[1.12.x] [March 23rd] Cryo & Future ReQuoted - Career focused rebalancing of Cryo Engines and Near/Far Future mods.

[Shoey]

Introduction

In my opinion, Nertea makes some of the best KSP mods there are. They look and feel very consistent with the stock game, and have added much enjoyment and life to KSP for me. However, they do have some short comings sometimes.

This mod was made with a relatively simple concept in mind: rebalance fuels and tanks present in Cryo Engines as well as some of those in Near and Far Future to be more consistent with both themselves and real life, providing more use to various engines throughout your Career save whilst keeping everything notably stock-alike. Do note, however, this mod was designed with harder-than-stock in mind and is still in development, as a result further changes may be made that will impact difficulty as well as the delta-v of craft in flight, and is mainly for people who want harder-than-stock-but-not-Realism Overhaul.

Examples of Changes and the Reasoning Behind Them

By default LqdMethane,  with its fuel mixture referred to as Methalox, costs over 6x as much per ton compared to LiquidFuel, mixture referred to as Kerolox. This is somewhat balanced by the fact that methalox engines burn more of the much cheaper Oxidizer in comparison, however this still results in it costing 3x as much to actually use without providing a comparable performance or ease of use benefit over kerolox or hydrolox (LqdHydrogen), making Methalox launch vehicles inspired by the likes of Starship almost completely unviable in harder-than-stock Career saves. In real life, this was not far from reality... back when Community Resource Pack, the source of Cryo Engine's LqdMethane, was designed. Nowadays, however, methalox mixtures actually cost about the same per ton as kerolox does while retaining those notable-but-not-significant performance benefits. In the future, this may change, but it likely will not be in kerolox's favor as we see more methalox engines both in development and commercially. 

By contrast, hydrolox launch systems cost about the same or even less than kerolox without reflecting any of the many difficulties associated with using them, aside from the sheer volume needed and being more expensive to store per ton. Boil off is so low in non-cryogenic tanks that you won't even notice it before launching interplanetary missions and the insulation cost is so paltry that you can power even the largest non-cryogenic tanks with a single solar array at almost every stage of the game, let alone nuclear powered systems, completely negating what little boil off there is and just adding an ultimately minor dry mass and cost tax.  In real life, liquid hydrogen is downright awful to work with. It has a boiling point so low that as much as half your reserves vanish in a week even with dedicated cryogenic storage. It takes a ton of electricity to even try to maintain what you do have. It's so cold that launch systems can't be cleared out the same way as other rocket fuels. Not all of these problems will be perfectly reflected, but some of them will take stronger influence, with non-cryogenic storage costing significantly more to insulate and boil off being increased to noticeable, and potentially mission impacting, levels.

Other fuels, like Nuclear Salt Water and Fission Pellets from Far Future Technologies, are also balanced with this same kind of reasoning behind them, raised to better reflect the cost of the Enriched Uranium used in their production.

Requirements

This mod does almost nothing without at least some of the following mods and their dependencies.

CryoTanks

Cryogenic Engines

Near Future Technologies

Far Future Technologies

Overview of Specific Patches

Note: some parts of this mod will influence the costs, delta-v, and viability of craft, both saved and in flight, so you may want to read carefully if installing this on an existing save or updating. If installing on a new save, you don't have to worry about this, but can read on for a better overview of what's been changed.

I've designed it so that the distinct changes are in separate clearly named patches, so you can keep what you do want and discard what you don't from CryoFutureReQuoted. Or you can throw caution to the wind, install them all, consequences be disregarded (not that there are many).

• A_TanksFlagged.cfg - Simply tells the following patches what tanks are and aren't cryogenic. This one can be left alone as it makes no gameplay changes and may be relied upon by some of the following patches.
• CryoFuelsRequoted.cfg - Adjusts the price of LqdHydrogen and LqdMethane to values representing real life more closely, lowering both of them, with Methane being lowered significantly.
• CryoTanksReMassed.cfg - Increases the dry mass of LqdHydrogen tanks to better reflect the complexities associated with storing it compared to LiquidFuel and even LqdMethane. Though this change will likely not be noticeable on any craft that aren't just a fuel tank, a probe, and an engine, it's kept separate from the others as it can impact delta-V. I would recommend assessing any LqdHydrogen using craft that are in flight before using this one on an existing save as you may inadvertently strand one if you do.
• FarFutureFuelsReQuoted.cfg - Raises the price of FissionPellets and NuclearSaltWater significantly, to bring them inline with the cost of Enriched Uranium and incentivizing player refinery even in Kerbin's SOI.
• NearFuturePropulsionFuelsReQuoted.cfg - Significantly reduces the price of ArgonGas to much more realistic levels.
• NearFuturePropulsionTanksReQuoted.cfg - Brings the cost of Argon tanks inline with Xenon when applicable, otherwise changes them the best that I can.
• TanksBoiloff.cfg - Significantly increases the boil off and insulation cost of LqdHydrogen as well as slightly increasing the boil off and insulation cost of LqdMethane on non-cryogenic tanks, essentially requiring the use of dedicated cryogenic tanks for LqdHydrogen and incentivizing the use of them for LqdMethane even for short term missions. Also increases insulation costs on cryogenic tanks moderately to encourage use of nuclear power for large quantities of LqdHydrogen as near to Kerbol as Duna and LqdMethane or electrical propulsion for early missions to the outer system.

Installation

Simply download the zip from SpaceDock, merge GameData folders, and configure as you like or leave as is.

Updating

Best practice when updating will be to delete all old patches and reinstall the ones you want, even if installing them all, to account for potential renaming of patches, as well as rereading the patch overview.

Download

SpaceDock

License: CC-BY

Potential Future Changes

• Further refinement of propellant to dry mass storage for Hydrolox and Methalox tanks.
• Further refinement of cryogenic and non-cryogenic storage of aforementioned fuels.
• Balancing of several fuels present in Near Future Technologies to reflect the current market.

For explanations of my specific changes, click here to view a development log of sorts, consisting of my thoughts and research as I'm having them/doing them respectively. Do note, however, this is very raw and may, at times, contain misinformation that I find while researching the changes I desire to make. I am very fallible, and should be treated as such, though I will note sources I find and explain why I think what I do.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Shoey
mild update