Workaround Industries Presents: The H-013 Interplanetary Rotating Torus Mothership (AGRITM)

[The Optimist]

  Looks like any old interplanetary ship, doesn't it. But it most definitely is not ordinary.This craft, inspired by a ship-that-will-not-be-named in a movie-that-will-not-be-named, features a rotary habitat ring! It provides artificial gravity in order to stop your kerbals from devolving into puddles of green slime.

The habitat ring rotates independently of the main ship, and crew members can easily transfer between their quarters and the command section. The ring rotates at a speed of 20 m/s at its maximal safe capacity, enough to produce a centrifugal force of around 0.3 G. The rotary engines are good for about 120 days of sustained rotation or 220 days of 0.2 G gravity. Use the physics warp mod for it to remain rotating.

The torus is held in place by a state-of-the-art system of road wheels and dinner plates. A few pieces of metal is all that is stopping the torus from floating away into the void. Some corners had to be cut in order to keep the craft light enough to be sent into orbit. Due to the limitations of the stock game, the torus must be at the end of the craft in order to function properly. Also due to the same limitations, the torus may exit the wheel cage when using physics warp, so be careful.

Can reach Jool with a well-executed maneuver. No botanists allowed.

Download link here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zs4inu48dx6wcqz/Stock%20Hermes%20inspired%20craft%20-%20Copy.craft?dl=0

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2016 by The Optimist

[HebaruSan]

Can you see the drive segment in an IVA from the ring?

[The Optimist]

Just now, HebaruSan said:

Can you see the drive segment in an IVA from the ring?

The crew cabins aren't oriented properly, but you can tweak that if you wish.

[The Optimist]

I'm going to rename this thread into something clickbaity like "extreme party station" or "stock alcubierre drive".

Or maybe some even more clickbaity name, like STOCK HERMES CRAFT W/ALL MODULES

 

Too bad no one likes The Martian anymore.

Edited February 13, 2016 by The Optimist

[selfish_meme]

I do, I have a Hermes too

[The Optimist]

Just now, selfish_meme said:

I do, I have a Hermes too

That's a interesting bearing design. I must steal it!

[Majorjim!]

Give it time man, this forum is quiet at weekends now it seems and in general.

 It looks awesome I must say. Have you thought about making a cinematic with it? I would look cool in the Jool system.

[selfish_meme]

32 minutes ago, The Optimist said:

I'm going to rename this thread into something clickbaity like "extreme party station" or "stock alcubierre drive".

Or maybe some even more clickbaity name, like STOCK HERMES CRAFT W/ALL MODULES

 

Too bad no one likes The Martian anymore.

I think it would make a great discovery for a 2001 cinematic

[The Optimist]

Just now, selfish_meme said:

I think it would make a great discovery for a 2001 cinematic

?

 

[selfish_meme]

Sorry not discovery, the rotating space station

Yours has that great wheel.

[The Optimist]

Just now, selfish_meme said:

Sorry not discovery, the rotating space station

Yours has that great wheel.

I recall, 2001 was a good movie.

[Darth Lazarus]

beautifull little spaceship you got here.

 

i'm always amazed about people, build their own stock rotation pieces. well done !

[The Optimist]

Just now, Darth Lazarus said:

beautifull little spaceship you got here.

 

i'm always amazed about people, build their own stock rotation pieces. well done !

Thanks!

[Rune]

Nice, rings never go out of style.

Did you know you can get rid of that ugly gap between ring segments without screwing the alignment, and quite easily to boot? The key is to know about the two translation gizmo modes. Let me explain, I think someone will find it useful:

If, with a part selected in the translation gizmo, you press "F" (so press "2", click a part, press "F"), you will change modes and a message will prompt you in green text telling you in which mode you are after the change ("Offset Mode: Absolute" or "Offset Mode:  Local", to be precise). You want to be in "local" mode, and with the snap mode on, so the whole thing is repeatable with the same measurements along the ring. SO will immediately see that the translation arrows are now aligned with the part, not the VAB, and when you start moving it, it won't snap to some invisible grid like it does when the translation mode is the usual one. Then just one small tick (holding shift you move in half-increments) will move the next segment into the previous one, hiding the gap without any Z-fighting because they are at an angle, and looking mighty fine. That's how I get smooth rings, like here, where the black lines between segments are actually the part's end, and there is no gap at all.

Bet you didn't know at least one of those things, right? Well, we are here to help!

 

Rune. KSP, worst documented game ever? Probably not, but not for lack of "hidden" features.

[The Optimist]

4 hours ago, Rune said:

Nice, rings never go out of style.

Did you know you can get rid of that ugly gap between ring segments without screwing the alignment, and quite easily to boot? The key is to know about the two translation gizmo modes. Let me explain, I think someone will find it useful:

If, with a part selected in the translation gizmo, you press "F" (so press "2", click a part, press "F"), you will change modes and a message will prompt you in green text telling you in which mode you are after the change ("Offset Mode: Absolute" or "Offset Mode:  Local", to be precise). You want to be in "local" mode, and with the snap mode on, so the whole thing is repeatable with the same measurements along the ring. SO will immediately see that the translation arrows are now aligned with the part, not the VAB, and when you start moving it, it won't snap to some invisible grid like it does when the translation mode is the usual one. Then just one small tick (holding shift you move in half-increments) will move the next segment into the previous one, hiding the gap without any Z-fighting because they are at an angle, and looking mighty fine. That's how I get smooth rings, like here, where the black lines between segments are actually the part's end, and there is no gap at all.

Bet you didn't know at least one of those things, right? Well, we are here to help!

 

Rune. KSP, worst documented game ever? Probably not, but not for lack of "hidden" features.

Thanks! I was thinking more of the angle snap + shift trick for the 5 degree angles.

On a different note, I'll give a cookie to anyone who can make a legit launcher for the H-013. And I'll give 2 to whoever can make a redocking mechanism for the torus, because as of right now when you timewarp the torus leaves the bearing. No way to prevent it.

[Majorjim!]

Just now, The Optimist said:

Thanks! I was thinking more of the angle snap + shift trick for the 5 degree angles.

On a different note, I'll give a cookie to anyone who can make a legit launcher for the H-013. And I'll give 2 to whoever can make a redocking mechanism for the torus, because as of right now when you timewarp the torus leaves the bearing. No way to prevent it.

The launcher would be a breeze man! Have you tried to make one for it yet?

[HebaruSan]

1 hour ago, The Optimist said:

On a different note, I'll give a cookie to anyone who can make a legit launcher for the H-013. And I'll give 2 to whoever can make a redocking mechanism for the torus, because as of right now when you timewarp the torus leaves the bearing. No way to prevent it.

Challenge #1 accepted! The silver lining of that ring is that the thing stays aerodynamically stable without fins. I changed the ejection force of the decouplers to 0 so the side tanks could just drift out, and you have to fly it diagonally because the LV-N's are rotated between the side tanks, but otherwise I don't think there were any sneaky tricks here.

 

[selfish_meme]

3 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

Challenge #1 accepted! The silver lining of that ring is that the thing stays aerodynamically stable without fins. I changed the ejection force of the decouplers to 0 so the side tanks could just drift out, and you have to fly it diagonally because the LV-N's are rotated between the side tanks, but otherwise I don't think there were any sneaky tricks here.

 

Nice, I have a launcher for my Kerbes but I just stuck it in a giant fairing with couple of big boosters and SRB's on the side.

This is from when I thought I would run the rings up separately, now I just do it in one launch.

[Dafni]

Very nice craft! I´ll give it a spin later today.

 

@Rune that was a great piece of advice, thank you, I did not know that. Maybe any tips for that angle-snap moment when one uses editor extensions??

 

Daf

[Majorjim!]

6 hours ago, Dafni said:

Very nice craft! I´ll give it a spin later today.

 

@Rune that was a great piece of advice, thank you, I did not know that. Maybe any tips for that angle-snap moment when one uses editor extensions??

 

Daf

Editor extensions does not effect the angle snap really. Do you use the no offset limit mod? That has the biggest impact on what you can build. Or rather, it massively lowers part counts on very complex (truly complex ) builds.

 Pressing F to move from local to absolute movement is very helpful as is, when using the rotate tool clicking and holding then moving the mouse away makes for VERY precise rotational positioning.

 

[The Optimist]

I made a ion-powered variant of it, which is also much larger. I'll put it up soon.

 

[Rune]

9 hours ago, Dafni said:

@Rune that was a great piece of advice, thank you, I did not know that. Maybe any tips for that angle-snap moment when one uses editor extensions??

You are welcome! Editor extensions adds convenience, mostly, but not that much. The features I use all the time are mostly "V" and "H", which are horizontal and vertical snap and will put a part exactly in the middle of another. Great to get over symmetry parts by actually not using symmetry, and still have everything aligned as it should. I also play with angle snap at 90º most of the time it isn't without angle, so I can place the part where I want them without having to click in a very particular spot with the mouse. And yeah, every now and then I use the extended symmetry option, but less and less these days. Oh, and a dash of "T" to activate surface attachment on some parts and save the cubic strut to create an attachment point. So basically I'm with the left hand on the keyboard all the time, pressing SHIFT, CTRL, ALT, Z, X, C, T, V, H and the combinations... I have quite the muscle memory by now, even though a lot of things can be done with the mouse alone.

2 hours ago, Majorjim said:

Editor extensions does not effect the angle snap really. Do you use the no offset limit mod? That has the biggest impact on what you can build. Or rather, it massively lowers part counts on very complex (truly complex ) builds.

 Pressing F to move from local to absolute movement is very helpful as is, when using the rotate tool clicking and holding then moving the mouse away makes for VERY precise rotational positioning.

 

Actually, I haven't used that mod yet. See, I learned to cheat the stock translation limitations by rotating the parts, and so far that has worked in everything I wanted to do. But I imagine some day I will see the point in it., so I wouldn't dissuade anyone from trying it out, my way takes a whole lot more of build-fu and familiarity with the UI.

 

Rune. I almost didn't notice the Vector was surface-attachable in stock when I first picked it up.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Rune

[Dafni]

@Rune thank you, I see. I use it the same way, pretty much.

The thing is that the angle snap on the rotation gizmo doesen't do much sometimes, maybe not all of those many angle options work correct? Or maybe you have to unselect the part, chose the snap, and click it again to make it work, I have to play around with it some more.

 

@Majorjim thank you, yes, I use the no offset limit mod too, its handy. One of the mods that I would miss the most. Yes, I know about the trick with the extra long lever for pixel perfect rotation... wish the same would work with the offset too, somehow

Edited February 16, 2016 by Dafni

[HebaruSan]

21 minutes ago, Dafni said:

The thing is that the angle snap on the rotation gizmo doesen't do much sometimes, maybe not all of those many angle options work correct? Or maybe you have to unselect the part, chose the snap, and click it again to make it work, I have to play around with it some more.

It has some limitations. Mainly, there's no concept of branching sub-symmetry; if you attach some tanks to your core segment with 4-way symmetry, then if you want to attach more parts to those tanks, you have to choose either 4-way symmetry (with respect to the core part, not the side tank) or no symmetry at all. You can't dial it down to 2-way to attach to just 2 of the tanks, and you can't use say 6-way symmetry to put 6 parts around each of the tanks. (And of course there's a bug where sometimes it gives you local symmetry anyway.)

However, there is a workaround to that. If you build a sub-segment inline with the main segment (so "above" or "below" it), you can use whatever symmetry you want, and then move it in place on a side tank with a different, incompatible symmetry, and both symmetries will be applied as expected. However, you generally won't be able to make adjustments to the sub-segment at that point, so it's important to get it all figured out perfectly before moving it (or you can move it back in line temporarily for maintenance).

Edited February 16, 2016 by HebaruSan

[Rune]

1 hour ago, Dafni said:

@Majorjim thank you, yes, I use the no offset limit mod too, its handy. One of the mods that I would miss the most. Yes, I know about the trick with the extra long lever for pixel perfect rotation... wish the same would work with the offset too, somehow

To get precise on the translation gizmo, just zoom like crazy on it, and then the same movement across the screen will translate in a smaller movement of the part. Easier to do IMO than with the rotation one!

 

Rune. We are turning this thread into a gizmo class.