[0.25]KSP Interstellar (Magnetic Nozzles, ISRU Revamp) Version 0.13

[theSpeare]

Can someone please upload a simple tutorial for setting up a warp drive, warping to another planet and then setting up orbit? I always come out of warp at 40km/s or something like that; how are we supposed to deal with that much amount of delta-v?

[DaveStrider]

Can someone please upload a simple tutorial for setting up a warp drive, warping to another planet and then setting up orbit? I always come out of warp at 40km/s or something like that; how are we supposed to deal with that much amount of delta-v?

After coming out of warp there are a few ways to slow yourself down, the most obvious of these is to just burn retrograde, the problem with this is that you need ridiculous amounts of dV to achieve orbit, which is why this mod includes the antimatter generators (i'll assume you're familiar with how they work), an antimatter reactor and a nozzle can give you incredible dV. Make sure that if you plan on retroburning that you're using the antimatter reactors rather than the nuclear ones, since nuclear thrusters are pitifully weak.

Another option is to warp so that the planet is in your trajectory when you come out(Don't even try to warp directly into the atmosphere), so that you're heading straight in to its atmosphere for an aerocapture, this is probably the most fun and the quickest method, although obviously you need an atmosphere and a ship that can handle aerobraking at that speed.

Finally you can use gravity to slow your ship down, the method is simple, but time consuming. What you need to do after coming out of warp is to wait until you reach apoapsis (when your ship is at it's slowest) then warp back to where you started. This method can take weeks or months (in game obviously) but has the advantage in that it uses no fuel and doesn't carry the risks of aerobraking.

[Fractal_UK]

Can someone please upload a simple tutorial for setting up a warp drive, warping to another planet and then setting up orbit? I always come out of warp at 40km/s or something like that; how are we supposed to deal with that much amount of delta-v?

It's actually quite tricky and just shows that the warp drive isn't actually a magic solution that solves every problem of interstellar travel - it's still hard to deal with your left-over momentum components. First of all, warping to a planet on the opposite side of the star is a big no-no if you want to save on delta-v to enter orbit. You must warp when the planets are at minimum seperation in their orbits, like this:

I found when warping to Duna like this, I could make the burn to circularise with around 1000m/s of delta-v.

If you use a bad trajectory, expect to need 15,000m/s or even more.

[theSpeare]

Hmmm, this makes it even more interesting. Thank you so much for the advice Dave and Fractal (I'm pleasantly surprised at how quick it was - new love for this mod and Fractal ). I'll give those a shot, and I guess the warp trajectory thing is a must. Also I assume you already know that the Action Group to reduce warp speed inadvertently increases your speed by a factor of 1c, and without cost.

One quick question though: the thermal rockets I use don't seem to fire? I wanted to test it at first, so I cheated (I don't like wasting time only to find out there was some mechanic I didn't know about). I slapped an antimatter containment onto an LFO tank, then an antimatter reactor and then a thermal rocket. I then used hyperedit to fill the entire ship's resources. When I activated the engine it did a millisecond of burn (like a burnout, almost), and then nothing happens. Reactor is also activated. I can no longer even throttle up or down, it's stuck. Am I doing anything wrong? Note: this was attempted twice both with an electric generator, and without one (I couldn't find anywhere where it said the thermal rockets needed MW).

Edited August 31, 2013 by theSpeare

[Rampart]

Hmmm, this makes it even more interesting. Thank you so much for the advice Dave and Fractal (I'm pleasantly surprised at how quick it was - new love for this mod and Fractal ). I'll give those a shot, and I guess the warp trajectory thing is a must. Also I assume you already know that the Action Group to reduce warp speed inadvertently increases your speed by a factor of 1c, and without cost.

One quick question though: the thermal rockets I use don't seem to fire? I wanted to test it at first, so I cheated (I don't like wasting time only to find out there was some mechanic I didn't know about). I slapped an antimatter containment onto an LFO tank, then an antimatter reactor and then a thermal rocket. I then used hyperedit to fill the entire ship's resources. When I activated the engine it did a millisecond of burn (like a burnout, almost), and then nothing happens. Reactor is also activated. I can no longer even throttle up or down, it's stuck. Am I doing anything wrong? Note: this was attempted twice both with an electric generator, and without one (I couldn't find anywhere where it said the thermal rockets needed MW).

I've seen MechJeb do funny things with burnout prevention and this mod, try toggling that. Also, make sure the thermal rocket is set to use LFO fuel and not liquid fuel, I think the default got switched to liquid this time around.

Edit: I read what I just typed and missed something, liquid mode will burn fuel out of an LFO tank just fine, so yah I'm betting MJ wackyness. It also sounds like maybe your command pod lost power, but it sounds like a similar issue I had with MJ.

[Fractal_UK]

One quick question though: the thermal rockets I use don't seem to fire? I wanted to test it at first, so I cheated (I don't like wasting time only to find out there was some mechanic I didn't know about). I slapped an antimatter containment onto an LFO tank, then an antimatter reactor and then a thermal rocket. I then used hyperedit to fill the entire ship's resources. When I activated the engine it did a millisecond of burn (like a burnout, almost), and then nothing happens. Reactor is also activated. I can no longer even throttle up or down, it's stuck. Am I doing anything wrong? Note: this was attempted twice both with an electric generator, and without one (I couldn't find anywhere where it said the thermal rockets needed MW).

Did you put anything between the reactor and the thermal rocket? They must be directly connected to function. They don't need an electric generator.

Have you checked the fuel setting on the Thermal Rocket too? Is it set to use LiquidFuel + Oxidiser?

[theSpeare]

I didn't place anything between the rocket and the reactor. I also checked the fuel type and kept switching it to see if anything would work, but no dice. I'm gonna check out that MJ issue though, I have a feeling it could be that. Cheers. Will come back with update.

[theSpeare]

I haven't had a chance to test the fixes yet but could someone please explain how science works here? How do we upgrade, or transfer science and stuff

Fix worked. MJ was messing with it with the prevent overheat feature

Edited August 31, 2013 by theSpeare

[Blaylock1988]

Is ZZZ remaking your other parts too like the tanks? His models are absolutely amazing!

[Fractal_UK]

I haven't had a chance to test the fixes yet but could someone please explain how science works here? How do we upgrade, or transfer science and stuff

Fix worked. MJ was messing with it with the prevent overheat feature

The science needs to be available to the part you wish to upgrade, so the two most effective solutions are to either have a science lab onboard your ship or to dock your ship with a science lab. As soon as the ship with the parts you want to upgrade has enough science, you should be able to upgrade them.

In this version, you can only transfer science by pumping it between labs/computer cores like fuel but in the next update (coming soon) you'll be able to transmit it as the images here show: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/43839-0-21-KSP-Interstellar-%28Warp-Drive-Solar-Thermal-Power-Research%29-Version-0-4-%28Beta%29?p=623423&viewfull=1#post623423

Is ZZZ remaking your other parts too like the tanks? His models are absolutely amazing!

I don't know but they are very good models so it'd be nice if he did choose to make more.

[Xentoe]

did you take a look at the from me found Bug? (that when the Warpengene is once launched, you can reatch unlimited backwards speed, because you can break even when the warpengene is yet offline, by placing the "deactivation" function to a actionkey? (see the Screenshots I posted before)

[Fractal_UK]

did you take a look at the from me found Bug? (that when the Warpengene is once launched, you can reatch unlimited backwards speed, because you can break even when the warpengene is yet offline, by placing the "deactivation" function to a actionkey? (see the Screenshots I posted before)

Yep, thanks, it will be fixed in the update.

[DaveStrider]

I'm pretty sure the plasma thruster's upgrade is bugged.

First: the thruster is always flamed out, it says it's deprived of it's fuel (i really have no idea how secretive i should be about this...)

Second: when i'm throttling up the thruster drains huge amounts of megajoules, but when i set the throttle (high) it's in equilibrium with my power generation (upgraded 3.5m antimatter). I don't know if this is a bug but it's pretty weird.

I tried the thruster with infinite fuel on, and the thruster works just fine, so maybe it's just not creating the fuel?

[theSpeare]

I'm really glad you're very active in the development of this mod. I'd originally thought this mod was going to be very terrible and just overpowered, but you somehow managed the perfect challenge blend to it. I'm loving it right now, and it could be a worthy addition to stock as an end-game research tech.

It'd be pretty great if you could send rovers to anomalies for extra research points or something like that. Someone mentioned that it'd be nicer to level up ALL warp drives with one upgrade but I think in the case where you can transmit and spam science it's better this way, so it's a little more diluted. You should make it so that we can receive science from all the labs or rovers around the solar system, rather than transmit.

(definitely update the rest of the models - the new warp drive and the laboratory are really awesome. The antimatter reactor right now is a bit of a bust to look at next to everything else)

One more thing - now that I've kind of gotten the hang of going from Kerbin to other places farther out from the sun. Any tips for the maneuver for going to planets towards the sun? E.g. returning from Jool to Kerbin. I do my best but when I come out of warp in front of kerbin, my velocity vector is shooting off to one side at a high delta-v cost for orbit.

[Fractal_UK]

I'm pretty sure the plasma thruster's upgrade is bugged.

First: the thruster is always flamed out, it says it's deprived of it's fuel (i really have no idea how secretive i should be about this...)

Second: when i'm throttling up the thruster drains huge amounts of megajoules, but when i set the throttle (high) it's in equilibrium with my power generation (upgraded 3.5m antimatter). I don't know if this is a bug but it's pretty weird.

I tried the thruster with infinite fuel on, and the thruster works just fine, so maybe it's just not creating the fuel?

I take it the second only occurs with the upgraded plasma thruster? If so, I have both of these issues fixed now.

It'd be pretty great if you could send rovers to anomalies for extra research points or something like that. Someone mentioned that it'd be nicer to level up ALL warp drives with one upgrade but I think in the case where you can transmit and spam science it's better this way, so it's a little more diluted. You should make it so that we can receive science from all the labs or rovers around the solar system, rather than transmit.

I have some ideas for doing rover science that I will explore in the near future. I'm interested in the idea of having rovers rove around looking for sites of scientific interest, then taking material samples when they find them, that kind of thing.

One more thing - now that I've kind of gotten the hang of going from Kerbin to other places farther out from the sun. Any tips for the maneuver for going to planets towards the sun? E.g. returning from Jool to Kerbin. I do my best but when I come out of warp in front of kerbin, my velocity vector is shooting off to one side at a high delta-v cost for orbit.

The cheapest path in terms of delta-v is just to follow the reverse path, wait until the planets are at their closest points and then warp. So in my picture, the cheapest Kerbin->Duna path is the same as the Duna->Kerbin, just in the opposite direction. It also helps to arrive on the correct side of the planet, so if you start of in orbit on the night side of Duna, make sure you arrive at the night side of Kerbin too.

[hellion13]

so... can some one please explain to me how this is supposed to work with out editing configs? i wanna get everything going from scratch but none of the parts seem to do anything the science lab stays locked, and i cant put any kerbals in it with out making them disappear....

[Donziboy2]

They don't disappear they just don't show up in the lower right corner, go into map and click on the little kerbal Icon in the upper middle right side of the screen and they will appear.

[Rampart]

so... can some one please explain to me how this is supposed to work with out editing configs? i wanna get everything going from scratch but none of the parts seem to do anything the science lab stays locked, and i cant put any kerbals in it with out making them disappear....

You can also have an crew exit any craft by finding the crew hatch on the module. You either click or right click, I can't recall which, and that will bring up an list with all the kerbals inside as well as buttons to have them EVA. That's a stock feature btw, so it should work with any addon, not just this one.

[jmosher65]

How far up is the magneto sphere

[Rampart]

How far up is the magneto sphere

Best thing is to build a small probe with some maneuvering around a magnetometer and launch it to all the planetary bodies, look for areas with high particle flux, that's the best AM collection areas. It will always start above the atmosphere, Kerbin for example it will be weak at first, then peak, then diminish again. Avoid polar orbits, stick to low inclination, at least for now.

Also, Fractal, regarding the high mass of thermal rockets, I like the procedural idea, as otherwise using the nozzles for small reactors really isn't feasible, maybe if you can't get procedural working make several nozzles and make them paired to each size reactor?

[jmosher65]

How do you upgrade stuff?

[DaveStrider]

are the microwave transmitters compatible with modded solar panels? because the the only way i could justify using the giant arrays from the kosmos pack is if i was making megajoules from them.

[Fractal_UK]

are the microwave transmitters compatible with modded solar panels? because the the only way i could justify using the giant arrays from the kosmos pack is if i was making megajoules from them.

The microwave transmitters are compatible with anything that uses ModuleDeployableSolarPanel at present, if the huge ones from the Kosmos pack use that part module, they should work fine.

[DaveStrider]

How do you upgrade stuff?

If your ship has enough science for the upgrade right click the thing you want to upgrade (the list of upgradables is on the front page) and click retrofit.

[Ratzap]

It's a pity the science collection is so slow. Max time warp for ages with 3 labs is getting tedious.