KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[Profit-]

3 hours ago, ss8913 said:

hmm.. @FreeThinker something seems to be wrong with the "Winged Edge Radiator - Med" part in this release.  Updated KSPIE today, loaded KSP.. loaded a ship that worked fine 2 days ago, and now in the editor it says that the mass is about 5 billion tons and the launch cost is 72 quintillion credits.  The winged radiator parts are either showing up massive (like 100x the size of the VAB) or tiny (0.1 scale), and.. I'm perplexed.  the behavior is definitely bad, but it's also inconsistent, and I can't find anything useful in the logs.  Tweakscale hasn't been updated in the last 2 days, so it's not that... I haven't tried it with all my craft yet, since after trying it on 2, loading ships affected by this bug caused KSP to crash in an unrecoverable state, and I'm having to restart my PC to clean it up and re-launch.

I had the same issue, for some reason it went away after a reload. No idea why.  You will see my ship with the tiny radiators in space that now has massive city block sized radiators.. then they just went back down to size for no reason after a reload. 

Edited April 13, 2017 by Profit-

[FreeThinker]

5 hours ago, ss8913 said:

hmm.. @FreeThinker something seems to be wrong with the "Winged Edge Radiator - Med" part in this release.  Updated KSPIE today, loaded KSP.. loaded a ship that worked fine 2 days ago, and now in the editor it says that the mass is about 5 billion tons and the launch cost is 72 quintillion credits.  The winged radiator parts are either showing up massive (like 100x the size of the VAB) or tiny (0.1 scale), and.. I'm perplexed.  the behavior is definitely bad, but it's also inconsistent, and I can't find anything useful in the logs.  Tweakscale hasn't been updated in the last 2 days, so it's not that... I haven't tried it with all my craft yet, since after trying it on 2, loading ships affected by this bug caused KSP to crash in an unrecoverable state, and I'm having to restart my PC to clean it up and re-launch.

well I did change it, but I didn't though it would be that consequential

what you might do to fix it is to open the config file and change

	MODULE
	{
		name = TweakScale
		type = surface_interstellar_2125
	}

back to

	MODULE
	{
		name = TweakScale
		type = surface_flat
	}

Alternatively open TweakscaleConfigs and change surface_interstellar_2125 into

SCALETYPE
{    
	name = surface_interstellar_2125
	freeScale = true    
	defaultScale = 1    
	scaleFactors   = 10, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000 	
	incrementSlide =  1,  1,  2,  2,  2,  5, 5, 5, 10, 10    
	suffix = %
	TWEAKSCALEEXPONENTS { mass = 2.125 }
}

what is should have been

Edited April 13, 2017 by FreeThinker

[ss8913]

50 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

well I did change it, but I didn't though it would be that consequential

what you might do to fix it is to open the config file and change

	MODULE
	{
		name = TweakScale
		type = surface_interstellar_2125
	}

back to

	MODULE
	{
		name = TweakScale
		type = surface_flat
	}

Alternatively open TweakscaleConfigs and change surface_interstellar_2125 into

SCALETYPE
{    
	name = surface_interstellar_2125
	freeScale = true    
	defaultScale = 1    
	scaleFactors   = 10, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000 	
	incrementSlide =  1,  1,  2,  2,  2,  5, 5, 5, 10, 10    
	suffix = %
	TWEAKSCALEEXPONENTS { mass = 2.125 }
}

what is should have been

 

I'll try it;  It seems to only affect existing designs, not NEW designs, which kind of supports your theory about what happened, actually.

[Djohaal]

I think the open cycle gas core reactor throttling based on electrical power demand (not thruster) seems to be broken. Mine always sits at 0.10% even in orbit with no acceleration. Unless I missed a patch note and its not supposed to produce electricity anymore. Even with the capacitor bank or ISRUs running on modes that require megajoules it doesn't seem to wake up.

Also what is the advantage of the stellarator compared to a tokamak? Its mass is immense (and scales terribly) so what's the advantages?

[FreeThinker]

What to do when no beamed power is in sight, or out of range?

Aim your thermal receiver dish at your local star!

The amount of power isn't much compared to an onboard nuclear of fusion, but it might be enough to get home or to a distant world. Also great for players that like a chalange!

 

Edited April 13, 2017 by FreeThinker

[WaYa]

KSPI 1.12.22 Beamed Power relay Problems, Bad reactor description.

1. the option to activate/deactivate the relay function is missing from the right-click menu (seems to be all relay-capable parts).  I been having to use action groups to enable/disable the relay. (would be nice if there was an action group option to toggle a relay on/off and toggle transmitters on/off)

2.  It took me a long time to figure it out:  I was frustrated with getting the "Extreme Ultraviolet" to relay.  Being outside the visible spectrum i didn't assume to use the light mirror until lots of trial/error, but that's what it took to get the UV spectrum to relay so that (and possibly the IR, but haven't played with it yet) needs to be less confusing in the description. (the current description misleads it'll only work relaying visible lights)

3. The description for the "Dusty Plasma Fission Fragment Reactor" needs fixing.  It's currently describing a rocket.that currently doesn't exist.
 

[ss8913]

I noticed another interesting bit of behavior last night, @FreeThinker ... set up a craft.. it's on the launchpad.. using resistojet RCS.  normal, right?  OK so it launches, flies out of control and boom.  ok.. revert to launch... turn on RCS, let's test control authority here... only some of the RCS work.  The 'power' button is checked on all of them, some of them claim not to be powered, and the Forces: output is blank all the time, whereas others work normally.  Cycling the 'power' state on the broken ones makes it say IsPowered? YES, but they still don't do anything.

 

This is a fairly small craft with a decent-sized AM reactor and CP electric generator, over 9000MJ available, it's definitely not out of power, nor out of hydrazine.  Yes, the fuel mode was set to hydrazine on all RCS ports.  Reverting, reloading, and restarting KSP entirely did not fix this.  I see nothing KSPIE related in the logs.. not sure if this is a new issue or not.  Please let me know what info you might need from me to diagnose.

Oh - replacing all KSPIE RCS with stock RCS thrusters and adding a monoprop tank, all thrusters fire in that case.

 

I can't seem to tell what specifically causes it though; it only happens on SOME craft designs.  Not on spaceplanes so far, only on things launched from the pad.. but I may not have enough datapoints on that yet.

[mrgreco]

can this be posible, maybe,

adding more then one generator to a big reactor ??? looks good eh

Edited April 14, 2017 by mrgreco

[GentlyBent]

I have several craft using Nuclear LIghtbulbs which recently began running out of Thermal Power when I use them. They provide a small amount of thrust for a moment, then nothing. If I make a new craft with the same engine, it works, but how do I restore functionality to the existing crafts?

[mrgreco]

or adding piping for a connection

[Submho]

On 4/12/2017 at 2:07 AM, FreeThinker said:

You are not supposed to connect it directly to a generator, it has build in energy converters which convert the generated hawking radiation and charged particles directly into energy,( no need to use 21 century technoloy in a 23 century reactor...) The fact that a external generator was able to be affected at all is the real bug.

I do realize that, the generator in question was actually connected to another reactor to provide the startup energy, but to strip things down to basics for troubleshooting purposes, I started with a new craft as listed and was able to re-create the behavior there. 

[FreeThinker]

21 hours ago, Djohaal said:

I think the open cycle gas core reactor throttling based on electrical power demand (not thruster) seems to be broken. Mine always sits at 0.10% even in orbit with no acceleration. Unless I missed a patch note and its not supposed to produce electricity anymore. Even with the capacitor bank or ISRUs running on modes that require megajoules it doesn't seem to wake up.

Not sure what the problem is, everything are you sure you have sufficient amount of radiator connected

Perhaps some basic understanding on how to best use the Gas Core Reactor.

The Gas core reactor is a nuclear reactor which sacrifices some versatility for higher power and Isp. The main purpose of the Gas Core is orbital transfer of large space vessels (like the beamed power station above) using Hydrogen as it propellant, which maximizes Isp and  minimizes high amount of thrust.

[ss8913]

Follow-up to RCS issue.. @FreeThinker it seems to happen when I've got a skycrane setup... ie launching two "ships" connected by docking ports, with RCS on both for balance.  stock RCS handles this, but is too weak.   KSPIE RCS is strong enough, but some of the RCS units just refuse to work in this condition.  I'm baffled as to why.  Problem is, with not all of them working, RCS authority isn't symmetrical, and that has the predictable set of results.

[FreeThinker]

10 hours ago, WaYa said:

KSPI 1.12.22 Beamed Power relay Problems, Bad reactor description.

1. the option to activate/deactivate the relay function is missing from the right-click menu (seems to be all relay-capable parts).  I been having to use action groups to enable/disable the relay. (would be nice if there was an action group option to toggle a relay on/off and toggle transmitters on/off)

 

Relaying is only available in the right click menu if another part on the vessel is "linked for relay" or the part is capable of transmitting and receiving at the same time, which is the case for the phased array.. This is an instance where KSP  teaches you wrong by suggesting only one dish on a vessel is enough to create a continuous relay network. 

Edited April 14, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Black Rainbow]

I'm trying to use the ISRU modules in combination with the aluminium hybrid rocket engine. I am amble to electrolyse alumina into aluminium and oxygen, but can't for the life of me figure out how to turn the oxygen into the liquid oxygen I need to power my engine. I'm trying to use the ISRU refrigerator (both the in-line and hex module), but to no avail: both ISRU windows only have options for atmospheric extraction and solar wind. The hex module, unlike the in-line version, gives me a slider for liquid oxygen <-> oxygen, and a button to activate the module, but it the status will still show "offline". I've read the relevant FAQ entry, and have placed external fuel ducts between all the relevant parts, but nothing is happening. The strange thing is that if I activate atmospheric extraction on the hex module, the conversion process continues to work even after I disable atmospheric extraction. It does not seem to matter if the module is activated or not, but I can use the slider to control the conversion (the in-line version does not have this slider when I launch the vessel). It stops working when I reverse the process and then run out of liquid oxygen to convert.

I uploaded the craft file of the vessel I'm using to test the process. Am I doing something wrong, or is the refrigerator broken?

EDIT: I can get it to work when I use the Universal Liquidficator, so I suspect something about the refrigerator is broken, or it is only meant for atmospheric use.

Edited April 14, 2017 by Black Rainbow

[SpaceMouse]

While working on my current Enterprise project, I've come to the discovery there really isn't anything useful between the Vista and the Daedalus fusion engines. The Deadalus seems meant to haul sub-light ships at huge relativistic speeds but, there isn't a good 'baby' one for moving (big) ships that need hundreds of km/s, but don't need to accelerate for weeks on end. Also, it doesn't seem to have much scalability. It only uses a few GW as a power source and I'd imagine surely it wouldn't be TOO hard to integrate a bit more power and scale down slightly?

Edited April 15, 2017 by SpaceMouse
*Edit* I was gonna just send this to Freethinker but i goofed and posted it here so lets get everyones opinions. lol

[FreeThinker]

4 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

While working on my current Enterprise project, I've come to the discovery there really isn't anything useful between the Vista and the Daedalus fusion engines. The Deadalus seems meant to haul sub-light ships at huge relativistic speeds but, there isn't a good 'baby' one for moving (big) ships that need hundreds of km/s, but don't need to accelerate for weeks on end. Also, it doesn't seem to have much scalability. It only uses a few GW as a power source and I'd imagine surely it wouldn't be TOO hard to integrate a bit more power and scale down slightly?

The Vista is mend for system travel while the Deadalus is mend for interstellar travel. Both engines are already very scaled down for KSP gaming purposes. For example, The VISTA supposed to be 100m in diameter, but is can be scaled down to 3.75m. Using them should require at least some afford on the part of the player to use them. In space travel, like with ocean travel, size does matter! These engine become efficient precisely because they are big

If you want smaller engines, I would advice the Magneto Inertial Fusion Engine  a fusion engine in a small package. It Isp isn't as high as the vista but it will fit well on top of a sock rocket

Edited April 15, 2017 by FreeThinker

[PhilM]

Is anyone able to create ammonia using the Haber process with in-situ resources in the current version? As best I can determine, it requires Nitrogen (gas), which I can't seem to obtain without buying tanks of it. I've tried atmospheric scoops, which gives me liquid nitrogen, but then can't seem to get it convert it to gaseuous form. I have gas and liquid tanks for nitrogen available, so it's not a storage issue. I've even tried the universal tanks and universal liquidificator from universal storage and was still unsuccessful. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, can someone point me in the right direction?

Edit: Answering my own question in case anyone else comes across this problem later. I finally located the IFS cryogenic tank that allows for conversion between liquid and gas via a slider at the top. I wasn't using that specific tank before. Is the distinction between Nitrogen-14 and Nitrogen-15 the reason we can't convert between them any other way? Also, I'm an idiot because I used the liquidficator instead of the gasifier... *facepalm*

Edited April 15, 2017 by PhilM
Found solution

[SpaceX]

On 3/29/2017 at 2:50 PM, FreeThinker said:

Well I was hoping to integrate with

Has there been any consideration to integration with Kerbalism? I know that near future stuff is currently integrated with respect to radiation. Again, I'm absolutely no expert in terms of what it would take..but figured I'd toss it out there. (having started a new run through using everything in an RSS environment seems pretty awesome so far). 

And as always - thank you so very much for all of the work that goes into this incredible mod!

 

Edit - A bit of searching, and I've discovered this topic has already been discussed. From that, I gather it will likely not be possible...at least in the near future anyway. 

Edited April 15, 2017 by SpaceX

[SpaceX]

Also - Is there any way to get the centrifuge with the science labs to work "behind the scenes"? On my previous play through, they didn't seem to be building up deuterium unless I was focused on the craft in question. - Not sure what that would involve.  

[FreeThinker]

3 hours ago, PhilM said:

Is anyone able to create ammonia using the Haber process with in-situ resources in the current version? As best I can determine, it requires Nitrogen (gas), which I can't seem to obtain without buying tanks of it. I've tried atmospheric scoops, which gives me liquid nitrogen, but then can't seem to get it convert it to gaseuous form. I have gas and liquid tanks for nitrogen available, so it's not a storage issue. I've even tried the universal tanks and universal liquidificator from universal storage and was still unsuccessful. I'm sure I'm missing something obvious, can someone point me in the right direction?

Edit: Answering my own question in case anyone else comes across this problem later. I finally located the IFS cryogenic tank that allows for conversion between liquid and gas via a slider at the top. I wasn't using that specific tank before. Is the distinction between Nitrogen-14 and Nitrogen-15 the reason we can't convert between them any other way? Also, I'm an idiot because I used the liquidficator instead of the gasifier... *facepalm*

Well partly it was my mistake. The automated converter has a flaw in which the negative conversion would work correctly, this is now fix in the latest version of IFS

Secondly, the configuration in the ISRU refrigerator doesn't show the automated converters, only in the VAB. I will release a update soon which will have this corrected.

16 minutes ago, SpaceX said:

Also - Is there any way to get the centrifuge with the science labs to work "behind the scenes"? On my previous play through, they didn't seem to be building up deuterium unless I was focused on the craft in question. - Not sure what that would involve.  

What centrifuge?

[SpaceMouse]

7 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

The Vista is mend for system travel while the Deadalus is mend for interstellar travel. Both engines are already very scaled down for KSP gaming purposes. For example, The VISTA supposed to be 100m in diameter, but is can be scaled down to 3.75m. Using them should require at least some afford on the part of the player to use them. In space travel, like with ocean travel, size does matter! These engine become efficient precisely because they are big

If you want smaller engines, I would advice the Magneto Inertial Fusion Engine  a fusion engine in a small package. It Isp isn't as high as the vista but it will fit well on top of a sock rocket

Vista is still a bit low for my ISP requirements. Still might make a 'baby' one at 250000 or so.

[FreeThinker]

13 minutes ago, SpaceMouse said:

Vista is still a bit low for my ISP requirements. Still might make a 'baby' one at 250000 or so.

Well the Vista in DD fusion mode with at Max Isp can reach an Isp of 39026s, which is pretty good considering it output power. Alternative you need to use a MFC/ AIM engine with magnetic nozzle

Edited April 15, 2017 by FreeThinker

[SpaceX]

43 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

What centrifuge?

I'm sorry, perhaps I used the wrong word - It's the process by which the science lab can sit in the water, and activate itself in a way that produces deuterium over time (slowly but surely) - provided it has power of course. 

It seemed to produce it while I was focused on the labs in question, but while allowing a significant amount of time to pass (a few weeks), while focused on another craft, I had found that it wasn't producing any deuterium while I wasn't focused on it. 

 

Since it wasn't working, I started steering the ship back toward the KSC (pretty funny looking at the time), and during that trip form around the main island back to KSC, it had produced more deuterium than the entire 2 week sprint while I wasn't focused on it.

 

That said, it's entirely possible I missed something along the way...and not having that save running anymore, I couldn't fire it back up and tell for sure what was wrong..but wanted to toss it out there. 

[FreeThinker]

54 minutes ago, SpaceX said:

I'm sorry, perhaps I used the wrong word - It's the process by which the science lab can sit in the water, and activate itself in a way that produces deuterium over time (slowly but surely) - provided it has power of course. 

It seemed to produce it while I was focused on the labs in question, but while allowing a significant amount of time to pass (a few weeks), while focused on another craft, I had found that it wasn't producing any deuterium while I wasn't focused on it. 

 

Since it wasn't working, I started steering the ship back toward the KSC (pretty funny looking at the time), and during that trip form around the main island back to KSC, it had produced more deuterium than the entire 2 week sprint while I wasn't focused on it.

 

That said, it's entirely possible I missed something along the way...and not having that save running anymore, I couldn't fire it back up and tell for sure what was wrong..but wanted to toss it out there. 

Lol, that method of Deuterium mining is quite out dated. The new method involves pumping IntakeLqd with a mining drill or air intake and convert it to all it usefull resources at the ISRU Processor, which depend on it celestrial body. All ISRU processes have an offline processing functionality which will effectively be processed the first time you focus back on the vessel.