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This topic is to develop guidelines for optimizing a space station. I would like to limit it to stock parts, since mods can easily change the rules that will apply. So what makes your space station work well? Some guidelines I like to follow: 1) Keep the part count as low as possible. This has more to do with performance than gameplay. This is just to avoid performance lag as you dock new parts/ships. Keep this in mind as you add parts such as strut connectors, batteries fuel tanks, ladders & solar panels. They all add up. As rule of thumb go for the largest part you can manage. For example, one Z-4K battery bank has the same capacity/mass as 10 Z-400 batteries but in a single part. 2) Keep the heavy stuff in the middle. You have no doubt by now noticed that if you have a large station and dock something massive at far end it will flex so much that the station becomes difficult to control. The farther you get from the center of mass the more the wobble will be magnified. So if you have a central hub with six nodes it is better to dock six modules to the hub than to stack them on top of each other to form a lengthy chain. 3) Keep it balanced Same idea. If you have something heavy on one side and something light on the opposite side, it makes the station difficult to control. 4) Keep one source of torque in the middle. If you have more than one source of torque (remember, most command parts will have built-in torque), they can fight each other and create wobble. The farther it is from the middle, the more wobble it will create. Remember that you can disable torque if you have more than one source. 5) Don't overbuild. While big stations are impressive, make sure you're building to its purpose. So if you're building an orbital lab, do you need a Convert-o-tron? 6) Pay attention to tolerance You want to have sturdy parts in the middle or an accident could cause the whole station to come apart. For example, an adapter may have a tolerance of 6, while a girder adapter will do the same job but has a tolerance of 80 (and it's cheaper too).
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