[1.12.x] Near Future Technologies (September 6)

[uncertified_engineer]

47 minutes ago, Streetwind said:

Okay, so... I have a really weird issue. Possibly the weirdest issue I have ever had in KSP.

When I have one of the cluster mounts that NF Launch Vehicles supplies placed in the VAB, and I mouse over it while having an engine selected, then everything is fine as long as I am in single-item symmetry.

As soon as I change the symmetry mode to anything other than single, then an intense alarm noise will play whenever I mouse over that engine mount while dragging an engine. It is very loud. It is not a sound that is part of KSP, I have never heard it before. It sounds like a mobile phone going off, having both a bright tone, and multiple vibration "hums". It plays every single time. I can get it to overlap if I rapidly move the mouse off and on the cluster mount.

I spent like half an hour confused, looking around my room for where that sound was coming from, until I clued in that it was the game.

I cannot imagine this is intended. Has anyone here ever experienced anything like it?

That is 100% a very weird issue, if i'm being honest it could be one of two things

I'm not necessarily well versed or knowledgeable enough to give you an educated opinion, but from personal experience I've had headphones where there's a faint beeping/alarm noise as you described. It could also be coming directly from your PC, i've heard that happen to people.

But really your issue is incredibly unique, I know my way around computers but this is a field i'm 100% not an expert on, i'm sure someone on this forum could answer it, if you haven't already try bring it up as an issue on github, but given how unique this issue is I don't think it could be 100% the mods fault.

[Streetwind]

Given that I'm not sure NFLV even ships any sounds at all, it could be coming directly from my computer, yeah. But it is more likely the fault of some kind of weird effect in my specific pile-up of mods, and not NFLV on its own.

I am just asking here because a few parts from NFLV happen to trigger it, which means that there might be a very small chance that someone else in this thread has run into the same thing. Which is what I am hoping for. (Of course, chances are not looking good, since a search for certain keywords in this thread yielded nothing.)

Edited September 17 by Streetwind

[Brigadier]

16 minutes ago, Streetwind said:

Given that I'm not sure NFLV even ships any sounds at all, I'm strongly leaning towards this coming directly from my computer, yeah. It is very likely the fault of some kind of weird effect in my specific pile-up of mods, and not specifically NFLV.

As for confirming if it's coming from the computer, turn the sound off in Windows.  Then turn it back on and mute KSP from its options menu.

I doubt, however, that these are your real first diagnostic steps and you've already determined the source.  I don't intend on being sarcastic or condescending, but it seems from your text that you might not be entirely sure of the sound's origin.  Forgive me if this seems trivial.

Edited September 16 by Brigadier

[Streetwind]

It was definitely coming from the game. And after extensive sleuthing, which included checking logs and console output, I've determined the culprit:

It was OhScrap!. Apparently it is meant to play various alerts whenever certain failures occur. Why it decides to instead play an alert when the player holds Alt and/or changes symmetry modes while hovering over certain other parts in the editor is anyone's guess. (As is why a vibrating phone noise is even part of a set of alarms meant to alert the player to part failures...)

Welp, I was already on the fence about whether to include that mod at all. If it's outright broken, that's an easy decision to make. Bye-bye!

Hopefully this will, at some point, help someone else... though given how weird this was, probably not

[Professor K]

Small bug: In Near Future Electrical, the English localization for the PB-AS-NUK Radioisotope Generator seem to be missing.

-K

Quick Google Translate for anyone who wants to fix it before the official fix goes in.

    #LOC_NFElectrical_rtg-0625_title = PB-AS-NUK Radioisotope Generator
    #LOC_NFElectrical_rtg-0625_description = Utilizing a higher amount of Blutonium-238 than the PB-NUK and a more efficient power conversion system based on reverse-engineered Post-Kerbin generator technology, Ionic Symphonic engineers have refined this advanced RTG for cost-effective yet continuous power.
    #LOC_NFElectrical_rtg-0625_tags = active atom charge e/c elect energ generat isotope nuclear nuke power radio rtg stiring thermo volt watt nearfuture mmrtg

 

[Streetwind]

@Professor K Is that maybe an older part that was discontinued from the mod?

Because when I look into ...\NearFutureElectrical\Parts\RTG, there are four part config files there, and none of them use the keys #LOC_NFElectrical_rtg-0625_(etc). No part is named nfe-rtg-0625-1 either.

The English localization file probably got updated when it was removed, since it's the "main" file and done by Nertea himself, whereas the other languages may have been contributed by others and thus didn't get changed (yet).

...of course, that's all just my speculation based on what I see in my GameData folder

[Professor K]

20 hours ago, Streetwind said:

@Professor K Is that maybe an older part that was discontinued from the mod?

Because when I look into ...\NearFutureElectrical\Parts\RTG, there are four part config files there, and none of them use the keys #LOC_NFElectrical_rtg-0625_(etc). No part is named nfe-rtg-0625-1 either.

The English localization file probably got updated when it was removed, since it's the "main" file and done by Nertea himself, whereas the other languages may have been contributed by others and thus didn't get changed (yet).

...of course, that's all just my speculation based on what I see in my GameData folder

That seems to be the issue, VABOrganizer appears to be causing the depreciated parts to show up in the VAB, but unlike the others that have a description of "depreciated", that RTG has nothing.

Edit: Found the real issue. Apparently I had a senior moment and didn't delete the old version before dropping the last update into place, leaving a bunch of old/renamed parts config files in place.

-K

Edited September 19 by Professor K
Found real cause of issue

[Rakete]

Hi there,

I got a bug report for you.

 

 

Dynamic Battery Storage calculates energy flow from NF Solarpanels wrong:

see here:

 

The energy flow in the game is calculated correctly (the engines are sufficiently supplied and don't stutter), but the DBS display is way off reality... The panels here correctly deliver 72 EC/s into KSPs ressource system. DBS only shows 1.00 EC/s, which is wrong. Fortunately the vessel works correctly. Maybe you want to fix the issue in DBS or NF Solar, if you like to ;-) (Newest DBS version)

@Nertea

Also: DBS calculates 1 EC/s also even if those OKEB solar panels are retracted.

 

Edited September 27 by Rakete

[TheFreddyOMG]

I don't know if this is supposedto work this way, but even smallest engines consume up to 200 EC/s, (KP-01 PIT for example) I can put big reactors capable of that output but by the time I've placed them TWR drops way to low. I know these type of engines are used for it's very high ISP and low thrust, but it's impossible to use this way or I'm doing something wrong. Is there a sort of guide on how to use these engines or how could I know if required EC for each engine is correct and it isn't other mod messign with the values?

[arbsoup]

7 hours ago, TheFreddyOMG said:

I don't know if this is supposedto work this way, but even smallest engines consume up to 200 EC/s, (KP-01 PIT for example) I can put big reactors capable of that output but by the time I've placed them TWR drops way to low. I know these type of engines are used for it's very high ISP and low thrust, but it's impossible to use this way or I'm doing something wrong. Is there a sort of guide on how to use these engines or how could I know if required EC for each engine is correct and it isn't other mod messign with the values?

With the "Power Level" setting maxed out, the KP-01 takes 400 EC/s — this can be provided with two Garnet reactors, each with four XR-175 radiators from HeatControl to cool them, plus a few low-temperature radiators for the engine itself. The total mass of that system is about 3 tons.

If I then add about 3 tons of argon tanks and 3 tons of payload (total 9 tons), I get ~16 km/s delta-V with a TWR of 0.16-0.22 and a total burn time of ~2.5 hours. That is, the PIT basically takes a similar role to an ion engine — long burn time but extremely efficient for interplanetary maneuvers.

(For comparison, with 3t fuel, 3t payload, and significantly less nuclear reactor mass, the AFTER ion engine is giving me about 23 km/s with a TWR of 0.03-0.05 and a 17hr burn time. So there's a clear tradeoff between efficiency and thrust with these two options.)

Some of this might be my own config setup, but let me know if you're getting wildly different results. I definitely think the PIT is meant to be mostly between ion engines and nuclear engines in terms of efficiency vs. thrust.

Edited September 28 by arbsoup

[SpudNutimus]

@Nertea Two extremely small, non-critical issues that could be easily fixed next time Near Future is updated:

1. The RCS thrusters and blocks from Near Future Launch Vehicles have no VABOrganizer definitions and thus show up as "Miscellaneous" with VABOrganizer installed, when they should go under the "RCS" subcategory.

2. The new PB-SRG Advanced Radioisotope Generator from Near Future Electrical doesn't work properly with the DecayingRTGs extra because its config file defines its name as "nfe-rtg-asrg-1", while DecayingRTGs tries to patch a part named "nfe-rtg-asrtg-1".

[Javascap]

I have a question that's been bugging me for a while that I've been unable to ask until the forums came back up: is there any particular reason the pointed top and domed bottoms for the 5 meter N series and 7.5 meter E series parts have their heat resistance set to 1200 when all the other tank parts in those sizes and all stock parts, including the equivalent top and bottom parts have their heat resistance set to 2000? Because those parts are incredibly liable to explode on launch and I've edited them to have the same heat resistance, but I'm wondering why that value was chosen.

[JedTech]

A recommendation for newcomers: The newest version of of NF Electrical requires a mod called SystemHeat.  Unfortunately, this modded heating system turns the game into a thermodynamics simulator, which I don't find to be that fun. Luckily version 1.2.3 works great with the newest version of KSP.  So if you find yourself in the same boat as me, just downgrade to version 1.2.3

[Kaduloso_007]

Hello! I would like to report a bug with the solar panels in the Near Future Solar mod. I don't know why they are like this.