RK--7 Kodlak

[Cheif Operations Director]

What have you used the engines for.

Ive used them for R7 boosters, Minuteman Missiles, and Delta V/SLS upperstage

[MR L A]

I spend most of my time in career mode so my rockets are designed carefully around cost/performance/part count (for my abysmal PC) with the "cool" factor placing last... and honestly I've not found a use for them so far. 

[Zeiss Ikon]

I've been playing RSS/RO/RP-1 for the past couple months, but as I recall, that's the four-chamber engine similar to the RD-108 the Russians used?  It has lower performance with  higher weight than a Bobcat (after all, the Russians needed five clusters to get to orbit; Gemini-Titan needed a single two-chamber engine).  If it were available at a lower tech node, it might see some use in career before the Bobcat unlocks, but since (as I recall) they become available at the same time, I don't see where the Kodiak will get much spotlight.

[MR L A]

2 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

but as I recall, that's the four-chamber engine similar to the RD-108 the Russians used?

Well, the RD-107 to be picky, that's why its called the RK-7 (not 8) in KSP. The RD-108 is pretty much a twin sister though.

4 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

It has lower performance with  higher weight than a Bobcat (after all, the Russians needed five clusters to get to orbit; Gemini-Titan needed a single two-chamber engine).  If it were available at a lower tech node, it might see some use in career before the Bobcat unlocks, but since (as I recall) they become available at the same time, I don't see where the Kodiak will get much spotlight.

Yeah, the RK-7 is pretty much a more expensive, later tech and worse performing version of the Reliant engine... I really think the MH parts need a balance pass. 

[panzer1b]

It is a aesthetic clone of the reliant, thats about it.  Outside of russian rocket replicas, ive honestly not seen people using it at all when there are better stat engines available (and for those of us that dont have the DLC, we can always use rapiers for russian lookalikes so even there its not quite as great of a engine.

 

I honestly feel they need to rebalance most of the MH parts to make them different enough from stock parts without rendering stock parts or MH parts obsolete.  I dont know, maybee give it absurd ISP in atmosphere but very bad in vaccum (vs reliant), or at least make it unique without rendering other engines useless.  Same issue comes into play with the F1 engine, its plain and simply not useful outside of visual replicas, heck, im pretty sure the mainsail is superior if you look purely at stats, and compared to alternatives like vectors, even the mainsail is showing its age.  I think the only good MH engine that is worth its weight is the wolfhound (or whatever the 412 ISP one is called), that engine actually has enough of a ISP boost over the other stock LFO choices that it has its use (only thing it doesnt obsolete on larger vessels are nukes which still hold a considerable ISP advantage despite the low TWR).

 

Anyways, it really isnt a huge deal, the kodiak still gives you a bit of visual flavor that the stock game doesnt have (without resorting to stupid high part count that is), so for those dead set on replicating real life (which im not a part of, all i do in this game is sci-fi BS like capital ships, dropships, hovertanks, ect), go for it, and in those cases stats dont really matter quite as much...

[Zeiss Ikon]

6 hours ago, panzer1b said:

 for those dead set on replicating real life (which im not a part of, all i do in this game is sci-fi BS like capital ships, dropships, hovertanks, ect), go for it, and in those cases stats dont really matter quite as much...

I suspect most of those dead set on replicating real life are celebrating a reasonably playable 1.3.1 RSS/RO/RP-1 combination, and might use Principia as well (which, with n-body physics, make possible orbits that depend on perturbation, like the one that eventually got Clementine to the Moon even after an insertion stage failure, or the one recently used to get TESS to its destination without even enough dV to get to the Moon the standard way).

[Tyko]

I found the same thing. you may want to take a look at this mod. It does a balance pass on all the MH engines and makes some changes so each has a reason to exist.

 

[klesh]

Shouldn’t this be in the Making History section?   I mean, we’re discussing a part from that expansion, no?

 

I’ve used it on Soyuz replicas and thats it.  Reliant is better in every other conceivable way.  

 

The only MH engine that really gets any used outside of replicas for me is the Wolfhound.    The whole expansion could use a balance pas vis a vis the rest of the game.