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MatterBeam

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Posts posted by MatterBeam

    Career Mod Discussion

    in KSP1 Mods Discussions

    Posted

    I would suggest development in phases.

    Get a small playable version together for publishing, either in dev forum or in release forum and then build upon it.

    The advantage is, that people can already try it out and give feedback. Also you will notice issues for every phase/step, instead of all at once when you have already built a lot of interdependencies.

    Agreed.

    I've already started creating dev/help-me threads for the first, essential steps of the mod:

    -The Resource-point system.

    -The Funds-to-Resource costs for the fuels.

    The first can either be done by creating a new point system (Funds/Reputation/Science-alike) or repurposing an existing point system (Reputation to Resources) and disabling the regular point gains for it.

    The latter can be accomplished by creating a 0x multiplier for the gains, either through a savegame manipulation, a change in career menu settings or some sort of post-career creation patch.

    Apparently, some modders have been able to add a Reputation cost for using certain parts, roleplaying damage to the environment. If I could get my hands on the same mechanic, I might be able to study it for switching Funds to Resources cost.

    [WIP][1.0.2] Mk2 SR-71 - FantomWorks

    in KSP1 Mod Development

    Posted · Edited by TruthQuark
    PS

    Wow, this is amazing!

    One of the best cockpits by far.

    Could you also get the Lockheed D-21 in there too? It'd be a drone core, transitioning from cylindrical to Mk2 much more smoothly than the current MK1/Mk2 adaptor. We could then attack a shock air cone to it and strakes for our own D-21/SR-71 mother ship and drone combo.

    PS: Download link?

    [On Hold]Career Resources

    in KSP1 Mod Development

    Posted

    Skimming through the forums, I see people have added Reputation cost to their parts somehow. Maybe an interim solution is to rename the 'Reputation' points into @resources, use the same mechanic as the other modders to add a custom cost to the fuels, and then disable the entire reputation-gain mechanics in then game.

    [WIP] Nert's Dev Thread - Current: such nuke, wow

    in KSP1 Mod Development

    Posted

    The real problem is the wing's thermal tolerance is too high... 2000K radiators are a carbon metamaterial magic (that is possible and does exist) and would be used on a reactor like the SAFE400. You'd heat those radiators up so far that they'd emit IR energy like crazy and be very efficient even at a small size. And yes, you'd use heat pipes to get to them, then the coolant would go back into the radiator to heat up the coolant again, and repeat. This is how electricity is generated, it's an ideal engine cycle (Brayton Turbine in the case of the SAFE400).

    Interesting thing is when you heat a radiator up that far they don't need to be that big either, the hotter the radiator's temperature, the more kWt it loses to space. (the increase is to the 4th power)

    The reason the ISS needs such big radiators is they aren't very hot.

    In this case, even on the ground, most of your heat loss is through radiation not convection or conduction. Actually being on the ground means that you're radiating at a grey body, so it's not as efficient. In this case facing out into black space, yep... this is working as it should from what I can tell. Those two radiators facing the sun shouldn't be radiating as much, but those two perpendicular to it would be very effective.

    On the radiators for the NTRs: I haven't been watching this thread super close, but the NTRs should be losing all of their bulidup heat through the propellant while running. It's when they're not running that something must be done to cool the reactor (which could be done by turning down the fission reaction, which means you would have to spin it up again before you could use the engine again). Probably using it as a generator to turn those watts of thermal energy to electrical energy, then you'd radiate your heat energy off into space. Basically using it like a giant RTG, large radiators should not be needed. I've yet to fiddle with the stock NTR... but from prior use and other engines it sounds like it's backwards. It generates a lot of heat while running and is cool when it's idle. The heat is what makes it work and have its high ISP!

    AFAIK, there's several things wrong here:

    -Conduction through dense atmosphere, such as on the launchpad, is many many times more efficient than radiating, at all temperatures.

    -2000K is about 1726 degrees Celsius. That's well within the temperature tolerances for many solid materials. While a command pod shouldn't be sitting at temperatures that melt steel, there's no reason a carbon radiator doesn't operate at temperatures well below its triple point in atmosphere (4330C) or its sublimation point in vacuum (5530C).

    -NTRs are solid core rockets. Their temperature can increase or decrease depending on how far the neutron poison control rods are inserted/rotated. There is no reason that propellant flow is always enough to cool the nuclear core. While it might be true for chemical rockets, because of their massive fuel flows (up to 1.2 tons per second), it is not true for the LV-N which only has a fuel flow of 7.6kg/s to dump its heat into.

    -Converting waste heat into electrical energy does not make that waste heat disappear. You'll always need to dissipate the full amount.

    Engine Lighting

    in KSP1 Mods Discussions

    Posted

    I don't think those do what he's looking for. I think this a neat idea and would also be interested in seeing someone develop this.

    Oh! I think he wants some sort of particle effects that are also a light source.

    I don't know, it sounds like you'd have to modify Emissives or create a 'lightbulb' node to the engine model. Both are huge amounts of work.

    [1.1.2] Kerbal Inventory System (KIS) 1.2.12

    in KSP1 Mod Releases

    Posted

    1.1.3 released !

    Change log :

    • [Fix] fix explosion after moving/attaching a part (hopefully)
    • [Fix] Prevent equipped part to explode after loading (when using equipmode = part)
    • [Fix] Prevent item to be carried even if no slot is available
    • [Fix] Explosive now show up in the left hand according to the equip slot
    • [Fix] Prevent unequipping when dragging an item on another
    • [Fix] Eva propellant will now remove resource from the equipped part (when using equipmode = part)
    • [Change] Guide and wrench item moved to engineering101 tech node
    • [Change] Created a SendKISMessage method (to communicate with KAS or other mods)

    Will update.

    I'll come back if anything goes wrong. If not, no news is good news, right?

    [On Hold]Career Resources

    in KSP1 Mod Development

    Posted · Edited by TruthQuark
    CYA LATER

    Hello.

    As part of my Career Mod project (see signature), I need to create a point system.

    My goal to is to create something akin to Science, Funds or Reputation, but called Resources.

    The player starts the career save with a certain Resource point budget. To launch spaceships, the player has to pay for fuel, oxidizer ect. with Resource points. Recovering Ore or ships containing various resources allows the player to gain Resource points with various multipliers for what is recovered.

    Objectives:

    1) Create a Resource point system identical to the Science/Reputation point system

    2) Create a way to display the Resource point system. A toolbar/window is fine.

    3) Convert all resource costs, as defined in the stock Resources/cfg file, to be read as Resource point costs and not Funds costs.

    4) Allow the player to edit the initial Resource point budget from within the game.

    5) Balance resource costs and add compatibility for other mods.

    How can I go about doing this? I can work .cfg files but have zero knowledge of C# or .dll

    Engine Lighting

    in KSP1 Mods Discussions

    Posted

    So I was playing KSP, launching my rocket up into space as is my norm. Then a thought popped into my head. Why is it so dark? Don't rockets make light too? I think it would be really cool if someone could make a plugin that adds some sort of light generation to lit engines in flight.

    Try PlanetShine or Ambient Light Adjustment.

    Career Mod Discussion

    in KSP1 Mods Discussions

    Posted

    Currently, I'm settled on creating a point system similar to Science and Reputation called Resources.

    All ingame resource costs are converted from Funds to Resources.

    For example, a 2 million Funds rocket would now cost 1 million Funds and 1 million Resources.

    The Resource points start at a high value, and the player budgets them for each launch. Gaining Resource Points can be done by dropping unprocessed Ore onto Kerbin and recovering it for a low Ore-to-Resource conversion ratio, or dropping Ore converted into LiquidFuel/Oxidizer/LqHydrogen ect. for a 1:1 ratio conversion into Resource points.

    Things like life support resources would have a very low recovery rate to prevent a player farming greenhouse products on Kerbin and converting them into infinite fuel.[

    Noob projects: Physics hiding and Resource Restriction

    in KSP1 C# Plugin Development Help and Support

    Posted

    Hello!

    I'm a complete noob at plugin development. I believe I know about 80% of the things you can do with a .cfg file, so that is the perfect amount of knowledge for starting the 100 times more difficult process of creating a plugin.

    First project:

    -I know that the stock game, and FAR, can recognize whether a part is inside a cargobay/fairing and is shielded from the airflow. Is it possible to add another property to those parts?: Physics significance 0

    I'm not sure I'm using the correct vocabulary, but I want shielded parts to be ignored for physics calculations. No more oscillating fuel tanks inside cargobays, but a rigid physicsless part.

    Second project:

    -For a career mod, I want to restrict the amount of LiquidFuel (or any other resource for that matter) that you can 'buy' from the KSC.

    My first idea was to create a resource pool for the Kerbal Space Center that the player draws from with each launch. When it hits zero, the player simply cannot launch a rocket with that resource onboard.

    My second, was to force all rockets to start on the launchpad with zero resources. The player would then have to transfer resources through a launch clamp. The clamp has a persistent resource pool that it can draw from, much like Science or Reputation points.

    My third idea would be convert Resources into something from the Scenario {Funding} in Save files, so you'd have to basically 'buy' LiquidFuel by spending 300 'LiquidFuel' points. Dropping extraplanetary resources on the KSC for recovery could replenish these points.

    My final, and most cherished idea, is to create a 'Resource' cost for all resources. This could be a very simple step of converting the 'cost = x' line in the resources.cfg file into 'cost = x resource points'.

    So, my dear experienced C# wizards, how do I go about writing plugins for these mods?

    Please do not simply direct me to the various outdated tutorials lying around. I currently have zero C# knowledge, have yet to install Visual Basic and learning an entire language just for a small project somehow doesn't sound right.

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