Tanks for LV-N

[riki2048ksp]

Now I rarely use nuclear  engines,  but  every  time I use  them I  don't  know  whether to use LFO tanks with no  oxidizer or the Mk1 liquid fuel  fuselage. If I  remember  well  the  second  option is  cheaper  and  lighter, but  the  first  one is more  beautiful.  What  should  I do?

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

17 minutes ago, riki2048ksp said:

Now I rarely use nuclear  engines,  but  every  time I use  them I  don't  know  whether to use LFO tanks with no  oxidizer or the Mk1 liquid fuel  fuselage. If I  remember  well  the  second  option is  cheaper  and  lighter, but  the  first  one is more  beautiful.  What  should  I do?

You've got basically three options (of which you've called out two of them):

1. Just use an LFO tank with oxidizer emptied.
   • Advantage:  Easy to use, wide variety of tanks to choose from.
   • Disadvantage:  You're lugging around more than double the fuel tankage you need.  Lots of wasted mass, which kills a lot of the efficiency of using an LV-N, which is aggravating because efficiency is the whole point of the LV-N.
2. Use the liquid-fuel-only tanks already available in the game.
   • Advantage:  Nice and efficient.
   • Disadvantage:  Awkward and ugly.  There are lots and lots of spaceplane LF tanks... but nothing at all that's rocket-friendly.  The only one that's the right shape is the little 2-ton LF tank, which is inconveniently small.
3. Install a mod to give you a decent selection of liquid-fuel-only tanks.
   • Advantage:  You get exactly what you want.
   • Disadvantage:  You need to install a mod, and the ships you design won't be shareable with other people unless they also have the mod.

Which one of these is "best" completely depends on your priorities as a player, since different players care about very different things.  All the above advantages and disadvantages are objectively real... but how much you care about them is entirely subjective, and will affect what works best for you.

• Option 1 is best if you care about looks and convenience, don't care much about efficiency, and don't want to install a mod.
• Option 2 is best if you care about efficiency, don't care much about looks and convenience, and don't want to install a mod.
• Option 3 is best if you care about both looks/convenience and efficiency... and you're happy to install a mod.

Personally, I'm solidly in category 3.  I'm a happy mod user, and installing a mod is trivially easy for me, and the lack of a decent selection of rocket-friendly liquid fuel tanks has been a glaring hole in the game for years, with no sign of Squad ever fixing so far.  So I just mod myself some decent LF tanks and problem solved. 

You can use a mod like Interstellar Fuel Switch, which allows you to configure fuel tanks to have whatever contents you want.  In my case, that particular approach isn't my personal cup of tea, so instead I just cobbled together some custom config to mod it myself (it's a very easy config change to make, no C# coding required), so that I have LF-only versions of standard stock fuel tanks.

[riki2048ksp]

Thank you.  I  could  even  consider  putting Mk 1  tanks in a fairing cargo tube or something else  just  to  avoid using a mod

[Cavscout74]

1 hour ago, Snark said:

Personally, I'm solidly in category 3

Ditto.  There are multiple mods available with nice selections of rocket-friendly LF-only or switchable tanks.

[Gargamel]

14 hours ago, Cavscout74 said:

switchable tanks.

 

16 hours ago, Snark said:

You can use a mod like Interstellar Fuel Switch,

This is my personal preference.  I can pick the size, shape, color of whatever tank I want, and then I'm able to put in it whatever fuel I want.   The DV gains from using a stock tank with the Ox drained vs using a stock tank switched to LF are quite substantial. 

But the bottom line is, anything other than just LF is just dead weight you'll never use (unless of course, you specifically want to carry it to use it later on a different stage).

[Kryxal]

I usually go with option 2, the Mk 3 tankage isn't bad if you place the engines on side-mounted Mk 1 tanks.  I avoid the Mk 2 stuff like the plague...

[Lego_Prodigy]

MK3 tanks are a little huge for the relatively weaker LV-N engines. They are tricky to use, as demonstrated by my SPX series of spaceplanes, Available on KerbalX for some examples of what people are saying here, BE WARNED SOME OF THEM ARE EVIL.

MK1 tanks with little nosecones would be best

 

[MisterKerman]

To avoid a new topic:

What are some rules for fuel lines? I recently figured if two ships docked in space, resource transfers wouldn't be a problem. I could not refuel my lander simply by docking. It's made me a little nervous to build another mission just yet. Anyone mind giving me a nutshell breakdown of fuel lines? I'd appreciate it a lot. :3

[Gargamel]

3 hours ago, MisterKerman said:

I could not refuel my lander simply by docking.

Explain.   You did alt-right click on the tanks in question correct?  You should be able to pump fuel into the tanks that the lines flow out of, and it should fill the whole vessel. 

3 hours ago, MisterKerman said:

To avoid a new topic:

This might be best off as a new topic. 

[MisterKerman]

5 hours ago, Gargamel said:

Explain.   You did alt-right click on the tanks in question correct?  You should be able to pump fuel into the tanks that the lines flow out of, and it should fill the whole vessel. 

This might be best off as a new topic. 

I just realized that clamp-o-tron Jrs only transfer RCS fuel... That would be why.

 

Well at least I had a whole bunch of fuel for getting back home... heh.

Edited June 10, 2018 by MisterKerman

[Geonovast]

On 6/10/2018 at 9:02 AM, MisterKerman said:

I just realized that clamp-o-tron Jrs only transfer RCS fuel... That would be why. 

Not true.

But to transfer anything else automatically, you need to have crossfeed enabled.

[Cavscout74]

On 6/10/2018 at 5:14 AM, MisterKerman said:

What are some rules for fuel lines?

Also check in settings if "Resource Transfer obeys crossfeed rules" is selected.  If it is, fuel won't cross a heatshield without fuel lines, and any decouplers would need to be set to enable crossfeed.

And if in career, you have to have the research center upgraded to at least level 2.

Edited June 12, 2018 by Cavscout74

[mystifeid]

1 hour ago, Cavscout74 said:

Also check in settings if "Resource Transfer obeys crossfeed rules" is selected.  If it is, fuel won't cross a heatshield without fuel lines, and any decouplers would need to be set to enable crossfeed.

 

ISRU's ignore "Resource Transfer obeys crossfeed rules" - they will fill all connected parts. Likewise, mining excavators seem to be able to fill all connected ore tanks.

So my crew transfer shuttle docks at Duna station. It has a heat shield between the docking port and the fuel tanks (and I use the  "Resource Transfer obeys crossfeed rules" setting) so I can't transfer fuel to the tanks. But the station has an ISRU and 6000 units of ore. No problem - just switch on the ISRU for a moment in warped time and the tanks are magically refilled.

I think there are other exemptions to this setting. For example, monopropellant can always be transferred through parts with no fuel crossfeed.

Edited June 12, 2018 by mystifeid

[MisterKerman]

Oh thanks for the tips. @Geonovast you sorted me out in regards to my other problem already in the "Landers" topic I created. Hopefully if someone else sees this information it can help them out as well. The funny part is I nearly fumbled an entire second mission trying to set up a hopper lander mission on Minmus. You saved my bacon, friend. :3

Also a side-note: I didn't know Clamp o tron Jrs could crossfeed fuel? I read somewhere they only transfer monopropellant, but that must not be true. I figure you'd probably know if you thought enough to say so, so again thanks! That means I'll be using them more often then I thought I would be able to, which is great. They're underrated.