KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[about37hobos]

I need some assistance with the warp drive, I cant find any tutorial made using extended and all the older ones seem to be out of date. I am generating absurd amounts or power and using generators to put them into the drive, but I cannot for the life of me get it to actually charge, no matter how much power I generate it just says there is not enough charge to maintain a warp field, I need assistance

[FreeThinker]

On 2/21/2019 at 2:44 AM, about37hobos said:

I need some assistance with the warp drive, I cant find any tutorial made using extended and all the older ones seem to be out of date. I am generating absurd amounts or power and using generators to put them into the drive, but I cannot for the life of me get it to actually charge, no matter how much power I generate it just says there is not enough charge to maintain a warp field, I need assistance

Depending on the proximity to a gravity well, there is a fixed amount of warp power (mass) you need in order to create a stable warp field. This amount decreases the further you go away from a gravity well or increase the ratio of warp engine mass to warp engine mass. You should aim for 1:10 or 1:20 when upgraded.

On 2/9/2019 at 8:20 AM, skygunner58203 said:

Just to ask.  Is this working still in 1.6.1?  I can downgrade if I need to, just wanted to check first.

Yes it is, usually when the last number of a KSP version increase, it is still compatible with the version made where the first and middle number are the same.

On 1/21/2019 at 5:00 PM, Taki117 said:

Out of curiosity, how does this mod modify the stock tech tree? I've been playing with the Simplex Tech Tree (that uses stock nodes) and the KSPIE part of the Tech Tree doesn't seem to integrate at all. I see there are MM configs for Engineering Tech Tree and the Community Tech Tree and I was curious if I could take those, modify them a bit, and make them work with Simplex Tech Tree
 

 

The problem with the simplex tree is that it is a total techtree overhaul which replaces almost all tech nodes. KSPIE tech tree requires the visibility of stock tech nodes like nuclear propulsion. If they are not visible at all, KSPIEtech nodes will never show up

[FreeThinker]

Next release will improve the Muon Catalyzed Fusion Reactor.  This reactor was always intended as the most advanced electric power fusion reactor, specialized in producing the most difficult fusion reactions and convert the resulting fusion Gamma power directly into electric power.  Originally its main role was in converting hydrogen scooped from space into electric power. However I felt it had more potential, what was missing a viable way of using Helium which tend to the main product of light fusion reactions.

proton Deuterium power output is tripped, allowing maximum power output with the Muon catalyzed fusion  reactor

CNO ramains the most powerful pure hydrogen fusion mode

proton-proton-proton fusion mode produces significantly less power, but has lower tech requirments and produces Helium3, which ideal for powering aneutronic fusion

New is poton proton fusion, which is a lot less powerful and more difficult but produces Deuterium, the most versatile fusion fuel

The biggest change will be the ability to fuse 3 helium atoms into Carbon, this will give you a good reason to don't throw away the NUclear Ash from most other fusion reactions.

The Helium Alpha process is one of the most advanced new fusion modes allows you extract all possible fusion power from Helium-4.

similar but slightly less powerful than the Helium Alpha process and start with fusing Carbon with Helium-4

similar but slightly less powerful than the Carbon Alpha process and start with fusing Oxygen with Helium-4

similar but slightly less powerful than the Oxygen Alpha process and start with fusing Neon with Helium-4

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by FreeThinker

[Jumberlack]

Would you be down for adding mercury/moho-like planetary resource configs for regolith on Icarus and Taranis, the first planets in Galileo's Planet Pack and the Grannus Expansion Packs respectively?

Edited April 12, 2019 by Jumberlack

[FreeThinker]

23 hours ago, Jumberlack said:

Would you be down for adding mercury/moho-like planetary resource configs for regolith on Icarus and Taranis, the first planets in Galileo's Planet Pack and the Grannus Expansion Packs respectively?

Well you can help me with that by defining them yourself and I will verify add them.

Edit: Alright I have done it

Edited April 13, 2019 by FreeThinker

[Lord Henk]

Hello,

I'm having some trouble with my relay network. I have a beam producer which sents out a beam of green light in LKO. I also have a couple of relays using light mirrors which have "relay active"set up which should allow me to cover all of kerbin. Everything is working fine when i have a direct LOS to the beam producer. But when the beam producer is behind kerbin and it should sent it through the relay i don't recieve any power. The relay does show up in the reciever interface but there is no power.

Thanks

Edited April 21, 2019 by Lord Henk
added screenshots

[FreeThinker]

@Lord Henk I can confirm the Network Relay functionality is broken.  I hope to fix and improve it next month

[Lord Henk]

@FreeThinker Oh right that explains, Well thanks!

[FreeThinker]

Could anyone verify if KSPIE is still present on CKAN?

[Friznit]

yes - v 1.21.3.4 for KSP 1.7.0

[flyguybc]

Hello fellow Kerbalnauts!

So I'm running a career with KSPIE and so far loving it. The extended tech tree has given me so much more to work towards. I've reached the end of the normal tech tree and started a little into the new stuff. I have the thermal turbo/ram/rocket engines, and I'm up to the Pebble Reactor with a few efficiency levels.

So I've built a Mk3 SSTO Cockpit-MonoProp-1 2x liquid fuel-1 2x rocket fuel containter - engine housing - Pebble Reactor - Thermal Turbo Jet. Procedural wings, and at the tips I put a Shock Cone and an Air cooler for extra intake, plus the small long intakes on the hull.

Ok so at the 3.5 size the thermal turbo alone has no problem getting the ship up. I can easily reach about 20k altitude and get up to 400-500 in Atmosphere mode.

Getting the rest of the way is where I struggle. I've tried switching fuels to liquid argon, or something like that, but the fuel runs out too fast. I tried throwing NERV's on the wing tip, and changing the fuel to liquid fuel to get more delta V out of them, but the NERV's don't have the strength to carry it to orbit.

I'm also having trouble with the tanks. For example I went to liquid argon in the normal fuel tanks, but when I launch the tanks are empty even through they are full in the SPH? So I threw on 2 cryo tanks and put the argon in there and I had fuel on the runway now, but it still wasn't enough to get me into orbit.

I've read people talk about Hydrozine, but if I'm not mistaken the thermal turbojet can't run on Hydrazine? I don't see it as a fuel option for the engine? I do see it in tanks. Also I've seen people say that the engine can burn LFO? However, I don't see that option on the thermal turbojet either. I see Intake Air/Hydrogen, but no matter what fuel I switch the engine too, it won't use LFO.

So I feel like I'm missing something. I am working towards getting the Fusion reactor unlocked, because I hear it gives a huge jump in performance, but I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to make this work.

Any help is appreciated!! Love this mod!!
 

[FreeThinker]

13 hours ago, flyguybc said:

I've read people talk about Hydrozine, but if I'm not mistaken the thermal turbojet can't run on Hydrazine?

<snip>

So I feel like I'm missing something.

1

1

Hydrazine is a reducing propellant which would dissolve the heat exchangers of thermal turbojet because it has an anti-oxidizing coating, instead, use HTP an oxidising propellant which gives a 50% bonus to thrust and isp and is denser than liquid fuel. Notice, the  next release of IFS will add HTP as part of the standard propellants configs

Edited May 2, 2019 by FreeThinker

[flyguybc]

Ok thanks for the reply.  So the thermal engine doesn't use it.  Got it.

 

 Ironically I kind of figured that out using KER and applying different fuels to the engine.  HTP gave me the best dV in vacuum.

I tested some other fuels at altitude 20k (where atmosphere engines tend to drop off) and I found that liquid Krypton gave me the best dV with a 2.5 TWR.  

So I took the long mk3 cargo hold and filled it with inline spheres of HTP for the top of my climb.  I then used a scaffolding? block to attach to the end of the wing, and I made a wingtip section of

Shock cone - Inline sphere - Inline sphere - scaffhold - 2.5 thermal turbo engine.  With a few heat panels.

So 3 engines.  Center 3.8 wingtips 1 2.5 each for a total of 3 engines.

 

It actually worked decently.  I got to 20k on atmo, kicked in the krypton which got me most of the way up, and then finished the climb with HTP and circularized.  The problem was the wingtip pods never survived.  I don't know if it was heat, or the fact the tanks were only attached with the scaffold piece (I did have autostrut on), but somewhere along the way one of the fuel tanks would give way and the shock cone and other tank would fall too their doom.  Quite comically the Engine remained attached to the scaffold piece and kept burning along lol.

 

The main problem was it wasn't very practical.  I only got there with about 1500 dV and 0 cargo room.  The bay had to be full of the fuel spheres to get any decent dV.  From what I can tell, at my current level of reactor its just not going to cut it.  On top of that I did a comparison to the NERVA and at the exact same amount of respective fuel the NERVA still has better ISP than HTP.

 

My goal is to eventually create something that can have fewer engines, but keep up with my current SABRE NERVA combos.  I even tried throwing the generator on current SSTO's with the thought of well if I can eliminate the atmo climb dV drain by using the reactor, that's that much more I can have in space.  However, adding the reactor usually made the craft too heavy, and I would have had to follow the "moar boosters" method.

 

Anyone have any other ideas, or am I missing anything?

 

[FreeThinker]

10 hours ago, flyguybc said:

Anyone have any other ideas, or am I missing anything?

 

I'm not sure what engine and reactor you were attempting to use but understand there is a distinction between turbojet and ramjet which might not be obvious. Turbojets excel in providing power less than Mach 1 after which they dramatically lose thrust. Ramjets on the other hand, have low thrust at low speeds and only start to come into their own at Mach 1 and keep it up at much higher speeds making them ideal for SSTO where you use the atmosphere to circularize. Turbojet is more suitable if you want to launch directly into space without circularizing. Ideally, you combine them and when used with a thermal reactor you can use them to power both a turbojet to get up to speed and then switch to ramjet at Mach 1. The trick is to use action groups that toggle them on and off all at once.

Another important consideration you should take into account is overall vessel mass as every gram counts. Putting tanks into cargo bay in general means you pay a mass cost twice, so try to find a solution where you don't need that. Also try to minimise on the amount of wing surface, which are nothing but dead weight once you enter space. Preferably fill your wings with fuel.

Edited May 3, 2019 by FreeThinker

[flyguybc]

Pebble Reactor and Thermal Turbo.  I understand the difference between turbo and ramjet, but I thought I read somewhere in this mod the Ramjet was confusingly named and was more of a space engine than actual ramjet.

I also read somewhere that either the turbo or Ramjet in this mod gets a closed cycle like the sabre?  I haven't seen that yet though?

The challenge with the fuel tanks is the only thing that I can get HTP out of is the inline spheres or the cryo tanks.  No normal plane parts carry it.  So the only way I could get enough dV was to use those, and since they are more fragile I had to hide them in a cargo bay.  I think you said you're changing that in the next update though.  I'm using procedural wings, and they are I'd say on the small side of medium.  However, again they can't hold the right type of fuel so I don't add the extra mass of another fuel.

 

So you are saying I should have the turbo jet to get me up to 15-20km, then kick in the ramjet, then swap to HTP to circularize?  I'll give that a shot tonight.

 

P.S. which radiators would you recommend for a SSTO/spaceplane.

Thanks again!  Enjoying this talk!

[FreeThinker]

5 hours ago, flyguybc said:

So you are saying I should have the turbo jet to get me up to 15-20km, then kick in the ramjet, then swap to HTP to circularize?  I'll give that a shot tonight.

Yes, notice that thermal nozzles do not have to be connected inline to function you can attach them radialy using another part like the fuel tank. Ideally you use a single ramjet and attach to turbojet radially like this.

[flyguybc]

Gotcha! I will try this out when I have some time. Spent last 2 nights building a miner for minmus. I didn’t realize how much power the big yellow drill takes haha. I’ll need one with a reactor next time lol. 

[flyguybc]

Also what tanks is the HTP in?

[FreeThinker]

On 5/3/2019 at 5:39 PM, flyguybc said:

P.S. which radiators would you recommend for a SSTO/spaceplane.

For a SSTO I would the (grapene) Radiator Tail Fin

A single fin is enough to prevent a pebbled from overheating

Edited May 5, 2019 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

4 hours ago, flyguybc said:

Also what tanks is the HTP in?

In the latest release of IFS. I will add them also to global B2 script in the next release of KSPIE

[flyguybc]

So I see the HTP in the tanks description now, but when I start going through its not there as on option on IFS.

 

I use ckan.  Is there a more updated release I need to install?

 

[ThePixeledFox]

not sure if this is the correct place but , when stacking warp drives the first drive you place is normaly the controling drive, however ive noticed a bug where if you lose focus or target away from your craft or reload it /come back to it the controling drive stops being the controling drive and it moves to a random other drive as the controlling drive.

ps, thank you for one of my fav mods

[SpaceMouse]

Haven't posted in a while, saw this and thought I should drop it here.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190506163646.htm

 

 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by SpaceMouse

[flyguybc]

Ok.  So I see now that those tanks have HTP.  However, the Mk3 parts can't shift over to them?  

So either I'm not understanding something or I'm flying wrong.  I recreated your ship part for part (other than the radiator tail don't have that yet).  I can't get it over about 350ms and barely up to 10k before I can't sustain the climb.

Initially I was lighting all 3 engines at take-off and I couldn't cross 250ms.  However, I then realized the ramjet was actually draining my speed (i'm guessing because it was dissipating all the heat?  So then when I took off with just the turbojets I was finally reaching 350m/s.  However, after crossing about 8k the speed slowly decreased until I couldn't maintain altitude.  So I thought I'd fire up the ramjet.  Tried it with both engines, and with only the ramjet on and it bled speed even faster than the turbo's.

So I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  Is there some upgrade tech that makes a huge difference maybe I haven't researched yet?

 

Clarification questions.  

  1.)  Fusion reactors - I read somewhere you have to have a second reactor to jumpstart them? or keep them going?  Should I use a small pebblebed for that, or do I need another fusion generator that's smaller?

  2.)  Heat - So I try and follow the Interstellar helper for the radiators.  However, it takes a crazy amount of radiators to get it to yellow or green.  I've tried using the skin ones, and the ones that wrap around the fuselage.  Do those cause drag?

  3.)  Am I barking up the wrong tree here?  In normal KSP people use rapiers and nukes to make some pretty nice SSTO's.  Is that just not going to happen with these new techs?  Am I not going to be able to make a spaceplane that can SSTO 10-100 tons into orbit?

 

Thanks again for all your help sir!  

 

*UPDATE* Ok so apparently size matters.  I kicked the Magnetized Fusion up to 3.5, and used 4 Turbojets with 1 ramjet central.  Turbos are at 1.8 and Ramjet is at 2.5.  Part of the problem was I was getting the "Plasma not hot enough for fusion" warning.  So I increased the size of the "jumpstart" Pebble Bed + Thermal Generator to 1.8 and holy crap.  The thing lept off the runnway.  I was at 1200m/s before 7k.  It was ridiculously crazy.  In orbit I kicked over to the ramjet and circularized with about 1400 m/s left.  I was super happy.  So the fusion HAS to have a big nuke reactor powering it?  When the Pebblebed reactor was at 1.25 size I tried adding power capacitors, and batteries to the point where I had 91 Megajoules.   Then I hit the throttle and just watched it drain.  So for the 3.5 Mag Fusion it HAS to be at least 1.8 which is more space taken up.  Le sigh.

My plane is 96000 Kg with the two reactors.  Also what's the best way to cool it.  I see the waste heat building up, and I've got wrapper graphene around the whole reactor.  I even pulled up the KSPI window and started thowing on the biggest thermal radiators I had (Titanium long).  By the end I could barely see the aircraft before the window turned yellow.

Edited May 8, 2019 by flyguybc

[flyguybc]

Anyone got any tips for the above?