[1.2 - 1.4] Modular Rocket Systems v1.13.2 (2018-03-12) - Stock-alike Parts Pack

[Red Iron Crown]

Necrobones, I must have been thinking of the 3.75m-3x2.5m adapter earlier, sorry again for the mixup. I played with the parts a bit tonight, the 5-way adapter is a great part, looks especially good with the fueled 2.5-3.75 adapter inverted on top of it. (Too soon to ask for a rescale of this part in 1.25-5x0.625m? ).

Here's a compact Duna-or-smaller science lander using the radial fuel tanks, angled RCS blocks, and 0.625m reaction wheels to radially mount 48-7Ss:

Testing five nukes mounted with the 5-way adapter with the 2.5-3.75m fueled adapter above it; looks great and works well and will be used for my next interplanetary ship. I swear I never thought of it as "The Nuclear Bomb":

Testing seven nukes on the 7-way adapter:

Some minor overheating problems

I had the same trouble when I made something similar with radial attachment points under a 3.75m tank, removing the center engine or reducing its thrust solved it. I think I'll try a heterogenous cluster next time, a mix of nukes and chemicals.

Propellant depot/crew layover station with heavy RCS tug docked, the RCS blocks are a mix of the two from this pack, station has the 3.75m reaction wheel and RCS tank, two 2.5m-3.75m fueled adapters, some flat adapters, and lots of docking helpers):

Obligatory darkside "Christmas tree" shot, the docking helpers are a great idea:

Really enjoying this pack. Useful, practical parts added without overloading the part list.

[NecroBones]

Awesome, thanks for sharing the screenshots! Yeah, I get that "Christmas Tree" sort of vibe from the docking helpers too. lol.

Made some more progress, toward 0.3. I built a "Flingatron" (equivalent of three sepratrons, since I think the stock ones are no longer sufficient for the SLS parts), a spherical xenon tank that accepts surface attachment, and a 2.5m to 1.25m hollow adapter cone (just to allow the NASA-like black-and-white to continue a little further into designs).

[NecroBones]

Necrobones, I must have been thinking of the 3.75m-3x2.5m adapter earlier, sorry again for the mixup. I played with the parts a bit tonight, the 5-way adapter is a great part, looks especially good with the fueled 2.5-3.75 adapter inverted on top of it. (Too soon to ask for a rescale of this part in 1.25-5x0.625m? ).

Too soon? Nah.

1.25m to 4x 0.625m adapter:

1.25m to 5x 0.625m adapter:

0.625m fuel tank, stackable and surface attachable (5 of them shown), height of FL-T200 (a quarter of its fuel and mass, as appropriate):

Edited September 11, 2014 by NecroBones

[NecroBones]

I also reworked the 2.5m 5-way adapter to look a little prettier. The only thing I'm not happy with, is now that the angles changed, it gets a more jagged edge between the fairing at the tank above. Let me know what you all think:

Current design:

New design:

[Genolution]

Dude... do you realize you just.... and it's so... I think I love you. This is such an awesome part pack man. It fills nearly all the gaps in the stock parts list while offering a premium stock alike aesthetic feel. Its just how I imagined squad will release v1.0. It really points out just how bad the old parts look compared to the new ones. Any chance I can talk you into making a node and surface attachable inline RCS motor suitable for landers?

[NecroBones]

Dude... do you realize you just.... and it's so... I think I love you. This is such an awesome part pack man. It fills nearly all the gaps in the stock parts list while offering a premium stock alike aesthetic feel. Its just how I imagined squad will release v1.0. It really points out just how bad the old parts look compared to the new ones. Any chance I can talk you into making a node and surface attachable inline RCS motor suitable for landers?

Glad you like it!!

By "RCS motor", do you mean one that uses monoprop AND responds to RCS control rather than throttle (basically a stack & radially mounted larger version of the single-nozzle RCS thruster)? Or more like a stack + radially mounted version of the new monoprop engine? Intriguing ideas.

[Red Iron Crown]

I took it to mean a monoprop-powered throttleable engine, but I could be wrong.

The new parts look great (love the 0.625m stuff), can't wait for your next release.

[NecroBones]

I took it to mean a monoprop-powered throttleable engine, but I could be wrong.

The new parts look great (love the 0.625m stuff), can't wait for your next release.

Thanks, Yeah, as it turns out, that small 5-way adapter took probably about an hour to make, since I started from scaling down the larger 5-way I already did, and just modified it from there. Usually I can't count on turning out something anywhere near that fast.

Yes, re-reading what he wrote, I think you're right. Probably something like the O-10, but stackable as well as surface attachable. Making things attach both ways is pretty straightforward in general, but currently none of the engines do that. It might take some thought as to how something could be shaped so that it doesn't look ridiculous when surface attached, while designed for stack attaching.

[Genolution]

Yeah, throttleable. Think surface attachable 48-7s that uses monoprop without OP ISP. something that is easier to mount with the thrust vector centered. I think it would be handy for small body landers and station tugs. grabbing a big station section and hauling it back using such engines fore and aft would be really nice. Especially if I only needed one fuel type.

[Red Iron Crown]

It might take some thought as to how something could be shaped so that it doesn't look ridiculous when surface attached, while designed for stack attaching.

A non-collidable rounded fairing on top maybe? Similar to the top of your 5-way adapter. It would clip inside the parent part when attached to a stack but look decent when attached radially.

Though honestly, the O-10 would seem to have radial monoprop engines covered. Maybe make a stack version of it to fill the gap.

[NecroBones]

That's what I'm thinking-- either just stackable (which can always be mounted radially anyway via radially attached tanks), or include a non-colliding fairing on the top. The 0-10 can be the analog to balance against, in terms of stats.

I'll definitely look into it. This opens up some new territory, in that I'll have to figure out engine shrouds for decoupling (looks reasonably straightforward), and possibly gimbal, if I add that feature to it.

[NecroBones]

OK, made progress on engines. Man, they take a lot longer to design, since they need a minimum of three meshes. But I think they're turning out well.

I gave them both a small amount of gimbal, and a puny alternator.

First engine takes monopropellant:

Second uses LFO. I balanced it by setting it at the same efficiency, but half the mass/thrust of the LV-909.

[Red Iron Crown]

Very nice. That 0.625m LFO engine is like half an LV-909, but you can fit four or five of them on a 1.25m stack. Great for vacuum landers.

[LitaAlto]

I'm guessing the docking indicators are lights you can match up manually to ensure you're docking in the preferred orientation?

I'm looking forward to trying this out!

[NecroBones]

OK, version 0.3 is up! I wanted to get the new parts out to you all:

0.3 (2014-09-11) - Beta release.

- Added 2.5m to 1.25m hollow cone adapter

- Added "Flingatron" (3x Sepratron)

- Added pressurized sphere xenon container

- Added 0.625m probe fuel canister

- Added 1.25m to 4x 0.625m quad adapter

- Added 1.25m to 5x 0.625m adapter

- Added 0.625m Stackable Monopropellant engine.

- Added 0.625m Efficient LFO engine.

- Reshaped the fairings on the 2.5m to 5x 1.25m adapter

[MonkeyLunch]

I think I can find some uses for these parts, downloading

[NecroBones]

First step toward v0.4, I'm figuring out engine glow. The new 0.625m mini-engine will have glow effects soon.

[Genolution]

Love the new engines. Thanks.

[NecroBones]

Love the new engines. Thanks.

Glad you like them. It's not often that you can get a 24-hour turn around on a new part, right? lol. It's a shame that doesn't work with designing spacecraft in the real world.

I'm at a point where I'm open to some suggestions for any new parts. I'm not sure how many I want to add, since part of the goal of this mod is to fill in gaps without taking over the part selection. But I may be running out of gaps.

Some possible ideas I'm still sitting on, but could use some feedback as to what's wanted:

- 0.625m jet engines and air intakes (and possibly a radial jet) (I remember this was asked for),

- 1.25m to 0.625m bi- and tri-adapters (now that I have quad and 5-way done),

- Radial stack mounts (though "Radial Engine Mounts" has this covered pretty well, but I also had the idea before I saw those)

- 3.75m battery bank (would this even be useful?)

- 1.25m monopropellant engine (companion to the 0.625m model)

What would you like to see? Keeping in mind that we're trying to fill gaps more than anything else.

[Genolution]

Definitely the small jet engine. Been thinking about that for some time now. Would do wonders for vtols. A propeller wouldnt hurt either. But im sure that would require a plugin.

[Red Iron Crown]

Some suggestions:

A 2.5m nuke would do wonders for part counts on bigger orbital ships.

The 0.625m-1.25m adapters make larger ion-powered craft more feasible, how about a 1.25m xenon tank?

A 1.25m-2.5m fueled adapter, similar to the structural one already in the pack.

Possibly game-balance breaking, but a smaller version of the KR-2L, either in 2.5m or 1.25m, with similar TWR and Isp.

A cylindrical 2-kerbal pod in 1.25m size, with nodes on top and bottom (This would be a bit of work if you want to do an IVA for it, though).

A better 2.5m reaction wheel. It needs 2.5m attach nodes, the stock one uses 1.25m nodes and the reduced joint strength means it makes for a floppy mess if used in a structural location.

Just some more things I've wished for occasionally, don't know if any are of interest to you.

[NecroBones]

Awesome, that does give me something to work with. I hadn't even thought about the joint size on the 2.5m reaction wheels. The fueled adapter would be easy, and a larger xenon tank is a good idea.

I've thought about the larger nuke too.

Excellent, good ideas.

[NecroBones]

OK, I just had to share this...

[Red Iron Crown]

Isn't it ionic? Don't you think? /Alanis Morrisette

(Sorry, couldn't resist either...and the parts look great!)

[Kertz]

I'd like to see other stock-a-like options for the FTX-2 Fuel Duct, especially a Cryogenic Orange one and a Plain White one for starters. Possibly Gold Foil and Copernicus style too.

And STRUTS! MOAR STRUTS!