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

[Nertea]

Yeah, I'm not sure about it honestly . The scaling is certainly not linear or even... logical in any way.

My balance base does say that 1 Ec/s = 0.1 kW yeah. That's because it's based off of the PB-ION engine, not the RTG, which needs 15 Ec/s at full power. If 15 Ec/s is an average Hall Effect thruster(which it looks like), which are average of 1.5-2 kW, then my ratio is fine. If you say 1kW = 1 Ec makes sense based on the RTG, and something else for the lights, then... well, haha, yeah it's not very easy to reconcile.

I don't mind changing the power ratings though. If I modify my conversion to be closer to yours (0.75kW = 1 Ec), I am still fine with those numbers (respectively, 266, 2000 and 5000 Ec/s for the engines). They're still hard enough to achieve for the thrust you get. My main concern is trying to provide an engine that isn't easy to power considering its potential thrust ratings.

[Scotius]

When in doubt, use Rule of Fun. Will it be fun to play with these engines, or will it cause frustration in the players? Well, i stopped using Ion engines altogether because their power demands were overwhelming compared to thrust they produced. If you'll make your engines so power hungry, some players will build some astoundingly well engineered ships to met their power requirements. But many others will decide to stick to stock engines just to avoid frustration. Balance is your prerogative of course, but i would advise you to set power draw on the lower end of the scale.

[NoMrBond]

Nothing prevents having two sets of configs either, a 'default' set which users get automatically included with a normal install, and an alternate set which can be optionally unpacked overwriting the defaults with whichever fun/serious/realistic values you/they prefer.

[Nertea]

True enough!

Ok, I think the first iteration of the pack can be considered done. I will release it later in the week, after a bit of testing and tweaks. Here are the last few things I had to do:

Engine glows for the two magnetoplasmic thrusters.

And the animation/textures for the 1MW 2.5m reactor.

[Scotius]

So pretty There is a lot of fun to be had with this mod. Can't wait for release.

[Kommitz]

These look really nice considering they fit in so well with the stock parts. Lovely job on the textures.

[dizzysaurus]

These look really nice considering they fit in so well with the stock parts. Lovely job on the textures.

Coming from you, that's an awesome compliment.

I'm really looking forward to downloading these engines, I hope they'll get as much use as your ftmn engines do.

[Nertea]

Aw thanks guys!

Released here!

Please let me know what you think! And if anything breaks.

[dizzysaurus]

Aw thanks guys!

Released here!

Please let me know what you think! And if anything breaks.

Dammit, why did I see this while I'm at work!? Now I have to wait a few hours before using and abusing it.

[mrrpamplemousse]

The only annoying thing is the shadow that the "exaust" cast in the air

(The amout of electric charge required is so obscene!)

[Nertea]

I think I'll keep this thread for WIPs, in order not to clutter the NF pack release thread. Anyways, here are some solar panels, because they're simple!

The flat one is based off the panels on Deep Space 1 (and tons of probes since then), the slightly bent one is based off an early Dragon concept image I found lying around and liked. They're both fully animated as of now, just need textures.

I think they will not have stowage shells... but what do you think?

There's also a significant lack of cool futuristic looking panel styles on the internet. I guess there's only so many ways to design a flat plane...

Edited October 10, 2013 by Nertea

[irishmanerrant]

I like them! There's also the Orion-style circular panels, if you want an animation challenge. Maybe you could make them gold, like the ISS solar wings seen here?

[15nelsoc]

I like them! There's also the Orion-style circular panels, if you want an animation challenge. Maybe you could make them gold, like the ISS solar wings seen here?

The solar panels on the ISS are black on one side and gold on the other. The gold is the side upon which the circuitry is imprinted, the kapton used in this circuitry gives it its gold color. The side that actually collects sunlight is black/dark blue (because most of the light spectra is absorbed) as shown here:

Also here is a mod with circular solar panels irishmanerrant: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-18-2-circular-solar-panel-2/

And your Near Future pack is great Nertea; the models are beautiful, and an important gap is filled with your electric propulsion parts. Thank you.

Edited October 10, 2013 by 15nelsoc

[Nertea]

I might try my hand at some super-large panels actually eventually...

I didn't have time to unwrap the solar panels today, but I did model some new batteries. I figure that I can't be the only one who dislikes stacking the stock inline ones. So here are some taller versions of the Z-200, Z-1k and Z-4k. The first one is based on the "hey let's put 28 AAAA batteries in a stack" style of thought. Probably 2800 Ec then, with the same Ec:mass ratio as the stock units. The second one is more of the thinking Kerbal's battery - those are the tops of E-batteries from the Z-400 sticking out there. Maybe they're replaceable - 6400 Ec.The last one is just like 3 Z-4ks stacked on each other (12k Ec), but with more panels and blinky lights. And, functional ladders on the side? Maybe!

I was also thinking about making some capacitor-type things. They wouldn't contribute to your energy supply directly, until you dumped the charge instantly via a UI button into your battery banks. They would then recharge very slowly. So kinda a battery panic button. Note: it's not really like a real-world capacitor at all.

[Gaius]

...but with more panels and blinky lights.

You can never have too many blinkenlights!

[dizzysaurus]

Those batteries look real nice.

[KAO]

would it be possible to make the batteries work like wheels

in the sense that if they got bumped too hard, it would fail to some extent and a kerbal would have to come and repair it?

[Nertea]

Woo, done textures for these! Batteries were fun to texture. These will be in v0.12 of the NFP pack.

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[LaydeeDem]

So where do you plan to put these on the tech tree come 0.22?

[czokletmuss]

Fantastic! This should be stock parts - I won't be surprised if Squad offers you job just like they did with ClairaLyrae (KSPX mod).

[mushroomman]

Woow! Can't wait for the update!

But for me, the HD textures use too much RAM and the low ones just look ugly. Is there any middle ground possible?

[Nertea]

So where do you plan to put these on the tech tree come 0.22?

I'll figure that out after I play the hell out of it . I suppose that depends where the stock ion and such is.

Fantastic! This should be stock parts - I won't be surprised if Squad offers you job just like they did with ClairaLyrae (KSPX mod).

Aww, thanks. That would be super cool .

Woow! Can't wait for the update!

But for me, the HD textures use too much RAM and the low ones just look ugly. Is there any middle ground possible?

It shouldn't be too hard for you to open up the high res ones and resize them to 50% size if you want to try that (the low res version is 25%). I may try to improve the low-res ones a bit for the next release, as I rushed them somewhat.

[Nertea]

So a bunch of

Double post, but I have more new toys!

The Dual-State Four Grid (DS4G) xenon thruster has a ridiculous RL Isp of 19300s. Translated to KSP values, this is an Isp of 24900, with a thrust of 1.4kN. That's not a huge amount of thrust, only 3x the stock ion but it's quite impressive for fuel economy. It's also tiny, so the low mass is good for stacking lots of engines. It requires about 200kW of power. 0.625 size class.

The pulsed inductive thruster is going to come in 2 flavours, 0.625 and 1.25m . The small model will require 100kW and produce 2kN of thrust at 8000 Isp, the larger 5kN at 3000 Isp (500 kW). Technically, the PIT can be geared between these two values by varying the pulse rate, so I'm taking both ends of the spectrum for the two units. It can be used with a variety of fuels, I'll probably use argon so that I have at least 2 engines with each fuel type.

This is my first go at a pulsed plasma thruster. It's actually 4 units driven by a set of 4 capacitors, and would be an electric RCS unit with about 1500 Isp and 25% the thrust of the stock unit. It would also be unique as the fuel is solid and contained inside the unit - no refuelling. Of course it would also require some Ec to run (0.7/s in theory). This is a problem because the stock ModuleRCS module doesn't allow multiple propellants. I'll find a way though.

I'm also playing around with adding argon and hydrogen as fuels for the engines. Here's some ideas for 2.5 m tanks (and a radial hydrogen). I'm thinking that argon will be cylindrical, xenon will be capsule-shaped, and hydrogen will be spherical... for continuity.

I'll probably need a bunch more tanks, argon and hydrogen in 1.25 and 0.65m sizes. Going to be annoying .

[TicTacToe!]

Remarkable work. Very quickly you've created what could possibly end up being one of the most useful and fantastic looking stockalike addons ever, kudos.

[ZodiusInfuser]

I have to agree with TicTacToe! and others. I rarely download part mods, but this one adds much more choice to inter-planetary travel and looks great too! The fact that the parts look stock is a real bonus.

I'm also playing around with adding argon and hydrogen as fuels for the engines. Here's some ideas for 2.5 m tanks (and a radial hydrogen).

I like this direction, as currently it's a bit unclear how the current three engines relate in terms of performance.

I'm thinking that argon will be cylindrical, xenon will be capsule-shaped, and hydrogen will be spherical... for continuity.

Would this mean the removal of the current Xenon tanks? It would be a real shame to get rid of that awesome spherical side-mounted one just because it's not capsule shaped. Due to the properties of the RL shapes, putting Xenon in a sphere (and Argon in a capsule for example) offers no negative effects in terms of pressure distribution. If the tank types are clearly marked to indicate their type, I don't think people will have issue with fuels not being in the correct shape. Btw, what are the current thoughts on colours and marking?