KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[Iso-Polaris]

I was told that in WarpPlugin.cfg,  MicrowaveApertureDiameterMult and NonMicrowaveApertureDiameterMult can affect the power transmission efficiency .

May I ask exactly how would these two value affect the Beam power transmission.

For now if I would like to have a route efficiency close to 1.0 all the time (just for fun) would should I do

[FreeThinker]

2 hours ago, Iso-Polaris said:

I was told that in WarpPlugin.cfg,  MicrowaveApertureDiameterMult and NonMicrowaveApertureDiameterMult can affect the power transmission efficiency .

May I ask exactly how would these two value affect the Beam power transmission.

For now if I would like to have a route efficiency close to 1.0 all the time (just for fun) would should I do

Well depending on the part you use for transmission, you can simply modify the efficiencyPercentages in BeamConfiguration you use and change them to 100.

[entropy--]

On 2/3/2017 at 3:27 PM, FreeThinker said:

The answer is simple, I don't have a suitable model.

Looking at the cfg files a bit, if I want to create a make-shift Closed Cycle Gas Core Reactor (and I don't really want a new model), would it be fine to just make a +PART copy for the FIRGaCo, and then replace that reactor with the one in the KspiLightbulb? Something like:

+PART[FIRGaCo]
{
    @name = // TBD
    // Modify the other VAB text labels

    -MODULE[InterstellarFissionMSRGC] {}
    MODULE
    {
        name = InterstellarFissionPBDP
        // Copy the rest of the stuff from KspiLightbulb
    }
}

Are there any other important changes that need to be made there?

Edited February 4, 2017 by entropy--

[EvilGeorge]

Hello everyone,

since I am the person behind the new regolith collecting code, I created a wiki page to help you understand how the revamped regolith mining currently works. You can find the page on Freethinker's wiki at https://github.com/sswelm/KSP-Interstellar-Extended/wiki/Regolith.

With that said, if you're about to start a new regolith mining operation or something similar, I would advise you to wait for the next release of KSPI-E, as I recently rewrote the code for terrain detection used by the regolith drills. The old version should work, but it might have troubles on uneven terrain or where the planetary mesh is weird. So, yeah. I advise you to wait and plan your regolith mining ops in the meantime.

That's all from me for now. *back to lurking mode*

 

[entropy--]

@EvilGeorge Just curious, why is there no regolith on bodies with an atmosphere? I am pretty sure Duna, some ares of Kerbin (e.g., deserts), or the wastelands of Lythe should be full of regolith, in the real-world interpretation of the term, anyway.

[EvilGeorge]

13 minutes ago, entropy-- said:

@EvilGeorge Just curious, why is there no regolith on bodies with an atmosphere? I am pretty sure Duna, some ares of Kerbin (e.g., deserts), or the wastelands of Lythe should be full of regolith, in the real-world interpretation of the term, anyway.

I expected this question to pop-up, perhaps I should have put it in the wiki. It's mostly a simplification for coding sake, it just assumes that no atmosphere == no magnetosphere, which is not accurate by any means, but makes it easy for the plugin to decide whether there should or should not be regolith there.

Also keep in mind that by regolith we mean basically 'solar-wind-enriched regolith' (i.e. regolith bombarded by solar wind, which can happen only on planets with no or weak magnetosphere, as I understand it). And that the definitions as they are now basically treat regolith mined anywhere as one similar in composition to actual lunar regolith. In future, Freethinker and I plan to extend this to take different soil/regolith compositions on different planets in account.

[entropy--]

@EvilGeorge Makes sense, thanks for the answer. Just curious, is this system completely parallel to the stock game Ore -> ISRU system? Or do I need to have both drills on my ship to be fully ISRU capable?

[EvilGeorge]

1 hour ago, entropy-- said:

@EvilGeorge Makes sense, thanks for the answer. Just curious, is this system completely parallel to the stock game Ore -> ISRU system? Or do I need to have both drills on my ship to be fully ISRU capable?

Yes, it's completely different. Only the regolith drill can currently mine regolith and only the KSPI-E ISRU can process it. (So the stock drill can't mine regolith and the stock ISRUs can't process it.) Whether you want to use one system or the other probably depends on what level of realism/difficulty you're currently in mood for

 

[FreeThinker]

14 hours ago, entropy-- said:

@EvilGeorge Makes sense, thanks for the answer. Just curious, is this system completely parallel to the stock game Ore -> ISRU system? Or do I need to have both drills on my ship to be fully ISRU capable?

Notice that in the near future, Regolith will becomes a more generic resource, which can be "harvested" virtual on any celestial body. Regolth is technically nothing more than the lose gravel on top of hard rock which is easily excavated, it doesn't specify anything about its content. In the future, processing Regilth will function something similar to how Intake atmosphere is processed, depending in available resource on the celestrial body, different resource can be found in the regolth. Also understand the current Regolth drills are just temporary stop gap solution for the planned excavator parts, which should look something like this:

Edit: The conceptual idea is that the player does a harvesting run, provide the collected resource at a supply station and actives an auto mining functionality which will simulate the result of the harvesting  run until all resource are depleted in the area.

Edited February 5, 2017 by FreeThinker

[entropy--]

7 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

which should look something like this

That's just awesome!

[FreeThinker]

Version 1.12.4 for Kerbal Space Program 1.2.2

Released on 2017-02-04

• Added ability for Daedalus Engine to act as interstellar direct data transmitter
• Added Atmosphere Intake will now take flying direction into account
• Fixed Atmosphere intake will now properly function up to the start of high space on any celestial body with an atmosphere
• Fixed Regolith drill contact problem with surface (credits to EvilGeoge)
• Removed obsolete parts

Edited February 6, 2017 by FreeThinker

[Liquid5n0w]

I've been launching with ATILLA thrusters and just had a thought.  Why is there no 'battery' for waste heat in KSPI?  Something that would allow me to use high power ATILLA in bursts but then radiate the heat away after launch or after the burn, rather than carrying around heavy rads?  A book I've been reading recently (Vorpal Blade) they converted a sub to a space ship using a drive they found, and to deal with waste heat they have big rods of glass they melt to hold their waste heat, then they rest the ship and "chill" to clear their stored heat.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Liquid5n0w

[ss8913]

On 1/28/2017 at 3:32 PM, FreeThinker said:

Version 1.12.1 for Kerbal Space Program 1.2.2

Released on 2017-01-29

• Added Offline processing for all ISRU processes
• Added Atmospheric Resource Extraction will now use stock resource extraction definition when available
• Added Cesium as an Electronic propellant useful as an dense efficient propellant for MPD, Vasimir and travelingWave engine
• Added Atmospheric Intake will now also function correctly at high timewarp
• Added Re-textured ISRU Refinery making it look distinct from the stock ISRU texture (credits by EvilGeorge)
• Added Regolith Collector will now also make use of stock resource extraction definition (credits by EvilGeorge)
• Added functionality which will add trace amount Helium4, Helium3 and Deuterium to atmosphere when missing.
• Balanced reduced lab research bonus and power cost on KSPI lab but increase science storage capacity
• Fixed Atmospheric Resource Offline processing amount
• Fixed Atmospheric Resource Helium-4 and Helium-3 extraction and added Xenon, Deuterium, and Krypton for extraction

 

 

I just tried using cesium... the storage container claims it can contain cesium (caesium) in its part description, but neither it nor any other KSPIE tank seems to store this fuel... am I missing something?  Tech tree fully unlocked.

[FreeThinker]

53 minutes ago, ss8913 said:

I just tried using cesium... the storage container claims it can contain cesium (caesium) in its part description, but neither it nor any other KSPIE tank seems to store this fuel... am I missing something?  Tech tree fully unlocked.

Nope I see now a mistake was made. I will correct it next update

[ss8913]

21 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Nope I see now a mistake was made. I will correct it next update

Nice, thanks.

 

As this mod progresses, I keep having the following issue with it, once all the tech is fully unlocked:

 

1. To use the FTL drives, you need a lot of dV and a lot of thrust to match velocities when exiting warp
2. The only sublight propulsion system that really provides this is hydrazine + antimatter reactor + plasma nozzle.  I've tried all the other reactor/fuel/engine combinations and nothing can beat that.  Did I miss one?    Are the other electric engines and such designed just for... before you unlock the alcubierre drives?

I do use the ATILLA for VTOL but they're not the most efficient.. they respond better than the thermal engines though, so TCA likes them better

Also... in the latest update (haven't played in a couple weeks), the arcjet RCS thrusters have become... incompatible, somehow, with both MJ2 and stock SAS.  ie, I tell MJ2 or stock to "point retrograde" - it'll do it *eventually* but the roll/pitch/yaw indicators just flap all over the place, and on a really heavy craft, it just won't budge.  If I control the ship manually, it's got proper RCS authority to make the turn, and the autopilot can hold it once I point it there manually, but maneuvering is like.. manual assist.  It wasn't doing this a month ago, or at least not as much; now the RCS is nigh unusable.  I'd blame MJ but stock does it too.  MJ actually is a little bit less bad than stock.

[Nansuchao]

1 hour ago, ss8913 said:

2. The only sublight propulsion system that really provides this is hydrazine + antimatter reactor + plasma nozzle.  I've tried all the other reactor/fuel/engine combinations and nothing can beat that.  Did I miss one?    Are the other electric engines and such designed just for... before you unlock the alcubierre drives?

Talking about enourmos amount of Delta/V, have you tried the Daedalus engine? its efficency it's stunning!

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, ss8913 said:

2. The only sublight propulsion system that really provides this is hydrazine + antimatter reactor + plasma nozzle.  I've tried all the other reactor/fuel/engine combinations and nothing can beat that.  Did I miss one?    Are the other electric engines and such designed just for... before you unlock the alcubierre drives?

There are a lot of options you could use. you could use any charged particle reactor in combination with magnetic nozzle , achieving variable Isp with a maximum Isp even trumping Daedalus

Another option is to use electric engine, they have the advantage of beeing able to be ised with a lot of propellants have Isp throttling. The VASIMR is the best know electric engine, but the ultimate electric thruster is the  Plasma Wakefield Accelerator with an Isp up to 100000s. Idealy this is used with a high efficient electric propellant like ceasium which is easier to ionize

[ss8913]

6 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

There are a lot of options you could use. you could use any charged particle reactor in combination with magnetic nozzle , achieving variable Isp with a maximum Isp even trumping Daedalus

Another option is to use electric engine, they have the advantage of beeing able to be ised with a lot of propellants have Isp throttling. The VASIMR is the best know electric engine, but the ultimate electric thruster is the  Plasma Wakefield Accelerator with an Isp up to 100000s. Idealy this is used with a high efficient electric propellant like ceasium which is easier to ionize

Which "magnetic nozzle"?  I don't seem to see the part that was formerly named exactly that...?  By charged particle reactor you mean that reactor in combination with a charged particle electric generator, yeah?

 

Daedalus won't work for me.  I have ships in excess of 2000t and the daedalus is already super huge producing what would be for that craft a woefully inadequate amount of thrust.  When I drop out of warp I need to burn off about 10k Dv on a good day and fast... need at minimum 1g of acceleration.

[Nansuchao]

16 minutes ago, ss8913 said:

Daedalus won't work for me.  I have ships in excess of 2000t and the daedalus is already super huge producing what would be for that craft a woefully inadequate amount of thrust.  When I drop out of warp I need to burn off about 10k Dv on a good day and fast... need at minimum 1g of acceleration.

For such a huge mothership IMHO, you have only two option, Lightbulb or VISTA, if you want a good acceleration.

[Aaron Also]

On 1/31/2017 at 4:38 AM, FreeThinker said:

Being able to construct a Dyson swarm is actually the whole goal behind these solar power parts. The trick is to minimize the vessel footprint of high emissive parts while maximizing solar collector surface area towards the sun with low emissivity

Something that looks like this....

Notice the vessel is largely in the shadow of the low emissive solar collector, which focuses 99% of all energy on molten salt heat receiver. The high emissive radiator has a minimum footprint toward the sun and get rid of any system heat.

Notice the wrapped thermal receiver function as a huge radiator with minimal footprint exposure to the sun, this ensures it will lose more waste heat than it absorbs heat energy from the sun

Also Notice the engine is in the middle of the ship, exactly where the center of mass is located, this allows you to accelerate the entire ship sideways, allowing it to get in a very low orbit of Sun. If this ship would make the mistake turning, increasing its footprint, it will be destroyed in a matter of seconds.

Sorry for the delayed response, life happens and I sometimes only get to play KSP 1 day a week, Sunday.

 

Well I have started with a Matryoshka Swarm around Kerbin for now.  I have 13 satellites in orbit around Kerbin, they are all pebble bed reactor based microwave transmitters, so low tech as things go. Keep in mind I'm using NFT; they produce about 30MW each and idle at 50% load. This is also only the first layer of the swarm. Well the fist powered orbital layer, there will be a layer of relays between this and the planet eventually. There was not reason to put up relays before the transmitters though. This is something I've always wanted to try in KSP, but didn't have the PC for it. Now that I know it is feasible in sandbox, and possible if not impractical in career/science; the goal will be to take it to an extreme. When I get a chance I will get pics together and post my exact plan, like the villain in a spy movie. So, others can follow along or offer tips.

I'm still a bit unsure about the relay systems, like using link for relay seems to negate the activate relay button, nothing happens. But, forgoing the link relay and just activating relay seems to be giving me the desired result. Is the link relay used to mate a transmitter and receiver to form a relay?

I might have to do some *.cfg manipulating for personal flavor. (I want the folding microwave receiver/solar panel to also be a microwave relay; not a problem though I can swing that much)

[ss8913]

9 hours ago, Nansuchao said:

For such a huge mothership IMHO, you have only two option, Lightbulb or VISTA, if you want a good acceleration.

Wouldn't I need like 8 or 9 VISTAs to push 2000t at +1.0g?  Plus they only run on hydrogen, which requires *enormous* tanks to hold enough of it to be useful.  The VISTA has changed a lot over the past few years...

[FreeThinker]

18 minutes ago, ss8913 said:

Wouldn't I need like 8 or 9 VISTAs to push 2000t at +1.0g?  Plus they only run on hydrogen, which requires *enormous* tanks to hold enough of it to be useful.  The VISTA has changed a lot over the past few years...

Well you could simply scale a single vista up to 20m, that how they become stronger (mass grows with exponent 2 while power with exponent 2.5.

[ss8913]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

Well you could simply scale a single vista up to 20m, that how they become stronger (mass grows with exponent 2 while power with exponent 2.5.

I could, yes.. that... almost works.  By the time I add in the giant hyperdrive which weighs 1600t by itself, and enough vista fuel to give the entire resultant craft ~14k dV, i'm up over 6000 tons total.  antimatter/hydrazine/plasma nozzle at that weight I can get much more dV and much more thrust both.
Also, regarding the cesium thing - I see the storage module listed twice in my parts list, one that can hold cesium and regolith, one that cannot, and the part name is the same.  Also the plasma nozzle doesn't have cesium as an available propellant type in the VAB.  Looking forward to that update, want to see how that fuel performs

[Aaron Also]

The legacy microwave arrays no longer require the gravatron (whatever magnatron type thingy) to transmit, is that right? It seems like that was a good standard, why change it? 

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, Aaron Also said:

The legacy microwave arrays no longer require the gravatron (whatever magnatron type thingy) to transmit, is that right? It seems like that was a good standard, why change it? 

Well technically the phased array is a collection of many microwave transmitters, each capable of receiving and generating a specific microwave signal. The consequence is that the transmission power is limited. To transmit large amount of power you will need larger (scaled up) phased arrays.

There are also game balance reasons, without the gyrotron requirement they have an edge over other transmitters, their range and power is kind of limited compared to the other transmitters. A bonus is that is will make life of newbie a little easier.

Edited February 6, 2017 by FreeThinker