KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[czolus]

I get some "MaxThermalPower not set to instance of object" errors with the molten salt reactor in a sandbox game. It goes away when setting upgraded reactor type back to 1 instead of 17 in the .cfg (but I guess that disables some features).

Had the same issue. Looks like it may be a mistype? The other reactors have upgraded type set to 1.

[bos]

Heat seems to be stable at around 40% throttle for 2.5m parts. 2 MN is pretty good thrust for this size (it's more than a mainsail).

Edited July 26, 2015 by bos

[FreeThinker]

I get some "MaxThermalPower not set to instance of object" errors with the molten salt reactor in a sandbox game. It goes away when setting upgraded reactor type back to 1 instead of 17 in the .cfg (but I guess that disables some features).

Only the Advanced Nuclear Fuel Modes.

[Cosmonauth]

I have Thermal Nozzle powered lander on Duna. Landed with 1.2.6 KSPIE, and now updated to 1.3 I can't even take off because TN overheats in few seconds. Looks like Thermal Nozzles unusable in atmosphere for now, but I didn't notice any TN changes on changelog. Fuel used is Hydrazine, so no soot problems there. Is that behavior normal for Thermal Nozzle at all? Coz these changes ruined my game again, and forces me to downgrade KSPIE to 1.2.6 to save my poor kerbals =(

[ss8913]

I have Thermal Nozzle powered lander on Duna. Landed with 1.2.6 KSPIE, and now updated to 1.3 I can't even take off because TN overheats in few seconds. Looks like Thermal Nozzles unusable in atmosphere for now, but I didn't notice any TN changes on changelog. Fuel used is Hydrazine, so no soot problems there. Is that behavior normal for Thermal Nozzle at all? Coz these changes ruined my game again, and forces me to downgrade KSPIE to 1.2.6 to save my poor kerbals =(

having the same. thermal turbojets are doing the same on hydrazine. Someone else said stable at 40% though... wonder if theres a new DRE conflict? i'm using dre... are you?

[Cosmonauth]

no, I'm not using DRE

[FreeThinker]

I have Thermal Nozzle powered lander on Duna. Landed with 1.2.6 KSPIE, and now updated to 1.3 I can't even take off because TN overheats in few seconds. Looks like Thermal Nozzles unusable in atmosphere for now, but I didn't notice any TN changes on changelog. Fuel used is Hydrazine, so no soot problems there. Is that behavior normal for Thermal Nozzle at all? Coz these changes ruined my game again, and forces me to downgrade KSPIE to 1.2.6 to save my poor kerbals =(

Do notice that in order for the Engine cooling to function at maximum capacity, you need enough radiaor capacity. Antimatter produce extremely high amount of heat. But I have found a scaling issue with heavier engines getting heated up faster than smaller ones. This will be fixed next patch

Edited July 26, 2015 by FreeThinker

[ss8913]

is there any way to gauge how much radiator capacity is needed, other than by trial and error? Safe to use only KSPIE radiators or do I need stock ones now? That was a bit explode-y last time I tried mixing the two.

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.3.1 for Kerbal Space Program 1.0.4

Released on 2015-07-26

• Fixed Anticides buildup in Nuclear Reactors
  
• Fixed Anticides tracking in Details page
  
• Fixed startup issues Molten Salt Reactor
  
• Fixed Crash when switching fuel mod on an non upgraded Molten Salt Reactor
  
• Fixed Overheating Antimatter Reactors
  
• Fixed Power load on reactor by thermal nozzle/turbojet
  

Edited July 26, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

Great job FreeThinker. Actually I'm using Interstellar Extended in my main Science save, and for now it's the less bugged Interstellar I've ever tried. I have still to unlock the advanced features, but for now it works perfectly. (Actually, two version older)

[FreeThinker]

Great job FreeThinker. Actually I'm using Interstellar Extended in my main Science save, and for now it's the less bugged Interstellar I've ever tried. I have still to unlock the advanced features, but for now it works perfectly. (Actually, two version older)

Great to hear. If possible try to test all KSPI science parts and Science Lab. I need to know if they work at all and if they are ballanced

[Nansuchao]

Of course, I'm using that parts, and they're working as intended. I still need to try the Improved Science Lab, but for now, it flies smoothly.

[NubNibble]

Ive found an issue where the ATTILA thruster (idk which one, its the 80.5kN 2854.0s isp one), displays the animation of it running even when it isnt running. Ive attempted a reinstall and everything.

[Avio]

Great to hear. If possible try to test all KSPI science parts and Science Lab. I need to know if they work at all and if they are ballanced

Hello FreeThinker, thank you for bringing forward this great mod. I'm having some problems with thermal rocket nozzles: if I pair them with gas core reactors, I don't get any fuel flow and hence no thrust. Moreover, I only see 129 MW being produced by the gas core reactor, it should produce much more power output, correct?

On the contrary, if I pair the thermal rocket nozzle with a molten salt reactor, I get non-zero fuel flow and thrust (albeit low).

Last thing, in the thermal rocket nozzle + gas core reactor configuration, if I shut down the nozzle and then activate it back again, everything works as expected, but if I shut it down, let the thermal power build up until it's 100% and I activate the nozzle again, the reactor/nozzle assembly explodes 100% of times.

Do you need a hand with this bugfixing? Can I help somehow?

[okder]

i have next issues with current version of the mod:

Inertial confined fusion reactor with direct conversion generator has only 36% effectiveness, and very low effectiveness with thermal generator (with many radiators)

Inertial confined fusion reactor with thermal nozzle/turbojet still overheats engine fast (is stable at 5% thrust only), i think i could loose somehow isp but get 100% thrust without overheating it.

Random thermal engines overheats and blowups on low thrust with any reactors (they have as shown in previous post 4*10^9 heat production)

There is no way how to reprocess actinides (there is buttons on eva but they don't works, fuel reprocess in lab/refinery greyed out even if you have all components), molten salt/gas core reactors eva refuel not worked also.

Some refinery processes works only if it fully linked with external fuel duct, and even with it uranium nitride processing is not worked (greyed out, when all components are present)

I was unable to mine any thorium or uranium even if my vessel is inside spot, it just shows 0.00ug/day.

[okder]

thermal turbojet overheats with gas core reactor too (stable only at 20%)

[Cosmonauth]

KSPIE 1.3.1

Thermal Nozzle with scaled to 1.25 Gas Core Reactor explodes immediately when throttled. This is the same craft that successfully landed on Mun, Ike and Duna several times, with 1.2.6. It was pretty balanced to perform long burns.

Nice fixes though =_=

[FreeThinker]

Hello FreeThinker, thank you for bringing forward this great mod. I'm having some problems with thermal rocket nozzles: if I pair them with gas core reactors, I don't get any fuel flow and hence no thrust. Moreover, I only see 129 MW being produced by the gas core reactor, it should produce much more power output, correct?

On the contrary, if I pair the thermal rocket nozzle with a molten salt reactor, I get non-zero fuel flow and thrust (albeit low).

No, it is working as it should. Gas Core Reactor suffer from Boyancy Problems, which reduces their power under accelaration. This effectively makes them not very effective in gravity wells, like planets. Note that you don't want to use Gase Core reactor at Kerbin anyway as their trust to weight ratio is too low and they spew deadly radaition out the back. Second, due to the high core temperature, the fuel flow will be low, too low to overcome the static presure of the atmosphere. THe noozles are optimized foroperation in zero atmospheric presure. To improve their performance, you could scale them down, which will decrease they exit surfice and theirfor thrust

Gas Core reactor are made for operation in orbit, not as SSTO rocket engine, use pebble bed reactor for that, they are based on Timberwind reactors, with superior power and trust to weight ratio

- - - Updated - - -

i have next issues with current version of the mod:

Inertial confined fusion reactor with direct conversion generator has only 36% effectiveness, and very low effectiveness with thermal generator (with many radiators)

Inertial confined fusion reactor with thermal nozzle/turbojet still overheats engine fast (is stable at 5% thrust only), i think i could loose somehow isp but get 100% thrust without overheating it.

Random thermal engines overheats and blowups on low thrust with any reactors (they have as shown in previous post 4*10^9 heat production)

There is no way how to reprocess actinides (there is buttons on eva but they don't works, fuel reprocess in lab/refinery greyed out even if you have all components), molten salt/gas core reactors eva refuel not worked also.

Some refinery processes works only if it fully linked with external fuel duct, and even with it uranium nitride processing is not worked (greyed out, when all components are present)

I was unable to mine any thorium or uranium even if my vessel is inside spot, it just shows 0.00ug/day.

Inertial Confinement reactor are the most powerer fusion reactor in KSPI but they are only 40% effective for the generation of power (this is on to of existing efficienct, so 0.4 * 0.865 = 34.6%. On the plus side they need less power to create fusion. But if you want to generate the largest amount of electric power, use Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactors, as they are intended for this purpose.

The overheating issue is not intended. Have you installed any radiators. what propellant are you using?

The processing of anticides needs to be fixed. I also intend to improve on it, allowing you to precess anticides to plutonium.

Edited July 27, 2015 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

Do you need a hand with this bugfixing? Can I help somehow?

Any help would be welcome

[okder]

The overheating issue is not intended. Have you installed any radiators. what propellant are you using?

there was enough radiators, and documentation states that propellant should serve as coolant as well,

in my case liquid hydrogen, but liquid fuel gives overheat and blowups too(when trust >5% with Inertial Confined reactors, or >20% with Gas Core[with soot less than 2%]).

this is the case with new Gas Core and Inertial Confined reactors.

also very irritate random explosions of thermal jets with any reactors at low thrust (if you use thrust balance mod this situations occurs very often).

i forgot to mention issue with thermal turbojet in thin atmosphere, when not enough atmospheric intake perfectly symmetrical craft(with 2 turbojets and 2 or 4 intakes) get unsymmetrical thrust - all air is go to one engine, other got disabled.

and repeat again uranium and thorium can't be mined (0 rate at uranium/thorium spot) at least in career mode, and uranium can't be processed by refinery into uranium nitride, even if all components present and linked to refinery with tubes.

P.S. Magnetic Confinement Fusion Reactors don't scale down at all. (compared to Inertial Confined reactors)

and full version cost a lot.

[Sacnoth]

Hello Freethinker, nice updates so far! It seems to have fixed the problem with the thermal engines draining the fusion reaction.

One thing I did notice was that the fusion reactors now have small fuel tanks added to them with the interstellar fuel switch. Is this intentional?

And if so, what are they for? I can only select LH2, LH2/OX and I think OX in them, and they are only 1 unit in capacity.

[FreeThinker]

Hello Freethinker, nice updates so far! It seems to have fixed the problem with the thermal engines draining the fusion reaction.

One thing I did notice was that the fusion reactors now have small fuel tanks added to them with the interstellar fuel switch. Is this intentional?

And if so, what are they for? I can only select LH2, LH2/OX and I think OX in them, and they are only 1 unit in capacity.

Yes, I have fixed thermal draining. You can now safely use a thermal generator, direct energy converter, magnetic nozzle and therml engines at the same time. The Electric generator can take as much as possible and thermal/magnetic engines can only take what is left. The smal helium and hydrogen reseviors serves as an indicator of the produced fusion ash.

All fusion process create nuclear ash, most of the time, only He4 but some are more usefull, like Trtium Catalyzed D-D Fusion, which produce Helium3. As you should know He3 is incredible usfull when you need to maximise electric output with D-He3 fusion. For a complete list, look at the reaction table on the OP. I will probalby remove the 1 unit storage capabilty for Hydrogen as it might confuse people to beleive they they use it for propulsion

- - - Updated - - -

there was enough radiators, and documentation states that propellant should serve as coolant as well,

It actualy does exactly this. All wasteheat that is created in the reactor during fission/fusion is consumed by the thermal engine. The problem is the engines to produce about the same amount of heating with multiple sizes, propellant and engines.

- - - Updated - - -

i forgot to mention issue with thermal turbojet in thin atmosphere, when not enough atmospheric intake perfectly symmetrical craft(with 2 turbojets and 2 or 4 intakes) get unsymmetrical thrust - all air is go to one engine, other got disabled.

Yes I'm aware of this problem. The problem is that the first procesed engines sucks more atmosphere then the second, causing the other to sufficate. I might be able to fix it by reducing the fuel flow of both engines, just enough to make function them equaly well.

- - - Updated - - -

also very irritate random explosions of thermal jets with any reactors at low thrust (if you use thrust balance mod this situations occurs very often).

Well this is actualy technically correct as overheating is reversly proportional to fuel flow. Still the radiators should be able to take care of this extra heat.

Edited July 27, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Sacnoth]

Yes, I have fixed thermal draining. You can now safely use a thermal generator, direct energy converter, magnetic nozzle and therml engines at the same time. The Electric generator can take as much as possible and thermal/magnetic engines can only take what is left. The smal helium and hydrogen reseviors serves as an indicator of the produced fusion ash.

All fusion process create nuclear ash, most of the time, only He4 but some are more usefull, like Trtium Catalyzed D-D Fusion, which produce Helium3. As you should know He3 is incredible usfull when you need to maximise electric output with D-He3 fusion. For a complete list, look at the reaction table on the OP. I will probalby remove the 1 unit storage capabilty for Hydrogen as it might confuse people to beleive they they use it for propulsion

I'm guessing Interstellar fuel switch recognized the 1 unit LH capacity as a fuel tank and because of that gives the option to switch, which is rather odd. Thermal rockets do recognize it as fuel as well, so when you switch propellants during flight you're likely to drain it instantly as well.

[Nansuchao]

The power of Interstellar!!! Probably the worst spaceplane I've ever built, but it reach orbit with enough fuel to travel, with a huge payload, to everywhere and back!!!

[Bishop149]

In my game at least since the last 2 updates (that came is swift succession, I only installed the latest) I appear to have completely lost the the particle bed reactor from the VAB.

It still appears in the tech tree and has still been researched although there it has been renamed "pebble bed".

TBH I'm too scared to switch to any of my ships that already contain one (most of them!) for fear of a savegame corrupting bugger up.

Edit:

Oh FFS, mystery solved it's been moved! It now appears for me in BOTH "Nuclear Fuels Systems" AND "Improved Nuclear Power". The latter of which I've unlocked the former I've not.

That's really bloody irritating, almost all of my craft use it (best reactor I thought I'd unlocked) and I'm not likely to get the 500 odd science points needed to re-unlock it for ages.

Sod it I'm modding it back to where it was, my space programs essentially crippled if I leave it.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Bishop149