KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[FreeThinker]

How exactly does that work? I clearly can not just throttle up like usual during timewarp. Is there an extra button for it?

Yes the first time you try to use it , it can be confusing. What's seems to be important is that the ksp engine limits the maximum amount of acceleration. to achieve this, simply lower the throttle, which will lower acceleration and increase Isp. Now you should be able to increase timewarp to any allowed timewarp speed.

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edit: Also is there any special intention behind the particle accelerator not being able to generate data while the ship is not active? for me it is just an inconvenience having to switch to it while I'm waiting to execute a manoeuvre with some other ship. It doesn't seem to add much to the game

No intention, I basically copied experiment code, shrunk the model, and modified the config that it would use Megajoule instead of Kilo-joule to run the experiment. Anything else need to be added manually

Edited August 29, 2015 by FreeThinker

[tetrapack]

to achieve this, simply lower the throttle, which will lower acceleration and increase Isp. Now you should be able to increase timewarp to any allowed timewarp speed.

I've set the thrust limiter to 5% and the throttle to about 1/6 effectively reducing the thrust to 0.8%. Then I start the timewarp but my orbit does not change during the warp whatsoever (it was not due to the small thrust). The throttle indicator jumps to zero as soon as the warp begins.

[FreeThinker]

I've set the thrust limiter to 5% and the throttle to about 1/6 effectively reducing the thrust to 0.8%. Then I start the timewarp but my orbit does not change during the warp whatsoever (it was not due to the small thrust). The throttle indicator jumps to zero as soon as the warp begins.

Are you sure your using magnetic nozzle?

Let me show you, first you set throttle at 1/3

Then you accelerate time

Accelerate and make course correction before you leave SOI of Kerbol

Edited August 29, 2015 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

Edit: notice you also need to active the magnetic nozzle by staging, otherwise it will not function. I will fix it next version

Edited August 29, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

This could be the new exhaust of Vasmir engine. It's not so beautiful during atmospheric flight, but in vacuum...

Btw, there is definitely something weird with Magnetic Nozzle, Vista and MPD. I don't find a way to make the plume work for them, just for other engines.

[Trolllception]

This could be the new exhaust of Vasmir engine. It's not so beautiful during atmospheric flight, but in vacuum...

Btw, there is definitely something weird with Magnetic Nozzle, Vista and MPD. I don't find a way to make the plume work for them, just for other engines.

That looks pretty awesome. Did you find a way to handle scaling with tweakscale on engines? You probably checked this already but the thrusttransform is case sensitive and is different for the Vista which is T_T

Edit: FreeThinker: Did you see these inflatables? Not sure about the license though.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/64442-1-0-x-Habitat-Pack-v0-41

Edited August 29, 2015 by Trolllception

[Bishop149]

Just a very quick question: Which node upgrades thermal turbojets to hybrid thermal rockets?

[tetrapack]

Just a very quick question: Which node upgrades thermal turbojets to hybrid thermal rockets?

Aerospace Tech. I was also quite confused about that since the forum post still incorrectly says it's Advanced Nuclear Power. Had to go through the .cfg file to find this.

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Edit: notice you also need to active the magnetic nozzle by staging, otherwise it will not function. I will fix it next version

Ahhh thank you tovarish! That's what my problem was! I usually completely neglect staging on complex interplanetary ships. It even works on full thrust (~6.6 kN). Maybe because the acceleration is low enough with a ship mass of 46t ?

btw. are you using some additional star systems mod for your interstellar travel or are you just trying to get a certain distance away from Kerbol? I couldn't find any such mods for 1.x

[FreeThinker]

btw. are you using some additional star systems mod for your interstellar travel or are you just trying to get a certain distance away from Kerbol? I couldn't find any such mods for 1.x

I'm testing with Galactic Neighborhood mod.

[Nansuchao]

That looks pretty awesome. Did you find a way to handle scaling with tweakscale on engines? You probably checked this already but the thrusttransform is case sensitive and is different for the Vista which is T_T

Edit: FreeThinker: Did you see these inflatables? Not sure about the license though.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/64442-1-0-x-Habitat-Pack-v0-41

Yes, that was my first step, but TTJ has the same TransformName and TR probably too, I don't remember now. The wiki on RealPlume is really helpful in those cases.

[Bishop149]

Aerospace Tech. I was also quite confused about that since the forum post still incorrectly says it's Advanced Nuclear Power. Had to go through the .cfg file to find this.

Ah, Thank you . . . . thought it might be that but wanted to check before committing the Science.

Had also figured out the front page was incorrect!

[NelsonJamdela]

I'm not having any luck getting those two mods to play along. I'm using CKAN, if that matters, and no matter which order I install them, Civ. Pop. "hides" all but two KSPI Extended parts (sci lab and computer core) in the VAB/SPH. I agree with you: those two mods together sound fraking awesome. I just wish I could get 'em to share.

[FreeThinker]

[h=2]Version 1.4.7 for Kerbal Space Program 1.0.4[/h] Released on 2015-08-30

• Fixed activation time-warp acceleration capability of Magnetic Nozzle
  
• Fixed Linear Throttle behavior of Thermal nozzle
  
• The Charged Particle products from Charged-particle reactors will be converted to propellant when magnetic nozzle is used
  
• Limited Particle accelerator Experiment to sensible locations
  

Edited August 30, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

A little question: is there something different for the exhaust of Vista, MPD, Magnetic Nozzle than the other engines?

[Trolllception]

Version 1.4.7 for Kerbal Space Program 1.0.4

Released on 2015-08-30

• Fixed activation time-warp acceleration capability of Magnetic Nozzle
  
• Fixed Linear Throttle behavior of Thermal nozzle
  
• The Charged Particle products from Charged-particle reactors will be converted to propellant when magnetic nozzle is used
  
• Limited Particle accelerator Experiment to sensible locations
  

Thanks the fixes. As a bonus KER also reports thrust numbers correctly now. No more need to keep the engine menu up to check thrust to see when to switch propellants.

[ABZB]

As a bonus KER also reports thrust numbers correctly now.

halleluyah

[Trolllception]

A little question: is there something different for the exhaust of Vista, MPD, Magnetic Nozzle than the other engines?

Are you using the effects sections?

    EFFECTS
    {
        powerflame
        {
            MODEL_MULTI_PARTICLE_PERSIST
            {

[Nansuchao]

No, cause this is not requested by Real Plume. I can make it work for TTJ, TR, Attila and Vasmir, that seems to use more or less the same system...

I'm a noob in coding, I just followed the Real Plume wiki, and it works pretty well, except for those dirty traitors :-)

[SciMan]

@FreeThinker

Ever considered consolidating the Warp Drives into a single part, using TweakScale to switch between them? Also, it would finally make the 1.25m warp drive cheaper than the 2.5m one, as it should be.

Also, 5m warp drive. All the reactors and generators (and the fuel tanks) max out at 5m diameter, so why not the warp drive?

It looks kind of silly having a 3.75m warp drive in the middle of a 5m diameter ship, and when you're using LqdHydrogen as propellant, the whole ship gets sizable in rather short order. The 5m warp drive might be able to get to 20c without being upgraded, but it would cost a fortune (~25M+ funds).

One more thing. Why do the warp drives require upgrades even when the tech tree is complete? I would think that if I've researched everything in the tech tree I would be getting all the parts fully upgraded from the start, and the warp drives are the only parts that don't follow this.

Perhaps there needs to be one more node at the very end of the tech tree to allow this to work the way I think it should.

There were some folding warp drive rings out there at one point (more of zzz's models just like the rest of the warp drives), perhaps these could be unlocked with the same node (and not require upgrades, of course)?

Apologies if this seems like I'm doing nothing but complaining, just got done making a 5m "warp tug" and the stats for the various warp drives caught my eye again (as well as the lack of a 5m warp drive). I've noticed these problems before (back when Fractal was still taking care of this mod) but I don't think I actually said anything about them until now.

Edited August 31, 2015 by SciMan

[tmbomber]

ummm.... ya might wanna check the biome masks for the collider. I tried low kerbal orbit and I couldn't recover the data.

I have [x] Science loaded and It's saying collider science is available:

Landed at Kerbin

Splashed down at Kerbin

Flying high over Kerbin

in space high over Kerbin

and the only available bodies reported are Kerbin, Eve, Duna, their moons, & the sun.

Still not able to collect data from an EVAed Kerbal. Without that ability your going to have to return the collider to Kerbin multiple times to get full value for any location. I haven't tried to see if the collider will survive re-entry yet. (I'd rather not, actually)

Concerning the magnetic nozzle, I built a ship with a 2.5 probe core, the nose cone LH2 tank, a dusty plasma reactor,

a thermal generator, and a half dozen radiators. (I even used staging to activate the engine).

It worked just fine while not warping, but the instant I tried to warp time "warp thrust" fell to zero.

Also, did something with heat dissipation change?

I installed the 1.4.7 update along with ScanSat's update and went to check a satellite I had scanning Gilly.

It's equipped with a pair of the large stock solar panels, a big battery, and no other radiators.

(no KSPIE parts at all, actually) This satellite's been on station for some time with no problem.

Now, waste heat builds up until it shuts the solar panels, the batteries run down, and it goes dead.

(and seeing I'm running RemoteTech, dead is dead)

I asked on ScanSat's forum thread, but they're saying their parts don't generate heat.

Everything was working fine before updating those two mods,

now I've a bunch of communications satellites to fix.

Just wondering if something changed here.

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@FreeThinker

Ever considered consolidating the Warp Drives into a single part, using TweakScale to switch between them?< snip >

I was thinking about this and remembered something.

The starting size of things seems a bit odd. The first reactor you get, the Kiwi, is a 1.25m part.

The starting size of a thermal generator is 2.5, but the attachment point is for a 1.25 part.

So to get it to fit you need to shrink the generator down.

The starting size for the next three reactors are 2.5m parts, with proper sized attachment points.

So when you stick a thermal generator on one, the joint is weak because of the generator's undersized attachment point.

The Dusty Plasma reactor is the first one that has the charged particles you need for a magnetic nozzle. It's a 2.5m part.

Problem is, the magnetic nozzle's starting size is 1.25 part with a 1.25m attachment point. When you scale up the size of

the nozzle, the attachment point size doesn't scale with it. So you wind up with another weak joint.

[FreeThinker]

@FreeThinker

Ever considered consolidating the Warp Drives into a single part, using TweakScale to switch between them? Also, it would finally make the 1.25m warp drive cheaper than the 2.5m one, as it should be.

Also, 5m warp drive. All the reactors and generators (and the fuel tanks) max out at 5m diameter, so why not the warp drive?

It looks kind of silly having a 3.75m warp drive in the middle of a 5m diameter ship, and when you're using LqdHydrogen as propellant, the whole ship gets sizable in rather short order. The 5m warp drive might be able to get to 20c without being upgraded, but it would cost a fortune (~25M+ funds).

Well the reason is I simply haven't got around to it. But now that my attention is shifting to long distance travel (see galaxic neighnourhood), warp travel is getting into focus again. One of the first easy steps would be indeed to make them tweakscalable like all other parts. I also think the warp drive still need rebalancing. In past I created an alternative balanced version the KSPI NFT.

Warpdrive

The new Alcubierre warpdrive requires your reactors to overcome a power threshold and the distance you can travel is determined by the initial strength of the warpfield (determined by warp speed) and your ability to maintain it (with electric power). This effectively makes it impossible to power the warpengine using only nuclear power, you going to need at least a fusion power to get into warp. Charging the warpengine works as it previously did but instead of losing all warp power at launch, you lose half (and any overcharge). The first half is used start warp travel, the second half represent the warp field which you need to maintain to remain at warp speed. The more power you can use to maintain the warp field, the longer distance you can travel. Once you warp field (represented by Exotic matter) runs out, it collapses and you return to normal space. If you stop you electrical generators or stop feeding the warp engines, the warp field will start to collapse on it's own, but it can take considerable time depending on the warp field strength (which depend on the warp speed). If you you wish to drop out of warp sooner, you can press the "Deactivate Warp Drive" to reverse to polity of your warpfield generator and help the warp field to collapse much fast. This means you can no longer instantly drop out of warp at will (as you did in Interstellar) and that your warp engines start uncharged after dropping out of warp.

Unfortunatly, the new warp engine never got any significant feedback so put it on ice. I would like to have a open discussion about warp travel again.

In my view, Warp travel, if possible, should be something extrodinary which should not be easily achieved, requiring the most advanced technologies and sophisticated resources that are difficult to create and store.

Edited August 31, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

Finally, some magic happened and now Vista has his own plume...

[FreeThinker]

Finally, some magic happened and now Vista has his own plume...

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

Yes. this is the kind of plume the Vista Engine deserves.

[Nansuchao]

Thanks, finally I had some luck also with Magnetic Nozzle... Misteries of KSP

Edited August 31, 2015 by Nansuchao

[FreeThinker]

Thanks, finally I had some luck also with Magnetic Nozzle... Misteries of KSP

http://i.imgur.com/a08ivJ3.png

Good to see this working. I wonder if can also make it work under time acceleration.