Developing a Deep Sea Base

[Krakatoa]

Everyone has seen videos or images of intrepid space programs setting up submarines or undersea bases on Laythe. Trouble is, unless you have part invincibility turned on, your bases will implode to the pressure before you can develop SeaLab 2020, possibly before you reach a safe spot on the bottom. I'd like to use this thread to collect information from anyone who may have something to offer on parts or MM patches to help build a solid underwater base without giving your ships the invincibility of Superman. To start off with, there are several mods still being supported/developed that give submarine parts, with a maxPressure value defined in their .cfg files.

@Fengist's The Maritime Pack and 1869 Steampunk Mod

@RoverDude's Sub Pack, part of the Exploration Pack of the USI suite

@SpannerMonkey(smce)'s multiple packs, including SM Marine

These are all amazing, each for what they add, but there's not as much in the way of stationary mining bases or the like. My personal search is to find a framework to write a patch for specific pieces I would like to exhibit greater pressure resistance for deep sea bases on Laythe, etc, or build one that uses some metric of strength existing on parts already to give them a maxPressure value. Thoughts, pictures of your awesome undersea base and discussion of the mods you use, etc, are all welcome here!

 

 

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

9 minutes ago, Krakatoa said:

submarines or undersea bases on Laythe

Hi, now although i have a several harbors and buildings scattered around Laythe, despite trying everything else, |I've never subbed  Laythe.  So I'll let you know how my craft ,as is, perform.

I presume we're talking functional base here rather than a deco KK item, as the later is too easy.  The former however i've not done since very early KSP days, in the early 0.2x's probably.  While i can see that perhaps you could use stock parts to achieve it, (obviously stock brings me out in a rash) there's a good case for a custom mod or mods. Mind you I suppose you could do the MM dance and clone and re-purpose revalue any part you wished, is amazing what can be done with some patches and liberal application of model node values.

[OrbitalBuzzsaw]

Good luck with that.

[Krakatoa]

1 minute ago, SpannerMonkey(smce) said:

Hi, now although i have a several harbors and buildings scattered around Laythe, despite trying everything else, |I've never subbed  Laythe.  So I'll let you know how my craft ,as is, perform.

I presume we're talking functional base here rather than a deco KK item, as the later is too easy.  The former however i've not done since very early KSP days, in the early 0.2x's probably.  While i can see that perhaps you could use stock parts to achieve it, (obviously stock brings me out in a rash) there's a good case for a custom mod or mods. Mind you I suppose you could do the MM dance and clone and re-purpose revalue any part you wished, is amazing what can be done with some patches and liberal application of model node values.

Aye, I play on career mode, so something that serves a purpose is always welcome. I use a number of mod packs that can take advantage of dispersed bases like USI and Wild Blue Industries, and at the very least, science returns and having something really interesting in a very different sort of biome is always cool. I haven't gotten to Jool in my current save, so I haven't checked out the mineral dispersal on any water-bearing planets except Kerbin. I figure truss parts should be able to handle pretty serious pressures, and might make for good underwater bases, so I could start with figuring it out for Near Future Construction. How could I go about adding maxPressure to those? Would I go part by part with:

@PART[truss_octo_1,truss_octo_2]
{
	maxPressure = 8000 //Or whatever appropriate number
}

Or could I do more of a catch-all per mod?

[Fengist]

Well... there's one mod that you could really use for this if I can get him interested in reviving it.  @InfiniteDice, the original creator of the first boat mod (Boat Parts) has some code lying around that enables Kerbals to swim.  One of the things this gave him was the ability to create a 'hollow' submarine that Kerbals could move around in while under water.

Lemme see what Dice is up to...