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

[Donziboy2]

I use them for science labs and I usually just have a dedicated tug.

[forsaken1111]

The nukes are fantastic for ships that will never enter an atmosphere though. I use them on my tugs for moving parts around the under-construction station in orbit.

Speaking of, is there a chart anywhere or at least an easy rule on what altitude will get the most particle flux for collectors? For now I have some around kerbin but I hope to push them out to Jool or something. Just don't know where to park em.

If not, I'll use probes but it can get a bit tedious launching dozens of probes.

[Scotius]

Unfortunately no. Someone tried earlier to tie magnetometer output data into Graphotron 2000 mod. It would let us make Excel spreads with graphs and such - alas, nothing came out of it. Same with Telemachus mod. Maybe someone with good coding skills could make it work, or even make in-mod pop-up window?

[EpsilonIndustries]

First off, this is without a doubt the best mod ever. So good that it managed to pull me out of my lurking for the first time since the forum purge

However, I've got a few problem with the engines. The first one seems to be purely graphical and therefore isn't as urgent. Every engine from the mod has 2 exaust trails regardless of whether the engine is on or not.

As you can see not only is the throttle not up but the engine is also disabled.

The next 2 problems are related and only start after I pass 6km. First, if there is an engine (not active) from the mod anywhere on my craft, as soon as I pass 6km the camera drops a few hundred meters. It's as though it thinks my center of mass is way lower than it is. Second, if I activate a mod engine the craft starts spinning out of control. But again, this only starts once I hit 6km.

The only thing I can think of is that I'm running on Linux but I have no idea why that would affect it like this. Anyway, just wanted to bring it to your attention, great work on a fantastic mod!

[forsaken1111]

Is that the latest version? The thermal rocket nozzle looks different.

[EpsilonIndustries]

Yep thats the latest version...I think it has a fairing on it for some reason (didn't notice that at the time).

[Scotius]

That part with camera dropping suddenly happened to me too. On Windows 7 I was using Hybrid engines to test if they can get me to orbit (Tylo lander with ISRU refuelling option, anyone? ). Some time later i used Hybrids as SRBs to get another ship to orbit, and nothing wrong happened. Weird.

EDIT: Huh. It's just happened again. This time i was using four stacks of AM reactor/thermal nozzle. And yes, it was at 6000 meters. Looks like something's doesn't like me using multiple engines.

Edited October 6, 2013 by Scotius

[Fractal_UK]

First off, this is without a doubt the best mod ever. So good that it managed to pull me out of my lurking for the first time since the forum purge

However, I've got a few problem with the engines. The first one seems to be purely graphical and therefore isn't as urgent. Every engine from the mod has 2 exaust trails regardless of whether the engine is on or not.

As you can see not only is the throttle not up but the engine is also disabled.

The next 2 problems are related and only start after I pass 6km. First, if there is an engine (not active) from the mod anywhere on my craft, as soon as I pass 6km the camera drops a few hundred meters. It's as though it thinks my center of mass is way lower than it is. Second, if I activate a mod engine the craft starts spinning out of control. But again, this only starts once I hit 6km.

The only thing I can think of is that I'm running on Linux but I have no idea why that would affect it like this. Anyway, just wanted to bring it to your attention, great work on a fantastic mod!

The two exhaust trails is what happens an engine component throws a NullReferenceException, so it is unfortunately much more than just a graphical error.

It could be that I've made a mistake in making the paths to the propellant settings file and made it not compatible with a Linux file system. I'll have to check this. Does anyone else have this working on Linux, I wonder?

The other thing to do is just check your installation of the plugin and make sure that nothing strange has happened like there being two GameData folders. Another guy earlier in the thread had done that and it broke everything like this.

The rest of the problems are caused by flying with a part that's constantly throwing an exception, so it's all related.

[Fractal_UK]

Looks like this was my fault, the propellant property file loader requires non case sensitive paths, which is fine in Windows but no good for Linux players, I shall fix this in 0.6.1

[Jasmir]

Hi Fractal_UK,

the heat-radiators a great. My Crew Taxi does now look like this:

A suggestion for consequences if the wasteheat isn't removed in time from the vessel: The heat generating things (i.e. the reactors) should be damaged/destroyed. Maybe with a repair-option, depending on spareparts and time. (If you know eve-online, i imagine the same mechanic as overheating modules there. They get damage that can be repaired with material and time. But if you overdo the overheating, the module became damaged beyond repair and went offline)

PS: I'll still would like to see, that the warpdrive is much harder to use. (Maybe by limiting the slowest speed to 1c? I really don't know)

[Donziboy2]

I have been playing around with a Microwave receiver tug Its not fast, if I can add some more receivers it may be a viable option.

The tug has a 32T load also so i'm doing pretty good for not having any gens/reactors. Im currently looking for ways to get more sats closer to the sun and this may do it.

Fractal is there a formula handy for range vs efficiency of the transmitters/receivers?

[EpsilonIndustries]

Looks like this was my fault, the propellant property file loader requires non case sensitive paths, which is fine in Windows but no good for Linux players, I shall fix this in 0.6.1

That would do it! I'll try to keep an eye out for any other linux bugs while I play.

[Scotius]

I have been playing around with a Microwave receiver tug Its not fast, if I can add some more receivers it may be a viable option.

The tug has a 32T load also so i'm doing pretty good for not having any gens/reactors. Im currently looking for ways to get more sats closer to the sun and this may do it.

Fractal is there a formula handy for range vs efficiency of the transmitters/receivers?

Wow! I've just realised: this would make a fine solar panel Just change the texture, add power generation and solar tracking and presto - huge and handy at the same moment. Zzz, care to apply your magic and make it happen?

[zzz]

Only if without tracking, If rotate whole thing it will clip, if rotate panels separately, oh, it will be too overcomplicated setup if possible and need redo animation. If just paint it blue. Don't think it's good idea and needed, but sounds easy, I can try tomorrow.

Question, is this mod in preperation with the new .22

For any "preparation" of any mod - update must be released in the first place. If only in heart.

Edited October 6, 2013 by zzz

[CyclonicTuna]

Question, is this mod in preperation with the new .22 update? Because it seems to me like you are having a crack at the R&D portion of the game.

[forsaken1111]

How about a part that can take control of the craft's rotation and aim it precisely? Aim at a celestial body, or another craft, etc.

[MDBenson]

Okay, I apologise for being a dullard, I am no theoretical physicist or tech genius, it's true, but I do want to use this for some experiments.

I've tried, but I really have no idea how any of this works. The documentation is full of lots of grand theories and techno-babble but has no clear, concise explanations really how to build each propulsion system and the different combinations you can use to power them.

For me the accessibility of this mod its a little limited as people like me who don't grasp the theory can't really work out how to make it work in practice.

[EpsilonIndustries]

Only if without tracking, If rotate whole thing it will clip, if rotate panels separately, oh, it will be too overcomplicated setup if possible and need redo animation. If just paint it blue.

Even without solar tracking (which I agree would look odd with the way they fold out) they would be great for stationary structures like bases and the like.

How about a part that can take control of the craft's rotation and aim it precisely? Aim at a celestial body, or another craft, etc.

You could set the object as target and use the vector on the nav ball. It wouldn't be automatic and it wouldn't work for the sun but it works till someone makes a mod.

Edited October 6, 2013 by EpsilonIndustries

[forsaken1111]

Yeah I suppose you can just set target and use something like mechjeb to align yourself. As you say, it doesn't work for the sun. so its still better to use solar panels which track.

[Ratata]

Scott Manley has made a vid about this mod:

i dare to say, fractal_uk you just gained a lot of extra fans!

[Donziboy2]

The ship I showed had the ability to pitch the whole structure on the front, I have to rotate the hole ship so that the sun is either above or below the ship, all my sats are circling the sun so I just point in the suns direction and im set.

[Seyvern]

I started playing with this mod, and then got annoyed with it, as cool as it is, because the thrust values are so out-of-wack w/ stock KSP. I searched the thread, and saw the reply where the mod developer admits this, but is ok with it. I'm not, because I'm not going to play with this when a LV-N is so much superior to a 'stock' nuclear reactor and thruster. So I went in, figured out the equations used in the Mod, and reverse engineered a new set of part values. I haven't played with the plasma engines, just the thermal- i don't think it will mess them up balance-wise, as I believe they were ok (it will change the thrust to weight ratios somewhat, but in a useable way, IMO).

In any case, if you change the part file parameters as listed in the following chart, you will get ISP, Thrust, and T/W Ratios as per the chart. Note that the values fall directly in line with the LV-N (ISP is better per the mod, but I made the weight slightly higher to compensate):

............waste.heat.....Core.Temp.......Thermal.Power....Thrust...........ISP...........Reac.Mass.......Jet.Mass.....Total.Mass.......T/M.R

N625........112.50.........2900.00..........20.00............4.46............914.91........0.225...........0.001........0.226............19.72

N625U.......112.50.........26100.00.........60.00............4.46............2744.73.......0.225...........0.001........0.226............19.72

N1250.......2500.00........2900.00..........350.00...........77.99...........914.91........3.00............0.00.........3.00.............25.99

N1250U......2500.00........26100.00.........1050.00..........77.99...........2744.73.......3.00............0.00.........3.00.............25.99

N2500.......30000.00.......2900.00..........750.00...........167.13..........914.91........6.00............0.00.........6.00.............27.85

N2500U......30000.00.......26100.00.........2250.00..........167.13..........2744.73.......6.00............0.00.........6.00.............27.85

N3500.......150000.00......2900.00..........1600.00..........356.54..........914.91........12.00...........0.00.........12.00............29.71

N3500U......150000.00......26100.00.........4800.00..........356.54..........2744.73.......12.00...........0.00.........12.00............29.71

A1250.......500000.00......10000.00.........5000.00..........600.00..........1698.95.......2.00............0.00.........2.00.............299.85

A1250U......500000.00......1200000.00.......55000.00.........602.49..........18611.03......2.00............0.00.........2.00.............301.10

A2500.......4000000.00.....10000.00.........18000.00.........2160.00.........1698.95.......6.00............0.00.........6.00.............359.94

A2500U......4000000.00.....1200000.00.......198000.00........2168.98.........18611.03......6.00............0.00.........6.00.............361.44

A3500.......13500000.00....10000.00.........40000.00.........4800.00.........1698.95.......12.00...........0.00.........12.00............399.97

A3500U......13500000.00....1200000.00.......440000.00........4819.96.........18611.03......12.00...........0.00.........12.00............401.63

for comparison

LV-N 60.00 800.00 2.25 26.67

Just edit your parts (save it somewhere so you can copy over updates) and you will have baseline parts that are equivalent to Stock, and all the functionality of the mod. These parts are all reasonable, IMO. A 2.5m AM engine has a thrust not very different from a mainsail, but great ISP. seems balanced compared to stock.

If you like it, enjoy it.

-Seyv

Edited October 6, 2013 by Seyvern
for readability (of chart)

[Fractal_UK]

Okay, I apologise for being a dullard, I am no theoretical physicist or tech genius, it's true, but I do want to use this for some experiments.

I've tried, but I really have no idea how any of this works. The documentation is full of lots of grand theories and techno-babble but has no clear, concise explanations really how to build each propulsion system and the different combinations you can use to power them.

For me the accessibility of this mod its a little limited as people like me who don't grasp the theory can't really work out how to make it work in practice.

The tables are quite useful for figuring that out, they on the first post but they're better organised here. The wiki is in no way complete yet and I am aware the documentation isn't entirely adequate, it's something I'm trying to slowly improve.

The key "stack" in the mod is the generator->reactor->thermal rocket stack, because its one of the few examples where parts need to be stuck directly onto each other in a particular way. If you build a rocket with those 3 parts in that order, you can more or less attach other parts wherever you please.

You don't need a generator if you just want thrust from a thermal rocket but the moment you want electricity too, you'll need one. Plasma engines and most other things in the mod are powered electrically.

[willow]

Hey, I've been trying to wrap my head around this mod, but I'm having big problems getting into it. I can't get anything to work, which is to be expected considering that I'm still pretty clueless as to what to actually do with the thing.

Could someone write up a suggestion for the first thing to get working that would be an actual benefit to a space program?

For example.

I put a reactor a fuel tank and a plasma engine together. In the editor it suggests I have a good 500 units of power, mechjeb converts this to a 1.4 twr, which would be enough to get me off the ground. But on the launch platform all that power gives me only a .20 twr which is woefully insufficient.

I sent out some probes with antimatter measuring rods. I found the biggest concentration around jool, which is still only about 10^-3, converting to a 3 month loading period, is that normal? Do I really have to let my computer time accelerate through that period? Or am I doing something wrong?

I've managed to produce some antimatter in a lab. (Nice to put that feature in) and then fed it into a reactor, which just produced a large blob of heat but ate through the anti matter in a matter of seconds. It would seem I need to gather anti matter in a period of months and then I can fly my ship with it for a good 10 minutes?

[Jasmir]

You don't need a generator if you just want thrust from a thermal rocket but the moment you want electricity too, you'll need one. Plasma engines and most other things in the mod are powered electrically.

By seeing this, i have a question: Why did you intruduce a new unit "Megajoules" into the game instead simply using the existing "ElectricCharge" in a balanced way?