Jarardo1

Can I use a crane instead of additional Kerbals to attach objects over 1 ton? I tried picking up the object (2 ton Drill) with a magnet and moving it right next to where I want it attached but I still just am seeing that I can't move it because it's to heavy. Thanks!

For those have problems, are you using Boris's port? Its a full install so you dont want to install it over the files from this thread.

Have you been using the download from the front of this thread we are in? I know .90 created a lot of problems for the microwave network using the .25 version of the mod. Here is Boris's port to .90: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/104943-0-90-KSP-Interstellar-port-maintance-thread

Ah good glad you mentioned direct conversion. Direct conversion is for using a generators charged particles, only charged particles. There is an amount of..I think charged and thermal power displayed in the vab when looking at a gen, and it's different depending on the fuel type you are using sometimes in different reactors. It will be something like .2 charged particles and .92 thermal or something, it's not something that needs to add up to 100. AM only produces thermal, so a direct conversion gen won't produce any power from it. Direct is good for something like AIM or a fuel type with lots of charged output, because the gen can turn more of that into electricity(has a better efficiency). Most of my ships just use the thermal. You can right click a gen in the vab and switch type from solid state(thermal power) to direct conversion. Plasma engines have their uses, they are great for takeoff and landing on planets that have an atmosphere, because you can use scoops to replenish the fuel(argon) when on the planet, and argon has a much higher thrust output(and lower ISP) than liquid in a plasma. Micro power is good for these landers because you don't have to carry the power source. For the warp tug, I really don't like the plasma engines. When warping somewhere remote, I have sometimes only gotten 30 thrust out of each engine(with liquid) because they need so much power. Vista's just take 2.5 gigs each, and will also each produce 1100 thrust with just that much power(if you don't push the throttle all the way they actually use the same power, and just have higher ISP). Whatever you are going to tug will to rendezvous with the tug though if it's carrying Kerbals, because neutrons or something from the vistas will kill Kerbals that are within 2.3km that aren't attached to the ship when the engines are active. For aiming when warping, mechjeb + lots of ships around planets help. I played through in career, so by the time I got the alb. drive I had ships around about every planet. You can target a ship that is in the direction you want to warp, then use smart A.S.S and target>+target. Also the rendezvous planner has a "get closer" node creator which will make a node that points directly at your target, then you can use Smart A.S.S. to point at the node. So you might have to eyeball it until you get some ships in orbit around the planets you're warping too. For the VAB issue, are you using Boris's patch and .90? And is it a clean install? For instance, if you installed Fractals .25 version then put Boris's over it you might have some problems. If you have a clean install please take a pic of your gamedata folder and post it.

For using the Sun to match velocities with target: Look at target planet in the map, see what it's velocity is and note the direction it's moving. You want to be going the same speed in the same direction before you warp to it. Warp to the sun and let it pull you in the direction the target planet is moving until your vertical velocity is the same as it's velocity. Horizontal velocity seems to be really crazy when near the sun so I think you can ignore it. Sometimes it takes a few jumps. Then when you get to the target planet you might have to warp around it and use it's gravity to speed up or slow down a little. I try to warp to a spot around it where my velocity relative to the planet will put me in an orbit. Jool has very powerful gravity so you can use it to change a lot of velocity, dres or something really small just takes too long. There is a good section on the github wiki that shows what you need for a micro power network. I use 3 ground stations 3km from the space center, beaming about 40 gigs or power to help takeoffs. It's good to have around 70 gigs in orbit around Kerbin. Then you can start launching trans sats to other planets that you are going to do a lot around. Depending on how the planets are aligned right now I have around 100-200 gigs around Kerbin or Jool, or any planets that are close to those. And 60 gigs beaming at Eve. Any planet you are going to land on needs at least 3 relay sats around it. I put them farther out than is suggested on the wiki, it's easier to keep them aligned and less hassle if they drift a little. Like 1000km from Kerbin. Not the best picture but this is a trans sat with 2 large fusion gens using uncharged particles. It beams about 60 gigs. Most of those big liquid tanks will break away, it's on it's way to Eve. It has 2 relay sats attached that will also break away. So the power sat plus the relay sats will be the 3 around eve. It uses some of the super huge radiators they dissipate a lot of heat but don't store as much as the normal huge ones. So it has a couple of the normal huge ones too. - - - Updated - - - Are those arms with the collectors connected by docking ports? Not sure if it's still true but I remember reading that it won't transfer through a docking port with the ship un-focused. I do know the tanks don't need to be connected to the collectors. The rate per day is based on a 24 hour solar/Kerbol day. Here is a pick of a Jool beamed power station. It can only collect enough AM to beam about 10 gigs of power persistently so not really worth it.

The thermal helper only shows up in the VAB. You aren't seeing anything there? Antimatter reactors won't burn fuel or create energy unless it's needed. If you start charging the alb. drive it should start kicking out some power. I meant to post this a few pages back but forgot. Here is a pic of one of my warp tugs. I have another with Vista engines which is pretty much exactly the same except the engines. I use the micro receivers to charge the alb drive and power the engines unless I'm somewhere really remote without microwave power. The 8 gigs of power from the AM reactor give a pretty pitiful thrust on the plasma engines, but is more than enough for 2 vista engines.

Haven't got it to work with thermal or plasma. You can let auto go till your horizontal velocity is about gone, then use Smart A.S.S.》surf》up - and do the final bit yourself. Or attach some normal engines and let mechjeb finish the landing with those.

I would suggest Vista engines for your ftl craft. Only need 2.5 gigs of power each and have great isp. 1100 thrust each, though be aware you cant activate the engines near other craft, it wil kill the kerbals on the other craft. Also suggest using gravity to get around the velocity you need to match your target. Warp near sun and let it pull you to a similar trajectory then warp to target. Magnetic nozzles need charged particles, not just electricity. AIM Micro fusion might work but I haven't tried it. The wiki has a lot but you really just have to do trial and error. Antimatter can be mass collected around jool. Have you tried setting up a Microwave power network? Works great with thermal rockets.

How did you try to add it? If you launch the craft you could edit the save. I think Boris removed it from vab tweaking because of a cost bug. It is fun to harvest it

Totally agree with the low part count, and spiffy looking station Rune. If you really intend to dock with it a lot then keep it low. These are both with MKS and Interstellar. 1 is a heavy lander with a logistics hub inside. It can land on Laythe and produce LFO/Argon, plus water/minerals etc. There are flying drones in the logistics module that transport any resources to any other ship in the same sphere of influence for a cost of fuel. The other is a science/fuel ship to accompany a lander so the lander can have it's experiments cleaned and refuel in 1 dock. I try to keep the vessels just designed for space shorter and fatter, instead of something really long that can start wobbling.

Transmitters and relays don't need to be pointed at the receiver, unless they are within physics range. 2.3 or 2.5 km. I'm guessing you're referring to not pointing the receiver at the transmitter? Just want to be clear to make sure someone doesn't look at either of those posts and think that you have to constantly load transmitters and relays and point them.

Ok thanks for the reply. Wasn't sure if I needed to have a Kerbal do it manually or something - or turn it off and let it cool down.

Has anyone retrofitted a large fusion reactor? I have a few that were deployed before I had the upgrade available. The retrofit button is there, but I don't see a science needed on the right click menu, and clicking the retrofit button doesn't have an effect. Looking at the cfg it looks like the values for upgrade retrofit are there. Thanks!

No bug here. Antimatter rates seem to be based of a 24 hour day. Anyone done much large scale antimatter collecting? The numbers I'm collecting in the tanks don't seem to match up with what the collectors say they can collect everyday. In Kerbin 750k orbit the collector piece says it can collect 3.76mg per day. With 84 collectors and 5 2.5m tanks, I'm only collecting about 80mg per day, should be getting 315. Does it matter how many tanks and where they're placed? Does it matter which direction the collectors are facing, and/or how they're attached to the tanks? Anything else? Edit: is it a solar 24 hour day? That would be about right. Thanks!

Magnetic nozzles IMO aren't very usefull, you need a lot of power from charged particles, and the most powerful generators don't have very high ratios of charged particles. At best they could be used for relatively small crafts that you want to watch burn fuel for a long time. Anyone please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Plasma thrusters are good, they use electricity, so any kind of power, and don't need to be connected directly to a thermal or power source. They work really well when you have a good microwave beamed power infrastructure, the vessel doesn't have to produce the power, it can receive it with a lightweight dish. The more power, the more thrust, up to the max power they can handle which is listed in the part specs in the VAB. You can use them as landers if you use one of the higher thrust(lower ISP) fuels, though mechjeb doesn't control them very well. I have a 60 ton or so lander, that is able to take off from Duna using Argon pretty easily with only about 6 gigs of beamed power available. You will see much much higher trust output if you have a lot more power than that, like 25 to 75 gigs. Thermal rocket nozzles are really great too - using microwave power. I use a big fat one right in the middle of most of my launches(I have problems equalizing the power input when using more than 1 at the same time), that same engine powers the trans stage to take the vessel to different planets.