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Fuel ports and hoses


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Refuelling craft in the field is a bit unreasonably complicated currently -- you need either aligned docking ports, or use Klaws while switching off "fuel transfer obeys crossfeed rules" in the difficulty settings. 

With the changes in 1.11 this ought to be relatively simple to address:

  1. Add new parts, "Fuel port" and "Fuel hose." The former is a place-anywhere physicless part. The latter is cargo and only goes in the inventory.
  2. Allow engineers to connect a fuel hose to any fuel port, first one, then walk to another, then the other.
  3. Allow fuel transfer between the craft connected by the fuel hose.

If the craft move apart more than the hose's length, the hose automatically un-clips and is left dangling on one of the craft; an engineer would have to pick it up again.  Without knowing the internals of KSP I'd expect the trickiest bit is to implement fuel transfer between craft, but since KAS does this, stock KSP ought to be able to do it too.

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I would like it if you can attach many pipes together. Say for in space refueling. Sort of like how fire trucks do it when they have a long distance to go. Or have wind out hoses from reels for various distance. Say up to 1km in distance. Ah but the longer the length the more likely it will  burst and all the fuel will escape.

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On 1/26/2021 at 11:52 AM, Mikenike said:

I hope that this happens, if anyone here besides myself and Lewie, then you know that Stormworks has a similar system. Would be nice to see. I'd also like to see air tanks be a thing, so we can vent air as RCS.

Yessire! 

(Venting air as RCS? Mm.....pretty interesting idea! Maybe liquid fuel or oxidizer could be used for this purpose, also. Not a bi-propellent thruster like the vernor, but it could be toggled to use liquid fuel or oxidizer)

And adding fuel hoses would be pretty nice, and would really be the icing on the cake. The inventory system feels kinda empty without something of the like....but I do use kas, so that must be why.

Edited by Lewie
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19 minutes ago, Lewie said:

And adding fuel hoses would be pretty nice, and would really be the icing on the cake. The inventory system feels kinda empty without something of the like....but I do use kas, so that must be why.

I've been asking for hoses since .18.

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On 1/26/2021 at 12:52 PM, Mikenike said:

I hope that this happens, if anyone here besides myself and Lewie, then you know that Stormworks has a similar system. Would be nice to see. I'd also like to see air tanks be a thing, so we can vent air as RCS.

We don't have limited oxygen/air supplies in the stock game so I find this unlikely.

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7 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

I've been asking for hoses since .18.

Well then, I'm happy to join the chorus! :D

I haven't until now because I thought it would require a bunch of supporting systems, like KIS/KAS has. Now that the supporting systems are there, though, it ought to be a much lower-hanging fruit. 

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On the ground, I’ve always found that SimpleLogistics is a much easier way of doing resource transfers than trying to connect everything up via KIS/KAS, docking ports or klaws and it comes without the inherent risk of RUD/kraken attacks that sticking things together in dubious ways brings- just parking within physics range is enough.

In space, you’ll almost certainly need to join things together to even use hoses, rendering the point moot as you’ll already be using docking ports or klaws.

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2 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

In space, you’ll almost certainly need to join things together to even use hoses, rendering the point moot as you’ll already be using docking ports or klaws.

Oh sure, but I'm thinking of surface operations. I like planes and bases and such.

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32 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Refuelling is so easy it's kinda silly, but Engineers shouldn't be restricted with how they can connect craft. You should be able to connect 2 craft in orbit with a fuel pipe.

I agree, but this would likely be a quite a bit more complicated than now because the craft will drift apart and eventually you'll run out of hose, unless you manually keep them in position. I.e. no more time warp while refuelling. 

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8 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:
42 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Refuelling is so easy it's kinda silly, but Engineers shouldn't be restricted with how they can connect craft. You should be able to connect 2 craft in orbit with a fuel pipe.

I agree, but this would likely be a quite a bit more complicated than now because the craft will drift apart and eventually you'll run out of hose, unless you manually keep them in position. I.e. no more time warp while refuelling. 

Why would the craft drift apart? Pipes have integrated struts.

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1 minute ago, Bej Kerman said:

Why would the craft drift apart? Pipes have integrated struts.

Ah OK, you're thinking of a different feature. I'm looking for floppy hoses, not rigid pipes or struts. 

IMO docking ports get the job done well enough for orbit; you can even effectively turn them into fuel pipes by sticking them on some hydraulic pistons.

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4 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:
7 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Why would the craft drift apart? Pipes have integrated struts.

Ah OK, you're thinking of a different feature. I'm looking for floppy hoses, not rigid pipes or struts. 

I don't see why we can't have both for different applications.

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24 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

I don't see why we can't have both for different applications.

Sure, we could, but I'm not particularly keen on the in-orbit fuel pipe as IMO that problem is already solved with the parts and features that are already there.

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Coincidentally, I have just updated my 2018 Telemagic mod to accomplish exactly this: refueling in the field without use of claws or docks (for the same reasons stated by OP).

I have a prototype working (and will supply a video).  (Not yet released but imminently!)

Craft A is to be parked within 10 meters of fuel tanker B (being a craft designed with considerable fuel capacity, but any craft will do).  Engines are shutdown and parking brakes set.  Craft B is the "target" of craft A (via double-clicking).

Click the Telemagic button commences transfer of fuel of all kinds from craft B into the tanks of craft A.  Refueling is completed in 10 seconds: meanwhile, watch the fuel guages on A rise -- or switch to B and watch them fall.

Tanks that are locked off do not receive nor supply fuel.  In addition, parachutes are repacked.  This facility would be available upon the surface of any celestial body as long as both craft are stationary and KSP regards them as Landed or Splashed.

Furthermore, Telemagic provides fuel aprons at KSC, the Island airport, Baikerbanur and the Dessert Strip.  Park on the apron, shutdown and set the brakes and click the Telemagic button to fill your tanks.

You can interrupt the fueling operation at any time by e.g. releasing your brakes.

Telemagic also had a teleport mechanism to teleport a craft from the KSC runway to Baikerbanur.  The same was planned to teleport from the KSC launchpad to the Baikerbanur equivalent.  I was unable to get this to work to my complete satisfaction, so work on the mod was terminated.  I believe I can use a slightly different approach to make this work well.

No parts or Kerbals are required, which removes a visual component from the sense of realism but, by the same token, no modded parts are added to craft that make them more difficult to share via e.g. KerbalX.

I hope there will be sufficient interest in this re-release of Telemagic and I would be happy to answer questions or listen to suggestions in the Telemagic thread (rather than here).

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/169048-131-telemagic-v1318-spring-release

I will give consideration to the idea of limiting this refueling operation to the case in which at least one Kerbal is present in either craft (but without the need to EVA).

Edited by Hotel26
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1 hour ago, SpaceFace545 said:

I would love that, KIS is cool but the KAS inventory system is weird and doesn't flow properly

you've mixed them up: KIS is Kerbal Inventory System, Kas is Kerbal Attachment System

I would like just a combi of KIS and the stock inventory system, with the better parts of both of them

 

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21 minutes ago, Starhelperdude said:

you've mixed them up: KIS is Kerbal Inventory System, Kas is Kerbal Attachment System

I would like just a combi of KIS and the stock inventory system, with the better parts of both of them

 

My bad but yeah, the stock system is surprisingly smooth and

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Just now, SpaceFace545 said:

My bad but yeah, the stock system is surprisingly smooth and

I would say yes, it's smooth and without the problems that KIS has, but KIS has some things from what I would think would never appear in the stock system

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