How to not use autostrut since it seems like I shouldn't need to

[CrashyMcCrashFace]

I know a picture would be nice but I'm at work and the question popped into my head. The setup is pretty simple: Section 1) A very large fuel tank. Section 2) 5x small liquid fuel tanks with a nuke on the bottom and nosecone on top. Both sections touch their entire length (no decouplers) but they only seem to be attached at whatever liquid fuel tank I put on first. I tried different assembly order but they always only connect at a single part and wobble. I fixed it by putting on normal struts which doesn't seem like it should be necessary. I don't want to enable autostrut because I'm an uptight purist. But I will if somebody can tell me there's no other way to fix this.

It's the ship in my pulling asteroid question but I think it's too dark to be helpful.

Edited May 21, 2018 by CrashyMcCrashFace
I left a word out. Probably not the only one.

[4x4cheesecake]

16 minutes ago, CrashyMcCrashFace said:

Both sections touch their entire length (no decouplers) but they only seem to be attached at whatever liquid fuel tank I put on first.

You can try to surface attach all small tanks and use the offset tool to move them in a straight line with the other tanks.

[Geonovast]

In stock?  No.  Because of the tree-style configuration of ships, you can only have one connection point between two pieces.  Each part can have unlimited children, but only one parent.

There's always KJR, but I imagine being a purist, you're not going to use mods.  Autostrut is purely stock though, so I'm not sure why you're against it for purist reasons.

[CrashyMcCrashFace]

7 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

Autostrut is purely stock though, so I'm not sure why you're against it for purist reasons.

Probably because many of the popular youtubers abuse it (to me). i.e. monster parts and engines only connected by the tiniest junctions.

But now that I know how the game mechanics work I'll just autostrut where it seems to be legit and keep regular-strutting at the same time. Thanks.

Edited May 21, 2018 by CrashyMcCrashFace

[Gargamel]

13 hours ago, CrashyMcCrashFace said:

Probably because many of the popular youtubers abuse it (to me). i.e. monster parts and engines only connected by the tiniest junctions.

But now that I know how the game mechanics work I'll just autostrut where it seems to be legit and keep regular-strutting at the same time. Thanks.

You should look up the pics and videos of old rockets we had to build before autostrut.  Some of those things looked like they are covered in spiderwebs. 

I love the fact I don't have to manually add struts any more, I can just autostrut a couple key modules and my ship is stable. 

[Not Sure]

20 hours ago, CrashyMcCrashFace said:

Probably because many of the popular youtubers abuse it (to me). i.e. monster parts and engines only connected by the tiniest junctions.

But now that I know how the game mechanics work I'll just autostrut where it seems to be legit and keep regular-strutting at the same time. Thanks.

Think of it like this, if it was a real rocket, it would be connected through the entire length of your fuel tank section, not just the first. But because of the game mechanics of KSP, it connects only with the first placed. If you want to go with realism, add make the bottom radial fuel tanks (or whichever are the ones flopping about) have autostrut to the heaviest or grandparent part.

[CrashyMcCrashFace]

I fixed my floppy parts yesterday and then autostrutted my floppy space station too, which I feel should be floppy. Now I feel dirty. haha. jk.