How do you feel about part clipping?

[Tripzter]

The parts i mainly clip for advantage is the nuclear electric engine. Once in a while i clip the fuel tanks when trying to get 90 degree joint but that's because we don't have any other options that also look good.

I'd say its a cheat. Fact is clipping 10 tanks inside a single orange fuel tank space will fly a lot easier than having them in a straight half a kilometer line.

If i wanted to use clipping mainly to boost my fuel i might as well toss the infinite fuel cheat on and have at it.

[The Destroyer]

I use it a lot. But I need to remember to test them. Damn fuel gets confused by part clipping.

[Comrade Jenkens]

I refuse to clip engine, fuel tanks and intakes together. Apart from that its fair game and I don't consider cheating at all.

[John FX]

I will put batteries and RCS into pods or tanks, I`ll clip loads of doughnuts together to make utterly impossible fuel tanks that fit in tiny spaces but only to overcome what I see as failings in the current parts list and VAB.

If there was a way to combine parts in stock without clipping I would do that. Sort of like the `storage spaces` idea where items could be folded down and stored in other parts to be taken out during EVA.

Like this.

If you imagine the descent stage is a fuel tank, the quadrants could hold things like a folded rover or science. I see this sort of (some would say extreme) clipping as OK.

EDIT : And on a wider topic, I don`t think it is even possible to cheat in this game unless you go against the rules of a challenge.

Edited April 11, 2014 by John FX

[Godot]

It depends on the situation ...

some people, for example. clip 4 Mainsails together on a 2 Bicoupler arrangement in order to get something that has more power than one of the new engines, but consumes only roughly the same space.

I´d definitely call this too cheaty for my tastes, as the clipping in this case involves more than half of the diameter of the Mainsails (no surprise, considering the fact that the distances between the attchment points of bicouplers are just meant for normal sized engines) and gives you a huge advantage.

Other cases, where the advantage isn´t this big and/or the clipping involves a minor percentage of the parts, I wouldn´t see as problematic

Edited April 11, 2014 by Godot

[G4S3FR]

I used to use it a ton, but now I feel like it's a little too cheaty. Still, that doesn;t stop me from using it every now and then, Mainly for wings.

[Fizwalker]

Hmm.... I've read many of the earlier posts... (Sorry, too lazy to read the later ones!) and I think my limitations are that as long as it's not a tank within a tank or engine within an engine, clipping is fine. Granted, this is single player, so the standard is up to the player as to what they will allow. I'm a big person on looks, and I can see half burying an RCS tank in the flank of a ship, because the part of the tank that cannot be seen, can be spread around in empty spaces.... I cannot suspend my belief when two same sized tanks occupy the same space. I don't clip engines at all, because it requires a suspension of belief (ruining immersion for me) to do. This is my stance on the subject; I won't enforce it on anyone else, or say they are wrong to do it... (If this were multiplayer, I might feel differently....I'll cross that bridge when it happens!)

I suppose my rules are as follows:

1. Clipping cannot be used to have 2 of the same objects occupy the same space-- there has to be some logical idea behind where the missing space goes even if the objects are different.

2. The base of engines can overlap, but the "bells" cannot occupy the same space or overlap. Rockets work on certain principles, breach them and it becomes unclear on how the game handles it and how it would in reality. Honestly, this is an immersion factor for me.

3. Clipping cannot be done through a debug menu. I don't know what to say to elaborate on this.

These are the rules I follow in regards to clipping. Otherwise I do it for how my ship looks.

[Frank_G]

Well, as stated earlier in this thread, i don´t like part clipping like hiding tanks and engines, stacking intakes or use multiple layer wings. In certain cases, as for aesthetic reasons or when clipped parts don´t clip into visual geometry, i use it without any bad feelings. And i find that in some cases, like in the shown picture of the satellite here, it even makes sense to clip.

[Ravenchant]

I part clip quite a bit, but never through the debug menu (cubic octogonal struts to the rescue!) and with some basic restrictions: no intake stacking, engine nozzles can't clip through each other, and fuel tanks can't be clipped more than, let's say, halfway through. My Kerbals also frown upon doubling wings and clipping command pods too much. Other than that, it's fair game...it's hard enough to construct aesthetically pleasing craft as it is.

[John FX]

Well, as stated earlier in this thread, i don´t like part clipping like hiding tanks and engines, stacking intakes or use multiple layer wings. In certain cases, as for aesthetic reasons or when clipped parts don´t clip into visual geometry, i use it without any bad feelings. And i find that in some cases, like in the shown picture of the satellite here, it even makes sense to clip.

http://i.imgur.com/L5eQ6It.jpg

That`s beautiful...

[TMS]

To not partake in clipping is unamerican, non-cricket and anti-business, along with other absurd tropes.

[MarvinKitFox]

Clipping is no more cheating that using the alt-f12 gravity hack function.

I.E.

YES IT IS!

[Sufficient Anonymity]

I do use it, though only in order to improve aesthetics where it will not impact on craft performance - to be honest, the things it allows me to do probably end up counting against the craft - a lot of my planes have I beams hidden inside them to get wings exactly where I want them to be.

Take this jet for example - the blending of fuselage elements, intakes and wings is achieved with part clipping - it actually flies incredibly well, but on the other hand, it has a couple of tons of I beams in there to make it all fit, so has rubbish range.

[AustralianFries]

Usually just to make something more aesthetically pleasing.

[karolus10]

Well, as stated earlier in this thread, i don´t like part clipping like hiding tanks and engines, stacking intakes or use multiple layer wings. In certain cases, as for aesthetic reasons or when clipped parts don´t clip into visual geometry, i use it without any bad feelings. And i find that in some cases, like in the shown picture of the satellite here, it even makes sense to clip.

http://i.imgur.com/L5eQ6It.jpg

This is good example where part clipping allow to do stuff that IMHO should be a feature of stock editor - more surface attaching options and hollow parts, like the bottom of the decoupler, various inter-stage (structural fairing connecting 2 stages) "tube" parts that would partially replace/improve existing decouplers attached to engines as well as be used for creating real estate for surface attached parts for adding parts on inner side like sepatrons inside inter-stages or unpressurized "trunk" acting as a service module.

[rockowwc]

I clip were the base game lets me.. mostly with struts, etc as mount points for other things that would normally mount, but the game just wont let me..

[Mitchz95]

I often use the offset feature to make my ships more aesthetically pleasing.

[Columbia]

In my opinion, things like part clipping should be totally up to the player. If they want to compress 8 KS-25s in one tank, well, that's okay. It's not as if it is a must to be realistic.

Wait, for me? it depends. If I'm building a replica of something that is as strange-looking and huge as a Boeing 747, then I'd clip parts without any guilt, for aesthetics and realism.

If I was working on an interplanetary mothership and clipped tons of LV-Ns, I probably would never call myself a veteran.

Buutt... As I said a while ago, it's totally up to the player.

[g.koster]

Whe i have problem with clipping is when people are showing of there SSTO's which can bring a tank in th orbit or fly to duna and back. And they put so mutch clipping into there craft that you can't annalise how it works. I don't mind so mutch for replica's as these are artforms. but for kerbal usage crafts I see it more are showing how things work, and then its all covered up.

[klesh]

I'll do it with the new building tools. They're great for some adjustments to make the ship look like it was designed to look like that, not slapped together with random parts that look out of place.

For instance, put 2 MKI lander cans next to each other for a more compact 2-man lander:

1.32t for this arrangement, vs 2.66t for the MkII lander can. Same Kerbal capacity. Additionally, this will fit in a 2.5m fairing, without it bulging out the way it would if I used a MKII.

Edited March 21, 2015 by klesh

[Vashts]

case to case basis. with the new offset and rotate tools, clipping has become a natural part of my design process. i think i mirror other peoples thoughts though, if it feels cheatly when im doing it, it probably is and i dont want to continue with it, things like hiding wings and excessive airhogging stacks.