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

[Jasmir]

Well, they don't last as long

This!

Or: The gas-core nuclear reactor gets a lower minPower-Rate as the same absolute MinPower of the not upgraded version.

[theSpeare]

So I've only started using transmitters and receivers - the little right-click GUI shows "Relays connected" and this got me really interested - but how do I make relays? Can I simply have a satellite with just both the receiver and transmitter on it?

Also I know that the receiver has to be facing the direction of the power source / relays but does the transmitter have to be as well?

Edited October 24, 2013 by theSpeare

[DaveStrider]

I'd like it if the per-item upgrades had some sort of drawback, if only to explain why they weren't simply upgraded in the tech tree. For example the upgraded warp drive could have a decreased MJ-EM conversion efficiency, in exchange for the faster charging/speeds.

Also if you could simulate an AI revolution and the enslavement of kerbalkind that would make a nice drawback to the AGI core as well.

[akh101]

hey Fractal_UK, your mod.. it dose not like the B9......see yo can't fix that

[RabidMonkey]

hey Fractal_UK, your mod.. it dose not like the B9......see yo can't fix that

I'm running both with no problem. Make sure your versions of KSPI, B9, and TreeLoader are all current.

Also, please stop using your elbows to type. it's hard to read.

[Donziboy2]

Am I missing something here Fractal_UK, I have over 2000 EC/s and its discharging.... It does not even seem to be taking any EC at all.....

[Fractal_UK]

Am I missing something here Fractal_UK, I have over 2000 EC/s and its discharging.... It does not even seem to be taking any EC at all.....

At the moment, it won't recharge until you have at least a small amount of antimatter in it. There are checks so it won't explode right away if you put some in, it will start drawing power first, but I am going to improve this.

[Donziboy2]

At the moment, it won't recharge until you have at least a small amount of antimatter in it. There are checks so it won't explode right away if you put some in, it will start drawing power first, but I am going to improve this.

Ok, it just seemed odd lol.

[Beowolf]

I built a copy of your design to see if I could find anything wrong. It works fine for me.

I'll post a picture, is there anything really different about your design to mine?

Problem solved, although I'm still confused about it. My saved test ship I built on a vanilla 0.22 was exactly like yours, except I didn't add girder segments to widen the legs. But when I redid everything from scratch, including a new 0.22 unzip, it worked! Stupidly I'd deleted that earlier vanilla version, so can't tell what I did wrong.

The earlier ships I was using when I encountered the problem did indeed have fuel line issues, as dual engines were connected to the SciLab's sides via girder segments. I guess the molten aluminum isn't running through the normal fuel lines...sounds like a good thing, actually. It probably wouldn't mix well with the LOX. I recommend making the fuel line instructions prominent when you do your release documentation, as having the aluminum still work convinced me it was a code problem.

Thanks for taking the time to verify it yourself and explaining how the fuel lines worked.

Edited October 24, 2013 by Beowolf
typo

[zzz]

Now for something completely different - engine which Fractal asked some time ago for his chemistry project. Not very accurate and I think I used different model as reference, but something like.

http://www./download/omeve7dv11n3xw9/engine.7z

[Quellix]

I'm having a slitch problem, 3 parts of the mod turns up as white parts. Heat radiators, Warp drive and the Antimatter reactors are all white

Any ideas on how to fix it?

[Thogapotomus]

I'm using the probe sized reactor and generator but I'm producing no waste heat. I have 2 small radiators but they aren't open. If they're open and I close them, the heat jumps up to 0.03 for a split second before fading away.

The reactor and generator being used for power, not propulsion, but it still seems odd to have no heat build up.

Edited October 25, 2013 by Thogapotomus

[SeventhArchitect]

So, I noticed that there were tritium tanks that can be used, and I did end up thinking that they were used to add onto the reactor fuel, because hey, it's tritium/deuterium, and the two are used in reactors, and if I were correct, to make helium plasma.

I would love it if someone would elaborate to me upon the subject of what tritium breeding is and how it is done, and what it is good for.

[DaveStrider]

So, I noticed that there were tritium tanks that can be used, and I did end up thinking that they were used to add onto the reactor fuel, because hey, it's tritium/deuterium, and the two are used in reactors, and if I were correct, to make helium plasma.

I would love it if someone would elaborate to me upon the subject of what tritium breeding is and how it is done, and what it is good for.

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen with 2 neutrons and a proton. It can be combined with deuterium (1 neutron, 1 proton) in nuclear fusion to create huge amounts of energy. Tritium is made by adding a neutron to Lithium-6 to make Helium and Tritium. Normally in a fission reactor we need to control the amount of free neutrons (high amounts of which lead to meltdowns) If we use Lithium for this instead of some other neutron absorber we get Tritium as a handy by-product of the nuclear fission.

[Cairan]

Any way you can reload and try and make it happen again? I really need a log file or I can't know if the bug is even an Interstellar bug, nevermind how to fix it. For now, the only thing I can do is add in code to make sure that science is never updated by an NaN value.

Unfortunately my persistence file was not backed up ... and after this little stunt, I could no longer gather science in a "regular" way nor could I upgrade parts on ships, since the Science points was now a non-number ... So I had to change the sci = xxx field in the persistence file manualy to an integer value.

Sorry, I know without a log you can't do anything, but if someone else has the same issue, at least you'll know it happened once

[Fractal_UK]

Combining a bit of work from Conti and myself, we have done a total revamp of the Thermal Rockets as well as the air intake system. So, let me give you the highlights of these changes:

• Flameout Prevention: The engines will simply revise down their thrust, whether using IntakeAir or IntakeAtm, to prevent nasty flameouts.
  
• TWR Limiter: Good for antimatter rockets, lets you toggle through a few TWR options and cap off the engine's max throttle. This should help give you more fine control when using very powerful engines.
  
• Universal Intakes: There is now no longer a need for atmospheric intakes or air intakes, all intakes have both resources, including modded intakes. That means you can take your b9 intakes to Duna and fly with thermal turbojets.
  
• Code Revamp: I've totally rewritten both the ThermalRocket/Jet code and the ElectricalGenerator code, both bits of code were getting messy due to the increase in capability and scope since I first designed them. They are now much more efficient, which should lead to better performance and fewer bugs.
  

[Xentoe]

hmm a question... must we now begin at eatch update a mod does again with the carrermod (because the loading?).

That is a general question not real related only to this very (my fav) mod.

Was bye the way now the (Sorry I think you did super brilliant work) the swing by Warpmodel been worked in?

Because the old model is now sure notmore so easy to "work" in.

[InfinityArch]

Okay, I'm just having a small issue with this plugin; for some reason, radiators, the science lab, and whatnot start out with the appearence of being deployed when ships load in, despite not actually being deployed in terms of in game stuff, ie I can fly as fast as I want without them tearing off. any idea how to fix that?

[Fractal_UK]

Okay, I'm just having a small issue with this plugin; for some reason, radiators, the science lab, and whatnot start out with the appearence of being deployed when ships load in, despite not actually being deployed in terms of in game stuff, ie I can fly as fast as I want without them tearing off. any idea how to fix that?

If you toggle them on and off they should go back to normal. I have fixed this bug in my development version, so you'll have the fix in the next update.

[pina_coladas]

So if I do something crazy like stick 4 thermal turbojets to the back of a reactor, will they still draw 4x more thermal power than they should and flame out?

[stevron]

So if I do something crazy like stick 4 thermal turbojets to the back of a reactor, will they still draw 4x more thermal power than they should and flame out?

One engine per reactor, multiple engines split the power.

[Imca]

How can you even stick 4 on the back of one reactor?

They dont work if there is a part between them AFIK, and they attach via node.

[pina_coladas]

I have done it by messing with CFG files to turn other parts into reactors. Also I could have just used editor extensions to turn on surface attachment on the turbojets to put more than one on a regular reactor. It would be nice if the thermal power of the reactor was split between any engines attached, sort of like how megajoules are split between all plasma engines. The way it works now is that each thermal turbojet tries to draw power as if it was the only one attached and the reactor runs out of thermal energy, making the jets flame out. Keeping the throttle to 1/4 (with 4 engines) fixes this but then you miss out of the really nice animations on the turbojets. Yeah, I know.

Sorry for being a pain, fractal!

[Conti]

I changed that in the new code, there is no flameout, thermal power and available IntakeAtm is equally divided, though it still requires a direct attachment to a reactor (and coming soon, an inline microwave thermal receiver). I also created a heat exchanger to move thermal power from a reactor elsewhere on the vessel to various engines, but at a reduced temp (1500K limit, so reduced ISP)... Though I am not sure if Fractal will merge that code, we'll see.

[Fractal_UK]

I also created a heat exchanger to move thermal power from a reactor elsewhere on the vessel to various engines, but at a reduced temp (1500K limit, so reduced ISP)... Though I am not sure if Fractal will merge that code, we'll see.

It will be there, I'm quite happy with that system now we've brought the temperature on it down. There will then a nice tradeoff between the performance of a directly attached reactor and the convenience of being able to put the reactor anywhere.

Following my reorganistion of the code, it should likewise be possible to attach a generator to one of these heat exchangers. Again, lower temperature means lower efficiency but it might be useful to someone.