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Big Ships "A very short name for things usually pretty large" Big Ships is made on the framework of my other naval mod: WW2 Warships. They're 100% compatible, share most assets & parts and this will stay that way. That's why I've decided to begin the version numbering at the same level as that of WW2W, to reduce the risk of confusion. I've left out the military grade parts because they're essentially meant for wargames. This is a pretty small mod in terms of memory requirement because it uses three custom models and one custom texture. The parts list is huge though, this gives plenty flexibility. Features: Future building of docks and ports! I've already included a few parts but you can't leave them in the water because of the stock bug. Largest part: 128 x 512 meter. Boiler in two sizes, run on heavy fuel oil, create steam. Electrical generator in two sizes, run on steam. Ship turbine, three sizes, main propulsion. run on steam. Bow thruster, currently one size, runs on steam. Keel. The backbone of every ship. Six sizes. Hull plating A, This belongs directly attached to the keel. Contains fuel tanks. Multiple sizes. Hull plating B, the vertical part of the hull. This provides the buoyancy of your outer hull. Attach this to Hull Plating A. Multiple sizes. Structural plating, for internal and super structure. Numerous sizes. Most of the larger ones have a buoyancy rating for adjusting ship behaviour. Deck plating. Relatively soft and light but still many times stronger than stock steel plates. Numerous sizes. Heavy ship strut. Funnels in three sizes. Rudders in two sizes. Energy management will be key, there is a limited amount of power, and the boiler needs to heat up (takes minutes) before giving enough of it, depending on demand. Old style boilers have a fixed fuel consumption when running at 100%! If you're running at a thrust & speed setting lower than power requirement for a long time, it's best to switch off 1 or more boilers! Also, they don't produce smoke nor sound. New boilers can be throttled, produce smoke and sound and have a much nicer fuel consumption. Required mod: Kerbal Joint Reinforcement . Without this you would need a lot of struts, keep the wobble and get a lot of kraken attacks. Suggested mods: Vesselmover for transporting ships and docks to the water. Is more flexible than Hyperedit for moving and you can set up a fleet easily. Hyperedit for teleporting ships to the water. Beware! It's best to temporarily hack gravity when doing so. These ships are heavier than the biggest rocket and the splashdown can have nasty side effects. Hangar extender. Unless you fancy swinging 100+ meter ships back and forth with the editor offset gadget. Needed for building docks. No Offset Limits Helps with reducing part count, one of the best editor enhancements ever! KerbPaint If you want some colour on your ships instead of the dull grey, get this. Physical Time Ratio Viewer Let's you adjust physics delta-t between 0.02 and 0.20. In other words, smooth and slow gameplay or faster gameplay but low fps. If you get a kraken attack after unpacking your ship, set control to 0.02. Here's a building tutorial! It's based on an old version of WW2 Warships but it shows the basis of ship building with these mods. FAQ: Q: I leave my ship in the water and go out of physics range. When I return my ship either explodes, get's launched into the air or just disappears. What's wrong? A: There is a bug in stock 1.0.5. It has already been patched and will be included in the 1.1 release of KSP. Q: KerbPaint doesn't work (correctly). A: Read the KerbPaint topic for tips and tricks. Summary: the package has an old version of ModuleManager in the KerbPaint\Plugins folder. Delete that one and put the most recent version in GameData. Q: I have strange problems with your mod. Double parts listing or missing parts, strange textures and models. A: Always make sure you download the latest version from Kerbal Stuff, and delete any old versions of the mod. It has two folders: Big Ships and Shared. They reside in Gamedata\77Industries. Q: My ships always sink. A: Did you follow the tutorial? Use Hull Plating A attached to the keel, Use Hull Plating B attached to A and assign an action group to the FLOAT IT function. When physics start you'll see the "water" resource bar filling. Press the action group until it starts to decrease. If water is at 0 and it still sinks, add structural plating with Buoyancy = >0 preferably flat, left and right of the keel until it does. Q: After physics kick in, I get a Kraken attack! A: This often happens the first time you try it. Choose refly, it usually works better then. If not there are a number of things you can do. First of all you can add a few ship struts, they're super strong and you only need a few at strategic spots. If possible, use diagonal placement, best at angles close to 45 deg. See the tutorial for more info. Second thing you can do is install Physical Time Ratio Viewer and set it to 0.02. And remember to use the 77I launch clamps only attached to the keel. I always like to see the creations of others, feel free to post them. I'm also open to suggestions. Newest version of Big Ships: Download