Fuel transfers without a dock.

[Motokid600]

I landed my hab/refueling station on the moon with great success. I plan on landing a probe that can fly around and explore the mun. But this probe will need to be refilled. Problem... I forgot a docking port on the fuel tank ...****! This thing is huge. It took me all day to get it on the munar surface. Id rather not do it again for a stupid docking port. So I need alternatives. I looked at quantam fuel transfer and another I forget what its called. But these mods require both ships have the mod parts on them to transfer fuel. Damn.. ok so I can put them on my probe which is still being built, but what about the lander already on the mun? I'm a lil screwed... So before I bite the bullet and do it all over again. Is there anything I can do to move fuel from a raw tank to this probe?

[PaleoGamer]

Depending on how you feel about it, you can always edit your persistence file and refill your ship.

[rodion_herrera]

Is there anything I can do to move fuel from a raw tank to this probe?

If the said raw tank is nearby, yet you can't dock it into your fuel-starved ship, then there's a mod that could do that for you, the Kerbal Attachment System v0.3.1. I believe it has "hoses".

[dr_jt]

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.

Edited June 5, 2013 by dr_jt

[Pulstar]

KAS won't help him if the ships are already launched, it needs a winch with a connector on one of the craft and a connector port on the other. Also it needs a kerbal to plug the connector into the port. The lazor mod would also work as it allows beaming fuel between ships but he would need the specific lazor on one of the ships or on a third vessel.

Easiest way is to simply make a quicksave in game with F5 and minimize to open it with the notepad, find the probe and set all fuel values to full (which is 100 as in 100% IIRC) save it and load the quicksave with F9. The hardest part is navigating inside the file if you never saw it before, but it's all grouped up neatly so search using ctrl+f for the probe's name and then look under it's part list for the fuel tanks.

I recommend testing if you know how to do it on a test vehicle at the KSC first. Just make a backup of the quicksave (copy it to a different directory on your PC) if you want to reload an unedited state.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Pulstar

[Wayfare]

Depending on how you feel about it, you can always edit your persistence file and refill your ship.

You could also edit the persistence file to replace the tanker with one that has a docking port.

[dr_jt]

Going dark. Post removed.

Edited June 5, 2013 by dr_jt

[tntristan12]

I would like to see the eventual "strut gun" utility be expanded to allow fuel lines and power lines to be extended from one thing to another, to allow for things like sharing fuel, RCS monoprop, and electricity between ships.

[dr_jt]

Pachycephalosaurus

Edited June 6, 2013 by dr_jt

[PaleoGamer]

I did that once and felt like I cheated in a big way. As punishment I blasted everything with Whack a Kerbal and started over again. It was silly of me but, I do have some game play ethics.

Yeah, which is why I prefixed the suggestion the way I did. Unfortunately there is no way to modify a ship that has already been launched so there aren't many other options.

[Sir Nahme]

it is simple enough to send up a "rueling car" using KAS it has a detachable/placeable (via eva) connector port that can be added to previously launched craft

[-RanZ-]

hyperedit, kind of cheating but will save you time if you want

[Wayfare]

Yeah, which is why I prefixed the suggestion the way I did. Unfortunately there is no way to modify a ship that has already been launched so there aren't many other options.

To elaborate on my previous suggestion - what you could do is build your craft the way it should have been, put it on the launch pad, close the game and go into the persistence file.

Find your craft on the launch pad and copy/paste its parts information (NOT the orbital info) over that of the misbuilt craft.

I just recently used this method to upgrade my 0.19 MunBase's utility rovers from patchwork ladder-and-landing-legs versions to ones with the new crew seats. It's pretty easy as long as you mind exactly what information you're moving where.

[toric5]

use a robotic arm mod on the probe. the arm can 'dock' with anything

[NeoMorph]

use a robotic arm mod on the probe. the arm can 'dock' with anything

This is true....

I just have this image of a Kerbal drilling a hole in the probe to plug in a hose and the whole thing going KERBOOM!

[Motokid600]

Awesome suggestions guys Ty. Gives me a few things to try. Now again only the fueler has been launched and landed. The probe to be refilled has not I can throw whatever I need on it. But if all mods require both the refueler and the probe to have an "A" and "B" part then that's no good. Editing the persistance file. I've tried that with ship names in the past. It breaks my saves as of the latest version. It won't allow me to click on resume save if the file has been edited. Less I was doing something wrong. I did it with the game closed if that counts for anything.

[redteddy23]

As already suggested: If they are close enough send a minimal rover with KAS or romfarer robot arm package to the landing site and use it to connect them. If they are not close enough put a small tank and ferry the fuel back and forth. These ideas may not work or be extremely time consuming but you will have tried!

[Motokid600]

As already suggested: If they are close enough send a minimal rover with KAS or romfarer robot arm package to the landing site and use it to connect them. If they are not close enough put a small tank and ferry the fuel back and forth. These ideas may not work or be extremely time consuming but you will have tried!

Lol well I guess it depends how good of a landing I can manage. So ur saying these mods won't require a part on the refueler to work?

[NeoMorph]

Or just leave it as a monument to the class of "OHFRAKIFORGOTSOMETHING". I have several of these dotted all over the Kerbal solar system. Some were missing solar panels. Some are missing fuel ports like you are experiencing. Others were mining pods but I forgot a part (like one big lander which I included drills, converter, fuel tanks etc... but no Kethane tank to store my mined Kethane - DOH! ). It's very Kerbal.

[falofonos]

Lol well I guess it depends how good of a landing I can manage. So ur saying these mods won't require a part on the refueler to work?

Kerbal attachment system only needs the system on one vessel and a kerbal to stroll out and connect them up.

Romfarer's lazor system and yellow lazor emitters can do fuel transfers up to 100m or more but I've had mixed results with using it to transfer fuel from a ship without the lazor system. It worked but it was going slowly, so i tried to move... crashed the ship. Sent another ship and it wouldn't transfer the fuel due to some line of sight weirdness.

I'd recommend KAS as a first in game fix.

Edited May 31, 2013 by falofonos

[Motokid600]

I just read up on KAS. It's right up my alley. I have two kerbals on the mun so I can put them to work. It looks like the connector port can be grabbed off of my ship and can be placed on the fueler. Freaking awesome. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction all I appreciate it. I gotta start making a damn check list or something I swear >.<

Eh while I'm at it... What's the deal with the persistance file? Id like to change the name and icon of said fueler, but any edits to the file and resume save doesn't work.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Motokid600

[Sma]

I just read up on KAS. It's right up my alley. I have two kerbals on the mun so I can put them to work. It looks like the connector port can be grabbed off of my ship and can be placed on the fueler. Freaking awesome. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction all I appreciate it. I gotta start making a damn check list or something I swear >.<

Eh while I'm at it... What's the deal with the persistance file? Id like to change the name and icon of said fueler, but any edits to the file and resume save doesn't work.

Maybe I missed it but does the fueler have a probe/control module on it? If so you should be able to right click on it and rename it from there, as well as classify it as a probe, base, rover, station...or whatever you want. I've only ever edited my save file (not the persistence one) once to swap out the panoptican for the cupola just to see if it'd work (which it did, but I changed it back). In my case I just hit f5, edited the save file, hold f9 and the panoptican changed to the cupola. Pretty sure I exited the game while doing this but theoretically that might not need to be done. Then once you quit the game normally (without ending a flight) the persistence file should get updated.

[Spatzimaus]

As others have said, there are a few mods that'd let you fuel the vessel up (KAS, the robot arms), although those'd require a newly designed vessel. If you wanted to cheat, you can always turn on infinite fuel, of course. But honestly, I'll agree with the above poster: leave it as-is, as a monument to your flaws. Send a new vessel to pick up the now-stranded Kerbonaut.

I now have a checklist before I launch any vessel. It must have at least two docking ports (one 1.25m, one 0.625m), one method of power generation (preferably RTG), RCS jets and fuel, and so on. I've still run into problems, like badly placed RCS or missing fuel lines, but I then do a basic system check just by trying to dock my new vessel with one of my standard space stations (usually the most expendable one, in case I screwed something up badly). It's rare that you'll have any major problem that won't show up during that sort of test. This sort of testing process has pretty much eliminated the catastrophic failures I used to have regularly.

[Motokid600]

Maybe I missed it but does the fueler have a probe/control module on it? If so you should be able to right click on it and rename it from there, as well as classify it as a probe, base, rover, station...or whatever you want. I've only ever edited my save file (not the persistence one) once to swap out the panoptican for the cupola just to see if it'd work (which it did, but I changed it back). In my case I just hit f5, edited the save file, hold f9 and the panoptican changed to the cupola. Pretty sure I exited the game while doing this but theoretically that might not need to be done. Then once you quit the game normally (without ending a flight) the persistence file should get updated.

Sorry I left that out. No there is no probe or control mod on the fueler. Just a hitchhiker can.

[Read have Read]

KAS is your ticket here with the detachable connector ports. The winches are even handy half meter probe sized! I have used it to dock to a probe that I forgot to deploy antenna and solar panels.

In the latest version - With a .cfg edit - you can even make any part detachable. For example make a winch detachable and attach it to your fueler.