KSP Interstellar Extended Support Thread

[raxo2222]

1 hour ago, ss8913 said:

I like your antimatter factory   you should consider the HangarExtender mod which removes the building graphics and lets you scroll around with a lot more freedom.. great for building things that technically don't fit in the VAB
Seems like you could also return all that antimatter to Kerbin for a profit, too, if you are playing in career mode

I have hangar extender mod

Edited March 4, 2018 by raxo2222

[samooo2]

4 hours ago, ss8913 said:

so, not having used beamed power in quite a while.. simple question.. if I receive beamed power on a ship and use it to power a Kerbstein... do I still need a ton of radiators on the ship *being powered* or is wasteheat not generated in this case since I'm not doing any energy conversion to power the drive?  Little unclear on that, help appreciated.

The drive itself is doing energy conversion, from electricity to kinetic(thrust). I haven't used the Kerbstein yet, but unless it's magic it should turn at least a few % of power into wasteheat.

[lickgreenfrogs]

I posted this on reddits support thread but I don’t think anyone has an answer there. I’m not sure if this is an interstellar issue or not. I know Scott Manley was having NaN issues in his interstellar play through but that was a long time ago. Either way help would be appreciated.

On EVERY re-entry, at some point, I’m hit with a NaN bug. The re-entry is fine, heat is fine, speed is fine, and usually it hits me when I’m slow enough to open a parachute without any problems. When it hits, every number on Kerbal Engineer reads NaN. Apoapsis and Periapsis read infinity, and my altimeter reads 0000 meters. My ship has disappeared and so have all the planets. 

Since this is happening on every re-entry I can easily take pictures of anything anyone requests. I didn’t add them initially because I’m not sure if they’ll be of any help since all my info is just NaN. But let me know.   

[xRei]

Not sure if it's a mod conflict or what, but on career mode there are certain techs missing now:

Open Cycle Gas Core Reactor is missing along with its upgrades.

All upgrades for the Pebble Bed Reactor are missing(but the reactor is still there).

Can't find the Dusty Plasma Reactor either.

 

If I start a sandbox game all of those reactors and their upgrades are unlocked and accessible, it's only affecting the tech tree presumably.

I do have the newest version of community tech tree along with empty tech node mod(I tried disabling the latter to see if it would do anything and it didn't). My version of KSPI is 1.71.

 

Edited March 4, 2018 by xRei

[ss8913]

The last update changed the tech tree requirements a bit, go into the research lab and you may have to unlock/re-unlock things.

 

Did some tests with the thermal transmission... @FreeThinker I'm not sure where the problem lies, but.. something  is weird here.

1. put a power transmitter on the launchpad.  clamps failed.  CKAN doesn't have 1.17.1 yet, ok, well, the transmitter didn't tip over so left that there, and turned it on.
2. built a mk2 spaceplane using the mk2 receiver and some thermal ramjet engines.  worked great.  flew it around for a while.
3. tried to make a VTOL version... and here's where everything went sideways.  I use TCA to balance thrust for VTOL... normally this works fine with KSPIE's engines.  In this setup however... it won't .. balance anything.  If I turn on its auto-throttle, it starts showing the spark FX out of the engines, and destabilizes the entire game, sometimes crashing it.  I tried Davon throttle control systems mod as well, it refuses to put any power to either of the VTOL engines.
4. So I thought hm, let me double check.. loaded up a normal spaceplane that carries its own power, not beamed. everything works with both of those throttle balancing mods just fine.

Since it's happening with BOTH of those mods, I'm SUSPECTING that there's something about the way the thermal turbojets are reporting parameters when not connected to a *reactor* but instead to a *receiver* that is confusing other mods that want to interact with them.  I don't know this for sure, but I figured I'd start here and see if you or anyone had any insight.

[FreeThinker]

16 minutes ago, ss8913 said:

The last update changed the tech tree requirements a bit, go into the research lab and you may have to unlock/re-unlock things.

Yes, what do you think of new changes of the tech tree? I made the change after analyzing some of the balance problems I had with the fusion tech nodes which tended to be too powerful in comparison to other tech nodes as multiple reactor and engines were unlocked by single tech node. Especially Advanced fusion technode was overcrowded. The most logical solution was to split up fusion power and fusion propulsion. It allows more conscious choice in a players strategy by focusing on either power or propulsion. Also by putting the Alcubiere warp drive in its own FTL technode at an 11th tier, it created more advancement room allowing me to put the more powerful reactors and engines at a higher technodes.

Edited March 4, 2018 by FreeThinker

[ss8913]

Just now, FreeThinker said:

Yes, what do you think of new changes of the tech tree? I made the change after analyzing some of the balance problems I had with the fusion tech nodes which tended to be too powerful in comparison to other tech nodes as multiple reactor and engines were unlocked by single tech node. Especially Advanced fusion technode was overcrowded. The most logical solution was to split up fusion power and fusion propulsion. It allows more conscious choice in a players strategy by focusing on either power or propulsion. Also by puting FTL in its on technode at an 11th thier, it create more room allowing me to put the more powerful reactors and engines at a higher technode.

I like the changes, although it cost me 30-40k science to unlock everything, whereas my tree was fully unlocked previously.  Not really an issue for me, others might have a problem with the additional cost(?) not sure.  The placement of the parts in the new nodes does make sense to me, however.

[FreeThinker]

21 minutes ago, ss8913 said:

I like the changes, although it cost me 30-40k science to unlock everything, whereas my tree was fully unlocked previously.  Not really an issue for me, others might have a problem with the additional cost(?) not sure.  The placement of the parts in the new nodes does make sense to me, however.

How so? do you think some particular parts should be put at a low or higher tech nodes? I like to hear opinions.

Edit: my mistake, I read you wrong.  Truth be told I'm still not sure about the Vista vs Z-Pinch. The Vista Provides higher Isp, smaller size and more thrust while the Z-Pinch provides more versatility as it is a Jack of all trades capable operating both for launch from dense atmospheres and long endurance due to a  combination of relatively high Isp and dense propellant (Lithium) compared to VISTA propellant (Hydrogen). Also note the Vista and Z-Pinch power is dependand on different technologies, Vista depends on Advances Laser technology (High tech science tech nodes) while Z-Pinch fusion engines requires advances in Fusion Power/Reaction.

Edited March 4, 2018 by FreeThinker

[xRei]

30 minutes ago, ss8913 said:

The last update changed the tech tree requirements a bit, go into the research lab and you may have to unlock/re-unlock things.

Since it's happening with BOTH of those mods, I'm SUSPECTING that there's something about the way the thermal turbojets are reporting parameters when not connected to a *reactor* but instead to a *receiver* that is confusing other mods that want to interact with them.

@FreeThinker I'm having issues with missing reactors even in a new career mode. The missing techs are listed in my above post.

@ss8913 Could it be due to engine spooling? A lot of the engines in KSPI have a spool-up time. If you have Kerbal Engineer installed you can easily see the effect of this as the listed TWR and Dv values for a given engine fluctuate as the engine spools up to full/partial throttle. In fact, a lot of the KSPI engines report anomalous data to Kerbal Engineer so I would expect other mods would have trouble dealing with KSPI's engines unless they were specifically coded to account for the oddities in how they function relative to stock engines.

Edited March 4, 2018 by xRei

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, xRei said:

Not sure if it's a mod conflict or what, but on career mode there are certain techs missing now:

Open Cycle Gas Core Reactor is missing along with its upgrades.

All upgrades for the Pebble Bed Reactor are missing(but the reactor is still there).

Can't find the Dusty Plasma Reactor either.

 

If I start a sandbox game all of those reactors and their upgrades are unlocked and accessible, it's only affecting the tech tree presumably.

I do have the newest version of community tech tree along with empty tech node mod(I tried disabling the latter to see if it would do anything and it didn't). My version of KSPI is 1.71.

 

I think this is what you see right now:

It appears I accidentally, mixed up experimental/exotic nuclear propulsion with   experimental/exotic nuclear power.

[LightThrust]

Hi, i have found a problem with radiators: as you can see in the image in the link below in the interstellar thermal helper the radiator area is only 0,01 m^2 while the piece description states that is 2,50 m^2. Do you have any suggestions, please?

https://ibb.co/b2vASn

(i have kerbal space program version 1.3.0 and kspi 1.7.0)

Edited March 5, 2018 by LightThrust

[xRei]

Just now, FreeThinker said:

I think this is what you see right now:

It appears I accidentally, mixed up experimental/exotic nuclear propulsion with   experimental/exotic nuclear power.

@FreeThinker Yep! That is exactly what my current tech tree looks like. All the techs at the top are the ones that used to be in the lower nuclear propulsion branch and the experimental power branch at the top is missing all it's old techs.. so yeah sounds like they got mixed up. Whoops.

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, xRei said:

@FreeThinker Yep! That is exactly what my current tech tree looks like. All the techs at the top are the ones that used to be in the lower nuclear propulsion branch and the experimental power branch at the top is missing all it's old techs.. so yeah sounds like they got mixed up. Whoops.

Yes I agree it must be fixed and while at it, I also improved the tech-tree in another way by making antimatter tech node to be researchable by either advanced fusion OR exotic nuclear power. This will give players an option to completely skip fusion technology

Edited March 4, 2018 by FreeThinker

[kingofthewimps]

This mod is terrible nothing is explained and what is explained is explained poorly. Ever since i bought ksp i have been trying to get this mods parts to function with no luck. Youtube wont help you their are no videos explaining anything that are newer than 2015 and that wouldn't be a problem except many of the parts in that version of this mod have been removed by the mod owner. Most of the engines you'll find in this mod do absolutely nothing or break the game (seriously their are no containers for any of the engines required propellants so they are constantly missing propellants) 

 

This Mod irritated me enough to create a account and go on the forums to try and steer more people away from wasting their time with it. 

[xRei]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

Yes I agree it must be fixed and while at it, I also improved the tech-tree in another way by making antimatter tech node to be researchable by either advanced fusion OR exotic nuclear power. This will give players an option to completely skip fusion technology

This seems like a cool idea.

Although would that also include the AIM reactor? It also uses fusion technologies...

Perhaps the upgrade for the AIM reactor could be inside the fusion techs so that you need to unlock fusion research to get the full benefit of the AIM?

[FreeThinker]

16 minutes ago, xRei said:

This seems like a cool idea.

Although would that also include the AIM reactor? It also uses fusion technologies...

Perhaps the upgrade for the AIM reactor could be inside the fusion techs so that you need to unlock fusion research to get the full benefit of the AIM?

Yes fair point but notice Antimatter Initiated Microfusion is fundamentally more like a micro fusion bumb triggered by nuclear fission than fusion achieved by either Magnetic confinement or inertial confinement. Also note that the AIM reactor is upgraded with advances in fusion technology. I guess I can strengthen this effect to emphasis that this particular part benefits from advances in fusion technology to achieve higher yield.

Version 1.17.2 for Kerbal Space Program 1.3.1 is available from here

Released on 2018-03-04

• Fixed: Made Experimental and Exotic Nuclear part accessible again in tech screen
• Balance: Made Fusion Power tech node accessible by either Advanced Fusion or Exotic Nuclear Power
• Balance: Made Ultra High Energy Physics tech node accessible by either Specialized Plasma Generation or Applied High Energy Physics

 

 

 

 

[FreeThinker]

4 hours ago, kingofthewimps said:

 Ever since i bought ksp i have been trying to get this mods parts to function with no luck. Youtube wont help you their are no videos explaining anything that are newer than 2015

They might be a little hard to find but there are more recent tutorial youtube videos (which could be found on the first post)

This should be enough to help you start playing, but before you do, please make sure you have at least also installed

for storing all fuel and propellants and

to scale the part to their desired size.

Edited March 4, 2018 by FreeThinker

[Torminator]

Getting some odd behavior out of the Z-Pinch Aerospike. If I have it in Atmosphere mode, my log is spammed with NREs

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at MuMech.VesselState+ResourceInfo.Init (.PartResourceDefinition r, Double req, Double atMax, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 modules, .Vessel vessel) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at MuMech.VesselState+ResourceInfo.Borrow (.PartResourceDefinition r, Double req, Double atMax, System.Collections.Generic.List`1 modules, .Vessel vessel) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at MuMech.VesselState.UpdateResourceRequirements (MuMech.EngineInfo einfo, MuMech.IntakeInfo iinfo) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at MuMech.VesselState.Update (.Vessel vessel) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 
  at MuMech.MechJebCore.FixedUpdate () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

It seems to reference Mechjeb, and indeed MJ will either function sporadically, or the entire interface will disappear until I switch to Lithium and then back again.

It may or may not be related, but on ascent, once I was in space and switched back to Lithium, the game has crashed twice when I go to adjust the ISP. A crash report folder wasn't created, and there's nothing suspicious near the end of the output log.

When I relaunched the game, my last save had been on the surface. I noticed that the max thrust reading on the engine was hugely negative, and after a brief reactionary firing of the engine to correct for a loading bounce, all of my LqdDeuterium was gone. (must have happened after this screenshot)

I realize I've got a lot of mods on this save, and it could well be Mechjeb's issue, but I thought I'd put this out here in case anyone else had come across this. 

 

EDIT- on my second ascent attempt, I quicksaved once I was in the air. The ISP-adjustment crash happened after that. When I started up again and loaded that quicksave, no crash. Could have just been something got twisted that was cleared up on loading that quicksave?

Secondarily, disabling Mechjeb DOES stop the NREs, which isn't too surprising. 

Edited March 5, 2018 by Torminator

[ss8913]

12 hours ago, xRei said:

@FreeThinker I'm having issues with missing reactors even in a new career mode. The missing techs are listed in my above post.

@ss8913 Could it be due to engine spooling? A lot of the engines in KSPI have a spool-up time. If you have Kerbal Engineer installed you can easily see the effect of this as the listed TWR and Dv values for a given engine fluctuate as the engine spools up to full/partial throttle. In fact, a lot of the KSPI engines report anomalous data to Kerbal Engineer so I would expect other mods would have trouble dealing with KSPI's engines unless they were specifically coded to account for the oddities in how they function relative to stock engines.

No, the engines spool when they have reactors attached, same as when I'm receiving transmitted thermal power.  Everything is fine when the plane is self powered, it's only a problem when receiving beamed thermal power, and only when thrust balancing is used, as noted above.

[enewmen]

On 3/4/2018 at 11:42 PM, FreeThinker said:

Yes, what do you think of new changes of the tech tree? I made the change after analyzing some of the balance problems I had with the fusion tech nodes which tended to be too powerful in comparison to other tech nodes as multiple reactor and engines were unlocked by single tech node. Especially Advanced fusion technode was overcrowded. The most logical solution was to split up fusion power and fusion propulsion. It allows more conscious choice in a players strategy by focusing on either power or propulsion. Also by putting the Alcubiere warp drive in its own FTL technode at an 11th tier, it created more advancement room allowing me to put the more powerful reactors and engines at a higher technodes.

I like the new tech-tree and it makes more sense.   I also like the room for more powerful reactors, engines, transmitters, receivers.

This is what I personally suggest:  Some are easier to make than others.

Add a tech-node that allow existing reactors to scale smaller:  Quantum Singularity Reactor (< 5m),  Magnetic Containment Fusion Reactor ( < 5m) , Spherical Tokamak (< 2.5m),  Stellarator Fusion Reactor (< 1.875m),  etc.

Engine miniaturisation:  Allow the Bussard, Kerbstein, and other bulky engines to scale smaller.

Advanced nuclear surface launching engines with higher ISP (ASL) that also allow Vacuum travel. :  Such as a nuclear version of the Sabre/R.A.P.I.E.R Engine that can toggle use Atm and Plasma depending on the air density. Others are a more powerful/ advanced version of the Ablative Laser.  Or a more advanced version of the Closed Cycle Gas Core engine.

High Power Receivers &Transceivers with new materials that allow a higher maximum electric & thermal power for the same size diameter.

High Power X-Ray Transmitters that allow larger apertures and smaller mass for ultra long range power.

Advanced Receivers that allow Double Pivoted receivers to scale smaller than 2.5m and turn on 2-axis (if not already)

Advanced long range transceiver antenna & relay for interstellar travel that are not super-size.

Centrifugal Force:  Make Spaceships and  Stations with "Habitation Wheel" centrifugal force artificial gravity that allow much longer habitation time while requiring lower power (than some existing deep space habitation modules). I don't think this requires a high-tech node, but may need new modeling.

Sub-Light Engines or Impulse Engines:  Radically new non-warp plasma engine tech that changes time dilation &  energy conservation make it easier to reach low warp speed travel equivalent (.000001c - .3c I guess), use LESS power at lower speeds, and the ability to move much larger vehicle masses (than the Alcubiere warp).  This will also make it easier to reduce excess Delta-V after exiting warp speed to a more manageable level such as 1000 m/s.  High non-warp speed will require huge amounts of power and will also have an inertial dampener so Kerbals won't get killed during ultra high acceleration.

Artificial Gravity:  Kebarls can now walk & eat snacks normally while inside the spaceship without needing a bulky centrifugal habitation wheel and will highly increase habitation time.  I guess this tech is related to the sub-light engine inertial dampener.

I DO NOT Suggest breaking physics or making any tech magically good.

My 2 cents worth.

Edited March 5, 2018 by enewmen

[FreeThinker]

3 hours ago, enewmen said:

I like the new tech-tree and it makes more sense.   I also like the room for more powerful reactors, engines, transmitters, receivers.

This is what I personally suggest:  Some are easier to make than others.

Add a tech-node that allow existing reactors to scale smaller:  Quantum Singularity Reactor (< 5m),  Magnetic Containment Fusion Reactor ( < 5m) , Spherical Tokamak (< 2.5m),  Stellarator Fusion Reactor (< 1.875m),  etc.

Engine miniaturisation:  Allow the Bussard, Kerbstein, and other bulky engines to scale smaller.

Advanced nuclear surface launching engines with higher ISP (ASL) that also allow Vacuum travel. :  Such as a nuclear version of the Sabre/R.A.P.I.E.R Engine that can toggle use Atm and Plasma depending on the air density. Others are a more powerful/ advanced version of the Ablative Laser.  Or a more advanced version of the Closed Cycle Gas Core engine.

High Power Receivers &Transceivers with new materials that allow a higher maximum electric & thermal power for the same size diameter.

High Power X-Ray Transmitters that allow larger apertures and smaller mass for ultra long range power.

Advanced Receivers that allow Double Pivoted receivers to scale smaller than 2.5m and turn on 2-axis (if not already)

Advanced long range transceiver antenna for interstellar travel that are not super-size.

Centrifugal Force:  Make Spaceships and  Stations with "Habitation Wheel" centrifugal force artificial gravity that allow much longer habitation time while requiring lower power (than some existing deep space habitation modules). I don't think this requires a high-tech node, but may need new modeling.

Sub-Light Engines or Impulse Engines:  Radically new non-warp plasma engine tech that changes time dilation &  energy conservation make it easier to reach low warp speed travel equivalent (.000001c - .3c I guess), use LESS power at lower speeds, and the ability to move much larger vehicle masses (than the Alcubiere warp).  This will also make it easier to reduce excess Delta-V after exiting warp speed to a more manageable level such as 1000 m/s.  High non-warp speed will require huge amounts of power and will also have an inertial dampener so Kerbals won't get killed during ultra high acceleration.

Artificial Gravity:  Kebarls can now walk & eat snacks normally while inside the spaceship without needing a bulky centrifugal habitation wheel and will highly increase habitation time.  I guess this tech is related to the sub-light engine inertial dampener.

I DO NOT Suggest breaking physics or making any tech magically good.

My 2 cents worth.

5

Great suggestion but it should have been posted in the development tread.

Regarding the miniaturisation, great idea but Tweakscale in it current state doesn't allow it, as the unlocking tech is the same as the scaling tech. I'm considering creating my own version of Tweakscale where I could add features like tech-based scaling and flow curves for mass and cost scaling.

3 hours ago, enewmen said:

High Power X-Ray Transmitters that allow larger apertures and smaller mass for ultra long range power.

 

We already do have an X-ray Transmitter.

Edited March 5, 2018 by FreeThinker

[enewmen]

2 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Great suggestion but it should have been posted in the development tread.

Regarding the miniaturisation, great idea but Tweakscale in it current state doesn't allow it, as the unlocking tech is the same as the scaling tech. I'm considering creating my own version of Tweakscale where I could add features like tech-based scaling and flow curves for mass and cost scaling.

Post it here?  I'll do that.

 

[BadlyDrawnBoy]

Hi,

it seems like, that there is a bug when skaling up the Airospike -Z-Pinch Fusion Engine. The Upgraded3 and 4 values aren't encreasing.

At the moment I'm using version 1.7.1 and till now I didn't tried 1.7.2 - I assume, because of the lack of a note in the change section off curseforge, that it's not fixed.

Many thanks for your super awesome work!

Martin

Edited March 5, 2018 by BadlyDrawnBoy

[ArmchairPhysicist]

I hope to not come across as impatient or such, I simply wish to know if this is coming. Are there plans in the works for KSPI to be made compatible with 1.4? I was caught off guard with the surprise release and I can’t revert to good old 1.3.1.

[FreeThinker]

4 hours ago, ArmchairPhysicist said:

I hope to not come across as impatient or such, I simply wish to know if this is coming. Are there plans in the works for KSPI to be made compatible with 1.4? I was caught off guard with the surprise release and I can’t revert to good old 1.3.1.

Probably yes, it mainly depended how fast it dependencies are updated to KSP 1.4

Edited March 7, 2018 by FreeThinker