Show and Tell - Colony fuel factories

[StarSlay3r]

Colony fuel factories! From smallest to largest: Methalox Fuel Factory, Monopropellant Fuel Factory, Xenon Fuel Factory, Helium-3 Fuel Factory, and Metallic Hydrogen Fuel Factory. How does it work? LASERS, of course!

These were created by Intercept artists Jonathan Cooper and Matthew Reynolds, as well as Squad artists Bob Palmer and Pablo Ollervides.

[MechBFP]

Looks like these updates are coming weekly now. I like it.

[The Aziz]

Go Big or go home, am I right?

Just curious, among all defined resources, is monoprop still going to remain monoprop?

[Spaceman.Spiff]

I like the tiny Methalox fuel producer.

Also, is that a random Kerbal walking around? 

[StarSlay3r]

Just now, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Also, is that a random Kerbal walking around? 

Yup! Kerbal for scale.

[Nate Simpson]

7 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

Go Big or go home, am I right?

Just curious, among all defined resources, is monoprop still going to remain monoprop?

Yep! Good old monoprop. Internally, we assume monoprop is hydrazine -- that's what informed the factory details, anyway. But it works the same way it does in KSP1. 

[Spaceman.Spiff]

Nice!

Those things are huge! I assume this is a test scene again, right?

9 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

Just curious, among all defined resources, is monoprop still going to remain monoprop?

I hope they make it less abstracted. Hopefully there are multiple kinds; from basic cold gas to hydrazine thrusters.

Especially considering that there are multiple "Liquid Fuel" variations, there should be multiple types for each "class" of KSP1 fuels. (LF/O, MP, SF, XG)

edit: d'oh  

Edited February 19, 2021 by Spaceman.Spiff

[Nate Simpson]

1 minute ago, Spaceman.Spiff said:

Nice!

Those things are huge! I assume this is a test scene again, right?

I hope they make it less abstracted. Hopefully there are multiple kinds; from basic cold gas to hydrazine thrusters.

Especially considering that there are multiple "Liquid Fuel" variations, there should be multiple types for each "class" of KSP1 fuels. (LF/O, MP, SF, XG)

edit: d'oh  

I assume there will be mods aplenty to diversify the fuel and resource types. Never fear!

[PlutoISaPlanet]

I will say it once again, the music sounds great! Keep up the good work I cant wait to play this game!

[Lo.M]

Wow

[RealKerbal3x]

It's great how we're getting a lot of choices in propellants, rather than a catch-all resource like liquid fuel. Aside from methalox, are there going to be other conventional rocket propellants, like kerolox or hydrolox? Will the differing densities and temperatures of these propellants matter in gameplay (ie, will I need to bring along a larger-volume tank if my engines use hydrogen)?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, this is making me very excited 

[Spaceman.Spiff]

12 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

I assume there will be mods aplenty to diversify the fuel and resource types. Never fear!

Will there be Hypergols?

Or is that out of scope?

[jimmymcgoochie]

Massive, shiny buildings, one teeny tiny Kerbal in the middle wandering around and some very nice (if slightly spooky) atmospheric music. I'll take ten of each please, do I get free shipping if I buy in bulk?

[JorgeCS]

I'm just facepalming meself thinking how to land one of these demonic things, together of course with the reactor to provide power.... yeah, I can't wait to play it either. 2022 is soooo far away...  

[RealKerbal3x]

1 minute ago, JorgeCS said:

I'm just facepalming meself thinking how to land one of these demonic things, together of course with the reactor to provide power.... yeah, I can't wait to play it either. 2022 is soooo far away...  

You probably won't need to land them, considering that these are for colonies you'll probably build them in situ alongside the power generation modules using resources you harvest there.

[JorgeCS]

Just now, RealKerbal3x said:

You probably won't need to land them, considering that these are for colonies you'll probably build them in situ alongside the power generation modules using resources you harvest there.

When I saw the reply coming I thought 'oh no, someone saying "add moar boosters" '  

But yeah, totally right, I guess  I stand corrected!

[RealKerbal3x]

3 minutes ago, JorgeCS said:

When I saw the reply coming I thought 'oh no, someone saying "add moar boosters" '  

Well, adding moar boosters is probably a viable strategy as well

[Sky Kerman]

Will there be hypergolic fuel types?

[MRDOOGLE]

Are there only 5 fuel types (mods can definitely change that if that is the case) but just curious, thanks!

[shdwlrd]

Hmm... are the only connection points for these going to be through the foundations? Will they be stackable?

[MechBFP]

Looks like the objects are sitting closer to the ground this time around and the shadows cast from the objects are not flickering like last time as well. Looking good.

[Nate Simpson]

35 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

You probably won't need to land them, considering that these are for colonies you'll probably build them in situ alongside the power generation modules using resources you harvest there.

Correct! The three small factories shown here are Phase 1 factories, which are brought to the surface in vehicles (you can tell, both by their scale and their tech level, that these are early-progression parts). The two larger factories can only be built (using very large amounts of collected resources) on-site after you have installed an ISRU module.

6 minutes ago, shdwlrd said:

Hmm... are the only connection points for these going to be through the foundations? Will they be stackable?

Some parts are stackable and some are not (we are trying to follow commonsense rules on this). Surface-attachability is still a thing as well, so if you're feeling bold, you can pretty much stick anything to anything. But your mileage may vary there.

To elaborate a little on the colony module connection logic: you'll frequently see "sanctioned" connection points around their bases and underneath, as well as occasionally on top -- these are appointed with stack attach nodes and will give you a nice orderly Lego-like connection that keeps everything on-grid and tidy. But as with vehicle parts, all colony parts also have a surface attach node that allows attachment of the part to other parts in a much more freeform way. As colonies mature and get more complex, being able to keep everything on-grid is surprisingly handy. But we also recognize that Kerbal is also about freeform creativity, so if you want to get weird with it, we're happy to let you be you.

[shdwlrd]

16 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

Some parts are stackable and some are not (we are trying to follow commonsense rules on this). Surface-attachability is still a thing as well, so if you're feeling bold, you can pretty much stick anything to anything. But your mileage may vary there.

Cool, surface attach is very welcome for some extra greebling for some of the larger buildings.

22 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

To elaborate a little on the colony module connection logic: you'll frequently see "sanctioned" connection points around their bases and underneath, as well as occasionally on top -- these are appointed with stack attach nodes and will give you a nice orderly Lego-like connection that keeps everything on-grid and tidy. But as with vehicle parts, all colony parts also have a surface attach node that allows attachment of the part to other parts in a much more freeform way. As colonies mature and get more complex, being able to keep everything on-grid is surprisingly handy. But we also recognize that Kerbal is also about freeform creativity, so if you want to get weird with it, we're happy to let you be you.

Thanks for the explanation.  Now I have an idea of the pros and cons for building up a proper colony.

[RyanRising]

I don’t know how on-topic this is, but Monopropellant staying Monopropellant instead of Hydrazine makes me curious why LiquidFuel and Oxidiser had to be instead specified as Methalox? Why was the extra specificity required there?

Also, are the names styled as LiquidMethane and LiquidOxygen, Methane and Oxygen, or something else?

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

The two larger factories can only be built (using very large amounts of collected resources)

Seeing these giant buildings (and the orbiting stations and giant ships) makes me think that the logistics of moving large amounts of resources to build them will have a huge role in the gameplay.

Just thinking: more than a VAB worth in mass and volume of resources to bring to orbit to build the huge "Daedalus" engine we've seen in the trailer, and that's just the engine for a ship that's even bigger, all launched from a station dwarfing the ship and the engine.

That's a lot of mass to bring to orbit, plus the fuel, plus the fuel factory, plus the workers crew and their requirements. Even assuming a single universal "ore" resource we'll probably need a small fleet of  (hopefully reusable) heavy duty cargo lifters/landers.