NIC RODRIGUEZ
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Welcome to my blog page.
This is a place where I share my thoughts and experiences in many forms. 
A look into the journey of one artist adrift in a vast cosmos.
Thanks for checking in. Enjoy
NR 

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IP Development

1/21/2025

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Back in 2015 I was approached by a fellow artist about teaming up to help develop an IP for a client. Two other great artists and myself were tasked with creating a stylized world, backstory, and characters all on spec work. I was hopeful so I dug in and did a bunch of development work while only being paid in hope. 

The other artists and myself did some cool work for that project but I am generally hesitant to show my part in that in my portfolio. I recently spent a little time to elevate a few of the pitch pieces because the originals were a great foundation for the skills I have developed since then. I didn't want to leave them unfinished for my current portfolio.  

The first five pieces are the ones I just bumped up a bit, and the rest are a few of the rough concept sketches done during the earliest development process. 

I hope everyone involved in that project are doing well. Enjoy this little slice of history. 

​-NR
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A Vast and Mysterious Cosmos

1/8/2025

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Sometimes a small seed grows a large and fruitful tree.
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HoverBot.1

10/31/2024

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Here it is. The culmination of my time in pre-vanilla KSP. The Hover-Bot.1. 

It is a single stage to 'Munar' encounter, VTOL, all electric, Ion-propulsion driven lander vessel. 
After all of the lessons learned from the Hover-Moth, I ended up here. Addressing the problems I encountered with the Hover-Moth, this vehicle ended up bigger, heavier, but far more prepared for round trip 'Mun' encounters, and actually all around easier to fly.   
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The HoverBot.1 is a practical linear flyer (nothing remarkable), but is actually very adept in VTOL and close proximity maneuvers. The HoverMoth.1 was a test bed for the VTOL and electric propulsion systems, but it didn't have re-entry systems, reverse thrusters, or even lights (which made for deadly conditions in the dark craters of Mun). I added the aforementioned systems to the HoverBot.1, and set out for Mun encounters and return trips.

I was still using the WASD/SHIFT/CTRL control systems with a single throttle control with multiple toggle switches for various propulsion combinations. I eventually got the hang of flying around Kerbin, and gently hopping around the Mun. The HoverBot.1 performed excellently in all scenarios, and was an all around success. This vessel's performance was a major inspiration in the my second novella Hydray.5.   
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This video is sped up 4x
Orbit
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​This was the only screenshot I took from the Mun encounters. It sucks, but it's true ("It's a HOAX!"). The HoverBot.1 was the easiest vessel to explore the Mun with that I personally have experienced. It had great control in the sinewy gravitational field, and was able to set down and hop off repeatedly with little fuss or struggle. I have since learned so much more about the static effects of Lunar silt and am wondering if Ion propulsion would be able to function for long without some form of repulsive field emanating from the mechanisms. I'm still hopeful.  

​-NR 
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Swordtember 2024

9/29/2024

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It's that time of year again. This year for Swordtember I decided to go with less magical designs, and more forgeable, or makeable designs. I also did full color renders this year and learned a lot about material rendering. I'm quite happy with the results overall. 

Enjoy.
-NR

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OX.1

10/26/2023

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Before I introduce my second iteration of a lunar lander, I want to talk about the OX.1. This is a fantasy experiment gone horribly right. One of the mods I was using in KSP at this time in 2015 was a stealth wing package, and I wanted to create a stylish, SciFi jet using these handsome stealth wing parts. 

The result was this awesome looking craft that looks and flies like Batman's Batwing (minus the VTOL), but in light of that already being a thing, I named this one the OX. Despite having too many unnecessary surfaces in place for aesthetics, too many control surfaces to compensate for competing lift directions, strange yet effective lift chambers and pockets created by the various part configurations, and probably some broken physics programed into the parts package, the result of this was an incredibly maneuverable and stable craft. 

Handsome too.
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What amounts effectively to a high tech bush plane, the OX.1 is really slow at top speed, but incredibly nimble and responsive. It's an all electric vessel with a combination of turbine and ionic thrusters. The OX can pierce the veil into orbit and sit quietly in observation like the 'Black Knight Satellite' due the onboard ionic thruster, or whip around tight turns and acrobatics in atmosphere with the turbine combinations.

Liftoff can occur as slow as 30 meters/second, and landings are a little floaty but very gentle and stable. It's most likely broken physics simulation data, but if I dropped to landing altitude, set trajectory to the horizon, and cut engines, the OX would test one's patience before it ever touched gear to ground. It would just float along on the lift pockets built into the body. Yes my computer really was that slow, and this video is sped up 4x. 

Enjoy,
​-NR
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Swordtember 2023

9/29/2023

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HovMoth

7/23/2023

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     The HovMoth or Hover Moth was my first attempt at a Moon (Mun) lander. I wanted to see a Hydrogen Ion driven, VTOL, single stage to orbit vessel capable of lateral atmospheric flight, but built to gently touch down and navigate multiple Lunar encounters. It took some adjusting but the HovMoth hit every mark as a prototype. It didn't have lights, airbrakes for reentry, and the thrust configuration wasn't the greatest, but worked as a first round draft.

​     If you look close you can see that I changed the nose cones from the funky mandible looking ones, to a much smaller dome shape in the videos. I unfortunately don't have a hangar photo of that configuration.
   
     VTOL Takeoff to lateral flight
     "Skidding" to a stop
     Helipad landing
     The little ship was really stable as a VTOL machine, but was really unpleasant to fly aerodynamically. That was okay to me as I designed the optional wing functionality as a mechanism for Earth (Kerbin) reentry to fly laterally to a landing zone, once within atmosphere just in case reentry position ends up not being optimal.

​     The HovMoth touched down on and navigated Lunar encounters really well, but the thrust configuration angles were a little too aggressive in the slight gravity of the Moon (Mun). Between the thrust angles, and not having lights for better proximity orientation, there were a few more Lunar crashes than I care to mention, but the successes guided me in my next Lunar lander design. 

More on that  later.

Enjoy.


-NR
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The Fruit Bat

6/21/2023

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An honorable mention is this little guy, the Fruit Bat. It was one of my early designs in KSP and is mostly aesthetic rather than innovative or extraordinarily capable. An all electric atmospheric plane, the fruit bat is not particularly fast and is not designed for orbit. It is fun to fly though, and performs like a solid little jet. It was designed to familiarize myself with the all electric propulsion systems in KSP and to proof the onboard electric generation systems for long range flight. 
The Fruit Bat is reliable and fun to fly, plus it looks like something straight out of a sci-fi anime, and that was kind of what I was going for. 

​-NR
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Flying Rays

4/26/2023

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The Manta-Ray.1

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The Manta-Ray was mostly an experiment in animal form aesthetic, but ended up being a fair design for a really safe, slow, and stable plane. It runs on electric charge and hydrogen. I didn't get it orbital, and it's not particularly acrobatic, but super stable. It rolls well, but is a pain to pitch back and if not anticipated, will cause problems. Perhaps a multi-atmospheric submersible design could be inspired by this little guy. I wanted to design a plane that looked like a Manta Ray and this was the first round draft. (Name changed because I just found out about the x-44)  

The Hydray.1

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The second attempt at a Manta Ray inspired plane looks good, but is tough to fly. Once flying the plane is extremely stable, but again does not pitch back well at high speed. Still running on electric charge and hydrogen, the best parts of this plane were the look and the name. The Hydray.1 inspired the name for my second novella, and a very different craft. More about that later.  
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Swift .1 & .2

4/1/2023

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​Swift: inspired by modern fighter jets, the Swift was actually awesome. I used some experimental thruster configurations  which made for a stable flight platform, with flexible engine combinations. It was not designed for it, but I was able to push it out of atmosphere, even with conventional intake reliant electric thrusters. It was fast, stable, and responsive. 
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​Swift.2: This was the second version of the Swift, but designed with orbit capability in mind. It worked. The first version was kind of a minimal build, so the 2.0 version was not. Extra energy storage and generation systems, airbrakes, survival systems, lights, and a hydrogen Ion thruster sent us into space and back with repeatable success.
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    Nicholas Rodriguez

    Artist, designer, musician, writer, craftsman, nature geek...
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