The main goal of the move from the Cosmo Messer E to the F series is to add more thrusters (where possible), more weapons, and fix some of the stationing issues the E series has. ‘Software’ and registry improvements are also in the works.

Thrusters

A few more internal hydrogen thrusters were added, these ones facing downward. The Cosmo Messer E could get airborne in Pertam’s 1.2Gs of gravity, but needed assistance from some of the lateral thrusters. Once it was airborne, it could maintain its altitude, but that’s dangerous to try and manage. The additional thrusters allow the F model to not only hover but fly in Pertam’s gravity.

There could be more thrusters added if they don’t poke out of the frame too much, but for now the main improvement I was aiming for in this area is finished.

Weapons

The final list of integrated weapons for the base F model are 4 chainguns, 2 rocket launchers, and 1 autocannon. A more upgunned version might swap the autocannon for a larger weapon, as well as some of the chainguns for autocannons, but that’s the extent of what the F model will be carrying internally.

Stationing

The Cosmo Messers need connectors to dock with other ships and magnetic plates for landing. In the Messer’s case, they need the plates more for staying on the Hipper’s carousel than anything. The F series is also getting landing gears for terrestrial operations. Since the thrusters have been upgraded, planetary operations are officially a part of the F series’ mission set.

The first of all the upgrades received was moving the connector closer to the center of the fuselage. This makes it possible to dock with a wider variety of ships. That said, the Cosmo Messer F is still a large fighter. It’s not tall, but it’s tall enough to pose a problem for hangars that are less than four blocks high. It also needs seven blocks of clearance for the wings. That’s part of the reason why the Hippers and other Kaiser ships usually have open air flight decks, even when they have large internal hangars for stowage.

Since the connector was moved forward, so was everything around it: the magnetic plate and the ventral camera. That means I’m going to have to make some adjustments to Hipper’s carousel, but it should be able to comfortably carry both types of Messers, the Es and the Fs. I don’t think the G and K models will differ too much on the connector placement, either.

Software and Registry Updates

Of course, by ‘software’ I just mean the scripts on the ship. The most important one is Coren’s Easy Automation, especially now that it controls the extension of the rocket launchers, landing gear, connector and magnetic plate switches. That’s about all that requires automation to make the F series an across the board improvement over the E in terms of usability, but it would be possible to do more, so I’m keeping the option open.

As for registry updates, I’m carefully following a naming convention to keep block and block groups as organized as possible.

Potential Upgrades

One thing I’m considering for the F series, especially since it’s the last series that won’t have any mod requirements, are hardpoints for weapons and modules. It would take some more conveyor and plating work to get it set up, but it might be worth it.

Closing

The Cosmo Messer F will definitely be ready late this month if nothing else comes up. After it’s finished and on the workshop I’ll be taking a break from the Cosmo Messers and working on other fighters when I have the time.

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.