[WIP][1.3.1] Sufficiently Realistic Progression Zero

[NotTheRealRMS]

Warning: This is a Development Version that requires mods without official stable releases for Kerbal Space Program version 1.3.1, like Kerbal Construction Time.

MODELS ABOVE ARE SCALED UP FROM STOCK, SSTU, BLUEDOG DESIGN BUREAU, REAL ISRU, REMOTETECH, NEAR FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES AND VEN'S STOCK REVAMP

Sufficiently Realistic Progression Zero

General Development Feedback and Discussion

 

License: CC-BY-NC-SA

DOWNLOAD (Source included):

0.4.0.1:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TXxPSq2Vu5GKRJjLvMpdYwrY-Qipp8CQ

Last version for KSP 1.2.2:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-UFNoTU5EbkFWOWs

Older versions:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B45cFsYMm_H-Y1dYdW5rUThXT28

This is a fork of RP-0 and RealismOverhaul which unlike them does not require RealFuels, initially created for personal use, intended to achieve the following:

1. Make rockets, engines, etc behave as realistically as possible without replacing the default ModuleEnginesFX and without requiring specific configs;
2. Convert some but not most real engine specs from RO besides RealFuels-exclusive specs like ullage, feed system and limited ignitions to Stock.
3. Late game contracts tailored for and full compatibility with Umbra Space Industries Kolonization and Extraplanetary Launchpads;
4. Career balance and custom contracts that are challenging, maybe near-impossible sometimes but without grind. Rewards might be excessive as of now;
5. Career progression from sounding rockets to building and sending an interstellar generation ship into an escape trajectory out of the solar system.

The Current features are:

1. Contract pack from sounding rockets to not so near future kinds of missions like building factories in outer space. (WIP, not fully tested)
2. Like in RP-0, some probes lack attitude control. Extra, usually heavier avionics parts are needed to control rockets. Procedural Avionics available.
3. Near all engines have limited throttle. A generic patch sets up hopefully realistic throttle limits to complement what SMURFF does to stockalike engines.
4. Real Kerolox: Conversion of "Liquid Fuel" to Kerosene and "Oxidizer" to Lqd Oxygen for every engine/ISRU/tank. At first made for RealISRU compatibility,  now enabled by default. If you really don't want it, don't install RealISRU and run realkerolox.bat or .sh or just delete the RealKerolox folder.
5. Oxidizer, if Real Kerolox is disabled, is treated as an abstraction of Liquid Oxygen, and likewise, it is mildly cryogenic. Should only matter for weeks long missions.
6. Liquid Methane rocket engines, both chemical and nuclear thermal rockets.
7. Generic overhauls of electricity, solar power, reaction wheels and others to bring their stats closer to what real ones would have.
8. The nice RP-0 Tech Tree with a few extras, a generic patch for stockalike parts with rebalanced prices(WIP) for the demands of a realistic scale solar system.
9. Custom-configured engines and command pods mostly adapted from Realism Overhaul configs to work without RealFuels, like the Apollo CM/SM, Rocketdyne F-1 etc. Stock PartUpgrade functionality added. Unfortunately, unlike RealFuels engine configs, they cannot be rolled back in the editor after their purchase.
10. Integration with RealISRU, including moving industrial-grade ISRU parts from Stock/etc to later tech nodes as industrial ISRU is impossible with modern tech. The Real Kerolox generic patches were created to make compatibility with RealISRU easier.

Again, this remains experimental and right now requires some mods without stable or official 1.3.x versions. Any unofficial dll assemblies linked below are intended for testing purposes and there will be no technical support for issues caused by them.

Known Issues:

Some settings in mass and volume ratios for some types of resource and fuel storage may still need improvements in realism.

GNU/LINUX NOTE: To run the scripts that modify third party mods for compatibility, use "source ./scriptname.sh" or ". ./scriptname.sh".

 

Required Mods:

• Community Resource Pack
• Community Tech Tree
• Contract Configurator
• Custom Barn Kit
• Ferram Aerospace Research
• Kerbal Construction Time and MagiCore (Development Branch)
• Kerbal Joint Reinforcement
• Module Manager
• Procedural Parts
• Real Chute
• Real Solar System
• Real Heat
• RemoteTech
• SMURFF
• SSTU
• TAC Life Support or USI Life Support.

RemoteTech Note: For convenience, every probe and command module will feature a passive omnidirectional antenna once you have researched Basic Avionics. Further research in avionics will automatically increase their range and improve their transmission rates.

Highly Recommended Mods:

• Advanced Jet Engine
• B9 Aerospace Parts and Procedural Wings
• BetterTimeWarpContinued
• Blizzy78's Toolbar
• Bluedog Design Bureau - Tons of SRBs, some uniques like the French Diamant, Mercury, Gemini/Agena/Apollo docking ports, an Apollo LEM that works.
• Connected Living Space
• Cryogenic Engines - Either don't install CryoTanks(recommended) or run improvecryo.bat or .sh to disable a Stock-balanced patch bundled with it.
• DeepFreeze Continued  - Some of the late game contracts require it because without suspended animation space tourism to places like Pluto is impractical.
• Dynamic Deflection   - recompile for KSP 1.3.1 bundled with SRP-0, as allowed by license and creator.
• Editor Extensions Redux
• Extraplanetary Launchpads - Custom contracts available for it.
• RaiderNick's Soviet Spacecraft - for the Vostok and Voskhod. You may keep or remove stuff SSTU already features.
• Flight Manager for Reusable Stages(FMRS)
• Kerbal Alarm Clock
• Kerbal Atomics - Delete the NTR folder located in KerbalAtomics/Patches, otherwise some parts will end with wrong stats. Also, don't install CryoTanks.
• Kerbal Attachment System
• Kerbal Engineer or MechJeb - For calculating delta-V in craft designs. Pick whichever is mostly bug-free.
• Kerbal Inventory System
• Kerbal Reusability Expansion
• kOS or MechJeb - if you really don't want either, disable RemoteTech's light speed lag.
• KSP Trajectory Optimization Tool - while more complex than Transfer Window Planner, it works better in RSS and can do a lot more, including multiple flybys.
• Hangar Extender
• NearFuture Technologies - Propulsion and Electrical
• North American Rockwell Mars Excursion Module - Besides the obvious, adds Nomex to RealChute as a bonus.
• Persistent Rotation - not only it's realistic, but a must have for burning prograde at high time warps with realistic thrust ion engines/etc. See below.
• Persistent Thrust  - Realistic electric propulsion have very low thrust. Without high time warp to make months-long burns last seconds in real time, they are unplayable.
• Precise Node
• Procedural Fairings
• Procedural Fairings - For Everything!
• RasterPropMonitor  - Better IVA, plus a very useful mid to late game science part called digital camera requires it to show up.
• RCS Build Aid
• Real Scale Boosters - For real rocket engines exclusive to it.
• Sigma Binary - simulating the real way Pluto and Charon orbit each other.
• Ship Manifest - besides its many conveniences, it is required for the unmanned soil sample recovery missions.
• Soviet Engine Pack - like most mod packs for engines, it still works for the latest version of KSP.
• SSTU Expansion Pack - Skylab-sized space stations, integration with BDB and Soviet Engines. Run cleansstuexp.bat or .sh to delete unsupported configs.
• SSTU Nova Add-on Pack
• Stage Recovery
• SXT - essential if you like airplanes and want early game options in such field.
• Taerobee - essential if you want to do the X-1 -> X-15 -> DynaSoar progression and launch V-2 replicas.
• Trajectories - not completely accurate, but much better than guessing.
• Transfer Window Planner - The timing for transfer windows it gives is usually correct. For best results use parking orbits aligned to the ecliptic.
• TweakScale   - for launch clamps, engines for nanotech probes or cathedral-sized spacecrafts(Unfortunately no mod features parts with Gothic architecture).
• Upgrade Editor - bundled. Allows setting part upgrades separatedly for each part in the VAB or SPH.
• USI Kolonization - A Real Solar System balanced career mode compatible with Kolonization was the reason SRP-0 started.
• Ven's Stock Revamp - Most Stock parts look much better with it. Includes the BE-4 Liquid Methane engine.
• Waypoint Manager
• World Stabilizer

Recommended Mods:

• AirPark Continued, for HAVOC
• CactEye Telescopes
• Civilian Population Revamp
• EVA Parachutes and Ejection Seats
• FASA RO - If you want more realistic looking textures. Has a few parts without direct equivalents in BDB or SSTU.
• KerbalFoundries, for the adjustable landing gears, wheels and tracks.
• HooliganLabs Airships, for HAVOC
• Infernal Robotics (Experimental - go here for parts)
• NearFuture Technologies - Construction, Spacecraft and Launch Vehicles(only its engines, RCS, and docking)
• Real ISRU - Even in its currently very unfinished state it's already interesting. It's mostly finished for Mars and more specifically Mars Direct.
• Real Plume - uninstall if it hits performance too hard.
• RSS Time Formatter - Unofficial recompile for 1.3.1
• RSSVE, if the performance drop from running it and the GFX mods it requires is acceptable.
• SCANsat
• SpaceY and SpaceY Expanded - While the tanks and engines are arguably redundant with SSTU, the really big docking ports among other things both feature aren't.
• USI Karbonite+ - Want a reason for attempting the impossible on Venus? With Karbonite+, it is the nearest source of fuel for 6-digit Isp fusion engines.
• USI Orion Nuclear Pulse Propulsion

Special Thanks

To @Shadowmage and all who helped in the development of SSTU;

To @NathanKell and the contributors of Real Solar System, RealismOverhaul and the RP-0 Team;

To @Kerbas_ad_astra for SMURFF, which both inspired and is essential for this mod.

To @ferram4 for Ferram Aerospace Research.

To @RoverDude for the Umbra Space Industries mods.

To Squad for not being afraid to bet on an once almost completely neglected niche genre and to all who contributed with the development of Kerbal Space Program

To everyone who ever contributed to every mod listed here and to the KSP modding community in general.

 

And I hope everything is OK with this development thread and first post here.

 

Changelog:

0.4.0.1

• Added some FAR patches, reduced prices for Kerbal Reusability Expansion grid fins plus a few tiny extra adjustments for its use in RSS.
• Improved formerly forgotten patch for SSTU lander capsules to support storage of any kind of fuel mixture within them.
• Added Steam Methane Reformer Unit, located in the "Larger ISRU" tech node, if RealISRU is installed. Produces Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide from Methane and Water.
• Modified RealISRU Atmospheric ISRU intakes to also support hydrogen and methane filtering.
• Added gimbal to miniaturized kerosene nuclear thermal rocket.
• Even more RealPlume fixes.

0.4

• Changed Nitrogen, Methane, Ammonia, Carbon Monoxide and Carbon flow settings to "ALL_VESSEL" as a Quality of Life improvement for modular ISRU bases connected through Kerbal Attachment System pipes.
• Added a few custom patches for Kerbal Reusability Expansion, changing its Super Draco engines to burn Aerozine50/NTO, Cold Gas Nitrogen thrusters with realistic Isp for such, a few rescales, etc.
• Added some high powered Kerosene, Hydrogen and Methane resistojets for attitude control on reusable stages. They are very power hungry, specially the Hydrogen one.
• Added HTP, Hydrazine, UDMH and Aerozine50 production reactions for RealISRU, for those who still use Aerozine50/NTO by the time ISRU missions to Titan, the only major source of Nitrogen away from Earth, are underway.
• Added 1670kN, 10200kN and 120kN Kerosene Nuclear Thermal Rockets. With specific impulses around 540s, storable propellant and better TWR, they are interesting alternatives to methane NTRs or kerosene resistojets.
• Added 5 late game chemical engines: the methane/Ox F-1D, a RS68 based LH2 engine with amazing TWR and some Sea Dragon inspired engines running on kerosene/HTP, methane/Ox and LH2/Ox.
• Added HTP and Diamond Dragon kerosene/HTP and Nitrogen fuel settings for SSTU tanks.
• Yet More RealPlume config fixes.

0.3.9.1

• Fixed incorrect MM patches for USI MKS and Karibou engines.
• Fixed more RealPlume configs with previously wrong scales or plume positioning.
• Added adapted RO config for Kerbal Attachment System and Inventory System parts so their masses will be more realistic, specially for KIS.

0.3.9

• Rescaled all USI Kolonization parts to more realistic dimensions for human habitation and adjusted masses, mostly arbitrary guesswork for now.
• Gave the MKS Microwave Power Transceiver enough range for wireless transmission from surface to Nuclear Electric propulsion such as resistojets all the way to Earth's Orbit.
• Added a variant of the Microwave Transceiver with enough range for geosynchronous orbits, making wireless planetary power grids possible.
• Custom setup for the MKS Skycrane, which can be switched between Liquid Methane+Ox, Hydrolox and Kerosene Resistojet engines as upgrade options, all such fuels can be produced with RealISRU.
• Rescaled the USI Karibou and made its SABRE engine into a methane combined cycle rocket engine and its VTOL twin engines also were changed to use liquid methane. And rescaled the Akita Rover.
• Rescaled several USI Konstruction parts so they match RealismOverhaul changes to Stock docking ports, fit better with RSS, etc.
• Fixed missing RealPlume configs for the RealISRU methane engines and added new configs to some of the USI engines fitted with custom configs.

0.3.8

• Added Contracts, both unmanned and manned, for Ceres, Vesta and the 5 moons of Uranus included in the latest version of Real Solar System.
• More Contracts tailored for the late game and colonization of the Solar System.
• Fixed copypasta-inherited error in "First ISRU" Contract that made it completely impractical by requiring a Venus flyby among other fixes to previous Contracts.
• Fixed broken Raptor engines with Near-Future Launch Vehicles due to no longer correct thrustVectorTransformName after the model swap.
• Fixed bottom attach node for 1kN Thruster with Ven's Stock Revamp.
• Fixed bug that disabled RemoteTech light speed lag in probes with soil sample return capsules.

0.3.71

• Fixed broken part upgrade configs for SSTU modular SRBs with upgrades.
• Fixed misplaced attach nodes for SSTU Clusterized NERVA I with Ven's Stock Revamp model.
• Placed a few missed parts from RealISRU to their proper place in the Tech Tree and a few other minor Tech Tree fixes.

0.3.7

• Added Pre-Sentient Algorithms upgrade to SSTU Modular Upper Stages.
• Rebalanced costs for SSTU procedural tanks to ensure tank types with higher dry masses won't be too expensive and very low ones won't be too cheap.
• Fixed a few radiators that were previously scaled up too much.
• Another reorganization of the tech tree. "Meta Materials" renamed to Microgravity Construction, a few nodes repositioned, among other things.
• Recalculated and reconfigured life support extension systems in TAC Life Support for SSTU space stations. Large centrifuge habitats for generation ships now work as intended.
• Fixed glitched atmosphere curves in patched SSTU upper stage engines.
• Fixed missing icons on upgrades for SSTU modular SRBs.
• Fixed missing batteries in SSTU pressurized procedural avionics and procedural telemetry unit.
• Fixed remaining incompatible patches with ModuleManager 3.0.1.
• Fixed the Tiny Tim Solid Rocket Motor.
• Fixed (hopefully) all faulty RealPlume configs.

0.3.6

• Improved ThrottleControlledShutdown plugin by not waiting 1 second before checking limited throttle engines at low altitudes, making landing less hard.
• Fixed somewhat incorrect electric charge usage in some of the electric propulsion engines.
• Fixed NullReferenceException errors happening in BDB RL10 when SSTU Expansion and Bluedog Design Bureau are installed.
• Fixed RealPlume plume for the generic 1 kN thruster.
• Fixed wrongly configured zero boil-off tanks for liquid methane.
• Fixed balance-breaking duplicate patch setting up entry cost as cost X 400 instead of cost X 20 for parts without specific configs in tree.yml.
• Moved uprates for Merlin 1D and Merlin 1DV one node earlier in the tech tree. They are modern rockets after all.
• A handful of fixes and a few changes in the patches to ensure compatibility with ModuleManager 3.0.1. Note: some of the mods listed above as dependencies or recommendations may have compatibility issues with the new ModuleManager.

0.3.5

• Rescale and new specs for the Orion from Umbra Space Industries based on the 10m diameter USAF Orion.
• Added patches with SSTU clusters and model swaps for Near Future Launch Vehicles' RD-0234 Methane, Raptor and BE-4.
• Rearranged future tech nodes to make the tree more readable, plasma propulsion more useful and fusion rockets more difficult to research.
• Added 12m diameter, 250t 1 GW nuclear reactor from Near Future Electrical plus custom radiator for it to make 1 GW electric propulsion more practical.
• Fixed error with Aerozine50 upgrade option for resistojets.
• Fixed errors with placement of the large scale radiators in the tech tree.
• Fixed missing methane upgrade in separate engine module for exhaust from Kerbal Atomics open cycle gas core NTR.
• Set RealKerolox to always apply by default regardless of RealISRU. Can be switched back to previous behavior through realkerolox.bat or .sh

0.3.4

• Improved RealKerolox by giving kerolox engines an oxygen to kerosene mass ratio closer to real engines.
• Added electric resistojets using rescaled Stock models or alternatively from Ven's Stock Revamp if it is installed.
• Rescaled 60.4 MW fission reactor from NearFutureElectrical to more realistically huge dimensions.
• Changed heat dissipation requirements for all NFE reactors. Now the 60.4MW one really needs a Christmas tree made with radiators or a pair of really big ones.
• Added NFE 92.2 MW nuclear reactor with better thermal dissipation and an even bigger, heavier but more radiator efficient 316 MW reactor and a 602 MW one too.
• Added rescaled versions of stock radiators to handle the heat of the nuclear reactors from NearFutureElectrical with minimum part count.
• Reconfigured Tech Tree to make ion propulsion more attractive as a R&D option and made the radiator tech tree nodes cheaper.
• Added new, even more powerful magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters matching the power outputs of the new nuclear reactors.
• Custom patches for electric RCS thrusters in NearFuturePropulsion and removal of Kerbalisms like more powerful electric propulsion requiring larger diameter.
• SSTU clusters for the Vulcain, LE-7 and RD-0120 from Cryogenic Engines.
• Finally gave specific config to the LVT-30, previously useless even with SMURFF compared to real engines in the same tech node.
• Fixed ModuleSurfaceFX errors in SSTU engine cluster patches and cluster patches for the included LR87 LH2 sustainer and glitched non-SSTU engine configs.

0.3.3

• Full support for KerbalAtomics with model swaps, Methane and Water variants, less optimistic specs for theoretical NTRs and SSTU clusters.
• Added Ammonia, Ethanol and Hydyne as unique fuels with generic ratios because of the historical relevance and unique enough performance of such.
• Included adapted Realism Overhaul patches for Taerobee's Aerobee parts and also changed other low tech parts to use Ethanol instead of generic LF.
• Added rescale and real specs for Juno I Baby Sergeant solid rocket motor upper stages from Bluedog Design Bureau, Ven's Stock Revamp and FASA.
• Yet more rescale and realism patches for Sputnik 3, Venera 1 and Lunar Orbiter from Bluedog Design Bureau. Many of its antennae had EC usage reduced.
• Replaced cryogenic liquid fuels in electric engines from NFP with gasses and added Hydrogen and Methane to the SSTU fuels list to support that.
• Replaced duplicates of the Apollo LMAE and LMDE with toggleable upgrades.

0.3.2

• Improved dry mass/volume settings to more realistic values than SMURFF defaults and rematched ProceduralParts and SSTU tanks.
• Implemented separate cryogenic tanks in SSTU for liquid methane with better mass ratios than hydrogen and added specific tank types for argon and others.
• Fixed storage settings for liquid methane in SSTU and ProceduralParts tanks which were previously requiring way too much volume.
• Fixed wrongly set SSTU engine cluster patches that were responsible for parts with constant NullReferenceException errors, or at least most of them.
• SSTU Clusters for Near Future Spacecraft engines, most electric engines from Stock and Near Future Propulsion and custom engine specs added for many as well.
• Reduced mass of some of the larger NearFutureElectrical fission reactors. Added a 60.4 MW reactor plus a 60.2 MW magnetoplasmadynamic Xenon thruster.
• Changed Stock Ion engine to consume the same amount of KW/s at full thrust as the real NSTAR from Dawn and applied same proportion to Near Future Propulsion engines.
• Made thrust in NFP electric engines realistic. If you disable this change by running ionNerfSwitch.bat/sh the VASIMR will have torchship performance.
• Replaced Water and Methane variants for nuclear rockets with Upgrades and added new variants. Install and use Upgrade Editor to switch between them.

0.3.1

• KSP 1.3.1 Compatibility.
• ThrottleControlledShutdown tracks all vessels in the physics bubble and always shuts down engines not belonging to the active vessel, unknown bugs which may or not exist aside.
• Realism and/or rescale patches for newest SSTU parts: RD-171, RD-181 and the TKS VA capsule. Also, long overdue fixes to individual RCS parts and J-2X engine.
• Fixed incorrect meshes placed over the soil sample return capsule if Ven's Stock Revamp is installed.
• Included wrongly forgotten RO modifications to TAC Life Support ratios towards more realistic values for humans and changed pods/etc to adapt to it.
• Fixed and increased rescale of SSTU Station Core parts so the TKS FGB will fit perfectly with the bottom of the TKS VA capsule(2.79m). Skylab was not changed.
• SSTU Expansion Pack compatibility patches. Note: incomplete, only with Skylab and general compatibility fixes, will be removed once SSTU Expansion is updated.
• Removed non modular SRBs generated from SSTU assets formerly inherited from RealismOverhaul, now fully replaceable by modular ones.
• Procedural Avionics now support RealFuels tanks and are calculated using dynamic % from the total volume of any tank patched to include ModuleProceduralAvionics.

0.3.0

• Added RealISRU support. Mostly useful for Mars missions right now.
• Rescaled all SSTU Space Station parts to more realistic dimensions and added TAC Life Support patches for them.
• Tech tree rearrangement and several parts given a more logical placement, specially ISRU and Space Station parts.
• Added an universal patch that converts "Liquid Fuel" to Kerosene and "Oxidizer" to Liquid Oxygen everywhere if RealISRU is installed.
• To make it more "realistic", only Methane can be extracted from Karbonite if both RealISRU and Karbonite are installed.
• New Tourism Contracts, which require the "Practical A.I. and Worker Robots" tech to become available. DeepFreeze is also required by some.
• Manned space missions beyond Mars/Venus Flyby also require the same tech now for "economic realism" reasons.
• Reconfigured SSTU Space Shuttle(SC-E) to work correctly with FAR and included TAC Life Support patches for it.
• Added liquid methane and water powered variants for NERVA I and II and a methane variant for the Bimodal NTR.
• Fixed plume effects for SSTU LMDE with RealPlume.
• Fixed missing "Technological Watersheds" contracts.
• Reduced entry costs and costs for nuclear reactors to make them more useful.

0.2.8

• Fixed attach nodes for Stock Mainsail with SSTU Expansion and for NK-220 with Ven's Stock Revamp.
• Resized RS-2200 from SXT to fit in with the resized Mk2 Spaceplane parts, which are not X-33 but close enough.
• Increased previously too low volumes in Stock spaceplane fuselages with SSTU integration.
• Separated several contracts into subcategories per celestial body.
• Changed some supported parts with specific configs to more (Alternate History)immersive fluff and added new patches with more SSTU engine clusters.
• Fixed storage for Karborundum(now using SSTU) to avoid 100000...000 tons total fuel masses and increased EC usage for UDD Inertial Confinement Drives.

0.2.7

• Adapted several RCS configs from RealismOverhaul, with a line of realistic upgrades that applies to all parts with RCS and can convert them to Aerozine50/NTO
• Adapted all RO patches for Ven's Stock Revamp and added VSR compatibility.
• Adapted all RO configs and added SSTU support to Stock spaceplane parts.
• Adapted all RO configs for Stock command parts because it wouldn't be right to do it only for the spaceplanes.
• Started conversion of Karborundum to "at least might exist" Ultra Dense Deuterium, huge density included. To be done fully after update for KSP 1.3

0.2.6

• Improved Tourism contracts with means for the player to adjust the number of attended tourists in-game through fake missions. You have to decline existing contracts after changing the settings for them to refresh immediately. Otherwise they will only refresh after expiring.
• Extended configs for Bluedog Design Bureau, including among other things a specific config for the Vega K0 Upper Stage and its RD-861G engine with SSTU modular engine cluster support, plus the rescale of its APAS-89/95 docking port. Also removed FASA dependency from several Part Upgrades.
• Extended support for SSTU-Expansion, including Skylab station core addon for SSTU Stations now redimensioned to real scale for either Skylab missions or supporting a Manned Venus Flyby plus other months/years long manned missions.
• Adapted all RealismOverhaul patches for SXT space station parts.
• Included solar panels rebalance to SSTU integrated solar panels in Station Cores, which needed their own patches in addition to the ones for the parts.

0.2.5

• Fixed Near Future Electrical nuclear reactors so they are no longer horribly inefficient compared to the NERVA generator or real nuclear reactors.
• Fixed the pricing of NFE uranium tanks. No more entry costs in billions for storing uranium or fuel tanks costing hundreds of millions.
• New Tourism Contracts properly balanced for the Real Solar System, up to Mars for now. More will be added in the future.
• New Colonization Contracts for building a retirement home on Moon or Mars and ensuring the customer who paid for it will live 20 years in it.

0.2.4

• Adapted some RealPlume configs from RealismOverhaul and included configs for SpaceY, MRS and Near-Future Spacecraft from RealPlume Stock Configs. Not all of them were tested and some of these configs may not be working due to mismatched thrustTransform or other problems translating configs for ModuleEnginesRF to ModuleEnginesFX bring. Report any missing plumes in the Development thread.
• Integrated B9 Aerospace spaceplane parts with SSTU for customized resource loadouts. Dry masses are still on SMURFF and might not be perfect as of now.
• Removed redundant hard dependencies on CryoEngines and Firespitter Core. All switchable tank configs use either ProceduralParts or SSTUVolumeContainer.
• Fixed TAC Life Support resource volumes on SSTU tanks and the Life Support Tank setting for SSTU.
• Partial support for SSTU-Expansion: SSTU integration with Stock Mainsail, Bluedog Design Bureau RL10 and BobCat Soviet Engines only for now.
• Added HG-3, a researched successor for the J-2 that never left the drawing board but served as development base for the Space Shuttle Main Engine.
• Minor patch included to support the British Rockets mod. Minor because it fortunately is a real scale mod.
• Fixed the Bluedog Design Bureau parachute for the Big Gemini for real, really.
• Fixed Apollo Service Module fuel cells and Nuclear Thermal Rockets turbine generators.

0.2.3

• Added support for North American Rockwell Mars Excursion Module
• Added configs for BobCat's Soviet Engine Pack, which still works in the newest KSP versions.
• Added config for the modern successor of the Russian RD-0110 upper stage engine, the RD-0124.
• Added Pentaborane as a fuel option in SSTU and procedural tanks, because it's unique enough to not be "abstracted" into "Aerozine50".
• Added a Pentaborane-fueled lander engine based on the RD-270M for SXT, so the MEM with its fluorine tanks won't be the only extreme chemical hazard option.
• Fixed RD-701 Tripropellant engine by giving it a model that looks close enough to the real one and also added the smaller RD-704.
• Rebalanced once extremely high prices of SSTU procedural interstage petal adapters with the price of the Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter as reference.

0.2.2

• Contract Pack Nerf: removed science rewards from all contracts. They remain very generous and there are other ways of gaining science points.
• Removed tankage volume modifiers from SSTU cryogenic tanks to make them useful in mid-late game.
• Fixed missing upgrades for SSTU custom radial decoupler sizes and increased max temp of all radial decouplers to 3600 K because of procedural SRBs.
• Fixed gas giant atmospheric probe contracts.
• Added LH2 options to Zero-Boil Off tanks using Procedural Parts.
• Changed final upgrades for procedural avionics in SSTU custom upper stages to reduce minimum kW demand to more reasonable levels for larger parts.
• Apollo Docking Ports are now compatible with "size 1" Stock docking ports and Common Berthing Mechanism with "size 2".
• Fixed misplaced attach node on NASA docking system.
• Minor Improvement to  ThrottleControlledShutdown.dll

0.2.1

• Rescaled and redefined the SSTU Space Shuttle(SSTU-SC-E-*) with realistic specifications and pricing.
• Included patches to rebalance SSTU Solar Panels and NearFutureSolar curved solar panels.
• Added config for the X-33 engine(requires SXT). The apparent lack of VentureStar styled fuselage parts limits its applications though.
• Fixed critical typo in generic patch to set mostly realistic R&D costs for parts without specific configs.
• Replaced all rescaleFactor to direct model rescales in specific part configs to reduce glitches.

0.2

• Forked and modified the new, 1.2.2 compatible RP-0.dll avionics systems. Support for SSTU procedural probes and custom upper stage tanks added.
• Forked fixes for ProceduralFairings from Realism Overhaul. No more rockets breaking into pieces during launch when using interstage fairings(hopefully).
• Patched all parts to endure up to 9500 KPa of pressure, making unmanned landing missions on Venus practical(and maybe manned too, maybe).
• Improved the universal solar panels patch to set different energy/mass efficiency ratios depending on them being static or tracking and on tech level.
• Improved SSTU welding docking port diameter limits and updated SSTU Station Cores and Docking Hubs to use real docking ports diameters.
• Changed the way max diameters in SSTU parts are limited, to rely on Part Upgrades rebalanced for RSS. They are located in construction tech nodes.
• Redefined mininimum diameters for all SSTU procedural parts and changed increments in size from 0.625m to 0.5m.
• Overhauled procedural solid rockets to use the Part Upgrade system and removed many duplicate procedural SRB parts no longer needed.
• Fixed the Big Gemini parachute from Bluedog Design Bureau for real.
• Reduced dry mass of SSTU cryogenic and zero boil-off tanks. Previously stages using cryogenic tanks and LH2 engines were barely breaking even in delta-V per total mass with Aerozine 50/NTO upper stages. In reality heavier service module tanks are required for the latter which are mostly pressure-fed.
• Implemented proper volume settings for TAC Life Support resources in SSTU tanks. Now they should be very close to procedural life support tanks, except
  for having a much lighter dry mass. SSTU does not support requiring specific tank types for some resources(AFAIK).

0.1.25

• Fixed critical issue with manned contracts requirements blocking everything past the moon landing.
• Fixed BDB Gemini specs with a compromise. The actual Gemini separates the lower part of the service module before starting the solid rockets for deorbit.
• Boosted the parachutes of BDB Big Gemini.

0.1.2

• Rescaled and added realistic specs to Bluedog Design Bureau Mercury, Apollo's LEM and Gemini parts. Also fixed BDB RL-10 to proper scale.
• Config for SSTU's RD-180 added.
• Fixes, rebalance against grind and major expansion of the included contract pack to completely replace Stock exploration contracts.

0.1.1

• Improved the code and recompiled ThrottleControlledShutdown.dll
• Recompiled RP-0.dll and included its modified, stripped down source code.
• Adapted all RealismOverhaul patches for Bluedog Design Bureau and added a few more.
• Included all rescales for SXT aircraft parts from RO.
• Adapted more patches from RO for stock parts.
• Fixed the fuel mass ratios for the MAKS spaceplane engine and added MAKS fuel settings to SSTU tanks. Hopefully it is very close to reality now.
• CECE-Methane upgrade for Bluedog Design Bureau's RL10 as yet another liquid methane engine.

Edited September 14, 2018 by NotTheRealRMS
0.4.0.1 Update

[CobaltWolf]

Oh man, sounds awesome. Any chance of getting Bluedog Design Bureau support at some point? I've had some friends asking for something like this.

[legoclone09]

This looks really cool! I know @HoloYolo would like it.

[NotTheRealRMS]

On 26/12/2016 at 9:04 PM, CobaltWolf said:

Oh man, sounds awesome. Any chance of getting Bluedog Design Bureau support at some point? I've had some friends asking for something like this.

Done partially, as in translating configs from RO for BDB to work in Stock and a few extras. Almost gave up during the SRBs. Might do more patches for changing specs later, but not sure about rescaling anything else, maybe eventually, but it takes too much time to adjust everything. Changing rescaleFactor does not always work, and scaling without it requires editing positions for attach nodes. Really wish there was a WYSIWYG part config editor for rescales, fixing attach nodes and such.

In any case, what is the exact scale of BDB parts compared to the real engines and capsules they were based upon?

Also, updated with a new version, 0.1.1 , with more configs and a few fixes and improvements.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B45cFsYMm_H-VW5Zd2dlR24wSkE

[Rock3tman_]

How does one recompile RealHeat?

[CobaltWolf]

On 1/3/2017 at 5:06 PM, NotTheRealRMS said:

Done partially, as in translating configs from RO for BDB to work in Stock and a few extras. Almost gave up during the SRBs. Might do more patches for changing specs later, but not sure about rescaling anything else, maybe eventually, but it takes too much time to adjust everything. Changing rescaleFactor does not always work, and scaling without it requires editing positions for attach nodes. Really wish there was a WYSIWYG part config editor for rescales, fixing attach nodes and such.

In any case, what is the exact scale of BDB parts compared to the real engines and capsules they were based upon?

Also, updated with a new version, 0.1.1 , with more configs and a few fixes and improvements.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B45cFsYMm_H-VW5Zd2dlR24wSkE

BDB is usually at 64% scale, though there is a lot of rounding to fit into the semi-fixed number of sizes.

[Errol]

How difficult would it be to just use the throttle limiting part of this, with nothing else?

[NotTheRealRMS]

On 04/01/2017 at 11:23 PM, Rock3tman_ said:

How does one recompile RealHeat?

I wouldn't advise trying if you aren't familiarized with compiling code, but if you really want to try, here is how. No guarantees it will work.

In Windows:

Install MSBuildTools 2013 if you don't have it already.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40760

In Linux:

Install MonoDevelop if you don't have it already, preferably with the package manager used by your distribution(apt-get in Debian, pacman in Arch, etc).

1) Download and install ModularFlightIntegrator.

2) Download the 1.2 PR for RealHeat(note that this link will become obsolete in the future and that it might not work.)

https://github.com/KSP-RO/RealHeat/archive/5e4ba86ecce8640b7a6bc864e6eaeeb38b46618a.zip

3) Unzip it in GameData and optionally rename it to something without that big hexadecimal number, but not to RealHeat.

3a) Go to Realheat-whatever\RealHeat\Plugins and delete RealHeat.dll . That one was compiled for 1.1.3

4) Go to the Source folder inside it and open RealHeat.csproj with a text editor. On Windows, also locate msbuild.exe and copy it to this Source folder.

5) Change lines starting with "<HintPath>" to point to the path ..\..\..\KSP_x64_Data\Managed\ while keeping the .dll files they refer to, except for the one ending in ModularFlightIntegrator.dll

5a) If you really want to take chances with the 32-bit version of KSP, you may change those to KSP_Data instead, but I really don't recommend playing with any mods designed for larger than Stock solar systems without the 64-bit version.

6) Change the "<HintPath>" line mentioning ModularFlightIntegrator to ..\..\ModularFlightIntegrator\ModularFlightIntegrator.dll

7a) In Windows, run the copy of msbuild.exe in the Source folder to compile it (through a command prompt if you want more info).

7b) In Linux, open RealHeat.csproj with MonoDevelop. Click on the "play" button to compile it.

8) If it compiled correctly there will be a new RealHeat.dll in the RealHeat-whatever\RealHeat\Plugins folder.

9) Move the RealHeat folder inside the Realheat-whatever to GameData and delete the RealHeat-whatever or move it somewhere outside the KSP folders.

On 05/01/2017 at 2:31 PM, Errol said:

How difficult would it be to just use the throttle limiting part of this, with nothing else?

As simple as deleting everything inside SRP-0 besides the Plugin and Throttle folders after unpacking it into GameData. The RP-0.dll in Plugin also can be safely removed.

[Rock3tman_]

Thank you! A little complicated though, I don't think I'll try it 

[Nightside]

This looks awesome, thanks for your work arranging all this! 

Just tried it out, seems to be working well.

Edited April 1, 2017 by Nightside

[bertibott]

looks interesting!  for those of us who are not able (or willing) to recompile RealHeat how much hassle would it be to make a working version that does not require it?

[NotTheRealRMS]

On 16/04/2017 at 9:55 AM, bertibott said:

looks interesting!  for those of us who are not able (or willing) to recompile RealHeat how much hassle would it be to make a working version that does not require it?

Nothing at all. This hasn't been updated for months, I know. Real Heat has an official 1.2.2 version now.

Considering the stock exploration contracts cannot be changed in a way that improves the experience of playing with the Real Solar System, mostly because they are stuck in an artificial "do everything you can in x before you get missions to explore y" roadblock that really, really doesn't work with a realistic sized solar system, here comes a new version, still WIP, but with a full overhaul of everything exploration related, manned and unmanned. Furthermore, having a good looking LEM that works again since FASA became outdated was kind of a big deal, and in addition to the Bluedog Design Bureau version of it rescaled and set to realistic specs and to everything needed to safely store it inside any rocket, the Mercury and Gemini parts are in. Sorry about the lack of rescales for tanks, decouplers, etc for replica fans, but with SSTU and ProceduralParts, it seems kind of pointless. Only rescaled the Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter because storing the LEM in a generic procedural interstage fairing base is a recipe for parts detaching themselves randomly during launch. As a bonus it's compatible with the Soyuz from SSTU, and naturally, with the Apollo from SSTU and with anything using SSTU or Bluedog Design Bureau Apollo docking ports(also rescaled in this new version):

Bluedog Design Bureau LEM in the safest storage for launch.

There is no space race in Kerbal Space Program, so why not?

I'm not sure if suddenly every moon and planet in the solar system showing up with a flyby contract as long as you did an unmanned flyby to the moon and have researched "Improved Electrics" in the tech tree is right, but AFAIK achieving New Horizons' mission does not require technology unavailable in the 1960s. Sure, a Pluto flyby using the rockets of the sixties would probably require a heavier launch vehicle than New Horizons did, but I see no reason to stop the player from attempting one, and even less to follow the Stock way of "one body at a time, do everything in it first before contracts for other bodies show up".

So, here is the new version, 0.1.2:

-Outdated-

*Edit:

Just published it and found out certain limitations with Contract Configurator were blocking manned missions past the Moon landing because it seems unable to acknowledge manned landing milestones as requirements for a contract to become available. So here's a new one with such glaring problem fixed, 0.1.25:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-Y3V5UUg5dVBHYmc

Edited May 6, 2017 by NotTheRealRMS
Quick update

[NotTheRealRMS]

0.2 Version is out:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-bGR2STJNNFczYnc

Biggest change is that now it's no longer possible to fly megaton rockets without regards to avionics capabilities, for the RP-0 avionics system has been updated to support 1.2.2 for a while. It also features something that its previous version lacked, but in its development version it is limited to only one part created using Procedural Parts. If you really don't want such feature, it can be disabled by running AvionicsSwitch.bat /.sh located in the main SRP-0 folder, but that will lead to some  parts with command modules that draw 0 EC.

To expand such procedural avionics, I modified the RP-0 source code  to make this relatively new feature compatible with SSTU upper stage tanks and procedural probes. If these changes to the RP-0 source code were useful for the original RP-0 itself, I'd consider to do Pull Request with them for the RP-0 project, but for one, the Procedural Probes from SSTU are WIP given they use a procedural decoupler module instead of a dedicated module for procedural probes, making source code changes to support them of dubious utility for a more professional mod than this one at best, while the changes to the source code to support SSTU upper stages wouldn't work with RealFuels because they depend on checking volume from a SSTU module that is overridden by it. I also really don't want to register in GitHub. Of course, honestly I wouldn't mind if someone else borrowed the code to do a PR, but I doubt the RP-0 Team has any interest in these changes.

I rescaled docking ports for SSTU stations to the dimensions of real life ones(with a few sub-millimeter precision errors maybe) and updated all the diameter limits in SSTU to the new PartUpgrade method instead of the deprecated SSTU_TechLimit and pruned excessive duplicates of the Procedural SRB, now replaced with a single part that can be upgraded. Furthermore there is an even better one from SSTU that starts as a 0.2m max diameter solid rocket motor, like the Tiny Tim, and can be upgraded all the way up to a modern SRB. Some changes, additions in the Tech Tree, some fixes. There were changes to the tankage mass of cryogenic tanks from SSTU because they were way too heavy before, and perhaps they still need to be lighter for LH2/LOX lbo tanks to be competitive with Aerozine50/NTO lightweight tanks. Of course, in reality most upper stage hypergolic engines are pressure-fed and need heavier, pressurized service module tanks to even ignite, but this can't be done without RealFuels(technically, it could, but I'm not sure my near-nonexistent coding skills could do it, and attempting to do it without creating any PartModules, like ThrottleControlledShutdown.dll, probably won't work).

As for rescaling the space stations themselves, once a mod that replaces Kerbals with humans that have realistic height and anatomy for humans shows up, I will see what I can do, because that would take lots of time to get finished, plus I'm not sure how SSTU stations will behave after being fully rescaled(rather than only their docking ports) and none of the station/base parts I like to play with are already supported in any form by RealismOverhaul patches so it will have to be done "from scratch", and it would be another deviation from the goal of attempting, whenever possible, universal support and realism-focused balancing instead of specific patches for each and every imaginable part.

Edited May 13, 2017 by NotTheRealRMS
Typo

[NotTheRealRMS]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-NDV5eVhDNF9Kc00

New 0.2.1 version, mostly about this:

The Space Shuttle of SSTU was scaled up for the Real Solar System. Not completely sure about the dry mass for it. Wikipedia gives a dry mass for the real Space Shuttle orbiter around 60-something tons, while Astronautix.com gives ~99 tons dry mass for the orbiter. Given this crude replica has roughly the same mass, the latter is probably the most correct source on it given Encyclopedia Astronautica is one of the most reliable online sources about space technology. Also added patches to rebalance NearFutureSolar curved solar panels to about their same stats in RealismOverhaul and for SSTU Solar Panels which use their own module, added the Lockheed X-33 engine(SXT needed), fixed a typo that made entry costs for many parts too cheap and switched all rescales from using rescaleFactor to direct model rescales instead, which is a much more reliable method to do part rescales. PS: will attempt to release one development version update per week.

[NotTheRealRMS]

Most of the mods this project depends upon are not updated for 1.3 as of now. In fact, Ferram Aerospace Research just got its official 1.2.2 version recently. Therefore, here's another version for 1.2.2 . I'm updating the links to Kerbal Construction Time to go straight to the last 1.2.2 compatible development builds. In any case, here are the links for the last KCT version for 1.2.2 and also for the last MagiCore for 1.2.2. Remember that both are development versions. I tested them and they didn't present any glaring issues, but can't guarantee anything.

http://magico13.net:8080/job/Kerbal Construction Time Beta/26/

http://magico13.net:8080/job/MagiCore/40/

Sufficiently Realistic Progression Zero Version 0.2.2 :

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-VVBRM0V0amU0d1U

Mostly bugfixing this time, There were issues with the gas giant atmospheric probe contracts. Also, this version comes with the first nerf of contracts which admittedly are way too generous with their rewards as of now: removal of science rewards which are utterly redundant given how much science can be gained by using science parts and space stations. The funding rewards are a complicated issue: I don't want to make them too small that during a typical career getting stuck in budget walls that force grinding repetitive contracts will ever be reached, and finding the perfect balance to neither reward too much or too little is tricky. For there are many money sinks that must be considered: first, the need of upgrading construction and R&D speed in Kerbal Construction Time, then, there is the nature of a "complete" Moon landing requiring at least a fully upgraded Astronaut Facility for the flag planting, a level 2 R&D for soil sample collection and, unless you risk multiple launches to assemble a moon rocket in LEO, a fully upgraded launchpad, plus a likely much higher than 1,000,000 investment with entry costs for needed parts. Entry costs for near all parts in the Tech Tree are much more expensive than typical for Stock as well. Don't do stock exploration contracts should for any reason they appear despite the settings to disable them.

I also tried the Monthly Budgets mod to see if it could give a better balance, even with the over-generous contract rewards as of now, but it locks maximum budget surplus beneath that of the most expensive entry costs in the Tech Tree while blocking all financial rewards from contracts, which means it is not an option. I'm considering to, in the future, use ScrapYard API and once it gets done, KCT's as well, for a plugin that will add maintenance costs for reusable pods, shuttles and parts in inventory, which is a realistic detail in space technologies that does not exist in any mod AFAIK, not even RO/RP-0, but not promising anything. If it was possible to pay the research cost of a part over months or years instead of at once, like in real R&D, then a config to balance Monthly Budgets for both this mod and RP-0 would be viable, but that also would require a new plugin.

[NotTheRealRMS]

Version 0.2.3

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-TlBoUEFPVlA1VVU

Mostly about supporting the North American Rockwell Mars Excursion Module, as in placing it better in the Tech Tree, balancing its cost (note it is a pure guess of ~40million 1960s USD, given it never was constructed), adapting its bundled RealismOverhaul config where needed to work without RO+RealFuels, plus, if fluorine isn't deadly enough(because why not include it?), just one more exception, just one more fuel type that is "unique" enough to go in, also added because BobCat's Soviet Engine Pack still works, which means adapting its RO configs is a must, specially because of the RD-270M, which runs on pentaborane and because an add-on mod for SSTU includes them.The good news on that unique engine: the RD-270M Isp is about as good as the expected one from SpaceX Raptor and unlike it, not a cryogenic fuel/oxidizer mix. The bad news: surviving a mustard gas attack is probably more likely than surviving any leak of that stuff, of course such detail is not simulated in-game, AFAIK no mod exists that does it, therefore it doesn't really matter after all. They will just walk away from a pentaborane leak like if nothing had happened.

*Edit: also, upon adding and testing the MEM patches, I realized that CryoTanks doesn't really add much for any Real Solar System game, it has an universal patch on every part with LqdHydrogen or Oxidizer using Stock resource storage to switch between them, but that is balanced for Stock Kerbol. I added a batch/shell script to disable such patch, but I recommend instead to install CryoEngines without putting its bundled CryoTanks folder in your GameData. All parts meant to support different loadouts other than ProceduralParts in SRP-0 will eventually use SSTUVolumeContainer for such purpose.

Edited June 3, 2017 by NotTheRealRMS
Added notice

[JoCRaM]

I like the idea of this mod, but don't get a lot of time to play.... I started a rp-0 game but want the 1.2 bug fixes, and want USI support.

You mention TestFlight, but don't list it, are this or Unnamed Part Failure Mod 'compatible'

The Taerobee mod should probably be moved to required mods, or at least have "needed for early aircraft parts" added to the description.

It stumbles on British Rockets, but I can't work out why - the .cfg for waxwing has SolidFuel and Gamma has minThrust:

Spoiler

[LOG 21:28:29.293] [ModuleManager] Applying node SRP-0/Throttle/GenericThrottleLimiter/@PART[*]:HAS[~tphase1[*rue],@MODULE[ModuleEngines*]:HAS[!PROPELLANT[IntakeAtm],!PROPELLANT[SolidFuel],~minThrust[>0]],!MODULE[ModuleEnginesAJEJet]]:FOR[zzzzz_SRP0ThrottleLimiter] to British Rockets/Parts/Black Arrow/ba_waxwing/part/BR_BA_waxwing
[LOG 21:28:29.294] [ModuleManager] Cannot find key maxThrust in MODULE
[LOG 21:28:29.295] [ModuleManager] Error - Cannot parse variable search when replacing (%) key minThrust = #$maxThrust$
[LOG 21:28:29.296] [ModuleManager] Applying node SRP-0/Throttle/GenericThrottleLimiter/@PART[*]:HAS[~tphase1[*rue],@MODULE[ModuleEngines*]:HAS[!PROPELLANT[IntakeAtm],!PROPELLANT[SolidFuel],~minThrust[>0]],!MODULE[ModuleEnginesAJEJet]]:FOR[zzzzz_SRP0ThrottleLimiter] to British Rockets/Parts/Engines/Gamma/part/BR_Gamma_Nozzle

 

[JoCRaM]

Unfortunately the runway seams make it unplayable :-(.. oh well, I guess I'll have to wait for RSS for 1.3

[NotTheRealRMS]

New version, 0.2.4. Still waiting on most mods listed as highly recommended and all listed as required before updating to 1.3

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-UXZGc1B4U3hlLVU

Depending on firespitter core was a stopgap to issues that wrong utilization of the much more flexible SSTUVolumeContainer and of the SSTU lander ascent stage parts caused. Furthermore listing CryoEngines as a dependency was redundant because SSTU handles LH2 by itself. Finally there is one thing from RO that probably was a mistake to not include and adapt: RealPlume configs,or maybe I shouldn't after looking at the FPS counter when using a SLS on steroids with seven radial boosters with over 20 Merlin-1C from SSTU each, all of their Real Plumes in, to lift off a huge zero boil-off Interplanetary shuttle using two NERVA engines, in the end I switched to using "only" one F-1B per booster to support the 5x SSME core and the FPS drop wasn't so bad(being an One Man's Beta Testing team for now definitively isn't perfect, but it can be fun) . It's up to you whether the improved plumes make up for the performance hit or not, RealPlume is not really required and in fact, I haven't tested all configs, some may lead to engines without plumes, if you find one or more engines without plumes when using RealPlume, report them here.

SSTU will be used whenever possible to add modular resource loadout options to non-procedural parts, but this will mostly apply to spaceplane fuselages, because like mentioned before, it sounds pointless to support Stock balanced non-procedural fuel tanks for rockets and Real Solar System scaled replicas need only minimal patching to work as they should(as the ones from the British Rockets mod). For a start now B9 Aerospace was patched to used SSTUVolumeContainer for configurable loadouts. The patch is still incomplete because the default settings could be improved with reasonable life support resources ratios for crewed parts(for both TAC and USI) and other things. Dry mass is still on SMURFF for now because setting that to rely fully on SSTU will need some careful balancing of tankage mass settings, specially for crewed parts. I believe it's serviceable as it is and it's simpler to set dry mass on the part itself, if further balance is needed, no point to over-complicate this.

Also, there was the need to do something with BobCat's Soviet Engines to support SSTU Expansion Pack which gives them SSTU modular engine clusters(I was using an outdated SSTU Nova Pack before which had the SSTU changes the Soviet Engines pack). However, some of the features of SSTU Expansion are either redundant(why add engines from other mods to use SSTU clusters if SSTU already features the same engines? Sorry, but I see no point in that - the RL10 from Bluedog Design Bureau is an exception because it is being used as a more flexible option supporting all RL10 related Part Upgrades, including the Liquid Methane fueled one - of course stumbles into the bug with PartUpgrades only SSTU for KSP 1.3 fixed, but eventually this mod will move on to 1.3 too), already featured(F-1A is already in with the Real specifications as a Part Upgrade, for example) or will be supported later. Therefore there is both partial support for this nonetheless handy mod for SSTU and also a batch file for Windows and a shell script for GNU/Linux that removes unsupported configs from it. How this support will develop further will depend on how and whether such expansion pack for SSTU will go on for KSP 1.3.

I believe I'm reaching a point in this project close to hitting a dead end on what can be further done using ModuleManager part configs only, besides fixing bugs whenever they are reported or I find them out on my own. However, until I update this mod for 1.3, something that has to be delayed for now because of dependencies still not working on 1.3, I will avoid attempts at plugin coding. Besides the mentioned ideas before, which I suspect will hit some serious walls, I really want to try using the localization feature to make Liquid Fuel show up as Kerosene in-game and Oxidizer as "LqdOxygen" without altering their internal names so parts will not need patches to work with such a change, regardless of the densities of the same having nothing to do with Kerosene and Liquid Oxygen, it still would be more immersive IMO.

On 09/06/2017 at 9:52 AM, JoCRaM said:

You mention TestFlight, but don't list it, are this or Unnamed Part Failure Mod 'compatible'

The Taerobee mod should probably be moved to required mods, or at least have "needed for early aircraft parts" added to the description.

Nope. The mention of TestFlight includes a clear "maybe never" comment because in my opinion random failure doesn't belong to this game. Without the pressure of a competing space agency, it just forces you to repeat missions and do flight tests for parts, and both will become a grind after a while. As for Taerobee, like SXT, it is not strictly needed, but very handy in early game, and even more useful if you are interested in simulating the X-1 -> X-15 -> DynaSoar evolution and related contracts without skipping the X-1. The stock "Ant" engine is "improvised" into an Aerobee sustainer, there is an alternate V-2 avionics part using SSTU and procedural wings and fuel tanks can do the rest. Bluedog Design Bureau for example features the XLR10-RM-2 as an alternative to the V-2 engine.

On the issue with the British Rockets mod, it was a small one, unlike the seams in terrain and the runway. Regarding the latter, this mod relied on a relatively stable development version of Ferram Aerospace Research for many months, so once there is one for 1.3 and most mods in the required and highly recommended lists already support it, I will get to updating this for 1.3. As for the reason of that issue with the patch: British Rockets includes a patch for the Waxwing applied whenever Real Solar System is installed that just adds an extra ModuleEngines without maxThrust or other fields a working Module Engines setting requires. Now, I'm not sure on whether RealFuels does something with it or such patch is incorrect, but I included a fix in this update that also sets SMURFF to ignore the already balanced parts from the same, because supporting mods with real scale parts is always high priority.

Edited June 11, 2017 by NotTheRealRMS
Fixed a critical typo.

[NotTheRealRMS]

Version 0.2.5

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-NWtsMC02VVBkamc

Not a lot done this time, just the beginning of RSS-balanced tourism contracts and fixing NearFutureElectrical nuclear reactors which were balanced for Stock Kerbol space travel times, being extremely inefficient by orders of magnitude compared to real ones, given the gigantic difference in the uranium usage between the NERVA integrated nuclear reactor and them, plus fixing the equally extremely expensive prices of NFE nuclear fuel tanks.

The most basic tourism contracts aren't that great. 250 per tourist for suborbital means that unless you design a suborbital spaceplane with room for 40 it won't bring a lot of money. That one is based on the SpaceShipTwo pricing. The real profit comes with huge risks in the contracts for bringing tourists to the Moon or Mars: while the rewards, specially for shipping several tourists at once to either, really make up for the high costs, failure, specially when combined with tourist deaths, have very unforgiving indemnities that can easily bankrupt the space program. The method to allow any number of tourists up to the maximum is not the most elegant for now, but it works and is less limited than waiting for a RNG to bless you with the exact number you have the means in game to transport at the moment. Each contract represents on "ticket" and you can sell as many as there is demand for, just don't miss the deadlines for them.

[Bugabugas]

Hello! Having what I would call a... minor issue?

Every time I try to EVA with a Kerbal (any class, I tried), both landed on Earth at KSC or in orbit (suborbital, polar, orbital, doesn't matter either), he puffs and dies. Literally puffs and dies.

Had TAC warning me right in the split second I click EVA and see/hear a puff that Oxygen, Food and Water have ran out. Disabled it and still happened. Since it is nothing related to TAC, it must be some physics pressure law my Kerbals ain't following hehe like maximum pressure, or something, you tell me!

Anyone has any idea what could be? Some mod missing related to changes from Kerbol System to Solar System+RO+RP-0?

 

[NotTheRealRMS]

13 hours ago, Bugabugas said:

Hello! Having what I would call a... minor issue?

Every time I try to EVA with a Kerbal (any class, I tried), both landed on Earth at KSC or in orbit (suborbital, polar, orbital, doesn't matter either), he puffs and dies. Literally puffs and dies.

Had TAC warning me right in the split second I click EVA and see/hear a puff that Oxygen, Food and Water have ran out. Disabled it and still happened. Since it is nothing related to TAC, it must be some physics pressure law my Kerbals ain't following hehe like maximum pressure, or something, you tell me!

Anyone has any idea what could be? Some mod missing related to changes from Kerbol System to Solar System+RO+RP-0?

 

First, make sure your KSP version is 1.2.2 and that the version of TAC Life Support you have is for 1.2.2 as well . Neither this mod, Realism Overhaul or RP-0 work for 1.3 yet, mostly because one of the cornerstones of realism mods, Ferram Aerospace Research, won't have a stable 1.3 version any time soon. If you did not mistakenly install 1.3 mods in KSP 1.2.2 or the opposite, the only thing I can inform you with near certainty is that such bug isn't being caused by SRP-0, and probably neither RP-0 or Realism Overhaul are the causes of it. Just to make it clear, this mod does not require Realism Overhaul or RP-0, it is an alternative to them that follows a different design paradigm. Any issues caused by either should be reported to their threads, not here.

[NotTheRealRMS]

Version 0.2.6

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-UVFmNXJjenA1aWs

One thing lacking in all tourism contracts, from both Stock and TourismPlus, is a way for the player to define exactly how many tourists are desirable per contract. TourismPlus lets a RNG decide how many, which means you might get suboptimal contracts if the RNG hates you. Setting one contract per tourist like was initially done in the previous version was not good either, cluttering the mission list, so there were two options left in this: either code a plugin that opens an input box in the mission control scene where such number can be typed, dynamically changing all contracts, something that would have to be ported to 1.3 later, or find a workaround using ContractConfigurator and fake contracts with no rewards or penalties that autocomplete and change the number of tourists per contract upon being accepted by the player. While the former is a more refined and intuitive solution, for now, the latter will do. One important note about this new feature: the change doesn't affect already generated contracts, the tourism contracts must be refreshed for it to happen, by declining the existing ones so new ones will be generated with the new number of tourists or by waiting for them to expire. Same on the other fake contracts, which will report the wrong current number of tourists per contract until they are declined or expired. There is a limit of 40 tourists max in this patchwork system to customize how many tourists should be served, because more than that is truly too much, for both practical and game performance reasons.

This overhaul of the still unfinished tourism contract pack wasn't the biggest deal in this update. Support for both SSTU Expansion Pack and Bluedog Design Bureau was further extended, including all Apollo service modules from BDB redesigned as single parts like the SSTU one by adapting SSTU Expansion Pack configs with their rescales to real dimensions, a real scale Skylab, which is really useful for early manned interplanetary missions because of how much room for life support or spare fuel for an Apollo CSM it has, and large habitation modules are a must for realistic interplanetary missions. This was not easy to get done right because of the large number of models that had to be rescaled among other things. In fact perhaps rescaling the default SSTU space station parts will be possibly easier. In addition to the real Skylab using SSTU Station Core, to go beyond what SSTU Expansion does, several engines, mostly from Bluedog Design Bureau and lacking equivalents in SSTU, were modified to use SSTU engine clusters, and in the future more engines will go through the same patching for SSTU cluster support. Furthermore, now most parts in BDB without specific configs are pruned for convenience because its latest version includes a patch that disables SMURFF and features its own rebalance changes, but those only support up to 6.4x scale. However, with SSTU Expansion Pack installed, many of its parts previously unchanged by this mod will be included using SSTU features and supporting realistic scales. Finally, having Part Upgrades not depending on any specific mod due to icons is important. Now it shouldn't matter whether Bluedog DB or FASA is installed for the Titan and Atlas engines plus their upgrades to show up correctly.

 

[NotTheRealRMS]

Version 0.2.7

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-X2p2LWVwdjMxeHc

RCS was one of the weakest points of this fork so far, because this mod did almost nothing to them before and many Stock-balanced RCS parts are too heavy. Now, not only all RO modifications for more realistic RCS were adapted, but its RealFuels setup for RCS was converted into an universal patch and line of Part Upgrades that is applied to all RCS other than those using Ion/Argon/etc from NearFuturePropulsion, including upgrades that permanently switch all of them from MonoPropellant to Aerozine50/NTO(ignored by parts that already use the latter by default) and sets them, at first, for Nitrogen grade poor specific impulse, progressing then based on the RealFuels performance specifications by tech level and fuel type, abstracted as "MonoPropellant" of course, with unfortunately no way to dynamically change density through this, but with a huge difference between early game and late game RCS efficiency.

Furthermore it was about time to support Ven's Stock Part Revamp, because it really improves the look of most Stock parts. While this support might have a few gaps, it's mostly done now. Giving a break to extending SSTU clusters until everything is ready to move on to 1.3 because of the bug with Part Upgrades the latest version of SSTU for KSP 1.2.2 has. To follow it, all RO changes for stock command modules and spaceplane parts have been adapted, including SSTU setups for them.

Finally, while "magical unicorn poop" is a crude description for them, it's hard to deal with names like "Karbonite" and "Karborundum" when it comes to attempting to improve realism for other mods. Redefining them and eventually adding Real ISRU support like mentioned before is a goal, but while Karbonite could be roughly converted to Liquid Methane, Karborundum was a bit of a mystery before finding out about Ultra Dense Deuterium, which fits perfectly as a "it is sort of Unobtainium but it might be real" replacement for the latter. The renames for both will happen after the update for 1.3, without changing the internal config names for easier compatibility, but Karborundum is already redefined as UDD in density and all the engines from Karbonite Plus were changed accordingly, also getting rid of the other "Magical Unicorn" of "Ore", replaced with Lithium. While the specific impulse for some of them really breaks all game balance, even more than the default specific impulses from the mod, the reason I like this mod is because if you play with no more mods with fusion rockets besides it, it really makes fusion rocket logistics nontrivial, and with the new density of "Karborundum" that very late game logistics will become even more complicated, specially considering the only places where it can be found.

[NotTheRealRMS]

Version 0.2.8

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B45cFsYMm_H-OGZGMzlNazJYcXM

Mostly bugfixing this time, a reorganization of the contracts and a lot of wasted attempts to get the Space Shuttle from SSTU(SC-E) to work with Ferram Aerospace Research. On the latter there must be something with their geometry that really will not work with FAR, because during reentry, the shuttle will just roll and spin out of control until its wings and tail shatter, then the main fuselage keeps spinning at absurd speeds as well during descent, and there is no clear voxelization error, nothing obvious that could be making such Space Shuttle impossible to fly this way. This must be the reason SSTU thread explicitly states FAR as incompatible, therefore it's forsaking time. Besides, designing spaceplanes using procedural wings is more fun anyway.

Fixing misplaced attach nodes is something that is only practical when restarting the game over and over while editing a part ModuleManager config is not necessary, and tools like NodeHelper make it practical. Unfortunately that also means one more reason to delay an update for 1.3.