Reaction Wheels

Peepo

Reaction wheels IRL are used in spacecraft to adjust orientation without using thrusters or propellant. In Cosmoteer terms I'm suggesting a part be added that allows players to give their ship more turning control, without having to add external thrusters. Essentially a 1x1 and large 2x2 variant part that acts like the 4 thrusters highlighted here.

image https://i.imgur.com/9fLK40B.png

Of course, it wouldn't be able to add forward or backward thrust to the ship, and would need to be placed in the center or spread evenly around the ship to be effective, but that would be the tradeoff it has for being able to save exterior space and be able to be protected on the inside of the ship. Power and energy values would be adjusted for balance, but I think this would be a neat little part to add that would help create more ship variety.

Dave-II

Peepo Reaction wheels IRL

no, reaction wheels Kerbal. Scott Manley did a fantastic vid on them

Atarlost

I'm pretty sure control rooms already provide torque like this.

Peepo

Atarlost I didn't know that before, but I just tested it and it's very minimal. Also, adding additional control rooms to a ship doesn't increase torque at all. Makes me wonder though, maybe instead control rooms can just be adjusted to stack their torque? Or maybe the control room torque is just a property of a ship having an active control room vs not having one.

Bubbet

Peepo There isn't anything in the part file saying it does supply torque, but i suppose it could still be hard-coded.

Peepo

Bubbet yeah I double checked again, it's more that a ship with one thruster can still turn left/right. So I guess it would be due to the engines instead? Either way I think my original idea still has some merit, some part allowing you to add torque to your ship from within

Walt

Thrusters can exert a small amount of lateral force, which is why a ship with one thruster can sort-of rotate.

It's not a feature I like, since it kind of "cheats" the simulation. But it helps balance and makes the game a bit more forgiving for new players, so I haven't convinced myself to take it out yet.

dieaready

I noticed that. On tiny (< 25 tons) ships, 2 front and 2 back small thrusters and your ship can scoot sideways pretty fast.

ScapeCore47

I think that this is a good idea, simply because it would make quite a lot of ships much more compact and would slightly reduce the need for thrusters.

jbox1

I love this idea, A few times I have shunned the fact that you have to remove precious armor in order to fit in a thruster to move, that or place an internal thruster (pain in the back really) A reaction wheel part would be THE BEST for ships, instead of having to place thrusters in locations you had rather not. RCS blocks wouldn't hurt either, as apposed to having to place forward facing thrusters which can affect armor.