[WIP] Nert's Dev Thread - Current: various updates

[Nightside]

20 hours ago, Nertea said:

Here's some stuff I did last year that is getting released soon (click for album): 

[picture of nosy satellite]

 

Incredible!

[AmpCat]

On 2/11/2020 at 1:03 PM, Nertea said:

I don't know if I want to do anything with KSP2 yet. I might retire. @Beale somehow managed to escape this insanity.

If I do do anything for KSP2 though, I want to ensure that it is less work than doing everything from scratch. 

@Nertea, not to poke any open wounds, but have you directly asked the KSP2 guys why your work was so blatantly mimiced (if not copied), without any credit or even discussion with you? I think it's a fair thing to ask. After all, your stuff is one of the most popular mods to the game.

[PocketBrotector]

On 4/1/2020 at 9:17 PM, Nertea said:

Here's some stuff I did last year that is getting released soon (click for album): 

[snip]

 

Oh, this looks awesome. Is this going to be part of ScanSat itself or some other part pack?

[Nertea]

5 hours ago, AmpCat said:

@Nertea, not to poke any open wounds, but have you directly asked the KSP2 guys why your work was so blatantly mimiced (if not copied), without any credit or even discussion with you? I think it's a fair thing to ask. After all, your stuff is one of the most popular mods to the game.

Uh I take issue at that, they are just deriving work from real-world and other sci-fi concepts which is what I do. I'm just another source of concept art - no harm done at all. 

28 minutes ago, PocketBrotector said:

Oh, this looks awesome. Is this going to be part of ScanSat itself or some other part pack?

Part of ScanSat. 

[AmpCat]

5 hours ago, Nertea said:

Uh I take issue at that, they are just deriving work from real-world and other sci-fi concepts which is what I do. I'm just another source of concept art - no harm done at all. 

Fair enough.

[NiL]

On 4/3/2020 at 8:53 PM, Nertea said:

Part of ScanSat. 

Oh, great! And could we possibly see a real imaging capability in those cameras like in Hullcam... CactEye? Or TST parts? And/or science experiments with that parts to add even more functionality?

[Nertea]

9 hours ago, NiL said:

Oh, great! And could we possibly see a real imaging capability in those cameras like in Hullcam... CactEye? Or TST parts? And/or science experiments with that parts to add even more functionality?

Just ScanSat functionality. You can patch in whatever you like though. 

[Nertea]

The NFLV major update is 95% complete so it would be great if people could help me iron out any bugs. It should be backwards compatible with older NFLV versions and KSP 1.8.x as well. 

Here's the current changelog: 

•  KSP 1.9.x
•  Updated B9PartSwitch to 2.16.0
•  Updated ModuleManager to 4.1.3
•  SOFT-DEPRECATED ALL PARTS
•  New/redone part lineup
  •   Engines
    •    KS-1E 'Goldfish' Liquid Fuel Engine: Micro booster engine based on RocketLab Rutherford. 0.625m and Compact variants.
    •    KS-1M 'Otter' Liquid Fuel Engine: Tiny booster engine based on Merlin 1D. 0.625m, Boattail and Compact variants.
    •    KS-10AJ 'Walrus' Liquid Fuel Engine: Small booster engine based on AR-1. 1.25m, Boattail and Compact variants.
    •    KS-107 'Porpoise' Liquid Fuel Engine: Medium booster engine based on TR-107. 1.875m, Boattail and Compact variants.
    •    KS-160 'Orca' Liquid Fuel Engine: Large booster engine based on Space Transportation Booster Engine study. 2.5m, Boattail and Compact variants.
    •    KS-600AJ 'Manatee' Liquid Fuel Engine: Huge booster engine based on AR-1 cluster. 3.75m only.
    •    KR-1E-V 'Angora' Liquid Fuel Engine: Tiny sustainer engine based on Rutherford Vacuum. 0.625m, Boattail and Compact variants.
    •    KR-1M-V 'Sphinx' Liquid Fuel Engine: Small sustainer engine based on Merlin 1D Vacuum. 1.25m, Boattail and Compact variants.
    •    KR-74 'Lynx' Liquid Fuel Engine: Medium sustainer engine based on RD-704. 1.875m, Boattail and Compact variants.
    •    KR-84 'Ocelot' Liquid Fuel Engine: Large sustainer engine based on RS-84. 2.5m, Boattail and Compact variants.
    •    KR-701 'Cougar' Liquid Fuel Engine: Huge sustainer engine based on RD-701. 3.75m, Boattail and Compact variants.
  •   5m stack parts
    •    NR-51200 Fuel Tank: 5m long fuel tank. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours.
    •    NR-25600 Fuel Tank: 5m medium fuel tank. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours.
    •    NR-12800 Fuel Tank: 5m short fuel tank. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours.
    •    NR-6400 Fuel Tank: 5m tiny fuel tank. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours.
    •    NR-AD-10400 Adapter: 5m long fuel tank adapter. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours. Can switch to a hollow structural version.
    •    NR-AD-6400 Adapter: 5m medium fuel tank adapter. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours. Can switch to a hollow structural version.
    •    NR-AD-2600 Adapter: 5m short fuel tank adapter. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours. Can switch to a hollow structural version.
    •    NR-AD-CAP Adapter: 5m flat adapter. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours.
    •    NR-AD-SKL Adapter: 5m skeletal adapter. Can add upper, lower or both fuel tanks.
    •    NR-C-12800 Fuelled Nosecone: 5m long fuelled nosecone. Comes in White and Orange colours.
    •    NR-C-6400 Rounded Nosecone: 5m rounded noseconse. Comes in White and Orange colours.
    •    NCR-8 Cargo Bay: Long 5m cargo bay
    •    NCR-4 Cargo Bay: Medium 5m cargo bay
    •    NCR-2 Cargo Bay: Short 5m cargo bay
    •    NCR-1 Cargo Bay: Tiny 5m cargo bay.
    •    NCR-N Nose Cargo Bay: 5m nose cargo bay
    •    N-Series Service Bay: 5m service bay with toggleable floor. 
    •    AE-FF4 Payload Fairing (5.0m): 5m fairing base. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours.
    •    N-Series Structural Tube: Multi-length interstage cargo tube with built-in decoupler. 
    •    Clamp-O-Tron Mondo Docking Port: 5m docking port
    •    TR-500 Stack Decoupler: 5m decoupler. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours.
    •    TS-500 Stack Separator 5m separator. Comes in White, Black and White, and Orange colours.
    •    NR-L1 Lower Stage Engine Mount: Energia-alike engine cluster mount.
    •    NR-L2 Lower Stage Engine Mount: SLS-alike engine cluster mount.
    •    NR-L3 Lower Stage Engine Mount: New Glenn-alike engine cluster mount.
    •    NR-L4 Lower Stage Engine Mount: Superheavy-alike engine cluster mount.
    •    NR-U1 Upper Stage Engine Mount: Starship-alike upper stage mount. Comes with multi-length interstage
    •    NR-U2 Upper Stage Engine Mount: Energia-M-alike upper stage mount. Comes with multi-length interstage
    •    NR-U3 Upper Stage Engine Mount: S-II-alike upper stage mount. Comes with multi-length interstage
    •    Z-32K Rechargeable Battery Bank: 5m battery bank
    •    R-N Guidance Computer Unit: 5m guidance unit.
  •  7.5m parts
    •    EA-F768 Fuel Tank: 7.5m long fuel tank.
    •    EA-F384 Fuel Tank: 7.5m medium fuel tank.
    •    EA-F192 Fuel Tank: 7.5m small fuel tank.
    •    EA-F96 Fuel Tank: 7.5m tiny fuel tank.
    •    EA-EA-F1536 Fuel Tank: 7.5m extra long fuel tank.
    •    EA-S20 Fuel Tank Adapter: Long 7.5m tank adapter. Can switch to a hollow structural version.
    •    EA-S10 Fuel Tank Adapter: Short 7.5m tank adapter. Can switch to a hollow structural version.
    •    ECR-N Nose Cargo Bay: Nose cargo bay
    •    ECR-1 Cargo Bay: Really long 7.5m cargo bay
    •    ECR-2 Cargo Bay: Medium 7.5m cargo bay
    •    ECR-4 Cargo Bay: Small 7.5m cargo bay
    •    ECR-8 Cargo Bay: Tiny 7.5m cargo bay
    •    E-Series Service Bay: 7.5m service bay
    •    AE-FF5 Payload Fairing (7.5m): 7.5m paylod fairing, White and Black and White variants.
    •    TR-750 Stack Decoupler: 5m decoupler.
    •    TS-750 Stack Separator 5m separator. 
    •    R-EX Guidance Computer Unit: 7.5m guidance unit
    •    Z-72K Rechargeable Battery Bank: 7.5m battery bank
    •    ER-L1 Lower Stage Engine Mount: BFR-alike engine cluster mount.
    •    ER-L2 Lower Stage Engine Mount: Large engine cluster mount.
    •    ER-U1 Upper Stage Engine Mount: ITS-alike upper stage mount. Comes with multi-length interstage
    •    ER-U2 Upper Stage Engine Mount: EUS-alike upper stage mount. Comes with multi-length interstage
    •    EA-C-TBD Fuelled Nosecone: Fuelled 7.5m nosecone
    •    EA-C-TBD Rounded Nosecone: Round nosecone
  •   Radial parts
  •   RCS
    •    RQ-5x1 Heavy RCS Thruster: heavy RCS thruster (single)
    •    RQ-5x4 Heavy RCS Thruster: heavy RCS block (quad)
    •    RJ-88x1 Heavy Bipropellant RCS Thruster: LFO heavy RCS thruster (single)
    •    RJ-88x4 Heavy Bipropellant RCS Thruster: LFO heavy RCS block (quad)
    •    RQ-5-A Aerodynamic Heavy RCS Block: aerodynamic heavy RCS block
    •    RJ-88-A Aerodynamic Heavy Bipropellant RCS Block: LFO aerodynamic heavy RCS block
•  RCS parts take advantage of RestockDepthMask if Restock is installed
•  Fairing parts tank advantage of RestockModifyFairingMaterials to not look like garbage if Restock is installed

Things that are still missing:

• Large Radial Decoupler
• 7.5m Skeletal Adapter
• 7.5m Structural Tube
• AVCS RCS Block (two versions)

Things that I still need to look at:

• Occlusion for structural tubes
• Balance pass (engines should be good though)
• Updating compatibility patches

You can get it by downloading the revamp branch from the repository. Dependencies are ModuleManager, B9PartSwitch and DeployableEngines (all latest versions). 

 

[KeaKaka]

Constructive criticism and suggestions on the pre-release: 

 

1. Keep the 5m and 7.5m control cores for utilities sake.

2. An extra attachment point on the interior of the structural options for tanks.

3. Parts of the interiors of the 7.5m tanks are missing textures.

 

But despite all this, I LOVE IT!!! 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Mountain Parrot

[Nertea]

Cool, some questions.

1 hour ago, Mountain Parrot said:

1. Keep the 5m and 7.5m control cores for utilities sake.

 

I'm not sure what you mean here, both of those parts still exist. 

1 hour ago, Mountain Parrot said:

2. An extra attachment point on the interior of the structural options for tanks.

 

Done.

1 hour ago, Mountain Parrot said:

3. Parts of the interiors of the 7.5m tanks are missing textures.

 

Can you be more specific? I didn't notice any problems just now.

 

 

[jimmymcgoochie]

Will the new and improved NFLV still have the optional Methalox patch available for it?

And on a related note, do you have any plans for a methalox patch for cryo engines?

[Nertea]

35 minutes ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Will the new and improved NFLV still have the optional Methalox patch available for it?

And on a related note, do you have any plans for a methalox patch for cryo engines?

It will for a short time as those engines still exist in a deprecated state. However it will not apply to any of the new engines, as they are all kerolox. You can review the current roadmap here.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Some feedback after rummaging around the new NFLV parts bin:

RJ-88x1 and RQ-5x1 RCS thrusters have broken localisation, due to missing underscore in part configs:
#LOC_NFLaunchVehicles_nflv-rcs-heavy-1x-2_description in localisation file
#LOC_NFLaunchVehiclesnflv-rcs-heavy-1x-2_description in part config

Two parts have the same designation EA-C-TBD, the 7.5m fuelled and round nosecones.

Possible typo for ER-L2, 'in' should be 'if':
This cluster mount allows the placement of up to 7 large engines in dedicated pods, in an engine decides to ignore social distancing measures of its own accord. (Very topical part description )

ER-L2, NR-U3 and NR-L2 engine mounts, the engine attachment nodes look like they're in the wrong place to me. The nodes are level with the flat bottom of the mount meaning the engines sit on top, completely negating the purpose of the pits. Are there meant to be a second set of attachment nodes at the base of each pit to install engines inside them?

ER-L1 engine mount, the interior nodes aren't highlighted and the description says only 17 nodes are present but there are actually 19!

ER-L1, NR-L3 and NR-U1 engine mounts, the outer skirt allows surface attachment so it's very difficult to attach engines to the nodes inside. NR-L4 also affected but strangely the pod bulges aren't surface attachment points so those six nodes are easy to access, but the other nodes are more difficult. Shorter skirts might help or disabling surface attachment for these parts.

NR-L1 is a renamed NR-M4 mount, but it has lost the two interstage nodes underneath it which were quite useful, can these be restored please?

KS-1M Otter engine, the ISP in vacuum is lower than at sea level? Is this intended, and if so how do the physics work? I thought all rockets were more efficient in vacuum?

I'm struggling to see what purpose the KR-84 'Ocelot' will serve since the KR-74 'Lynx' has marginally more efficiency, weighs a ton less, costs over a third less and has only 12.5% less thrust. The only thing it has that the Lynx doesn't is a 2.5m variant, and for the cost and weight I think the Ocelot should have more thrust as the efficiency is already pretty high.

[Nertea]

Fixed most of those:

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Two parts have the same designation EA-C-TBD, the 7.5m fuelled and round nosecones.

Yes, now that I did balance to them, they are no longer TBD ;). 

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

ER-L1, NR-L3 and NR-U1 engine mounts, the outer skirt allows surface attachment so it's very difficult to attach engines to the nodes inside. NR-L4 also affected but strangely the pod bulges aren't surface attachment points so those six nodes are easy to access, but the other nodes are more difficult. Shorter skirts might help or disabling surface attachment for these parts.

 

Have you tried holding Alt to restrict attachment to nodes only?

1 hour ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

NR-L1 is a renamed NR-M4 mount, but it has lost the two interstage nodes underneath it which were quite useful, can these be restored please?

 

I don't really want to do more work for that right now but maybe in the future. 

[KeaKaka]

15 hours ago, Nertea said:

I'm not sure what you mean here, both of those parts still exist. 

Nevermind then.

15 hours ago, Nertea said:

Can you be more specific? I didn't notice any problems just now.

Oh! Sorry. I meant the cargo bays! There are some patches on the interior where there are missing textures. 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Mountain Parrot

[Nertea]

49 minutes ago, Mountain Parrot said:

Oh! Sorry. I meant the cargo bays! There are some patches on the interior where there are missing textures. 

No problem, I fixed on in the large cargo bay, but for things like this, screenshots are really helpful.

[jimmymcgoochie]

1 hour ago, Nertea said:

Have you tried holding Alt to restrict attachment to nodes only?

I didn't know that was a thing  Must try that immediately! (Or at least, first thing tomorrow morning)

 

[KeaKaka]

8 minutes ago, Nertea said:

No problem, I fixed on in the large cargo bay, but for things like this, screenshots are really helpful.

ah ok.

will try to do that next time.

[coyotesfrontier]

Nertea has outdone himself, as always. I'm finally able to make an accurate 1.875m falcon!:

Full album here: https://imgur.com/a/7e9kkPO

[EStreetRockets]

@Nertea What will happen to the old engines in NFLV like the BE-4, the SpaceX Raptor and RaptorVac, and the RS-18? These are engines that I personally loved and I used often. Will they be moved to CyroEngines? I am really sorry if you have already answered this question.

Edited April 18, 2020 by EStreetRockets

[coyotesfrontier]

4 hours ago, EStreetRockets said:

@Nertea What will happen to the old engines in NFLV like the BE-4, the SpaceX Raptor and RaptorVac, and the RS-18? These are engines that I personally loved and I used often. Will they be moved to CyroEngines? I am really sorry if you have already answered this question.

They're getting moved to CryoEngines and converted to methalox, matching their models. I'm not sure how to link to Nertea's roadmap, but it's near the bottom of page 107. He details his plans for the future there, in case you want to know what's coming up.

[Nertea]

5 hours ago, EStreetRockets said:

@Nertea What will happen to the old engines in NFLV like the BE-4, the SpaceX Raptor and RaptorVac, and the RS-18? These are engines that I personally loved and I used often. Will they be moved to CyroEngines? I am really sorry if you have already answered this question.

@coyotesfrontier is correct. A bunch of work will be done to them, they'll be different.

You can still find the current models by searches/filtering as with all deprecated parts.

[EStreetRockets]

20 minutes ago, Nertea said:

A bunch of work will be done to them, they'll be different.

You can still find the current models by searches/filtering as with all deprecated parts.

Oh cool I did not know that.

In your roadmap you said you would be adding 4 to 6 new engines to CryoEngines. Are those just the old NFLV engines, or can we expect more awesome Nertea engines?

Edited April 19, 2020 by EStreetRockets

[Nertea]

3 minutes ago, EStreetRockets said:

Oh cool I did not know that.

In your roadmap you said you would be adding 406 new engines to CryoEngines. Are those just the old NFLV engines, or can we expect more awesome Nertea engines?

Maybe not 406...

Besides adjusting the existing engines, I'm expecting that project to add no more than 4 new models. There's a potential for a Raptor redo as it's now pretty different, if that was considered I guess it would make 6. 

[EStreetRockets]

Sorry I mistyped. i meant 4 to 6