[WIP][1.8.x] SSTULabs - Low Part Count Solutions (Orbiters, Landers, Lifters) - Dev Thread [11-18-18]

[Shadowmage]

18 minutes ago, ComatoseJedi said:

There's a slider for V.Scale,

That's the one -- it controls the 'Vertical Scale' of the model relative to its horizontal scale, and thus makes it longer or shorter compared to its diameter.

[Qwarkk]

4 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

That's the one -- it controls the 'Vertical Scale' of the model relative to its horizontal scale, and thus makes it longer or shorter compared to its diameter.

This slider is limited to a max of 1.75, is there any way to increase this limit? I'd like to have much taller upper stages if possible.

Great work with the mod btw, just updated to 1.3 and having a blast recolouring everything I can get my hands on

[Shadowmage]

48 minutes ago, Qwarkk said:

This slider is limited to a max of 1.75, is there any way to increase this limit?

Sadly, not with the current plugin setup, it would need to be recompiled at least.  I have opened up an issue ticket regarding adding said functionality to the configs though:  https://github.com/shadowmage45/SSTULabs/issues/479  Should be simple enough to get that added in for the next release.

One thing you could do / try, if you are comfortable with custom MM patches, is to add a new UPPER tank definition to the part that uses a longer tank model, such as one of the other MFT-C tanks (you might need to also add the SSTU-flag-decal module, as the other MFT tank models have flags built into them).  What this would do is trigger the UI slider for the 'Upper' tank selection to show up, which would allow you to select the longer base tank (which, when scaled, would give you an even longer upper stage).  If you need a bit more instructions/etc, just let me know and I can probably put the patch together (but I like to let people figure things out if they can).

[CatastrophicFailure]

6 hours ago, ComatoseJedi said:

Just a quick question about the MUS Split Tank. I do not see a selection to change the actual height of this part. There's a slider for V.Scale, but not the actual height. Or I'm getting blind in my old age and just can't see it. Either way, you can throw stones at me or gummy bears (I prefer gummy bears since I quit smoking, lol)

Just throwing this out there: are you playing career? IIRC you can adjust height on those stages, but you have to unlock & possibly purchase it, too. 

[tater]

I'm sorry that all my images are now dead thanks to photobucket killing embedding with no notice at all. I moved all my images to imgur, but I'll have to relink all of them as needed.

[ComatoseJedi]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Just throwing this out there: are you playing career? IIRC you can adjust height on those stages, but you have to unlock & possibly purchase it, too. 

No. This is in sandbox. The solar system I play on isn't updated, yet and I won't go to career until the mods I use are totally updated. I was just wondering why the height slider that I was used to, on this part, was gone. I do remember it being there on 1.2.2. Or I am just senile in -thinking- it was there. In any case, my question was answered. 

[Qwarkk]

12 hours ago, Shadowmage said:

One thing you could do / try, if you are comfortable with custom MM patches, is to add a new UPPER tank definition to the part that uses a longer tank model, such as one of the other MFT-C tanks (you might need to also add the SSTU-flag-decal module, as the other MFT tank models have flags built into them).  What this would do is trigger the UI slider for the 'Upper' tank selection to show up, which would allow you to select the longer base tank (which, when scaled, would give you an even longer upper stage).  If you need a bit more instructions/etc, just let me know and I can probably put the patch together (but I like to let people figure things out if they can).

Thanks for the suggestion. Im pretty new to MM patches so it took me a lot longer than it probably should have, but I managed to get it working with the MFT-C tank definition as you suggested.

Here's the patch i used:

Spoiler

@PART[SSTU-SC-TANK-MUS]
{
    @MODULE[SSTUModularUpperStage]
    {
        @currentUpper = MFT-C-4-5
        
        @UPPER
            {
                @name = MFT-C-4-5
            }
    }

    MODULE
    {
      name = FlagDecal
      textureQuadName = FlagTransform
    }

}

It works, but are there any improvements i could make?

Edited July 1, 2017 by Qwarkk

[Jimbodiah]

This point was already brought up a few pages back: Why do you want super long MUS tanks???

These are the min and max lengths right now. A longer MUS makes no sense; this is why we have the regular MFT-A tanks.
 

[Qwarkk]

4 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

This point was already brought up a few pages back: Why do you want super long MUS tanks???

These are the min and max lengths right now. A longer MUS makes no sense; this is why we have the regular MFT-A tanks.
 

Essentially I have a fleet of Lifters which use the built-in bottom fairing from the MUS tank and it's pretty essential to their design. It also requires using the MUS as a common bulkhead rather than a split tank, so the upper part needs to be taller. The MFT-A tanks dont have a bottom fairing (last time I checked) so they cant be used in this specific design.

I appreciate that I want a taller MUS tank for a very very specific reason, hence why Im happy to patch the part for myself.

[Jimbodiah]

Use the ISDC.

Edited July 1, 2017 by Jimbodiah

[Qwarkk]

8 minutes ago, Jimbodiah said:

Use the ISDC.

Already am. The design uses both to achieve the interstage fairing shape I want. I know I could use two ISDC's but then you have the engines there for no reason. Besides, with this patch it gives me more flexibility with interstage fairing designs, which is quite handy with some of the engine part packs i use.

[paladin17]

Sorry, if this has been answered earlier or is somewhere in the manuals (is there one?).
1) How do I use built-in RCS from upper stages? Should I add the fuel manually to the tank? There is some slider "support tank", or something. Is this responsible for RCS fuel? I've just launched one such upper stage (without explicitly filling it for RCS) and it had no RCS...
2) And other thing: what does "hollow colliders" option at some of the decouplers mean?
3) Oh, and here's even other one: how do I set the staging for those two-step interstage petal decouplers? As far as I can see, the default staging just decouples the top node (?), not the middle one. Should I use action groups for that?

Thanks for the great mod.

[tater]

The upper stage tanks have a slider for the type of rcs mounts they have, as well as the support.

Are you adding rcs parts after the fact, that use mono instead of hypergolic?

[paladin17]

9 hours ago, tater said:

The upper stage tanks have a slider for the type of rcs mounts they have, as well as the support.

Are you adding rcs parts after the fact, that use mono instead of hypergolic?

Well, I'm not sure I understood your question. I've had an upper stage tank with a single AJ-10. I filled the tank with the fuel for this engine, chose the engine type for the tank from its menu (which as I understood meant RCS, given the proposed options) to hydrazine. The "support" slider was set (by default) to 6%, so I kind of figured this meant that 6% of the tank was devoted to RCS fuel. It seems I was wrong, since, as I've said, there was no RCS from this stage in the end.
Later on the next launch (after I posted here) I manually filled the tank itself with some hydrazine and then added the fuel for the main engine, and this time RCS worked. But I'm still not sure this is the correct way to do it.

[Jimbodiah]

If you use the MUS tank then the RCS runs on MonoProp. The Support tank % just increases the ratio between monoprop and main fuel. You should not need to add anything.

Edited July 2, 2017 by Jimbodiah

[tater]

Amazing stuff from William Black at deviant art regarding Boeing concept vehicles:

Detail showing the windows arranged for landing pilot visibility:

Pictured craft is on the right, below:

Docs here:

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19750016730.pdf

I've made SSTU versions of this before:

From the linked PDF:

 

Edited December 19, 2017 by tater

[tater]

To scale, those are 2.82m in kerbal terms, so 2.5m is likely close enough.

This makes the shown crew modules very much slightly altered COS parts. A plain white reskin, and a version with those lander windows, and a hatch.

[GreatGreengGoo]

I use CKAN to much. Cant believe this amazing mod passed by my radar for so long. Time to add mod # 103 to the list...

[RedParadize]

10 minutes ago, TheKnave said:

I use CKAN to much. Cant believe this amazing mod passed by my radar for so long. Time to add mod # 103 to the list...

With SSTU, you wont need 103 mods... Trust me.

Edit: In term of balance, SSTU is supreme. Given its mechanic and structure, its pretty easy to massively edit all part. You can rebalance all its part with a single patch. I find that part really frustrating when I work with too many mods.

Edited July 3, 2017 by RedParadize

[Theysen]

17 minutes ago, RedParadize said:

With SSTU, you wont need 103 mods... Trust me.

Edit: In term of balance, SSTU is supreme. Given its mechanic and structure, its pretty easy to massively edit all part. You can rebalance all its part with a single patch. I find that part really frustrating when I work with too many mods.

Except all the low thrust RL-10 replicas really have their TWR too low for stock solar system size. You tend to have way too long burn times due to the low thrust on a otherwise "normal" sized vessel. 
I use it in RSS&RO so it's not a problem anyways but last time I tested in stock it was quite limiting. Don't get me wrong, I am a sucker for realism but given the stock system it might need a little thrust buff on those scales.

Other than that - yes SSTU has you covered with everything.

[RedParadize]

12 minutes ago, Theysen said:

Except all the low thrust RL-10 replicas really have their TWR too low for stock solar system size. You tend to have way too long burn times due to the low thrust on a otherwise "normal" sized vessel. 
I use it in RSS&RO so it's not a problem anyways but last time I tested in stock it was quite limiting. Don't get me wrong, I am a sucker for realism but given the stock system it might need a little thrust buff on those scales.

Other than that - yes SSTU has you covered with everything.

I have a patch for all RL-10. On my side it was not oriented toward realism, but for ingame balance (as well as my patience).

SSTU naming convention allow you to pick all RL-10 and modifying them all at once.

[blowfish]

*recalls recent 9 minute Moho capture in career*

Nope, long burn times definitely don't work in the stock system 

[RedParadize]

7 minutes ago, blowfish said:

*recalls recent 9 minute Moho capture in career*

Nope, long burn times definitely don't work in the stock system 

9 min burn? Kill me!

[blowfish]

27 minutes ago, RedParadize said:

9 min burn? Kill me!

All I can say is physics warp is your friend

[CatastrophicFailure]

Have you guys never had the pleasure of a Moho capture burn so long you have to start it before hitting Moho's SOI?