What new parts could the game realistically use?

[Frostiken]

My vote goes for a 'mainsail'-main lifting 1m engine. We have an orbiting engine, and while the -30 and -45s are powerful, they don't quite have the 'oomph' I'd like to see, making them mostly fit in the 'second stage' tier. Before you unlock 2.5m engines, larger ships require lots of boosters (also because if we're talking career mode, you don't get the tri/quad/bi-couplers until crazy late in the game). The tier 4 rocket engine tech unlocks the Poodle and the Skipper. In think this would be a good place to add a 1m 'lifting engine'.

KW Rocketry had one that ended up being very useful, I think it was either the Vespa or the Maverick.

What other parts could we use to 'fill the gaps', if any exist?

[r4pt0r]

I tried b9 a little back in .20, and there was a 2.5m engine, that was super super short. I think it was the Atlas?

Anyway it the Atlas was less tall than the 909, and I loved it as it fit under a 2.5m tank and the 2-man lander-can very nicely for compact munar landings.

So a poodle that is 1/4 the height of the actual poodle, with low end power so its good at vacuum landings, would be my vote.

HAHA, so what the poster below me says

Edited May 25, 2015 by r4pt0r

[kurja]

a thin 2.5m fuel tank for landers

an engine thrust-wise between poodle and skipper

those can be 'made' from smaller parts, but then the part count gets real high real quick and laaaaag.

I don't know about adding a stronger 1.25m engine, I mean, smaller engines are weaker and bigger ones can be stronger, seems about right to me. Or if such an engine was added it would have to at least have a horrible vacuum Isp or something else to balance it out versus the larger engines.

[timsfitz]

Radiators for heat dissipation.

[Rath]

Call the 1.25 meter main lifting engine the boar and make it a 1 engine version of the twin-boar

[Seshins]

new parts? as others have suggested a 2.15 (and even a 1.5m) low profile engine for landers and such.

exisiting parts? Integrate KAS/KIS.

[Brotoro]

Is this where I ask Squad yet again for a hose to do surface refueling? Because I can keep doing that.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Brotoro

[problemecium]

- A stack-mountable version of the OX-10 Monopropellant Engine.

- 2.5m LV-N. I respect balancing concerns, but it can easily be relegated to the 1000-point tier on the tree, and it's not like we aren't clustering the little ones as it is now.

- Smaller winglets! Keep the existing ones of course, but some mini-flaps and mini-strakes would help a lot with compact spaceplane aesthetics.

Oh, and I second the radiators enthusiastically. In fact I have my fingers crossed they'll show up as a surprise goodie in 1.0.3.

[pincushionman]

Propeller. We've got simple fixed landing gear now, we really need a puller engine to go with it. Would make small survey planes far easier to construct.

[TheBeardyMan]

Liquid fuel only variants for a broader range of fuel tank shapes and sizes. Maybe put the 2.5 metre ones on the same node as the LV-N and have 3.75 metre ones on a new node with the LV-N's node as a prerequisite.

3.75 metre docking port.

3.75 metre reaction wheel.

Balloons. Not so useful in thin atmospheres like Duna, but very useful for gaining altitude on Eve. Or you could use them to establish a permanent base in Jool's upper atmosphere.

Ballast tanks for building submarines to explore the oceans of Laythe and Eve.

[Grumman]

A Mk 3 loading ramp, so we can drive rovers in and out of our spaceplanes.

[Frostiken]

a thin 2.5m fuel tank for landers

an engine thrust-wise between poodle and skipper

those can be 'made' from smaller parts, but then the part count gets real high real quick and laaaaag.

I don't know about adding a stronger 1.25m engine, I mean, smaller engines are weaker and bigger ones can be stronger, seems about right to me. Or if such an engine was added it would have to at least have a horrible vacuum Isp or something else to balance it out versus the larger engines.

Well it isn't more powerful than the 2.5m engines.

Go try to make a large Munar-surface-and-back rocket with 1.25m parts only. It's going to be pretty beefy and probably have a lot of booster stages to shed getting to orbit, and it's mainly in part because there's a large 'power vacuum' between the LVTs and the 2.5m parts... and it's further complicated by the fact that (stupidly) the bi/tri-couplers are completely inaccessible at that point in the game. Hell, the bi-coupler is the last coupler you get, after the tri- and quad-. Explain *that* one.

A first-stage 1.25m engine is definitely missing from the lineup. What's interesting is if you use Tweakscale, which uses basic math to scale parts up, the 0.625 'spark' engine is actually a better engine than the LV-T45, if its parameters were scaled up to 1.5m.

Here's the K&W 1.25m lifting engine. As you can see, it fills a good niche, and it's definitely nowhere even close to as powerful as a Skipper engine. Regarding the efficiency, keep in mind these are pretty old parts - when they were made, the LV-T30 had an ISP of 320A/370V, making this engine much less efficient. It hasn't been patched yet.

You use this engine on the launchpad, the Reliant to push yourself up to your apoapsis, and the LV-909 to circularize, giving you a complete 1.25m family.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Frostiken

[AbacusWizard]

More moving parts, especially hinges and perhaps telescoping beams. Among other things it'd be really neat to fold up a satellite into a compact payload, and then watching it unfold into its final form after the fairing cracks open.

Longer cargo bays (comparable to the Mk2/Mk3 versions) for cylindrical rocket bodies would also be nice--the service bays are pretty awesome but they're rather limited in size and the floor and ceiling prevents them from combining.

[sgt_flyer]

Maybe not some new parts, but at least having stock tweakable control surfaces range would be interesting (would allow to make a lot of cool things from this ) - maybe the possibility to have some extendable flaps too.

[TrooperCooper]

A Mk 3 loading ramp, so we can drive rovers in and out of our spaceplanes.

That and an expanded cargo bay, that allows to load bulky stuff like B9 has... like this.

[Yukon0009]

Mini rtg, hinges, inline monoprop engine, moar 3.75 m utilities.

Oh, and I third the radiators.

[Frostiken]

I don't think you guys are completely getting the point of this thread. Yes, KAS would be nice, but KAS isn't needed. I'm talking about parts that fill obvious shortcomings in the current lineup, like the flatter 2.5m tanks.

As an example, we desperately need a 2-man 1.25m command pod. We've needed it ever since we got Kerbal roles and 'rescue from space' contracts. There's a few good ones in mods that can be used, but why the hell doesn't KSP have its own? Am I seriously expected to tech straight to a 3-man 2.5m pod before I can fly tourists to space in a vehicle that doesn't look completely asinine?

Edited May 25, 2015 by Frostiken

[Hcube]

I would love some .625 strap-on SRBs that look like GEMs for the Atlas 5... They would be great to give more oomph to 1.25m rockets.

I'm also all with Frostiken for adding an engine like the one he shows, it looks like a RD-180...

With both those SRBs and the twin-bell engine, i would make Atlas 5s aaaaaall day and send a New horizons to Eeloo

[Frostiken]

I would love some .625 strap-on SRBs that look like GEMs for the Atlas 5... They would be great to give more oomph to 1.25m rockets.

I'm also all with Frostiken for adding an engine like the one he shows, it looks like a RD-180...

With both those SRBs and the twin-bell engine, i would make Atlas 5s aaaaaall day and send a New horizons to Eeloo

I call those small boosters 'Crayons' because they, well, look like crayons.

I would say replace the new 'Flea' stumpy 1.25m SRB we got with those. Honestly, does anyone even use that damn thing? RADIAL ATTACH ALL THE THINGS.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Frostiken

[gmiddlemass]

A propeller for low cost or high endurance atmospheric flight would be nice.

One motorized bearing/rotating part and one motorized hinge part would be nice so that simple robotic arms or makeshift cargo bays could be constructed.

Possibly air bags as an alternative landing method for small probes.

Pretty much everything else (different size tanks/engines etc.) can be done with "TweekScale" so if that could be integrated you wouldn't really need much else in my opinion.

[Dodgey]

Radiators, electric props and a MK3 loading ramp.

[KerikBalm]

Air-augmented/ram rockets for more efficient flight on Duna and Eve

[cwfilson]

Tracked vehicles. Two man capsule.

I wish at the very least the attachable struts from KAS were part of stock. In previous versions of stock I could just launch a ridiculous strutted monstrosity of a station or base. With aero, I have to do it piecemeal and assemble in space. I would love attachable struts to increase stability/rigidity since I can't launch these things in one piece anymore.

C

[Seshins]

Actually would really like some form of robotics or hinges so you can fold up rovers into fairings.

As AbacusWizard has already mentioned.

[Kuu Lightwing]

I agree with the many things suggested, namely:

1. 2.5m LF-tanks (for NERVAs)
   
2. Hinges/telescopic beams/etc - To make spacecraft with unfolding parts like real ones.
   
3. Electric prop and/or ducted fan engines - to fly at Duna/Eve
   

Also, I want to see some big SRBs. Like Space Shuttle or SLS ones. The ones that can lift huge payloads and provide good launchpad TWR to big rockets. Not sure about small ones since what we already have is quite small. Even kickbacks don't do much for really big rockets.