Subassembly Pack: small things that can make a difference, sometimes.

[Rune]

Hello there! I've often been asked about many small subassemblies that I use in my game, and I've been teasing for a while that I would get some of the ones I most often use together, and release that as a pack. So here you go! They have been developed over several versions now, and there are a couple in there that I am very proud of. Enjoy! :-)

DRIVE POD

If there was one sub I am proud of, it would be this one. The original one I don't even remember when I built, but this is the updated version, with thermal management and the latest building tricks. Thanks to some careful part placement, it can draw fuel from any of it's docking ports, so you can attach this baby to pretty much anything to give it pretty long legs. And with a minimal part count of 12!

KLAW POD

The drive pods are great, but they do need a way to be moved around. Whether it's that, or you need to move an E-class potatoroid around, the Klaw Pod is your friend. With plenty of docking ports to not usually need the bug-prone Klaw, strong RCS and reaction wheels, and minimal part count, a pair of these with handle ridiculously large payloads by placing them on opposite ends, and even the single one can handle more than it looks like. Orbital building is much easier with one of these, and since you don't need to give any piece of your stations independent RCS propulsion, part count for large multi-part builds goes down greatly.

KMU

Still, you are not going to leave all the fun of station assembly to a bunch of probes, right? Then this here is just for you! Featuring the absolute minimum amount of parts for such a thing (10!), the Kerbal Mobility Unit will extend the range of your EVAs while not costing you in framerate. And if you have Jr. docking ports around, you can use it to move stuff!

CUPOLA POD

If the manned assembly thing appeals you, but you want to go all stylish and air-conditioned about it, then this luxurious 2001-style manned pod is just the thing for you. With docking ports of all sizes, it is very rare indeed to have a payload that can't be shifted around with one of these... and you could always fit a Klaw Pod on the nose to handle those. Also useful to complete station contracts... and as general docking port adapter ;-)

HL-20 ESCAPE VEHICLE

This one is not that useful, really, but in the few emergencies when you'll want it, the ~1.5km/s in the tanks and the ability to glide to a soft landing in any atmosphere will allow your kerbal to safely return to kerbin in the event of any plausible emergency in cismunar space... and maybe a bit beyond. The accommodations are a bit spartan, but you can't beat it in size or part count... it fits a Mk3 payload bay when tilted 45º, and is a mere 16 parts. And more importantly, it looks rather cute, IMO.

SIMPLESAT

In order to really make a profit with all those satellite contracts, you need a reliable satellite that will fit pretty much anywhere. This is exactly it. Usually launched as a secondary payload on other flights, the SimpleSat has a rather impressive ~3km/s in the tanks, enough to reach all manner of crazy orbits, even when you chuck in the special equipment required for your particular mission. Mk2 bay-friendly!

ASTEROID REFINERY

All you will ever need to mine an asteroid, minus the engines to move it around. A universal port on one end means it can actually serve as a mount for either one or two Drive Pods, so it can actually move the potatoes around to where you want the refuelling operations to take place. It could use a bigger fuel reservoir, but then it wouldn't be as customizable, just by adding modules, or be a mere 20 parts, would it? Best used with a couple of Klaw Pods and the single Drive Pod to wrangle asteroids really cheaply with something that can be taken to space inside a SSTO bay.

ORE TANK

Presented for completeness, my standard Ore Tank. It is not coincidental that it is exactly the same size as a X200-32 fuel tank capped with Sr. docking ports, nor is it accidental that it has Jr. docking ports on the sides... you can bunch them in large groups, and they are an excellent platform to bolt Drive Pods on. Not much more to say about them... but just think how much fuel a 3x3x3 arrangement of these would be able to hold, being structurally sound and not that part intensive (10 parts each, for 30mT of propellant inside).

...So there you go. I could have included others, but I thought these were a good selection to get started. Tell me what you think and if you find something obvious that I should have included but I didn't, I am open to adding more crap before I archive this into R-SUV (when I finally get around to updating R-SUV to 1.05... ). In the meantime, here, have a nice RAR with all the files together.

DOWNLOAD:

http://www./download/1eke4p9519gel41/Subassemblies.rar

 

Rune. And double kudos to the guys that gets the reference in the thread title.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Rune

[Gojira]

Impressive as usual, Rune. Nice work! I'll have to see how I could put these to use.

[ryan234abc]

I love the HL-20 to bits! That's going on every station I can get it to when I can get around to it. It's a shame it's a RAR file, I'm clueless as to how to extract them. Either way, great work!

[Rune]

4 hours ago, ryan234abc said:

I love the HL-20 to bits! That's going on every station I can get it to when I can get around to it. It's a shame it's a RAR file, I'm clueless as to how to extract them. Either way, great work!

Thanks! And you shouldn't have any problems with the RAR, windows will handle it for you... unless you use a Mac, in which case Apple should give up and integrate the most used compression software in the history of ever. In any case, if you can't make it work I could see about doing a new link just for you... but it could take some time, I am having internet issues, again. Sigh!

On 7/12/2015 0:05:17, Gojira said:

Impressive as usual, Rune. Nice work! I'll have to see how I could put these to use.

You know I am always partial to repping screenies showing my stuff in awesome situations... right?

 

Rune. Well, now you do. Hurry up and do awesome stuff!

[inigma]

I love subassemblies. I'll say it again, I LOVE SUBASSEMBLIES. We need more. Heck, kerbalx needs more. Can u put these on kerbalx? My subs there look rather lonely.

[Rune]

10 hours ago, inigma said:

I love subassemblies. I'll say it again, I LOVE SUBASSEMBLIES. We need more. Heck, kerbalx needs more. Can u put these on kerbalx? My subs there look rather lonely.

I'll take a look, but I'm currently suffering the third-world indignity of a limited internet connection (seriously, anything other than an unlimited flat rate for data should be illegal). So, if I remember, next week, when I can again navigate at decent speeds on my main computer and don't have to resort to my mobile phone, because it's faster.

 

Rune. And I'm talking about the outskirts of a province capital here...

[JeramyM]

These look awesome.  Gonna try them out.  But, uh, where do I extract sub assemblies to? Nevermind found it.

Never mind again.  I put them in the subassembly folder for my save, but they aren't in the game.  Did I miss a step?

Edited December 11, 2015 by JeramyM

[Rune]

2 hours ago, JeramyM said:

These look awesome.  Gonna try them out.  But, uh, where do I extract sub assemblies to? Nevermind found it.

Never mind again.  I put them in the subassembly folder for my save, but they aren't in the game.  Did I miss a step?

Err... If they are in your save's subassembly folder with a correct .craft extension they should work... they would be uncategorised (which is bothersome), but I do that every new version (which means classifying them all over again, hence the bother). Alternatively, you could load them as ships, add a probe core on an open port, make that root, and then detach the subassembly and save as your own. If all else fails. Hope that helps!

 

Rune. Re-rooting is very powerful, if you know how it works.

[Wallygator]

Very very nice indeed.  Your designs always cause me to take a second deeper look. Well Done!  

[ryan234abc]

Downloaded WinZip and got the subassemblies! And don't say the HL-20 isn't that useful - its bootiful...

[r_rolo1]

Rune, just a question about the HL-20 ( that I wanted to ask since I've seen it in the WIP thread some time ago ). I have done some similar glider return ships ( IIRC I have once posted somewhere in this thread ) and I know how hard is to do a glider with so little parts that will perform well with various fuels loads due to the dificulty of keeping the CoM in the same place. Being myself out of a KSP able computer, I just wanted to ask how well the HL-20 handles on various fuel loads ... or you have a hidden fuel tank somewhere to ballast things ?

[Rune]

21 hours ago, r_rolo1 said:

Rune, just a question about the HL-20 ( that I wanted to ask since I've seen it in the WIP thread some time ago ). I have done some similar glider return ships ( IIRC I have once posted somewhere in this thread ) and I know how hard is to do a glider with so little parts that will perform well with various fuels loads due to the dificulty of keeping the CoM in the same place. Being myself out of a KSP able computer, I just wanted to ask how well the HL-20 handles on various fuel loads ... or you have a hidden fuel tank somewhere to ballast things ?

Good question! Yes, a tank in the front of a plane with nothing to compensate on the back is A Bad Thing. But in this particular case, with such a tiny light craft, the reaction wheel torque is much greater proportionally. So yeah, full of fuel it is very stable, but with an empty tank it'll go ever so slightly unstable. Thankfully, it is something that the reaction wheels can compensate for... as long as you have charge. So take care to leave a sliver of fuel in there!

 

Rune. OTOH, "relaxed stability" means a lot of agility.

[Raptor9]

That HL-20, simple but cool-looking.  Going to give it a try.  Thanks Rune.

[JeramyM]

I finally figured out the problem.  I haven't unlocked the parts yet.  So they won't show up.

[Rune]

1 hour ago, JeramyM said:

I finally figured out the problem.  I haven't unlocked the parts yet.  So they won't show up.

That makes sense, I maxed the science tree long ago, and don't really pay attention to tech level... Maybe I should provide something for the starting players, shouldn't I?

 

Rune. Even though low-tech ships are a bit boring, mid-tech ones can be surprisingly challenging.

[TopHeavy11]

LOVE IT! What mods are they compatable with KSP 1.0.5...*facepalms* OF COURSE THEY ARE WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

BTW, I got a challenge for you: 500 tonnes to LKO in a space plane in UNDER 100 parts.

[mythic_fci]

Beautiful! I've replaced the capsule-based CRV on my station with a modified version of the one above. Works like a charm!

[Rune]

5 hours ago, TopHeavy11 said:

LOVE IT! What mods are they compatable with KSP 1.0.5...*facepalms* OF COURSE THEY ARE WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

BTW, I got a challenge for you: 500 tonnes to LKO in a space plane in UNDER 100 parts.

I see you really liked it. Thanks! But sadly, I think that is way too many tons for too few parts... then again, give me 2.5m RAPIERs and perhaps I can tell you something different...

 

5 hours ago, FCISuperGuy said:

Beautiful! I've replaced the capsule-based CRV on my station with a modified version of the one above. Works like a charm!

Glad you like it! Let me guess: you added RCS, didn't you?

 

Rune. I use Klaw Pods to move them around.

[mythic_fci]

7 hours ago, Rune said:

Glad you like it! Let me guess: you added RCS, didn't you?

Yep I didn't want to bother with IR (though I'm interested), and I needed a way to berth the thing to my station. I also added a backup parachute in case I screw up landings.

[Rune]

On 19/12/2015 at 3:29 AM, FCISuperGuy said:

Yep I didn't want to bother with IR (though I'm interested), and I needed a way to berth the thing to my station. I also added a backup parachute in case I screw up landings.

You should have used a Klaw pod! Best detachable RCS system I've done, try it and you will get hooked, I guarantee.

In other news, as promised elsewhere, a 75 part, 12-module Simple Space Station:

SIMPLE SPACE STATION

The "SSS" is mostly an exercise in complicating a simple thing, without making it need a supercomputer to run it smoothly. Docking is already complicated enough, right? But hey, it's also a Mk3-storable, shuttle-friendly, completely functional station with science and refining capabilities that you bring up in nicely small parts. It eve has a vague air of resemblance to ISS. And even tough it may look simple, every part placed there was very carefully thought out to keep the part count minimal. In the file you get, however, I packed it all together into a really cheap two-stage launcher. To emulate NASA, just break the file I give into bits to save as subassemblies and use your favorite shuttle to bring it up, it is set up so it is easy to do so... I would recommend the Intrepid as the easiest of the alternatives I offer.

http://www./download/7973di1ggv2vt0z/LPS+-+Single+Launch.craft

 

Rune. That's a BIG fairing, stay close to prograde on the way up.