[1.4] SpaceY Heavy-Lifter Parts Pack v1.17.1 (2018-04-02)

[NecroBones]

47 minutes ago, Jodo42 said:

Would it be possible to make a RealFuels config for the SpaceY & SpaceY Expanded engines/tanks? Engine Ignitor is defunct and RealFuels has taken over its capabilities.

 

And do you know if Lithobrake's parachutes work with RealChute?

 

I think configs for those already exist. RealFuels adds some of the tank volumes for SpaceY Lifters, but not Expanded, by the looks of things. But I'm also changing the config in Expanded to add that from my side. I think the RF-Stockalike pack adds engine configs for both. I'm not sure about Realism Overhaul. It's usually up to those guys to control it from their end.

 

I'm not sure on RealChute either. I didn't add any configs for that, but it's something we can look into.

 

38 minutes ago, komodo said:

Hey there @NecroBones, I really like this pack, it's a lot of fun, (even if I don't often get that high up the tech tree ><).

I wanted to write in a possible bug/typo in the cfg file I found: In SpaceY-Lifters/Parts/ThrustPlates/SYplate3m1mX7.cfg, the node_stack_bottom03 definition is missing a space between the node and the "=". I don't know if this will actually cause a problem, although I suspect so... i've never seen it done elsewhere. (Don't ask how I found this, it's a long story ><)

Thanks!

Yeah that shouldn't break anything. I'm cleaning it up for the next release though (which will happen shortly). I do prefer the files to have a nice clean consistent look.

 

[NecroBones]

 

----------------------------

Posted:

1.8 (2015-12-31) - Texture updates.
 - Moved the "SpaceY Expanded" 7.5m tank texture into this pack.
    - Repainted default appearance for 5m tanks to use it.
    - Enables color-switching for 5m tanks even without "SpaceY Expanded".
    - 3.75m fueled short nose cone repainted with it too, removed grey stripes.
    - Reduced size of original 5m tank texture, removing redundant black/white areas.
    - Repainted 5m R7 engine to match, for compatibility.
 - Removed a fairing texture that was no longer in use.

 

[Rodger]

It would seem the new version of MM included with this update causes the kopernicus planet packs I have installed to break (planets changing to plain circular orbits and losing moons etc). I reverted to .13 of MM and loaded a backup, and everything was better again (thank you S.A.V.E. lol)

[NecroBones]

14 hours ago, Rodger said:

It would seem the new version of MM included with this update causes the kopernicus planet packs I have installed to break (planets changing to plain circular orbits and losing moons etc). I reverted to .13 of MM and loaded a backup, and everything was better again (thank you S.A.V.E. lol)

Yep, the good news is that back-versions of mods are usually pretty easy to find, between KerbalStuff, Curse, and GitHub (for mods that use that), and my own download folder on necrobones.com for my mods.

 

I wonder what changed that broke Kopernicus. If it's causing problems, I suspect it won't be long until either MM changes again, or Kopernicus updates to take the changes into account.

 

[PickledTripod]

Module Manager has been updated to 2.6.16 to fix the bug.

[TheDog]

I noticed that the latest update removed the custom category for SpaceY Lifters (only Lifters, SpaceY Expanded category still there).

After changing the Category.cfg to correct the icons paths (SpaceY-Lifters/Category/SpaceY-Lifters instead of SpaceY-Lifters/Category/Icons/SpaceY-Lifters) I had the category re-appear.

 

[NecroBones]

10 hours ago, PickledTripod said:

Module Manager has been updated to 2.6.16 to fix the bug.

OK, I'll push out a hotfix later today that includes that, just to avoid confusion.

 

5 hours ago, TheDog said:

I noticed that the latest update removed the custom category for SpaceY Lifters (only Lifters, SpaceY Expanded category still there).

After changing the Category.cfg to correct the icons paths (SpaceY-Lifters/Category/SpaceY-Lifters instead of SpaceY-Lifters/Category/Icons/SpaceY-Lifters) I had the category re-appear.

 

OK cool. Yeah, actually there are two copies of the icons in there now, with "SimpleIcons" having the second copy. I was experimenting with trying to make the icons work for a custom menu tab in stock (without Filter Extensions) and apparently broke it along the way. I'll fix that.

 

Edited January 2, 2016 by NecroBones

[NecroBones]

Posted:

 

1.8.1 (2016-01-02) - Fixes.
 - Included ModuleManager version updated with its 2.6.16 bugfix update.
 - Added a "needs" condition for TweakScale patches.
 - Fixed the FilterExtensions category icon path.

 

[Gaarst]

This might have been suggested before, but would taller 3.75m booster be possible ?

Thing is, the tallest 3.75m SRB (S321 Fenrir) is shorter than the S223 or even S121 SRBs, this causes a proportion issue with these: the Space Shuttle SRBs were 3.71m wide for 45m high, hence, the Fenrir booster just doesn't look right in terms of proportions.
While the S223 booster fits nicely on 3.75m or 5m cores (for designs that look like Ariane 5 or Space Shuttle Boosters for example) and "looks" like a real SRB that would be strapped to a rocket (as well as the S121 which is even taller relative to its width), it is hard to fit a Fenrir on anything other than a Vega design: the rockets that would need a 9MN radial SRB are often too tall and you end up with an Ariane 6 rocket.
As a result, I never use the 3.75m SRBs while they would be extremely useful for large rockets, a SLS for example (yes, I know I shouldn't abandon an efficient design because I don't like how it looks, but fashion > all ).

Another issue that arises is the burn time of these boosters: the Fenrir burns for only 40s at full thrust; which means that if you need the full thrust for your rocket (SRBs are supposed to provide the majority of thrust at liftoff) you'll have boosters for 40s and then your rocket will be on its own. A taller 3.75m booster would solve this issue: more fuel, so more thrust is possible, as well as longer burn times at the same time.

The description mentions that the S300 series of SRBs are meant to be used as lower or middle stage, but then again, I have a hard time finding a use for them: the S308 Thor and S312 Odin just don't give enough dV when anything that uses their 4.5 and 6.4MN of thrust is put over them, and the S321 Fenrir is too tall to fit under a 3.75m design that would still need 2 liquid stages to make it to orbit (playing RSS here).

So I would appreciate if you considered adding a much taller 3.75m SRB, or even create a new family of 3.75m boosters that would be designed to fit radially and then modify the current S300 SRBs to make them specialised for lower or middle stages, as intended.

Thank you!

[MaxL_1023]

I might have found a bug with the "Penguin" Vacuum engine. It seems to use BOTH thrust configurations at once as default, meaning you get 1200KN of thrust instead of the expected 600. I could deactivate either or both engines at the same time, leading to getting back the original 600KN at 400 ISP (which my design used). It is supposed to work that way, or is something glitched on my end?

[NecroBones]

5 hours ago, Gaarst said:

This might have been suggested before, but would taller 3.75m booster be possible ?

Quite possible, sure. I'll give it some consideration. What I'd be tempted to do is add a fourth length to all three of the SRB diameters.

 

 

54 minutes ago, MaxL_1023 said:

I might have found a bug with the "Penguin" Vacuum engine. It seems to use BOTH thrust configurations at once as default, meaning you get 1200KN of thrust instead of the expected 600. I could deactivate either or both engines at the same time, leading to getting back the original 600KN at 400 ISP (which my design used). It is supposed to work that way, or is something glitched on my end?

 

Ah, you're using CryoEngines I assume? I'm looking at the configs, and I think I see why this is happening. I'll put out a patch and see if that nails it. I'll update over in the Expanded thread.

[MaxL_1023]

Yes, I am using Cryoengines. Thank you.

[WuphonsReach]

Wish list for more thrust plates / adapters:

• A2 (2.5m) plate size for multiple 0.625 size engines, maybe a 5x and 7x mounting point variant.
• A3 (3.75m) plate with only four 1.25m mount points with no center engine and the individual nodes pushed in from the edges.  That's more of a style thing.
• A3 plate for (9) 0.625 engines, with average spacing between each.

 

[NecroBones]

Some of those could be cool. I'll keep them in mind. I do like the idea of the 4x 1.25. It would allow something reminiscent of the Saturn V's S-II stage, except with 4 engines instead of 5, but you get that narrow clustered look.

[NotAgain]

Has anyone else had the issue that none of the engines have exhaust plumes? They co-operate with engine lighting perfectly, and generate thrust, but have no plume. Am I missing a dependency or something?

[NecroBones]

4 hours ago, NotAgain said:

Has anyone else had the issue that none of the engines have exhaust plumes? They co-operate with engine lighting perfectly, and generate thrust, but have no plume. Am I missing a dependency or something?

Probably what's happening is that ModuleManager thinks HotRockets is installed, but it actually isn't. I never did figure out which mod(s) is goofing that up for people. The configs are correct on my side. You can try either installing HotRockets, or go into the SpaceY folder and delete "SpaceY_HotRockets.cfg".

 

EDIT: I've added this to the Troubleshooting section in the OP.

Edited January 10, 2016 by NecroBones

[alex88]

I've installed this module along with modulemanager and mechjeb, however it happened a couple times that after a quicksave-quickload the a5-123 adapter disappeared (however things were correctly attached), anyone else had this bug?

[NecroBones]

3 hours ago, alex88 said:

I've installed this module along with modulemanager and mechjeb, however it happened a couple times that after a quicksave-quickload the a5-123 adapter disappeared (however things were correctly attached), anyone else had this bug?

Yeah, that's a flaw with how KSP handles the shrouds. I'm pretty sure it's a stock bug. I'm tempted to split those adapters back out into individual parts to avoid the problem, but maybe KSP 1.1 will fix it?

[alex88]

I've got a contract where I had to recover a module XCT-M from the Mun, however it was a super heavy clamp and it was impossible to move with the grabber, is it a contract got from the mod?

Anyway, just going towards the clamp makes you magically acquire the module but it was unrealistic

Also, the "obtain module" step is actually completed, but after going back on Kerbin it doesn't solve the mission

Edited January 14, 2016 by alex88

[Joco223]

Hey @NecroBones, could you add some efficient orbital engines with high ISP? There are the penguin engines and they have ISP of 400 but they are too big. Some weaker and smaller versions maybe (make it still be 3.75m but a bit shorter)

[NecroBones]

6 hours ago, alex88 said:

I've got a contract where I had to recover a module XCT-M from the Mun, however it was a super heavy clamp and it was impossible to move with the grabber, is it a contract got from the mod?

Anyway, just going towards the clamp makes you magically acquire the module but it was unrealistic

Also, the "obtain module" step is actually completed, but after going back on Kerbin it doesn't solve the mission

Huh, the launch clamps in SpaceY use the same contract availability of the stock rules, so either it's something that stock is doing, or one of the other mods is influencing.

 

1 hour ago, Joco223 said:

Hey @NecroBones, could you add some efficient orbital engines with high ISP? There are the penguin engines and they have ISP of 400 but they are too big. Some weaker and smaller versions maybe (make it still be 3.75m but a bit shorter)

Possibly. In the meantime, if you want a "poodle" engine in 3.75m, there's one in MRS. The "Hound" engine is in both the "Lite" and full versions of that pack.

[Joco223]

@NecroBones Ok. I'll check it out

[NecroBones]

Posted update:

 

1.8.2 (2016-01-14) - Tweaks.
 - Consolidating tech tree for better mod compatibility:
    - Added SpaceY Expanded's tech tree nodes.
    - Added a hidden Colossal Rocketry node for future use (and for other mods if they want).
 - Removed TweakScale "adapter_3_1" definition since it's redundant with default TS configs now.

 

The tech-tree changes are going to greatly simplify Real Scale Booster's mod/tree compatibility.

[Gaarst]

28 minutes ago, NecroBones said:

Added a hidden Colossal Rocketry node for future use (and for other mods if they want).

Ooooooh, I'm curious about that future use ! 

Edited January 14, 2016 by Gaarst

[CorBlimey]

On 05/01/2016 at 2:15 AM, WuphonsReach said:

Wish list for more thrust plates / adapters:

• A2 (2.5m) plate size for multiple 0.625 size engines, maybe a 5x and 7x mounting point variant.
• A3 (3.75m) plate with only four 1.25m mount points with no center engine and the individual nodes pushed in from the edges.  That's more of a style thing.
• A3 plate for (9) 0.625 engines, with average spacing between each.

 

 

On 05/01/2016 at 5:25 AM, NecroBones said:

Some of those could be cool. I'll keep them in mind. I do like the idea of the 4x 1.25. It would allow something reminiscent of the Saturn V's S-II stage, except with 4 engines instead of 5, but you get that narrow clustered look.

 

if you implement these, could you try and use some sort of dyanmic approach (like e.g. with those multi adaptors). Part proliferation is a real issue - my build times have snowballed just because I spend so much time trying to find the part I want!! (and performance reasons - but hoepfully 64 bit KSP does away with those worries)