I ran out of time to work on the thumbnail for the Messer F workshop upload, but I did manage to iron out one last issue with the build. I managed to cover up the inside of the landing gear socket so the internal thrusters aren’t visible. I had to relocate a few hydrogen thrusters and even ditched a few ions here and there, but the ship’s handling is still right where it needs to be, so I’m fine with this. I’ll need to take a few more photos tomorrow and maybe make a gif or two to show the subgrids in action, but that’ll be it.

As for the Hipper, she’s practically done, too, but the details of the ship are so numerous I don’t even know where to begin as far as a workshop description. I’m also scrapping the video idea for now since gifs are more cost effective and won’t require youtube or anything like that.

Looking back on all this, it’s kind of funny how much I write about all this workshop prep. I check out the most recent uploads every day and I see so many designs just tossed out there with no fanfare. Those ones don’t get much attention. I’m always honing in on blueprints from builders I recognize or at least have a good presentation.

That’s why that thumbnail is so important. It’s the first (and often only) thing people browsing the workshop are going to see, and along with the name of the blueprint on display, it’s all you’re going to be able to do to draw people in. That’s why I’ve got to make sure I get the right one and make sure everything fits.

Anyway, I’ll see if I can wrap things up tomorrow evening.

I’m so close now it physically hurts. That also might be the hot sauce talking.

Anyway I want to have things finished by the 10th but that’s cutting it really close if I wind up running into anymore problems. I’m laser focused on the Hipper and the Messer right now, trying my best to finish up everything and then get the blueprints ready, but it’s still a coin toss as to whether I can make it. If I’m not finished by the 10th I’ll have to wait until after the 17th, so here’s hoping.

My day only started about two and a half hours ago so there isn’t any news yet. About all I can say for now is that I couldn’t add enough additional thrusters to in that big cavity in Hipper’s prow to make a meaningful difference, so instead I added more artificial masses and two more gravity ‘drivers’ for the gravity drive system. It’s enough for me to be able to live with Hipper’s sluggish maneuvers.

That’s all her propulsion systems tidied up, which just leaves the seats, consoles, etc. Once I’m finished programming and testing those I think we’re finally done.

The Cosmo Messer F is basically finished so that just needs the video footage, which I’m also working on. I also need to find out how to post that sidebar with the blueprint’s required mods. I never did figure out how to do that …

I had to stop tweaking the Hipper early today, but there was some progress made here and there. The briefing room got slightly remodeled, though the problem that motivated the remodeling wasn’t actually solved. Let’s just say subgrids are involved and it makes a part of the floor look more hazardous than it really is.

As for the main issues I still have to fix, it’s mostly down to the consoles and programmable blocks, but there’s one major issue I want to figure out now that I’ve done some serious maneuver testing. The Hipper’s acceleration with the SDS gravity drive system is great, but the ship’s overall handling is a bit lower than I need it to be (especially considering the ship’s being tested with only two of the potential thirteen it can carry docked to it).

One possible solution: There’s an area near the bow of the ship that’s completely empty. Originally I had a large clang drive installed there to allow the Hipper to fly on planets, but clang drives are clangy and there were a few other minor issues that outweighed the benefits, so I removed that a few milestones back. That empty space is probably my last bit of wiggle room to work in some kind of large thruster bank to give the ship better strafing. Failing that, I might have to upgrade the gravity drive system with side mounted gravity generators instead.

I’ve never been quite satisfied with the Hipper’s engineering section, but I went a little overboard in trying to make the ship workshop ready. For one thing I’ve basically remodeled the entire section, so much so that the Hipper’s sister ships are likely to have unique engineering sections themselves.

I wanted to find a way to fit two geshtam engines into the engineering space. The only way I could do that and still have the area be ‘comfortably navigable’ was to arrange them vertically. Thankfully this remodeling only took a couple of hours. The geshtam engines practically poke out of the bottom of the ship now, but a thin layer of heavy armor keeps everything looking nice and smooth on the exterior. Granted, this is a weakpoint of the ship now, but not the easiest to exploit.

Even with the ridiculously tall look of the engineering section, the Hipper’s core looks quite similar to the Magdeburg’s now, so that’s nice. The remaining issues with it are finding a new spot for the gravity generator and reinstalling some oxygen tanks.

The only other issues keeping Hipper off the workshop are that cleanup I mentioned, touching up the gravity engine system, and making sure all the seats, consoles, and programmable blocks are setup. That and the Cosmo Messer F, which I feel needs to go up first.