New SpacePlane parts (bout time!)

[MKI]

Really it is more fitting to call them redesigns/re-textures rather than new parts.

For anyone that followed the KSP tumbler Blog, the Dev team had an intern (Hugo) who worked on mainly parts. Only recently they have released an actual picture showing exactly what he has worked on.

http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/94860991314/heres-something-hugo-made

It seems like we will finally get the much anticipated redesign of the space plane parts. Possibly we will also get the IVA the space plane parts still need.

As a big advocator of more space plane focus (especially now there is a re-usability factor in Career) the changes made to the Original space plane parts comes as a great relief. Seeing the Devs work on something that isn't for scope completion but rather something many veteran and amateur players want, is a big deal.

So it seems better aerodynamics, shuttle engines, cargo bays and farmings are closer than further away!

PS. As a famous scottish guy once said, "fly safe"!

Now we may finally be actually able to do that, with an IVA view that isn't a wall ;P

[spaceman1999]

Is anyone else slightly sad whenever a dev leaves? I always think of what else they could have done... Goodbye Hugo!

"I could do so much more" -David Tennant

But yeah plane parts YAY!

[Red Iron Crown]

So it seems better aerodynamics, shuttle engines, cargo bays and farmings are closer than further away!

I haven't read anything indicating that those things are coming any time soon. Cool if you're right, though.

I'm a bit disappointed in the Mk3 parts pictured in your link. Looks to still have the offset center of mass and attachment nodes that make them so difficult to use with non-Mk3 parts without looking awful, and the Mk3 cockpit has gone from looking like a space shuttle cockpit to looking like the cockpit from a P3 Orion or an airliner. Hopefully the tanks have been reconfigured to useful LFO rather than useless LF-only, with mass fractions comparable to the cylindrical tanks.

[dryer_lint]

I'm still a bit disappointed that we have that node on the front of the cockpit. Hopefully we'll get some kind of nose cone that will fit nicely on there?

But who cares, now I can make an airliner that looks good!

[r4pt0r]

the thing is, any shuttle parts(mk3) wont match with anything else. the shuttle doesnt have a circular crossection.

that attachment node could be better placed though i agree red iron crown.

also, thank you for sharing devs. its honestly nice to see things like this.

Edited August 16, 2014 by r4pt0r

[OrbitusII]

While I'm glad that Hugo was able to learn some useful modeling skills, I'm not a fan of him being in charge of the aerospace parts. Granted, what he's done looks significantly better than the originals, but they still lack any real aerodynamics and, from my lessons in modeling with helldiver, I can tell that he didn't do all of his topology right.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they look so much better, but I would have had him learn more about modeling smooth surfaces first.

[tetryds]

I'm sure that they are aware of incompatibilities and will add adapters.

[Red Iron Crown]

I'm sure that they are aware of incompatibilities and will add adapters.

If they're like the old Mk3 parts, adapters would have to be fugly. I like the old Mk3 cockpit aesthetically, so I would use a cubic octagonal strut to mount it in such a way that it lined up reasonably well with 2.5m parts. The problem is that the CoM of the cockpit is in line with the offset attachment node, so making it look quasi-realistic also made it unbalanced. An adapter would have to offset the cockpit, I can't see a way this could be done that doesn't look horrible.

[tetryds]

They could have pretty much moved the atachment point and COM to the middle of the parts.

An adapter could be inline with the middle of the MK3 parts, as well as maybe triple and even one like the old one.

I don't understand what is the problem you see with it, since we don't have much information about what changed just from a picture with two parts.

I like them, btw.

So yeah, we don't have enough to say much other than the looks of those specific parts.

And I don't think the game will reject if you pick the old ones from a previous version and paste to use it on the next.

[RocketPilot573]

For anyone who hasn't seen this, Maxmaps tweeted a pic of the Mk1 Cockpit a few weeks ago.