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

[Fractal_UK]

I'm honestly not sure.

It's really 2*TimeWarp.fixedDeltaTime, which seems to always be 0.02s here at 1x independent of max physics delta.

I'm not sure it's guaranteed to be 2* delta time, there may be combinations of part configurations that lead to different numbers. I'll have to check the permutations.

[Aedile]

A quick question - how do atmoscoops work? What decides what resource can be collected? Also shouldn't atmospheres of planets which have water contains some?

[artforz]

I'm not sure it's guaranteed to be 2* delta time, there may be combinations of part configurations that lead to different numbers. I'll have to check the permutations.

Well, as far as I can see there's only 2 possible cases with fusion reactors:

1. Reactor OnUpdate called before any generator OnUpdate. Uses 1x deltatime EC in reactor OnStart and 1x deltatime EC in reactor OnUpdate.

2. Any generator OnUpdate called before reactor OnUpdate. Uses 1x deltatime of EC in reactor OnStart and 1x deltatime MJ in reactor OnUpdate.

Note that as long as we have enough MJ in the global buffer, we should always be able to start the reactor after the first tick, EC is just required to keep them active across a vessel load or when we have no MJ at all.

To start up without MJ, a reactor *should* need 1x deltatime worth of EC, but it seems they can sometimes start with less... mysteries of ORS?

[db48x]

I created a brand new fresh vanilla game and installed ONLY interstellar and then I started a new sand box game and copied the two craft files above. I then loaded the stripped one and launched it on the pad I activated the reactor switched away (esc to space center then clicked to go back to the pad) and the reactor was still running.

Then I went back to the VAB and loaded the fresh built one with the EXACT SAME BLOODY PARTS and launched it, activated the reactor, switched away as above, came back and the bloody reactor is OFFLINE!!!!!

For the love of god can someone please look at those craft files and tell me what the bloody hell is going on! It's making me lose my mind!!!!!!

Hmm, that is interesting. Right off the bat I notice that the two craft have different root parts. The "fresh built" version has a 375PureLiquidTank as it's root, while the "stripped" version has a computerCore instead. You might try building a version that starts with a computer core and see how it performs.

[NeoAcario]

It's always going to depend on physics delta time with electric charge because the reactor is trying to supply the resources in an unmanaged fashion until the fusion reactor can take over to supply itself with megajoules. Battery capacity is critical with stock resources.

It's much more reliable to use a microwave receiver as a start up power system because then you just need to be able to receive enough power to satisfy the reactor power requirements and toggle the reactor to active. Then you can shut down the receiver and use internal power.

Using electric charge is an option there for convenience but you'll need to test your battery capacity yourself and make sure it provides enough for your needs.

The method I use:

I just slap a couple Microwave Receivers onto launch clamps.

~Steve

[WaveFunctionP]

New tutorial on reactor types, generators, and radiators. Warning, it is rather long. I noticed quite a few minor errors here and there, but I think on the whole it gives a decent overview.

[artforz]

Overall pretty nice, kinda long winded in some places.

Some notes:

ThF4 is not only higher output than UF4, it's also lighter. 12 vs. 15 tons for 3000 units. Not really useful, just something I noticed while messing around.

@39:00 - that's actually a bug in the part files. In the pfission .cfgs the ChargedPower resource should be ChargedParticles

@45:00 - D/He3 and He3/He3 modes in the big fusion reactors produce relatively small amounts of power. The 1.25m reactor produces nearly the same power as the 2.5m in D/He3 and *more* power in He3/He3 mode. Additionally the large reactors need *tons* of MJ just to keep the lights on in those modes. Unupgraded they run net negative and even a upgraded 3.75m in pure He3 mode needs 1350MW of field power to produces a max of 2356MW in ChargedParticles. Even with a DC gen that only leaves 767MW or so left over in ChargedParticles at 100% reactor output...

@52:30 max generator output is scaled down by the ratio of the areas = squared radiuses(radii?).

@59:40 No, it won't. It'll grab Lithium for breeding from everywhere and spread the bred T around, but will only use its internal D/T/He3 for power generation, so external D/T tanks also starve Tokamaks over time unless you manually pump the T back in...

And yeah, Vistas pull D/T from every container on the vessel and just *love* to steal what little T your reactors have.

@1:03:00 Conversion ratio is exactly 1 (well, ignoring the bugs that break breeding...)

@1:09:00 Yes! Why can't $%$#% generators just #$%# remember their #$%$% mode setting? (yeah, I forget checking that a lot...)

@1:24:00 The small radial rads are kinda useful with solar panels on small-ish probes, and... err... uhh... yeah.

@1:29:00 I suspect the VAB thermal display assumes your thermal receiver gets the sum total power output of all transmitters and that 100% of that gets converted to WasteHeat. Not terribly useful, but... what's the alternative?

[Archeron]

Can someone help me acquire this mod? The links on this forum aren't working for me. They both just stick on loading. The alternate download redirects me to mediafire and from there the file doesn't ever download. The normal download from bitbucket just pulls up blank page and stays loading. Is there another place to get the files or something? I see people are still getting the file so maybe its on my end? Can someone confirm its on my end?

[ctbram]

I want to thank everyone that helped to resolve the fusion reactor shutting down when I would leave the active ship and then come back. I salvaged my transfer stage in orbit by replacing the two DT Vista engine pods. I had four 1200Ec batteries in the core section so I just added two more on to each of the DT Vista pods on the sides for a total of 8x 1200Ec batteries and now the reactor continues running when I switch and return to the ship.

Here is a shot of the fixed ship.

The tug used to connect the engine module is still attached on the port side. You can see the four 1200Ec batteries on this side of the ship. I have to send a crew up to attach the KAS struts. The ship is still quite wobbly when I fire the engines. I wish someone would create a rigid docking system for orbital construction. I have a self imposed restriction on the max width of anything I put into orbit so unless I can dock side modules I cannot build anything like this on kerbin.

[Archeron]

Never mind It was my end lol. now to figure out why my machine is being complicated:D Win 8 maybe

[WaveFunctionP]

Overall pretty nice, kinda long winded in some places.

Some notes:

ThF4 is not only higher output than UF4, it's also lighter. 12 vs. 15 tons for 3000 units. Not really useful, just something I noticed while messing around.

@39:00 - that's actually a bug in the part files. In the pfission .cfgs the ChargedPower resource should be ChargedParticles

@45:00 - D/He3 and He3/He3 modes in the big fusion reactors produce relatively small amounts of power. The 1.25m reactor produces nearly the same power as the 2.5m in D/He3 and *more* power in He3/He3 mode. Additionally the large reactors need *tons* of MJ just to keep the lights on in those modes. Unupgraded they run net negative and even a upgraded 3.75m in pure He3 mode needs 1350MW of field power to produces a max of 2356MW in ChargedParticles. Even with a DC gen that only leaves 767MW or so left over in ChargedParticles at 100% reactor output...

@52:30 max generator output is scaled down by the ratio of the areas = squared radiuses(radii?).

@59:40 No, it won't. It'll grab Lithium for breeding from everywhere and spread the bred T around, but will only use its internal D/T/He3 for power generation, so external D/T tanks also starve Tokamaks over time unless you manually pump the T back in...

And yeah, Vistas pull D/T from every container on the vessel and just *love* to steal what little T your reactors have.

@1:03:00 Conversion ratio is exactly 1 (well, ignoring the bugs that break breeding...)

@1:09:00 Yes! Why can't $%$#% generators just #$%# remember their #$%$% mode setting? (yeah, I forget checking that a lot...)

@1:24:00 The small radial rads are kinda useful with solar panels on small-ish probes, and... err... uhh... yeah.

@1:29:00 I suspect the VAB thermal display assumes your thermal receiver gets the sum total power output of all transmitters and that 100% of that gets converted to WasteHeat. Not terribly useful, but... what's the alternative?

Thanks for your feedback. Not sure that I'll be able to address all of those in that video, but I suspect I get around to breaking up the reactor tutorials later as the mod updates.

I was also able to correct the config files in my experimental version for the pfission reactors (my confusion now feels properly justified. ), along with a few other node config tweaks to the thermal receivers that I noticed while reviewing the video.

[Rabada]

Thanks for your feedback. Not sure that I'll be able to address all of those in that video, but I suspect I get around to breaking up the reactor tutorials later as the mod updates.

I was also able to correct the config files in my experimental version for the pfission reactors (my confusion now feels properly justified. ), along with a few other node config tweaks to the thermal receivers that I noticed while reviewing the video.

I enjoyed your video! I did learn a few things, but I already have reactor designs I use that work well for me and avoid the bug you talked about. I'll need to watch it again sometime and pay closer attention because I'm sure my designs could be more efficient. I can't wait for the next videos!! I still have a lot of trouble figuring out how to use the plasma and thermal engines.

If I could make one humble suggestion which I believe would help improve the flow of your videos... You should have ships pre-built and ready in the VAB before you start your video. That way you could make sure that they do what you want them to do, and it will cut out a lot of time looking for parts and dealing with that lag you were getting from your recording software. Please keep up the videos!! and Thank you!

[phoenix_ca]

@WaveFunctionP: It might help you if you create a script before recording, or have a point-form list of specific topics you want to cover in what order. Mostly it'd probably help you with making sure you have the specifics and particular values right, so that you don't spend time wondering whether or not you're right in the recording.

That and something wierd is happening when I try to download your experimental version as a zip. I get a lot of duplicate folders, one with capitalization, one without, for almost each folder, and the files are spread between the duplicates. If you'd be kind enough to package the thing as a zip on your end that'd be handy.

Edited May 5, 2014 by phoenix_ca

[WaveFunctionP]

@WaveFunctionP: It might help you if you create a script before recording, or have a point-form list of specific topics you want to cover in what order. Mostly it'd probably help you with making sure you have the specifics and particular values right, so that you don't spend time wondering whether or not you're right in the recording.

True. I do usually have a set plan for how I intend cover the topic. I've done quite a few videos for other games. The complexity makes it hard to not cover certain topics because they are so interrelated. I don't mind being wrong so much on air so long as I'm able to show the viewer how I find the information that I'm looking for, so that if they run into the same question themselves, they know how to look for it. There is a very slight method to my madness when it comes to my fumbling around. And things that I intend to not cover end up in the video simply because of as I'm speaking I thinking in the mind of the viewer, and I realize that I really should cover it. Case in point, going over radiators and waste heat again because I remembered that I misspoke on my earlier video, and using thermal receivers as power sources for generators simple because I wouldn't be covering generators again.

And this is just my personal taste, but I like to think my unscripted and unpolished style helps keeps the information (which I'm actually usually covering quite a lot of complicated stuff) from becoming overwhelming. And of course, my slow southern cadence doesn't sound like a fire hose of information. I actually have high retention rates on my videos, so I have some indication that this tactic works for me, or at least the viewers that watch my videos. I'm not a very good speaker. I'm not a big talker, so I'm actually spending a good portion of the time just making sure that I'm actually saying the word that I'm thinking. For instance, I'll often say power instead of heat quite often. It's my little oral dyslexia if there was a such thing.

The last video, I kept wanting to stop, but as I got into it, I just felt like I would end up breaking the videos up into segments that wouldn't make sense if someone just linked in from the recommended videos links or a google search. Fortunately, I think that will be the largest video I have to make, and it was just because of all the different parts that have to come together to explain the mechanics.

That's not so say that I don't think things can't be improved. They certainly can. The sound was bothering me as I forgot to extract the audio and run a noise filter on it and re import the new track. Plus, my filtering settings seemed a little off on my last video making it harder to hear what I was saying. I could have perhaps make each reactor a separate video, but I would still want to cover all about generators and upgrades and waste heat and radiators for each one, and I just wanted to get it done. A bit of laziness on my part, but noone else seems willing to do comprehensive video guides for the mods, so I decided to just go ahead with it. Not that I thought it was end up taking an hour and 40 minutes.

Edited May 5, 2014 by WaveFunctionP

[ArcFurnace]

So after stopping the first E-class asteroid from impacting Kerbin in my career save, I decided to start a collection of giant asteroids (it's something to do with KSPI's impressively powerful high-tech engines). I've snagged three so far. However, it seems that the redesign of the puller-configuration tug from plasma engines to DT Vistas might have been a bad idea, regardless of how much better they are (less electricity, more thrust, and more ISP)...

I didn't even know that was possible. I was wondering why I was being throttle-limited to ~30% ... turned out to be MechJeb's "Prevent overheats", so I turned it off because I thought it was just MechJeb being confused. Guess it wasn't. That would have been my fourth asteroid.

[ghimb2000]

True. I do usually have a set plan for how I intend cover the topic. I've done quite a few videos for other games. The complexity makes it hard to not cover certain topics because they are so interrelated. I don't mind being wrong so much on air so long as I'm able to show the viewer how I find the information that I'm looking for, so that if they run into the same question themselves, they know how to look for it. There is a very slight method to my madness when it comes to my fumbling around. And things that I intend to not cover end up in the video simply because of as I'm speaking I thinking in the mind of the viewer, and I realize that I really should cover it. Case in point, going over radiators and waste heat again because I remembered that I misspoke on my earlier video, and using thermal receivers as power sources for generators simple because I wouldn't be covering generators again.

And this is just my personal taste, but I like to think my unscripted and unpolished style helps keeps the information (which I'm actually usually covering quite a lot of complicated stuff) from becoming overwhelming. And of course, my slow southern cadence doesn't sound like a fire hose of information. I actually have high retention rates on my videos, so I have some indication that this tactic works for me, or at least the viewers that watch my videos. I'm not a very good speaker. I'm not a big talker, so I'm actually spending a good portion of the time just making sure that I'm actually saying the word that I'm thinking. For instance, I'll often say power instead of heat quite often. It's my little oral dyslexia if there was a such thing.

The last video, I kept wanting to stop, but as I got into it, I just felt like I would end up breaking the videos up into segments that wouldn't make sense if someone just linked in from the recommended videos links or a google search. Fortunately, I think that will be the largest video I have to make, and it was just because of all the different parts that have to come together to explain the mechanics.

That's not so say that I don't think things can't be improved. They certainly can. The sound was bothering me as I forgot to extract the audio and run a noise filter on it and re import the new track. Plus, my filtering settings seemed a little off on my last video making it harder to hear what I was saying. I could have perhaps make each reactor a separate video, but I would still want to cover all about generators and upgrades and waste heat and radiators for each one, and I just wanted to get it done. A bit of laziness on my part, but noone else seems willing to do comprehensive video guides for the mods, so I decided to just go ahead with it. Not that I thought it was end up taking an hour and 40 minutes.

Hey WaveFunctionP,

Just a thought here for you. Can you create a separate thread with all the videos you have on KSPI?

Something like this thread. Right now your videos are all over the place.

It'll be great for discussion as well as an easy way to subscribe to the thread for new videos.

[WaveFunctionP]

I have a thread in the tutorial forum for the videos. And my youtube channel has a playlist dedicated to my KSP videos. It's in my signature.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76917-Video-Tutorials-KSP-Interstellar-Power-Networks-Power-Generation-%28May-4th-2014%29

Edited May 5, 2014 by WaveFunctionP

[ghimb2000]

I have a thread in the tutorial forum for the videos. And my youtube channel has a playlist dedicated to my KSP videos. It's in my signature.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76917-Video-Tutorials-KSP-Interstellar-Power-Networks-Power-Generation-%28May-4th-2014%29

D'oh. Didn't notice that. Thanks. Subscribed

[Lancake]

I have a problem with my vista engines. My ship has 2 of them in perfect symmetry but one of them has a lower max thrust than the other.

At 100% I get 1100 Kn with the first engine but the other one gives me only 1009.4 Kn. Specific impulse is the same for both of them but fuel flow and thrust doesn't scale correctly for some reason.

With the thrust limiter i can get them around the same thrust but it is rather annoying.

What am I doing wrong?

I have enough power to run them and both engines have a separate liquid fuel tank.

[Rulare]

I can't seem to use the bottom attach node for the ISRU. :<

Is this a problem for anyone else? Anyone know how to fix it? It snaps to attach, but stays red.

[undercoveryankee]

I can't seem to use the bottom attach node for the ISRU. :<

Is this a problem for anyone else? Anyone know how to fix it? It snaps to attach, but stays red.

KSP has an issue where if a part has both top/bottom and side nodes, the part designer has to choose one or the other to attach to the parent. The ISRU has to be attached to the parent through its side node, and then other parts can be attached to it through the top or bottom if necessary.

[philotical]

KSP has an issue where if a part has both top/bottom and side nodes, the part designer has to choose one or the other to attach to the parent. The ISRU has to be attached to the parent through its side node, and then other parts can be attached to it through the top or bottom if necessary.

The tool SelectRoot can help in some cases..

but it's still tricky..

[Kerbonautical]

Can anyone point me to a good tutorial for this mod? I've downloaded it a few times but never got to experimenting with it because, well, I have no idea what half of the stuff actually is, let alone what I would need to make it operate properly. Though I'm looking for a new mod to complement a new career, I would like to think this would be a great addition.

Also can resources be generated while not focusing on the ship or does it have the same complication with this as Kethane?

[Einarr]

@WaveFunctionP: Noted an inaccuracy in your reactors video. The Tier 2 (Sethlans, Sethlans 2, Akula) fission reactors are actually unlocked prior to Fusion Power. I know as I had them as options before I'd unlocked Fusion Power when I added KSPI to my mod list. Fission reactors get a core upgrade at Fusion Power allowing them to generate ~3x the power they could before, but still not on par with even unupgraded Fusion. A review of the relevant part configs and the tree config indicates that the Tier 2 fission reactors are unlocked at the same tech as the Tier 1 fission reactors, Nuclear Propulsion.

[Fractal_UK]

The Sethlans and Akula reactors aren't of a higher tier than the original molten salt reactors, I don't really see one or the other as being better, just a bit different.

The MSRs are really focused on prolonged lifetime and ease of use while the others are a bit more complicated with the passive heat safety features and variable Isp performance of the engines.

I see the choice between them as a matter of preference, I'd be interested to get a feel for what other people prefer though.