KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[ABZB]

for update version 1.3.10, CKAN is looking for 1.3.9, and returning an error when it cannot find it.

EDIT:

It has been fixed.

Edited August 16, 2015 by ABZB

[FreeThinker]

for update version 1.3.10, CKAN is looking for 1.3.9, and returning an error when it cannot find it.

EDIT:

It has been fixed.

What was the problem, and how was it fixed?

[9tea5]

Is there a config file I can change the hotkey which brings the ThermalHelper up with?

[FreeThinker]

Also, if I just noticed that if I quicksave then reload again, everything works as intended.

imglinks:

1:http://imgur.com/lt4wvXN,ZcaWBdT#0

2:http://imgur.com/lt4wvXN,ZcaWBdT#1

Well, that's not going to work, Instead I suggest add 2 radially attached tanks (0.88m) at the back, connect them to the main body and give them 2 thermal nozzles, precooler + air intake

- - - Updated - - -

Is there a config file I can change the hotkey which brings the ThermalHelper up with?

Nope, it's hard coded

[9tea5]

Do you think it's something which you'd be able to add in future?

[Trolllception]

I wanted to share a couple pictures of my KSPI SSTO. The Burncat is a Ammonia fuelled, pebble bed reactor powered Spaceplane capable of having 4000 d/v in orbit through the use of it's Attila orbital manoeuvring thrusters or RCS. I chose Ammonia over other fuels like Hydrazine to cut down on costs for the entire plane to be brought down to 70k Kerbucks.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Trolllception

[maphstra]

Well, that's not going to work, Instead I suggest add 2 radially attached tanks (0.88m) at the back, connect them to the main body and give them 2 thermal nozzles, precooler + air intake

Well the problem isnt with the Turbojet, it works.

The problem is that after the Turbojet's been decoupled, the Nozzle doesnt work.. F5 - F9 does make it work, but that makes me unable to revert to hangar, and is also a hassle.

That quick-save and quickload makes it work makes me think its a bug.

[Trolllception]

Well the problem isnt with the Turbojet, it works.

The problem is that after the Turbojet's been decoupled, the Nozzle doesnt work.. F5 - F9 does make it work, but that makes me unable to revert to hangar, and is also a hassle.

That quick-save and quickload makes it work makes me think its a bug.

A random guess is that the 'connections' code needs to update when a staging occurs. That way it will update the available power consumers in case the last in a line gets staged off. No idea how far off base I am here.

[FreeThinker]

Well the problem isnt with the Turbojet, it works.

The problem is that after the Turbojet's been decoupled, the Nozzle doesnt work.. F5 - F9 does make it work, but that makes me unable to revert to hangar, and is also a hassle.

That quick-save and quickload makes it work makes me think its a bug.

THe reason it works is because after reload/docking/undocking, the parts get reinitialized, but not after decoupling

- - - Updated - - -

I wanted to share a couple pictures of my KSPI SSTO. The Burncat is a Ammonia fuelled, pebble bed reactor powered Spaceplane capable of having 4000 d/v in orbit through the use of it's Attila orbital manoeuvring thrusters or RCS. I chose Ammonia over other fuels like Hydrazine to cut down on costs for the entire plane to be brought down to 70k Kerbucks.

http://i.imgur.com/qM3RWc8.png

http://i.imgur.com/2Lpjrtb.png

Looks beautiful but where is your thermal electric generator located to power your ATILLA thrusters?

Edited August 16, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Trolllception]

Looks good but where is your thermal electric generator located to power your ATILLA thrusters?

Hidden away inside the Mk2 engine shroud. I thought it looked better than being in the open. Also this is a slightly different loadout with more passenger space. I would use more of the MK2 KSPI parts but they need a bit more love. I can't find a good weight balance with the parts and the MK2 KSPI Generator > Reactor > Turbojet combination is too long.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Trolllception

[FreeThinker]

Hidden away inside the Mk2 engine shroud. I thought it looked better than being in the open. Also this is a slightly different loadout with more passenger space. I would use more of the MK2 KSPI parts but they need a bit more love. I can't find a good weight balance with the parts and the MK2 KSPI Generator > Reactor > Turbojet combination is too long.

I see, I guess this is ABZB MK2 part correct? Looks good

Btw, I have added a link to his Mod on the First page.

Edited August 16, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Trolllception]

I see, I guess this is ABZB MK2 part correct? Looks good

Btw, I have added a link to his Mod on the First page.

That part is an engine shroud from the mod Mk2 Stockalike expansion. I simply stuffed the generator in the shroud to hide it a bit, no part clipping. ABZB's mod is a set of configs for the Mk2 Stockalike expansion but I am not using his other KSPI parts other than the stock fuel tank IFS configs right now.

Not sure if he has a forum thread but I have a small list of things that need to be fixed in his mod.

Another pic of the shroud with a thermal turbo jet in it.

http://imgur.com/vHOmDcz

Edited August 17, 2015 by Trolllception

[maphstra]

THe reason it works is because after reload/docking/undocking, the parts get reinitialized, but not after decoupling

So i should take it this is working as intended?

[Cosmonauth]

Well yeah, ABZB mod is interesting, and will be very useful for spaceplane enthusiasts after some polishing. I've tried it, but for some reason it doesn't work. Reactor+Thermal Turbojet combo gives me 0 thrust, and unfortunately I had no spare time to figure out, what exactly was wrong. Also I don't want to flood this thread, so ABZB should start a thread related to his mod(s).

[FreeThinker]

So i should take it this is working as intended?

Well, the trick you use is usaly not allowed as fuel cannot flow past other engines. however, The Thermal TurboJet , only requires atmospheric Air, which flows everywhere, even through other engines which cannot process atmospheric air. But logicly this makes no sence. So eventhough it works, it realy should not. Therefore I consider you solution an exploit which should be prevented instead of promoted

Edited August 17, 2015 by FreeThinker

[maphstra]

Ok, i'll find another way. Thanks for the quick answers:)

[FreeThinker]

Hidden away inside the Mk2 engine shroud. I thought it looked better than being in the open. Also this is a slightly different loadout with more passenger space. I would use more of the MK2 KSPI parts but they need a bit more love. I can't find a good weight balance with the parts and the MK2 KSPI Generator > Reactor > Turbojet combination is too long.

http://i.imgur.com/p0AdqQ6.png

Neat trick, but where are your radiators?

[Bishop149]

Hmmm I'm wondering if the inability turn back on the cryostats I mentioned earlier might be a real issue.

As can be seen in the image below I have managed to use up 13-14 units of Lithium and have produced naff all tritium.

This is my first attempt at breeding it and I dunno the rate of production, but surely some trace amount should be there? I worry its all just boiling straight off.

P.S. Pretty please disable that glow on the cargobays!

Also last night I finally unlock Solid State Generators! I look forward to my struggles with power generation being somewhat ameliorated.

Edited August 17, 2015 by Bishop149

[okder]

big problems with thermojet power balancing.

i have 3 engines linked to one reactor.

if i use one of them (linked directly) reactor is loaded only on 50% (including selfpowering energy leak, i.e. 1 engine could use only 25% of reactor on maximum thrust, even others disabled)

if i change size center engine from 1.25 to 0.625 then (left) big engine will load reactor to 64%, and 2 small will load to 64% too,

BUT SMALL ENGINES(connected indirectly) WILL GIVE MORE RESULT THRUST(25%) THAN BIG ONE(which connected directly) when using same amount of power from reactor, and having same isp.

and when i just build that rover, i have problems with jumpstart(it was giving thermal power first, (!when all engines was disabled!), and wasted jumpstart energy before got particle power for generator)

P.S. please change back to linear throttle mode because all plugins depends on it(it's very difficult to do dynamic thrust balancing in exp throttle mode).

i would prefer use ATTILA for attitude control but now i can't be scaled down to small sizes.

Edited August 17, 2015 by okder

[FreeThinker]

Hmmm I'm wondering if the inability turn back on the cryostats I mentioned earlier might be a real issue.

As can be seen in the image below I have managed to use up 13-14 units of Lithium and have produced naff all tritium.

This is my first attempt at breeding it and I dunno the rate of production, but surely some trace amount should be there? I worry its all just boiling straight off.

Mmm, I think you might be right there. The Button for activating/Deactivating crystat is only available if both temerature and amount allows it. But there is a minimum amount. It might be that that it is boiled of faster than produced, allowing you never to cross the treshhold to activate the crystat. I will have to fix this.

- - - Updated - - -

P.S. Pretty please disable that glow on the cargobays!

I will look what I can do about them.

- - - Updated - - -

http://s2.postimg.org/k8eemey4p/image.jpg

big problems with thermojet power balancing.

i have 3 engines linked to one reactor.

if i use one of them (linked directly) reactor is loaded only on 50% (including selfpowering energy leak, i.e. 1 engine could use only 25% of reactor on maximum thrust, even others disabled)

if i change size center engine from 1.25 to 0.625 then (left) big engine will load reactor to 64%, and 2 small will load to 64% too,

BUT SMALL ENGINES(connected indirectly) WILL GIVE MORE RESULT THRUST(25%) THAN BIG ONE(which connected directly) when using same amount of power from reactor, and having same isp.

and when i just build that rover, i have problems with jumpstart(it was giving thermal power first, (!when all engines was disabled!), and wasted jumpstart energy before got particle power for generator)

P.S. please change back to linear throttle mode because all plugins depends on it(it's very difficult to do dynamic thrust balancing in exp throttle mode).

i would prefer use ATTILA for attitude control but now i can't be scaled down to small sizes.

Well I could add a buttons which allows you to switch linear mode. It will risk starving engines from starvation, but it might help player which try sophisticated shemes.

I will also allow the ATTILA to scall down to smaller sizes. Note that you can also always limit an engine thrust.

[okder]

I hope you had notice that primary problem(bug) not external balancing, but internal (kspie) (thermal) power distribution, i.e. i can't load reactor with only 1 enabled engine(if craft was build with 3 engines), and 2 distant small engines gives more thrust than one which connected directly to reactor, in both cases reactor load is the same(~64%).

And (probably) other bug, when all engines disabled reactor on start generates thermal power first, and so spending all jumpstart energy, and generator does not work without charged particles, i had this problem immediate after launching that vessel, but the problem go away after reload, actually after reload with engine enabled reactor became able to start even without jumpstart (which is logically impossible for such vessel)

As i understand engine thrust limit also exponential, this also causing problems with balance plugins(ThrottleControlledAvionics behave very funny with that vessel configuration, where 2 small engines one in front(center engine after scalling down was moved to front) and one in the back, it can't find good solution and always reconfigures, so it's very difficult to land that thing).

P.S. could you also allow ATTILA for radial mount and (in future) be switchable(in the fly) to be RCS thruster?

(actually kerbal RCS thruster is very bad solution: space engineers general engines is the better one, but this is offtopic)

P.S.2. He3 Catalyzed D-D seems does not produce much of tritium, according to first page it should produce large fraction of output Helium, but in reality produce less than D-D fusion.

P.S.3. engine precoolers does no significantly change top speed of thermal jet (less than 100 m/s change(or i should go to almost overheat to see difference?), without precoolers it goes up to 1400)

Edited August 17, 2015 by okder

[Trolllception]

Neat trick, but where are your radiators?

I removed them since the cargo bay was able to keep up with the heating demand when idle. I may put them back on the reactor for longer missions as I don't tend to leave Kerbin's SOI very often. Another option is to use foldout radiators in the cargo bay space. The cargo bay currently holds life support and RCS fuel. I'll probably redesign it once I have unlocked more KSPI parts since the plane just barely reaches 1G acceleration after burning a decent amount of fuel.

Something I noticed was that the thermal turbojet power seems to be fairly linear and does not appear to be effected by mach effects and increased air at high speeds. I can't really seem to break 300/350 m/s after 10k altitude. Was there a plan on changing the thrust curves to match the 1.0.3 atmosphere/turbojet changes? Maybe it already has been updated and this is simply how it flies as well? An idea would be a Mk2 Turbojet upgrade which reworks the internals to allow for higher altitude/higher speed flight, perhaps at an increased weight.

I spent some time last night attempting to modify the thermal turbojet to use ModuleEngineFX and change the thrust values but maybe thrust is controlled in the thermalturbojet.cs code. Also I may not have had enough thrust and couldn't reach the powerband with my test plane.

Edit: I also noted that the Thermal Turbojet still uses Water even with the propellant unlocked for consumption.

P.S. could you also allow ATTILA for radial mount and (in future) be switchable(in the fly) to be RCS thruster?

(actually kerbal RCS thruster is very bad solution: space engineers general engines is the better one, but this is offtopic)

I was actually thinking about the ATTILA yesterday and how cool it would be if it could be used as an RCS thruster (ModuleRCSFX?). Or if the regular RCS thruster block could function like an ATTILA...

Edited August 17, 2015 by Trolllception

[demonicblack]

To start a relay network power ground base, it should have a working Reactor + Radiator + Electric generator + Crew/Control + Transmitter which is activate for transmission. On the receiving craft you need at least Crew/Control + Radiators + Thermal/Electrical Receiver which is at line of sight (or very close) to the transmitter. The receiver has to be aimed within an angle op 90 Degree (dish receiver) or 270% (sphere receiver) or side way (thermal receiver). If you receive too much power, you can adjust the amount of power you receive. The received power is negatively affected by atmosphere and distance.

i know all of this but it still says it doesnt connect anny relay i tried everything and it doesnt work for me

[ABZB]

Well yeah, ABZB mod is interesting, and will be very useful for spaceplane enthusiasts after some polishing. I've tried it, but for some reason it doesn't work. Reactor+Thermal Turbojet combo gives me 0 thrust, and unfortunately I had no spare time to figure out, what exactly was wrong. Also I don't want to flood this thread, so ABZB should start a thread related to his mod(s).

Good Idea!

I have made a forum thread for my stuff:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/131806-Starlion-Industries-KSPI-patches-for-stock-parts-modpacks

I will look into the turbojet thing - was that with all reactors?

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.3.11 for Kerbal Space Program 1.0.4

Released on 2015-08-17

• Added Electric Arcjet RCS Port which runs on Hydrazine and requires MegaJoule power to operate
  
• Allowed ATTILA Thruster to be resized to lower size
  
• Improved display and contrast fuel gauge for thermal engine
  
• Disabled Thermal color on Cargo Bays
  

Edited August 17, 2015 by FreeThinker