[0.23.5] Spherical and Toroidal Tank Pack (Updated 05/02/14) (New download link)

[Talisar]

EVEN MORE OPTIMIZATION!

The Spherical and Toroidal tank packs have been combined into one set. Through the use of the Modular Fuels and Firespitter plugins, you are now able to customize the type and capacity of the contents of each tank. No longer will you have to flip through several pages in the VAB to go through the entire parts list.!

The parts in the pack have also been update to be included in the technology tree introduced in career mode of KSP v0.22

NOTE: In order to use Modular Fuels functionality, you will need to download and install either the Modular Fuel Tanks or Real Fuels Mods. Links to their respective threads:

MODULAR FUEL TANKS

REAL FUELS

Here is what is included in the pack, along with directions on usage:

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SPHERICAL TANKS!

The Spherical Fuel Tank Pack has been completely redone. New versions of the tanks are now available, with optimized models and file system!

The Pack now includes the following tanks:

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***NOTE*** This is a completely new and redone pack, separate from the previous one. All tanks have new names, so they will NOT overwrite the old files. I suggest you use the new pack, but if you have ships dependant on the old tanks, do not delete the previous pack until you are done with them.

TOROIDAL TANKS!

Now available is a set of modular toroidal tanks!

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The hubs are separate from the tanks so that you may mix and match tank sizes with attachment point sizes. Due to the narrowness of the hubs, the easiest way to correctly attach the tanks is to place the hub in the correct location on your rocket first, then place the torus after you have build on either side of the hub.

DOWNLOAD

Thank you to Majiir for hosting the downloads, and Thanks go to ialdabaoth and NathanKell for use of the Modular Fuels plugin. View the current forum thread HERE

Thanks also go to Snjo for use of the Firespitter plugin. View his current forum thread HERE

-- Changelog --

v3.0

- Initial release of combined Spherical and Toroidal tank packs using Firespitter and Modular Fuels plugins

v3.01 (minor update)

- Added toroidal hubs to career mode technology tree

- Added support for TAC Life Support mod resources to storage containers

v3.02

- Updated tank configurations to be more compatible with MFS standards. Should allow use of these tanks with realfuels more easily.

- Removed MFS plugin from download. If you do not have MFS installed, the only fuel type available on the tanks will be LFO. If you install the MFS mod, then these tanks will support all types that it does. MFS will also be required in order to use the storage tanks (EL/TAC containers under utility tab)

- Updated resources names for TAC Life Support Mod

- Removed support for Ioncross Crew Support Mod due to resource name conflicts

v3.1

- Compatible with KSP v0.23

- Updated to current version of FireSpitter plugin

- Corrected amounts of TAC waste resources in storage containers

v3.11

- Updated models, should fix issues with tanks resizing when used as root node

- Updated dry masses of toroidal tanks. (Thanks again to taniwha for the maths)

v3.12

- Updated masses for toroidal tanks, they are much lighter now (taniwha again to the rescue!)

- Increased node sizes for toroidal tanks and hubs to take advantages to changes in joints introduced by the KSP v0.23.5 update.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Talisar

[loppnessmonsta]

Been keeping an eye on this, glad it's updated for .20! I'd love to see a custom mounting bracket, as others suggested in the other subforum.

[Talisar]

I'm working on a bracket for it, but have yet to come up with an idea for one that is both feasible and good looking. I'll keep plugging away at it though

[Talisar]

aaaaaand.... I believe I fixed the texture issue. Sorry about that to those who downloaded it, the corrected version is up on spaceport now.

[wasmic]

Might use this sometime. Looks good, sort of sci-fi ish. And, does it count as a 1.25 meter part or a 2.5 meter part?

[willow]

I really like the form factor

Could you set us up with smaller variants and monopropellant variants?

[Greys]

For the bracket, I'd suggest styling similar to the stock truss sections, specifically looking at the 1.25-square adapter, making something vaguely shaped like a crescent moon with a square cutout on the inside to fit that band on the tanks, and with the outside having a flattened section where it attaches to the parent part, or being entirely angular on the outside. About as thick as the band on the tanks, and if it were me I'd make extensions on the inside that are not collideable; when the tanks are mounted parallel to the band these extensions will be covered by it, when mounted perpindicular to the band they will appear to be extend to the body of the tank, so it doesn't look like it's floating. you should be able to make it out of two identical blocky meshes, reverse the normals on one of them, and apply the same texture to both; using transparency to create the truss-y appearance.

[Talisar]

Might use this sometime. Looks good, sort of sci-fi ish. And, does it count as a 1.25 meter part or a 2.5 meter part?

This one counts as a 1.25 meter part

Could you set us up with smaller variants and monopropellant variants?

I am planning on doing just this. I'm going to make them for both the .625 and 2.5 sizes, as well as ones with monopropellant. I just want to make sure this one has no issues before I start (My first part and all )

For the bracket, I'd suggest styling similar to the stock truss sections, specifically looking at the 1.25-square adapter, making something vaguely shaped like a crescent moon with a square cutout on the inside to fit that band on the tanks, and with the outside having a flattened section where it attaches to the parent part, or being entirely angular on the outside. About as thick as the band on the tanks, and if it were me I'd make extensions on the inside that are not collideable; when the tanks are mounted parallel to the band these extensions will be covered by it, when mounted perpindicular to the band they will appear to be extend to the body of the tank, so it doesn't look like it's floating. you should be able to make it out of two identical blocky meshes, reverse the normals on one of them, and apply the same texture to both; using transparency to create the truss-y appearance.

I really like this idea. I'll give it a shot tonight.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Talisar

[ultrasquid]

Might use this sometime. Looks good, sort of sci-fi ish. And, does it count as a 1.25 meter part or a 2.5 meter part?

It attaches with a 1.25m connection, but its maximum diameter appears to be closer to a 3.75m.

[Talisar]

It attaches with a 1.25m connection, but its maximum diameter appears to be closer to a 3.75m.

That is exactly correct

[willow]

I am planning on doing just this. I'm going to make them for both the .625 and 2.5 sizes, as well as ones with monopropellant. I just want to make sure this one has no issues before I start (My first part and all )

Awesome! It's simple and nice. My spacestation just looks better with spherical tanks. First thing I did was send up a ring with 6 attached tanks. Loads of fuel in a tight package and amazingly stable! I was thinking about putting 2 or 3 rings on a vessel I think that'd contain more than enough fuel for a prolonged IP mission.

[Talisar]

Awesome! It's simple and nice. My spacestation just looks better with spherical tanks. First thing I did was send up a ring with 6 attached tanks. Loads of fuel in a tight package and amazingly stable! I was thinking about putting 2 or 3 rings on a vessel I think that'd contain more than enough fuel for a prolonged IP mission.

Glad it's working out for you! I'd love to see screenshots of what you're doing with them

[WhatsThisButtonDo]

I've been wanting round tanks like this for a while, the design is just right for my retro-future ships that station the planets. Thank you for making these, look forward to your future additions.

[Spica]

To help you out, according to my calculations the spherical fuel tank should have nearly 3240 units of fuel and 3656 units of oxidizer. My calculations were based on the relative volumes of the tanks. Using the Rockomax x-64 fuel tank as a benchmark because it was roughly the same volume.

[Talisar]

Thank you for doing that math for me, I had been putting it off I'll adjust the figures on the new update that I'll be uploading shortly

[Scotius]

If you do that, make an empty version at the same time Lifting full tank will be hard even for largest lifters. Empty ones can be filled in orbit. More work, less stress

[Djhcc26]

Dude Spica messed up your calculations the small tank should have

LiquidFuel – 3420

Oxidizer – 4180

and the big tank should have

LiquidFuel – 25920

Oxidizer – 31680

but the dry mass is about right

Sorry Spica don't go by the stock tanks you have to go by the ratios the liquid engines use (.9 LF-1.1-OXY) divide the liquid fuel amount by .9 and then multiply that number by 1.1 for the oxidizer amount.

I put a station in orbit by just using the fuel from the big tank and ...well

Edited May 24, 2013 by Djhcc26

[Railgunner2160]

Where do those solar panels come from???

[Djhcc26]

Kosmos Station pack

[Talisar]

You're right, Djhcc26. I'm adjusting the capacities to reflect the correct ratio of fuel to oxidizer now

[Luckz]

Btw renaming it from TAL_SphericalTank to TAL_SphericalTankMedium of course broke old crafts :3

But ok, in .craft designs it's easy enough to replace the name I suppose.

(Is it possible for existing flights?)

Edited May 24, 2013 by Luckz

[Talisar]

Doh, sorry! I didn't even consider that. I won't play with the name any more in future revisions

[RoboRay]

These spherical tanks are really nice for variations in craft designs and look great!

I'd love to see some more parts in the same style. In particular, I had an idea for a crew module with the flat attachment node surface recessed, to fit the new cupola command pod. You'd end up with something like this...

If you use your imagination, the round radial attachment point would be the position of an airlock for the crew module, with some windows around the rest of the sphere represented by the girder segments. A notch would have to be cut into the sphere to accommodate the cupola airlock. There could even be a built-in ladder from the notch to the airlock.

If that's too large a volume for a crew module, maybe a half-sphere and add some more half-sphere parts (like a combination RCS tank/battery).

Medium size version would be interesting too...

Any thoughts on that?

Edited May 24, 2013 by RoboRay

[Talisar]

I think those are great ideas. Maybe I'll expand this into a whole Spherical Parts Pack! I haven't looked at the intricacies of doing IVA's yet, but it is definately something that I'll take a swing at. Thanks for the input, RoboRay.

[Scotius]

Excellent idea! Spherical and half-spherical hab modules, tanks for all types of fuel. Maybe even Cupola-like module with lots of windows?