Creating constant resource consumption for an engine

[NotAnAimbot]

Hello

I am working on a personal rebalance for more realistic combat in BDA, and one of the requirements I had was to find a way to have players build realistically sized planes. I am hoping to partially achieve this by modifying "short" (wheesley, panther, all node attaching engines) jet engines to require an "engine space" resource for use, and creating heavy, fuel-free engine space Mk1 fuselages to occupy this space and thus make players have build larger planes for better engine performance (as irl).

I've been messing around with .cfg files for a while but I don't have any real modding experience.

I am hoping to do this by assigning a constant production rate of this resource to the engine space part, but I am having trouble making the engine itself consume at constant rate. Afaik, all fuel consumption is related to throttle, and I have not been able to create a constant throttle independent consumption rate.

}
		PROPELLANT
		{
			name = enginespace
			ignoreForISP = True
			ratio = 40

This is what I've put under my modified Panther's resource consumption for wet and dry modes, but as I said it is currently affected by throttle.

If this can help, here is a definition of the resource.

RESOURCE_DEFINITION
{
  name = enginespace
  displayName = Engine space
  abbreviation = ES
  density = 0.005
  unitcost = 10
  hsp = 400
  flowMode = ALL_VESSEL
  transfer = PUMP
  isTweakable = False
  isvisible = False
  unitCost = 1
  volume = 1

Could anyone enlighten me as to how to solve this problem?

Edited December 4, 2018 by NotAnAimbot

[Lisias]

USI-LS has an interesting resource: waste. It's created constantly by living Kerbals, and then stored for recycling. If the waste tank is full, the waste is vented (I.e. Just disappears). 

Perhaps youn can use this MO for your engine space resource? Just create this resource on a rate bigger than the engine can.consume, and throw away the overflow. Make the "ISP".stupidly high, so you can make such rate minimal and so minimize any concerns about weight and balance.

[FreeThinker]

I don't think you can achieve it with any stock PartMdule. Instead you have to make your own custom engine controller which will consume a resource at a constant rate as long as engine currentThrotle is higher than 0.

Edited December 4, 2018 by FreeThinker

[NotAnAimbot]

47 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

I don't think you can achieve it with any stock PartMdule. Instead you have to make your own custom engine controller which will consume a resource at a constant rate as long as engine currentThrotle is higher than 0.

Any leads to how to do this? Would I have to use module manager?

[Kartoffelkuchen]

Have a look at the RTGs. They produce constant elextricity output, perhaps you can simply change the output to input. Or, you create a second „dummy“ engine module within the engine config, with 0 thrust output but a constant resource requirement (no flow curve). 

 

[Nightside]

Does the entire plane need to be larger or just the engine?

couldnt you just combine the engine model with the hollow fuselage to form a new part representing the turbine and exhaust parts of the engine?

[NotAnAimbot]

5 hours ago, Nightside said:

couldnt you just combine the engine model with the hollow fuselage to form a new part representing the turbine and exhaust parts of the engine?

A good idea I considered, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and I don't have much experience in 3D modeling. I guess I could go this way, although I have considered another possibly simpler solution by making the command modules consume the same resource as engines do (the engines would not shut down, but the command parts would)

[Stoney3K]

On 12/6/2018 at 12:01 AM, NotAnAimbot said:

A good idea I considered, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and I don't have much experience in 3D modeling. I guess I could go this way, although I have considered another possibly simpler solution by making the command modules consume the same resource as engines do (the engines would not shut down, but the command parts would)

You don't have to be a modeler to make this happen. If you use a welding mod (like UbioZur's Welding Continued) you can weld the engine to a structural fuselage making it take up more space.

[Nightside]

On 12/5/2018 at 3:01 PM, NotAnAimbot said:

A good idea I considered, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and I don't have much experience in 3D modeling. I guess I could go this way, although I have considered another possibly simpler solution by making the command modules consume the same resource as engines do (the engines would not shut down, but the command parts would)

Well you don't actually need to make your own 3D models, you can just mashup existing models in the configs.