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

[BigD145]

Just a note:

Using thermal receiver+generator is very, very inefficient way. You probably loose more than 50% of power by doing so.

I'm getting TWR's of 5+ and 12,000 ish ISP. I think I'm doing okay in open space. I don't have to ever refuel a reactor or replace a ship due to actinide buildup. I only have to replace the power pile on Kerbin, which is a few button presses. Have you actually used the transceivers at all?

[WaveFunctionP]

Is there any way to have a Kerbal take the data from the magnetometer, like other science parts? As is, you have to either transmit or keep it, which makes it useless for further science.

I don't I've tried manually, but ship manifest can transfer the science.

[WaveFunctionP]

Where can I adjust lithium extraction rates and locations? And tritium breeding rates? I want to adjust them to values that I feel more comfortable with. The water landings for lithium are driving me nuts.

Also land water on wet planets like eve and kerbin.

Edited March 7, 2014 by WaveFunctionP

[BigD145]

Is there any way to have a Kerbal take the data from the magnetometer, like other science parts? As is, you have to either transmit or keep it, which makes it useless for further science.

dataIsCollectable = True

collectActionName = Collect Data

interactionRange = 1.2

[Fractal_UK]

Hmm.

*10 minutes later*

I figured out why it's not done that way.

Module Manager matches parts like so:

@NODE[name]{}

But the Science file doesn't have names, it has 'id' and 'title', so

@EXPERIMENT_DEFINITION[crewreport]{}

doesn't match anything.

It doesn't matter, you can search by id or any other field you like with ModuleManager to make edits. The community definitions could then be a file that contained module manager instructions to delete the existing stock science definitions, it could then be installed like an ordinary mod.

[merendel]

Where can I adjust lithium extraction rates and locations? And tritium breeding rates? I want to adjust them to values that I feel more comfortable with. The water landings for lithium are driving me nuts.

Also land water on wet planets like eve and kerbin.

well extraction rates you could play with the part file for the refinery. If you move the decimal point for the lithium rate definition that should increase or decrease the rate depending on the direction. Not sure where the tritium breeding rate is defined so cant help you there. Also not sure how to go about adding lithium to land either short of just duping UF4/ThF4 deffinitions and renameing in a bunch of places. Not positive that would even work and I'm not inclined to try it anyway. That said I'm prety sure we get most if not all lithium from oceans here on earth at abysmal rates. Its just with as much water as we have theres plenty to filter/refine. seems a bit immersion breaking to make it a land based opperation.

[GavinZac]

It doesn't matter, you can search by id or any other field you like with ModuleManager to make edits. The community definitions could then be a file that contained module manager instructions to delete the existing stock science definitions, it could then be installed like an ordinary mod.

@EXPERIMENT_DEFINITION[*]:HAS[#id[gravityScan]]

{

...

}

Will work to match the individual experiment sections, the problem then is matching RESULTS[] within them. We're given this documentation:

@NODE[foo] {...} modifies the node which has type 'NODE' and name = foo. 'NODE' is a MODULE {} or a RESOURCE {} or a PROP {} or something like that.

!NODE[foo] {} deletes node foo completely.

It's not documented that this will work, but someone could give it a go.

@EXPERIMENT_DEFINITION[*]:HAS[#id[gravityScan]]{
    !RESULTS[*]:HAS[#default[*]]{}
    RESULTS {
       default = ipsumlorem
       default = wuzzlewozzle
    }
}

[mdapol]

Is there any way to have a Kerbal take the data from the magnetometer, like other science parts? As is, you have to either transmit or keep it, which makes it useless for further science.

Not as provided. But you can edit or MM it's config file to have that capability. However any magnetometers you've already launched cannot be changed.

[Makeone]

well extraction rates you could play with the part file for the refinery. If you move the decimal point for the lithium rate definition that should increase or decrease the rate depending on the direction. Not sure where the tritium breeding rate is defined so cant help you there. Also not sure how to go about adding lithium to land either short of just duping UF4/ThF4 deffinitions and renameing in a bunch of places. Not positive that would even work and I'm not inclined to try it anyway. That said I'm prety sure we get most if not all lithium from oceans here on earth at abysmal rates. Its just with as much water as we have theres plenty to filter/refine. seems a bit immersion breaking to make it a land based opperation.

You would be wrong on that one. Lithium is collected from minerals although there is also decent amount of it in saltwaterlakes like ones in Chile. Main lithium minerals are spoumene and petalite, those have lithium average 20-70 ppm (parts per million), for reference, sea water has 0.14-0-25 ppm average of lithium though seawater contains most amount of it in earth. (Source: wikipedia)

[bonesbro]

Alright, how does one manage to produce antimatter with the science lab? I have a setup with 2 un upgraded 3m fission reactors, a generator for each, a science lab, and a bunch of antimatter bottles and heat radiators and I'm getting nothing. What am I doing wrong? D:

Even at 100000x timewarp I get nothing

It's a stack transfer transfer resource like LiquidFuel/Oxidiser, you need fuel lines.

I haven't had any success in transferring antimatter with fuel lines yet. I've tried fuel pipes, KAS pipes, and KAS winches and none of them seem to feed fuel from an antimatter containment pod to an antimatter reactor. I did get the fuel pipes to transfer from the science lab to the containment pod if I set them backwards (I guess because the science lab is a negative resource flow).

[Boamere]

Turn the bloody lights on.

Don't have any XD!

Plus I couldn't timewarp I had two crafts approaching the mun's periapsis!

And also to anyone else, you don't actually need to see the craft only the telescope.

Thanks HerrGeneral for "telescope needed to be directly mounted on the helium tank", this isn't stated anywhere else

[WaveFunctionP]

Anyone else have a problem with thermal rockets veering off in one direction after lift off. If I start thrust very very low and ramp it up slowly, sometimes it'll stabilize, but most of the time it'll just fly back into the ground. With the same setup with normal rockets, it flys like an arrow at full throttle.

[Kellas]

Where can I adjust lithium extraction rates and locations? And tritium breeding rates? I want to adjust them to values that I feel more comfortable with. The water landings for lithium are driving me nuts.

Also land water on wet planets like eve and kerbin.

\Kerbal Space Program\GameData\WarpPlugin\Parts\Utility\Refinery\part.cfg

Change the bolded values. I changed mine because I've already got 50+ active vessels/satellites/landers/stuff, and it was tiring to refuel my lithium vessels with even more launches and watching a refinery extract for hours is dulllllll. Now it's a bit more in line with my Kethane refinery.

MODULE
{
	name = FNModuleResourceExtraction
	powerConsumptionLand = 40
	powerConsumptionOcean = 40
	[B]extractionRateLandPerTo[/B]n =[B] 0.0108826[/B]
	[B]extractionRateOceanPerTon[/B] =[B] 0.0108826[/B]
	resourceName = Lithium
	unitName = Lithium Extractor
	extractActionName = Extract Lithium
	stopActionName = Stop Lithium Extraction
	resourceManaged = True
	resourceToUse = Megajoules
}

To add Lithium to planets/moons, the quickest way is to open up

\Kerbal Space Program\GameData\WarpPlugin\PlanetResourceData\planetaryresourcedefinitions.cfg

just find the PLANETARY_RESOURCE_DEFINITION you want, duplicate it and change the resource name to lithium.

PLANETARY_RESOURCE_DEFINITION
{
	[B]name = Water[/B]
	celestialBodyName = Mun
	[B]resourceName = LqdWater[/B]
	mapUrl = WarpPlugin/PlanetResourceData/mun_water
	resourceScale = LINEAR_SCALE
	scaleMultiplier = 1
	displayTexture = WarpPlugin/water_resource_point
	displayThreshold = 1
}

copy, paste, modify, save file.

PLANETARY_RESOURCE_DEFINITION
{
	[B]name = Lithium[/B]
	celestialBodyName = Mun
	[B]resourceName = Lithium[/B]
	mapUrl = WarpPlugin/PlanetResourceData/mun_water
	resourceScale = LINEAR_SCALE
	scaleMultiplier = 1
	displayTexture = WarpPlugin/water_resource_point
	displayThreshold = 1
}

You now have lithium where there's ground water on the mun. or whatever celestial body/resource you chose.

[Lightwarrior]

I'm getting TWR's of 5+ and 12,000 ish ISP. I think I'm doing okay in open space. I don't have to ever refuel a reactor or replace a ship due to actinide buildup. I only have to replace the power pile on Kerbin, which is a few button presses. Have you actually used the transceivers at all?

We are speaking about different things.

If you want to use plasma engines (megajoules) you need to use receivers that receive power directly, not thermal receiver+generator. This is what i am talking about.

[mharkan]

I'm sorry for what might seem like such a simple problem, but I can't seem to extract water, lithium, or ammonia, or alumina. I've driven my rover into the ocean next to KSC. I have have power and storage space. I've tried changing the concentrations of the elements in the config files;updating my ksp interstellar; hooking fuels lines to, from, and to and from the storage containers and the refinery (I can move water to and from the refinery); I've read over a hundred pages back on this thread; searched for "lithium", "water", and "ammonia" on this thread; watched hours of Scott Manley. I'm kinda at my wit's end here. I just can't get any of these dang extraction processes to work.

Thorium and uranium mining work just fine. They have the button to allow me to start and stop those processes, but the button to extract these other substances isn't even present.

I see posts that others can do it... just why not me? Any ideas?

[Oarc]

I'm sorry for what might seem like such a simple problem, but I can't seem to extract water, lithium, or ammonia, or alumina. I've driven my rover into the ocean next to KSC. I have have power and storage space. I've tried changing the concentrations of the elements in the config files;updating my ksp interstellar; hooking fuels lines to, from, and to and from the storage containers and the refinery (I can move water to and from the refinery); I've read over a hundred pages back on this thread; searched for "lithium", "water", and "ammonia" on this thread; watched hours of Scott Manley. I'm kinda at my wit's end here. I just can't get any of these dang extraction processes to work.

Thorium and uranium mining work just fine. They have the button to allow me to start and stop those processes, but the button to extract these other substances isn't even present.

I see posts that others can do it... just why not me? Any ideas?

Yes please. I would love to see an answer to this. I spent several hours trying to figure it out as well. Anyone?

This mod is great, the only thing lacking is info on it. I would gladly add to the wiki if I could figure out more of it.

[BigD145]

We are speaking about different things.

If you want to use plasma engines (megajoules) you need to use receivers that receive power directly, not thermal receiver+generator. This is what i am talking about.

Plasma thrusters. Check. Power receivers. Check. 700 monopropellant (12 ton ship on the launchpad). Check. Orbit on mono and then forever vacuum "fuel"? Yup. 350 mono to spare and 3.38 TWR on Quantum Vacuum.

I've built science landers both ways now, thermal and beamed electric. I can get to orbit with plenty of megajoules for thrust using tens of gigawatts of input power. The 5 TWR ship was a thermal + generator. I've scaled back because that's way too much thrust for a lander with essentially infinite fuel. Someone is building too heavy if they're getting 1 TWR.

[WaveFunctionP]

I'm sorry for what might seem like such a simple problem, but I can't seem to extract water, lithium, or ammonia, or alumina. I've driven my rover into the ocean next to KSC. I have have power and storage space. I've tried changing the concentrations of the elements in the config files;updating my ksp interstellar; hooking fuels lines to, from, and to and from the storage containers and the refinery (I can move water to and from the refinery); I've read over a hundred pages back on this thread; searched for "lithium", "water", and "ammonia" on this thread; watched hours of Scott Manley. I'm kinda at my wit's end here. I just can't get any of these dang extraction processes to work.

Thorium and uranium mining work just fine. They have the button to allow me to start and stop those processes, but the button to extract these other substances isn't even present.

I see posts that others can do it... just why not me? Any ideas?

You have to be in certain places to extract resources. Right now lithium only comes from the ocean, and by ocean, I mean you pretty much have to land in it. Right now there is no part to identify where non-radioactive resources are located.

You can get an idea of where you can get certain resources by looking in the resource data maps in the warp folder.

Looks like the only places to get ammonia are jools atmosphere and laythes oceans.

Edited March 8, 2014 by WaveFunctionP

[pejmany]

So a question about how the microwave receivers and thermal rockets work.

The megajoules to thermal power converter can't seem to get the megajoules from the individual receivers, so my thermal rockets have super low thrust.

I have a large microwave power plant in kerbosynchrous orbit pointed radially inward, and while the individual receivers get 500+ MW, the converter doesn't seem to get any more power (i've actually seen it drop in input power after the individual receivers are turned on.

[WaveFunctionP]

Thank you for you help, Kellas.

I've made an attempt to add ground supplies of lithium and water to kerbin. Right now the maps are pretty much greyscale versions of the regular map, but if there is interest, and with permission of Fractal, I could continue sharing refinements to the resource maps.

Make two, name one kerbin_water.png and the other kerbin_lithium.png and put them in the PlanetResourceData folder with the other maps.

No, there's nothing on your monitor, this little doodad is for detecting lithium, it goes in the Warpplugin folder with the other doodads. Name it lithium_resource_point.png It's unused at this time afaik, like the one for water, but I made on anyway. Colored pink/rose for the color that lithium burns.

Lastly, we have to edit the planetaryresourcedefinitions.cfg in the PlanetaryResourceData folder. Add these lines: (I put them under the other kerbin definitions, but I don't think it matters.)

PLANETARY_RESOURCE_DEFINITION

{

name = Water

celestialBodyName = Kerbin

resourceName = LqdWater

mapUrl = WarpPlugin/PlanetResourceData/kerbin_water

resourceScale = LOG_SCALE

scaleFactor = 1.0311580936394657748190008944693

scaleMultiplier = 4

displayTexture = WarpPlugin/water_resource_point

displayThreshold = 1

}

PLANETARY_RESOURCE_DEFINITION

{

name = Lithium

celestialBodyName = Kerbin

resourceName = Lithium

mapUrl = WarpPlugin/PlanetResourceData/kerbin_lithium

resourceScale = LOG_SCALE

scaleFactor = 1.0311580936394657748190008944693

scaleMultiplier = 4

displayTexture = WarpPlugin/lithium_resource_point

displayThreshold = 1

}

And viola, you can now extract water and lithium on the surface of kerbin. Though I didn't tune the rates. I had 4 extractors feeding 3 breeding fusion reactors and lithium stayed topped off.

Fractal, I just copied the scale factors and resized the maps to match the existing maps for kerbin, I assume that is correct? Or do the scle factors have to do with converting the greyscale to resource density?

Edited March 8, 2014 by WaveFunctionP

[bonesbro]

So a question about how the microwave receivers and thermal rockets work.

The megajoules to thermal power converter can't seem to get the megajoules from the individual receivers, so my thermal rockets have super low thrust.

I have a large microwave power plant in kerbosynchrous orbit pointed radially inward, and while the individual receivers get 500+ MW, the converter doesn't seem to get any more power (i've actually seen it drop in input power after the individual receivers are turned on.

Microwave receivers take incoming energy and keep it as megajoules. Microwave thermal receivers take incoming energy and convert it to thermal power. You use the former to power a plasma thruster or science lab or kickstart a fusion reactor. You use the latter to power a thermal rocket nozzle, or perhaps (inefficiently) power a thermal generator.

[pejmany]

Microwave receivers take incoming energy and keep it as megajoules. Microwave thermal receivers take incoming energy and convert it to thermal power. You use the former to power a plasma thruster or science lab or kickstart a fusion reactor. You use the latter to power a thermal rocket nozzle, or perhaps (inefficiently) power a thermal generator.

Thanks! Seems I had a misunderstanding. Is there any way of getting a launch from a thermal rocket?

[WaveFunctionP]

Use a reactor or thermal receiver directly attached to the rocket. You can only use the receiver if you've setup a power network to beam it power. You'll also need some radiators. (You still need a propellant either way. The standard LFO tanks work great for high thrust.)

The wiki has a lot of information you may find useful..

https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/wiki

Let us know if you have more questions.

[Tristavius]

Loving this mod! Talk about opening up a whole new side to the game. I usually avoid new parts packs as they often seem totally unbalanced or unnecessary but I'm really glad I finally tried this. It took me a whole day of just having ships on the launchpad to work out most of what was going on - and I haven't even started on mining/refining yet.

The Alcubierre drive initially sounds very over powered - it generates fuel easily and basically for free and you can skip around all over the system in seconds but actually it's NOT by any means OP. The fact that you still maintain your velocity and direction relative to Kerbol after you jump means some potentially huge Delta-V burns. As you begin to understand how to utilize this you can begin to use it more effectively and by altering your position then using Kerbols gravity to slow down or speed up you can begin to do some very low delta-v transfers = but at the cost of it often taking almost as long as a Hohmann. Anyway, a well thought out non game breaking addition either way.

Three things I would like to see however!

1) Get rid of the god-awful massive power button on the right hand side! Consider making it a lot smaller and movable like so many others do (Alarm Clock, VOID, Protractor etc) or better yet integrate into the Toolbar API.

2) Would it be possible to integrate scanning for resources into Kethane - I think it has an API for doing so if I remember rightly. It currently has a superb scanning system!

3) Can we have a slower warp speed? The slowest is still way too fast for maneuvers around smaller bodies (Kerbin even!) An option for a 10th or even better a 100th of the currently slowest would be superb and would actually allow for precision jumps.

[AndreyATGB]

For 1 I know Fractal said using toolbar was planned.

3, warp speed is a balancing factor as I see it. If you were able to warp at 1/1000th c then it would be very OP. You only need to get out of the atmosphere to use the warp drive and its largest disadvantage besides preserving velocity is the limited precision it has. I don't think it needs/should be any slower.