Mothership Improvements

[sardia]

This is my mothership, Alpha station, on it's maiden voyage to Duna. After being constructed literally in orbit, courtesy of extraplanetary launchpads, it's ready for the grand tour.  Unfortunately, on the way to mars, I found out it that it's unbalanced, and laggy. So now I want advice as to improve how it looks, reduce part count and reduce rcs usage. Since I have all these mods, anything is possible for me. I can reassemble part by part, or (once I get my mono refueled) move whole modules around. My only limitation is all my crew is tied up, especially engineers. My first step is to refuel, and I have a seed ship ready to land on Ike to build a refueling tanker + refinery. I think I want to convert everything I can into either rocket parts, or shoved inside KIS storage containers. That allows me to have the cleanest ship but with maximal potential since I can just build anything I need out of rocket parts and spare modules inside KIS containers.

Is it easier on my computer if it's inside KIS storage? Or will the game still take it into consideration?

[Snark]

Much easier when things are in containers. No physics. No models. Easier on both CPU and RAM. It's just a bit of bookkeeping, the parts don't actually exist except as increased mass for the containers.

[WuphonsReach]

2 hours ago, Snark said:

Much easier when things are in containers. No physics. No models. Easier on both CPU and RAM. It's just a bit of bookkeeping, the parts don't actually exist except as increased mass for the containers.

What counts as containers?  The various cargo bays?

[sardia]

This would be a KIS Container. Center of image, The black stripe and grid of cubes in it. I have a few of them building in my orbital dock right now. I know ideally I should just build a long cylinder for my ship, but what's the best way to arrange modules docked at to my main stack? Keep in mind that there are 3 orbital construction docks that create ships. One at the front, and 2 on the sides. Not quite sure where to place them.

[Stone Blue]

Would something like THIS help:

Hangar

Maybe nudge the thread with a post, and see if anyone else has gotten it working...

[Snark]

3 hours ago, WuphonsReach said:

What counts as containers?  The various cargo bays?

Not in this context.  Parts in a cargo bay are actual parts (as witnessed by the fact that you can open the bay and see them.  Putting a part in a cargo bay offers physical protection from reentry and so forth, but doesn't save you any CPU or RAM.

By "container" here I mean the actual KIS containers, that you can put things into such that the only way you can see them is as a thumbnail icon in an inventory dialog.  Things in "inventory" aren't real and don't cost computational resources until you take them out.

[sardia]

The hanger thing would be perfect...except the part about it not being ready for use. lol

I was hoping for advice as to how to best arrange my docking ports in order to arrange a good mothership. Like I saw the guy making "Sights of Kidonia" mission, and his mothership was really well planned out. I guessing I need to use the I-beams in order to make the docking ports align with my main stack.

Edited December 7, 2015 by sardia

[sardia]

What should i replace my cockpit with? The command module i have is heavy and I know there are better options.