RCS Thrust Node for VAB + SPH

[Paperback Writer]

Is it annoying trying to guess how balanced your RCS thrust is compared to your center of gravity. Always causing some end of the ship to rotate when trying to make translations. Well what about a RCS thrust node that shows where the center of thrust is for RCS jets so that you can compare it to the center of gravity. What do you think?

[Murph]

It's not a bad idea, although I personally rate it as low priority. There's a "RCS Build Aid" mod out there which you may wish to check out in the short term.

Have you tried keeping SAS enabled while RCS-translating? I find that works reasonably well for me (not claiming perfect, just ok), combined with just instinctive RCS port positioning. Movement of the CoM due to fuel usage is going to mean that it's rarely perfect, no matter how carefully the ports are positioned.

[Themohawkninja]

Pretty much what Murph said. As long as you make sure that your thrusters are the equidistant from the CoM relative to the long axis of the craft, and use SAS to account for human error (it's too difficult to get the RCS exactly balanced), you should be good.

An RCS thrust node would be a nice touch though.

[Paperback Writer]

Yeah I agree. I forgot about the shift in the center of mass due to fuel usage. The second you burn any fuel will cause it to be off center, making the thrust node pretty useless. Having said this I still think it would be a nice addition to the game so you can get the rcs CoT in the general area of the CoM when you have situations like the image included where your center of mass is up high and you want (although its not necessary) to have multiple rcs jets in this sort of layout to keep the thrust somewhat balanced.

Thanks for your feedback.