HubMax and lateral building

[almisami]

So here I was trying to mount a Rockomax HubMax multi-point connector when I realized it doesn't want to be placed unless it's connected vertically (or horizontally in the spaceplane hangar) with whatever my ''prime'' part is.

Has anyone found a workaround to this besides assembling my ship in orbit, because I'm getting tired of having to use eight geriatric clap-o-trons on my cubic ships to make them not tear apart past 1/4 throttle.

Also, is this a bug, or a ''feature'' designed so we can't launch half-built space stations?

EDIT: Found a workaround, although this should probably be filed under as a bug report as soon as I can figure out what or how its actually behaving.

As rodion made me work out, the ''top'' of the node needs to be facing the ''prime'' part of the rocket.

Edited July 27, 2013 by almisami
Solved

[rodion]

Tried this in VAB, at first I had the same issue you described but then by just rotating the piece to line up the "correct" connector (why it has to be a certain one is beyond my powers of explanation) I connected in the proper way and after that there were no issues.

See here:

So that's your fix as far as I can tell, just rotate and find the one special connector the game agrees with.

[LoneRider]

Yep, thats the way. I guess it has something to do with the tree-style way ships are stored. Each module has a parent module - until the main pod, which is the root node. So the Hub has one link for the parent, and 5 for the children. Rotating always helps.

As far as i can remember the small hub (one down and one right from the big hub on the screenshot) has the same issue.

When orientation is right, the hub will turn green, otherwise it stays red. so it is easy and fast to find out which way is right

[almisami]

I meant something along the lines of

[almisami]

Here is another screencap that demonstrated how the micronode has the same behaviour.

[rodion]

Went back and made a structure analogous to yours using the rotation method I described...seems to be okay?

[almisami]

Fiddled with it like you said, found out the top node needs to have a direct connection towards the ''prime'' part. Why it does that, I have no idea. Thanks.

[Rhomphaia]

It is a limitation of the unity engine, only 2 nodes will initially attach to the parent.

On the subject of engine limitations each part can only have one parent, so If you try to launch a construction like those in your screenshots, one point in the ring will not actually be attached and it will flop about.

If you want rings you need docking ports.