[WIP] Breaking Ground Turboshaft Fuel & Tech Rebalance [v1.0] [1.11.X-forever, probably]

[Autolyzed Yeast Extract]

Note: At very low torque, this mod makes the rotors consume extremely low fuel, making them rather overpowered for small planes such as the one pictured. Balancing is in progress.

The Kerbal Space Center made a biplane using the R121 turboshaft engine, and it ran out of gas before it could fly a km away from the space center. After Jeb safely whipped that baron onto the mysterious green substance that makes the scientists yell at him for not cleaning his boots, the incident report team at R&D realized that it consumed fuel 6.25 times AFP (At Full Power) faster than the small jet engine AFP! The kerbal engineers contacted C7 Aerospace Division only to receive automated replies spouting nonsense about a warranty. Fortunately, Jeb owns his own junkyard and with a bit of duct tape and some spare parts the Kerbopower 108 was good as new and ready to circumnavigate the world!*

Of course it was only after all of this that C7 Aerospace Division finally bent to the countless lawsuits of failed classic airplane designs to revisit their horribly designed turboshaft lineup. As much as their management hated them, however, the recalls saw resounding success.

Spacedock!

Github! [Source]

Find it on CKAN! Soon! Hopefully!

*Circumnavigation requires frequent stops at intermediate airports. The Kerbopower 108 has a powered flight time of 25 minutes with rebuilt engine on a full tank with cruise speed of 270 km/h or 75 m/s. Range may be increased by flying at lower power. For increased fuel capacity, consider purchasing the Kerbopower 105 or Kerbopower DT-1 supplementary fuel tank (sold seperately)

Graphs for smarty pants:

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Contains MIT License.
 

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MIT License

Copyright (c) 2021 A.Y.E.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

This mod changes ten lines of code.
The only reason this license exists is due to a requirement for all KSP mods to have a license.
You can do whatever you want with this mod that doesn't harm yourself or others in any way, without permission. Just copy this license into the changed mod.

 

If you have a better idea for what license to use, feel free to leave a comment. I wasn't sure which one to use because this mod is a very tiny patch to make the LF consuming rotors actually useable in career mode, so I just used the same one as another tiny modlet. Though that one was a plugin, so I may not have been correct in doing so.

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by Autolyzed Yeast Extract

[Autolyzed Yeast Extract]

Reserved post

Please feel free to leave comments or feedback if you liked (or didn't) or think of more things for me to try to patch

[Kerminator K-100]

First!

So this mod adds a new turboshaft to the game? One that consumes less power and is more efficient than the stock ones?

[DownHereInChile]

I just cranked the power down in the right click menu and now I have 2+ hours of flight time. You only need as much torque to reach and maintain the rpm you set.

[Autolyzed Yeast Extract]

12 hours ago, Kerminator K-100 said:

First!

So this mod adds a new turboshaft to the game? One that consumes less power and is more efficient than the stock ones?

No, it modifies the existing ones in Breaking Ground. I'm not sure how to add a new part, but I don't see good reason to for this mod.

11 hours ago, DownHereInChile said:

I just cranked the power down in the right click menu and now I have 2+ hours of flight time. You only need as much torque to reach and maintain the rpm you set.

I will play with them more, but even at maximum power it shouldn't consume as much fuel as it does in stock.

[Autolyzed Yeast Extract]

12 hours ago, DownHereInChile said:

I just cranked the power down in the right click menu and now I have 2+ hours of flight time. You only need as much torque to reach and maintain the rpm you set.

You are correct, and at very low torques my modded engine is rather overpowered. With that said, it still drinks fuel badly in stock even at only a small fraction of maximum torque, so I will need to spend more time finding an appropriate balance. Consider the mod to be a work in progress. For now, leave the engines AFP if you don't want to be cheaty.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Autolyzed Yeast Extract

[Autolyzed Yeast Extract]

In retrospect, after some more thorough use of the engines and design iterations of my aircraft, I've been satisfied flying with the stock fuel consumption. The engines at 5% torque/size are plenty for me to ferry passengers to and from various airports near the KSC in Kerbin side remastered, and they seem to use dramatically more realistic amounts of fuel at this size, so I will be shelving the part of the mod that changes fuel consumption. I'll be updating it without the lower fuel consumption (but keep it available separately for those who want it) to where you will now unlock the first engine earlier in the tech tree. Thank you for the likes and downloads.