The science parts are outrageously large

[Sauron]

Seriously, the science bay and the goo canister are enormous. It's made it rather difficult to make remotely attractive rockets that also do science. I'm particularly irritated by this considering Squad's commitment to avoiding breaking saves is likely to mean that this isn't going to change. Really the science bay and the goo canister should be half as big as they currently are in order to make rockets, especially landers that don't look absurd possible. Keep the weight the same if it's really an issue but it'd be great to see something done about this before sheer inertia makes it impossible.

[DisarmingBaton5]

Squad's commitment to avoiding breaking saves

[citation needed]

[Kerbol Prime]

I think science bays are not meant to be radial. They are inline with your rocket. I would like a 2.5m science lab version. I do agree that the goo is somewhat big, but its the size of the monopropellant tank so I honestly think it fits in.

[Tex]

It's easy to make goofy-looking parts appear very much in style with your landers/rockets. My advice is to just play around with the arrangement, alternate goo cans and monoprop tanks, e.t.c.

[Superfluous J]

I don't think the goo container is oversized at all. I slap 2 of them on every 1-man capsule I send up.

[Catullus]

I'd like a probe-sized science bay for sure. Hard to make a science rover using the baby wheels and the 1.25 m science bay.

[Kerbonautical]

I'd like a probe-sized science bay for sure. Hard to make a science rover using the baby wheels and the 1.25 m science bay.

Try using the Hitchhiker pod with a science bay on top then turn it on it's side and use that as the rover body. I admit it's not exactly a small design but they make for surprisingly sturdy rovers. Also a 4 man rover can be handy to have laying around near a base. Alternatively try sticking the science bay on the back and a lot of your accessories too then chuck a Space Station command center on the front and flip it round and you have an AWESOME IVA to view from.

Sorry if the solution is of no use, but personally I always design in this scale for rovers since anything smaller flips in 10 metres for me.

[boomerdog2000]

For probe sized science you can probably use those smaller science parts (thermometer, accelerometer, gravioli detector and barometer).

[Dedjal]

go into the files for the parts and change their size. Problem solved

[Whackjob]

Here is a science ship with the parts you mention. It looks fine. It's only through my own stupidity that it didn't have fuel enough to get to Munar orbit. And had to shed the engines and be pushed into orbit. Also, pushed back to Kerbin.

It took five hours.

[Slur]

~snip~

Here is a science ship with the parts you mention. It looks fine. It's only through my own stupidity that it didn't have fuel enough to get to Munar orbit. And had to shed the engines and be pushed into orbit. Also, pushed back to Kerbin.

It took five hours.

Commitment. Surprised as well. Curious as to how outrageous your first launch was in .22...

[lajoswinkler]

The goo container is a bit weird, but I put it on the top of my capsules and probes. It looks fine enough like that.

The science bay seems to be ok, too.

It's all about the placement, and it's wonky early in the career mode, because you don't have many parts you used to have.

[Hodo]

Here is a science ship with the parts you mention. It looks fine. It's only through my own stupidity that it didn't have fuel enough to get to Munar orbit. And had to shed the engines and be pushed into orbit. Also, pushed back to Kerbin.

It took five hours.

Thats great.. that beats my ran out of fuel on the burn back from the Mun... and ended up skipping through the atmosphere from a pe of 45km to an ap of 1500000m till I managed to slow down enough to properly re-enter the atmosphere and parachute to safety.

Lost half of my experiments, and one of my two science labs because I needed the heat shielding on the multiple (read 30) burn cycles. I kept the engine and fuel tanks on for this just to burn them off on re-entry. DRE makes life so much harder sometimes.

[Whackjob]

Commitment. Surprised as well. Curious as to how outrageous your first launch was in .22...

I may very well delete my career mode and begin again. I *love* the difficulties!

[Der Kosmos]

I wish they were thinner, but it's not THAT bad.

[SteevyT]

I don't think the goo container is oversized at all. I slap 2 of them on every 1-man capsule I send up.

I throw 6 on the 1-man capsules, but then again, I don't really care how the rocket looks, the single starting parachute is enough to bring the pod, 6 goo canisters, and a communicatron back safely.

[SkyHook]

You don't play stock to make aesthetically pleasing rockets. That's what mods are for

[Oddible]

It's made it rather difficult to make remotely attractive rockets that also do science...

And you probably think Kerbin girls are ugly too dontchya. Bumpy and big is the Kerbal way!

That is sexksay... I'm just quoting it here because everyone should look at it again and again!

[little square dot]

Seriously, the science bay and the goo canister are enormous. It's made it rather difficult to make remotely attractive rockets that also do science. I'm particularly irritated by this considering Squad's commitment to avoiding breaking saves is likely to mean that this isn't going to change. Really the science bay and the goo canister should be half as big as they currently are in order to make rockets, especially landers that don't look absurd possible. Keep the weight the same if it's really an issue but it'd be great to see something done about this before sheer inertia makes it impossible.

Why don't you just rescale them? Open the part .cfg and add rescaleFactor = 0.5 or whatever. Also, making parts smaller won't break saves. It might make vessels look weird if parts are changed or rescaled, but given that vessels load parts by name, everyone's saves should be perfectly fine if the devs decide to officially rescale the parts in future updates.

Only changing part names or errors in the .cfg will breaks things, so as long as the part system hasn't been re-written in a manner that renders previously valid definitions invalid, I wouldn't be too concerned about size(that's what she didn't say).

[jwenting]

goo container is also conveniently the same weight and footprint as the radial parachutes. So you can offset them nicely by adding a few of those (once you've unlocked them of course).

[Commander Zoom]

You don't play stock to make aesthetically pleasing rockets. That's what mods are for

Speak for yourself. My ships are "mostly stock" / "minimally modded", and I try to make them look good anyway. Sometimes I even succeed.

goo container is also conveniently the same weight and footprint as the radial parachutes. So you can offset them nicely by adding a few of those (once you've unlocked them of course).

Ah, that's (potentially) handy to know. Thanks.

[boolybooly]

OP is biased to satellites sized components

IMHO materials bay is lovely and goo also very delightful. More experiment packages of different sizes wouldnt hurt though

[liweih]

A problem I found is a mum mission ship has a 1 man pod, a inline science bay, a fuel tank, an engine which all of these parts make the spacecraft very tall. It means we need to land our craft much more carefully.

[AmpsterMan]

Hate to disagree but I want a 2.5m sized experments lab or some such. The currebt parts are good for small ships (thermometor, gravioli, etc) and medium ships (goo and science lab jr) but no love for larfer parts.

[lazarus1024]

Stupid question, I haven't unlocked any of the original science parts yet (All of tier 3 unlocked I think and just energy on tier 4)...but do they allow you to do real science now? Or are the original science parts (Gavioli, thermometer, etc) just decoration?

If they allow you to do real science I feel like it means probes are still rather useful. If not...well, okay, that is kind of a problem.