@Boeing747 I agree, the measurements on this being given in metres when the plane properties displays in feet isn't very helpful. Fortunately, the equivalent in feet were given in the details for a previous tournament.
The limits are:
Max length - 65.6 feet
Max wingspan - 65.6 feet
Max height - 32.8 feet
I've got three different designs that I'm working on at the minute, trying different approaches. Two of them are competitive pace, but sometimes crash. The other is reliable but too slow. More work needed!
I'm struggling the most with the low ring near to the ground and one of the ones where you're flying near the cliffs. If the plane doesn't turn quickly enough it hits the ground at the low ring, if it turns too quickly it tries to take a shortcut through the cliffs.
I disagree. A lot of the creators on here have their own style when it comes to making planes. I follow creators that build in a style that I find appealing, so it's quite likely I'll upvote them. Sometimes I do it just on looks, sometimes after a flight test. I actually feel like I don't upvote enough of the good creations, I should make more of an effort to appreciate those that make the good builds.
@Tully2001 Wow, that's fast! I was just looking at the previous Oceanview tournament, the mod class winner did it in 0:56. Obviously we won't manage that this time, but that's impressively close.
I'm entering my Monitor as a successor. It's debatable as to whether it counts more as a flying wing or a blended wing body plane, so let me know if there's a problem.
@WhiteWing Yes, I'm planning to enter. I've made a plane that can do all the courses (except Eagle Pass), I just want to give it a bit more fine tuning before submitting it. Hope that's OK.
@Garuda1ITalisman You can have an engine, but the race automatically gets rid of any fuel. The glider just has to deal with the engine weight and drag.
@Garuda1ITalisman It can be done, but it is slow. I did a previous challenge where the aim was to build something that could complete both Eagle Pass and Daredevil. I came up with this
I usually put the engines at the back and have them attached to a rotator. Set the rotator to move with roll or yaw, whichever you prefer, then you can steer the boat by making the engines point off to one side. Or include a VTOL engine and use VTOL nozzles set to move with pitch or yaw, use the reaction control nozzles, or both.
I find getting the handling right hard. Sometimes it works how I think it will, sometimes I can figure out how to change it and get it right, but sometimes it just won't work like I think it should and I can't figure out why.
One Punch Man is good, but there's only been one series so far. Apart from that, I'm another one who's a Studio Ghibli fan. I've just discovered there's a Valkyria Chronicles anime, so I'm giving that a go. I loved the game, but the anime is just OK so far, it hasn't really made a good or bad impression on me.
Allow wing cannon type guns to be mounted anywhere, not just on the wings. And include an interrupter gear to allow wing cannon guns to fire through propellers.
@Liquidfox I just tried to tweak my plane to make it that little bit faster. It crashed into a wall, but the cockpit flew off and through a ring! Not very useful in the race, but a cool trick.
So, those with fast planes, how close to the walls does your plane get? I've got one that can get round in under two minutes. First version nearly gave me a heart attack, it got that close to the walls. Second version is one second faster, gets even closer to the walls, and gets me even closer to a heart attack. I'm wondering how much faster I dare push things.
Oh, and while we're asking for features, it'd be nice to be able to select each surface of a fuselage block and choose whether it fastens to the adjacent block or not. It'd make it much easier to build bomb bays and hatches if you could have two fuselage pieces fitting flush together without them getting stuck together and refusing to move.
This is a great idea. It'd also be nice to have some camo patterns. They could be implemented like parts that have multiple trim pieces on them. So you could have primary for the base camo colour, then trim 1, trim 2, trim 3 to have different colours in the mix. That would allow a lot of variation with just a few patterns.
@FearlessFabFlightIndustries Thanks! It seems to be a little bit of a tradition for people to build something fancy to celebrate getting to gold, so I'll have to decide what to make.
@FearlessFabFlightIndustries An easy way for you to use this would be to download it, take the cockpits off, then save everything else as a sub-assembly. Create a new plane, drag the sub-assembly out and re-attach the cockpits - it should work. I don't think anyone will have a problem with that, it's still your design, I've just been your test pilot and the changes are pretty minor.
@FearlessFabFlightIndustries I've just finished putting all the changes in the description. Here they are again: After testing the FF4 on Lunar Arc, here's a slightly changed version that can do the race. I added two more inlets in the nose because the engines weren't getting enough air, they're fine now. I changed the RCN nozzles to have no activation group, so they'd actually work in the race (activation group 8 isn't switched on by default in the tournament races like it is on the normal races). Fuel has been reduced, there is only fuel in the two main wings. This changed the centre of mass and made the plane unstable, so I changed the sweep of the rear stabilisers to make it controllable again.
You asked for a test on this. I'm sorry, but at the minute this isn't too good. It fails to finish sometimes, getting stuck looping round a ring, and even when it does finish it sometimes misses rings. Currently clocking a time of 1:29, which is a bit slow. So, what can you do to make this better? There were four issues. First, because your engines are quite slow to power up, the plane is slow to start accelerating up. This isn't necessarily a big problem, the plane does recover from it well, but it is slowing your time. Second, and your biggest problem, is a lack of pitch control. You seem to have made a really tiny control surface on your horizontal stabiliser, I'd recommend either making it bigger or adding a canard wing at the front to improve your pitch control. It's really important for this race, you have to make quite tight turns, so being able to quickly go into a climb or dive is required for good performance. Third, the wings and stabiliser seem a bit insecure. There's a big dive, followed by a rapid change to level flight. Your plane can manage it, but the wings start flapping, which might be slowing you down. Fourth - and a nice easy one - you're carrying way too much fuel. This finishes with 93% fuel left, so you can carry a lot less fuel and make your plane lighter, which should help performance. I know this seems like a lot, and I hope it doesn't sound too critical. I know it's just because you can't test except on the Steam version, and you're struggling because of that. Still, I hope this was helpful.
@GrumpyRacing I don't know - the previous ones have all been on a Sunday. Maybe the best thing for @schlumpfmaster to do would be to just keep checking back to this page, the link for the stream should show up at some point.
@schlumpfmaster All the submitted planes will be raced against each other on Sunday. Check back then and there'll be a link to a live stream on Twitch (which you can watch the recording of later), or you can wait until afterwards and links will appear on this page allowing you to just watch your races.
I've just put my entry in, it finishes in 33 seconds and has been consistent in testing - but as we all know, the AI may decide to freak out and crash in the race.
@TehJetMan Yay! A win by default is still a win! Thank you. I'm actually really glad you made this contest, I'd been wanting to try a steampunk thing like this for a while, you just gave me the motivation I needed.
@StaticSpud Maybe a little, yeah. I hadn't seen your King Cobra though, I designed this thinking more about the SR-71 Blackbird. Narrow at the front, wide at the back, rear-mounted engines.
@Boeing747 I agree, the measurements on this being given in metres when the plane properties displays in feet isn't very helpful. Fortunately, the equivalent in feet were given in the details for a previous tournament.
The limits are:
Max length - 65.6 feet
Max wingspan - 65.6 feet
Max height - 32.8 feet
I've got three different designs that I'm working on at the minute, trying different approaches. Two of them are competitive pace, but sometimes crash. The other is reliable but too slow. More work needed!
I'm struggling the most with the low ring near to the ground and one of the ones where you're flying near the cliffs. If the plane doesn't turn quickly enough it hits the ground at the low ring, if it turns too quickly it tries to take a shortcut through the cliffs.
I disagree. A lot of the creators on here have their own style when it comes to making planes. I follow creators that build in a style that I find appealing, so it's quite likely I'll upvote them. Sometimes I do it just on looks, sometimes after a flight test. I actually feel like I don't upvote enough of the good creations, I should make more of an effort to appreciate those that make the good builds.
Surprisingly enough, mine means that I embrace my geek side and am proud of it.
@Tully2001 Wow, that's fast! I was just looking at the previous Oceanview tournament, the mod class winner did it in 0:56. Obviously we won't manage that this time, but that's impressively close.
Yes, I'd like this.
@Skua Swagger12 has also upvoted this which is just a cockpit. Very suspicious.
Cool, this is going to be a real challenge!
I'm in, my Tivea is up as a successor.
I'm entering my Monitor as a successor. It's debatable as to whether it counts more as a flying wing or a blended wing body plane, so let me know if there's a problem.
I'm in, with an attempt at a replica of the Hawker Hunter.
I'm in, my Beralgi is up as a successor.
@WhiteWing Yes, I'm planning to enter. I've made a plane that can do all the courses (except Eagle Pass), I just want to give it a bit more fine tuning before submitting it. Hope that's OK.
@Garuda1ITalisman You can have an engine, but the race automatically gets rid of any fuel. The glider just has to deal with the engine weight and drag.
@Garuda1ITalisman It can be done, but it is slow. I did a previous challenge where the aim was to build something that could complete both Eagle Pass and Daredevil. I came up with this
@Warbrine No problem, glad to help.
Examples of my boats:
https://www.simpleplanes.com/a/q512Ll/GP-97-Salomere
https://www.simpleplanes.com/a/c81VHG/GP-26-Armed-RIB-Rigid-Inflatable-Boat
I usually put the engines at the back and have them attached to a rotator. Set the rotator to move with roll or yaw, whichever you prefer, then you can steer the boat by making the engines point off to one side. Or include a VTOL engine and use VTOL nozzles set to move with pitch or yaw, use the reaction control nozzles, or both.
Yes, I'm interested.
I find getting the handling right hard. Sometimes it works how I think it will, sometimes I can figure out how to change it and get it right, but sometimes it just won't work like I think it should and I can't figure out why.
I'm in, my Sifit is up as a successor.
One Punch Man is good, but there's only been one series so far. Apart from that, I'm another one who's a Studio Ghibli fan. I've just discovered there's a Valkyria Chronicles anime, so I'm giving that a go. I loved the game, but the anime is just OK so far, it hasn't really made a good or bad impression on me.
I'll be safe in the secure storage area at work that has reinforced doors and filtered air.
Do or donut, there is no try.
Allow wing cannon type guns to be mounted anywhere, not just on the wings. And include an interrupter gear to allow wing cannon guns to fire through propellers.
@Liquidfox I just tried to tweak my plane to make it that little bit faster. It crashed into a wall, but the cockpit flew off and through a ring! Not very useful in the race, but a cool trick.
So, those with fast planes, how close to the walls does your plane get? I've got one that can get round in under two minutes. First version nearly gave me a heart attack, it got that close to the walls. Second version is one second faster, gets even closer to the walls, and gets me even closer to a heart attack. I'm wondering how much faster I dare push things.
Oh, and while we're asking for features, it'd be nice to be able to select each surface of a fuselage block and choose whether it fastens to the adjacent block or not. It'd make it much easier to build bomb bays and hatches if you could have two fuselage pieces fitting flush together without them getting stuck together and refusing to move.
Well done!
This is a great idea. It'd also be nice to have some camo patterns. They could be implemented like parts that have multiple trim pieces on them. So you could have primary for the base camo colour, then trim 1, trim 2, trim 3 to have different colours in the mix. That would allow a lot of variation with just a few patterns.
I was wondering how the initial matches were decided. Perhaps someone involved with running the tournament can tell us.
@FearlessFabFlightIndustries Thanks! It seems to be a little bit of a tradition for people to build something fancy to celebrate getting to gold, so I'll have to decide what to make.
Congratulations on your victory.
Good luck in the tournament!
@FearlessFabFlightIndustries No problem, glad to help out.
@FearlessFabFlightIndustries An easy way for you to use this would be to download it, take the cockpits off, then save everything else as a sub-assembly. Create a new plane, drag the sub-assembly out and re-attach the cockpits - it should work. I don't think anyone will have a problem with that, it's still your design, I've just been your test pilot and the changes are pretty minor.
@FearlessFabFlightIndustries I've just finished putting all the changes in the description. Here they are again: After testing the FF4 on Lunar Arc, here's a slightly changed version that can do the race. I added two more inlets in the nose because the engines weren't getting enough air, they're fine now. I changed the RCN nozzles to have no activation group, so they'd actually work in the race (activation group 8 isn't switched on by default in the tournament races like it is on the normal races). Fuel has been reduced, there is only fuel in the two main wings. This changed the centre of mass and made the plane unstable, so I changed the sweep of the rear stabilisers to make it controllable again.
I'm in!
You asked for a test on this. I'm sorry, but at the minute this isn't too good. It fails to finish sometimes, getting stuck looping round a ring, and even when it does finish it sometimes misses rings. Currently clocking a time of 1:29, which is a bit slow. So, what can you do to make this better? There were four issues. First, because your engines are quite slow to power up, the plane is slow to start accelerating up. This isn't necessarily a big problem, the plane does recover from it well, but it is slowing your time. Second, and your biggest problem, is a lack of pitch control. You seem to have made a really tiny control surface on your horizontal stabiliser, I'd recommend either making it bigger or adding a canard wing at the front to improve your pitch control. It's really important for this race, you have to make quite tight turns, so being able to quickly go into a climb or dive is required for good performance. Third, the wings and stabiliser seem a bit insecure. There's a big dive, followed by a rapid change to level flight. Your plane can manage it, but the wings start flapping, which might be slowing you down. Fourth - and a nice easy one - you're carrying way too much fuel. This finishes with 93% fuel left, so you can carry a lot less fuel and make your plane lighter, which should help performance. I know this seems like a lot, and I hope it doesn't sound too critical. I know it's just because you can't test except on the Steam version, and you're struggling because of that. Still, I hope this was helpful.
@GrumpyRacing 0:27 is faster than mine, sounds like you've done a good job.
@GrumpyRacing I don't know - the previous ones have all been on a Sunday. Maybe the best thing for @schlumpfmaster to do would be to just keep checking back to this page, the link for the stream should show up at some point.
@schlumpfmaster All the submitted planes will be raced against each other on Sunday. Check back then and there'll be a link to a live stream on Twitch (which you can watch the recording of later), or you can wait until afterwards and links will appear on this page allowing you to just watch your races.
I've just put my entry in, it finishes in 33 seconds and has been consistent in testing - but as we all know, the AI may decide to freak out and crash in the race.
@TehJetMan Yay! A win by default is still a win! Thank you. I'm actually really glad you made this contest, I'd been wanting to try a steampunk thing like this for a while, you just gave me the motivation I needed.
@StaticSpud Maybe a little, yeah. I hadn't seen your King Cobra though, I designed this thinking more about the SR-71 Blackbird. Narrow at the front, wide at the back, rear-mounted engines.
I'm in, my Tebun is up as a successor.
Thank you!
I'm in, my Shayler is up as a successor.
I've made a micro version of a Star Trek Olympic class ship and uploaded it as a successor.
@Himynameiswalrus
I'm in, my Sunbird is up as a successor.