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

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Hey Fractal... Was discussing something with some friends here concerning fusion torch engines. They suggested working with you. Think you can give this post a once-over?

[Eadrom]

There is one drawback, you cannot use Quantum Plasma in atmosphere, you have to switch to normal propellents.

Yeah, I am experimenting with using argon and xenon drop tanks for launches on ships using plasma thrusters. Xenon looks like it requires quite a bit more propellant than argon, but I can make more xenon using my minmus kethane refinery. On the other hand, I don't typically have the need for standard propellants, so argon usually works. Moons/planets with a vacuum shouldn't interfere with a quantum plasma thruster afaik, so that leaves the handful of places with an atmo. I'm thinking Xenon might be the go to fuel in those cases where I would want to land somewhere with an atmosphere since I can resupply on location via kethane.

I don't know, I haven't made a decision on what I like using better as a launch fuel. More often than not, I've just been using my standard, lower tech lifters to get my KSPI tech ships into orbit where my fancy tech takes over. I am enjoying the heck of a lot of options I have in this mod.

[pantheis]

Yeah, I am experimenting with using argon and xenon drop tanks for launches on ships using plasma thrusters. Xenon looks like it requires quite a bit more propellant than argon, but I can make more xenon using my minmus kethane refinery. On the other hand, I don't typically have the need for standard propellants, so argon usually works. Moons/planets with a vacuum shouldn't interfere with a quantum plasma thruster afaik, so that leaves the handful of places with an atmo. I'm thinking Xenon might be the go to fuel in those cases where I would want to land somewhere with an atmosphere since I can resupply on location via kethane.

I don't know, I haven't made a decision on what I like using better as a launch fuel. More often than not, I've just been using my standard, lower tech lifters to get my KSPI tech ships into orbit where my fancy tech takes over. I am enjoying the heck of a lot of options I have in this mod.

Where are you getting argon from? I haven't been able to find any resource tanks that hold argon that are included with this mod.

[WAS]

This looks amazing! Keep up the good work! Testing!

[Eadrom]

Where are you getting argon from? I haven't been able to find any resource tanks that hold argon that are included with this mod.

If you are playing in Career mode, it is unlocked in the Ion Propulsion node. If I remember correctly, it is in the Utility tab of the VAB/SPH.

[Donziboy2]

Yeah, I am experimenting with using argon and xenon drop tanks for launches on ships using plasma thrusters. Xenon looks like it requires quite a bit more propellant than argon, but I can make more xenon using my minmus kethane refinery. On the other hand, I don't typically have the need for standard propellants, so argon usually works. Moons/planets with a vacuum shouldn't interfere with a quantum plasma thruster afaik, so that leaves the handful of places with an atmo. I'm thinking Xenon might be the go to fuel in those cases where I would want to land somewhere with an atmosphere since I can resupply on location via kethane.

I don't know, I haven't made a decision on what I like using better as a launch fuel. More often than not, I've just been using my standard, lower tech lifters to get my KSPI tech ships into orbit where my fancy tech takes over. I am enjoying the heck of a lot of options I have in this mod.

The numbers are slightly off since its based on an older version of KSPI but the ISP/MW requirements have not changed.

You could also just slap a normal thermal rocket engine onto the reactor and radially mount your plasma thrusters. The plasma's don't have to be directly attached to function.

[Makeone]

I have a station at 300k kerbin orbit with only 16 collectors and use an antimatter reactor to power the containment pods and it still gains several antimatter per hour or so. I have an antimatter freighter in orbit around Jool at 9,000 km and with only 12 collectors on it, I can literally sit there in 1x time and I gain a unit of antimatter every couple seconds. It's insane how quickly you can gain antimatter at Jool. If you collect antimatter in the right spots, you can get lots of antimatter quickly.

One thing that might help you is to mod the config files to have the antimatter storage tanks start with some antimatter. I changed my tanks to start 1% full. I did this to basically simulate a ground based lab making antimatter. Keeps me from having to add a ground base to make antimatter and from having to use KAS to make antimatter fuel trucks. Basically saves me a bit of time and PC memory/processing from having to run the ground factory and an extra mod. I don't think it's too cheaty for me to do that. This way I can usually get my ships to my low orbit antimatter station to fuel up on antimatter gained in a legit manner.

edit:

I also think some people might be underestimating how far antimatter can go. Every ship doesn't need a full tank of antimatter. I designed a long endurance ship with ~120 parts or so (maybe less) using an un-upgraded plasma thruster running off liquid fuel that has 38,000 delta V starting from a 700k orbit and has an acceleration of roughly 3m/s^2. If I remember correctly, it has a couple of the 62.5cm nuke reactors for backup power but the main drive is powered by an antimatter reactor. The ship only need 7,500 antimatter to spend alllll that delta V. That's less than 10% of the smallest antimatter tank. Most ships can probably get by with a few hundred to a couple thousand antimatter for the duration of their mission. When you look at only needing to supply a ship with those lower quantities of antimatter instead of filling each ship's tanks to full, the whole antimatter economy suddenly looks WAYYYY more manageable.

I have a 20 collector ship at 900k orbit on kerbin, it doesn't collect anything whitout focus on it.

Yeah, editors are fun, also called as 'I-win-button' and then to next game....

And yes, its true, that xenon is bit...too much, but i needed 11m/s2 to get my orbit done, it would taken lot's of chemical propellants and i really don't like 1000+ parts vessels.

[Makeone]

Ok so, 250k units of XenonGas is 25T. INSERT BrainFart Kraken, sorry Makeone my math is someone off sometimes.....EDIT... OK, so a 3.75m AM reactor could burn it that fast yes, you would get some crazy acceleration for a short amount of time. Xenon has poor ISP compared to the other fuels, and crazy thrust at high enough power levels. If your using AM you should not be using Xenon....

Also 3.75m AM reactors max fuel usage is 11.2units/s.

Myself and many others have no problems collecting Antimatter, I will admit ground based collection can be a pain, and launching large collector sats is somewhat challenging. But it can be done, this is supposed to have challenges to it, not just "Here have unlimited fuel and thrust forever without working towards it". A single collector in 900K orbit of Kerbin will give you almost 4 AM per day.

Its a WIP Mod being used in an ALPHA game. There will be bugs.

Sorry, alpha game? When has SQUAD mentioned that this is ALPHA? I'm sorry, but since they sell it, this is RELEASE-version, not ready yet, but still. They treat us as final customers rather than alpha testers. Otherwise there would daily/weekly builds available to us to TEST at, but no. We do not TEST, we PLAY it and modders will eventually finish it.

And yes, i know that the mod is WIP, but it still works well and Fractal keeps good care of us. I actually sometimes wonder if Fractal plays the game other than mod testing purposes? Good be, that programming is more 'fun'...

[Eadrom]

I have a 20 collector ship at 900k orbit on kerbin, it doesn't collect anything whitout focus on it.

Yeah, editors are fun, also called as 'I-win-button' and then to next game....

And yes, its true, that xenon is bit...too much, but i needed 11m/s2 to get my orbit done, it would taken lot's of chemical propellants and i really don't like 1000+ parts vessels.

Are you using the most recent version of KSPI? I thought that was an issue in a previous version but was fixed. I can also put out there that I have no issues with getting antimatter on non-focused ships. Both lab generation and collector generation work in the background for me.

As far as changing the tanks to start 1% full, I hardly think that's an I-win button...you can easily get much more than that at launch from ground based antimatter generation.

To address your last point, I almost never try to launch a vessel with just a plasma thruster. I'll launch with a Vista primary stage or 4 radially mounted thermal boosters helping the plasma thruster. More often then not though, I'll slap one of my asparagus launchers on it. I don't have a great computer, so I don't like 1000+ part vessels either! lol I've found that KSPI actually lets me do much, much more with FAR fewer parts per ship. YMMV.

Edit:

This game is most definitely still in alpha...it's thoroughly put out there that it is. Even the version number points that it is not a release. Less than 1.0 = not a final release version.

Edit 2:

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/about.php Source for info that game is still under development.

Edited November 10, 2013 by Eadrom

[Jim Kernan]

Is there a way to add the KAS mod to the campaign mode? The tree I'm using does not seem to have it. It adds the American Pack mod just fine. I've also got the Kethane mod installed but only the overlay shows in the game. I'm using the KSP Interstellar Tree as per the install instructions. Thanks!

Update: NVM - was doing some skimming and saw that it does not integrate into the campaign mode. 8(

Edited November 10, 2013 by Jim Kernan

[Lalwcat]

Sorry, alpha game? When has SQUAD mentioned that this is ALPHA? I'm sorry, but since they sell it, this is RELEASE-version, not ready yet, but still. They treat us as final customers rather than alpha testers. Otherwise there would daily/weekly builds available to us to TEST at, but no. We do not TEST, we PLAY it and modders will eventually finish it.

Are you intentionally retarded or is it just accidental?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/

"EARLY ACCESS GAME"

Or if you go to the kerbalspaceprogram.com page

"The game is currently under heavy development. This means the game will be improved on a regular basis, so be sure to check back for new updates. Right now, KSP is in Sandbox Complete state, but we want you to try it out and have fun with it. "

You're not an alpha tester. You're playing an alpha. There's a significant difference. Alpha testers are in-house and ARE receiving daily/weekly test builds. I suggest learning something about the development process before mouthing off on an internet forum

[Eadrom]

Is there a way to add the KAS mod to the campaign mode? The tree I'm using does not seem to have it. It adds the American Pack mod just fine. I've also got the Kethane mod installed but only the overlay shows in the game. I'm using the KSP Interstellar Tree as per the install instructions. Thanks!

Kethane is not integrated into the tech tree yet. You can manually edit the config files for each part adding in:

TechRequired = fuelSystems
entryCost = 0

Where "fuelSystems" is the name of the node you want the part to be unlocked. I put those two lines just above the line detailing cost and had no issues getting kethane to work in career. You can find more info about how to manually add in kethane parts to career mode over in the Kethane thread.

I do not use KAS myself, but you if the parts are not assigned a tech node, then you can manually add them in exactly the same way as I mentioned above for the kethane parts. I think I remember someone saying that KAS isn't officially integrated into the tech tree yet, but that there were some unofficial config files floating around that add to the tree while people wait for a KAS update.

In either case, I'd recommend hopping over to the Kethane and KAS threads and seeing if there's anything more useful that my little bit of info. As a side note, I have KW rocketry, procedural fairings, and deadly reentry installed on a copy of KSP I'm using to kinda play along with Scott Manley in his new series, and the KW, PF, and DRE parts showed up in the tech tree perfectly fine with the KSPI tech tree selected. I'm thinking that if parts aren't showing up in the tech tree when playing with KSPI, my money is first on that whatever mod you are trying to get to work isn't set up yet for tech tree integration.

[Donziboy2]

I have a 20 collector ship at 900k orbit on kerbin, it doesn't collect anything whitout focus on it.

Its a known issue....

What kind of ship are you using Makeone?

[Makeone]

Its a known issue....

What kind of ship are you using Makeone?

KW-fueltank, bolted on that 4 Medium SABRE engine and top them 5 collector per engine. Top of the system is 1.25 nuke/generator combo and obviously a AM tank. My only mistake was casings (i use FAR), or more precisely, their bases that didn't have crossfeed enabled for start, hence nothing was happening, i noticed that on some point and they started to work. Ship has been orbit for 40 KSP days and has 450 or so AM in it.

[Makeone]

Are you intentionally retarded or is it just accidental?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/

"EARLY ACCESS GAME"

Or if you go to the kerbalspaceprogram.com page

"The game is currently under heavy development. This means the game will be improved on a regular basis, so be sure to check back for new updates. Right now, KSP is in Sandbox Complete state, but we want you to try it out and have fun with it. "

You're not an alpha tester. You're playing an alpha. There's a significant difference. Alpha testers are in-house and ARE receiving daily/weekly test builds. I suggest learning something about the development process before mouthing off on an internet forum

Sorry if my stupidity is too much for your excellent IQ.

I just tend to get off, when people speak of alpha when it feels like released half-done and "we'll finish it later"-mentality.

Oh well, i'll be most likely long dead before KSP reaches 1.0.0.0.0 version...

[K3-Chris]

Can you upgrade parts in sandbox and if so, how?

[BananaDealer]

Can you upgrade parts in sandbox and if so, how?

Haven't played a sandbox game since 0.22 came but I think they just start-off upgraded...

[Eadrom]

Can you upgrade parts in sandbox and if so, how?

The parts are automatically upgraded, sans the computer core and the warp drive. I haven't played around with KSPI very much in 0.22 sandbox, but if you want to get science, I believe you have to get it via the manned science labs generating science. Once you get enough science, you can upgrade the warp drive or computer core of your choice. From what I have seen, sandbox is basically like you researched everything in career from the get go, including the nodes that upgrade KSPI parts.

[Srilania]

I keep having an issue. When I build anything with the science station, the screen goes black, I am shot to -666666 m high, and the screen graphics go wonko. Once that happens, I have to literally close down and restart.

[Fractal_UK]

I keep having an issue. When I build anything with the science station, the screen goes black, I am shot to -666666 m high, and the screen graphics go wonko. Once that happens, I have to literally close down and restart.

Can you post a copy of your KSP.log file? I think this may signify some kind of bad interaction with another mod. What else do you have installed?

[Deathkeeperx]

Hey guys I am new to this mod and I may be doing something wrong, but I can't get the science lab to actually collect any science, what exactly do I need to do to use the lab properly?

[NotCoach]

Hey guys I am new to this mod and I may be doing something wrong, but I can't get the science lab to actually collect any science, what exactly do I need to do to use the lab properly?

Make sure the lab is manned. Unlike pods it isn't automatically manned. Needs to be manually manned before putting your craft on the launchpad.

[Deathkeeperx]

I have it manned, but is there anyway to store the science? I tell it to start research but nothing happens.

[NotCoach]

I have it manned, but is there anyway to store the science? I tell it to start research but nothing happens.

It should be working. There are no visual indicators, only the option to turn on research. But every time you focus on the lab it should send the science it collected to your science pool. Check how much science you have before focusing on the lab, and then focus on the lab after warping about 8 hours ahead (just to give it time to collect science). Then recheck your science again and compare values. You should see an increase in your accumulated science.

[Fractal_UK]

I have it manned, but is there anyway to store the science? I tell it to start research but nothing happens.

It doesn't store science, it simply generate it straight into your R&D building pool.

What do you mean by nothing happens? Does it say it say it is "Researching" and does it give you a science rate per day or does it do something else? Please try and give lots of details about what is actually happening otherwise it's really hard to know if there is a problem and if there is, what it is.