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

[Makeone]

I'm trying to use a 3 meter fusion reactor to power a 3 meter thermal rocket nozzle but I can't run it for more than a few seconds before all power is drained. Do I need a bigger fission reactor? Thanks.

Do you have generator on the stack, opposed to the rocket nozzle? And I would recommend to use charged particle generator, it will provide power for the reactor laser systems and rest of the craft as well.

[rosenkranz]

put that thing into orbit where you don't lose 60% of power through the atmosphere!

That was one of my points. Once i'm getting connection to the relay network my power ramped up to 52gw as I got out of atmo out of 68. Thats not bad. But I don't think that should happen as the source is on the ground. Once on the network, it doesn't seem to track where the power is coming from, so the only attenuation you see is between you and the nearest relay. I've not tested to see if this works at other planets yet, so I'm operating on limited info. Theoretically, if my hypothosis holds up, once you have a relay in orbit around a body, a ship in the area would only see attenuation to that relay as if the relay is the sum total of all sources.

Actually, since the source is only 3km from the pad, I should see less attenuation on the pad and more as I go up where there is more atmosphere between me and the transmitter. Once on the network, I should see more losses depending on how many relays the power had to go through to get to me.

All that said, I don't have a clue as to the coding difficulty that might cause. It's not like a control relay where everything goes back to KSC (single source). You could have a ground station like I've got. You could also have Kerbol solar sats. You could have anti-matter driven transmitters in Jool orbit. Not every path would lead to one source. A receiver would have to calculate the distance to each source it connects to and attenuate accordingly. That may (or may not) generate a lot of overhead lag if it's doing it 5 times per sec (a tick is .2 secs?).

Now the receiver does seem to be tracking the number of sources total and the number it's connecting to. It also seems to track the total number of relays and the number of relays it can see as well as the network depth. You can see this when you right-click on an activated receiver. So, it looks like some of what I'm talking about is already coded. I was kinda hoping to hear some of Fractal's thoughts on this.

[Rabada]

Reading through some of the discussions here, I think this mod will change the most in 0.24. Budgets will completely change the way we use microwaves since you'd need an insane amount of money to build a big power plant.

I have been thinking the same thing! In my current save game I have been experimenting with the various ways to mine resources. I still havent quite figured out exactly how I would handle tritium once interstellar is updated for .24. I bet Fractal will make tritium ridiculously expensive. I really like the Vista engine for my re-usable ships, like my fuel tankers, so I was trying to figure out a good way to fill them up with tritium. Currently the best way I have found to produce tritium is to use a bunch of 3.75m green fission reactors breeding tritium. I have a microwave transmitter attached so they are always at 100%.

I think that tritium in .24 could end up being very interesting. It cannot be mined, so either you will have to pay a ton for it, or figure out how to produce it. However it is really only consumed by the Vista engine, and by He3 decay at the moment. (fusion reactors don't count because they can also breed tritium.) I would like to see tritium be more useful in the future. I believe I have heard that fractal wants to add an engine that consumes charged particles. If so, then the best way to power them would be with He3 fueled fusion reactors. I have not yet been able to make a ship to mine he3 from Jool, so I can only get he3 from tritium decay.

Someone suggested earlier that perhaps Interstellar could use a new breeder reactor to produce tritium. I read up on tritium, and read it is breed by neutron bombardment of lithium. Instead of adding a new part, would it make sense to have fusion reactors produce more tritium? I read Deuterium/tritium fusion produces a lot of neutrons. Maybe fusion reactors could have a super tritium breeding mode where they produce a lot of tritium and waste heat, but they won't produce any thermal power.

Anyways these are just some rambling thoughts I've had.

[galactictaco]

so i replaced my warp plugin, and when i loaded up i had a load of new techs, but im having trouble with some. my radiators wont deploy, some interstellar science equipment like the gamma ray detector doesnt do anything, some items dont react at all to right clicks like the IR telescope and my reactors. now what do i have to replace?

[BigD145]

now what do i have to replace?

Everything.

[Hellbus]

I'm having an issue with the dome-shaped ISRU. I can't get it to attach to anything using its bottom node. It snaps to position like it should attach, but it stays colored in red and never actually attaches. Only the radial node works. Is there something I can change in the part.cfg to fix this?

[Rabada]

I'm having an issue with the dome-shaped ISRU. I can't get it to attach to anything using its bottom node. It snaps to position like it should attach, but it stays colored in red and never actually attaches. Only the radial node works. Is there something I can change in the part.cfg to fix this?

Have you tried enabling part clipping with the debug menu? Hit alt and F12 to access it.

[Hellbus]

Have you tried enabling part clipping with the debug menu? Hit alt and F12 to access it.

That was the first thing I tried. No change.

[Schilcote]

Use the humungoid panels and put them inside B9 wings. Ugly, but it works on bigger space planes.

I use FAR, so the big 'uns actually work as wings.

[BigD145]

Have you tried rotating it and sort of going back and forth trying to pop it on the node? Sometimes you just have to encourage it.

[Hellbus]

Have you tried rotating it and sort of going back and forth trying to pop it on the node? Sometimes you just have to encourage it.

Tried it; doesn't work.

[xfrankie]

That was the first thing I tried. No change.

the dome ISRU sometimes behaves a little bit silly (all the time), basically you have two options:

a) attach it via the side node (to a girder or something) and balance your craft with symmetry

make the ISRU the root part of your vessel (the first thing you place down), then both nodes should work

[Hellbus]

make the ISRU the root part of your vessel (the first thing you place down), then both nodes should work

This worked.

[JonBar]

I've done some searching but cannot find anything on this subject so I will ask here and hopefully this will be useful to others.

Since radiation is not 'activated' per se, I would like to stop the vista engine from killing my kerbals with its deadly spray of radiation. I've looked through the files but do not see anything relating to this.

So how would I go about disabling the vista engine from killing kerbals with radiation?

[Rabada]

I've done some searching but cannot find anything on this subject so I will ask here and hopefully this will be useful to others.

Since radiation is not 'activated' per se, I would like to stop the vista engine from killing my kerbals with its deadly spray of radiation. I've looked through the files but do not see anything relating to this.

So how would I go about disabling the vista engine from killing kerbals with radiation?

The Vista engine won't activate if there are Kerbals on EVA if you have the radiation safety enbled. For roleplaying I would just make sure not to de-activate the radiation safety.

[awc.sorensen]

Is it all possible to change some of the settings in the plugin, I've tried cfg editing some basic stuff like full antimatter tanks to no avail. The game glitches out and destroys save files.

Is there a specific way to do this or am I just clueless?

Another thing I've tried is lowering the minimum speed of the Alcubierre Drive so that I don't miss my mark when I use KJR, but I can't seem to find a way to do that in all the files in the plugin.

The physics stabiliser takes a couple seconds and by that time I've missed the window to deactivate the warp drive...

I really need KJR otherwise everything falls apart no matter the amount of struts, that or I end up accidentally constructing a circular space station that inadvertently never makes it off the ground at all...

Any help would be appreciated.

[JonBar]

The Vista engine won't activate if there are Kerbals on EVA if you have the radiation safety enbled. For roleplaying I would just make sure not to de-activate the radiation safety.

Yes, I am well aware that it will not activate with safety enabled, and with it disabled it will kill kerbals when you use it, therefore what I am asking is how can I stop it from killing kerbals when I use it.

I am using this engine for heavy lifting on Minmus, it acts as a 'hopper', landing on Minmus at my ore processing station to fill up (Huge Procedural Parts container) and then take it to the orbital launch station. Problem is, in order to fill it up I need to land near the station which is occupied by a team of kerbals.

I am going for minimal part count here, so an auxiliary set up would be redundant (may as well go with methane/LF & Ox in that case).

So.... since I need to turn off radiation safety in order to land, it kills my kerbals. Honestly it doesn't make any sense at all that radiation is not implemented and yet it is indeed working for one single engine, very frustrating and pointless IMO. So if someone could be a savior and explain to me how to disable this 'feature', I would be most appreciative!

P.S. I am well aware I could move the kerbals, thing is....what I really want to know is if I can just disable this feature from the vista engine. Browsing the dll file, seems like I may need to change 'GameConstants/public const double rad_const_h = 1000.0;' or perhaps something under 'VistaEngineController' in order to disable this, am I wrong? Not really experienced with programming so any help would be appreciated.

Edited June 20, 2014 by JonBar

[Bishop149]

I've just started to play about with beaming power around using microwave transceivers.

Does it matter what direction the array part is pointing when its sending / receiving / relaying power?

I suspect not and that its only the angle of the transmitting craft to the receiving craft that matters.

None the less I am currently designing relays that look a bit like giant footballs that have an array pointing almost every possible direction just in case, I might keep with these because they are pretty but it would be nice to know if its actually necessary!

[Atrius129]

Is it all possible to change some of the settings in the plugin, I've tried cfg editing some basic stuff like full antimatter tanks to no avail. The game glitches out and destroys save files.

Is there a specific way to do this or am I just clueless?

Another thing I've tried is lowering the minimum speed of the Alcubierre Drive so that I don't miss my mark when I use KJR, but I can't seem to find a way to do that in all the files in the plugin.

The physics stabiliser takes a couple seconds and by that time I've missed the window to deactivate the warp drive...

I really need KJR otherwise everything falls apart no matter the amount of struts, that or I end up accidentally constructing a circular space station that inadvertently never makes it off the ground at all...

Any help would be appreciated.

I would assume you are using Active Texture Management. A while ago they had instruction to go into the ATM folder and delete the WarpPlugin folder. Previously I had been having issues where there was a delay in deactivating the Alc. Drive and its effect trail was black. This cleared it right up.

[xfrankie]

Does it matter what direction the array part is pointing when its sending / receiving / relaying power?

I suspect not and that its only the angle of the transmitting craft to the receiving craft that matters.

Relays and transmitters don't matter, only the direction of your reciever is important.

If you're using the large foldable thingys there is about 35-degree cone towards the relay/transmitter, where you can point the antenna without losing any power.

not the best image but I hope it helps

edit:

Here are some screenshots from my last discussion about microwave reciever direction: http://imgur.com/a/k3jSc#0

Edited June 20, 2014 by xfrankie

[awc.sorensen]

I would assume you are using Active Texture Management. A while ago they had instruction to go into the ATM folder and delete the WarpPlugin folder. Previously I had been having issues where there was a delay in deactivating the Alc. Drive and its effect trail was black. This cleared it right up.

I'm not really referring to that, I know that ATM effects the warp drive texture but I was more referring to Kerbal Joint Reinforcement's physics stabilisation thing, where it actually freezes the physics when something goes on/off rails and stabilises all the joints on the craft. It does this everytime you enter timewarp or activate the Alcubierre Drive... It freezes for a set time and by the time it finishes I am past my mark for deactivating warp. All I want to know is if I can set the minimum warp speed to a smaller fraction of light to give myself more time to get more precise and on time warp exits.

I would have thought it would just be a config edit but it seems as if it's embedded within the actual plugin.

I also had difficulties with simple cfg editing to make a full version of each antimatter tank, (for testing purposes), using my basic knowledge of copy-pasting didn't do the trick and ended up screwing with save integrity/kraken encounters...

[m_j_lyons]

Quick question for you KSPI types regarding Aluminium Hybrid refueling...

I put a base on Mun, reactor, heat management, 4 refineries. So far so good. I then built an aluminium hybrid powered rocket and landed it at the base. Hooked it to the main craft with a KAS pipe link. My problem is that while the refineries will mine Alumina, and electrolyse it, they are producing only oxidizer. I know they should make more oxidizer than aluminium, but im getting 0 aluminium.

There are no AH rockets on the base itself so the main structure doesnt technically have anywhere to store aluminium, just alumina in the refineries and oxidizer all over the place. Is this the problem? I was under the impression that a KAS pipe link works exactly like a docking port, so these 2 vessels are now 1 craft in the game's eyes. Why isnt it storing the aluminium in the hybrid rockets?

edit: done some fiddling with part files and my persistent file and determined that the aluminium will indeed not refine into the AH rockets linked via KAS. Is this resource set to not flow somewhere? Gave the refineries a little aluminium storage and they began producing it correctly, but I still have to manually shunt it from the refinery into the rockets. While this may be as intended, I would like the aluminium produced at the refinery to behave like stock liquid fuel when it comes to locating and auto-assigning storage space for it, can anyone tell me which variables I need to alter to get this behaviour? (I really really want to avoid giving my AH craft their own refinery)

Did you ever get your problem figured out? With documentation lacking I built a AH rocket with refineries to mine/refine aluminum as a persistent mun-explorer. In theory it works well but in reality I can only mine OR refine...but not both at the same time. And only from one refinery at a time (I have one for each rocket to appease my need for balance). So in effect refuleing an AH rocket takes FOR EVER! Constantly turning mining on/off and letting the refinery electrolyze the aluminum to produce oxidizer and very small amounts of aluminum. It took me about an hour of real time and several days of accelerating game time to start/stop production enough to refuel one AH rocket...it was a better use of my time to just launch a more simplistic ship and accept that I won't effectively have a persistent prescence on the Mun. I do not currently use KAS as I've read too many horror stories of stuff blowing up. I use ScanSat (or somethign like that), KSP-I, EVE, and an improved docking indicator.

I figured either I'm doing something wrong or this is just the reality of how it's programed - I poured through the source code and had a plan to change it but then realized that the code was compiled in the DLL and wasn't adjustable (without recompiling)- I was going to have it NOT check if a certain 'flag' was set to do mining...and just do it. My hope was to allow constant mining while the 'flag' told the refinery to continue electrolysis. From the code it looked like mining was checked prior to electrolysis..and if the 'flag' was ON for mining it wouldn't do any other processing.

Cheers

[G'th]

Does the size of the AD matter? Like, is the 1.25 meter version any less powerful or anything like that?

[AndreyATGB]

You mean Alcubierre Drive? The difference between the sizes is the amount of ExoticMatter they can generate and hold. What this means for you is the small one doesn't go as fast as the last one. I think max is 5c, the 1.25m doesn't go that fast.

[Bishop149]

Relays and transmitters don't matter, only the direction of your reciever is important.

Thanks! V.Helpful.

For asthestic reasons I'll stick with my footballs for the relays in Kerbin SOI but will cut down the weight for those I send further afield!