Couple of my main ksp pain points I wonder if mods cover?

[kfsone]

Couple of my biggest problems with KSP could probably be addressed with a couple of simple tweaks:
- Is there a mod that makes finding parts ... sensible? Better filtering (only show me lf/ox engines; don't see a way in advanced to do that) and inline stats (I want to see dv, twr, isp, all at the same time or at the very least on the immediate mouse-over for easier comparison). Or an option to sort by dv, twr, isp and/or more than one at a time (that feels like too lazy for me, I'd be good enough looking thru a refined list rather than basically having it tell me "use that engine")
- Is there a mod that lets you eliminate docking ports during on-orbit assembly somehow?

I find myself caught between two strategies: A reasonable, fully-modular launch strategy: One launch for guidance, one launch for power, one launch for fuel tanks, one or more 'payload' launches (e.g one for isru, another for cooling). The catch is each sub-unit frequently requires ~2 docking ports, and docked parts seem to have the absolute worst impact on unpacking and physics performance, plus you're pushing redundant mass around.

The other is stupidly-overbuild: It's so easy to think "I'll just add this part" to a payload to try and avoid another launch/pair of ports, and for some reason going from a pair of fl-t800s to achieving 3000dv to a single fl-txi00 seems to cross you over some kind of dv valley of doom. If you don't catch that, now you've gone thru all the intermediates and replaced the fl-txi00 with an s3-144 and a mainsail. You're down to 1200dv and have no reaction wheels, adding mp-rcs drops your dv to 800; adding lf/ox-rcs doesn't drop your dv from the vab but it does in-flight.

So you take that "one more part" off the top stage and you can get the whole rig to your minmus station *and* recover the first stage using just 1.25m parts?

I get part of that is the real difficulty of launching to space, but the VAB just converts it from challenging to miserable.

[Superfluous J]

27 minutes ago, kfsone said:

Is there a mod that lets you eliminate docking ports during on-orbit assembly somehow?

Check out Konstruction

 

[Rocket Witch]

Filter Extensions may be of some help for filtering parts, but I'm pretty sure there isn't anything that lets you sort them.

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/168456-19x-filter-extensions-no-localization/

 

AFAIK docking ports are only performance sinks while they're unoccupied. Once joined they shouldn't be seeking for things to attach to.

[kfsone]

On 4/12/2020 at 4:36 PM, Superfluous J said:

Check out Konstruction

 

Holy shame-on-me, batman. I have Konstruction installed but hadn't noticed the ports. See my issue about finding parts, lol

 

8 hours ago, Rocket Witch said:

Filter Extensions may be of some help for filtering parts, but I'm pretty sure there isn't anything that lets you sort them.

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/168456-19x-filter-extensions-no-localization/

 

AFAIK docking ports are only performance sinks while they're unoccupied. Once joined they shouldn't be seeking for things to attach to.

Right - so each extension I add tends to have one waiting on the end for the next unit, but there also seems to be a much bigger hit unpacking a vehicle related to how many connected parts you have. I've also found that my game gets progressively slower the more multiple-docked-component vehicles I visit. I can hop vab/launchpad, tracking/probe a lot of times, but hop to a 3+ docked units vehicle and every subsequent transition is significantly slower (multiple seconds per hop)  And eventually I get a stack mark crash. I tried running a totally clean install on a different OS partition without mods, and the same proved true for me.

[fourfa]

Another option re: docking ports.  Doesn't remove the ports after use like Konstruction, but makes the CPU-heavy scan behaviour toggleable.  When toggled off, the ports should be no more laggy than any other part.  Worth a try, see if it makes a difference on an existing station rather than have to launch a whole new one with Konstruction parts

https://github.com/shadowmage45/DockingPortToggle

[Vanamonde]

This discussion of add-ons has been moved to Add-on Discussions. 

[zer0Kerbal]

On 4/12/2020 at 11:07 PM, kfsone said:

finding parts

Janitor's Closet

and QuickSearch by Malah (both now @linuxgurugamer)

 

SimpleConstruction! by @MatterBeam allows in situ construction - just send up the RocketParts.

 

Konstruction is another great mod - just for the konstruction ports.