WIP: Muscle Car Parts Mod

[UnstableOrbit]

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RELEASED!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109559-0-90-Muscle-Car-Parts-Mod-v1-0-%28released-Feb-4-2015%29

This is a mod that would allow players to make rovers that look and perform like muscle cars. There would be body panels a player could use to stylize their rovers looks, as well as add some strength and protection to its components. There would be engine components that you could tweak and interchange in order to tune the performance of your rovers, different sizes and types of tires, roll cages, suspension, etc. The mod would also include components to let the vehicles operate in airless environments(because who doesn't want to ramp a GTO off the lip of a munar crater?) and different sized inline garage pieces that would allow you to transport your muscle rovers on rockets and spaceplanes.

Features:

1. Modular Construction: Each vehicle body is made of only three different pieces. Front, Cabin, and Rear(not counting small pieces like hood, frame, doors, and trunk lid). You can mix any three components, and I may also likely include extenders for longer musclerovers(so perhaps you could chain two Front sections together and have two engines powering your beast). Pros: shorter development time, more bodystyles to choose from, would allow me to put more work into each piece, lower part count total, plus I can focus on other mod features as well. Cons: less ability to customize the body of the vehicle.
   
2. Custom Paintjobs: You can tweak any color on any piece of the vehicle via my custom painting plugin. RGBA values can be changed using handy-dandy sliders in the right-click menu of a part. So far, a maximum of four different color regions are allowed on a single part.
   
3. Usefulness: The muscle car parts are all hollow and to scale, meaning you can walk around inside the cabin, stow materials and utilities in the cabin, trunk, or hood, and generally use these for cargo transport and other normal duties.
   
4. Five-Star Safety Ratings: Each piece is heavily reinforced, meaning you can put these through stunts and situations that would normally destroy any other rover. Plus, if you do wipe out, your precious kerbals and cargoes inside have a much better chance at survival than if you used a regular rover built from stock parts. Frames are rated for 70 m/s impacts, wheels and frames rated to 100 m/s(Disclaimer: they are rated to SURVIVE impacts at these speeds. Breaking apart is still a possibility if they are not properly attached and reinforced. Also, the frames may be rated to 70, but that doesn't automatically mean that your cargo is...).
   
5. Speed and Realistic Handling: These are muscle car parts, so you'd expect them to handle like a muscle car. And they do! They are light and drifty, for the drifters out there, and they go really really fast and are perfect for the impatient spaceman/kerbal who doesn't want to spend three years crawling towards an interesting looking formation at two meters per day. Also, they are good for awesome stunts!
   

Another update! This time we have the 70% finished model of my 1969 Dodge Charger analogue, the "1969 Swerve Sprinter." And yes.... it can be painted to resemble the famous "General Lee" from the Dukes of Hazzard. After the pieces for this car are added to the mod, you can all look forward to inline garages(and possibly a spaceplane garage that functions like an elevator and drops the car down) to transport your muscle rovers to new worlds, as well as parts to make the W-12 Rawror function in oxygen-less environments!

EDIT:

1969 Swerve Sprinter(69 Charger analogue) completed, release tomorrow!

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Edited February 12, 2015 by UnstableOrbit
Dodge Charger update

[Gaalidas]

Ultra details are a nice thought but, like you've described, it would take a while longer to make everything work together properly and construction of the vehicle would take forever. I know for a fact that KSP does not handle ultra detail very well, and not all users can handle huge part counts either. The main block for that kind of detail is the minimum node size which, at node size 0, is still too large for some of the really small creations we have tried to put into the game. Also, since part connection strength has a lot to do with the node size, if you were to attempt to make a new node size that is smaller than the minimum, you would begin to create nodes that would possibly fall apart as soon as the engine fired up.

Option two is much more reasonable.

[BigFatStupidHead]

I agree with Gaalidas. Option two seems the right way to go.

[Gaalidas]

I agree with BigFatStupidHead (awesome name by the way)... Gaalidas has a good point. Hold on... that's me isn't it... I do so hate it when that happens.

[Ruedii]

I'd like something between 1 and 2.

I'd go with traditional muscle car construction, where you have a modular base frame (made up of segments so you can adjust it's length). Then have the mechanics which include fuel tanks, intakes, engines, batteries, wheels, radiators for Intersteller users, rocket boosters, etc.. Finally have body segments that go over these, which include front hoods, winshield/driver compartment, back seat rows (you can make a limo) and trunks.

Obviously the front hoods and the tail segments would be monolithic, so they include things like headlights. However, I might have the hood cover be separate, just so you can leave of off or substitute it to make room for a bigger, more powerful, engine.

[UnstableOrbit]

Ruedii, the way I have it going right now is that you build any frame you want out of the girders and I beams in the game(I may make special frame pieces in the future), and then the three basic sections can be placed on it(I do plan to have extenders in the future, but right now it is just Front, Cabin, and Rear). Fuel and batteries and whatever you want can be placed anywhere inside the cabin(have your kerbals sit on the fuel tank for all I care), or on the frame underneath, or in the trunk, since the trunk acts as a miniature cargo bay(or you can play Punk-in-the-Trunk with an unfortunate kerbal).

The hood will be separate so you can indeed fit bigger engines. For seating, the stock ingame command chairs can be placed in the cabin until I get around to making my own seats.

Also, I have been working on my first bodyset, based off a 1970 Buick GSX, as seen here. I hope to post some screenshots of the model soon.

[CaptainKipard]

I would prefer some Kerbin-bound utility vehicles and some manned rover parts based on near-future sci-fi, like Moon.

[UnstableOrbit]

I would prefer some Kerbin-bound utility vehicles and some manned rover parts based on near-future sci-fi, like Moon.

http://www.originalprop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Prop-Store-of-London-MOON-eBay-Movie-Prop-Auction-Model-2.jpg

If I am not mistaken, there are already many many mods that add what you are looking for. This will mostly focus on classics, since I did a search and failed to find anything like this. Have you tried the Bobcat DSMV packs, for example?

[UnstableOrbit]

That's not an accurate statement.

My bad, it is apparently called DEMV, not DSMV. Here it is, though it may not be updated. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/20286-20-x-BobCat-Ind-Release

You may also want to look into http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86695-0-90-USI-Exploration-Pack-Small-parts-big-adventure%21-v-0-3-1-2014-12-24, or perhaps http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/81754-Release-BobCat-Ind-Space-Planet-products. Both of these two links were found without searches. Do these not fit your needs?

- - - Updated - - -

What other kinds of things did you not find? How about bicycles? Or maybe post office trucks? This is a really poor criterion for deciding.

Alright dude, come off it. I am trying to make something that is at least semiunique. Now I know that my project will not appeal to some people, but you don't have to get all pissy about it. I tried giving you some other options, so try not to bite my head off, mhmkay?

[UnstableOrbit]

I asked around on some of Plexistan's and DasValdez's streams and quite a few users said they'd be interested. Now please refrain from calling my arguments absurd, which they most certainly are not as proven by the links I gave you. I will take your utility vehicle suggestion into account, but I have chosen a course and I intend to stick with it.

Although... if it is bicycles you want, I could stick a few Schwinn bikes and Indian motorcycles in the pack, since they do count as classic vehicles!

[UnstableOrbit]

....

Dude you asked for feedback on whether or not to make this mod, and when you get it you do this.... I'm keeping my eye on you.

Dude, if you had read the entire post, you'd have seen that I asked for feedback on which route I should take this down, not whether I should do it. The reactions I got from the stream audiences sealed the deal in that regard. In addition, you did not tell me why it would be unappealing, you suggested that I pretty much scrap the entire mod and do something that I feel has been sufficiently covered already. I really do not want to, but I can keep at this all day if that's what it takes. So yeah, you are keeping an eye on me, I'm keeping both on you.

Check. Your move.

[sal_vager]

UnstableOrbit, make the addon you want for yourself, scratch your own itch, if others find it also scratches theirs then that's good too, bit of Linux philosophy for you

Cpt. Kipard, can you stop telling others how to do their thing please, if you don't have something constructive to bring to this then it's best to allow others to do so instead and for you to just see how thing turn out.

No back seat addon development!

[angusmcbeth]

Heya Unstableorbit

An old mod by myself and 2 other amigos: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/36786-RollKage?highlight=rollkage

Is it something similar except a musclecar theme instead of dune buggy????.......cool!

[UnstableOrbit]

Very interesting, angusmcbeth! Yes, it is similar, but much more in depth. I will have parts for tuning engine performance(like turbochargers, air intakes, etc). There will be rollcahes and wheelie bars and suspension types and different wheels and muscle car bodystyles and more!

BTW, your models look nice. Perhaps you could give me a hand? I am new to KSP, I absolutely suck at modeling and texturing, and I have almost no idea how to code. Plus I am alone. Your efforts could come in handy!

[angusmcbeth]

Well, your asking the wrong man for help, I'm an amateur. Making the models was my task in the beginning then my concept was spotted by someone who could make models who then joined the team.

Your making this a bit complicated if you are new to this. It can be very frustrating to get your first working fueltank ingame nevermind multiple parts that form a working rover.

Checkout the forum for tutorials on using blender and unity.

[UnstableOrbit]

Yeah, I tried the blender tutorials. Didn't help me, I don't have the patience for such a nonsensical input scheme. The unity tutorials seem much better, though.

[HydraDyne]

I have been waiting along time for a kerbal-car mod, I really did like the size and style of the cars from KSO, and muscle cars would be even cooler. Can't wait to see whats created! :-)

[DisarmingBaton5]

As nice as option 1 would be, option 2 seems more realistic.

[BigFatStupidHead]

I loved your rollkage mod, angusmcbeth! Those Kerchilin tires were the best. They let me perform one of the most ill-conceived munar rescue operations I've ever done, complete with driving at breakneck speeds in treacherous cratered terrain -in the dark- to a finale of using a munar ridge as a ramp to achieve orbit.

[Recognize-Me-]

I would prefer some Kerbin-bound utility vehicles and some manned rover parts based on near-future sci-fi, like Moon.

http://www.originalprop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Prop-Store-of-London-MOON-eBay-Movie-Prop-Auction-Model-2.jpg

Did you make that?

[CaptainKipard]

Did you make that?

No. I think that's a physical prop from the movie.

Edited January 6, 2015 by Cpt. Kipard

[UnstableOrbit]

Some images of the WIP model of the 1970 Buick GSX. It has some noticeable differences from reality, partially because I suck at modelling and partially because I removed safety features like mirrors and bumpers. Kerbals don't need safety features anyway!

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[falken]

1970 Dodge Challenger in race trim, please.

Oh, and a Baja Bug. If anyone scoffs at the idea of ramping a VW Beetle on steroids off the edge of a crater on the Mun, they're without a soul.

[UnstableOrbit]

1970 Dodge Challenger in race trim, please.

Oh, and a Baja Bug. If anyone scoffs at the idea of ramping a VW Beetle on steroids off the edge of a crater on the Mun, they're without a soul.

Lol, I literally have the challenger as my next planned project. I love them. As for the bug, I will take that into consideration. Not sure if it counts as a muscle car, but perhaps I can make an exception.

[BigFatStupidHead]

Just make sure to get a Corvette in the set, so we can recreate that entire Heavy Metal scene.