KSA's Part & Art Development Thread

Thought it would be a good idea to start a thread containing all the in-progress progression and WIP content I post to Discord. As the forums are a little more grounded and persistent compared to an endless scrolling list of short-form content; it might make for a better place to discuss ideas and the development of the game's parts, art style, scope etc as it happens. When things are resolved enough I'll post em as their own threads as usual

I'll kick things off with the first look of our initial docking port part - an androgynous system designed to be both passive and active inspired by the APAS75 port created collaboratively by the Soviet Union and the USA. This was to help facilitate docking between a Soyuz and an Apollo CSM, and represented one of the first instances of a universal design that the Cold-warring nations worked together on. It sits a bit ahead on the timeline of the OG Apollo docking parts (as they were probe and drogue systems) but is probably more appropriate for straightforward craft-to-craft attachment this early in dev. We might branch backwards to more complicated passive\active systems as time goes on.

 

[Kiwi Shark]

Does the lighting make Daishi's parts look extra cool, or do Daishi's parts give the lighting something extra cool to illuminate?

The answer will have to wait until after I'm done staring at the parts because they look extra cool.

 

[Daishi]

Finishing off the whole range of interstage adaptors, new nosecones, aeroshrouds for smaller SRBs and (yet to be designed) half meter engines. Trying to work out a way to design livery and rollmarker paint that looks good, but doesn't overlap with the fuel tank textures. Bit tricky. Any thoughts?

I'm also thinking of replacing the orange nosecone paint, switch it to black, then adopt red for petal nosecones that decouple for payload deployment. Ideally we probably want procedural meshes for true fairings, but gotta have something in the meantime

 

[Kiwi Shark]

Rocket full of presents for good boys and girls flying into the straosphere:

 

[Aziz]

Can we have the option to have the nosecones empty/hollow?
Sometimes I don't want a conventional fairing, just a decoupler with nosecone, and not once nor twice I had to extend the fuselage beyond the payload - even if it would fit inside a closing nosecone, because I couldn't fit the "pointy" end in it. Or use several separate size adapters (which still weren't doing the good enough job) before the nosecone of smallest size.

 

[Daishi]

Can we have the option to have the nosecones empty/hollow?
Sometimes I don't want a conventional fairing, just a decoupler with nosecone, and not once nor twice I had to extend the fuselage beyond the payload - even if it would fit inside a closing nosecone, because I couldn't fit the "pointy" end in it. Or use several separate size adapters (which still weren't doing the good enough job) before the nosecone of smallest size.

Of course, that's on the cards. I'll get these merged / endcapped nosecones released first, and use the same geo for the red petal ones that'll be hollow and more cylindrical at the base (ala the Black Arrow rocket) that opens like a clam.

 

[Daishi]

Finished snoots and shroud diffuse and normals, PBR shaders next.

 

[Daishi]

https://imgur.com/tQpE2WP

Blockout of a launch escape system, designed to slot over the common 1m parachute nose cover that suits both the current two seater capsule, and the upcoming 1m single kitten capsule.

 

[Kiwi Shark]

upcoming 1m single kitten capsule

Oh cool, new capsule soon! More viability for mini-vehicles, with those little SRB units we already have and what not.

 

[Aziz]

over the common 1m parachute nose cover

Ayyy
Finally can put chutes on top and still be able to place something over it
Big W.

 

[Daishi]

Oh cool, new capsule soon! More viability for mini-vehicles, with those little SRB units we already have and what not.

Totes, probably a lander can first (and more descent stage hardware) - give you guys some better building options

 

[Kiwi Shark]

A can from the candy man, awesome. Thanks!

 

[Gigfiz]

Man, the more parts I see, the more my brain starts to drool at all the possibilities for building rockets that we are going to get, and are getting.

Totes, probably a lander can first (and more descent stage hardware) - give you guys some better building options

Speaking of better building options: I know that this is probably more of a coding issue than a parts and art issue but you seemed a good person to ask, regardless: I've been wondering: one of the things that always drove me nuts in KSP, especially when I was trying to get more creative, is the inability to create closed loops of parts. I'm trying to find the best way to word this so I can actually convey what I mean at least relatively clearly.

Say, for example, I make a station and, around the main body of the station, I add a ring of habitation parts all the way around it. In KSP, this would work all the way until the last part, where you needed to connect the last unit to the one you started the ring with, but then, with the way KSP handle part/attachments and heirarchies, It would not allow you to attach back to the base part you started with, regardless of attachment points. Thus, anything you ever wanted to make that had any sort of loop back or continuous loop was only (sort of) possible if you resorted to janky hacks like tons of struts, or clipping parts together, or anything else you could think of. Even then it was going to be incredibly wobbly, even on the KSP wobble scale, and would, more likely than not, shake itself to bit sooner than later, or just explode, even if you somehow managed to get it into orbit.

I hope that made at least some kind of sense. Realizing now that that is one that would have been much simpler to explain with a picture.

Assuming I was able to convey what I was trying to, and if you know the answer: please, please, please, is this something that is going to be possible with the KSA part/construction system/architecture?

Thought It'd make sense to ask before making an unnecessary post in suggestions. And I figured that, even if that aspect isn't one you are handling, it seemed at least decently likely that you would know the answer

Thanks for all the great work; it's really cool being able to watch a project take form starting from a stage so much earlier than most of us ever get to see.