mpink

How you getting on ? I dusted off my MonoDevelop and had a bit of a fiddle and come up with the SymTest Mod. Basically its a sepratron that when placed on another part removes all its symmetry links. So i made a quick orange beast with 6X symmetry and fule going to the center. Stuck the sepratron on the front and the back tanks and then discarded it leaving 4 tanks in 4X symmetry and 2 tanks with no symmetry. The action groups tab can do symmetry highlighting. With a bit of rotating, some pushing and then a very large hammer, the skippers went on using 4x symmetry and the mainsails went on singly. I left everything else in 6X symmetry. The staging can be changed without changing symmetry but fuel lines do become more of a challenge as you cant put parts on them. Also single into double and back to single still dose not work. So i think its more of an onion than asparagus. Still the purpose i made it for works fine. Removing a part of a 6x Symmetry and then using its parent in 2X.

You can remove symmetry by manual editing the save file. Symmetry can cause some very strange problems in KSP. The .craft files are in a text format so any good text editor will allow you to view and edit them. This craft is very simple to demonstrate on. It has a tri symmetric tanks/engine layout. This code shows the part text for one of the long fule tanks. PART { part = fuelTank.long_4294779602 partName = Part pos = -1.746062E-05,8.146922,-1.245456 rot = 0,0.7071068,0,-0.7071069 attRot = 0,0,0,1 mir = 1,1,1 istg = 0 dstg = 0 sidx = -1 sqor = -1 attm = 1 link = liquidEngine_4294779538 sym = fuelTank.long_4294759508 sym = fuelTank.long_4294759376 srfN = srfAttach,fuelTank.long_4294779634 attN = bottom,liquidEngine_4294779538 EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } } The sym = *** lines are the symmetry links and tell you what other parts and the ID of these parts. Deleting these lines for all the relevant parts will disable the symmetry. Ugly but it works. You may find it better to do using the new saved parts system as hunting through a text file of a hundred odd parts to find the one you want is a bit tricky. Crosses fingers and hopes that tweakables in 0.23 will fix this. For my example ship i removed all sym = *** lines. There were 2 lines in 6 parts as the engines were symmetrical too. The result was an unlinking of the parts and the freedom to more them individually. It is possible to say use 2 X symmetry on a part and then place the parent part using 3 X symmetry but this will lead to a corruption in the .craft file if not very very careful. The problem has something to do with confusing the engine and having it incorrectly writing those sym = *** lines but hears an example. So for my finishing move il convert a 4X symmetry tank layout into 2 2X symmetry tanks. PART { part = fuelTank.long_4294525866 partName = Part pos = -1.746077E-05,7.555626,-1.247208 rot = 0,0.7071068,0,-0.7071069 attRot = 0,0,0,1 mir = 1,1,1 istg = 0 dstg = 0 sidx = -1 sqor = -1 attm = 1 sym = fuelTank.long_4294489720 sym = fuelTank.long_4294489684 sym = fuelTank.long_4294489648 srfN = srfAttach,fuelTank.long_4294779634 EVENTS { } ACTIONS { } } So i find a part that has all 4 part ids in it and i copy and paset the ids into groups so i dont get confused. I guessed that the center sym = id would be on the other side to the current part and was correct luckily 1) fuelTank.long_4294525866 fuelTank.long_4294489684 2) fuelTank.long_4294489720 fuelTank.long_4294489648 Then in all four parts i deleted any sym = lines that were not in my new groups layout. Lol. Confused yet ? cause i know i am. Looking at the files it would be a lot easier to have placed the parts using 2X symmetry and then just fixed there heights (or used the mod mentioned). The only reason i can think of for tampering with a file like this would be to remove 1 of the parts of a 6 or 8 part symmetry so that its parent part could then be used in a symmetric fashion.

I think i need to add a new rule. Something like 25 parts minimum else Science Per Part would best be done on the launch pad with just a pod. I had another go as i broke my own rule and didnt post a ship file. Humm yeah it is a bit like playing with yourself but hey i always win that way. My 1st Mun Ship Based on a popular childrens toy. Techs 4 (-20% 0.8) Points 638 (510.4) Parts 80 (6.38) End Science 2553 Kept it simple and only used 4 techs this time. Could probably get the number of parts down a lot with just 1 more tech and almost certainly could have landed a 3rd time. Had a very strange moment when i was collecting EVA reports. There is a map image of me just east of the east crater before i landed for the 1st time and this is where i got a polar EVA report :~. Not that im complaining just saying. My bad moment of the mission happened on the 2nd landing. It seams i broke two of the legs. I had to quick load at least once as it wanted to fall over a lot. bad thing was i saved it the moment i landed. I still dont know how those legs stayed on though as i couldn't right click them. Reentry went ok but with the slight miss fortune of landing hatch side down so i didnt risk collecting an ocean EVA and sample.

Ok easy challenge but with some strange rules. The goal is to get the most Science you can in one launch. This is marked as Spoiler because you may as well have read ScienceDefs.cfg - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ok were probable not that bad but youv got the point. So the Rules 1) Only one launch 2) Stay inside kerbals gravity so only visiting Mun and or Minimus. 3) Stock only (no auto pilots that can land anything anywhere using almost no fuel). 4) Start using this save file that is hacked to give you 2K science points but no time has passed or experiments have been preformed. 5) Please post your start + end (after the recovery) tech tree image ,some sexy landing shots, some recovery images would help and craft save file. 6) Craft should have at least 25 parts. Craft with less shall be judged as having 25 parts for there science per part score. Id love to see all the names of the mun locations on some map shots please. Scoring 1 For every tech you unlock you loose 5% of your science so you can only unlock 19 techs max as 20 would loose you 100% Scoring 2 Same As above but on a per part bases. So you might do better unlocking some more tech in order to reduce your parts count. Scoring 3 Your final Science score (not adjusted). So you may do better keeping your 2K points and just going for a walk around the KSC ! As we should all know by now there are lots of bio locations on Kerbal and the Mun and fresh science can be done at each of these locations. So im guessing that in probably 1 mission done well visiting only the Mun we could get enough points to unlock the full tech tree. Adding the 5% tech penalty just makes things more interesting but I have no clue if it will balance very well yet. At 120 points per fresh virgin surface sample, doing short hops or multiple landings could earn you some serious points. Im sure there are lots of other little tricks and tips that will show them selves but thats all part of this threads fun . Score Board 1 1) 638 - MPink - My 1st Mun Ship 2) 291.5 - MPink - Mun Mulitlander 3) 4) 5) Score Board 2 1) 6.38 - MPink - My 1st Mun Ship 2) 2.389344262295082 - MPink - Mun Mulitlander 3) 4) 5) Score Board 3 1) 2553 - MPink - My 1st Mun Ship 2) 1970 (-30) - MPink - Mun Mulitlander 3) 4) 5) My Mission I went for docking clamps and some larger fuel tanks. Not sure it was a good idea yet but its done better than all my other trials so far. If memory serves i used most of my refueling stage just getting there but did have enough for 1 full resupply. As per usual somethings went wrong. I forgot to take a 2nd pilot so docking was a lot harder than i thought it would be LOL and i didnt put an areal on the ship. Still it was better than having the ship turn into debris and vanish from the map like it did on my 1st try. My Multi Pilot Pod approach worked but had some problems (the balance of a side parachute uses a lot of energy from SAS). If i had have taken 2 pilots we would have got 2 samples from the last crater. I think i had enough fuel for 4 landings but im glad i didnt risk it as my reentry procedure was very ugly and used loads of fuel. Sorry no save file but im sure it will be knocked off the boards very quick. Techs 9 (-45% / 0.55) Science 530 (291.5) Parts 122 (2.389344262295082) Final Science 1970

Slight update to my entry. The Pinks Heavy Lander MK4 Mun Base Deployment scenario In everyday use you find you need space for two docking clamps at the aft as to be able to collect more drop tanks or modules when doing multiple landings. Included a Muna station ready for deployment with 2 rovers and 1 habitat units ready for landing + 2 drop pods for reentry of all kerbals when done. Think i lost a few struts and gained parachutes in the redesign but its almost the same so DV shouldn't have changed much.

The Pinks Heavy Lander MK3 A simple tri engine mun lander designed as a replacement for the supper heavy lander. Fore and aft large docking ports, two legs per person and is happy to hit a planet at 15ms or 20ms if your lucky. Rome for expansion with three empty nodes above the engines and comes with two drop tanks ready for a muna landing. With a part count of 56 and minimal exploits used it is most certainly in the spirit of kerbal. Hotkeys 1-2) drop the fule tanks 0) toggle the ladders https://www.dropbox.com/s/rnjt4zvso2zgr4l/Heavy%20Lander%20MK3.craft Awwwww look how happy Jeb is. I think he wishes he could have had a craft like this on his 1st mun run.

LoL sounds like a fun challenge. Id love to see what some of you have come up with. Iv been throwing a J64 directly into minimus orbit for a few days using this system. A few little tweaks and it can just about do the 200T lift for 475 parts. The orbit i reached in my test was 87K-275K. The launch checklist is a bit sketchy. Do not exceed 2G while the mainsails are still attached (can happen around the 15K-30K height) Launch at 2/3 throttle and instantly increase to 100%. Position camera and right click an orange fuel tank. Start a right roll and maintain until safely in orbit. When the j64 runs out of fuel hit X and use custom 1. Now throttle up until about 1.5-2G. When the j32 above the mainsail runs out of fuel hit X and 2. then power up to 1.5G (were hoping for 260 M/s at 15K). When we hit 15K we go to max throttle or 2G. Use the stage button to eject the mainsails when they run out and then you can safely use 100% throttle. Check the map view and when you get an AP of 90K hit x (try to line yourself up for the orbit burn before throttling back). just before you reach the AP set 100% throttle again. When the last j32 is empty hit x and 3 (if you dont have a good spin you should skip this stage as it can cause a lot of problems). Watch and laugh as 200T of fuel floats around kerbal with no docking port attached to it The Craft [sTOCK] Its a bit hard to find an angle that makes a good photo so you will just have to take it for a fly if you want to know what it looks like.

LOL This is far more fun and entertaining than the Challenges threads at the moment. Solution On the drive section right click on the dual docking clamps and disable the cross feed for both the clamps. This will result in a failure to retrieve fuel from the center tank on the drive section but you can transfer this manually by right clicking on the tank and then alt+ right clicking on another tank and transferring the fuel manually. In the future place your fuel ducts on your drive section.