KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[Apaseall]

Many thanks @FreeThinker

[Atreyu]

@FreeThinker, just wanted to say keep up the good work.  Been playing with this mod for a while and now starting to understand the importance of the beamed energy network.

Edited February 9, 2018 by Atreyu

[FreeThinker]

KSP Interstellar Extended needs translators!

Localization files can be found here

Since KSPIE contains many are parts with their own set of custom partModules, the number of translation keys is very high for a single Mod

Chinese translations are already taken care of but all other localization are open

If you intend to do some translation work, please mention it in this development tread

Edited February 14, 2018 by FreeThinker

[b0ss]

Seriously a beautiful mod :') Feel so bad that I don't have the skills necessary to help out with development. How well would you say this combines with Kerbal Atomics, btw?

 

Also, I saw that this was a suggestion thread! So uh. Hm. I feel like this is just me but the magnetic engines are honestly quite ugly and I feel a lot more can be done with them. Perhaps have the coils on the "nozzle" spiral in a helix instead of creating a row of rings? Or something like that. Again I dunno. Cheers, friend!

[FreeThinker]

3 hours ago, b0ss said:

Seriously a beautiful mod :') Feel so bad that I don't have the skills necessary to help out with development.

Thanks but I can by no mean claim credits for it. KSPIE has been the product of a community.  I just happen to be the one that is currently maintaining it code base. Part models come from a wide variety of artists and I am continuously looking for additions.

3 hours ago, b0ss said:

Feel so bad that I don't have the skills necessary to help out with development.

Well there is more than one way to help, you can help by either programming, modelling, texturing, scripting, writing, video editing or translating.

3 hours ago, b0ss said:

How well would you say this combines with Kerbal Atomics, btw?

Well not directly, but it offers some engines which are fairly compatible

3 hours ago, b0ss said:

Also, I saw that this was a suggestion thread! So uh. Hm. I feel like this is just me but the magnetic engines are honestly quite ugly and I feel a lot more can be done with them. Perhaps have the coils on the "nozzle" spiral in a helix instead of creating a row of rings? Or something like that. Again I dunno. Cheers, friend!

Not sure what you man by magnetic engine as KSPIE does not have magnetic engines, only magnetic nozzles, which is sub part which need to be connected to an reactor to be used for propulsion. KSPIE magnetic nozzle is fairly realistic and not to bad looking, but admittedly not as Netea engines which is hard to top.

Edited February 19, 2018 by FreeThinker

[b0ss]

50 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Thanks but I can by no mean claim credits for it. KSPIE has been the product of a community.  I just happen to be the one that is currently maintaining it code base. Part models come from a wide variety of artists and I am continuously looking for additions.

Ah yes but it's (almost) all thanks to you that this is still compatible with current versions of KSP 

50 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Well there is more than one way to help, you can help by either programming, modelling, texturing, scripting, writing, video editing or translating.

See that's what I mean, I don't know how to do any of those things!  I am learning modelling though so maybe one day in the future

50 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Well not directly, but it offers some engines which are fairly compatible

How do you mean by "directly"? And are there any hiccups I should keep an eye out for-?

50 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Not sure what you man by magnetic engine as KSPIE does not have magnetic engines, only magnetic nozzles, which is sub part which need to be connected to an reactor to be used for propulsion. KSPIE magnetic nozzle is fairly realistic and not to bad looking, but admittedly not as Netea engines which is hard to top.

Ah yeah I meant magnetic nozzles, sorry haha. But realistic doesn't always have to mean ugly!   Again, it's probably just me heh.

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, b0ss said:

How do you mean by "directly"? And are there any hiccups I should keep an eye out for-?

By that I mean there is no active interaction except stock heat production. They can basically be used side by side but, KSPIE offer a higher lever of realism as the reactors actively wear out and offer more realistic spool up  and down behavioir

Edited February 19, 2018 by FreeThinker

[b0ss]

Hm, good to know! I'll keep that in mind. Also one more question I forgot to ask, I looked around the internet and couldn't find any relevant results, is there any way to visualize beamed power?

[FreeThinker]

38 minutes ago, b0ss said:

Hm, good to know! I'll keep that in mind. Also one more question I forgot to ask, I looked around the internet and couldn't find any relevant results, is there any way to visualize beamed power?

currently no but you can use stock communication links as a helpfull tool to get a sence of line of sight

Edited February 19, 2018 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

A new beta KSPIE Warpplugin 1.16.8  can be downloaded from here

Changelog

* Added localization for Electric engine and Alcubierre warp engine

* Added Spanish localization

* Added additional Chinese localization

* Balanced : reduced thermal wasteheat Kerbstein Fusion Engine

* Fixed English part descriptions

* Fixed issue with Circular solar panel

* Fixed with Antimatter storage tanks exploding when unloading

* Fixed issue with ongoing power generation

* Fixed issue with offline tritium breeding

* Fixed issue with offline antimatter collecting

* Fixed compatibility with Kerbalsim

Edited February 19, 2018 by FreeThinker

[Deus Zed Machina]

So there's this book by Peter Watts called Blindsight. In it, the ship Theseus gets around using something called a Telematter Reactor which I thought might be of particular relevance to this mod. The gist is that it's an antimatter reactor, but Theseus doesn't have any antimatter containment traps since they're big and bulky and dangerous; instead, it quantum teleports antihydrogen into the reactor core, whereupon it's annihilated with hydrogen supplied by Theseus's on-board propellant tanks.

I'll admit I don't fully understand the science behind it, but from what I do understand, it required a laser signal from a separate space station with its own supply of antimatter containing "specs" for antimatter atoms, which Theseus would then use to transmute its own hydrogen into antihydrogen. He does cite scientific papers from a number of sources, but again, I won't pretend to have divined the meaning behind the contents thereof.

[AtilaElari]

I'm sure it was discussed at length somewhere, but searching for it in 370 pages of the thread seems like a fairly impossible task, so I hope you won't mind me asking:

Are there any resources you can mine off-world to bring back to KSC for profit in career mode? I'd assume Helium 3 or Antimatter would be worth the trouble, but are there any other options, especially for the earlier game?

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, AtilaElari said:

I'm sure it was discussed at length somewhere, but searching for it in 370 pages of the thread seems like a fairly impossible task, so I hope you won't mind me asking:

Are there any resources you can mine off-world to bring back to KSC for profit in career mode? I'd assume Helium 3 or Antimatter would be worth the trouble, but are there any other options, especially for the earlier game?

Well Uranium Ore mining and reprocessing it into enriched uranium is fairly profitable which you can even do it on Kerbin itself by making a large rover equipped with mining equipment and processors and powered by a molten salt reactor.  Find a site rich in uranium, drive your rover to the site and start mining for profit.

Another potentially profit mining scheme is to create a floating platform which extracts lithium and deuterium from the sea water and used it to breed tritium and helium3 in a fusion reactor in cold deuterium fusion mode. Excess power could be shot into space feeding you beamed power network, allowing you to launch rockets cheaper into space, which is the real money  saver.

Edited February 22, 2018 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

10 hours ago, Deus Zed Machina said:

So there's this book by Peter Watts called Blindsight. In it, the ship Theseus gets around using something called a Telematter Reactor which I thought might be of particular relevance to this mod. The gist is that it's an antimatter reactor, but Theseus doesn't have any antimatter containment traps since they're big and bulky and dangerous; instead, it quantum teleports antihydrogen into the reactor core, whereupon it's annihilated with hydrogen supplied by Theseus's on-board propellant tanks.

I'll admit I don't fully understand the science behind it, but from what I do understand, it required a laser signal from a separate space station with its own supply of antimatter containing "specs" for antimatter atoms, which Theseus would then use to transmute its own hydrogen into antihydrogen. He does cite scientific papers from a number of sources, but again, I won't pretend to have divined the meaning behind the contents thereof.

Telematter? sounds like handwavium to me, but perhaps it isn't that far-fetched compared to Alcubiere warp drive. I would like see a reference those scientific paper if that is possible

Edited February 22, 2018 by FreeThinker

[AtilaElari]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

Telematter? sounds like handwavium to me, but perhaps it isn't that far-fetched compared to Alcubiere warp drive. I would like see a reference those scientific paper if that is possible

I did some googling on the topic (not exhaustive by any means but I do have some minor knowledge in it as well). As far as I can tell Blindsight takes a lot of liberty with it's physics. And you can't use quantum teleportation to turn matter into antimatter. Quantum teleportation allows only the exact copying of the particle's properties (momentum, spin, etc.), but it can't transform it to another type of particle. Sorry to be a killjoy, but that just can't work under the known laws of physics.

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, AtilaElari said:

I did some googling on the topic (not exhaustive by any means but I do have some minor knowledge in it as well). As far as I can tell Blindsight takes a lot of liberty with it's physics. And you can't use quantum teleportation to turn matter into antimatter. Quantum teleportation allows only the exact copying of the particle's properties (momentum, spin, etc.), but it can't transform it to another type of particle. Sorry to be a killjoy, but that just can't work under the known laws of physics.

Perhaps we should not take it too literally but rather abstract as we could achieve the same effect antimatter reactor power by first transferring power generated by an antimatter reactor by x-ray laser, convert received energy back into antimatter and use it in the antimatter reactor which from an outside would equate to telematter. Of course the whole process would be very inefficient but still, from the outside abstract perspective, it might be called telematter.

Edited February 22, 2018 by FreeThinker

[AtilaElari]

57 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Perhaps we should not take it too literally but rather abstract as we could achieve the same effect antimatter reactor power by first transferring power generated by an antimatter reactor by x-ray laser, convert received energy back into antimatter and use it in the antimatter reactor which from an outside would equate to telematter. Of course the whole process would be very inefficient but still, from the outside abstract perspective, it might be called telematter.

But we already have energy to antimatter conversion in Interstellar, don't we? So it's still possible to beam power from the inner solar system to an outbound ship and have it gradually accumulate antimatter on it's way to the outer worlds for later use.

[FreeThinker]

57 minutes ago, AtilaElari said:

But we already have energy to antimatter conversion in Interstellar, don't we? So it's still possible to beam power from the inner solar system to an outbound ship and have it gradually accumulate antimatter on it's way to the outer worlds for later use.

Yep, we already got that functionality, with separate parts but not in an integrated solution. Basically what we could do is make the antimatter reactor able to function like a fuel cell where is able would be able to do produce or consume power.  But doubt it will be very useful.

[Deus Zed Machina]

I mean, I just thought I'd bring it up. But you're right, it does get pretty hand-wave-y once you get into the specifics. 

[Rob K]

@FreeThinker Thank you for keeping this great mod together, I've played with it for years now and it only got better.

I have a question on the tech tree and the mod: Has any work been done to make it compatible with the new (1.3.1) RO/rp-1 tech tree and the RSS planets?

Only a few parts show up in the different nodes for me, mostly the fission engines, but most is not showing up.

I'm using the bare 1.3.1 setup with only the gamedata folder from discord and the 1.3.1 release of kspi-e installed.

[FreeThinker]

12 hours ago, Rob K said:

@FreeThinker Thank you for keeping this great mod together, I've played with it for years now and it only got better.

I have a question on the tech tree and the mod: Has any work been done to make it compatible with the new (1.3.1) RO/rp-1 tech tree and the RSS planets?

Only a few parts show up in the different nodes for me, mostly the fission engines, but most is not showing up.

I'm using the bare 1.3.1 setup with only the gamedata folder from discord and the 1.3.1 release of kspi-e installed.

No, but you are in luck and am currently working on Tech tree compatibility so I will try if I can somehow put the missing technodes in the RP-0 tech tree

But where can I find the new RO/rp-1 tech tree ?

Edited February 23, 2018 by FreeThinker

[Rob K]

@FreeThinker

There is a Gamedata folder available for download trough the rp-0 Discord channel, it was put on there by @Theysen. I went digging in the github and the folders themselves but I can't find a way to get it working normally. All the modules show up in sandbox as far as I can tell, I think you will need to find the corresponding nodes in the new tech tree and see what goes where.

 

On another note : Is it even possible to create LqdMethane right now? I tried all the different ISRU modules but the sabatier process just doesn't show up on any of the parts. I can process hydrates for water and electrolyse that, but nowhere does a sabatier reaction show up. Also athmospheric gathering of CO2???? Do I need a specific level engineer in the vessel or something else??

edit:

as you guessed I'm trying to refuel a vessel with LqdMethane and O2 on Mars, good news is the recources are all showing up on Mars, unfortunately I just havent been able to get it to work in any way after 2 days of trying. So if anyone can show how it's done please do.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Rob K
added some stuff

[FreeThinker]

16 minutes ago, Rob K said:

@FreeThinker

There is a Gamedata folder available for download trough the rp-0 Discord channel, it was put on there by @Theysen. I went digging in the github and the folders themselves but I can't find a way to get it working normally. All the modules show up in sandbox as far as I can tell, I think you will need to find the corresponding nodes in the new tech tree and see what goes where.

Well I tried testing with

which appears to work well with KSPIE as all tech nodes show up. Perhaps you could try that tech tree, which appears to have an interpenetrated CTT

 

[FreeThinker]

Next Release will feature a new Fusion Engine made by @leucome The Airospike Z-Pinch Fusion Engine

A unique feature is that it is able to use atmosphere as a propellant, has 6 integrated turbojet intakes and an airospike nozzle allowing it to operate in any atmosphere.

When Fusion reactor technology is fully unlocked, offer good performance

Once out of the atmosphere, you switch to Deuterium engine mode where Deuterium  is both the fusion fuel and propellant

 

Edited February 25, 2018 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

The new beta of KSPI 1.17 is available and can be downloaded from here

Changelog

* Added support for constant power generator like RTGs (by Arivald Ha'gel) 

* Added Airospike Z-Pinch Fusion Engine

* Added 3 new Fusion Rocketry technodes and made it a tech requirement of all Propulsion specialized parts

* Added new Faster Than Light technode  and made it a tech requirement of all Alcubiere drive parts

* Added several Ultralight Cubic Truss parts

* Balance: most Fusion engine have there tech requirement increased

* Balance: Vista Engine power requirement and trust now depends more on unlocked high sciene tech 

* Fixed several fuel mode issues with Vista Fusion

* Fixed some issues with Computer Core (by Arivald Ha'gel) 

* Fixed DC Electrical System issue when EC is full (by Arivald Ha'gel)

* Fixed Large ISRU description and fixed Large ISRU output for Hydrates Processor. (by Arivald Ha'gel)

* Changed Electrolyzer storage to LqdWater (by Arivald Ha'gel)

Edited March 2, 2018 by FreeThinker