[1.12.x] Freight Transport Technologies [v0.6.0]

[Mischief]

Uh, another question...

Is there any good ways to keep the balance of my FTT VTOL with a moving center of mass, which is caused by unloading cargo or consuming fuel?

Struggled with this one for a while.

Put the engines on as the furthest outside points. As in furthest from the center.

For fuel consumption you can use TAC fuel balancer or personally I just use 2x fuel lines. Each fuel system has one fuel line going to the 'central' (whatever the center one feeding your primary engine is) and one fuel line going BACK From it. If you have fuel lines and only going one way that causes those fuel sources to be used first. If you have fuel lines going TO and FROM your radial fuel supplies then all your fuel gets drained at the same rate.

That provided me balance for VTOL and regular flight, with and without cargo. Also build the ship without the cargo in it, then add your payload. If the payload is uneven I put the cargo in weighted aft and put a small fuel tank with the correct weight of fuel attached to a docking port on the ships nose, then turn off resource passing through the docking port so the tank doesn't get emptied. After I deploy the payload I turn resource transfer on and move the fuel from the tank into my central fuel tank (so I haven't just wasted the weight) and undock the tank. I've wasted at most 100 funds or so on just the empty tank that way and kept ship balance.

[Mischief]

Other mods

Teaser stuff for the thread in general:

http://i.imgur.com/ALvTwGl.png

We need this TODAY. Or TOMORROW. I have to work on the 1st. I have time today to finish up the deployment of my ships towards Duna and get some probes off to Eve, Moho and Jool - and perhaps start planning a manned Moho mission for a more permanent station there to facilitate regular Karborundum collection from the sun.

Of course, more stations means more 'standardizing' of my Kerbonaut population so I've got enough smart ones available and easy to find.

That's a nice term for recruiting dozens and dozens and sending the stupid ones to their deaths.

Currently I'm averaging 2 per block of 25 actually reaches Kerbol escape velocity and ends up on target to leave the solar system. At some point, somewhere, some day, it's going to really confuse some starfaring alien race.

"Clearly this had some sort of religious significance! Some sort of sacrifice to the space gods!"

"That, or they just used their stupid volunteers to test Karbonite rocket speed instability to keep the roster compact for filling large stations and EPLs."

[Guest]

Other mods

Teaser stuff for the thread in general:

http://i.imgur.com/ALvTwGl.png

Looks nice. I noticed that for all it's capacity, StarLifter freighter is poorly suited for actual interplanetary flight due to having little in terms of supplies to actually survive the trip.

Also, could we get an RCS-based control system for FTT instead of the oversized SAS module? Perhaps a Karbonite-powered one.

[RoverDude]

Looks nice. I noticed that for all it's capacity, StarLifter freighter is poorly suited for actual interplanetary flight due to having little in terms of supplies to actually survive the trip.

Also, could we get an RCS-based control system for FTT instead of the oversized SAS module? Perhaps a Karbonite-powered one.

Sorry Dragon01, you get no support for my mods.

[Mischief]

I use TAC-LS and the mounts on either side of the StarLifter are perfect for life support. In fact I've got three StarLifter ships going to Duna to install a colony, orbital station and EPL - all of which have over 1100 days of life support with them plus, of course, the setup to build self-sustaining life support systems for the orbital and surface stations in situ. Lighter and more efficient than trying to pack the whole thing there.

The SAS is more than powerful enough. I've had no issue with it. If I want RCS I put a Badger unit fore and aft; it's got the RCS units and monoprop built into it.

[RoverDude]

0.2.4 is up!

NOTE!!! FOLDERS HAVE BEEN MOVED! DELETE YOUR OLD USI FOLDER AND REINSTALL ALL USI MODS!

• Adjusted directory structure to help with package management
  
• Converted TGA->PNG
  
• Full CRP
  
• ORSX/USI Tools Refresh
  
• Adjusted cost for several modules
  
• Added new 5x5 adapter (one 5m -> 4x5m)
  
• New toroidal 5m SAS
  
• Tweaked ISP of the nuclear engines
  

[dwolfson]

Are there any mods I need to download to use this mod?

[goldenpsp]

Are there any mods I need to download to use this mod?

Everything you need to use this mod is included in the zip file

[dwolfson]

I use KSP AVC and it says that the firespitter plugin you are using isn't updated for .25 It shows that I is for .24.2

[AetherGoddess]

I use KSP AVC and it says that the firespitter plugin you are using isn't updated for .25 It shows that I is for .24.2

this is a known issue with Firespitter. go over to Firespitter's thread and get the loose DLL experimental version. SNJO hasn't had time to properly test it, which is why it isn't a regular release.

[Sarda]

While cool and all, I think you need to tone the Torodial SAS down a bit; with one on each end this thing can spin like a dreidel on command and that's with 2 million kilos of Karbonite on board. lol

Edited November 2, 2014 by Sarda

[RoverDude]

Try controlling some of the new drives without at least two.. sometimes three of them on

They are pretty large and suck up a shocking amount of power. Probably would not bother with them on the smaller drives, but without them the new K+ drives pretty much turn your ship into a spinning top - in a bad way.

[Sarda]

Try controlling some of the new drives without at least two.. sometimes three of them on

They are pretty large and suck up a shocking amount of power. Probably would not bother with them on the smaller drives, but without them the new K+ drives pretty much turn your ship into a spinning top - in a bad way.

Yah, a long ship of modules you could sheer apart by rolling with those SAS. Their so strong just tapping the roll key causes them to jerk.

Also, maybe it's just me but something I find I always have to jury rig for myself is I take a 5m Short Truss then mount 4 Outriggers in a symetry pattern to it mostly to mount fuel tanks or reactors and because that's mounted radially its not a very strong connection especially with the new super powered SAS so I need to strut the .... out of it so it doesn't tear itself apart when I turn. A single piece Truss for that would be amazing. The new 5m to 4x 5m connections doesn't really serve that purpose since I want to keep the central 'shaft' and their too close to each other for the large spherical tanks.

[RoverDude]

Yah, a long ship of modules you could sheer apart by rolling with those SAS. Their so strong just tapping the roll key causes them to jerk.

Also, maybe it's just me but something I find I always have to jury rig for myself is I take a 5m Short Truss then mount 4 Outriggers in a symetry pattern to it mostly to mount fuel tanks or reactors and because that's mounted radially its not a very strong connection especially with the new super powered SAS so I need to strut the .... out of it so it doesn't tear itself apart when I turn. A single piece Truss for that would be amazing. The new 5m to 4x 5m connections doesn't really serve that purpose since I want to keep the central 'shaft' and their too close to each other for the large spherical tanks.

Oh, for long skinny ships with very low TWRs do NOT use the toroidals The existing 5m SAS is fine. For shorter torch ships with the new engines you pretty much need these.

I've had some fuel flow issues in the past with one-piece multi-leaf outrigger bits. My recommendation if you use the outriggers with heavier loads on them (or engines) is to strut. The 5x5 bit you will see used again as part of some model welding for engine clusters by the way.

[EDIT] Log me a github issue and I'll see about variable-torque SAS modules.

[Mischief]

Oh, for long skinny ships with very low TWRs do NOT use the toroidals The existing 5m SAS is fine. For shorter torch ships with the new engines you pretty much need these.

I've had some fuel flow issues in the past with one-piece multi-leaf outrigger bits. My recommendation if you use the outriggers with heavier loads on them (or engines) is to strut. The 5x5 bit you will see used again as part of some model welding for engine clusters by the way.

[EDIT] Log me a github issue and I'll see about variable-torque SAS modules.

Yeah, the toroidal SAS looks *awesome*. Not suitable for 'smaller' (as in under 200, maybe even 400 ton ships or anything long and narrow) ships.

I've yet to get enough karborundum together to use a torch drive. I've tried gathering Karborundum from the Sun but it's simply too slow and the proximity of the Sun (which drags my ship down into a decaying orbit) too twitchy to do effectively. I'm looking at an Eeloo mining trip but I'm not big on time acceleration and so that's going to be way after I get to and from Duna/Eve/everywhere else. I know I can find some on the surface of Eve but getting it back into orbit is, again, a questionable proposition.

Which is all appropriate given the power of it. It makes a good long-term goal. Going to use one to power my asteroid-ship

Cities In Flight!

[hieywiey]

Can you post a .craft file for the Starlifter without MKS/OKS? KSP keeps crashing when I try to assemble it, I think it doesn't like when I drag parts through other parts in the VAB.

[Sarda]

Is there anyway to refuel Liquid Hydrogen in space, none of the mods I use seem to offer a solution for that.

Yeah, the toroidal SAS looks *awesome*. Not suitable for 'smaller' (as in under 200, maybe even 400 ton ships or anything long and narrow) ships.

I've yet to get enough karborundum together to use a torch drive. I've tried gathering Karborundum from the Sun but it's simply too slow and the proximity of the Sun (which drags my ship down into a decaying orbit) too twitchy to do effectively. I'm looking at an Eeloo mining trip but I'm not big on time acceleration and so that's going to be way after I get to and from Duna/Eve/everywhere else. I know I can find some on the surface of Eve but getting it back into orbit is, again, a questionable proposition.

Which is all appropriate given the power of it. It makes a good long-term goal. Going to use one to power my asteroid-ship

Cities In Flight!

Once you got the Karborundum off Eve you can use it in the torch drive to get back to space. So just make sure your miner brings a full tank of 40,000 hydrogen and once you fill a 40,000 Karborundum tank you got like a hundreds of thousands of delta v and a absurd TWR.

[RoverDude]

@hieywiey - I don't understand your question? FTT works stand alone.

@mischief / Sarda - one of the reasons it will be at the stupidly far right hand side of the tech tree

[hieywiey]

@hieywiey - I don't understand your question? FTT works stand alone.

I mean, could you post a stand-alone .craft file?

[RoverDude]

Oh I'm lousy at crafts, that's for you guys I expect someone will oblige, but would be good to know what you were looking for craft wise given the diversity of the parts...

[hieywiey]

For some reason the one I built (download) shakes itself to pieces, I have KJR, but I doubt it would make anything worse. Could you tell me if the same happens to you? Maybe it's just the kraken

Edited November 3, 2014 by hieywiey

[RoverDude]

For some reason the one I built (download) shakes itself to pieces, I have KJR, but I doubt it would make anything worse. Could you tell me if the same happens to you? Maybe it's just the kraken

Sorry, I give paywall download sites about three seconds of looking for the download link before I give up Can you just toss a screenshot in imgur?

[goldenpsp]

Sorry, I give paywall download sites about three seconds of looking for the download link before I give up Can you just toss a screenshot in imgur?

Is that what they are called? I call them F**king annoying. Really no excuse considering you can get a dropbox account with 2GB for free.

[hieywiey]

Sorry, I give paywall download sites about three seconds of looking for the download link before I give up Can you just toss a screenshot in imgur?

Sorry, that was just my default. Here it is on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0NbzwfDC5Q7Mk5tYlM5WEoybUE/view?usp=sharing

[Sakai]

I literally love this mod but making a freight that does not flip over is sooo hard >.>