[1.3.0] Solaris Hypernautics v0.5.5- latest virtual particle technology!

[Carbonjvd]

Alright, threw together another update after noticing some bugs I somehow missed on the last update, sorry guys. So, beyond the fixes and tweaks I also added two new parts I hope will be well enjoyed. First is simply a large Catalytic engine, so more resource generation from atmospheres using your engine! The other is a massive deployable heat shield, it uses its magnetic charge as an ablator and has a ridiculous surface area, perfect slowing down large spacecraft and even makeshift gliding in thicker atmospheres. Well here you guys go, enjoy!

[DaniDE]

Hi, a small bug report - I noticed that I dont see the engines ingame, due to them being tied to the "experimental rocketry" tech node which I dont have. I think I remember that node is added by KSPI, but I am not sure if I remember right. I dont have KSPI installed, sorry. Maybe it would be better to link the engines to a stock tech node ?

Edited July 2, 2015 by DaniDE

[Carbonjvd]

@DaniDE, the tech node "Experimental Rocketry" is in fact a stock one that is usually not used by the stock parts and only used if a mod has parts assigned to them. So it means you'd need to unlock it's prerequisite tech node prior, or just play sandbox to see them.

[DaniDE]

Hi there, it is nowhere to be seen in squads techtree cfg. Does it go by a different name there perhaps? I double checked and I dont see it in stock. It does however not work the way you mentioned, the node is not magically created just by parts present that reference it. Since ModuleManager can patch techtrees now maybe you can add a patch to simply create the node, because the only mod that create it to my knowledge is the KSPI mod (I downloaded it and checked inside).

On a further note, sandbox is not what I play, and since sandbox ignores any techRequirement statement, of course you see the parts there. My guess is that the mod is probably meant to be used even by those who are so crazy and play career

Edited July 2, 2015 by DaniDE

[Carbonjvd]

I delved into a little deeper and found that the tech node I was using, Experimental Rocketry, was removed a few updates ago I never noticed since I only play sandbox, career is too much grinding for my taste. So back in the day it did in fact work the way I described, but they've since changed it. To that end I've already begun thinking of rearranging a number of the parts location on the tech tree, to make it more evenly distributed in a future update. And this time I'll double check to see if the tech nodes are still in, so it'll show up regardless.

However, for the time being Module Manager 2.6.2 or more recent brings back the Tech Node like how it used to be. So it works as a patch for the time being.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Carbonjvd
More info found

[plague006]

Carbonjvd: If you have no interest in having your mod available through CKAN just ignore the following:

If you're interested in having your mod indexed through CKAN, we need you to keep a consistent folder name in your .zip (ex. "Solaris Hypernautics"). CKAN can adapt to a lot of things, but atm we can't properly install when the folder name changes per version. If you do make the change, you can comment directly here, or just wait and eventually someone will re-check to see if the mod is compatible.

[Carbonjvd]

@plague006 I've included your suggestion in the latest mod update to begin CKAN integration.

And yes it has been update, again. The mod is now officially beginning CKAN integration, as you probably read the above comment regardless. I've already added or changed the tech nodes all the parts belong to, hopefully their close enough to where they should belong. For anyone with suggestions, just comment on the thread. And of course a couple tweaks of the parts, mainly the Magnetic Drag Array and the large Catalytic drive. Have fun folks!!!

[hendrack]

I like your mod, but those tiny ion engines seem a bit broken. They use like 3 electric charge per second and give 80 thrust with an ISP of 5500 VAC. I slapped a pack of four on some crafts instead atomic engines and the delta-v doubled and tripled.

[the8cell]

You mean in kerbal engineer?

That's because each engine has a small internal tank.

The whole point of the mod is that a particle converter and a solar panel gives you literally infinite dV

[Carbonjvd]

This is probably gonna be the single biggest update from a while! I've fleshed out the resource system to come full circle using dust, ore, and virtual particles.

Now introduced a ton of new parts including nuclear reactors, magnetic cooling units, various dust parts, and much much more! I specified reactors and magnetic coolers for a reason, they both increase or decrease their own and thermal levels, so now its possible for things beyond engines to overheat. So while reactors produce power and a lot of heat, magnetic coolers can chill themselves and adjacent parts effectively. All reactors have a built-in cooling system, but they're only meant as buffer while running. Another tip for using reactors is that they need electricity to start up, so no power means no reactor start up. The largest reactor is referred to as a Nuclear Forge because not only does it produce power, it can also forge virtual particles into dust for later use, also at the cost of a lot of power. Dust can now also be draw out of atmospheres using catalytic engines or the new dust accumulator that requires constant power to work. From there, dust can compressed into ore or even have xenon extracted from it. Of course there's a bunch of new tanks for all this stuff. Containment Tanks hold both dust and virtual particles, but they require constant power of else they'll leak virtual particles until empty. Spherical Tanks only hold dust, not much more about that. There's a handful of new engines too, radial versions of the Q thruster and Catalytic engine, and also a thermal compression jet. The radial Q thruster is a perfect efficiency engine that only needs electricity to run, though a lot of it. The radial Catalytic engine doesn't draw dust from the atmosphere, but instead is half liquid-electric rocket and half Q thruster. The thermal compression jet is a more conventional version of the fusion scramjet, so it can be used without oxygen and is useful and less than break-neck speeds.

All the parts have been reorganized in the tech node requirements along with various attachment node resizing to more appropriate. All that and a handful of tweaks on the parts to balance or fix embarrassing mistakes. Hopefully I didn't miss anything!

Have fun guys and gals!

Edited July 5, 2015 by Carbonjvd

[Drelam]

Sounds cool, thanks for the good news!

[Amedee]

Is this mod compatible with Community Tech Tree?

[Carbonjvd]

@Amedee Yes it should be compatible, the mod uses the stock tech tree, so you shouldn't have any problems with it.

[Carbonjvd]

Updated the mod! This one just does the usual tweaks and two new parts, one being the Thermal RCS, and the other being a Doppler Spectrometer. The Thermal RCS is ultra powerful RCS that uses liquid fuel and electrical charge to move around. Its meant to maneuver large ships that normally take way too many RCS thrusters and end up being extremely slow in response. The Doppler Spectrometer is a new science tool for detecting the composition of whatever its orbiting. The science is really high and takes a good bit of power to transmit back home, so it needs plenty of power as well. I'll be working on some new parts, just not as quickly as before so hang in there guys. And as always, have fun!

[Mekan1k]

Anyone have pics of their favorite ships built using this mod?

EDIT: Also, for the love of any one of us that want tp use ALL the mods, can you please change the image files from tga to dds? Or can someone do it? I want to use these parts, but I can't load them without crashing KSP.

Edited July 22, 2015 by Mekan1k

[JaredTheDragon]

I'm playing with these parts again, they're fun but the new stuff is a little confusing at first, here. Perhaps I'm missing a dependency for dust and ore? I was using the catalytic engines on my HX spaceplane (I know, it's ridiculous) and they generated negative thrust in dust-breathing mode? It actually didn't generate a negative force, since my ship still made it to space just fine, but at no point was there any propulsion from dust-breathing mode. Do I need dust tanks too?

I think it'd be helpful to update your OP with pics and descriptions of each part, when you have time, now that there are so many. Thanks for the hard work!

The ridiculous HX planes, parked along some ridiculous HX ships:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Carbonjvd]

@JaredTheDragon, its a good idea to update the OP with an album showing how each part is meant to work! On the particulars for catalytic engines, their "Atmospheric Filter" mode is meant as a way to use what is normally a propulsion part to be able to draw resources directly from any atmosphere far faster than Dust Accumulators can by themselves. Accumulators take days to fill tanks while catalytic engines only need minutes to achieve the same result. You also need dust tanks to store it, and in the filter mode it doesn't provide any thrust. The negative thrust number was simply a way to set the amount of dust being drawn into it. So making a legit descriptive album is now on my to-do list for the mod, along with some more parts in the adaptation stage.

Edited July 22, 2015 by Carbonjvd

[IcepickJosh]

I spent some time working with this mod. It's fun, but I'm having some trouble figuring out how to build a ship consisting entirely of S.H. components that is self sufficient. I came up with a tiny one-kerbal virtual particle lander that can hop around on a low gravity planet and return to orbit. The other ship was gigantic and the price tag was well over 500k. It had to have 16 solar panels in addition to the nuclear core. I couldn't come up with an efficient way to fuel and power a mid-sized craft without including external sources of power and fuel. Either the power requirements of the parts were unsustainable for a mid-sized craft or, in the case of dust -> ore -> power conversion, the dust collection was too low to sustain a reactor.

@Carbonjvd, I wasn't able to find any YouTube videos featuring the mod (or written guides). Do you know of any?

[Drelam]

@Carbonjvd

Nice additions you made!

It's nice to see this mod growing.

I don't want to annoy you but what do you think about a tweakscale integration?

(this would be helpful on some rediculus big ships )

@IcepickJosh

To deal with the energy problem you could add some other mods, like "Procedural Parts - Parts the way you want 'em" (batteries) and/or "Near Future Technologies" (reactors).

[Carbonjvd]

@IcepickJohn I'm actually seriously considering increasing the reactors' efficiency by a factor of 10 for the next update, but we'll see. On the issue of youtube videos and written guides, theren't any that I know of. The mod is still very new, so it hasn't gotten popular enough to garner the attention of people on youtube or otherwise yet, unfortunately.

@Drelam You telling that the Indominus engine still isn't big enough?! Damn. I've looked into Tweakscale, but decided it wasn't for Solaris Hypernautics. When you say massive vessels, how heavy are we talking here. I thought it was in the 600-700 ton range using a pair of Indominus, the propulsion was enough.

[mid0r]

This mod needs some bigger Virtual Particel creating things. For High powered, overdrive mode spaceships it's just not enough, and the more parts you attach, the lower the fps gets. Maybe something that interacts nicely with Microwave Relayed Power? :3

[Drelam]

@Drelam You telling that the Indominus engine still isn't big enough?! Damn. I've looked into Tweakscale, but decided it wasn't for Solaris Hypernautics. When you say massive vessels, how heavy are we talking here. I thought it was in the 600-700 ton range using a pair of Indominus, the propulsion was enough.

Yeah, the "Indominus" is really massive that's true but in my Sci fi like game build, i was trying to propel my ships with Kannae Drives.

A big ship (500+tons) would need a massive amount of those little Kannae Drives, which fill the whole left border of the screen and making my computer stuttering, lol.

So my thought was to use 2-4 much bigger engines of the same type.

Surely i could use "Indominus" type engines or something similar, but to reach other stars (KerbalGalaxy 2 mod, for example) i'm looking for a kind of engine with a more regenerative nature. (very, very late end game )

[Carbonjvd]

Alright, I'll see if I can make a suitable 3.25m engine that uses virtual particles as a final tier engine. Any other requests for the upcoming updates guys?

[mid0r]

Alright, I'll see if I can make a suitable 3.25m engine that uses virtual particles as a final tier engine. Any other requests for the upcoming updates guys?

More Virtual Particle Generators! :3

[JaredTheDragon]

Alright, I'll see if I can make a suitable 3.25m engine that uses virtual particles as a final tier engine. Any other requests for the upcoming updates guys?

Perhaps a larger, inline Virtual Particle generator? It could simply be a set of the existing ones, attached radially to something cool but quick and simple, and welded as one piece. Maybe 6 or 8 of them, to cut down on part counts?