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

[RadHazard]

Question, do later tech level receivers get more power or is the difference from distance?

The size of the receiver determines how efficient they are at long distances. After a certain distance from the transmitter (I haven't tested it so I don't know the exact value), they will begin to lose efficiency. The larger receivers can be farther before starting to lose efficiency, and their efficiency drops slower. Note that this only affects receivers. Transmitters and relays are unaffected by the size.

Yes I do actually plan to have 2 different satellite types for a microwave array. That being said I also need one that generates power, transmits, and relays because those are my power generators and I want those to be able to relay through each other.

So... do I have to use 2 transceivers, or can I get away w/ 1 on relay?

In this case, you need two transceivers. One set to relay mode and one set to transmit mode.

[Genhellfire]

How does the Line of sight for microwave relays/transmitters work?

I got a ring of 9 stations placed somewhat equally apart at a 4 Mm circular Orbit around Kerbol, each one has a relay and transmitter active and has Line of sight (the model of Kerbol doesn't get in the way if I line up the camera between each neighbor), yet when I switch to my Keostationary relay and set it to receive it gets nothing, and there is most certainly stations in direct line of sight relays aside... this is confusing, each station is transmitting 18.35 GW.

Am I missing something?

[Fractal_UK]

How does the Line of sight for microwave relays/transmitters work?

I got a ring of 9 stations placed somewhat equally apart at a 4 Mm circular Orbit around Kerbol, each one has a relay and transmitter active and has Line of sight (the model of Kerbol doesn't get in the way if I line up the camera between each neighbor), yet when I switch to my Keostationary relay and set it to receive it gets nothing, and there is most certainly stations in direct line of sight relays aside... this is confusing, each station is transmitting 18.35 GW.

Am I missing something?

You'll need to physically point your receivers at one of the transmitting stations as well in order to receive some power. It should give you information about the total number of transmitters/relays on the receiver so you can check that looks correct.

[andy1]

KSPI works just fine with them. If your experiencing crashes on startup after installing KSPI with them try installing the texture reduction packs for B9 and KW. Both are rather large in their default state and take up a majority of the avalible ram footprint leaving little room for other mods.

Which tech tree do I use and where do I find these packs?

[Genhellfire]

You'll need to physically point your receivers at one of the transmitting stations as well in order to receive some power. It should give you information about the total number of transmitters/relays on the receiver so you can check that looks correct.

Thanks Fractal_UK I got it working, 240 GW of solar energy, KSC is going to save a fortune not having to buy Thorium.

Ever thought of implementing a Bussard collector to pick up all those spare particles in space for propellant?

[Fractal_UK]

Impactors

I'm becoming increasingly aware that science in KSP isn't sufficiently interactive so I've been working on ways of making things more entertaining, at the moment you fundamentally have two sytems - Interstellar science labs where you build infrastructure and gain a constant trickle of science and the base game system where you fly somewhere and click a button - these are fine but there are plenty of other options available that require a bit more interactivity. The idea of this one is that you place seismic sensors (the accelerometers) on the surface of celestial bodies, activate the sensors, then when you crash other ships into the surface of that celestial body you will get seismic data and consequently science!

For those of you following Interstellar Quest, I'm sure this idea was mentioned by Scott Manley several times and indeed it was famously done in reality with the Lunar Modules and I believe several of the Saturn 5 upper stages were used in this way as well. The results from these experiments are particularly useful because you have an object with very well known physical properties producing the seismic event and that allows you to infer more information about the structure of the body you are crashing things into.

This will work by setting up one or several probes with the seismic sensor on the surface of a celestial body, you can deploy as many sensors as you want but the returns will be based on how well spread out the sensors are (they have to be landed of course): using lots of seismic scanners close together won't give you much of a bonus but antipodal sensors will give you a large boost.

Once your sensors are deployed you can freely smash craft into the surface of that planet at your leisure and reap the scientific rewards:

Edited January 22, 2014 by Fractal_UK

[MedievalNerd]

Awesome Fractal!

How do you handle the awarding of science so that it doesn't stay in your pool if someone does a quickload or revert to LP/VAB?

[merendel]

Heh intresting on the impactor although I do have a few questions. Are these science gains infinately repeatable? AKA can you just keep crashing the same ship (well same desing) over and over or do you need to design a different impactor each time. Also how is the science amount determined? is it based on mass of the object? is it just X amount times bonuses per impact? if its just an amount per ship that crashes I could see a bit of a balance problem where someone sends up a rocket that is a drive core and a hundred or so probe cores attachd to decoplers. Set up for munar impact, stage off all the probs and you generate a hundred impacts all withen seconds of eachother. Heck even with your demo craft I could easily see straping a dozen of those radialy around a rocket and just fireing them down at the surface one after another like missles. on the other hand if its mass driving the amount I wonder what would happen if I crashed one of my spent orbital nuke satilites into the mun.

Also kerbin should have little if any science for this. it is far too easy to crash any sized mass into kerbin a few hundred meters from the spaceport Dont mind a few points but I dont think it would be a good idea to reward people for repeatedly just building bad rockets.

@andy1 hate to say it but you really need to read the first post of the mods you want to use. This one gives you instructions on installation, including what tree to use. I'm prety sure you can find links to the texture reduction packs on the first page of B9 and KW's threads as well. a bit of googlefu never hurt either.

[AndreyATGB]

Awesome Fractal!

How do you handle the awarding of science so that it doesn't stay in your pool if someone does a quickload or revert to LP/VAB?

I'm pretty sure your science points are saved in the quicksave/persistent files, so it just goes back in time.

[Patupi]

Heh, you finally implemented it Fractal. Cool. I guess as far as science compared to stock stuff, just diminishing returns on repeats on the same biome would do (or maybe just on the same planet, no matter what the biome is?)

[kiwiak]

Heh intresting on the impactor although I do have a few questions. Are these science gains infinately repeatable? AKA can you just keep crashing the same ship (well same desing) over and over or do you need to design a different impactor each time.

This is interesting question. If its not infinetly repetable, does it gets "locked" for specific biome/planet once we do it? That woudl be pretty disadvantegous if first impact woudl be done with poorly placed sensors.

Or do we have some maximumm value of science points per planet for impact experiments? This way, if max is 100, and first experiment woudl be done poorly, player woudl get 10 points. Next experiment with perfect network, while done for first time woudl give 100 points at once, this time it woudl only give 90, to avoid exceeding max value. And impact experiments done after this one woudl give us 0 points.

Also, do you plan for some more deployable experiments? Maybe some suicide atmospheric probes for jool.

[Fractal_UK]

This is interesting question. If its not infinetly repetable, does it gets "locked" for specific biome/planet once we do it? That woudl be pretty disadvantegous if first impact woudl be done with poorly placed sensors.

Or do we have some maximumm value of science points per planet for impact experiments? This way, if max is 100, and first experiment woudl be done poorly, player woudl get 10 points. Next experiment with perfect network, while done for first time woudl give 100 points at once, this time it woudl only give 90, to avoid exceeding max value. And impact experiments done after this one woudl give us 0 points.

Also, do you plan for some more deployable experiments? Maybe some suicide atmospheric probes for jool.

Mathematically speaking, it's infinitely repeatable but the gains will get smaller with each impact, the result of that is on low science worlds, like Kerbin, only a few experiments are neccessary to get almost all the science that is practically available but distant, high science worlds, will be viable for a larger number of experiments.

I might alter the rate of decrease based on the value of the first experiment, that way you would need to conduct more experiments in order to make up for having a poor network on your initial experiments but the total science available wouldn't change much.

How do you handle the awarding of science so that it doesn't stay in your pool if someone does a quickload or revert to LP/VAB?

Recording vessel unique IDs, it technically doesn't stop you reverting but it does stop you using the same ship to gain science repeatedly.

[OneRedBlock]

I'm probably putting this in the wrong place, but when this mod is installed, KSP crashes right as it finishes loading.

Any incompatible mods? I'm using B9, KAS, Kethane, and KW Rocketry.

[Boamere]

Impactors

I'm becoming increasingly aware that science in KSP isn't sufficiently interactive so I've been working on ways of making things more entertaining, at the moment you fundamentally have two sytems - Interstellar science labs where you build infrastructure and gain a constant trickle of science and the base game system where you fly somewhere and click a button - these are fine but there are plenty of other options available that require a bit more interactivity. The idea of this one is that you place seismic sensors (the accelerometers) on the surface of celestial bodies, activate the sensors, then when you crash other ships into the surface of that celestial body you will get seismic data and consequently science!

For those of you following Interstellar Quest, I'm sure this idea was mentioned by Scott Manley several times and indeed it was famously done in reality with the Lunar Modules and I believe several of the Saturn 5 upper stages were used in this way as well. The results from these experiments are particularly useful because you have an object with very well known physical properties producing the seismic event and that allows you to infer more information about the structure of the body you are crashing things into.

This will work by setting up one or several probes with the seismic sensor on the surface of a celestial body, you can deploy as many sensors as you want but the returns will be based on how well spread out the sensors are (they have to be landed of course): using lots of seismic scanners close together won't give you much of a bonus but antipodal sensors will give you a large boost.

Once your sensors are deployed you can freely smash craft into the surface of that planet at your leisure and reap the scientific rewards:

WANT Now!

[Jivaii]

Can't wait for .10, I think I'll start my youtube series after that baby gets dropped on us =D

[db48x]

ImpactorsThe idea of this one is that you place seismic sensors (the accelerometers) on the surface of celestial bodies, activate the sensors, then when you crash other ships into the surface of that celestial body you will get seismic data and consequently science!

Wow, this sounds like it'll be great. As long as you're at it, could you make a spectrometer we can use to observe the crash from orbit, for detecting the composition of the crust?

[TheTom]

Agree with the "get us .10". When can we expect the next release?

[Umlüx]

precoolers are not working with radial mounted intakes, is this a bug or intended?

i tried all combinations.. B9 and stock precoolers with B9 and stock radial intakes. the precooler is always offline.

i hope this hasnt been reported yet if its a bug..

[Aloriel]

Hey all. I'm fairly new to this mod, and I've been trying to get a science lab up and running. I tried searching and scouring this thread, but I've had no luck.

Anyway, here's my situation. I have a science lab on a space station. I know it requires MW to operate, so I attached a fission reactor to the station. The reactor is on, and my displays say I have 250 thermal power. Yet, the science lab still reports 0 MW. All parts between are either stock or KSPI. Also, the science lab is populated.

I do have other mods running, but as noted, they are not involved here.

Screenshot:

Any thoughts?

[Fractal_UK]

Hey all. I'm fairly new to this mod, and I've been trying to get a science lab up and running. I tried searching and scouring this thread, but I've had no luck.

Anyway, here's my situation. I have a science lab on a space station. I know it requires MW to operate, so I attached a fission reactor to the station. The reactor is on, and my displays say I have 250 thermal power. Yet, the science lab still reports 0 MW. All parts between are either stock or KSPI. Also, the science lab is populated.

I do have other mods running, but as noted, they are not involved here.

Any thoughts?

A reactor just generates heat (thermal power), you need a generator attached to the reactor to turn that thermal power into electrical power. The only thing you can power directly from a reactor is a thermal rocket.

[Aloriel]

A reactor just generates heat (thermal power), you need a generator attached to the reactor to turn that thermal power into electrical power. The only thing you can power directly from a reactor is a thermal rocket.

So, I have to have a reactor and a power generator? Also, wouldn't the stock solar panels produce electric power?

I can't seem to turn back on my reactor either. I shut it down to save the little bit of fuel that would be consumed getting my generator up to the station. Is this because of the decay heating process?

I understand why the decay heating process happens, but I am thinking that perhaps you should allow the reactor to be turned back on during that process. It should take a while to shut down, but being in the middle of the shut down sequence shouldn't prevent a restart... I've had my station running for 2 game days trying to get past this process.

Edited January 22, 2014 by Aloriel

[Aloriel]

Okay, new problem. I can't manually restart the reactor. I shut it down since I didn't have a generator. No sense wasting fuel. Anyway, I can't manually restart it with my Kerbal on EVA. When I right click it, nothing happens at all.

I'm going to try reloading the station to see if that solves it. Guess I'll have to send my kerbal back to his habitat.

[Lightwarrior]

So, I have to have a reactor and a power generator? Also, wouldn't the stock solar panels produce electric power?

I can't seem to turn back on my reactor either. I shut it down to save the little bit of fuel that would be consumed getting my generator up to the station. Is this because of the decay heating process?

I understand why the decay heating process happens, but I am thinking that perhaps you should allow the reactor to be turned back on during that process. It should take a while to shut down, but being in the middle of the shut down sequence shouldn't prevent a restart... I've had my station running for 2 game days trying to get past this process.

And generator must be attached directly to the reactor, or it will not work. So reactor with no attached generators/thermal nozzles is useless. You will need to get generator+reactor to the station...

...

I think this is done in such way because reactor will need maintenance after shutdown before restart, and it cannot be done while reactor is still hot. Also it will generate some power during this process.

[Aloriel]

Directly attached? Crud. Looks like I'm throwing two sections off my station.

Is there somewhere I can find out details like this? I checked the wiki and it didn't seem to have this kind of info. Maybe I was looking at an out of date one, or in the wrong spots...

[merendel]

Directly attached? Crud. Looks like I'm throwing two sections off my station.

Is there somewhere I can find out details like this? I checked the wiki and it didn't seem to have this kind of info. Maybe I was looking at an out of date one, or in the wrong spots...

It says it near the top of the reactor page, overview section. https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/wiki/Reactors

This is the relivent section

In KSP Interstellar, reactors produce Thermal Power, which is consumed by either electrical generators to produce MegaJoules, or thermal rockets and turbojets to produce thrust. Generators and thermal rockets MUST be attached directly to a reactor in order to function.

I believe its also mentioned on the generator page as well.