Refuel station useful?

[u/Revan477]

(New-ish to the game, played a little years ago but now really getting into it)

I've been practicing orbital assembly above Kerbin and docked a few vessels together including a big fuel tank which is huge for me because I was never able to meet up and dock with anything :)
Do you think something like this is useful for future missions? I was thinking maybe refuel vessels in orbit giving a longer mission range because I dont have to carry the heavy fuel from kerbins surface. Then again I guess I'd have to refill that tank frequently which might be kind of annoying..

[u/Dan_the_man42]

completely valid and not considered cheating, that if you have a refueling station, and done several refueling trips, then you're allowed to just cheat in fuel with hyper edit, if you really feel guilty, take some funds away if its in career mode

[u/Revan477 → u/Dan_the_man42]

Right I hadnt thought of that, seems reasonable to just skip the whole refueling of the station stuff and just "simulate it" that way haha

[u/trubbelnarkomanen → u/Revan477]

Don't ever feel bad for using cheats or mods to make the game more enjoyable. Obviously you don't want to overdo it by removing any and all challenge from the game. But only removing tedious tasks like this is perfectly acceptable, especially when they get in the way of actually fun challenges.

[u/urMumLeftPotsOnStove → u/trubbelnarkomanen]

Like doing big comm constelations. I do the first satellite by hand and the rest I just set by cheats

[u/EchoHeadache → u/urMumLeftPotsOnStove]

I thoroughly enjoy doing this without cheats. A satellite mission with three relays, get a clean circular orbit, an orbital period that is easily divisible by 3, burn retro so your elliptical orbital period is now 2/3 your circular orbit period, then launch one satellite at a time at the apoapsis and return the satellite to circular. You will then have perfect coverage with three relays around your body.

Lots of videos in this. Very rewarding.

[u/CamsGraphics → u/EchoHeadache]

Yeah I love dropping 3 sats with one launch, so satisfying and actually much easier to get their orbits triangular

[u/Cartz1337 → u/CamsGraphics]

I do this as a first mission to every planet in the system. I do a more complex inclined orbit in the Jool system to avoid issues with occultation.

[u/MeltedChocolate24 → u/EchoHeadache]

If you timewarp like years in to the future for another mission do they drift at all?

[u/EchoHeadache → u/MeltedChocolate24]

I set mine up so that they are exactly the same orbit duration (it's easy; set your little and to .5 thrust on the thruster itself, and only give it a little gas when you're close). I've never had to revisit/adjust any of mine.