Any tips on Spaceship design similar to UNSC and Star Trek?

[ErevanGaming]

Hi everybody,

Just want to ask if there are tips, techniques and/or tricks in creating spaceships like those from the Halo game and Star Trek?

 

Regards and thanks

[Streetwind]

Some things I can think of:

1.) Look for modded parts that look like what you need

2.) Get creative with structural parts (girders, plates, I-beams)

3.) Make a habit of repurposing parts in original ways. I've seen somebody use cupola modules (together with some paneling) as wheels... Of course it didn't drive, but it looked the way he needed it to look.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Streetwind

[Pecan]

Launching things like that is a nightmare so construct them in orbit, with docking ports, or hyper-edit them up there once built on the ground.

Once in space any old thing will manoeuvre fine (within TWR limits) as long as the axis of thrust passes through the CoM, otherwise it will spin and be uncontrollable.  For something like the ST Enterprise, with high-mounted engine nacelles, that means angling them aft-up/fore-down to get the thrust right.  Alternatively, add another balancing engine in 'whatever-that-bottom-keel-hull-bit-is-called'

[ErevanGaming]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your tips =)

Ship designs with aligned CoM and thrust with full or near empty fuel tanks is best?

 

Regards

[dire]

11 hours ago, ErevanGaming said:

Hi guys,

Thanks for your tips =)

Ship designs with aligned CoM and thrust with full or near empty fuel tanks is best?

 

Regards

If you can't have both, plan on not flying in one of those states.

CoM a little off can be compensated for with SAS/monoprop but if it's off by more than a few degrees you're just going to spin in circles.

[radonek]

You are talking ships with purely magical propulsion, so: build with empty tanks, then fill them just to push CoM where you need it  and fly with infinite fuel cheat. But honestly, this sounds more like job for space engineers.
 

[ErevanGaming]

Oh yeah @radonek you have a good point there. =( 

@dire think I'll search the net again for inspiration to draw ship designs that would be manageable to fly =">

[dire]

I honestly think the Enterprise is probably flyable, the secret is not to use two engines; use 3 (one on each warp nacel and one in the belly as an "impulse" engine) and then center the command disk and COM on center of thrust. If your 3 engines each have the same fuel and fuel usage, your COM should stay steady in both full and empty states.

If you want a fatter-bellied enterprise like the later models, use 4 engines and put 2 in the belly. Then shift the command bridge down to compensate.

Edited August 28, 2016 by dire

[Rocket In My Pocket]

This mod should help you a lot with UNSC style ships:

 

[ErevanGaming]

@dire @Rocket In My Pocket 

Thanks guys, still tinkering around with a flyable design =D especially liked getting LLL's reactor not so eary-ish on my career game =)

[Sharpy]

As for  repurposing: get Tweakscale.

10cm scale MK3 parts, a 3m radius Stayputnik, 2-meter Spider engine, Twin Piglet, the simple single solar panel upscaled to airplane size, a lander for 3 kerbals using Okto 2 as main structural plate, a ring station built on the inside of a size 0 separator... Tweakscale opens up a lot of possibilities!

And Editor Extensions. An absolute must. Surface-attach anything to anything, and move and rotate anywhere.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Sharpy

[ErevanGaming]

@Sharpy is it safe to surface attach stuff to anything? I tried to design jet/rocket planes and some parts I attach to certain surfaces overheats ="> guess I just need to only use parts with high temperature tolerance. =D

[Sharpy]

5 hours ago, ErevanGaming said:

@Sharpy is it safe to surface attach stuff to anything? I tried to design jet/rocket planes and some parts I attach to certain surfaces overheats ="> guess I just need to only use parts with high temperature tolerance. =D

Not to *anything* I've been doing it aplenty and never had that problem, outside of obvious cases - engine flame licking the surface, RTG getting hot, atmospheric heat spreading etc. I never had parts clipping cause overheating. OTOH, some parts are really not meant for surface attachment and may refuse to work properly if not given proper TLC afterwards. There may be crossfeed issues - use pipes. There may be drag issues. Only node attachment guarantees proper occlusion. Decouplers like to get explodey if even partially immersed. For great most cases though it's non-issue.

Some rules of thumb when abusing surface attachment:

- if it's ever to become a separate vessel, debris or such, make sure to offset (not clip) or expect explosions.
- only assume you're getting a mechanical connection, if that. Don't make assumptions about crossfeed, heat transfer, precise attachment point, occlusion, orientation, sturdiness of the joinr etc.
- you can draw a fuel pipe to an engine.
- In particular orientation may be disorienting. Don't assume a surface-attached probe core will attach the same way as node-attached.
- conversely, you can make many assumptions about node attachment, even if you move the part afterwards. Doesn't apply to drag/occlusion though.
- engines really don't care by which node you attach them though. So feel free to attach them to tanks by the bottom node (nozzle), move/rotate to desired location, then apply, say, a nose cone to the upper node.  After node attachment was applied, it stays.
- also don't assume the decoupler will decouple anything except what's attached to its node on the triangle pointing side. You can assume that of separators though. They decouple everything attached to them. Also, a heatshield is a separator.
 

Example:

Note the MK3 structural plates in the side towers. There are four engines in each of the cargo bays. The only parts radially attached are the cargo bays - and then the slanted tanks are strutted to the main tank.

- the plates were attached to the cargo bays.
- three nukes were node-attached pointing upwards to each plate, then rotated "in".
- a Vector was attached to the cargo bay node, then moved downwards not to clip with the nukes too badly.
- the slanted tank was node-attached to the central engine node on the MK3 structural plate, then moved and rotated to align visually. Surprisingly, it works for drag too.
- reaction wheels and smaller tanks were node-attached.
- the fuel crossfeed pipes go from the central cargo bay to the MK3 structural plates.

 

 

Edited August 30, 2016 by Sharpy

[tater]

For Enterprise, it's the warp engines that are separated. Impulse (KSP type) power is on the back of the saucer.  Make the warp nacelles heavy enough, and the thrust axis likely runs through the saucer.