Yay! The first derivative design of any of my works! :D This one is certainly easier to handle although a little overpowered. At 33% by mid-runway I was at 140 mph! XD Great work at making a silk purse out of my sow's ear! ^_^
@Pilotmario Ah okay, depending on the design of the projectile, by imparting a section with a greater ferrous magnetic response it can very quickly take on a spin according the theoretical function of a coil array, conversely that could destabilize the shell in passing through the array and have catastrophic results. I guess when it comes to weapons we should keep to the military standard of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) lol
@Pilotmario Darn you're fast! I'll have to take notes on operating procedures unfortunately though! lol I wish they'd give us CG9 & 0. I wound up having to use CG8 as well on my first ship build. I should post an "in progress," on her.
@Pilotmario I did! Great work on those other varieties! I commented on one of them. I have to admit I giggled a bit at the anti-aircraft variety because it made me think of my "corvette"'s anti-aircraft weaponry. I don't know how many times during testing this aircraft or that would be buzzing me so I'd flip on all the anti-aircraft weaponry and amidst the fireworks I'd see a bit of blackened debris falling. XD Admittedly ... it's a bit ... excessive. lmao
@Glaceon What is this ... a case of "barrel envy?" lol j/k A coilgun or "gauss" weapon propels projectiles in a similar fashion to a rail-gun using electromagnetic energy but instead of projecting it straight down a rail or array of rails, it forms an electromagnetic field around the projectile while accellerating it forward within the weapon through a sequence of coils that activate and deactivate as it moves down it's array. Therefore the longer the barrel, the more coils that can be integrated and therefore the greater the velocity/spin stability of the projectile - in theory.
@Pilotmario Do I have that explanation more or less correct? Please enlighten us if you would on the matter if I am mistaken of course! ^_^
@Pilotmario I've been working on and off on a general purpose Deuce and Half using the new wheels. Now that they gave the wheels their own internal suspension it makes the extensive chassis assembly a bit redundant but allows them to be made far more narrow as a result thankfully. I like this APC above though, how many variants have you produced thus far?
What was the inspiration behind this build? This looks sooo much like a vehicle in RIFTS its uncanny, even the location of the side doors! lol It's a vehicle used by the "Coalition States" a fascist human-supremecist imperial regime in North America. In there its simply called the APC V. The front though is the major difference. Theirs sloped down to a bulged bumper and a front entrance as well, had autocannons at the sides of the bumper and basically rockets in the front of the bumper. (I didn't design it, don't look at me! :D) The primary turret location on top at the centerline mounted a pair of rapid fire rail-guns. It also had four slightly raised ports with pintle mounted laser weapons that had to be manually aimed and fired without any kind of shield to protect them. (They didn't have remote weapon stations like they do today, to my knowledge, when it was first unveiled in 1990 when the original RIFTS main book was published.)
@Pilotmario Ah that's true. My "corvette" as I've been calling it is about 15 parts across and I have a 2.5 thick "bilge layer" under the hull parts. All my fuel and balast runs down the centerline of the ship, with balast added all down the centerline of the bilge layer making her stable in practically any turn. That'd be tough to do on this build. I -really- need to get over my fear of XML modding.
@TheOwlAce Nah that's alright. I created quite a broad worldview around the materials I had built, but with the ending of the first war you didn't take into account any of the dialog I tried to include with foreign emmissaries, government structure I mentioned, etc. lol It's okay, it was your' story to start off with. It was presumptuous of me to build onto the story line as much as I did. My past as a game master in table top gaming and freelance writer for Palladium Books' materials got the better of me. XD I'll finish this ship and eventually upload those last two aircraft from my side of the story but that's as far as I'll go.
@Pilotmario Ahh okay so you can't just add the bouyancy to
XML modded hull parts? I'm still mid-build on my first ship but I don't do any of my own XML modding so she's kinda lagzilla. lol I "borrow" components from all over the place that others XML mod but I try to credit those I do borrow from. The next ship will be larger than the one I'm building now but I'm hoping the XML components I've stocked will allow for its size without as much lag as this first one.
I started building for @TheOwlAce 's story line, taking it upon myself to challenge him as "the enemy." Soon after I told him I'd be introducing my builds for the enemy's real strength rather than the half-baked stuff they'd thrown at his Germania though (Stuff that he had built to serve as "the enemy.") he ended his story line. -_-; lol All the builds with the scarlet crown markings were supposed to be for that story. I did a couple of rebuilds of Germanian works as well to give them a bit more of a shine. Others are just random builds or builds from that RIFTS setting.
@Pilotmario You are quite imaginative! I can appreciate that kind of post-apocalyptic story line. I played in a post-apocalyptic table top RPG throughtout my teens and twenties, a game called RIFTS, though it was a far more modest 390-odd years in the future after a cataclysm that occurs in December of 2098 ... is it sad that I still remember such details? ^_^; I've already decided to follow your' builds after learning a lil more about your' setting I might just contribute some builds towards it. ;)
@Pilotmario Um ... is it supposed to sink on water? ;) It was the lag from its size that made you refrain from giving it bouyancy? Heck, I'm on a $300 refurbished Walmart HP laptop and it didn't lag an iota. XD Nonethe less I like the ideas behind its story line armament and that you soldiered on to create something of this size and detail on a struggling system. ^_^
@dillionbillen I confess I first began playing the early variant of this game which I found on a freeware site. (Incidentally mine didn't contain any viruses, spyware or adware either.) I enjoyed it so much I went to Steam and bought the real deal for all the neat extras and to become an authentic member of the community. Its not terribly expensive, cheaper than a meal at a diner, but you'll have hundreds of hours of fun with this game if you have a shred of creativity. Now, that aside; @WalrusAircraft OMG this goes beyond awe inspiring or beautiful - its downright sexy! lol The Corsair was the first WW2 plane my father introduced me to when I was only a toddler. I can honestly and proudly say that this aircraft was my first love. Looking at this creation I can definitely say this is the truest reproduction of the Corsair on SP to date. Awesome work!!
Heya Owly, I took her to my, proverbially speaking, Aberdeen proving grounds and assessed her as you requested. I can tell you put some real world thought into this design and I always appreciate that. The off-center main "cannon," the pintle mount gun on top, the sturdy looking skirting and armor - even the attempt to raise her weight artificially to that of a 13 ton tank were all great touches! There are a couple of matters that trouble this design though but for a couple of them you are not at fault for at all.
The first and the easiest problem to fix is the "hidden duplicate parts." At one time mirroring parts was pretty simple but at some point or other entire sections could be mirrored - even if parts of that section had already been mirrored separately. Take a look at the color images of your' tank. You notice how the main sections of skirting on the left side are a different color gray? You probably thought that was just the angle and light when in actuality there is a duplicate piece there inside the other ones. I found a few sections like this on that side of your' tank which explains partly why she pulls so hard to the left. You might want to give her a once over pulling off this part and that and then undoing it if there's no duplicate. Second, again not your' fault at all, is that the horsepower meter for these engines is all messed up. You put in two engines like a real panzer would have, gave 'em each decent horsepower for that weight class but at the current level of SimplePlanes' game mechanics, at least in this beta, its far too much. I reduced both to 50 HP and was still able to tool along at 75 mph once I got the build balanced and still had more than enough power to climb steep hills at 45-50 mph without a running start.
The angled piece of forward skirting, while good at disguising the fact that she doesn't have tracks, catches badly on uneven terrain since it's a hair lower than the foremost wheel. (I flipped like a VW Bug running squarely at the runway edge.) When I put her through her trials I removed some of the skirting that hung down over the sides. Since that's a design feature for your' build, I'd test her out and see if the skirting overall has to be given a Marilyn Monroe skirt lift. ;)
Which brings me back to balance. In building ships having weight added below the waterline or at least at the centerline on the ship gives it some vertical stability in a turn. On a vehicle that is the width of your' average sedan, addin
@AndrewGarrison Is there any chance of seeing the minimum length reduced to 0.25 as well for ease of creating wing insignia and the like before the beta goes to the mainstream?
I love all the new features and additions by the way, this update was a complete surprise. I have another question though; Is it true that fewer part counts are more mobile friendly? If true then why is there a maximum size on fuselage parts of 5x5x5? It seems to me that ships and large aircraft would be far easier to make mobile friendly if this maximum was eliminated. (I know it's possible through modding, of course, but many mainstream players are clueless about modding or too frightened to try to mod xml files for fear of messing up their games.)
I agree that there is something 'off' about the HP matter then again theoretically a 50 hp engine if you take the rpm out of the equasion can move hundreds of tons at an infinitely increasing speed. I think that's where this beta is lacking.
One other thing, while width and height of blocks have been reduced to a minimum of 0.25 why was length not similarly reduced? I was looking forward to making various detailed parts with that new feature. I'm grateful for what we've gotten thus far, don't get me wrong, but could it hurt that much to bring length down to the same?
On the reverse note, I've a question; If part count is what deems whether mobile users can DL and use a build why are we restricted to a maximum height/width/length of 5? Ship hulls and large aircraft designs could be made with a whole lot fewer parts without those limits?
@TheOwlAce Yep, it was just an experiment though as stated. I had hoped for better results but ah well. I wonder if I should point out that the US experimented with tank-style tread landing gear on oversized aircraft in the mid/late 30s and if they'd add that sometime down the line?? XD I think I understand what you're saying about this design though. Maybe with some fiddling with which wheels drive and which can reverse through AGs it'd work. At the moment though it just feels too cumbersome to continue to pursue in earnest.
Although a bone shaker, due to the lack of suspension, and being HIGHLY overpowered this utility truck got me further between Yeager and Bandit than your' previous jet powered vehicles. I was at the half way point, going between riding the breaks and going uphill at 2-10% throttle. What HP did you set the engine at, I didn't even check...? Anyway, I think my Suomi aircraft still very much want to fight ... I had my air to air up to watch for troublemakers ... and here comes this Tiikiri Attack Aircraft, dives towards the canyon before looping away. I ignored it and continued noting the good points of your' design ... then it happened. It had dropped a Boom-50 before it pulled out of that dive. I'm toolin' along, having fun, and next thing I know I'm jolted out of my seat from the unexpected explosion and the canopy section is flying back over the hill I'd cleared 2 mins before!! lmao Anyway, might wanna drop the HP a little on this beau but other than that it's a great truck!!
I see you're quick to apply the new materials in the beta! XD I'm trying to figure out a way to build a tank chassis (sans treads) that turns in the same fashion tanks do by disengaging one side's drive while the other continues. I have NO idea if it will work though or even be worthwhile. XD Dunno about you though but I love this update. I already saved a landing spot near the windmill farm south of South Airport, on the new island and then took the "Little Bugger" car as far as the ziggaraut but got hung up on the centerline on an outcropping of rock before I could visit the Pharaohs Garden and such. I also saved a landing spot at Avalanche Airport but those missile launchers are really pesky if you don't give them a wide berth or keep them obscured behind mountains.
Imagine my surprise waking up to find this gem on SPs!!! :D Of course you'd release the new Rotators AFTER I finished my turrets on that warship I have been building though! lol I found both of the new major islands but haven't found a so-called sea monster. Naturally the first was the hostile north island that started shooting at me right away. I'll have to sneak in low with my parasol wing monoplane and unlock that airstrip for giggles. I wonder if I can land on the big dry steppe and save that location too. A ziggaraut, the pyramids of giza and the sphynx all in one location, eh? None the less it was a lot of fun exploring using one of my son's DL'd freakishly fast and maneuverable jets to avoid those missiles and find the new islands. I LOVE the new parts!! I will just have to remember to control my throttle better. The Dune Buggy, named Little Bugger in the Beta, is a fun little thing to goof off with. THANK YOU for implementing some of the changes we have been asking for such as the hinges, smaller rotators and the ability to reduce width and height by 0.25 - this will be far easier for non-modders like me to build now without having to rely on quite so many saved modded parts. ^_^ The car parts are great too, not quite what I had proposed previously but sufficiently simplified to fit with the concept of a simple build~
@tablet Jokes aside its a nice job, being now two weeks into working on-and-off on my first ship I can really appreciate your' work and thought in this one. It hardly lags and yet has neat little functions to go along with it. I'm so detail oriented that, as my name suggests, maybe I should stick with planes. lol I've not seen anyone else build a forecastle with a simulated chain and anchor, ladders here and there and plating the deck and upper surfaces in 0.1 thick plates of a blue color to camo it from the air while maintaining a neutral gray to make it less visible in haze from other surface vessels. I had to strip down the deck planking which reduced my part count by nearly 200 pieces, given all the complicated angles and what not on the superstructure/turrets and to fit the tapering hull pieces. I've still got a few more parts to knock out but it turned out my turrets had clung to this deck planking rather than the hull so I have to be careful not to lose my alignment or I'll have to put up a girder from the the funnel or from the rangefinder tower to line them up all over again. I even wanted to put in a couple of cranes, two spinning surface radar dishes and a spinning aerial radar search assembly. -_- If I did keep to the level of detail I was planning it would be useless as a functional warship. Maybe it's just the limit of my laptop though? Dunno! -sigh-
@RocketLL That's exactly what I was asking, if I made modded parts somehow, if I could reduce the part count that is causing my poor ship to turn into lagzilla. Thanks!
@TehDuckFather She gets hung up on uneven surfaces quite a bit but she's still fun to toy around with! What is the rate of fire on that wing gun in the barrel? I haven't gotten an exact time count and figured since it was your' build you would know.
Oh, also! I saved the thin sheets of fuselage block covering the chassis and I've got to say it's some handy stuff! You'll probably see a lot of it in my builds in the future. Literally tons of it on my lil "corvette." I'm cooking up. Almost the entirety of my tank was made using it too! ^_^
Haven't played it in years but Final Fantasy XI was my major addiction before our financial situation became tight. Once that passed, FFXIV was the new in-thing and few people (comparatively) still played FFXI so it wasn't worth getting hooked up with it again.
Prior to those, I went through a phase of table top RPGs somewhere in the middle of that I played a couple of years of Hight School Football. (You didn't specify video games~)
I occasionally play the FB knock-off of World of Tanks but never invest money. I have World of Warplanes on my laptop but I just didn't get into it.
This game caters to all of my aspects though; Imagination, Creativity, Interaction (here), Aerial Combat and what's more - doesn't rein me in to ONLY build planes!! :D
Sharp looking bird!! I'm curious about the markings though. There was a rumor about a "white russian" unit formed under the Luftwaffe that had markings like those, but the colors were reversed. Did you draw inspiration from those? (The existence of the unit and scant photographic evidence of it leads many in the field of military aviation history to deduce that this was something cooked up for propaganda.) Here's a link to a model done up with these markings; Link
@tablet As @aseder said, I landed a light parasol wing propeller driven plane on the U.S.S. Beast and saved it under locations. I wanted to compare the shape and scale and thought to myself - "Oh my! It's a Mini-Beast!" I spawned it on Tiny as well and it dragged poor Tiny's bow completely out of the water but couldn't shake this ship off so it was slowly circling in the waters there at 4 mph while listing and its deck being nearly at a 30 degree angle. XD
This one sure looks luxurious compared to the ones my family and I used to rent and go out on a lake to go fishing with when I was in my youth. As I recall one of the days we were out there my father commented, as it started to drizzle, "Oh great, we're getting Russian fallout," as it was 3-4 days after Chernobyl. XD I've heard that some pontoon boats were built from military surplus drop tanks but have never tried to confirm it.
@MrSilverWolf It was a joke regarding the wings/control surfaces directed towards Airbus composite parts having a history of fatigue issues. You use the modded structural wings that allow control surfaces, right? I have used those in the past but not on any of my recent projects. I think the only bird I've put up with them is the Republican Ind. Type 0 Hayabusa. With other large scale projects most of the wing winds up being structural right up to the area where I need the aileron.
And why throw your' work against the ground, well, intentionally anyway?? lol Airliners are a whole different kind of thrill to land, the (generally) big lumbering busses that they are! I will confess though, to amuse my son, this aircraft was used once to destroy the bridge by Bandit airfield. (Perhaps needless to say, he's a subscriber to Weasel Zone.)
@MrSilverWolf Yay! I can hardly wait to see your' work on those projects! The 727 was pure selfishness based upon the fact that it is the only jet powered aircraft I have ever flown in. The others are due to their history. The Connie had an early version and a later version that looked similar but were virtually two different aircraft (I think.) Nevermind the military variants. The German ones became famous due to their use in military versions so people often forget that these were originally just airliners. ^_^
Very creative and colorful! I would NOT want to get drunk at a beach party on this thing though .... you would need to worry about how many fish were being drawn in from the booze laden "chum" I'd be "throwing" overboard!! lol
How about a Boeing 727, Lockheed Constellation and this one's a longshot as it's a modern amphibian and I'm not sure if its been adopted as a civil airliner or not - you can look it up as Beriev Be-200 though I think. On that note I think the Antonov An-2 was used as a light civil airliner. Oooh, another one, the Heinkel He-70 or even the Focke-Wulf Fw-200A or Junkers Ju-86Z! Yeah these aren't modern but they were boni fide airliners of their day!! :D
Although I gave my upvote for a great build and for the awesome idea to use the entire tailplane to level out the aircraft's flight characteristics I have to make one objection to this being a replica! No matter how much I abused the control surfaces nothing fell off of this Airbus! lol Jokes aside, another great build from a field of aviation that I am utterly clueless about - airliners! XD
Okay so the exclaimation mark is the difference between a link and image. Why oh why did they phase out HTML in forums? It was so much better when it was a uniform code wherever you went! XD
@TheOwlAce Hmmm. Depends on what you feel like building?Maybe try something new if you're bored. I built a "tank," and was happy with the result. Someone showed me their carrier and made me wanna build a warship, so I started with a Corvette that turned into this mini-monster. I want to do a cruiser and a carrier too though. Still, I have a mountain of ideas I want to follow on with. I still have aircraft I haven't uploaded from that original series! A single engine long range turbojet that's fairly fast and a LR Escort Fighter that is devilishly fast and maneuverable. My next series of aircraft are likely to be carrier borne. I'm curious about airships, honestly, I've never tried one of your's yet either. I already produced one airliner as an offshoot to the military industry for Se Suomi Imperiumi, I already have notes for the Sorsa to have a civil model available either as a float plane or landplane. I'd like to make more sea planes and I have a bet still riding on my ability to create a float fighter with retracting floats with my son. XD I WILL DO EET!! "O.O" lol
Furthermore now that you and I have learned about nudging we can cram fuel cells in wherever it is convenient to balance our birds and just call them pressurized fuel tanks... lol (I used a lot of them just offhand on that tank without nudging them together.)
Ultimately if it seems like it'd be a fun build for you or its what you want to see, I say go for it! I'll eventually get around to more civil aircraft - it's just in my blood to focus on war machines as a result of both sides of my family. lol
Yay! The first derivative design of any of my works! :D This one is certainly easier to handle although a little overpowered. At 33% by mid-runway I was at 140 mph! XD Great work at making a silk purse out of my sow's ear! ^_^
@Pilotmario Ah okay, depending on the design of the projectile, by imparting a section with a greater ferrous magnetic response it can very quickly take on a spin according the theoretical function of a coil array, conversely that could destabilize the shell in passing through the array and have catastrophic results. I guess when it comes to weapons we should keep to the military standard of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) lol
@Pilotmario Darn you're fast! I'll have to take notes on operating procedures unfortunately though! lol I wish they'd give us CG9 & 0. I wound up having to use CG8 as well on my first ship build. I should post an "in progress," on her.
@Pilotmario I did! Great work on those other varieties! I commented on one of them. I have to admit I giggled a bit at the anti-aircraft variety because it made me think of my "corvette"'s anti-aircraft weaponry. I don't know how many times during testing this aircraft or that would be buzzing me so I'd flip on all the anti-aircraft weaponry and amidst the fireworks I'd see a bit of blackened debris falling. XD Admittedly ... it's a bit ... excessive. lmao
@Glaceon What is this ... a case of "barrel envy?" lol j/k A coilgun or "gauss" weapon propels projectiles in a similar fashion to a rail-gun using electromagnetic energy but instead of projecting it straight down a rail or array of rails, it forms an electromagnetic field around the projectile while accellerating it forward within the weapon through a sequence of coils that activate and deactivate as it moves down it's array. Therefore the longer the barrel, the more coils that can be integrated and therefore the greater the velocity/spin stability of the projectile - in theory.
@Pilotmario Do I have that explanation more or less correct? Please enlighten us if you would on the matter if I am mistaken of course! ^_^
@Pilotmario I've been working on and off on a general purpose Deuce and Half using the new wheels. Now that they gave the wheels their own internal suspension it makes the extensive chassis assembly a bit redundant but allows them to be made far more narrow as a result thankfully. I like this APC above though, how many variants have you produced thus far?
@Pilotmario I looked around online and found a pic of the APC V and I guess my memory was a bit off on the particulars, here's an image;
What was the inspiration behind this build? This looks sooo much like a vehicle in RIFTS its uncanny, even the location of the side doors! lol It's a vehicle used by the "Coalition States" a fascist human-supremecist imperial regime in North America. In there its simply called the APC V. The front though is the major difference. Theirs sloped down to a bulged bumper and a front entrance as well, had autocannons at the sides of the bumper and basically rockets in the front of the bumper. (I didn't design it, don't look at me! :D) The primary turret location on top at the centerline mounted a pair of rapid fire rail-guns. It also had four slightly raised ports with pintle mounted laser weapons that had to be manually aimed and fired without any kind of shield to protect them. (They didn't have remote weapon stations like they do today, to my knowledge, when it was first unveiled in 1990 when the original RIFTS main book was published.)
@Pilotmario Ah that's true. My "corvette" as I've been calling it is about 15 parts across and I have a 2.5 thick "bilge layer" under the hull parts. All my fuel and balast runs down the centerline of the ship, with balast added all down the centerline of the bilge layer making her stable in practically any turn. That'd be tough to do on this build. I -really- need to get over my fear of XML modding.
@TheOwlAce Nah that's alright. I created quite a broad worldview around the materials I had built, but with the ending of the first war you didn't take into account any of the dialog I tried to include with foreign emmissaries, government structure I mentioned, etc. lol It's okay, it was your' story to start off with. It was presumptuous of me to build onto the story line as much as I did. My past as a game master in table top gaming and freelance writer for Palladium Books' materials got the better of me. XD I'll finish this ship and eventually upload those last two aircraft from my side of the story but that's as far as I'll go.
@Pilotmario Ahh okay so you can't just add the bouyancy to
XML modded hull parts? I'm still mid-build on my first ship but I don't do any of my own XML modding so she's kinda lagzilla. lol I "borrow" components from all over the place that others XML mod but I try to credit those I do borrow from. The next ship will be larger than the one I'm building now but I'm hoping the XML components I've stocked will allow for its size without as much lag as this first one.
I started building for @TheOwlAce 's story line, taking it upon myself to challenge him as "the enemy." Soon after I told him I'd be introducing my builds for the enemy's real strength rather than the half-baked stuff they'd thrown at his Germania though (Stuff that he had built to serve as "the enemy.") he ended his story line. -_-; lol All the builds with the scarlet crown markings were supposed to be for that story. I did a couple of rebuilds of Germanian works as well to give them a bit more of a shine. Others are just random builds or builds from that RIFTS setting.
@Pilotmario You are quite imaginative! I can appreciate that kind of post-apocalyptic story line. I played in a post-apocalyptic table top RPG throughtout my teens and twenties, a game called RIFTS, though it was a far more modest 390-odd years in the future after a cataclysm that occurs in December of 2098 ... is it sad that I still remember such details? ^_^; I've already decided to follow your' builds after learning a lil more about your' setting I might just contribute some builds towards it. ;)
@Pilotmario Nice detail in this post. UTC, is that anything like GMT? What landmass would this encompass, continentally/national border wise?
@Pilotmario Um ... is it supposed to sink on water? ;) It was the lag from its size that made you refrain from giving it bouyancy? Heck, I'm on a $300 refurbished Walmart HP laptop and it didn't lag an iota. XD Nonethe less I like the ideas behind its story line armament and that you soldiered on to create something of this size and detail on a struggling system. ^_^
@dillionbillen I confess I first began playing the early variant of this game which I found on a freeware site. (Incidentally mine didn't contain any viruses, spyware or adware either.) I enjoyed it so much I went to Steam and bought the real deal for all the neat extras and to become an authentic member of the community. Its not terribly expensive, cheaper than a meal at a diner, but you'll have hundreds of hours of fun with this game if you have a shred of creativity. Now, that aside; @WalrusAircraft OMG this goes beyond awe inspiring or beautiful - its downright sexy! lol The Corsair was the first WW2 plane my father introduced me to when I was only a toddler. I can honestly and proudly say that this aircraft was my first love. Looking at this creation I can definitely say this is the truest reproduction of the Corsair on SP to date. Awesome work!!
Heya Owly, I took her to my, proverbially speaking, Aberdeen proving grounds and assessed her as you requested. I can tell you put some real world thought into this design and I always appreciate that. The off-center main "cannon," the pintle mount gun on top, the sturdy looking skirting and armor - even the attempt to raise her weight artificially to that of a 13 ton tank were all great touches! There are a couple of matters that trouble this design though but for a couple of them you are not at fault for at all.
The first and the easiest problem to fix is the "hidden duplicate parts." At one time mirroring parts was pretty simple but at some point or other entire sections could be mirrored - even if parts of that section had already been mirrored separately. Take a look at the color images of your' tank. You notice how the main sections of skirting on the left side are a different color gray? You probably thought that was just the angle and light when in actuality there is a duplicate piece there inside the other ones. I found a few sections like this on that side of your' tank which explains partly why she pulls so hard to the left. You might want to give her a once over pulling off this part and that and then undoing it if there's no duplicate. Second, again not your' fault at all, is that the horsepower meter for these engines is all messed up. You put in two engines like a real panzer would have, gave 'em each decent horsepower for that weight class but at the current level of SimplePlanes' game mechanics, at least in this beta, its far too much. I reduced both to 50 HP and was still able to tool along at 75 mph once I got the build balanced and still had more than enough power to climb steep hills at 45-50 mph without a running start.
The angled piece of forward skirting, while good at disguising the fact that she doesn't have tracks, catches badly on uneven terrain since it's a hair lower than the foremost wheel. (I flipped like a VW Bug running squarely at the runway edge.) When I put her through her trials I removed some of the skirting that hung down over the sides. Since that's a design feature for your' build, I'd test her out and see if the skirting overall has to be given a Marilyn Monroe skirt lift. ;)
Which brings me back to balance. In building ships having weight added below the waterline or at least at the centerline on the ship gives it some vertical stability in a turn. On a vehicle that is the width of your' average sedan, addin
@AndrewGarrison Is there any chance of seeing the minimum length reduced to 0.25 as well for ease of creating wing insignia and the like before the beta goes to the mainstream?
I love all the new features and additions by the way, this update was a complete surprise. I have another question though; Is it true that fewer part counts are more mobile friendly? If true then why is there a maximum size on fuselage parts of 5x5x5? It seems to me that ships and large aircraft would be far easier to make mobile friendly if this maximum was eliminated. (I know it's possible through modding, of course, but many mainstream players are clueless about modding or too frightened to try to mod xml files for fear of messing up their games.)
D.A.
I agree that there is something 'off' about the HP matter then again theoretically a 50 hp engine if you take the rpm out of the equasion can move hundreds of tons at an infinitely increasing speed. I think that's where this beta is lacking.
One other thing, while width and height of blocks have been reduced to a minimum of 0.25 why was length not similarly reduced? I was looking forward to making various detailed parts with that new feature. I'm grateful for what we've gotten thus far, don't get me wrong, but could it hurt that much to bring length down to the same?
On the reverse note, I've a question; If part count is what deems whether mobile users can DL and use a build why are we restricted to a maximum height/width/length of 5? Ship hulls and large aircraft designs could be made with a whole lot fewer parts without those limits?
@TheOwlAce Yep, it was just an experiment though as stated. I had hoped for better results but ah well. I wonder if I should point out that the US experimented with tank-style tread landing gear on oversized aircraft in the mid/late 30s and if they'd add that sometime down the line?? XD I think I understand what you're saying about this design though. Maybe with some fiddling with which wheels drive and which can reverse through AGs it'd work. At the moment though it just feels too cumbersome to continue to pursue in earnest.
Don't forget about Opel, they made a lot of vehicles for Germany.
@TheOwlAce Since you're using the beta, check the gizmo section, when you set the speed to 0 they become these wicked small hinges! :D
Although a bone shaker, due to the lack of suspension, and being HIGHLY overpowered this utility truck got me further between Yeager and Bandit than your' previous jet powered vehicles. I was at the half way point, going between riding the breaks and going uphill at 2-10% throttle. What HP did you set the engine at, I didn't even check...? Anyway, I think my Suomi aircraft still very much want to fight ... I had my air to air up to watch for troublemakers ... and here comes this Tiikiri Attack Aircraft, dives towards the canyon before looping away. I ignored it and continued noting the good points of your' design ... then it happened. It had dropped a Boom-50 before it pulled out of that dive. I'm toolin' along, having fun, and next thing I know I'm jolted out of my seat from the unexpected explosion and the canopy section is flying back over the hill I'd cleared 2 mins before!! lmao Anyway, might wanna drop the HP a little on this beau but other than that it's a great truck!!
D.A.
@TheOwlAce I'm trying the same with my ships and land vehicles.
@TheOwlAce Yeah, in the air, I meant after landing. XD
I see you're quick to apply the new materials in the beta! XD I'm trying to figure out a way to build a tank chassis (sans treads) that turns in the same fashion tanks do by disengaging one side's drive while the other continues. I have NO idea if it will work though or even be worthwhile. XD Dunno about you though but I love this update. I already saved a landing spot near the windmill farm south of South Airport, on the new island and then took the "Little Bugger" car as far as the ziggaraut but got hung up on the centerline on an outcropping of rock before I could visit the Pharaohs Garden and such. I also saved a landing spot at Avalanche Airport but those missile launchers are really pesky if you don't give them a wide berth or keep them obscured behind mountains.
Imagine my surprise waking up to find this gem on SPs!!! :D Of course you'd release the new Rotators AFTER I finished my turrets on that warship I have been building though! lol I found both of the new major islands but haven't found a so-called sea monster. Naturally the first was the hostile north island that started shooting at me right away. I'll have to sneak in low with my parasol wing monoplane and unlock that airstrip for giggles. I wonder if I can land on the big dry steppe and save that location too. A ziggaraut, the pyramids of giza and the sphynx all in one location, eh? None the less it was a lot of fun exploring using one of my son's DL'd freakishly fast and maneuverable jets to avoid those missiles and find the new islands. I LOVE the new parts!! I will just have to remember to control my throttle better. The Dune Buggy, named Little Bugger in the Beta, is a fun little thing to goof off with. THANK YOU for implementing some of the changes we have been asking for such as the hinges, smaller rotators and the ability to reduce width and height by 0.25 - this will be far easier for non-modders like me to build now without having to rely on quite so many saved modded parts. ^_^ The car parts are great too, not quite what I had proposed previously but sufficiently simplified to fit with the concept of a simple build~
@tablet Jokes aside its a nice job, being now two weeks into working on-and-off on my first ship I can really appreciate your' work and thought in this one. It hardly lags and yet has neat little functions to go along with it. I'm so detail oriented that, as my name suggests, maybe I should stick with planes. lol I've not seen anyone else build a forecastle with a simulated chain and anchor, ladders here and there and plating the deck and upper surfaces in 0.1 thick plates of a blue color to camo it from the air while maintaining a neutral gray to make it less visible in haze from other surface vessels. I had to strip down the deck planking which reduced my part count by nearly 200 pieces, given all the complicated angles and what not on the superstructure/turrets and to fit the tapering hull pieces. I've still got a few more parts to knock out but it turned out my turrets had clung to this deck planking rather than the hull so I have to be careful not to lose my alignment or I'll have to put up a girder from the the funnel or from the rangefinder tower to line them up all over again. I even wanted to put in a couple of cranes, two spinning surface radar dishes and a spinning aerial radar search assembly. -_- If I did keep to the level of detail I was planning it would be useless as a functional warship. Maybe it's just the limit of my laptop though? Dunno! -sigh-
@RocketLL That's exactly what I was asking, if I made modded parts somehow, if I could reduce the part count that is causing my poor ship to turn into lagzilla. Thanks!
@TehDuckFather She gets hung up on uneven surfaces quite a bit but she's still fun to toy around with! What is the rate of fire on that wing gun in the barrel? I haven't gotten an exact time count and figured since it was your' build you would know.
Oh, also! I saved the thin sheets of fuselage block covering the chassis and I've got to say it's some handy stuff! You'll probably see a lot of it in my builds in the future. Literally tons of it on my lil "corvette." I'm cooking up. Almost the entirety of my tank was made using it too! ^_^
Haven't played it in years but Final Fantasy XI was my major addiction before our financial situation became tight. Once that passed, FFXIV was the new in-thing and few people (comparatively) still played FFXI so it wasn't worth getting hooked up with it again.
Prior to those, I went through a phase of table top RPGs somewhere in the middle of that I played a couple of years of Hight School Football. (You didn't specify video games~)
I occasionally play the FB knock-off of World of Tanks but never invest money. I have World of Warplanes on my laptop but I just didn't get into it.
This game caters to all of my aspects though; Imagination, Creativity, Interaction (here), Aerial Combat and what's more - doesn't rein me in to ONLY build planes!! :D
I think we'd be happy just with a system in place for a decent camo scheme.
Sharp looking bird!! I'm curious about the markings though. There was a rumor about a "white russian" unit formed under the Luftwaffe that had markings like those, but the colors were reversed. Did you draw inspiration from those? (The existence of the unit and scant photographic evidence of it leads many in the field of military aviation history to deduce that this was something cooked up for propaganda.) Here's a link to a model done up with these markings; Link
@tablet As @aseder said, I landed a light parasol wing propeller driven plane on the U.S.S. Beast and saved it under locations. I wanted to compare the shape and scale and thought to myself - "Oh my! It's a Mini-Beast!" I spawned it on Tiny as well and it dragged poor Tiny's bow completely out of the water but couldn't shake this ship off so it was slowly circling in the waters there at 4 mph while listing and its deck being nearly at a 30 degree angle. XD
This one sure looks luxurious compared to the ones my family and I used to rent and go out on a lake to go fishing with when I was in my youth. As I recall one of the days we were out there my father commented, as it started to drizzle, "Oh great, we're getting Russian fallout," as it was 3-4 days after Chernobyl. XD I've heard that some pontoon boats were built from military surplus drop tanks but have never tried to confirm it.
@MrSilverWolf It was a joke regarding the wings/control surfaces directed towards Airbus composite parts having a history of fatigue issues. You use the modded structural wings that allow control surfaces, right? I have used those in the past but not on any of my recent projects. I think the only bird I've put up with them is the Republican Ind. Type 0 Hayabusa. With other large scale projects most of the wing winds up being structural right up to the area where I need the aileron.
And why throw your' work against the ground, well, intentionally anyway?? lol Airliners are a whole different kind of thrill to land, the (generally) big lumbering busses that they are! I will confess though, to amuse my son, this aircraft was used once to destroy the bridge by Bandit airfield. (Perhaps needless to say, he's a subscriber to Weasel Zone.)
@MrSilverWolf Yay! I can hardly wait to see your' work on those projects! The 727 was pure selfishness based upon the fact that it is the only jet powered aircraft I have ever flown in. The others are due to their history. The Connie had an early version and a later version that looked similar but were virtually two different aircraft (I think.) Nevermind the military variants. The German ones became famous due to their use in military versions so people often forget that these were originally just airliners. ^_^
Congrats on finishing it up! ^_^
Very creative and colorful! I would NOT want to get drunk at a beach party on this thing though .... you would need to worry about how many fish were being drawn in from the booze laden "chum" I'd be "throwing" overboard!! lol
LOL The things we come up with....
@izumoakane Subarashī gunkan!! ^_^
I have a couple of requests;
How about a Boeing 727, Lockheed Constellation and this one's a longshot as it's a modern amphibian and I'm not sure if its been adopted as a civil airliner or not - you can look it up as Beriev Be-200 though I think. On that note I think the Antonov An-2 was used as a light civil airliner. Oooh, another one, the Heinkel He-70 or even the Focke-Wulf Fw-200A or Junkers Ju-86Z! Yeah these aren't modern but they were boni fide airliners of their day!! :D
Although I gave my upvote for a great build and for the awesome idea to use the entire tailplane to level out the aircraft's flight characteristics I have to make one objection to this being a replica! No matter how much I abused the control surfaces nothing fell off of this Airbus! lol Jokes aside, another great build from a field of aviation that I am utterly clueless about - airliners! XD
@Thefalloutplayr In any case, thanks for the tutorial!! ^_^
Okay so the exclaimation mark is the difference between a link and image. Why oh why did they phase out HTML in forums? It was so much better when it was a uniform code wherever you went! XD
@Thefalloutplayr
@Thefalloutplayr Okay so like this
![http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/276217874795717992/EC5A7C157DCA4EF075F58972A75AA87A8A8B9DB8/]
@Thefalloutplayr Excellent! Now how about displaying images?
@Thefalloutplayr So like this?
@TheOwlAce Hmmm. Depends on what you feel like building?Maybe try something new if you're bored. I built a "tank," and was happy with the result. Someone showed me their carrier and made me wanna build a warship, so I started with a Corvette that turned into this mini-monster. I want to do a cruiser and a carrier too though. Still, I have a mountain of ideas I want to follow on with. I still have aircraft I haven't uploaded from that original series! A single engine long range turbojet that's fairly fast and a LR Escort Fighter that is devilishly fast and maneuverable. My next series of aircraft are likely to be carrier borne. I'm curious about airships, honestly, I've never tried one of your's yet either. I already produced one airliner as an offshoot to the military industry for Se Suomi Imperiumi, I already have notes for the Sorsa to have a civil model available either as a float plane or landplane. I'd like to make more sea planes and I have a bet still riding on my ability to create a float fighter with retracting floats with my son. XD I WILL DO EET!! "O.O" lol
Furthermore now that you and I have learned about nudging we can cram fuel cells in wherever it is convenient to balance our birds and just call them pressurized fuel tanks... lol (I used a lot of them just offhand on that tank without nudging them together.)
Ultimately if it seems like it'd be a fun build for you or its what you want to see, I say go for it! I'll eventually get around to more civil aircraft - it's just in my blood to focus on war machines as a result of both sides of my family. lol
@Thefalloutplayr Thanks for that! How do you display images here? We need a forum functions pinned post for dummies like me. lol