KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[ss8913]

Freethinker - this version is *almost perfect* from my perspective - warp drives are no longer killing Kerbals, the new big one looks great, my thermal engines are still working.. only one thing remains - if a part cannot work at a current scale, perhaps edit the tweakscale settings to not allow it to be made that size? For example the 'light alcubierre drive' - at 1.25m you can charge it to exactly 22.12% and no further, so it cannot be used. Or is the idea that I just stack a bunch of these? I guess stacking... 5 of them might work. Also it might be fun if you could configure these things to automatically drop out of warp when you're within a configurable # of kilometers of a planet or other object.

EDIT - if you scale that hyperdrive from 1.25m up to 1.875m it has room to spare after hitting 100%... at about 1/3 of its exoticmatter capacity. Seems like the 1.25m needs to hold just a bit more?

EDIT2 - found a bug with the magnetic nozzle. If you screw up the build and don't put a source of charged particles near enough to the engine, you get the engines not showing up in the staging dialog in flight, unable to ESC-revert-quit/etc, and a constant stream of incorrect FX out the back of the engines - and this in the logs:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

at FNPlugin.InterstellarMagneticNozzleControllerFX.OnStart (StartState state) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at Part.ModulesOnStart () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

at Part+.MoveNext () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

If you build the ship correctly, however, this doesn't happen, so that's at least an acceptable workaround

Edited September 6, 2015 by ss8913

[tmbomber]

Hey!!! After the last patch Magnetic Nozzle is working for me while time warping...

Learned the hard way that using one to leave a 200km Kerbal orbit is a royal PIA.

point prograde, fire up engine, warp time, complete 1/4 orbit, notice pe droping because you are now R+, unwarp time, kill engine, wait to let vessel...

point prograde, fire up engine, warp time, complete 1/4 orbit, notice pe droping because you are now R+, unwarp time, kill engine, wait to let vessel...

point prograde, fire up engine, warp time, complete 1/4 orbit, notice pe droping because you are now R+, unwarp time, kill engine, wait to let vessel...

after repeating that about 20 times I finally left Kerbal SOI...

then realized I was flying my my test vessel that was never intended to leave Kerbal orbit...

and it doesn't have a dish on board. (did I mention I'm running Remote Tech?)

Oy....

[Kantas]

A bug i just noticed, I have a Space plane made, and when i place the Helium3 radial cryostat fuel tank on the vessel, the cost goes Very negative.

When i launch the ship, my funds get a sizable boost.

Here is an imgur link showing the placement of the tanks, and the affect that their placement has on the vessel cost.

http://imgur.com/a/deKyb

I am using the "experimental" B9 aerospace pack, it seems to work with 1.0.4, but possibly is negatively impacting this mod.

Has anyone else had this problem?

[FreeThinker]

Freethinker - this version is *almost perfect* from my perspective - warp drives are no longer killing Kerbals, the new big one looks great, my thermal engines are still working.. only one thing remains - if a part cannot work at a current scale, perhaps edit the tweakscale settings to not allow it to be made that size? For example the 'light alcubierre drive' - at 1.25m you can charge it to exactly 22.12% and no further, so it cannot be used. Or is the idea that I just stack a bunch of these? I guess stacking... 5 of them might work. Also it might be fun if you could configure these things to automatically drop out of warp when you're within a configurable # of kilometers of a planet or other object.

The amount of warp power required depend on the total mass of the vessel divided by the mass of the warp drive. This means what ever warp drive you use, the is a linear relationship between warp engine mass and strength. Mass is ultimately the cost of warp travel, power determines how much time it takes to charge and how fast.

For the next release, the masses will be differentiated more. Current we have light (2.5t), medium (5t) and heavy (10t), this will be changed to 2, 6, 18 ton. I also want to make them stackable, allowing you to use the combined force of warp rings.

[Nansuchao]

Ehm, 18 ton per Warp Drive isn't too low as limit?

[FreeThinker]

Hey!!! After the last patch Magnetic Nozzle is working for me while time warping...

Learned the hard way that using one to leave a 200km Kerbal orbit is a royal PIA.

point prograde, fire up engine, warp time, complete 1/4 orbit, notice pe droping because you are now R+, unwarp time, kill engine, wait to let vessel...

point prograde, fire up engine, warp time, complete 1/4 orbit, notice pe droping because you are now R+, unwarp time, kill engine, wait to let vessel...

point prograde, fire up engine, warp time, complete 1/4 orbit, notice pe droping because you are now R+, unwarp time, kill engine, wait to let vessel...

after repeating that about 20 times I finally left Kerbal SOI...

then realized I was flying my my test vessel that was never intended to leave Kerbal orbit...

and it doesn't have a dish on board. (did I mention I'm running Remote Tech?)

Oy....

Good to hear thy finally work. Magnetic Nozzle are indeed not very convenient when it comes to planetary departure or capture. Magnetic Nozzles shine when traveling between planets and stars where they can fully apply their thrust. At the highest Isp, they don't require any propellant, instead using the products of the nuclear fission/fusion. Propellant no longer is the limiting factor, is become nuclear fuel.

- - - Updated - - -

Ehm, 18 ton per Warp Drive isn't too low as limit?

No you don't understand, the 18 ton, is just the mass of the big warp ring, which is basically a very big magnet. It allows warping with a magnitude of that (at least 180 ton). I will also add some fields that tell you the exact maximum amount of possible mass that can be transported by the warp

Edited September 6, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Nansuchao]

Thanks, it's much more clear now...

[FreeThinker]

Thanks, it's much more clear now...

Good, say btw, how is the KSPI Plume integration progressing?

[Nansuchao]

Except for the Plasma Thruster (still unchangeable), it goes well. I'm actually editing the plumes for the various propellant of Thermal TurboJet. The "sad" thing is that I'm unable to change color for every propellant, I need to change plume, that means I have to tweak very effect from the beginning every time. I'm looking for someone that can explain how to create a new plume. If it's not too difficult, we'll have original plumes for every engine and propellant.

Meanwhile I'm still looking also for the inflatable tank.

[tetrapack]

Is my observation correct that you have completely removed the ability to collect data form the particle accelerator? The problem used to be that it's interaction range was to short for the large model which could be easily fixed in the .cfg file but now I open the file and the dataIsCollectable entry is missing completely. Was that intended?

[FreeThinker]

Is my observation correct that you have completely removed the ability to collect data form the particle accelerator? The problem used to be that it's interaction range was to short for the large model which could be easily fixed in the .cfg file but now I open the file and the dataIsCollectable entry is missing completely. Was that intended?

Oh, I must have done it by accident. I will fix it in the next release

I will also change the scalar range to 1, meaning you should be able to transmit all data at once without loss.

Edited September 6, 2015 by FreeThinker

[tetrapack]

I will also charge the scalar range to 1, meaning you should be able to transmit all data at once without loss.

That's a good idea since repeating experiments still gives so much data with the accelerator but you can't put multiple versions of the same result into one command pod. Currently I have six tiny pods docked to my orbital particle accelerator just to return all the science.

[FreeThinker]

That's a good idea since repeating experiments still gives so much data with the accelerator but you can't put multiple versions of the same result into one command pod. Currently I have six tiny pods docked to my orbital particle accelerator just to return all the science.

We should start making a review of all KSPI Science experiments. KSPI is technicaly clasified as a science mod. We should give it more attention

[Coga19000]

Seems that I will have to repeat ; how does Waste Heat work with the current stock thermodynamics?

[okder]

recent (2 weeks) changes is great but initialization is too slow (it was slow (2 month ago) and now it's very slow)

in editor(inserting reactors and adding VASIMR engines in editor extremally slow(20 sec lags)):

[LOG 18:21:46.831] ------------------- initializing editor mode... ------------------
...
[LOG 18:21:50.481] [KS] OnLoad
[ERR 18:21:51.986] Input is null

[ERR 18:21:51.991] Input is null


[WRN 18:22:15.106] [TweakScale Warning] ===============================================
 objectType = FNPlugin.AtmosphericIntake  name = area  fields.ReflectType = EXCEPTION fields.Count = EXCEPTION fields.Count = EXCEPTION

[LOG 18:22:15.142] InsterstellarFuelSwitch parseDoubles: invalid float: tankCost [len:0] '']
[WRN 18:22:15.193] [TweakScale Warning] No valid member found for partMass in FNGenerator
...
[LOG 18:22:15.253] InsterstellarFuelSwitch parseDoubles: invalid float: tankCost [len:0] '']
[LOG 18:22:20.664] InsterstellarFuelSwitch parseDoubles: invalid float: tankCost [len:0] '']
[LOG 18:22:26.356] TestPlasmaVasm loaded!
...
[LOG 18:22:26.537] InsterstellarFuelSwitch OnStart loaded persistant selectedTankSetup = 9
...
[LOG 18:22:26.549] InsterstellarFuelSwitch assignResourcesToPart - no UI to refresh
[LOG 18:22:28.473] [KSPI] Checking for upgrade tech: exoticReactions
[LOG 18:22:29.281] [KSPI] Found required upgradeTech, Upgrading Reactor
[LOG 18:22:37.248] [KSP Interstellar] Configuring Reactor Fuel Modes
[LOG 18:22:45.442] [KSP Interstellar] Configuration Reactor Fuels Complete
[LOG 18:22:45.459] [KSPI] - ThermalNozzleController - BreadthFirstSearchForThermalSource- Found thermal source with distance 0
[LOG 18:22:46.307] InsterstellarFuelSwitch OnStart loaded persistant selectedTankSetup = 8
[LOG 18:22:46.321] InsterstellarFuelSwitch assignResourcesToPart - no UI to refresh
[LOG 18:22:46.350] [KSPI] - Start Initializing ElectricEngineControllerFX
[LOG 18:22:58.846] [KSPI] - End Initializing ElectricEngineControllerFX
[LOG 18:22:58.868] InsterstellarFuelSwitch OnStart loaded persistant selectedTankSetup = 8
...
[LOG 18:22:58.880] InsterstellarFuelSwitch assignResourcesToPart - no UI to refresh
[LOG 18:22:58.909] [KSPI] - Start Initializing ElectricEngineControllerFX
[LOG 18:23:11.396] [KSPI] - End Initializing ElectricEngineControllerFX

and on start:

[WRN 18:24:26.921] [HighLogic]: =========================== Scene Change : From EDITOR to FLIGHT (Async) =====================

[LOG 18:24:30.743] [KSP Interstellar] FNImpactorModule listening for collisions.
[LOG 18:24:30.810] ------------------- initializing flight mode... ------------------
....
[WRN 18:24:32.453] [TweakScale Warning] ===============================================
 objectType = FNPlugin.AtmosphericIntake  name = area  fields.ReflectType = EXCEPTION fields.Count = EXCEPTION fields.Count = EXCEPTION
[LOG 18:24:32.487] InsterstellarFuelSwitch parseDoubles: invalid float: tankCost [len:0] '']
[WRN 18:24:32.535] [TweakScale Warning] No valid member found for partMass in FNGenerator

[LOG 18:24:32.592] InsterstellarFuelSwitch parseDoubles: invalid float: tankCost [len:0] '']
[LOG 18:24:38.221] InsterstellarFuelSwitch parseDoubles: invalid float: tankCost [len:0] '']
[LOG 18:24:44.017] TestPlasmaVasm loaded!
...
[LOG 18:24:48.901] [KSP Interstellar]: MicrowaveSources initialized
...
[LOG 18:25:00.414] [KSPI] - Start Initializing ElectricEngineControllerFX
[LOG 18:25:13.068] [KSPI] - End Initializing ElectricEngineControllerFX
...
[LOG 18:25:13.101] [KSPI] - Start Initializing ElectricEngineControllerFX
[LOG 18:25:26.126] [KSPI] - End Initializing ElectricEngineControllerFX

i probably should not include various warnings but they may be slow too.

[FreeThinker]

Seems that I will have to repeat ; how does Waste Heat work with the current stock thermodynamics?

They are large independent except for the ThermalEngines where the generated heat is sucked up by the WarsteHeat system.

[Coga19000]

They are large independent except for the ThermalEngines where the generated heat is sucked up by the WarsteHeat system.

So, I will have to use both types of radiators? That sucks a bit - but I do guess it is worth it for being able to play KSPI once again.

[tetrapack]

So, I will have to use both types of radiators? That sucks a bit - but I do guess it is worth it for being able to play KSPI once again.

Personally I never had to use the stock radiators (maybe they would be useful for aerobreaking but I haven't tried that). Remember that stock heat has no consequences at all until it reaches the limit.

[FreeThinker]

So, I will have to use both types of radiators? That sucks a bit - but I do guess it is worth it for being able to play KSPI once again.

Well I forgot to mention that KSPI radiator also serve as stock radiators and heat sinks

[tetrapack]

Well I forgot to mention that KSPI radiator also serve as stock radiators and heat sinks

Well that explains why I never had problems with stock heat

[SciMan]

So, I will have to use both types of radiators? That sucks a bit - but I do guess it is worth it for being able to play KSPI once again.

Nope. All KSPI radiators act as Stock radiators as well. None of my KSPI ships have ever had issues with the stock heating system.

I figured something was causing that, so I checked the part configs for the KSPI radiators.

I found that they have the stock radiator module in them as well as the KSPI radiator module.

The only small "problem" that I see is that you might have to put at least one small stock static radiator on any vessel that has solar panels on it, as KSPI makes all solar panels generate WasteHeat.

@FreeThinker:

Solar panels currently are in violation of the second law of thermodynamics. They accumulate WasteHeat while in the sun, but don't dissipate it while in shade.

Easy fix is to add a radiator module to all solar panels capable of dissipating a few kW. They could still be quite capable of overheating and shutting down if used without any additional radiators, but the tiny radiator would mean they can cool off at least a little bit while in the shade.

My opinion is that the radiator module in the solar panel parts should be sized so that solar panels won't overheat in Kerbin's SOI, or anywhere more distant.

This would be realistic because the heat radiation ability of the structure of a spacecraft is usually sufficient for most spacecraft.

Known exceptions: manned craft (life support heat loads), IR telescopes (needs to be REALLY cold), or operate closer to the sun than the orbit of Venus.

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.4.11 for Kerbal Space Program 1.0.4

Released on 2015-09-06

• Particle Accelerator Experiment now requires long duration science node
  
• Particle Accelerator Experiment continues to work off-screen, you will receive a message when you switch back to a vessel with active experiment
  
• Particle Accelerator Experiment research data can be send whole and does no longer required to be brought back to Kerbin
  
• Re-balanced Warp Drives: Increased Mass of Heavy Warp Drive and reduce Exotic Particle store small Warp Drive
  
• Warpdrives are now stackable, meaning they will add up their strength and maximum exotic particle charge
  
• Wasteheat color effect power can now be customized, the Flat Radiator will get red hot less fast
  
• Improved Resource mining support for Outer Planets (Credits go to ABZB)
  

- - - Updated - - -

Nope. All KSPI radiators act as Stock radiators as well. None of my KSPI ships have ever had issues with the stock heating system.

I figured something was causing that, so I checked the part configs for the KSPI radiators.

I found that they have the stock radiator module in them as well as the KSPI radiator module.

The only small "problem" that I see is that you might have to put at least one small stock static radiator on any vessel that has solar panels on it, as KSPI makes all solar panels generate WasteHeat.

@FreeThinker:

Solar panels currently are in violation of the second law of thermodynamics. They accumulate WasteHeat while in the sun, but don't dissipate it while in shade.

Easy fix is to add a radiator module to all solar panels capable of dissipating a few kW. They could still be quite capable of overheating and shutting down if used without any additional radiators, but the tiny radiator would mean they can cool off at least a little bit while in the shade.

My opinion is that the radiator module in the solar panel parts should be sized so that solar panels won't overheat in Kerbin's SOI, or anywhere more distant.

This would be realistic because the heat radiation ability of the structure of a spacecraft is usually sufficient for most spacecraft.

Known exceptions: manned craft (life support heat loads), IR telescopes (needs to be REALLY cold), or operate closer to the sun than the orbit of Venus.

Mmm, now that I think about it, seem to me the Solar wasteheat generating feature has become redundant now that KSP stock already has implemented a better Solar Heating mechanism. Seems best if I just remove it, it didn't make much sense anyway as the Wasteheat generated by the sun is nothing compared to the heat generated by KSPI Gigajoule Reactors (except if you are very near to the sun). It only resulted in newbies being confused why their satellites were getting overheated with WasteHeat. Removing it means less problems for me.

Edited September 6, 2015 by FreeThinker

[tetrapack]

Mmm, now that I think about it, seem to me the Solar wasteheat generating feature has become redundant now that KSP stock already has implemented a better Solar Heating mechanism.

I don't know much about moding so I might be asking for to much but I think ideally there should be a uniform thermodynamics system. Either make reactors and engines produce stock heat or convert stock internal heat into waste heat (preferred option). Although this is a minor issue and might not be worth the trouble.

[FreeThinker]

Only System heat and low thermal systems can be simulated with the stock system. Once your dealing with Gigajoules, the stock system break down, especially during high time warp. Besides that, there are all most that can break your system. No thank you, I got enough to worry already.

Edited September 6, 2015 by FreeThinker

[LastStarDust]

Some refinery processes works only if it fully linked with external fuel duct, and even with it uranium nitride processing is not worked (greyed out, when all components are present)

Very same problem with Uranium Nitride. I am using the most recent version (1.4.11). It is has been fixed or is it in the to-do-list yet?

Anyway where can I get the convertion rates for ammonia and enriched-uranium to uranium nitride so that I can convert it "by hand".

Thanks

Edited September 6, 2015 by LastStarDust