[0.25] RCS+ (1.1) - New RCS parts, easy to use thrusters and other RCS improvements

[CaptRobau]

Features

RCS+ is a mod that revamps and extends RCS systems and fuels. Stock parts have been modified and new parts added to make RCS more intuitive to use and to create an interesting dynamic between monopropellant engines and LFO engines. So what does it do exactly?

Large RCS thrusters use LFO

Instead of having to put unwieldy monopropellant tanks onto your spacecraft, you can now just put your RCS blocks and thrusters onto ships and stations with LFO tanks and they'll work. This is more intuitive and allows you make much better looking spacecraft. In real-life large spacecraft also often use bipropellant to fuel their RCS.

Small RCS thrusters use monoprop

Monopropellant tanks, with their generally small size or radial attachment, are far more suited to designs for small spacecraft or probes. In real-life, probes often use monoprop thrusters and RCS.

New RCS parts

The original RCS parts weren't sufficient for this mod, so a total of 7 new parts were added to complement the stock parts. Five of them are large LFO-fueled RCS parts with different shapes and nozzles: 2-way, 5-way and 1-way thrusters and 2 variants with offset nozzles. The other two parts are small monoprop RCS blocks: one 4-way and one offset 4-way block.

Reinvisioned stock RCS

The 4-way RV-105 block has been changed into an LFO-fueled block and renamed the RV-104 (for naming consistency with the new parts). The linear RCS port has been shrunk to complement the new small monoprop-fueled RCS blocks.

LV-1 engines are now monoprop engines

They already had similar Isp/thrust compared to monoprop thrusters and they complement the monoprop tanks far better than the couple of small LFO tanks.

Other small tweaks

A few small stat tweaks have been made to existing parts to make them more consistent with the new ones or to fix unwanted behavior. All of the thrusters are no longer massless, which should fix issues with overpowered thrust-to-weight ratios.

Future Plans

Aside from fixing bugs and balancing the existing thrusters, I also want to take a look at rebalancing the costs, fuel and mass of the monoprop tanks. Furthermore I want to balance it so that monoprop engines/RCS become useful alternatives in some situations. Their bad Isp could be offset by being made dirt cheap for example.

Disclaimer

I've used models from other mods to form this mod. I can only change CFGs; I can't model new parts. So don't ask for new models. Unless I can get models from another mod with an open license, I can't do that.

Screenshots

Downloads

Recommended Mods

RCS Sound (and light!) Effects by pizzaoverhead. Adds sounds and lighting effects to all RCS parts

RCS Build Aid by m4v. Helps you balance RCS thrusters

Changelog

1.0
-Initial release

1.1
-Changed the texture from .tga to .mbm for better 0.25 compatibility.

Credits

Hoojiwana for making RLA Stockalike

ialdaboath for the initial development of ModuleRCSFX and ModuleManager

NathanKell for further developing ModuleRCSFX

sarbian for further developing ModuleManager

License

This mod is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

It incorporates elements from the following mods:

RLA Stockalike by Hoojiwana, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

ModuleRCSFX by NathanKell, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

ModuleManager by sarbian, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.

Edited October 31, 2014 by CaptRobau

[hoojiwana]

Neat idea!

I wouldn't use the TGA texture for my parts, sure it's only one but it still takes up more memory than it should and can have problems loading. The latest version of the texture is MBM since 0.25 came out, you're probably better off using that.

Edited October 17, 2014 by hoojiwana

[NathanKell]

TGA has two loader bugs:

1. It's left uncompressed rather than compressed to DXT

2. As of .25, it sometimes just won't load (random).

Neat idea!

BTW have you verified that multiple-nozzle RCS with PROPELLANT nodes works properly? That was broken in .24, and I thought still broken.

[CaptRobau]

Neat idea!

I wouldn't use the TGA texture for my parts, sure it's only one but it still takes up more memory than it should and can have problems loading. The latest version of the texture is MBM since 0.25 came out, you're probably better off using that.

Thanks, I'll do that.

TGA has two loader bugs:

1. It's left uncompressed rather than compressed to DXT

2. As of .25, it sometimes just won't load (random).

Neat idea!

BTW have you verified that multiple-nozzle RCS with PROPELLANT nodes works properly? That was broken in .24, and I thought still broken.

Stock didn't work, but it worked when changed to ModuleRSCFX

[NathanKell]

NathanKell whacks himself for not reading the OP better

[CaptRobau]

Okay, updated the mod to 1.1:

1.1
-Changed the texture from .tga to .mbm for better 0.25 compatibility.

It's already up on Kerbal Stuff, but I can't get into Curseforge yet. Maybe because it hasn't been checked by one of their mods yet or something. I'll update that mirror in the morning.

[CaptRobau]

Got the update uploaded to Curseforge! All download mirrors are now up to date.

NathanKell whacks himself for not reading the OP better

The irony is delicious. Thanks for taking up ModuleRCSFX btw. This mod would not have been possible without the work you've done.

[iFlyAllTheTime]

Shouldn't the MM file be in just the Gamedata folder and not inside the plugins folder?

Edited November 8, 2014 by iFlyAllTheTime

[Dodgey]

Just trying this in 0.90 and I can't get the mono-propellent thrusters to work. Is this still supported.

[CaptRobau]

Just trying this in 0.90 and I can't get the mono-propellent thrusters to work. Is this still supported.

ModuleRCSFX has received an update, but I still have trouble getting everything to work properly . If I can fix it, I'll release an update.

Shouldn't the MM file be in just the Gamedata folder and not inside the plugins folder?

If I release an update (see above), I'll put it in the right place.

[Drew Kerman]

hey Capt, have you considered returning to this now that NathanKell has updated ModuleRCSFX for v1.0?

[Mansur]

hey Capt, have you considered returning to this now that NathanKell has updated ModuleRCSFX for v1.0?

++1 too.