M455-2-NRG & NRG-2-M455 starting off

[SeventhArchitect]

I have ABSOLUTELY all the knowledge I need to begin. Just thought I'd say that.

But I have absolutely no idea how to host a new mod...

Currently, I am actually working with a group of friends to create a new future game, and this could be a good start, what with learning how to use model-editing software, and even recoding a few things. True, KSP is not that much work to deal with, and currently, I do need as much as a few pointers on where to start when I need new textures and models.

Right now, though, this shall be nothing more than me recoding stock parts, and making copies so that regular stock parts may be used. Thing about this is, it's not to give ANYONE a cheating advantage. True, MTE, and ETM transition is a very cheat-like thing, given you could load up a single orbital ship with umpteen hundred Pb-Ion generators, but thats the part I'm not worried about, and it makes it to where I'm going to have to harshen the values here. Like slow fuel production. True, yes, this could be used to make much smaller, and much easier to pilot return trip/reusable vessels, but at a slow rate.

Heck, I might even put in a system that would make ti to where Kerbals die after so long, though without age effects... A simple cryochamber pod, (like some kind of altered hitch hiker pod), could keep them alive much long, and make this possible. Now that would be fun, but for now, no death for kerbals, just ETM and MTE.

As mentioned, I have no idea where to kick this off. I'm not even starting at this moment. In fact, I'm going to simply go to bed right now, and when I get up, then I'll begin.

But, eh...Trial and error, all big things start small, and this is a very small start.

By the way. I have not seen ANY mod that does this except something similar in the Jool-V mod (I think it was that mod...), where they turned liquidfuel to electric charge. If you know of a mod that already does this, lemme know.

Edited September 2, 2013 by SeventhArchitect

[Kommitz]

There's plenty of mass-to-energy systems (nuclear reactors) but you're not gong to find any of the opposite because it's cheaty and a slight engineering problem.

The Jool-V was probably emulating a very undetailed fuel cell.

[SeventhArchitect]

Hm, that says a lot. But now that I think about it, transfering Liquidfuel to Solidfuel for a rocket (doing so sounds cool but complicated, and pretty advanced, given you can't shut down a solidfuel tank...), can require a different kind of figuring. Like, say, you convert The liquidfuel directly to Solidfuel instead of taking a long route of going from liquid to energy to solid, and it would save a lot of resources.

This will be a bit advanced, given that I'm going to have to figure so many things, like which kind of fuel is heaviest, which is most volatile (puts out more thrust), and so on. I might even make a new fuel, could be a fun idea.

I'm so excited now that I'm up, but the hardest part is coding, and thats what I have to do first. Wish me luck, algorithms and polinomials, here I come.

[SeventhArchitect]

Alight, first update going, and I do need a few opinions. Now, first is Electric Charge generation, which is doable at 45 units per second by the use of a Pb-Ion generator. Multiply that by 8, and you get 360 per 8-snapped generators. I was going to base this off of 8 of the gigantor XL solar arrays, but they provide less than a Pb-Ion Generator.

Currently, the transfer is 0.9 Liquidfuel per 400 Electric Charge Units. And with equal amount of power, you can generate 1.1 Oxidizer, creating the same amount of fuel required to run any engine. That is, unless one particular rocket engine takes up to using more or less than that. One resource per part.

This conversion seems fair for the rocket fuel, I think, but I'm not sure if I should up the power consumption or not.

Edit: Made a mistake. The Pb-Ion generators produce 45 ECU per minute, not second, the gigantor XL solar arrays have just become the new energy supply lookoff.

0.9 LiquidFuel per 160 ECU

1.1 Oxidizer per 160 ECU

Edited September 2, 2013 by SeventhArchitect

[PringleMan]

Jool-V just had an alternator like most engines. Even stock engines generate electric charge while running. You are probably thinking of the HOME mod also from bobcat, where the powerplant module had a "nuclear reactor" in it, which you could throttle up or down for power as needed.

As for the converting to solid fuel part, that is really just a chemical process. Since we do not know what liquid fuel and oxidizer actually ARE in KSP, you could swing that. Energy to mass conversion requires astronomical amounts of power, plus an understanding of physics that we just do not know yet ourselves. For example an electron has a rest mass of .511 MeV / c^2, which basically means that it is the equivalent of .511 MeV of energy condensed into a weird, self contained, oscillating state. Protons are about 938.272 MeV / c^2.

So in a hypothetical scenario, lets consider 1 mole of stable molecular oxygen (O2). Each oxygen atom consists of 7 protons, 7 neutrons, and 7 electrons. Since neutrons and protons are roughly the same (enough for this), there are 28 * 938.272 MeV / c^2 for the nuclei, and 14 * .511 MeV / c^2 for the electron cloud.

1 mole is 6.02 * 10^23 molecules. So we then have (6.02 * 10^23)(28*938.272 + 14*.511) MeV / c^2

This works out to 1.582 * 10 ^ 28 MeV / c^2 of mass for the 1 mole of molecular oxygen. For the amount of energy, just drop the c^2, so there is 1.582 * 10^28 MeV of energy in that one mole of oxygen.

Now as a sobering reminder, here is a couple of comparisons. 1 mole of molecular oxygen is 32 grams. The actual mass of oxygen you consume on a daily basis is about 780 grams give or take. A 20 kT nuclear device will yield about 5.25 * 10^17 MeV of energy if you were able to capture all of it. Suddenly I find myself having much much more respect for the matter around me, and for the idea of energy to matter conversion.

Now having said that all, this is a game and not a simulator. Therefore, go nuts and have fun! make whatever you want m8. I personally think that a better-to-justify approach would be to use a quantity of energy to break down stuff and recombine. I think that is really what you are suggesting, but there are a couple of core problems with that too if you want to get into the physics (in quantum the sum of the parts does not always equal the whole, which is why fission produces energy for large atoms)

[SeventhArchitect]

Dude, dude, I took chemistry, and studied physics, I know what I would be doing even if it were reality. But, when converting Mass to energy, you're not just breaking down molecules, or moving Electrons. TRUE Mass to Energy would be like turning the entire atom into nothing but pure energy.

And I kinda follow what you're saying about it In-game. Currently, it's supposed to be an expensive process that will take a lot of time if you don't have an abundant amount of energy. In this particular idea, using 8 Gigantor XL Solar Arrays would be a bit under the line needed to produce fuel efficiently. This also to encourage large crafts, and the idea originally came from about 10 minutes looking over and reading through how a few people made reusable ships.

It's meant to encourage the creation of big ships, space stations, and bases. First thing I'll do, though, is make large ships.

[PringleMan]

Oh I know you are not just breaking down molecules. I was saying that for what you are suggesting you COULD explain it that way, but really it is up to you.

[SeventhArchitect]

Truuuuue. Except I've come to a full stand still until I can figure out how to make an On/Off switch for the generators myself, or until someone tells me how. Otherwise, the parts are just as they were planned to be...Just no way to turn them on...

[PringleMan]

You will need to write a plugin to do that. Use something like KAS or Kethane to look up a toggle-state for custom parts. That is unless you want to just make an engine that consumes energy and produces X-resource, which may actually be a neat approach as that will give you throttle control.

[SeventhArchitect]

But then it will be tied into the engines as well. True, could accelerate or decelerate the process, but it'd be reacting WITH the engines. I don't want that. I don't see why I can't just make it act like maybe a Pb-Ion generator, where you can shut it off and on, and thats about it, but it's something that literally would have to be in the deeper coding of the game itself.

Maybe if I took a different route, using something like and engine's data files, but use the current model and part file I'm using, maybe that'd work.

I'd be changign it to something else, though, like a light or something, but it'd server it's true purpose, still.

[PringleMan]

But then it will be tied into the engines as well. True, could accelerate or decelerate the process, but it'd be reacting WITH the engines. I don't want that. I don't see why I can't just make it act like maybe a Pb-Ion generator, where you can shut it off and on, and thats about it, but it's something that literally would have to be in the deeper coding of the game itself.

Maybe if I took a different route, using something like and engine's data files, but use the current model and part file I'm using, maybe that'd work.

I'd be changign it to something else, though, like a light or something, but it'd server it's true purpose, still.

Not sure what you mean it would be reacting with the engines.

Anyways like I said find a mod like KAS or Kethane where there are devices with toggle states. Basically right click on it and turn it on, right click and turn it off. Ultimately you just need the code segment that makes that work. Realistically to get good functionality in the long run you are going to need to make your own plugin eventually. The stock part modules only do so much.

[SeventhArchitect]

Problem has already arisen. Currently I might have to just trial and error this whole thing, and repurpose the part, because I realized it may be running like the engines, and does do exactly what I don't want it to, or the latter, it jsut plum doesn't work at all.

Either way, need to rewrite it, probably from scratch. *le sigh* I did say I was gonna do this, and I needed the practice. Just needa learn mahself how ta code.