DrScarlett

That's the problem - not enough power to create a stable warp field

And another snag Launched my antimatter hauler, went to get the first batch of antimatter at the collector around Kerbin to get enough for the FTL trip to Jool to get a whole lot more there. Docked with the collector, moved the AM over, undocked and (beside the need for a reload again, the issue previously mentioned where you have to reload in order to get the electrical systems working again) now the AM reactor is not working,not showing up in the stats except at theoretical waste heat strangely enough. @FreeThinker or anyone - any ideas? Am I doing something wrong?

Thank you for that encouragement, but I am below average with planes. I might make it when I stick to it for a very long time, but it is not going to be worth it for me. I will take the previously mentioned route. I do like your idea ( @FreeThinker? ) of a dedicated KSPI ships thread, I feel like I am cluttering up this one at times.

I was kind of thinking you might suggest not not try to do it single stage. Thanks for confirming my suspicion.

@Ciro1983811 and all others, has anyone ever successfully created a SSTW (single stage to warp) space plane? i would like to make an antimatter hauler that can take off and land as a plane to make it hop over to my Jool anti matter collector and bring AM back to the AM tanker down at KSC. I'll consider any other method that makes delivery to KSC easy, but a plane is the first thing that comes to mind. My first three tries were unsuccessful, but then again, I am not the most prolific plane builder (or flyer, for that matter). Any hints, pointers or builds would be rather welcome at this point

Today is a day for deep and sincere gratitude.

And...thanks again. Turning it off

Thank you! So that means use the KS-OCD Orbital Construction dock in stead of the orbital shipyard. And use the stakes and a regular workshop on the surface. EPL No More Production removes all the production stuff from EPL (Rocketparts etc) that you do not need when you use MKS. Keeps it neat

Which parts are those?

@voicey99: Thank you very much! Installed EPL, plus EPL-No More Production, seems to be working fine! Anything to pay particular attention to?

Hi @RoverDude and other colonization enthusiasts, I have a question. I am going to continue my attempt of colonizing another star system, combining MKS, KSPI and some Kopernicus planet pack. Since my last play-through MKS has swapped out it's construction method for Ground Construction. I like that mod, I like the relative simplicity, but there is one thing I cannot work with, and that is the fact that I need to bring something to the construction colony, namely a blueprint. I would like to continue to be 100% (100%) self-sufficient and build stuff completely independent of any other Kerbalized location. Being in another star system makes the blueprint approach impractical, at least, that is not a restriction I am prepared to work with. Is there a way of getting around that? Maybe use the old mods, or make some change to ground construction? Or is there another mod that I can add that expands capability towards my play style (maybe one that lets me build a full blown space center on another planet)? Any advice you might have is greatly welcomed! Thanks in advance Dr. Scarlett

I am always using named quick saves, never go via KFC. But anyway, I can now reproduce it. I just take an earlier save, dock the craft, undock the engine portion of the craft that has the reactor, and power goes dead. Tried it 4 times. However if I load a save where the craft is already docked, the error doesn't occur. But since I have a surefire way of reproducing the error, I think I am good for now. @danielboro Thank you for the suggestion anyway!

@danielboro: Read me second edit above. What is this save edit supposed to accomplish, just to understand better?

Hi @FreeThinker, I have experienced this very problem several times before in 1.3. I undock, my reactor keeps running but provides 0 MJ, if it is fusion, apparently its self maintenance power keeps running. The generator keeps running, but there is no current anymore. If I save and reopen, power comes back. Here is my latest example. After undock: How can I help you figure this out? EDIT: I purposely saved the game before decoupling, and just after decoupling. Obviously the one after doesn't help, because if I load that, the problem is gone. But now it gets worse: when I load the before save, and decouple, the problem does not occur. I cannot reproduce it. Those are the worst.... EDIT2: When I take a save earlier (before I dock the original craft, which is basically a bunch of huge AM containers with an engine part, containing the tri-aleph and kerbstein, that I can decouple as a segment), dock the craft and then undock the engine/reactor part - presto problem occurs. Looks reproducible. Same behavior on the extra save just before undocking. When I reload that, undock the engine section, everything behaves as normal. I will try the before docking scenario again to see if I can truly reproduce it.

I have been experiencing the above yesterday in my tests, hehe, very funny. Now that I have played around with gravity breaking, first: thanks again to y'all who pointed this out to me. Second: it's quite freaky, and quite fun, and it clearly points out to me the Alcubierre is NOT OP. Third: try bleeding off 15K dV when returning to Kerbin, or using some other relatively small body for gravity breaking, you will be using many hops to do it. It is very much like aerobreaking, it can take quite a while. Also it is quite possible to use a sh!tton of antimatter while doing this, at some point you really have to consider designing for a different method... In short, I LIKE IT. Whooohoooo!

Thank you very much, @Ciro1983811, very helpful!!

Hehe that's some advanced warping chicanery! Hi @Ciro1983811, You are talking about a SSTW plane right? A few questions on that. What engine is this ammonia/methane thing? What does isru dependant mean? Why turn off the antimatter reactors in the upper atmo? Thanks in advance, Dr. Scarlett

Thank you!! And thank you!! These two tricks together will probably be all I need!

Thank you both, @BlackMoonsand @FreeThinker, So orbital velocities are easy, but what I need to know in order to estimate the right starting point is the relative vector of my target body with the current body I am orbiting. If for instance my target is moving more or less towards my current body, I better start on the part of my orbit that moves away from the target, in order to decrease my relative velocity - am I getting this right? This is the part that still confuses me. I am sensing it is also important where I drop out of warp, because my original (and now retained) vector will the basis of my new trajectory in the gravitational influence of the new body. Depending on my starting vector I will want to pick whether I want to drop out of warp to the left side or the right side or straight in front of the new body. Damn this is not easy. Does the Warp control window give me a direction as well, i.e. tell me the whole vector? When i start traveling to a new star, which is my goal, I am going to have to worry about the relative velocity between Kerbol and that star. That is gong to be fun... Also i don't understand how multiple warp hops can help brake my original vector. Dang... Let me experiment and see if I can get a better grip on this. That usually helps Any additional instructions are very welcome.

Scuse me??? Got any vids or any place I can find details on that? EDIT: Never heard of that! Tried a bit of stutter stepping towards the planet myself, but only saw a small drop in the dV needed for orbit, so I left it. If this technique is legit I need to learn it. Thanks for bringing it up!

So all this playing around brings me to yet another question: When doing Alcubierre FTL hops, and you know your target and want to do a return trip as well, is there a way to predict how much dV you will need on each of the capture breaking maneuvers?

Thank you, @FreeThinker, that is a very interesting option. When putting that on the small FTL craft above it gives great TWR, and gets me off the launchpad to boot! I just need to balance out the amount of LH2 I pack to have enough dV to break at the target and break again on the return after the FTL hops. I have too much mass for crazy light speeds (a "mere" 50c in this example), but for jumping around the Kerbal system, it's great! Thanks again for that pointer! EDIT: AUWCH, I needed 14K dV to break on the return to Kerbin, only had 4.7K left. Say bye-bye to the Kerbal system - back to the drawing board on this one, hehehe. That balance act is not as easy as I thought. EDIT2: Nope, can't pack enough dV to stay under the light Alcubierre drive mass limit. Not enough to still have a safe return trip breaking margin.Guess I will have to stick with the magnetic nozzle, also for system hops (and get that into space on a separate chemical launch stage). Something to be said for high ISP after all I am starting to dig this after all this experimentation.

Yes, that was also clear to me. But what engine were you thinking about to pair those reactors with in order to get to the TWR in that list of comparisons?

Aah yes, I understand you were mentioning beamed power. Since beamed power is something I would like to stay away from until I know what planetary pack I will be using, I was interested in which engine you were thinking about when you were excluding the TWR of 'antimatter'.

OK then, another win here. YAY! This is the best FTL setup I could find in the small size category. It flies to Jool at 320c in under 10 seconds. I could probably go even MUCH faster (is there a max warp, or is it just dependent on power?) but I was speeding into Jool too fast already... At this size of craft, the magnetic nozzle gave me a TWR of 2.61, used the full 685 GW of CP, allowing me to break into orbit (over 4K dV) in under 4 minutes. I havent decided on a planetary expansion pack yet, but I can see this thing explore other star systems as a scouting vessel Whoohoo! Now to start exploring the large sized end of the spectrum... See what I can use for the actual colonization wave.