Nuclear Submarines

[KerikBalm]

So since submarines are now possible, I did a quick mod and made myself a "nuclear" powered submarine.

Those are the basic jet models from .18, modded to use electric charge and an "intakeAtmosphere" resource. (I just changed them to the more recent pre 1.05 basic jet model)

The Engine nacelle from 1.04 (and earlier.. to 0.9?), modded to be heavier, function as an "intakeAtmosphere" source, and electric charge storage (ie batteries replace the liquid fuel)... all that I already had for atmospheric craft on Duna/Eve.

Now, I've added a ballast tank (no unique 3d model and texture)...

Basically its the same as an ore tank, but it has a generator that can produce the "Ballast resource" which enables you to control your buoyancy... and also to launch these things empty, tranfer then empty, and splash them on Laythe/Eve empty... and have them sink on their own from taking on ballast in the water(the ballast function works anywhere, but I can't imagine why you'd want to increase your mass in any other circumstance... but you can also generate ballast in space).

... instead of having to fill ore tanks after launch (which can be quite difficult considering no liquid biome has any ore to drill)

Unfortunately, I didn't realize the "activate generator" button disappears when I have multiple things selected... you can see the "efficiency 0.00" readout on the ballast tank, the generator is off, so 0.00 makes sense.

Power consumption is quite high, and top speed is quite low... but I was balancing these electric fans for use on a light mostly solar powered aircraft for traversing Duna by air at ~80-100 m/s

I'm gonna need more NUKs... that sub is already ridiculously expensive from all those RTGs

I'm thinking maybe I'll add an Isp curve to it, so it can perform well at >1.0 atms, but still be weak on Duna... but on Eve... well that would be OP'd there

I'm also thinking a better method of getting rid of ballast is needed than just the jettison function (though with small tanks I can tranfer into the smallest tanks and jettison from those)... a negative generator? something that just consumes ballast and does nothing of any significange? (like a 10,000 ballast = 1 Electric charge fuel cell)

I'm also thinking I should add thrust reverse on the electric fans (I'm not exactly sure how to do that, they're using the old "ModuleEngines", not the new "ModuleEnginesFX"

I may have to copy the .cfg file of the new turbofan, and then change the stats to turn it into an electric fan too.

Then I can't think of any good old part to use for basically an electric "RCS" for use underwater... I've got an idea for an underwater base where I can dock subs on laythe.