KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[whitespacekilla]

I'm trying to figure out how to use beamed power. Step 1 was to uninstall the Near Future Electrical mod because the balance of power generated was just too low otherwise. I built a power platform with a near infrared transmitter and put it in orbit of Kerbin. I then grabbed one of my existing electrical engine (ion argon from NFP) probe designs and replaced it's power generation with equipment that could receive near infrared beamed power. I put a craft of that design in a nearby orbit and got the 2 craft connected. Unfortunately, when I throttle up my ion engines, they instantly flameout with the reason "Megajoule Deprived". This would make perfect sense if I didn't have KSPIE power reception equipment on board. I do though, and as far as I can tell, it's working. Attached some screenshots. Hoping someone can tell me where I've gone wrong.

Album a/gnF2xow will appear when post is submitted

 

Edit: I realize now this is the wrong topic, I thought I was posting in the support topic. I don't see how I can delete a post. I'm not a fan of this forum software.

Edited July 16, 2018 by whitespacekilla
Still don't know how imgur album codes work

[Viper_607]

I've run into an issue with a modded install whilst using Realplume and smokescreen etc. The various Rcs thrusters Call module FNModuleRcs, but this seems to default in game to ModuleRcs, which doesn't work properly with realplume or might actually be depreciated completely. Would it be possible to update this to use ModuleRCSFX?

 

Edit: They work, but the Fx is messed up in that the rcs thruster effect fires in the opposite direction of the indicated movement.

Edit2: Doing just that breaks the rcs effects completely, so it seems something more might be needed but I'm not someone who knows all that much about this at all. go ahead and ignore my comments!

Edited July 19, 2018 by Viper_607
Clarified it's a GFX issue.

[FreeThinker]

18 hours ago, Viper_607 said:

I've run into an issue with a modded install whilst using Realplume and smokescreen etc. The various Rcs thrusters Call module FNModuleRcs, but this seems to default in game to ModuleRcs, which doesn't work properly with realplume or might actually be depreciated completely. Would it be possible to update this to use ModuleRCSFX?

 

Edit: They work, but the Fx is messed up in that the rcs thruster effect fires in the opposite direction of the indicated movement.

Edit2: Doing just that breaks the rcs effects completely, so it seems something more might be needed but I'm not someone who knows all that much about this at all. go ahead and ignore my comments!

I suspect a recent update somehow switch the x y z axis on rcs somehow. Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it

[0something0]

Considering that the BDArmory laser is already in KSPI, what if there was BDA support for the lasers so we can use them ss weapons?

 

Also I noticed that parts from the Space Opera mod are in KSPI as Arcjets, which really doesn't fit the more modern style of the other parts compared to the RCS'es Warhammer 40k-esque look. Plz fix?

 

Edited July 21, 2018 by 0something0

[FreeThinker]

6 hours ago, 0something0 said:

Considering that the BDArmory laser is already in KSPI, what if there was BDA support for the lasers so we can use them ss weapons?

I guess I could but if you think of it, many of KSPIE part are so powerful they are unbalanced if you did introduce them as weapons. Like a multi gigawatt lasers able to vaporize target at more than 1000 km, neutron and gamma radiation from fusion engine intense enough to sterilize the planet from all life, antimatter energy storage devices powerful enough to blow up the moon, etc. Besides being hard to implement, I don't think it will be very fun except the first time.

Edited July 21, 2018 by FreeThinker

[0something0]

7 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

I guess I could but if you think of it, many of KSPIE part are so powerful they are unbalanced if you did introduce them as weapons. Like a multi gigawatt lasers able to vaporize target at more than 1000 km, neutron and gamma radiation from fusion engine intense enough to sterilize the planet from all life, antimatter energy storage devices powerful enough to blow up the moon, etc. Besides being hard to implement, I don't think it will be very fun except the first time.

Welp, looks like I'm going to have to do it myself...

[etmoonshade]

8 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

Well technically non of the mods are an absolute requirement, KSPIE will still function without them (even without CRP and CTT) but they are highly recommended to have the best interstellar play experience. You are obviously an experienced user and can find the latest releases by yourself but the majority is not and would handicap their interstellar experience if they did not install these mods. However some mods are more  recommended than others and the mod is balanced assuming all these mods are installed. For instance, Tweakscale is not just a nice to have, its an integral part of the KSPIE  gameplay as it  does not provide multiple size factor parts like most other mods do. You can play without filter extension but it will make it significantly harder to construct KSPIE vessels as they consist of unique modular parts that can only function in conjunction with each other. InterstellarFuelSwitch is not just a tank switch mod, but also a collection of quality resource tanks specifically designed to play along KSPIE. You may why  wonder why these storage parts are not in a separate mod, but there are historical reasons. However the current trend is that I try to modularize KSPIE, moving functionality in separate mod that can operate stand alone. A recent example of this Photon Sailor, which can function stand alone solar sail / laser propulsion mod and can interact with KSPIE beamed power network  if its installed. I have some vague plans to do the same for other functionality like ISRU and Beamed Power.

I'm continuing my comment here based on what was said in the support thread, because this is probably a better place for it.

I'd like to request a "dependencies" list in the various OPs to reflect what are hard dependencies and what are firm or QOL dependencies, and also show what's downloaded with the package. Off the cuff, I'd expect something like this:

-------------------

Hard Dependencies (pretty much required or KSPI-E won't really work as expected):

WarpPlugin: Main KSPI-E Mod Folder
TweakScale: Used by KSPI-E to resize all parts.

Firm Dependencies (you'll almost definitely need these):
KerbalJointReinforcement: KSPI-E spacecraft are big and heavy - this makes it less likely for them to fall apart.
InterstellarFuelSwitch: Provides a number of fuel tanks which are compatible with KSPI-E.
CommunityTechTree: Provides more science nodes to spread the KSPI-E parts out.
CommunityResourcePack: Provides a base set of resources for KSPI-E (and other mods) to use.

Included in download for Quality of Life:

PersistentRotation: Provides stability for high timewarp factors.
PhotonSail: Standalone photon sail mod compatible with KSPI-E beamed power.
PatchManager: ???
HideEmptyTechTreeNodes: Hides tech tree nodes with nothing in them.
FSHangarExtender: Allows you to extend the hangar size - KSPI-E spacecraft tend to get big.
001_ToolbarControl: ???
000_TexturesUnlimited: ???
000_FilterExtensions: Provides more and better filters for the VAB/SPH.
000_FilterExtensionsConfigs: Configurations for the above.

------------------

You can obviously arrange them as you desire, into hard/firm/QOL, but the above would provide a baseline. I'd also suggest links to the various mods in the dependency list so people can see what they do (I had to do this for TexturesUnlimited, although I still don't know how/if KSPI-E uses it...)

Also, a big thumbs up to the idea of turning KSPI-E modular. Is this something you plan to do to everything, or just to new parts you add? It'd be really cool to see "KSPI-E: Beamed Power", "KSPI-E: Reactors", "KSPI-E: Propulsion", etc. as separate downloads so people can mix and match (again, kind of like the Near Future Technologies stuff,) but I imagine it'd be a pain in the neck to untangle the web of interconnection that's probably programmed into the code. 

Quick edit: You're welcome to use any and all of my wording above, but keep in mind I put that together based on old knowledge - I still haven't even gotten KSPI-E reinstalled yet. You'll absolutely need to edit it for accuracy. 

 

Edited July 29, 2018 by etmoonshade

[whitespacekilla]

@etmoonshade probably a good idea, I keep a backups of the zip archives of all my mods and my first step for a KSPIE release is to extract, delete the extras (which I don't want or want to get direct from the source) and re-archive.

I think this will be a little more time intensive that it might sound, and it can't leave novice mod users out in the dark without the minimum they need to enjoy the mod or they'll just uninstall. Tweakscale could actually be refactored to be a softer dependency while if you don't have IFS or CRP and haven't procured some other method of filling in the fuels these engines need, you'd be SOL. All to say, KSPIE is a big project and unknotting / repackaging these dependencies is a bit of an ask, you might have to be the change you want to see in the world.

Also, PersistentRotation and KJR Kraken my vessels to pieces so are banned from my install and TU with any wide reaching configuration makes it so that I can only enter or exit the VAB a limited number of times before I get an access violation crash. Besides, it requires you run in d3d11 or opengl which is a pretty big ask for an optional mod that comes with a fairly unrelated mod.

[FreeThinker]

On 7/29/2018 at 7:08 PM, etmoonshade said:

Also, a big thumbs up to the idea of turning KSPI-E modular. Is this something you plan to do to everything, or just to new parts you add? It'd be really cool to see "KSPI-E: Beamed Power", "KSPI-E: Reactors", "KSPI-E: Propulsion", etc. as separate downloads so people can mix and match (again, kind of like the Near Future Technologies stuff,) but I imagine it'd be a pain in the neck to untangle the web of interconnection that's probably programmed into the code. 

1

Yes it is, that why I will do it slowly one at the time. Photon Sailor is the first one that can operate both standalone and in conjunction with KSPIE beamed power network. The next step is probably Interstellar ISRU which only connection with KSPIE is power management. A standalone Beamed power mod would be also very useful as it would allow players to create beamed power networks using only stock and other electric power generator mods.

[etmoonshade]

13 hours ago, whitespacekilla said:

I think this will be a little more time intensive that it might sound, and it can't leave novice mod users out in the dark without the minimum they need to enjoy the mod or they'll just uninstall. Tweakscale could actually be refactored to be a softer dependency while if you don't have IFS or CRP and haven't procured some other method of filling in the fuels these engines need, you'd be SOL. All to say, KSPIE is a big project and unknotting / repackaging these dependencies is a bit of an ask, you might have to be the change you want to see in the world.

To be fair, I don't actually mind trimming the fluff myself - the biggest thing I wanted was a description of why these things were included in the KSPI-E install.

It's obviously easier if you've been using KSPI-E for a few years, but if I saw all this stuff as a new user? I'd A: just copy the install whole without knowing what I was installing, and B: not know why (for example) I was having KJR-related kraken attacks or TU-related crashes. I don't actually get those, but when you install a dependency, you install any of its potential bugs as well.

In any case, that's why I kind of dumped the info at @FreeThinker - I think it's really useful to know what the included folders are, but it's ultimately his decision what to do with it.

[whitespacekilla]

Well, possible upshot, FreeThinker does accept pull requests with graciousness and poise and some of what you're outlining is just moving files or writing descriptive text...

[FreeThinker]

Download Version 1.19.4 for Kerbal Space Program 1.4.5 from here

Released on 2018-08-04

• Compiled Against KSP 1.4.5
• Added Atmospheric Particle Scoop (requires KarbonitePlus install)
• Fixed RCS 's exhaust animation

[aaronsta1]

i cant process the data collected by a computer core in the science lab.. it has the button to do it, but when pressed nothing happens. the data remains in the core and can get sent via the antenna.

 

 

edit, it doesnt seem to be working at all on my other vessel, it has no science lab, just the MPL-LG-2.. this one when i pushed collect, there was 200 data, but it popped up +0 and woudlnt let me do anything, couldnt even transmit this one... also the data disappeared and it started collecting again from 0.

 

Edited August 14, 2018 by aaronsta1

[Asidem]

First thank you for brilliantly continuing the most awesome mod for KSP

I used to be competent with KSPI about a year ago, but now I feel completely lost as everything got more complex. In-game tooltips aren't very helpful and GitHub wikis appear outdated/incomplete. Is there a reliable resource for KSPI-E out there?

I can't make high-factor timewarp work with the CANDLE engine   the throttle goes to zero as soon as the warp begins (playing KSP 1.4.5). Is that normal? I heard that high-ISP engines are supposed to support high-factor time warp

[whitespacekilla]

10 hours ago, Asidem said:

I can't make high-factor timewarp work with the CANDLE engine   the throttle goes to zero as soon as the warp begins (playing KSP 1.4.5). Is that normal? I heard that high-ISP engines are supposed to support high-factor time warp

Yes, that is normal (though it's inconvenient that instead of refusing to warp, it kills thrust). You heard wrong. Physical warp (2, 3, 4, "alt+.") only unless you use TimeControl (has a more complicated hyperwarp functionality that tries to match a speed you input but will slow down if your computer can't handle it) or BetterTimeWarp (configurable multipliers) for rails and physical warp is a little more brutish and simple but has some bugs and will destroy your ship / perform your burn improperly if you are attempting too high a physical warp. Supposedly, much older versions of KSP had a persistent thrust mod that would calculate orbit changes while the vessel was unloaded/on rails but AFAIK this is not an option in modern version of KSP.

[Asidem]

1 hour ago, whitespacekilla said:

Yes, that is normal (though it's inconvenient that instead of refusing to warp, it kills thrust). You heard wrong. Physical warp (2, 3, 4, "alt+.") only unless you use TimeControl (has a more complicated hyperwarp functionality that tries to match a speed you input but will slow down if your computer can't handle it) or BetterTimeWarp (configurable multipliers) for rails and physical warp is a little more brutish and simple but has some bugs and will destroy your ship / perform your burn improperly if you are attempting too high a physical warp. Supposedly, much older versions of KSP had a persistent thrust mod that would calculate orbit changes while the vessel was unloaded/on rails but AFAIK this is not an option in modern version of KSP.

Take a look at this post, and the few next ones too. It's what's supposed to make many of the low-thrust-high-ISP KSP-IE engines even playable. I can make it work right now in-game with the Vista engine, which I've seen explicitly in a changelog, supports time-warp acceleration. The Vista accelerates just fine under time-warp, even maximum time-warp. A number of other engines do that too.

So now I'm wondering why it does not work with the Candle engine

Edited August 24, 2018 by Asidem

[whitespacekilla]

5 hours ago, Asidem said:

Take a look at this post, and the few next ones too. It's what's supposed to make many of the low-thrust-high-ISP KSP-IE engines even playable. I can make it work right now in-game with the Vista engine, which I've seen explicitly in a changelog, supports time-warp acceleration. The Vista accelerates just fine under time-warp, even maximum time-warp. A number of other engines do that too.

So now I'm wondering why it does not work with the Candle engine

Shows what I know, I've been playing with this mod pretty intensely and have never seen that functionality work. I don't know that I would consider the candle a high-ISP engine, though. It's nuclear, so it's middle of the pack.

[Verdigo]

There's a bug in NFTEnginesFix.cfg that causes the IonEngine to consume 17,480 EC per second.

@PART[ionEngine]:NEEDS[!NearFutureElectrical,!SETI]
{
   @MODULE[ModuleEnginesFX]
   {
        @PROPELLANT[ElectricCharge]
        {
            //@name = Megajoules
            @ratio *= 2000
        }
   }

   !MODULE[ElectricEngineThrustLimiter]{}
}

Note that I don't have NearFutureElectrical installed. KSPI is only installed because of dependencies from other mods. 

Version is 1.19.4

[ksp_circles]

Wondering when the loss of power when ships undock will be fixed. Or a workaround (other than switching ships/going to space center)...

[Deredere]

Why won't this thing produce nitrogen? Or CO2. Or Oxygen. Or anything besides compressed air and He4?

After a considerable search of this thread I read somewhere that scoops aren't even necessary anymore, yet it still says "scoop is not deployed". Despite there being a scoop. Which is deployed. Atmosphere extraction is enabled.

On 8/25/2018 at 3:18 PM, Verdigo said:

There's a bug in NFTEnginesFix.cfg that causes the IonEngine to consume 17,480 EC per second.

I was wondering about that.

[Deredere]

Found the problem, I needed to use the Interstellar scoops, which for some sick reason were set to "no technology required" and thus never showed up.

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.19.5 for Kerbal Space Program 1.4.5

Released on 2018-08-30

• Compiled against KSP 1.4.5
• Added additional Extreme tech nodes
• Altered Stock NERVA engine with KSPIE behaviour
• Updated packaged mods (IDS, KJR, Filter Extensions) to KSP 1.4 compatible versions
• Renamed Solid Core Nuclear engine to LANTR
• Balance: increased tech requirement LANTR to improved nuclear propulsion
• Balance: Increased unlocking tech early nuclear engines and reactors
• Fixed Crash After vessel with activated Gas Core is reloaded
• Fixed Atmospheric scoops

[Deredere]

Any plans to add metallic hydrogen chemical rockets?

I feel like if the EM drive works and exotic matter is gamable we can suppose metastability is possible

[nonono]

Hey could some kind soul give me a tutorial on how to use the solar sail with beamed power?? I'm not really sure how it works, what sort of numbers on the thrust output when everything is working correctly should I be seeing? Kottabo did a review just looking at how it interacted with Kerbol.

[FreeThinker]

17 hours ago, nonono said:

Hey could some kind soul give me a tutorial on how to use the solar sail with beamed power?? I'm not really sure how it works, what sort of numbers on the thrust output when everything is working correctly should I be seeing? Kottabo did a review just looking at how it interacted with Kerbol.

Question regarding solar/laser sailing should be asked in

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/176144-131145-photon-sailor-144-sailing-on-laser-and-sun-rays/

Edited September 1, 2018 by FreeThinker