[1.0.2] NovaPunch 2.09. - May 6th - 1.0 Compatibility Update

[Tiberion]

okay so today I did a rough draft of the new Isp numbers and other tweaks for all LiquidFuel+Oxi engines. It was 9/10ths witchcraft and 7/10ths mysticism but I think they'll work out.

For those curious about what i did:

Multiplied Vac ISP by 0.85

Multiplied Sea Level Isp by 0.8 for lifter and radial engines and 0.3 for orbital engines.

For orbital engines I divided the maxthrust by the ISP Ratio (VacIsp / SeaLevelIsp) - this has the effect of weakening the engines in the lower atmosphere while leaving them mostly unchanged out of the atmosphere (with regards to thrust) - for lifter engines I left the old thrusts in place for now since the Isp Ratio is usually between 1 and 1.2 (whereas it can be 3 or 4:1)

Then for all engines I added a new key at 0.8 atmospheres with the Isp set to the midpoint between the upper and lower Isps. This has the effect of nudging the Isp curve up so that more of the in-atmosphere time is spent at the lower Isp, allowing me to limit efficiency inside the atmosphere without destroying it in space. In theory anyway; it should make it easier to tweak engines that are "upper" stages as well, not really orbital but not sea-level launchers either.

We'll see how it goes I guess.

For reference, thrust is calculated as thus now:

current thrust = maxThrust * (currentIsp / SeaLevelIsp) (or MaxThrust * ISP Ratio)

I also added the "3rd" key to the engines; its used for EVE mostly as is a representation of Chamber pressure. The "key" is basically the engines internal pressure, which counters EVEs native pressure. So if an engine has a pressure less than EVE, it won't produce thrust; otherwise the ISp and thus Thurst falls off along the curve; the result is basically high-pressure engines will work on EVE, at least some, and low pressure engines won't. For now I am going with the powerful Sea level engines having high pressure and the orbitals having lower pressure, with the others somewhere in between. The aerospike will have excellent eve performance just as the stock one does.

We'll see how it goes I guess.

LORDPrometheus: it might be somewhat close to FAR in difficulty (not especially) but it doesn't function in the same way; FAR had a very forgiving way of finding nosecones and such and reducing drag based on that, stock aero works differently and there's no easy way to know how "tall" a faring-covered section is using the current style of fairings, so anything FAR related won't help.

I really try not to add plugins to Novapunch, and I think I can make a good enough set of stock clones for now anyway.

[Hardcard]

Hi everyone.

Yesterday I decided it was time to update my KSP mods and give version 1.0 a try. To my dismay, I discovered that neither KWRocketry nor NovaPunch worked properly with this new version of KSP.

Since Tiberion is still working on it, I've just put together a temporary fix for NovaPunch 2.08 that, at least, allows NovaPunch parts to be vertically attached, as they should. I've just modified all the bottom nodes for all the parts that have them, so far everything seems to work fine. Perhaps some peculiar parts will still give you trouble, but fuel tanks, engines, decouplers, adapters, RCS tanks, etc. seem to work just fine with this fix.

I hope it's ok with you, Tiberion. I'm just providing a download link for the modified NovaPunch files, in case someone wants to use NovaPunch (while you work on the next version) but doesn't know how to fix the vertical attachment issue.

http://www./download/bz2r7eybukcxddh/Novapunch+v2.08+vertical+attachment+fix+for+KSP+1.0.rar

Edited April 30, 2015 by Hardcard

[Tiberion]

Yep, no problem.

I've got all the thrust curves set up now, changed all of the maxtemps on all the parts, and added their node size sorting options for the parts menu.

Tomorrow I'll fix up the parachutes, the heatshield (Freyja should have a built-in one I think) and then work on the handful of aero parts and that should be enough to put out a beta release for playtesting. With a followup KSP update coming at some point, it gives us some time to dial in the new balance numbers before a full release. (Have to totally rebuild all the example craft again.. sigh)

[Hardcard]

Thanks Tiberion.

NovaPunch is essential for me, I can't play KSP without it, it's very nice to see that you are keeping it alive.

Those curves definitely needed some tweaking, KSP has suddenly become extremely easy in version 1.0, all my ships are overpowered now, it's kind of bittersweet. On the one hand, I like to see extreme accelerations, on the other, rocket design has become far too easy, I bet I can even build a proper Eve shuttle now that engines are so powerful, LOL.

[crazyewok]

Thanks Tiberion.

NovaPunch is essential for me, I can't play KSP without it, it's very nice to see that you are keeping it alive.

Same.

With FAR and few other mods 1,0 is on hold for now

[linuxgurugamer]

Eagerly waiting for this, although I'm not quite as bad as others in not playing until this is here.

I'm still waiting for a number of mods to update, and will then have to deal with memory issues.

[smjjames]

Does the chamber pressure think only apply if you have EVE?

Waiting for this, along with KWrocketry and B9 (missing B9s structural stuff already).

[Tiberion]

Eve, the purple planet, not EVE the mod.

Eve has a highly dense, high pressure atmosphere, so certain engines won't produce much thrust there.

[smjjames]

Eve, the purple planet, not EVE the mod.

Eve has a highly dense, high pressure atmosphere, so certain engines won't produce much thrust there.

OH, you were capitalizing the whole word, so I thought you meant the mod, hence my confusion.

Edited April 30, 2015 by smjjames

[Klime22]

Glad to see you're updating this to 1.0, Tiberion. I've played KSP on and off for over 3 years, and have used some of these parts since it was NovaSilsko and SundayPunch - very happy to see it's still alive! Keep up the good work!

[Tiberion]

Got sidetracked today away from KSP, getting some stuff done now so hopefully test version can go out tomorrow sometime

[Tiberion]

Okay then, got everything done. Had to go back and revisit some of the changes I had made a couple days ago and finished everything up.

Changes:

Engine ISP, heat production, some thrust tweaks, addition of trench/ground effects (not customized at all yet, just to get them working)

Maximum Heat of all parts

Fixed Parachutes

Fixed winglet parts

Fixed all bottom attachment nodes

Added "size" sorting for parts menu in VAB (size0 through 3, and srf where appropriate)

Added ablation to Odin Shield and Freyja pod (this may not work right)

Cloned the stock fairings and added a huge 5m-based version - they all split into 2 halves (but they still break into vertical pieces) - In the future I want to change the texture and maybe use the old bases, but they'll work for now.

Moved some things around in the science tree, only took a cursory look

What I didn't do:

Convert to DDS

Do any real playtesting whatsoever. This should be fun.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/46506740/NovaPunch2_Testfor1_0_x.zip

So, there's the test version. Just the gamedata folder and the license, no documentation, instructions, or example craft included.

THIS IS A TEST VERSION. If you are at all worried about your save game breaking or your computer exploding then use at your own risk, and I am not responsible for anything that happens up to an including the cataclysmic end of the universe (this probably won't happen)

But seriously, this is pretty raw, I flew a little bit yesterday and basically just clicked through some stuff earlier, but I wanted to get it out there to test so I can make an actual release before Christmas

Please report in detail what you find that's broken or feel is under/overpowered or just dumb. Maybe a rocket can go Mach12, or maybe it just collapses on the pad. It's possible. (More likely than the cataclysm thing)

So yeah, there ya go. Enjoy

[smjjames]

Did you check against 1.0.1? They reversed what they did to "MaxThrust", so you may have to rebalance the engines again, just asking.

Definetly checking out this release though.

Edited May 2, 2015 by smjjames

[Toyotawolf]

Ah first off the line as always Tiberion, awesome :0

and james we are up to 1.0.2 now lol effin squad

[smjjames]

I know we are, but the changes in there are really minor, I was asking specifically about changes in 1.0.1 since that will definetly affect it.

[Toyotawolf]

So interesting thing, when you put the odin heat shield on it locks into place, but doesn't become part of the vessel, odd.

[smjjames]

The Bearcat2 heavy engine seems a LITTLE overpowered to me, maybe, lol XD

Edit: The nodes for the 5m and 3.75m slugco nosecones don't work, I can't place them anywhere.

Edited May 2, 2015 by smjjames

[Toyotawolf]

LOL, yeah but like that engine ever makes it to space anyways

[smjjames]

LOL, yeah but like that engine ever makes it to space anyways

Not if it gets stuck to the launchpad it wont

Edit: As does the advanced heavy lifter engine, let me see if the sticky launchpad fix from stockbugfixes helps.

Edit2: The sticky launchpad fix doesn't help, the bearcat heavy and the advanced heavy lifter still get stuck to the launchpad. Edit3: And the K2-X

(Also unawesome fire trench smoke)

Edited May 2, 2015 by smjjames

[Tiberion]

Yeah I made the changes from 1.0.1/2 - it was mostly just tweaked the orbital engines thrust again and a few heat tweaks.

not sure what the deal is with the heat shield now. Having a similar issue with the Yawmaster service module, though it won't even snap.

The big engines will definitely need more smoke, but I can't add too much or it'll slow down the game.

Also, with a 1.07 TWR on that pile of tanks, good luck getting anywhere like that (but seriously though, I expect there may need to be a big across the board maxthrust nerf anyway, lets test it all out and see)

[smjjames]

I was just screwing around with the pile of tanks, heh.

What about some of the engines getting stuck in the launchpad? I think it's just the big engines though.

[Tiberion]

Launch clamps, tis what they're for.

It's a bug/inaccuracy thing with part to ground colliders, working around them in all cases is messy.

Edit: I just got the Odin shield to attach, seems to be a camera/mouse issue. Pan up so you're looking at the side of the shield and not a bottom quarter view, and then snap it in place, once its snapped, pull your mouse down towards the bottom node and it will light up like it'll attach (and it will if you click) before your mose un-snaps the part from the pod.

I'll see if I can tweak the node, but it may be an actual bug. Still not sure what the deal with the yawmaster is.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Tiberion

[smjjames]

Yeah I know, launch clamps, was just wondering if you were able to do anything and you did ask to report bugs, so.....

[Toyotawolf]

*grumbles* yeah not getting much testing done because of the now over heating bs issues, feels like i was forced to play now with deadly re-entry, thanks again squad ugh

and yes i was able to finally get it to attach

[smjjames]

*grumbles* yeah not getting much testing done because of the now over heating bs issues, feels like i was forced to play now with deadly re-entry, thanks again squad ugh

and yes i was able to finally get it to attach

You could just go to alt+F12 and click 'ignore max temperature' or go into gamesave settings and turn down reentry heat, or turn it off when you create a new game.