KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[Yemo]

Note: there is an exiting WarpPluginSetting called RadiationMechanicsDisabled, which if true will disable all Radiation calculations. By default, this is set to true. Note that even is active, the radiation doesn't have any real effect. I disabled it because of that and it also cause problems with people with extended planet packs installed

Ah, so I worried about stuff which is not even active by default, sorry. It has been some time since I played a real career game and even longer since I last played with KSPI.

What is your take on the BackgroundProcessing problem?

Since it is auto installed for SETI when using CKAN.

I m not familiar with the code side of waste heat. Could I simply move some heat radiators earlier or give the solar panels some heat radiating modules?

[FreeThinker]

I m not familiar with the code side of waste heat. Could I simply move some heat radiators earlier or give the solar panels some heat radiating modules?

Heat is really not a problem you should be concerned with either. If you are afraid your user might get hurt, you could use the SolarPanelClampedHeating property made by Boris, it effectively makes heat issues only relevant when you move closer to the sun.

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What is your take on the BackgroundProcessing problem?

What BackgroundProcessing problem?

[Yemo]

Heat is really not a problem you should be concerned with either. If you are afraid your user might get hurt, you could use the SolarPanelClampedHeating property made by Boris, it effectively makes heat issues only relevant when you move closer to the sun.

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What BackgroundProcessing problem?

A few pages back you mentioned that you did not implement background processing yet.

So since it is listed as required for SETI, I was wondering whether that would cause problems with heat dissipation and electric generator production and so on?

[FreeThinker]

A few pages back you mentioned that you did not implement background processing yet.

So since it is listed as required for SETI, I was wondering whether that would cause problems with heat dissipation and electric generator production and so on?

No it doesn't. It only means it isn't processed while unfocused. But note many processes , including fuel usage and research a backward processed the first frame you return back. Most of the time this will be alright because more processes stabilize them self and take a long time to run out. The only exception might be space craft with insufficient radiators, bus since most people do not focus them constantly, it will be ok. Another exception might be processes which require a lot of power and run out of power, like microwave networks and solar power station in high elliptical orbit around the sun. In the future, after 1.0, I want to address these issues, but first I need to get it stabilized as much as possible.

Edited April 11, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Northstar1989]

Well, we using pure ammonia and it is mostly damaging to water life. But I think you right that it might to harch considering all other poison effects. Still I think we might use this in some sort of "Save The Environment Strategy" " which gives you bonuses when use clean technologies and punish you when you damage the environment. Another option would be some anti nuclear statagy. It would be great for any player which does not want to send Nuclear reactors into space. It might fir instance make conventinal rocket building cheaper...

At high concentrations (such as in laboratory or industrial waste), yes, Ammonia is toxic to aquatic life. But at the low airborne concentrations not broken down found in Ammonia Thermal Rocket exhaust, it is completely harmless (the worst it could do is cause irritation to the eyes and other mucous membranes of workers at the KSC not wearing adequate safety gear- whereas the CO from a Kero/LOX rocket could knock them unconscious or kill them if they don't wear proper breathing equipment...) especially considering the dilution-factor when it enters nearby lakes or the sea (agricultural runoff of Ammonia is a much bigger problem- and would contribute a much greater mass of Ammonia to nearby water bodies...) Most aquatic organisms already excrete Ammonia as their normal form of nitrogen-excretion (unlike terrestrial animals, which excrete the less toxic Urea or Uric Acid...) and there are already specialized processes among aquatic plants and bacteria to break it down and utilize the nitrogen...

Trust me I'm a biologist in real life- the low levels of Ammonia coming out of a Thermal Rocket aren't going to be a problem compared to even the exhaust of a Kero/LOX rocket, Ammonia-containing industrial waste, or the runoff of much greater quantities of Ammonia from nearby farms.

Regards,

Northstar

Edited April 12, 2015 by Northstar1989

[Thorbane]

Well it is assumed that you need a strong external power source to start a reactor. Then the reactor should produce enough power to sustain it's own fusion, but it always requires power to do so.

It's causing problems when switching back to craft that were previously stable, they should have been stable while unfocused, even with only one reactor, but when I switch back the reactor isn't running anymore.

Also shouldn't it be possible to extract deuterium from crustal water deposits? If you have a science lab and something extracting water?

[MrNukealizer]

There's a bug with InterstellarFuelSwitch. I can probably fix it tomorrow if you don't get around to it first.

It seems the selected amount of each resource gets reset to default whenever the craft is loaded. I think it's because assignResourcesToPart() isn't correctly getting told it's being called at startup.

[FreeThinker]

There's a bug with InterstellarFuelSwitch. I can probably fix it tomorrow if you don't get around to it first.

It seems the selected amount of each resource gets reset to default whenever the craft is loaded. I think it's because assignResourcesToPart() isn't correctly getting told it's being called at startup.

Alright, fix it

Edit: damit, I seem to have screwed up something in the FuelSwitchFix.cfg

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It's causing problems when switching back to craft that were previously stable, they should have been stable while unfocused, even with only one reactor, but when I switch back the reactor isn't running anymore.

Also shouldn't it be possible to extract deuterium from crustal water deposits? If you have a science lab and something extracting water?

I beleive this is a known issue and also a concious one. It besicly demand you always need a fission reactor or microwave network to boot it.

Edited April 12, 2015 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

Alright, this is probably the last update for 0.8

Version 0.8.16 for Kerbal Space Program 0.90

Released on 2015-04-12

• Fixed missing InterstellarFuelSwitch definition for universal Cryostat
  

next version there are going to be some major changes. We have to prepare for CRP 2.0, that means many resources are going to change. It will inevitable lead to pain I'm sorry for that, but I will try to make the transition as painless as possible, but I can't promise anything.

Edited April 12, 2015 by FreeThinker

[ABZB]

• The reactors are now running only to current usage - they don't try to fill up the MJ storage capacity - is this a new feature or option that I missed the notes on?
  
• Even when I have more than sufficient MW production capacity, the reactors keep running at too low %s, especially at high time warps
  
• When I select any refinery option (either in the reactions menu or a resource to extract) the rate of the reaction or mining drops constantly to 0, for no apparent reason (for example, if I select 'extract water' and 'water electrolysis', the rate of each drops towards 0 by about .01 units per second per second. when the mining rate drops to 0, the refinery turns off that extraction (the menu option goes back to'extract water' and will start the proccess again if selected).
  
• 
  

[FreeThinker]

• The reactors are now running only to current usage - they don't try to fill up the MJ storage capacity - is this a new feature or option that I missed the notes on?
  

This is indeed a new feature, it's to limit the free lossless 50000 MW Capacitor exploit. Instead, the ceiling scales with Timewarp

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• Even when I have more than sufficient MW production capacity, the reactors keep running at too low %s, especially at high time warps
  

What do you mean, too low? Notice many of the reactors have their minimum utilization lowered, see reactor table on OP for an overview

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• When I select any refinery option (either in the reactions menu or a resource to extract) the rate of the reaction or mining drops constantly to 0, for no apparent reason (for example, if I select 'extract water' and 'water electrolysis', the rate of each drops towards 0 by about .01 units per second per second. when the mining rate drops to 0, the refinery turns off that extraction (the menu option goes back to'extract water' and will start the proccess again if selected).
  

Are you sure you have sufficient storage? I haven't changed anything specifically regarding mining, but it might be related to anything else I changed

[MrNukealizer]

Ok, I fixed InterstellarFuelSwitch and a couple other things and put in a pull request.

I also noticed there's still something wrong with Plasma Engine energy balance. I can probably take care of that tomorrow, if I can make sense of how ORS works.

[FreeThinker]

[h=2]Version 0.8.17 for Kerbal Space Program 0.90[/h] Released on 2015-04-13

Fixes by MrNukealizer:

• InterstellarFuelSwitch no longer resets resources when vessel loads, and it allows tank switching in flight when below 0.1% capacity
  
• Non-Androgynous Docking Ports' node sizes fixed
  
• MethaneEngine's ElectricCharge resource fixed to avoid NaN cascades.
  

[AML225]

Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong, I can't seem to get the magnetic nozzle engine to work. Screen shot below shows the setup I am using. Thank you!

[MrNukealizer]

Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong, I can't seem to get the magnetic nozzle engine to work. Screen shot below shows the setup I am using. Thank you!

http://i.imgur.com/HB9ghRV.png

The Magnetic Nozzle doesn't produce any thrust at sea level. You need to get fairly high in the atmosphere before it will do anything.

[FreeThinker]

The Magnetic Nozzle doesn't produce any thrust at sea level. You need to get fairly high in the atmosphere before it will do anything.

Indeed, but this seems to keep confusing people. I think we should add a simple status text that tells players what is missing.

[AML225]

Indeed, but this seems to keep confusing people. I think we should add a simple status text that tells players what is missing.

Please do! I tried searching this thread, but there is so much discussion of the magnetic nozzle that the results I was looking for must have been diluted beyond recognition.

[ABZB]

This is indeed a new feature, it's to limit the free lossless 50000 MW Capacitor exploit. Instead, the ceiling scales with Timewarp

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What do you mean, too low? Notice many of the reactors have their minimum utilization lowered, see reactor table on OP for an overview

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Are you sure you have sufficient storage? I haven't changed anything specifically regarding mining, but it might be related to anything else I changed

- I mean that the utilization keeps oscillating around the current needed MW, and at higher timewarps tends to bias towards net too little, and I end up running out of MW and EC entirely.

- I had sufficient capacity to gather both more water and more LqdHydrogen and LqdOxygen - the dropoff is steady even at no timewarp

[FreeThinker]

- I mean that the utilization keeps oscillating around the current needed MW, and at higher timewarps tends to bias towards net too little, and I end up running out of MW and EC entirely

Alright, I see now, I will see how to fix it. What setup did you use?

[Northstar1989]

I know I sound like a broken record, but when are we going to get to THIS list of ISRU reactions?

A quick recap of the list:

• 
  * Sabatier with internal propellants (already implemented)
  * Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction (CO₂ + H₂ --> CO + H₂O)
  * Direct/Solid-Oxide CO2 Electrolysis (CO₂ --> C + O₂)
  * Fischer-Tropsch Process (CO + H2 --> C_nH_2n+2 + H₂O)
  * Methane Pyrolysis (CH₄ --> C + 2 H₂)
  * REAL Anthraquinone Process (H₂ + O₂ --> H₂O₂)
  * Monopropellant --> Hydrazine production with RealFuels (and CORRECT chemistry: H₂O₂ + 2 NH₃ --> N₂H₄ + 2 H₂O)
  * Hypergolics Production (MMH: N₂H₄ + CH₄ --> N₂H₃-CH₃ + H₂, UDMH: N₂H₃-CH₃ + CH₄ --> N₂H₂-2(CH₃) + H₂, NTO: N₂ + O₂ --> N₂O₄)
  

Numbers 2-8 still haven't been implemented yet. Numbers 3 and 5 are exceptionally useful on Duna with current reactions, fuels, etc. Numbers 2 and 4 are amazing with RealFuels installed (you use the reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction to get CO and water, then react the CO and Hydrogen to get Kerosene and water...) Reaction #6 is useful without RealFuels, but even better with RealFuels because of its synergy with Reactions #7 (producing Hydrazine instead of MonoPropellant with RealFuels installed) and #8 (producing hypergolics from Hydrazine)

The *only* new resource any of these need is Carbon Monoxide (the rest already exist in KSP-I Extended, or in RealFuels where appropriate)- which could be skipped if we coupled the Fischer-Tropsch Reaction with the Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction automatically, although I would not recommend that as it would take away a lot of flexibilit from how players implement their ISRU...

Carbon Monoxide is also usable in the interesting reaction:

2 CO + O₂ --> 2 CO₂

Which can be used for a chemical rocket with low ISP directly... (and is particularly useful for suborbital "hopper" designs, and two-stage Duna ascent-vehicles using this for the first stage and HydroLOX propulsion for the second stage, when coupled with the Reverse Water Gas Shift Reaction)

Regards,

Northstar

Edited April 14, 2015 by Northstar1989

[Svm420]

Getting some massive spam with x.x.17 cant find config in warppluginsettings. Nothing other than that in the logs new game or existing. I am sure the file it is mentioning is there in warpplugin folder with my GameData folder, but it may be looking for some reference with in the .cfg that is not present or may have bad syntax, just my conjecture. Hope that helps! Thanks!

[Svm420]

Seems the issue is the Methane engien remvoing the files for it fixed the issue so look there for syntax or other issues. Hope that helps!

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I am using realfuels if that matters

[FreeThinker]

Seems the issue is the Methane engien remvoing the files for it fixed the issue so look there for syntax or other issues. Hope that helps!

Sorry you are confusing me, exactly what did you do to fix what issue?

Edited April 15, 2015 by FreeThinker

[Svm420]

The issue is with x.x.17 the methane engine cause log spam of "can't find config in warppluginsettings". I removed the methane engine folder just to verify that was the cause of the spam. When I removed the engine folder and load the game there were no errors in the log. Hope that makes sense. I don't know directly what is causing it just that the methane engine is involved and it can't find something it's looking for in warppluginsettings. Again I use realfuels if that matters.

[MrNukealizer]

The issue is with x.x.17 the methane engine cause log spam of "can't find config in warppluginsettings". I removed the methane engine folder just to verify that was the cause of the spam. When I removed the engine folder and load the game there were no errors in the log. Hope that makes sense. I don't know directly what is causing it just that the methane engine is involved and it can't find something it's looking for in warppluginsettings. Again I use realfuels if that matters.

That is quite strange. Looking at the config for the engine, it doesn't look like it should have any connection to warppluginsettings.cfg. Are you sure it just started in 0.8.17? There was a small change to its config, but that shouldn't be related.