Too big : too many parts

[Warzouz]

Well, I did a nice mission to Jool, assembling 13 ships in a 500km orbit around Laythe to explore the moons of Jool.

I felt the trouble after docking my second (out of 5) SSTO : the station part number went sky high. After docking the crew transport ship, the station has around 950 parts...

Also, I added too many lights...

So now it's a pain to manage. The FPS is manageable (it's not a first person shooter after all...). But parts and menus take a very long time to react.

Questions :

- What options can I reduce to impoove the situation a little bit ?

- Are there mods to remove parts on the fly ? I'm thinkng about broken struts, useless engines, RCS, batteries and solar pannels.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Warzouz

[eddiew]

Kerbal Attachment System will allow kerbals on EVA to remove parts - but you'd have to figure out where to put them. Also, I'm not convinced that massless parts actually have any effect on FPS, since no physics calcs are done for them.

Welding parts together is an option for the future, but can't be done on the fly.

[kerbiloid]

USI MKS/OKS allows to delete parts by right-click when you're in EVA mode. Kerbal would be an Engineer.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79588-0-90-USI-Kolonization-Systems-%28MKS-OKS%29-%280-22-8%29-2015-02-27

Extraplanetary Launchpads has Recycler. When you put something into it, this "something" disappears.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/59545-0-90-Extraplanetary-Launchpads-v5-1-2

Hangar mod has a wide set of "hangar" parts.

This is like KAS container but for whole ships. When a hangar is active and you fly into it, you ship disappears from the space and is listed as a content item of such hangar. When you undock from the hangar, the ship appears back.

Also this is useful to move, say, multiple drop-pods inside a large interplanetary ship and even to land a whole hangar with rovers inside - and all this without real parts number.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/88933-0-90-0-Hangar-v2-3-1

[UnusualAttitude]

Kerbal Attachment System will allow a Kerbal to "grab" most of the parts you listed from EVA. To get rid of them you could have your Kerbal drop them and terminate them from the tracking station as debris.

[Warzouz]

Ok,

1- Add KAS mod

2- Reload the save

3- EVA and remove parts

4- Terminate them in Space center

5- Remove KAS

Have I understood correctly ?

I like this solution, which is kind of RP.

I read elswhere to redo the station as a whole and stick it back with HyperEdit, but I have other ongoing mission. Further more, I tried HyperEdit before, and the ship always explodes.

I knew that putting Bill Kerman at the head of this mission was a "stupid" idea

[UnusualAttitude]

Yes, that should work. Removing lots of parts from EVA with lots of lag won't be fun... good luck. It will be worth it in the end.

[TheXRuler]

USI MKS/OKS allows to delete parts by right-click when you're in EVA mode. Kerbal would be an Engineer.

Does it really? I did not know that ^^ haven't been using MKS/OKS for long though. Does this count for any part or just the KAS attachable parts?

[Warzouz]

Yes, that should work. Removing lots of parts from EVA with lots of lag won't be fun... good luck. It will be worth it in the end.

EVA is quite OK, it's the contextal menus and the big camera changes which are a pain. I'll try.

But building a 13 launches space station around Laythe was already quite long. It took me nearly 20h, even I used MechJeb for rendez-vous and 80% of the launches. Encounter, course corrections, double aerobraking. I counted 12 manoeuver nodes per ship, not including the rendez-vous (auto-piloted by MechJeb). I did the final docking, because I like that a lot !

[eddiew]

USI MKS/OKS allows to delete parts by right-click when you're in EVA mode. Kerbal would be an Engineer.

I'd been wondering which of my mods was providing that feature! Darned annoying when you want "open container" or "take data" and instead blow up the part... Always remember to quicksave before EVA, kids!

[Warzouz]

I'll try that mod too.

I've counted around 250 useless parts I could remove. I'll try tonight.

BTW, I don't think massless parts are not significative. They still ned to be rendered or lighted, and they provide functions (batteries, engines, generator). They can break under impact. They are only non massless for calculating drag and mass (as I understood).

BTW do I need ladder on Vall ?

[thadisjones]

BTW do I need ladder on Vall ?

EVA thruster flight has an upper limit of 3.2 m/s^2, so technically it is possible on Vall (2.3 m/s^2) but I'd pack a ladder anyway for when you run out of suit thruster fuel.

[Warzouz]

USI MKS/OKS allows to delete parts by right-click when you're in EVA mode. Kerbal would be an Engineer.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/79588-0-90-USI-Kolonization-Systems-%28MKS-OKS%29-%280-22-8%29-2015-02-27

I tried with Bill, no special menu appear. No option. Only EVA. I must be another mod. I'll try with KAS

Works perfectly with KAS. Already removes 50 items. Sadly I can't remove the big batteries.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Warzouz

[Warzouz]

OK, I removed 240 parts in 2 hours with KAS mod. This was quite fast and a good training for EVA.

I'm down to 720 parts now. I reduced graphic options a little bit and now, it's totally manageable. I'm around 5 to 20FPS now, and context menus respond immediately (which was the main trouble).

I could even remove MechJeb parts by editing the KAS a config file (copy paste and renaming).

KAS is now removed. Job done !