RSS Mods?

[MrabEzreb]

So, I want to play with RSS. Two questions:

1) which RSS config should I use?

2) what other mods do you reccomend (my current save has 75 mods.)

[Taki117]

I highly suggest using the 1/10th Scale config. This will give you the stock size planets (So you don't need lots of mods).

[Northstar1989]

So, I want to play with RSS. Two questions:

1) which RSS config should I use?

2) what other mods do you reccomend (my current save has 75 mods.)

Assuming you want to play with RSS for the more realistic orbital velocity, rather than the real-world planets (if that's all you care about, just use the 1/10th scale "real" system), I suggest the 6.4x scale Kerbin scale-up. It's about the right size so that stock parts (which are generally between 50 and 64% the size of their real-life analogs: usually only about 50%...) can be used in it for a (mostly) realistic balance, rather than needing to scale them up with Realism Overhaul (a mod which I *despise* because of the long list of required mods and its full or partial incompatibility with a number of other awesome mods...)

With RSS 6.4x, a rocket takes between 7.5 and 8.4 km/s to make orbit- rather than 10-12 km/s with the full scale-ups. That extra 3 km/s may not sound like a lot in comparison, but put this way: you roughly need to stack a rocket capable of making orbit in the stock system with FAR installed (3.5 km/s to orbit with a streamlined and tall rocket) ON TOP OF a rocket capable of making orbit in RSS 6.4x, in order to make orbit in the full scale-ups. Which means you'll NEED the Realism Overhaul scale-up to 100% part scale (roughly doubles the size of the stock rocket parts) to make it work.

As for mods that I recommend, there's really only 4 you *need* with RSS:

FAR (good luck trying to make orbit with the stock "soup-o-sphere", and the body-lift present in FAR but not NEAR helps MASSIVELY)

Procedural Parts (you'll NEED the larger fuel tanks- and for huge payloads you may even end up clustering 2.5 meter engines on the bottom...)

Procedural Fairings (you'll need the efficiently-shaped fairings, and the procedural thrust plates help with huge payloads...)

KSP-Interstellar or Karbonite (when it's 8.4 km/s just to get something to orbit, you'll *WANT* an ISRU system to bring down mission costs...)

I also highly recommend adding in RealFuels mod, though, for a more complete "realism" experience. It also adjusts the cost of the fuel resources to more realistic levels (for instance with a Kero/LOX rocket, fuel only amounts to approximately 0.3% of launch costs, according to Elon Musk...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited October 23, 2014 by Northstar1989

[Starman4308]

So, I want to play with RSS. Two questions:

1) which RSS config should I use?

2) what other mods do you reccomend (my current save has 75 mods.)

Mostly what Northstar said. The 6.4x config is just about right for getting a "stuff is big" experience without requiring absurdly gigantic rockets to get anywhere. FAR helps you get to orbit and is less ridiculous than stock aero, Procedural Parts helps you tweak fuel tanks to size without stacking up too many stock cans, Procedural Fairings helps keep your payloads from playing havoc with FAR, and Real Fuels with the stockalike engine config lets you build engines a bit more efficiently (much lighter tanks, and hydrogen-oxygen stages get quite good Isp). In all, what I consider my "core mods": the 6.4x RSS config, Deadly Reentry, FAR, Real Fuels with stockalike engine config, RealChutes, Procedural Parts/Fairings, TAC Life Support, and Mechjeb.

If you use DRE, you can either play with the config file to get parameters which work with the stock heatshields, or download the Realism Overhaul config, and potentially adjust upwards to account for slightly easier re-entry.

[NathanKell]

What you should use depends on what you want, as expressed above.

Do you want "stock, but bigger/harder"? Use 6.4x Kerbin.

Do you want "as big as real life, but fictional"? Use 10x Kerbin.

Do you want "the real solar system"? Use RSS.

Do you want KSP, but with real-looking planets? Use the 1/10th solar system config.

In any case you will need FAR.

If you want realism in parts and behaviors, you should consider either the whole Realism Overhaul suite, or at least stuff like Deadly Reentry and Real Fuels (perhaps with the Stockalike engine configs).

Northstar: wat? I make orbit on 6300m/s in 6.4x (I'm trying a stock KSP + FAR + 6.4x career playthrough, and used way less delta V than I expected).

Edited October 23, 2014 by NathanKell

[Starman4308]

Northstar: wat? I make orbit on 6300m/s in 6.4x (I'm trying a stock KSP + FAR + 6.4x career playthrough, and used way less delta V than I expected).

How do you manage that? Orbital velocity is almost 6 km/s for LKO, so either you have the world's most perfect ascent profile, your 6.4x is bugged, or you mis-calculated your delta-V expenditure. I usually use around 8 km/s, though I will freely admit I'm nowhere near good.

[MrabEzreb]

So what I am hearing is:

FAR (can't live without it anyways)

Deadly Reentry (annoying, but possible.)

Proc Fairings

Proc Parts

Real Fuels

Interstellar (duh)

Karbonite (duh)

Does it make any sense whatsoever bringing a 90t payload for "kolonization" with MKS?

thanks for the feedback btw.

P.S. Does the 6.4x config work with the "more planets for RSS" thing?

thanks!

Edited October 23, 2014 by MrabEzreb

[Vanamonde]

This affair about an add-on has been moved to Add-on Affairs.

[NathanKell]

At 120km, orbital velocity is ~6.061km/sec, yes? Rotational velocity with a 6hr day (aha! I thought I had a 12hr day, must have grabbed the wrong config from 64K) is 1.117km/sec. That means just under 5km/sec of delta V, plus gravity and drag losses.

64K claimed it was 12hr but I guess there's a typo. Fixed, and I'll see how much it takes now.

MrabEzreb: You need to tell us what you're looking for, per the options described above. We can't recommend stuff for you unless you tell us the experience you want.

Do you want "stock, but bigger/harder"?

Do you want "as big as real life, but fictional"?

Do you want "the [full size] real solar system"

Do you want KSP, but with real-looking planets?

[MrabEzreb]

MrabEzreb: You need to tell us what you're looking for, per the options described above. We can't recommend stuff for you unless you tell us the experience you want.

Do you want "stock, but bigger/harder"?

Do you want "as big as real life, but fictional"?

Do you want "the [full size] real solar system"

Do you want KSP, but with real-looking planets?

What I WANT is mainly a "Stock but bigger/harder" BUT it would also be great to have the Moar planets for RSS config aswell. Is it possible to have 6.4x with the more planets?

[NathanKell]

No, it is not, sorry. While you could add more planets, you'd have to position and change them yourself.

In that case I would highly recommend DRE, and also if you want to make life a bit easier (so your payload fraction is closer to stock) Real Fuels and RF Stockalike conifgs and Procedural Parts; it's very possible, however (I'm doing so now) to play 6.4x with stock part stats, you just need to build bigger.

[Northstar1989]

At 120km, orbital velocity is ~6.061km/sec, yes? Rotational velocity with a 6hr day (aha! I thought I had a 12hr day, must have grabbed the wrong config from 64K) is 1.117km/sec. That means just under 5km/sec of delta V, plus gravity and drag losses.

64K claimed it was 12hr but I guess there's a typo. Fixed, and I'll see how much it takes now.

Actually, the day length is 24 hours on Kerbin with RSS 6.4x, according to the config OP (and my own personal play experience).

The longer the day-length, the less rotational velocity, and the more Delta-V it takes to get to orbit. So, if you were somehow playing with a 6 or 12-hour day, it would be MUCH easier to get to orbit (drag is also calculated RELATIVE TO SURFACE VELOCITY- so you experience more drag with the same orbital velocity if the day is longer...)

Come to think of it, though, I was playing with recoverable lower stages and launching to 200 km orbits when it took me between 8.0 and 8.4 km/s. It might have been closer to 7.6 or 7.8 km/s with disposables (a launch with a perfect ascent-profile to 120 km would cost 7.5 km/s, ignoring any benefits from lift, according to the released RSS 6.4x Delta-V map)

Your launches might have beat 7.5 km/s if they were:

1) Disposable (reusable stages tend to require draggier designs and sub-optimal ascent profiles)

2) To less than 120 km initially (atmosphere starts at 92 km in RSS 6.4x)

3) Made heavy use of body-lift (I assume you weren't flying with a winged craft? But FAR still generates "body lift", which helps the same way...)

4) Were extremely large and had great ballistic coefficients

5) Had *very* high TWR (with good ballistic coefficients, terminal velocity- the ideal speed of ascent- becomes MUCH higher)

6) Highly staged with powerful decouplers (don't forget decouplers can accelerate your craft, but their decoupling force doesn't get counted by MechJeb or KER's Delta-V readouts)

7) Made use of a launch site other than the KSC (a higher-altitude launch site means less losses to aero drag AND gravity...) The 7.5 km/s is based on the KSC.

Anyways, back to the main topic.

If you're new to KSP, I suggest playing with RSS 6.4x. It's really an awesome mod. The only reasons I'm not currently playing with it myself are because I want to tackle the Flying Duna challenge (which is MUCH easier in a stock-sized system, as one of the greatest obstacles is simply getting your Duna-plane to orbit), and that I tend to play with a lot of Microwave Beamed Power in KSP-Interstellar- which has transmission losses that are balanced for the stock system rather than realistic distances... (and my CPU can't handle having a half-dozen power-transmission stations: which is what I'd probably need to make beamed power work as a primary launch system with rockets large enough on the pad to reach orbit with heavy payloads in RSS 6.4x...)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited October 24, 2014 by Northstar1989

[regex]

Oh hey, also, if you just want to correct for FAR being installed, grab the config from my sig. You only need FAR and RSS, plus whatever stock-level mods you want to install.

[MrabEzreb]

So, if I want to use the "More RSS planets" thing, I would be using a 10x bigger solar system. How hard would it be to orbit for example? How much delta-v would I need, how much more thrust do I need to counteract being heavier, things like that.

[NathanKell]

If you want the config for more real planets, you should be using the full Real Solar System. That means that all delta V required will be exactly as in real life, so it will take ~9.3km/sec to reach low orbit around the Earth, 3300m/s to go to the Moon (and ~700 to insert), etc.

[tater]

Great thread, I think I assumed I needed the whole ginormous RO suite… I'm kind of intrigued by a sort of retro-future (stuff NASA artists drew in the 60s and 70s), but I'm not wed to an engine being a certain model number with exact specs, as it's an alternate history (as long as it's in the realm of possibility).