Bimodal NTR?

[i dont know how to forum]

I noticed that the two nuclear engines currently in the game both have a "toggle generator" option:

None of the other engines have this option. I tested it out on the launchpad, and currently it seems to only toggle the alternator on and off.  Plenty of other engines in the game have alternators though, and none of them have this toggle.

I'm wondering if the devs plan to have the nuclear engines act as Bimodal NTR sometime in the future. This essentially allows the reactor of a nuclear engine to produce electrical power while the engine is not in use. I feel like this would make a lot of sense to implement, given that we now have nuclear reactors in the game, and it matches up with only the nuclear engines having this generator toggle. 

This makes me wonder another thing though: will nuclear engines consume uranium? The nuclear reactor part currently in the game consumes uranium while in use, storing 1 ton of it internally. If nuclear engines could act as electrical generators while not in use, it would make sense for them to also consume uranium, otherwise you would have a reactor with infinite lifespan. I can imagine nuclear engines consuming a small amount of uranium while in use and while the generator is active, having their own internal uranium storage by default much like the reactor. As for why this would not already be implemented, we currently have no uranium storage parts in the game, so this would set a hard limit on how long nuclear engines can be used for and their maximum delta-v. This would not be fun for people trying to stretch the limits of how far they can take their craft. As such, I imagine this would not be implemented until we have dedicated uranium storage parts. This would increase difficulty in calculating LH2/uranium balance, but I imagine the built-in uranium storage would be more than enough for most standard use cases. Additional uranium storage would only be necessary for craft with extremely high delta-v and craft that keep the generator active for long periods of time, such as a BNTR/EP craft that uses the reactor to switch between nuclear propulsion and ion propulsion.

[K^2]

I like the idea of a bimodal NTR in the game, but it sounds like power generation doesn't take anything away from any existing engines anyways, and I don't see why it would be different for the in-game NTR, so it seems odd to even have an ability to toggle it off even if it's going to work independently of the engine being on. Based on how other parts are implemented in KSP 1/2, it would probably make more sense for a bimodal NTR to simply always have RTG-like power output at all times.

The toggle might, honestly, just be a mistake. They might have been playing around with an idea of alternator taking away from engine's I_SP, but then decided against it, took it out from all the other engines, and simply forgot to take it out from the NTRs.

[i dont know how to forum]

12 minutes ago, K^2 said:

I like the idea of a bimodal NTR in the game, but it sounds like power generation doesn't take anything away from any existing engines anyways, and I don't see why it would be different for the in-game NTR, so it seems odd to even have an ability to toggle it off even if it's going to work independently of the engine being on. Based on how other parts are implemented in KSP 1/2, it would probably make more sense for a bimodal NTR to simply always have RTG-like power output at all times.

The toggle might, honestly, just be a mistake. They might have been playing around with an idea of alternator taking away from engine's I_SP, but then decided against it, took it out from all the other engines, and simply forgot to take it out from the NTRs.

RTGs in KSP2 have a limited lifespan, and the nuclear reactor part currently in the game consumes a limited supply of uranium while active. Solar panels seem to be the only unlimited power source now, so I can't imagine a bimodal NTR mode having unlimited electrical output. Personally I imagine having a shared uranium supply between your engines and power supply could make for some interesting gameplay for those who want to utilize it, without significantly affecting people who just want to use nuclear engines for more standard purposes.

You're absolutely right though, the toggle could just be a mistake. I'm just speculating from the fact that it seems to only be present for the nuclear engines, and from my own desire to mess with things like this on more complex craft. Completely optional resource balance gameplay, such as the LOX-augmented NERV-US engine we're getting later, appeals to me.