Need Help Finishing a Tiny Carrier Heavy Fighter

[Techpriest93]

So I have a Light Fighter Concept Completed, the forward docking port jr. holds the torps, ideal 2 of them at a time, while the rear docking port is used for, well, docking.

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Yay low gravity simulations

It can strafe left to right with rcs, but lacks the blocks to strafe up and down. It features 2 ion engines and 3.5 tons of weight when unloaded, and while ideally it would be 1 ion engine per ton, the fighter simply doesn't have the room for them. It doesn't NEED an Adv SAS, but it DOES need something to mount things too. Originally was going to put a little afterburner engine that one could toggle using the B action group, but ran out of parts and room.

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Now: I am trying to develop a corresponding "Heavy" carrier fighter that is larger and would be used by veteran pilots or something.

I need to keep it light on the part count like the last one, and have fallen in love with this docking port. It comes with RCS (so I don't need to add any more tanks, part saved), it has an inline docking port that I will use to dock to ships (another part saved), and it has a large surface area, allowing for multiple parts to be mounted to the chassis while saving on part-count what would of been used for hardpoints and girders. Also, the cabin was mounted backwards to make the viewports look like a cockpit, so a drone needed to be added for proper navball negotiation.

Specifications that I am building this around:

-Keeping part count down (around 20-30 parts before torps. 40 parts when unarmed max)

-2 forward facing jr. docking ports for macey dean style torps

-About a 1 ton per ion engine ratio to keep it nimble and responsive

-Between 3-6 tons unloaded, and 4 ion engines with at least 2 tanks of gas.

-At least 2 RCS bricks, and vertical movement (to make docking easy).

-The ability to operate away from the carrier/frigate (so 2 big solar sails and a battery pack for when in shadow. Maybe an RTG if generous)

-Appealing to the eye.

I have scrapped 3 designs so far, and decided to outsource the engineering. I hope to gleam ideas off of your interpretations of the space fighter, or use one outright, with their permission of course! I dunno, I will think of some award for the best looking one. So far my biggest issue is making the front look good, I don't know what to put in front of the can.

[Cupcake...]

It's probably quite a bit different to what you envisage but you can make some very light, compact but powerful designs using the small RCS engines.

Also let me know if you fancy playing round with these missiles as I'll be happy to send them through to you.

They pack a pretty good punch and you can make large clips out of them for rapid fire.

Good luck!

Cupcake...

[Techpriest93]

Wow, that looks... amazing. I might want to steal a design like that for the "bad guys" of my story

I have made some progress inbetween classes, and I got the torpedo system figured out. I think. They will come in stacks of 2, surrounded by jr docking ports for transport.

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Any critiques? things to add/make better? how would you have done it? the Core is only 3 pieces, so it would be easy to replicate on your own.

[Spartwo]

I wouldn't have used such a big docking port but it seems to be the main feature of the craft. I'd run the Xenon, batteries, and such inline and branching back from the 2 nacelles.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Spartwo

[Techpriest93]

Thanks Spartwo, I really appreciate it!

I chose the large inline docking port when I was just throwing pieces on. For some reason, that seemed to click with me, and I felt compelled to use it.

Alright, i made more progress on my version, but if I see a better version out there I will throw this one away and use that .

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I kinda like how the quad Ion engines look. Both are rooted to the girder on the back, and offset to their current position. I had extra space, and threw on an afterburner with a small engine and the donut fuel tank. Linked it to the brakes action group, ironically, so pressing B pulses the engine. I calculate that there is about 10-11 seconds of fuel on-board, and they could siphon some from the torps if need be. Added 2 parachutes behind the torps jr docking port, now it can crash land on kerbin, laythe, or eve if damaged. Might remove them if I need to save parts.

Contemplating on removing the afterburner to add an RGB cell. Maybe make it a varient, ones that operate far from Kerbol could use the extra juice. Also just realized that I need batteries! Eagerly awaiting Spartwo's design of the craft...

[SofusRud]

For the first little fighter, you could replace the reaction wheel with a big RCS tank and remove the small ones. As for the RCS thrusters, just put an inline thruster on the top and bottom, using the offset tool to get it as close to the 4-directional ones.

[Techpriest93]

I wouldn't have used such a big docking port but it seems to be the main feature of the craft. I'd run the Xenon, batteries, and such inline and branching back from the 2 nacelles.

http://i.imgur.com/uNUA92O.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/j9MtaXZ.png

Le-gasp! That looks great AND is light on parts! I dont see any RCS ports though, and I need my RCS to dock, cause I am bad at it :/

I might try to work with that design a bit, deffenatly seems like it has plenty of fuel. Also, your cockpit is backwards, (actually mine is backwards) I have the viewport facing forwards. Thats why I added that probe core in the back, to control from their and keep the nav ball nominal.

Why do I still need kerbals you ask? Well... I guess I don't... but I will still put them in the line of fire regardless! (to fill that plot-hole, i'll say that probe core fighters can be jammed with Electronic Warfare suites of larger craft, so kerbals are still needed to pilot them.

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For the first little fighter, you could replace the reaction wheel with a big RCS tank and remove the small ones. As for the RCS thrusters, just put an inline thruster on the top and bottom, using the offset tool to get it as close to the 4-directional ones.

The xenon tanks don't radially attach, but rcs tanks do. What parts radially attach that I could use to mount the Ion engine to, without resorting to girders? I'll add the inline thrusters if it becomes a problem, but for now they ar'nt there because of low part count = less lag. Unless those parts dont add lag...

What is a list of parts that don't add lag btw? Or do they all add lag equally?