So, even though my internet problem is still unresolved a few weeks ago i decided to put that mobile internet to good use and downloaded everything i needed to fly the new Deepstar on my phone and used the data cable to put those into a PC.
After 900 years and 28 outer solar system test flights here are my 2 cents.
The absolute insane gass guzzler Deepstar is gone, a very important issue that has been fixed, awesome job.
The New Deepstar uses decent (for it's size) ammounts of RCS and also moves very well (maybe too well?)
I've seen that you added some detail to the external model/texture, a very good idea since it reinforces the fact that this is an upgraded Deepstar.
The addition of clickable 3d cockpits and UCSO gives this mod a new layer of depth and immersion.
I'm also aware of the "secret" venus station that is awesome. Should be added in the manual if you ask me.
Also let's not forget the RCS modes, an interesting and very useful addition (needs a little tweak maybe?)
In my opinion 99.5% of this improved over the old Deepstar and not by little.
However as all things in life .. there are some parts that in my opinion need a tweak here and there.
1. The Docking RCS Mode has no kill rotation button. Why? (It is true that you don't always need it but when you need it it's not there and you have to go back to normal mode, kill rot, go back to RCS Mode and so on)
2. The Translation RCS thrusters are way too powerful even in Docking Mode at the ultra minimum you can do.. If you try to do some sensitive maneuvers or maneuvers from long range by example putting one of the nodes over your future PeA, (a crucial maneuver in many techniques) you will quickly find that you will waste way more fuel by trying to do that and constantly overshooting than the whole maneuver itself.
Just to check you can do those with the standard gelta glider's translation.
I suggest maybe a special RCS Mode (just for those ultra sensitive maneuvers) with a low thrust, maybe 10% of what RCS Docking Mode has right now.
3. Maybe a more powerful engine is needed after all. If you go to Venus or Mars even Jupiter and Saturn .. you are Good.. however the problem starts to grow when you start doing the long flights like Neptune, Pluto ..Sedna .. (After all the Ship is called DeepStar not CloseEnoughStar)
it takes one hour to burn 9km/s .. If you add the time variable then you are really in deep problems because to reach those destinations in a kind of decent time frame say 10 or 15 years (cuz who wants to fly 50 or 60 years through space?) the burn times are insane.. so insane as a matter of fact that sometimes they ruin the maneuver because they take WAY too long to complete.
Again, perhaps a special Thrust Mode could help? ( I'm not sure how hard it is to code those additional Thrust modes so yeah ..)
4. Now that we can fly in 3d cockpits maybe a more eye friendly texture would be in need? The space is Black and the cockpits are screaming white, not an actual problem but something found myself thinking.
5. The bug you mentioned in the manual happened to me too, when switching between 3d and 2d cockpits the docking MFD lost the target. (only happened once in all my flights so i will pretend it never happened)
6. strange 3d cockpit shaking when ship is rotating or sometimes when the attitude autopilot is on. I've seen this in all 3d cockpits not only Deepstar.
One interesting thing that happened to me:
For this one i can't be 100% sure if it's a bug or not however it seems that IMFD hates when other ships are docked with the Deepstar.
This thing is more noticeable in long flights but it's present if you know where to look in short ones too
Example: With a fully docked Deepstar I make a plan for Neptune, Look at how much dV the maneuver will need and where it will put me after, burn it and every time IMDF seems to fail horribly. You need to "refine" the burn with hundreds of m/s worth of dV to bring it where the plan was.
Ok, load the save from before the plan burning, undock every ship from the Deepstar (Clean config as i like to call it) Burn same plan .. Perfect Result.
At first i thought it was the long burn time but no.. i think it's the mass. I'm not sure but i think something doesn't take into account the extra mass that the additional ships have.
I'm not sure if this happens in general with big ships and IMFD ( the only giant ship i piloted was the Arrow back in Orbiter 2010 and that had no such problems but in 2016 ..)
Also and this is just for the EyeCandy's Sake perhape you could add a docking port for Ships like the Ravenstar so that they don't stay in the weird position? I know that in space it doesn't matter but i don't know ... i'm just throwing the idea out there, if it's interesting who knows
Overall i would like to say that even with those things i mentioned .. i had an absolute BLAST flying this ship and my beloved Aerolander,(with the exception when i almost pulled my hair out trying to hit those very long range maneuvers and course corrections in a fuel efficient way and failed) and of course it goes to my Orbiter 2016 Essential Addons Folder.
Exploring the Outskirts of our solar system is now Doable, Fun AND immersive so no excuse for sticking to LEO only anymore