Kethane Pack 0.9.2 - New cinematic trailer! - 1.0 compatibility update

[frik]

Thanks for replies. Richer fields look different on map?

[KhaosCorp]

Thanks for replies. Richer fields look different on map?

no they don't look any different, other than size on map....while you are scanning the little map will tell your the volume of any deposit the scan is currently pinging. Shows in () after the 'last deposit' coordinates.

and also, using multiple scanners increases your scan resolution, allowing you to map and fast time warp speeds. My kethane satellites all have 6 of the small scanners on em, I map at x100 warp with about 80% resolution per pass

EDIT: figured id show my set up, though I have since taken the ISA dish off till the memory issue with that gets sorted

guess I should rename it to

Edited June 5, 2013 by KhaosCorp

[Mokmo]

Although i lost all my maps in the update, everything works fine now. And one of my old spots just happened to havea 400000 deposit right underneath it

[Majiir]

Kethane 0.4.4 has been released. The download link on the first post has been updated.

This update is a compatibility fix for KSP 0.20.2. It also has some balancing changes that should make Kethane more interesting to use.

Warning: This will erase your existing deposits. Existing craft files should work fine.

Changes in this version:

• Adopted the new plugin folder structure.
  
• Increased Kethane density from 1 to 2 kg/L to make it competitive with other fuel types for storage.
  
• Rebalanced detector range and scanning period to make the KE–S110 Medium Survey Unit more attractive.
  
  • The KE–S210 range has been reduced to 250 km and its detecting period increased to 1.5 seconds.
    
  • The KE–S110 range has been increased to 1,200 km and its detecting period reduced to 0.9 seconds.

  [*]Rebalanced converter efficiency to make Kethane economical to store and transport.

  • KE–C090 Medium Converter Unit
    
    • LiquidFuel efficiency increased to 97%
      
    • Oxidizer efficiency increased to 101%
      
    • MonoPropellant efficiency reduced to 30%
      
    • XenonGas efficiency increased to 40%

    [*]KE–C190 Heavy Converter Unit

    • LiquidFuel efficiency increased to 103%
      
    • MonoPropellant efficiency increased to 85%
      
    • XenonGas efficiency reduced to 25%

  [*]Fixed an issue with the extractor part name.

  [*]Removed an unused bitmap.

[BubbaWilkins]

Kethane 0.4.4 has been released. The download link on the first post has been updated.

This update is a compatibility fix for KSP 0.20.2. It also has some balancing changes that should make Kethane more interesting to use.

Warning: This will erase your existing deposits. Existing craft files should work fine.

Changes in this version:

• Adopted the new plugin folder structure.
  
• Increased Kethane density from 1 to 2 kg/L to make it competitive with other fuel types for storage.
  
• Rebalanced detector range and scanning period to make the KE–S110 Medium Survey Unit more attractive.
  
  • The KE–S210 range has been reduced to 250 km and its detecting period increased to 1.5 seconds.
    
  • The KE–S110 range has been increased to 1,200 km and its detecting period reduced to 0.9 seconds.

  [*]Rebalanced converter efficiency to make Kethane economical to store and transport.

  • KE–C090 Medium Converter Unit
    
    • LiquidFuel efficiency increased to 97%
      
    • Oxidizer efficiency increased to 101%
      
    • MonoPropellant efficiency reduced to 30%
      
    • XenonGas efficiency increased to 40%

    [*]KE–C190 Heavy Converter Unit

    • LiquidFuel efficiency increased to 103%
      
    • MonoPropellant efficiency increased to 85%
      
    • XenonGas efficiency reduced to 25%

  [*]Fixed an issue with the extractor part name.

  [*]Removed an unused bitmap.

SWEET! Been waiting for this since the updates hit.

[KhaosCorp]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

Awesome work Majiir, thanks for update!!

gots to have the kethane =P

[Arran]

Thank you!!!!!..

[Majiir]

P.S. Many thanks to those who released patched versions while I was MIA! You may consider the license to be in effect once more, but I stress that in most cases I grant exceptions to the license, so just shoot me a PM, and if I don't get back swiftly, shoot another.

[Richy teh space man]

Awesome, I'll have a play around with this.

[entaran]

Hi Majir,

What is the min/max values for a Kethane deposit that is spawned? I've seen as little as 11,000 units (somewhat worthless) and as much as 768,882 (on Tylo about 10 minutes ago). This seems like a fairly ridiculous spread although most deposits I find are 200-250k or 400-420k units.

Is this changeable anywhere in the plugins or is it a hardcoded value in the dll?

Also, is there any thought or desire to integrate this with the Modular Fuels mod which allows you to use all sorts of different fuels for your rockets to produce different ISP/Thrust ratios?

Cheers

[Majiir]

What is the min/max values for a Kethane deposit that is spawned? I've seen as little as 11,000 units (somewhat worthless) and as much as 768,882 (on Tylo about 10 minutes ago). This seems like a fairly ridiculous spread although most deposits I find are 200-250k or 400-420k units.

Is this changeable anywhere in the plugins or is it a hardcoded value in the dll?

It is hardcoded to a range between 10K and 500K. The distribution on that range is uniform. That 768K figure is suspicious...

Also, is there any thought or desire to integrate this with the Modular Fuels mod which allows you to use all sorts of different fuels for your rockets to produce different ISP/Thrust ratios?

The next major project for Kethane is support for multiple resource types. I have no plans to directly integrate with other mods, but Kethane will support multiple resources through the stock game resources system.

[entaran]

Ok cool, thanks for the quick reply.

If I get back to Tylo (my landing craft exploded attempting to set down) I'll take a screenshot. I'm almost certain it started with a 7.

[HoY]

Lol double density, my 400k unit 500 tonne silo may collaps it's landing gear when I fill it up

[rosenkranz]

does increasing the density increase the conversion rate?

For example at .001 it takes 5 kethane to produce 1 LiquidFuel. Will a density of .002 increase the output to 2 LiquidFuel for every 5 Kethane?

[Fyrem]

Majiir, thank you for this new 'offical' version. Cheers!

Density change: will greatly effect those people that mine the Kethane, and LIFT it up to a space-born converter ship. Such a method as this has now greatly reduced benefits.

I would think that the other way (Mine it, Convert it on the ground, THEN lift it up to a space-tanker) will now be the preferred method.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Fyrem

[KhaosCorp]

does increasing the density increase the conversion rate?

For example at .001 it takes 5 kethane to produce 1 LiquidFuel. Will a density of .002 increase the output to 2 LiquidFuel for every 5 Kethane?

that would not make any sense at all....a liter of liquid is still a liter, regardless of its mass/weight

if a liter of natural gas can be converted to 1/2 liter or refined fuel that conversion would be the same despite the mass of the natural gas....hope that makes sense to ya

[Majiir]

does increasing the density increase the conversion rate? For example at .001 it takes 5 kethane to produce 1 LiquidFuel. Will a density of .002 increase the output to 2 LiquidFuel for every 5 Kethane?

Yes. The converter efficiency works by mass. Since a unit of Kethane now has twice as much mass, it will also yield twice as much fuel.

Density change: will greatly effect those people that mine the Kethane, and LIFT it up to a space-born converter ship. Such a method as this has now greatly reduced benefits. I would think that the other way (Mine it, Convert it on the ground, THEN lift it up to a space-tanker) will now be the preferred method.

This update does quite the opposite for a couple reasons:

• Increasing density makes transportation of Kethane more viable because a higher portion of a fuel tank's total mass will be fuel (rather than dry tank mass).
  
• Conversion efficiency has been increased such that it's more efficient to convert Kethane to fuel just before burning itâ€â€however, since the converter and electrical hardware have mass, there's a balance to be struck. It might be efficient to have an orbital conversion depot, but not to carry converters on interplanetary craft. Those decisions are left up to the designer and there are tradeoffs all around.

Prior to this update, it was strictly better to mine and convert on the ground because the Kethane conversion process was wasteful and the tanks had a higher dry mass portion. Both of these issues have been changed in this update, but the margins in favor of Kethane are fairly small, so I think there are much more interesting choices available for craft designs now.

[Sathurn]

Does the converter need to be on the same stack as the kethane tank and destination tank?

Kethane tank>converter>mono tank>Fuel/oxidizer>xenon tank?

or do I need fuel lines running form the converter?

[Majiir]

Does the converter need to be on the same stack as the kethane tank and destination tank? Kethane tank>converter>mono tank>Fuel/oxidizer>xenon tank? or do I need fuel lines running form the converter?

Kethane can be transferred without fuel lines, much like MonoPropellant. (They use the same flow mode internally.) LiquidFuel and Oxidizer must be connected somehow, either directly or by fuel line (from converter to tank).

[Fyrem]

ahh, ok, on my first read of the changes, I only grasped that the "weight" of a liter kethane was doubling, NOT that it would also be converted to Double the end fuel. PLUS the tweeks on the conversion percentages.

[Free Trader Beowulf]

Both of these issues have been changed in this update, but the margins in favor of Kethane are fairly small, so I think there are much more interesting choices available for craft designs now.

There's also the matter of flexibility - if you carry Kethane you can turn it to fuel, monopropellant or xenon depending upon what you need at the time of use. Not a big factor maybe, but for example, it means my Deep Space Vessels won't need to carry xenon tanks any more in case they need to refuel space probes, as they already carry Kethane convertors.

Thanks for a great mod by the way!

[DauntingFlyer]

I seem to have problem with kethane parts. They seem to mess with the shadows for some reason. I launched a ship carrying 2 probes to scan the Mun. From launching to the steady orbit on the Mun, there were no issues with the shadows. As soon as I started controlling the probe and detached it from the main ship, the shadows went all messy, like a mix of pixelated and wobbling around. They go back to normal every time I speed up the game, but always stay weird again with normal time speed.

To make sure Kethane parts were the problem I made a random rocket with some of the parts and the weird shadows were already present on the launching pad. Then I restarted the launch but without the kethane parts and the shadows were no longer bugged.

I'm running 20.2. Anyone having similar issues?

[Mokmo]

so now a 16000 unit large kethane tank weighs 16 more tons ? That might make some of my miners unable to take off lol.

But i'm glad you've finally updated the whole thing, although it's a guaranteed deletion of the old maps just as i had finished putting some beacon landers on the biggest deposits after finally accepting that i was going to lose them no matter what.

But it's twice the Fuel/Oxi/Mono per unit! I'm ok with that.

[mereman]

Many thanks for the update. Now busy remapping and hoping my miner craft will be able to take off fully loaded

[Tripod27]

you think you could make a kethane deposit that always spawns near the KSC, just so we could test designs? or maybe make a scenario where that happens?

having to send out a scanner probe with a ton of comm sats (remotetech mod) scan the mun, land a drill truck there, spend 30 minutes driving because you missed by a bit and then discovering your truck doesn't work as planned is kinda a PITA