[1.12.5] Sterling Systems v0.4.9 [Sep 22, 2024]

[slyfox023]

do you think it would be possible to add battery banks to the launchpads, while they are useful, if they don't have any power then we can't really use them to their full potential 

[DareMightyThingsJPL]

Sorry, I'm back again!  I have some more engine ideas

Tungsten-core antimatter rockets. Highly similar to nuclear thermal rockets, but instead of heating up the core with a fission reaction, you fire antiprotons at a tungsten core to heat it up, to which you pass your propellant over. I believe they would fill a niece in high thrust, low ISP antimatter rockets. Gas core and even plasma core concepts are out there too, with an upper limit of 100,000 seconds of ISP for the plasma core. As with normal nuclear thermal rockets, the choice propellant is hydrogen, although you can use other propellants such as water, like the currently implemented SULEU NTR in Sterling can switch propellants.

Deuterium-Deuterium breeder fusion rocket. Basic idea is that the products of D-D fusion are better, more effective, higher yielding, easier to ignite, fusion fuels; Helium-3 and Tritium, and you create another fusion reaction by putting extra deuterium into a second reaction area, where your better Deuterium-Helium-3 and Deuterium-Tritium fusion can take place.

Mass driver. A magnetic railgun that fires projectiles at a certain rate. ISP estimates of roughly 3000 seconds. Would probably only be effective in  a vacuum due to low T/W. You could use ore as the propellant; many proponents tout its use in asteroid moving operations as... the asteroid is right there, and you can directly use it as reaction mass!

Microwave electrothermal. Heat up water with microwave radiation and send it flying backwards. A relatively low efficiency electric propulsion system using water. The balancing would be for early-mid game in career mode where you have to keep cost low. These would be great for rational resources integration, as their propellant is water, a commonly found resource.

 

 

[AG-cs]

The whole thing is beautiful, I really like it. Great mod Jade. Congratulations!  

[Manul]

11 hours ago, DareMightyThingsJPL said:

Mass driver. A magnetic railgun that fires projectiles at a certain rate. ISP estimates of roughly 3000 seconds. Would probably only be effective in  a vacuum due to low T/W. You could use ore as the propellant; many proponents tout its use in asteroid moving operations as... the asteroid is right there, and you can directly use it as reaction mass!

Stockalike Mining Extension already has this. And there is a dusty RCS too.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

Was trying to check this thread but I've had some connectivity issues last couple days.

 

I have started using sterling systems

Have the base  Asset / Resource  and sterling electric. Really enjoying with my PBC playthrough.

Trying to set up a probe output on Minmus before I send the crew and LOVE the electric components. I'll probably get some more of this amazing mod pack before my interstellar ventures.

But I am curious about the batteries. When I attach more than two via radial attachment... only 1 or 2 will have green lights and start with a charge.

The VAB PAW shows full charge but it starts empty. This isn't huge because I have been using panels / converter to charge them. I was just curious if they were supposed to start empty?

There are some cool specifics with the thermal stuff and I kept getting errors when trying to review the thread in depth.

 

I think this looks so amazing BTW. Beautiful Aesthetics.

[DareMightyThingsJPL]

18 hours ago, Manul said:

Stockalike Mining Extension already has this. And there is a dusty RCS too.

Thanks. Will check the mod out.

[RedAl1en1]

hey can someone add this to ckan?

[DareMightyThingsJPL]

2 hours ago, RedAl1en1 said:

hey can someone add this to ckan?

I'm not sure, but i think it's the modder's choice to do so.

[slyfox023]

I have a good idea for parts that could be added to the mod, I think a good idea would be to add "radiation shields" of course they wouldn't function like an actual shield, they could be used as another radiator panel, but the aesthetic would go good with the interstellar engines you already have in the mod, it can also be a good way to make the Daedalus ships 

[DareMightyThingsJPL]

8 hours ago, slyfox023 said:

I have a good idea for parts that could be added to the mod, I think a good idea would be to add "radiation shields" of course they wouldn't function like an actual shield, they could be used as another radiator panel, but the aesthetic would go good with the interstellar engines you already have in the mod, it can also be a good way to make the Daedalus ships 

Whilst this doesn't exist as a radiator, there is a radiation shadow shield that is part of system heat and adds a whole lot of loop area (higher loop area influences how fast your thing heat up with system heat installed).

[Hypersonic Was Taken Again]

On 12/12/2024 at 5:46 AM, Manul said:

Stockalike Mining Extension already has this. And there is a dusty RCS too.

In all fairness, SME hasn't been updated since 2020, plus a mass driver in the Sterling Systems aesthetic would go hard.

[Manul]

1 minute ago, Hypersonic Was Taken Again said:

In all fairness, SME hasn't been updated since 2020

What's the problem with this, the mod is fully complete, no unfinished stuff or missing features.

[Major_Rafael]

Is there a way to alter the heat generated values for the engines when using system heat? I want to keep the part my counts down by using less radiators. I've poked around the config files but haven't found anything so far

[Derpistheword]

How are we supposed to create stable enough structures to use these big base parts?

[slyfox023]

On 12/16/2024 at 1:58 AM, DareMightyThingsJPL said:

Whilst this doesn't exist as a radiator, there is a radiation shadow shield that is part of system heat and adds a whole lot of loop area (higher loop area influences how fast your thing heat up with system heat installed).

do you know where I could find this? I have system heat installed but I've never seen that before 

[DareMightyThingsJPL]

It is part of Sterling Systems Thermal. It is part of the system heat simulation, but is not a part from  system heat. To use Sterling Systems thermal, you will have to have Sterling Systems Core installed. Then after you put Sterling Systems Core into your gamedata folder, download Sterling Systems Thermal. Next, place the Sterling Systems Thermal Folder inside the folder that contains Sterling Systems. Don't place it into the folder for Sterling Systems Core: that is inside the Sterling Systems folder. Just place it into the Sterling Systems folder.

Alright, now, just incase you haven't already, install B9 Partswitch and KSP Community Fixes, as well as Module Manager ( I assume you have already )

Finally, open up KSP, go into the VAB, and look under the thermal category. There should be a part that looks like an upside down, black adapter part. That is the Shadow Shield.

Knowing me, I have probably made this all the more confusing, but I hope it helps. If my advice is a bit hard to follow, there is an installation guide on the Sterling Systems github page.

[KspNoobUsernameTaken]

On 12/12/2024 at 11:05 PM, Fizzlebop Smith said:

Was trying to check this thread but I've had some connectivity issues last couple days.

 

I have started using sterling systems

Have the base  Asset / Resource  and sterling electric. Really enjoying with my PBC playthrough.

Trying to set up a probe output on Minmus before I send the crew and LOVE the electric components. I'll probably get some more of this amazing mod pack before my interstellar ventures.

But I am curious about the batteries. When I attach more than two via radial attachment... only 1 or 2 will have green lights and start with a charge.

The VAB PAW shows full charge but it starts empty. This isn't huge because I have been using panels / converter to charge them. I was just curious if they were supposed to start empty?

There are some cool specifics with the thermal stuff and I kept getting errors when trying to review the thread in depth.

 

I think this looks so amazing BTW. Beautiful Aesthetics.

What is PBC?

[The Dressian Exploder]

Probes Before Crew, a mod which rearranges the tech tree so that uncrewed vessels are usable before crewed ones.

[rocketmoid]

anyone know why conformal heatshields may not be showing up in the parts section of the VAB? installed sterling thermals and core and electrics including photovoltaics.

Edited December 20, 2024 by rocketmoid
clarification

[Manul]

On 12/20/2024 at 9:49 AM, KspNoobUsernameTaken said:

What is PBC?

This is heresy (it doesn't allow you to strap Jeb to a trashbin full of boom on the first launch)

[JadeOfMaar]

On 12/11/2024 at 7:22 PM, DareMightyThingsJPL said:

Sorry, I'm back again!  I have some more engine ideas

Tungsten-core antimatter rockets. Highly similar to nuclear thermal rockets, but instead of heating up the core with a fission reaction, you fire antiprotons at a tungsten core to heat it up, to which you pass your propellant over. I believe they would fill a niece in high thrust, low ISP antimatter rockets. Gas core and even plasma core concepts are out there too, with an upper limit of 100,000 seconds of ISP for the plasma core. As with normal nuclear thermal rockets, the choice propellant is hydrogen, although you can use other propellants such as water, like the currently implemented SULEU NTR in Sterling can switch propellants.

Deuterium-Deuterium breeder fusion rocket. Basic idea is that the products of D-D fusion are better, more effective, higher yielding, easier to ignite, fusion fuels; Helium-3 and Tritium, and you create another fusion reaction by putting extra deuterium into a second reaction area, where your better Deuterium-Helium-3 and Deuterium-Tritium fusion can take place.

Mass driver. A magnetic railgun that fires projectiles at a certain rate. ISP estimates of roughly 3000 seconds. Would probably only be effective in  a vacuum due to low T/W. You could use ore as the propellant; many proponents tout its use in asteroid moving operations as... the asteroid is right there, and you can directly use it as reaction mass!

Microwave electrothermal. Heat up water with microwave radiation and send it flying backwards. A relatively low efficiency electric propulsion system using water. The balancing would be for early-mid game in career mode where you have to keep cost low. These would be great for rational resources integration, as their propellant is water, a commonly found resource.

Antimatter
Solid Core AntiMatter (SCAM). If you actually think this is a good idea, you fell for it. With all the investment required to produce the Antimatter it's entirely wasteful to spend it this way. No one wants "Low Isp Antimatter." Instead, consider that I have plans for Antimatter Catalyzed Fission sail for probes.

I do have Plasma Core Antimatter planned. From my understanding (and I might be very wrong) it's what if you take Open Cycle GCNTR then swap out the Uranium vapor and the heavy machinery supporting it for a low spec Antimatter reaction chamber. It has the feel of a classic MCF reactor and relatively terrible Isp (same as GCNTR, 2500s ~ 5000s) but much less massive (vs GCNTR) and you're not afraid of the gammas. I want to revise the existing 10m BCAM and provide a smaller and a larger BCAM as well.

 

Fusion & Breeding
I still struggle to wrap my head around the pros, cons and other big things to consider about fusion fuel mixes and KSP's lack of functions to implement the cons. I don't want to provide D+D because it's neutronic and would need to have a mechanic for declining reactor health. I contemplate adding a health resource as an input or a damage resource as an output.... I do want to provide a breeder option, actually, as it leads to T production and I'm interested in that as T decays into 3He which fusion enjoyers absolutely enjoy.

I think you hav D+D and D+T confused. D+T is the easiest to ignite while D+D is harder than D+3He. Afterburning Deuterium? Maybe, but very unlikely.

 

Mass Drivers
As the engines of a ship I typically don't give this any consideration and like @Manul said, there's a mod for that for those who like it, and I'd use my own Z-Pinch engines (once they exist) to do it. Extract only Hydrates (the asteroid's entire mass becomes what you choose to extract), burn the water and keep the metals for building other things with. I'm much more interested in mass drivers as weapons or ship throwers powered by the likes of Netherdyne.

 

Microwave Electrothermal
Rational Resources Parts has this one. Look for the "RR MET" engine. It's currently just a clone of the stock ion and it's indeed really nice.

 

On 12/12/2024 at 11:05 AM, Fizzlebop Smith said:

Was trying to check this thread but I've had some connectivity issues last couple days.

 

I have started using sterling systems

Have the base  Asset / Resource  and sterling electric. Really enjoying with my PBC playthrough.

Trying to set up a probe output on Minmus before I send the crew and LOVE the electric components. I'll probably get some more of this amazing mod pack before my interstellar ventures.

But I am curious about the batteries. When I attach more than two via radial attachment... only 1 or 2 will have green lights and start with a charge.

The VAB PAW shows full charge but it starts empty. This isn't huge because I have been using panels / converter to charge them. I was just curious if they were supposed to start empty?

There are some cool specifics with the thermal stuff and I kept getting errors when trying to review the thread in depth.

 

I think this looks so amazing BTW. Beautiful Aesthetics.

You're definitely experiencing a bug induced by some other mod. Smells like the bug you get when you attempt symmetry with a tweakscaled tank that uses B9PS. I've sworn off of Tweakscale for that bug ...but never got around to seeing if Tweakscale Rescaled gets around that.

Thanks. I'm glad you like. By the way I was clued in on a big issue with the height selectors on the batteries. Unfortunately they add much more mass and cost than they should and I didn't realize it. So look forward to that issue going away.

 

On 12/15/2024 at 1:48 PM, RedAl1en1 said:

hey can someone add this to ckan?

Sterling's been on CKAN since late September (the release date of v 0.4.9). Until then there wasn't enough of this mod to justify bothering the CKAN staff to put it on there.

 

On 12/15/2024 at 6:13 PM, slyfox023 said:

I have a good idea for parts that could be added to the mod, I think a good idea would be to add "radiation shields" of course they wouldn't function like an actual shield, they could be used as another radiator panel, but the aesthetic would go good with the interstellar engines you already have in the mod, it can also be a good way to make the Daedalus ships 

The (current) one Conical Shadow Shield is nearly this. It has an overheat animation and serves as a System Heat heatsink but I did not give it the radiator module as then it invites itself to be used to cool everything. It has span options from 1.25m ~ 5m but I know people want extra wide ones to go with the 5m ICF engine and scratch their Daedalus itch... Functioning like an actual shield is a thing that won't happen unless someone writes a mod exclusively for area radioactivity and shadow shielding. All of the mods I can name that have a radioactivity are technically bloated with their other, more central purposes and I typically don't use them:

• Kerbalism: I had a shielding resource config for it (and the super heavy shield) but I've had to delete this to deal with a very bad bug caused by Kerbalism profile issues (that don't involve me at all, for once).
• Kerbal Health: Haven't used this at all so I don't make configs for it.
• KSP Interstellar Extended: I rather like that has the full 9 yards with hazards and penalties attached to reactors and engines, but it is by far, the heaviest and most miserable part pack around.

 

On 12/17/2024 at 6:32 PM, Derpistheword said:

How are we supposed to create stable enough structures to use these big base parts?

EL's disposable pad comes in at this point. It's a part that replaces itself with the subassembly that it spawns. Once you spawn one instance of Sterling's Construction Field, use this pad to spawn more and weld them on. One big thing, though, is I have not provided any configs for tethering/anti-drift so either have someone write those configs for you or spawn your Construction Fields with launch clamps attached.

If there's an alternate route I'm all ears. I'm not as wise as I'd like to be to dealing with the gameplay issues around deploying huge base parts.

 

On 12/16/2024 at 5:48 PM, Major_Rafael said:

Is there a way to alter the heat generated values for the engines when using system heat? I want to keep the part my counts down by using less radiators. I've poked around the config files but haven't found anything so far

In SterlingSystems/Engines/ you'll see a bunch of System Heat configs. Open the one(s) for the engine type(s) you're interested in and scale down the numerical value of the systemPower key. I might not have released the fixes where the value for some engine types (namely the thermal nozzles) has been 10x what it should be.

 

On 12/20/2024 at 4:16 PM, rocketmoid said:

anyone know why conformal heatshields may not be showing up in the parts section of the VAB? installed sterling thermals and core and electrics including photovoltaics.

Sterling Systems is one of a few mods that's made to be modular featuring several subfolders, each representing a sub-mod on its own. You've likely installed one sub-mod inside another and broken the folder structure. Please look closely at how things are laid out in the ZIP files and move what needs to be moved to its proper place. Example: It should be SterlingSystems/Agency + SterlingSystems/Thermals, not SterlingSystems/Agency/Thermals.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

Thank you for the response. I do not use tweakscale but recently wanted to add (IIRC) MKS or some other mod that required B9 part switch.

 

I am not very well versed in determining the root cause of such issues and appreciate you taking the time provide the insights.

[DareMightyThingsJPL]

2 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Antimatter
Solid Core AntiMatter (SCAM). If you actually think this is a good idea, you fell for it. With all the investment required to produce the Antimatter it's entirely wasteful to spend it this way. No one wants "Low Isp Antimatter." Instead, consider that I have plans for Antimatter Catalyzed Fission sail for probes.

I do have Plasma Core Antimatter planned. From my understanding (and I might be very wrong) it's what if you take Open Cycle GCNTR then swap out the Uranium vapor and the heavy machinery supporting it for a low spec Antimatter reaction chamber. It has the feel of a classic MCF reactor and relatively terrible Isp (same as GCNTR, 2500s ~ 5000s) but much less massive (vs GCNTR) and you're not afraid of the gammas. I want to revise the existing 10m BCAM and provide a smaller and a larger BCAM as well.

I kinda knew that Solid Core AntiMatter (as both you and the acronym put it: SCAM) was bad - thing is that I've never seen a mod that adds them. Even if they are poor in ISP, I find the idea as an interesting one.

I like that you're planning on both Antimatter catalyzed fission sails and plasma core antimatter - Again, concepts which are lacking on implementation in any mod (at least, that I can find). More BCAM is cool. I've heard that, unless you can get a significant portion of the antimatter to undergo annihilation, it is a rather low-thrust system. Maybe there could be one that you unlock earlier that has that lower ISP (still relatively high, ~2,000,000 seconds) and low thrust. Or you could initially unlock it as a low thrust systems, and then though tech tree upgrades, you can get the full thrust and ISP potential.

3 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Fusion & Breeding
I still struggle to wrap my head around the pros, cons and other big things to consider about fusion fuel mixes and KSP's lack of functions to implement the cons. I don't want to provide D+D because it's neutronic and would need to have a mechanic for declining reactor health. I contemplate adding a health resource as an input or a damage resource as an output.... I do want to provide a breeder option, actually, as it leads to T production and I'm interested in that as T decays into 3He which fusion enjoyers absolutely enjoy.

I think you hav D+D and D+T confused. D+T is the easiest to ignite while D+D is harder than D+3He. Afterburning Deuterium? Maybe, but very unlikely.

Yeah, it would be difficult to implement the pros & cons effectively. It likely would require lots of game-testing to figure out. Also, yes: I did have D+D and D+T mixed up, thanks.

3 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Mass Drivers
As the engines of a ship I typically don't give this any consideration and like @Manul said, there's a mod for that for those who like it, and I'd use my own Z-Pinch engines (once they exist) to do it. Extract only Hydrates (the asteroid's entire mass becomes what you choose to extract), burn the water and keep the metals for building other things with. I'm much more interested in mass drivers as weapons or ship throwers powered by the likes of Netherdyne.

Cool! I may give the mod a shot. You've already got a lot planned, so it's best to leave that which has already been done off the the wayside in terms of additions to Sterling Engines.

3 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Microwave Electrothermal
Rational Resources Parts has this one. Look for the "RR MET" engine. It's currently just a clone of the stock ion and it's indeed really nice.

Thanks. Already have Rational Resources installed and will have a look for the engine. Now that I think about it that might explain my ion craft not working. I think I accidentally used the engine on some of my craft, and now that i know the issue I'll send a rescue mission to Jeb and Bob, who are currently stuck on a Solar Kerbolar orbit.  

 

[JadeOfMaar]

@Fizzlebop Smith MKS is firmly tied with Firespitter for mesh and texture switching. Maybe you're thinking of Planetside Exploration Tech which is rather lightweight (like KPBS) and would likely use B9PS for whatever parts has variants.

15 minutes ago, DareMightyThingsJPL said:

I like that you're planning on both Antimatter catalyzed fission sails and plasma core antimatter - Again, concepts which are lacking on implementation in any mod (at least, that I can find). More BCAM is cool. I've heard that, unless you can get a significant portion of the antimatter to undergo annihilation, it is a rather low-thrust system. Maybe there could be one that you unlock earlier that has that lower ISP (still relatively high, ~2,000,000 seconds) and low thrust. Or you could initially unlock it as a low thrust systems, and then though tech tree upgrades, you can get the full thrust and ISP potential.

The whole point of PCAM is to fill that slot for entry level Antimatter propulsion. Sorry, I'm not going bother with "BCAM but initially underperforms." Another thing I'm considering is implementing a lego system among the fusion and antimatter parts. It's such that the reactor and nozzle pieces fit into a standardized hexagon truss system  (with standardized socket modeling) and can be mixed and matched for more engineering fun. If I go the whole way it would require that the magnetic nozzle pieces all require a resource produced by the reactor pieces and which represents the energy to be given to the reaction mass just like how the thermal nozzles work.

The truss system I just mentioned would lock parts into just under the frames of their sizes: 3.75m, 7.5m, 15m.

 

14 minutes ago, DareMightyThingsJPL said:

Thanks. Already have Rational Resources installed and will have a look for the engine. Now that I think about it that might explain my ion craft not working. I think I accidentally used the engine on some of my craft, and now that i know the issue I'll send a rescue mission to Jeb and Bob, who are currently stuck on a Solar Kerbolar orbit.  

Bruh.

[RedAl1en1]

58 minutes ago, DareMightyThingsJPL said:

Thanks. Already have Rational Resources installed and will have a look for the engine. Now that I think about it that might explain my ion craft not working. I think I accidentally used the engine on some of my craft, and now that i know the issue I'll send a rescue mission to Jeb and Bob, who are currently stuck on a Solar Kerbolar orbit.  

How??!?!?!?!