Frankly, landing gears might be pointless for a ship this small with how Keen has handled tire and suspension parts. It doesn’t feel like there’s any love for proper planes or their aerospace cousins outside of the modding community. Even so, the last unmodded model in the Cosmo Messer series deserves all the flare it can get, so she gets landing gears in addition to retractable rocket launchers.

I’m also putting this gif up on Steam since I haven’t uploaded anything in a while and I think people tend to like streamlined mechanics like these. This also serves as an Easy Automation test for fighters, though I haven’t rigged up the rocket launchers the same way as the landing gears just yet. I’ve got the parsing down now, so that won’t take long.

All in all, this is good progress. I think the most difficult part of designing the Cosmo Messer F is going to be settling on the armament and the default color scheme.

I guess I’m committed, now. It took about an hour yesterday but I managed to get all four main turrets replaced–ironically with the exact same turrets a much older version of the ship carried. Large sections of the prow had to be changed to have the guns fit properly, but the Hipper’s exterior is looking a bit more streamlined in the front, now. The turrets have decent firing arcs. I’ll put up some screenshots sometime this weekend.

Part of the reason I didn’t want to do this was that it brings the Hipper’s required weapon mods from just one to two, and the total number up to five. It might not seem like much, but mods add up extremely quickly. This is part of the reason I pretty much never use Mexpex’s missile mods on anything because it’s just a missile pack.

Ideally the one weapon pack I wind up using per build will have ballistics, missiles, and energy weapons, but most only check one or two boxes. The mods I do use across the factions are all popular enough, but you can’t expect people to have them or want to subscribe to workshop blueprints that won’t work without them. The idea is to aim for vanilla or as close to it as possible and let subscribers decide if and how they want to up-gun the ships.

This is going to be a real challenge to work around, but at this point I just want to finish the ship so I can start focusing on different factions for a while. There may come a point where I can go back and eliminate a mod here and there, but I can’t let this situation hold me up anymore than it already has.

HCs will make sense later. For now, let’s do some quick introductions.

The Crew

CO/Captain Paul Wilk

The commanding officer of the KCV Admiral Hipper from her commissioning into the Kaiser fleet and onward. He held three previous commands including a prototype destroyer, the KCV Konigsberg, and the KCV Admiral Scheer. He’s known for being focused, diligent, and cautious.

XO Thomas Nilson

One of the youngest XOs in the Kaiser faction, Nilson is incredibly quick for an unaltered human, able to work more closely with the Admiral Hipper‘s AI than anyone else. Nilson is generally cordial and acquiescing to Captain Wilk.

Ensign Richard Brice

The Admiral Hipper‘s up and coming helmsman. Ensign Brice always speaks his mind when he can get away with it, and sometimes even when he knows he won’t. His youth and empathetic nature have gotten him some leeway from his crewmates.

Chief Tactical Officer Cline

In charge of coordinating the Admiral Hipper’s vast arsenal of weapons, Cline is perhaps the most introverted of the senior officers. Even so, he is attentive and efficient, to the point that he and Captain Wilk have little need for words at all. When his CO decides to attack, Cline knows exactly what to allocate for the greatest effect.

Chief Engineer Weber

Weber can usually be found on the bridge during important operations. Otherwise, he oversees his subordinates in the engineering section. Weber likes to interact with his colleagues, especially when he can clear up any confusion about Kaiser technology adapted from Kusanagi Industries’ prototypes, but he knows how to read the room; when it’s time to get serious, there’ll be nothing but critical information from him.

Chief Comms Officer Elain Royer

As straitlaced as they come, Royer was a survivor of the KCV Hanover, one of the Kaiser faction’s first battleships. The Hanover was ambushed and destroyed after an intense battle against overwhelming numbers. Royer and the survivors were escorted to safety by Lieutenant Blau and his wingmen, and later recommended for the Admiral Hipper‘s crew.

Chief Science Officer Jin Ise

Ise, like a number of Kusanagi specialists, was sent over to the Kaiser faction to help them incorporate KI technology and develop their own alternatives. Due to the Kaiser’s extreme reluctance to deploy what few battleships they possess outside of friendly territory, the Admiral Hipper-class has taken up the brunt of the frontline fighting. This has forced Ise and his fellow KI scientists to work aboard these sturdy, but often outmatched heavy cruisers to more thoroughly test and evaluate Kaiser weapons and systems.

1st Lieutenant Blau

Blau is a veteran Kaiser pilot assigned to the Admiral Hipper‘s fighter wing. He first served as a scout craft pilot aboard the Kaiser Battleship Hanover, the same ship as Royer. Blau and a handful of others were ordered to escape with the survivors, an order they dutifully obeyed, earning them new postings within the modernized fleet. While Blau’s old colleagues were given different assignments from him, he’s taken a liking to his subordinates aboard the Hipper.

2nd Lieutenant Skinner

Skinner was one of the four test pilots of the Cosmo Messer, making him quite knowledgeable about the model and its many quirks. Based on simulations, he is far and away the best pilot the Admiral Hipper has, but he takes a secondary role in combat, following Blau’s lead and covering for him and their fellow wingmen.

Specialist May

May is one of the Admiral Hipper’s most surefooted engineers. She typically operates the ship’s hangar carousel and the associated machinery. When something breaks or simply jams, she’s always the first on the scene.

Weaponcore vs Rotor Turrets

I’ve officially tried everything short of writing my own script, and I’m more than a year out from being able to make an attempt at a C# program. I also probably won’t be able to get a hold of the SBY mod creator. He kind of stepped into the thick of it being the first person to make that kind of mod; I’m assuming the overwhelming responses–both good and bad–are why the comment section for the mod are down. With people already asking about engines and Dessler torpedoes and things like that, I really doubt my request for a dual barrel 20cm turret (which isn’t even canon) can climb above the more interesting ideas people are burying him in.

I may just have to bite the bullet and accept that the space cruiser versions of the Admiral HIpper class are going to be 12 gun vessels, at least starting out.

The only other alternative …

is Northwind.