Sunday Punch

Yeah that's deliberate, that decoupler is more powerful than the stock one (stock decoupler strength is 10, mine is 30). I didn't think there was much point just replicating the stock coupler exactly so I made it different enough to fill different needs. It's better for jettisoning heavy stages.

It's a command pod because that's the only module with attitude control functionality. SAS modules can't function in that way. I set the crash tolerance of the Yawmaster extremely high so it will survive falls from any height, however if you blow it up with exhaust (after jettisoning a stage) it probably won't survive that as there's no way to harden parts to exhaust damage.

Also I just wanted to say thanks to everyone using my parts for all the feedback in this thread. It's very helpful!

Sure I can look into tweaking it. That was one of the first parts I made so I didn't really know what I was doing when it came to 'balanced' settings for the config file. Can I get some other opinions on the 4 engine cluster? What do you guys think would make for a useful thrust/fuel consumption setting without making it overpowered?

The number or position of the attach nodes should have no impact on the load bearing capabilities of a part. The decouplers all have the default connection strength settings, so they should be just as strong as the standard decouplers, fuel tanks etc. I could make them stronger but then your stack would probably just break at a different point. They flip over because the collision mesh is way down at the bottom of the coupler, so that wide engines don't interfere with it. This means that the display mesh does sometimes clip through other parts but I didn't really think it was a huge problem (only happens when you jettison stages) and it's the best solution I could come up with.

That's intentional, it allows you to attach the decoupler shrouds to engines of different lengths.

I think I know what causes this, it's something to do with the object being composed of multiple discrete objects instead of a single mesh. I'll see if I can fix it, although I have a feeling it might require me to remap the UVs (which will be annoying).

Can you be more specific on the problems you're having with the decouplers? Thanks for pointing out the spelling error, I'll fix it. There's no spellchecker in notepad! (also with your post, there is a spelling mistake ;P) Castun there are some bugs with the staging that are apparently going to be fixed in KSP 0.9, it's not really specific to any parts. Supposedly if you click on the part icon in the stage editor it can fix parts thinking they're in a different stage, so you could try that.

Because I made them before struts allowed fuel flow.

Yes most of the adapters and couplers are fuel tanks, because it allows them to pass fuel through. They contain zero fuel themselves though.

Check the part file, they're all symmetrical. What's likely happening is one of the engines has vibrated itself of centre so you're getting non-symmetrical thrust. Have a look at the second post in this thread for an example. Because there's no way to alter the rigidity of links between parts there's nothing I can do about this. Sorry!

Smaller engines are more efficient but have lower thrust. They're a better choice if your rocket is light enough to lift, but efficiency won't do you any good if your rocket can't get off the pad. Heavier rockets will need the more powerful, less efficient engines. I suspect the reason high thrust rockets are not really a very good choice is the extreme thickness of the Kerbal atmosphere at low altitude. Even extremely high levels of thrust won't get you moving very much faster than a much less powerful rocket, most of the energy is just bled off by drag. The aerodynamics of KSP are quite strange indeed, just witness the wall you run into if your orbit dips below 35km.

That's probably because a 10 stage rocket is a really inefficient way to reach escape velocity. Try building a small rocket with stock parts, maybe 3 fuel tanks and a LFE and you'll have an easier time reaching orbit than with a huge monster of a rocket. It's the same with my parts, smaller is often better. I really don't think they're overpowered, especially since they're all pretty closely modeled on the stats of the stock parts. The long fuel tanks are virtually identical to 2 stock fuel tanks in function for example.

The N1's thirty engine first stage would be enough to bring KSP to it's knees all by itself, let alone the rest of the rocket. So no, probably not!

It's an attitude control module that lets you control large, heavy rockets more easily. It also has limited SAS functionality but that's not it's primary purpose.

Yes there is, use the QS-91. Mogadishu what are you trying to say exactly? Each decoupler shroud has multiple attach nodes so it fits more than one engine. Otherwise you'd need one shroud for each engine which would make the component panel in the VAB very cluttered.

:probe: New version of my parts pack! :probe: *New part - long 1 metre fuel tank *New part - high thrust liquid engine *New part - lateral tricoupler, 2 versions *New part - 3 metre decoupler shroud for 4X liquid cluster *Improved decoupler shrouds, 3 sizes fit all 1 metre engines *Improved durability of 3 metre parts IMPORTANT: Because I've reworked the decoupler shrouds the old ones are redundant. So before you install the new version, you need to delete their folders in your KSP/Parts directory. Delete these folders: Decoupler shroud Decoupler shroud 1 Decoupler shroud 2 Decoupler shroud 3 Then you're good to extract the 1.08 zip into the Parts folder. Sunday Punch's parts package v 1.08 contents *1 metre to 3 metre adapter *3 metre to 1 metre adapter *Aerodynamic nosecone *3 metre decoupler *1X3 metre to 5X1 metre coupler *3 metre engine cluster *Dual coupler, 2 versions *Quad coupler *Escape tower *3 metre fuel tank *Lateral coupler, 2 versions *Medium liquid engine *Medium solid motor *NERVA engine *RCS module *Retrorocket module *Small fuel tank *Small solid motor *small liquid engine *Decoupler shroud, 3 lengths *Decoupler matching decoupler shrouds appearance *long 1 metre fuel tank *high thrust liquid engine *lateral tricoupler, 2 versions *3 metre decoupler shroud for 4X liquid cluster Get 1.08 here: http://www.multiupload.com/7GU2VF2O2K

I've got a hefty backlog of parts to make, I'll get around to them sooner or later.

Where did I get them? I made them! They're twice the size of the stock tanks. They'll be in the next version of the pack which should be out tomorrow or the day after.

Making some new stuff

So I tried the breakingForce and breakingTorque config parameters again, and it seems I just wasn't using large enough values. First time I tried values of 1, 10, 100 and 1000 and none of them seemed to increase strength. I tried again with a value of 2000 and it seems to make parts more robust. I have no idea what the default value is so it's pretty much guesswork, but I'll make all the 3 metre parts that tend to break easily stronger for the next release. You should be able to have 4X liquid clusters resting on the ground without them instantly failing.

The liquid engine has 2059 polys (display mesh only), the NERVA has 2010. I've been keeping to the 2000 poly limit because I'm aware that a lot of people are having performance issues and I don't want to exacerbate them.

I don't mind at all, but I think in the future it would probably be a good idea to get permission before using someone else's assets. At the end of the day so long as you attribute the original parts to the right person I can't really see why someone would get bent out of shape over it.

It's not possible to make a many-to-one adapter because you can only attach to one top node at a time. I should probably put something about this in the first post because it gets requested all the time I could make a 1m->3x1m adapter, but I'd probably do a linear 1 to 3 coupler instead since it would be more versatile, and you could achieve a Titan III type configuration with 3m fuel tank>3m to 1m adapter cone>linear 1 to 3 coupler Actually you could pretty much achieve that right now by using radial couplers and medium SRBs with nosecones.

The stock parts have higher poly counts than that though. The liquid engine is over 2000 polys for example.