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[0.25]KSP Interstellar (Magnetic Nozzles, ISRU Revamp) Version 0.13


Fractal_UK

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Does anybody really ever use the 2.5m Inline Refinery?

Interstellar doesn't appear to have any parts capable of just extracting (without refining) terrestrial resources like uranium/thorium/ice, so if you need to extract resources you're forced to use the ISRU or 3.75m Inline Refinery anyway, right? So in what situation would you ever use the 2.5 Inline Refinery?

Ummm, if I'm not mistaken, you can simply harvest LiquidWater when splashed down in oceans (such as on Laythe) without electrolyzing it directly into LFO- and LiquidWater can be used in thermal rockets without needing to be further refined.

The 2.5 meter Inline Refinery is also capable of reprocessing nuclear fuel without needing Kerbals, like the Science Lab- so there's that utility to it as well.

And are you *sure* that the resources are both extracted and refined in the same step for ice/Uranium/Thorium? (keep in mind that Uranium and Thorium are NOT the refined forms of their respective resources) It's been a while since I've done any testing with the refineries, and I don't currently have KSP Interstellar installed (since I updated to 0.24), but I *thought* these resources were harvested in their raw forms (LiquidWater/Uranium/Thorium)- making it possible to extract them on a vessel with a meager power supply (say one powered by a Microwave Receiver only receiving from a single 2.5 meter reactor in orbit of the planet you're on), and then launch them to an orbital refinery with a greater power supply for further processing... (into LFO/UF4/ThF4)

If it's not possible now, it might be again in the future- so it might serve as a placeholder...

Regards,

Northstar

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Hey Wave, was I correct in understanding that your experimental update a couple days back was recompiled for 0.24?

Yes, my experimental build is compiled for .24. I've yet to see evidence that recompiling was required though.

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Ummm, if I'm not mistaken, you can simply harvest LiquidWater when splashed down in oceans (such as on Laythe) without electrolyzing it directly into LFO- and LiquidWater can be used in thermal rockets without needing to be further refined.

The 2.5 meter Inline Refinery is also capable of reprocessing nuclear fuel without needing Kerbals, like the Science Lab- so there's that utility to it as well.

And are you *sure* that the resources are both extracted and refined in the same step for ice/Uranium/Thorium? (keep in mind that Uranium and Thorium are NOT the refined forms of their respective resources) It's been a while since I've done any testing with the refineries, and I don't currently have KSP Interstellar installed (since I updated to 0.24), but I *thought* these resources were harvested in their raw forms (LiquidWater/Uranium/Thorium)- making it possible to extract them on a vessel with a meager power supply (say one powered by a Microwave Receiver only receiving from a single 2.5 meter reactor in orbit of the planet you're on), and then launch them to an orbital refinery with a greater power supply for further processing... (into LFO/UF4/ThF4)

If it's not possible now, it might be again in the future- so it might serve as a placeholder...

Regards,

Northstar

I never claimed the resources are both extracted and refined in the same step for ice/Uranium/Thorium. I was saying it seems pointless to use 2.5m refineries because, sure you can fill up on water without electrolyzing it right away... but why would you? Water-tanks can't be filled up on their own. In order to fill up the water tanks you'd have had to carried in an ISRU or 3.75m Inline Refinery anyway. There's no extraction-only parts to complement the 2.5m refinery.

Now the point about reprocessing nuclear fuel is a good one, but still, I still feel like the 2.5m refinery is of overly limited usefulness. As for energy-limitations as a reason for using a microwave powered 2.5m refinery in orbit, okay, maybe early in the tech tree that's the case. But I'm in sandbox-mode, and my 1.25m fusion reactor seems to be more than enough to power the ISRU. So eventually the 2.5m refinery stops being useful once you can power things on site with a small enough reactor.

Anyway, I guess my concern about the 2.5m inline refinery is also fueled by my frustration with how to gracefully work an ISRU into my ship's structure without it being "clunky" and unaerodynamic. Maybe if the ISRU didn't use that a funky attachment point I wouldn't be trying so hard to find an alternative to it.

BTW, regarding the extracted Uranium and Thorium, when you extract them, they are not pure. They're extracted as UF4 and ThF4. You only refine uranium if you need Uranium Nitrate. Note that there's no pure-uranium or pure-thorium resource bars, resource-tanks, nor a mention of them in the github guide.

Edited by Entropius
clarity
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Any chance your science.cfg got changed? If not, what errors are you getting?

It wasn't throwing any errors, everything loads normally and everything still seems to work, except for that. It was working up until .24 came out and I installed your experimental build a few days ago, and the only things I've added since then were the toolbar and TAC fuel balancer, neither of which should have done anything to it.

I'm going to try reinstalling the main build of it and see if that fixes things.

Edit: Reinstalling Interstellar didn't fix anything, so I reinstalled KSP and then reinstalled all of the mods (except Rocketry, waiting on an update there) and now it works fine. So, it was something with my install, NOT the mod.

Edited by Nightdagger
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I never claimed the resources are both extracted and refined in the same step for ice/Uranium/Thorium. I was saying it seems pointless to use 2.5m refineries because, sure you can fill up on water without electrolyzing it right away... but why would you? Water-tanks can't be filled up on their own. In order to fill up the water tanks you'd have had to carried in an ISRU or 3.75m Inline Refinery anyway. There's no extraction-only parts to complement the 2.5m refinery.

Now the point about reprocessing nuclear fuel is a good one, but still, I still feel like the 2.5m refinery is of overly limited usefulness. As for energy-limitations as a reason for using a microwave powered 2.5m refinery in orbit, okay, maybe early in the tech tree that's the case. But I'm in sandbox-mode, and my 1.25m fusion reactor seems to be more than enough to power the ISRU. So eventually the 2.5m refinery stops being useful once you can power things on site with a small enough reactor.

Anyway, I guess my concern about the 2.5m inline refinery is also fueled by my frustration with how to gracefully work an ISRU into my ship's structure without it being "clunky" and unaerodynamic. Maybe if the ISRU didn't use that a funky attachment point I wouldn't be trying so hard to find an alternative to it.

BTW, regarding the extracted Uranium and Thorium, when you extract them, they are not pure. They're extracted as UF4 and ThF4. You only refine uranium if you need Uranium Nitrate. Note that there's no pure-uranium or pure-thorium resource bars, resource-tanks, nor a mention of them in the github guide.

You are not wrong. I use a MM config to add extraction to my refineries. Partly for the reasons you stated, but mostly because the ISRU and 3.75 , while they look good, have very bad physics. The ISRU has node issues and the 3.75 doesn't have a single flat surface to place parts on the side.

Edited by WaveFunctionP
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Does anybody really ever use the 2.5m Inline Refinery?

Interstellar doesn't appear to have any parts capable of just extracting (without refining) terrestrial resources like uranium/thorium/ice, so if you need to extract resources you're forced to use the ISRU or 3.75m Inline Refinery anyway, right? So in what situation would you ever use the 2.5 Inline Refinery?

I actually love the 2.5m inline refinery. It has a permanent place on my LKO station. This is a refueling station... I use it to reprocess all of my nuke fuels and what not. Better to use this than an actual science lab.

screenshot142.png

~Steve

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You are not wrong. I use a MM config to add extraction to my refineries. Partly for the reasons you stated, but mostly because the ISRU and 3.75 , while they look good, have very bad physics. The ISRU has node issues and the 3.75 doesn't have a single flat surface to place parts on the side.

Mind sharing that MM config? This is exactly what I want/need.

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What I think this mod really needs, is dangers with radioactive equipment.

If a nuclear generator explodes or crashes or whatever, all nearby Kerbals should get a HUGE radiation spike if not die alltogether.

Is radiation damage going to be implemented in the next update? It looks like an interesting mechanic where Kerbals accumulate radiation in space.

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Putting the mouse over the part in the editor, is exactly what made the issue I was talking about appear. Please find that modulefixer mod (last post in the thread I linked) and try it, it could be your solution.

If not, you have to upload the whole output_log.txt on any file sharing site, and provide a link to that. While the bug may come evident just by observing a few lines, I can't anticipate what those lines may be.

Anyway, noted you are running KSP 0.24, while KSPI is not yet rated to work with that version. Other mods you installed seem to be. If that is the case, you may have to wait until KSPI next version is published.

ah ... ok so KSPI is as it shows above .. still 23.5 and in process of being .24 rated? Am I understanding that right?

Just asking so I know if it's even worth it to ask about a problem I am having in 64

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ah ... ok so KSPI is as it shows above .. still 23.5 and in process of being .24 rated? Am I understanding that right?

Just asking so I know if it's even worth it to ask about a problem I am having in 64

The the official .dll file, which the plugin code run by ksp, has been compiled for .23.5. I do not believe that anything changed in .24 that requires the .dll to be recompiled in order to function. Compiling is the process of turning the human readable text document that is written into the code that computer understands natively. Compiling is done by a special program called a compiler, which is usually part of suit of development software called an SDK used by programmers to write software. Usually, you only need to recompile if a part of the written code used in the software has changed. Basicly, if the part of the underlying code (the API) that the plugin utilizes is changed, the software must be recompiled or, more often, rewritten to adapt to those changes.

I don't know that running 64 bit will cause any problems that aren't just inherent with 64 bit's instability right now.

It is always worth it to mention any issue you may be having as knowing about potential issues is the first step in rectifying them.

Edited by WaveFunctionP
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[LOG 06:34:11.005] [KSP Interstellar] Exception caught adding to: radiator-1mw part: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

at FNPlugin.PluginHelper.Update () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

[ERR 06:34:11.007] Cannot find module 'ModuleDeployableSolarPanel' (-298629360)

is one error u get for kspi

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Has anyone started a public spreadsheet or anything so that we can work towards a consensus of part and fuel costs?

~Steve

Have not had any ambition to play lately, let alone do any spreadsheets.

With costs it should be: AM really expensive, Tritium midpoint, Uranium still expensive but cheaper then Trit.

All the other resources are fairly inexpensive, or they are dependent on the price of one of the above items. Like Tritium that needs to breed or uranium nitride that requires UF4 and Ammonia.

It might work to base the costs on MWh costs. How much energy is needed to create it.

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wavefuntionp cant download the expemermental version from your dropbox always says failed. was gonna try it to see if it fixed the issue with the iva breaking

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KSP Interstellar is currently breaking all IVA Prop animations and breaking RPM for me. This is on KSP 64bBit 0.24 Has anyone else run into this?

Yeah - I have both this and RPM running fine (64 bit) - (I don't use IVA so much, so I there might be some missing/broken feature that I have not noticed). I am using the wavefunction recompile.

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wavefuntion for some reason dropbox isnt allowing your expermental to be downloaded u have to have a account then save to your dropbox then download it right now

Edited by sidfu
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Okay, now I'm having two more issues. First, I sent up a satellite with a 3.5m Akula fission reactor, with a 3.5m electric generator positioned right under it. I put 6 huge radiators on it (my radiators are upgraded to Graphene radiators because I have experimental electrics researched), and in ground tests this setup produces 1.91 GW of power with no complaints and zero heat accumulation. I put the same thing into orbit and the generator is producing less than half a gigawatt of power, the reactor (although running at 100%) is only producing 2.2GW of thermal power, and when I shut the thing down it took almost half a year to cool down.

This isn't normal, is it? I mean, my supposed max heat dispersion with those six radiators is 5x what the reactor is capable of producing. Even assuming that they don't work as efficiently without an atmosphere this seems extremely....weak for the largest reactor with the largest generator attached to it.

Second, I have 4 satellites spaced apart in a 750km orbit around Kerbin, each with a microwave transceiver on it set to relay mode. None of them will detect that the others exist, nor will they detect that my wimpy power plant is transmitting 450 MW of power.

Any ideas, suggestions, hints? This is my first delving into microwave power transmission and so far I'm very underwhelmed. I realize that fission reactors are entry-level but...well, I could live with the low power production if they're actually only supposed to produce that much, but the fact that I don't appear to actually be able to USE it is annoying at best.

Edit: Well, I figured out the solution to problem 2...the satellite relays will only activate if something's actually demanding power. Derp.

Edited by Nightdagger
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