[1.12.x] Starship Expansion Project - SEP | v2.1.0 (March, 28th, 2024)

[adriangm44]

3 hours ago, 1000sowy said:

Do you plan to add a clamshell opening for cargo bay?

Do you mean the aligator orbital doors? 

[1000sowy]

1 hour ago, adriangm44 said:

Do you mean the aligator orbital doors? 

This is what I ment. I didn't know they were called like that.

[kharly]

Hi Starship enthusiasts !

I was wondering if someone could suggest me a ISRU solution for refuelling starship and its LCH4 engines on Duna ? what would be the best mod to apply to have liquid methane production ?

[JadeOfMaar]

On 7/18/2022 at 11:09 PM, kharly said:

Hi Starship enthusiasts !

I was wondering if someone could suggest me a ISRU solution for refuelling starship and its LCH4 engines on Duna ? what would be the best mod to apply to have liquid methane production ?

The best mod is mine. Try it out.

 

[EndAllFilms]

17 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

The best mod is mine. Try it out.

 

Brilliant! I can't wait to see it

Edited July 21, 2022 by EndAllFilms
Sorry for grammar mistakes

[Janus92]

I updated my kOS Interface once again! This time I made some tweaks to the fuel and thrust settings:

The Liquid Fuel/Methane to Oxidizer ratio are now 1 to 3.6 which I felt was more realistic. The Booster now has more fuel, while the ship has less, to accommodate a much flatter launch profile. The Booster will also glide a lot more aggressively during final re-entry before landing while still maintaining a reasonable success-rate (the last 10 I checked were all succesful). The Ships Interface now supports both the 6-engine and the 9-engine Starship (you'll need to modify the craft files yourself, as I've left the 9-engine Starship as the default for now).

Here's a quick Launch-Profile side view I made from my log-files. Booster final re-entry gliding is now definitely noticeable:

Let me know if you find any bugs!

[adriangm44]

8 hours ago, Janus92 said:

I updated my kOS Interface once again! This time I made some tweaks to the fuel and thrust settings:

The Liquid Fuel/Methane to Oxidizer ratio are now 1 to 3.6 which I felt was more realistic. The Booster now has more fuel, while the ship has less, to accommodate a much flatter launch profile. The Booster will also glide a lot more aggressively during final re-entry before landing while still maintaining a reasonable success-rate (the last 10 I checked were all succesful). The Ships Interface now supports both the 6-engine and the 9-engine Starship (you'll need to modify the craft files yourself, as I've left the 9-engine Starship as the default for now).

Here's a quick Launch-Profile side view I made from my log-files. Booster final re-entry gliding is now definitely noticeable:

Let me know if you find any bugs!

Janus, since the update I have double B9 fuel switches, one of them with the wrong ammounts, causing it to not have enough TWR to take off. Help please.

Logs (last lines, as I spent a couple of hours building) and screenshots here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sjrYmI23lKUamwNXZWlnKaazIdDRCG-L?usp=sharing

Edited July 27, 2022 by adriangm44
I used your mod before this update and with the same mods I currently have, this is the first time happening to me that

[Janus92]

32 minutes ago, adriangm44 said:

Janus, since the update I have double B9 fuel switches, one of them with the wrong ammounts, causing it to not have enough TWR to take off. Help please.

Logs (last lines, as I spent a couple of hours building) and screenshots here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sjrYmI23lKUamwNXZWlnKaazIdDRCG-L?usp=sharing

Hmm, weird. You're also getting toggles for the COPV and HPU that I don't have. Do we run the same version of SEP?

I do have the fuel switch I think, but not the tank type switch that you also have. I did a major rewrite of the patch, so most likely the issue is there, and some mod causes this behaviour. Would you mind starting with the bare minimum of mods required for SEP and the Interface and then build up from there to see if you can isolate the mod responsible for this? Perhaps cryotanks? I know that mod causes trouble for me.

[adriangm44]

28 minutes ago, Janus92 said:

Hmm, weird. You're also getting toggles for the COPV and HPU that I don't have. Do we run the same version of SEP?

Thats a different thing, it's just a patch from discord that lets you remove them in order to add an independent part for the new long-sided COPV'S. I've checked, they don't mess with the fuel options. And yes, I'm using the lastest SEP version.

28 minutes ago, Janus92 said:

I do have the fuel switch I think, but not the tank type switch that you also have. I did a major rewrite of the patch, so most likely the issue is there, and some mod causes this behaviour. Would you mind starting with the bare minimum of mods required for SEP and the Interface and then build up from there to see if you can isolate the mod responsible for this? Perhaps cryotanks? I know that mod causes trouble for me.

Yeah I can give that a try soon. I do use CryoTanks, I just disabled the boiloff and the cooling cause it caused many problems but apart from that it worked fine in the last version. I will try this tonight or tomorrow if not.

 

I don't have to reload the game to notice CryoTanks was actually the problem. See here. It just worked before because you didn't tweaked the fuel values in the first versions. There must be a code that can be written in your patch to disable those lines on the booster and the header tank. (Interestingly suspicious, the ship's body is not affected by this).

Edited July 27, 2022 by adriangm44

[Janus92]

13 hours ago, adriangm44 said:

Thats a different thing, it's just a patch from discord that lets you remove them in order to add an independent part for the new long-sided COPV'S. I've checked, they don't mess with the fuel options. And yes, I'm using the lastest SEP version.

Yeah I can give that a try soon. I do use CryoTanks, I just disabled the boiloff and the cooling cause it caused many problems but apart from that it worked fine in the last version. I will try this tonight or tomorrow if not.

 

I don't have to reload the game to notice CryoTanks was actually the problem. See here. It just worked before because you didn't tweaked the fuel values in the first versions. There must be a code that can be written in your patch to disable those lines on the booster and the header tank. (Interestingly suspicious, the ship's body is not affected by this).

You're right, it's indeed CryoTanks that causes those issues. I've just uploaded a new patch that works on my system, so let me know if it fixes the issue.

Thanks for bringing that issue to my attention, @adriangm44!

[EndAllFilms]

18 hours ago, Janus92 said:

You're right, it's indeed CryoTanks that causes those issues. I've just uploaded a new patch that works on my system, so let me know if it fixes the issue.

Thanks for bringing that issue to my attention, @adriangm44!

Yo I tried out your kOS script but as it turns out the Superheavy landed in the wrong coordinate It landed on the ocean.

[Janus92]

3 hours ago, EndAllFilms said:

Yo I tried out your kOS script but as it turns out the Superheavy landed in the wrong coordinate It landed on the ocean.

lol, did I break it again? What happened exactly? Did the Boosters CPU crash? Or could it just not reach the Launch Site? A video or some explanation would be useful.

[adriangm44]

On 7/28/2022 at 10:47 AM, Janus92 said:

You're right, it's indeed CryoTanks that causes those issues. I've just uploaded a new patch that works on my system, so let me know if it fixes the issue.

Thanks for bringing that issue to my attention, @adriangm44!

Sorry, I did not have physical time to take this into account. Do I have to update my craft files? I usually spend a lot of time editing and personalizing them, I change the names of every part (Starship Crew|Cargo|Tanker, Super Heavy Booster, Orbital Launch Tower) so when they separate I don't get confused with the naming and it's clear which vessel is which. Also I have personalized cranes for each Cargo and Crew to deliver the payload and kerbals down to the surface (https://youtu.be/-FNXAgvxJ6M), add the legs and so on and so on...
It is just a pain to have to re-do it over and over again but I don't think anything can be done if it is mandatory to update the crafts in order for them to work properly.

Also thank you so much @Janus92 for regarding this issue and quickly taking action, I will try this now and write it down in this message's edit box.

Edited July 29, 2022 by adriangm44
It worked, the fuel switches are no longer there and your configs have prevailed in the crafts!

[EndAllFilms]

14 hours ago, Janus92 said:

lol, did I break it again? What happened exactly? Did the Boosters CPU crash? Or could it just not reach the Launch Site? A video or some explanation would be useful.

It didn't even reach to the launch site

[Janus92]

Does anyone else have Boosters that don't return successfully?

[adriangm44]

2 hours ago, Janus92 said:

Does anyone else have Boosters that don't return successfully?

Yes, what @EndAllFilms said happened to me once (Booster separation ok, Orbit ok, when it switches to the booster it’s in the middle of the ocean, it doesn’t even start landing burn, crushed into the ocean). I didn’t notice if booster started the boostback so I’m not sure what’s the cause.

I tried to recreate it with log saving but that didn’t happen anymore, instead, the booster overshoots the landing zone (maybe on boostback or aero descent) but when the program switches to the booster, it’s landing trajectory is overshooting the launchpad (like almost at the end of the raceway facing the VAB), it tried to steer to correct the trajectory, but it’s too slow, then the landing burn starts normally and it also steers to match the landing target. It does pretty well but it runs out of time until the engine switches. It lands just touching the bottom edge of the Orbital Launch Mount.

I wish I had videos but I’ve been real busy and only had played KSP for short times.

But honestly, I’ve not just having problems with booster return. Also with ship return. I’ll try to make a video about it cause explaining is going to be a nightmare and I can’t una gone what it would be trying to understand hahahaha

[Janus92]

On 8/4/2022 at 11:01 AM, adriangm44 said:

Yes, what @EndAllFilms said happened to me once (Booster separation ok, Orbit ok, when it switches to the booster it’s in the middle of the ocean, it doesn’t even start landing burn, crushed into the ocean). I didn’t notice if booster started the boostback so I’m not sure what’s the cause.

I tried to recreate it with log saving but that didn’t happen anymore, instead, the booster overshoots the landing zone (maybe on boostback or aero descent) but when the program switches to the booster, it’s landing trajectory is overshooting the launchpad (like almost at the end of the raceway facing the VAB), it tried to steer to correct the trajectory, but it’s too slow, then the landing burn starts normally and it also steers to match the landing target. It does pretty well but it runs out of time until the engine switches. It lands just touching the bottom edge of the Orbital Launch Mount.

I wish I had videos but I’ve been real busy and only had played KSP for short times.

But honestly, I’ve not just having problems with booster return. Also with ship return. I’ll try to make a video about it cause explaining is going to be a nightmare and I can’t una gone what it would be trying to understand hahahaha

I checked and for me the booster and ship return keeps running smoothly and correctly every single time. So I'm guessing yet another mod may be interfering with the correct functioning of the Interface. As said before I'm having trouble running many mods, as my laptop can't keep up with all of that, so I run a pretty minimal KSP setup. I can try making a mod work one at a time, but to identify the troublemakers is the hardest part. On top of that the patches I am applying are pretty hard to create in a reliable way across other mods.

Maybe you can find some clue in the booster cpu when it gets stranded over the ocean?

I did change the landing behaviour of the Booster, which you may be seeing some effects of. As it comes in way steeper now (from around 8km altitude it will try to correct an error of around 1000m to the launchpad) the trajectory should show up quite a bit further than the tower (it's now aiming between 250-100m on the far side of the tower depending on mass). After engine start it should correct all errors and establish itself quite soon on an expected error on touchdown of 0m laterally and longitudinally (shown on the booster cpu).

If you say it runs out of time, do you mean it doesn't slow down enough in time? That may be a TWR issue that may result from the patch not being applied correctly (yes, due to mods..). What do you mean by 'bottom edge of the OLM'?

Now I wonder what's happening during Ship return?

No worries about making a video. If you do at some point find some time to do one or more that would be great, of course, as a video will sometimes say more than a thousand words!

[Fabled_Mike]

Is this designed for the stock solar system or 2.5x solar system?

[SofieBrink]

8 hours ago, Fabled_Mike said:

Is this designed for the stock solar system or 2.5x solar system?

SEP is designed for the 2.5/2.7 systems

[Fabled_Mike]

How many tons can it get to orbit in a 2.5 system?

[OrbitalManeuvers]

14 hours ago, Fabled_Mike said:

How many tons can it get to orbit in a 2.5 system?

I don't know the "correct" answer for this - but I can tell you what I tested.

• I put a Utility Weight inside the cargo variant and increased the mass of the weight until my takeoff TWR was 1.25ish
• A SmartPart decouples the booster with 20% fuel remaining
• I used both sets of starship engines for the first part of the ascent after booster sep, before eventually switching to just vacuum engines
• I do not know any of the correct procedures for this vehicle
• Under this configuration, I was able to put 50T into a 160x95km orbit on KSRSS 2.5 launching from Kourou
• Starship had about 1000m/s dV remaining

 

[Janus92]

@adriangm44 Could you try my latest version? I took away some (probably unnecessary) exclusions from the patches, and maybe this will help your problem and for those with many mods?

I did include the few mods that I know won't work in the excluding part of the patches, so if someone tries to run the interface with these mods installed, then no kOS modules will be added (and other changes activated) and the Interface won't show up.

[Kerbalsaurus]

I tried to use textures unlimited for the shiny parts, but it didn’t work. There’s no option for changing the textures in the VAB for the parts. Do I need to download some sort of special config for it?

[SofieBrink]

On 8/12/2022 at 4:53 AM, Kerbalsaurus said:

I tried to use textures unlimited for the shiny parts, but it didn’t work. There’s no option for changing the textures in the VAB for the parts. Do I need to download some sort of special config for it?

Once you have TU installed and the correct reflection settings set. It will automatically apply, no buttons in the VAB or special configs.

 

For textures unlimited to correctly apply the shader, your graphical settings should be:

Reflection Texture Resolution: at least 256
Reflection Refresh Rate: at least Medium
Render Quality: at least Good

 

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by SofieBrink
Typo

[Fabled_Mike]

Is there a way to get the old cargo bay that looks like an alligator mouth?