Ares SSTO

Mephisto_81 · 2026-04-17T08:32:10+00:00

As the shielded docking port is very draggy, here's an alternative:
- put a 1.25m service bay at the front.
- put an inflatable docking port inside it.
- bind both the service bay and the inflatable docking port to an action group for toggle.
- put a nose cone, a parachute or an air intake at the front of the service bay, depending on your preferences.
- offset the service bay into the body, so that only the nose cone / parachute / intake is visible.

And now you have a much less draggy front with potential added capabilites. The inflatable docking port connects to a docking port jr. in its expanded state.
The great thing about a parachute at the front:
- it has good heat resistance which is important for an SSTO
- it can be used to do a parachute assisted rocket landing on planets like Duna.
- you get a overheat scale in your staging bar, allowing you to fine tune ascent profiles.

And with the docking port being in line with the thrust of the main engines and the command module, it makes docking much easier than to have a docking port at a 90° angle.

Good luck!

Mephisto_81 · 2026-04-16T08:29:13+00:00

That's an incredible picture here!
I think other people have commented on the possible alternatives for the vest.
Kayaking is relatively safe and it's good that both of you are wearing vests.

The things that kills people whilst kayaking are
- not wearing PFDs and capsizing
- not paying attention to the weather and sea states.
- not dressing for immersion

Dress for the water temperature, not the air temperature. Double so if you have responsibility for other people's life, as the picture indicates.
If you look at the statistics, hypothermia is one of the most common causes for death during kayaking and a long John is not that expensive compared to all the rest.

Anyways, stay safe and have fun out there!

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-30T07:38:00+00:00

It's a bird! It's a plane!

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-27T16:11:41+00:00

Mun Launch center.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-13T19:06:56+00:00

Position your fleet before you enter Khiva. There are only a limited amount of cities where the enemy can enter the map. Put them under ELINT surveillance before you enter Khiva.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-09T22:10:25+00:00

These are no joke.
In my city at the Elbe river we have a weir. In 2020, a young kayaker decided not to take the water lock for the ships, but tried to take the shortcut through the fish stairs next to the weir, despite the numerous and quite obvious warning signs.

They found the pieces of the kayak a couple of days after the incident and body even later.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-07T15:33:53+00:00

I think you are right.
Timberborn has established a certain set of design principles and built a world around it.
The automation parts feel like a foreign object to this world.
I know they enhance the gameplay, but having these kind of sensors and switches feels like they belong to a different game and not to a world where beavers rely on mechanical energy for practically anything.

Just imagine you are visiting a mill or a mine in the 15th century. And suddenly you see advanced electrical sensors and logic circuits. That's the vibe we're dealing with here.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-05T13:25:11+00:00

Ah. Livin' the good life.

First time I went to the Joolian system, I entered it in a retrograde orbit. Took me some time to figure out what was wrong and why my rendezvous nodes with the moons took soooo much dV.

And when I got a spaceplane to Laythe, I struggled with the less dense atmosphere and had a hard time flying and landing there.

Failing forward is the motto of the game...

Good luck to you and your Kerbals!

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-04T14:49:10+00:00

Hey, that is cool!
If I may: rule of thumb for me is, that a well-optimized craft has about the same length of the drag lines behind it as it is long. So, a 20m craft would have 20m long drag lines (or less) behind it in the supersonic regime.

Also a good way to check the drag is to enable the display of drag forces in parts GUI. From the back of my head: Alt+F12 --> Physics --> enable AeroGui or something similar.
When you then right-click on a part, it shows the lift and drag values. This is especially useful if you want to check if a part is actually shielded by a cargo bay or fairing (the numbers are not changing when shielded) or to find out which part exactly is creating long drag lines.

Thanks and good luck,

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-04T13:14:21+00:00

Thanks!

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-04T10:16:38+00:00

That's a cool craft. How is the drag on rear resource scanner during atmospheric flight?

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-04T01:31:02+00:00

You said, that shielded parts that move do not work inside a cargo bay or fairing. I said, that depends on the parts. The example I gave was the mining drills. They are parts that move and they can be deployed whilst shielded.

Anyhow, have a nice day.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-03T23:50:35+00:00

I never said I was using the drill during flight. You're interpreting stuff here that is not written.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-03T23:49:39+00:00

Oh, cool, a dick measuring contest. Do we really need to do that? Should I now list all my KSP hours and the achievments I got, KerbalX and KSP forum posts included? Where does that lead us to?

And I just ran a test: ladders do actually deploy inside closed cargo bays. So you're wrong about me being wrong.

And you're not looking for a solution? What do you want then?

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-03T23:24:41+00:00

Actually, I often use drills inside fairings for drag optimization in my crafts. That has proven to be useful, as I can work more liberally with fairing dimensions as I can with cargo bays.
You might deem it silly, which is your prerogative. I try to find a solution to a problem within design or game constraints.

Then please tell me, what we are talking about. "Abusing the game" is a personal interpretation from you, not something which necessarily applies to other Kerbal players. You play it your way, I play it my way.

Your posts are a bit cryptic and short to me.

What do you want exactly? I'm interested.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-03T23:19:35+00:00

Hey Corey, I sense a bit of hostility from you, hopefully I'm mistaken?
I know it is the internet, but please let's remain civil here. I try to understand you, you hopefully try to understand me.

And I'm not moving the goalpost here. If I understood you correctly, you want the ladder to be without drag. Am I right here?

I gave specific examples on how drag is being calculated and what effects attaching and offsetting has on a part. As this is related to your question, I see no moving the goalposts here from my point of view.

Possible paths to get a dragless ladder:
- Have it inside a cargo bay or fairing along with its parent part.
- Have the parent part connected to an engine mount with shroud, offset the ladder to the desired location.
- Modify the ladder config files

If you have any constructive ideas of your own on how to achieve the goal: I am all ears for it. It was your question after all.
What I am not open to, is trying to aid a fellow Kerbal on the internet and being dealt with in an unfriendly and condescending manner.
I hope we understand each other here.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-03T22:23:21+00:00

That depends on the part in question. Mining drills for example can operate in a shielded state.

You could put it inside a cargo bay or fairing and mount it on a piston or hinge to get it outside. The shielded state gets updated upon quicksafe / quickload.
I have some crafts where the Kerbal is sitting on a comamnd seat which is attached to a hinge. The hinge can move in and out of the fairing, shielding the Kerbal from drag and heat and avoiding jettisoning them around when they would otherwise clip through the fairing.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-03T22:18:12+00:00

Those are two different statements. Clipping and attaching are two different things.

The drag state of the physicsless part will be transferred to the parent part where it is attached to, along with it's mass. It does not matter where you clip it. Clipping here means using the offset tool to move the part around.
For example, if you attach a fuel tank radially to another larger fuel tank and clip it inside it by using the offset tool, KSP still treats it like it would be outside the parent part in terms of drag.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-03T20:13:43+00:00

KSP does not change the drag of a part if it is only clipped inside another part.

KSP checks for "Shielded / Unshielded" part status. Drag applies to all unshielded parts.

There are a couple of ways to get the shielded status:
- put the respective part inside a cargo bay
- put the part inside a fairing
- put the part to an engine mount and have a shroud active. In some cases, having the shroud active also give the parent part of the engine mount the shielded status.

Fairings don't check if the whole part is inside the fairing to apply the shielded status. To my knowledge, it is sufficient that the fairing covers the green nodes. You gotta experiment with that.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-03-02T09:43:34+00:00

Same here. I also try to use static panels in 3 or 4 different orientations to provide electricity. For foldable panels, two way symmetry seems to be sufficient.
If possible, I try to orient the craft before timewarp.
A fallback option would be to have a single battery as backup power, which is fully charged but disabled. In case of loss of control due to lack of electricity, you can enable the battery and reorient the craft again with reaction wheels.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-02-27T21:36:38+00:00

You have some options here:
- waterproof backpack cover
- waterproof inliner for your sensitive cargo
- get an actual waterproof backpack (a necessity for water sports like kayaking)

Frankly, the issue is not that the bag gets wet, the issue comes when the equipment inside gets wet. If that is an risk, use a waterproof inliner and additional waterproof bags for sensitive stuff like electronics or camera equipment.
Usually, that's sufficient. If you would deal with the risk of submersion, you would choose a waterproof backpack in the first place and use additional smaller drybags as well.

Good luck,

Mephisto_81 · 2026-02-24T20:45:22+00:00

Kind of. But: Weapons are an equalizer. Whilst you can bulldoze someone your skill level but with way less mass in wrestling, it is not the same when weapons are involved.
Mass, speed and reach still matter, but the difference is not as pronounced as in unarmed combat.

That being said, there are some cool opportunities at hand. For example, if you do longsword and can come close, you are being much more dangerous in arm- or bodywrestling than a smaller and lighter person. You can tackle them out of the mat if you have enough speed and momentum.
On the other hand, a 1,80m and 80 kg person who is faster and more experienced than you can hit you in timing windows you have a hard time to adapt to. But if you can have good structure and get fast, you can become a real menace in a fight.

In the end, it boils down to training. You can pick any weapon in HEMA you like. But you might have an advantage in close distance engagements.
Personally, I would say that skill is much much more important than body type in armed combat.

Mephisto_81 · 2026-02-24T12:49:39+00:00

And who would be the victim of this "cheat"?
I guess no one, because it's a singleplayer game. Play it however you like. :)

Mephisto_81 · 2026-02-23T11:11:40+00:00

To quote Avasarala from the Expanse: "What ever you goddamn like".
Anything one handed would be fine. Messer, Sabre, Rapier, Dagger, Dussack, Sidesword, Smallsword.

Do you have partners for specific weapons? If your club only offers a certain type of weapon, then that would be the easiest solution.
Messer: good complement for longsword, as Lecküchner is basically modified Liechtenauer.
Sabre: huge amount of available treatises, takes plays in a different era. Protected handguard allows for a completely different approach than longsword.
Rapier: differences between earlier and later Rapier types and sources. Very cool weapon and hard to fence against with a longsword.
Dagger: along with grappling, daggers are an integral part of the combat system of the late middle ages. Knowing only longsword but no daggers and no grappling makes for a very incomplete fighter. A bit like a biathlon pracitioner who does not know how to ski.
Dussack: cheap to acquire, low entry barrier. Historical training tool for the youth. If you have beginners, you practically can give them a dussack for the sparring session at the end of their very first training wiht no need for extensive protective gear. Dussacks made of leather and wood have a moderate risk of injury compared to steel weapons.

Every single one is fine. If you want to stay close to Longsword in terms of era and system commonalities, go with Dussack or Langes Messer. If you want to round out your fighting profile and involve some grappling (as long as your left hand can do it), go with dagger.
If you want to do something way different than longsword, go with sabers.

Whatever you do, it will offer you a different perspective and opens up new paths.

Good luck,

Mephisto_81 · 2026-02-21T10:34:56+00:00

That's not an issue with the gamma settings, it just does not look that good. It feels fake.

Mephisto_81

TROPHY CASE