Building mega huge rockets.

[One Eye Jack]

I see a lot of YouTube videos of people building gargantuan rockets.

How do you build above the height of the assembly building. It only lets you go so high and that’s it. Is there a mod for that or just something I don’t know how to do?

Sorry this is probably a stupid question. But if you don’t know you gotta ask.

[Jupiter3927]

I heard there's a mod to expand the vehicle assembly building and space plane hangar.
The tweak scale mod can make parts bigger or smaller.

You can go a bit higher by shift+clicking your ship and moving the whole thing up.
I heard you can build a rocket and put it on a stability enhancer and drag it up to orbit this way but I never tried it.

[Mortazel]

I think its this Mod, or one like it: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/162790-141-hangar-extender-extended/

[One Eye Jack]

Sweet! Thanks guys!

[CalmLlama]

You can also just keep moving the rocket upwards, even if its outside the bounds of the VAB it still exists when its loaded in the game

[doum]

Whatch for lag if you have too many parts.

[Brandon_Lee]

Originally posted by CalmLlama:

You can also just keep moving the rocket upwards, even if its outside the bounds of the VAB it still exists when its loaded in the game

This, just don't forget to reroot main part to some that is close to the bottom as you add stages and move the existing part up else there's risk of being unable to reach the initial root part as it is too high up which may result in having to build from scratch if something goes wrong.

P.s. I tried building huge only to find out that bigger is better only to a certain extent and then it's either impressive but inefficient ot theoretically efficient but not worth the trouble of getting it to the orbit in a conventional way (without cheats). As of now, I'd say that my rules of thumb are: a) build simple, b) build small, and c) decouple everything that theoretically can be decoupled. Big ships are PITA, trust me, I landed big single-stage craft on four different bodies xD

[PolecatEZ]

I think I've gotten near 700 tons to orbit without exceeding the VAB height. The physics engine doesn't punish you that much for building fatter instead of taller like IRL.

[funkynutz]

You might like these as well... Let you build monstrous rockets, while keeping the part count down:

SHLP: https://www.curseforge.com/kerbal/ksp-mods/spacey-heavy-lifters-parts-pack

SHLP extended: https://www.curseforge.com/kerbal/ksp-mods/spacey-expanded

Be warned.... The parts in this pack are HUGE...

I made this a few years ago with some of the smaller parts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95VQ993NoGk

[One Eye Jack]

This may be the most extreme example of what I am talking about.

https://youtu.be/mrjpELy1xzc

Love this video.

Appreciate all the tips too guys.

[CalmLlama]

Originally posted by Brandon_Lee:

This, just don't forget to reroot main part to some that is close to the bottom

YES!! Super good point!

Originally posted by Brandon_Lee:

which may result in having to build from scratch if something goes wrong.

I hate to spout office productivity nonsense ( i really do, i'm super sorry); but this is where something like Agile Project Management comes into play. When i build in KSP, i go through stages and iterations. I build, test, analyze, repeat. Each of these cycles is an iteration, and gets its own save version number. Like CraftlyTheCraftComboBlastV1.1 This way, each successful iteration can be built upon and explored. If you carry these practices further, you can start a small KSP playing group, where everyone can play each others craft and provide friendly and useful feedback. 

Anyways.... sorry for that.... this is why my co-workers cry :(

[RoofCat]

there is pretty long Ctrl+Z/Ctrl+Y (undo/redo) in VAB/SPH as long as you haven't launched

[Overclock]

Originally posted by PolecatEZ:

I think I've gotten near 700 tons to orbit without exceeding the VAB height. The physics engine doesn't punish you that much for building fatter instead of taller like IRL.

i have gotten over 700 tons into orbit, it was the proulsion stage of my old duna mothership

[RoofCat]

700t is not even near the limit. It's closer to 7000t in orbit (~40ooot+ launch) where the VAB size starts to fail. But the problems with decouplers start much sooner. And then parts compressing on the launch pad. And all the wobbling from huge power, drag and weight.
That's why it is not as much fun to build those not to mention fly compared to much smaller 20..200t ones. Size per se is not an issue or quality. I bet someone has built 100ooot at some point or even a million t monster, just youtubee. Everyone can build 10ooot ship in KSP. Single largest tank is 81t already. Mass is not the achievement as there are basically no limits for it. It's just scaling up in KSP and having at least minimal brains. Basically those of Lego age kid. Does it stick or does it fall apart. That's it.

[Toastie Buns]

You aren't doing it right unless 390t of dry weight are struts

[RoofCat]

Originally posted by Toastie Buns:

You aren't doing it right unless 390t of dry weight are struts

which provoked my mind to sick idea of strut recovery :D
I know it is pretty much impossible and even less reasonable, since you can't attach extra things to simple ones and then the costs. But to support world going crazy at least for a second - why not. Going crazy with style can be forgiven I guess.