[1.4] SpaceY Expanded, v1.5 (2018-04-02)

[FiiZzioN]

It appears my quad-emu's are clipping into the ground under heavy weight. They're firing, they're burning fuel, TWR is around 3, rocket refuses to move an inch until the weight dips belows 600t. All other engines work just fine.

Try adding launch clamps and raise it a bit from the ground. Should fix you right up.

[AbhChallenger]

SpaceY 5m parts are already very potent and can lift a couple hundred tons payload to LKO in one go. 7.5m parts are even more powerful. Personally I don't need bigger stuff, however if needed I'd love to see it in separate expansion pack (just as 7.5m stuff now).

I disagree. If your memory is that close to the 32 bit limit then you likely won't install the expansion to begin with. 10m and even 15m should be added to this pack so you don't have to worry about keeping a bunch of expansions up to date.

Don't get me wrong 15m is going to just look silly on a planet the size of Kerbin. However less parts = moar FPS. So it is useful for folks with weaker CPUs

[NecroBones]

It's hard to imagine needing anything bigger than 10m, especially when you consider that you're making Saturn-V sized rockets at that point. But then again, this is KSP, and huge can be fun.

But I have to admit, I was keeping the Saturn V in mind in designing the Emu engine series. They're similar in physical size to the Rocketdyne F1, have a similar sea level ISP, and the thrust is getting into a similar ballpark (6000 vacuum thrust, versus about 6770 sea level thrust for the F-1). The thrust is noticeably less than the real thing, of course, and the mass is enormous compared to the real thing (the F-1 being about 8.4 tons). But those are for KSP balance.

Anyway, if we were to add 10m here, an "E5" engine would be the first thing it would get.

[MyOnlyLife]

Parts bigger than 10m would be fun. However, I think the biggest challenge to large parts is the size of the VAB. I have hanger extender mod and it is still quite difficult to work with large rockets.

Mr. NecroBones, I'm having a blast launching massive things into orbit thanks to your mods. Great work. My latest launch made possible with SpaceY Expanded:

The orange tank is 16m procedural parts tank, and I use engine cluster of 12 Emus.

Edited September 6, 2015 by MyOnlyLife

[SmashBrown]

You may need to add an XL launchpad before 10m parts hehehe.

[Wolf Baginski]

You may need to add an XL launchpad before 10m parts hehehe.

10m parts are available in another Mod. The integration of textures and meshes that the most excellent Necrobones does is well worth the wait. The precise balance is a matter of taste, but a payload that needs 10m boosters is a little extravagant. The launchpad is big enough.

LETech would be useful, and it has the large landing legs.

There are some very heavy items in some Mods, and putting a 10m tank into orbit is an effective core to a fuel depot. Which prompts in my mind thoughts of a 10m disc-object with six attachment nodes on the rim for such things as docking ports. I would have to check, but I think that would be a wide enough spacing for 2.5m capsules with nose-fitted docking ports. Whether the interior space is devoted to fuel tanks, storage, or whateverâ€â€I have seen station hubs which do such thingsâ€â€I think the larger-size units need something of that sort.

Similarly, a larger cupola part would have useful space for a 2.5m docking port, as well as having room to be a 3-seater command pod. The up-axis attachment node could still be surrounded by a ring of windows, and it could also make an adaptor to more conventional station parts. It doesn't need to be 10m to do that. I see it as analogous to the "pancake" fuel tanks, short and thin but with a lot of capacity.

[Gaarst]

Considering that Real Fuels configs for SpaceY Expanded are not available yet, I decided to make my own configs while waiting for the "official" ones.

They are heavily based on previous SpaceY Real Fuels Stockalike configs (most of it is just copy-paste and tweaking some numbers). I tried to get as close as Stockalike values would be, but I did it quickly and it is not perfect. For some reasons, I could not get ignition numbers to work.

Engines masses have been reduced, costs have been modified, as well as Isps. I did not change default thrust though (asl thrust is changed due to change in Isp and vac thrust is changed for alternate configs). Emu engine and clusters and the 7.5m Ratite clusters are mainly lift engines with Isp asl and vacuum similar to other SpaceY engines; defalut config is Methane+Oxygen, and Kerosene+Oxygen and Hydrogen+Oxygen are available as alternate configs. The Penguin engine and clusters are now only useful as orbital engines, with very low Isp asl and high vacuum Isp; default config is Aerozine50+NTO, and Hydrogen+Oxygen is available (similar to Terrier and Poodle engines)

If you have any suggestion or remark of any kind, please let me know.

I do not take credit for anything, Real Fuels and SpaceY (original and Expanded) are not mine but the only property of their creators; I just used their files and modified some values but all credit goes to their modders. These configs are not made to replace the mods' but to provide a temporary option while Real Fuels for SpaceY Expanded are made. If there is any problem with what I've done, please tell me, I'll be glad to help as I can. I don't know anything about all the legal stuff so please don't sue me !

The file is downloadable here (Dropbox) and is meant to be used with SpaceY Expanded v0.2. Place it in GameData>RealFuels (other locations may work but I haven't tried).

[DanHeidel]

Similarly, a larger cupola part would have useful space for a 2.5m docking port, as well as having room to be a 3-seater command pod. The up-axis attachment node could still be surrounded by a ring of windows, and it could also make an adaptor to more conventional station parts. It doesn't need to be 10m to do that. I see it as analogous to the "pancake" fuel tanks, short and thin but with a lot of capacity.

Funny you should mention that. I was frustrated with the lack of good large diameter command/crew modules and decided to start teaching myself 3D modelling to make my own.

So far, I have two variants of a cupola inspired by the Stockalike Station Parts Expansion cupola. (it's in the second screen of the imgur album in that link).

I have a 3.75 to 2.5 and 3.75 to 3.75m variant finished as meshes so far.

I also made a tiny side mount pilot blister that provides a single seat, very high visibility from a hemispherical set of dome windows, an airlock and a little integrated KIS container.

I'm about 90% done with the mesh for a variant of the 2.5-3.75 cupola that is intended for use in large stations as the pilot housing. It's going to have integrated reaction wheels, battery, monoprop and thrusters, an integrated version of the pilot blister and a single small side mounted docking port. It loses half the window space for the thruster/monoprop/blister/port integration. It's intended to have space for 5 pilots - one in the blister and 4 in the main body. If I ever get an IVA made for this, the idea is that one pilot is flying the craft from the blister and the other 4 acting as navigators from radial couches in the 4 remaining window sectors. I haven't decided if it should have an integrated power source such as some surface mount solar or a small emergency RTG to ensure that there's always power for control.

Next on the list is an engineering pod and a science pod in large format.

The engineering pod would have integrated airlocks, radial docking ports and be a large volume integrated KIS container. Not settled on the radial docking port config yet but I was planning on 4-6x small ports. However, reading your comments, it might make more sense to have something like 2-4x small docking ports and 2x 2.5m docking ports. I haven't even started the rough design yet but it's going to be a large diameter, flat format. This one will probably be a 5m core with variants for 5m to 5m and 5m to 3.75m. Not sure if I want to have integrated reaction wheels or not. The intended crew capacity is going to be 6-8ish.

The science pod is pretty simple, just another 5m core with options for 5-5 and 5-3.75 endcaps. Possibly a couple of integrated docking ports. It would have a large amount of integrated battery and possibly an integrated communication comm system. I'm thinking a ring of Universal Storage docking sites to integrate science instruments would be a good idea as well. It would probably have a max scientist capacity of 8-12 with a minimal complement of 4. Large stored science and data capacity as well. Probably at least 1000 incoming science data storage and at least 5000 produced science capacity.

Still a looong way to go as I haven't started the colliders, texture mapping or any of the other stuff necessary for bringing it into KSP yet and I literally just started learning Blender a week ago. Progress in the album below. If anyone with actual experience in making KSP mods wants to help, I would certainly welcome it. It's a steep learning curve and I'm sure I'm making all sorts of noob mistakes on the mesh design.

[riocrokite]

Still a looong way to go as I haven't started the colliders, texture mapping or any of the other stuff necessary for bringing it into KSP yet and I literally just started learning Blender a week ago. Progress in the album below. If anyone with actual experience in making KSP mods wants to help, I would certainly welcome it. It's a steep learning curve and I'm sure I'm making all sorts of noob mistakes on the mesh design.

http://imgur.com/a/TQyxQ

Awesome stuff, keep it up

[SmashBrown]

Gratz on being featured for modding monday NB.

[LitaAlto]

Yes, congratulations! Squad likes you! They really like you!

[NecroBones]

Gratz on being featured for modding monday NB.

Yes, congratulations! Squad likes you! They really like you!

Thanks! Yeah, I hadn't looked there yet. It's the first time they've featured one of mine. Very cool!

- - - Updated - - -

BTW, I'm hoping this will show up in CKAN soon. I have a ticket open about setting the correct dependencies and the like, and it looks like they attempted a merge that failed. Since it's been a holiday weekend (for those of us in the US), I figured not much would get sorted out right away.

[Norcalplanner]

It's hard to imagine needing anything bigger than 10m, especially when you consider that you're making Saturn-V sized rockets at that point. But then again, this is KSP, and huge can be fun.

But I have to admit, I was keeping the Saturn V in mind in designing the Emu engine series. They're similar in physical size to the Rocketdyne F1, have a similar sea level ISP, and the thrust is getting into a similar ballpark (6000 vacuum thrust, versus about 6770 sea level thrust for the F-1). The thrust is noticeably less than the real thing, of course, and the mass is enormous compared to the real thing (the F-1 being about 8.4 tons). But those are for KSP balance.

Anyway, if we were to add 10m here, an "E5" engine would be the first thing it would get.

I'm going to act out of character here and say that 7.5m is enough. Given the size of Kerbin, the Kerbol system, and the stock 3-person command pod, 7.5m is plenty. Unless RSS or another scaled system is in play, I think we've reached the limit.

Because honestly, a double ring of asparagus-staged 7.5m stacks is totally doable in this game, and could probably lift the VAB into orbit. :-)

[AbhChallenger]

I don't like doing asparagus staging. I would rather have wide launch stages like the Saturn V.

Besides that adds a ton of part count. Which harms those with weaker CPUs. (Sadly the Devs are making it seem that the Unity 5 jump will be much less beneficial to FPS than I had hoped)

[NBZ]

I kind of called it:

I love it. When Squad one day decides to go 5m, I am sure they will contact you!

Congratulations on getting the attention you so long have deserved.

[NecroBones]

Thanks everyone!

I haven't had much time to work on it so far this week, but I did manage to get the 3.75m service bay together. It's pretty simple, but should do the job.

[Sauron]

Do we have tweakscale configs for these guys yet? They're gorgeous but sometimes I want to use them for more modestly sized rockets

Also, any chance of cleaning up the interstage parts to match the (awesome) quality of your latest work?

[smjjames]

Do we have tweakscale configs for these guys yet? They're gorgeous but sometimes I want to use them for more modestly sized rockets

Also, any chance of cleaning up the interstage parts to match the (awesome) quality of your latest work?

The engines and tanks are already tweakscaleable.

[Sauron]

Not the 7.5m parts as of last download (?)

[NecroBones]

A wedding cake of service bays. I just realized they're 90 degrees off from the stock ones (doors opening on the front/back instead of the sides). I may spin them around to match.

Do we have tweakscale configs for these guys yet? They're gorgeous but sometimes I want to use them for more modestly sized rockets

Also, any chance of cleaning up the interstage parts to match the (awesome) quality of your latest work?

Yes, they will be tweakscale-compatible. Which interstages are you particularly referring to? I didn't think any of them were particularly out of spec.

Not the 7.5m parts as of last download (?)

There was a typo preventing some of them from being tweakable. It's fixed for the next update.

[smjjames]

Not the 7.5m parts as of last download (?)

Oh I'm still using 0.1, I didn't notice there is a 0.2 update.

- - - Updated - - -

There was a typo preventing some of them from being tweakable. It's fixed for the next update.

Whats the typo so I can quickfix? Unless the next update is soon.

[NecroBones]

Whats the typo so I can quickfix? Unless the next update is soon.

This is the corrected block (the broken one is missing a few of the pipes ("|") that are used as "or" conditions).

@PART[SYtank7mL*|SYtank7mCone*|SYdecoupler7m|SYprobe7m|SYtank7m5m*|SYadapter7m5m|SYserviceBay7m] // 7m standard fuel tanks, decoupler, probe core, etc
{
	MODULE
	{
		name = TweakScale
		type = stack
		defaultScale = 7.5
	}
}

[smjjames]

This is the corrected block (the broken one is missing a few of the pipes ("|") that are used as "or" conditions).

@PART[SYtank7mL*|SYtank7mCone*|SYdecoupler7m|SYprobe7m|SYtank7m5m*|SYadapter7m5m|SYserviceBay7m] // 7m standard fuel tanks, decoupler, probe core, etc
{
    MODULE
    {
        name = TweakScale
        type = stack
        defaultScale = 7.5
    }
}

Thanks

[NecroBones]

Since there was a bug in the TweakScale code, and I may not get much else done for the next week or two, I went ahead and pushed out the update with the service bays. I'll probably make a 7.5m version as well, but I haven't decided what it'll look like yet.

0.3 (2015-09-10) - Alpha/Beta.
 - Added service bays: 3.75m, 5m
 - Fixed a typo in the TweakScale config.

[technerd89]

Congratulations to Necro and SpaceY for its mention in the KSP Developer blog!

http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/128583461488/modding-monday-spacey-expanded