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

[Fractal_UK]

Yes, putting in a base science readout is not a bad idea, I'll add that.

I hadn't really thought about transmitting science but that's probably a good feature too, I'll look into some options.

[Jason_25]

The turbine upgrade is really cool to see. Already the turbine has a switch propellant button but it doesn't seem to do anything. I was going to ask about it anyway before seeing this. This makes it into a kind of nuclear SABRE.

I'm glad the large xenon tank will be going. I have found that it's mount points are very weak.

Another thing I would like to see is more warp granularity, speeds above warp 1 increased, warp up/down controls , and visual feedback on what the current warp speed and engine status is. This would help if the warp engine is buried away and not easily clickable. I would also vote for the warp core model being somehow integrated maybe as a final level antimatter reactor upgrade. They were already mentioned but fusion reactors would be great too far a variety of power sources.

Also, an inertial dampener would be nice for things like high power acceleration, turns, and deceleration. It might also allow for maneuver under warp? In game terms maybe this could be accomplished by putting the physics on rails and accelerating / decelerating the ship based on the computed acceleration of the engines? A good use for all those megajoules.

I'm really going into the wish list area here but a deflector system that imparts a pushing force on objects around the ship and "overheats" when hit by sunbeam lasers? This could maybe be accomplished by spawning an invisible part around the ship with a non-infinite overheat tolerance and a mass that of the ship or smaller based on how efficient the deflector system is? Another good use for the megajoules.

[Rampart]

Yes, putting in a base science readout is not a bad idea, I'll add that.

I hadn't really thought about transmitting science but that's probably a good feature too, I'll look into some options.

Incorporate into the microwave transmitters maybe, I mean you've already got a powerful beam, modulate it a bit and you've suddenly got digital data. Modeling packet loss from transmission could be done by modifying the transmission speed based on efficiency, to reflect lost packets that need to be re-transmitted.

[lilkoi98]

so would it be possible to have the microwave transmitters lck on to one target and only give power to that craft or is that already a feature? Because i could see myself going in a orbit around, say, the sun, and giving the power to another satalite, which would proseed to give power to a rover on land or thomething like that. because from what i read in the comments (about page four) the farther away the object is, the less power it recieves.

EDIT also can a single transmitter give energy to multible recievers at the same time?

Edited August 25, 2013 by lilkoi98

[Fractal_UK]

Incorporate into the microwave transmitters maybe, I mean you've already got a powerful beam, modulate it a bit and you've suddenly got digital data. Modeling packet loss from transmission could be done by modifying the transmission speed based on efficiency, to reflect lost packets that need to be re-transmitted.

Yeah, something like this is a little more tricky with a set resource quantity like science rather than an ongoing production as occurs with the microwave power. I could definitely make science production beamable from one location to another but dealing with ships in any detail that aren't currently loaded into the physics engine in KSP tends to be a bit of a nightmare.

Another thing I would like to see is more warp granularity, speeds above warp 1 increased, warp up/down controls , and visual feedback on what the current warp speed and engine status is. This would help if the warp engine is buried away and not easily clickable. I would also vote for the warp core model being somehow integrated maybe as a final level antimatter reactor upgrade. They were already mentioned but fusion reactors would be great too far a variety of power sources.

Yes, I think warp speed+ and warp speed- controls are a good idea, they're definitely on the list of features to implement, that would certainly allow for more speed options. Same for fusion reactors, though these I'd really like some models for before I add them or are they are liable to become lost in a sea of reactors.

Also, an inertial dampener would be nice for things like high power acceleration, turns, and deceleration. It might also allow for maneuver under warp? In game terms maybe this could be accomplished by putting the physics on rails and accelerating / decelerating the ship based on the computed acceleration of the engines? A good use for all those megajoules.

If I was to do something similar, I'd be very to make engine burns doable at high timewarp speeds so long burn times become practical but I really have no idea where to even start with the implementation of that. It'd require the creation of an accurate copy of the current stock engine code, which is not even something we have access to. There might be a solution to this but the interface with the game engine almost certainly wouldn't be very clean so is probably one to avoid.

One thing I am looking at with respect to both maneouvring and additional uses for megajoules is electrical RCS, these would offer serious improvements in terms of delta-v over regular RCS.

I'm really going into the wish list area here but a deflector system that imparts a pushing force on objects around the ship and "overheats" when hit by sunbeam lasers? This could maybe be accomplished by spawning an invisible part around the ship with a non-infinite overheat tolerance and a mass that of the ship or smaller based on how efficient the deflector system is? Another good use for the megajoules.

What would the use of this be?

Something I have thought of in a similar vein is to expand the van allen belt model to include radiation hazards, ships might then be protected from these charged particles by plasma-energised magnetic deflectors. Again this is more of a long term exploratory idea.

so would it be possible to have the microwave transmitters lck on to one target and only give power to that craft or is that already a feature? Because i could see myself going in a orbit around, say, the sun, and giving the power to another satalite, which would proseed to give power to a rover on land or thomething like that. because from what i read in the comments (about page four) the farther away the object is, the less power it recieves.

EDIT also can a single transmitter give energy to multible recievers at the same time?

A microwave power receiver will receive power from every microwave power transmitter that it has line of sight to, provided that transmitter can receive solar power from the sun.

A single transmitter can't give power to multiple receivers at the same time but they can transition fairly seemlessy, whatever vessel you have selected at the moment will receive power.

[Scotius]

About deflectors. So far only other use of them besides the one mentioned by Fractal would be protecting our ships during atmospheric re-entry. But...A) So far re-entry is harmless. No one knows when devs will even begin to work on this. C) Not everyone use Deadly Re-entry mod. So, yeah - Cool but Impractical.

[Khoal]

Another, yet awesome, bug found. If you have action keys assigned for your Alcubrierre Drive, you can increase your Warp speed by that number (while in warp, ofcourse) and decrease it by that number.

So far so good, but what would happen when you hit the action key for "Deactivate Reactor? Nothing? No!

The Alcubrierre Drive decides to go prograde and after hitting the keys often enough, the orbit tends to have a... weird shape.

Like from equatorial to polar or something. (Could be the fault of my ship going a little bit astray from the course^^).

But the worst thing: this one costs nothing, and somehow getting back to normal speeds is quite... hard.

The best: this bug is awesome. xD (Fun to play with.)

Greetings

[Fractal_UK]

Another, yet awesome, bug found. If you have action keys assigned for your Alcubrierre Drive, you can increase your Warp speed by that number (while in warp, ofcourse) and decrease it by that number.

So far so good, but what would happen when you hit the action key for "Deactivate Reactor? Nothing? No!

The Alcubrierre Drive decides to go prograde and after hitting the keys often enough, the orbit tends to have a... weird shape.

Like from equatorial to polar or something. (Could be the fault of my ship going a little bit astray from the course^^).

But the worst thing: this one costs nothing, and somehow getting back to normal speeds is quite... hard.

The best: this bug is awesome. xD (Fun to play with.)

Greetings

Thanks, I have fixed that bug now.

I have also upgraded the warp drive to include +/- controls, so you can toggle warp speed in either direction and I've made the warp drive support a few need speed settings as a result of this extra toggling capability

Now, on to something new I've been thinking about for a while. Fills the need of both a place to store science and something a little interesting, so here is the computer core.

The basic version is 3.75m, so pretty large but good for those offworld bases, and doesn't do anything particularly special - it's really just a probe core that can store scientific data.

Upgrading it gives you an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) core!

At this point, pod torque is substantially increased, the AGI gains a name and begins to generate science, at a faster rate than those rather stupid meatbags we call Kerbals, no less.

There are a few i's to dot and t's to cross before the next update but it should be done as soon as I next have a little free time.

[DaveStrider]

I like the idea of investing science to make more later on, although the name "AGI" reminds me of the evil AIs from the X games

[Donziboy2]

Is the science rate of a lab fixed or does it increase the further from Kerbin the lab is?

[Fractal_UK]

Is the science rate of a lab fixed or does it increase the further from Kerbin the lab is?

There are multipliers based on celestial body and altitude. You get more science by being on celestial bodies that are deemed by me to be more scientifically interesting, generally the harder the place is to get to the better it is for science. There are a few exceptions though, for example, I deem Laythe and Vall to be better locations for science than Bop or Pol.

You also get more science by being in either a low orbit or by being on the surface. Being in a really high orbit will kill off your science rate.

The best places generate science up to 20x faster than on Kerbin.

You also want to make sure that the kerbals manning your science lab aren't too stupid, stupid kerbals impose a penalty and clever kerbals provide a bonus.

The AGI core functions just like the lab but doesn't receive any bonus or penalty from stupidity and has a higher base science rate.

[Xentoe]

This is all very cool and nic,e but like I asked yet, when do you guess we can test this new stuff out ourselfes?

[Scotius]

Wow. New update sounds thrilling Would it be considered cheating/exploiting if i'd stack ten Computer Cores on one ship, upgrade one at Science Lab, then use increased science points to upgrade another one faster doubling my SP influx - and so on, and so on until my Science Vessel can max its points in one day? On one hand it's logical and realistic - this is how modern supercomputers are built after all. On the other hand it does feel 'exploity'. Dunno...maybe set power requirements of a single Computer Core rather high, so it's not so easy to build a supercomputer in the orbit? Another idea is to add heat production to CC - basically it overheats while generating science points (slowly ). And of course heat radiators or cooling system for those of us who want to tackle the challenge. Erm...too much?

Edited August 27, 2013 by Scotius

[zzz]

After a break and couple abandoned variants I made something "scientific". Maybe it's too fat and I overcomplicated it a little but maybe it fit enough.

http://www./?yxmmbs8moxw7o7w

Edited August 27, 2013 by zzz

[Donziboy2]

Ok, so how much power do I have to beam to actually get any megajoules?

[Scotius]

Ohh, shiny! It's a Science Lab, right? Too bad i have to go to work soon - no time to check this beauty.

[Fractal_UK]

This is all very cool and nic,e but like I asked yet, when do you guess we can test this new stuff out ourselfes?

Hopefully I'll release all of this stuff later today or at least within the next few days, I just need a bit of free time, which is proving very elusive at the moment.

Wow. New update sounds thrilling Would it be considered cheating/exploiting if i'd stack ten Computer Cores on one ship, upgrade one at Science Lab, then use increased science points to upgrade another one faster doubling my SP influx - and so on, and so on until my Science Vessel can max its points in one day? On one hand it's logical and realistic - this is how modern supercomputers are built after all. On the other hand it does feel 'exploity'. Dunno...maybe set power requirements of a single Computer Core rather high, so it's not so easy to build a supercomputer in the orbit? Another idea is to add heat production to CC - basically it overheats while generating science points (slowly ). And of course heat radiators or cooling system for those of us who want to tackle the challenge. Erm...too much?

I wouldn't really regard regard that as exploitative, it's really just making the best use of available components. The parts are, I guess, fairly awkward to lift into orbit due to their 3.75m size - supercomputing equipment isn't small.

Heat radiators are something I've wanted to do for a long time but it's also something that definitely requires unique models to be practical but it is something that I think is notable by its absence in the stock game when heat disspitation in space is such a big problem.

After a break and couple abandoned variants I made something "scientific". Maybe it's too fat and I overcomplicated it a little but maybe it fit enough.

http://www./?yxmmbs8moxw7o7w

Looks excellent, thanks again zzz!

Ok, so how much power do I have to beam to actually get any megajoules?

You need to be beaming more than 1000KW before you start getting megajoules, the first 1000KW appear as ElectricCharge. If you beam say 1500KW, your power receiver will get 1000 ElectricCharge/second and 500/1000 = 0.5 megajoules/second.

[jfull]

After a break and couple abandoned variants I made something "scientific". Maybe it's too fat and I overcomplicated it a little but maybe it fit enough.

http://www./?yxmmbs8moxw7o7w

Wow, not many people would take the time to make something like that for someone else's mod

you should release this on your own too, as a simple hitchhiker replacement.

[Donziboy2]

How about a Hitchhiker made to be horizontal instead of vertical?

[GabrielG.A.B.Fonseca]

I'm really impressed by ZZZ's modelling skills. If you guys work togheter, I see no obstacle to this mod to become one of the best Big Damm Mods out there.

The only single little negligible detail model-related for next update is the Sci. Lab interior, but for now we can certainlly make-do with the stock hitchhiker one. ZZZ already did an amasing job doing that model.

So, Fractal, you talked about Sabre-like engines, right? Well, I know it is a little too much ask for, but, could you make a fusion engine? Like the one the Serenity from Firefly uses?

[Fractal_UK]

I'm really impressed by ZZZ's modelling skills. If you guys work togheter, I see no obstacle to this mod to become one of the best Big Damm Mods out there.

The only single little negligible detail model-related for next update is the Sci. Lab interior, but for now we can certainlly make-do with the stock hitchhiker one. ZZZ already did an amasing job doing that model.

Yeah, you're right there, I didn't realise how incredibly good it was until I loaded it up and saw the animations that go with it. I'm trying to integrate the animations of the science module with the function of the module, i.e. if the science module is doing something, it will deploy its accessories, I've succeded at doing one of the animations while writing this so adding in the second shouldn't be a problem now. Seemed a shame not to do this when the model is so impressive.

This should also allow me to integrate deploying microwave beamed power transmitter/receivers dishes with their game functionality too. I've not look into ingame animation before and this gave me the spur I needed to do it.

Unfortunately, this will slightly delay the update but it will also save the need for a near day 1 patch.

Now I just need to convince ZZZ to make more models!

So, Fractal, you talked about Sabre-like engines, right? Well, I know it is a little too much ask for, but, could you make a fusion engine? Like the one the Serenity from Firefly uses?

Do you have any idea what kind of fusion? The fusion reactor + thermal rocket combination is something that will get added eventually, most of the "pure" fusion engines tend to be a little low thrust to bother adding in KSP.

Aside from thermal rockets and a fusion reactor, IC fusion is the one that offers the coolest possibilities but it's something that would look very distinguishing. Imagine attaching a (scaled down) one of these (the VISTA specifically) to the back of your rocket! I have no doubt that someone can model this but that person is not me.

[Fractal_UK]

Here we are:

Science lab is researching, gizmos are deployed (circled red).

When we turn off the lab, the gizmos are tidly packed away for later use:

[GabrielG.A.B.Fonseca]

I'm not sure about the Drive you've shown, but basically, putting it in simple terms, The Serenity's engines in Firefly create a micro sun at the engine, releasing a massive burst of thrust while (for very obvious reasons) lighting it like a firefly.

It is like the ultimate VASIMR engine: High thrust, High ISP.

Also, my god! Animations? This is a hole new level of awesomeness in there! Great job, guys. I'll now take a look at that drive you told about.

Edited August 28, 2013 by GabrielG.A.B.Fonseca

[zzz]

The only single little negligible detail model-related for next update is the Sci. Lab interior, but for now we can certainlly make-do with the stock hitchhiker one.

Last days I'm actually messing around with some sort of interior for it and already did some geometry, never tried it before but I think I'm is sorted out how it work. It have nonsensical layout and I'm not sure is all will look\work as I expect in game and texel density can be issue because of way I try. Not sure when I will finish it but I think it will have some interior.

Aside from thermal rockets and a fusion reactor, IC fusion is the one that offers the coolest possibilities but it's something that would look very distinguishing. Imagine attaching a (scaled down) one of these (the VISTA specifically) to the back of your rocket! I have no doubt that someone can model this but that person is not me.

Don't expect it from me in near future.

[Crimsonriv]

If this has been asked before then sorry. I was wondering if you intended to someday use the communotron or similar parts to relay science the way megajoules are currently done. Eg. to transmit research data from vessels at say Laythe back to a rover HQ on Kerbin. It would be extra cool if it drained the science vessel's stash while transfering to the HQ. From there all the data (science) could be uploaded to orbiting vessels in a manner more realistic then docking for data transfer.