Submarines and Boats with propellers?

[archnem]

I've been playing about with BG and tried to make a propeller-driven sub.  As far as I can tell, propellers don't work in water?  Has anyone got this working?

[Geschosskopf]

Quite a few folks have, actually.  At least using wing parts as the blades, and rather aggressive pitch.

[Aegolius13]

Did you set the propellers to "deploy"?  If they're not deployed, they will spin uselessly since they're aero/hydrodynamically inactive.

[KerikBalm]

On 7/13/2019 at 10:52 AM, archnem said:

I've been playing about with BG and tried to make a propeller-driven sub.  As far as I can tell, propellers don't work in water?  Has anyone got this working?

I thought this at first, but they do. Water has some weird high friction at first, almost like static friction, once you overcome that, away you go!

You may see this and think... its not working:

Wat do?? no working???

Wait, wat? small yellow lines, in addition to the big red ones? speed not even 0.1, wat do?

What sorcery is this?!? the massive red lines went away, and we're moving forward?

Sacré bleu! they do work

This was in 1.7.1 or 1.7.2. The rotors are more powerful now, and I'm getting over 11 m/s

I haven't tried with the new props that they gave us, but the control surfaces work just fine.

Note the time points for the amount of time it took to accelerat. Playing with initial deployment angles helped make it faster to respond.

Back in 1.7.2, I had a working quad copter and deployable+recoverable sub:

Its taken some work to the quad copter it after 1.7.3 8and update to use the helo blades), but the sub kept working fine

With some modding to add underwater features:

[archnem]

Wow! Thank you for all of this!  Telling me about the static friction made me think and try again, and now the depths of Kerbin's oceans are open to me! (Well, I play with pressure limits, so as long as it's shallower than 300m).  Thank you again!

[Jeremy_Clarkson]

On 7/15/2019 at 6:02 PM, KerikBalm said:

I thought this at first, but they do. Water has some weird high friction at first, almost like static friction, once you overcome that, away you go!

You may see this and think... its not working:

Wat do?? no working???

Wait, wat? small yellow lines, in addition to the big red ones? speed not even 0.1, wat do?

What sorcery is this?!? the massive red lines went away, and we're moving forward?

Sacré bleu! they do work

This was in 1.7.1 or 1.7.2. The rotors are more powerful now, and I'm getting over 11 m/s

I haven't tried with the new props that they gave us, but the control surfaces work just fine.

Note the time points for the amount of time it took to accelerat. Playing with initial deployment angles helped make it faster to respond.

Back in 1.7.2, I had a working quad copter and deployable+recoverable sub:

Its taken some work to the quad copter it after 1.7.3 8and update to use the helo blades), but the sub kept working fine

With some modding to add underwater features:

Hwat mod is that for the underwater surface features? And do they generate science?

[KerikBalm]

The mod is my own  little mod, it only takes text file editing.

They do generate science if configured that way (by editing the scienceDefs.cfg file in the same folder, or making your own science defs)

Go to the KSP>GameData>SquadExpansion>Serenity>Resources, and open rocsdef.cfg

Basically take a feature, copy and paste the text, renaming the feature and changing the body and biomes that it specifies.

You can also make your own text file and place it in your own mod folder in gamedata, and it should work

Here's some examples, the first one is for the underwater basalt formation (that surface feature is normally found on Eve, but I duplicated it and made it appear in the oceans):

Spoiler

ROC_DEFINITION
{
    Type = KerbinBasaltFormation // previous was EveBasaltFormation
    displayName = #autoLOC_8004367    //#autoLOC_8004367 = Basalt Formation
    prefabName = eveBasaltFormation
    modelName = eveBasaltFormation_LOD00
    OrientateUp = false
    Depth = 0.5
    CanBeTaken = false
    Frequency = 1
    CastShadows = true
    ReceiveShadows = true
    CollisionThreshold = 8
    SmallROC = false
    RandomDepth = true
    RandomOrientation = true
    RandomRotation = false
    localSpaceScanPoints = -0.32, 1, -0.21
    localSpaceScanPoints = 0.8, 1, 0
    localSpaceScanPoints = 0.32, 1, -0.11
    localSpaceScanPoints = -0.58 ,1, -0.26
    localSpaceScanPoints = 0.12, 2, -0.31
    localSpaceScanPoints = -1.06, 1.25, -0.17
    Scale = 1
    CELESTIALBODY
    {
        Name = Kerbin // Changed from Eve
        Biome = Water //
    }
}

ROC_DEFINITION
{
    Type = KerbinVolcanicRock
    displayName = #autoLOC_8004366    //#autoLOC_8004366 = Volcanic Rock
    prefabName = eveVolcanicRock
    modelName = eveVolcanicRock_LOD00
    OrientateUp = false
    Depth = 0.5
    CanBeTaken = true
    Frequency = 5    
    CastShadows = true
    ReceiveShadows = true
    CollisionThreshold = 50
    SmallROC = true
    RandomDepth = true
    RandomOrientation = false
    RandomRotation = true
    localSpaceScanPoints = 0, 0.2, 0
    Scale = 2
    CELESTIALBODY
    {
        Name = Kerbin
        Biome = Badlands
    }
}

ROC_DEFINITION
{
    Type = KerbinGeyser
    displayName = Kerbin Geyser
    prefabName = laytheGeyser
    modelName = laytheGeyser_LOD00
    OrientateUp = false
    Depth = 0.3
    CanBeTaken = false
    Frequency = 0.1
    CastShadows = true
    ReceiveShadows = true
    CollisionThreshold = 8
    SmallROC = false
    RandomDepth = false
    RandomOrientation = true
    RandomRotation = false
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 0.35, 1.10, -3.47
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 1.60, 1.83, 1.04
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 2.23, 1.83, -0.63
    localSpaceScanPoints  = -1.55, 1.50, -0.92
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 0.48, 3.00, -0.75
    localSpaceScanPoints  = -0.20, 1.50, 0.88
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 1.77, 1.50, -2.53
    localSpaceScanPoints  = -0.76, 1.50, -2.51
    burstEmitterMinWait = 60
    burstEmitterMaxWait = 120
    sfxVolume = 0.75
    idleClip = SquadExpansion/Serenity/Sounds/sfx_geyser_idle
    burstClip = SquadExpansion/Serenity/Sounds/sfx_geyser_burst
    Scale = 1
    applyForces = true
    vfxBaseForce = 1.2    
    vfxForceRadius = 1.5, 7
    vfxRadiusCenter = 0.6, 6.5, -1.2
    forceDirection = 0, 1, 0
    CELESTIALBODY
    {
        Name = Kerbin
        Biome = Badlands
    }
    VFX_CURVEFORCE
    {
        key = 0 0
        key = 0.3 0
        key = 0.322 0
        key = 0.344 0.15
        key = 0.366 0.15
        key = 0.592 0.15
        key = 0.614 0.15
        key = 0.636 0
        key = 0.658 0
        key = 4.32 0
        key = 4.342 0
        key = 4.364 0.2
        key = 4.386 0.2
        key = 10.762 0.2
        key = 10.784 0.2
        key = 10.806 0
        key = 10.828 0
        key = 11.25 0
        key = 11.272 0
        key = 11.294 1.5
        key = 11.316 1.5
        key = 22.622 1.5
        key = 22.644 1.5
        key = 22.666 0
        key = 22.688 0
    }
}
ROC_DEFINITION
{
    Type = KerbinIceChunk
    displayName = #autoLOC_8004387    //#autoLOC_8004387 = Eeloo Ice Chunk
    prefabName = eelooIceChunk
    modelName = eelooIceChunk_LOD00
    OrientateUp = false
    Depth = 0.5
    CanBeTaken = true
    Frequency = 5
    CastShadows = true
    ReceiveShadows = true
    CollisionThreshold = 50
    SmallROC = true
    RandomDepth = true
    RandomOrientation = false
    RandomRotation = true
    localSpaceScanPoints = 0, 0.15, 0
    Scale = 2
    CELESTIALBODY
    {
        Name = Kerbin
        Biome = Ice Caps
        Biome = Tundra
        Biome = Northern Ice Shelf
        Biome = Southern Ice Shelf
    }
}
ROC_DEFINITION
{
    Type = KerbinBerg
    displayName = Kerbin Berg
    prefabName = eelooBerg
    modelName = eelooBerg_LOD00
    OrientateUp = false
    Depth = 0.4
    CanBeTaken = false
    Frequency = 0.1
    CastShadows = true
    ReceiveShadows = true
    CollisionThreshold = 8
    SmallROC = false
    RandomDepth = true
    RandomOrientation = true
    RandomRotation = false
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 0.00, 1.00, 1.68
    localSpaceScanPoints  = -0.20, 1.00, -1.73
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 5.79, 1.00, 0.00
    localSpaceScanPoints  = -5.57, 1.00, 1.35
    localSpaceScanPoints  = -3.62, 1.00, -0.82
    localSpaceScanPoints  = -2.81, 1.00, 2.27
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 2.91, 1.00, -1.47
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 2.95, 1.00, 1.61
    localSpaceScanPoints  = -4.00, 5.00, 0.42
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 4.39, 5.00, 0.04
    localSpaceScanPoints  = 0.34, 8.00, -0.15
    Scale = 1
    CELESTIALBODY
    {
        Name = Kerbin
        Biome = Northern Ice Shelf
        Biome = Southern Ice Shelf
    }
}

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by KerikBalm

[Jeremy_Clarkson]

Thank you!