Simple Spherical Balloon Tanks

[sevenperforce]

If one simple part could be added to stock KSP to dramatically improve gameplay, it would be stock balloon tanks.

Characteristics:

• Spherical
• 10:1 propellant to structure ratio
• Two varieties (LO and LF); no bipropellant tanks
• Ideally procedural/scalable; if not, then four sizes (tiny, small, large, and extra large)
• Only a single attachment node
• Low impact tolerance (~3 m/s), low heat tolerance (~1000K)
• Same skin as the ROUND-8 for the LO variety; zero-saturation grey skin for the LF variety

Stock currently lacks any options for LO-only tanks, even though it does have options for LF-only tanks. Adding an option to have a tank with only LO makes a lot of sense. Plus, for any stages designed to operate completely outside of the atmosphere, having balloon tanks with a better propellant fraction than the rest of the stock tanks would mean a wider range of lander designs and transfer stages. However, the low impact tolerance and large cross-sectional area of these tanks would necessitate their inclusion in a fairing for ascents from Kerbin. 

You could also build more real-life-analogue stages and landers, since numerous real-world vehicles use spherical tanks.

[qzgy]

Think I saw something like this in update pics from the weekly. Not sure if its Making History exclsive, but I like your ideas.

I do feel though that this can become quickly exploited just by mashing a bunch in a cargo bay, or fairing for launch vehicles making the other tanks kinda pointless. So maybe that may run into balance issues. LOx only tanks would be great though. And more LF only tanks. Mk3/Mk1/Mk2 LF tanks are currently the only options.

[b0ss]

Try Near Future Propulsion and Kerbal Atomics w/ fuel switcher mod