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[UNOFFICIAL/FANMADE] 0.17 Discussion Thread 3


rasheed

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I wonder what the Nuclear Thermal engines are all about and how they will work. Will they use Liquid Fuel? Will they be high TWR, low ISP. High ISP low TWR? 1m; 2m? It's really cool that they are adding new parts!

Real NERVA rockets use a liquid hydrogen propellant with no oxidizer, but I assume in the game they will use generic liquid fuel for the sake of simplicity. This should have the highest Isp of all the rockets in game, but considering the fact that it includes a nuclear reactor, probably not the best TWR. This is definitely intended for fuel savings on interplanetary missions.

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. This should have the highest Isp of all the rockets in game, but considering the fact that it includes a nuclear reactor, probably not the best TWR. This is definitely intended for fuel savings on interplanetary missions.

So after reading that I did a little bit of research on NERVA rockets and Nuclear Thermal Engines. First I thought these things worked by making nuclear explosions but now I see that it is a way to increase the exhaust velocity of hydrogen by using the heat from the reactor instead of blowing as in a regular chemical rocket. That being the case, i can see how these engines might have the highest ISP to date and yet still have some good thrust.

Wow, KSP just gets better and better with every update to the game.

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I hope the Nerva parts are actually different from liquid fueled ones and not just liquid fueled engines with good ISP rates.

Well, it may be the case that they are just "liquid fueled engines with good ISP" right now. still, squad has been known to surprise us (Minmus, I'm looking at you!)

That being said, I kinda like that they are including an engine with better ISP. Right now, all of my rockets use a single LV-45 engine to get to the moons; it would be nice if we can get an engine with comparable power but higher ISP.

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Would it make much of a difference erkha? I don't really understand if it will or not, but I would think not. Even though I will be using add-on parts, some of which already have great ISP, it is nice to have a stock engine that performs just as well =3

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I hope the Nerva parts are actually different from liquid fueled ones and not just liquid fueled engines with good ISP rates.

For now, they use the same liquid fuel as normal engines, but with vastly improved Isp in a vacuum. (they're pretty inefficient in an atmosphere). We are thinking about other fuel types for it, but that is something for later updates.

About the voice-overs, we almost got them ready, but they actually sounded pretty weird without a proper audio ambience base for the game's scenes. We're going to add those soon, and the voices should follow. :)

Cheers

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Saw this in the 0.17 Status Update #1 (specifically, 0.17.0x3):

Fixed the Sun flare effect jittering at high warp rates

So, wait. Am I reading this right? The sun has dynamic flares? They're not just pasted-on irregularities that remain fixed on the surface?

I should get used to Squad going above and beyond, but I'd have been perfectly happy with sunspots, and thrilled with a fixed flare or two. The idea of dynamic flares has me stunned and amazed. I could be reading this wrong somehow, and I know I'll be unspeakably grateful no matter what I get... but dynamic flares? Wow!

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For now, they use the same liquid fuel as normal engines, but with vastly improved Isp in a vacuum. (they're pretty inefficient in an atmosphere). We are thinking about other fuel types for it, but that is something for later updates.

About the voice-overs, we almost got them ready, but they actually sounded pretty weird without a proper audio ambience base for the game's scenes. We're going to add those soon, and the voices should follow. :)

Cheers

Thanks for clearing that out, this umm, are Kerbals subtitled? How will we understand them? (you said they would talk Spanish in backwards)

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Well, it may be the case that they are just "liquid fueled engines with good ISP" right now. still, squad has been known to surprise us (Minmus, I'm looking at you!)

That being said, I kinda like that they are including an engine with better ISP. Right now, all of my rockets use a single LV-45 engine to get to the moons; it would be nice if we can get an engine with comparable power but higher ISP.

Please don't interpret it as being disappointed, I'm glad the team decide to include them :)

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but considering the fact that it includes a nuclear reactor, probably not the best TWR.

Nuclear reactors do not negate high thrust. At the time of its development, NERVA was in competition with a solid-reactor nuclear thermal design called DUMBO that would have been capable of TWR>1 at Earth's surface, with a thrust rating twice as good as the best chemical thrusters (if I'm reading Atomic Rockets' Drive Table correctly). What killed DUMBO was, political issues with a nuclear liftoff rocket aside, cost: It would have required a special cooling system that differed from that of the already-constructed NERVA engine nozzle, and DUMBO could not have been built with off-the-shelf parts to the extent that its competitor could, which would mean designing and manufacturing more entirely new parts.

If the NTR in .17 has TWR<1, it's probably out of game balance concerns.

Edited by Accelerando
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* Fixed an issue where flying through a Mun arch would destroy the vessel.

* Fixed an issue when Kerbals became ragdolls when travelling very fast, and started displaying odd physics behaviour.

Sounds like some tester was have a little too much fun on the Mun.

TOP GUN!

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The new stuff in 0.17 from HarvesteR's blog:

New:

* Double-tapping the wheel brakes key will now set parking brakes.

New:

* Added Nuclear-Thermal Engine part

* Added focusable areas for internal views

* Added Settings for Music and Voice Volume

New:

* Pressing backspace will now reset the map and internal view.

* Middle mouse modifies the internal camera zoom by an additional 2x.

* Double clicking middle mouse will reset the internal camera zoom.

* Unlit/Transparent shader added to mu reader/writer.

New:

* Added new tree and boulder meshes for Kerbin (No more paper cutout trees)

* Implemented new version of Laythe, should be less performance intensive as well as nicer looking.

/\later experimental releases

\/first experimental release

New:

* Internal Cockpit Views: The first iteration of the IVAs (Intra-Vehicular Activities) feature set.

* Multiple Player Saves: You can now have multiple ongoing game sessions, as each save is kept in its own folder (instead of all using the saves/default one).

* Quick Flight Scenarios: Start flights from pre-set conditions, without interfering with your persistent sandbox save, and also save your own scenarios from your main game.

* Scenario Logic Modules: Like PartModules, but for scene logic (and defined on an SFS file instead of a part.cfg).

* Training Scenarios: Hands-On tutorials to teach you everything from craft construction to orbital maneuvers.

* Center of mass, thrust, lift and drag visual cues on the construction scenes.

* Prebuilt ships included with the game, as examples and possible starting points.

* Many new planets and moons throughout the Kerbal Solar System.

* Physical Timewarp Modes: An alternate time-warp mode where you can accelerate time to 2x, 3x and 4x without putting the sim on rails.

* Several new parts

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Guest themakut
"Double-tapping the wheel brakes key will now set parking brakes."

Yeeeeeees.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that is a very bad thing. A large percentage of the planes I've flown will break up if you just hold down the "B" button. Instead, they require you to continuously tap the "B" button until the plane becomes slow enough to apply the full breaks. Now it will be impossible to stop such planes.

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Sorry to burst your bubble, but that is a very bad thing. A large percentage of the planes I've flown will break up if you just hold down the "B" button. Instead, they require you to continuously tap the "B" button until the plane becomes slow enough to apply the full breaks. Now it will be impossible to stop such planes.

It is entirely possible that due to the new CoL, CoM and CoT indicators in the VAB and SPH that your planes will be 'hardier' and better balanced, so they won't break up when the parking brakes are applied. Additionally, if this is happens to you a lot, try landing at a lower horizontal velocity, or just more struts.

The parking brake is certainly a good thing, considering how many people will want to fly spaceplanes to other planets without them rolling away when they get out.

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