Crafts don't sink

[golkaidakhaana]

I have a 20m long, 3.75m wide craft that weighs almost 250 tons (64 fully loaded small ore containers, clipped inside of it and out of view), and yet it STILL DOESN'T SINK!!! I have never been able to build an underwater base because crew-filled parts seem impossible to sink. Is there a mod that I can download to decrease or alter the buoyancy of vessels, or something?

[bewing]

I'm not sure if there is a mod -- but to make things sink in the stock game, you add ore tanks and fill them up with ore. Full ore tanks are one of the few things that sink reliably.

 

Edited July 28, 2018 by bewing

[Xd the great]

There is a large boat pack?

Also, use large ore tanks.

[4x4cheesecake]

4 hours ago, bewing said:

I'm not sure if there is a mod

Of course there is one: https://spacedock.info/mod/1705/SinkEmAll

[golkaidakhaana]

6 hours ago, bewing said:

I'm not sure if there is a mod -- but to make things sink in the stock game, you add ore tanks and fill them up with ore. Full ore tanks are one of the few things that sink reliably.

 

I stated in the OP that the craft weighed almost 250 tons because I clipped 64 full small holding tanks inside of it, with each one weighing 3.5 tons. Shouldn't this be enough to sink a vessel that size?

[4x4cheesecake]

23 minutes ago, sslaptnhablhat said:

I stated in the OP that the craft weighed almost 250 tons because I clipped 64 full small holding tanks inside of it, with each one weighing 3.5 tons. Shouldn't this be enough to sink a vessel that size?

Buoyancy in KSP is pretty strange. There is even a difference in buoyancy when you open or close a cargo bay...Once I build a submarine which was able to rise up just by openening the cargo bay...which doesn't make any sense And don't forget the air breathing engines which work totally fine in the depth of the sea. The game is just not designed for under water exploration

[XLjedi]

2 hours ago, sslaptnhablhat said:

I stated in the OP that the craft weighed almost 250 tons because I clipped 64 full small holding tanks inside of it, with each one weighing 3.5 tons. Shouldn't this be enough to sink a vessel that size?

On the one hand...  How much it weighs means nothing.  The displacement/weight of a Nimitz class carrier is 97,000 tons.

On the other hand...  Yeah, many of the stock parts exhibit rather stupid levels of buoyancy.  Pretty confident a Goliath Jet Engine as a standalone part should not float.

 

2 hours ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

The game is just not designed for under water exploration

...and yet there are indeed multiple career achievements for deepest dive.

Edited July 28, 2018 by XLjedi

[4x4cheesecake]

11 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

...and yet there are indeed multiple career achievements for deepest dive.

Oh, really? I didn't know that  

[XLjedi]

On ‎7‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 11:46 AM, sslaptnhablhat said:

I stated in the OP that the craft weighed almost 250 tons because I clipped 64 full small holding tanks inside of it, with each one weighing 3.5 tons. Shouldn't this be enough to sink a vessel that size?

For stock sub solutions, maybe stick to the Mk1 crew cabs as they don't seem to be quite so buoyant.  ...and then focus more on dynamic dive plane designs that basically use forward momentum to "fly" underwater. 

Any sort of underwater base would need to use the large ore containers as pilings. There's a balance that has to be struck between weight and associated sinking speed.  Ore containers can drag you down so fast you will impact the ocean floor and cause damage. 

I am working on an undersea base that would float on ore container pylons dependent on whether or not they are full or empty.  I want to be able to fill the ore containers partially to allow the base to sink slowly, but then still have enough excess capacity that once safely on the ocean floor, I could mine for additional ore to increase the anchorage.  This extra weight might then allow me to dock a positive buoyancy sub with the base and not have the whole thing dislodged and floating again.

Here's my positive buoyancy career mission sub:

https://kerbalx.com/XLjedi/UV-14-Barracuda

Interesting I think, because it's a very functional sub design that does not use any ore containers at all. 

 

Edited July 29, 2018 by XLjedi

[golkaidakhaana]

15 minutes ago, XLjedi said:

For stock sub solutions, maybe stick to the Mk1 crew cabs as they don't seem to be quite so buoyant.  ...and then focus more on dynamic dive plane designs that basically use forward momentum to "fly" underwater. 

Any sort of underwater base would need to use the large ore containers as pilings. There's a balance that has to be struck between weight and associated sinking speed.  Ore containers can drag you down so fast you will impact the ocean floor and cause damage. 

I am working on an undersea base that would float on ore container pylons dependent on whether or not they are full or empty.  I want to be able to fill the ore containers partially to allow the base to sink slowly, but then still have enough excess capacity that once safely on the ocean floor, I could mine for additional ore to increase the anchorage.  This extra weight might then allow me to dock a positive buoyancy sub with the base and not have the whole thing dislodged and floating again.

Here's my positive buoyancy career mission sub:

https://kerbalx.com/XLjedi/UV-14-Barracuda

Interesting I think, because it's a very functional sub design that does not use any ore containers at all. 

 

Dang, that's a hella unique design, I don't think I've ever seen a craft like it before. I might just download it and try it out for myself

My craft in question is pretty specific, it uses modded parts (BDB, Tantares, SSPR, several others), inspired by the real-life SEALAB program. I'm also going for a rather unorthodox method of launching it; placing it atop a Tantares Energia with four BDB Saturn 1 boosters (and even then it can barely get off the launchpad), and then parachuting it into the ocean between the KSC and the abandoned island from a few KM height.

I'll probably just tweak it until I get something that works.

[se5a]

Likely the game is adding the volume of all the parts to calculate buoyancy, the game typically ignores clipping when it comes to physics.

USI exploration pack has a nifty little sub which comes with a handful of buoyancy tanks which you could probably use.

 

[Scarecrow]

I can't remember what I used to build my undersea base, but it sank quite happily and now sits on the ocean floor just off the coast to the east of KSC.  I definitely remember some of the big ore tanks being involved.

[Lego_Prodigy]

On 7/28/2018 at 11:16 AM, 4x4cheesecake said:

 And don't forget the air breathing engines which work totally fine in the depth of the sea. 

When i tried to do that, it kinda burned out the engine even though i stuck the intake into a snorkel setup.

Odd.

Water Physics may be funny as hell to players when done wrong, but they are probably among some of the toughest things to get correct in video games.