How many things do you use the wrong way?

[problemecium]

- I use docking ports as decouplers so much I've all but stopped using actual decouplers. I've slowly started trying to retrain myself now that decoupler crossfeed is configurable.
(I exclusively use stack separators as cannonballs xD )

- I frequently create spacecraft that only exist as subassemblies. As far as I can tell the .craft files are the same either way, so why have two when I can have just one?

- Related to the above, I frequently use fairing bases as the root part, which I have a hunch is somehow bad. Occasionally I also use fairing bases just to get the extra nodes and scaffolding, e.g. on my latest experimental Portable Station, without making any use of the actual fairing feature.

- Every once in a while I use hardpoints as landing legs.

- I've always been against the willy-nilly use of the cubic octagonal strut for forcing radial attachments due to its tiny size and shape and how ridiculous it looks to have big engines and tanks attached through it. Consequently I do this using other parts such as the small nose cone, e.g. on my "LV-Nx4" engine pod subassembly wherein the nose cone's high heat tolerance is vital.

- I use large wings or I-beams to stab through fairings and trick struts into attaching to the fairing walls.

- While it's not a part, I horrifically abuse the Offset feature to get around having to use external fuel lines and various radial attachment adapters.

[Suedocode]

6 hours ago, Archgeek said:

Finally, drained mk0 fuel tanks make the lightest structure per unit length, so I've taken to using them in place of girders.

Lighter than fuselage?

[Superfluous J]

5 minutes ago, Suedocode said:

Lighter than fuselage?

Empty Mk0 LF tank: 1m long, 0.025t

Structural Fuselage: 1.9m long, 0.1t

So yeah, 2 empty Mk0 tanks are both slightly longer and much lighter than a structural fuselage.

[fourfa]

I just LOVE the structural intake Adjustable Ramp Intake (Radial) as a girder.  Long, light, and can be nice as a cosmetic element too.

And regarding the post above mine: 3.1m long, 0.0125t

Edited October 5, 2016 by fourfa

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Sharpy said:

Pity it's for FAR. I'm not hardcore enough.

There's way too much mythologising of FAR. I had this dread of it until I finally gulped and installed it... only to discover that my planes fly BETTER with it. Bit anticlimactic, that.

(I did have to re-learn how to build rockets with big and light payloads in the nose. It boiled down to, "use the forward fuel tank as ballast, and make fairings as soon as you can." And yes, I did have to learn to be more gentle with atmospheric manoeuvres, but that was easier because the planes flew better.) 

Edited October 5, 2016 by Guest

[Aegolius13]

Speaking of girders, I needed a girder-ish thing to dangle an Eve rover underneath a skycrane/lander.  Then I remembered the rover was packing an RTG anyway.  And RTGs are long and narrow.  So I just stuck the RTG up vertically from the top of the rover, and used it as the girder.  What could POSSIBLY go wrong?  (It actually worked without incident).

Another one - I was trying to send up several deorbiter/escape pods to my space station in one launch.  I eventually decided on turning a (edit) quadcoupler upside down, and plopping the escape pods in each of the holes.  Looked like a little muffin tin with little Mk 1 capsule muffins. The aerodynamics on that thing must have been fantastic.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Aegolius13

[Archgeek]

8 hours ago, Aegolius13 said:

Another one - I was trying to send up several deorbiter/escape pods to my space station in one launch.  I eventually decided on turning a 4-way decoupler upside down, and plopping the escape pods in each of the holes.  Looked like a little muffin tin with little Mk 1 capsule muffins. The aerodynamics on that thing must have been fantastic.

...A 4-way decoupler?

[Aegolius13]

4 hours ago, Archgeek said:

...A 4-way decoupler?

Sorry, meant quadcoupler.

[magnemoe]

17 minutes ago, Aegolius13 said:

Sorry, meant quadcoupler.

Still unknown for me, assume its from an mod 

[Aegolius13]

2 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Still unknown for me, assume its from an mod 

Nope, stock part.  Like you would use to put four engines on the back of a fuel tank.

[teag2]

10 minutes ago, Aegolius13 said:

Nope, stock part.  Like you would use to put four engines on the back of a fuel tank.

Yeah, they're stock. I use them a lot.

As for the question, I sometimes use engines as "landing legs". As a lot of people do.

[magnemoe]

Just now, Aegolius13 said:

Nope, stock part.  Like you would use to put four engines on the back of a fuel tank.

Now its I who feel stupid. Using it just now 
Four MK1 crew cabins connected to it with the inline MK1 cockpit up ahead, adjusted radial atactchement node below for fuel tank. 

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

On 10/4/2016 at 9:21 PM, 5thHorseman said:

Empty Mk0 LF tank: 1m long, 0.025t

Structural Fuselage: 1.9m long, 0.1t

So yeah, 2 empty Mk0 tanks are both slightly longer and much lighter than a structural fuselage.

what about the itsy bitsy feather-light cubic struts?

 

Anyways, I often use Communitron 16s and O-Stat solar panels as bearings in prop planes and helicopters (and more recently a car).

I used the flat sides of mk3 fuselages to create a decently sized, tough, low part count aircraft carrier.

I once used a fairing with a modification to the craft file to create a ship with negative mass... Unfortunately it didn't really do anything

I once attached 2 biplanes to the control tower using KAS grappling hooks and watched them fly circles around it.

Used airbrakes to keep cargo from shifting around in a plane.

Used a claw to act as a hinged joint attaching the boom to a Stratotanker I created. I then used another claw to dock a thunderbird to it in flight.

Used BDA cluster bombs in an attempt to create a pseudo Orion Drive.

Used [REDACTED] and the preciously mentioned [REDACTED] to make a super-[REDACTED].

Used a KAS winch and struts to replace an entire 1/2 orange tank I had blown up on an IPV when I smacked into it with a tanker. The IPV later exploderized around Vall due to the insane buggyness of KMP.

Used a panther in wet mode mounted on a truck as an incinerator to get rid of debris on the island runway on a DMP server.

Used Vernors to keep a 750m clampless tower from falling over.

Used large static solar panels as really inefficient wings

...

That's all I can think of at the moment.

 

Edited October 6, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[numerobis]

@Archgeek: "In my defense, they have the best ratio of lift to mass of any aero part."

20% better than the others! But it looks like you're carrying fuel tanks. The Big-S strake has the normal lift to mass, but carries fuel. If you compare the strake to equivalent lift from fins, the strake is only 17 kg heavier, which is a lot less than any fuel tank that carries 100 units.

[Archgeek]

On 10/4/2016 at 10:25 PM, fourfa said:

I just LOVE the structural intake Adjustable Ramp Intake (Radial) as a girder.  Long, light, and can be nice as a cosmetic element too.

And regarding the post above mine: 3.1m long, 0.0125t

Hmm, I may have to revamp a certain design, then.

[dangerhamster]

The narrow band resource scanner makes a handy "biome finder" for an exploration rover.

The big one doubles as an airbrake/parachute/draggy thing for Eve.

[Allocthonous]

9 hours ago, dangerhamster said:

The narrow band resource scanner makes a handy "biome finder" for an exploration rover.

Doesn't the surface scanning module do this for 10% of the weight?

[Kevin Kyle]

On 10/3/2016 at 11:45 AM, Snark said:

I've seen people use the Communotron-16 antenna as a cheap, lightweight landing leg for small probes.

I have been doing this for a long time now. Works great. I thought everyone did this! lol

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, Allocthonous said:

Doesn't the surface scanning module do this for 10% of the weight?

It does however the narrow base indicates it before you reach it. 

[gtmattz]

On 10/3/2016 at 8:45 AM, Snark said:

I've seen people use the Communotron-16 antenna as a cheap, lightweight landing leg for small probes.

I have done this, it works well!

[fourfa]

On 10/4/2016 at 8:25 PM, fourfa said:

I just LOVE the structural intake Adjustable Ramp Intake (Radial) as a girder.  Long, light, and can be nice as a cosmetic element too.

And regarding the post above mine: 3.1m long, 0.0125t

Bad form to quote myself - but it's also great as a fashion conduit to hide long fuel line runs.  Might require a mod with NoOffsetLimits like EEX

[Vaporized Steel]

Using empty Solid rocket boosters part clipped in a heavy fuselage as a stock constructional solution to build stock things that would normally require Kerbal join reinforcements mod.
In this case to carry 4 x 46 Ton custom made rapier engine blocks without them falling off due to constructional failure.

Pic

Completely overkill for stock KSP, I know.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

I misuse contracts asking to test a part I haven't unlocked. For example, the other day I had a "test small landing gear flying at Kerbin." So I built a science plane and did numerous flights before actually doing the test. I hate the starting landing gear.