KSP Interstellar Extended Support Thread

[FreeThinker]

21 hours ago, trias702 said:

Could I please trouble you to explain how the radiator panel stats in the parts viewer affect the Radiator Maximum Dissipation in the Thermal Helper?

 

Well, basically the thermal helper is a calculator assuming a worst case scenario, which is a thermal reactor with generator generating maximum power in space with a heat to electric power efficiency of 0% . Only if you got enough radiator to dissipate 100% of all power generated a the reactor, it will become green. Of course there are many reasons why this might be wrong but it gives the players an instrument to work with. Notice I haven't altered this tool at all, you can tell by the fact it still contains a setting for distance to sun, which is obsolete for over 2 years.

The stats in a radiator part are for the default size and will not scale with resizing The Calculator does not directly use the displayed stat but it does make use of the underlying data (like surface area and max radiator temperature), to calculate the total amount of maximum disaption. 

[trias702]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

Well, basically the thermal helper is a calculator assuming a worst case scenario, which is a thermal reactor with generator generating maximum power in space with a heat to electric power efficiency of 0% . Only if you got enough radiator to dissipate 100% of all power generated a the reactor, it will become green. Of course there are many reasons why this might be wrong but it gives the players an instrument to work with. Notice I haven't altered this tool at all, you can tell by the fact it still contains a setting for distance to sun, which is obsolete for over 2 years.

The stats in a radiator part are for the default size and will not scale with resizing The Calculator does not directly use the displayed stat but it does make use of the underlying data (like surface area and max radiator temperature), to calculate the total amount of maximum disaption. 

Thank you, I understand the first part, but am still confused about which stats I need to concern myself with when looking at potential radiator parts. Perhaps I can restate my question: what is the best way to approach thermal policy/waste heat in KSPI from a ship design perspective? For example, I know that KSPI operates differently from Near Future in that it has this concept of waste heat. Is waste heat the only thing I need to worry about when designing a ship, or do I also need to worry about cooling a reactor/engine directly, similar to Near Future? Do reactors/engines (without any thermal generators) generate waste heat as well, which I need to worry about radiating away in addition to the waste heat created by generators?

And assuming all I need to worry about is waste heat, which stats should I be looking at in the parts selector to determine if one radiator is better than another? Should I only look at "Core Heat xFer" or "Max Cooling" as well? How do the radiator stats interact with the waste heat resource which my ship accumulates in flight? Is it something like total waste heat is decreased by the sum of all Core Heat xFer of all attached radiators per second?

[BlackMoons]

Not sure but my reactor seems to do nothing.

When tritium breeding is enabled (default) I get this in my reactor control panel

http://i.imgur.com/zfsc7wq.jpg

When I disable it, I get this and the reactor does not seem to do anything (uses no fuel, does not heat/run connected thermal electric generator, etc)

http://i.imgur.com/6aydrZK.jpg

Mods are:

http://i.imgur.com/DoW7uoh.png

Just installed KSPI_Extended_1.14.14.zip I believe overtop of KSPI_Extended_1.14.11.zip. Tried deleting 'warp plugin' and reinstalling 1.14.14, no help.

<edit>

Nevermind, got it working by moving these folders out and using the ones from KSPI_Extended

http://i.imgur.com/MqNNkHi.png

 

Though for the life of me, the only folder that looks different is PersistentRotation. You REALLY should remove the .git files from that, its complicating installing it.

 

<edit again>

Ok now having issues with thermal engines.

http://i.imgur.com/EMBgGvs.jpg

Power reaching engine, and if I hit 'next fuel' a few times eventually it does take off like a bat outta hell, but this is unreliable and it will accidently use all my kerbals water as fuel lol.

(Starts on atmospheric, hitting next fuel some and it will sometimes 'start' on liquid fuel, water or atmospheric)

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by BlackMoons

[BlackMoons]

Uninstalled all mods. Installed just KSPI-E 1.14.14 and the thermal jet engine nozzle still does not work.

Seems like every time I switch propellants I get a random chance of a functional engine, with random thrust from 20~60kn, with the thrust changing even if I just switch propellants back and forth very quickly (and often not giving any thrust when it worked last time)

furthermore when it does 'work' the engine temp continues to increase until the nozzle self destructs in about 3 minutes time, and the only way to throttle the engine is to reduce the 'reception' of the thermal receiver.

Tried using a salt reactor engine. Same thing, hiting next propellant causes 0 thrust from liquid fuel/water and sometimes 0, sometimes some random amount of thrust that can't be throttled and often overheats and explodes.

Tried the thermal ramjet nozzle too, It does not work either in any mode.

 

Also Tried 1.14.11 and it didn't work any better.

BTW im running KSP 1.3 win64 portable install version off KSP.com.

Edited July 7, 2017 by BlackMoons

[FreeThinker]

On 6-7-2017 at 11:48 AM, trias702 said:

And assuming all I need to worry about is waste heat, which stats should I be looking at in the parts selector to determine if one radiator is better than another? Should I only look at "Core Heat xFer" or "Max Cooling" as well? How do the radiator stats interact with the waste heat resource which my ship accumulates in flight? Is it something like total waste heat is decreased by the sum of all Core Heat xFer of all attached radiators per second?

Core Heat xFer" or "Max Cooling" should be ignored, instead look in the information in the Radiator.  Radiator main attributes are Mass, surface area, surface bonus, atmosphere bonus, ability to fold and ability bonus ability like be able to be used for beamed power transfer .

Graphene radiator have a surface bonus and allow higher maximum temperature in space, but their temperature at surface level is limited to 1200 K

 

Notice that I have improved part info of the radiator here

Edited July 7, 2017 by FreeThinker

[BlackMoons]

Reinstalled KSP from scratch, Reinstalled KSPI-extended

Tried sandbox mode. Thermal Engine works fine

Moved save over to new KSP install. load ship I made in sandbox mode into my career mode game.. Engine does not work....

So, Im pretty sure its NOT my install or my PC at this point.

Iv narrowed it down to: just KSPI-extended, in career mode..

OK! further research: the 'Thermal Turbojet' nozzel does not work correctly in career mode till you research: "High altitude flight" and get the first "Thermal Turbojet/Ramjet upgrade" tech.

Tested this with a new career that I hacked science/cash into. Reliability does not work till you research that tech.

As in, throttle never works (Engine is stuck full throttle?), and produces random ISP/thrust as you switch fuels (usually with near 0 thrust, sometimes seen 2~60kN depending on thermal source), or at least so little it does not register as any thrust, although an aircraft on wheels will ever so slowly start to move)

Definitely seems like a bug to me.

Issue happens with beamed power (1.25m basic receiver apparently getting like 200KW, even upping it to 600KW had no effect) and also happens with a directly connected salt reactor (2.5M class) with matched nozzel sizes.

both ships fly once you get the tier 1 ramjet/turbojet upgrade.

 

Checked Thermal Lunch Nozzle, it seems to work fine before getting any upgrades, although it will produce 0 thrust till your reactor/engine warms up enough when using liquid fuel (Needs like, 200KW+ to do anything?)? Seems to launch right away using liquid fuel+oxidiser mode. Seems like OK behavior there, I can understand non reactive propellants not doing anything till heated REALLY high. once given 600KW of power on a light aircraft it really was awesome, aside from overheating, But thats OK because I only had 1 tiny rad anyway.

 

PS: I REALLY LOVE the technical issue that if you leave your reactors at full power with insufficient radiators, your sterling engines will attempt to put them at full power with a transmitter set to full power, causing massive amounts of heat, causing overload of your radiators, causing your sterling engines cold bath temp to rise causing power output to drop.. Meaning in short: You can get *more* power by throttling back your reactors 'power level' to keep from cooking your heat management. That is a nice touch that gives me something to fiddle with for optimal performance levels of a design, Nuclear reactors shouldn't be maintenance/adjustment free.

 

Edited July 8, 2017 by BlackMoons

[ss8913]

Looks like since the 1.2.2 version (1.14.14) and the 1.3 version have the same version number, CKAN is only publishing the 1.2.2-compatible one.. AVC complains "built for 1.2.2" and it crashes on load since it's compiled against 1.2.2... not sure how to fix except to either split into 2 separately named mods(?) or change the versioning.  Will install manually for now since KSP won't load at all with the non-1.3-compiled mod.

[FreeThinker]

5 hours ago, ss8913 said:

Looks like since the 1.2.2 version (1.14.14) and the 1.3 version have the same version number, CKAN is only publishing the 1.2.2-compatible one.. AVC complains "built for 1.2.2" and it crashes on load since it's compiled against 1.2.2... not sure how to fix except to either split into 2 separately named mods(?) or change the versioning.  Will install manually for now since KSP won't load at all with the non-1.3-compiled mod.

I gave the 1.2.2 version slightly different version 1.14.14.1 but apparently CKAN cannot work well with 2 difernt version. I removed it for now until I can find a better solution

[beta546]

Hey does anyone else have a problem with craft files not loading when reactors and generators are clipped inside the ship? Not with part clipping turned on but the move option to slide them inside the ship's hull....I have made a few ships that I have kept launching and reverting to the hanger for testing, but kept all the reactors and stuff attached normally while I set it up right, then at the end I use the move tool to slide the reactors and generators inside the ship so they are not sticking out the back, just leaving the engines poking out, purely for aesthetics......after that, the ship will launch fine, work fine, but then the game will freeze on reverting to the hanger and have to be force closed, then the craft file will never load again and freezes the game every time :-(

[Loren Pechtel]

6 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

I gave the 1.2.2 version slightly different version 1.14.14.1 but apparently CKAN cannot work well with 2 difernt version. I removed it for now until I can find a better solution

Sure the problem wasn't related to all the dependencies on 1.3 versions of other mods?  CKAN didn't like that.

[trias702]

Thank you for the explanation of the heat management.

22 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

Notice that I have improved part info of the radiator here

Is this improved part info in the backported 1.14.14 for KSP 1.22?

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, trias702 said:

Thank you for the explanation of the heat management.

Is this improved part info in the backported 1.14.14 for KSP 1.22?

No it will be in the next release

Edited July 8, 2017 by FreeThinker

[trias702]

I have been playing with the backported 1.14.14 which you provided earlier. I think I may have noticed a bug in regards to the Kerbstein engine:

In order to unlock it now, you need TechRequired = quantumReactions, however, quantumReactions is not a node which exists in Community Tech Tree 3.0.3 for KSP 1.22. It does not even exist in the Community Tech Tree .cfg which comes bundled with the KSP 1.22 backported 1.14.14 zip file. Additionally, the Kerbstein upgrade references techRequired = exoticPlasmaPropulsion, however, this tech node also does not exist in CTT for KSP 1.22.

Am I missing a config file of some sort?

[FreeThinker]

23 hours ago, trias702 said:

I have been playing with the backported 1.14.14 which you provided earlier. I think I may have noticed a bug in regards to the Kerbstein engine:

In order to unlock it now, you need TechRequired = quantumReactions, however, quantumReactions is not a node which exists in Community Tech Tree 3.0.3 for KSP 1.22. It does not even exist in the Community Tech Tree .cfg which comes bundled with the KSP 1.22 backported 1.14.14 zip file. Additionally, the Kerbstein upgrade references techRequired = exoticPlasmaPropulsion, however, this tech node also does not exist in CTT for KSP 1.22.

Am I missing a config file of some sort?

What you could do it to fix it is simply to use the latest release of CRP and replace all # strings by their english translation

Edited July 9, 2017 by FreeThinker

[BlackMoons]

The "Direct Cycle Nuclear turbojet" also does not work at all till "High altitude flight" tech is researched.

ships already launched will throttle up and run once you research it (Instant upgrade of all ships?)

The "Tory Nuclear Ramjet Engine" also does not work till the *2nd* Ramjet upgrade ("Hypersonic Flight") (Combustion failed in the status menu after 1st upgrade?)

Edited July 9, 2017 by BlackMoons

[ssd21345]

Same as Blackmoons, It seems  Tory nuclear ramjet with no upgrade won't work. No thurst after I drop the spacecraft from orbit to gain speed to run the engine until it crashed into the ground( with molten salt reactor attached).

Edited July 9, 2017 by ssd21345

[ArmchairPhysicist]

I'm going to start by saying that I love this mod, truly amazing, but there's two things I don't understand.

First, can you produce liquid hydrogen from materials mined from a moon?  

And second, is there any way to carry more LithiumHydride on my ship? I researched the Kerbstine a long while ago but have yet to use it because my vista systems use liquid hydrogen, which is easy to carry lots of. 

But I haven't launched a single interplanetary vessel that used the kerbstine as its thruster because of fuel concerns.

On a side note, have you considered integrating Nuclear pulse propulsion into your pack? Maybe make an Orion drive that fits the aesthetics of the other engines?

[FreeThinker]

36 minutes ago, ArmchairPhysicist said:

First, can you produce liquid hydrogen from materials mined from a moon? 

Yes either from  Solar Dust (from Regolith harvesting) or from Hydrates

36 minutes ago, ArmchairPhysicist said:

And second, is there any way to carry more LithiumHydride on my ship? I researched the Kerbstine a long while ago but have yet to use it because my vista systems use liquid hydrogen, which is easy to carry lots of.

Yes, the KSP/IFS  switchable Cargo container has a tank configuration for LIthiumHydride

36 minutes ago, ArmchairPhysicist said:

But I haven't launched a single interplanetary vessel that used the kerbstine as its thruster because of fuel concerns.

Don't worry, it can easily achieve a deltaV of 1500000 m/s

37 minutes ago, ArmchairPhysicist said:

On a side note, have you considered integrating Nuclear pulse propulsion into your pack? Maybe make an Orion drive that fits the aesthetics of the other engines?

Have you checked out the Magneto Inertial Confinement Reactor?, its a fusion pulse engine in a small package. Orion is not part of the KSPI philosophy, but I have help with the development of the Nuclear Orion

Edited July 9, 2017 by FreeThinker

[ArmchairPhysicist]

Thank you very much, I recall digging around in all the containers for LithiumHydride, but couldn't find it, I must have missed it. 

The reason I ask about Orion Engines it that my Megaships have become SSTOs because of the Nuclear Pulse Engines they use, it seems slightly too easy, but easy is subjective in this game. I was curious if you were considering your own, possibly more balanced version. 

Thank you very much, I recall digging around in all the containers for LithiumHydride, but couldn't find it, I must have missed it. 

I'm using a different NPP mod than you linked, might be why my MegaShips are capable of SSTO configurations. I'll give the linked one a try.

[FreeThinker]

6 hours ago, ssd21345 said:

Same as Blackmoons, It seems  Tory nuclear ramjet with no upgrade won't work. No thurst after I drop the spacecraft from orbit to gain speed to run the engine until it crashed into the ground( with molten salt reactor attached).

I uploaded a new release 1.14.15 which fixes this bug, it can be downloaded from here

Version 1.14.15 for Kerbal Space Program 1.3.0

Released on 2017-07-09

• Added extended wrapper cap and nose cone with improve aerodynamic performance
• Improved Part info radiator in VAB
• improved GUI Thermal Calculator in VAB
• Balance Hydrolox mode requires High Performance Fuel Systems instead of Advanced Nuclear Propulsion
• Reduced boiloff interstellar fuel tanks
• Fixed Nuclear/Thermal Turbo/Ramjet ability to function without unlocked technologies

Edited July 9, 2017 by FreeThinker

[pp3d]

Hi,

This is perhaps already addressed but still compelled to ask. I upgraded yesterday to the latest backported to 1.2.2 version and the  RCS Arcjets no longer use as propellants the fuels stored in the tank. For example, ships equipped with the Arcject RCS tank and used LgAmmonia propellant - included in the tank -  now require Ammonia Gas. I understand that using the gas phase makes more sense if that's the intend. But updating this very critical mod for an existing game creates more problems than solves. Can anyone help with this issue? The cfgs have no difference with the previous version I was using (1.13) so I don't know how to reset this to what I need. 

Thanks

 

[FreeThinker]

7 hours ago, pp3d said:

Hi,

This is perhaps already addressed but still compelled to ask. I upgraded yesterday to the latest backported to 1.2.2 version and the  RCS Arcjets no longer use as propellants the fuels stored in the tank. For example, ships equipped with the Arcject RCS tank and used LgAmmonia propellant - included in the tank -  now require Ammonia Gas. I understand that using the gas phase makes more sense if that's the intend. But updating this very critical mod for an existing game creates more problems than solves. Can anyone help with this issue? The cfgs have no difference with the previous version I was using (1.13) so I don't know how to reset this to what I need. 

Thanks

 

Sorry, for your inconvenience. To make it work, open ElectricPropellants.cfg  in Resources folder and change , find LqdAmmonia and change type to 23

Edited July 10, 2017 by FreeThinker

[BlackMoons]

Thank you very much for the swift update and fix to the bugs I was experiencing due to my allergy of aerospace tech (Playing 50% science reward game, can't buy anything I don't REALLY REALLY NEED)

[trias702]

On 08/07/2017 at 4:20 PM, FreeThinker said:

What you could do it to fix it is simply to use the latest release of CRP and replace all # strings by their english translation

I'm not sure I understand this. How is CRP (Community Resource Pack) related to missing nodes in Community Tech Tree? And what do you mean by "replace all # strings by their english translation"? Everything in the kerbstein2.cfg is already in English, and I'm not seeing any #string markers anywhere?

[BlackMoons]

Btw, What do the Thermal turbojet/etc upgrades actually give you?

More ISP? More thrust? both?

PS: Shielded Diode Laser Emitter does not show under the communications category like all other beam stuff. Can't find it in any category other then by using search.