Capital ship mod

[frizzank]

Im not going for a Homeworld mod I just like the style of the parts. The parts will have to be made modular enough so they can fit in many different configurations and still look good. As far as construction you would have to use the extra-planetary launchpad mod or do an orbital assembly. Im not going to support a ground launch system, but I suppose you could build one if you like.

Keeping the massive parts together with just the stock docking ports may be a problem. A plugin that made docked parts completely ridged or welded together would be the best bet, maybe someone would be willing to help with that.

[NoMrBond]

High rigidity docking ports (right click permanent fuse/weld the joint ) would be pretty sweet for a lot of heavy duty applications.

I wonder if that could be possible with KAS which already has welding?

[YANFRET]

High rigidity docking ports (right click permanent fuse/weld the joint ) would be pretty sweet for a lot of heavy duty applications.

I wonder if that could be possible with KAS which already has welding?

I've been thinking about this a lot as well for orbital assembly of our Monkey Transfer Vehicle. Talisar and I are working on a new structural dock port for that application and we will test it soon, however the idea of a plugin that automatically makes it 100% rigid is very appealing. I wonder if KJR has a function that could be adapted for this.

edit; Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov would be awesome! Near future, check. Arthur C Clarke pedigree, check.

I would offer help with the textures and fitting of pieces inside the launch vehicle (assuming we find a dock port solution that is acceptable)

Edited April 29, 2014 by YANFRET

[Alskari]

I would really love to help out on this. My original vision for HSH was something along these lines, however my modeling ability artistically was just not there. Now I'm at a point where I might be close, but multiple collision meshes per part and the tri count of my models is killing everything. The idea of reworking HSH is pretty daunting.

If there is a way I could contribute let me know. I've learned a great deal over the past year and would enjoy contributing a few well made models with textures.

[TK421d]

High rigidity docking ports (right click permanent fuse/weld the joint ) would be pretty sweet for a lot of heavy duty applications.

I wonder if that could be possible with KAS which already has welding?

the other day i was thinking a comination of docking port and the claw would be really usefull for orbial construction of larger ships. a one-time-use docking port that creates a permanent connection when joined.

[YANFRET]

Talisar finished the test version of our structural docking port and I'm gonna mess with it tonight for MTV orbital assembly and let you know how we get on as far as rigidity. We're trying some tricks with node size and such to make it as solid as possible.

The one we made is like a ring shape but I was thinking a triangle version would be useful for an Alexei Leonov model, and then sections of it could be launched with our Monkey Launch System in 180 ton increments.

[Deathsoul097]

Awesome Yanfret, though I don't think it would help with mine. I would be interested in seeing someone try though. It would be very impressive if they could manage it.

Here is a pic for scale against a kerbal:

Edited April 30, 2014 by Deathsoul097

[YANFRET]

lol yeah, I'm thinking 180 ton increments aren't gonna mean too much for that kind of project omg!

[Deathsoul097]

Lol. Yeah, and that's one of the smallest ships. (Shameless Self Plug: Click the banner in my sig if you want to find out more and follow development.)

Back on topic, I'm interested to see the kind of designs Frizzank can come up with, and very intrigued as to the nature of his designs.

[YANFRET]

Me too. The fact that he's the one interested in exploring this subject was the main reason I jumped in here.

[MaverickSawyer]

I agree what about the Alexei Leonov?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oGLWz2SX9bI/UBG4EGVlNSI/AAAAAAAAAQg/3A6AAUUgfe4/s1600/Komrade_Alexei_Leonov_final_03.png

"You are smart man doctor Floyd. You will know what to do!"

So THAT's what Coolhand's been up to, instead of finishing the Ravenstar MkII... Shame on him!

[Green Skull]

When I see " capital ships " I instantly think of EVE online ships... There are many like it but this one was mine...

[YANFRET]

Edited April 30, 2014 by YANFRET

[YANFRET]

Okay so regarding our Structural Dock Port research project;

I put the test parts (upper and lower halfs of structural dock port ring) in the middle of a giant rocket and launched it to put as much stress on the joint as possible, and I determined that increasing the node size, while in principle increases the rigidity a little, also increases the "area of travel" that the joint can spring between the two halfs of the docking connection, which has two results; 1) if it's too much it springs wildly and actually can form a gap between the two parts and 2) the distance that it springs multiplies the area that bending can occur such that even though there is less flex due to increased node size, the remaining flex is over a wider area which causes a large net gain in flex.

So, overall the best result I could get was with a node size of 0 because it's a dockport connection and is subject to spring.

Next phase of the research is to try integration of JDP's "Docking Strut" plugin http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/48086-0-21-1-Docking-Strut-1-0-1-0 directly into the part

[Orionkermin]

Does the PhysicsSignificance .cfg line help at all? I've noticed that they gave the size 3 decoupler PhysicsSignificance = 1. Without it large rockets are much more wobbly at those points. Maybe it'll work for a docking port as well?

[randomness5555]

Dude-if this turns into a homeworld mod, I'm so in-in fact I'm in already. This looks like it's gonna be great!

[ahappydude]

Keep this thread alive , when i saw the thread title i were thinking of hull bits that ou put togeheter in vab instead of having a big single peace. Like bottom holl, shafts, floors, etc

[Cdodders]

What about these?

[frizzank]

German Space Zeppelins may be just a bit outside the style I was going for, but if I ever do a 1942 future pack I will use this as reference.

[Cdodders]

German Space Zeppelins may be just a bit outside the style I was going for, but if I ever do a 1942 future pack I will use this as reference.

Awesome, just a q have you seen the film Iron Sky (the Siegfrieg class battleships (the Zeppelins) are from it, as are the rest of the ships in the pics)

[CaptainKipard]

The first, second-to-last and last images look the most sensible to me. I love near-future stuff.

[Cdodders]

The first, second-to-last and last images look the most sensible to me. I love near-future stuff.

That's the Earth Fleet, the German ships are built on 1945 tech levels, Earth Fleet on 2018 levels

[CaptRobau]

One thing I'd love to see are animated heat sinks. Imagine after having fired your cannons for a while you needed to deploy heat sinks to prevent your system from overheating. Something like this maybe:

Having these pop up, then start to glow white hot would be an amazing sight.

[Deathsoul097]

http://i.imgur.com/dTMsuyA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qtBDYIf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/601cTOm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/O9kz2oL.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/fAQo1az.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wEJgovy.jpg

What about these?

Lol, that first pic:

A random ISS appeared over Luna!

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Hi really interested to see where this goes, I've been building via my own mods huge ships since 0.16 and do have some huge stuff in game , maybe not quite as big as the things you've outlined but considerably bigger than most other KSP mod vessels and they all work too. Being big gives my ops to try out huge animations etc for hangar bays that are big enough to take a whole launch vehicle or even many small craft, and shis that are big enough to be classed as mobile spacestatiions, as well of course much large cew numbers than is usual , the Command pod for my (poorly named) space tug has 8 crew and each module is gradually gettiing it own internal or simulated Iva space. If you go on to start building and want some help let me know.