[1.6.x] SAFIRE - Stockalike Adjustments to Fuels, ISRU, Ratios and Engines [21-01-2019]

[riocrokite]

S A F I R E - Stockalike Adjustments to Fuels, ISRU, Ratios and Engines

Main ideas:

1 stock resource unit = 1 kg
-> check propellant mass just looking at the units

Oxidizer : Fuel ratio = 3:1 for all LFO rocket engines
-> more realistic and great for semi-direct ISRU, where you can produce locally only part of propellant

Rocket engines generally cost 60% more, tanks cost ~60% less and rocket fuels cost much less
-> more or less same rocket costs but with much more realistic distribution - better for reusability, TSTO, SSTO and drop tanks designs

 

ISRU produces only Oxidizer from ORE; no heat, needs high energy input and is slow
-> no more unlimited fuel production, realistic ISRU operation, semi-direct missions (produce 75% of your propellant, bring the rest with you)

 

This is a continuation of an idea from couple of years ago, you can read more about it here

How does it look in-game:
https://imgur.com/a/yM5sagD

Requirements: Module Manager by Sarbian.

Warning: Save-game breaking and not compatible with old and stock vessels because it doesn't update values in old saved craft parts. New vessels should work fine.

DOWNLOAD 0.2.0

GITHUB

CONFIRMED COMPATIBILITY:
- SMURFF
- Making History Expansion
- Rescale mods such as Sigma Dimensions

CURRENTLY NOT COMPATIBLE WITH:
- mods using Community Resource Pack, procedural and fuel switch modules

Changelog:

Spoiler

 

0.2 SAFIRE 0.2.0 for KSP 1.6.x

- updated efficiency of radial drills to ~100% when working unmanned
- fixed O:F ratio for Vernier LFO thrusters
- fixed ISRUs not producing Oxidizer

0.1 SAFIRE 0.1.0 for KSP 1.6.x

Stockalike Adjustments to Fuels, ISRUs, Ratios and Engines

1. Adjusts all stock resources (LF/Ox/Mono/Xenon/Ore) to 1 unit = 1kg.
2. Rebalances O/F ratio for LFO rocket engines from 1.1:0.9 to 3:1.
3. Rebalance relative cost of engines, tanks and LF/OX
   3.1 LFO engines cost 1.6x more (NERV,Jets and ion engine costs unchanged)
   3.2 LF/O tanks cost 60% less
   3.3 LF and Oxidizer cost around 95% less
   3.4 Mono costs around 50% less
   3.5 Xenon price remains the same
4. ISRU rebalance; slow but no heat radiators needed,
   can produce only oxidizer, 1t of Oxidizer per day for large ISRU, 200kg for small
   can operate at almost 100% efficiency unmanned, kerbals give reduced improvement (~10% per level)
   30 EC needed for 100% small efficiency, 120 EC needed for large 100% efficiency

 

 

Edited February 3, 2019 by riocrokite

[Rock3tman_]

Nice! Should be a must have for my next career game.

[theJesuit]

I really dig this idea. 

Not sure about not the not getting the fuel with ISRU but the ratio change fits nicely.

Great job.

Peace.

[riocrokite]

I don't really like stock ISRU mechanics since it can magically produce infinite LF/LOX/Monoprop. I liked 'the old times' more with stock KSP without ISRU when you had to prepare really big rockets for extended missions.

It's like KSP is going from one extreme (no option to produce propellants) to another one (infinite oxidizer / fuel / monoprop pretty much everywhere).

With this mod I wanted to give best of both worlds - can't produce all propellants so still have to take liquid fuel with you for the whole journey. But with advance planning you can produce 75% (oxidizer part weight) of your propellant in advance in-situ so you can build smaller landers for the same payload. Benefits of single propellant ISRU should be even greater with SMURFF and rescale mods.

some pics how SAFIRE looks in game

https://imgur.com/a/yM5sagD

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by riocrokite

[theonegalen]

I really like this idea.

Getting it to play well with @Snark's new Simple Fuel Switch mod would be great. I might eventually do something about that.

Edited January 22, 2019 by theonegalen

[theJesuit]

@theonegalen did you start work on Simple Fuel Switch?  What were you planning to do? 

Also @riocrokite now that Simplex Resources and Simplex Living are both released/ updated I'll be looking intergrating with this.  Maybe over the weekend?

Current ideas for compatability with Simplex Resources.

Make the mini ISRU only produce Oxidizer.  Big ISRU can also produce Liquid Fuel but is either made later in the tech tree or the mini ISRU placed earlier or both.  Split the drills with them and ore containers too (Note that this already the case in Simplex TechTree, man I dislike the stock one).

NaturalOre (a general metal ore) is used to produce Oxidizer.

HydrateOre is for making LiquidFuel only.  Make it MUCH more scarce which I'm thinking of now doing anyway as a balance run.

So that would keep your balance somewhat there.  Either have two mining setups or ship the LF.

For mining and transporting both the Simple Fuel Switch mod would be helpful even if just using tinted stock tanks to be a visual indictor.

Does SAFIRE do anything to Monopropellant? Should it?

Peace.

[riocrokite]

sure,

Safire changes densities of all stock resources including monoprop, ore and xenon so that 1 unit of those = 1 kg. And then adjusts tank capacities so masses are consistent with stock.

[juanml82]

I generally like the idea, but messing with the LF and oxidizer ratios will mess up not just stock but a lot of mods, which are also based in the 11:9 ratio.

And, as for gameplay, for missions beyond Kerbin Nervs rule, so I don't know how much producing oxidizer helps missions. It's useful for landers, which may use LFO engines for the extra thrust, but the transfer ships for the interplanetary journeys are LF only. I guess, from a realism standpoint, that ISRU could produce LH2 + oxidizer. Kerbal Atomics already patches the Nervs to use LH2, so there is something for the transfer ships, but the player still needs to bring LF for higher thrust vehicles.

[riocrokite]

1 hour ago, juanml82 said:

I generally like the idea, but messing with the LF and oxidizer ratios will mess up not just stock but a lot of mods, which are also based in the 11:9 ratio.

And, as for gameplay, for missions beyond Kerbin Nervs rule, so I don't know how much producing oxidizer helps missions. It's useful for landers, which may use LFO engines for the extra thrust, but the transfer ships for the interplanetary journeys are LF only. I guess, from a realism standpoint, that ISRU could produce LH2 + oxidizer. Kerbal Atomics already patches the Nervs to use LH2, so there is something for the transfer ships, but the player still needs to bring LF for higher thrust vehicles.

yah fully agree, this renders SAFIRE incompatible with pretty much everything else that takes resources density into consideration. Thus for now it's mostly stockalike proof of concept with minimum mods installed and mostly stock parts.

Nevertheless it plays nicely with Rescale and SMURFF mods.

As for ISRU I think it's a nice basis for a career when costs are consideration, thinking of maybe increasing further costs of NERV so that bigger rocket + ISRU will be comparable cost to NERV cluster (especially with SMURFF when you get more dV). When comparing direct  to ISRU chemical rockets and landers 3/4 in weight of you total propellant needed can decrease your rocket / lander weight in roughly half so I think worth it.

Edited February 3, 2019 by riocrokite

[theJesuit]

On 2/4/2019 at 7:06 AM, riocrokite said:

yah fully agree, this renders SAFIRE incompatible with pretty much everything else that takes resources density into consideration. Thus for now it's mostly stockalike proof of concept with minimum mods installed and mostly stock parts

Heyya,

A couple of fourish things now I've played around with it for a bit...

It feels right in terms of balance on launching rockets.  Great.

Not sure about the cost nerf for LFO  I guess costs are irrelevant after early career anyway, but could be a push to ISRU if it was made MORE expensive  but really the idea if ISRU is not having to launch SO MANY rockets to refuel so meh.

Also not sure about changing the title of Oxidizer to LOX. It was a little confusing at first.  I'm pretty sure there is actual Liqud Oxygen as part of Community Resource Pack.  It was suggested to me in developing Simplex Resources to avoid doubling names (not titles) but the confusion aspect is the same even so.

Do you have a licence in mind?  I mean it's just MM patches right but forum rules suggest that anything not licenced is All Rights Reserved.  They've had a debate about this over at UBM I think for redoing it with a new mod.  Could I suggest a CC-share or even the Unlicense?

The reason being is that I'm considering splitting the engine nerf from Simplex TechTree and including something like the ratio rebalance.  I'm not sure about it yet as I still haven't got round to the part upgrades. But this would be an obvious thing to do.  But maybe I'll just have the previously considered change being that the small ISRU available earlier only does Ox with NaturalOre and the large ISRU allows LF with HydrateOre and keep it in Simplex Resources and suggest Safire as a god mod to play with!  Really have no idea yet.

So thanks anyway again!

EDIT so you do have a licence.  It is the GNU one.  My apologies.

Edited February 19, 2019 by theJesuit
I DIDN'T LOOK IN THE MOD