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[0.25] 6S Service Compartment Tubes - "Design smooth!"


nothke

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However I tried making my KSP rockets as smooth looking as possible, it is very hard, you always need to put a tonne of stuff on top of the hull, be it RCS tanks, mechjeb, life support packages, batteries.. And even if you did take the stackable parts, for example 2m RCS tank, you'd have 750 monopropellant.. I don't need 750 mp when I just need less than 100!!!

And then, I noticed something quite astonishing that I never did before when dissecting real spacecraft designs.. Ya' see.. Real spacecraft use something they call "service compartments" aka "service modules" or something Russians would call "instrument agregat", an unpressurized module where they store all the stuff we would otherwise put on the top of our hull! So I thought.. WAIT A MINUTE, Y U NO IN KSP??

So then, I came up with the simplest design I could. I call them..

6S Service Compartment Tubes!

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It's a tube.. and a hull... and a cargo bay... and a.. well, just about everything. And it is only 2 PARTS!!!

FAQ:

Why "6S"?

  • Simple,
  • Sturdy,
  • Stock Styled,
  • Seamlessly Stackable

It's so short! It's useless!

  • I've modeled it so that spherical RCS tanks could fit inside. Most of the other stuff like mechjeb, flight engineer etc, are not bigger than spherical tanks and they can all fit inside.. Together.

  • If you need more space.. Just stack them!!! (check the pictures for tricks)

There seems to be a door, but I can't open it!

  • You can only open the door manually during EVA (no servos I'm afraid, to keep it reliable and simple), so you can pick up or leave bags or KAS stuff you store inside. Also useful when transferring fuel from the tanks inside (you could do this on the other hand by zooming the camera inside the compartment, although this might be wonky and frustrating).

  • When stacked to double, the 1m structural panels fit right inside! Just put whatever you need on them:

Any future plans?

  • There are some texture quirks, so I might do an art pass later on. Waiting for 0.23 to upgrade it with tweakables. But I don't plan adding more parts. More cargo bay themed parts will come with FLEXrack mod.

The tubes appear in "general construction" in the Tech tree cause before that, you practically have nothing to put inside.

Thanks to Snjo for Firespitter, and for permission to bundle it with this mod, and well, listening to my irritating ideas xD

The firespitter.dll is bundled in the pack. If new Firespitter versions appear you should freely update.

Download:

Licence:

This mod is licensed under 88x31.png (click on image)

Firespitter plugin Licence: https://github.com/snjo/Firespitter/blob/master/README.md

Changelog:

v1.1
- added new Firespitter version
- FAR now shields everything inside
- bay opening action group is now not functional (although it appears in menu)

v1.2
- Added latest Firespitter plugin compatible with 0.23.5

v1.3
- Fixed part scaling issues introduced with 0.25. Special thanks to NoMrBond
- Fixed prices for career. 1m and 2m tubes now cost 150 and 200, respectively
- Bundled a fresh Firespitter .dll

Edited by nothke
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This idea is genius! I must download immediately! Oh, and I think that if you change the title of the part to include the word 'fairing' or 'cargo bay', then FAR will try to recognize it as a aerodynamicly protective part. Good luck on this amazing mod!

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Thanks people! =)

I like the idea and execution. Like you say yourself, it might use some refining, but I really like what I am seeing.

Can you indicate what the Firespitter plugin is for?

I am using Firespitter's FSanimateGeneric module for doors because it has an EVA only option. It is also used in B9 for cargo bays.

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Seems a bit odd to require a plugin JUST to get EVA only doors. Is it that important?

Also, any time I have tried to cram parts inside a space like this, they act weird when re-loading a ship (IE from the tracking station, or even from warp) - Are not having this issue?

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This is a great idea! and nicely done.

May I suggest you read the addon posting rules please :) so we don't have to take down the thread.

- All addons released on the KSP network require a license, the license is to make it clear what other people are allowed to do with your mod.

And as such a proper juridically valid license works just as well as just writing "No distribution" or something along those lines , as long as it leaves no room for personal interpretation.

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Why hasn't anyone thought of this before. This is brilliant! Simple, elegant, and brilliant!!.

It's really amazing actually. Because all the other simple ideas I started working on somebody "took over" ahead of me.. Independently of course. It's just a usual problem with "simple" ideas xD

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