Kethane Pack 0.9.2 - New cinematic trailer! - 1.0 compatibility update

[Majiir]

Is there a way to restart/replace your maps?

Maps are stored in the KSP/GameData/Kethane/Plugins/PluginData/MMI_Kethane/ folder. They have a filename format like map_12345678_Kerbin.png. You can delete some/all of those maps to clear them. Be careful to not delete the non-map texture files!

[KhaosCorp]

Don't be so quick to dismiss high-altitude scanning. Higher altitude means higher allowable time warp, and that can be important when scanning bodies like Moho which rotate very slowly.

Also higher altitude orbits of the proper inclination tend to cross the equator in more unique places, this leads to faster overall scan time as less initial passes of the satellite will be over already scanned area

[John FX]

Hello Kethane pack people. I thought I would bring some perspective on the size of kethane deposits. These are bodies of kethane large enough to be detected from space that cover many square miles. They sound pretty big.

I have to empty 3 of them to fill my ship once. A single launch from kerbin can empty three planetary kethane deposits. (About 600K+ of kethane)

That does not sound big at all. I`d like to see the deposits holding at least 10-100 times the amounts they currently do.

This is what I use to mine, it`s really efficient. It gets 853.7T of 901.1T to a 30Km orbit around Minmus. (Uses about 47500 Kethane to get to orbit)

Edited June 13, 2013 by John FX

[Pontiac]

The current amounts being made are randomly generated and hard coded to between 100k and 500k (Unless that has changed in 0.5.1). However, you can edit the amount if you find Kethane.cfg file, figure out what entry belongs to the site, tack one or two zeros to the end, and voila, you've got it.

It WOULD be nice though to have the ability to change the amounts generated via editing a config file.

[Spyritdragon]

Is there a way to make Kethane regenerate? I have a tendency to drag saves on for a very long time, and looking at these posts it seems to me deposits are quite easily emptied.

[elfindreams]

OOooh, maybe a process that refuels a seed slowly over time...

[HoY]

If you upgraded to 0.5.1 you can edit your deposit cfg to refill the current deposits, or you can use the debug tool to make the planet respawn new deposits

[KhaosCorp]

If you upgraded to 0.5.1 you can edit your deposit cfg to refill the current deposits, or you can use the debug tool to make the planet respawn new deposits

Just a heads up for yall. Using the new extraplanetary launchpads mod kills the current debug tool. But still ways to edit deposits

[HoY]

OOooh, maybe a process that refuels a seed slowly over time...

You could use crew manifest to fill a ship made mostly of crew tanks, then land them beside your mining rig equipped with a blender......

[MmPMSFmM]

Do I get a prize when I tell what's with the strange Science equipment thingy?

[elfindreams]

You could use crew manifest to fill a ship made mostly of crew tanks, then land them beside your mining rig equipped with a blender......

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/hooligan-labs-party-starter-max-kerbals-before-launch/

[HoY]

Crew manifest does the same thing plus a bunch more, but that will get the job done too

[KhaosCorp]

Crew manifest does the same thing plus a bunch more, but that will get the job done too

I like to use both...CrewManifest is great for making kerbals, doing transfers in big ships or stations. Party starter is good for mindless filling a ship on the pad, its got that ronco 'set it and forget it' simplicity =P

Also keep in mind if your morbid enough to do this (I was thinkin of trying it) make sure your CrewManifest has 'permadeath' turned off

[Orphican]

You could use crew manifest to fill a ship made mostly of crew tanks, then land them beside your mining rig equipped with a blender......

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/hooligan-labs-party-starter-max-kerbals-before-launch/

OH Dear God In heaven. A Kethane "Final solution". You people are sick. SICK I SAY!!

[Majiir]

I`d like to see the deposits holding at least 10-100 times the amounts they currently do. This is what I use to mine, it`s really efficient. It gets 853.7T of 901.1T to a 30Km orbit around Minmus. (Uses about 47500 Kethane to get to orbit)

I'm going to say PEBKAC on this one. "Really efficient" is not how I'd describe that lander! You have what looks like 20+ drills and a bunch of other extraneous parts, and I don't see solar panels which means you're using some other power source which is probably heavier. You're not alone on this; a lot of people build ships that extract a lot of Kethane but end up being very wasteful (and then, like you, they complain about deposit quantity).

[EDIT] Just want to elaborate on this since it may come across as harsh. Even with a good launch ratio, you're talking moving 850 tons of fuel into orbit. That's a lot, and if you're extracting that much fuel from a small moon on a regular basis, I'm happy with a balance that says you need to put a little more effort into it than someone who wants to refill a 10-ton fuel tank for a lander. A Kethane deposit will only get you as far as your other ships are efficient, and that includes whatever vessels you're fueling.

The current amounts being made are randomly generated and hard coded to between 100k and 500k (Unless that has changed in 0.5.1).

The hard-coded range is between 10k and 500k.

It WOULD be nice though to have the ability to change the amounts generated via editing a config file.

This has already been implemented for the next version.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Majiir

[HoY]

Crew manifest has the "fill ship" option now, not sure how long it's been since you updated but using a single mod that does it all will help your performance a little over using two that do the same things

Soylent Green.

[Pontiac]

Alright, I'm confused.... I've upgraded to 0.5.1. I've got a craft with nothing but stock, Kethane w/Debug, and Kerbal Engineer. I have the 16k Liter Kethane tank in the center of this disaster of a ship, 6 orange tanks, paired up with each other, and in an almost Asparagus config. "Almost" because I don't have the fuel line that'd typically go from the last tank, back to the central tank or the converter. I have 4 RCS tanks sitting on top of 4 of the orange tanks, and batteries sitting on the other two. I have the two fuel lines plumbed from the heavy converter unit, to the each of the first tanks in the asparagus configuration in the images below. So, converter, to tank pair one, to tank pair two, to tank pair three.

Now here's the interesting part;

I don't seem to be able to convert to Liquid Fuel, or the Oxidizer, BUT, the Monopropellant conversion works? I don't have fuel lines going to the propellant tanks. Whats even MORE interesting is that if I have either the Liquid Fuel, or the Oxidizer running, the Propellant IS NOT generated. As soon as I stop both the LF or Ox conversion, the propellant works. If I stop the mining gear, the Kethane stops being mine, but does NOT decrease when conversion to LF or Ox is turned on.

My first attempt was 6 pipes from the converter to each of the orange tanks, but that didn't work, which directed me to go try and use one pipe to the first part of the asparagus setup.

Kethane is being produced, battery power is holding at over 2k while mining with 8 drills.

Craft: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1598459/Games/KSP/Ships/Kethane%20Exploiter%20-%20Stock.craft

I went back to my known-good Kethane miner, and it is refining as I expect it to, but the difference is that I have pipes going from the converter to all tanks, while this new ship has just one pipe going to one orange tank, and the RCS tanks are directly connected to the orange tanks.

Ideas?

I've removed MJ and Engineer from the craft file.

[Weatherman159]

@Pontiac: Swap the fuel line directions. They need to be going from tank to converter.

[Pontiac]

If thats the case, why is it filling the RCS tanks? I'll try though.

Edit: Oh son of a.... Yeah.. now it dawns on me even before I tried. Yes, you're right. I'm an idiot. I knew that, just had it backwards. Frig'n lack of sleep.

Edited June 13, 2013 by Pontiac

[Majiir]

If thats the case, why is it filling the RCS tanks?

Because MonoPropellant doesn't route with fuel lines.

Would anyone like to spin off a "how to route fuel" thread? I'm all for helping people out with building Kethane crafts, but at this point 90% of the questions posted to this thread stem from misunderstandings of the KSP stock fuel routing.

[Pontiac]

Yeah, I'll do that when I'm at work tonight, despite my being an idiot right now. (And to think a couple pages back I CAPS'd the instructions.... I'm such a bone head. {chuckle})

[blizzy78]

This has already been implemented for the next version.

Ohh, thank you very much. No more tweaking the DLL code for me

[DMagic]

Would anyone like to spin off a "how to route fuel" thread? I'm all for helping people out with building Kethane crafts, but at this point 90% of the questions posted to this thread stem from misunderstandings of the KSP stock fuel routing.

Done and done, well not quite done, but I'll add more pictures to illustrate things better a little later.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/35664-Kethane-Usage-and-Proper-Fuel-Routing

If anyone wants to add a section on detectors that would be great. I haven't really used them much and so don't have the greatest understanding of how they work and the ideal way to set them up.

Edit: Anyone else feel free to add to it or correct me if I made any mistakes. I'll fix the original post or you can add a reply.

Edited June 13, 2013 by DMagic

[af22man]

edit: read a post that explained that it just generates resources and is not controlled by kethane. reporting bug to squad.

Edited June 13, 2013 by af22man

[Mihara]

I'm happy with a balance that says you need to put a little more effort into it than someone who wants to refill a 10-ton fuel tank for a lander.

If you're thinking about refilling a 10-ton fuel tank of a lander, you're moving in the wrong direction with the new parts. It takes at the very least 1.7 tons of equipment (but due to symmetry requirements, more likely to be 2.7 tons, and more if we count power sources) to refill a 10-ton lander tank, which is likely to be much (if not most -- the lightest stock capsule is 0.6 tons) of the total dry mass of such a lander. The lightest self-contained surface gas station (it would land and ships would have to land next to it to run KAS cables to a socket on it and refuel) I've managed to make was something like 4.5 tons, the only practical one that I actually used clocked in at 15. If I had a 1.25m stack mounted drill equivalent in mass and output to the side-mounted drill it would be somewhat easier, but now that there's an 1.25m stack mounted drill, it's 4 tons instead of 1.

Which is probably why people refilling 10-ton fuel tanks of landers do it from 100-ton barrels filled by heavy tankers -- it actually takes less effort to produce a large tanker that sucks entire deposits dry than to make a ship which doesn't make mining it's sole purpose of existence.

I'm not sure there's a sensible way to balance it the other way round at all, though.