mr. Bac9 also. Snjo isn't completely finished with his adventures in MeshSwitching programming, and I think Bac9 is waiting for a few other features to get implemented before jumping on the train. He's also made statements about a new update which will include massive space parts, so I'm scratching that off my own list for an expansion until it comes out...more modeling clay for me!

Absolutely! I'm excited to see what becomes of the B9 pack (I can't believe he'd just dump and vanish after all the effort he's put into that), but what you're doing just doubles the awesome!

[Naf5000]

Absolutely! I'm excited to see what becomes of the B9 pack (I can't believe he'd just dump and vanish after all the effort he's put into that), but what you're doing just doubles the awesome!

He didn't dump and vanish. He got hired. By Squad. That's why we have a nice shiny space center now.

[PolecatEZ]

Small update...nosecones are done, total of 29 parts crammed into 5 catalog entries using the original stock configs. That concludes a clean sweep of the Squad/Parts/Aero folder. These will be released in the Wingtech Pack, though I may move it to a different pack later.

Now back to wings...canards/articulated winglets, "dumb" swept wings next. Then the pain and suffering of folded and swing wings (version 4 from scratch). I definitely need to optimize before doing another release now, its very bloaty from my factory production methods for part making.

Again, still entertaining requests for wings. The SBS cockpit is in the current posted build and is seeking a kind soul to populate it with prop doohickeys.

[Taki117]

SSNIP The SBS cockpit is in the current posted build SNIP

It's Done?! Oh happy day!

[camlost]

My suggestion is to focus on fuselage/cockpit/structural parts instead of wings. There are infinite possibilities when it comes to wings, which is why there is procedural wings.

[Neutrinovore]

My suggestion is to focus on fuselage/cockpit/structural parts instead of wings. There are infinite possibilities when it comes to wings, which is why there is procedural wings.

I second this. I have too many wings in my game as it is (because it's a SPACE game. Kerbal SPACE Program), and I don't even have any Firespitter parts installed, lol!

I don't have any interest in FAR, and I've tried and discarded P-Wings because I wasn't really using them. I'd like to occasionally build a spaceplane, yes, but between the stock Squad parts (which I find to be almost totally useless), B9 and, more recently, Spaceplane Plus, I have plenty of options. So yes, I agree with camlost, I think that the LAST thing that KSP needs is more wings. But that's just one man's opinion.