The art of modular base building

[cyoung_mi]

If anyone has a set of Base modules ( and their launchers ) they want to share, that would be very helpful!

[panzerknoef]

Really nice thread, good help!

[skylinkdave]

This is exactly the kind of tutorial I've been looking for, thank you! This should be stickied

[cyoung_mi]

I'm having trouble driving the rover around the Mun surface. Very hard to control, does it need more mass? or am i just doing it wrong.

It's just all over the place, flipping over and such. ( yes the brakes are off ) I don't know how you would have enough control to slide under a section to dock.

I can't even seem to get the rover to the section to begin with.

[Biker Joe]

This is now the standard for me building my base on the mun! excellent post!

[celem]

I still have alignment issues thanks to the new legs when trying to do this. Though i've had some luck using RCS to actually lift one end of my base section long enough for the dock to grab, this is obviously problematic for very heavy components, moderate-high g environments or pieces that dont want rcs surfaces/tanks. i.e. most of them.

I also tend to make the whole 'standard base height' bit simpler by having a standardized undercarriage for base components saved as a subassembly.

[Tomo2k]

To land stuff on the Mun (or elsewhere), I use a Skycrane (inspired by Real Life and Scott Manley)

This is the Skycrane train that I just sent to Jool:

The crane is on the left with four nuclear engines and huge solar panels. In front is the orbital tug, and behind is a pair of landers and the train of fuel tanks for the Jool station.

(This one was also used as the interplanetary tug http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=198910122 - aerocapturing at Jool.)

Basically, put some engines on outriggers, with an appropriate docking point in the middle underneath. If there is atmosphere, put the parachutes along the skycrane outriggers.

Small tanks at the end of outriggers, large tank in the middle - you want that large tank because it's much easier to keep balanced during refuelling that way.

The crane needs enough thrust and deltaV to land the payload and then return to orbit for refuel and reuse. (Or to fly away and crash safely!)

- You might want to burn the payload's fuel during descent.

Dock the crane to each section in orbit, then land it. Once landed, undock and immediately fly away.

- This bit's the most tricky as you don't want to accidentally take the payload with you, or fall off the payload and destroy the base you're building!

Then repeat with each segment until they're all down.

I haven't tried building with the new legs yet, but my old .21 base fell to bits on upgrade...

[Black_sod]

putting the wheels in a separate part under the modules is brilliant, I'd had trouble making sure that the clamps between modules were at the right height!! thanks a lot!!

[GrishdaFish]

I, like a few other, wondered how to get these parts where I wanted them before driving them and setting them up. Here is my solution. Its reliable and repeatable. Tested as well. Its a bit heavy, but if you use asparagus staging, you should be able to get it into orbit without much of a problem.

Warning: Images follow!

First, we add in some thrusters and fuel 90 degrees to the lander. Add in a bit of rcs for safe landing. Then we add an empty fuel tank at the bottom with 4 landing legs attached inline with the engines and the crawler. Add a tank 180 degrees from the crawler and adjust it for balance.

After landing safely, extend your landing struts on your base assembly piece.

Next, select the landing strut under the crawler and select retract. The part will fall in the direction of your crawler. Dont worry, it shouldnt break!

Finally, decouple your landing engines, your strut module now on the back, and your balance tank. Few things may explode, but nothing will damage your tank. Presto! You can now drive away! You may have to shake off the balancing tank on the top, but it should fall off.

Hope you found this helpful!

[sal_vager]

With this thread I can start building bases properly, instead of doing this...

Thanks Temstar, and congratulations on being stickied for the second time

[Mitchz95]

This guide is great, but I cannot figure out how to work the Base Crawler. It always flips when I try to turn, even when I'm fully stopped. And I think the new landing legs have messed something up; I can't fit the Crawler underneath the pipe's docking port.

EDIT: Odd, the Crawler works a lot better now. While it still flips over often, I can get it going in the right direction most of the time.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Mitchz95

[GrishdaFish]

Try playing with locking the suspension on the legs. Ive found I can move tanks up and down, at least a little bit, and sometimes just enough to dock something.

[Mitchz95]

Something's wrong with some of the pictures in the OP ...

EDIT: Fixed now.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Mitchz95

[SkyHook]

Excellent guide. I do these exact things when I construct my bases. I'm glad you shared this. Sharing is a part of my Kerbal resolutions this year.

[Dacker]

I'm having trouble driving the rover around the Mun surface. Very hard to control, does it need more mass? or am i just doing it wrong.

It's just all over the place, flipping over and such. ( yes the brakes are off ) I don't know how you would have enough control to slide under a section to dock.

I can't even seem to get the rover to the section to begin with.

I'm having this problem, too. I just can't seem to steer or stop the base crawler. I have locked steering on the center wheels and used docking mode. Is there something I am missing, or can someone post step-by-step instructions for dummies on how to work the base crawler?

[Captain Sierra]

Make sure you are in docking mode, set SAS on when on a (mostly) level surface. Also, be very careful and slow when carrying modules. It makes it very topheavy. The crawler has a small footprint for navigating between the landing struts but this means you are very unstable with payload on top. Tap WASD, be slow and methodical. Quicksave often.

Without payload, stay in docking mode, SAS on. Also, make sure you are in translation mode (the blue icon when in dockign mode, not the green). If you end up in rotation, you're doing it wrong. You can switch by pressing SPACE.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more info.

[THE_MAGGOT]

Great post... I'm thinking of stating my own base and was looking around and realized one thing... everybody always uses rovers to move pieces around... so sure this is way cooler and a lot more realistic... but out of simple curiosity, wouldn't it be easier to have all the structures on a standard wheel base that can move around? that way, you don't need a rover and can just move the structures around...

[Dacker]

Make sure you are in docking mode, set SAS on when on a (mostly) level surface. Also, be very careful and slow when carrying modules. It makes it very topheavy. The crawler has a small footprint for navigating between the landing struts but this means you are very unstable with payload on top. Tap WASD, be slow and methodical. Quicksave often.

Without payload, stay in docking mode, SAS on. Also, make sure you are in translation mode (the blue icon when in dockign mode, not the green). If you end up in rotation, you're doing it wrong. You can switch by pressing SPACE.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks, that worked!

[Captain Sierra]

Great post... I'm thinking of stating my own base and was looking around and realized one thing... everybody always uses rovers to move pieces around... so sure this is way cooler and a lot more realistic... but out of simple curiosity, wouldn't it be easier to have all the structures on a standard wheel base that can move around? that way, you don't need a rover and can just move the structures around...

While I guess you could, A fully mobile base, to me, is just a giant rover. Now, would it be hard to get all the wheels to line up with these modules? yes. Does that make it impossible? no.

My personal opinion is that a base is a base and is stationary. Mobile bases should have to do some reconfiguring to become mobile. There was an old challenge I did called Stockless Space Program. In that challenge, someone did actually do what you suggest. I'll try and find a link to it somewhere.

[THE_MAGGOT]

Thanks for the info.

I'm having a small problem docking my parts. I took your crawler as an example. I got it right under the port of my first hub and retracted the gears. It landed right on top but for some reason didn't redock and merge into one ship... any ideas?

[togfox]

Great post... I'm thinking of stating my own base and was looking around and realized one thing... everybody always uses rovers to move pieces around... so sure this is way cooler and a lot more realistic... but out of simple curiosity, wouldn't it be easier to have all the structures on a standard wheel base that can move around? that way, you don't need a rover and can just move the structures around...

Read my blog. <----- link over there, under my name.

Pictures included

Edited January 15, 2014 by togfox

[togfox]

And still growing

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/blogs/17094-togfox

[Taki117]

Question: I'm trying to put a crew module on my modular mun base (Built using this method) and the rover wont fit underneath with the legs deployed, is there any way around this, or am I going to have to redesign the module to make it work?

[Captain Sierra]

you're probably going to have to rebuild the module. There is a way around it if you still have engines attached to it. Do you have any screenies?

[Captain Sierra]

Thanks for the info.

I'm having a small problem docking my parts. I took your crawler as an example. I got it right under the port of my first hub and retracted the gears. It landed right on top but for some reason didn't redock and merge into one ship... any ideas?

Redeploy the landing legs. For some reason, docking port don't dock when clipping through each other. extending legs will get the magnetics to kick in just momentarily and stick them together. Don't ask why, I just no it works almost every time for me.