Mun City - Advanced Base Designs

[Jett_Quasar]

I've recently began posting my projects and Mun City was one that struck the interest of most visitors to the thread. It's definitely the largest and most complex project I've undertaken and with a combined part count in excess of 1000 is by far the biggest to date. Before I even started building it I did two others just to get some experience and figure out what needs to go into building a decent moon base. There were a lot of lessons learned for me and I will be adding them to this thread as well as encouraging everyone to share their experiences.

Mun City

All KSP images have been moved here.

View from above: This is the first sight of Mun City that greets visitors as they come in for a landing. View from the ground - you can see the Crater Ridge Observatory 2.2 Km away. Lesson 1 keep all other facilities more than 2.3 KM away otherwise their part count gets loaded and may cause lag. In this case I wanted it on top of that mountain it was a compromise I had to make... In this view you can clearly see the escape rocket as well as the large Gryphon rover used to assemble the base. Looking the other way from the Crater ridge Observatory on top of a steep mountain you can see Mun City in the distance as well as a nearby arch.

Living on the edge: The view from the mountain top allows anyone to see the curvature of the moon's surface as well as the Lonely Crater site 10.2 Km away: One of the first landings on the moon.

Here are the key considerations when building a base

1) Design: What goes into designing a useful base.

2) Location, Location, Location - where to put your base: I'd like to get input from the community on where the best places are to locate your base.

3) Getting There: Navigation and control techniques to avoid that crashing feeling.

4) Assembly: How to transport and assemble your base on the surface of a planet.

5) All-in-one bases: What are the advantages of landing you entire base in one piece.

6) Facilities: What type of facilities can you include.

7) So you have a base completed - now what? Show them off!!!!

Updated with old pic's removed.

JR

Edited September 28, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[Pondafarr]

Very impressive. how did you manage to land the rocket close enough to dock with the tunnel, about how did you make the bendy joints? (I see one at the rocket, and one at the com center, and one at some hab modules)

[syfyguy64]

Throw an asteroid at it, and give the escape rocket a reason for being there.

[Jett_Quasar]

I had to land everything close by the base which is in a large flat-bottom crater, then roll it into place to dock with the rest. It meant having wheels on every module including the escape rocket. I'll add links to all the craft files as soon as I have them uploaded.

JR

Edited August 6, 2014 by Jolly_Roger

[Jett_Quasar]

Throw an asteroid at it, and give the escape rocket a reason for being there.

That sounds like a fun challenge - I'll see if I can package up the SFS file and let you guys have a go... it's a big enough target, if you can hit it

Edited August 5, 2014 by Jolly_Roger

[Voculus]

That's an incredible Mun base. Excellent work!

Also:

Alt+F12

Show Whack-A-Kerbal

Go to Mun town

Profit!

[p331083]

Would love to have some terraforming tools for base building.

[Jett_Quasar]

That sounds like a fun challenge - I'll see if I can package up the SFS file and let you guys have a go... it's a big enough target, if you can hit it

So I took a look at my save file and I won't be able to post it right now - I have the coolest game glitch I've ever seen and I think it deserves it's own thread (I'm not sure if it's a glitch or a feature). I will start posting the craft files I used for Mun City in a bit though.

JR

[Stevie_D]

Wow, that really looks like a living breathing moon colony like you used to see paintings of from the 70s and 80s. its awesome!

I doubt there's many that will be able to beat you on scope and size, Jolly. My own mun colony is just starting out, and my only boast is landing this behemoth of a 1st main building in one go, without cheats (and it was one HELL of a bugger to land, took me nigh on 6-7 attempts)....

I wanted the main building to do the basics, provide power (reactor) and be able to mine and create fuel (its refineries either side) for the empty fuel tanks it brought with it (as tanks and stabilizers for the main tower to not fall over! heh)

Unimaginatively, im using MKS Kolonization parts to build a little village around the back. But whilst i love Kolonization, im now leaning towards building my own custom made buildings like you've done, jolly, to give it a more distinctive look.

The only thing i have to brag about with my colony as i say, is possibly landing the Mun's first skyscraper hehe...

[gGATORr]

Incredible work! I can't imagine the time and patience it must've taken to get everything right! +rep!

[SelectHalfling0]

This thread has the perfect timing! I'm just about to start construction of my first Mun base in .24 career.

[Jett_Quasar]

The embedded album has a bunch of tips on how to build a basic moonbase. It contains all the hard earned wizdom I could think of on how to avoid disaster.

Update: Obsolete craft, pictures and album has been removed

JR

Edited August 13, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[Jett_Quasar]

I've also had a lot of interest in the curved passageways so I decided to post a pic with more detail. This is definitely an advanced construction technique - I'll post that craft file later... Also Mun City is 100% stock if anyone was wondering.

All KSP images have been moved here.

I built most of this before the ARM expansion came out so that's why all the habs are constructed using hitch-hiker cans. I did add a lab with a grappling hook later on just to give it some variation.

JR

Edited September 28, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[Rune]

Just for comparison, I thought that I would show which direction I'm going. My last base pack was this:

Though later I got the idea further and did it much more standard and compact so I could fit everything in a single launch, and you could still complicate your life by launching the same thing several times. Not to mention the awesome drop vehicle I built (which is being refitted to work on Laythe) can accept all modules. Because I think Duna is already doable if you can refuel on the ground with, say, a kethane module (not shown, but built).

Now I would show more of that, but the one in Minmus where I am going for the hexagonal hub made of nodes to stick the rest of the things to, with many more passageways (I think I'm stealing the in line docking port idea to make a single universal passageway) connecting the stuff. So far it's a lot of modules on orbit giving a lot of lag in my station around Minmus, but I'm getting there. What is shown in this picture is the drop vehicle and the pressurised rover that comes as standard payload, and the contents of a single base pack assembled on the surface.

Rune. I'll show it here when I'm done!

Edited August 8, 2014 by Rune

[KandoKris]

Love the curved passageways JR

I think I'll definetly try to incorporate them into my next mun base

I might not have anything to offer in terms of size and complexity as I instead went for QTY

Javascript is disabled. View full album

.

You have inspired my to start a serious expansion of my outposts

Edited August 8, 2014 by KandoKris

[Jett_Quasar]

Looks like you guys are one step ahead of me. Here's another post with some interesting locations for bases... and some lessons learned.

Updated Pics:

All KSP images have been moved here.

JR

Edited September 28, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[Biff]

Incredible work! I can't imagine the time and patience it must've taken to get everything right! +rep!

I know right, this would have taken me a year!

[Astronomer]

OP:

[Jett_Quasar]

OP! LOL, I was wondering when someone was going to say that... don't worry, I will provide all the craft files that are pictured in this thread and an explanation on how they are landed and assembled on other moons and planets. I've already done stuff that's way beyond what's pictured here and everything I do is stock. My plan is to build a base on Duna that's even bigger than Mun City and document the whole process. These things take time however, if you're looking for the Nexus-III module with the curved connectors, here's the file which includes launcher and landing/roving system...

WARNING!! this craft file has over 900 parts - most of which are in the launcher... This was originally done in .22 so the big rocket parts aren't used in it's design, I was going to update it to reduce the part count, but if you want early access here it is, warts and all. You'll need a decent PC and fairly advanced piloting skills to land it on the Mun but knock yourself out. This unit has powered wheels included so you won't need a rover.

Actually, you will need a rover to assemble the parts so here is a launcher with two rovers and a transfer vehicle. The rovers are self-landing.

JR

Update: Out-dated craft files removed

Edited August 13, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[Jett_Quasar]

Just to give you a taste of what I'm working up to, this is one of my bases on Dres...

All KSP images have been moved here.

This structure was launched and landed all in one piece as you see it here - all stock, no mods or cheats.

JR

Edited September 28, 2015 by Jolly_Roger

[KandoKris]

Looking kinda like a fairytale castle there JR Very interesting

I look forward to seeing what and how you connect to it as I'm sure it will be awesome

[Jett_Quasar]

Hmm, I never though of connecting anything to it. The design was conceived as an all-in-one base with a sort of elven style motif. I don't think the lighting does it justice, but it's monstrous with a total mass over 330 tonnes and a part count in excess of 430 - it can also house up to 86 Kerbals. It's an interesting idea though, I suppose I could design something that would connect to it... but I'm getting a little ahead of myself right now. I'll have more on this later.

JR

[sdj64]

That Dres base is amazing! Reminds me of the bases in Planetside 2.

I do like all-in-one bases better since I could never make a reliable ground assembly method. Here's my favorite base, the large building on the left houses 36, on the right is a multipurpose mobile lab/base/refueler for the planes and rovers. The plane is from the Flying Duna AGAIN challenge.

[Jett_Quasar]

That's some awesome gear. I love the ramps up to the habs - I was going to use that in my next design for a domed city on Duna. You guys keep using my ideas before I get a chance to show anybody. I like your architecture too it's different than most of the standard stuff.

One of my favourite things about KSP is that's based on real technology - but there's this gap between what's real and games like Planetside and Eve. That's the gap I want to fill and it starts with design.

JR

[Rune]

I have the hexagonal Minmus base almost finished. Just one more pack (node+hab+lab+fuel dump+passageways) to go! Anyhow, you can short of see how it'll look when finished, but I have a last-minute-modified passageway incoming (the mod involves an inline docking port) that I have to thank you for and will break the symmetry a bit in the end, but I plan to park an emergency return vehicle... well, I'm sure you can guess where. And everything was dropped by the same Eagle you can see on the background!

Rune. Base assembly is a hugely FUNâ„¢, hugely complicated enterprise. I love it!

Edited August 19, 2014 by Rune