MegaPanels mod

[Northstar1989]

I don't know how many of you remember it, but there used to be a "Megapanels" mod on the old Spaceport website.

Basically, what it was- a mod that introduced scaled-up versions of the OX-STAT solar panel. The idea being, it added larger stationary solar panels than the OX-STAT.

This was useful because the OX-STAT solar panel had the single best mass-to-power ratio of any of the solar panels even BEFORE it was given no PhysicsSignificance.

Such larger scaled-up panels were *EXTREMELY* useful for large electric UAV's (using either ion engines or Firespitter electric propellers) where atmospheric conditions meant that moving solar panels COULD NOT be deployed, as well as to save mass on larger ion-powered spacecraft (those with a large array of stock ion engines, or larger more power-hungry ion engines such as those in NearFuture mod) and Microwave Beamed Power solar farms (constructed in KSP-Interstellar) if the player was willing to turn the entire spacecraft to face the sun rather than having the solar panels auto-adjust...

They also looked cool, and were much harder to break, on surface bases.

I was hoping that somebody might be able to release+maintain such a mod- preferably one with nicer textures/models than simply up-scaling the stock OX-STAT solar panels.

I know I could just go and create a such a part for myself by up-scaling the OX STAT, but I have no idea how to create textures/models (so I would just have to use the stock texture- which looks ugly when re-scaled to huge sizes due to the size of the base), and it would be helpful if it were an actual mod as then it would be available to other players and could be used in challenges like the Flying Duna challenge (the mod author himself got around the problem of producing lots of power for his entry by using the Uzbor Welding Utility to weld a bunch of OX-STATS onto the upper surface of a wing as a single part, but the Welding Utility no longer works correctly with current versions of KSP...)

Finally, the larger solar panel would need to have its cost adjusted appropriately in proportion with its size and energy production (although maybe with a 1 or 2% discount for "buying in bulk" when it came to PV cells, or something like that for balance. Remember, unlike the OX STAT, it *WOULD* have PhysicsSignificance, and thus would add mass to rockets/planes unlike the OX STAT...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited October 7, 2014 by Northstar1989

[NathanKell]

Um, TweakScale?

[LitaAlto]

Or use Near Future Solar. It's got some MASSIVE solar panels.

I'm using the Trio panels on my space station, and they're roughly twice as wide and three times as long as the Gigantor XLs. And that's not nearly the biggest panel in the set.

[nli2work]

+1 for Near Future solar panels.

[Nertea]

Pretty sure he wants static, but I do have a few of those too. Doesn't sound exactly like what he's looking for, but you might have a look. Link in sig etc.

[Vahal]

The static panel in the Boxsat mod is nice looking and really effective. The only drawback is the attachment, it's a little bit messy when you try to fix it on some surfaces

[Northstar1989]

Pretty sure he wants static, but I do have a few of those too. Doesn't sound exactly like what he's looking for, but you might have a look. Link in sig etc.

Yeah, I'm looking for statics. Deployables won't work while flying in the atmosphere, and tend to (and realistically should) weigh more for their generation capacities...

From what I can gather on the NearFuture Solar album (I haven't played with NearFuture in a while, mostly since switching to 0.24.2- I'm still waiting for an additional set of cost-balancing fixes/tweaks to it before I add it into my main Career Mode save) the static ones there are either curved, or solar trusses. The trusses are the closest thing to what I'm looking for, but still not exactly it- I'm looking more for a large squarish (though slightly rectangular would be preferable to completely square) static panel that I could slap on the top of large B9 or Procedural Dynamics wings for airplanes powered by Firespitter electric propellers...

Nertea, if you wanted to do something REALLY cool, that would get me and a lot of players to love you even more, though, you could generate a thin-film solar array version of the Procedural Dynamics wings that unlocked when both Procedural Dynamics and your mod were installed, and kick it over to the Procedural Dynamics thread/mod author. Basically, this would be a Procedural Dynamics wing with a thin-film solar array (thin-film solar arrays have low mass, low power, but excellent power:mass ratios, and need to be coated onto a static surface to work right) on the top surface.

For that matter, anything you could do with thin-film solar arrays would be AWESOME (they also have MAJOR utility on surface bases and the skins of Hooligan Labs blimps- basically anything with a lot of surface area that doesn't work well with deployables...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited October 7, 2014 by Northstar1989

[Northstar1989]

The static panel in the Boxsat mod is nice looking and really effective. The only drawback is the attachment, it's a little bit messy when you try to fix it on some surfaces

A link would be appreciated.

Regards,

Northstar

[michaelhester07]

I got them coming in 0.3 Stanford Toruses...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82008-WIP-0-3-Torus-spacestations?p=1455870&viewfull=1#post1455870

scroll down past the smelter

I just gotta make sure they're not inducing torque. I tried to use them on minmus with a lander and they seem to be torquing it.

[LitaAlto]

A Procedural Solar Panel mod, that allowed for thin film solar panels to be applied to either flat or curved surfaces, would be kinda neat....

[Northstar1989]

I got them coming in 0.3 Stanford Toruses...

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82008-WIP-0-3-Torus-spacestations?p=1455870&viewfull=1#post1455870

scroll down past the smelter

I just gotta make sure they're not inducing torque. I tried to use them on minmus with a lander and they seem to be torquing it.

Awesome- but the mod isn't released yet...

Any ETA on the first release?

Regards,

Northstar

[weeble]

It would be cool to have preassembled solar panels built into fuselages. Add or remove it with a right click texture change