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Question about the grabber claw


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I haven’t used it in the past but I’ve been experimenting with it recently, (making a grabber claw robot crane thing) and I was wondering is fuel transfer always worked with it or is it a bug? I was transferring fuel between a tank I was carrying with the claw and a tank on my robot. The claw seems godly if this is working as intended @_@! 

Anyone have any tips or tricks about working with the grabber claw thing?

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There's a setting in the difficulty options for whether "Resource transfer obeys crossfeed rules". On normal difficulty it's off by default, meaning that fuel transfer by right-clicking parts can go from anything to anything. But I think the claw doesn't block crossfeed anyway.

Being able to use the claw to refuel spacecraft is quite possibly deliberate. In real life there have been proposals to refuel satellites that were not originally designed for it, though the fuelling process is more sophisticated than just stabbing the side of the satellite!

Probably not deliberate, but worthy of note, if you have multiple things clawed to an asteroid they can all share fuel and electricity.

 

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3 minutes ago, cantab said:

But I think the claw doesn't block crossfeed anyway.

Yes, it does. No crossfeed through the klaw.

However, ISRU's will fill all attached/docked/klawed tanks regardless of crossfeed barriers like the klaw when they convert ore to fuel.

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1 hour ago, Dale Christopher said:

I haven’t used it in the past but I’ve been experimenting with it recently, (making a grabber claw robot crane thing) and I was wondering is fuel transfer always worked with it or is it a bug? I was transferring fuel between a tank I was carrying with the claw and a tank on my robot. The claw seems godly if this is working as intended @_@! 

Anyone have any tips or tricks about working with the grabber claw thing?

The claw is absolutely, utterly necessary for asteroid operations, but when used on other vessels, you're right; it is overpowered.  On the other hand, it's also the only way to do certain things.  For example, it's the only stock way to get decent docking alignment on surface bases on uneven terrain--at least without resorting to maniacal devices involving centipede-like arrays of landing legs and such.

Correction:  Breaking Ground may have changed that, but that's DLC and not exactly stock.

Besides, with it you can have things such as the Mosquito-class refuelling tug, the Lamprey-class supplies-recovery tank, the Barnacle-class heat-shield and tracking array, and the the Digger-Wasp-class supplemental crew module.

Or, if you have a penchant for science-fiction horror, you can call it all some variation of Facehugger.  I once tempted fate and named them after whaling ships (for the harpoons):  imagine a vessel named Pequod that hunts the sky for a white class-E magic asteroid ....

Insofar as tips and tricks are concerned, I know that they fixed the worst of the bug, but I still recommend that you always control the vessel with the claw rather than the vessel being clawed when you join them together.  That may be pure habit, but I'm still leery of doing otherwise.

Another thing is to note that there is a way to adjust the attitude of the head.  This is so you can put your rocket in line with the centre of mass of an asteroid for more symmetric thrust, but remember to lock the head again when you have it adjusted as you want it.

Yet another is to remember that it is not a docking port, so the approach is different.  Where the docking ports need to be mated slowly and carefully, the claw prefers to be more forceful; you'll need a higher relative speed to get a lock.

Oh, and the claw will not grab the ground of any celestial body.  That would be anything with a sphere of influence; if you want to mine Gilly, then you have to land on it; you cannot grab it with the claw.

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Considering you can transfer kerbals through the stupid thing, being able to transfer fuel through it doesn't bother me all that much.

I realize making CLS stock would be a bit much, but since we have a "Fuel transfer obeys crossfeed rules" in our difficulty settings, shouldn't we also have a "Crew transfer obeys...<insert some rule here>"?

 

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For tourists, I think they are allowed to do little spacewalks, provided they remain securely tethered to the craft at all times. So that's how they get around.

And the claw has a remotely operated robotic fuel hose that connects with valves placed at regular intervals on all craft. :p

 

Edited by bewing
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22 minutes ago, bewing said:

And the claw has a remotely operated robotic fuel hose that connects with valves placed at regular intervals on all craft. :p

if that is enough to satisfy the logic behind :sticktongue:.I had made weirder assumptions for other kerbal things to kinda remain realistic.

Edited by Boyster
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9 hours ago, bewing said:

And the claw has a remotely operated robotic fuel hose that connects with valves placed at regular intervals on all craft. :p

And if the claw craft has an Experiment Storage Unit, the claw also has a remotely operated robotic science hose ....

:P

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5 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

And if you're using the BG robotic parts to make a crane for moving base modules around, you get less weirdness using a Klaw on the end of the robotic arm than you do with docking ports.

How are you dealing with going fast enough to grab it though?

Edited by Boyster
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3 hours ago, Boyster said:

How are you dealing with going fast enough to grab it though?

Speed is mostly irrelevant for Klaw grabbings. All you need to do is orient the Klaw to be exactly perpendicular to the surface when you grab -- then you can move as slow as you want. The only reason people think they need speed is because their Klaws are not oriented correctly.

 

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38 minutes ago, bewing said:

Speed is mostly irrelevant for Klaw grabbings. All you need to do is orient the Klaw to be exactly perpendicular to the surface when you grab -- then you can move as slow as you want. The only reason people think they need speed is because their Klaws are not oriented correctly.

Exactly.  Speed is always bad using the Klaw.  The Klaw actual is exactly what it looks like---a larval Kraken, and only about 1/4 domesticated.  The faster you slam it against something, the more you awaken its adult nature.  Or at least the more likely you are to start the target spinning from a glancing blow.  But larval Kraken enjoy being stroked gently at just the right angle (this is how they got even 1/4 domesticated).  Maybe adults also like this, but nobody's yet lived to tell that tale.

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