[WIP] THSS - Tri-Hexagonal Structural Strut

[Kochean]

@Garoad: I was thinking of putting B9's RCS blocks on the smaller flat edges of the tri-truss. But i have yet to play around with that to much yet.

@Semni: I would be appreciative of that, but please do not change your current plans trying to optimize your models or anything. I can wait.

I wish I knew thing one of blender, since I heard its the program of choice. I need to find some good tutorials or something, they were not kidding when they said its got a learning curb like a brick wall.

[LTClaydohman]

Kochean: I see what you mean there. I'll see what I can do, the reason why not much has been released lately is because I'm smack-bang in the middle of UV-mapping and optimizing the models and without any textures there isn't much to show for it ( except that now pipes have their own colours ), eventually all tristruts will share a common texture, as well as the pipes and tanks and such. Which should reduce loading times and improve performance. I'll also be looking into issues with collision meshes, some do get a bit complex.

I'm choosing to do a fair bit of 'detail' with polys simply because I am a terrible painter and am no good at making fancy textures.

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated

[Gristle]

Love this parts set. I think I've found a small bug, the command part THSS-000-P has a crew of 3 assigned to it. I think the only way you could fit 3 Kerbies in there is if they were dehydrated and compressed.

[Moon Goddess]

I think the only way you could fit 3 Kerbies in there is if they were dehydrated and compressed.

Well I've heard they are related to frogs, so that probably works. But yes I've been dealing with that bug too, had guys trapped on my space station.

[loppnessmonsta]

aye that's a known issue. i'm sure it'll be fixed in the next update. in the mean time, you can fix it yourself by adding

CrewCapacity = 0

in it's cfg. make sure you're not adding it inside another MODULE's brackets.

[Greys]

Just now I tried to stick the atomic bell on the flat side of a strut, and it did so rather oddly...

Just sayin'

[Akane]

There's only one real gripe I have about this mod, and that's the octostrut bay - it's too short! Could you make it so that it came in two sizes, or was modular? Like, an octostrut bay that had a top wall, but no bottom wall, an octostrut bay with no walls, and another octostrut bay with a bottom wall but no top wall?

[KhaosCorp]

There's only one real gripe I have about this mod, and that's the octostrut bay - it's too short! Could you make it so that it came in two sizes, or was modular? Like, an octostrut bay that had a top wall, but no bottom wall, an octostrut bay with no walls, and another octostrut bay with a bottom wall but no top wall?

I mostly agree. I find the doors and bay depth are good, but the thing is far to short.

Also, it may be to niche to consider, but some non-stock resource storage would be great. Even just a set of tanked strut sections for THSS with different textures the user could edit to use with different resources (for now its just Kethane and the 3 resources from EL...but other mods based on kethane 0.6 are already being worked on).

Or if that's to much to ask (and I understand it probably is) then maybe a set of texture templates so users can make their own clone tanks via PS or gimp?

Love this mod, I can honestly say that I use some parts from this pack on 90% of my builds. Thank you for this!

[KhaosCorp]

I have to admit when I first built a construction using octoStruts I also had problems using the MainSail engine attached just below the part - I eventually came to the conclusion that I can only go to 2/3 throttle without a catastrophic linkage failure... Or you can change the part and add "breakingForce = 600" and "breakingTorque = 600" to the offending part, that works like a charm. See here for more clues: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/CFG_File_Documentation

Internal strutting will help a lot with this. I had some issues with NovaPunch engines attached to the octotruss parts. Some internal strut between last truss and engine did the trick. It still jumped a little on full thrust, but it held together.

sorry for double post...I'm going backwards today it seems...

[Moon Goddess]

Just now I tried to stick the atomic bell on the flat side of a strut, and it did so rather oddly...

Just sayin'

This tube you have on the front of the B( cockpit... What is this? I need this? where did you get it?

[Greys]

it's from KOSMOS, something to do with octagons, this one in particular has a crew walkway which strangely you can put a kerbal in, no IVA though.

[Moon Goddess]

Thank you, I just want structure that looks like someone could actually move thru it.

[Gary_P]

Now that I'm aware of the awesome that is sketchfab I've decided to give it a shot with one of the tristruts. The one I have gone ahead and made a proper UV mapping for.

Thanks Semni

This is the first I've seen this sketchfab program. I'll be messing with it this afternoon too.

I'm just downloading your parts. Thanks so much for these. I'm a modeler myself but I haven't done anything for KSP.

I'm a 3ds Max convert to Blender.

I'll report back later, after I make something from your parts.

[Gristle]

Great parts pack. I've been using it quite a bit recently. Some observations: Need some bigger engines in this theme, would be nice to have adapters to convert between each of the 3 form factors, I'm really missing an intermediate sized tri-strut fuel tank, need decouplers for each of the three form factors.

Thanks for a great mod!

[taniwha]

This mod is flipping awesome, one of the coolest looking mods I've seen, but I think there's something missing I'm having a hard time with--RCS thrusters. I see the tanks, but I haven't been able to find a good type of thruster which looks decent on these structures. What does everyone do for RCS?

(first, sorry this reply is so late, I wasn't following the thread for a while).

THSS comes with a nice 2m RCS part (GE-06 RCS module) that provides thrust in all 6 directions. It's round so you need to use the TH to 2m adapters, but it works well. It even comes with monoprop.

[betaking]

I have to say, loving the CRSS-type struts. I wouldn't mind it if they were expanded upon(fuel tanks, thrusters, habitation modules, bigger models)..

though Its understandable why they aren't and haven't been expanded upon(too much effort, and said parts are redundant in the context of everything else that is available).

Though, I wouldn't mind it if you gave out the DAE's so that a cube-strut-based expansion would be possible.

Edited July 15, 2013 by betaking

[dizzysaurus]

Are there plans for an octostrut-based docking port?

Loving the look of this mod, combining it with Lack Luster Labs' stuff for some funky looking interplanetary ships.

[Smorfty]

I've made two interplanetary ships heavily based on this plugin:

The large one:

Heat shield on the front for aerobraking. Crew module and docking port for cargo in the back.

The smaller one from viewed from the cargo

Towing two space planes with a temporary truss to hold them.

[taniwha]

Impressive. I've found that the trihex struts really make the ships feel... right. Especially when mixed with spherical tanks and hexcans.

[dizzysaurus]

Hey, if the current maintainers of this mod want help updating their part.cfg files to 0.21 compatibility, I am offering my services. (as far as I know, models/meshes/skins don't need updates, it's just the cfg files for things like A/SAS and unmanned modules that need changes)

[Chaosratt]

With my ship I used quite a number of struts and various seperators to get it into orbit. I can provide th ship file if you want, (and I can work out how) though those were made a while ago and I'm waiting for their tours to be over before I work on the redesigns I have in mind (like including the GE-200 somewhere) thought they did take a bit of work to get into orbit (plus the KSPX pack for extra engines iirc). Keep persevering though and i'm sure you'll get there. (I must admit to not having played a while after finding my minecraft launch icon again

Edit: I have uploaded the craft files for the MX-THSS Cruiser. This upload includes both MK01 (Stock nuclear engins) and the MK02 (uses the LLL nuclear engines). It also includes a config file that I made for a fuel crossfeed enabled stack seperator (which I needed for my launch system.)

Just got to testing this, and I must say it is awesome. I removed a lot of the light panels to lower the part count (my computer cried), as well as modding the cfg to remove the fuel balancer parts, which didn't work with my version of TFB. I must say though, in the final stage I didn't realize how the struts were placed. Had a moment when all the pylons detached and the growing cloud of parts. Tip to anyone else: dump the final stage before you complete final circularization to make the large debris cloud burn up. It also burns about 90% of its fuel capacity to reach orbit, so it'll need to be refueled before going anywhere. 240ish tons fully loaded on its own, 600ish tons with launch vehicle.

[aquilux]

Something I'm surprised we haven't seen yet is a tri-hex hub with 5 triangular attachment points, one forward, one back, and one on each large flat side.

[alacrity]

These parts have basically become the backbone of all my space and ground stations. I just really like the look and the scale of them. With railings and ladders from other mods I have made some handy little forts.

Mun Base "Lupus Olympus"

Orbital Science Platform "Halo" Mote the escape pod I crammed into the Octo loading bay.

Duna Orbital fuel and crew layover/transfer station "Argo"

Kerbin Orbit Fuel Depot "Spindle"

Jool Moons Probe deployment platform "Janus Overlord" minions already launched

Great Mod and has been too much fun to work with. If there is anything you need to get help on (I suck at modelling so don't go there) lemme know.

Alacrity

[dizzysaurus]

These parts have basically become the backbone of all my space and ground stations. I just really like the look and the scale of them. With railings and ladders from other mods I have made some handy little forts.

Great Mod and has been too much fun to work with. If there is anything you need to get help on (I suck at modelling so don't go there) lemme know.

Alacrity

awesome work, I love these builds!

[Benzschwagel]

can anyone confirm 0.21.1 compatibility?