What are some useful parts you don't use enough?

[EchoLima]

For me, it's the wing connectors. I used to only make planes with delta wings, but now I'm making more varied planes with the rectangular ones.

Edit A more interesting question: What parts are not useful, and why? 

Edited February 20, 2019 by EchoLima

[FleshJeb]

I don’t use most of the rocket engines, since I’m an “everything but rockets” player. 5000 hours in the game and I’m recently relearning how to build and fly them.

[Reinhart Mk.1]

the little beam/construction parts, you can do some neat stuff with them if you place them right

[Aegolius13]

Fuel cells.  Personally I find it hard to overcome the stigma of using up a finite resource to generate electricity.  But a lot of the time they make for an easier / cheaper / more reliable setup compared to solar panels or RTGs.  The fuel cell arrays can also do some pretty good things when combined with ions.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Aegolius13

[septemberWaves]

It has been a long time since I used the retractable versions of the six-unit solar panels. Mostly that is because of the fact that my play style does not lend itself to these solar panels being necessary, and because several mods I typically use offer better alternatives.

[RealKerbal3x]

I’d like to use the Making History structural tubes more. If only SQUAD would fix their #%$> drag problems.

[Superfluous J]

All the ISRU stuff. Usually if I bother making a ground base for drilling, I can't be bothered to use it because it's quicker/easier to just get the stuff from Kerbin.

[The Space Dino]

Most of the structural stuff, because my rockets have pretty simple designs so far.

Except for struts, can't have enough of them.

[RealKerbal3x]

36 minutes ago, The Space Dino said:

Except for struts, can't have enough of them.

Autostruts FTW.

[mannscla]

i never use like 60% of the parts, but mainly the structural parts.

[Loskene]

1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Autostruts FTW.

Autostruts should be renamed Krakenbait for how they interact with KSP's flexible part joints. Can't count the number of times I switched to a station to find it arranged like a half-done jenga tower because the struts kicked in while it was still "physics flexing" on load.

Instead of Autostrut: Grandparent/Root/Heaviest Part in the menu, it should say Krakenbait: I'm too young to die/Hurt me plenty/Ultraviolence.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Loskene
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[RealKerbal3x]

11 minutes ago, Loskene said:

Autostruts should be renamed Krakenbait for how they interact with KSP's flexible part joints. Can't count the number of times I switched to a station to find it arranged like a half-done jenga tower because the struts kicked in while it was still "physics flexing" on load.

Instead of Autostrut: Grandparent/Root/Heaviest Part in the menu, it should say Krakenbait: I'm too young to die/Hurt me plenty/Ultraviolence.

I've found that grandparent autostruts are pretty tame. I've never experienced an autostrut-induced Kraken attack.

Plus, autostruts don't count towards drag or mass (unlike normal struts, which are quite draggy).

[Bill Phil]

I almost never use ISRU parts.

I can never seem to fit them in a nice way on my lander designs...

[Superfluous J]

1 hour ago, Loskene said:

Autostruts should be renamed Krakenbait for how they interact with KSP's flexible part joints. Can't count the number of times I switched to a station to find it arranged like a half-done jenga tower because the struts kicked in while it was still "physics flexing" on load.

Instead of Autostrut: Grandparent/Root/Heaviest Part in the menu, it should say Krakenbait: I'm too young to die/Hurt me plenty/Ultraviolence.

I have never, ever, ever had an autostrut-related kraken attack. And I use them on pretty much every craft I build.

I strongly suspect there is a certain safe percentage of parts you can have autostrut on. I do it on maybe 10% of my parts. If you autostrut everything to "root" (by default, I hear some do) sure you're asking for trouble. If you autostrut side-mounted tanks to grandparent and engines on your dropped launch stages to root, you shouldn't have any problem. Even with weird crazy stations.

[Mikki]

The infamous micronode. If i ever use it then as counterweight because it`s so massive. I guess it`s made out of a solid block of steel.

Whoever invented this mad piece of Kerbal Space Technology... you`ve forgot to invent long thin girders to properly use this piece in space.

Using it with the even more heavy solid steel beams is absolutly nuts if you care about launchweight and efficiency...

Oh my little micronode, why...? Why???  

[KerbolExplorer]

literaly every structural piece.

 

[ndiver]

1.875m parts.

[TheKorbinjer]

The Juno engine. It's too small for practical use (for me) on my replica jets, unless it's a small jet, but that's unlikely i'll wind up using it.

[Tonka Crash]

I don't think of parts as "useful" if I don't use them.  Mk2, Mk3 form factors are mostly useless to me as I don't usually build things with wings.

[Superfluous J]

5 hours ago, Mikki said:

The infamous micronode.

They said useful parts.

[Chel]

Drogue chutes are really useful for me. When I'm building a high speed jet, I put them on for landing purposes

[FleshJeb]

1 hour ago, 5thHorseman said:

They said useful parts.

If it had the same crash tolerance as the rest of the structural parts, it would be useful.

[Espatie]

18 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

I've found that grandparent autostruts are pretty tame. I've never experienced an autostrut-induced Kraken attack.

Plus, autostruts don't count towards drag or mass (unlike normal struts, which are quite draggy).

The one thing I'll say with regards to autostruts is that using Grandparent AS on a docking port is just asking for trouble.

[Daveroski]

24 minutes ago, Espatie said:

The one thing I'll say with regards to autostruts is that using Grandparent AS on a docking port is just asking for trouble.

I use Grandparent AS on a docking port all the time.

So far I  have experienced no problems.

Please enlighten me. What is this trouble that I am asking for but apparently not receiving?

D.

 

[Espatie]

Absolutely the number one way of turning your space station into a pretzel in my experience.