KSP Interstellar Extended Continued Development Thread

[etmoonshade]

Just now, FreeThinker said:

just try

Figured I'd ask anyway - it takes a solid 10 minutes to start the game up with all the mods I have, so random tweaks are a bit of a pain.

I'll give it a shot after I land this mission I'm currently engaged in. Thanks for the info!

[etmoonshade]

Looks like a value of 32768 for the thermal antimatter reactor worked to boost the response time of the engines to near-instant, at least. It remains to be seen whether it makes them play nice with MechJeb (and landing in general.)

I'll probably edit this post so I don't end up like, triple-posting once I test how well it works for landing.

Side note: KSPI-E engines tend to be pretty wonky when used with MechJeb - MJ doesn't seem to know how to deal with the way the engines work (changing ISP, TWR, etc. etc.) very well. I'm not sure if this is something you could make code tweaks to help with, but again - it's worth asking about.

 

Edit: Yeeeeeah. Nope, no love. The throttle oscillates wildly and I end up landing at something like 800m/s because MJ doesn't know what is going on. It's especially hilarious with my current craft of course, because the grossly oversized landing legs bounce off the surface, blow up the engines/fuel tanks, and send me tumbling across the surface. I can technically recover from it, but... I still consider it a failure.

Manual/assisted landings are a bit better, and of course response to throttle input is significantly better. It's hard to land precisely, but at least I landed in one piece. Here's hoping you can do something to them for the future. :cheers:

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by etmoonshade

[FreeThinker]

Next beta release KSPIE will add more realistic drag effects for the Bussard Ramjet Magnetic  scoop and simulate a Heliosphere

Starting from Termination Shock, the solar wind will be gradually slow down until stopped at the Heliopause and then become compressed into a Hydrogen wall followed by a bow wave into the interstellar medium. At it peak, the Hydrogen Wall is 100 times as dense as the interstellar medium

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by FreeThinker

[FreeThinker]

A new Beta 1.16.3.2 can be downloaded from here

Changelog

* Added Heliosphere Simulation, solar wind now stops at Helio Pause creating a Hydrogen Wall and bow wave into interstellar medium

* Added Exosphere Simulation making it possible to scoop up resources to the edge of the magnetosphere

* Balancing Large Increase of Drag Bussard Ramjet Magnetic scoop

* Balancing Increased Isp, Trust and Power consumption Daedalus by a factor of 4

* Balancing Increased Trust and Power consumption Bussard Fusion Engine by factor 4

* Fixed scooping resources with magnetic scoop above 1000 KM

* Fixed Timberwind and Nuclear Lightbulb missing reactor

Edited December 22, 2017 by FreeThinker

[raxo2222]

.

Edited December 22, 2017 by raxo2222
moved to support thread

[RocketRaccoon]

I have a few questions about the warp drives included in this mod. How are they different from USI's Alcubierre drive? And what is the difference between the light, foldable, and heavy warp drives? As far as I can tell they go the same speed and have similar power requirements ( I tested them with infinite fuel and electricity on, though, so I can't be certain).

I would also like to suggest a new warp drive (super heavy) that can transport large colony ships with ease (and maybe go faster? up to 5000c?) for players who use extremely large mods like KSS or Galactic Neighborhood in real scale.

Spoiler

(and maybe look something like this. that would be so cool )

Of course, this is just a suggestion, but it would make my life a lot easier.

Edited January 1, 2018 by RocketRaccoon

[Greatness101]

6 hours ago, RocketRaccoon said:

I have a few questions about the warp drives included in this mod. How are they different from USI's Alcubierre drive? And what is the difference between the light, foldable, and heavy warp drives? As far as I can tell they go the same speed and have similar power requirements ( I tested them with infinite fuel and electricity on, though, so I can't be certain).

I would also like to suggest a new warp drive (super heavy) that can transport large colony ships with ease (and maybe go faster? up to 5000c?) for players who use extremely large mods like KSS or Galactic Neighborhood in real scale.

  Hide contents

(and maybe look something like this. that would be so cool )

Of course, this is just a suggestion, but it would make my life a lot easier.

That craft looks awesome

I believe larger warp drives reduce the power requirement.

Edited January 1, 2018 by Greatness101

[FreeThinker]

10 hours ago, RocketRaccoon said:

I have a few questions about the warp drives included in this mod. How are they different from USI's Alcubierre drive? And what is the difference between the light, foldable, and heavy warp drives? As far as I can tell they go the same speed and have similar power requirements ( I tested them with infinite fuel and electricity on, though, so I can't be certain).

I would also like to suggest a new warp drive (super heavy) that can transport large colony ships with ease (and maybe go faster? up to 5000c?) for players who use extremely large mods like KSS or Galactic Neighborhood in real scale.

  Reveal hidden contents

(and maybe look something like this. that would be so cool )

Of course, this is just a suggestion, but it would make my life a lot easier.

The small and medium (fordable) warp engine start with at the same mass to warp power. The IX Warp ring start with a 50% strength bonus due  to their higher mass and ideal  dimensions for warp (which is least ideal for SSTO).

The mass  scales with exponent 2.5 while strength grows with exponent 3 (cube law) meaning, the bigger they become the more effective they become

There is a minim amount of warp power required for certain vessel mass

Warp drive power stacks linear

The more excess mass, the less power they require for similar warp speed, so if you want to go fast, install more part drives

In contrast the USI warp drive, KSPIE warp drive can function during time warp, allowing you to reach other start in a mater of seconds.

Depending on proximity of gravity wells, maximum warp speed is limited and therefore minimum power requirements

Maximum warp is achievable by maximizing warp power and electric power density.

Edited January 1, 2018 by FreeThinker

[RocketRaccoon]

8 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

The small and medium (fordable) warp engine start with at the same mass to warp power. The IX Warp ring start with a 50% strength bonus due  to their higher mass and ideal  dimensions for warp (which is least ideal for SSTO).

The mass  scales with exponent 2.5 while strength grows with exponent 3 (cube law) meaning, the bigger they become the more effective they become

There is a minim amount of warp power required for certain vessel mass

Warp drive power stacks linear

The more excess mass, the less power they require for similar warp speed, so if you want to go fast, install more part drives

In contrast the USI warp drive, KSPIE warp drive can function during time warp, allowing you to reach other start in a mater of seconds.

Depending on proximity of gravity wells, maximum warp speed is limited and therefore minimum power requirements

Maximum warp is achievable by maximizing warp power and electric power density.

Ahh I see... (I think I prefer KSPIE warp drives to USI, now that I see the differences)

So what about my "super heavy" warp drive suggestion?

I build really large capital ships to move around distant star systems but it takes a several warp drives to get to the minimum warp power required and I really need to reduce my part count (not to mention the heavy warp drive has some weird texturing flaws up close). It would be great if there was something with a little more power

Edited January 1, 2018 by RocketRaccoon

[FreeThinker]

Well you can of course scale up the heavy Alcubiere warp drive to 40m base

this should have enough power to warp 2/3 of the empire state building

Put 2 together to warp your empire state building anywhere in the ksp galaxy

 

Perhaps interesting  @SpaceMouse is currently working on some new model for new model Alcubier drive which could be classified as a super heavy warp drive I guess

Edited January 1, 2018 by FreeThinker

[RocketRaccoon]

3 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

Well you can of course scale up the heavy Alcubiere warp drive to 40m base

this should have enough power to warp 2/3 of the empire state building

Put 2 together to warp your empire state building anywhere in the ksp galaxy

Perhaps interesting  @SpaceMouse is currently working on some new model for new model Alcubier drive which could be classified as a super heavy warp drive I guess

I'm not a big fan of tweakscale (it tends to mess up the proportions of my spacecrafts: too much warp ring, too little payload).

I was thinking of something that packs some more punch for its size.

Spacemouse's stuff looks pretty cool (albeit unfinished), but is there any way it could be implemented into KSPI? I prefer KSPI's warp mechanics to USI's warp mechanics.

Edited January 2, 2018 by RocketRaccoon

[SpaceMouse]

4 hours ago, RocketRaccoon said:

I'm not a big fan of tweakscale (it tends to mess up the proportions of my spacecrafts: too much warp ring, too little payload).

I was thinking of something that packs some more punch for its size.

Spacemouse's stuff looks pretty cool (albeit unfinished), but is there any way it could be implemented into KSPI? I prefer KSPI's warp mechanics to USI's warp mechanics.

KSPi's physics have largely served as a base for it, actually. I have a crude one made from lots of stock and KSPi parts I've definitely thought about a KSPi version once I get back to it. I owe @FreeThinker a deep space collector first.

The mesh is mostly just me testing layouts at this point. most of the rear may be redone entirely, I was even thinking the whole front instead of as a crew compartment might be better served as its SSTO bay. If there's interest I might start a thread for it.

 

Not QUITE sure the rings would fit the empire state building but you could probably take a 10 or 15 story building along for the ride.

Edited January 2, 2018 by SpaceMouse

[RocketRaccoon]

1 hour ago, SpaceMouse said:

KSPi's physics have largely served as a base for it, actually. I have a crude one made from lots of stock and KSPi parts I've definitely thought about a KSPi version once I get back to it. I owe @FreeThinker a deep space collector first.

The mesh is mostly just me testing layouts at this point. most of the rear may be redone entirely, I was even thinking the whole front instead of as a crew compartment might be better served as its SSTO bay. If there's interest I might start a thread for it.

 

Not QUITE sure the rings would fit the empire state building but you could probably take a 10 or 15 story building along for the ride.

That's good. Are you planning on making your very own warpship mod with KSPi mechanics?

I'm looking forward to that, sounds interesting.

Spoiler

If you could make the rings look like this I would be very happy

 

Edited January 2, 2018 by RocketRaccoon

[SpaceMouse]

4 minutes ago, RocketRaccoon said:

That's good. Are you planning on making your very own warpship mod with KSPi mechanics?

I'm looking forward to that, sounds interesting.

  Reveal hidden contents

If you could make the rings look like this I would be very happy

 

It wasn't the original intention honestly but, slicing it into KSP sized pieces isn't terribly hard. Making anything work with KSPi is just a matter of setting up configuration files.

The rings probably won't be exactly like that but this project is really only in the concept stage right now.
Do you have the website that pic came from? I haven't seen it, and it might be a useful source of inspiration. I have much interest in ALL the ring ships.

[RocketRaccoon]

18 minutes ago, SpaceMouse said:

It wasn't the original intention honestly but, slicing it into KSP sized pieces isn't terribly hard. Making anything work with KSPi is just a matter of setting up configuration files.

The rings probably won't be exactly like that but this project is really only in the concept stage right now.
Do you have the website that pic came from? I haven't seen it, and it might be a useful source of inspiration. I have much interest in ALL the ring ships.

That was a picture by Adrian Mann. Just search up "Adrian Mann warp drive" and it should show up on google images. Unfortunately it seems to be the only picture of that design.

Here's another design that looks pretty cool:

Spoiler

Link to page: https://xerxes-2k2.deviantart.com/art/Warp-ship-2-548377736

 

Lots of inspiration to choose from. I think you should start a thread. I'd be interested  

[Greatness101]

8 hours ago, RocketRaccoon said:

I'm not a big fan of tweakscale (it tends to mess up the proportions of my spacecrafts: too much warp ring, too little payload).

I was thinking of something that packs some more punch for its size.

Spacemouse's stuff looks pretty cool (albeit unfinished), but is there any way it could be implemented into KSPI? I prefer KSPI's warp mechanics to USI's warp mechanics.

3 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

KSPi's physics have largely served as a base for it, actually. I have a crude one made from lots of stock and KSPi parts I've definitely thought about a KSPi version once I get back to it. I owe @FreeThinker a deep space collector first.

The mesh is mostly just me testing layouts at this point. most of the rear may be redone entirely, I was even thinking the whole front instead of as a crew compartment might be better served as its SSTO bay. If there's interest I might start a thread for it.

 

Not QUITE sure the rings would fit the empire state building but you could probably take a 10 or 15 story building along for the ride.

Interesting... as someone who uses a really large interstellar planet pack, more warp drives are always good. Those are some nice concepts that I would like to see in a mod (or as a part of KSPIE).

Another thing to note is that I've noticed not a lot of part packs provide good capital ship parts (e.g. a command bridge, or a decent-looking gravity ring) which would be nice to include in a warpship mod (I see those have been included in Spacemouse's renderings)

[SpaceMouse]

9 hours ago, RocketRaccoon said:

That was a picture by Adrian Mann. Just search up "Adrian Mann warp drive" and it should show up on google images. Unfortunately it seems to be the only picture of that design.

Here's another design that looks pretty cool:

  Hide contents

Link to page: https://xerxes-2k2.deviantart.com/art/Warp-ship-2-548377736

 

Lots of inspiration to choose from. I think you should start a thread. I'd be interested  

Found it. Does appear to be the only one though and not terribly useful.

That's another cool concept, but it looks like it needs another ring or two. My understanding of the warp ring concept is that stuff can't stick out much past it.
Excusable though, us 3D artists aren't usually scientists.  

7 hours ago, Greatness101 said:

Interesting... as someone who uses a really large interstellar planet pack, more warp drives are always good. Those are some nice concepts that I would like to see in a mod (or as a part of KSPIE).

Another thing to note is that I've noticed not a lot of part packs provide good capital ship parts (e.g. a command bridge, or a decent-looking gravity ring) which would be nice to include in a warpship mod (I see those have been included in Spacemouse's renderings)

I think when you start talking about multi-planet packs, you are rapidly getting out of the scope KSP was designed for. A ship that can casually hop from one system to another in a week or two is already pretty endgame KSP. The goal was to reimagine the IXS/conventional Trek series with a little more realism behind it. Probably to export to Space Engine eventually. A program anyone fond of KSP, Elite Dangerous, or No Mans Sky should check out: http://spaceengine.org/
 

I'll thread-jack for a little longer to get smart peoples opinions here. The only major thing I've been thinking about is how to power it. Instead of dragging what's essentially TWO massive fusion reactors, one for power and one for thrust, why not combine them so you can close off your Daedalus at warp and use it for power? What say ye, people? @FreeThinker?

[SpaceMouse]

also, instead of warping the Empire State building, why not warp the Egg? It looks MUCH more futuristic.

Edited January 2, 2018 by SpaceMouse

[FreeThinker]

5 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

I'll thread-jack for a little longer to get smart peoples opinions here. The only major thing I've been thinking about is how to power it. Instead of dragging what's essentially TWO massive fusion reactors, one for power and one for thrust, why not combine them so you can close off your Daedalus at warp and use it for power? What say ye, people? @FreeThinker?

There are 2 reasons for not doing this, balance and power. Generating a lot of raw power is one thing, converting it into useful electric energy is something else. The Daedalus engine produces more than 10 TW in raw fusion power.  But this is only possible because it is an open cycle reactor and an can only produce power after generate a stream of charged particles when generating thrust. Any generated electric power is barely enough to keep its own fusion from functioning

Edited January 2, 2018 by FreeThinker

[Greatness101]

8 hours ago, SpaceMouse said:

I think when you start talking about multi-planet packs, you are rapidly getting out of the scope KSP was designed for. A ship that can casually hop from one system to another in a week or two is already pretty endgame KSP. The goal was to reimagine the IXS/conventional Trek series with a little more realism behind it. Probably to export to Space Engine eventually. A program anyone fond of KSP, Elite Dangerous, or No Mans Sky should check out: http://spaceengine.org/

Huh. I was under the impression that this would be some sort of "super heavy" warp addition to KSPI (like RocketRaccoon suggested), so I just assumed you meant endgame material.

 

[SpaceMouse]

2 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

There are 2 reasons for not doing this, balance and power. Generating a lot of raw power is one thing, converting it into useful electric energy is something else. The Daedalus engine produces more than 10 TW in raw fusion power.  But this is only possible because it is an open cycle reactor and an can only produce power after generate a stream of charged particles when generating thrust. Any generated electric power is barely enough to keep its own fusion from functioning

Thats why the singularity reactor opens up. I though it was just to show the cool effect.

[RocketRaccoon]

29 minutes ago, Greatness101 said:

Huh. I was under the impression that this would be some sort of "super heavy" warp addition to KSPI (like RocketRaccoon suggested), so I just assumed you meant endgame material.

 

That's what I was requesting   the warp ring designs I posted were candidates for a new KSPI warp drive

@SpaceMouse was already working on something interesting so I assumed he would be the one to do it

[SpaceMouse]

@FreeThinker so, it sounds like theres no reason it couldn't run in a low power mode. If it can handle 10tw open 50 gw or so closed should be a piece of cake. I should be able to effectively double the available power or half the size of the reactor i need.

Edited January 3, 2018 by SpaceMouse

[SpaceMouse]

3 hours ago, Greatness101 said:

Huh. I was under the impression that this would be some sort of "super heavy" warp addition to KSPI (like RocketRaccoon suggested), so I just assumed you meant endgame material.

 

Didn't I pretty much say that? lol. Anything that can warp from star to star in a few weeks or less is pretty endgame, and I would say counts as a super-heavy ring.

[Greatness101]

2 minutes ago, SpaceMouse said:

Didn't I pretty much say that? lol. Anything that can warp from star to star in a few weeks or less is pretty endgame, and I would say counts as a super-heavy ring.

Oh okay. I misunderstood you